Ουέικφηλντ

by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Παλμύρα Ισμυρίδου (translator)

"...Διαβάζοντας το διήγημα, κάθε σύγχρονος αναγνώστης θα αναγνωρίσει την εικόνα του Κάφκα. Κυριαρχεί ο ίδιος μηχανισμός των ατέλειωτων αναδρομών, με τη διαφορά ότι ο Χώθορν, χωρίς να χάνει σε αγωνία η σε ένταση, μας προειδοποιεί εξαρχής ποιά θα είναι η κατάληξη του μύθου. Το Ουέικφηλντ είναι το καλύτερο διήγημα του Χώθορν και ίσως ένα από τα καλύτερα της λογοτεχνίας".
Jorge Luis Borges


Η φαντασία, με την ακριβή σημασία του όρου, δεν αποτελούσε μέρος των χαρισμάτων του Ουέικφηλντ. Με καρδιά ψυχρή, μα όχι διεφθαρμένη η άστατη, και μυαλό που ουδέποτε το τάραζαν θυελλώδεις σκέψεις ούτε το απασχολούσαν πρωτότυπες ιδέες, ποιός θα περίμενε ότι ο φίλος μας θα εδικαιούτο την πρώτη θέση μεταξύ των εκκεντρικών ανθρώπων με τις πιο παράδοξες ιδιοτροπίες;
Το ζεύγος ζούσε στο Λονδίνο. Με την πρόφαση ότι φεύγει σε ταξίδι, ο άντρας νοίκιασε ένα επιπλωμένο διαμέρισμα στον διπλανό δρόμο του σπιτιού του και, δίχως η συμβία και οι φίλοι του να γνωρίζουν τίποτα γι' αυτόν και δίχως να υπάρχει η παραμικρή αιτία για τέτοια αυτοεξορία, έμεινε εκεί περισσότερο από μία εικοσαετία. Στο διάστημα αυτό έβλεπε καθημερινά το σπίτι του και την κυρία Ουέικφηλντ, που την είχε εγκαταλείψει.

Genres: Short Stories, Classics, Fiction, American, Literature, Ebooks, 19th Century

32 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1835

About the author

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a 19th century American novelist and short story writer. He is seen as a key figure in the development of American literature for his tales of the nation's colonial history.

Shortly after graduating from Bowdoin College, Hathorne changed his name to Hawthorne. Hawthorne anonymously published his first work, a novel titled Fanshawe, in 1828. In 1837, he published Twice-Told Tales and became engaged to painter and illustrator Sophia Peabody the next year. He worked at a Custom House and joined a Transcendentalist Utopian community, before marrying Peabody in 1842. The couple moved to The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts, later moving to Salem, the Berkshires, then to The Wayside in Concord. The Scarlet Letter was published in 1850, followed by a succession of other novels. A political appointment took Hawthorne and family to Europe before returning to The Wayside in 1860. Hawthorne died on May 19, 1864, leaving behind his wife and their three children.

Much of Hawthorne's writing centers around New England and many feature moral allegories with a Puritan inspiration. His work is considered part of the Romantic movement and includes novels, short stories, and a biography of his friend, the United States President Franklin Pierce.

Reviews

[Bill Kerwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

First published in the New-England Magazine of May 1835, “Wakefield” is one of Hawthorne’s early masterpieces and a remarkably modern study of human alienation. Hawthorne observes, in clinical detail, the supposed true case of a London man called Wakefield, who—without apparent reason—decided not to come home one day, and instead chose to observe his wife’s behavior from a nearby apartment for a period of twenty years.

Hawthorne speculates that such a man must be “feeble-minded,” by which he means not intellectually weak but lacking the ability to command his own mental powers and therefore more susceptible to be gripped by one extraordinary random idea. Vanity, he believes, also plays a role: the desire to see how his wife will live her life when he—the center of it—is withdrawn. Mostly, though, he believes that the behavior of the average man is so bound up with the working of systems within systems that “by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place forever.”

Hawthorne’s description of the working of Wakefield’s mind is a fascinating one, and has much to tell us about the solitaries around us—including the lonely artists who choose “to step aside for a moment” to record the workings of our bustling world.

