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The Courilof Affair
From the author of the bestselling Suite Française.
In 1903 Léon M - the son of two Russian revolutionaries - is given the responsibility of 'liquidating' Valerian Alexandrovitch Courilof, the notoriously brutal and cold-blooded Russian Minister of Education, by the Revolutionary Committee. The assassination, he is told, must take place in public and be carried out in the most grandiose manner possible in order to strike the imagination of the people.
Posing as his newly appointed personal physician, Léon M takes up residence with Courilof in his summer house in the Iles and awaits instructions. But over the course of his stay he is made privy to the inner world of the man he must kill - his failing health, his troubled domestic situation and, most importantly, the tyrannical grip that the Czar himself holds over all his Ministers, forcing them to obey him or suffer the most deadly punishments.
Set during a period of radical upheaval in European history, The Courliof Affair is an unsparing observation of human motives and the abuses of power, an elegy to a lost world and an unflinchingly topical cautionary tale.
In 1903 Léon M - the son of two Russian revolutionaries - is given the responsibility of 'liquidating' Valerian Alexandrovitch Courilof, the notoriously brutal and cold-blooded Russian Minister of Education, by the Revolutionary Committee. The assassination, he is told, must take place in public and be carried out in the most grandiose manner possible in order to strike the imagination of the people.
Posing as his newly appointed personal physician, Léon M takes up residence with Courilof in his summer house in the Iles and awaits instructions. But over the course of his stay he is made privy to the inner world of the man he must kill - his failing health, his troubled domestic situation and, most importantly, the tyrannical grip that the Czar himself holds over all his Ministers, forcing them to obey him or suffer the most deadly punishments.
Set during a period of radical upheaval in European history, The Courliof Affair is an unsparing observation of human motives and the abuses of power, an elegy to a lost world and an unflinchingly topical cautionary tale.
172 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1933
15 people are currently reading
510 people want to read
About the author
Irène Némirovsky
152 books1,802 followersIrène Némirovsky was born in Kyiv in 1903 into a successful banking family. Trapped in Moscow by the Russian Revolution, she and her family fled first to a village in Finland, and eventually to France, where she attended the Sorbonne.
Irène Némirovsky achieved early success as a writer: her first novel, David Golder, published when she was twenty-six, was a sensation. By 1937 she had published nine further books and David Golder had been made into a film; she and her husband Michel Epstein, a bank executive, moved in fashionable social circles.
When the Germans occupied France in 1940, she moved with her husband and two small daughters, aged 5 and 13, from Paris to the comparative safety of Issy-L’Evêque. It was there that she secretly began writing Suite Française. Though her family had converted to Catholicism, she was arrested on 13 July, 1942, and interned in the concentration camp at Pithiviers. She died in Auschwitz in August of that year. --Penguin Random House
Irène Némirovsky achieved early success as a writer: her first novel, David Golder, published when she was twenty-six, was a sensation. By 1937 she had published nine further books and David Golder had been made into a film; she and her husband Michel Epstein, a bank executive, moved in fashionable social circles.
When the Germans occupied France in 1940, she moved with her husband and two small daughters, aged 5 and 13, from Paris to the comparative safety of Issy-L’Evêque. It was there that she secretly began writing Suite Française. Though her family had converted to Catholicism, she was arrested on 13 July, 1942, and interned in the concentration camp at Pithiviers. She died in Auschwitz in August of that year. --Penguin Random House
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 97 reviews
July 19, 2022
SOLITUDINE IRRINUNCIABILE
1903: Il Palazzo d’Inverno, San Pietroburgo.
Secondo incontro con Irène Némirovsky, nel mio personale gradimento appena al di sotto del precedente.
Anche questa volta il personaggio protagonista è un uomo: dalla sonnacchiosa provincia francese (che però è il classico fuoco sotto la cenere) si passa agli ambienti della diaspora rivoluzionaria russa a inizio Novecento, per concentrare l’azione tra Pietroburgo e la costa di fronte alla Finlandia.
Attentati, terrorismo, rivolte di piazza, brutale repressione, soldati che sparano sulla folla (studenti), trame di palazzo, spie, traditori, e quant’altro – ma anche, e soprattutto, personaggi compositi, sentimenti che cambiano, sfaccettature dell’anima. Atmosfera cupa, senso di predestinazione.
1903: Il’ja Repin, Che vastità!, Museo Nazionale, San Pietroburgo.
Un pezzo di storia che si suppone Némirovsky conoscesse bene. Se così non fosse, supplisce perfettamente col suo talento, che riesce a cambiare latitudini, ambienti sociali, periodi storici risultando sempre credibile e avvincente.
I due protagonisti portano entrambi nel corpo una malattia letale in fase di sviluppo – come la Russia degli zar sta per lasciare il posto a ben altro assetto sociale. Kurilov avvolge il suo corpo malato e cela il suo male in divise dal taglio impeccabile che lo rendono austero, temibile, irraggiungibile.
1903: Bottega della ditta Fabergé a San Pietroburgo.
Feste e balli di corte per tessere trame di tradimento, delazione, distruzione dell’amico-nemico.
Sempre belle le luci in cui Némirovsky avvolge i suoi personaggi.
E rimane a lungo nello sguardo della memoria la scena dei corpi degli studenti uccisi stesi sulle barelle e portati fuori dall’università.
1903: mammut estratto dal ghiaccio siberiano e tassidermizzato, esposto al museo di San Pietroburgo.
1903: Il Palazzo d’Inverno, San Pietroburgo.
Secondo incontro con Irène Némirovsky, nel mio personale gradimento appena al di sotto del precedente.
Anche questa volta il personaggio protagonista è un uomo: dalla sonnacchiosa provincia francese (che però è il classico fuoco sotto la cenere) si passa agli ambienti della diaspora rivoluzionaria russa a inizio Novecento, per concentrare l’azione tra Pietroburgo e la costa di fronte alla Finlandia.
Attentati, terrorismo, rivolte di piazza, brutale repressione, soldati che sparano sulla folla (studenti), trame di palazzo, spie, traditori, e quant’altro – ma anche, e soprattutto, personaggi compositi, sentimenti che cambiano, sfaccettature dell’anima. Atmosfera cupa, senso di predestinazione.
1903: Il’ja Repin, Che vastità!, Museo Nazionale, San Pietroburgo.
Un pezzo di storia che si suppone Némirovsky conoscesse bene. Se così non fosse, supplisce perfettamente col suo talento, che riesce a cambiare latitudini, ambienti sociali, periodi storici risultando sempre credibile e avvincente.
I due protagonisti portano entrambi nel corpo una malattia letale in fase di sviluppo – come la Russia degli zar sta per lasciare il posto a ben altro assetto sociale. Kurilov avvolge il suo corpo malato e cela il suo male in divise dal taglio impeccabile che lo rendono austero, temibile, irraggiungibile.
1903: Bottega della ditta Fabergé a San Pietroburgo.
Feste e balli di corte per tessere trame di tradimento, delazione, distruzione dell’amico-nemico.
Sempre belle le luci in cui Némirovsky avvolge i suoi personaggi.
E rimane a lungo nello sguardo della memoria la scena dei corpi degli studenti uccisi stesi sulle barelle e portati fuori dall’università.
1903: mammut estratto dal ghiaccio siberiano e tassidermizzato, esposto al museo di San Pietroburgo.
December 20, 2024
Nach der berühmteren aber weniger überzeugenden „Suite Française“ mein zweiter Roman Némirovskys. Dieser ist ein früheres Werk von 1933.
Im Jahr 1903 beauftragt ein in Genf operierendes russisches Revolutionskomitee einen jungen Anarchisten (Leon M.) ein Attentat auf den russichen Minister Kurilov in Russland vorzubereiten und durchzuführen. Leon wird als Hausarzt in den Haushalt des Ministers eingeschleust.
Aus der Geschichte der einzelnen Figuren entwickelt sich die Beschreibung einer verkommenen zaristischen Gesellschaft. Lesenswert.
