Beyond the Letters

One single event can turn your world perception upside down. One single word can change someone’s life. One single mistake can end in a tragedy… “Atonement” tells about child’s naivety and one cowardly action that changed lives of many people for years to come. One hot August day of 1935 thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis witnesses something not meant for her eyes and makes some hasty conclusions which, spoken out in wrong time and place, will lead to irreversible consequences. For the rest of her life Briony’s mind will keep coming back to that episode and discovering new details and interpretations of it, wishing just to be able to repair the damage done. Sixty years later, already a famous writer, she will find the way to atone but is atonement itself a fair price to buy forgiveness? This work of literature was written by one of the masters of British postmodernism which couldn’t but influence its outer form. Montage method, polyphony, usage of different narrative techniques, pl...

My acquaintance with Somerset Maugham began long long ago and I can proudly say that his books are for me the proof of the fact that sometimes what teachers make us read is not only useful but also fascinating. I’ve met quotes from his novels in English textbooks of all kinds and his adapted stories were among my first proper English reads. In the university we read his novels and analyzed them from the point of view of stylistics, lexicology, grammar and literary studies. One should become sick and tired of any texts seen so often but strangely enough, I’ve come to really love his stories and now I see Mr. Maugham as an old friend who can always cheer me up. So after a series of experiment with Booker prize nominees and some extremely postmodern things it was good to pick up  The Razor’s Edge . and remember my student years. The novel is a nice piece of writing all soaked with  the interbellum mood , one of the later works of Maugham (and therefore a bit uncharacteristic ...

Detective story as a genre is simultaneously new and worn-out as on the one hand it was developed in the middle of 19 th century, which makes it very young in terms of literary history, and on the other it is currently so overused by mass culture that you can hardly imagine it can bring something surprising to an experienced reader. Still the novel of Michel Bussi proves it possible. The house of Claude Monet in Giverny Jérôme Morval, ophthalmologist and passionate art collector is found dead in the acclaimed Monet’s gardens in the picturesque village of Giverny. In his pocket the police finds a postcard representing Monet’s famous “Waterlilies” which reads: “Eleven years old. Happy birthday”. This could be the beginning of a usual crime plot but for the fact that the book is not about Morval at all. His death and the mysterious connection of this event to the works of Claude Monet are merely a trigger to some much more dramatic and complicated events. This death is strang...

I have some confusing impressions from this book. It feels like classics but not quite. It feels like a book for teenagers but not quite. Like " Dandelion Wine ", " Little Women " or " Tuck Everlasting " this novel, though seemingly childish, provokes many thoughts in the reader's mind. Isn't it what the classics is supposed to do? The only thing I am certain about is that "I Capture the Castle" is very British and very charming. The novel fascinates you from the first lines,  the combination of cosy rural England and enigmatic ancient castle create a special atmosphere   , supplying the reader with bright and surprisingly realistic visual images. Half ruined towers, fortifications, the moat around the castle bring you back to medieval times, the landscape, little rural inn "The Keys", beautiful countryside church and friendly neighbours remind of Victorian England while cars, radios and gramophones roughly intrude to turn...

Very often during the days of early spring or late autumn we have such days when the sky is grey and cloudy, the ground is covered with dirty rests of snow mixed with rainwater and then you get the mood when you don't want to go anywhere or do anything and getting out of your warm bed into chilly and colourless street seems a torture. When such days come I know it's high time I picked one of Sagan's books. Strangely enough, though slow-flowing and melancholic, they always make me feel better on low days. Like many other people I started my acquaintance with Sagan with "Bonjour Tristesse".This novel is very famous so it's not surprising that I've heard about it many times but somehow I escaped from reading it. It seemed to me uninteresting, even boring and I had no desire even to open it. But my third year in university was the time for literary experiments and I included it into my to-read list. I will simply say I never regretted that decision. ...

Having read some reviews, I realized, to my surprise, that many people blame this novel for exessive intertexuality (which is the basis of all postmodern literature, by the way). Indeed, some believe that this postmodern feature comes from some kind of literature crisis and shows the inabily of modern authors to produce anything genuine and original (therefore such desire to quote and interpret the classics). But if we think about it carefully we'll find out that throughout the history literary texts were always connected with and influenced by each other. Many authors of Renaissance borrowed their plots from the works of ancient Greeks and Romans, while the Romanticists took inspiration in folklore fables and fairy tales. As for me, even if Mr. Pip IS a compilation of already knows classic pieces, it is surely a very clever one. So if we focus on something positive a reader can take from this book, what shall that be? Firstly, there is  a small secluded island in the Pacific ...

When WWI ended people named it the Great War implying that nothing as terrifying would ever happen. Still something even more devastating was to come just in some decades…  “The Women in the Castle” ,. is  about surviving and living on , about the war as seen by those who remained in their homes, still suffered not less than the ones on the front, it’s  feminine and feministic  as it is written by a woman, and about women, and states that fair sex doesn’t mean minor one or even less strong. Although this novel deals with war you will not find a single description of battles in it, but it is unbelievable how much violence can be found outside the battlefield. The book is generally not physical and tends to hint at scenes of violence rather than describe them, but if you are not deprived of imagination you will certainly feel all that is implied.  The emotional value of the narration is immense. The story being told in 3rd person narrative, it still remains...