novel, tr Nicoletta Simborowski
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting and Insightful Psychological Portrait,
By
This review is from: Abbe Jules (Empire of the Senses) (Paperback)
This is an engrossing and penetrating portrait of a profoundly conflicted and tortured man, how he deals with his struggle and how those around him peceive him. Told from the point of view of a young boy, the mystery surrounding the activites of the strange and violent Abbe becomes the axis around which Mirbeau's psychological analysis revolves. The Abbe's psyche is ruthlessly dissected, casting light on the darkness that is at the core of so much human behavior. Though this can be considered an attack on the Catholic Church I think that to define it as such is to miss the point and, worse, potentially deprive Catholic readers of this fascinating work. I prefer to see the Abbe as more of a man and less of a priest. His being a priest simply magnifies the universal issues portrayed in this book. The darkness in a priest is more noticeable than the darkness in a non-priest. That he is a powerful religious figure just makes the themes stand out more clearly (this supposed lack of subtlety is a criticism often weighed against Mirbeau but is wholly unfounded if you accept that art has a point to make and that making that point simply is not inherently inferior). Mirbeau was obviously an angry man and, growing up in provincial France, where the Church is a dominant social force, Catholicism is a natural target, as is the State in other works (Mirbeau was an anarchist) and should not be given too much credence when judging him. The book is more of a moral pinata then a scathing critique of one particular institution. And, most importantly, Jules is simply a fascinating character and the story itself sucks you in and will bounce around in your subconscious for a long time to come.
3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perverted Priest,
By Henry Henryson (Henryville, nr Henryham, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Abbe Jules (Empire of the Senses) (Paperback)
Abbe Jules is quite simply the best novel i have read to date. One of a trilogy of angry young men novels, Abbe Jules is narrated by a young boy growing up in the bourgeas (i don't know how to spell that) of a small french town. His uncle is the priest of the title, a complicated man, viscious, mean sprited, oppressed by his chastity - not your average priest. Basically the gist of the story is that the young boy is taught by his Oncle l'Abbe Jules....and that's it really - you have to read it yourself - which is a joyous task. The language Mirbeau uses is the purest poetry in parts, even if he does get carried away at times. This isn't a very good review.Read Abbe Jules, I urge you i urge you i urge you.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
Apart from the days when my father had carried out a difficult operation, a major confinement, and later at table explained the most exciting stages in technical terms, often in Latin, my parents hardly ever spoke to one another. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Apart from the days when my father had carried out a difficult operation, a major confinement, and later at table explained the most exciting stages in technical terms, often in Latin, my parents hardly ever spoke to one another. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
3
books
cite this book:
- Le Calvaire (Empire of the Senses) by Octave Mirbeau in Front Matter
- Henrik Ibsen by Edmund Gosse on page 48
- Decadence and Catholicism by Ellis Hanson in Front Matter
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
