Melodia Interrompida

by Boris Pasternak, Fernando Moreira Ferreira (Translator), António Ramos Rosa (Translator)

Set in Russia during the winter of 1916, Serezha visits his married sister. Tired after a long journey, he falls into a restless sleep and half-remembers, half-dreams the incidents of the last summer of peace before the First World War 'when life appeared to pay heed to individuals'. As tutor in a wealthy, unsettled Moscow household he focuses his intense romanticism on Mrs Arild, his employer's paid companion, while spending his nights with the prostitute Sashka.

Genres: Russian Literature, Classics, Fiction, Russia, Nobel Prize

147 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 1972

About the author

Boris Leonidovich Pasternak was born in Moscow to talented artists: his father a painter and illustrator of Tolstoy's works, his mother a well-known concert pianist. Though his parents were both Jewish, they became Christianized, first as Russian Orthodox and later as Tolstoyan Christians. Pasternak's education began in a German Gymnasium in Moscow and was continued at the University of Moscow. Under the influence of the composer Scriabin, Pasternak took up the study of musical composition for six years from 1904 to 1910. By 1912 he had renounced music as his calling in life and went to the University of Marburg, Germany, to study philosophy. After four months there and a trip to Italy, he returned to Russia and decided to dedicate himself to literature.

Pasternak's first books of verse went unnoticed. With My Sister Life, 1922, and Themes and Variations, 1923, the latter marked by an extreme, though sober style, Pasternak first gained a place as a leading poet among his Russian contemporaries. In 1924 he published Sublime Malady, which portrayed the 1905 revolt as he saw it, and The Childhood of Luvers, a lyrical and psychological depiction of a young girl on the threshold of womanhood. A collection of four short stories was published the following year under the title Aerial Ways. In 1927 Pasternak again returned to the revolution of 1905 as a subject for two long works: "Lieutenant Schmidt", a poem expressing threnodic sorrow for the fate of the Lieutenant, the leader of the mutiny at Sevastopol, and "The Year 1905", a powerful but diffuse poem which concentrates on the events related to the revolution of 1905. Pasternak's reticent autobiography, Safe Conduct, appeared in 1931, and was followed the next year by a collection of lyrics, Second Birth, 1932. In 1935 he published translations of some Georgian poets and subsequently translated the major dramas of Shakespeare, several of the works of Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, and Ben Jonson, and poems by Petöfi, Verlaine, Swinburne, Shelley, and others. In Early Trains, a collection of poems written since 1936, was published in 1943 and enlarged and reissued in 1945 as Wide Spaces of the Earth. In 1957 Doctor Zhivago, Pasternak's only novel - except for the earlier "novel in verse", Spektorsky (1926) - first appeared in an Italian translation and has been acclaimed by some critics as a successful attempt at combining lyrical-descriptive and epic-dramatic styles.

Pasternak lived in Peredelkino, near Moscow, until his death in 1960.

Reviews

[Luís]

It's a brief novella, but one full of sharp and memorable images, the most powerful associated with the steam and smoke that come out of trains. In several scenes, this black, industrialized dirt comes to mean something destructive but essential, something people try to use as sustenance but, of course, are unable to. It's haunting. Or it was to me, starving people groping for black air in the hope it could be eaten.

[Smiley]

I have long known Boris Pasternak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boris_P...) after watching the movie Doctor Zhivago (1965), first knowing him as its author during my college years. In fact, his literary stature had been internationally renowned by being awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1958. This is my first trial reading of his 5-chapter autobiographical novella portraying Serezha's brief life and work as tutorship to Harry in the Fresteln family due to its seemingly readable length. Admittedly, I rarely found a bit of reading pleasure as it should have been due to my unfamiliarity with the scope of his narratives that involves various people and settings in which I recalled Serezha's bouts of seeming romanticism with a young Danish widow called Mrs Ariel [aka. Anna, Ariel, Tornskjold, who claims she is Mrs Fresteln's companion, not her chambermaid (p. 42)]; she telling him her husband died a young man aged thirty-two in March last spring. (p. 41) So she might have been in her early 30's or late 20's.

