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Cargando... Maleficiumpor Martine Desjardins
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Inscríbete en LibraryThing para averiguar si este libro te gustará. Actualmente no hay Conversaciones sobre este libro. Esta reseña ha sido escrita para Sorteo de miembros LibraryThing. I won this book through Member Giveaways.I really enjoyed this book, though I found it rather terrifying. Each chapter introduced a horror more awful than the one before, culminating in an absolutely shocking revelation in the last chapter. I would recommend this book for those who enjoy colonial-era adventure stories, and for fans of the macabre, especially of an old-timey scientific bent. Esta reseña ha sido escrita para Sorteo de miembros LibraryThing. Book Title: "Maleficium”Author: Martine Desjardins Published By: Talonbooks Age Recommended: 18+ Reviewed By: Kitty Bullard Raven Rating: 4 Review: I never knew that a woman with a birth defect could scare me so much, but this story takes you int the confessional with several men, each one afflicted permanently in some way by a mysterious hair-lipped woman. The confessions are haunting, the story well-written and the warning in the form of a moral supremely executed. I definitely recommend! Esta reseña ha sido escrita para Sorteo de miembros LibraryThing. I won this book through LibraryThing's Member Giveaway in exchange for a review.Maleficium is presented as the true account of the Vicar Jérôme Savoie who transcribed the confessions of eight of his penitents. The first seven stories follow a pattern: a man meets with a woman who takes different guises but always has a facial 'disfigurement'. She has the enigmatic presence of the femme fatale: she-who-cannot-be-attained and she-who-metes-out-bodily-affliction. Set around the late nineteenth/ early twentieth century, the text is imbued with the kind of decadence that characterises the illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley or Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray. The settings are all exotic (Ethiopia, Zanzibar, India); the men are all greedy with desire or ambition; and there are moments of magic realism in their fates. The eighth penitent is the twist in the tale. I haven't read the original French, but this doesn't feel like a translation. The words are carefully chosen - no mean feat given how visceral the writing is. Places are described beautifully, every sense evoked. It's a rich tapestry (the references to artworks like Vermeer's paintings, the Ardabil carpet, A Thousand and one Nights, are clues to the author's influences) that touches on many themes including the act of storytelling, perception, fabrication (in the sense of making things and telling lies), and retribution. Whilst I love the concept (think Calvino's Invisible Cities) and the lyricism of the prose, for me, the men's voices became a bit samey and the dialogue less satisfying. Perhaps this doesn't matter. Approach Maleficium like an elegant telling of a fin de siècle-style horror and it's a fantastic read. Esta reseña ha sido escrita para Sorteo de miembros LibraryThing. What a great story! Some original writing makes this a fantastic book to read. I love the confessions (and the fact that the priest actually broke his vow and made them known) ;-)It was nice to see how many approaches the author used to make the protagonist carry out her revenge. You can read the enjoyment Desjardins felt as she created the stories for this book. It is a short read that made you want more. I look forward to reading more by Martine Desjardins. sin reseñas | añadir una reseña
Martine Desjardins delivers to readers of Maleficium the unexpurgated revelations of Vicar Jerome Savoie, a heretic priest in nineteenth century Montreal. Braving threats from the Catholic Church, Savoie dares to violate the sanctity of the confessional in this confession-within-a-confession, in which seven penitents, each afflicted with a debilitating malady or struck with a crippling deformity, relates his encounter with an enigmatic young woman whose lips bear a striking scar. As these men penetrate deep into the exotic Orient, each falls victim to his own secret vice. One treks through Ethiopia in search of wingless locusts. Another hunts for fly-whisks among the clove plantations of Zanzibar. Yet others bargain for saffron in a Srinagar bazaar, search for the rarest frankincense, and pursue the coveted hawksbill turtle in the Sea of Oman. Two more seek the formula for sabon Nablus in Palestine or haggle over Persian carpets in the royal gardens of Shiraz. The men's individual forms of punishment, revealed through the agency of the young woman, are wrought upon their bodies. Baroque in its complexity, Kafka-like in its inexorable mechanics, Maleficium by turns astonishes, amuses, and beguiles. Then author Martine Desjardins's Vicar Savoie--as in any confession worth its communion wafer--saves the best (or worst) for last. Maleficium won the Prix Jacques Brossard and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award (French Fiction), the Prix des libraires du Québec, the Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie, and the Prix France-Québec. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — Cargando... GénerosSistema Decimal Melvil (DDC)843.54Literature French and related languages French fiction 18th century 1715–89 Voltaire, François Marie Arouet de 1694–1778 (See 842.56)Clasificación de la Biblioteca del CongresoValoraciónPromedio:
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Which is to say, I am a lover of none of these things, and hence this review may be coloured by that prejudice.
That aside, the translation is deftly handled, balancing an homage to 19th century writers of dark fiction, and modern sensibilities of literary style. Martine Desjardins herself demonstrates impeccable historical research and an understanding of a variety of arts and trades, so that details of the various artifacts and arts, so lustily pursued by our seven protagonists, form a credible backdrop.
Overall, a haunting read which lingers like the dark euphoria of an opiate. ( )