Book Description
In this bitterly funny novel by the renowned Polish author Witold Gombrowicz, a writer finds himself tossed into a chaotic world of schoolboys by a diabolical professor who wishes to reduce him to childishness. Originally published in Poland in 1937, Ferdydurke became an instant literary sensation and catapulted the young author to fame. Deemed scandalous and subversive by Nazis, Stalinists, and the Polish Communist regime in turn, the novel (as well as all of Gombrowicz's other works) was officially banned in Poland for decades. It has nonetheless remained one of the most influential works of twentieth-century European literature.Ferdydurke is translated here directly from the Polish for the first time. Danuta Borchardt deftly captures Gombrowicz's playful and idiosyncratic style, and she allows English speakers to experience fully the masterpiece of a writer whom Milan Kundera describes as "one of the great novelists of our century."
Customer Reviews:
let me beg to differ.......2005-12-31
Witold gombrowicz's "alice in wonderland"-like trip takes the protagonist, who is 30 years old, back to his school days. There he battles again with the challenges of a teenager-alliances and cliques in the 1st part and sexual awakenings in the second. One thing is clear however; he has learned nothing from his earlier passing.
The story's underlying theme is one of maturity. What is it? Is it part of the aging process? Is it developed through life experiences? I never felt gombrowicz ever answers any of the questions unless the conclusion is that there is no maturity. None of the characters ever shows any level of it. That includes professors, school teachers, the landed gentry, or their peasants. Everyone is just simply self-destructive.
To further complicate things, the author throws in two somewhat unrelated short stories into the middle of the novel. They are just as silly as the novel itself, but are simply a distraction and really add nothing to it.
I also had problems with one aspect of the translation. The translators left in the polish word "pupa" which literally means buttocks. The author uses it in many different ways as you can imagine english would use the word ass. But I could not always follow his references. This made for frustrating reading since I knew something was there but couldn't get it.
The author himself probably puts it most succinctly at the very end of the novel when he says:
"It's the end, what a gas,
And who's read it is an ass!"
A one-of-a-kind masterpiece.......2005-09-11
The world of Ferdydurke seems at first to be concocted out of equal parts of Kafka and Swift. There is the absurdity of Kakfa: events occur for no apparent reason, and the main character seems to be under some mysterious hypnotic spell. And there is the savage humor of Swift. Violent conflict erupts between the followers of two opposed and equally absurd and ridiculous systems of belief. But as the book progresses, it becomes clear that Gombrowicz has put his own special stamp on this world, and created a type of fiction that is totally unique.
The plot line is simple: a man of about 30 years of age is abducted by a priggish professor and finds himself, for reasons unexplained, transformed into an adolescent schoolboy. The novel consists of the "adventures" of this anti-hero in the world of adolescence, which he views with both fascination and disgust, and from which he remains detached, and yet at the same time with which he becomes intensely involved. (Ferdydurke is above all else a novel of unresolved contradictions.) Although the narrator is subjected to all the humiliations of an adolescent schoolboy (patronized by adults, frustrated by hopeless desire for a girl who disdains him, etc.), he also retains an adult outlook. In fact, it may be said that he is the only character who is adult (in the psychological sense of being self-aware) and who struggles, not always with success, to remain sane. Part of the genius of the book is that the adults in it seem crazy from the narrator's perspective as a youth, and the adolescents seem crazy from the narrator's perspective as an adult. In spite of its simple plot, Ferdydurke bursts with a dazzling exuberance of incidents, contradictions, characters, and digressions. Readers who demand strict linear plot development in a novel should probably look elsewhere.
Ferdydurke can be read at many levels. It is not surprising that a novel which features conflicts between two equally absurd systems should come out of 1930s Poland, beset as it was by two powerful opposed enemies, Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Ferdydurke can also be read as an exploration of the fragility of the adult ego, of the fine line between "maturity" and "immaturity". The violent schoolboy quarrels which so fascinate and repel the narrator seem like absurdist, distorted parodies of very serious adult matters. And this novel is also about hidden, dark passageways in the human psyche. The narrator confesses to thoughts and behavior that most of us would never want to allow into the daylight of consciousness, much less to own up to.
