I have read many of Kadare's books (in translation), and enjoyed all of them. It was with great excitement that I began reading this book. I read it fI have read many of Kadare's books (in translation), and enjoyed all of them. It was with great excitement that I began reading this book. I read it from beginning to end, but sadly it did not satisfy me despite the subject matter being of an intriguing nature. ...more
The 'hero' of this story undertakes a trip to Russia to do a favour for the widow of his close friend. Carrying suitcases full of dresses, he hopes toThe 'hero' of this story undertakes a trip to Russia to do a favour for the widow of his close friend. Carrying suitcases full of dresses, he hopes to sell them on the 'black market', and to make a financial killing. The Russians are eagerly awaiting his arrival, but his reception in the country is not quite what he had anticipated.
This excellent, highly entertaining novel, written in 1963, takes a realistic but warmly sympathetic look at life in Kruschchev's USSR. The plot is cleverly devised and the writer's language is rich. As in other novels by Burgess, his knowledge of linguistics and phonetics is entertainingly employed to great effect....more
Set both in 17th century England and India, this rambling tale is very disappointing. Definitely not one of John Masters' masterpieces. Set both in 17th century England and India, this rambling tale is very disappointing. Definitely not one of John Masters' masterpieces. ...more
Whereas Winston Churchill was both an accomplished artist and also a brilliant politician, Disraeli, who was a renowned politician. was not an enthralWhereas Winston Churchill was both an accomplished artist and also a brilliant politician, Disraeli, who was a renowned politician. was not an enthralling writer. His verbose and rather dull story about George Katrioti (Skanderbeg) does little justice to the exploits of Albania's national hero who did much to stop the Ottomans from invading western Europe.
A curious little tale upon which a well-known, popular opera is based. Having seen the opera several times, I was not expecting the book that inspiredA curious little tale upon which a well-known, popular opera is based. Having seen the opera several times, I was not expecting the book that inspired it to be so concise. What I liked most about Mérimée's more or less exciting noveletta was the information it contained about the life of the Roma ('gypsy') people.
If you enjoy the opera, which is more enjoyable than the book, it is worth reading the noveletta, which will not take you very long....more
Prosper Mérimée wrote the novel on which the opera "Carmen" is based.
Like "Carmen", "Colomba" has a remarkable 'heroine'. Set in Corsica during the eaProsper Mérimée wrote the novel on which the opera "Carmen" is based.
Like "Carmen", "Colomba" has a remarkable 'heroine'. Set in Corsica during the early 19th century, this exciting novel describes how a British Colonel and his attractive daughter find themselves becoming involved in a vendetta between two rival families in a small hill town. Corsica, like Sicily and Albania, was reknowned for its vendettas. The English girl falls for Colomba's brother, who has recently returned from mainland France and the Napoleonic Wars. His father had been assassinated, and there is nothing that Colomba won't do to get him to avenge his father's murder.
I read an English translation. The short novel never failed to hold my attention. Incidentally, it was Mérimée and his novel "Colomba" that helped Edward Lear to decided to visit Corsica for a sketching trip.
Now, I am looking forward to starting to read "Carmen"....more
This is an excellently told exciting tale set in England just after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Has someone been wrongly accused of murder? Will thThis is an excellently told exciting tale set in England just after Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo. Has someone been wrongly accused of murder? Will the hero, an army officer who fought at Waterloo, get evidence that will save him from the gallows?
This is a thriller that takes place in the era that Georgette Heyer describes so well. Cornwell also captures the period brilliantly.
Filled with wonderful characters this book kept me engaged from start to its breathless finish....more
This novel about the Mafia in Sicily is very informative. I have read several other books about the Mafia and how it operates, but this book illustratThis novel about the Mafia in Sicily is very informative. I have read several other books about the Mafia and how it operates, but this book illustrates this more clearly than of all of them.
Its main hero is the bandit Salvatore Giuliano, who is portrayed rather too sympathetically as a kind of Robin Hood character, robbing the rich to help the poor. Indeed, he is so successful that he treads on the toes of the Mafia dons, and threatens their livelihood. At first the leader of the Sicilian Mafia tries to lure Giuliano into becoming one of his close allies. When this fails, he tries to discredit and then eliminate Giuliano.
In real life, Giuliano was behind the ruthless attack on innocent peasants that took place in May 1947 at Portella della Ginestra, close to the Arberesh town of Piana degli Albanesi. Puzo claims that the Mafia were behind the disatrous results of this attack, and this might well have been the case to some extent. Others feel that either the Italian and/or the US governments were behind this attack on left-wing peasants. Puzo felt that the Mafia were responsible for subverting Giuliano's plans to fire OVER the heads of the peasants, rather than AT the peasants as actually happened. This was done, according to Puzo, to reduce Giulano's popularity amongst the peasantry.
