3.5 stars This wonderful play with gorgeous lines for Lord Goring would have been a solid four star read, were it not for the last couple of pages whe3.5 stars This wonderful play with gorgeous lines for Lord Goring would have been a solid four star read, were it not for the last couple of pages where Wilde spoilt it for me. Lord Goring, who in my view is the strongest representative of the author’s voice, fell back into a strongly conventional view of women’s place, without the slightest undertone of irony:
Lord Goring: "A man’s life is of more value than a woman’s. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. A woman’s life revolves in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man’s life progresses.�(*)
Lady Chiltern: “A man’s life is of more value than a woman’s. It has larger issues, wider scope, greater ambitions. Our lives revolve in curves of emotions. It is upon lines of intellect that a man’s life progresses. I have just learnt this, and much else with it, from Lord Goring…�(**)
(*) “The whole speech has posed problems for some of Wilde’s critics because Lord Goring, whose words have until now sparkled with originality of thought and expression, seems to be offering a decidedly conventional view of woman’s place within marriage (and one that even in its expression draws heavily on the writings of John Ruskin).�
And he tries to console the modern reader:
(**) "Feminist and socialist critics alike have taken exception to this speech which represents Lady Chiltern as a kind of puppet programmed by Lord Goring. But this is to miss the careful structuring of the change that Lady’s Chiltern’s character undergoes during this act…�
Maybe I am overreacting, but after having read Lady Windermere's Fan and A Woman of No Importance which both have a slightly feminist undertone, I was not expecting this of Oscar Wilde � thus 3.5 stars, I’m afraid. ...more
"Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them.""Children begin by loving their parents. After a time they judge them. Rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."...more
"The devil looks down to Barcelona. The city is a bowl surrounded by hills: Montjuic, Monterols, Putget, la Creueta, Collserola, Tibidabo. The devil l"The devil looks down to Barcelona. The city is a bowl surrounded by hills: Montjuic, Monterols, Putget, la Creueta, Collserola, Tibidabo. The devil looks down from Tibidabo where he brought Jesus, during His forty-day fast in the desert. This is where he tempted Him with all the kingdoms of the world. 'To thee I will give: Tibidabo.' And he showed Him Barcelona."(p.166)
With Colm Toibin's 'Homage to Barcelona' you will have a devilishly good time on your next trip to one of Europe's greatest cities!...more
2.5 stars. This has only been my third contemporary author on my To-Read list this year and, unfortunately, my first literary disappointment as well. 2.5 stars. This has only been my third contemporary author on my To-Read list this year and, unfortunately, my first literary disappointment as well. With regard to contemporary authors, I have admittedly been spoiled in 2016 by Alan Hollinghurt’s and Colm Toibin’s skilled penmanship, and it might have been a mistake to expect Joyce Carol Oates� prose to be in the same league with these great British and Irish authors. Alas, my first Oates was not my cup of tea: Overwritten, with a storyline all over the place and a character development that was not convincing to me, this novel gets only 2.5 stars from me. ...more
"Blest who betimes has left life's revel, Whose wine-filled glass he has not drained, Who does not read right to the end Life's still, as yet, unfinished"Blest who betimes has left life's revel, Whose wine-filled glass he has not drained, Who does not read right to the end Life's still, as yet, unfinished novel, But lets it go, as I do my Onegin, and bid him goodbye." (p.197)...more
'Ah, gentlemen! What will become of your will once the whole business ends up with tables and arithmetic, when only twice two is four is in demand? Tw'Ah, gentlemen! What will become of your will once the whole business ends up with tables and arithmetic, when only twice two is four is in demand? Twice two will make four without my willing it. So much for your will!' (p. 29)...more
"There is the same world for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in hand. To shut one's eyes to half of life that one "There is the same world for all of us, and good and evil, sin and innocence, go through it hand in hand. To shut one's eyes to half of life that one may live securely is as though one blinded oneself that one might walk with more safety in a land of pit and precipice."...more
'Just the place to bury a crock of gold� said Sebastian. ‘I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ve been happy and then when 'Just the place to bury a crock of gold� said Sebastian. ‘I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ve been happy and then when I was old and ugly and miserable, I could come back and dig and remember.� (p. 20)
This is a book about remembrance � of lost and betrayed relationships, vanished glory and the reminiscence of a disappearing world.
Loading...