Im Jahr 1903 beauftragt ein in Genf operierendes russisches Revolutionskomitee einen jungen Anarchisten (Leon M.) ein Attentat auf den russichen Minister Kurilov in Russland vorzubereiten und durchzuführen. Leon wird als Hausarzt in den Haushalt des Ministers eingeschleust.
Aus der Geschichte der einzelnen Figuren entwickelt sich die Beschreibung einer verkommenen zaristischen Gesellschaft. Lesenswert.
March 6, 2025
In una anonima villetta di Nizza trascorre i suoi ultimi giorni Léon M. È ormai stanco, vecchio, irrimediabilmente malato come sua madre prima di lui. Il germe della tubercolosi si è trasmesso come un’eredità e i suoi polmoni da sempre annaspano, alla ricerca di aria.
Sente che la morte è vicina, che è poco il tempo che gli resta da ancora da trascorrere sulla terra. Nelle notti confuse e faticose che Léon passa insonne, ripensa alla sua vita e a quell’affare Kurilov che lo aveva visto protagonista tanti anni prima e che aveva rappresentato una cesura fondamentale nella sua esistenza.
Cresciuto nell’atmosfera sicura e rarefatta della Svizzera, Léon non aveva mai compreso appieno cosa volesse dire essere rivoluzionari, combattere per la causa, consumarsi anima e corpo per l’ideale di libertà e uguaglianza che il comunismo propugnava a gran voce. Di suo padre il ricordo era vago, ormai irriconoscibile, mentre il volto scavato, ma febbrile della madre si era impresso dolorosamente nella sua memoria al pari del suo impegno costante per la causa, un impegno al quale sacrificare, senza esitazioni, sé stessa e i propri figli.
Morta anche lei, a Léon non rimane che il partito, che lo accoglie, lo nutre, lo trasforma in un giovane maturo e scostante al quale affidare una missione cruciale: l’attentato al ministro dell’Istruzione Kurilov nella Russia dello Zar Nicola II. Léon dovrà introdursi in Russia con l’identità di Marcel Legrande e – attraverso referenze fasulle – divenire il medico personale di Kurilov durante il suo soggiorno estivo in campagna.
Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
Sente che la morte è vicina, che è poco il tempo che gli resta da ancora da trascorrere sulla terra. Nelle notti confuse e faticose che Léon passa insonne, ripensa alla sua vita e a quell’affare Kurilov che lo aveva visto protagonista tanti anni prima e che aveva rappresentato una cesura fondamentale nella sua esistenza.
Cresciuto nell’atmosfera sicura e rarefatta della Svizzera, Léon non aveva mai compreso appieno cosa volesse dire essere rivoluzionari, combattere per la causa, consumarsi anima e corpo per l’ideale di libertà e uguaglianza che il comunismo propugnava a gran voce. Di suo padre il ricordo era vago, ormai irriconoscibile, mentre il volto scavato, ma febbrile della madre si era impresso dolorosamente nella sua memoria al pari del suo impegno costante per la causa, un impegno al quale sacrificare, senza esitazioni, sé stessa e i propri figli.
Morta anche lei, a Léon non rimane che il partito, che lo accoglie, lo nutre, lo trasforma in un giovane maturo e scostante al quale affidare una missione cruciale: l’attentato al ministro dell’Istruzione Kurilov nella Russia dello Zar Nicola II. Léon dovrà introdursi in Russia con l’identità di Marcel Legrande e – attraverso referenze fasulle – divenire il medico personale di Kurilov durante il suo soggiorno estivo in campagna.
Continua a leggere qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...
October 18, 2023
Se puede leer en la contraportada de esta edición un comentario de J. M. Coetzee sobre "El caso Kurílov": "La progresiva humanización de un asesino [...] está plasmada con maestría". Supuse, entonces, que leería una obra con no pocas introspecciones psicológicas y escasa acción. Nada más lejos de la realidad, pues Némirovsky rara vez recurre a una focalización interna o al análisis psicológico de los personajes. Antes bien, con la descripción sutil de sus interacciones y de gestos casi imperceptibles, es capaz de dibujar un fresco pormenorizado de las pasiones humanas.
A pesar de que Coetzee traza en su comentario el contenido general del libro, me interesó mucho más la crítica de un poder que no pertenece a nadie y que arrastra a la mutua dependencia y a la desesperación a unos y otros, sin importar el rango o los honores. Los grandes estadistas y gerifaltes son bosquejados en "El caso Kurílov" como peleles zarandeados por el azar y vicisitudes sobre las que tienen poco o nulo control.
Me ha conmovido la humanidad con la que Némirovsky retrata tanto al desvalido como al "poderoso" (¿realmente existen o todos están sujetos a restricciones de libertad de otras naturalezas, pero tan limitantes como las del ciudadano medio?), sin llegar ni al sentimentalismo ni a la justificación. Una auténtica y original cura contra el maniqueísmo, por desgracia tan de moda en la actualidad.
A pesar de que Coetzee traza en su comentario el contenido general del libro, me interesó mucho más la crítica de un poder que no pertenece a nadie y que arrastra a la mutua dependencia y a la desesperación a unos y otros, sin importar el rango o los honores. Los grandes estadistas y gerifaltes son bosquejados en "El caso Kurílov" como peleles zarandeados por el azar y vicisitudes sobre las que tienen poco o nulo control.
Me ha conmovido la humanidad con la que Némirovsky retrata tanto al desvalido como al "poderoso" (¿realmente existen o todos están sujetos a restricciones de libertad de otras naturalezas, pero tan limitantes como las del ciudadano medio?), sin llegar ni al sentimentalismo ni a la justificación. Una auténtica y original cura contra el maniqueísmo, por desgracia tan de moda en la actualidad.
May 5, 2018
La pietà, la compassione continuamente miste al disprezzo per quegli “altri” che dovrebbero essere i nemici, ma che purtroppo sono tanto simili a noi, con le nostre debolezze e meschinità. Può il terrorista russo Léon M., provare pietà per la vittima assegnatagli, per il “vorace e feroce pescecane”, il ministro della Pubblica Istruzione del regime zarista e massacratore di studenti, Valerian Aleksandrovic Kurilov, che deve uccidere a scopo dimostrativo durante pubblici festeggiamenti, dopo essergli stato accanto per mesi sotto le mentite spoglie di medico, dopo aver scoperto che è malato di cancro, dopo averlo curato e colloquiato con lui?
Ambientato nella Nizza di inizio anni Trenta, il cinquantenne Leon M, alias il dottor Marcel Legrand, ex terrorista, stanco, malato di tisi e al termine della sua vita, scrive le sue memorie riguardo il “caso” Kurilov risalente al lontano 1903. Disillusione, disincanto, senso di vuoto e di inutilità della vita, ma non pentimento; solo passioni fredde, fredda analisi e tanta solitudine.
La prosa di Irene Nemirovsky è sempre avvincente, finissima l’analisi psicologica, struggente e nostalgica la descrizione della luce e dei paesaggi. Bello, molto bello questo libro.
Ambientato nella Nizza di inizio anni Trenta, il cinquantenne Leon M, alias il dottor Marcel Legrand, ex terrorista, stanco, malato di tisi e al termine della sua vita, scrive le sue memorie riguardo il “caso” Kurilov risalente al lontano 1903. Disillusione, disincanto, senso di vuoto e di inutilità della vita, ma non pentimento; solo passioni fredde, fredda analisi e tanta solitudine.
La prosa di Irene Nemirovsky è sempre avvincente, finissima l’analisi psicologica, struggente e nostalgica la descrizione della luce e dei paesaggi. Bello, molto bello questo libro.
