Armand’s
Comments
(group member since Mar 02, 2011)
Armand’s
comments
from the fast classics for literary wimps ! group.
Showing 1-20 of 34
one link to the story:http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/tolst...
I'm sure the ebook is available in many forms for free
Post your comments about The Kreutzer Sonata down here.
Hello All- Our summer poll was a three way tie between two Tolstoy stories and one by Conan Doyle. Acting in my unofficial capacity as tie-breaker, our fall/winter read will be Leo Tolstoy's long, tragic short story, The Kreutzer Sonata . As it is not so much a short story as a novella (120 pages), this will be our reader for both the Fall and Winter. Enjoy!The Kreutzer Sonata
Leo Tolstoy
This was my first exposure to Henry Miller, and I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. There were a lot of good things about this lengthy short story (or very short novella), including accessible writing, and a wonderful sense of that transitional period in history (when wealthy Americans first started visiting "Old Europe" in droves.) Even though I gave it three stars above, I really want to give it 3.5 stars. I have to admit- however- that after I was done, I didn't know exactly what to make of the story which is roughly about a passive narrator (Winterbourne) trying to understand a free-spirited, rough-around-the-edges American woman (Daisy). It was only after I studied the story some more (using Sparknotes- I admit it), that I got a broader sense of the social context. In this case, Henry James was exploring a cultural clash between new-money American tourists (like Daisy Miller and family) and old-school American ex-pats (like Winterbourne- who apparently has no first name). Furthermore, even though most of the drama in the novel concerns Daisy Miller, a lot of the novel is about how stuck Winterbourne is. He's American in Geneva. He doesn't know whether he can fall for Daisy or not. He is unsure of the value of social standing. He is unsure of how to approach the freedom that Daisy represents. All in all, a good book, and despite the drama (including some social scandal and even a death!), the story has a soft, old fashioned feel to it.
I needed a little help with this one- here is a link to the sparknotes for it.http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/daisy/c...
Wow Simona- those ones are pretty long. Are there any shorter Tolstoys that you might want to try? How about Ivan the Fool ?
Sherlock Holmes story, the first short story that was published: A Scandal in Bohemia (1891)- Arthur Conan Doyle.link:
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/182/23...
Okay- I'm going to nominate a Sherlock Holmes story, the first short story that was published: A Scandal in Bohemia (1891)- Arthur Conan Doyle.link:
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/182/23...
Thanks for your notes Kevin !
Hello- The summer optional read is "Daisy Miller", a novella by Henry James.Here is a link to the text free and online:
http://www2.newpaltz.edu/~hathawar/da...
Hi- please put any nominations for a Fall 2011 classic short story below. Thanks !
Thanks Aniesa- I liked your ideas on the story. Benjamin Button would definitely be a trippy movie to see on one's birthday.
Thanks Aniesa- here's my rather lengthy review: (spoilers in the 2nd half)The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald (writer of The Great Gatsby). It was made into a fairly successful movie a few years ago, so I think most people know the general premise which is that it's a story about a man who is born old and goes through life aging backwards. Overall, with a great narrative voice.
Benjamin Button is a fairly standard-sized short story. I read the whole thing in about 25 min. and I have to say very much enjoyed reading it. There were a number of things in the story that interested me.
**Warning spoilers below**
The historical perspective: the story itself was published in 1922 and spans the time period from about 1860 to 1930. So it kind of feels like watching an old black-and-white movie maybe listening to an old scratchy record. There are a lot of references to "society" (as in the historical upper middle class of the east coast), a few uncomfortable racist references, and of course no sex whatsoever which leads me to one of the stories strangest points, if Benjamin Button was really born as a full-sized 70-year-old man, one can only imagine that the labor was something straight out of hell. Fitzgerald dodges the whole issue by not having Benjamin's mother play any part in the story whatsoever.
