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Orsinia
Orsinia
Un compendio de distorias de amor, de vida y de muerte de Ursula K. Le Guin.
Entre las montañas y llanuras menos transitadas de Europa Central, quizá un poco al este de Austria y al norte de Eslovenia, se alza el antiguo reino de Orsinia. Tierra de bosques, campos tranquilos y pequeñas ciudades, con su capital, Krasnoy, a orillas del ancho río Molsen, Orsinia siempre se ha visto sometida a fuerzas que exceden sus fronteras. Y, sin embargo, a la sombra de tiranías tanto occidentales como orientales, las vidas y los sueños de su pueblo no son menos importantes que las grandes disputas de emperadores y dictadores.
Estas son esas vidas: relatos de amor y sed de sangre, de esperanza y miedo, de libertad y opresión, de pasión y desesperación. Historias de amor, de vida y de muerte y en pleno auge del liberalismo y el nacionalismo del siglo XIX una historia de revolución contra el poder del Imperio de los Habsburgo.
Entre las montañas y llanuras menos transitadas de Europa Central, quizá un poco al este de Austria y al norte de Eslovenia, se alza el antiguo reino de Orsinia. Tierra de bosques, campos tranquilos y pequeñas ciudades, con su capital, Krasnoy, a orillas del ancho río Molsen, Orsinia siempre se ha visto sometida a fuerzas que exceden sus fronteras. Y, sin embargo, a la sombra de tiranías tanto occidentales como orientales, las vidas y los sueños de su pueblo no son menos importantes que las grandes disputas de emperadores y dictadores.
Estas son esas vidas: relatos de amor y sed de sangre, de esperanza y miedo, de libertad y opresión, de pasión y desesperación. Historias de amor, de vida y de muerte y en pleno auge del liberalismo y el nacionalismo del siglo XIX una historia de revolución contra el poder del Imperio de los Habsburgo.
656 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,032 books32.9k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
June 23, 2021
I knew it was foolhardy to write fiction set in Europe if I’d never been there. At last it occurred to be that I might get away with it by writing about a part of Europe where nobody had been but me.
A land-locked country somewhere in Europe. Known as Orsenya to its inhabitants and as Orsinia to the outside world. A land with its own language, culture and history but not so dissimilar to those of its neighbours. Yet beyond the writings of its only chronicler little is known about it. Although that chronicler is sadly no longer with us, she has nevertheless provided us with glimpses into lives lived at various points in its history; a few lives are those of the powerful but most are of ordinary people, though that’s not to say they’re not extraordinary in their own ways.
Containing Orsinian Tales (1976) and Malafrena (1979) you might, if you already have copies of both, wonder what the advantage of acquiring this compendium could be. Well, apart from the convenience of having the two titles in one volume there are the additions: two extra short stories published subsequently, in 1979 and 1990, and three short Orsinian songs, plus supporting material. That material — Le Guin’s 2015 introduction, an extensive chronology of the author’s life up to 2014 (she was to die in early 2018) and notes by the editor on the texts — renders this one-volume edition well worth the outlay.
Orsinian Tales were a series of vignettes from different periods in Orsinian history, from the twelfth century when Orsinia was emerging into nationhood to the second half of the twentieth century before the fall of communism in Europe, whereas Malafrena focused narrowly on just half a dozen years in the aftermath of the Napoleonic wars when fledgling revolutions were attempted, only to be smacked down by established regimes. Common themes soon emerge between the shorter pieces and the longer novel — the nature of power, whether political or on the level of personal relationships; histories of individual struggles with self-fulfilment and finding partners; landscapes shaping one’s future whether in terms of options for work, for friendship, or one’s imaginative horizons; and Orsinia itself taking on the nature of a key character steeped in melancholy.
The longer title in this volume is the novel, which “was about the generation in Europe that came of age in the 1820s and broke their hearts in the revolutions of 1830.” Though beginning in the upland western province of Montayna its three young protagonists — Itale Sorde, his sister Laura and their childhood friend Piera — range south, east and northwest as well as to Krasnoy, the capital; it’s all on a large canvas, though that canvas is bounded almost entirely by the country’s borders.
The author makes it clear when and where she invented Orsinia, at the age of twenty, at Radcliffe College in California. I say ‘invented’ but I mean that in its Latin sense, from invenio, “I come upon, I discover”, for she truly discovered this “unimportant country in Middle Europe”, as she says in her introduction, “a land not too far from Czechoslovakia, or Poland, [… not] one of the partly Islamized nations—more Western-oriented. . . . Like Rumania, maybe, with a Slavic-influenced but Latin-descended language?” (Unsurprising, as her academic studies were in Romance languages.)
Into this country she infused and interlaced her name, and the names and human stories of her family and echoes of events in the contemporary world (as her brother Karl made clear in an introduction to the short story included here called ‘Brothers and Sisters’). At one stage Malafrena was to have the title ‘The Necessary Passion’ but the latter phrase is as good a description of her deep exploration of and commitment to Ursula-land, from 1949 to 1990 and beyond.
In addition to fragments of songs in the stories themselves this volume includes three short songs, one in English and the other two in Orsinian, and two short stories, published after the Orsinian Tales and Malafrena appeared. ‘Two Delays on the Northern Line’ is the more personal, written as her mother was dying from cancer, the emotions transposed to the protagonist travelling between the provinces of Molsen and the Northern Marches. ‘Unlocking the Air’ was a response to the so-called Velvet Revolution in 1989 Czechoslovakia, when mass gatherings indicated their intention to unlock the country’s repressive state apparatus by the jingling of keys. Keys also form a motif in one of the songs in Orsinian, The Walls of Rákava (Polana Province): I’ve attempted a rough translation here:
In Rákava its high walls
my love wearies (?).