July 29, 2018
Someone recommended Suite Française to me, so I picked up ‘The Courilof Affair’ in the library because it’s by the same author and the blurb intrigued me. The book is narrated by Leon M, a former spy, assassin, revolutionary, and Cheka interrogator looking back on an important episode in his eventful life. Given that the reader knows from the start what will happen to Courilof, the compelling element concerned Leon’s thoughts and feelings about Russian aristocracy in general and Courilof in particular. While I often found these reflections profound, they made for a surprisingly dilatory effect in such a short novel. Leon’s retrospective rationalisations certainly offer a thoughtful commentary on political exigency and violence. I think this paragraph sums it up:
Perhaps the most striking thing about Leon, otherwise something of a cypher, is that he grew up a second generation revolutionary. There is a theme of inheritance and duty to do terrible things running through the narrative, which I liked. 'The Courilof Affair' is also rather atmospheric, albeit narrowly so. I wanted more of an insight into pre-revolutionary Russia than I got, as the narrative seemed more focused on something more fundamental about humanity. Overall, a well written historical novel that perhaps should have appealed to me more than it in fact did.
Perhaps the most striking thing about Leon, otherwise something of a cypher, is that he grew up a second generation revolutionary. There is a theme of inheritance and duty to do terrible things running through the narrative, which I liked. 'The Courilof Affair' is also rather atmospheric, albeit narrowly so. I wanted more of an insight into pre-revolutionary Russia than I got, as the narrative seemed more focused on something more fundamental about humanity. Overall, a well written historical novel that perhaps should have appealed to me more than it in fact did.
January 2, 2019
There are parts of me that cringed while reading this story, finding the entire premise to be more horror story than literary. The narrator is not only a nihilist anarchist, but he talks about killing people in such a casual, indifferent manner. The protagonist lives with the object of his orders to kill, Courilof. He lives with this man's family for a good amount of time, and even admits that he harbors some pity and feelings for Courilof. Yet, he maintains that murdering anyone of his class or the man himself is of no consequence. He opines that his own death would be preferred over his life of subterfuge and waiting for the next order to kill to come. And the Revolution does nothing to bring happiness or love into his life. It becomes even more meaningless. If this is Nemirovsky's intent, then she succeeded admirably.
Just when you start to like this guy as the tale unfolds (it's done in a flashback), you begin to hate him because he says something so obviously evil. Lenin and Stalin were people without conscience, and perhaps this how Nemirovsky wanted to portray this cretin. They killed the good and the bad, entire families, and those they wanted to settle a score with. Often, it was indiscriminate, without meaning, and they used the useful idiots on the street and in the universities who hated without reason to further their aims.
Although the White soldiers burned whole villages, so did the Red. The Tsar's forces were unusually cruel to the people, and casual in their manner of cutting down anyone in their way. (Catch the film Dr. Zhivago, or read the novel by Boris Pasternak.) We should never forget the more than fifty million individuals murdered in Russia, possibly fifty-five. Throughout the entire world under Socialist regimes, people have been murdered because they wore glasses, or were teachers, or may have said something someone disagreed with. Socialism kills, and it does so indiscriminately, deliberately, and without conscience.
Nemirovsky fled Russia with her parents before the Revolution. Yet, she lived among the revolutionaries in France, and, I believe, couldn't help that some of their philosophies might have rubbed off on her. The conflict within her is obvious. She didn't grow up in a household of Russian revolutionaries. Her parents were diplomats under the Tsar, speaking French rather than Russian, which was the culture under the Tsarist aristocracy. They viewed themselves as European, not just Russian.
The revolution was particularly cruel. However, there were innumerable atrocities committed by the Tsar's forces long before the Revolution began. The Tsar couldn't have done a better job if he wanted to drive the people to rebel against him. In spite of the way Hollywood has tried to portray the Tsar, he was rather stupid, and his policies were tragically misinformed. The Revolution wasn't for bread or altruistic reasons, it was pure hate that drove it, and a sense that somehow ridding themselves of the aristocracy would make the people become calm, equal to the task of building a new country.
They had their eye on the French and the Americans, but failed horribly, miserably in their interpretation. Creating a permanently impoverished society, in morals, as well as, their wallet, they became the very thing they hated. The Party Leaders became the new aristocracy. And the middle class, like Nemirovsky, virtually disappeared. Farms that once produced food for the nation were now owned by the state and produced nothing, creating a humanitarian crisis of unbelievable proportions that no one talks about because the schools are in love with socialism.
The book is well written, which is why I gave it four stars. But if you don't like an antihero protagonist, you won't like this one.
Just when you start to like this guy as the tale unfolds (it's done in a flashback), you begin to hate him because he says something so obviously evil. Lenin and Stalin were people without conscience, and perhaps this how Nemirovsky wanted to portray this cretin. They killed the good and the bad, entire families, and those they wanted to settle a score with. Often, it was indiscriminate, without meaning, and they used the useful idiots on the street and in the universities who hated without reason to further their aims.
Although the White soldiers burned whole villages, so did the Red. The Tsar's forces were unusually cruel to the people, and casual in their manner of cutting down anyone in their way. (Catch the film Dr. Zhivago, or read the novel by Boris Pasternak.) We should never forget the more than fifty million individuals murdered in Russia, possibly fifty-five. Throughout the entire world under Socialist regimes, people have been murdered because they wore glasses, or were teachers, or may have said something someone disagreed with. Socialism kills, and it does so indiscriminately, deliberately, and without conscience.
Nemirovsky fled Russia with her parents before the Revolution. Yet, she lived among the revolutionaries in France, and, I believe, couldn't help that some of their philosophies might have rubbed off on her. The conflict within her is obvious. She didn't grow up in a household of Russian revolutionaries. Her parents were diplomats under the Tsar, speaking French rather than Russian, which was the culture under the Tsarist aristocracy. They viewed themselves as European, not just Russian.
The revolution was particularly cruel. However, there were innumerable atrocities committed by the Tsar's forces long before the Revolution began. The Tsar couldn't have done a better job if he wanted to drive the people to rebel against him. In spite of the way Hollywood has tried to portray the Tsar, he was rather stupid, and his policies were tragically misinformed. The Revolution wasn't for bread or altruistic reasons, it was pure hate that drove it, and a sense that somehow ridding themselves of the aristocracy would make the people become calm, equal to the task of building a new country.
They had their eye on the French and the Americans, but failed horribly, miserably in their interpretation. Creating a permanently impoverished society, in morals, as well as, their wallet, they became the very thing they hated. The Party Leaders became the new aristocracy. And the middle class, like Nemirovsky, virtually disappeared. Farms that once produced food for the nation were now owned by the state and produced nothing, creating a humanitarian crisis of unbelievable proportions that no one talks about because the schools are in love with socialism.
The book is well written, which is why I gave it four stars. But if you don't like an antihero protagonist, you won't like this one.
November 24, 2014
Irene Nemirovsky is one of my favourite novelists and that’s not just because she is an excellent writer but also because of the life experiences she draws from for her fiction. She is unlike nearly all the authors I read in that respect who are predominantly Australian, British or American. She was a Russian Jew that grew up in Kiev and spent a year in Finland before the family made their way to France to escape the Russian revolution. Later as a married woman with two daughters she was a first hand witness to the invasion of France by Germany and spent some time in a small village in the south of France trying to escape the Nazi regime. Unfortunately for us she failed. Fortunately though her wonderful manuscript Suite Francaise (literally written on the run) survived.
All her major works have now been translated and people like me can discover a world very alien to our own. There is Paris and the woods in Finland in “The Wine of Solitude”, the lives of the poor in a Jewish quarter in a Ukrainian City early in the 20th Century in “The Dogs and the Wolves”, the story of two lovers living in Issy L'Eveque, a Burgundy village in “Fire in the Blood”, and the life of a devoted servant in Moscow and Paris in the small masterpiece “Snow in Autumn”, to name but a few.
In “The Courilof Affair” we enter another world again, this time that of a hated Russian Minister of Education the target of revolutionaries in 1903. Leon M (now dying) recounts how the assassination came about. He details his life as the son of a terrorist - his mother being in charge of a Swiss terrorist group, “the one that took care of me and raised me after she died.” In Nice during the final year of his life he writes (in a wonderful example of characterisation) “Why do I sit here looking at the flowers and the sea? I hate nature. I have only ever been happy in cities, and on the streets in summer, when it’s hot where I walk by strange faces and weary bodies. These are the hours I wish to kill, when solitude and silence surge up, when the last of the cars are returning from Monte Carlo along the coast road. Since I became ill, I am overwhelmed by memories. Before I used to work. But my work is finished now.”