Ferdydurke is not a difficult read, but it is quite digressive and very different from what most English-speakers expect a novel to be. Until this new translation, the first directly into English, it was effectively unavailable. This book is not for everyone. But it is a fascinating read for those who are seeking a multi-faceted, complex, and uncompromising (one noted critic has called it "Nietzchean") exploration of what it means to be a "mature adult", and who are not looking for easy answers or Hollywood endings.
Review.......2002-09-24
Among the great works of Central Europe litterature, Ferdydurke had a profound influence in my life and my writings.
Who, or what, is Ferdydurke?.......2002-08-05
You may well ask the above question, but you will never discover the answer, for there is no character, or thing, in this darkly comic masterpiece named Ferdydurke. It just appears to be some play on words, or a nonsense title to intrigue the potential reader. This book, written in Polish between the two world wars, is extremely capably translated, with a good use of slang and diminuitive terms which must have caused endless hours of trouble and frustration for the translator. It appears to be an indictment of the state of society as it existed in Poland in the 1930's, and may appear a bit dated since must of what is excoriated by the author no longer exists. There is particular emphasis upon the type of relationship which existed between the nobility (of a sort) and the peanant and serving classes. There is a lot about the threat of modernity in the country, and a great emphasis upon infantilism and immaturity. The work takes some getting used to by the reader, but read in the context of its time it is very well done, and should be read to be appreciated for what it has to say about the human condition.
Linguistic archetypes and immaturity.......2002-04-26
"Ferdydurke" by Witold Gombrowicz has finally been properly translated into English. Not that this is an event worth mentioning in general, but the point to be made is that the world of translation offers room for all kinds of mischief and sloppiness. Who would have thought that it were perfectly acceptable for publishers to allow translation from a second, and not native tongue? Imagine, for purposes of illustration, that a work of a classic British author translated into German not directly, but from Suahili, for this was the language the book was first translated into. Would you be satisfied with a product of this type? This was the fate of Gombrowicz, his native tongue was done away with, and the Anglo-Saxon world of bibliophiles had had no other choice but to read a lemon. Perhaps this is the revenge of the Heavens on the author himself, for never was there any other Polish author who had his native country in such a low regard as he did. In his "Trans-Atlantyk", Gombrowicz dared to ridicule everything a Pole holds dear, together with the whole idea of a nation as such. Were he to live today, he would embrace the idea of convergence and the global village of consumptionism, as opposed to Europe of Nations. That was one of the main reasons for Gombrowicz's emigration to Argentina, where he spent almost all of his literary career.
"Ferdydurke" is an early novel by this author, and it's never as crass as the aforementioned "Trans-Atlantyk". In fact, it constitutes part of a literary canon in Poland to this very day, and there is no educated Pole who hasn't read or at least heard of "Ferdydurke". Scenes from this book, gestures, and neologisms entered the mass vocabulary, and once you learn some of these expressions, you cannot unlearn them, for then there is no better way to express yourself, but to use the phrases coined by Gombrowicz. Whatever issues Poles have with this author, one thing is certain: we are grateful to him for augmenting our language. Gombrowicz created an archetype of a confused man, whose karma is to move back in time, back to school, with the mentality of an adult. I will even risk a claim that this fact alone lies at the very heart of science fiction - for how might that be possible, and what would happen if such occurence took place? How would that affect the object in queestion? Perhaps my perception of this problem is a bit skewed due to my occupational hazard of a scientist, but for me, "Ferdydurke" is a laboratory novel, where with a literary set of tools we analyze both the situation, and the object, in the vein of the medieval alchemist. This novel, hardly known in the English-speaking world, will be an exhilarating reading experience for you, provided that you will trust me and pick it up. The amusing analysis of the immature world the protagonist found himself in, mixed with elements from all literary forms, from plain mystery, via comedy, to sophisticated analysis of society, makes Ferdydurke an experimental novel of potential interest for all bibliophiles and lovers of the nonstandard.
