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Destiny Of Nathalie X
This new collection of stories is William Boyd’s second, appearing some fourteen years after his first, On the Yankee Station . Once again the stories range widely across the time and space of the twentieth century. ‘The Destiny of Nathalie “X”’ is a modern fable about Hollywood; ‘Cork’ tells of a bizarre love affair between an Englishwoman and a Portuguese poet in 1930s Lisbon; ‘Transfigured Night’ is set in Vienna during the First World War and is concerned with the problematic relationship between a wealthy patron (who bears a curious resemblance to Ludwig Wittgenstein) and his indifferent benefactor. Fantasy and farce, rueful longing and the bitter acknowledgement of life’s relentless ironies all feature in these nine stories by one of our most celebrated and imaginative writers.
208 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 1995
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About the author
William Boyd
71 books2,607 followersNote: William^^Boyd
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
Of Scottish descent, Boyd was born in Accra, Ghana on 7th March, 1952 and spent much of his early life there and in Nigeria where his mother was a teacher and his father, a doctor. Boyd was in Nigeria during the Biafran War, the brutal secessionist conflict which ran from 1967 to 1970 and it had a profound effect on him.
At the age of nine years he attended Gordonstoun school, in Moray, Scotland and then Nice University (Diploma of French Studies) and Glasgow University (MA Hons in English and Philosophy), where he edited the Glasgow University Guardian. He then moved to Jesus College, Oxford in 1975 and completed a PhD thesis on Shelley. For a brief period he worked at the New Statesman magazine as a TV critic, then he returned to Oxford as an English lecturer teaching the contemporary novel at St Hilda's College (1980-83). It was while he was here that his first novel, A Good Man in Africa (1981), was published.
Boyd spent eight years in academia, during which time his first film, Good and Bad at Games, was made. When he was offered a college lecturership, which would mean spending more time teaching, he was forced to choose between teaching and writing.
Boyd was selected in 1983 as one of the 20 'Best of Young British Novelists' in a promotion run by Granta magazine and the Book Marketing Council. He also became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in the same year, and is also an Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He has been presented with honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of St. Andrews, Stirling and Glasgow. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2005.
Boyd has been with his wife Susan since they met as students at Glasgow University and all his books are dedicated to her. His wife is editor-at-large of Harper's Bazaar magazine, and they currently spend about thirty to forty days a year in the US. He and his wife have a house in Chelsea, West London but spend most of the year at their chateau in Bergerac in south west France, where Boyd produces award-winning wines.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 36 reviews
January 18, 2025
A collection of nine short stories - and I am almost tempted to leave it at that.
The stories have a quiet interest and there is a fine sense of atmospheric location and time. In The Destiny of Nathalie X we have Los Angeles and Hollywood pretending to be Paris; in Transfigured Night we are in First World War Vienna and its collapsing empire; Alpes Maritimes, Hotel des Voyageurs, and The Dream Lover it is the South of France enjoying youthful times, sun and sex; Never Saw Brazil moves from a London dreaming of exotic Brazil to a dingy Brazilian backwater facing monotony and reality; in N is for N, which is only two pages set in 1940s Paris; The Persistence of Vision presents love affairs in London; and in Cork there is a love affair in 1930s Lisbon.
They are all well written, though nothing really links them, apart from the love lives of students on the French Riviera in Alpes Maritimes, Hotel des Voyageurs and The Dream Lover. The Destiny of Nathalie X is an interesting and mildly satirical poke at the gullibility of movie people faced with the avant-garde. Transfigured Night was my favourite, a moving little story on the consequences of war and its casualties. Cork comes close, the story of a self-delusional conman wanting affection and a love affair. The others I have almost forgotten.
All told not a memorable collection.
The stories have a quiet interest and there is a fine sense of atmospheric location and time. In The Destiny of Nathalie X we have Los Angeles and Hollywood pretending to be Paris; in Transfigured Night we are in First World War Vienna and its collapsing empire; Alpes Maritimes, Hotel des Voyageurs, and The Dream Lover it is the South of France enjoying youthful times, sun and sex; Never Saw Brazil moves from a London dreaming of exotic Brazil to a dingy Brazilian backwater facing monotony and reality; in N is for N, which is only two pages set in 1940s Paris; The Persistence of Vision presents love affairs in London; and in Cork there is a love affair in 1930s Lisbon.
They are all well written, though nothing really links them, apart from the love lives of students on the French Riviera in Alpes Maritimes, Hotel des Voyageurs and The Dream Lover. The Destiny of Nathalie X is an interesting and mildly satirical poke at the gullibility of movie people faced with the avant-garde. Transfigured Night was my favourite, a moving little story on the consequences of war and its casualties. Cork comes close, the story of a self-delusional conman wanting affection and a love affair. The others I have almost forgotten.
All told not a memorable collection.
April 22, 2009
A rather pointless collection of unremarkable stories that has taught me to avoid the works of William Boyd in future. He's everything I dislike in a writer -- an adherent of understatement, a low concept technician, obsessed with trivial domestic situations and petty character interaction, bland in the extreme, middle class and superfluous. And yet...
And yet there are occasional glimpses of a talent that is being suppressed and attenuated by a warped aesthetic of 'less is more'. At such times the author does one thing quite well -- namely an exploration of so-called unpalatable self-insights. For example in the stories 'Never Saw Brazil' and 'The Dream Lover' two of the main male characters are very specific about the nationalties of the girls they want as girlfriends: Lusitanian or French respectively, with nothing else acceptable, a minor detail that is very calculated, very male, very insensitive, very pointless and very TRUE. There *are* men who set themselves such formulae in life. In fact it's a common male trait, hidden as best as we're able to do so...