I want to return to Rákava
but I don’t have a key.
O walls of Rákava,
where is your key?
Brian Attebery’s notes inform and deepen our understanding: he includes the texts’ references to German, Italian, English and French literature and to European events contemporary with those of Orsinia; there are also cultural references as varied as hagiography, music, Norse myth and Russian fairytale. His chronology of the author’s life up to 2014 is almost as good as a biography, but it is Le Guin’s own 2015 introduction that furnishes the most fascinating account of the formation of Orsinia and a validation, if ever one was needed, that these stories were as vital to her creative life for many years as her more famous fantasy and science fiction, or her poetry and essays.
I am sorry I have heard nothing from my friends in Krasnoy since [1990]. I hope things are going along all right there. I hope there is still a family named Sorde living in Val Malafrena, that dogs wander across the cobbled forecourt of the Roukh Palace, that the Cathedral of St Theodora stands, that the quiet fountains of Aisnar still run.
Despite its valedictory tone we needn’t fear for Orsinia’s continuance: for us to revisit we have only to open the pages of this collected edition and immerse ourselves in its heartfelt and heartening stories.
September 24, 2017
One of the greatest writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy, LeGuin’s first novel was nothing of the sort, but instead a tale of a fictional middle European state in the 19th Century. She wanted to write about European history, specifically about that generation that “came of age in 1820 and broke their hearts in the revolutions of 1830”, but didn’t know enough about Europe to confidently attempt such a book. So she made up a country, Orsinia, and told her tale there. That book was called A Descendance and was rejected. LeGuin returned to it over the years though, revising and rewriting until finally, in the late 1970s, it was published under the title of Malafrena.
The debt to Tolstoy is obvious. But the world building is superb. You really believe in this small country under the yoke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and an archaic governmental system. The story focuses on Itale Sorde, a passionate young man who leaves his middle class farming family to try and bring about change in the world. He starts a new newspaper with various like-minded intellectuals in the capital, Krasnoy and travels the country to report on conditions in the smaller towns and villages.
As ever with LeGuin, the main themes are of people striving to make a better world for themselves and others in the face of oppression. Thematically there are parallels to her great SF novel The Dispossessed and other works. But this is wholly a tale set in the 19th Century. There’s a romantic streak running through the work, as there is with all great 19th Century literature, but this is no potboiler. Having said that I’m not sure the novel is wholly successful. History tells us that change was slow in coming so and that proves to be the case in Orsinia. Itale suffers for his ideals and in the end is forced to return home and is reconciled with his family. That is what is really at the heart of this book - home and family. A curiosity then, but one well worth reading.
The second part of this handsome Library of America edition, is the short stories LeGuin wrote set in Orsinia. These range back and forth across history, from the 12th century, the early 20th century, the years Orsinia spent as a Soviet dominated country after World War 2, right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrowing of the Eastern Bloc dictatorships.
They are all quite wonderful. Tales of ordinary people in a mythical country, but mirroring the realities of the world we know. From the working class would-be composer of An Die Musik, to the students who see the dawn of a new era in the 1990s, these stories are full of heart, passion and the missed opportunities that can befall anyone. I much preferred them to the novel, as LeGuin is able to present a much more multi-faceted view of her imaginary country.
So, while this may not rank amongst her finest work, it is still LeGuin, and any LeGuin is worth your time.
The debt to Tolstoy is obvious. But the world building is superb. You really believe in this small country under the yoke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and an archaic governmental system. The story focuses on Itale Sorde, a passionate young man who leaves his middle class farming family to try and bring about change in the world. He starts a new newspaper with various like-minded intellectuals in the capital, Krasnoy and travels the country to report on conditions in the smaller towns and villages.
As ever with LeGuin, the main themes are of people striving to make a better world for themselves and others in the face of oppression. Thematically there are parallels to her great SF novel The Dispossessed and other works. But this is wholly a tale set in the 19th Century. There’s a romantic streak running through the work, as there is with all great 19th Century literature, but this is no potboiler. Having said that I’m not sure the novel is wholly successful. History tells us that change was slow in coming so and that proves to be the case in Orsinia. Itale suffers for his ideals and in the end is forced to return home and is reconciled with his family. That is what is really at the heart of this book - home and family. A curiosity then, but one well worth reading.
The second part of this handsome Library of America edition, is the short stories LeGuin wrote set in Orsinia. These range back and forth across history, from the 12th century, the early 20th century, the years Orsinia spent as a Soviet dominated country after World War 2, right up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the overthrowing of the Eastern Bloc dictatorships.
They are all quite wonderful. Tales of ordinary people in a mythical country, but mirroring the realities of the world we know. From the working class would-be composer of An Die Musik, to the students who see the dawn of a new era in the 1990s, these stories are full of heart, passion and the missed opportunities that can befall anyone. I much preferred them to the novel, as LeGuin is able to present a much more multi-faceted view of her imaginary country.
So, while this may not rank amongst her finest work, it is still LeGuin, and any LeGuin is worth your time.
