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Adam's Breed
Adam's Breed is a novel about a waiter that becomes disgusted with his job and goes to live in the forest as a hermit.
Marguerite Radclyffe Hall was born on 12th August 1880, in Bournemouth, England. Hall's first novel The Unlit Lamp (1924) was a lengthy and grim tale that proved hard to sell. It was only published following the success of the much lighter social comedy The Forge (1924), which made the best-seller list of John O'London's Weekly.
Marguerite Radclyffe Hall was born on 12th August 1880, in Bournemouth, England. Hall's first novel The Unlit Lamp (1924) was a lengthy and grim tale that proved hard to sell. It was only published following the success of the much lighter social comedy The Forge (1924), which made the best-seller list of John O'London's Weekly.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1926
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About the author
Radclyffe Hall
91 books353 followersMarguerite Antonia Radclyffe Hall (12 August 1880 – 7 October 1943) was an English poet and author, best known for the novel The Well of Loneliness, a groundbreaking work in lesbian literature. In adulthood, Hall often went by the name John, rather than Marguerite.
In the drawing rooms of Edwardian society, Marguerite made a small name as a poet and librettist. In 1907, she met a middle-aged fashionable singer, Mrs. Mabel Batten, known as 'Ladye", who introduced her to influential people. Batten and Radclyffe Hall entered into a long-term relationship. But before Batten died in 1916, Radclyffe Hall, known in private as 'John', had taken up with the second love of her life, Una, Lady Troubridge, who gave up her own creative aspirations (she was the first English translator of the French novelist Colette) to manage the household which she shared with 'John' for 28 years. With Batten, Radclyffe Hall converted to Catholicism; in the company of Una, she pursued an interest in animals and spiritualism. In later life, Radclyffe Hall chased after a younger woman named Evguenia Souline, a White Russian refugee. She died from cancer of the colon in October 1943.
As Radclyffe Hall (no hyphen; prefixed neither by 'John' nor 'Marguerite'), she published a volume of stories, Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself (1934), which describes how British society utilised 'masculine' women during the First World War and then dropped them afterwards, and a total of seven novels. However, the novel on which Radclyffe Hall's reputation rests primarily is The Well of Loneliness (1928).
The novel was successfully prosecuted for obscenity when if first came out, and remained banned in Britain until 1948. Vilified as 'the bible of lesbianism' by fire-and-brimstone reactionaries. In the seventies, the halcyon days of radical feminism, it was hailed as the first portrayal of a 'butch' woman.
In the drawing rooms of Edwardian society, Marguerite made a small name as a poet and librettist. In 1907, she met a middle-aged fashionable singer, Mrs. Mabel Batten, known as 'Ladye", who introduced her to influential people. Batten and Radclyffe Hall entered into a long-term relationship. But before Batten died in 1916, Radclyffe Hall, known in private as 'John', had taken up with the second love of her life, Una, Lady Troubridge, who gave up her own creative aspirations (she was the first English translator of the French novelist Colette) to manage the household which she shared with 'John' for 28 years. With Batten, Radclyffe Hall converted to Catholicism; in the company of Una, she pursued an interest in animals and spiritualism. In later life, Radclyffe Hall chased after a younger woman named Evguenia Souline, a White Russian refugee. She died from cancer of the colon in October 1943.
As Radclyffe Hall (no hyphen; prefixed neither by 'John' nor 'Marguerite'), she published a volume of stories, Miss Ogilvy Finds Herself (1934), which describes how British society utilised 'masculine' women during the First World War and then dropped them afterwards, and a total of seven novels. However, the novel on which Radclyffe Hall's reputation rests primarily is The Well of Loneliness (1928).
The novel was successfully prosecuted for obscenity when if first came out, and remained banned in Britain until 1948. Vilified as 'the bible of lesbianism' by fire-and-brimstone reactionaries. In the seventies, the halcyon days of radical feminism, it was hailed as the first portrayal of a 'butch' woman.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 23, 2022
After a bit I found this to be a very good read. It is on the long side however...384 pages.
It is about a person who we meet when he was a newborn, and we follow him out .
As the preface by Alison Hennegan elaborates on, one theme of the book is about food. Gian-Luca is a waiter first at his relative’s hole-in-the-wall diner then works his way up to head waiter at a posh restaurant.