Whatever was the case at Portella della Ginestra, I feel that Puzo paints a rather too sympathetic portrait of a bandit who murdered many people. Nevertheless, this book makes for a great read.
Too much blood and gore, not enough of anything else. Rather like watching someone playing a high-speed computer game. I could not manage more than 12Too much blood and gore, not enough of anything else. Rather like watching someone playing a high-speed computer game. I could not manage more than 124 pages. Pity, as on the whole I enjoy Wilbur Smith....more
This novel is set in 1807, mainly in and around Copenhagen in Denmark. The Danish navy is penned up in the harbour of Denmark’s capital. The French, wThis novel is set in 1807, mainly in and around Copenhagen in Denmark. The Danish navy is penned up in the harbour of Denmark’s capital. The French, who had lost most of their navy at the Battle of Trafalgar, are itching to get their hands on Denmark’s dormant fleet. The British want to avoid this at all costs. Lavisser is sent by the British to Copenhagen in order to try to bribe the Danish not to let the French get his navy. Lavisser does not travel alone. He is carrying a huge amount of gold and is accompanied by two Brits: one is his personal bodyguard/thug and the other is Richard Sharpe, recently returned from military exploits in India. Once in Denmark, Sharpe discovers that Lavisser’s allegiances are not as he and his British commander had originally believed. Meanwhile, the British armies arrive in Denmark and lay siege to Copenhagen. Sharpe meets a British agent, a Dane, in Copenhagen, and falls for this man’s attractive daughter. Meanwhile the vicious Lavisser is causing mayhem that might lead to a French invasion of Denmark. Will Sharpe be able to thwart Lavisser and his accomplices? Will the Danish navy reach the hands of the French? What will become of Sharpe’s new Danish friend? These and many other intriguing questions are answered in Bernard Cornwell’s page-turner, which is beautifully written, filled with credible historical detail, and nail-bitingly exciting....more
The fictional Harry Flashman leaves Calcutta for home, but when he stops in Cape Town on his way to England, an alluring female attracts him ... and hThe fictional Harry Flashman leaves Calcutta for home, but when he stops in Cape Town on his way to England, an alluring female attracts him ... and he ends up landing in the USA. The bulk of this occasionally raunchy tale is concerned with Harry's involvement with the anti-slavery activist John Brown and his famous assault on Harpers Ferry.
This book is history in the guise of a novel. Peppered with annoying references to lengthy historical endnotes, the author does not fictonalise American history nearly as well as Gore Vidal.
I felt that the author's apparent desire to show the reader how close his tale is to historical reality damages the flow of what would otherwise have been a good work of fiction. To better enjoy this amusing book I recommend that the reader should avoid looking at the endnotes until he or she finishes the actual novel....more
I enjoy historical novels that successfully immerse me into the atmosphere of the times being described. This is why I have enjoyed the novels of GeorI enjoy historical novels that successfully immerse me into the atmosphere of the times being described. This is why I have enjoyed the novels of Georgette Heyer, Ivo Andrić, Ismail Kadare, and also one or two, set in the past, by Peter Carey (especially “Parrot & Olivier”). I suppose the Southern African novels of Wilbur Smith also fall into this category.
“Rebel” is the second of Bernard Cornwell’s novels that I have read. Set during the opening moments of the American Civil War, this is a superb piece of historical fiction. Not only does it cleverly explore the mind-sets of the Northerners and the Southerners, but it creates an utterly vivid and believable series of images of the era. Each character has both allegiance to his side and also to his or her personal interests. The novel is populated by real people, even though few of them actually existed. Most of the characters in the tale are credible and all are beautifully portrayed. The interlinking plots twist and turn, keeping up the reader’s interest without letting it flag. The descriptions of the battle scenes left me with a taste of gunpowder and smoke in my mouth.
Although based on what appears to have been detailed historical research, this novel is never dry or scholarly. It does what a good historical novel should: it brings history to life. ...more
There are historical novels, which are so good that they appear to recreate historical events (e.g. Bernard Cornwell) and history written so well thatThere are historical novels, which are so good that they appear to recreate historical events (e.g. Bernard Cornwell) and history written so well that it reads like a novel (e.g. Prescott and more recently, Alistair Horne). This book by George Macdonald Fraser, “Flashman in The Great Game” falls uncomfortably, rather too uncomfortably, somewhere in between these extremes.