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Ferdydurke
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Manufacturer: Marion Boyars Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Book Description
This digital document is an article from Epoca, published by Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA) on December 27, 2001. The length of the article is 675 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: Libros.(TT: Books.)(Reseña)
Publication:
Epoca (Magazine/Journal)
Date: December 27, 2001
Publisher: Difusora de Informacion Periodica, S.A. (DINPESA)
Page: 78
Article Type: Reseña
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Amazon.com
Wherein we discover that many of the "rules" for good writing and good sex are the same: Keep your hand moving, lose control, and don't think. Goldberg brings a touch of both Zen and well... *eroticism* to her writing practice, the latter in exercises and anecdotes designed to ease you into your body, your whole spirit, while you create, the former in being where you are, working with what you have, and writing from the moment.
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Natalie Goldberg's love of writing stems from her desire to connect with herself. In this audio version of her bestselling Writing Down the Bones, this is a potentially self-absorbed wish, especially considering that the author reads from her own work and interjects morsels of wisdom gleaned from a long writing career, which includes books on writing (Wild Mind, Long Quiet Highway), creativity (The Well of Creativity), and art (Living Color). However, Goldberg's relaxed narration and Everywoman sensibility help her avoid this danger. The classroom-like reading gives listeners a growing acquaintance with Goldberg and a friendly assurance of her methods as she quips: "you can hear my New York Jewish voice nagging you." The recording also includes an interview with Goldberg, focusing on her use of Zen meditation in writing and offering additional insight into her own rule-free writing habits. (Running time: 9 hours, 6 cassettes) --Bryony Angell
Book Description
For more than twenty years Natalie Goldberg has been challenging and cheering on writers with her books and workshops. In her groundbreaking first book, she brings together Zen meditation and writing in a new way. Writing practice, as she calls it, is no different from other forms of Zen practice—"it is backed by two thousand years of studying the mind." This edition includes a new preface and an interview with the author.
Customer Reviews:
My Favorite Writing Guide!.......2007-06-01
My dad gave me this book many years ago. He always had such faith in my writing ability, and he would mail me articles, books, reviews and such all the time.
Thanks to him, I have many writing books -- inspirational, how-to, and so on. This is the only one that is dog-eared and has food and coffee stains on many pages.
I noted that one reviewer thought it was really only a book for those who write poetry. I couldn't disagree more -- I have never written poetry, don't plan on it, and actually don't particularly like it. I mostly write non-fiction articles, and I LOVE the author's philosophy!
I do my research and interviews, read-read-read about whatever subject it is I want to write about, and then when it's time to sit down and write -- I just let it flow. I don't stop to think about it -- I just GO with it. My writing has improved so much this way! I used to try to outline and plan -- and my writing was disastrous. I did not listen to my instincts, which told me that my very best writing was always, without exception, the kind that happened with no planning at all.
If you aren't afraid to write without a "plan", get this book. Even if you DO think you need a plan, get this book. Try a different way of writing, and you just might be surprised at the REAL writer within you, dying to get out and express herself (or himself)!
My problem is not with Natalie Goldberg's book..........2007-05-13
This edition is TINY. I would love to be reviewing Natalie Goldberg's book right now, but apparently Amazon saw fit not to include the warning "This book is only 3 by 4 1/2 inches in size (text inside occupies a 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch area on the page)."
The is not the sort of book I already have mostly memorized; but if I had, perhaps it would help to have this tiny reference around to jog my memory now and again. Indeed, I do not foresee ever reading it because it is too tiny to hold, or to see. Moreover, since it is a guide to writing, I would ideally like to be jotting notes in the margins. But the margins are about an eighth of an inch wide. So you see my problem.
Amazon, please carry normal sizes. There's a reason for it.