Gian-Luca’s mother dies at the outset of the book of childbirth. He is born out of wedlock and on her deathbed, Olga will not reveal to her mother, Teresa, who the father is (probably for fear the mother will kill him). Teresa, an ardent Catholic, was praying for a miracle—that Olga would live–but when she dies, she renounces her Catholic faith and tears out a wall sconce of the Sacred Heart from Olga’s bedroom (where Olga had died). Teresa will raise the baby boy but states that she will not love him. That is a key point to the novel as one reads about Gian-Luca’s life and his choices.
Gian-Luca’s experience with the grandmother Teresa reminds me of Harry Harlow’s infamous experiment in the late 1950s/early 1960s with monkeys and the terry-cloth mother. Please see this link for a short description if you have not heard of the experiments: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/.... One can question the ethics of the study (and in fact Gian-Luca hates when peasant farmers that he knows abuse their animals), but it did show the importance of maternal contact/attachment, something that was not given to him by a close relative of his, his grandmother (other people were kind to him but he craved the grandmother’s love and attention).
Notes:
• About three weeks ago I was reading another reissue of an older book by Virago Modern Classics called ‘Saraband’ by Eliot Bliss and in the Introduction (most Virago Modern Classics have introductions by scholars who are well-versed with the author’s history), the reviewer, Paul Bailey, appeared to me to have denigrated Radclyffe Hall’s writing in comparison to Bliss’s: ‘...Hall’s prose is earnest sludge; Bliss’s is weighted, considered, and—at its best—properly lyrical. ...beyond Hall’s tub-thumping talent.’ I don’t know what the hell he is talking about. He needs to shut his pie-hole in my esteemed opinion. 😮 I gave ‘Saraband’ 3 stars, so it was worth reading, but I liked this one better. So, I will probably read more of Radclyffe Hall’s oeuvre.
• Snippet regarding the author: Radclyffe Hall was born on the south coast of England to an abusive mother and a playboy father. After this unhappy childhood, she inherited their estate and from then on was free to travel and live as she chose. She fell in love and lived with an older woman before settling down with Una Troubridge, a married sculptor. Her novel The Well of Loneliness (1928) was banned in the U.K. until 1948 but is now hailed as a classic of lesbian literature. She wrote many other acclaimed novels, short story collections, and poetry collections. [from: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/ra...]
• 'Adam’s Breed' won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1926 and the Femina Vie Heureuse prize for best English novel in 1927.
Reviews:
• https://laurasmusings.wordpress.com/2...
• https://www.beingfibromom.com/adams-b...
It is about a person who we meet when he was a newborn, and we follow him out .
As the preface by Alison Hennegan elaborates on, one theme of the book is about food. Gian-Luca is a waiter first at his relative’s hole-in-the-wall diner then works his way up to head waiter at a posh restaurant.
Gian-Luca’s mother dies at the outset of the book of childbirth. He is born out of wedlock and on her deathbed, Olga will not reveal to her mother, Teresa, who the father is (probably for fear the mother will kill him). Teresa, an ardent Catholic, was praying for a miracle—that Olga would live–but when she dies, she renounces her Catholic faith and tears out a wall sconce of the Sacred Heart from Olga’s bedroom (where Olga had died). Teresa will raise the baby boy but states that she will not love him. That is a key point to the novel as one reads about Gian-Luca’s life and his choices.
Gian-Luca’s experience with the grandmother Teresa reminds me of Harry Harlow’s infamous experiment in the late 1950s/early 1960s with monkeys and the terry-cloth mother. Please see this link for a short description if you have not heard of the experiments: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/.... One can question the ethics of the study (and in fact Gian-Luca hates when peasant farmers that he knows abuse their animals), but it did show the importance of maternal contact/attachment, something that was not given to him by a close relative of his, his grandmother (other people were kind to him but he craved the grandmother’s love and attention).
Notes:
• About three weeks ago I was reading another reissue of an older book by Virago Modern Classics called ‘Saraband’ by Eliot Bliss and in the Introduction (most Virago Modern Classics have introductions by scholars who are well-versed with the author’s history), the reviewer, Paul Bailey, appeared to me to have denigrated Radclyffe Hall’s writing in comparison to Bliss’s: ‘...Hall’s prose is earnest sludge; Bliss’s is weighted, considered, and—at its best—properly lyrical. ...beyond Hall’s tub-thumping talent.’ I don’t know what the hell he is talking about. He needs to shut his pie-hole in my esteemed opinion. 😮 I gave ‘Saraband’ 3 stars, so it was worth reading, but I liked this one better. So, I will probably read more of Radclyffe Hall’s oeuvre.
