This is a collection of short stories written about an imaginary "eastern" past, showing the naive perspective of the inter-war period and by a very yThis is a collection of short stories written about an imaginary "eastern" past, showing the naive perspective of the inter-war period and by a very young writer.
All of that builds up into a fairy tale feeling, rather than history, and a sense of childish wonder that makes the tales quite enjoyable.
Yourcenar already shows great skill as a storyteller, and was also widely read, so although some of the stories feel straight from a children storybook, she evokes very well the characters, their passions and lives, and if her Balkans are not too close to reality, it is the fault of reality, as the stories are how things should have been.
There are a few stories in the Far East, but most are in the Balkans and Greece. The last one, "La Tristesse de Cornelius Berg", takes place in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and closes the circle with a painter in a pessimist tone, as a contrast to the optimist ending of the first tale, also about a painter, "Comment Wang-Fô fut sauvé". Indeed there is a common thread of melancholy that thickens as time passes, with one killing the hero of one of the previous ones.
Good if you take into account the period they were written but probably naive and predictable for our current sensitivities, I enjoyed also the evocative language....more
A short and sweet (though also dark in certain moments) collection of interlinked tales spanning several years of fur hunters in Greenland, focusing oA short and sweet (though also dark in certain moments) collection of interlinked tales spanning several years of fur hunters in Greenland, focusing on the eccentric fellows that are willing to spend the winter in the ice.
Gives you a new reference to see our own life, and even a few common points to worry you. Maybe you are mad enough to make it through. The best for me was the title piece, that according to a Danish friend is a pun that does hot work in English (or French). I wonder what wold I give for the rights to Emma!...more
This was a hard read. The XIXth century French was easier than I expected, but the continuous repetition, the nested stories, the fact that most narraThis was a hard read. The XIXth century French was easier than I expected, but the continuous repetition, the nested stories, the fact that most narrators are unreliable, together with the jumps between events and periods, make it difficult to track.
The book has a structure vaguely similar to The Thousand and One nights, with many narrators telling stories but more often telling stories about others. The stories range from Gothic horror (in the beginning) to picaresque, to some libertine tales, to the philosophical. Some are good, most are predictable, a few are awful. The first half is better than the second, rushed to finish the book.
Many stories sound familiar because they were reused by other authors in the XIXth century, up to Washington Irving himself.
The main strength of the book lies in its power to evoke XVIIIth century Spain, and some parts of Italy as well. It is a clear Romantic piece, but with so many different tales, many use older tropes or subjects. The author loved the country and its people, even while being aware of the many defects of Spanish society at the time. It manages to be both an illustrated book, and obscurantist at times.
The rating given is for its value as entertainment, or how likely I am to reread it. As a guide to its century and as historical reference, from clothes to manners to travels, it is precious....more
This is one of the hardest books I have ever read. And yet I have been returning to it for three months, reading a chapter, letting it rest, digestingThis is one of the hardest books I have ever read. And yet I have been returning to it for three months, reading a chapter, letting it rest, digesting, rereading an event to confirm it was as I recalled, letting it go when I could not take it anymore.
The language is what sets it apart. A cold, precise detached description of both beauty and horror, with no attempt to explain the why, just showing what happens, where, and how. A journey, where the beginning and the end are not what matters, but the journeying itself. That precision and no judgment makes the brutality of what men can do even more impacting. And knowing that the same thing was happening centuries before and roughly the same is happening today, once other people stop being people and become just others, so we do not need to treat them as humans. It is not that the characters become inhuman, as it is human to treat as objects those you do not consider as human. Atrocities follow, all in that same descriptive style, allowing each reader to react as they see fit.
It also features a great mastery of language. Descriptive sections use a lyric prose, using very current images and words, the better to transmit the intended meanings. Dialogues however fit the speaker, giving an image of the characters just by the way they speak, and keeping true to the period and the setting. The Spanish used is very correct and accurate, which is a pleasant surprise in a foreign book.
It is a book that rewards a detailed, careful reading, but punishes you at the same time with the emotions it gives rise in you (as it tries to keep itself away from judgment). This apparent difficulty is what keeps it from the fifth star, though it is close, and may yet change on rereading, in a few years....more
Psychophant
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