This Paperback Book item from A Central European University Press Book was reviewed on 6-Nov-2008.
Search ISBN:1858660653 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics) Reference Book. Classifications : Eastern European World Literature Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Contemporary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books Literary Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General AAS General Literature & Fic . Click the following link to view the cover of The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics). Related topics: Eastern European. World Literature. Subjects. Books. Contemporary. Subjects. Books. Literary. Subjects. Books. requestid: d7aa85de-ef44-4c82-9d09-da9d2182ce73
requestprocessingtime: 0.1985010000000000
salesrank: 796321
numberofitems: 1
packagedimensions: 175852154532
1) Paperback Book The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics) by A Central European University Press Book. While this tale is tedious at times, I found it relevent for our times. See it in a modern context. Our celebrities arfe the aristocrats. While we worship them and youthful beauty, our country is sinking, and while we fool around (sports events often usurp the evening news, for example), the Chinese are buying up our industries, taking jobs away, and we are powerless. This book was a warning to Poles to wake up. It´s appropriate for us too. I read this during the O>J> Simpson trials when the rest of the country was watching the trial. There are some trials in the novel that we would find familiar to our court system. There are too many parallels for comfort.¤ 2) Paperback Book The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics) by A Central European University Press Book. I got half-way through and quit; the book just didn´t work for me. Prus obviously intended to write "realistically", and his rather disconnected deployment of scenes and character development does mimic the complexities of real life. So, in that sense, he was a success. However, he completely fails on much more important levels. For example, the plot lacks even a hint of conflict. Wolkulski (the main character) faces no conflict as he gives in to his obsession for Izabella, nor does he seem to have any particular difficulty in achieving any of his foolish stunts to try to win her. Since it´s obvious from the start the relationship is doomed, there´s not the tension of "will he get the girl?" Not even the obvious potential friction of his being a class-crossing social climber creates any conflict (other than a few characters commenting on his boorish manners). A 600+ page book needs more conflict than that to justify itself. I could not uncover the purpose of reading (or of having written) the book. Prus endows "The Doll" with the trappings of realist novels: frightening descriptions of the lowest of the poor, moral angst of rich do-gooders over the poor in their midst, endless analogies between streetwalkers and Mary Magdelene or poor men and Christ, and a vast panorama of characters representing all levels of society. However, Prus does not use these devices to move his story. They seem more like window dressing put in place to make the novel look and smell like the work of a realist. Worst of all, Prus´ story and characters don´t seem to have any relevance beyond the pages of his book and there´s no whiff of meaning anywhere. The best example of this odd characteristic is the anti-Semitism in the book. There are lots of cuts (broadly and with subtle acid) at the Jewish characters, however (as another reviewer mentions) Prus never addresses anti-Semitism in even the most vague way. He presents society only and makes no comments or suggestions to the reader. A newspaper article works as better fiction than that! Reading this book was a bit like watching a movie you already know the ending to. It can be entertaining if the ride is interesting. Unfortunately, Prus´ narrative is too dry and dispassionate and his plotting too erratic and minimalistic for the ride to pull you in. As a result, I just didn´t care what was going on and didn´t find any of the characters worthy of my attention. I didn´t feel there was any purpose in reading the rest of the book.¤ 3) Paperback Book The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics) by A Central European University Press Book. Boleslaw Prus´ The Doll falls into a category of books which could be described as peripheral realism. They are late 19th century novels which share nothing in common except that they are written in countries which are in the "periphery" of world literature. This is not a comment on their quality, but on the lack of curiosity of the Anglo-American mind to take the trouble to encounter them. Other examples of this trend are the Spaniard Benito Perez Galdos, the Portuguese writer Jose Maria de Eca de Quieros and the Italians Giovanni Verga and Antonio Fogazzaro. "The Doll" is not of the same quality as such works as "Fortunata and Jacintha", "The Maias," or even "The Little World of the Past." Supposedly it is the story of a successful businessman who tries and fails to win the heart of a shallow, spoiled, aristocratic girl--the doll of the title. It is this story, but there is more to it than that, more than what Prus thinks. When the protagonist Stanislaw Wokulski is not worrying ineffectively over Izabela Lecki, he is a smashingly successfully businessman. Why he is so succcessful is not really made clear, Prus does not have Balzac´s eye for describing complex financial transactions in compelling ways. Wokulski is obviously a good employer and obviously a man of charitable and humane impulses. The woman he assists, and whom his clerk thinks would be a better wife, Mrs. Sawatska, is a rather conventional portrait of female virtue. If there is anything truly "Dickensian" in this book, as the dust jacket promises, it is not Prus´ sense of detail, which is meagre, or a fine talent for grotesquerie or wit, but instead the conventional, rather vapid portrait of his heroes. The style is prosaic, the social atmosphere rather narrow, and people