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Bezig met laden... The Black Monk; Peasantsdoor Anton Chekhov
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Meld je aan bij LibraryThing om erachter te komen of je dit boek goed zult vinden. Op dit moment geen Discussie gesprekken over dit boek. I was intrigued by this, not just as a skillful handling of one man's descent into madness, but the lack of bias in the author's treatment of the situation. Who should we sympathise with? Tanya and her father, long suffering by standers and "victims" of Audrey's behaviour? Or Audrey himself, whose thoroughly delusional yet relatively benign behaviour causes little serious harm and keeps him happy. The drive by Tanya and her father to bring him back to "normality", destroying his genius in the process, seems cruel from his point of view. Their view of his odd behaviour seems understandable from theirs... The quote that stands out for me is when the Black Monk talks of genius and madness: "Nowadays scientists say genius is akin to madness". I suspect the urge t come down on the side of one or the other is futile-and not what Chekhov was wanting for his readers. I think it is more the genius/madness that exists in humanity, which can be delusional, difficult and sometimes damaging, but which is more damaging when "cured". I'm a newbie to Chekhov so I need to read more to make sense of him. I enjoyed these two stories even though the backdrop is depressing. Both are philosophical and I believe they would be made better if read for a book club or class and discussed. In The Black Monk, my question is, is he crazy? In Peasants, the question is, do situations people are placed in cause them to be unhappy with their lives or is it the individual who ultimately has control of their happiness with outside forces being minimal in that respect. These two stories are both weightier and more serious affairs than the author's many vignettes of Russian life in his Selected Short Stories. The title story is rather ambiguous and I am not sure if the author is making a specifically anti-religious point (the monk as the instrument of the protagonist's fall in life) or showing simply a generally cynical and pessimistic outlook on life. The protagonist dies of consumption, as did the author. Peasants is a vivid depiction of grinding poverty, starkly unlike the humorous peasant characters in the author's other story vignettes. This culminates in the death of the main character and a horrible line "Far from having any fear of death, Marya was only sorry that it was such a long time coming, and was glad when any of her children died". geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)Penguin 60s (13) Bevat
"This tale of a man who blissfully chats with the vision of a wise, mysterious monk, is read with matchless skill...Mire and An Artist's Story are equally enchanting, making this one of the finest recordings of short fiction to arrive in a long time... What's within is pure gold". Unabridged -- Library Journal Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)891.733Literature Literature of other languages Literature of east Indo-European and Celtic languages Russian and East Slavic languages Russian fiction 1800–1917LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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The book was very enjoyable, the stories quite evocative. ( )