[Fernando · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Me he recluido; sin el menor propósito de hacerlo, sin la menor sospecha de que eso iba a ocurrirme. Me he convertido en un prisionero, me he encerrado en un calabozo y, ahora ya no doy con la llave, y aunque estuviera abierta la puerta, casi me daría miedo salir.” Nathaniel Hawthorne, carta a Henry Longfellow, 1837.

Borges le tenía especial afecto a este cuento. En una extensa conferencia sobre Nathaniel Hawthorne dictada en 1949 ahonda las conexiones de este personaje con lo que Franz Kafka perfeccionaría años más tarde.
La idea de Wakefield, su desaparición autoimpuesta y la posterior reclusión por veinte años en una casa muy cerca de donde vive su esposa, traza también para mí una similitud con personajes como Gregor Samsa de La Metamorfosis de Kafka (aunque en este caso no es él quien decide sino que no tiene elección) y Bartleby el Escribiente, de Herman Melville, con su "Preferiría no hacerlo".
La lectura de este relato en Borges dispara una teoría tan atractiva como inquietante que después desarrollaría en otro apartado de su libro "Otras inquisiciones":
"La circunstancia, la extraña circunstancia, de percibir en un cuento de Hawthorne, redactado a principios del siglo XIX, el sabor mismo de los cuentos de Kafka que trabajó a principios del siglo XX, no debe hacernos olvidar que el sabor de Kafka ha sido creado, ha sido determinado, por Kafka. Wakefield prefigura a Franz Kafka, pero éste modifica, y afina, la lectura de Wakefield. La deuda es mutua; un gran escritor crea a sus precursores. Los crea y de algún modo los justifica."
"Wakefield" elucubra también, a modo de parábola, sobre la potestad de ser artífice de nuestro propio destino.
Un gran cuento sobre los efectos de la alienación y los vicios de la soledad, así también sobre cómo a veces el ser humano toma decisiones totalmente extrañas en su vida y de cómo éstas lo condicionan para bien o para mal.
"En verdad, sólo somos sombras", afirma Hawthorne para fortalecer su idea.

[Guille · Rating 5 out of 5]

“… a pesar de que la creencia colectiva sea que cualquiera podría hacer algo similar, cada uno en su fuero interno sabe que no sería capaz de perpetrar una locura de tal calibre.”

Seguro que han jugado ustedes alguna vez. Alguien cuenta el armazón de una historia enigmática y el resto de jugadores tendrá que resolver el enigma a base de preguntas cuyas respuestas sean únicamente sí, no o indiferente. A esto parece jugar el narrador de este singular relato tras leer en el periódico la noticia de un extraño suceso en la vida de un matrimonio en nada diferente a cualquiera otro del Londres de la época (no teman la revelación o el destripe, es algo que se dice en la primera página del cuento).

“Fingiendo marcharse de viaje, el marido [Wakefield] se fue a vivir justo a la calle contigua a su propio domicilio y permaneció allí más de veinte años, sin que ni su mujer ni sus amigos supiesen nada de él (…) Durante todo aquel tiempo pudo contemplar su casa un día tras otro (…) Finalmente (…) entró una noche por la puerta tan tranquilo, como si solo se hubiera ausentado el día anterior, recuperando de nuevo su papel de amante esposo hasta la muerte.”

Con estos mimbres, el narrador invita a sus lectores a jugar con él en el interesante rompecabezas de un hecho al que el autor empieza dando visos de realidad — una noticia leída en el periódico—.

“¿Qué clase de hombre era Wakefield? Podemos crearnos nuestra propia idea con toda libertad.”

No les avanzaré nada acerca de la idea, más bien las ideas, que el narrador se hace acerca de la personalidad de Wakefield y de los porqués de su extraño comportamiento, aunque sí subrayaré nuevamente su esfuerzo para que, tal y como expone en la nota que encabeza mi comentario, demos por buena tal interpretación y, por ende, aceptemos la verosimilitud que el narrador concede a los hechos. El propio autor escribió al poeta Longfellow lo siguiente: «Me he recluido; sin el menor propósito de hacerlo, sin la menor sospecha de que eso iba a ocurrirme. Me he convertido en un prisionero, me he encerrado en un calabozo, y ahora ya no doy con la llave, y aunque estuviera abierta la puerta, casi me daría miedo salir».