Through Leon’s eyes we learn about the life of Courilof, a very different personality from Leon and the house at the Iles. “Courilof’s house was built at the very edge, in a place called La Fleche, which looked out over the entire coast of Finland; here, the setting sun shimmered all night long during the month of May, bathing everything in its brilliant silvery light. Thin birch trees and miniature firs grew in the spongy soil, full of dark, stagnant water. Never have I seen so many mosquitoes. In the evening, a whitish mist settled around the houses as thick clouds of them flew in from the marshes.” What a marvellous description and I’m guessing inspired partly by Nemirovsky’s first hand experience or family knowledge of the area.
Employed as the house physician Leon quickly learns about his target and the household. When an elderly Jewess visits the minister to ask for his help he is disgusted by her. “I tried to imagine his thoughts, but when he opened his eyes, his face was impenetrable once more. I remember thinking about the elderly Jewess; her absurd gesture had revealed such depths of despair, ignorance and poverty. And on that day, I don’t know why, but for the first time the idea of murdering this pompous fool filled me with horror.” And so the stage is set! An enjoyable, challenging read.
All her major works have now been translated and people like me can discover a world very alien to our own. There is Paris and the woods in Finland in “The Wine of Solitude”, the lives of the poor in a Jewish quarter in a Ukrainian City early in the 20th Century in “The Dogs and the Wolves”, the story of two lovers living in Issy L'Eveque, a Burgundy village in “Fire in the Blood”, and the life of a devoted servant in Moscow and Paris in the small masterpiece “Snow in Autumn”, to name but a few.
In “The Courilof Affair” we enter another world again, this time that of a hated Russian Minister of Education the target of revolutionaries in 1903. Leon M (now dying) recounts how the assassination came about. He details his life as the son of a terrorist - his mother being in charge of a Swiss terrorist group, “the one that took care of me and raised me after she died.” In Nice during the final year of his life he writes (in a wonderful example of characterisation) “Why do I sit here looking at the flowers and the sea? I hate nature. I have only ever been happy in cities, and on the streets in summer, when it’s hot where I walk by strange faces and weary bodies. These are the hours I wish to kill, when solitude and silence surge up, when the last of the cars are returning from Monte Carlo along the coast road. Since I became ill, I am overwhelmed by memories. Before I used to work. But my work is finished now.”
Through Leon’s eyes we learn about the life of Courilof, a very different personality from Leon and the house at the Iles. “Courilof’s house was built at the very edge, in a place called La Fleche, which looked out over the entire coast of Finland; here, the setting sun shimmered all night long during the month of May, bathing everything in its brilliant silvery light. Thin birch trees and miniature firs grew in the spongy soil, full of dark, stagnant water. Never have I seen so many mosquitoes. In the evening, a whitish mist settled around the houses as thick clouds of them flew in from the marshes.” What a marvellous description and I’m guessing inspired partly by Nemirovsky’s first hand experience or family knowledge of the area.
Employed as the house physician Leon quickly learns about his target and the household. When an elderly Jewess visits the minister to ask for his help he is disgusted by her. “I tried to imagine his thoughts, but when he opened his eyes, his face was impenetrable once more. I remember thinking about the elderly Jewess; her absurd gesture had revealed such depths of despair, ignorance and poverty. And on that day, I don’t know why, but for the first time the idea of murdering this pompous fool filled me with horror.” And so the stage is set! An enjoyable, challenging read.
September 15, 2019
An absorbing political novel by the author whose
Fire in the Blood
I so much enjoyed a couple of months ago.
The tale is told in extended flashback toward the end of his life by Léon M (aka Marcel Legrand), who was part of the struggle against Tsarist tyranny in the years before the Russian Revolution and who became a senior officer in the secret police under the Soviets. In specific, he tells us how in 1903 he was instructed to assassinate the Tsar's Minister of Education, Courilof, in retaliation for the latter's brutal crackdowns on students protesting in favor of greater freedom.
Under the name Legrand, M infiltrates himself into Courilof's household as his new, Swiss personal physician and gives the "Killer Whale" palliative care for his developing liver cancer. Despite himself, "Legrand" becomes a principal confidant to Courilof, sharing the man's miseries and furies as he copes with the whims of a fickle, disloyal and none too intelligent Tsar Nicholas. Even more against his inclinations, as he waits for the order to kill, M discovers himself sympathizing with Courilof, understanding why he has taken some of the draconian actions he has, and admiring his steadfast loyalty to the ex-chanteuse wife whom most of the rest of the court despises.
When the scheduled time comes, will M be able to bring himself to assassinate a man for whom he's come to feel such great affection . . .?
What gives this book its depth -- its moral force, if you like -- is that we learn from M how, during his later years as a police chief, he was every bit as ruthless as Courilof -- more so, in fact -- and that he, too, felt at the time that his actions were necessary, the only right course if the public weal were to be upheld. Just as Courilof had maintained an unswerving loyalty to the Tsar (or to the idea of the Tsar), so did M act out of loyalty to the Soviet ideal without ever being able to step back and realize he was perpetuating not the good of the people but a tyranny -- that Russia had merely replaced one tyranny by another. Now, nearing the end of his life, M is able to see there's really not so much difference between himself and Courilof, that the seemingly irrational instincts which in 1903 made him come to feel almost brotherly sentiments toward the Killer Whale weren't so irrational after all.
Sandra Smith's translation has a delightful, cool lucidity that I assume is carried over from the original; that said, I didn't feel the English text had quite the same fluency as in Fire in the Blood, and once or twice I winced at momentary instances of clumsiness. But that's a very small grouch.
Some may find the portrayal of antisemitism in Tsarist Russia hard to stomach -- it's conveyed primarily through offhand remarks that make it clear communists and Jews were equally despicable in the eyes of the ruling classes -- but I found it if anything underplayed. Let's not forget that this was an era in which antisemitic pogroms, many with tacit official support and at least some of them spurred by the authorities, claimed the lives of thousands of Russian Jews. Némirovsky knew of what she wrote, being herself a Russian Jew.
I found The Courilof Affair completely engrossing. It's by no means a thriller -- it has other intentions -- but it held me as rapt as many a thriller has.
The tale is told in extended flashback toward the end of his life by Léon M (aka Marcel Legrand), who was part of the struggle against Tsarist tyranny in the years before the Russian Revolution and who became a senior officer in the secret police under the Soviets. In specific, he tells us how in 1903 he was instructed to assassinate the Tsar's Minister of Education, Courilof, in retaliation for the latter's brutal crackdowns on students protesting in favor of greater freedom.
Under the name Legrand, M infiltrates himself into Courilof's household as his new, Swiss personal physician and gives the "Killer Whale" palliative care for his developing liver cancer. Despite himself, "Legrand" becomes a principal confidant to Courilof, sharing the man's miseries and furies as he copes with the whims of a fickle, disloyal and none too intelligent Tsar Nicholas. Even more against his inclinations, as he waits for the order to kill, M discovers himself sympathizing with Courilof, understanding why he has taken some of the draconian actions he has, and admiring his steadfast loyalty to the ex-chanteuse wife whom most of the rest of the court despises.
When the scheduled time comes, will M be able to bring himself to assassinate a man for whom he's come to feel such great affection . . .?
What gives this book its depth -- its moral force, if you like -- is that we learn from M how, during his later years as a police chief, he was every bit as ruthless as Courilof -- more so, in fact -- and that he, too, felt at the time that his actions were necessary, the only right course if the public weal were to be upheld. Just as Courilof had maintained an unswerving loyalty to the Tsar (or to the idea of the Tsar), so did M act out of loyalty to the Soviet ideal without ever being able to step back and realize he was perpetuating not the good of the people but a tyranny -- that Russia had merely replaced one tyranny by another. Now, nearing the end of his life, M is able to see there's really not so much difference between himself and Courilof, that the seemingly irrational instincts which in 1903 made him come to feel almost brotherly sentiments toward the Killer Whale weren't so irrational after all.