July 29, 2018
UKL said she wanted to write about Europe but felt that as an American, she wouldn't be taken seriously if she did so - so she invented a central European country (Orsinia) in the hope that would allow her to get away with it. She set her first novel, Malafrena, there and talked about love and freedom and revolution, but it didn't work; the novel was re-hashed several times before publication and she had already established herself as an SF novelist by that time. Superficially, a historical novel about trying to escape foreign control and gain self-determination doesn't seem to fit with the space adventures and magical worlds of the familiar later UKL - but I've already revealed the actual close connections; made up places, similar thematic concerns. Despite all the re-working it never really attains the greatness UKL was capable of and remains a quirky early book that only completists will probably want to read.
The following Orsinian Tales, which range across the entire history of the country from tenuous early Christian conversion to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, however are on average greatly superior and I recommend them. Unfortunately to get the most from them, Malafrena is a pre-requisite, slight slog that it is. The stories are set not only at key points in European history but also just wherever they might need to be to tell the story UKL had in mind. The end of Summer in the countryside, 1935, particularly redound through history, for instance, but the story captures a mood exceptionally and delightfully.
The book ends in 1989, the most optimistic year in Europe since the start of WWI. The Iron Curtain fell and a great, meancing Russian shadow over Europe was removed. Shocking and scary to note, in 2018, the extent to which that shadow is regrowing and spreading over America, too. Ukraine, and Georgia strategically nibbled at. America that defined itself as standing against the Soviets, now a client state of a resurgent Imperialist Russia.
The following Orsinian Tales, which range across the entire history of the country from tenuous early Christian conversion to the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, however are on average greatly superior and I recommend them. Unfortunately to get the most from them, Malafrena is a pre-requisite, slight slog that it is. The stories are set not only at key points in European history but also just wherever they might need to be to tell the story UKL had in mind. The end of Summer in the countryside, 1935, particularly redound through history, for instance, but the story captures a mood exceptionally and delightfully.
The book ends in 1989, the most optimistic year in Europe since the start of WWI. The Iron Curtain fell and a great, meancing Russian shadow over Europe was removed. Shocking and scary to note, in 2018, the extent to which that shadow is regrowing and spreading over America, too. Ukraine, and Georgia strategically nibbled at. America that defined itself as standing against the Soviets, now a client state of a resurgent Imperialist Russia.
October 25, 2026
marabillosamente idatzita
March 20, 2018
I do not feel worthy to review this. I might try someday.
December 27, 2017
I’ve finished Malafrena last night, after many months of walking away, reading other things, coming back to it, walking away again, etc. I stuck with it because it’s Le Guin, and I know she has something important to tell me. Upon reflection this morning, what has stayed with me is how much depth and life she has given to the story of a political prisoner, whose story could have been captured only around his imprisonment, but whose life was so much more. That I as a reader had to make such an effort in the end gives the story greater value.
I’ve only read one of the Orsinian Tales so far, but plan to read them all in time.
I’ve only read one of the Orsinian Tales so far, but plan to read them all in time.
March 21, 2024
This year I've been focusing on the writing of Ursula K. Le Guin. I've decided that one of my bucket list items will be to try and read as much of her writing as possible. My online book club has various reading challenges and one I've selected is to read 16 of her books. The majority will be in the Hainish Cycle and the Earthsea stories, but I've also picked some of her other books / series. The Complete Orsinia: Malafrena / Stories and Songs is the complete stories of Le Guin's Orsinia collection, as collated by the US Library of Congress. OK, enough of my plans for 2024. 😊
When Le Guin was just beginning to consider a career as an author, the authors that interested her the most were European and Russian authors. But how for a west coast girl to write about Europe? That was her dilemma and it took her a number of years to get into her work. In the meantime, she had Sci Fi short stories and some of her first novels published. But Orsinia was the story she wanted to write. So Le Guin, rather than try to set a story in an existing European country, decided to create her own country and that country became Orsinia, a nation of 10 regions under the influence of the Austro - Hungarian empire. The compilation by the Library of Congress consists of the novel, Malafrena, a chapter of songs and finally a collection of short stories; Orsinian Tales and Other stories. Finally there is an interesting chronology of Le Guin's life; where she lived, when the various novels and other stories were written and published.
So, onto the stories. Malafrena is a town in the southeast of Orsinia. The story follows various people in the Sorde family. Their estate is in Malafrena. The son, Itale, is away at seminary school and rather than move back to Malafrena to help take over his father's estate, decides to move to the capital Krasnoy, where he wants to join the revolution. This causes his father to disown him. The story moves from the estate and the family there and back to Krasnoy where Itale and his college friends try to run a newspaper under the constant overlook of the censors. The story moves around Orsinia as Itale tries to find other people to help with their revolution. He ends up in a prison for a few years in an eastern district, Polana. This allows other characters, sister Laura, her friend Piera and others to develop.
I'm making it sound like a simple story but there are many levels to it. You've got the development of the main characters and their ideas on freedom and thought. You've got various love stories - will they or won't they? And you've got the history of Orsinia going on in the background, placing it within the context of what is happening around it, in Austria, France (the French Revolution). As I got into it, the story became richer and more interesting. It's a different style of writing than I was used to from Le Guin.... different but similar, I guess would be more accurate. Historical fiction vice Sci Fi / Fantasy, maybe.
Then you have the various short stories, all set in Orsinia and many featuring ancestors or children and grandchildren of the characters in Malafrena. They are varied and different; some I liked more than others but all were interesting and enjoyable. Did I have any favorites? Brothers and Sisters, which moved from one family to another and the relationships between the various families was excellent (and in Notes on the Texts portion there is a fascinating portion from one of Le Guin's brothers who talks about the ideas in the story). Imaginary Countries deals with a family closing down their summer home to move back to the city. The interactions between the children and their parents and the feelings about their country home is wonderful. It's a lovely story. Two Delays on the Northern Line was also excellent; a man dealing with the death of his mother and wife and how the end of his train trip seems to solve his emotional loss.
