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El testamento del estoico
Sylvanus Heythrop, un anciano que apenas es capaz de ocultar la ruina económica motivada por algún desacierto en las empresas que preside, solo tiene una preocupación: proteger a la viuda de un hijo que él tuvo fuera del matrimonio y que le dejó dos nietos alegres y atractivos en los que el viejo Sylvanus se reconoce. Hedonista, egoísta y valiente, consciente de que su tiempo tiene las horas contadas, se arriesgará a una compleja maniobra financiera para garantizar el futuro de su nuera, una mujer tan atractiva como frívola.
174 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1918
About the author
John Galsworthy
2,549 books491 followersLiterary career of English novelist and playwright John Galsworthy, who used John Sinjohn as a pseudonym, spanned the Victorian, Edwardian and Georgian eras.
In addition to his prolific literary status, Galsworthy was also a renowned social activist. He was an outspoken advocate for the women's suffrage movement, prison reform and animal rights. Galsworthy was the president of PEN, an organization that sought to promote international cooperation through literature.
John Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1932 "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga."
In addition to his prolific literary status, Galsworthy was also a renowned social activist. He was an outspoken advocate for the women's suffrage movement, prison reform and animal rights. Galsworthy was the president of PEN, an organization that sought to promote international cooperation through literature.
John Galsworthy was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature in 1932 "for his distinguished art of narration which takes its highest form in The Forsyte Saga."
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 30, 2024
Sylvanus Heythorp ha superato da un pezzo l’età di ottant’anni, è un uomo appesantito nel fisico e minato da una serie di acciacchi, quelli che inevitabilmente vengono a gravare sulla salute di chi, a causa del lavoro di una vita o per abitudine o per dispetto al destino, non vuole mettere un freno e rigare dritto a tavola, davanti a un cicchetto o a un sigaro speciale. Ma il cervello del signor Heythorp è ancora integro: le sue idee geniali, le sue previsioni sugli utili degli affari da concludere, l’astuzia nell’intuire le trappole abilmente camuffate, lo hanno condotto ad essere ancora il presidente della Island Navigation Company che grazie a lui prospera nonostante i mugugni degli altri soci che vorrebbero sollevarlo dall’incarico per superati limiti di età. Ma ogni uomo, anche il migliore affarista, ha il suo tallone d’Achille e quello di Sylvanus Heythorp è rappresentato dalla famiglia che lui tiene abilmente nascosta finché il suo avversario in affari, l’irriducibile Charles Ventnor non scopre qualche segreto e fiuta l’occasione per sbarazzarsi di lui e sostituirlo ai vertici della società di cui sono soci….Anche in questo romanzo breve del 1918, John Galsworthy [1867-1933] mette in mostra tutte le sue capacità di narratore regalando ai suoi lettori un racconto impeccabile grazie all’ indimenticabile protagonista, l’imprenditore Sylvanus Heythorp, figura carismatica e irriducibile, uomo d’altri tempi, tutto d’un pezzo, al quale né l’età, né gli avversari, né gli acciacchi, impediranno di combattere il duello che è costretto ad accettare, sostenuto dal suo credo nel quale la parola “sconfitta” non esiste.
May 29, 2021
Strange part is, this edition is supposedly in English, as per the information on Goodreads; but the blurb on Goodreads about the book is in a Turkic language.
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A Stoic, by John Galsworthy.
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Reading this, there are two thoughts that come soon. One, it's missing the descriptions of beauty of nature that one is accustomed to from Galsworthy. Two, only Galsworthy could get complete sympathy from a reader for the protagonist, especially when the two are quite different in most ways imaginable within humanity. Nevertheless, the old man's character and story, very touching!
It's not far to imagine that this work is one of those where Galsworthy was stepping between a novel and a play, and some works of his are presented both ways. In other times, this work and Strife would be integrated, along perhaps with a few others, into one - the two old chairmen are not very dissimilar.
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This bit seems familiar from another work of Galsworthy, where the said young girl is centred:-
" ... he was forty before he had his only love affair of any depth—with the daughter of one of his own clerks, a liaison so awkward as to necessitate a sedulous concealment. The death of that girl, after three years, leaving him a, natural son, had been the chief, perhaps the only real, sorrow of his life. Five years later he married. What for? God only knew! as he was in the habit of remarking. ... "
Was he personally familiar with the characters?
" ... Old Heythorp saw her to her rest without regret. He had felt no love for her whatever, and practically none for her two children—they were in his view colourless, pragmatical, very unexpected characters. His son Ernest—in the Admiralty—he thought a poor, careful stick. His daughter Adela, an excellent manager, delighting in spiritual conversation and the society of tame men, rarely failed to show him that she considered him a hopeless heathen. They saw as little as need be of each other. She was provided for under that settlement he had made on her mother fifteen years ago, well before the not altogether unexpected crisis in his affairs. Very different was the feeling he had bestowed on that son of his "under the rose." The boy, who had always gone by his mother's name of Larne, had on her death been sent to some relations of hers in Ireland, and there brought up. He had been called to the Dublin bar, and married, young, a girl half Cornish and half Irish; presently, having cost old Heythorp in all a pretty penny, he had died impecunious, leaving his fair Rosamund at thirty with a girl of eight and a boy of five. She had not spent six months of widowhood before coming over from Dublin to claim the old man's guardianship. A remarkably pretty woman, like a full-blown rose, with greenish hazel eyes, she had turned up one morning at the offices of "The Island Navigation Company," accompanied by her two children—for he had never divulged to them his private address. And since then they had always been more or less on his hands, occupying a small house in a suburb of Liverpool. He visited them there, but never asked them to the house in Sefton Park, which was in fact his daughter's; so that his proper family and friends were unaware of their existence."