• Snippet regarding the author: Radclyffe Hall was born on the south coast of England to an abusive mother and a playboy father. After this unhappy childhood, she inherited their estate and from then on was free to travel and live as she chose. She fell in love and lived with an older woman before settling down with Una Troubridge, a married sculptor. Her novel The Well of Loneliness (1928) was banned in the U.K. until 1948 but is now hailed as a classic of lesbian literature. She wrote many other acclaimed novels, short story collections, and poetry collections. [from: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/h/ra...]
• 'Adam’s Breed' won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction in 1926 and the Femina Vie Heureuse prize for best English novel in 1927.
Reviews:
• https://laurasmusings.wordpress.com/2...
• https://www.beingfibromom.com/adams-b...
April 19, 2018
This is a moving book about Gian-Luca, a lonely young man who is looking for a place where he truly belongs.
Read
June 30, 2017A solidly mediocre novel. Replete with all the sins of the undisciplined omniscient pov. Stuffed full of food though so that's a good thing. But could've done without the protag going on a senseless bender in search of god and whatknot.
November 30, 2012
I must admit that the Well of Loneliness is my favourite book of all time and I realised I should really read some other books by Hall (even if they aren't about queers). I found an absoultely amazing copy of this book while we were away in Hay-on-Wye, complete with a dusk jacket illustration by Hall's partner Una. The subject matter, an Italian immigrant family in Soho in the early 20th century is not something I'd usually be that into but I thought I'd give it a go. I have to say I totally LOVED this book! But I have a really hard time expressing exactly why. The characters weren't terribly amazing, they had no witty dialogue but there was something very honest and endearing about the whole thing. I got completely absorbed into the story so that when I was reading about them going through the heat of a summer's visit to Kew Gardens I almost started to fan myself with my bookmark even though there was snow outside. I just got totally absorbed into the book. It reminded me a little of Zola and a little of Mrs. Gaskell. The Zola in that it seemed like a very frank and detailed portrayal of lives of people who don't normally end up as the protagonists of novels. The scene where they went to Kew reminded me very much of the scene where they went to the Louvre in l'assommoir. But in Zola there are always the forced plot device moments of melodrama where everything has to go terribly wrong, that just didn't happen here it seemed much more normal. Despite the strange tragedy at the end and the general feeling of dispair and disatisfaction throughou the book. It reminded me of Mrs Gaskell in that while Hall presented a very honest description of her characters there was a sense of sympathy for all of them, and even the ones that did terrible things, you could still understand. In many ways this was a very quiet book, no dramatic plot arc. A boy was born and didn't fit in, grew up uncomfortably and lonely and ended up dying alone. But there was just so much packed into these pages. Simple things became incredibly beautiful and though it was sad it wasn't really tragic. I bought one other book by Hall while we were on holiday and now I am definitely going to hunt down the last two of her novels that I need to find.
January 7, 2011
From the beginning, this book captured my interest. It is not on a typical subject I would read, but I loved Hall's "The Well of Loneliness" and wanted to check out some of her other novels. As always, her writing is exceptional, from her detailed descriptions to her rich characterization. She is excellent at creating well-rounded, dynamic characters that feel totally real and make you think on a deeper level about their motives and ideas. I have to admit, I felt like I was missing a lot of symbolism throughout the book, but after reading the introduction (which really should be read after reading the book), I understood a little better where Hall was coming from and what some of the main themes and symbols were. Some were very obvious and others, not so much. Overall, it was a very interesting read and one that made me think a bit more about life and its many pitfalls and peaks.
December 17, 2022
A beautiful, sad story.
May 26, 2020
Radclyffe Hall delivers another spectacular work of literature in her novel, Adam's Breed. With a natural aptitude for writing, Hall shares a story that we will look upon with tender eyes and receive with an open mind to the beauty she puts before us.
Gian-Luca is loved by nearly everyone who knows him and receives him with open arms. Since his mother died giving birth to him and his father remains unknown, his grandparents take him into their home. Together with the rest of the clan of Italian immigrants living on Old Compton Street in England, Gian-Luca is raised to be a well-rounded boy who has a love of books but is quite lonely in all aspects.
