Tag Archives: translation

Thérèse Raquin, by Émile Zola

Posted on August 3, 2010 by Thistle

Thérèse lives a miserable life in a small shop in Paris. She lives with her aunt and cousin Camille. Camille is a man with poor health and a fantastic amount of pride, and Thérèse is forced to succumb both to … Continue reading →

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Winter’s End, by Jean-Claude Mourlevat

Posted on July 17, 2010 by Thistle

It’s difficult to summarize this book. I suppose, in short, it’s about a group of kids who escape from a tyrannical boarding school and join a resistance movement against their totalitarian government. I got the book, which translated from the … Continue reading →

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Metropole, by Ferinc Karinthy

Posted on July 9, 2010 by Thistle

Budai steps through the wrong door at the airport, so that his flight takes him not to Helsinki, where he’s expected at a conference, but to a vast and unknown city filled with hoards of people all speaking different languages. … Continue reading →

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Candide, by Voltaire

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Thistle

Candide is a satire from mid-1700s France. It’s one that’s always intimidated me. I thought it would be dense and difficult to read. Nothing could be further from the truth. This book was hysterical. Candide is a young student in … Continue reading →

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Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol

Posted on June 13, 2010 by Thistle

When the Classics Circuit chose to visit Imperial Russia, I knew immediately I wanted to read Dead Souls by Gogol. It’s a book I’ve wanted to read for awhile now, both for my GLBT Challenge (Gogol was gay) and because … Continue reading →

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Nana, by Émile Zola

Posted on May 24, 2010 by Thistle

Nana doesn’t really have a plot I can describe. It involves a woman named Nana, a cheap “tart” as she’s called who sells her body for money but not on the streets like a prostitute. She’s picked up by a … Continue reading →

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Selected Poems, by Marina Tsvetaeva

Posted on April 6, 2010 by Thistle

This book is a selection of Marina Tsvetaeva’s poems translated from the Russian. The poems cross a 25-year period, from about 1915 to about 1940. As I’ve said before, I am not a very good judge of poetry. I dislike … Continue reading →

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Germinal, by Émile Zola

Posted on April 1, 2010 by Thistle

Germinal is about a poor mining town in mid-1800s France. As the economy gets worse and worse, the miners begin to starve to death under unfair pay schedules. They have no protection from labor laws, and go on strike under … Continue reading →

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Death in Venice, by Thomas Mann

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Thistle

The famous author Auschenbach travels to Venice on vacation. There, he sees a beautiful adolescent Polish boy named Tadzio. Auschenbach takes what he believes is an artistic interest in the boy, but his interest slowly devolves into a lustful obsession. … Continue reading →

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The Metamorphosis (graphic novel), by Franz Kafka

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Thistle

My long-time readers know that I love Kafka. The Metamorphosis is probably my all-time favorite novella. After loving the brilliant adaptation of The Trial to graphic novel last fall, I knew I had to get my hands on this GN … Continue reading →

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