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Сад
Роман Магнуса Флорина "Сад" (1995) - сплав документальности и фантазии. Его главный герой, Карл Линней, далек от своего реального прообраза, хотя повествование и насыщено фактами, восходящими к биографии всемирно известного ученого.
Тема романа - человек перед лицом природы. Кто он? Творец, вдохновенный импровизатор или создатель Системы, грозящей поглотить все живое?
Магнус Флорин - лауреат премии Шведской академии за 2001 год.
Тема романа - человек перед лицом природы. Кто он? Творец, вдохновенный импровизатор или создатель Системы, грозящей поглотить все живое?
Магнус Флорин - лауреат премии Шведской академии за 2001 год.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1995
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 7, 2023
The Garden (2019) is an interesting take on Carl Linnaeus's biography, with philosophical and literary ambitions. In his novella, Magnus Florin focuses on Linnaeus's friendship with a gardener, Petrus Arctædius. Their bond was remarkable right from the start: The first handshake was followed by animated conversation about stones, plants and animals. Observations were exchanged and what the one did not know, the other did not hesitate to tell him. They were like two siblings.
Nonetheless, there are obvious differences in the way the scientist and the gardener perceive nature and the world in general. Petrus Arctædius's holds a more practical, more intuitive, more pragmatic outlook: he perceives things for what they are in themselves - and for their beauty or usefulness. I think the author intended this juxtaposition as the engine of the whole story but the contrast turned out slightly too obvious and vast to make the book dynamic.
Despite this, I loved the poetic aspect of the novella, the way it conveys the rhythm of passing years, with some recurring points as a frame, for example, Linnaeus's birthday (23rd May) and his name day (28th January). The Garden's timeline is nonlinear and it is based on biographical fragments. They are like puzzle pieces the readers are supposed to arrange. It is an oneiric story: we are exposed to image after image and they are rather disjointed.
I could not help but notice the odd dualism of the style: some parts are concise and simple, almost in a Twitteresque way: It is muddy autumn. It is not warm, it is not cold. Sometimes they sound like haikus: The days pass. Autumn. Smell of rusty nails in the cold mornings. At the same time, there are passages which look like quotes from Linnaeus's works or their summaries, slyly pretending to be parts of dialogues. Unfortunately, this stark stylistic contrast annoyed me.
The Garden is a beautiful, sometimes touching and lyrical, illustration and encapsulation of Carl Linnaeus's theories. Truth be told, I was much more interested in him as a person though and feel a bit disappointed in this area. Magnus Florin's novella leaves me with more questions than answers. But maybe that is the way it should be?
The Bottom Of The Garden by Debra Sutton.
Nonetheless, there are obvious differences in the way the scientist and the gardener perceive nature and the world in general. Petrus Arctædius's holds a more practical, more intuitive, more pragmatic outlook: he perceives things for what they are in themselves - and for their beauty or usefulness. I think the author intended this juxtaposition as the engine of the whole story but the contrast turned out slightly too obvious and vast to make the book dynamic.
Despite this, I loved the poetic aspect of the novella, the way it conveys the rhythm of passing years, with some recurring points as a frame, for example, Linnaeus's birthday (23rd May) and his name day (28th January). The Garden's timeline is nonlinear and it is based on biographical fragments. They are like puzzle pieces the readers are supposed to arrange. It is an oneiric story: we are exposed to image after image and they are rather disjointed.
I could not help but notice the odd dualism of the style: some parts are concise and simple, almost in a Twitteresque way: It is muddy autumn. It is not warm, it is not cold. Sometimes they sound like haikus: The days pass. Autumn. Smell of rusty nails in the cold mornings. At the same time, there are passages which look like quotes from Linnaeus's works or their summaries, slyly pretending to be parts of dialogues. Unfortunately, this stark stylistic contrast annoyed me.
The Garden is a beautiful, sometimes touching and lyrical, illustration and encapsulation of Carl Linnaeus's theories. Truth be told, I was much more interested in him as a person though and feel a bit disappointed in this area. Magnus Florin's novella leaves me with more questions than answers. But maybe that is the way it should be?
The Bottom Of The Garden by Debra Sutton.
March 12, 2023
калейдоскоп, кусочки и баечки, мелкое очарование и крупицы узнавания, бисер и фантики, от которых вспоминаются то Киньяр и таблички Апронении Авиции, то похождения героев Хармса, то мелкая аккуратность Дерека Джармена, который выходит в свой сад поутру.
тут герой - не совсем настоящий, игрушечный Карл Линней, у него есть сад, и садовник, и ученики, и знакомый часовщик. так и ждёшь, что следующий кусочек начнётся со слов «Карл Линней очень любил детей», но нет.