Set in the early 1900s, the story follows him from birth through adulthood where he works hard for his grandparents in their deli then later for the restaurant, the Capo, as a waiter. There he learns about love and how to serve others with efficiency and diligence. His reputation of being the hardest worker precedes him to Millo, the well-respected owner of the posh fine-dining restaurant, the Doric.
At the Doric, Gian-Luca learns what it means to persuade diners in all things food and wine. He manages his dining area with prestige and is quickly elevated to the status of the head-waiter. All the while he serves, he meets Maddelena and they soon marry.
Despite his status and nuptials, he is lonely. He suffers greatly and begins to despise who he has come to serve in the restaurant. Through these diners, he realizes with great dismay the downfalls of society and how much beauty is overlooked which surrounds us. Becoming thoroughly depressed, he sets out on a journey to find fulfillment. To find a place where he belongs. Somewhere away from the savagery of human and closer to that of nature.
Much like her other novel, 'The Well of Loneliness', Hall makes us love the main character of this novel. With tenderness for character and reader, Hall shares Gian-Luca's life in a delicate way that greatly appeals to our emotions. Through this intimacy, we cannot help but love what he loves, fear what he fears, and long for what he longs. Surly a story you won't forget and would want to read again.
Gian-Luca is loved by nearly everyone who knows him and receives him with open arms. Since his mother died giving birth to him and his father remains unknown, his grandparents take him into their home. Together with the rest of the clan of Italian immigrants living on Old Compton Street in England, Gian-Luca is raised to be a well-rounded boy who has a love of books but is quite lonely in all aspects.
Set in the early 1900s, the story follows him from birth through adulthood where he works hard for his grandparents in their deli then later for the restaurant, the Capo, as a waiter. There he learns about love and how to serve others with efficiency and diligence. His reputation of being the hardest worker precedes him to Millo, the well-respected owner of the posh fine-dining restaurant, the Doric.
At the Doric, Gian-Luca learns what it means to persuade diners in all things food and wine. He manages his dining area with prestige and is quickly elevated to the status of the head-waiter. All the while he serves, he meets Maddelena and they soon marry.
Despite his status and nuptials, he is lonely. He suffers greatly and begins to despise who he has come to serve in the restaurant. Through these diners, he realizes with great dismay the downfalls of society and how much beauty is overlooked which surrounds us. Becoming thoroughly depressed, he sets out on a journey to find fulfillment. To find a place where he belongs. Somewhere away from the savagery of human and closer to that of nature.
Much like her other novel, 'The Well of Loneliness', Hall makes us love the main character of this novel. With tenderness for character and reader, Hall shares Gian-Luca's life in a delicate way that greatly appeals to our emotions. Through this intimacy, we cannot help but love what he loves, fear what he fears, and long for what he longs. Surly a story you won't forget and would want to read again.
November 23, 2022
This is pretty intense. First published in 1926, it has both the virtues and the faults of many novels of the period. The pace is slow and stately. The writing is careful and detailed, every once in while bursting into surprising, lavish description. The characters are driven, passionate, sometimes melodramatic, but they still seemed very real to me.
The novel tells the life story of a man called Gian-Luca, from birth to death. His birth is unfortunate, as the bastard child of a dying mother, attended by his grandparents. They are the ones who raise him, but although his grandfather Fabio dotes on him, his grandmother Teresa never forgives him for his mother’s death. At the moment of his birth, she also loses her faith in prayer and in the divine, and Gian-Luca is raised without religion.
It's set in the Italian immigrant community in London, and it really immerses itself in this milieu. Radclyffe Hall makes this world very believable, sprinkling the dialogue with Italian phrases. Fabio owns a deli, and this is where Gian-Luca grows up, and the other shopkeepers and their families are vivid characters in this novel. They all see themselves as truly Italian, just there to make money from the English – except for Gian-Luca, who knows himself as a person with no name and no country.
The novel moves through the years of the first World War, the rise and fall of economic fortunes, and the many social changes of the postwar years. Gian-Luca works as a waiter, and he’s ambitious and becomes a very good one. After some hopeless crushes on unobtainable women, he marries the lovely and loving Maddalena. But this life and this world doesn’t satisfy him, and the loneliness and alienation of his youth takes different forms as he grows.