Le Guin is one of those unique writers. There is a sparseness to her writing but at the same time her stories are rich in detail. I always have a reaction to her stories, whether fiction, poetry, Sci-Fi or fantasy. She is equally comfortable writing novels or short stories. Onward to my next story,City of Illusions, back to Sci Fi with #3 in her Hainish Cycle. (4.0 stars)
When Le Guin was just beginning to consider a career as an author, the authors that interested her the most were European and Russian authors. But how for a west coast girl to write about Europe? That was her dilemma and it took her a number of years to get into her work. In the meantime, she had Sci Fi short stories and some of her first novels published. But Orsinia was the story she wanted to write. So Le Guin, rather than try to set a story in an existing European country, decided to create her own country and that country became Orsinia, a nation of 10 regions under the influence of the Austro - Hungarian empire. The compilation by the Library of Congress consists of the novel, Malafrena, a chapter of songs and finally a collection of short stories; Orsinian Tales and Other stories. Finally there is an interesting chronology of Le Guin's life; where she lived, when the various novels and other stories were written and published.
So, onto the stories. Malafrena is a town in the southeast of Orsinia. The story follows various people in the Sorde family. Their estate is in Malafrena. The son, Itale, is away at seminary school and rather than move back to Malafrena to help take over his father's estate, decides to move to the capital Krasnoy, where he wants to join the revolution. This causes his father to disown him. The story moves from the estate and the family there and back to Krasnoy where Itale and his college friends try to run a newspaper under the constant overlook of the censors. The story moves around Orsinia as Itale tries to find other people to help with their revolution. He ends up in a prison for a few years in an eastern district, Polana. This allows other characters, sister Laura, her friend Piera and others to develop.
I'm making it sound like a simple story but there are many levels to it. You've got the development of the main characters and their ideas on freedom and thought. You've got various love stories - will they or won't they? And you've got the history of Orsinia going on in the background, placing it within the context of what is happening around it, in Austria, France (the French Revolution). As I got into it, the story became richer and more interesting. It's a different style of writing than I was used to from Le Guin.... different but similar, I guess would be more accurate. Historical fiction vice Sci Fi / Fantasy, maybe.
Then you have the various short stories, all set in Orsinia and many featuring ancestors or children and grandchildren of the characters in Malafrena. They are varied and different; some I liked more than others but all were interesting and enjoyable. Did I have any favorites? Brothers and Sisters, which moved from one family to another and the relationships between the various families was excellent (and in Notes on the Texts portion there is a fascinating portion from one of Le Guin's brothers who talks about the ideas in the story). Imaginary Countries deals with a family closing down their summer home to move back to the city. The interactions between the children and their parents and the feelings about their country home is wonderful. It's a lovely story. Two Delays on the Northern Line was also excellent; a man dealing with the death of his mother and wife and how the end of his train trip seems to solve his emotional loss.
Le Guin is one of those unique writers. There is a sparseness to her writing but at the same time her stories are rich in detail. I always have a reaction to her stories, whether fiction, poetry, Sci-Fi or fantasy. She is equally comfortable writing novels or short stories. Onward to my next story,City of Illusions, back to Sci Fi with #3 in her Hainish Cycle. (4.0 stars)
October 18, 2023
This one's kind of a cheat since I've already read Malafrena and Orisnian Tales, but I wanted to go through the (excellent) supplementary material.
March 8, 2026
Malafrena is a peaceful country town on a lake at the outer reaches of Orsinia, and for our restless young protagonist, Itale Sorde, it's home. At least until he up sticks for the capital to find or create a freedom.
As with all Le Guin novels, her books for me are ideas and themes and vibes. This book blended themes of love (between people and of a place), duty and freedom really well with characters often having to choose between the them.
"You come to me from a cage and never know you've left it. And run back to it in the morning."
All in all, a good read with lovely prose in a fictional 19th century country that feels a little too real.
As with all Le Guin novels, her books for me are ideas and themes and vibes. This book blended themes of love (between people and of a place), duty and freedom really well with characters often having to choose between the them.
"You come to me from a cage and never know you've left it. And run back to it in the morning."
All in all, a good read with lovely prose in a fictional 19th century country that feels a little too real.
January 3, 2022
Profoundly glad that this was my first read of the new year because it felt like a much-needed reset. Le Guin’s non-SF works have surprisingly become some of my favorites even though I still am very fond of the Hainish Cycle. Malafrena took everything I thought I hated about 19th century novels and made me wish I could both live in the moments before the action where the characters stew in frustrated ambition and childish loves and also made me anxious to see their story carried past the ambiguous aftermath of the failed revolution. That’s part of why I enjoyed the other stories in the collection so much since they gave some closure on that front. “Unlocking the Air” tied everything together so beautifully and yet still made the long arc of this fictional country’s history feel wonderfully incomplete: “You know the song, that old song with words like ‘land,’ ‘love,’ ‘free,’ in the language you have known the longest. Its words make stone perfect from stone, its words prevent tanks, its words transform the world, when it is sung at the right time by the right people, after enough people have died for singing it.”