"And this chance of getting six thousand pounds settled on them at a stroke had seemed to him nothing but heaven-sent. As things were, if he "went off"—and, of course, he might at any moment, there wouldn't be a penny for them; for he would "cut up" a good fifteen thousand to the bad. He was now giving them some three hundred a year out of his fees; and dead directors unfortunately earned no fees! Six thousand pounds at four and a half per cent., settled so that their mother couldn't "blue it," would give them a certain two hundred and fifty pounds a year-better than beggary. And the more he thought the better he liked it, if only that shaky chap, Joe Pillin, didn't shy off when he'd bitten his nails short over it!"
" ... That settlement was drawn and only awaited signature. The Board to-day had decided on the purchase; and all that remained was to get it ratified at the general meeting. Let him but get that over, and this provision for his grandchildren made, and he would snap his fingers at Brownbee and his crew-the canting humbugs! "Hope you have many years of this life before you!" As if they cared for anything but his money—their money rather! ... "
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................................................................................................
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
A Stoic, by John Galsworthy.
................................................................................................
................................................................................................
Reading this, there are two thoughts that come soon. One, it's missing the descriptions of beauty of nature that one is accustomed to from Galsworthy. Two, only Galsworthy could get complete sympathy from a reader for the protagonist, especially when the two are quite different in most ways imaginable within humanity. Nevertheless, the old man's character and story, very touching!
It's not far to imagine that this work is one of those where Galsworthy was stepping between a novel and a play, and some works of his are presented both ways. In other times, this work and Strife would be integrated, along perhaps with a few others, into one - the two old chairmen are not very dissimilar.
................................................................................................
This bit seems familiar from another work of Galsworthy, where the said young girl is centred:-
" ... he was forty before he had his only love affair of any depth—with the daughter of one of his own clerks, a liaison so awkward as to necessitate a sedulous concealment. The death of that girl, after three years, leaving him a, natural son, had been the chief, perhaps the only real, sorrow of his life. Five years later he married. What for? God only knew! as he was in the habit of remarking. ... "
Was he personally familiar with the characters?
" ... Old Heythorp saw her to her rest without regret. He had felt no love for her whatever, and practically none for her two children—they were in his view colourless, pragmatical, very unexpected characters. His son Ernest—in the Admiralty—he thought a poor, careful stick. His daughter Adela, an excellent manager, delighting in spiritual conversation and the society of tame men, rarely failed to show him that she considered him a hopeless heathen. They saw as little as need be of each other. She was provided for under that settlement he had made on her mother fifteen years ago, well before the not altogether unexpected crisis in his affairs. Very different was the feeling he had bestowed on that son of his "under the rose." The boy, who had always gone by his mother's name of Larne, had on her death been sent to some relations of hers in Ireland, and there brought up. He had been called to the Dublin bar, and married, young, a girl half Cornish and half Irish; presently, having cost old Heythorp in all a pretty penny, he had died impecunious, leaving his fair Rosamund at thirty with a girl of eight and a boy of five. She had not spent six months of widowhood before coming over from Dublin to claim the old man's guardianship. A remarkably pretty woman, like a full-blown rose, with greenish hazel eyes, she had turned up one morning at the offices of "The Island Navigation Company," accompanied by her two children—for he had never divulged to them his private address. And since then they had always been more or less on his hands, occupying a small house in a suburb of Liverpool. He visited them there, but never asked them to the house in Sefton Park, which was in fact his daughter's; so that his proper family and friends were unaware of their existence."
"And this chance of getting six thousand pounds settled on them at a stroke had seemed to him nothing but heaven-sent. As things were, if he "went off"—and, of course, he might at any moment, there wouldn't be a penny for them; for he would "cut up" a good fifteen thousand to the bad. He was now giving them some three hundred a year out of his fees; and dead directors unfortunately earned no fees! Six thousand pounds at four and a half per cent., settled so that their mother couldn't "blue it," would give them a certain two hundred and fifty pounds a year-better than beggary. And the more he thought the better he liked it, if only that shaky chap, Joe Pillin, didn't shy off when he'd bitten his nails short over it!"
" ... That settlement was drawn and only awaited signature. The Board to-day had decided on the purchase; and all that remained was to get it ratified at the general meeting. Let him but get that over, and this provision for his grandchildren made, and he would snap his fingers at Brownbee and his crew-the canting humbugs! "Hope you have many years of this life before you!" As if they cared for anything but his money—their money rather! ... "
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May 11, 2026
"Ostatni stoik" to niezbyt długa powieść, a może nieco dłuższa nowela noblisty Johna Galsworthy'ego, której głównym bohaterem jest osiemdziesięcioletni Sylvanus Heythorp. Ten przedsiębiorca popadł w długi i tarapaty finansowe, wciąż jednak jest prezesem Towarzystwa Żeglugi, a z jego zdaniem liczy się wiele osób. Sylvanus przed śmiercią chce zabezpieczyć finansowo wnuki. Dodać trzeba, że są one z nieprawego łoża, ponieważ ich ojcem jest pierworodny syn starca – owoc miłosnej afery. Jednak właśnie tego syna Sylvanus najbardziej cenił, dwójka zrodzonych z małżeństwa dzieci według niego nie posiada jego cech zarówno fizycznych jak i umysłowych.
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....
Ciąg dalszy: https://przeczytalamksiazke.blogspot....
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March 31, 2024chyba czytalam inna ksiazke tego autora nje wiem co sie dzieje tbh
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews