The Last Of Summer

by Kate O'Brien

It is 1939, the last summer before the outbreak of war. French actress Angele Maury abandons a group of friends travelling through Ireland and takes herself to picturesque Drumaninch, birthplace of her dead father. She has come to make sense of her past. Self-conscious with her pale, exotic beauty, Angele braves the idiosyncratic world of the Kernahans: her enigmatic aunt Hannah, her ridiculous but loveable uncle Corney and her three cousins - Martin, charming, intense; Tom, devoted to his mother, and their bright sister Jo, who combines religious faith with a penchant for gambling.

But is there some mystery surrounding the past? History threatens to repeat itself as Angele finds herself seduced by the beauty of Ireland, and by the love of two men...First published in 1943, The Last of the Summer is a perfectly structured psychological love story.

Genres: Fiction, Classics, Russia, Russian Literature, Ireland, Historical Fiction, 20th Century

270 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Kathleen Mary Louise "Kate" O'Brien, was an Irish novelist and playwright.

After the success of her play, Distinguished Villa in 1926, she took to full-time writing and was awarded the 1931 James Tait Black Prize for her novel Without My Cloak. She is best known for her 1934 novel The Ante-Room, her 1941 novel The Land of Spices and the 1946 novel That Lady. Many of her books dealt with issues of female sexuality — with several exploring gay/lesbian themes — and both Mary Lavelle and The Land of Spices were banned in Ireland. She also wrote travel books, or rather accounts of places and experiences, on both Ireland and Spain, a country she loved, and which features in a number of her novels. She lived much of her later life in England and died in Canterbury in 1974; she is buried in Faversham Cemetery.

The Glucksman Library at the University of Limerick currently holds a large collection of O'Brien's personal writings. In August 2005, Penguin reissued her final novel, As Music and Splendour (1958), which had been out of print for decades. The Kate O'Brien weekend, which takes place in Limerick, attracts a large number of people, both academic and non-academic.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Luís · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s a brief novella, but one full of sharp and memorable images, the most powerful associated with the steam, the smoke, that comes out of trains. In several scenes this black, industrialised 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 too me, starving people groping for black air in the hope it can be eaten.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Angele Maury, a French actress traveling with friends through Ireland, decides to take a side trip to the town of Drumaninch and meet her dead father’s family, the Kernahans. The year is 1939, and the world is feeling the tensions of Europe on the fringe of war. There was obviously a rift in the family when her father left Ireland, and the past seems to loom over the present with secrets and resentments that Angele is completely unaware of.

Among those Angele meets in Ireland are her two male cousins, Martin and Tom, her female cousin, Jo, and the very bitchy and cruel Aunt Hannah. Both of the men are drawn to their new cousin and we know almost immediately that there is going to be trouble in paradise. That Hannah rules her family is obvious, and that she despises the presence of her niece just as apparent to the reader, if not to the other characters involved.

I found the rapidity of the relationships formed to be a bit disconcerting, but this is a different time than now, and in the context of life of the time and the looming threat of war that hovers over the world, perhaps love is easier to fall into, if no easier to comprehend. At least O’Brien resisted making the relationships easy or uncomplicated and left the characters with the same doubts the reader entertained.

Love can survive, a little or a long time, this lesson of its insufficiency--because it must, because self-love and self-respect insist; because pleasure is strong, and compromise is an understood necessity, and because lovers learn to understand love cynically and yet value it.

How much do these individual lives, personal problems, torn hearts and hurts matter against the backdrop of the war that is coming? Will any of these people survive to see the end of the war? Will they look back on this summer of angst and wonder if they had not given it more meaning than it should have carried, or perhaps wishing that they had been a bit kinder and more accepting of one another and embraced the simple lives they enjoyed? All questions I was left with at the end of the novel and ones that I think would have been in the minds of many people at the time this novel was written.

[Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Zuberino · Rating 3 out of 5]

পঞ্চাশের দশকে ডক্টর জিভাগো লিখে বিশ্বখ্যাতি, নোবেল পুরস্কার, সোভিয়েত সরকারের আক্রোশ এবং ডেভিড লীনের এপিক সিনেমা, সবই জুটেছিল বরিস পাস্তের্নাকের ভাগ্যে। যে কথাটা অত প্রচার পায় না, তা হলো কুড়ির দশকের গোড়া থেকেই রুশ ভাষার অন্যতম শ্রেষ্ঠ কবি হিসেবে স্বীকৃত ছিলেন পাস্তের্নাক। তার ভাষার কাব্যময়তার কিছুটা আভাস পাওয়া যায় ১৯৩৪ সালে লেখা এই আত্মজীবনীমূলক উপন্যাসিকা থেকে। রুশ ভাষায় সাদামাটা শিরোনাম পাভিয়েস্ত ("গল্প") - পেংগুইন ক্লাসিক্সের এই সংস্করণে সেটা বদলে রাখা হয়েছে "দ্য লাস্ট সামার"।

মস্কো থেকে দীর্ঘ ট্রেন জার্নি করে সেরেঝা এসেছে উরাল পর্বতের পাদদেশে। ছোট এক ফ্যাক্টরি টাউনে স্বামী-সংসার নিয়ে থাকে ওর বড় বোন নাতাশা - তাদের সাথেই কয়েকদিন ছুটি কাটাবে। সময়টা ১৯১৬ সালের শীতকাল। প্রথম বিশ্বযুদ্ধে ব্যতিব্যস্ত রুশ সৈন্য-সামন্ত, কিন্তু ফ্রন্ট থেকে হাজার হাজার মাইল দূরে এই সুমসাম শহর, প্রায় এশিয়া মহাদেশে গিয়ে পড়েছে। যাত্রা শেষে ক্লান্ত সেরেঝা, স্টেশন থেকে বরফ ঠেলে বোনের বাড়ি পৌঁছে প্রায় সাথে সাথেই ঘুমিয়ে পড়লো। বেহুঁশ হয়ে স্বপ্ন দেখে অতীতের - দুই বছর আগে ভার্সিটি থেকে পাশ করে বেরিয়ে কিছুদিন হাউজ টিউটরের কাজ করেছিল, মস্কোর এক বড়লোক ব্যবসায়ী ফ্রেস্টেল্ন-এর বাড়িতে। গ্রীষ্মের সেই ঢিম তেতালের দিনগুলোতে পরিচয় হয় তরুণী ডেনিশ বিধবা আনা আরিল্ডের সাথে। আনা মিসেস ফ্রেস্টেল্ন-এর বেতনভুক সহকারী। বাগানে হাঁটে একসাথে ওরা, একদিন দুজনে মিলে মস্কোর সকোল্নিকি পার্কে বেড়াতে যায়। এদিকে রাত্রিবেলা সাশ্কা নামের এক বেশ্যার কাছেও নিয়মিত যায় সেরেঝা, তার প্রতিও মাদক আকর্ষণ অনুভব করে।

মস্কোর দক্ষিণে তুলা জেলায় খামারবাড়ি আছে ফ্রেস্টেল্ন পরিবারের। কিন্তু হ্যারি নামে ছোট ছেলেটার অসুখ করেছে, তাই এই বছর গ্রীষ্মের ছুটিতে যেতে বিলম্ব হচ্ছে। এক অলস বিকেলে বাসা খালি, আনাকে খুঁজতে গিয়ে পায় না সেরেঝা। অবশেষে আনা'র ঘরে ঢুকে দেখে অজ্ঞান হয়ে পড়ে আছে। মুখে কিছু পানি ছিটিয়ে আনা'র জ্ঞান ফিরিয়েই সেরেঝা স্বীকার করে ওর ভালোবাসার কথা। সাবধানী আনা কি দেবে প্রতিদান? সেরেঝা যে লেখক হবার সংকল্প করেছে, তাতে কি সফলকাম হবে? তুলার ছুটিতেই বা কি ঘটবে? এইসব নানা প্রশ্ন অমীমাংসিত রেখে শেষ হয়ে যায় 'দ্য লাস্ট সামার'।

লেখকের খুব বড় মাপের কাজ বলা ঠিক হবে না। তরুণ সেরেঝার গল্প বলায় এটা ছিল পাস্তের্নাকের তৃতীয় প্রচেষ্টা - এর আগে একই কাহিনী লিখেছিলেন, গদ্য এবং পদ্য দুই ফর্মেই। ভাষার কাব্যময়তার পাশাপাশি প্রচুর হেয়ালি আর ধোঁয়াশা টাইপ কথাবার্তা আছে ("Acting thus from conventional discretion, she like a luminary ascribed it to her special attribute of caste.") সেটা কি মূল গদ্যের বৈশিষ্ট্য নাকি অনুবাদের দুর্বলতা, বোঝা গেল না। ভূমিকায় লেখকের বোন লিদিয়া অবশ্য লিখেছেন যে পাস্তের্নাকের ভাষার আবেশ রুশ পাঠকের চোখে অশ্রু আনে। সেদিক থেকে আমাদের মত পাঠকরা লস খেয়েছি নিশ্চয়ই, কিন্তু তারপরেও কিছু কিছু রূপকের বিস্ময়কর ব্যবহার থেকে সেই শক্তিমত্তার হালকা আঁচ পাওয়া যায়।

লিদিয়া আরো বলেন যে বরিসের যৌবনের ঘটনাবলী আর চরিত্রের সংমিশ্রণে এই কাহিনী। বইটির অনেকখানি মূল্য বোধ করি সেখানেই - তরুণ তৃষ্ণার্ত লেখকের জীবন থেকে নেয়া কয়েকটি স্ন্যাপশট, অক্টোবর বিপ্লবে সবকিছু তোলপাড় হয়ে যাবার আগে রুশ সমাজের আংশিক কিছু খন্ডচিত্র। পেঙ্গুইনের দেয়া শিরোনামের স্বার্থকতা বোঝা যায় বইয়ের একটি বহুল উদ্ধৃত লাইন থেকে - "that last summer when life appeared to pay heed to individuals, and when it was easier and more natural to love than to hate". প্রথম মহাযুদ্ধের নারকীয় যজ্ঞ যেমন সেকেলে ইউরোপীয় সভ্যতার মৃত্যু ডেকে এনেছিল, রুশ প্রেক্ষাপটে বিশ্বযুদ্ধ এবং লাল বিপ্লবের সহবাস একই কার্য সমাধা করেছিল পাস্তের্নাকের পরিচিত পৃথিবীর জন্যে।

PS প্রচ্ছদের চমতকার প্রতিকৃতি এঁকেছেন পাস্তের্নাকের বাবা লিওনিদ, তিনি স্বনামধন্য চিত্রশিল্পী ছিলেন বলে জানতে পেলাম। বাপ কা বেটা...

PPS গ্রামের বাড়িতে বনেদী পরিবারের ছুটি কাটানোর ব্যাপারটা রুশ সাহিত্যের একটা থীম বলা যায় - চেখভের নাটকে ঘুরে ফিরে এসেছে বারবার, কয়েকদিন আগে ১৯শ শতকের বিপ্লবী হার্জেন-এর স্মৃতিকথায়ও পড়লাম খুব সুস্বাদু বিবরণ। এই নিয়ে দেখি বইও লেখা হয়ে গেছে। The House in Russian Literature - স্রেফ সূচীপত্র পড়েই জিভে জল এসে গেল!!!

[Cecily · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pasternak's writing could be described more as a prose poem in contrast to Dr. Zhivago here, and he takes a lot from his practice as a poet with these beautifully shrouded scenes from the point of view of Serezha who, asleep on his sister's couch, dreams of the last summer before the outbreak of World War I as a young tutor in Russia. It was nice and sweet - hard to follow at times (as is the essence of dreams) but, the pictures Pasternak creates of young Serezha, his relationship with Arild and his dreams of fortune are well worth the read. It's hardly 100 pages anyways, so why not?

[Serafim Silva · Rating 1 out of 5]

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 · Rating 1 out of 5]

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

[Marija · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best part of this book is the fact that Kate O’Brien allows the reader to feel sympathy towards these characters. Every character in this story is an emotional mess...every thought and feeling is an absolute. No one ever feels by halves. In some ways it’s tragic witnessing these characters deal with life and circumstance, especially when it’s immediately apparent that each character will be forced to go through some form of sacrifice, even the bitchy, overbearing matriarch Hannah.

I felt most attached to the poor child-like innocence of Tom, who was forced to become an adult at a young age, in effect losing his chance to really live. When a chance of escape appears, is it possible to take it, when in the process it’s very possible to lose everything that once was held so dear? Timing is important in regards to change....

The sacrifices for Jo and her brother Martin are more selfish in nature...using the excuse of “time” as a means to go forward with other plans. Especially in regards to Jo, the reason for self-denial is extreme, and one that I didn’t especially like. On the other hand, Martin’s is more psychologically interesting...a way for him to be closer to his one true desire.

Angelè, even though she’s the protagonist, serves more as a catalyst in this story. Her presence drives the story on and in some ways helps time to bring about change, even though in some ways, time does change her.

And then there’s Hannah. She’s the kind of woman who knowingly ignores everything around her, pretending she doesn’t know when she does, unless it happens to pertain to her number one son, Tom. I honestly don’t like her. Yet I liked how O’Brien portrayed her at the end. O’Brien allows the reader to ask the question, “Does she really get everything she wants?” I loved what Angelè says to Hannah at the end, as well as how that whole scene plays out. It’s good.

[Diogo Lopes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Keep away

[Carolina Caires · Rating 3 out of 5]

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?".

[Graham Storrs · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was either very poorly translated, or poorly written, or both. It had the feel of a very young man trying too hard to be poetic and quite often missing the mark. The story itself was rambling and amounts to little more than a collection of observations and reminiscences, interesting in parts, but, on the whole, a bit tiresome.

[Jared Iseler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Train Book #7: No❤️

[Doris · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Last Summer ~ Boris Pasternak (1934)

The Last Summer is a semi autobiographical novella, set in the winter of 1916 and which tells us the memories of Serezha during this one summer of course.

I’ve been meaning to get to Doctor Zhivago in quite a while and after finding this book, I thought it should be a good introduction to his writing style. I’m not sure if it does him justice, unless you’ve read all of his other work.

The introduction of his book is written by his sister, Lydia Slater. I don’t usually read introductions but I did this one because after I read the book I felt like I was missing something. She mentions that this piece of work is connected to both Doctor Zhivago and The Childhood of Luvers which made more sense to me. Also I’m not sure about the translation.

There’s not much of a plot with this one, it is very much dreamy like, a collection of reminiscences. Nevertheless it does feel like poetic prose. Some of the descriptions are mesmerising and words just flow beautifully.

The second half of the novella did leave me with questions and wanting to read more. On that note I always find that with most novellas, because I always prefer tomes and I like to know all the details.

Not sure if this review helps at all but these were some of my random thoughts I had when I read it last year. I’d like to come back to this one after reading Doctor Zhivago, which hopefully I will get to this year.

Fun fact: the cover shows of drawing of Boris Pasternak, by his father Leonid Pasternak.

[Saga Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

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!

[Danielle]

My reading is much like a pendulum swinging back and forth between genres, specific country settings, authors and especially particular eras. I tend to be pretty firmly settled in the interwar period, however, with brief forays here and there elsewhere. The pendulum is beginning to swing now to World War II after quite a while concentrating on the First World War. No doubt that's in part thanks to Kate O'Brien's quietly elegant The Last of Summer, set in Ireland in the days leading up to England's entry into WWII.

Perhaps Kate O'Brien is read more than I think, though I don't often see mentions of her books online. She wrote nine novels and a number of plays, and happily a small handful of them are still in print and readily available. I'm not quite sure what made me add The Last of Summer to my list of books to read this year (first one to cross off the list by the way). Maybe it was the promise of "a perfectly structured psychological love story", and the desire to read something set in Ireland. Whatever the impetus, I'm quite pleased to have rediscovered Kate O'Brien. I read Mary Lavelle in my pre-blogging days, too long ago to recall it clearly, but I obviously had a good experience or I wouldn't have continued collecting her work. It's just taken me a while to get back to her, but I'm glad I did, however random this choice was for inclusion on my list. O'Brien's strength as a writer, aside from her clear, crisp prose is the insight into the characters she writes about, which she does very adroitly.

The story takes place over the course of only one week. Into the ordered lives of the Kernahan family steps Angèle Maury, the French cousin none of them knew about. Angèle is an actress touring Ireland with friends when she decides to set off on her own path and visit the place of her father's birth. Tom Kernahan left Waterpark House many years ago and married a French actress of the Comédie Française. There's a mystery surrounding his departure, a broken heart and failed relationship, and after his somewhat scandalous marriage to an actress he was not mentioned again.

Uncertain of the reception she'll receive Angèle finds her aunt Hannah a most gracious hostess and it's a full house at which she arrives. But while on the surface all is pristine and calm, emotions are going to be stirred and personalities upset only to be further unsettled by week's end. Even though Ireland will remain a neutral country nearly everyone will be affected by the call to war in one way or another.

