Klik på en miniature for at gå til Google Books
|
Indlæser... The Quickening Maze (2009)af Adam Foulds
  
Der er ingen diskussionstråde på Snak om denne bog.   ) Kiramke | Jun 27, 2023 |  starbox | Nov 27, 2021 |  ) RosanaDR | Apr 15, 2021 | ** Poetical style of writing suits this novel about John Clare. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize** This fictionalised story of the Northamptonshire poet John Clare is beautifully written in a lyrical prose form, which suits the maze of insanity which is John Clare's mind from the time of his voluntary incarceration at High Beach Private Asylum in Epping Forest (1837). John Clare is not the most well known of nineteenth century poets but if you have heard of him you may know him as the Northamptonshire peasant poet, best-known for his down-to-earth poems of the natural world, influenced by folk songs, folklore and ballads. He undoubtedly had a physically hard life, labouring at various times in an inn, as a gardener, a lime burner, and in the militia. Poetry however was his passion and at the age of twenty-seven his first book of poems was published, `Poems Descriptive of Rural Life and Scenery'. Poetry alone, however, was not enough for he and his family to live on and Clare's state of mind suffered from the conflict between his need to write poetry and his need to feed and clothe his growing family (he and his wife Patty had seven children). Although the story is fictionalised and the time spans are imaginatively played with, The Quickening Maze is historically accurate about John Clare, High Beach Asylum, Tennyson and so on. Where the novel lets itself down a little is in the assumption of a prior level of knowledge by the reader. For the book to have had a broader appeal a touch of editing and perhaps some notes on the historical background, either as a Prologue, an Epilogue or as notes would have been a useful background. Without the background knowledge I can see how, pretty poetical writing aside, this could potentially fall quite flat on the reader. Hence my 4 stars. I personally enjoyed the novel very much and can recommend it, but to gain the most from this novel I suggest reading some background about John Clare first, and some of his poetry - one of my favourites is `Little Trotty Wagtail' but there are many more delightful poems to choose from. (  ) ArdizzoneFan | Nov 12, 2020 | ) kickthebeat | Nov 1, 2020 |
... Without any of the clunking that is generally audible in stories featuring real people, the book focuses on Allen, Clare and Tennyson, allowing them to seem both fully imagined characters and recognisably actual figures. It's the accuracy of Foulds's writing that guarantees this - that, and his sympathy with the people he's presenting. ...
Based on real events in Epping Forest on the edge of London around 1840, The Quickening Maze centres on the first incarceration of the great nature poet John Clare. After years struggling with alcohol, critical neglect and depression, Clare finds himself in High Beach Private Asylum - an institution run on reformist principles which would later become known as occupational therapy. At the same time another poet, the young Alfred Tennyson, moves nearby and becomes entangled in the life and catastrophic schemes of the asylum's owner, the peculiar, charismatic Dr Matthew Allen.For John Clare, a man who had grown up steeped in the freedoms and exhilarations of nature, who thought 'the edge of the world was a day's walk away', a locked door is a kind of death. This intensely lyrical novel describes his vertiginous fall, through hallucinatory episodes of insanity and dissolving identity, towards his final madness. Historically accurate, but brilliantly imagined, the closed world of High Beach and its various inmates - the doctor, his lonely daughter in love with Tennyson, the brutish staff and John Clare himself - are brought vividly to life. Outside the walls is Nature, and Clare's paradise: the birds and animals, the gypsies living in the forest; his dream of home, of redemption, of escape. Rapturous yet precise, exquisitely written, rich in character and detail, this is a remarkable and deeply affecting book: a visionary novel which contains a world. Ingen biblioteksbeskrivelser fundet. |
Aktuelle diskussionerIngenPopulære omslag
 Google Books — Indlæser...GenrerMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.92Literature English English fiction Modern Period 2000-LC-klassificeringVurderingGennemsnit: (3.31)
Er det dig?Bliv LibraryThing-forfatter. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5