The book that made me a writer.......2007-03-19
This is probably one of the best books ever on the subject of writing. While Goldberg hardly covers anything technical with regards to writing specific genres (be it poetry, novels, magazine articles), she triumphs by enabling the reader to overcome their writer's block, and dare to write about the things that matter to them. Simply follow her technique, apply yourself to it for years, and you will be able to write fluidly and confidently about anything that you know. No more staring at blank pages, no more tearing out your hair to get the right wording. Subsequent to reading this book, I became a poet (see[...]), a songwriter, and a novelist (with one finished book and one draft). I also, over the last ten years, have filled a 7-foot stack of notebooks with my practice writing, and forged a number of friendships over journal writing sessions. Yes, read this book, but as you read, make sure you start writing, so that the inspiration will not just be a passing phase.
THANK YOU NATALIE.......2007-03-18
Dear Natalie (and how many reviews begin with that), thank you so much for writing this book. If it weren't for your guidance, this resistant writer would still be staring out the window of her Maine summer house wishing she could be published (or that she had anything to say for that matter). A great classic book that I recommend to all my sisters on the journey....Sincerely, Pamela D. Blair, Author, The Next Fifty Years: A Guide for Women at Midlife and Beyond
Opens your world........2007-03-17
I have used all her advice and boy does it help. This lady knows where she is coming from and thats from the heart of writing. You will hope to meet her in a cafe where you could talk endlessly with her, but this book does just that. Its your meeting with this one of a kind genius who takes you on a journey of storytelling, how its done and all its secrets.
Customer Reviews:
The best book I have read in a long long time!!.......2004-06-07
This book was incredible, once I started reading it I could not put it down. I am casual reader and it usually takes me a week or more to finish a book, with this one I started it yesterday afternoon, read until I couldnt keep my eyes open for another second, went to bed, got up and immediatly picked up the book and could not put it down til it was finished. Karen Harper has a way of drawing you into this book in a way that you cant wait til you get to the end to see what happens but then are disappointed that it is over once you do get there. Wonderful!!
Down To The Bone.......2001-11-30
Down To The Bone was a great story, I couldn't put the book down. It was a very intreasting story and I loved it.
"An Amish Suspense Novel".......2001-01-08
I could not put this book down! Every page was full of excitement and entertainment. I enjoy reading novels about the Amish, but this is my favorite. I packed this book for our out of town visit to my parents. I did not have time to finsh the book during the weekend visit. We were traveling home and my 10 year old son read the last few chapters out loud to me while I drove. I could not wait to get home to read it! He became interested in the story as he read it to me, and we discussed the entire book when he finshed. Thanks for a great book!
Everyone is a suspect!.......2000-10-18
At least one time in the book, the author makes the reader suspect every character! I do not recommend books to friends very often, but this one is making the rounds at work! And everyone is saying the same thing....everyone could be the suspect!
Best Suspense.......2000-09-18
My mother read the book and she said that this is a good, solid suspense novel. She was almost the edge of her seat just to read what happens next. This is a page-turner. Well done! She gave the book to my sister.
Book Description
"Today's letter was not a summons to serve Queen Elizabeth. It came from Lancashire. John Bexwith, my steward at Appleton Manor, is dead."Susanna frowned, surprised that this news should have affected her husband so strongly. "The man was quite elderly," she said hesitantly, "was he not?""Your memory is excellent," Robert told her, absently tucking an unruly lock of dark brown hair back up under her brocaded cap. "He was found face down in a marrow-bone pie."With that incredible statement, Robert placed the letter in his wife's outstretched hand.Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie is a delightfully cozy Elizabethan mystery introducing Susanna, Lady Appleton. When her husband's steward dies in a unique, ignominious, and highly suspicious manner, Susanna takes advantage of her husband's absence on a political mission for Queen Elizabeth to investigate Bexwith's mysterious demise.The serving wench who found Bexwith claims that he was frightened to death by a ghost, but Susanna can think of several poisons that could have been concealed in the marrow-bone pie. (Susanna is something of an expert on poisons, having been inspired by her sister's fatal encounter with some poisonous berries to write a cautionary herbal for housewives.)Even if Bexwith was poisoned, was it accidental or intentional? As if the case weren't complicated enough, Susanna must also unmask a "ghost"-- or are the ghost and the poisoner one and the same?Kathy Lynn Emerson's debut Elizabethan mystery will delight as it introduces you to a sixteenth-century husband's worst nightmare: an intelligent, no-nonsense wife who happens to know hundreds of poisons.