Sandra Smith's translation has a delightful, cool lucidity that I assume is carried over from the original; that said, I didn't feel the English text had quite the same fluency as in Fire in the Blood, and once or twice I winced at momentary instances of clumsiness. But that's a very small grouch.
Some may find the portrayal of antisemitism in Tsarist Russia hard to stomach -- it's conveyed primarily through offhand remarks that make it clear communists and Jews were equally despicable in the eyes of the ruling classes -- but I found it if anything underplayed. Let's not forget that this was an era in which antisemitic pogroms, many with tacit official support and at least some of them spurred by the authorities, claimed the lives of thousands of Russian Jews. Némirovsky knew of what she wrote, being herself a Russian Jew.
I found The Courilof Affair completely engrossing. It's by no means a thriller -- it has other intentions -- but it held me as rapt as many a thriller has.
July 16, 2015
Anatomia di un omicidio.
Ho molto amato questa insolita (almeno per quanto letto finora) Irène Némirovsky.
Dalla fredda e nevosa Svizzera, dove inizia il romanzo, alla fredda e nevosa Russia, dove tutto si compie: quello che mi ha affascinata di più sono i paesaggi, anche umani, i colori, accesi e allo stesso tempo monotoni, i suoni, assordanti e allo stesso tempo ovattati.
Sul finire dei suoi giorni, il rivoluzionario russo Léon M., rievoca i fatti che portarono all'assassinio di Valerian Aleksandrovic Kurilov, il Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione dello zar.
Siamo a ridosso della Rivoluzione di Ottobre, in quegli anni di grande fermento che la precedono: è il 1903 quando Léon M., sotto falsa identità, assume l'incarico del dottor Legrand in casa di Kurilov.
Trascorrerà nella casa del ministro un anno intero, passato in gran parte nella dacia di famiglia, durante il quale avrà modo di imparare a conoscere l'uomo ancor più che il personaggio pubblico.
Nell'arco di quell'anno i suoi sentimenti passeranno continuamente dall'odio al rispetto, dalla compassione all'irritazione, dalla speranza di un ritiro dalla scena pubblica al desiderio di vendetta con un'azione eclatante.
Irène Némirovsky penetra nei sentimenti dell'uno e dell'altro con decisione, tenerezza, crudeltà e passione, dando vita ad un romanzo breve che trasmette tormento e vigore con grande intensità.
L'immedesimazione è così forte che in alcuni momenti sembrerà veramente di sentire il calore del pallido sole di Giugno alle Isole, o il vento sferzante a San Pietroburgo, o di vedere lo sfavillio dei gioielli delle cortigiane o i colori accesi delle tende di velluto nella splendida villa di Kurilov.
I nostri sentimenti nei confronti del pescecane, così come è soprannominato dai suoi detrattori e dagli avversari, saranno gli stessi del rivoluzionario: odio, pietà, commiserazione, irritazione, continueranno ad altalenarsi fino alla fine, che arriverà lenta e inesorabile.
Irène Nèmirovsky dipinge un libro con le parole, ed è un piacere poterle toccare con gli occhi e con il cuore.
Ho molto amato questa insolita (almeno per quanto letto finora) Irène Némirovsky.
Dalla fredda e nevosa Svizzera, dove inizia il romanzo, alla fredda e nevosa Russia, dove tutto si compie: quello che mi ha affascinata di più sono i paesaggi, anche umani, i colori, accesi e allo stesso tempo monotoni, i suoni, assordanti e allo stesso tempo ovattati.
Sul finire dei suoi giorni, il rivoluzionario russo Léon M., rievoca i fatti che portarono all'assassinio di Valerian Aleksandrovic Kurilov, il Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione dello zar.
Siamo a ridosso della Rivoluzione di Ottobre, in quegli anni di grande fermento che la precedono: è il 1903 quando Léon M., sotto falsa identità, assume l'incarico del dottor Legrand in casa di Kurilov.
Trascorrerà nella casa del ministro un anno intero, passato in gran parte nella dacia di famiglia, durante il quale avrà modo di imparare a conoscere l'uomo ancor più che il personaggio pubblico.
Nell'arco di quell'anno i suoi sentimenti passeranno continuamente dall'odio al rispetto, dalla compassione all'irritazione, dalla speranza di un ritiro dalla scena pubblica al desiderio di vendetta con un'azione eclatante.
Irène Némirovsky penetra nei sentimenti dell'uno e dell'altro con decisione, tenerezza, crudeltà e passione, dando vita ad un romanzo breve che trasmette tormento e vigore con grande intensità.
L'immedesimazione è così forte che in alcuni momenti sembrerà veramente di sentire il calore del pallido sole di Giugno alle Isole, o il vento sferzante a San Pietroburgo, o di vedere lo sfavillio dei gioielli delle cortigiane o i colori accesi delle tende di velluto nella splendida villa di Kurilov.
I nostri sentimenti nei confronti del pescecane, così come è soprannominato dai suoi detrattori e dagli avversari, saranno gli stessi del rivoluzionario: odio, pietà, commiserazione, irritazione, continueranno ad altalenarsi fino alla fine, che arriverà lenta e inesorabile.
Irène Nèmirovsky dipinge un libro con le parole, ed è un piacere poterle toccare con gli occhi e con il cuore.
May 15, 2024
Me gustó muchísimo.
January 30, 2019
What a disappointment after the glory of Suite Française.
You’d think that when Némirovsky does second-generation terrorism and espionage, it would be at least vaguely compelling. It’s a small book that poses a very big question: what is justice? Should in theory make for an interesting read, right?
I have very little to say about this book, which in itself says a lot. The Courilof Affair is a monotonous, tedious slog that never achieves anything. The prose, the characters and the plot are entirely lustreless and lacking in rigour.
I apologize for a less-than eloquent review, but this book wasn’t exactly inspiring.
Dull, aimless, disappointing.
You’d think that when Némirovsky does second-generation terrorism and espionage, it would be at least vaguely compelling. It’s a small book that poses a very big question: what is justice? Should in theory make for an interesting read, right?
I have very little to say about this book, which in itself says a lot. The Courilof Affair is a monotonous, tedious slog that never achieves anything. The prose, the characters and the plot are entirely lustreless and lacking in rigour.
I apologize for a less-than eloquent review, but this book wasn’t exactly inspiring.
Dull, aimless, disappointing.
January 25, 2020
Anémique.
February 8, 2018
In my view, this novel deals with some of the same material as "The Sympathizer", but so much better! This is the story of a second-generation terrorist, a boy who has seen his father deported and his mum die of untreated tuberculosis in the service of the revolution. Brought up to throw bombs by a doctor cum lunatic, Léon's first assignment is to execute Valerian Courilof, the minister of education under Tsar Nicholas II. Léon easily infiltrates the minister's household, but from there on things become much trickier as he soon realizes that his target is not the robotic monster he expected. After an unhappy marriage to a well-connected woman whose friends secured his political career, Courilof has taken the bold step of marrying his French mistress, a former actress and high-class prostitute who is utterly devoted to him. On another front, Courilof exhibits the same sort of courage by carrying on with his tasks in spite of suffering from advanced liver cancer. Léon can't help sympathizing with this man who is both petty and heroic, childishly ambitious yet resolute to be true to his life partner even if it costs him the Tsar's favor. When Courilof is briefly sacked from his post because the court disapproves of his wife, Léon breathes a sigh of relief, hoping he won't have to hasten the old man's end. Ironically, Courilof plays a trick on his successor, thereby insuring both his own return to power and his murder at the hands of Léon, who can't quite withdraw himself from the plot. The reader is given to understand that after this baptism of fire, Léon became a cog in the new régime, without ever completely believing either in the goals or the methods of his chiefs and comrades. A much sparer book than "The Sympathizer", this novel shows Némirovsky at her best. We see exactly why the crafty but principled Courilof is not an easy man to condemn to death out of hand, and the futility of risking his own life to kill a man who is dying anyway gives the story great poignancy.