Sin embargo, la grandeza del relato es que en su planteamiento está el ser inagotable. La historia no se agota en sí misma, intuimos que hay más o qué hay otra cosa, quizás algo tan simple e inexplicable como el típico y tópico caso del hombre tranquilo y correcto, aunque algo silencioso y solitario, que un día cualquiera se levanta y acribilla a veinte personas en la hamburguesería de su pueblo. Un simple click, un cortocircuito neuronal que hace de nosotros una persona totalmente distinta.

Tienen razón, esta posibilidad le quita magia a la historia, pero no me digan que no deja de ser inquietante tal posibilidad. Y hablando de temas inquietantes, fantásticas las ilustraciones al relato que ha creado Ana Juan para la edición de Nórdica. Ella se encarga de dar a la esposa de Wakefield el protagonismo que no tiene en el cuento, aunque solo sea para reflejar el paso del tiempo.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

A man, Wakefield, separates from his wife for 20 years. He lives in a parallel street. Then he returns. Well, this is a very modern story by yesterdays's standards. Why did Wakefield act this way? What about his psychological motivation? Interesting classic Hawthorne. Highly recommended!

[Cláudia Azevedo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andava há tanto tempo para ler esta história e, afinal, era só isto? A ideia é brilhante, genial, mas as palavras souberam-me a pouco. É o que dá alimentar demasiadas expectativas.

[Blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un hombre llamado Wakefield le dice a su esposa que saldrá de viaje y regresará en una semana... ¡Pero tarda 20 años en hacerlo! Lo increíble es que durante todo ese tiempo vive a tan solo unos metros de distancia, observando a su esposa en secreto.

¿Qué hay detrás de la sorprendente decisión de este hombre? ¿Su despedida es una simulación? ¿Por qué Wakefield se autoaisla de la sociedad? ¿Locura? ¿Ansias de libertad? ¿Frustración? ¿Egoísmo? ¿Qué hay oculto en esta historia?

Sin duda una historia con muchas interrogantes, que no nos deja indiferentes...

[Paula Mota · Rating 4 out of 5]

# short stories in the shortest month #28
# bartleby

Wakefield, de Nathaniel Hawthorne

“Wakefield – esse homem inventado por Hawthorne, esse marido que se afasta de repente e sem razão de casa e da mulher e vive durante 20 anos (numa rua próxima, para todos desconhecido, pois julgam-no morto) uma existência solitária e despojada de qualquer significado – é um claro antecedente de muitos dos personagens de Walser, todos esses esplêndidos zeros à esquerda que querem desaparecer, apenas desaparecer, esconder-se na anónima realidade. (…) Falar – parecem dizer-nos Wakefield e Bartleby – é pactuar com o sem-sentido do existir.”
- “Bartleby & Companhia”, Enrique Vila-Matas –

Escrito quase 20 anos antes da famosa novela de Herbert Melville, Wakefield é um Bartleby avant la lettre, mais uma ave-rara cuja comportamento constitui uma incógnita.

Este homem tentou cortar, ou antes, aconteceu cortarem-se os laços que o ligavam ao mundo – no fundo, foi como se se tivesse eclipsado da superfície da Terra – tendo abandonado o seu lugar e os seus privilégios entre os homens, sem todavia entrar para a companhia dos homens.

Creio que todos temos a curiosidade de saber como reagiriam os nossos entes queridos se desaparecêssemos ou até se morrêssemos, mas não temos o sadismo de os pôr à prova. Wakefield, no narcisismo que a mulher lhe reconhece, vai mais longe, e uma brincadeira que devia durar uns dias transforma-se numa ausência de 20 anos.

Não te atrevas a ausentar-te, por uma semana que seja, de ao pé da tua esposa fidelíssima. Ai de ti se ela, por um momento que seja, te dá como morto, ou perdido, ou dela apartado por tempo indefinido! Aperceber-te-ás, então, de que nela se operou uma mudança perene. Estes cortes nas relações humanas são perigosos, não pela dor que provocam – mas mais pela rapidez com que suturam!

