Auf ein Miniaturbild klicken, um zu Google Books zu gelangen.
Lädt ... Angel (Original 1957; 1957. Auflage)von Elizabeth Taylor, Hilary Mantel (Einführung)
Werk-InformationenAngel von Elizabeth Taylor (1957)
Lädt ...
Melde dich bei LibraryThing an um herauszufinden, ob du dieses Buch mögen würdest.
This book started off strong, with an antagonistic main character, Angel, who is so full of herself you can't help but be amused. After all, she is only fifteen. She has a bad day at school, and takes to her bed, pretending to be sick. She prolongs this by deciding to write a novel - in bed. She's convinced she is a genius, despite the fact she has little life knowledge, no background in reading any books at all, and a horrific vocabulary full of big words she uses incorrectly. And she gets published. And a certain segment of the population loves her books. And she becomes rich. And then I got bored. Angel's adult life didn't really interest me at all, so the second half of this novel didn't really work for me. For me, this was one of the less interesting books that NYRB has published. I have to be honest. I had never heard of the author Elizabeth Taylor until I joined the 75-Book Challenge group. I started seeing her books popping up on threads here and there, and the reviews intrigued me. So I went looking at the library, and Angel was the first one I grabbed at random. It's always interesting to read a book in which the main character is not particularly likable. Angel is a novelist, a writer of the worst sort of overwrought, overwritten romance. She is seemingly oblivious to the contempt in which critics and her own publisher hold her, and is convinced that her books are fine literature. To the consternation of the critics (and the cynical pleasure of the publishers), Angel's books are hugely popular, bringing her the kind of wealth and fame she only dreamed about as a poor child. Angel tramples on the feelings of the people in her life and is generally an unlikable personality. And yet, I couldn't help feeling sad and a touch of pity for her at the end of this novel, which is a compliment to Taylor's writing. I plan to seek out other Taylor novels in the future. I do hope some of them have some more pleasant protagonists, however. I read Elizabeth Taylor's Angel and I have to ask how in the world did Taylor create such a completely unlikable character in a book I ended up loving? Doesn't make sense. I should've hated this book because well, Angel is absolutely toxic. But Taylor's writing is so gobsmacking beautiful and descriptive that it's hard to get beyond that. Plus it's her genius, I think, that could create a character that's so repellent while being so absolutely fascinating. I won't soon forget her. "At that first meeting, long ago in London, she had seemed to need his protection while warning him not to offer it: arrogant and absurd she had been and had remained: she had warded off friendship and stayed lonely and made such fortifications within her own mind that the truth could not pierce it. At the slightest air of censure in the world about her, up had gone the barricades, the strenuous resistance begun by which she was preserved in her own imagination, beautiful, clever, successful and beloved." Elisabeth Taylor dresse le portrait d'Angel, un personnage qui dédie sa vie entière à l'écriture, de l'adolescence jusqu'à sa mort. Difficile de porter plus mal son nom : Angel est une héroïne froide, mégalomane et entièrement absorbée par elle-même, même si elle jette un jour son dévolu sur un beau jeune homme, peintre raté et fantasque, incapable de s'attacher à qui que ce soit. Celle qui lui sera dévouée jusqu'à la mort, c'est la soeur de ce jeune homme, qui décide de devenir sa dame de compagnie, sa servante, sa comptable et son souffre-douleur. Très jeune, Angel trouve le succès en écrivant des livres baroques, anachroniques, peuplés de têtes couronnées et d'aventures improbables. Avant de tomber peu à peu dans la pauvreté (ses fariboles trouvant de moins en moins leur public), elle devient très riche, ce qui l'aide à épouser l'homme qu'elle convoite. L'écriture du roman est à l'image de son personnage : froide et acérée. Elisabeth Taylor trempe sa plume dans une encre ironique. So british... Heureusement, elle écrit bien car elle a créé dans ce roman un personnage tellement insupportable qu'il est difficile d'y habiter. Le pauvre lecteur finit assez rapidement par suffoquer et souhaiter trouver meilleure compagnie ailleurs. Une curiosité. Extraits : "Until now she had thought of love with bleak distaste. She wanted to dominate the world, not one person". (A propos de Lord Norley) : "He was always kind to human beings, in the manner of a man who does not like dogs but would not countenance any cruelty to one. He gave them his time and some of his attention. Restless shadows, they moved before him. He handed them prizes, counted their votes, raised his hat to them in the street, dined with them, attended their funerals". (A propos du jeune peintre raté) : "His life had been hindered by his beauty and the adventures it had permitted him. THe adventures had all been expensive of money and of fortitude, and were beginning to be expensive of the beauty itself". keine Rezensionen | Rezension hinzufügen
Bearbeitet/umgesetzt inPrestigeträchtige AuswahlenBemerkenswerte Listen
Writing stories that are extravagant and fanciful, fifteen-year old Angel retreats to a world of romance, escaping the drabness of provincial life. She knows she is different, that she is destined to become a feted authoress, owner of great riches and of Paradise House . . . After reading The Lady Irania, publishers Brace and Gilchrist are certain the novel will be a success, in spite of - and perhaps because of - its overblown style. But they are curious as to who could have written such a book: 'Some old lady, romanticising behind lace-curtains' . . . 'Angelica Deverell is too good a name to be true . . . she might be an old man. It would be an amusing variation. You are expecting to meet Mary Anne Evans and in Walks George Eliot twirling his moustache.' So nothing can prepare them for the pale young woman who sits before them, with not a seed of irony or a grain of humour in her soul. Keine Bibliotheksbeschreibungen gefunden. |
Aktuelle DiskussionenKeineBeliebte Umschlagbilder
Google Books — Lädt ... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Klassifikation der Library of Congress [LCC] (USA)BewertungDurchschnitt:
Bist das du?Werde ein LibraryThing-Autor. |
2008 ( )