September 23, 2019
El caso Kurílov es una novela tipo testimonio en la que a través de una manuscrito hallado en las pertenencias de un ex terrorista, se narra los acontecimientos que sucedieron casi 30 años atrás.
"La vida es odiosa... absurda...Es tan fácil matar a gente quien ni siquiera conoces, a hombres como los que pasaron por mis manos durante aquellas noches de 1919 y más tarde... E incluso a ellos..."
Por aquella época (1903) Rusia vivía una época de mucha tensión social debido a la mala administración por parte del régimen zarista liderado por el último Zar de Rusia Nicolás II. Es preciso indicar que en 1905 se llevó a cabo la revolución rusa, denominada domingo sangriento, pero la historia del libro no llega hasta allí; no obstante, deja ver claramente la insensibilidad de las autoridades frente al sufrimiento del pueblo y los planes políticos del partido opositor: el Comité de la Revolución, que con su facción terrorista tenía como objetivo asesinar a los más altos funcionarios.
"Coloca a sus conocidos, primos y hermanos en todas partes, y todos roban"
Leon M, el bolchevique, el terrorista autor del manuscrito a manera de diario, contará todo lo que sucedió luego de su designación por el Partido Revolucionario (posterior a 1917: Partido Comunista) como el verdugo del Ministro de Instrucción Pública, llamado Valerian Alexandrovich Kirílov, conocido como el Cachalote, por su crueldad, ambición y avidez de honores. Para ello, tendrá una identidad falsa: Marcel Legrand, Doctor en Medicina.
"El poder es un veneno delicioso" (Kirilov)
El terrorista se infiltra en el círculo más cercano del Ministro y ambos pasan sus días.
Como una serpiente que puede quedarse mucho tiempo esperando el momento preciso para atacar a su presa sin que esta la note, así esperaba León la oportunidad para cumplir con el Partido. Pero en ese periodo sucederán muchas cosas que le harán ver la realidad con otros ojos y entrar en una encrucijada moral.
"El cazador no soporta tener que matar a un animal al que alimentó y cuidó..." (León)
Una novela muy interesante en la que la autora francesa de origen ruso nos muestra a las personas desprovistas de la pompa del cargo que ostentan o de la capa maligna que un partido del terror pueda reflejar. Lo que la novela nos retrata es al ser humano mismo, con sus defectos, vicios, miserias, ilusiones, esperanzas, odios y nostalgias. Una gran obra sobre la psicología humana.
"... y entonces veía por primera vez a unos seres humanos, a unos infelices, con sus ambiciones, defectos y estupideces...Pero no dispongo de tiempo para pensar en eso. Solo quiero recordar un viejo episodio"
Otros personajes: El príncipe Nelrode, un anciano aristocrático, que personifica toda el pensamiento del imperio ruso zarista que colisiona con las necesidades del pueblo.
Marguerite Eduardovna, esposa de Kirílov con un pasado muy controvertido.
Barón Dahl, oportunista y conspirador que ambiciona un alto cargo.
Fanny Zart, camarada de León y coordinadora de la Revolución.
"La vida es odiosa... absurda...Es tan fácil matar a gente quien ni siquiera conoces, a hombres como los que pasaron por mis manos durante aquellas noches de 1919 y más tarde... E incluso a ellos..."
Por aquella época (1903) Rusia vivía una época de mucha tensión social debido a la mala administración por parte del régimen zarista liderado por el último Zar de Rusia Nicolás II. Es preciso indicar que en 1905 se llevó a cabo la revolución rusa, denominada domingo sangriento, pero la historia del libro no llega hasta allí; no obstante, deja ver claramente la insensibilidad de las autoridades frente al sufrimiento del pueblo y los planes políticos del partido opositor: el Comité de la Revolución, que con su facción terrorista tenía como objetivo asesinar a los más altos funcionarios.
"Coloca a sus conocidos, primos y hermanos en todas partes, y todos roban"
Leon M, el bolchevique, el terrorista autor del manuscrito a manera de diario, contará todo lo que sucedió luego de su designación por el Partido Revolucionario (posterior a 1917: Partido Comunista) como el verdugo del Ministro de Instrucción Pública, llamado Valerian Alexandrovich Kirílov, conocido como el Cachalote, por su crueldad, ambición y avidez de honores. Para ello, tendrá una identidad falsa: Marcel Legrand, Doctor en Medicina.
"El poder es un veneno delicioso" (Kirilov)
El terrorista se infiltra en el círculo más cercano del Ministro y ambos pasan sus días.
Como una serpiente que puede quedarse mucho tiempo esperando el momento preciso para atacar a su presa sin que esta la note, así esperaba León la oportunidad para cumplir con el Partido. Pero en ese periodo sucederán muchas cosas que le harán ver la realidad con otros ojos y entrar en una encrucijada moral.
"El cazador no soporta tener que matar a un animal al que alimentó y cuidó..." (León)
Una novela muy interesante en la que la autora francesa de origen ruso nos muestra a las personas desprovistas de la pompa del cargo que ostentan o de la capa maligna que un partido del terror pueda reflejar. Lo que la novela nos retrata es al ser humano mismo, con sus defectos, vicios, miserias, ilusiones, esperanzas, odios y nostalgias. Una gran obra sobre la psicología humana.
"... y entonces veía por primera vez a unos seres humanos, a unos infelices, con sus ambiciones, defectos y estupideces...Pero no dispongo de tiempo para pensar en eso. Solo quiero recordar un viejo episodio"
Otros personajes: El príncipe Nelrode, un anciano aristocrático, que personifica toda el pensamiento del imperio ruso zarista que colisiona con las necesidades del pueblo.
Marguerite Eduardovna, esposa de Kirílov con un pasado muy controvertido.
Barón Dahl, oportunista y conspirador que ambiciona un alto cargo.
Fanny Zart, camarada de León y coordinadora de la Revolución.
July 15, 2016
I absolutely love Nemirovsky’s work, and will happily read any of her novels or novellas. In fact, I will happily read anything which she turned her talented hand to. Throughout The Courilof Affair, her writing is beautiful and its flow is marvellous, even in translation. Sandra Smith, who was responsible for rendering the novel into English, has done a wonderful job.
The premise of The Courilof Affair would have attracted me even if I had not read any of Nemirovsky’s other work. It begins in 1903, and deals with the son of Russian revolutionaries, who is given the responsibility of ‘liquidating Valerian Alexandrovitch Courilof, the notoriously brutal and cold-blooded Russian Minister of Education… Insinuating himself into Courilof’s household by becoming his physician, Leon M takes up residence at Courilof’s summer house in the Iles and awaits instructions. But over the course of his story he is made privy to the inner world of the man he must kill – his failing health, his troubled domestic situation and, most importantly, the tyrannical grip that the Czar himself holds over all his ministers, forcing them to obey him or suffer the most deadly punishments’.
The Courilof Affair is protagonist Leon M’s autobiography of sorts, and it is told in retrospect from his own perspective. His narrative voice flows well, and feels ultimately believable. Nemirovsky gets across the fact that he is an anguished soul from the very beginning. One of Nemirovsky’s strongest skills, as far as I am concerned, is the way in which she captures scenes and characters. With one sweep of her pen, she creates the most vivid of images, and builds up beautiful and striking views before the very eyes.
The Courilof Affair is a novel about terrorism and its effects. It has been based upon real-life events which have been fictionalised. It is certainly well imagined in this respect, and has a definite ghostly echo of the awful, repressive situations which occurred in Russia both at the time in which the novel was written, and earlier. As Nemirovsky does so marvellously in all of her books, she challenges perceptions throughout. Her use of dual identity works well, and the book is rendered in an eminently human manner. The story is a wise one, and it is entirely relevant to the world in which we live.