May 5, 2020
Bumper collection, including the historical novel Malafrena, short story collection Orsinian Tales and a couple of extra short stories to boot. Brilliant, convincing world creation, of a world more close to home than usual. Could have gone wrong and ended up as a dry parody of European novelists, but sidesteps that with grace and passion. Great stuff.
January 17, 2017
The novel, Malafrena, reads more like pastiche than Le Guin's other work but like everything else in this collection it's a work of astonishing clarity and few contemporary authors could create a simulacrum of a 19th century realist novel this convincing.
June 25, 2025
this was so hard to get through……i hate to say it but i think i’ve found the one le guin book i genuinely don’t like
December 20, 2024
Waw c'était un sacré morceau
Comme d'habitude avec Mme Le Guin histoire lente à se mettre en place, mais on s'accroche car on sait qu'on sera pas déçu !! Je l'adore c'était trop bien
Vive la révolution !! Qu'on leur coupe la tête !
Comme d'habitude avec Mme Le Guin histoire lente à se mettre en place, mais on s'accroche car on sait qu'on sera pas déçu !! Je l'adore c'était trop bien
Vive la révolution !! Qu'on leur coupe la tête !
Read
September 7, 2025DNF 24%
September 24, 2019
I found this very much a book of two halves. The first half is the novel Malafrena and the remainder is a collection of short stories. The former had me struggling to keep going; it was, to say the least, turgid. The second part captured my interest and drew me on: it was hard to limit myself to a single story a day, even though each story benefitted from a period of reflection.
First, an admission. This is my introduction to Le Guin. I though it was also my first foray into fantasy fiction, but, apart from an imaginary country - part of the Austro-Hungarian empire in its depiction - with imaginary characters, it fits into a much more conventional model of setting an imaginary environment (albeit one based on an historical society that we can recognise) to provide the framework of the narrative. No harm in that, and in fact, quite a good starting point.
My difficulty was in Malafrena: there is no detail so small that Le Guin does not describe it at length. I found it hard to imagine people, for example, with a string of adjectives and adverbs associated with them. In short, it was very wordy and, apart from demonstrating her vocabulary, I longed for nouns not laden with detail that was frequently superfluous. I found it hard going, little poetry in the text, plot twists dulled by detail and denouements that were too like pulling rabbits from hats (and as sudden, almost like she'd got bored of the sub-plot line). As a novel, it could usefully have been half the length.
When I got to the second half, my feelings towards the author rapidly improved. The short stories - still in the same overall environment, but from various eras (look for the date at the end of the story!) - are more exciting. Le Guin has the talent of paring down the storyline into a concise and driven form: stripped of excessive adjectives and laboured descriptions, the characters become much more real and interesting. And the endings - something that poor short-story writers fail at - are credible and artistically satisfying.
For Malfrena, I would have been hard put to give this book two stars, at times veering towards one. For the Orsinian Tales, for me I think that was worth four. (Yes, some were weaker, but they were balanced out by some that were amazing.)
I'm glad I read the book: definitely one that I would have seen as outside my comfort zone: for the full novel, I was not repaid the effort. However, for me, Le Guin is way better on short stories and I would be willing to read more of her writing in this format.
First, an admission. This is my introduction to Le Guin. I though it was also my first foray into fantasy fiction, but, apart from an imaginary country - part of the Austro-Hungarian empire in its depiction - with imaginary characters, it fits into a much more conventional model of setting an imaginary environment (albeit one based on an historical society that we can recognise) to provide the framework of the narrative. No harm in that, and in fact, quite a good starting point.
My difficulty was in Malafrena: there is no detail so small that Le Guin does not describe it at length. I found it hard to imagine people, for example, with a string of adjectives and adverbs associated with them. In short, it was very wordy and, apart from demonstrating her vocabulary, I longed for nouns not laden with detail that was frequently superfluous. I found it hard going, little poetry in the text, plot twists dulled by detail and denouements that were too like pulling rabbits from hats (and as sudden, almost like she'd got bored of the sub-plot line). As a novel, it could usefully have been half the length.
When I got to the second half, my feelings towards the author rapidly improved. The short stories - still in the same overall environment, but from various eras (look for the date at the end of the story!) - are more exciting. Le Guin has the talent of paring down the storyline into a concise and driven form: stripped of excessive adjectives and laboured descriptions, the characters become much more real and interesting. And the endings - something that poor short-story writers fail at - are credible and artistically satisfying.
For Malfrena, I would have been hard put to give this book two stars, at times veering towards one. For the Orsinian Tales, for me I think that was worth four. (Yes, some were weaker, but they were balanced out by some that were amazing.)
I'm glad I read the book: definitely one that I would have seen as outside my comfort zone: for the full novel, I was not repaid the effort. However, for me, Le Guin is way better on short stories and I would be willing to read more of her writing in this format.
July 6, 2021
Ursula Le Guin is primarily known as a writer of Sci fi and fantasy and this collection of stories (1 novel and 13 short stories) rides a delicate line between speculative and historical fiction. Setting the collection in a fictional central European country, primarily throughout the upheavals of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, gives the author the space to explore recurring themes (revolution, frustrated idealism and the lives of ordinary people caught up in history to name a few) within a more real-world setting.
Most of the stories are amongst her earliest works, with the exception of the story "Unlocking the Air", a kind of fond farewell to the setting and among the collections strongest entries. This does mean that the writing isn't as refined as her more popular work. Some of the short stories are spectacular, "The Lady of Moge", "The Fountains" and, "Imaginary Countries" being my personal favourites. However, some of the other stories are less engaging and bring down my overall opinion of the collection. For example, "Conversations at Night" and "The Road East" felt long winded and a tad meandering. Maybe it's just a personal distaste for the kind of sprawling, family saga type stories, that feel a bit detached and impersonal to me with no central emotional focus to latch on to.
