irina_sky's reviews
229 reviews

"Fuenteovejuna did it."
Lope de Vega's Fuente Ovejuna provides the story of a local Commander who is a tyrant over the townspeople. He rapes the wives of town officials, he seeks to dishonor the Mayor's daughter Laurencia and poisons people's lives in many other ways.
This play contains rather peculiar thoughts on love and relationships between men and women.
It was an extremely interesting read! I should never have thought that a book written so long time ago could enthrill me so much.

A complicated philosophical novel on relations between two different generations:fathers and their children. The generation gap between the fathers and sons symbolized the current political debates between the older reactionaries and the younger radicals. The character of Bazarov, a young radical who declares himself a “nihilist,” somebody who accepts nothingness, particularly inflamed both sides. Although Turgenev claimed at one point that he meant the book to be a favorable depiction of the young radicals, this group viewed Bazarov as a spiteful caricature of them. Even before its publication, the novel ignited controversy.

Despite everything, the book has stood the test of time, and many regard it as Turgenev’s best.

I loved and hated this book at the same time because every time I read it I couldn't control my emotions: ire, hatred, indignation, compassion were boiling within me. I burst into crying and cried my eyes out when that cute little puppy was drowning.
It's not a tearful book for small children but a social tragedy revealing human frailty. There is some characteristic frailty at the bottom of every human heart. And this novel is just another sad evidence...

The only reason I gave it four stars is that I'm not into plays very much. Still I realize that the book is one of the greatest of its time with loads of genuinely funny dialogs and monologues and effervescent jokes.
The action takes place on the eve of World War I. And as it had been previously mentioned "lampoons British society as it blithely sinks towards disaster". Somehow I don't quite agree with that. Even though the story deals with Britain and the British, the whole situation, the relationships between those people can be projected into other countries and cultures as well. The author wanted to point out the ignorance and indifference showed by the upper class to the World War I and its consequences. The main issues of the play are self-indulgence and lack of understanding of the high-class characters. I guess it's true for most other countries. The rich lived not noticing what was happening around. This fact has led to many conflicts throughout the history.
Apart from animate characters there is an inanimate one, that is the House which is often called the Ship in the play. The ship must be guided properly by sane people, the same stands for the society. It's an interesting metaphor. It's not new though. The ship of state is a famous metaphor put by Plato. It implies that the steering of a ship is just like any other "craft" or profession - in particular, that of a politician.
The book is definitely worth reading, it gives a lot of food for thought.

I ordered this book on the net a few weeks ago. It is pretty extraordinary. It's called " I Spit on Your Graves" by Boris Vian. I've read a dozen of extremely negative feedbacks on this novel but decided to check it out for myself, just for the hell of it. I Spit on Your Graves is an extremely violent hard-boiled novel about racial and class prejudice, revenge, justice, and is itself a literary oddity due to the fact that it was written by a jazz-loving white Frenchman, who had never been to America.
It's probably one of the blackest books I've read so far. The plot teems with murders, rapes, racism. You may find it revolting or even start hating it for all the dirty stuff being done there but on the whole it's a rather peculiar read.

A wonderful enchanting novel. Shame shame,I should have read it ages ago but didn't have time. This is the kind of books that teaches you far more than those pompous books by "serious" bearded men in round eyeglasses. It looks quite simple, yet the idea is complex. The book deals with the present-day society, its problems, hardships, and shows that people cause the problems themselves instead of making their lives easier.
It's a very nice, kind book that absorbs your imagination and takes your heart away. Once you've read it, it'll definitely stay somewhere within you throughout your life.
It was an adorable read!

It is a pretty interesting play written by a Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen. The story is based on a famous Norwegian fairy tale and comprises the folklore of the country. However, the play which is, to say, written in verse is far from traditional fairy tales. Henrik Ibsen converted the national fairy tale into a satire where he pictured a typical Norwegian of that time. The protagonists of the folklore are presented as vicious and hideous creatures, the peasants are mean and rude.
Many prominent writers of that time, especially H.C.Andersen joined a widespread hostility and called the play meaningless. Who would have thought that in less than a century the whole world would admire this Ibsen's work.