Lies and Sorcery (New York Review Books Classics)
シチリアを舞台に、孤独な語り手が祖母、母、自分へと連なる女性たちの記憶をたどり直し、家族の秘密、欲望、裏切りを虚実まじりに語る長編小説。幻想的な語りと重層的な家族史が重なり合い、戦後イタリア文学を代表するデビュー作とされる。
作品情報
虚実のあいだを往復する語りが、三世代の女性たちの家族史をひとつの大きな物語へと束ねていく。
エルサ・モランテのデビュー長編。シチリアの家族史を、孤独な語り手エリーザの視点から、愛憎、嫉妬、裏切り、幻想をまじえながら語り尽くす。三世代の女性たちの運命が、個人の記憶と社会の不正義を巻き込みつつ連なり、物語ることそのものの力と危うさが前面に出る。
レビュー要約
-
女性たちの欲望や自己欺瞞を中心に据えながら、幻想的な装いの奥に階級や権力の冷たさを浮かび上がらせる点が高く評価されている。語りの華やかさと心理の深さが両立した、読み応えのある大作として受け止められている。
-
19世紀小説のような外観を持ちながら、登場人物の自己愛や階層意識を徹底して照らし出す野心作として評価されている。女性たちの生をためらいなく描き切る姿勢が、作品の強度を支えているとみなされている。
-
装飾的で豊かな散文が、南イタリアの家族史を社会的な分断や不安と結びつけながら押し広げていると受け止められている。過剰さを恐れない語りが、むしろ古典的大河小説の迫力を生んでいるという評価が目立つ。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- NYRB Classics
- 発売日
- 2023-10-10
- ページ数
- 800ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 12.78 x 4.32 x 20.24 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781681376844
- ISBN-10
- 1681376849
- 価格
- 5013 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Drama/Comedy
An Italian master's magnum opus about three generations of women, now in the first-ever unabridged English translation. Winner of the 2024 Society of Authors John Florio Prize for for the best translation from Italian and the 2024 American Literary Translator Association's Italian Prose in Translation Prize Elsa Morante is one of the titans of twentieth-century literature—Natalia Ginzburg said she was the writer of her own generation that she most admired—and yet her work remains little known in the United States. Written during World War II, Morante’s celebrated first novel, Lies and Sorcery , is in the grand tradition of Stendhal, Tolstoy, and Proust, spanning the lives of three generations of wildly eccentric women. The story is set in Sicily and told by Elisa, orphaned young and raised by a “fallen woman.” For years Elisa has lived in an imaginary world of her own; now, however, her guardian has died, and the young woman feels that she must abandon her fantasy life to confront the truth of her family’s tortured and dramatic history. Elisa is a seductive, if less than reliable, spinner of stories, and the reader is drawn into a tale of secrets, intrigue, and treachery, which, as it proceeds, is increasingly revealed to be an exploration of a legacy of political and social injustice. Throughout, Morante’s elegant writing—and her drive to get at the heart of her characters’ complex relationships and all-too self-destructive behavior—holds us spellbound.
Elsa Morante (1912–1985) was an Italian novelist, poet, and translator. She was born in Rome and lived there nearly all her life. In 1941, she published her first collection of stories and married the novelist Alberto Moravia. Morante is best known for her novels Arturo’s Island and La Storia . For her work, she was awarded both the Viareggio Prize and the Strega Prize. Jenny McPhee is a translator and the author of the novels The Center of Things , No Ordinary Matter , and A Man of No Moon . For NYRB Classics she translted Curzio Malaparte’s The Kremlin Ball and Natalia Ginzburg’s Family Lexicon . She is the director for the Center of Applied Liberal Arts at New York University.
レビュー
-
Lo compré para un regalo de navidad, llegó a tiempo y en buen estado. A la persona que lo regalé le encantó
-
One of the best European novels of the 20th century.
-
Wonderful story. It's the first time I read something from Elsa Morante and her very personal and witty style is a revelation to me. Hope to find more books of her translated in English. About the physical book: Paper feels nice, it's quite thin because the book has over 800 pages, yet the print doesn't shine through from the other side, creamy colour. I love the cover illustration as well.
-
I bought this based on a positive review. I can't believe that the book I've just read was the same one. The new translation is peppered with annoying americanisms, and the story is basically a long list of unappealing men treating gullible women really badly. Yawn. Not recommended if you're looking for an enriching, uplifting, interesting read. Not, in fact, recommended at all.
-
A masterpiece. Elsa Morantes writing takes my breath away.