wanting to learn about the urbanity or religious life or common people or entertainments of 19th century Warsaw should look elsewhere. There is one passage that is an exception to this. It really is remarkable, the one that portrays Izabela´s complete isolation from the real world. "If anyone had asked her point-blank what this world is, and what she herself was, she would have certainly have repled that the world is an enchanted garden full of magical castles, and that she herself was a goddess or nymph imprisoned in a body. "From her cradle, Izabela had lived in a beautiful world that was not only superhuman but even supernatural. For she slept in feathers, dressed in silks and satins, sat on carved and polished ebony or rosewood, drank from crystal, ate from silver and porcelain as costly as gold. "The seasons of the year did not exist for her, only an everlasting spring full of soft light, living flowers and perfumes. The times of day did not exist for her either, since for whole months at a time she would go to bed at eight in the monring and dine at two at night. There was no difference in geographical location, since in Paris, Vienna, Rome, Berlin or London she would find the same food--soups from Pacific seaweed, oysters from the North Sea, fish from the Atlantic or Mediterranean, animals from every country, fruits from all parts of the globe. For her, even the force of gravity did not exist, since her chairs were placed for her, plates were handed, she herself was driven in carriages through the streets, conducted inside, helped upstairs." As for other parts of the novel, there is a continuing theme of anti-semitism as Wokulski and his colleagues notice with some concern its rise. Unfortunately it is not entirely clear whether Wokulski or Prus fully recognize its evil or whether they share some of it themselves. On a first glance Wokulski is a hard working businessman, the kind that Poland obviously needs, who is not appreciated by its inefficient aristocracy. They look down on him as an arriviste and the selfish, vapid Izabela either ignores him or toys with his feelings. But on another level Wokulski is not really attracted to her. He is in more in love with the concept of matrimony than with an actual person. It is not simply the conservative atmosphere around courting that hampers him, but Wokulski´s own lack of force. This portait of Wokulski´s ambiguity, an almost Hamlet like quality of indecision, does not make compelling reading. But it is an important portrait of impotent masochism and it is expertly done. It is this that establishes Prus´ claim to greatness.¤ 4) Paperback Book The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics) by A Central European University Press Book. If you have any interest in European Literature, then this novel is worthwile reading. All the major characters are beautifully created; the feelings that they experience are very realistic. The author´s style is very powerful, and the plot is interesting enough to keep you reading until the spectacular conclusion. Easily one of the best books I´ve ever read.¤ 5) Paperback Book The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics) by A Central European University Press Book. This is a one of the best examples of realistic litterature of the 1800´s. Passionate, honestly brutal, tragic and real. A story of any person, her/his feelings of love, submission, power, and the eternal quest for the answer to one´s sufferrings and triumphs in life. A book that feels as real today as it did yesterday.¤ 6) Paperback Book The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics) by A Central European University Press Book. About the Central European Classics series:
"Half a continent´s worth of forgotten genius."--The Guardian
The new Central European Classics series was born some ten years ago in the dim cafes of Budapest and Prague when General Editor Timothy Garton Ash began jotting down titles recommended to him by local writers. Its aim is to take these works of nineteenth- and twentieth-century classic fiction "out of the ghetto," onto the shelves of Western booksellers, and into the consciousness of Western readers.
The result of extensive discussion among writers, scholars, and critics, the rich tradition of Central European fiction has been culled to offer previously unavailable works written in Czech, Hungarian, and Polish that lend themselves perfectly to powerful and accurate translation. Specially commissioned introductions by leading Central European writers explain why these titles have become classics in their own country, while at the same time, the works stand on their own as great literature in English. With future titles such as a new edition of Boleslaw Prus´s Polish masterpiece, The Doll, the Central European Classics series will contribute to a deeper understanding of the culture and history of countries which, since the opening of iron curtain, have been coming closer to us in many other ways.
The city of Warsaw, under Russian rule in the late 1870s, is the setting for this sweeping panorama of social conflict, political tensions, and personal suffering. The middle-aged hero, Wokulski, bold and successful in business, is being destroyed by his obsessive love for the frigid, aristocratic society "doll," Izabela. The embattled aristocracy, the new men of finance, Dickensian tradesmen, and the urban poor all come vividly to life on the vast, superbly detailed canvas against which Wokulski´s personal tragedy is played out.
For this edition, the existing translation by David Welsh has been carefully revised under the supervision of the leading Polish critic, Stanislaw Baranczak. A chapter excised by the Tsarist censor is included as an appendix. Baranczak also contributes to an authoritative and illuminating new introduction to what is arguably the greatest Polish novel of the nineteenth century.¤ Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 4-Dec-2008, 18586606539781858660653, 600-010-310-260-640-9X1-531-8 
The Doll (Central European Classics) (Central European Classics), Book, Image © A Central European University Press Book
|