The Novel, "Malafrena", sits somewhere in the middle in terms of quality. There are certainly moments of beautiful description and characterisation. Several moments such as the climactic scenes of the main character's arc are brutally well-written. However, the overall story can feel a bit disjointed and rather slow paced. It's meant to be realistic in tone so it makes sense that the characters' lives don't follow simple, heroic arcs and take a while to develop, but it does make it hard to always see "where all this is going".
Overall, this is definitely worth reading for fans of Ursula le Guin, though I wouldn't recommend it as a first or second entry to her work. Fans of historical fiction who want to dip their toes into fantasy (and vice versa) will get a lot out of this. As I said, many of the short stories are fantastic so any fan of good writing will enjoy them.
Most of the stories are amongst her earliest works, with the exception of the story "Unlocking the Air", a kind of fond farewell to the setting and among the collections strongest entries. This does mean that the writing isn't as refined as her more popular work. Some of the short stories are spectacular, "The Lady of Moge", "The Fountains" and, "Imaginary Countries" being my personal favourites. However, some of the other stories are less engaging and bring down my overall opinion of the collection. For example, "Conversations at Night" and "The Road East" felt long winded and a tad meandering. Maybe it's just a personal distaste for the kind of sprawling, family saga type stories, that feel a bit detached and impersonal to me with no central emotional focus to latch on to.
The Novel, "Malafrena", sits somewhere in the middle in terms of quality. There are certainly moments of beautiful description and characterisation. Several moments such as the climactic scenes of the main character's arc are brutally well-written. However, the overall story can feel a bit disjointed and rather slow paced. It's meant to be realistic in tone so it makes sense that the characters' lives don't follow simple, heroic arcs and take a while to develop, but it does make it hard to always see "where all this is going".
Overall, this is definitely worth reading for fans of Ursula le Guin, though I wouldn't recommend it as a first or second entry to her work. Fans of historical fiction who want to dip their toes into fantasy (and vice versa) will get a lot out of this. As I said, many of the short stories are fantastic so any fan of good writing will enjoy them.
January 11, 2017
No entiendo por qué la Librería de América (www.loa.org) decidió empezar la publicación de la obra de
Ursula K. Le GUIN
con sus únicas obras que no son de ciencia ficción, sino trabajos "serios"... pero menos conocidos. La ficción histórica sobre un imaginario país europeo (que bien podría ser Rumania) aunque muy bien escritos, no es lo mejor de esta escritora norteamericana, reconocida como una de las mejores en el campo de la ciencia ficción.
Pero en lugar de quejarme, aprecio como siempre la calidad de las ediciones de la LoA, y haberme "obligado" a leer este tomo, que incluye la novela Malafrena y la colección de cuentos cortos Orsinian Tales.
Aunque cronológicamente los "Cuentos" fueron publicados antes que Malafrena, en esta edición los colocan a l revés, y es una buena decisión, porque en la novela se entienden mejor las características históricas de este país centro-europeo, y los Cuentos complementan varios de los lapsos históricos antes y después de la novela. Entre éstos, los que más me gustaron fueron : "The Barrow" (1150), "The Road East" (1956), "An Die Musik" (1938), "The House" (1965) y "The Lady of Moge" (1640).
Pero en lugar de quejarme, aprecio como siempre la calidad de las ediciones de la LoA, y haberme "obligado" a leer este tomo, que incluye la novela Malafrena y la colección de cuentos cortos Orsinian Tales.
Aunque cronológicamente los "Cuentos" fueron publicados antes que Malafrena, en esta edición los colocan a l revés, y es una buena decisión, porque en la novela se entienden mejor las características históricas de este país centro-europeo, y los Cuentos complementan varios de los lapsos históricos antes y después de la novela. Entre éstos, los que más me gustaron fueron : "The Barrow" (1150), "The Road East" (1956), "An Die Musik" (1938), "The House" (1965) y "The Lady of Moge" (1640).
February 4, 2017
Took me a while to get through this, which I did because of my pride as a self-declared fan of Le Guin. This was her first novel, a historical fiction set in the early 18th century country of Orsinia. Its principle theme in my view is one that speaks to me: adventure and duty versus home and safety. The characters are finely detailed and believable. I'd recommend it.
June 12, 2020
Everything I read by UKG is my favorite. This one is particularly poignant, hopeful and tragic and very human. Malafrena is obviously the star here, but I thought the short stories were great, and the way they develop the history and advance the themes is pretty special.
August 31, 2020
Some times a little slow, but this realistic historical fiction is fascinating! You just have to be in the right mindset to read it. It's people heavy and deals with what we are born into, and how we choose to handle the lives that we're given. So cool.
October 22, 2016
Fantastic writing. Malafrena is a superb novel on what it means to fight for freedom and lose.
November 30, 2016
Am I finally old enough for Le Guin? Maybe!
January 19, 2020
Wonderful stories set in a fascinating time of history. Pure, unadulterated humanity at its most vulnerable and precious, it was a joy to read and share in their lives.