However, I couldn't recall the role of a female character named Sashka as encountered in chapters 3 and 4 till I came across her name in its Goodreads synopsis. I wonder if I should have a quick rereading and see if the role has any involvement with Serezha, the protagonist. Then, I would be back later.

Good news! I can find out 'Sashka' in chapter 3; the part being on this sentence by Mrs Fresteln (Serezha's employer), "If she had asked him where he had come from, he would have told her without reflecting all the places where he had been. " (p. 49) Thus, from pages 50-56, we would know more on her involvement and Serezha's as clarified in the mentioned pages.

In chapter 4, the name 'Sashka' appears twice in the second paragraph (p. 57); the two sentences being extracted as follows: (Here Nyura Rumina rose in his consciousness, and Sashka; and Anna Arild Tornskjold was not the last to emerge.) . . . 'But what had the old pawnbroker to do with it? The old pawnbroker - that was just another Sashka in her old age . . . ' Obviously, this sentence has affirmed the second name as his flame, "Serezha felt that he had never loved anyone as much as Sashka; and then, in his mind's eye, he saw - winding further away toward the cemeteries - the roadway spotted with meaty red patches; . . . " (p. 54)

From my rough skimming and scanning through chapters 1-5, I would like to say something suggestive to some Pasternak newcomers (I am one myself) due to his literary fame and stature. We need a pencil, at least, to underline any new, unfamiliar names related to the protagonist, events, settings, etc. so that we could follow the story's thread, the role of each character so that we would be on the right track, not get lost, become more perplexed till we see no light and throw it away with an unwanted pity and ensuing condemnation. One of the difficulties is concerned with how Russian names appear, especially the case of Mrs Arild (her middle name) whereas her first name (Anna) and last name (Tornskjold) appear as such in which they keep confusing me till I have at last reached page 39, informing me that Anna Arild Tornskjold is the same person!

Then, think positively and design any strategy we like. As for me, out of my respect and admiration stemmed from his Doctor Zhivago and his other works (if any), from my second exploration I have since enjoyed noticing his interesting clauses, phrases, words, etc. rarely found or never in other famous authors we have read and liked.

Some of these exemplary sentences, I think, are worth studying and applying in our English applications:
1) Dusk was falling; . . . (p. 28) . . ., twilight was falling. (p. 47) But, Suddenly the dawn flared. (p. 53)
2) The weather was stifling. (p. 44)
3) This, . . . , somewhat spoiled the sweetness of their embrace. (p. 90)
4) The whole room seemed to swim in brandy. (p. 91)
5) In the first place, he knew this man and, besides, he was confronting something tall and alien that devalued Serezha from head to foot. (p. 92)

In a word, reading this novella essentially requires our proper concentration as well as positive expectation in terms of how the author has described to portray some key characters in various settings, situations or time frames in which we read with our respect to his expertise in mind.

[Cecily]

A strange novella: beautiful in places, with dream-like qualities and hence the reader is often a little lost too.

Serezha visits his sister and family in 1916 Russia. He is very tired and dreams/reminisces about his recent past, particularly his time as tutor to a rich boy and the lady's companion who was also employed there.

The meandering nature of the book is echoed by significant references to water, swimming and floating, including "washed in public notoriety" (and oxymoron?), "women... had swum to the street surface, raised by chance and attraction from non-existence". and the fact that the story Serezha tries to write opens "Then it began to rain" because "such drafts inevitably abound in water as an element".

There are also some striking metaphors, such as "the streets on an empty stomach were impetuously straight and surly", "her self-assurance, which was softened only by her complete ignorance of her defect" and a prostitute's rug which "with a rare show ofobeisance invited him not to stand on ceremony"!

Overall, I liked parts of it, but wasn't won over by the whole. On the other hand, it's very short, so that was fine.

