Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: To the Hermitage by Malcolm Bradbury ISBN: 1-58567-131-2 Publisher: Overlook Press Pub. Date: 29 March, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: I Think The Author Had Fun
Comment: "To The Hermitage", by Malcolm Bradbury is the only work of his that I have read. I can say that I very much enjoyed the work, and was saddened to learn this was his last before his death. From The Preface when he states, "this is (I suppose) a story", and then he lists all the amendments he made to centuries of history from Architectural, Literary, the births of persons, and the layout of cities, he clearly seemed to be intent on having fun.
The main character sets out with a very diverse group to St. Petersburg as part of the collective named, "The Diderot Project". Ostensibly this is a scholarly event where the appropriate papers shall be shared on their voyage, and the rigorous standards of Academe will reign. Our Protagonist is unprepared with his paper and substitutes an off the cuff speech that if performed in real life would be nothing short of mesmerizing. Even written on the page it reads as though spontaneous in spite of the medium it is presented upon.
The intent of the trip is suspect almost from the start as one member of the entourage is a famous singer of opera and is almost as famously as ignorant of Mr. Diderot. Her lone claim is an influence she shares that Diderot had on pieces of Mozart's work. The balance of the group has a variety of academic credentials, however as the male members begin chasing, "Tatianas", all over the ship, the façade is dented if not torn altogether. This free and easy mingling takes place as the USSR is gaining the word former in front of it.
To the rescue is a parallel story featuring the dialogues/friendship of Diderot and Catherine The Great. Now again the reader is warned that historical figures that never met, do meet in this book because the Author feels they should have. So any dates you may know must be made flexible or forgotten. The Protagonists experiences and that of this historical version of Diderot and his travels trade the reader's attention back and forth throughout the book.
This work is a great deal of fun for the knowledge to document History is immense. To credibly alter History, add amusement, and restructure those portions as the writer chooses, is I believe, an even greater work of scholarship. For Mr. Bradbury did not write of History in the format as a novel because he lacked the truth, he did so because his knowledge allowed him to manipulate events to make his version entertaining, and in its own way credible. This really is a great piece of writing. I cannot compare it to other work this man has written, but if they are as good as this, I shall read them all.
Rating: 4
Summary: An untidy attic of a book.
Comment: Despite the reverence with which Bradbury is regarded and the fact that this was his last book, it will probably never receive a literary award. Parts of it are insightfully descriptive, thoughtful, humorous, and fun to read, but it lacks the unity (and editing!) which would make it a coherent whole, feeling more like a draft than a finished product.
Two story lines unfold on parallel tracks. Denis Diderot is at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, visiting the court of Catherine the Great and discussing philosophy with her every afternoon in the hope that she will become an enlightened leader, rather than an autocratic despot. The second, less effective story involves seven contemporary characters--a writer, a diplomat, a carpenter, an opera singer, a trade unionist, a dramatist, and a "funky professor" with "I Love Deconstruction" on his hat. This motley group, representing some of the areas in which Diderot was interested, is participating in the Diderot Project, the object of which is to find all the books and papers which once belonged to Diderot and which he sold to Catherine for his "pension and posterity." All participants regard this as a junket--a free trip.
The atmosphere of 18th century Russia and of the Age of Enlightenment is vivid, and it is easy for the reader to feel the philosophical give and take of the discussions between Diderot and Catherine. The lengthy discussions, with references to Voltaire, Rousseau, Lawrence Sterne, David Garrick, and Dr. Johnson, among others, are intriguing for the connections they make, and they are often humorous, but they are too long and heavy here, and they weigh down and eventually bury the slim plot.
As for the Diderot Project participants, they are sketchy characters, and one never really gets to understand them. And why someone would fund this supposed project when its goals seem so amorphous and the objectives in Russia so nebulous remains a permanent (and unrealistic) mystery. The fact that the group arrives just as Yeltsin dismisses the Duma and a possible coup or revolution is taking place could have been used to show some nice parallels and contrasts with the rule of Catherine and the ideas of Diderot, but the author's selection of details which would make this clear to the reader just didn't happen.
The character of Galina, a discussion of postmortemism (the idea that writers all borrow directly from previous generations, thereby living forever), and the meeting of Diderot and Thomas Jefferson (and suggestion that Diderot thereby contributed to the U.S. Constitution) are among the many wonderful features of this book, but they are hidden away in this 500-page attic of a book.
 |
Title: Eating People Is Wrong by Malcolm Bradbury ISBN: 0897331893 Publisher: Academy Chicago Publishers Pub. Date: 01 March, 1986 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler ISBN: 0399151613 Publisher: Marian Wood Book Pub. Date: 22 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
 |
Title: The Master by Colm Toibin ISBN: 0743250400 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 01 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
 |
Title: Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia by Orlando Figes ISBN: 0312421958 Publisher: Picador USA Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
 |
Title: A Noble Radiance by Donna Leon ISBN: 0142003190 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