His whole life is about serving food and alcohol, encouraging people to eat. He is trained to notice every slight gesture, to gauge human desire. Then his idol, his favorite poet, comes to the restaurant where Gian-Luca is head waiter, and is revealed to be much less than the grand figure Gian-Luca imagined. In the aftermath of this, he becomes disgusted by the greed and dissolution of the people he serves. He himself becomes unable to eat, and becomes ill.
The owner of the restaurant encourages him to go to Italy for a rest cure, and Maddalena is eager to go, and fixes up accommodations with her cousin on a provincial farm. But Gian-Luca cannot stem his habit of judging, and now he is especially aware of cruelty towards animals. The cousin’s young son abuses a young donkey, and when Gian-Luca impulsively starts thrashing him, he and Maddalena are asked to leave.
But Gian-Luca can’t go back to his life as a waiter, and he sets out alone, a vagabond. He is looking for the God he has never been able to believe in, and so he divests himself of everything. Although Gian-Luca learns a lot in the forest, this novel is too good to end with any kind of trite revelation. In fact, the last words come from Gian-Luca’s embittered grandmother.
Quotes:
< In the little wooden cash-desk sat Teresa at her knitting, with a pen-holder stuck behind her ear. A black-browed, imperturbably austere, regenerate Eve, completely indifferent now to apples. >
< There had been nothing noble in poor Geppe’s death, unless death itself be noble – he had died as hundreds of others had done, because there was no escape. Scourged and tormented by vile engines of war, by terrible, nerve-breaking, soul-sickening noise, by the smell and the sight and the slime of blood – crowding, thrusting, yelling, retreating, in a welter of maimed, half-demented men - that was how Geppe had died. But now he must needs be a hero to Nerone, and Rosa must mourn him as a hero, and Mario must speak of “My brave son Geppe” as though Geppe had been wiling and glad to die in that awful retreat of Caporetto. >
< A man in a baize apron, with a dust-pan and brush, was stalking a couple of waiters; every few minutes he would suddenly swoop at some microscopic speck on the carpet. At a long side-table a person in shirt-sleeves opened endless packets of matches; he filled the matchstands with infinite care so that each little red head stood neatly in its place awaiting its coming cremation. Daniele was giving a last expert touch to the wicks of the spirit-lamps, pinching them firmly between finger and thumb , then spreading out their tips as though they were petals, for these wicks were important, since they would assist in the making of the temperamental Crepe Suzette! >
< There are some experiences that remain in the mind as possessing a charm all their own, so that no matter what may follow after, they stand forth unblemished as something to remember with a sense of deep gratitude. And of these, the first glimpse of that lovely coast-line that curves like a sickle round the Genoese Gulf is surely not the least, for nothing more perfect could ever be wedded to sunshine. >
< The damp, pure smell of the earth in spring travail – the moss smell, the leaf smell – laid hold on his senses; while those drowsy, thoughtful green eyes of the forest followed him down the high road. >
< One splendid old beech tree he took as his friend, and every morning he would stand close against it, with his back to its trunk and his arms extended on either side of his body. His hands would be held very still, palms upwards, for morsels of food would be lying on his palms, and presently he would whistle softly to the birds that were watching from the branches. So it happened that Gian-Luca, who had served all his life, continued to serve in the forest, waiting upon the simplicity of birds as he had upon Milady’s caprices. One by one the birds would come flying down, blackcap and greenfinch, goldcrest and linnet; and with many small twitters and flutterings and circlings the birds would feed from his hands. >
The novel tells the life story of a man called Gian-Luca, from birth to death. His birth is unfortunate, as the bastard child of a dying mother, attended by his grandparents. They are the ones who raise him, but although his grandfather Fabio dotes on him, his grandmother Teresa never forgives him for his mother’s death. At the moment of his birth, she also loses her faith in prayer and in the divine, and Gian-Luca is raised without religion.
It's set in the Italian immigrant community in London, and it really immerses itself in this milieu. Radclyffe Hall makes this world very believable, sprinkling the dialogue with Italian phrases. Fabio owns a deli, and this is where Gian-Luca grows up, and the other shopkeepers and their families are vivid characters in this novel. They all see themselves as truly Italian, just there to make money from the English – except for Gian-Luca, who knows himself as a person with no name and no country.
The novel moves through the years of the first World War, the rise and fall of economic fortunes, and the many social changes of the postwar years. Gian-Luca works as a waiter, and he’s ambitious and becomes a very good one. After some hopeless crushes on unobtainable women, he marries the lovely and loving Maddalena. But this life and this world doesn’t satisfy him, and the loneliness and alienation of his youth takes different forms as he grows.