[Serafim Silva]

Ou sou eu que não aprecio este género de livros, ou este livro é mesmo muito mau.
Comecei e acabei o livro sem perceber a história, um conjunto desgarrado de frases.
A evitar!!

[Jos Olsthoorn]

Een onbegrijpelijke woordenbrij waarvan de suggestie uit gaat dat het een verhaal is.

[Diogo Lopes]

Keep away

[Carolina Caires]

Sérgio termina a universidade e aquire um trabalho como preceptor. Esta história está alternada com muitas divagações, histórias do presente e do passado de Sérgio.
É uma narrativa que recomendo apenas para quem gosta deste tipo de livro. Confesso que não faz o meu género, apesar de estar bem escrita.
É o tipo de livro que a pessoa lê num dia mas que depois chega ao fim e pensa: "sobre o que era mesmo?".

[Saga Smith]

A dream-like reminciense of the summer 1914 “when life still appears to pay heed to individuals, and when it was easier and more natural to love than to hate” by a young Muscovite, Serezha.

The prose was very lyrical, which was the strong point of the novel. The plot had some reflections that were capturing, but, as it seems with me and soviet authors, I was sometimes left confused out of my mind. It has not put me off reading more Pasternak though!

[Illiterate]

Did WW1 change everything? I think a type of metaphysical happiness became impossible for European intellectuals. Cf. “When life still appeared to pay heed to individuals.”

[Nicholas Beck]

Short fragmentary, 3 tales in one and utilising flashback, dreams, story within a story and a conventional narrative all at the same time, this would have been exhausting and rewarding to read as a full novel. The payoff for this short fragment is large though as it abounds in rich metaphor which (fortunately?) unfortunately can interrupt the "flow" of the story so to speak. I've yet to read Dr Zhivago believe it or not and according to George Reavey's introduction this fragment represents Pasternak's initial forays into fiction as opposed to his earlier poetic focus. A District Behind The Front is even more fragmentary but is a much more conventional narrative and Reavey's informative introduction emphasises that this is an example Of Pasternak's reining in of his tendencies to take full flight into metaphorical imagery. Hence another step towards a more conventional narrative which resulted in Dr Zhivago. Well worth reading and the "difficult" parts of the narrative are easily assuaged by the brevity of the story.

[Laura F. Madeira]

Povest (título original em russo), publicado em 1934, viria depois a ser republicada em inglês em 1958 com o título Last Summer. Este pequeno livro, uma novela, conta-nos a história de Sérgio, o personagem principal que, no inverno de 1916 visita a sua irmã e, num momento de sonolência recorda o verão de 1914, altura em que era preceptor em Moscovo, o último momento de paz antes da Primeira Guerra Mundial. O enredo é uma sucessão de evocações, sonhos e memórias que vão da tristeza à melancolia sem nunca refletirem verdadeira alegria.

Opinião completa

[Donaten Britto]

Senti que a determinadas alturas não estava a ler informação, e sim, apenas misturas de palavras para tentarem fazer sentido. A personagem Ana é a que mais me interessa pelo que não é convencional, a certa altura ela diz algo como "as pessoas não arranjam vida própria" e isso é um sintoma ad aeternum do mundo.

[Keerthi Vasishta]

The translation doesn't hold. It is beautiful in bits but maybe the story has sort of aged as well. I just didn't claw onto anything I suppose. The artifice was supine and the literary was strong but it only flailed about like a dying fish unable to whimper.

[Lesleyts]

3.5 some evocative descriptions but not a favourite

[Bob Moore]

George Reavey, a Russian born Irish translator and literary figure, imo tried to ride on Pasternak's Nobel Prize adventure by getting "The Last Summer" and an excerpt from an unfinished novel by Pasternak titled " A District Behind the Front" published by Noonday Press and They Hearst Corporatiin's Avon Book Division ( paperback ).

Reavey had gotten some of Pasternak's poems translated and published in the West prior to World War II. The Last Summer is a novella at best, and the excerpts from " A District Behind the Front " are just that. While Reavey tries to relate them as predecessors to Dr. Zhivago, he does a lackluster job at best.

Pasternak was mainly regarded prior to the publication of Dr. Zhivago as a poet, both inside and outside Russia. While not one can refute the importance of his work in Russian and World literature, one has to view the Nobel in the context of the Cold War of the late 1950s. Pasternak was clearly a one hit wonder, but his career was undoubtedly limited during the Stalin period which he managed a great deal by just surviving it.

3 stars for the works reflection on both Pasternak and Reavey. Fewer for the actual works...

[Agostinho Matos]

«Vós, os russos, sois piores que os franceses. Precisais de envolver a mulher em qualquer segredo sórdido para chegardes a acreditar na sua existência.»
Boris Pasternak, Melodia Interrompida

Boris Pasternak nasceu em Moscovo em 1890 e morreu em 1960. Ganhou o Prémio Nobel da literatura, com Dr. Jivago, em 1958, mas por razões políticas ele não foi autorizado a recebê-lo, tendo sido proibido na antiga União Soviética até 1987, quando é reabilitado durante o regime de Gorbachov.
Sérgio, o personagem principal deste livro, após conclusão da Universidade, trabalha antes da primeira guerra mundial no seio de uma família burguesa rica de Moscovo como preceptor do filho único chamado Harry.
A narrativa desta história é alternada em episódios do presente (1916) da visita a sua irmã, e outros do passado (1914) de Sérgio deste jovem sonhador.
A edição do livro que li eventualmente por carecer de uma boa tradução, tive que reler alguns trechos para obter algum sentido que não foi o mais completo.

[Vasco Ribeiro]

o original russo parece que se chama "a narrativa". o livro não o percebi muito bem. O jovem sérgio acaba o curso arranja um emprego de precetor numa casa rica com um filho único Harry. os patrões dão-se mal um com o outro,. há uma aia de companhia da mulher chamada Ana, que é um jovem dinamarquesa viúva que parece meio maluca. o livro tem segmentos de acção, em que o sérgio parece desprezar os patrões e há uma narrativa que ele parece estar a inventar para escrever e ganhar dinheiro, que parece meio autentica e meio forçada só para arranjar dinheiro. a "narrativa" e a história do livro parecem entrecortar-se. Não percebi bem.

[Thomas Goddard]

'Near the edge of the pond the sunset fumed, hissing sourly. Its purple resembled a lump of pig iron, heated white hot and drowned in a bog. From the same shore, a slippery plaintively-resonant roar of frogs swam in bursting bubbles.'

This book... I guess I didn't hope for a lot. But I hoped for more than just some pretty words. And that's all it ended up being, sadly.

Gorgeous descriptions of life in Moscow around 1916

The smog, smoke and dirty of the place

Just not much to recommend in terms of the story though. Didn't impress.

Initially I rated this three stars. But I'm dropping that to two.

[Guilherme Minhota]

Romance curto, bom para iniciar em Pasternak, mas que não me conquistou. A história é pobre e sem desenvolvimentos. Muito rico em metáforas e excelentes descrições que nos dá uma boa perspectiva da Rússia industrializada no ano antes de estalar a primeira a Primeira Guerra Mundial. Ambientada numa pequena cidade de interior, onde a vida é mais simples, habitada por lúgubres locomotivas e poeirentos caminhos-de-ferro e os seus sombrios e deprimidos personagens.

[Trisha]

Ik kan me alleen herinneren dat het boek met niet trok en ik de schrijfstijl niet aantrekkelijk vond.
Voor de rest heb ik over dit boek nergens iets opgeschreven en kan ik geen goede review schrijven.

[José Pereira]

Livro-poema; belo mas seco.

[Chris Fluit]

Not worth the time

[Chiefdonkey Bradey]

A glimpse into a wounded soul

[João Mota]

nem me vou dar ao trabalho lol