The device used in this book is to present it as a volume of the fictional Flashman’s memoirs, edited and annotated by the author of the novel. As a result the text of Flashman’s memoirs is peppered with references leading to detailed end notes. These notes let the reader know whether or not Flashman’s account of events in the “Indian Mutiny” are accurate, and if not how they deviate from accepted historical wisdom. I found that this device was very irritating, and spoiled the reading of a moderately exciting, and at times bawdy and humorous, story.
If this book is supposed to be a novel, a historical afterword without endnotes would have sufficed. Although I have reservations about this novel, I will try one more in the Flashman series. ...more
Not one of Heyer's better books. She seems to have allowed her research to dominate her writing. Her imagination and creativity suffered as a result. Not one of Heyer's better books. She seems to have allowed her research to dominate her writing. Her imagination and creativity suffered as a result. This is not a great tribute to a remarkable woman, Sir Harry Smith's bride Juana....more
This is a thoroughly enjoyable book. Having just read Heyer’s “Friday’s Child” which contains the delightful heroine Hero Wantage, I was thrilled to dThis is a thoroughly enjoyable book. Having just read Heyer’s “Friday’s Child” which contains the delightful heroine Hero Wantage, I was thrilled to discover yet another brilliant heroine: Sophy. Her father, who has to travel abroad, parks her in the London home of her aunt and uncle. Then, the fun begins. Her antics, which appear to turn the life of her uncle and aunt’s family upside down, are really parts of her cunning plans to set their family to right, to prevent her cousins from contracting marriages that she alone realises are doomed to failure even before wedding rings are exchanged. A series of entertaining episodes carry the reader jauntily through this well-written historical novel set in the very early 19th century.
Heyer immerses the reader into her story’s period without making him or her conscious of the undoubtedly enormous amount of research that she must have undertaken in order to create the entirely credible image of the era that she portrays. Her characters are well described, and this makes the reader either love ‘em or hate ‘em. In addition, her storyline never flags. If I were to make any criticism of this excellent novel, and this may sound a little churlish, the reader rarely gets to see what is going through Sophy’s mind until she acts, often in an unpredictable way – maybe, this was done deliberately by the author in order to be able to spring surprises on her audience.
I can hardly wait to begin another tale by Georgette Heyer. ...more
While I write this review, thousands of innocent civilians are attempting to flee from the Middle East to escape from unbelievable horrors including c While I write this review, thousands of innocent civilians are attempting to flee from the Middle East to escape from unbelievable horrors including cold-blooded murder. Unlike the Jews and ‘gypsies’ of Nazi occupied Europe, most of whom faced a brutal end, at least they have some chance to escape. Less than 20 years ago at the end of the 1990s, many Albanians who had been living in the southern part of Serbia, in Kosovo, since time immemorial found themselves thrust into a position that was closer to that of the Jews and ‘gypsies’ in the ‘40s than that of the unfortunates in the Middle East. There was little chance for the Albanians living in villages in Kosovo to flee from the murderous thugs who, in the name of Yugoslavia, were trying to remove them from the area by force, either by expelling them or by exterminating them. Few of them had the chance to escape to the ‘civilised’ West whilst this horror was being perpetrated.
Recently, a friend of mine, himself a refugee from Kosovo, asked me to read a novel about the situation in rural Kosovo in 1999. This short book by Sadete Halilaj is called “The Wounded Reindeer”.
I do not know whether the author experienced any of the horrific things and tragic situations described in her book, but I feel that the vivid descriptions in her book have a chilling ring of truth about them.
The author, whose first language is not English, must have been in a great hurry to let the English-speaking world know her story. I write this because it seems from the numerous peculiarities in her use of the English language and its grammar that she did not allow someone familiar with the language to give her any advice in the best use of English before going into print. Despite the numerous errors, which occasionally make it a bit difficult to understand the odd sentence, this book reads well, and is so exciting that it is difficult to put it aside. Because of the author’s peculiar use of English, I felt, as I read her book that I was being told the story by someone who had recently escaped from the situations described in it, and realised the importance of letting the world know about as quickly as possible. Oddly, the idiosyncratic use of English gives the book a great sense of immediacy – and that helps evoke a situation which must be hard to convey in words alone to a reader who has been lucky enough not to have experienced the horrors of ‘ethnic cleansing’. I understand that a second edition of the book is prepared. I hope that by correcting the English, there will not be too much loss of the deep heartfelt feelings which come over in the existing edition.