на любителя текст, какое счастье, что я этот самый любитель
тут герой - не совсем настоящий, игрушечный Карл Линней, у него есть сад, и садовник, и ученики, и знакомый часовщик. так и ждёшь, что следующий кусочек начнётся со слов «Карл Линней очень любил детей», но нет.
на любителя текст, какое счастье, что я этот самый любитель
October 15, 2016
I hadn’t heard of Magnus Florin’s The Garden before spotting it in the library, but when I slid its small form out from where it was sandwiched on the shelf, its premise intrigued me and I added it to the large pile already finding breathing room in my arms. Florin’s book was first published in Sweden in 1995, and has ‘long been regarded there as a classic of contemporary literature’. The edition which I read, printed by the small press Vagabond Voices in Glasgow, has been translated into English by Harry Watson. Florin’s prose is deemed ‘brave’ and ‘colourful’, and the book is proclaimed as ‘a work of imagination of intrigue, unafraid to question the shape of our world and the roots of existence’.
Before I began, I was expecting to be able to draw some parallels between this and Kristina Carlsson’s Mr Darwin’s Gardener, which was published a couple of years ago by the wonderful Peirene Press. Whilst it deals with different figures - one Charles Darwin, and the other Carl Linnaeus - there are many themes in common, and even the structures share some similarities. The Garden presents a fictionalised account of Linnaeus’ life, the leading figure of the Swedish Enlightenment, whose classifications of plants and animals are still used in biology.
Linnaeus and his scientific counterpart in Sweden, Petrous Arctaedius, ‘imagined everything in the world divided into two halves. The hard things in one half and the soft things in another. The fixed and the moveable. The annual and the perennial. What had no tail and what had a tail. That which was fast and that which was slow. The two-legged and the four-legged’. The pair take a straightforward approach to classification; they decide to simply halve the animals and plants to give one another a pool to work from: ‘Arctaedius took the amphibians, the reptiles, the frogs and toads and the fish. Linnaeus took the birds and the insects, the mammals and the stones. Along with the plants’.
Florin denotes the vast differences between Linnaeus and his gardener, the latter of whom ‘perceives things for what they are in themselves - and for their beauty or usefulness’. The pair ‘often find themselves in dialogue, but rarely understand one another’. For me, the gardener was a shadowy figure; Linnaeus also only came to life in his fictionalised form in the sections in which his young siblings are taken ill, and when he himself is suffering.
Florin’s use of imagery and sense of place are deftly crafted, and there are certainly some lovely ideas here: ‘Linnaeus, awake, steps outside, strolls to his grove. He hangs pairs of green Kungsholm glasses as bells on the branches of an oak, an elm and an ash in order to listen to the jingling caused by the wind when it rises. They are his Aeolian beakers, his mind-harps of glass. But this morning the wind is still, and the bells are motionless’. Watson’s translation is nice and fluid; the prose is intelligent, and the patterns of dialogue interesting. The novella, which runs to just ninety pages, is told in slim fragments, which do not lead seamlessly from one to another. In fact, the overall feel is a little disjointed. Whilst the story which Florin presents is fascinating, especially with its roots in reality, the structure makes it feel too fragmented to connect with. The Garden is an interesting tale, but overall, it is a little underwhelming.
Before I began, I was expecting to be able to draw some parallels between this and Kristina Carlsson’s Mr Darwin’s Gardener, which was published a couple of years ago by the wonderful Peirene Press. Whilst it deals with different figures - one Charles Darwin, and the other Carl Linnaeus - there are many themes in common, and even the structures share some similarities. The Garden presents a fictionalised account of Linnaeus’ life, the leading figure of the Swedish Enlightenment, whose classifications of plants and animals are still used in biology.
Linnaeus and his scientific counterpart in Sweden, Petrous Arctaedius, ‘imagined everything in the world divided into two halves. The hard things in one half and the soft things in another. The fixed and the moveable. The annual and the perennial. What had no tail and what had a tail. That which was fast and that which was slow. The two-legged and the four-legged’. The pair take a straightforward approach to classification; they decide to simply halve the animals and plants to give one another a pool to work from: ‘Arctaedius took the amphibians, the reptiles, the frogs and toads and the fish. Linnaeus took the birds and the insects, the mammals and the stones. Along with the plants’.
Florin denotes the vast differences between Linnaeus and his gardener, the latter of whom ‘perceives things for what they are in themselves - and for their beauty or usefulness’. The pair ‘often find themselves in dialogue, but rarely understand one another’. For me, the gardener was a shadowy figure; Linnaeus also only came to life in his fictionalised form in the sections in which his young siblings are taken ill, and when he himself is suffering.