[Ana Pereira · Rating 4 out of 5]

As Hawthorne mentioned, Wakefield is indeed “food for thought”, so I was only able to make some sense out of this short story after I read it twice and exchanged ideas with some colleagues.
Firstly, Hawthorne doesn’t put much in this story – we are given a direct psychological picture of Wakefield, and, through Mrs. Wakefield actions, we can guess her character. Behind that, the narration is really ambiguous – why did Wakefield left home? Why didn’t he come back? Why did he stayed twenty years away from his wife, even though he was secretly living across her street? What was Mrs. Wakefield reaction when, twenty years later, her husband barged in the house they used to share?
I think all Humans have a wish to know what will happen after our death – how will others carry on with their lives after we’re gone? The ones who loved us – will they forget us? Will they move on? Although Wakefield was not a mean man, he is said to be “selfish” and have a “cold (…) heart”, with a tendency to occupy his mind “in long and lazy musings that had no purpose”; so, if I am allowed to fill in Hawthorne’s ambiguity, this might be Wakefield’s wish – to see “how his exemplary wife will endure her widowhood”.
Even though Wakefield was planning his comeback, to witness “his wife clap her hand for joy, on beholding the middle-aged Mr. Wakefield”, he delayed it for very long. Perplexed with the changes that took place during his absence, Wakefield might have felt that he didn’t belong there anymore, that his wife wouldn’t embrace him in his very own house, and that, somehow, everyone had forgotten him and carried on with their lives, while he became a stranger to the ones he held dear.
In the end, that’s what this American classic tells us – life can - and it will – carry on without us. If we isolate ourselves, if we allow ourselves to be left behind, life will outran us, and we will end up alone and forgotten.

[Erick Abanto López · Rating 4 out of 5]

No sé qué le vio Borges a esta historia (espero saberlo pronto) para decir que este era el más grande artilugio narrativo, pero es verdad que es un cuento brillante. Lo he leído dos veces y me sigue pareciendo misterioso, elíptico, impredecible.

Algo se esconde en esta historia, sabemos que algo hay detrás de la inesperada decisión del Sr. Wakefield, y de todo lo que ocurre después, y un indicio es el último párrafo, la moraleja, y una que otra frase sugestiva entre sus páginas, pero cuando estamos a punto de nombrarlo una parte de él siempre se nos escapa.

Por las últimas líneas podemos decir que el truco está en la verdad del eterno retorno, en el simulacro de la despedida, en el hiato que es toda ausencia. Digamos que, más o menos, salvando las fechas, pareciera ser un remake oscuro y desencantado del célebre poema de Kavafis «Ithaca».

Pero quiero creer que hay algo más fino aquí. Es cierto que la moraleja nos habla de la ficción que supone la idea de libertad en un universo tan reglado como el nuestro, donde hasta la lluvia tiene su ley, pero creo que el asunto también puede verse desde la ruptura y la frustración. Desde la imposibilidad de renunciar o destruir el pasado, o desde la aporía de nacer por voluntad propia. Es imposible enterrar el mundo y crear uno nuevo. El pasado es tan fuerte y la utopía tan inmensa que cualquier intento de ruptura y de creación se resume en un pequeño hiato, un viaje, una aventura, una elipsis.

Pero también hay algo de broma y crueldad. De jugar a ser testigo, a mirar la ausencia propia. De intentar salir del rol y atestiguar, de querer no ser el protagonista por un rato y sólo mirar. ¿Pero mirar qué? ¿Cómo se llena el vacío que uno deja? ¿Cómo se consuela la gente ante la pérdida? ¿Cómo se deshace el encanto?

Quiero leer más a Hawthorne y volver después a este cuento. Me ha gustado, sencillo pero sutil.