However, such redeeming moments are rare, and don't lead to anything else. William Boyd has forgotten the art of the TALE, believing that a few emotions bundled together into a rough set suffices to create a short story. It doesn't. The title story is perhaps the best piece in this collection, a satire against Hollywood featuring an African filmmaker (who is actually no less pretentious and exploitative than the Hollywood types he deals with -- not that William Boyd has the guts to satirise *him* in the same way.)
And yet there are occasional glimpses of a talent that is being suppressed and attenuated by a warped aesthetic of 'less is more'. At such times the author does one thing quite well -- namely an exploration of so-called unpalatable self-insights. For example in the stories 'Never Saw Brazil' and 'The Dream Lover' two of the main male characters are very specific about the nationalties of the girls they want as girlfriends: Lusitanian or French respectively, with nothing else acceptable, a minor detail that is very calculated, very male, very insensitive, very pointless and very TRUE. There *are* men who set themselves such formulae in life. In fact it's a common male trait, hidden as best as we're able to do so...
However, such redeeming moments are rare, and don't lead to anything else. William Boyd has forgotten the art of the TALE, believing that a few emotions bundled together into a rough set suffices to create a short story. It doesn't. The title story is perhaps the best piece in this collection, a satire against Hollywood featuring an African filmmaker (who is actually no less pretentious and exploitative than the Hollywood types he deals with -- not that William Boyd has the guts to satirise *him* in the same way.)
May 14, 2020
Vidim da su ocene osrednje, ali meni se ove price mnogo svidjaju. Bez odredjene poente, bez jasne poruke. Cisto pripovedanje.
March 30, 2017
I've always enjoyed Boyd's novels, but in short form he barely passes the muster. It's disappointing to see, particularly since he has a number of short stories out there. Maybe it's just this one in particular. Something about this collection just didn't connect. The stories varied, but mostly dealt with love in one way or another. Boyd hopped locales all over Europe for a change of scenery, but there remained a strange aloofness about the overall mood. First story, the title sharer, might be the best one in the book, it's certainly the most original, a tale of artisanal filmmaking that gets entangled with Hollywood ways. Otherwise, nothing particularly stood out or made itself memorable, a fact made all too clear by the fact that I'm writing this review the day after reading it and not much comes to mind. Readable, sure, well crafted, but unengaging. For such a talented writer, seems practically incongruous. Quick read though, mere 3 hours.
September 18, 2020
An aspect of William Boyd’s writing that always seems close to the surface of his work is an examination of selfishness. At the very least, his characters fulfil their self-interest. One recalls how the events of The New Confessions or Any Human Heart unfold, how in both cases the central character’s aspirations are forever paramount, often to the detriment of those he proclaims to love. But it is probably in his short stories that this theme is best illustrated and his collection, The Destiny Of Natalie X, does precisely that.
Two of the stories, The Dream Lover and Alpes Maritimes, in just twenty pages each, pursue there ideas in depth. In the first, a student in a south of France university is envious of the obvious wealth and easy-going lifestyle of an American fellow student. This well-heeled American splashes money around, advertises his talents and gets the girls – at least in theory. He even has a desirable Afghan coat. By the end of the story, the narrator has utterly reversed the roles. Not only does he come out on top financially, he goes off with the girl, and even gets the coat. In addition, he has benefited from the other’s profligacy along the way.
Another side of selfishness is expressed via responses to temptation, specifically to the proximity of opportunity. Even a man in a stable, happy relationship cannot avoid speculating what a taste of something different might bring. The possibility that it might sour everything else is, of course, never contemplated. In Alpes Maritimes a lusty young man just cannot resist the idea that grass is greener on the other side of the twins. His partner is one twin, his desire might be the other. He years to sample what he seems to see as the merchandise. So while it is in progress, William Boyd suggests that life may be a neurotic search for ever greater fulfilment, even if that is only imagined. Future promise, it seems, always surpasses experience.
When it is ended, however, life seems inconsequential. We live, we love, we dream, we die. And we are soon forgotten, even the turbulence of the journey is soon smoothed. Those with whom we have shared our lives may remember us for a while, but even memory, it seems, is founded in self-interest. Perhaps memory of a deceased is the livings’ mechanism of coping with their own future.
The Destiny Of Natalie X, the title story, deals with the making of a film. It addresses pretence and the inflation of egos. But it also makes us think of the mundane and how, for every individual, it remains special, the only possible existence. As ever, William Boyd uses many different forms to express his ideas. For some readers this variability may get in the way of appreciation of the material. But rest assured, the material is worth the challenge and, if it forms a barrier, then the stories are worth several readings until their challenges are overcome.
Two of the stories, The Dream Lover and Alpes Maritimes, in just twenty pages each, pursue there ideas in depth. In the first, a student in a south of France university is envious of the obvious wealth and easy-going lifestyle of an American fellow student. This well-heeled American splashes money around, advertises his talents and gets the girls – at least in theory. He even has a desirable Afghan coat. By the end of the story, the narrator has utterly reversed the roles. Not only does he come out on top financially, he goes off with the girl, and even gets the coat. In addition, he has benefited from the other’s profligacy along the way.