Florin’s use of imagery and sense of place are deftly crafted, and there are certainly some lovely ideas here: ‘Linnaeus, awake, steps outside, strolls to his grove. He hangs pairs of green Kungsholm glasses as bells on the branches of an oak, an elm and an ash in order to listen to the jingling caused by the wind when it rises. They are his Aeolian beakers, his mind-harps of glass. But this morning the wind is still, and the bells are motionless’. Watson’s translation is nice and fluid; the prose is intelligent, and the patterns of dialogue interesting. The novella, which runs to just ninety pages, is told in slim fragments, which do not lead seamlessly from one to another. In fact, the overall feel is a little disjointed. Whilst the story which Florin presents is fascinating, especially with its roots in reality, the structure makes it feel too fragmented to connect with. The Garden is an interesting tale, but overall, it is a little underwhelming.
August 17, 2008
Линней и все-все-все.
Сказки про шведского Винни-Пуха (которым неожиданно оказывается Карл Линней) в изумительном издании Ивана Лимбаха.
"садовник говорит, что может дать линнею в руку кое-что для него незримое, хотя все остальные люди на свете отлично это видят. линней не верит. садовник упорствует. линней тоже.
тогда садовник подносит линн��еву руку к его левому уху и зажимает мочку меж его большим и указательным пальцем. а потом спрашивает:
- ты видешь своё ухо?
линней хочет сказать: всё так просто? но молчит.
садовник:
- все его видят, а ты нет."
магнус флорин
"сад"
Сказки про шведского Винни-Пуха (которым неожиданно оказывается Карл Линней) в изумительном издании Ивана Лимбаха.
"садовник говорит, что может дать линнею в руку кое-что для него незримое, хотя все остальные люди на свете отлично это видят. линней не верит. садовник упорствует. линней тоже.
тогда садовник подносит линн��еву руку к его левому уху и зажимает мочку меж его большим и указательным пальцем. а потом спрашивает:
- ты видешь своё ухо?
линней хочет сказать: всё так просто? но молчит.
садовник:
- все его видят, а ты нет."
магнус флорин
"сад"
September 11, 2023
A very unusual thing, but very much worth reading.
July 4, 2020
Роман как бы про Карла Линнея, но всё-таки не совсем. Это такие обрывки снов, яви, бреда и чего-то ещё. Довольно необычный стиль написания - именно что маленькими отрывками, буквально на абзац или два, и надо к этой манере привыкать поначалу.
Читается очень быстро, книга небольшая. Какое-то однозначное впечатление описать сложно. С одной стороны как бы ничего не понятно, в отличие от классических романов, но в этом явно и была задумка. С другой стороны, осталось какое-то ощущение, ускользающее чувство, как дымка воспоминаний после сна. Подозреваю, в этом и была цель, но я конечно не шибко разбираюсь в современной прозе.
Тем не менее прочитать было легко и небезынтересно, чтение приятное, но конечно чего-то полезного из него не так просто вынести. Хотя... Какие-то факты биографии Линнея запомнились, хотя они явно не легли бы так из статьи. За такое я и люблю например мемуаристику...
Читается очень быстро, книга небольшая. Какое-то однозначное впечатление описать сложно. С одной стороны как бы ничего не понятно, в отличие от классических романов, но в этом явно и была задумка. С другой стороны, осталось какое-то ощущение, ускользающее чувство, как дымка воспоминаний после сна. Подозреваю, в этом и была цель, но я конечно не шибко разбираюсь в современной прозе.
Тем не менее прочитать было легко и небезынтересно, чтение приятное, но конечно чего-то полезного из него не так просто вынести. Хотя... Какие-то факты биографии Линнея запомнились, хотя они явно не легли бы так из статьи. За такое я и люблю например мемуаристику...
March 29, 2026
Смеешься, смеешься над скандинавами, у которых ни одной книги не обходится без погружения в телесный низ, а потом вдруг попадается что-то совсем прозрачное, вышнее и вешнее: возделанный сад, тишина апреля, законы жизни, бабочки. Линней дает имена всему тварному, Господь-садовник берется за лопату, двадцать восемь учеников открывают только что названный новенький мир, который лежит весь вывернутый наружу в ожидании того, когда кто-то вложит пальцы в его отверстые борозды.
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June 23, 2020This is more images than words, metaphorically speaking. And it's gentle, horrifying, funny and extremely sad.
July 24, 2023
В стилі фільмів Роя Андерссона, як раз написано майже як сценарій. Лінней і його середовище існування.
July 31, 2025
En fantastisk liten pärla.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews