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    Tag: character study

    Such shifting winds in life

    Dear Ida, A Change of Time (2019, tr. Martin Aitken. Original: En ny tid, 2015) is the record of a woman’s passage through grief. Told through diary entries…… Read more “Such shifting winds in life”

    29 de December de 2020 by juliana

    The most wonderful thing in the world must be to be a childless widow

    Dear Elizabeth, Irony is your plaything in Diary of a Provincial Lady (1930), to the point where it starts to be slightly subversive. Written as a series…… Read more “The most wonderful thing in the world must be to be a childless widow”

    22 de October de 2019 by juliana

    I should be thankful to be called a Fury,

    Dear Rhoda, “A woman’s soul is such a small room”, you write at some point in your novel Belinda (1883). You will trap your eponymous protagonist in…… Read more “I should be thankful to be called a Fury,”

    16 de October de 201916 de October de 2019 by juliana

    Impossible to get out of it

    Dear Carmen, In Nada, tr. Edith Grossman (2007. Original: Nada, 1944), we have a labyrinth of haunted characters confined in a haunting house in a city haunted…… Read more “Impossible to get out of it”

    28 de August de 2019 by juliana

    And she listened to the pounding of her heart

    Dear Lydia, From the beginning, we already know that we are in for a train wreck with Sofia Petrovna (1994, translated by Aline Worth, emended by Eliza…… Read more “And she listened to the pounding of her heart”

    9 de May de 2019 by juliana

    Notes heard by no one reverberating against nothing

    Dear Robert, Intimate Ties, tr. Peter Wortsman (2019. Original: Vereinigungen, 1911) comprises two novellas centred on repressed sexuality, taboo, and female desire. Both content and narrative style…… Read more “Notes heard by no one reverberating against nothing”

    11 de January de 201912 de January de 2019 by juliana

    The all-seeing eye

    Dear Claire, In Bitter Orange (2018), we are made accomplices of the main character’s voyeurism, caught in a claustrophobic atmosphere that grows ever more disturbing as we…… Read more “The all-seeing eye”

    4 de January de 20194 de January de 2019 by juliana

    I reach for it and reach for it, and it isn’t there

    Dear Richard, The Easter Parade (1976) is inhabited by characters who are trapped in self-delusion and false appearances, constantly parading the lives they think they should be living.…… Read more “I reach for it and reach for it, and it isn’t there”

    20 de December de 2018 by juliana

    My past life would be but a dream,

    Dear Ottessa, My Year of Rest and Relaxation (2018) seems to be a novel suffering from split personality: on the one hand, it is a book about…… Read more “My past life would be but a dream,”

    18 de December de 2018 by juliana

    Perhaps freedom has no meaning

    Dear Iris, The Unicorn (1963) is a tale of imprisonment in a shared fantasy, where the cages, rotating on a blank axle, are full of longing. When…… Read more “Perhaps freedom has no meaning”

    10 de December de 2018 by juliana

    I wished I could split my body in two,

    Dear Hanne, The Blue Room, tr. Deborah Dawkin (Original: Like sant som jeg er virkelig, 1999) is a novella about a girl who finds herself unable to…… Read more “I wished I could split my body in two,”

    20 de November de 201820 de November de 2018 by juliana

    I preferred us when my father was away

    Dear Birgit, The Mussel Feast, tr. Jamie Bulloch (2013. Original: Das Muschelessen, 1990) is a novella about the collapse of a man’s rule over his family during the course of an…… Read more “I preferred us when my father was away”

    13 de November de 2018 by juliana

    You’ve stayed where you were

    Dear Agatha, Absent in the Spring (1944) is a character study and a psychological exploration of self-denial, crossed through by a growing sense of unease at each…… Read more “You’ve stayed where you were”

    18 de October de 201819 de December de 2018 by juliana

    Two half drowned things, clinging together in a shipwreck

    Dear Elizabeth, Vera (1921) is the story of a toxic relationship which gradually unfolds into a full-blown tale of psychological horror, made ever more disturbing by the…… Read more “Two half drowned things, clinging together in a shipwreck”

    20 de August de 201820 de August de 2018 by juliana

    Nothing holds the wind back from its wings

    Dear Anna, Moving back and forth between early modern Italy and Nazi-occupied Florence, your book Artemisia, tr. Shirley D’Ardia Caracciolo (2003. Original: Artemisia, 1947) unfolds as in a…… Read more “Nothing holds the wind back from its wings”

    2 de August de 2018 by juliana

    To disentangle true from false

    Dear Delphine, Based on a True Story (2017, tr. George Miller. Original: D’aprés une histoire vraie, 2015) is an atmospheric book that revolves around a woman who…… Read more “To disentangle true from false”

    27 de July de 2018 by juliana

    One gets the criminals one deserves

    Dear Amélie, The Enemy’s Cosmetique (Cosmétique de l’ennemi, 2001, not translated into English yet) reads like an ouroboros, a snail swallowing its own tail: in a sequence of…… Read more “One gets the criminals one deserves”

    15 de July de 201822 de November de 2019 by juliana

    Hardened to stone by the Medusa head of misery

    Dear Mary, Like a daughter who never really got to know her mother, your novella Mathilda was not published during your lifetime. Written between 1819 and 1820,…… Read more “Hardened to stone by the Medusa head of misery”

    6 de July de 20186 de July de 2018 by juliana

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