Another side of selfishness is expressed via responses to temptation, specifically to the proximity of opportunity. Even a man in a stable, happy relationship cannot avoid speculating what a taste of something different might bring. The possibility that it might sour everything else is, of course, never contemplated. In Alpes Maritimes a lusty young man just cannot resist the idea that grass is greener on the other side of the twins. His partner is one twin, his desire might be the other. He years to sample what he seems to see as the merchandise. So while it is in progress, William Boyd suggests that life may be a neurotic search for ever greater fulfilment, even if that is only imagined. Future promise, it seems, always surpasses experience.
When it is ended, however, life seems inconsequential. We live, we love, we dream, we die. And we are soon forgotten, even the turbulence of the journey is soon smoothed. Those with whom we have shared our lives may remember us for a while, but even memory, it seems, is founded in self-interest. Perhaps memory of a deceased is the livings’ mechanism of coping with their own future.
The Destiny Of Natalie X, the title story, deals with the making of a film. It addresses pretence and the inflation of egos. But it also makes us think of the mundane and how, for every individual, it remains special, the only possible existence. As ever, William Boyd uses many different forms to express his ideas. For some readers this variability may get in the way of appreciation of the material. But rest assured, the material is worth the challenge and, if it forms a barrier, then the stories are worth several readings until their challenges are overcome.
November 30, 2016
Unlike the last book I read, this one has a strong central theme. It is: Men Are The Worst. I’m not sure whether Boyd intended this theme to bring the stories together; nevertheless it does. Throughout, women are images, objects, and possessions rather than people. Even the one story with a female narrator is entirely concerned with men and their feelings. Additionally, as with many short story collections, the first is the best and gives the book its title. ‘The Destiny of Nathalie ‘X’’ is an often hilarious satire on Hollywood film-making. I especially enjoyed everyone’s solemnly expounded theories. The subsequent stories are well written - although Boyd is too keen on the word ‘farinaceous’, which is best used sparingly. Their content, however, was laughable. I’ll summarise each in a sentence so you can see what I mean.
I simply can’t take this kind of thing seriously. Sorry, William Boyd, faced with characters such as these in real life I would laugh in their faces and strongly discourage my friends from dating them. The Hollywood satire is great, though. Probably because it isn’t about a man’s feelings.
I simply can’t take this kind of thing seriously. Sorry, William Boyd, faced with characters such as these in real life I would laugh in their faces and strongly discourage my friends from dating them. The Hollywood satire is great, though. Probably because it isn’t about a man’s feelings.
November 22, 2020
3.5. William Boyd is an exceptional writer. Just read any of his novels to see. But these short stories, with many moments of brilliance, just didn't hold up to what I am used to reading by Boyd.
February 12, 2017
Not quite sure why I can't find my edition on here. The edition with my ISBN has a different number of pages and is listed as being in Spanish (which this is not). I'm using this listing instead, because it has the same number of pages.
So far, all the men in this book are horrible.
The writing is competent, but boy, did I hate everyone in this book. The men were odious. The women were undeveloped shadows, like Ray Bradbury's women. I think the author is a misogynist. See Anna's recent review. She explains it all.
So far, all the men in this book are horrible.
The writing is competent, but boy, did I hate everyone in this book. The men were odious. The women were undeveloped shadows, like Ray Bradbury's women. I think the author is a misogynist. See Anna's recent review. She explains it all.
July 14, 2019
A remarkable collection by a gifted writer
These dense, finely etched stories are my introduction to William Boyd. Such an ordinary name for such a fancy writer! The title story is set in a place I know well near LAX; indeed I can almost see the exact setting of most of the scenes, where a French director, a black auteur, as it were, is composing his film. The setting is purposely banal in the extreme: a cheap pizzeria next to a nondescript motel within litter distance of the airport, chosen instinctively to comment on the low culture of America, I suppose, when all of Hollywood and Bel Air, West L.A. and Brentwood, avec filmdom execs, etc., beckons just beyond. This is explained by understanding that "He's an artist, he don't look back," to re-gender a Bob Dylan lyric, as Boyd does on page 11.
The second story, "Transfigured Night," set in Austria and Poland during the first world war, is somewhat Kafkaesque and not typical of this collection. The third story, "Hôtel des Voyageurs," begins in Paris and is rendered in a self-revelatory first person narrative that is the book's signature technique (although this is just a warm up to the near-perfection of "Alpes-Maritimes" and "The Persistence of Vision" in which Boyd's narrators give themselves away completely, much to the reader's amusement). One might call "Hôtel des Voyageurs," a one-night stand (actually afternoon) for sophisticates in which a euro trash girl plays a Comtesse that the narrator coyly, in the British manner, brags about bedding. This inadvertent self-revelation by the first person narrator is a technique that Boyd has worked to perfection.
The next story, "Never Saw Brazil" continues the cosmopolitan, polyglot exposition. Boyd seems to know several European languages and is not shy about sparkling his text with italicized dialogue in a number of tongues including Portuguese. He is also very big on food and presents a variable cookbook of dishes throughout. The story, "Lunch," is almost a toast to gastronomy.
"The Dream Lover" and the aforementioned "Alpes-Maritimes" are set in the south of France and concentrate on love and self-discovery among twenty-something expats expressed with irony, delicacy and a kind of ultra sophistication much envied, I understand, by assistant editors at Elle and The New Yorker. (Probably also at Granta, where four of these stories first appeared.)
In "Cork" Boyd presents a female narrator who has a love affair with a strange but touching man who was once in her employ in Portugal harvesting and selling cork. Here the narrator seems reliable and self-aware.
The final story, "Loose Continuity" begins in 1945 at the corner of Westwood and Wilshire near UCLA were I went to school while flashing back to Germany in the twenties as the female narrator, Gudrun, recalls a lost love as she watches the workmen finish her café design.
Boyd use of language is innovative and, at times, startling. Some examples:
The narrator in "The Dream Lover," as he ascends to the roof of an apartment building: "To my vague alarm there is a small swimming pool up here and a large glassed-in cabana....."
In "Alpes-Maritimes" Boyd's narrator (who wants the twin sisters for himself alone) reflects on the intrusion of Steve, now with them, "The trio becomes a banal foursome, or--even worse--two couples."
The dilettante artist in "The Persistence of Vision" reveals himself with this statement about his infant son: "I found it hard to paint in the house now that its routines revolved around Dominic's noisy needs rather than my own."
On the next page, after noticing somebody out of the corner of his eye, the narrator remarks, "...[Y]our instinctive apprehension is often more sure and certain than something studied and sought for: the glance is often more accurate than the stare."
In a bit of unconscious self-projection (and foreshadowed irony) on page 134, the narrator remarks on the man who will later, unbeknownst to him, abscond with his wife, "I felt sad for him, with his pointless wealth and the cheerless luxury of his life...."
Sometimes one is forced to turn to the dictionary to understand exactly what Boyd has in mind. In "Cork" Lily's lover has sent her an invitation for a rendezvous including these instructions: "...[P]lease do not depilate yourself--anywhere."
Boyd's style is precise, measured, polished, erudite, a trifle showy, and very sensitive. He has a sharp eye for fashionable detail and any sort of pretension. He stays off to the side himself, but maintains the sort of iron control over his characters, especially his leading narrators, that Nabokov insisted on. He delves into the human condition with tiny needles like an acupuncturist or a miniaturist with a magnifying glass. He is an extraordinary writer, original in technique, subtle in resolution with witty and ironic overtones. His control of voice and tone bespeaks a man who has mastered several languages and many of the nuances of human psychology. He is also a writer that other writers can learn from.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
These dense, finely etched stories are my introduction to William Boyd. Such an ordinary name for such a fancy writer! The title story is set in a place I know well near LAX; indeed I can almost see the exact setting of most of the scenes, where a French director, a black auteur, as it were, is composing his film. The setting is purposely banal in the extreme: a cheap pizzeria next to a nondescript motel within litter distance of the airport, chosen instinctively to comment on the low culture of America, I suppose, when all of Hollywood and Bel Air, West L.A. and Brentwood, avec filmdom execs, etc., beckons just beyond. This is explained by understanding that "He's an artist, he don't look back," to re-gender a Bob Dylan lyric, as Boyd does on page 11.
The second story, "Transfigured Night," set in Austria and Poland during the first world war, is somewhat Kafkaesque and not typical of this collection. The third story, "Hôtel des Voyageurs," begins in Paris and is rendered in a self-revelatory first person narrative that is the book's signature technique (although this is just a warm up to the near-perfection of "Alpes-Maritimes" and "The Persistence of Vision" in which Boyd's narrators give themselves away completely, much to the reader's amusement). One might call "Hôtel des Voyageurs," a one-night stand (actually afternoon) for sophisticates in which a euro trash girl plays a Comtesse that the narrator coyly, in the British manner, brags about bedding. This inadvertent self-revelation by the first person narrator is a technique that Boyd has worked to perfection.
The next story, "Never Saw Brazil" continues the cosmopolitan, polyglot exposition. Boyd seems to know several European languages and is not shy about sparkling his text with italicized dialogue in a number of tongues including Portuguese. He is also very big on food and presents a variable cookbook of dishes throughout. The story, "Lunch," is almost a toast to gastronomy.
"The Dream Lover" and the aforementioned "Alpes-Maritimes" are set in the south of France and concentrate on love and self-discovery among twenty-something expats expressed with irony, delicacy and a kind of ultra sophistication much envied, I understand, by assistant editors at Elle and The New Yorker. (Probably also at Granta, where four of these stories first appeared.)
In "Cork" Boyd presents a female narrator who has a love affair with a strange but touching man who was once in her employ in Portugal harvesting and selling cork. Here the narrator seems reliable and self-aware.
The final story, "Loose Continuity" begins in 1945 at the corner of Westwood and Wilshire near UCLA were I went to school while flashing back to Germany in the twenties as the female narrator, Gudrun, recalls a lost love as she watches the workmen finish her café design.
Boyd use of language is innovative and, at times, startling. Some examples:
The narrator in "The Dream Lover," as he ascends to the roof of an apartment building: "To my vague alarm there is a small swimming pool up here and a large glassed-in cabana....."
In "Alpes-Maritimes" Boyd's narrator (who wants the twin sisters for himself alone) reflects on the intrusion of Steve, now with them, "The trio becomes a banal foursome, or--even worse--two couples."
The dilettante artist in "The Persistence of Vision" reveals himself with this statement about his infant son: "I found it hard to paint in the house now that its routines revolved around Dominic's noisy needs rather than my own."
On the next page, after noticing somebody out of the corner of his eye, the narrator remarks, "...[Y]our instinctive apprehension is often more sure and certain than something studied and sought for: the glance is often more accurate than the stare."
