Madame Butterfly

by John Luther Long

The original story that inspired Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

Genres: Fiction, Asia, Historical Fiction

63 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 1, 2012

About the author

1861-1927

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lu...

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ομολογώ πως το ξεκίνησα για να καλύψω την κατηγορία B.R.A.CE. 2017 ένα βιβλίο με ένα Ασιάτη ως κύριο χαρακτήρα . Δεν είχα σκεφτεί ποτέ να διαβάσω την ιστορία της Madame Butterfly. Δεν ήξερα καν ότι είναι μια μικρή ιστορία. Ήξερα την όπερα και διαβάζοντας το βιβλίο ίσως είναι μια από τις ελάχιστες περιπτώσεις που η μεταφορά του σε όπερα το εξύψωσε. Είναι μια ωραία μικρή ιστορία, περιεκτική και συγκινητική. Με άφησε βέβαια να αναρωτιέμαι λίγο στο τέλος αλλά θέλησα να βάλω την γλυκιά κι αθώα ηρωίδα σε μια θετική εικόνα στο μυαλό μου.

[Antonis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Μια από τις πιο πικρές ιστορίες που έχω διαβάσει, η περίφημη Μαντάμ Μπατερφλάι μας θυμίζει πάνω από 120 χρόνια τώρα τι σημαίνει εγκατάλειψη και μοναξιά, αλλοτρίωση και πατριαρχία, πολιτισμικό χάσμα και ανθρώπινη αξιοπρέπεια.
Πανέμορφη η ελληνική έκδοση (Ηλέκτρα, επιμέλεια Γιώργος Μπλάνας) σε μετάφραση του Γιώργου Βέη, ο οποίος αναμετρήθηκε επιτυχώς με μια πραγματική μεταφραστική πρόκληση, τα σπαστά αγγλικά της ηρωίδας.

[Nikolas Banos · Rating 4 out of 5]

H συγκεκριμένη «madame» μου ήταν γνωστή. Όχι, ως λογοτεχνικό έργο. Ως όπερα του Πουτσίνι. Τι να πεις; Η ζωή ενός επαρχιώτη είναι γεμάτη παραδοξότητες. Είδα το βιβλίο κάτω από τον «Φονικό Κουρέα της Οδού Φλιτ» και, παρόλο που δεν είχα καθόλου χρόνο για να διαβάσω εκείνη την εποχή, το πήρα για να έχω καβάτζα. Άνοιξα το εξώφυλλο στο τέλος του χειμώνα για να γνωρίσω από «κοντά» την «Madame Butterfly» και να μου εξομολογηθεί την σκυθρωπή ζωή της.
Γεννημένη από την φαντασία και τις εμπειρίες του Τζον Λούθερ Λονγκ, η Τσο Τσο Σαν ήταν μια γυναίκα από την Ιαπωνία, της οποίας η ιστορία δεν χαρακτηρίζεται απαραιτήτως από πρωτοτυπία. Ένα σεβαστό ποσοστό ανδρών και γυναικών, καθημερνά, γίνονται αυτό που σήμερα ονομάζουμε «ερωτικοί μετανάστες». Αυτό ήταν και η Τσο Τσο Σαν. Μια ερωτική μετανάστης. Ας πάρω την ιστορία από την αρχή. Ο αξιωματικός του ναυτικού, Πίνκερτον, σε κάποια στιγμή της καριέρας του, μετατίθετο στην Ιαπωνία, από την στρατιωτική του υπηρεσία. Σε μια προσπάθεια να παγιώσει την ζωή του στην Ιαπωνία και να «δυτικοποιήσει» με αυτόν τον τρόπο Ιάπωνες γηγενείς, ο Πίνκερτον προσεγγίζει ερωτικά την Τσο Τσο Σαν και εκείνη με την σειρά της τον ερωτεύεται. Ο Πίνκερτον νυμφεύεται την Τσο Τσο Σαν και ζουν ευτυχισμένοι στην Ιαπωνία.
Μετά από ένα υπέροχο διάστημα «μέλιτος», το οποίο μοιάζει με ένα πλουμιστό ιαπωνικό ρομάντζο, οι Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες Αμερικής καλούν τον ξενιτεμένο τους γιο στα πάτρια εδάφη, θεωρώντας πως έχει εκτελέσει τα καθήκοντα του στο έπακρο. Αυτό είναι και το σημείο καμπής της ηρωίδας. Η ίδια καθίσταται έγκυος από τον αξιωματικό, ο ίδιος υπακούει στις εντολές της πατρίδας του, γυρίζει στα πάτρια εδάφη και παντρεύεται εκ νέου μια συντοπίτισσα του. Ο Πίνκερτον, ως γνήσιος γιάνκης, διαγράφει την ζωή του στην Ιαπωνία και αδιαφορεί για την εξωτική τέως γυναίκα του και τον απόγονό τους. […]

Read More Here: https://nikolasinbookland.wordpress.c...

[Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Madame Butterfly (Kindle Edition) by John Luther Long. The author was a minister, so some credit for being less than blatant in its moralizing. Clearly an anti-imperialistic book and one would need to know more about the writer if it is to be smeared as racist.
Mostly we all know this story a cold American Naval Officer buys a house and a wife or rather leases each for 99 years. This is a tragedy and mostly we know the story via the very fine opera.

Because the narration is in pigeon English from the POV of 17-year old geisha, Cho-Cho-San; the leased wife, her broken English is that much more pitiful. She is convinced that if she can be American enough, He will be loving and keep her. We can all hope.

It may be worth exploring to see if the Minister/Author understood that in Japan a geisha could have some standing. She was not always for hire as a sex toy. Her value as a companion could as well be for her musical ability or related social skills. This topic is complex , but I suspect Mr Long used the term because it was known, more polite than some others thus, easier to relate to than to understand.

I like to look into the stories that inspired opera. This one was sadder than most and the Navy man obviously less of anything honorable. I suggest that the opera does a better job of rendering the small cast as people.

[Tomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

I debated about rating this one star at first, because I'll be honest in saying that Long was not a good writer by any means. I understand he wrote this novella in 1898, but even then writers were not as oblique and garbled as he was. I made more inferences than actually reading "Madame Butterfly," and I didn't enjoy it. That being said, the story itself is not a bad one. It's a tragedy about an insensitive American naval officer who marries a geisha while in Japan, briefly toys with her by attempting to Westernize her, unknowingly impregnates her, and leaves, vaguely promising to return but clearly not meaning to. The geisha, Cho-Cho-San, is an extremely naïve girl who blindly believes in her husband's love for her, and for much of the novella she daydreams about his eventual return in order to see his child (who was born after he'd left). Cho-Cho-San is such an earnest, pitiful thing that no one has the heart to tell her the truth until it's too late, and of course her world comes crashing down when she does learn it. The last few chapters are where Long excels, and were good enough to elevate the story to two stars.

This is not writing that has stood the test of time, sadly; the obsessive Western fascination with Japan was what inspired this story to be written, and of course that's long since past. Long's attempt to mimic a Japanese person's heavily-accented English is embarrassingly awful and almost unreadable, but he didn't know any better, so it's to be endured (though through gritted teeth). There really is no reason for an average person to read this unless they were a university scholar (like me) or wanted to get a sense of how mythicized the Orient was to the West at that particular time. Better off seeing the Puccini opera, which itself is based on a stage adaptation of the story. Both the play and the opera make the story more melodramatic than it already is (and, truth be told, Long's original ending is superior), but it does save you the effort of reading Long's laborious writing. Maybe I'm being too hard on him, but I'm not rushing to read another of his works anytime soon, so my opinion of him will remain tied to "Madame Butterfly."

[DC · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is quite simple, and I dare say quite realistic. After all, we have all probably heard of the story of a charming provincial girl (in this case, a Japanese seventeen-year-old dancer) who was lead to believe that she was the ultimate love of a sailor (in this case, and in probably most cases I've heard of, an American), who left his pretty princess in hopes of his return. While her behavior and personal changes were amusing at first to behold, I cannot but help notice the delusional waiting, the gradual change of customs and traditions, and the forgotten family which haunted Madame Butterfly as she waited for the robins to nest.

The little nuances of (age-old?) Japanese culture are easily seen in the story, from the way Madame Butterfly addresses her beloved, to the front she puts on in front of a stranger who wants her to be his wife. Death, honor and ancestry are given particular detail in the last few chapters, and it's almost heart-breaking to see how Madame Butterfly tried (though eventually failed) to protect her sanctity by "a long, beautiful sleep".

I have a feeling that this story is more than just the drama of a young girl who fell in love too easily; I think I see a wide-scale frontier here, one that involves Americans, a war with China, and Japan as a springboard... But that may as well be the social scientist in me talking.

At any rate, 'tis a quick tale on love (and, possibly, betrayal), with interesting insights on Japanese culture.

[At the end of this book, I ardently wish I could see Puccini's play of Madame Butterfly :D]

[Larry Piper · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the story on which Puccini's famous opera was based. It's not well written and is hideously racist. I don't much recommend it. Personally, I'd avoid the opera as well. I saw it and it was much more boring than one's average opera. Gah!