Angèle falls in comfortably well with her cousins, she being much the same age and temperament as the three; Tom, Martin and Jo. Tom, as the eldest son, has had to take over the running of Waterpark after the early death of his father. Both Martin and Jo continued their studies abroad while Tom returned to responsibilities that take up much of his time leaving little left over for relationships of a romantic nature. He has a close relationship with his mother, and she dotes on him, perhaps too much so, though it's not had an ill effect on his character. If anything he is more loyal and responsible to his family. Martin has plans to return to Paris and his studies, and to the displeasure of her family Jo wants to enter the Convent. No matter that the Kernahans are Catholic, they'd prefer she chose some other path in life.

Although beautiful and vivacious Angèle is not fast or improper even though she is dedicated to the theater and leads a more bohemian lifestyle than that which is lived at Waterpark. From the first Martin is smitten with her and in his own quiet way, so too is Tom. While Angèle believes she will never marry, too caught up in her art, she understands she is falling for Tom. It's a conflicted love, however, as the love is she believes, just 'good enough'. But is it quite enough to survive the struggle for which their impending marriage will create when they declare it to Hannah and the rest of the family? For Hannah has other ideas for Tom's future and which bride he might choose. More importantly she depends on Tom even to the point of possessiveness. And so it is a battle between, what is termed in the introduction, two kinds of passion.

Being first cousins it's frowned upon in the Church for them to marry and they will require a special dispensation to do so. With the declaration of war an almost certainty the pressure to marry quickly in order for Angèle to return to France to check on her family one last time before settling down at Waterpark and Hannah's manipulations against the pair, however benign they may seem, means the pair is placed in an impossible situation.

I'm very impressed by this story and from what I've read it's not even considered her best, though very good indeed. Despite Hannah's meddlesome ways, she's not a villain, though certainly at times maddening. O'Brien's characters are complex and very human and easy to imagine them as living and breathing individuals. I'll definitely be returning to her work.

[Illiterate · Rating 2 out of 5]

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.”

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know what to make of this. I'll think on it. Tentatively give this 3 stars. This has a feel of The Brothers Karamazov about it. It made me wonder how much Dostoyevsky towers over Russian literature.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This quiet yet wonderful novel takes place in Ireland at the end of the summer of 1939. It centers around Angele Maury, a young French actress who takes a detour during a trip to visit her deceased father's side of the family at their estate in a small village. She becomes close to her cousins Tom, Martin, and Jo, but clashes with their mother, her aunt Hannah. Martin and Tom both fall in love with Angele, and her reciprocal feelings for one of them causes further conflict with Hannah.
The Last of Summer is beautifully written and has something of the texture and feeling of the best 19th century novels while being thoroughly of its own time. O'Brien does an amazing job of weaving in the tensions and anxieties created by the coming of war into the story, and even using them as a parallel for the emotional ecstasies, upheavals, and conflicts among the main characters. All of the characters are very well-drawn, and their interactions and relationships portrayed with keen insight.

[Jaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

This came as a disappointment to me after Doctor Zhivago. I really enjoyed some descriptions here, and the draft of the story that Serezha writes, but found myself quite lost in several places, maybe because it delved so deep into Serezha's mind that I didn't care enough (or simply was unable) to break down the metaphors. Perhaps my lack of knowledge about Russian history had something to do with it?

(If someone can share a link to a good analysis of this novella, I'd really appreciate it.)

[Richard Cripps · Rating 3 out of 5]

More poetry than prose: perhaps that is why it has such a variety of responses.
While the language is very beautiful, the narrative is extremely loose and the 'half-dreamt, half-remembered' style ends up becoming combative.
The second half ended up winning me over but by then the story was nearly finished and I left feeling unsatisfied.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like I'm missing something, maybe it was the translation, or maybe it's something I'll never get, not being able to read Pasternak in Russian. The introduction explained that this book is not a narrative, but 'loosely interwoven reminiscences. Once I got my head around that, I did enjoy some parts.

[Nick Traynor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not get it. I didn't understand the ending; I couldn't remember who Lemokh was, because it was so boring and difficult to read. There were phrases, metaphors, sentences and entire paragraphs that made no sense to me.