In a bit of unconscious self-projection (and foreshadowed irony) on page 134, the narrator remarks on the man who will later, unbeknownst to him, abscond with his wife, "I felt sad for him, with his pointless wealth and the cheerless luxury of his life...."
Sometimes one is forced to turn to the dictionary to understand exactly what Boyd has in mind. In "Cork" Lily's lover has sent her an invitation for a rendezvous including these instructions: "...[P]lease do not depilate yourself--anywhere."
Boyd's style is precise, measured, polished, erudite, a trifle showy, and very sensitive. He has a sharp eye for fashionable detail and any sort of pretension. He stays off to the side himself, but maintains the sort of iron control over his characters, especially his leading narrators, that Nabokov insisted on. He delves into the human condition with tiny needles like an acupuncturist or a miniaturist with a magnifying glass. He is an extraordinary writer, original in technique, subtle in resolution with witty and ironic overtones. His control of voice and tone bespeaks a man who has mastered several languages and many of the nuances of human psychology. He is also a writer that other writers can learn from.
--Dennis Littrell, author of the mystery novel, “Teddy and Teri”
Want to Read
December 26, 2017CONTENTS
1. The Destiny of Nathalie 'X' (previously published in Granta) - Aurelién No, a French-speaking West African student wins a prize from ESEC for a short film. He uses the winnings to fund a trip to Hollywood to film the sequel and chooses to set it in a seedy suburb in Westchester near LAX. During filming he is courted by the movie industry who are in turn charmed by him and his principal lead, Delphine Drelle. The story is told by each character in turn.
2. Transfigured Night (previously published in Granta)- A fictionalized account of the relationship between and troubled poet Georg Trakl and his anonymous sponsor Ludwig Wittgenstein as told from Wittgenstein's perspective and includes many references to his family's history of suicide.
3. Hôtel des Voyageurs (previously published in the Daily Telegraph and London Magazine) - Inspired by the journals of writer and critic Cyril Connolly it tells of a brief affair between the protagonist, Logan Mountstuart and a French woman. Mountstuart later reappeared in Boyd's novel Any Human Heart.
4. Never Saw Brazil - London Courier company boss Wesley Bright bemoans his name, and obsessed with Brazilian chorinho music spices up his humdrum life by inventing a shape-shifting Brazilian alter-ego.
5. The Dream Lover (previously published in London Magazine)- Edward, studying French in Nice befriends Preston, an American who appears to have everything, except a French girlfriend. But Preston's circumstances change and Edward is now the one to be envied.
6. Alpes Maritimes (previously published in On the Yankee Station)- Edward now has a girlfriend, Ulricke, but instead wants her twin sister Anneliese, but has competition from Steve.
7. N is for N (previously appeared in Hockney's Alphabet - a short biography of fictional Laotian writer Nguyen N.
8. The Persistence of Vision - An artist describes his marriage and its associated images.
9. Cork - a British widow and owner of a Lisbon cork-processing factory tells of her affair with her husband's former office manager, whom she meets every Christmas.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_D...'
1. The Destiny of Nathalie 'X' (previously published in Granta) - Aurelién No, a French-speaking West African student wins a prize from ESEC for a short film. He uses the winnings to fund a trip to Hollywood to film the sequel and chooses to set it in a seedy suburb in Westchester near LAX. During filming he is courted by the movie industry who are in turn charmed by him and his principal lead, Delphine Drelle. The story is told by each character in turn.
2. Transfigured Night (previously published in Granta)- A fictionalized account of the relationship between and troubled poet Georg Trakl and his anonymous sponsor Ludwig Wittgenstein as told from Wittgenstein's perspective and includes many references to his family's history of suicide.
3. Hôtel des Voyageurs (previously published in the Daily Telegraph and London Magazine) - Inspired by the journals of writer and critic Cyril Connolly it tells of a brief affair between the protagonist, Logan Mountstuart and a French woman. Mountstuart later reappeared in Boyd's novel Any Human Heart.
4. Never Saw Brazil - London Courier company boss Wesley Bright bemoans his name, and obsessed with Brazilian chorinho music spices up his humdrum life by inventing a shape-shifting Brazilian alter-ego.
5. The Dream Lover (previously published in London Magazine)- Edward, studying French in Nice befriends Preston, an American who appears to have everything, except a French girlfriend. But Preston's circumstances change and Edward is now the one to be envied.
6. Alpes Maritimes (previously published in On the Yankee Station)- Edward now has a girlfriend, Ulricke, but instead wants her twin sister Anneliese, but has competition from Steve.
7. N is for N (previously appeared in Hockney's Alphabet - a short biography of fictional Laotian writer Nguyen N.
8. The Persistence of Vision - An artist describes his marriage and its associated images.
9. Cork - a British widow and owner of a Lisbon cork-processing factory tells of her affair with her husband's former office manager, whom she meets every Christmas.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_D...'
October 5, 2025
Die Titelgeschichte beschreibt die Ereignisse in Los Angeles, als der Autorenfilmer Aurelien No sein neuestes Werk verfilmen will. Wie sich die Arbeiten an einer kurzen Szene entwickeln, wirken teils übertrieben, teils nur zu realistisch.
Genauso habe ich bei den anderen Geschichten gefühlt. Viele, was ich gelesen habe, konnte mich nicht berühren. Dann aber kam ein kurzer Satz oder auch nur ein Wort und ich wurde in die Ereignisse hinein gezogen. Leider nie lange genug, um mich wirklich von dem Gelesenen fesseln zu lassen.
Jede Geschichte hatte etwas, das mich angesprochen hat. Aber auch sehr vieles, das mir nicht gefallen hat. Deshalb lässt mich der Autor eher ratlos zurück.
Genauso habe ich bei den anderen Geschichten gefühlt. Viele, was ich gelesen habe, konnte mich nicht berühren. Dann aber kam ein kurzer Satz oder auch nur ein Wort und ich wurde in die Ereignisse hinein gezogen. Leider nie lange genug, um mich wirklich von dem Gelesenen fesseln zu lassen.
Jede Geschichte hatte etwas, das mich angesprochen hat. Aber auch sehr vieles, das mir nicht gefallen hat. Deshalb lässt mich der Autor eher ratlos zurück.
July 13, 2022
vond Boyd heel goed & nauwkeurig in het neerzetten van personages- lijkt uiteindelijk constant om t egoïsme van die karakters te gaan. wel redelijk pessimistisch en het gaat eigenlijk alleen maar over mannen die complex zijn en vrouwen in een bijrol zelfs als ze hoofdpersonage zijn. echt mooi, vooral aan het begin.
December 5, 2022
A varied and enjoyable collection of stories, many of which touch on a loose theme of the person who might be the underdog in a situation having or gaining the upper hand. The title story was my favorite – a clever, funny sendup of Hollywood, but I also enjoyed the rest of the collection.
September 1, 2025
Contrairement à plusieurs commentaires de lecteurs qui n’ont pas aimé le fait que les nouvelles n’ont pas de liens entre elles, j’ai plutôt apprécié les styles d’écriture différents et les univers éclectiques dans lequel nous plonge l’auteur. Plein d’histoires dans un même livre, pourquoi pas? :)
October 14, 2017
3,5/5.
March 21, 2018
I found this a fairly interesting collection of stories but much prefer the complexities of this author's novels.
December 2, 2018
I'm a Boyd fan, but these short stories didn't really push my buttons. Just an 'OK' from me.
November 1, 2021
first encounter with boyd, there were several moments i thought were totally beautiful
May 8, 2022
Prefer his novels to his short stories.
May 20, 2025
A selection of, mostly, stories about the young, wealthy and privileged. Rather dated. The final entry, Cork, was the only one of interest.
July 6, 2023
Not my cup of tea. Wanted to try this author but should never have picked short stories, I frequently don't like short stories from authors I know I like. Silly me.
July 25, 2009
Eight of these well-written stories by English writer William Boyd are straightforward narratives; the other three—including my favorite, the title story—are less conventional. Nine are set in Europe, the other two in Hollywood. Most involve male-female relationships. Some summaries:
*The Destiny of Nathalie X. A West African maker of cinema verité films wins a French prize and to shoot the sequel goes to Hollywood, where he is “discovered.” The action is seen through the eyes of many different players, including the Hollywood producer, director, screenwriter and agent, each of whom has “a theory” about what makes Hollywood tick and also has an idea of how to transform the African’s bizarre film into a hit. This amusing satire is very well written and presented in an unusual form, roughly half as screenplay and half as oral history.
*Transfigured Night. Just before World War I a wealthy Wittgenstein-like philosopher (perhaps meant to be Wittgenstein himself) grants money to an obscure pessimistic drugee poet who later joins the army, is mistakenly assigned as a doctor in charge of a field hospital, is jailed after deserting, goes bonkers, and kills himself by shooting up with morphine. This unusual story seems to be about the inadequacy of words to reflect reality—Wittgenstein’s late-life obsession.
*Hotel des Voyageurs. An Englishman travels to France and is forced to stay at a small-town hotel after his car breaks down; at the hotel he meets an elegant countess and makes love to her; after she leaves (her car had also broken down but been repaired before his) he discovers that she is not a countess at all but a summer “companion” of the count—and that the count shows up each summer with a different “companion.”
*The Dream Lover. An English student in France meets a wealthy and dissolute student from Texas, who wants in the worst way to be fixed up with a Frenchwoman. The Englishman manages to set him up with women of various other nationalities, but no Frenchwoman; when the Texan’s American fiancé shows up unexpectedly, the Englishman gets the Texan’s goat by finally introducing him to a pretty French girl—and then really rubs it in by pretending he himself is making love to her.
*Alpes-Maritimes. This is a story about possessiveness. An English student in France meets a pretty German girl and hooks up with her, only to discover that he prefers her identical twin. Since the girls are very close and it’s impossible for him to switch, he takes the position, “If I can’t have her, no one else can”—and schemes to thwart a budding relationship between the twin and a dashing young admirer.
*Loose Continuity. This story about a German woman shifts back and forth between pre-WW II Germany, where she was a talented designer in an authoritarian institute, and present-day Los Angeles where she has just designed a display for a local diner. Boyd seems to be pointing out the ironies of life, including the protagonist’s transition from control by authoritarian men (in Nazi Germany) to control by the lowbrows of commercialism (in modern America).
From “The Destiny of Nathalie X”:
MICHAEL SCOTT GEHN. I have a theory about this town: there is no overview, nobody steps back, no one stands on the mountain looking down at the valley. Imagine an army composed entirely of officers. Let me put it another way: imagine an army where everyone thinks they’re an officer. That’s Hollywood, that’s the film business. No one wants to accept the hierarchy, no one will admit they are a foot soldier. And I’m sorry, a young agent in a boutique agency is just a G.I. Joe to me.
