I paesi lontani

Dixie #1

by Julien Green, Francesco Bruno (Translator)

Quella di Elizabeth Escridge, sedicenne inglese giunta in America al seguito di una madre rovinata finanziariamente dalla morte del marito, è una storia d'amore e di passione, è l'umana avventura di un essere che, permeato di bene, è però inesorabilmente attratto dal male, laddove «bene» e «male» sono mere categorie definite dagli uomini: in questo senso Elizabeth è figlia più che legittima del Julien Green di Leviatan, di Moïra, di Mont Cinère. In quei paesi lontani che non conoscono inverno - siamo in Georgia, Stato del profondo Sud -, sotto le rose e le magnolie sempre in fiore, stanno maturando drammatici eventi: la parola «secessione» è sulla bocca di tutti, si respira aria di guerra. Come sempre in Green, però, sarà la penetrazione della realtà misteriosa nascosta nell'essere profondo dei singoli personaggi a prevalere sulla narrazione delle vicende esteriori. Se lo sfondo è quello di un romanzo d'amore e d'avventura, Elizabeth non è però un'eroina «romantica», cosi come i paesi lontani non sono soltanto luoghi geografici. Già altre volte Green ha confessato: «lo sono tutti i miei personaggi». Paradossalmente, questo libro potrebbe essere una sorta di autobiografia. «I paesi lontani», ha detto del resto Julien Green, «sono anche i genitori, l’infanzia, le prime sensazioni della vita, le prime scoperte, dovunque si sia conosciuta la felicità.»

Genres: Historical Fiction, Roman, Southern, Fiction, Romance, Historical

728 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1987

About the author

Julien Green was an American writer, who authored several novels, including Léviathan and Each in His Own Darkness. He wrote primarily in French.

Reviews

[Whitley · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my all time favorites. A beautifully well constructed novel of the antebellum South written by one of the greatest unknown writers of the 20th century. He lived in Paris and wrote mostly in French. This book and its sequel, the Stars of the South, were completed when he was in his nineties. For anyone who enjoys historical fiction, they offer an unforgettable reading experience that is filled with deep insight into the life of the South prior to the Civil War.

[Adeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a young teen/young adult there are various books, massive more often than not, that provided a reading experience I was almost never able to recreate as an adult. I couldn't wait to get a moment of quiet so I'd get to pick up the book and get lost in the story, the settings, the characters and very often bittersweet themes. Re-reading them as an adult it's usually hard to see why I was so taken by them: the plot is drawn out, the characters are either overly dramatic or plain uninteresting, and generally I can't figure out why the whole thing felt so magic when I first read it.

Julien Green's Distant Lands is perhaps the only book I've read so far that made me feel like a teenager stumbling upon that kind of well-hidden treasure. Set in the late 1840s in Georgia and Virginia, it follows 16yo Elizabeth who, following the death of her father, leaves her native England for the US South where she is taken in by his relatives - most of them wealthy, pro-abolition plantation owners. To be perfectly honest I'm not sure why I was so taken by this book. It's over 1,000 pages where very little happens, it's unclear why every man and woman falls head over heels in love with Elizabeth who is generally a very boring young woman.... and yet I couldn't put it down.

I wish the abolitionist context had been written better, because it feels more like a "see, my characters are southern and own plenty of slaves but they're not mean!" box the author checked in a very lazy way. (Although it does develop into a very small handful of interesting political discussions) The endless descriptions of Elizabeth as an overly innocent and virginal young woman couldn't have been a bigger male-writer cliché. I still devoured the whole thing, probably helped by the fact the writing remains beautiful and enjoyable throughout. Again, I should be so bored by this but I've already started the second book of the series -- which made me change my initial 3ish stars rating to 4.

[BellasCreativeLife · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 311 pages. I really tried, but this just wasnt for me. :/

[Lila Gloria Fernández de Castro · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5. Que lectura tan agradable!!!. No conocía a este autor y no será lo último que les de el.

[Sylvie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un roman d'une ecriture superbe decrivant le Sud avec plus de realisme qu'Autant en emporte le vent.

Rebondissements et description d'une societe et de leurs relations avec les Noirs et l'esclavage. Julien Greene etait contre l'esclavage et nous en fait part par l'entremise de ses personnages pris entre leurs sentiments de cette injustice sociable et une realite economique du Sud dont le Nord des Etats-Unis avail su tirer profit avant de declarer ce nouveau principe de liberte pour tous les "hommes" (excluant les femmes bien sur) qui peut-être avail une raison economique bien plus qu'humanitaire.