Customer Reviews:
Never underestimate a woman.......2006-06-05
I really enjoyed this book. Emerson combined a twisty, intriguing puzzle with a classic battle of the sexes. Susanna, Lady Appleton, goes behind her husband's back to investigate the death of a steward found "face down in a marrow-bone pie," convinced he might have been poisoned. This enrages her husband, Sir Robert, the typical Elizabethan misogynist with definite ideas about "a woman's place" (even toward his sovereign lady, Queen Elizabeth). Susanna always stays one step ahead of her husband, which irritates him to no end.
The book's pace was more sedate than many modern-day mysteries, but definitely worth it. Emerson's writing style reminded me a bit of Ellis Peters' "Brother Cadafel" mysteries. She revealed tiny pieces of the puzzle just often enough to keep me turning pages.
I'm looking forward to reading the rest of this series.
Won't disappoint you.......2004-01-13
Fun romp through another time period. Lady Appleton, married to a womanizing prigg, spends her time solving murder cases. She's an only child, which was the cause for her unusal education (for a girl that is). i. e. She was the son her father never had. She not overly attractive either, which is a break from the norm. Luckly, she's got brains out the wazo and her husband is often away from home (being a spy and all) so it's up to Lady Appleton to save the day.
I know this all sounds common place, but the author pulls it off with outstanding wit and dry humor. She also does a wonderful job of bring the Elizabethian time period true to life. You won't be disappointed.
entertaining historical mystery.......2002-10-16
Set in Elizabethan England, author Kathy Emerson has chosen an interesting historical period for her mystery series and an intriguing heroine in Susanna, Lady Appleton -- a proto-feminist educated by her father and grudgingly admired by her more conventional husband. Emerson introduces a great deal of information about the times, the people and the herbs without making it painful, and the book is readable for that alone. The heroine and other characters are believable and three-dimensional and the murder and its solution are reasonably well-done -- better than many historical mysteries. I look forward to reading others in the series.
Great Fun.......2001-08-31
What a wonderful surprise! It's refreshing to find an author who really knows her history. The main character, Susanna, is a very unusual woman, in that her father pampered her by allowing his daughter the education that would normally only be appropriate for a boy. Poor Sir Robert, to have to put up with a wife who can run the family business better than him, take care of the household, and research and write a book on deadly herbs on the side. ;-) I've read the entire series up to date and have discovered they just keep getting better! I hope Emerson has plans for more.
Great Fun.......2001-07-24
This is an immensely readable, enjoyable book. The characters are great, the story kept my interest, and the historical background is accurate and is inserted into the story in engaging ways. I have been reading a lot of historical mysteries this summer, and this is an excellent one! Good summer reading!
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Down home: A history of Afro-American short fiction from its beginnings to the end of the Harlem Renaissance (New perspectives on Black America)
Robert Bone
Manufacturer: Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
African American | History & Criticism | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | History & Criticism | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Short Stories | History & Criticism | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Southern | History & Criticism | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Renaissance | Movements & Periods | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
United States | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0399116028 |
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Down Home: Origins of the Afro-American Short Story (Morningside Book)
Robert Bone
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | African American | United States | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
African-American Studies | Special Groups | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0231068581 |
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Down to Bone
Martha McConnell
Manufacturer: Marth McConnell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Pamphlet
General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: B000LU7GYC |
Product Description
A collection of poetry by Martha McConnell. The author is part of a group called the Morrigan that tours the country every summer on the "Wandering Uterus Tour". She is also a part of the "A Little Bit Louder" poetry collective in New York City, who received her MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College.
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- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- How to Succeed in the Game of Life: 34 Interviews with the World's Greatest Coaches
- I And Thou
- Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest
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Books Index
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The Sleepwalkers
The Man Without Qualities Vol. 1: A Sort of Introduction and Pseudo Reality Prevails
Death of Virgil