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[Tristram Shandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Preferring Not to, Part I: Wakefield

When I was a boy, one of my favourite episodes in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, next to the famous fence painting fiddle, was how Tom Sawyer and his friends pretended to have drowned and how they sneaked into church in order to “enjoy” their own funerals. I admit it was a guilty pleasure I vicariously derived from these scenes since I could not help thinking that Tom was very mean in inflicting anguish and pain on his Aunt Polly, but yet I could understand Tom’s curiosity, or should I say vanity, of finding out how people would react to the tidings of his death. Would they be very sad? Would they be grief-stricken, inconsolable, and for how long? Honestly, which ones of us have never ever revelled in similar reflections and idle musings? Then there is Frank Capra’s wonderful movie It’s a Wonderful Life, in which an angel shows an average guy how his own life has touched, and improved, the lives of everyone around him and what would have happened if he had never existed at all. The moral to be gleaned from this is very edifying, and very flattering into the bargain – namely that each and every one of us matters, or can matter if they choose to.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story Wakefield from 1837, all in all, comes to a darker conclusion, or proves the same point ex negativo - depending how you interpret it. Apart from that, it is a rather odd story, and the narrator purports to have derived the facts from a real life incident. A middle-aged married man named Wakefield one day leaves his home, apparently with the intention of scaring his wife by staying away for a week instead of, as he told her, for a few days, and takes lodgings in a neighbouring street in order to see how she takes it. When he witnesses signs of grief in his wife, he has half a mind of returning but somehow he never does, and twenty years go by before, one night, he returns home, on the spur of the moment. Here the story ends.

It’s not a very spectacular tale in terms of plot and twisted ending but it is one that got stuck in my mind and deeply impressed me when I first read it some twenty years ago, although it was not for the same reasons that made me enjoy the above-mentioned Tom Sawyer episode as a young reader. Hawthorne tells us that this story provides us with “much food for thought”, and I am sure this is one of the darkest, most enigmatic tales he – usually a man of simple allegory – has ever written, and, most tellingly, Hawthorne also rushes to the following interpretation:

”Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another and to a whole, that by stepping aside for a moment a man exposes himself to a fearful risk of losing his place for ever. Like Wakefield, he may become, as it were, the outcast of the universe.”

In other words, the example of Wakefield teaches us to stay involved in life’s multifarious business, to keep swimming – preferably with the tide? – and to fulfil our duties towards society. I hope I am not doing Hawthorne any injustice by assuming that this is the reading of the story he prefers. Let us look at how he describes Wakefield for a start:

”With a cold but not depraved nor wandering heart, and a mind never feverish with riotous thoughts nor perplexed with originality, who could have anticipated that our friend would entitle himself to a foremost place among the doers of eccentric deeds? Had his acquaintances been asked who was the man in London the surest to perform nothing to-day which should be remembered on the morrow, they would have thought of Wakefield. Only the wife of his bosom might have hesitated. She, without having analyzed his character, was partly aware of a quiet selfishness that had rusted into his inactive mind; of a peculiar sort of vanity, the most uneasy attribute about him; of a disposition to craft which had seldom produced more positive effects than the keeping of petty secrets hardly worth revealing; and, lastly, of what she called a little strangeness sometimes in the good man. This latter quality is indefinable, and perhaps non-existent.“

Wakefield’s heart is apparently not capable of very strong emotions, which would make him a reliable, regular, though not too hearty husband. There are a streak of vanity and some routine selfishness in his personality, and while he is not exactly prone to originality and determination in following his thoughts, he is not wholly free from whims. We are never expressly given the reason for his absenting himself from his hearth although we may safely assume that he does it with a view to deriving some kind of emotional gratification from seeing his wife worry about him. This is probably not due to sadism but to selfishness, in that his scheme would allow him to receive a token of his wife’s love without having to betray his own feelings and to avow his own love for her. Wakefield is not disappointed because there are certain signs of grief in his wife but after the inevitable crisis and in the course of the following years she turns into “a settled widow”, “a portly female” “with the placid mien of settled widowhood”. Now is this very flattering to Wakefield? Be that as it may, that is probably the way the cookie crumbles: People get used to everything eventually, and a woman who has been married to a man not overly-generous in feeling may not be expected to wane and waste herself away in grief. Unlike the protagonist in Frank Capra’s movie, Wakefield has to face the truth that he is not as irreplaceable and important as he thought:

”Poor Wakefield! little knowest thou thine own insignificance in this great world”,

moralizes the narrator portentously. And yet, having got himself into this absurd and futile situation, which was not even premeditated in point of duration and extent, Wakefield falls into a new rut and finds it difficult to alter his life, to return to his homestead. Is it shame and dread that retain him? Probably neither, and even less so is it the urge to enjoy the company of others, for all these years he – as his wife – seems to be living all on his own, without aim and purpose, which is probably the most awful particular of the whole story. Nay, it is rather a momentary feeling of uncomfortableness that prompts him into darkening his own doorstep again, where the narrator wisely drops the curtain on the scene and leaves it to us to picture the ensuing scene:

”One evening, in the twentieth year since he vanished, Wakefield is taking his customary walk toward the dwelling which he still calls his own. It is a gusty night of autumn, with frequent showers that patter down upon the pavement and are gone before a man can put up his umbrella. Pausing near the house, Wakefield discerns through the parlor-windows of the second floor the red glow and the glimmer and fitful flash of a comfortable fire. On the ceiling appears a grotesque shadow of good Mrs. Wakefield. The cap, the nose and chin and the broad waist form an admirable caricature, which dances, moreover, with the up-flickering and down-sinking blaze almost too merrily for the shade of an elderly widow. At this instant a shower chances to fall, and is driven by the unmannerly gust full into Wakefield's face and bosom. He is quite penetrated with its autumnal chill. Shall he stand wet and shivering here, when his own hearth has a good fire to warm him and his own wife will run to fetch the gray coat and small-clothes which doubtless she has kept carefully in the closet of their bedchamber? No; Wakefield is no such fool. He ascends the steps—heavily, for twenty years have stiffened his legs since he came down, but he knows it not.”

It’s the creature comforts of a warm fire, a soft armchair and the cosseting of his wife that make him wend his way home – exactly the appeal of a mediocre life of sluggishness that has hitherto determined most of his actions, and thus we may assume that Hawthorne wanted to use the example of Wakefield to expound on the duties man has to society and on the importance of having a purpose in life.

And yet … I must confess that Wakefield, for all his “sluggishness” – as the narrator terms it – and the base motives that seem to inspire him, holds a strange fascination for me. Being a spectator to life, getting out of the daily hustle, going into hiding and seeing what will come of it, being an island – all these seem ghastly, awful thoughts, but still ever-whispering temptations.

[Vaishali · Rating 5 out of 5]

He told his wife he'd be back in a week... then returned in 20 years... but all along had been just a few doors away.

A curious premise teased by the enormously honest intellect that is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Very rarely do writers delve into the depths of a character's psyche so wholistically. BLEW ME AWAY!

Said it once, and I'll say it again : Mr. Hawthorne, you are this nation's very, very best.



*** Read expertly by the great Bob Neufeld at:
https://ia902600.us.archive.org/31/it...



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[Repix Pix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesante.

[Λίνα Θωμάρεη · Rating 3 out of 5]

Το συγκεκριμένο σούπερ μίνι βιβλιαράκι των 12 σελίδων (25 μαζί με Σημείωση συγγραφέα και βιογραφικό σημείωμα /κριτική από τον Borges) είναι η αστεία ιστορία ενός άνδρα που μια μέρα αποφασίζει να παρατήσει την γυναίκα του για μια βδομάδα και να πάει να μείνει σε ένα σπίτι που είχε μισθώσει και βρισκόταν στο παραπάνω δρόμο από την κύρια οικία του και κάπως έτσι καταφέρνει ο μπαγασάκος η μια βδομάδα να γίνουν 20 χρόνια. 12 σελίδες με αρχή - μέση - τέλος, δεν σου αφήνει καμία απορία για το πριν και το μετά.

Ενδιαφέρων ανάγνωσμα με αφηγητή τον συγγραφέα και συνεπιβάτη τον αναγνώστη ο Χόθορν σε παίρνει από το χέρι και σε κάνει μάρτυρα στην απίστευτη ιστορία του Κου Ουέικφηλντ.


3 αστεράκια για τον Μπαγασάκο τον Κύριο Ουέικφηλντ και για όλους τους κύριους Ουέικφηλντ που (πχ) πάνε για τσιγάρα και δεν γυρνάνε ποτέ ....