Il est interessant de vivre la position du Sud que la plupart des livres depeignent en grand perdant de la guerre de secession sans en montrer les enjeux et les differents opposant les parties. Julien Greene nous fait mieux comprendre l'accession de la Californie aux Etats comme "libre" a cause de la ruee vers l'or et raconteur le desir des squatters qui refusaient l'entree de toute personne de race noire dans le nouvel etat californien. Difficile a croire lorsque l'on pense a Los Angeles d'aujourd'hui.

Ce qui est aussi interessant est la depiction des femmes et de leur situation dans la societe des annees 1800. Les femmes sont peintes comme etant tenues loin de la politique, et les hommes controlant leurs mouvements et pensees; assez pour comprendre et apprecier le mouvement des suffragettes et ce que l'on doit en tant que femme a nos grands-meres de s'etre battues pour notre droit de femme a l'initiative, a l'education, au vote et tout ce que maintenant les femmes prennent peut-être trop facilement pour des droits acquis.

Un des plus beaux romans que j'aie lus

[Lyre Dans Les Étoiles · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandon au tiers. Autant je m'étais laissé entraîner par l'excellence de Leviathan et Adrienne Mesurat autant ici l'ennui est de plomb. Évidemment, les thèmes et l'ambiance n'allaient pas être les mêmes. Pour ceux qui voulaient en savoir plus sur l'esclavage des noirs, Le Sud, Le Nord, la Guerre de Sécession... C'est bien plus en fond d'histoire, filigrane léger utilisé comme simple contexte. Un livre qui ira rejoindre l'appui de fenêtre en rue et qui fera, peut-être, le bonheur de quelqu'un d'autre.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roman fleuve, qui se déroule dans les États sudistes américains, 10 ans avant la guerre de sécession. Une peinture de l'état d'esprit des riches propriétaires de plantations.
L'héroïne, une jeune fille anglaise ruinée, qui se fait recueillir par ses riches cousins américains , est un peu plus intéressante que dans autant en emporte le vent, mais finit par agacer le lecteur.

[Denis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je recommande vivement ce roman plein d'amour et de fureur qui se passe dans lesid américain esclavagiste à mes amies jeunes lectrices Lucile et Clémentine !

[Shyla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly slow and kind of boring. The front jacket compares it to Gone with the Wind but it does not hold a candle to that amazing book. The problem with this book I think is the characters. They are flat and unlikable. The entire book, and it's a big one, has Elizabeth as the protagonist so I should have a good understanding of her character, her motivations and feelings. She is like a stranger to me, I just could not understand her thoughts, feelings or actions most of the time. For such a long, slow book with little action, character development is a must and I felt it very lacking.

I am giving it two stars because I did manage to finish it and also because it is written in a pretty language and has a lot of information about antebellum south, which was somewhat interesting.

I will take Gone with the Wind and the feisty heroine Scarlett and the rest of the characters whom I love and cherish and understand over this and these flat characters any day!

[Seingalt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Les Pays lointains several years ago but still remember it with great fondness (its sequel, Les Étoiles du Sud, I liked as well, but by the time I read it I was prepared, and it didn't sweep me off my feet quite the way Les Pays did). Green, as a Frenchman born to American parents, could do what no native-born American writer has ever dared do: sympathize, in a serious, literary, and unsentimental (but always delightful and ironic) novel, with the planter class. In this respect, his only close American relative is Walker Percy. For the rest, the women (whether white or black) are the strength of this hugely satisfying novel.

[Margot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written, this novel depicts the leisurely life in the South (Georgia and later Virginia) in the 1850's. I really feel the slow narration goes very well with the description of long, hot, lazy days of summer in the South. The education (or rather lack of) of young women of the Victorian era about love, sex and married life made for very unhappy people. I think the author rendered that very well. Elizabeth can't be judged by today's standards. I think she rather enlightens us on the frame of mind of english women in the 19th century.

[Natalie Petchnikow · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apparenté à toutes les grandes familles du Sud des Etats-Unis, ayant passé une partie de sa jeunesse dans son "Pays lointain", Julien Green raconte, dans ce livre plein d'amour et de fureur, l'aventure d'un être de désir, car il s'agit, pour Elisabeth, de posséder la vérité dans une âme et un corps.

[Graceann · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a terrible book - I kept with it, praying that it would get better, and it was just a frustrating slog. Elizabeth is just a spoiled little idiot, and there's no point to any of the suffering that takes place because of her selfishness. Don't waste your time.

[Juneus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meticulous writing.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was the first of Julian's books I picked up last summer to read and I loved it from beginning to end.