From “Transfigured Night”:
The war saved my life…. I should say that I joined the army because it was my civic duty, yet I was even more glad to enlist because I knew at that time that I had to do something, I had to subject myself to the rigors of a harsh routine that would divert me from my intellectual work. I had reached an impasse and the impossibility of ever proceeding further filled me with morbid despair.
From “Alpes-Maritimes”:
I press my lips to the bottle’s warm snout, try to taste her lipstick, raise the bottle, try to hold that first mouthful in my throat, swilling it around my teeth and tongue…
Ulricke gives a little snore, hunches herself into my left side, pressing my right side against Anneliese. Despite what you may think I want nothing more from Anneliese than what I possess now. I look out over the Mediterranean, hear the plash and rattle of the tiny sluggish waves on the pebbles, sense an ephemeral lunar grayness—a lightening—in the air.
*The Destiny of Nathalie X. A West African maker of cinema verité films wins a French prize and to shoot the sequel goes to Hollywood, where he is “discovered.” The action is seen through the eyes of many different players, including the Hollywood producer, director, screenwriter and agent, each of whom has “a theory” about what makes Hollywood tick and also has an idea of how to transform the African’s bizarre film into a hit. This amusing satire is very well written and presented in an unusual form, roughly half as screenplay and half as oral history.
*Transfigured Night. Just before World War I a wealthy Wittgenstein-like philosopher (perhaps meant to be Wittgenstein himself) grants money to an obscure pessimistic drugee poet who later joins the army, is mistakenly assigned as a doctor in charge of a field hospital, is jailed after deserting, goes bonkers, and kills himself by shooting up with morphine. This unusual story seems to be about the inadequacy of words to reflect reality—Wittgenstein’s late-life obsession.
*Hotel des Voyageurs. An Englishman travels to France and is forced to stay at a small-town hotel after his car breaks down; at the hotel he meets an elegant countess and makes love to her; after she leaves (her car had also broken down but been repaired before his) he discovers that she is not a countess at all but a summer “companion” of the count—and that the count shows up each summer with a different “companion.”
*The Dream Lover. An English student in France meets a wealthy and dissolute student from Texas, who wants in the worst way to be fixed up with a Frenchwoman. The Englishman manages to set him up with women of various other nationalities, but no Frenchwoman; when the Texan’s American fiancé shows up unexpectedly, the Englishman gets the Texan’s goat by finally introducing him to a pretty French girl—and then really rubs it in by pretending he himself is making love to her.
*Alpes-Maritimes. This is a story about possessiveness. An English student in France meets a pretty German girl and hooks up with her, only to discover that he prefers her identical twin. Since the girls are very close and it’s impossible for him to switch, he takes the position, “If I can’t have her, no one else can”—and schemes to thwart a budding relationship between the twin and a dashing young admirer.
*Loose Continuity. This story about a German woman shifts back and forth between pre-WW II Germany, where she was a talented designer in an authoritarian institute, and present-day Los Angeles where she has just designed a display for a local diner. Boyd seems to be pointing out the ironies of life, including the protagonist’s transition from control by authoritarian men (in Nazi Germany) to control by the lowbrows of commercialism (in modern America).
From “The Destiny of Nathalie X”:
MICHAEL SCOTT GEHN. I have a theory about this town: there is no overview, nobody steps back, no one stands on the mountain looking down at the valley. Imagine an army composed entirely of officers. Let me put it another way: imagine an army where everyone thinks they’re an officer. That’s Hollywood, that’s the film business. No one wants to accept the hierarchy, no one will admit they are a foot soldier. And I’m sorry, a young agent in a boutique agency is just a G.I. Joe to me.
From “Transfigured Night”:
The war saved my life…. I should say that I joined the army because it was my civic duty, yet I was even more glad to enlist because I knew at that time that I had to do something, I had to subject myself to the rigors of a harsh routine that would divert me from my intellectual work. I had reached an impasse and the impossibility of ever proceeding further filled me with morbid despair.
From “Alpes-Maritimes”:
I press my lips to the bottle’s warm snout, try to taste her lipstick, raise the bottle, try to hold that first mouthful in my throat, swilling it around my teeth and tongue…
Ulricke gives a little snore, hunches herself into my left side, pressing my right side against Anneliese. Despite what you may think I want nothing more from Anneliese than what I possess now. I look out over the Mediterranean, hear the plash and rattle of the tiny sluggish waves on the pebbles, sense an ephemeral lunar grayness—a lightening—in the air.
December 5, 2021
I usually LOVE William Boyd’s work. He is one of my favorite authors. But I did not love this. It may have to do that I am generally not a short story fan, so need to stop torturing myself. :)
October 19, 2023
20th century - Postmodernist short story
Original. It looks like the script of a film with novelised parts and it seems like a Hollywood review.
Original. It looks like the script of a film with novelised parts and it seems like a Hollywood review.
January 5, 2016
Stories from Granta and London Magazine that range from 2 to over 40 pages long.
The title story is multi-PoV but otherwise not very interesting. I liked "Transfigured Night" more. It features Wittgenstein ("I contemplated their naked bodies. I saw that they were men, but I could not see they were human beings"). The major theme is suicide. His brother decides to continue his piano career though he's had an arm amputated in the war - "There is silence, and then I say 'Bravo, Paul. Bravo.' And, spontaneously, we all clap him". "Hotel des Voyageurs" is a non-event. "Never Saw Brazil" is preferable to "The Dream Lover", thought neither appeal much. Boy gets girl again. American language-students in France again.
In "Alpes Maritime" sisters are again fancied by the same man. This time they're twins who share a room even after the man often stays the night with one of them - the one he fancies least. By studying behaviour he tries to assess the progression of couple's relationships. "N is for N" fails.
As one of the reviews below suggests,"The Persistence of Vision" could act as a manual for reading these stories. The male is even more calculating than is usual in this book - "the casual invitation absent-mindedly offered just as one was saying goodbye, about to set off: 'Look, I don't suppose you'd fancy ...?'". But it's not much of a story, though there are many details to enjoy.
I didn't understand what the final story, "Cork", was trying to do. I felt the same about many of the other stories too, which rather surprised me because the description of his style made me think I'd like the stories.
The title story is multi-PoV but otherwise not very interesting. I liked "Transfigured Night" more. It features Wittgenstein ("I contemplated their naked bodies. I saw that they were men, but I could not see they were human beings"). The major theme is suicide. His brother decides to continue his piano career though he's had an arm amputated in the war - "There is silence, and then I say 'Bravo, Paul. Bravo.' And, spontaneously, we all clap him". "Hotel des Voyageurs" is a non-event. "Never Saw Brazil" is preferable to "The Dream Lover", thought neither appeal much. Boy gets girl again. American language-students in France again.
In "Alpes Maritime" sisters are again fancied by the same man. This time they're twins who share a room even after the man often stays the night with one of them - the one he fancies least. By studying behaviour he tries to assess the progression of couple's relationships. "N is for N" fails.
As one of the reviews below suggests,"The Persistence of Vision" could act as a manual for reading these stories. The male is even more calculating than is usual in this book - "the casual invitation absent-mindedly offered just as one was saying goodbye, about to set off: 'Look, I don't suppose you'd fancy ...?'". But it's not much of a story, though there are many details to enjoy.
I didn't understand what the final story, "Cork", was trying to do. I felt the same about many of the other stories too, which rather surprised me because the description of his style made me think I'd like the stories.
June 29, 2014
Difficult to judge
Given that this was my first try out of Boyd and that it's a while ago that I read these short stories, I don't feel very able to judge them (e.g. whether it's his best, etc). My memory is hazy. But I am sure that the range was wide and that I admired the power of imagination and colour of the varied themes and viewpoints.
And I did make a note of this nugget: "You know the way your instinctive apprehension is often more sure and certain than something studied and sought for: the glance is often more accurate than the stare." This is stated in 'The Persistence of Vision' when the protagonist: "... was oddly positive that [I] had seen somebody I knew." (The person turns out to be his wife's lover). I felt there was a huge truth in this; and it is for such truths I search when I read fiction.
Another quote I noted, and liked at the time of reading, was: "One of my problems ... is my deep and abiding fear of insanity. ... Of course, it goes without saying that such a deep fear of insanity is insanity itself." Though, on reflection, I do think that this one did not work so well; it strikes me as rather obvious and ends up being shallow. A sort of attempt at a deep truth that is actually quite a shallow cliché.
In the story 'Hotel de Voyageurs', I liked the mystery element, folded into the holistic question of who was actually deceiving whom?
In short: I read enough good stuff in these stories to whet my appetite for reading more Boyd.
October 31, 2012
I found this collection of short stories much harder toget into than Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (also on my read list). I found a lot of the stories quite predictable, with less convincing characters. There are a few in the middle set in the S of France, placed next to each other in the book and its actually a bit confusing as they then read like unrelated chapters, which in addition to confusing the reader, undermines the credibility of each story. Some were more imaginative and I liked the variation in content generally, previous comment notwithstanding. I did enjoy his style of writing in places and think I might try a longer novel of his but will probably avoid the short stories from now on...
April 28, 2012
I was given a photocopy of The Persistence of Vision, one of the short stories in this collection, by a friend 16 years ago. At the time I thought it was one of the most powerful, well written and moving pieces of fiction I'd ever read. I went out and bought the collection.
16 years later I still think it is a wonderful short story - one of my favourites, perhaps even THE favourite. I don't remember much about the other stories in the collection - I enjoyed them, as best I can recall, but none of them shone like The Persistence of Vision, so I guess the 5 stars is for that particular story.
16 years later I still think it is a wonderful short story - one of my favourites, perhaps even THE favourite. I don't remember much about the other stories in the collection - I enjoyed them, as best I can recall, but none of them shone like The Persistence of Vision, so I guess the 5 stars is for that particular story.
August 30, 2019
A book of short stories and possibly a bit high-brow for me as I'm obviously missing something reading the gushing critics reviews on the cover referencing Hemingway, Checkov and Scott Fitzgerald. Lots of nakedness cropping up in the different stories here, not sure what all that is about. Can't decide what I think of William Boyd, some of his stuff is brilliant (Any Human Heart) and some of it is quite poor (Ordinary Thunderstorms). These stories are veering towards the later for me.
May 24, 2013
There are a lot of ups and downs in this collection, but through it all Boyd has a sharp eye for the ordinary human characteristics that make individuals memorable. The stories are really wide ranging, so it isn't surprising that I couldn't really appreciate all of them - but that's one great thing about short stories.
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