What a brilliant book this is! There are at times I didn’t comprehend the flow of story but at other times “recalling the past” was all too obvious. NWhat a brilliant book this is! There are at times I didn’t comprehend the flow of story but at other times “recalling the past” was all too obvious. Now that I put the pieces together what I am left with is a compelling story in which a Kestrel served as a ray of hope in the life of a helplessly knavish boy....more
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” It is only fair to begin with this sentence whicEvocative, poignant, and beautiful!
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” It is only fair to begin with this sentence which ruefully announces that things have now changed, however not without a sigh of relief. Nostalgia can sometimes be like an unopened letter which allures us to open it, but when we open and finish reading it, a pang of guilt makes us regret our decision. Now, Leo Colston is met with one such situation in his sixties and his source of guilt lies unopened and sealed in front of him and the memories of his repressed past slowly come to life from his ‘teenage’ box of secrets.
The story is about his visit to one of his friend’s house “Brandham Hall” where the little Leo is made “acutely aware of social inferiority” which exists (existed, if that may satisfy you) between upper and lower classes. The chance-displays of a grown-up masculine body made him “confronted by maturity” and the angelic aura of his feminine company made him aware of unexplored emotions. Innocence and Infatuation lead him as a “go-between” between his lady of affection and his effigy of masculinity not knowing the actual purpose of the messages he carries. But, the insinuations can be hardly mistaken.
What I loved most about the book is the way it relates the predicaments of its characters with that of Paradise Lost. When Leo discovers “the matter” of his “go-between” ventures, he says “Not Adam and Eve, after eating the apple, could have been more upset than I was.”
Disturbed by the rising conflicts in this affair in which he is now empathetically entangled, he questions his own position in this amorous pursuit: “What an Eden Brandham Hall had been before this serpent entered it!”
As Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves when they become aware of their nakedness after committing the ‘forbidden’ act, Leo too feels the shame of the affair he is caught up in and tries to “to cover her shame”.
I’ve read that Hartley had put all he knew in this book, I can’t help but agreeing to it even if it may sound like an exaggeration. The writing is sublime with paradisiacal analogies, and at the same time, does not stray from the juvenile perspective of a teenage boy. Without revealing further interesting aspects of this rather-disturbing story, I am ending this gibberish of a writing here with a hope that you might like this book as much as I do....more
An Excellent work on human malice. The protagonist "Marquise de Merteuil" can't be any more wretched and brilliant at the same time.
“Marquise De M
An Excellent work on human malice. The protagonist "Marquise de Merteuil" can't be any more wretched and brilliant at the same time.
“Marquise De Merteuil: When I came out into society I was 15. I already knew then that the role I was condemned to, namely to keep quiet and do what I was told, gave me the perfect opportunity to listen and observe. Not to what people told me, which naturally was of no interest to me, but to whatever it was they were trying to hide. I practiced detachment. I learned how to look cheerful while under the table I stuck a fork onto the back of my hand. I became a virtuoso of deceit. I consulted the strictest moralists to learn how to appear, philosophers to find out what to think, and novelist to see what I could get away with, and in the end it all came down to one wonderfully simple principle: win or die.”
P.S. This is an abridged version written for the film using the original letter...more
Not all loves come together; Not all loves fade away; some remain dormant as an indelible image of memory within us and gnaws at us from inside only dNot all loves come together; Not all loves fade away; some remain dormant as an indelible image of memory within us and gnaws at us from inside only during the loneliest hours. Especially, the first love!
This is such a story of a loving image which lives forever in the shadow of an ill-fated lover. It has been years that Ganin saw Mary lastly. But her smiling eyes, her twitching lips, and her halo in the evening sun remain as fresh as morning’s rain in his memory. The past is irretrievable but also unforgettable and the future is uncertain, while the present offers nothing but a hopeless, dull reality. Mary seems to be the only medicine for his never ending, isolated living.
While the countries were making war, they were waging love in the autumnal evening, careless of sneaky eyes behind the tainted glasses. He has been dragging his shadow to all places but part of him, he thinks, always belongs to Mary. Ganin, now, in a foreign city, recollects everything about Mary, and grows drunk with her memories. Now, even the memory of her cheap perfume seems luxurious to him. But, an old, faded photograph in a neighbor’s table-drawer announces to him that she is not his anymore.
Imagine, what Mary would mean to someone who is living in an exile from his home land and who lost everything. Her arrival gives him hope for a promising escape from his bleak life in his dull lodge. To doubt her love for him, after all these years, is pointless, he thinks. She has always loved him. But, what-if can’t be excluded. Here, he awaits the arrival of Mary with the memory of her image, sitting on a cold, park bench.
(view spoiler)[ The questions of reality pass his mind. The world of memories grows darker while the image of Mary flickers. The sleeping, drunken husband, back in his old place, can be thought of. Now, not letting the arriving reality hinder with her memory seems to be the only viable step to preserve the loving image of Mary. ‘Other than that image no Mary existed, nor could exist’ - He thinks. There he is boarding a train taking him to a distant city. (hide spoiler)]
This is not only a story of a first love but also the first book of Nabokov. Another strong example which portrays the unmatched writing ability of Nabokov. There are paragraphs where he can make you get lost in the woods and get caught by the lovers for observing them closely. Purely magical! ...more
“There are two kinds of pity. One, the weak and sentimental kind, which is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid as quickly as possible“There are two kinds of pity. One, the weak and sentimental kind, which is really no more than the heart's impatience to be rid as quickly as possible of the painful emotion aroused by the sight of another's unhappiness, that pity which is not compassion, but only an instinctive desire to fortify one's own soul against the sufferings of another; and the other, the only one at counts, the unsentimental but creative kind, which knows what it is about and is determined to hold out, in patience and forbearance, to the very limit of its strength and even beyond.”
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