The story, which I will not describe in any detail, is both exciting and poignant. Many aspects of love (and hate) are explored in this short tale. It would be difficult not to be moved by the harrowing tale of Vera, and Albanian girl, and Milo, her Serbian lover. This is not a Romeo and Juliet story, but something equally great.
Finally, although the Serbs are the villains in this story, the author makes certain that the reader understands that because of some very ‘rotten eggs’ amongst the Serbian people, the whole nation cannot be ‘tarred with the same brush’. This must have been a difficult, brave, and generous, thing for a writer to convey after what her people had been through.
PS: I would have given this book 5 stars, but because of the problems with the use of English outlined above it would be fairer to give this fascinating book 4 stars...more
This superbly exciting novel is set during the British siege and capture of the South Indian city of Seringapatam (Srirangapatnam) near Mysore. Based This superbly exciting novel is set during the British siege and capture of the South Indian city of Seringapatam (Srirangapatnam) near Mysore. Based on sound historical research, the author adapted what actually happened to improve the thrilling nature of his narrative. A short section at the end of the book gives the reader an idea of what actually happened in Seringapatam, and indicates how the author deviated from history in his novel.
The story centres around the antics and bold adventures of the cheeky and poorly educated, yet highly canny, Private Richard (‘Dick’) Sharpe and his struggles with his unpleasant superior, Sergeant Hakeswill. Dick’s story forms the nucleus of a somewhat fantastical account of the downfall of Tippu Sultan in his city of Seringapatam in April/May 1799.
In addition to the nail-biting entertainment that this book provides, it is barely, if at all, jingoistic, and provides a fair-minded assessment of both warring parties: the British as well as Tippu and his allies (both Indian and French).
This book falls into the category of ‘un-put-down-able’. Cornwell’s writing is as adrenaline-packed as that of Wilbur Smith, and both authors use their great knowledge of history to write compelling, if somewhat incredible, yarns. They both make use of detailed knowledge of the periods which they are describing in order to produce novels that are as colourful and as exciting as the most successful epic movies.
I look forward to reading more books by Bernard Cornwell. ...more
I have read several novels by Gore Vidal, and found them all to be enjoyable, especially those in the series that deals with the history of the USA. “I have read several novels by Gore Vidal, and found them all to be enjoyable, especially those in the series that deals with the history of the USA. “A Search for the King” began promisingly, but began to drag on.
The story deals with the kidnapping of Richard the Lion-Heart on his return from the Third Crusade, and in particular the search for him that his troubadour, Blondel, made subsequently. We follow Blondel across a wintry Europe and join him in encounters with bandits, giants, and witches. Blondel has numerous hair-raising adventures that get him into awkward situations. In each case, they are resolved too easily to be even remotely credible.
The novel is padded out with excessive descriptive passages, all of which felt ‘clichéd’ to me, and none of which added much to the story. In brief, I was disappointed by this fictionalised version of an event which really happened. I did not feel that the glowing praises for the novel that plastered the cover of the edition which I read were deserved. ...more
“Friday’s Child” is a real treat. It is a beautifully written, highly entertaining novel set mainly in Regency London and Bath. When Viscount Sheridan“Friday’s Child” is a real treat. It is a beautifully written, highly entertaining novel set mainly in Regency London and Bath. When Viscount Sheridan (‘Sherry’) fails to win the hand of the incomparably beautiful Arabella Milborne, he swears to marry the first girl that he sets eyes on. She happens to be Miss Hero Wantage, who he sees sitting on a fence in the country as he rides past her. He sweeps her off to London, where they marry. Then the fun begins…
Hero is the most delightful female character that I have ever encountered in a work of fiction. Georgette Heyer managed to portray her as an irresistibly likeable and charming person. She is a stranger to the ‘sophisticated’ ways of ‘polite society’, but learns quickly under the guidance of her roguish but lovable husband and his circle of friends. As time passes, Hero – an innocent in London high society – unwittingly commits faux pas which concern Sherry, and occasionally help to diminish his rapidly failing finances.
Eventually, unsure of her husband’s true feelings for her, Hero disappears, aided and abetted by Sherry’s acquaintances some of whom care for her greatly. Sherry, concerned by her sudden absence, sets off to find her…
This story is really a comedy of errors or misunderstandings. It contains a wealth of amusing characters and subplots. The novel is fast moving, never flagging, and cleverly composed. Effortlessly, the author engulfs the reader into an 18th century milieu without hinting at the enormous amount of research she must have undertaken to ensure that her depiction of the era lacks for nothing.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough! ...more
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