Despite the fact it is written in 1922, some of the cultural references, like Yale-Harvard football games or references to the East Coast paparazzi (the mystery of Benjamin occasionally makes headlines and sparks all kinds of media-fueled rumors) , still feel fresh. I guess sports will always be sports, and the media will always be the media.
One interesting side effect of having somebody play with the idea of lifespan and mortality (by creating a reverse lifespan) is that the story made me think about death in a different way. And I found it interesting that the first part of the story with Benjamin as a "newly born" 70-year-old man was quite charming and sweet and made me happy (especially in a scene where he pals around and smokes cigars with his own grandfather- the two "old" men get along quite well after the grandfather gets over the initial shock of having a grandson his own age) , but the end of the story which takes place after he's regressed to five years of age and when he continues to regress (in a way that reminds me of the famously bitter-sweet short story, "Flowers for Algernon" )to the point of being a newborn and then dying made me sad.
My edition of the story has an introduction by F Scott Fitzgerald in which he mentions that he wrote the story based on the idea that it's unfair that people should have to live the least happy part of their lives (being old in their bodies) at the end, suggesting that -from his perspective- it would be more pleasing to die as a child, in the time when our lives are simple and fun. Paradoxically, reading the story had the exact opposite effect on me, and when Benjamin dies in the body of the newborn baby, it hit me pretty hard, and made me feel like its more poetically just to die when our bodies have weakened with age rather than when our bodies hold all the promise of being young.
From a strictly personal perspective, now that I've turned 40 and have my own kids, reading the story made me think about death in a fairly intense way. Not necessarily in a bad way, but definitely in an intense way, and it made me realize that whereas it used to think of death as being some abstract thing that possibly lived in Antarctica, it now feels like death lives about two towns away, and sometimes I pass him on the highway.
Hello- Put your comments about F. Scott Fitgerald's "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" down below!here is a link to the story:
http://www.readbookonline.net/read/69...
Thanks Sonya! did you think the unmade bed was scary? I have to admit, it creeped me out.
Armand's Notes-Overall, I give this 4 out of 5 stars.
Spooky Factor- Considering it was written over a century ago, it was spooky enough for me. In my mind, I kept comparing it to Dracula. It struck me that in Dracula, the horror is explicit. Dracula is evil and he hurts people. In "Oh Whistle…" the horror the horror is subtle and embodied in a face glimpsed in a window or an unmade bed. Only at the end does the ghost appear and (as the Colonel suggests) its only real power is in fear itself. Otherwise, it's just an old fashioned ghost, literally made out of cloth.
Of course, it had been written in the last 40 years or so, there would be a lot of blood and gore and the ending might have been a lot more brutal. But I'm pretty happy with the Colonel rushing in and saving the day.
For me, the best scary moment was when Parkins realizes the ghost is in the next bed over.
MR James also does a good job of describing how the ghost (as it's blind) uses its hand to search for its victims (and also it's creepy just how fast it moves)
The writing, of course, is lively and moves the story along. And the narrator isn't shy of expressing his opinions about things either, for example:
About Parkins: "…In repeating the above dialogue I have tried to give the impression which it made on me, that Parkins was something of an old woman--rather henlike,…"
About golf: "…But it's your drive' (or whatever it might have been: the golfing reader will have to imagine appropriate digressions at the proper intervals).
About his own shortcomings: "…but, with an ingenuity which I can only envy, he succeeded in rigging up, with the help of a railway-rug, some safety-pins, and a stick and umbrella, a screen…"
I think the narrator's voice is intended to be fun and ironic. In all honesty, I'm not sure I like it in a horror story, but I can admire it. I loved this line : "The whole thing, he said, served to confirm his opinion of the Church of Rome." Hee hee.
I enjoyed the antiquated feel of the story and the little touches that made it British, like the way the scared boy talks after he's seen the ghost in the window.
Ps: What is a groyne?- the thing that the man in Parkins' vision was jumping over in order to escpae the ghost.
http://wsgfl2.westsussex.gov.uk/aplaw...
Post what you thought of the story in the comment box below!
Apr 11, 2011 07:03PM