His whole life is about serving food and alcohol, encouraging people to eat. He is trained to notice every slight gesture, to gauge human desire. Then his idol, his favorite poet, comes to the restaurant where Gian-Luca is head waiter, and is revealed to be much less than the grand figure Gian-Luca imagined. In the aftermath of this, he becomes disgusted by the greed and dissolution of the people he serves. He himself becomes unable to eat, and becomes ill.
The owner of the restaurant encourages him to go to Italy for a rest cure, and Maddalena is eager to go, and fixes up accommodations with her cousin on a provincial farm. But Gian-Luca cannot stem his habit of judging, and now he is especially aware of cruelty towards animals. The cousin’s young son abuses a young donkey, and when Gian-Luca impulsively starts thrashing him, he and Maddalena are asked to leave.
But Gian-Luca can’t go back to his life as a waiter, and he sets out alone, a vagabond. He is looking for the God he has never been able to believe in, and so he divests himself of everything. Although Gian-Luca learns a lot in the forest, this novel is too good to end with any kind of trite revelation. In fact, the last words come from Gian-Luca’s embittered grandmother.
Quotes:
< In the little wooden cash-desk sat Teresa at her knitting, with a pen-holder stuck behind her ear. A black-browed, imperturbably austere, regenerate Eve, completely indifferent now to apples. >
< There had been nothing noble in poor Geppe’s death, unless death itself be noble – he had died as hundreds of others had done, because there was no escape. Scourged and tormented by vile engines of war, by terrible, nerve-breaking, soul-sickening noise, by the smell and the sight and the slime of blood – crowding, thrusting, yelling, retreating, in a welter of maimed, half-demented men - that was how Geppe had died. But now he must needs be a hero to Nerone, and Rosa must mourn him as a hero, and Mario must speak of “My brave son Geppe” as though Geppe had been wiling and glad to die in that awful retreat of Caporetto. >
< A man in a baize apron, with a dust-pan and brush, was stalking a couple of waiters; every few minutes he would suddenly swoop at some microscopic speck on the carpet. At a long side-table a person in shirt-sleeves opened endless packets of matches; he filled the matchstands with infinite care so that each little red head stood neatly in its place awaiting its coming cremation. Daniele was giving a last expert touch to the wicks of the spirit-lamps, pinching them firmly between finger and thumb , then spreading out their tips as though they were petals, for these wicks were important, since they would assist in the making of the temperamental Crepe Suzette! >
< There are some experiences that remain in the mind as possessing a charm all their own, so that no matter what may follow after, they stand forth unblemished as something to remember with a sense of deep gratitude. And of these, the first glimpse of that lovely coast-line that curves like a sickle round the Genoese Gulf is surely not the least, for nothing more perfect could ever be wedded to sunshine. >
< The damp, pure smell of the earth in spring travail – the moss smell, the leaf smell – laid hold on his senses; while those drowsy, thoughtful green eyes of the forest followed him down the high road. >
< One splendid old beech tree he took as his friend, and every morning he would stand close against it, with his back to its trunk and his arms extended on either side of his body. His hands would be held very still, palms upwards, for morsels of food would be lying on his palms, and presently he would whistle softly to the birds that were watching from the branches. So it happened that Gian-Luca, who had served all his life, continued to serve in the forest, waiting upon the simplicity of birds as he had upon Milady’s caprices. One by one the birds would come flying down, blackcap and greenfinch, goldcrest and linnet; and with many small twitters and flutterings and circlings the birds would feed from his hands. >
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 31, 2024
3,5 Il finale letteralmente un pugno in faccia. Radclyffe ma che cazzo. (RTC)
December 20, 2024
Very good but very long.
January 28, 2025
A bildungsroman about a member of the Italian immigrant community in London. Winner of the 1926 James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Gian-Luca is a lonely little boy. His father is unknown, his mother died in childbirth as a result of which his grandmother, though she helps raise him, cannot show him affection. Technically English, he is sent to an English school but the boys there see him as Italian. He loves reading but he can't write. He isn't a member of the Catholic church and can't believe in God. After school he works as a waiter so he is an observer of but not a participant in high society. This is the story of someone who feels himself to be an outsider.