ΥΓ. Διαβάζετε σε 1 ώρα. :P

[Bren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es un relato realmente corto pero intenso, cuando leí la sinopsis pensé que trataba del típico acto de un hombre de “voy por los cigarros” y no regresa nunca a su casa.

Bueno tiene algo de eso, pero la motivación de Wakefield para irse, la manera en que lo hace, el reflejo de la inmensidad de su egoísmo y egolatría sumado a su tremenda estupidez es lo que refleja este pequeño relato.

¿A cuantas personas no les habrá pasado por la cabeza eso de “que pasara si un día me muero? ¿cómo actuarán las personas que me rodean el día de mi funeral?” Si bien esta no es la motivación de Wakefield, de alguna manera termina sucediendo para luego venir y darse contra la pared, no hay vuelta atrás y no hay reivindicación para este personaje, pero no porque no la haya si no como castigo a su enorme cobardía.

Me encanta leer cosas donde con tan pocas páginas y palabras se nos entrega una gran calidad narrativa y de historia, este sin duda es un relato que vale la pena leer.

Las imágenes en esta edición son realmente buenas, si bien no son muchas, reflejan muy vivamente lo que establece el relato, una edición preciosa.

[José Cruz Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s prose is nothing less than breathtaking. I’d argue that—and this is probably an impopular opinion—he’s a better writer than Edgar Allan Poe. I can see why Poe has enjoyed more popularity throughout the years: he’s more versatile, and wrote poems in addition to his wildly popular tales (amongst other reasons). Nevertheless, the serious reader—and, most of all, those who study literature—will recognize Hawthorne as the superior artist. He can leave you in awe with one sentence, and his elaborate syntax is reminiscent of Henry James, another virtuoso of the English language.

[Isthar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relato pequeño que sin decir demasiado te proporciona tantas preguntas sobre los protagonistas y sobre la vida misma. Hay muchos cabos sueltos, pero no interesan al autor. Lo que quiere es señalar lo vacío de la existencia, lo absurdo de algún comportamiento, lo retorcidos que podemos ser o, quizás, como no sabemos reconducir nuestras decisiones una vez que se ven equivocadas. Es también una narración sobre la huella que dejamos en los demás.
La edición de Nórdica -bilingüe e ilustrada- es un plus para este breve relato o disertación de Nathaniel Hawthorne. Traducido por María José Chuliá e ilustrado a blanco y negro, de forma brumosa, por Ana Juan.

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wakefield ha desaparecido: ya no se lo ve en su casa ni en el trabajo.

Tal vez, si está por ahí, a Wakefield le surja la curiosidad: ¿Qué efectos producirá su desaparición?

Yendo un poco más allá: ¿Qué pasará con la vida de nuestras personas cercanas después de nuestra muerte? ¿Qué recuerdo dejaremos?

Un excelente cuento de Hawthorne.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Min · Rating 3 out of 5]

The usage of first person omniscient plays an interesting role within Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Wakefield." The story opens with the narrator recollecting his introduction to this odd story of Wakefield. The narrator provides no explanation of himself, yet his assumption that "none of us would perpetrate such a folly(355)" subtly suggests the narrator's presumption of a certain 'natural' human mode of conduct. As the story unravels, the reader grows increasingly conscious of the oddity of the first person narrator. Dialogue is presented without distinction via use of apostrophes("Dear woman! Will she die?(358)", making it hard to discern the narrator's voice from Wakefield's.  

 The narrator freely wanders, entering and exiting Mr. Wakefield’s life. The following sentence emphasizes the necessity of the first person narrator as a witness to the existence of Mr. Wakefield: "We must hurry after him, along the street, ere he lose his individuality, and melt into the great mass of London life(356)." As the narrator remains safely veiled behind a narrative, readers are stripped of the ability to construct a different idea of Wakefield's motives behind his actions. Wakefield is belittled, beaten, battered into absolute passivity: "Little knowest thou thine own insignificance in this great world!(356)" Time and again, Wakefield is invaded by a narrator who assumes more knowledge of Wakefield than Wakefield himself ("But this is a secret from himself(357)"). 