The premise of The Courilof Affair would have attracted me even if I had not read any of Nemirovsky’s other work. It begins in 1903, and deals with the son of Russian revolutionaries, who is given the responsibility of ‘liquidating Valerian Alexandrovitch Courilof, the notoriously brutal and cold-blooded Russian Minister of Education… Insinuating himself into Courilof’s household by becoming his physician, Leon M takes up residence at Courilof’s summer house in the Iles and awaits instructions. But over the course of his story he is made privy to the inner world of the man he must kill – his failing health, his troubled domestic situation and, most importantly, the tyrannical grip that the Czar himself holds over all his ministers, forcing them to obey him or suffer the most deadly punishments’.
The Courilof Affair is protagonist Leon M’s autobiography of sorts, and it is told in retrospect from his own perspective. His narrative voice flows well, and feels ultimately believable. Nemirovsky gets across the fact that he is an anguished soul from the very beginning. One of Nemirovsky’s strongest skills, as far as I am concerned, is the way in which she captures scenes and characters. With one sweep of her pen, she creates the most vivid of images, and builds up beautiful and striking views before the very eyes.
The Courilof Affair is a novel about terrorism and its effects. It has been based upon real-life events which have been fictionalised. It is certainly well imagined in this respect, and has a definite ghostly echo of the awful, repressive situations which occurred in Russia both at the time in which the novel was written, and earlier. As Nemirovsky does so marvellously in all of her books, she challenges perceptions throughout. Her use of dual identity works well, and the book is rendered in an eminently human manner. The story is a wise one, and it is entirely relevant to the world in which we live.
November 17, 2017
Sfumature di grigio
Grazie a questo breve romanzo, incentrato su un assassinio politico nella Russia al confine tra zarismo e rivoluzione, abbiamo la possibilità di avere una sconcertante rivelazione: il mondo, checché se ne dica, non è un ambiente manicheo. Tra bianco e nero esistono delle sfumature di grigio, nientemeno!: le persone cattive hanno dei lati buoni, e viceversa. Collateralmente, veniamo edotti sulla complessità dei piani dei ribelli - la Morte Nera ha un punto debole...no, mi sto confondendo. Dicevo, la complessità dei piani dei rivoluzionari - ecco, meglio - ovvero trovare un finto-vero medico di nazionalità straniera, in realtà figlio di genitori russi e rivoluzionari, da affiancare al politico nel mirino, un ministro che, caso vuole, è solito inserire nel necessaire da viaggio proprio un medico straniero. Il piano prevede anche una lunga permanenza di tale finto-vero medico, e vero-vero esecutore designato, presso detto ministro, giusto il tempo di scoprire l'esistenza delle sfumature di cui sopra, e iniziare a comprendere e in parte compatire il bersaglio. Fortunatamente il positivo risultato del piano ci viene comunicato all'inizio della narrazione: la tensione sarebbe stata troppa senza questo auto-spoiler.
Sufficienza stiracchiata, la Némirovsky si salva solo grazie al suo stile sempre piacevole e al bonus-Calasso ( che nell'indecisione fa propendere per il giudizio più alto ).
Colonna sonora per accostamento tematico - e per risollevare un po' il morale - con i Fates Warning dell'immenso A Pleasant Shade of Gray ( diciamo la parte II, è un'unica canzone di oltre 50 minuti ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6PiM...
Grazie a questo breve romanzo, incentrato su un assassinio politico nella Russia al confine tra zarismo e rivoluzione, abbiamo la possibilità di avere una sconcertante rivelazione: il mondo, checché se ne dica, non è un ambiente manicheo. Tra bianco e nero esistono delle sfumature di grigio, nientemeno!: le persone cattive hanno dei lati buoni, e viceversa. Collateralmente, veniamo edotti sulla complessità dei piani dei ribelli - la Morte Nera ha un punto debole...no, mi sto confondendo. Dicevo, la complessità dei piani dei rivoluzionari - ecco, meglio - ovvero trovare un finto-vero medico di nazionalità straniera, in realtà figlio di genitori russi e rivoluzionari, da affiancare al politico nel mirino, un ministro che, caso vuole, è solito inserire nel necessaire da viaggio proprio un medico straniero. Il piano prevede anche una lunga permanenza di tale finto-vero medico, e vero-vero esecutore designato, presso detto ministro, giusto il tempo di scoprire l'esistenza delle sfumature di cui sopra, e iniziare a comprendere e in parte compatire il bersaglio. Fortunatamente il positivo risultato del piano ci viene comunicato all'inizio della narrazione: la tensione sarebbe stata troppa senza questo auto-spoiler.
Sufficienza stiracchiata, la Némirovsky si salva solo grazie al suo stile sempre piacevole e al bonus-Calasso ( che nell'indecisione fa propendere per il giudizio più alto ).
Colonna sonora per accostamento tematico - e per risollevare un po' il morale - con i Fates Warning dell'immenso A Pleasant Shade of Gray ( diciamo la parte II, è un'unica canzone di oltre 50 minuti ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6PiM...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 20, 2015
Tutto sommato un libro molto carino, ma non posso dire che rientri nell'olimpo dei libri bellissimi.
Avendo letto la trama su internet, mi aspettavo qualcosa di più movimentato, trattando di una storia di attentati. Lo stile è, tuttavia, molto pittoresco, particolareggiato, molto calmo e rilassato. La cosa all'inizio mi ha un po' fatto storcere il naso, perché non potevo sopportare che la storia di un assassinio politico fosse così narrata, ma a lungo andare mi ha convinto e sono riuscito ad apprezzare (forse) il perché della scelta dell'autrice.
In realtà ho letto questo libro solamente per capire se l'autrice potesse interessarmi e colpirmi, dato che punto a Suite Francese. Diciamo quindi che Irene si è guadagnata un posto negli autori di cui voglio sicuramente leggere anche altro.
Avendo letto la trama su internet, mi aspettavo qualcosa di più movimentato, trattando di una storia di attentati. Lo stile è, tuttavia, molto pittoresco, particolareggiato, molto calmo e rilassato. La cosa all'inizio mi ha un po' fatto storcere il naso, perché non potevo sopportare che la storia di un assassinio politico fosse così narrata, ma a lungo andare mi ha convinto e sono riuscito ad apprezzare (forse) il perché della scelta dell'autrice.
In realtà ho letto questo libro solamente per capire se l'autrice potesse interessarmi e colpirmi, dato che punto a Suite Francese. Diciamo quindi che Irene si è guadagnata un posto negli autori di cui voglio sicuramente leggere anche altro.
October 3, 2022
"Se conseguires descer até ao coração do mais detestado dos teus inimigos, tu próprio ali te encontrarás." Arthur Shopenhauer
Confesso ter um fraquinho por autores de entre as guerras, sendo Irène Némirovsky um desses autores. Temos 2 personagens principais diferentes mas também parecidas, de um lado um revolucionário bolchevista e do outro um tirano da Rússia imperial, cada um acha que têm a verdade e justiça do seu lado, cada um mata pelos seus ideais, mas a Iréne cria uma relação entre os dois em que não consegui gostar nem detestar nenhum deles, mas compreendi as motivações de ambos, homens de um mundo turbulento e em mudança.
Achei uma história interessante e envolvente, daquelas que eu gosto.
Confesso ter um fraquinho por autores de entre as guerras, sendo Irène Némirovsky um desses autores. Temos 2 personagens principais diferentes mas também parecidas, de um lado um revolucionário bolchevista e do outro um tirano da Rússia imperial, cada um acha que têm a verdade e justiça do seu lado, cada um mata pelos seus ideais, mas a Iréne cria uma relação entre os dois em que não consegui gostar nem detestar nenhum deles, mas compreendi as motivações de ambos, homens de um mundo turbulento e em mudança.
Achei uma história interessante e envolvente, daquelas que eu gosto.
September 6, 2013
One word : disappointment!
I was looking for "Suite française", it wasn't available at the library so I took this instead to experience Nemirovsky's writing. It's not...bad per se, it's just not very interesting. It's vaguely a murder mystery, quite short, very easy to read, with flat characters I couldn't relate to. Very few surprises in this quite monotonous storyline. The writing is nothing special, not what I expected. In my opinion it's more or less the literary equivalent of an episode of CSI (you know the whole thing will both happen and be resolved within 45 minutes, two commercial breaks included).
