Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well!
Hi MM. Seasons greetings, and all the best for Christmas and the New Year to you and your family .
I had to go and look at Cezanne's work, and it helps to create a visual for the story and and an understanding for why his works were rejected by his generation. Great work though!
I wouldn't say it is better than 'L'Assommoir', however, in my opinion it definitely competes. I am not always familiar with contemporary authors and I happen to be a stranger to this one in particular. So thanks for the recommendation and I will definitely look into her!
Oh brilliant, I'll have to get on with it! Is it better than L'Assomoir, as that will take some beating? I love Cezanne's work, but I know he was a little odd, to say the least. I believe Zola had supported him and his work for a long time, so I'm going to have to put this at the top of the pile to find out more. Great stuff. I'm currently reading A Place of Greater Safety, about the French Revolution, by Hilary Mantel and it's huge, so I will have to alternate it with Zola. She's an excellent writer, I can recommend this if you want a contemporary author. She's the favourite to win the Booker with her latest, Wolf Hall, which looks fantastic if you like historical novels. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious, but I don't always know who's in the UK, so who may not be familiar with certain authors. Anyway, I'll look forward to the Masterpiece, thanks .
Hi! I just finished 'The Masterpiece'! That would have to be one of my favorite books I have read out of the series! I can now see why Cezanne stopped speaking to Zola after reading that. I wonder how much correlation there really is between Claude and the real Cezanne?
I just started 'The Masterpiece' and am only on page 10 or so, therefore I am not sure about Cezanne yet. I had read somewhere that this book is the most autobiographical of the entire series, so I am very enthusiastic about getting further into it. I would like to see one translator do the entire series as well as the same publisher. Oh well.... I really enjoy the classics, but have been known to stray every now and then. (especially if a book is recommended by a friend) What about you? I don't know if you like Dostoevsky, but I just finished 'The Idiot' and am unable to cease thinking about it.
Isn't it annoying that they don't seem to do them all in one series? I read L'Asssomoir some time ago, I had it from the Library before I bought it, so I don't remember which edition it was, or the translator, but it was excellent. I have The Masterpiece too and have read the first chapter, (just dipped in again), but I'm intrigued, as I want to know why Cezanne took such exception to it. Did you know that he and Zola were childhood friends, and Zola was supportive of him until this book? I have the Walton translation too. My copy of Germinal is translated by Larry Duffy, but I haven't read it yet. It's a Wordsworth Classic though, not an Oxford one, so a lot cheaper, but it seems okay. Do you like to read just classics, or anything? If you have any recommendations for me too that would be nice
I will have to do some research on Brian Nelson and Arthur Goldhammer and try to decide which translator to go with. Thanks for the help and if you have any recommendations on other books either by Zola or another author, let me know.
I was going to try getting them all in Penguin Classics, but they only have a few. I have not found one publisher that has them all translated. I wish I could read them in French as well but I can only say a few phrases, and not very useful phrases at that. I started with #13 (L'Assommoir) so I am also reading out of order. I am getting ready to read 'The Masterpiece' (L'Oeuvre) translated by Thomas Walton and I was going to buy 'The Kill' translated by Arthur Goldhammer. I may be getting too specific here, but I really enjoyed 'Le Ventre de Paris' translated by Mark Kurlansky and 'Germinal' by Roger Pearson. Since I am unable to read French I am unsure whether I wasn't a fan of 'Nana' because of the story or because of the translator. (Burton Rascoe)