 Yet, the story ends with the narrator stating, "We will not follow our friend across the threshold.(360)" The narrator, who has so persistently followed Mr. Wakefield, finally steps away. It is in the nudity of this moment that the reader may finally begin an honest communication with Mr. Wakefield. Freed of the fetters of a predetermined narrative stands a story of one man's bravery to venture into the unknown. "Amid the seeming confusion of our mysterious world, individuals are so nicely adjusted to a system, and systems to one another, and to a whole, that, by stepping aside for a moment, a man exposes himself to a fearful risk to losing his place forever(360)."  

[Elianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uno de los atrevimientos maritales más extravagantes que me pueda imaginar..!

¿Qué pensaba y qué sentía Wakefield el día que dijo a su esposa (con quien vivía un sosegado día a día) que salía a un corto viaje de trabajo, cuando en realidad había alquilado una habitación en una calle próxima para presenciar su propia desaparición por cierto período de tiempo..?
¿Sintió escrúpulos, tristeza o angustia al ver día a día a su esposa o amigos preguntándose por él?, empezando a creerle muerto inclusive? .., ¿Cuántas veces habrá pensado regresar con alguna excusa y retomar su vida?, y cuánto tiempo estaba dispuesto a prolongar este experimento?

¿Será que los humanos pensamos que somos los protagonistas de un mundo que creemos nuestro?

La premisa de esta historia escrita por Nathaniel Hawthorne en 1835 me ha parecido excelente, pero como es un relato corto, todas las zonas grises de los personajes no se podían mostrar en su más alta construcción. Así que ahora quiero leer la versión de Doctorow y La Mujer de Wakefield, y ver la película del 2017 con Bryan Cranston por supuesto.

[Enrique · Rating 5 out of 5]

¡¡Eso si que es una broma!! 20 años de nada.
Vamos a quedarnos con lo que tiene de simpático este auténtico drama existencial. Por referencias de otras lecturas casi conocía Wakefield, pero no lo había leído.
Un análisis complejo del cuento, de su profundidad y la inquietud que provoca, llevaría más extensión que el propio cuento, que es muy breve y muy bueno.
Su lectura me recordó a tipos tan curiosos y atomentados de la literatura mundial como Bartleby o Conejo de Updike, que salió a comprar tabaco y ya sabemos lo que pasó.

[Ayleen Julio · Rating 5 out of 5]

A veces, la cuestión del narrar no se remite al qué, sino al cómo se narra. Y en este cuento Hawthorne logra a través de una historia simple, dar cuenta de la complejidad de un personaje atravesado por una gran soledad a pesar de estar en medio de la multitud.
Otro escritor del que me enamoro.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 Extra:
A dull middle-aged man plots to temporarily leave home and then spy on his wife to see the effect. Stars David Haig.

[Nuria · Rating 4 out of 5]

Relato con moraleja. La estupidez de la mano de la vanidad y el egoísmo en el personaje de Wakefield son la mezcla perfecta en esta pequeña gran obra.

[Monica abarca melo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tan pequeño relato que, aún así, muestra la insignificancia de la vida y el egoísmo cruel de los hombres.

[Esther Mateo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Esta edición es una joya, me ha encantado. Breve y con unas ilustraciones preciosas.

[Carolina Veras · Rating 4 out of 5]

La cara de la señora Wakefield debió ser todo un poema!!!🤣🤣🤣

Tafur voice: ¡Buenas noches, mister Hyde! 😌✌🏻

[Lorena Vides Galiano · Rating 4 out of 5]

¿Y si Mrs. Wakefield decidió no verlo? Un amor hegemónico, conservador, de ricos transgredido por una decisión profundamente erótica y pasional. Léanlo pensando en el juego de ella, siempre.

[Clara Obligado · Rating 5 out of 5]

En castellano hay una buena edición en Nórdica, bilingüe

[Mariola · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha atrapado totalmente la actuación absurda del protagonista, ¿Se le fue de la mano una broma? ¿Afán de protagonismo?, ¿Un problema mental?.. En cualquier caso me pareció una faena para su pobre mujer.