I was looking for "Suite française", it wasn't available at the library so I took this instead to experience Nemirovsky's writing. It's not...bad per se, it's just not very interesting. It's vaguely a murder mystery, quite short, very easy to read, with flat characters I couldn't relate to. Very few surprises in this quite monotonous storyline. The writing is nothing special, not what I expected. In my opinion it's more or less the literary equivalent of an episode of CSI (you know the whole thing will both happen and be resolved within 45 minutes, two commercial breaks included).
February 9, 2011
E' la prima esperienza con questa autrice e di sicuro non sarà l'ultima, la sua scrittura mi piace, è molto evocativa ed è facile lasciarsi trasportare nella lettura. Sono rimasta meno coinvolta dalla trama, ma sicuramente per colpa dell'altro libro che sto leggendo in contemporanea, che mi ha letteralmente rapita. Avrei voluto dedicare a questo libretto tutta l'attenzione che merita, ma anche così ho saputo apprezzare soprattutto il carattere riflessivo, la mancanza di un giudizio fermo, ma l'invito a saper guardare le cose da più punti di vista.
November 24, 2018
3,5
La novela tiene mucho de lo que me gusta de la autora en cuanto a descripción de lugares y personajes, pero esta vez no ha logrado engancharme tanto. Pese a que la trama me ha parecido muy interesante, al igual que las intrigas políticas, el modo casi detectivesco de contar lo referente a Kurilov y como se desarrollan los acontecimientos, hay algo que me ha frenado a la hora de meterme en ese mundo.
El reflejo de esa época merece mucho la pena. Además que siendo Nemirovsky hay que leerla.
La novela tiene mucho de lo que me gusta de la autora en cuanto a descripción de lugares y personajes, pero esta vez no ha logrado engancharme tanto. Pese a que la trama me ha parecido muy interesante, al igual que las intrigas políticas, el modo casi detectivesco de contar lo referente a Kurilov y como se desarrollan los acontecimientos, hay algo que me ha frenado a la hora de meterme en ese mundo.
El reflejo de esa época merece mucho la pena. Además que siendo Nemirovsky hay que leerla.
October 25, 2021
Il rapporto paradossale che si instaura tra un attentatore e la sua vittima designata, della quale il primo si trova per necessità operative al servizio. Lev M. non è un “indemoniato” come gli omologhi dostoevskijani: è nato in una famiglia rivoluzionaria e appartiene di diritto alla rivoluzione, come se fosse nato nella famiglia Romanov sarebbe stato di diritto zar. Il suo ritratto è disegnato soprattutto dai sentimenti ambivalenti che prova verso chi dovrebbe uccidere: uno strano misto di disprezzo, odio, pietà, a tratti empatia per la difficolta delle situazioni che vive l’altro.
July 1, 2023
An interesting moral study of assassination, where we see reverse Stockholm syndrome. The assassin has to live in disguise with his victim for many months and begins to see the humanity in his intended victim, the good as well as the bad. He also sees the near madness in some of his fellow revolutionaries. I enjoyed this short book, full of interesting characters and comments on the society of the time and places.
May 4, 2019
Una forma de escribir solida. Envidiable. Una historia sin vencedores ni vencidos.
May 4, 2025
Historia sobre el asesinato de un Ministro del Zar Nicolás II a manos de un revolucionario bolchevique. La descripción psicológica de los personajes es muy interesante (de igual modo que en otros libros de esta autora).
Seguiré leyendo libros de Némirovsky.
Seguiré leyendo libros de Némirovsky.
May 7, 2010
Yo ya comprendo que no todas las obras de Irène Némirovsky pueden ser tan perfectas como 'Suite francesa', pero es que en mi opinión 'El baile', aunque de una forma totalmente distinta, sí que es tan perfecta como 'Suite francesa', y 'David Golder' y 'El ardor de la sangre' son dos novelitas notables e intensísimas, pero es que 'El caso Kurilov' me ha parecido de una sosería insoportable. Es como si Némirovsky la hubiera escrito con el piloto automático, poniendo buena parte de su buen oficio pero sin ni una pizca de pasión, esperando terminarla y embolsarse el dinerito para pagar unos cuantos meses más de alquiler. Por supuesto que no hay nada de malo en intentar ganarse la vida como una buenamente pueda, pero podrían avisar. Pues no, no avisan. Todas las críticas que he podido leer alaban este librito y lo que más destacan es lo interesante que es el retrato de la Russia pre-comunista que hace, cuando por vaga que sea la noción que el lector tenga de los terroristas revolucionarios y las intrigas en la corte del zar los hechos que relata este librito no le depararán ni la más mínima sorpresa.
'El caso Kurilov' está bien escrito, no digo que no, el problema es que aunque está narrado en primera persona se nota muchísimo que es un libro "en tercera persona", sobre hechos con los que la autora en realidad no siente ninguna implicación personal. Quizás es que tengo demasiado fresco el buen recuerdo que me dejó la lectura de 'El caballo amarillo. Diario de un terrorista ruso' de Boris Savinkov, novela autobiográfica y que tiene toda la intensidad, el spleen y la desesperanza que no tiene 'El caso Kurilov'. El caso es que en la novela de Némirovsky la trama es previsible (a un revolucionario le encargan asesinar a un ministro del zar y por eso se introducirá en su casa como médico) y los personajes son tan arquetípicos y tan planos que es imposible llegarse a interesar lo más mínimo por ellos. La descripción psicológica que realmente es el punto fuerte de Némirovsky como escritora, brilla por su ausencia en esta ocasión. Es todo realmente muy soso. Es una de aquellas novelas que se leen rápido pero que cuando se terminan una se da cuenta que nunca han llegado ni a rozarle la epidermis.
'El caso Kurilov' está bien escrito, no digo que no, el problema es que aunque está narrado en primera persona se nota muchísimo que es un libro "en tercera persona", sobre hechos con los que la autora en realidad no siente ninguna implicación personal. Quizás es que tengo demasiado fresco el buen recuerdo que me dejó la lectura de 'El caballo amarillo. Diario de un terrorista ruso' de Boris Savinkov, novela autobiográfica y que tiene toda la intensidad, el spleen y la desesperanza que no tiene 'El caso Kurilov'. El caso es que en la novela de Némirovsky la trama es previsible (a un revolucionario le encargan asesinar a un ministro del zar y por eso se introducirá en su casa como médico) y los personajes son tan arquetípicos y tan planos que es imposible llegarse a interesar lo más mínimo por ellos. La descripción psicológica que realmente es el punto fuerte de Némirovsky como escritora, brilla por su ausencia en esta ocasión. Es todo realmente muy soso. Es una de aquellas novelas que se leen rápido pero que cuando se terminan una se da cuenta que nunca han llegado ni a rozarle la epidermis.
October 3, 2011
Fascinating, off-beat book. Set in pre-revolution Russia, the plot is set in the first sentence: "In 1903, the Revolutionary Committee gave me the responsibility of liquidating Courilof." The protagonist, writing in 1931, tells about how, in order to carry out his assignment, he embedded himself into the household of Courilof, the Minister of Education in the reign of Nicholas II, as his personal physician. In the months he lived with Courilof, he saw him daily, often sleeping in the same room. He came to despise Courilof, nicknamed the "Killer Whale," but also got to know him as a human being, seeing, in addition to his viciousness, his devotion to his second wife and other glimpses of decency, so that when the time approached for the assassination, he found himself unable to fulfill his assignment. The novel shows, surprisingly, the human beings behind the terrorist assassin, on the one hand, and the evil minister of the tzar, on the other.
August 17, 2011
I'm not sure if it's the writing, or simply the translation that causes this novel to feel lacking. Written as a memoir, the plot unfolds as is expected and dictated at the onset. A short little book with a big theme... what is justice. Set in pre-revolution Russia, it is the memoir of an assassin, sent to kill the Minister of Education. With bloodshed on both sides, it's difficult to see who is right, and who is wrong... just like in real life. It's a sobering story, but not something to relish and reread.
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