[The Lau Azure Door · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my favorite books i read when i was kinda young...during the hot humid summer nights at a pale light

[Jude Martyński · Rating 4 out of 5]

“'I know Chekhov and Dostoyevsky,' Mrs Arild began, winding her arms round the back of the bench and looking straight at Serezha. 'and I've been in Russia only five months. You're worse than the French. To believe in a woman's existence, you have to attribute to her some unpleasant secret. As though, in the lawful light she were something colourless like boiled water. But when she throws an obscene shadow on a screen, then it's another matter: you have no quarrel over that silhouette and think it beyond price. I have not yet seen the Russian country-side. But, in the cities, your weakness for shady alleys proves that you are not living your own life, and that each of you, in his own way, is straining to share someone else's. It's not that way in Denmark”.

“Serezha stood there, feeling glad and puzzled why one should play the fool when one could be a natural fool without trying”.

[Susanna Rautio · Rating 2 out of 5]

Näistä kansista löytyy sekalainen kokoelma Pasternakin tekstejä. Ensin on kaksi upeaa novellia Ljuversin lapsuus ja Viimeinen kesä. Niitä lukiessani uppouduin Pasternakin kaihoisaan ja lyyriseen maailmaan, jossa henkilöt lipuvat elämänsä läpi itseään suuremman kohtalon vietävinä.

Sitten on Turvakirja-niminen ja toinen hajanaisempi yritelmä omaelämänkerraksi, kirjailijan jälkisanat sekä ymmärtääkseni suomentajan oikaisuja väärin muistettuihin asioihin.

Oliko Pasternak Živagon, Nobelin palkinnon ja Neuvostoliitossa kokemiensa vaikeuksien takia niin kiinnostava henkilö, että tällaiselle ylijäämäpakille löytyi Suomessa lukijoita? Toki lopputuloksena rakentuu jonkinlainen kirjailijakuva.

Jälkisanoissa Pasternak itse on sitä mieltä, että hän on elämässään kirjoittanut vain yhden romaanin, johon hän on täysin tyytyväinen. Se kirja on tietysti upea klassikko Tohtori Živago. Olisikohan näin itsekriittinen kirjailija ollut ylpeä tästä sekakokoelmasta, jonka tekstien pirstaleita ei saa ilman kirjailijan elämää koskevaa taustatyötä liittymään toisiinsa.

Jos olet kiinnostunut Pasternakista tai kirjaharvinaisuuksista, voit lukea enemmän blogistani https://keltainenkirjasto.blogspot.co...

Ja kiitos, jos joku teistä librarianeista haluaa lisätä suomennoksen Goodreadsiin.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Summer is only 90-odd pages long in my Penguin Modern Classics edition of 1960, but it’s more than a short story. Titled Povest (A Tale) when first published in 1934, it’s not listed among Boris Pasternak’s works in the Russian edition of Wikipedia, suggesting that perhaps the original was never published in the USSR as a separate title. (As far as I can tell, that is, using Google Translate’s word сказка meaning fairy tale, fable or story). Maybe Povest was published in a journal or a collection, and only published separately as a book when it was translated in 1959 by George Reavey and published by Peter Owen in the afterglow of Pasternak’s Nobel Prize in 1959.
The first thing to say about the introduction by Pasternak’s sister Lydia Slater is that it’s more about legacy-building than about clarifying the story. There are a great many superlatives, and she quotes V.S. Pritchett as saying it is a concerto in prose. She says its central theme is poetry, the essence of which is the suffering woman.
Well, maybe it is. She was at Oxford in 1960, which was the year of Pasternak’s death, though I do not know whether when the book went to print he had already died (of lung cancer, see the cigar in his hand in his father’s sketch on the book’s cover?) People who read Russian may well agree with her comparison of his work with Tolstoy’s. But those of us reading the book now, knowing all the weight of Soviet history and the constraints under which he wrote, and making do with the English translation, may beg to differ. Because to me, The Last Summer seems to be—thematically—more than about poetry.
Slater’s florid assertions to protect Pasternak’s status as a great poet may be because she would have been well aware of Soviet outrage about Doctor Zhivago and the CIA’s machinations to ensure that Pasternak got the Nobel Prize. She would have known that Pasternak’s wife and daughter were vulnerable to retaliation for Dr Zhivago reaching the west (see Wikipedia re their prompt despatch to the Gulags after his death). Even from the safety of Oxford, it would have been imprudent for Slater to point out any veiled anti-Soviet allusions in The Last Summer.
And they are there, though it takes close reading to find them, in a book difficult to comprehend because it is so clouded by reminiscences loosely interwoven, cutting into each other, brilliant descriptions of people, situations, thunderstorms, and thoughts. I started it three times before I took out my journal and began making copious notes and slowly got the drift of it. By the look of the two- and three-star reviews at Goodreads, most readers struggle with it too.
The Last Summer is bookended by Serezha’s return from Moscow to his sister Natasha’s house in Ousolie in 1916, a heavily polluted salt-mining place not even granted town status until 1925. This date is significant, because it’s (prudently) before the October Revolution in 1917, but after the failed one of 1905. Natasha is depicted as having believed in the aims of the 1905 revolution and as far as she is concerned the revolution has only been postponed. Here she is:

Like all of them, Natasha believed that the most demanding cause of her youth had merely been postponed and that, when the hour struck, it would not pass her by. This belief explained all the faults of Natasha’s character. It explained her self-assurance, which was softened only by her complete ignorance of her defect. It also explained those traits of Natasha’s aimless righteousness and all-forgiving understanding, which inwardly illuminated her with an inexhaustible light and which yet did not correspond with anything in particular. (p.32)

Natasha, in other words, has no idea what she is in for. (Pasternak, writing in 1934, had by this time, seen Lenin come and go, and had time to see the Soviet state in action. Russia was becoming industrialised, the consequent crisis of agricultural distribution had failed to be ameliorated by collectivisation, and he had witnessed the acquisition of private homes and subsequent overcrowding that he writes about so well in Doctor Zhivago).
To see the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2018/11/07/t...

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the second paragraph of the opening page of The Last Summer, the author tells us that this novel—well, novella really—previously existed as a “novel in verse.” Within a few pages more, readers will readily agree with that admission, but will also wonder whether this prose story is literally a verbatim representation of the verse, simply without any telltale poetic structure! One other element that readers should not look for is plot—because there isn’t any!

With that said, this is a one-sitting, fairly pleasant read. It tells of an episode in the life of the protagonist, Serezha, who journeys from Moscow to visit his sister Natasha in Ousolie. Travel-exhausted, Serezha immediately follows his sister’s advice and takes a nap. But it is anything but restful. In fact, Serezha’s mind is a tumultuous amalgam of recollections of his tutoring, his romantic notions about women, and his desire to magically become wealthy enough to spend his time in philanthropic works. These troubled recollections as he sleeps are the substance of the narrative.

Serezha’s tutoring is undemanding, which leaves him plenty of time to fantasize about Anna Arild, the paid companion of his student’s mother, Mrs. Fresteln. Relations with Anna come across as unpredictable, for Anna is fickle about taking Serezha seriously. In his frustration (one would assume), Serezha has a far more predictable outcome with a prostitute, Sashka, even though it relies on Sashka’s tolerant and broadminded husband, who is often at home when Sashka is “working.”

In terms of creating a windfall of money, Serezha hits upon the idea of writing a masterpiece, and in his dream he begins to develop the story plot. The protagonist is a young man, Mr. Y, who puts himself for auction. As a demonstration of his worth, he shows he is a piano-playing genius as well as a captivating reader of blank verse. He tells the auction crowd that though “their love has touched him, they do not love him enough,” which is why he must “make himself a commodity of exchange.” The winning bid is by a principled philanthropist, who treats Mr. Y with extraordinary pampering, but who cannot reconcile with “owning” someone, and thus gives Mr. Y his freedom. The dreamed plot fizzles out here, leaving it unclear about exactly what happens, but there’s a strong hint that Mr. Y finds himself back to where he was before the auction.

Readers will undoubtedly enjoy the eloquent writing of this short tale, but the enjoyment will be tinged with perhaps mild dissatisfaction that the story “doesn’t really go anywhere.” There is no doubt that there are numerous allusions to the social and political conditions in Russia in the 1914-1916 time frame, knowledge of would likely enhance the pleasure or reading The Last Summer.

[Laura F. Madeira · Rating 1 out of 5]

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

[Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rather charming if slightly dated character piece, set in 1939 when a young French actress turns up unannounced at the country house of her Irish father's family. During the course of a week both brothers vie for her affections, while the matriarch tries to keep her at arms length. There is very little plot otherwise, but the setting and dialogue are wonderfully 'of the period' (this was written only a few years after it is set, in 1942) and the culmination rather touching and melancholy.