October 12, 2024
Surprising and lovely bunch of stories. Had it been anybody else writing about a made-up European country, assuming you can just squeeze it in somewhere between Italy and the Balkans, or Czechoslovakia and Poland (though given the language the former is my preferred guess), rewriting the history of the continent in the process, I would have been appaled. But this is Le Guin. Somehow, she makes it work, and she makes me believe. More, she makes me feel seen in a way that very few Western authors have managed - seen as a product of a small central European country, without patronising glances or prejudice, with infinite kindness and understanding, and with love.
Best stories: Malafrena, An die Musik, Unlocking the Air.
I'm not sure why there is an impression that Le Guin's "other-worlds" fiction should outshine her early, "home-world" writing. Malafrena is a tough read in many ways, but also highly rewarding; but perhaps my own bias for the romantic period shows here. Especially some of the shorter stories also have a fable-like feeling, something I already discovered in Le Guin's writing with Always Coming Home, but this time the fables are closer to my own home.
There was only one, tiny occasion showing a vestige of US-American thinking that warranted a chuckle, since clearly neither Le Guin nor her editors thought this a problem: there is no such thing as "walking half a block" in European cities.
Best stories: Malafrena, An die Musik, Unlocking the Air.
I'm not sure why there is an impression that Le Guin's "other-worlds" fiction should outshine her early, "home-world" writing. Malafrena is a tough read in many ways, but also highly rewarding; but perhaps my own bias for the romantic period shows here. Especially some of the shorter stories also have a fable-like feeling, something I already discovered in Le Guin's writing with Always Coming Home, but this time the fables are closer to my own home.
There was only one, tiny occasion showing a vestige of US-American thinking that warranted a chuckle, since clearly neither Le Guin nor her editors thought this a problem: there is no such thing as "walking half a block" in European cities.
Review of advance copy
'Orsinia (Deluxe Edition)' is a beautifully imagined collection that explores the lives, struggles, and aspirations of people living in a fictional Central European country shaped by political conflict and historical change. Through 'Malafrena', stories, and songs, Ursula K. Le Guin creates a compelling world where personal experiences intersect with larger questions of freedom, identity, and power.
One of the collection's greatest strengths is its exploration of how ordinary people navigate the forces of tyranny, nationalism, revolution, and social change. The themes of love, hope, fear, sacrifice, and resistance give the fictional nation a remarkable sense of history and emotional depth.
I particularly appreciate how Le Guin uses an imaginary setting to examine recognizable political and human realities. Orsinia may be fictional, but the struggles of its people reflect enduring questions about individual freedom, cultural identity, and the consequences of authoritarian power.
This collection is a rewarding choice for readers who enjoy literary fiction, historical storytelling, political themes, and richly developed imaginary worlds. It also offers a valuable opportunity to appreciate another dimension of Le Guin's extraordinary imagination and storytelling legacy.
One of the collection's greatest strengths is its exploration of how ordinary people navigate the forces of tyranny, nationalism, revolution, and social change. The themes of love, hope, fear, sacrifice, and resistance give the fictional nation a remarkable sense of history and emotional depth.
I particularly appreciate how Le Guin uses an imaginary setting to examine recognizable political and human realities. Orsinia may be fictional, but the struggles of its people reflect enduring questions about individual freedom, cultural identity, and the consequences of authoritarian power.
This collection is a rewarding choice for readers who enjoy literary fiction, historical storytelling, political themes, and richly developed imaginary worlds. It also offers a valuable opportunity to appreciate another dimension of Le Guin's extraordinary imagination and storytelling legacy.
April 12, 2020
I struggled with Malafrena. It lacked that individual substance that makes a story its own. At times it read so close to Middlemarch I had to check which book I was reading. At others, it was just words. Many beautiful, but without the spirit I'd expect from Le Guin.
Orsinia is a fictional Central European country, and Malafrena covers the early 1800s and occupation by the Austrian empire. The trials of landed country families provide a backdrop to fomenting rebellion in the city. There's not much more to say, except that it took a long old time to get through.
After Malafrena, the Orsinian Tales were a breath of fresh air. Character, time, and place were impeccable, throughout the centuries. These small stories were solid, and grounded, and so much bigger than they were. The loss that pervades through many of them feels almost personal. Brilliant, and immensely satisfying.
Orsinia is a fictional Central European country, and Malafrena covers the early 1800s and occupation by the Austrian empire. The trials of landed country families provide a backdrop to fomenting rebellion in the city. There's not much more to say, except that it took a long old time to get through.
After Malafrena, the Orsinian Tales were a breath of fresh air. Character, time, and place were impeccable, throughout the centuries. These small stories were solid, and grounded, and so much bigger than they were. The loss that pervades through many of them feels almost personal. Brilliant, and immensely satisfying.
May 27, 2020
Przyzwyczajony do pisanych lekkim piórem niezwykle bajkowych i fantastycznych opowieści dość trudno było odnaleźć się mi w tej dość realistycznej, wyimaginowanej, środkowoeuropejskiej krainie, gdzie ważne problemy stają się niezwykle istotne, a życie codzienne jej mieszkańców nacechowane jest licznymi, dość zwykłymi kłopotami, które mogłyby dotyczyć każdego, w dowolnym miejscu na świecie. Dobre powieściopisarstwo dalekie jednakże od tego, do czego przyzwyczaiła nas autorka. Brawa dla Wydawnictwa Prószyński i Ska za kolejny pięknie wydany tom twórczości tej niezwykłej autorki.
August 7, 2026
This volume is a collection in three parts: the novel Malafrena, published 1979, the short story collection Orsinian Tales, published in 1976, and then an "Other Stories" section with two short stories released independently in 1979 and 1990.