Well, perhaps I'm a bit harsh. The second half wasn't so bad. So, I'd give it a **+ were that possible, so as to indicate the less bad second half.

Basically, one has a sailor stationed in Japan, Pinkerton. He decides to "take a wife", Cho Cho San, who is Japanese. They set up housekeeping. Then, he's off back at sea. Cho Cho San thinks he'll come back, but he really has no intention to do so. She and Pinkerton have a child together, although the child was born after Pinkerton has left. The child has purple eyes.

Anyway, Cho Cho San keeps waiting for Pinkerton to return, but when he does, he doesn't visit Cho Cho San. He does send his actual wife up to Cho Cho San's to fetch his son. Cho Cho San feels betrayed and commits suicide. Gah! What beasts these military types can be when pleasuring themselves at the expense of the "natives".

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's amusing that I read this so quickly after reading The Help and getting all angry over Stockett's use of dialect. John Luther Long does the same thing in Madame Butterfly , and it's incredibly irritating and difficult to read. Of course, he was attempting to write a Japanese accent onto an English-speaking Japanese woman without ever having been to Japan, so his ignorance is slightly more forgivable than Stockett's. Also, this is one of the first sympathetic portrayals of Asian women in American literature, so Long's intentions were good. I wouldn't recommend reading this unless it's for academic purposes - it clearly hasn't stood the test of time (although it did influence David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly , a very compelling play). However, the ending was surprisingly heartbreaking.

[Perry Whitford · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the short story that led to the play that led to Puccini's Opera.

An American naval officer named B.F. Pinkerton is sent on commission to Japan. He marries, fathers a child with and then deserts Cho-Cho-San, a seventeen year old Japanese lady with a 'recklessly jubilant' personality and an amusing patois of pidgin English.

No doubt charming to an early 20th century Western audience just becoming aware of Japanese ways and customs, with a commendably sympathetic, though entirely patronizing, portrait of a young geisha girl, Madame Butterfly is very thin fair for a contemporary reader, as well as unsatisfying in tone and intention.

You can see how it would make more dramatic sense as a tragedy though, with the endearing play-acting of Cho-Cho-San more affecting when seen as well as heard.

Slight and silly.

[Aaron W. Matthews · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am stretching my genres, and this is a book I would've likely never picked up if it weren't for that goal. I relate to the premise of the book because my uncle fathered a child in the Philippines in the 60s and never had contact with the mother or son (sad testimony, I know). It was depressing to read and remember the pain caused, but it's real. Sin is an ugly curse in this fallen world. Anyway, it just wasn't a book that captured my interest or heart, and I gave it 2 stars because it was short enough to endure.

[Iopipistrello · Rating 3 out of 5]

hmmmm....I know it's maybe a mastrepiece but after the first half it was a bit lifeless! the only thing that kept me reading it was that crazy Japanese girl and the way she reacted!! interesting only in the way people react!

[moony lvgd · Rating 3 out of 5]

El final es muy triste, se debe ser empático con Cho Cho para sentir las emociones por las que ella pasa durante y después de su relación con el norteamericano. Yo no quería que dejara solo al bebito :(

[Zozo · Rating 5 out of 5]

No estoy acostumbrada a leer este tipo de historias, al inicio me costó entender de qué iba ya que está algo rápido el ritmo de la historia pero está genial cuando captas la trama, ese final me dejó sin palabras , amé poder leer este libro supero por mucho mis expectativas

[Seren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appropriately, I finished this novella on the way to see the wonderful ballet for the second time.

[Kelli Santistevan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this on LibriVox and I enjoyed it.

[Jaime Colon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Madame Butterfly has not aged gracefully, especially with the outdated Japanese tropes and dialect. However, once you get past those things, it’s quite a tragic story.

[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2+ stars (ok)

[Dan Hobson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Worth a read but a little dull

Very poignant tale probably comes across better on stage than in a book but the thought is there. Quite a dramatic ending to a quite boring story

[Carolina Búho · Rating 2 out of 5]

i hate white men.

[Almiux Bombiux · Rating 3 out of 5]

La edición es una belleza, pero siento que la traducción o adaptación que hacen de momento te confunde, o será que yo me confundí 😅 una historia de amor triste.

[Ruth Cabral Ruvalcaba · Rating 3 out of 5]

Final menos inesperado 😳

[Γιώργος Μπελαούρης · Rating 2 out of 5]

συμπαθητικό, η ψυχοσύνθεση και η ανησυχία της πολύ συγκινητική, φεύγει νεράκι

[S. Soto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sabia como terminaria, pero aún asi me voy al rincón a llorar 😭