David Malouf
Paperback | Pages: 156 pages Rating: 3.88 | 1887 Users | 193 Reviews
Mention Books Toward An Imaginary Life
| ISBN: | 0099273845 (ISBN13: 9780099273844) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | New South Wales Premier's Literary Award for Christina Stead Prize for Fiction (1979) |
Explanation During Books An Imaginary Life
In the first century AD, Publius Ovidius Naso, the most urbane and irreverent poet of imperial Rome, was banished to a remote village on the edge of the Black Sea. From these sparse facts, one of our most distinguished novelists has fashioned an audacious and supremely moving work of fiction.Marooned on the edge of the known world, exiled from his native tongue, Ovid depends on the kindness of barbarians who impale their dead and converse with the spirit world. But then he becomes the guardian of a still more savage creature, a feral child who has grown up among deer. What ensues is a luminous encounter between civilization and nature, as enacted by a poet who once catalogued the treacheries of love and a boy who slowly learns how to give it.
Identify About Books An Imaginary Life
| Title | : | An Imaginary Life |
| Author | : | David Malouf |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 156 pages |
| Published | : | February 5th 1999 by Vintage (first published 1978) |
| Categories | : | Fiction. Historical. Historical Fiction. Cultural. Australia. Literature |
Rating About Books An Imaginary Life
Ratings: 3.88 From 1887 Users | 193 ReviewsDiscuss About Books An Imaginary Life
Tristia and MetamorphosisIn 8 CE, the Latin poet Ovid was banished to Tomis on the Black Sea (the present-day Constanta in Romania) where he lived out the remainder of his lifea life that David Malouf has reinterpreted in his extraordinary novel. I have a strong recollection from school of the pervasive melancholy of the poems he wrote there, his Tristia (sorrows), and Malouf has perfectly captured the mood of a bleak existence among a barbarian people. But that is only how the book starts;What else is death than the refusal to any longer grow and suffer change? This fiction is more like the journey of Publius Ovidius Naso to he's death. It may sound morbid but it is in fact an utterly fascinating view of life.I remember reading this and thinking what an attractive mind David Malouf has. The philosophy and beliefs he wrote, though some i may not agree too or even try to entertain, makes you think. This is one of the most original and unique books i have ever read, or if there
Like a play in five parts, this short story has incredible form and beauty in its craftsmanship. The transformation of the poet narrator in his pursuit of meaning in life and connection with nature is powerful, drawing upon the romantic tradition. Exiled from his life in Rome where he seeks beauty in the aesthetic and superficial challenges to the ruling powers, he is challenged to find a place in a hostile environment, and eventually find refuge and meaning in the power of people to overcome
He begins his trek from the lap of comfort and luxury. Ovids poetry is lurid and he uses his fame to be a man about town. Stepping over a drawn line he is sequestered by the Roman authorities and banished to the farthermost point of civilization; to live amongst barbarians in a place of desolation, denuded of anything to grasp onto including time, space, and language. He is an afterthought to the tribe who do not speak his language nor he theres. Their life of superstition and grave alliance
More novella than novel, and it definitely requires some quiet, uninterrupted, focused reading (or at least I did) this is a classic, literary award winning tale by Australian author David Malouf, it is also one of the more challenging reads Ive had in a long time.Based on the life of Roman poet Ovid, this esoteric read will not be for many. At times sheer concentration is required (and I admit Google as I had forgotten some of the Ovid references).If youre not a buff of historical/classic
A lyrical metaphorical work about the emptying of the self and the quest for the completion of a life. The feted frivolous Roman poet Ovid displeases his Emperor Augustus and is revealed to us in exil, a man without language or kin. Without words or society he gradually finds a simpler more visceral meaning to life through the tongue of his captors. He chooses to tame a Child produced by the cruel landscape, and is so distrusted by the superstitious villagers who believe that this young boy
The imaginary life Malouf writes is that of Ovid, the Roman poet who wrote during the beginnings of the empire. Malouf explains in his "Afterword: A Note on Sources": "We know very little about the life of Ovid, and it is this absence of fact that has made him useful as the central figure of my narrative and allowed me the liberty of free invention, since what I wanted to write was neither historical novel nor biography, but a fiction with its roots in possible event." Though we don't know why,
0 Comments:
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.