I swiftly developed a strong bond of empathy for Gian-Luca, suffering in his trials, always afraid of what might happen to him in the future. Many of the other characters were also beautifully brought to life: Teresa his grandmother, hollowed by grief, driven and determined; Fabio his compliant grandfather; the wonderful Mario whose hopes always exceed his abilities, boastful even when humiliated - “Mario bragged from self-abasement; Mario had long ago realised himself, and he lied from the humidity of failure.”; 1.11); the butcher Rocco who always misunderstands; and Maddalena who loves GL as a wife and maternally even though GL can never quite love her back.
This is also a fascinating portrait of an immigrant community employed in the way such communities often are: as shopkeepers and restaurateurs. There is poverty, there are tribulations, but there is support from the other members of the community. In the end, there is mutual love, respect and understanding.
It is peppered with Italian words which add a further layer of verisimilitude to what already seems hugely realistic. Congratulations to the publishers, Renard Press, for including full translations as end-notes (footnotes would have been even better, avoiding the need for two bookmarks and flicking back and forth).
It was written in 1926, a time when the novel was rapidly evolving (for example: James Joyce's Ulysses was published in 1922, Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway in 1925, and Pastors and Masters by Ivy Compton-Burnett in 1925) but stylistically it dates back to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. It reminded me of New Grub Street by George Gissing and the H G Wells social novels such as Kipps and The History of Mr Polly. But is is not nearly as heavy-going as some of that style of book can be; it is beautifully written and I kept turning the pages to learn more about poor Gian-Luca.
And in book 3 chapter 2 a brilliant twist that I never saw coming at all.
The author gives the recipe for success in Book One, Chapter 13: “There are three very vital things: quality, variety and originality ... A dinner should have, like a book or a picture, good workmanship, plenty of light and shade, and above all that individual touch, that original central idea.” (1.13) On these criteria this novel is very much a hit.
Further congratulations to the publisher from running the chapter numbers at the top of each page which is so much more useful than just being repeatedly told of the title of the book.
Gian-Luca is a lonely little boy. His father is unknown, his mother died in childbirth as a result of which his grandmother, though she helps raise him, cannot show him affection. Technically English, he is sent to an English school but the boys there see him as Italian. He loves reading but he can't write. He isn't a member of the Catholic church and can't believe in God. After school he works as a waiter so he is an observer of but not a participant in high society. This is the story of someone who feels himself to be an outsider.
I swiftly developed a strong bond of empathy for Gian-Luca, suffering in his trials, always afraid of what might happen to him in the future. Many of the other characters were also beautifully brought to life: Teresa his grandmother, hollowed by grief, driven and determined; Fabio his compliant grandfather; the wonderful Mario whose hopes always exceed his abilities, boastful even when humiliated - “Mario bragged from self-abasement; Mario had long ago realised himself, and he lied from the humidity of failure.”; 1.11); the butcher Rocco who always misunderstands; and Maddalena who loves GL as a wife and maternally even though GL can never quite love her back.
This is also a fascinating portrait of an immigrant community employed in the way such communities often are: as shopkeepers and restaurateurs. There is poverty, there are tribulations, but there is support from the other members of the community. In the end, there is mutual love, respect and understanding.
It is peppered with Italian words which add a further layer of verisimilitude to what already seems hugely realistic. Congratulations to the publishers, Renard Press, for including full translations as end-notes (footnotes would have been even better, avoiding the need for two bookmarks and flicking back and forth).
It was written in 1926, a time when the novel was rapidly evolving (for example: James Joyce's Ulysses was published in 1922, Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway in 1925, and Pastors and Masters by Ivy Compton-Burnett in 1925) but stylistically it dates back to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. It reminded me of New Grub Street by George Gissing and the H G Wells social novels such as Kipps and The History of Mr Polly. But is is not nearly as heavy-going as some of that style of book can be; it is beautifully written and I kept turning the pages to learn more about poor Gian-Luca.
And in book 3 chapter 2 a brilliant twist that I never saw coming at all.
The author gives the recipe for success in Book One, Chapter 13: “There are three very vital things: quality, variety and originality ... A dinner should have, like a book or a picture, good workmanship, plenty of light and shade, and above all that individual touch, that original central idea.” (1.13) On these criteria this novel is very much a hit.
Further congratulations to the publisher from running the chapter numbers at the top of each page which is so much more useful than just being repeatedly told of the title of the book.
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