Tag: Translation

Books

Book 64: Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert

Geoff W

As I mentioned earlier I decided to bump this higher on my list as I missed a trivia question and realized how woefully lacking French literature (Classic) is from my lists and my life.

Having finished it, I’m not quite so sure it was a bad thing French literature was missing from my life. There were parts of the novel I really enjoyed, the romance, the passion, but there were parts that dredged on and definitely left me wishing Flaubert was a more concise writer.

This is of course the story of Madame Bovary (Emma – my trivia question was ‘ In which novel by Gustave Flaubert is Emma the protagonist?’) and her fall from grace. I would say it’s a story of lessons—Don’t live beyond your means; Believe in love, and don’t give into lust; and Never stop dreaming, but know where the line between dream and reality is. We follow Charles Bovary from his time as a young school boy through to his education and his first wife. His first wife dies and he eventually marries Emma, and the rest of the story is about their love (or lack thereof) and Emma’s search for extramarital love/life. The ending is sad, but poignant.

Click here to continue reading, for quotes and to read the review…

Books

Book 60: Amerika (The Man Who Disappeared) – Franz Kafka

Geoff W

The American dream isn’t all it’s cracked up to be in this Franz Kafka novel.

As an introduction to Kafka I thought it was decently well written and had an interesting story line. I can only imagine the improvements of the work had Kafka finished the novel in his lifetime and had time to rewrite and edit the novel. As it is the novel has a few interesting quirks pointed out in the preface, like a bridge between Boston (whoop) and New York City, and what appear as the Rocky Mountains just outside of New York City (between NYC and Oklahoma). I’m definitely interested in reading more of Kafka. I have The Metamorphosis on my Kindle, so maybe I’ll get to it soon.

Without knowing how Kafka meant to end the book, one can only surmise on the lessons the novel appears to teach. From the hardship of his forced immigration to the US by his parents, to the abandonment by his uncle, and the indentured servitude to his friends, the protagonist, Karl Rossman has a tough time in America.

Click here to continue reading.

Books

Book 45: The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho

Geoff W

You can always tell the books I enjoyed more based on the length of the blog and my voice in the blog. I would probably skip posts of the books I don’t really like, but it would defeat the purpose of this blog, so instead you get somewhat whinny posts about a book that I don’t understand or just didn’t like, like The Prince.

Whereas when I read a book I truly enjoy you get a true feel for the book and why I’ve enjoyed reading it. Thankfully The Alchemist is of the latter category. Again this is a book I bought ages ago (recognize a pattern) that I never got around to reading. This book was so good I read it in an afternoon (it’s only 170 pages). What I enjoyed most about this novel was the spirituality without the religion. An interesting fact according to Wikipedia (with a legitimate siting) is that the book holds the record for the most translations into another language by a living author.

Click here to read the rest of the review and for a few moving quotes.

Books

Book 44: The Prince – Niccolo Machiavelli

Geoff W

I think this was required reading in High School for one of my classes, or I may have switched out of that class, but long story short I never read it. I bought the book and ended up packing the book up in one of my random boxes of books and only found it this past winter when I was looking for another book and I took it home to Boston and finally got around to reading it.

I’m not going to pretend I understood most of the novel, but I realize the further I get away from reading it that I understood more than I thought I did. The last half was a lot easier to understand as it had less to do with the people and princes of the time. Without an intimate knowledge of the princes and people it was a bit difficult to follow things.

The forward by Christian Gauss was perhaps the most interesting bit of the book to me as it was a who’s who of world leaders from dictators to presidents. Gauss did a great job of breaking down the book and explaining how it’s still as viable today as it was then.

Perhaps because I’ve read a lot of fantasy/fiction novels about power struggles often including monarchies a lot of what Machiavelli said made perfect sense and came across as common sense, but clearly when he was writing it was a time of turmoil and change.

Books

Book 6: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest – Stieg Larsson

Geoff W

I first want to say it irks me that the title is grammatically incorrect on the US version (Hornet’s versus Hornets’). It is a nest of hornets not one hornet’s nest.

I read this book in just under 48 hours, and it was well worth the time and wait it took to get a hold of a copy. I first read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo as part of a book group we started during my year of AmeriCorps. Although the book was originally scheduled for after the group disbanded, I still wanted to read it. I read both Tatto and The Girl Who Played With Fire as fast as Hornets’ Nest.

Click here to continue reading.