Malafrena - 5 Stars (8/6/26)
Aunt Ursula, sometimes I think that I'll spend the rest of my life trying to figure you out. I can't wait.
I had never heard of Orsinia, Le Guin's fictional country, nor any of the stories set within it, until I saw this volume sitting on the shelf at Shakespeare and Company in Paris. It's back cover, with talk of "the old kingdom of Orsinia," which lies "among the less-travelled mountains and plains of Central Europe, a little east of Austria perhaps and north of Slovenia," caught my attention—what better book to pick up at Shakespeare and Co. on my semester abroad? Especially with its focus on Europe's "19th-century rise of liberalism and nationalism" and promise of "a tale of revolution against the might of the Hapsburg Empire."
It took me a little while to get into the story, as it often does with Le Guin's work, but once I had I was hooked. What a grand, sweeping tale! It's like an eighteenth century European classic. The characters were all magnificent; I particularly loved the protagonist, Itale Sorde. I don't put much stock into relating to characters these days, but he is one in whom I saw some of my own small strengths and many of my own great weaknesses. What a gift to encounter them from this third-person perspective!
As is often the case in Le Guin, many of the characters' feelings and motivations were obscured, for both us and them, behind philosophies and images and abstractions. When I was a younger man, with less grey in my hair (it gets worse every day, guys), that bothered me. These days I take it as a challenge. After my research fellowship last summer, I know something real lies behind it all. It's just damn hard to untangle.
I often felt like Hadestown's Hades reading this: "Now, what do they clamor for? Freedom. Freedom ." Le Guin, you're always on about freedom! What do you mean? What freedom? I thought I had a pretty good grip on it after writing twenty-odd pages on "The Daughter of Odren," but I'm seeing that was really just the tip of the iceberg.
And I'm afraid the problem extend beyond Le Guin. Walter Kasper is, I increasingly recognize, correct in Jesus the Christ when he describes freedom as the preoccupation of our modern age. But what, exactly, is the problem? From what, exactly, do we need freedom? And how do we get it?
Liberation theology has, of course, its answers. Kasper has his answers. What are Le Guin's answers?
To which point--nice to see Le Guin play with Catholic themes for once. I understand why they don't normally fit into her work, and sympathize with her antipathy for religion, but she does a nice job weaving a Christian spirit into her characters and setting here.
Also, I think like half this book is maybe about pseudo-womb envy. I gotta read more theory or I'm never gonna get a full grip on Le Guin's themes.
How true every word there, dialogue and otherwise, is.
Rev. 22:20.
Malafrena - 5 Stars (8/6/26)
Aunt Ursula, sometimes I think that I'll spend the rest of my life trying to figure you out. I can't wait.
I had never heard of Orsinia, Le Guin's fictional country, nor any of the stories set within it, until I saw this volume sitting on the shelf at Shakespeare and Company in Paris. It's back cover, with talk of "the old kingdom of Orsinia," which lies "among the less-travelled mountains and plains of Central Europe, a little east of Austria perhaps and north of Slovenia," caught my attention—what better book to pick up at Shakespeare and Co. on my semester abroad? Especially with its focus on Europe's "19th-century rise of liberalism and nationalism" and promise of "a tale of revolution against the might of the Hapsburg Empire."
It took me a little while to get into the story, as it often does with Le Guin's work, but once I had I was hooked. What a grand, sweeping tale! It's like an eighteenth century European classic. The characters were all magnificent; I particularly loved the protagonist, Itale Sorde. I don't put much stock into relating to characters these days, but he is one in whom I saw some of my own small strengths and many of my own great weaknesses. What a gift to encounter them from this third-person perspective!
As is often the case in Le Guin, many of the characters' feelings and motivations were obscured, for both us and them, behind philosophies and images and abstractions. When I was a younger man, with less grey in my hair (it gets worse every day, guys), that bothered me. These days I take it as a challenge. After my research fellowship last summer, I know something real lies behind it all. It's just damn hard to untangle.
I often felt like Hadestown's Hades reading this: "Now, what do they clamor for? Freedom. Freedom ." Le Guin, you're always on about freedom! What do you mean? What freedom? I thought I had a pretty good grip on it after writing twenty-odd pages on "The Daughter of Odren," but I'm seeing that was really just the tip of the iceberg.
And I'm afraid the problem extend beyond Le Guin. Walter Kasper is, I increasingly recognize, correct in Jesus the Christ when he describes freedom as the preoccupation of our modern age. But what, exactly, is the problem? From what, exactly, do we need freedom? And how do we get it?
Liberation theology has, of course, its answers. Kasper has his answers. What are Le Guin's answers?
To which point--nice to see Le Guin play with Catholic themes for once. I understand why they don't normally fit into her work, and sympathize with her antipathy for religion, but she does a nice job weaving a Christian spirit into her characters and setting here.
Also, I think like half this book is maybe about pseudo-womb envy. I gotta read more theory or I'm never gonna get a full grip on Le Guin's themes.
"But how can you live in the prison of others' servitude? I can't live for myself until everyone is free to do so!" [the young man said.]
"Until the Kingdom is come," Emmanuel murmured ironically, with pain.
How true every word there, dialogue and otherwise, is.
Rev. 22:20.
April 19, 2019
I have already reviewed Malafrena separately, so this review applies to the other contents of this volume. I didn't love Malafrena, but I admired the crap out of it. That basically applies to the rest of the book. You get songs, stories and what amounts to a coda to the country of Orsinia. It's not my favorite Le Guin work, but I'm very glad I read it.
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