Foi James Jones em Até à Eternidade que mencionou este título de Jack London, que será o terceiro título do autor a ser lido neste blogue. Comprado na Bertrand do Colombo em Agosto, tem estado na estante à espera da sua vez. Até agora, tenho gostado dos livros de Jack London, pelo que ao iniciar a sua leitura esperava que este livro fosse também ele uma boa história, sem surpresas de maior.
Linked opinion...
A surpresa surgiu logo nas primeiras páginas, quando me senti-me sugada para dentro desta história, e continuou quando me apercebi, ao fim de horas, que o tempo tinha passado sem eu ter dado conta.
Transportada por um estilo de escrita belo e harmonioso, e para uma história totalmente absorvente, fiquei deliciada com este livro.
Já antes admirava este autor, mais pela sua história de vida, que pelos livros que havia lido até ao momento. Talvez tenha sido por este ser considerado o seu romance mais autobiográfico, que me apaixonou tanto. Não sei.
Estava quase certa de que este livro iria figurar ao lado dos meus livros favoritos. Infelizmente, e já depois de mais de metade da história, senti-me a retrair e a afastar-me da empatia quase simbiótica que tinha criado com o personagem principal, e que estava a causar a "magia" que só alguns (poucos) livros conseguem operar nos leitores. Que privilégio é quando isso acontece. E que pena perdê-la como me aconteceu aqui...
De qualquer das formas, não deixa de ser um livro que considero pertencer a uma estirpe superior, e que recomendo sem pensar duas vezes.
Linked books...
Fome - Knut Hamsun (mencionado na introdução ao livro)
Cartas de Jack London - Jack London (também mencionado na introdução)
As Minas de Salomão - Henry Rider Haggard
Tritram of Lyonesse - Algernon Charles Swinburne (London refere o autor Swinburne, "que tinha o sentido da cor e da luz", e retratava a rapariga Isolda...)
Dolores - Algernon Charles Swinburne
Excelsior - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Selected Poems - Rudyard Kipling (foram mencionados os poemas de Kipling)
A Doutrina Secreta - Helena P. Blavatsky
The Classical Myths in English Literature - Charles Mills Gayley
A Vida das Abelhas - Maurice Maeterlinck (foi mencionado o autor, e este título foi escolhido por ser o único livro em português deste autor disponível na Wook)
Age of Fable - Thomas Bullfinch
Otelo - William Shakespeare (foi mencionada Desdémona, uma das personagens desta peça)
O Colar de Veludo - Alexandre Dumas (pai) - foi mencionado o autor, e foi escolhida esta obra por estar disponível na Winking Books, e ser um título para mim desconhecido)
First Principles - Herbert Spencer
The Principles of Psychology - Herbert Spencer
Ensaio sobre o Entendimento Humano - John Locke
Philosophy of Style - Herbert Spencer
Linked poems...
The Psalm of Life
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
WHAT THE HEART OF THE YOUNG MAN SAID TO THE PSALMIST
TELL me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is but an empty dream ! —
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.
Life is real ! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
And the grave is not its goal ;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Is our destined end or way ;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.
Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.
In the world's broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle !
Be a hero in the strife !
Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !
Let the dead Past bury its dead !
Act,— act in the living Present !
Heart within, and God o'erhead !
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time ;
Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Sailing o'er life's solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
------------------------------------
The Ladies
With a heart for any fate ;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.
------------------------------------
Apparition
William Ernest Henley
Thin-legged, thin-chested, slight unspeakably,
Neat-footed and weak-fingered: in his face -
Lean, large-boned, curved of beak, and touched with race,
Bold-lipped, rich-tinted, mutable as the sea,
The brown eyes radiant with vivacity -
There shines a brilliant and romantic grace,
A spirit intense and rare, with trace on trace
Of passion and impudence and energy.
Valiant in velvet, light in ragged luck,
Most vain, most generous, sternly critical,
Buffoon and poet, lover and sensualist:
A deal of Ariel, just a streak of Puck,
Much Antony, of Hamlet most of all,
And something of the Shorter-Catechist.
Neat-footed and weak-fingered: in his face -
Lean, large-boned, curved of beak, and touched with race,
Bold-lipped, rich-tinted, mutable as the sea,
The brown eyes radiant with vivacity -
There shines a brilliant and romantic grace,
A spirit intense and rare, with trace on trace
Of passion and impudence and energy.
Valiant in velvet, light in ragged luck,
Most vain, most generous, sternly critical,
Buffoon and poet, lover and sensualist:
A deal of Ariel, just a streak of Puck,
Much Antony, of Hamlet most of all,
And something of the Shorter-Catechist.
------------------------------------
The Ladies
Rudyard Kipling
I've taken my fun where I've found it;
I've rogued an' I've ranged in my time;
I've 'ad my pickin' o' sweet'earts,
An' four o' the lot was prime.
One was an 'arf-caste widow,
One was a woman at Prome,
One was the wife of a jemadar-sais,
An' one is a girl at 'ome.
Now I aren't no 'and with the ladies,
For, takin' 'em all along,
You never can say till you've tried 'em,
An' then you are like to be wrong.
There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,
There's times when you'll know that you might;
But the things you will learn from the Yellow an' Brown,
They'll 'elp you a lot with the White!
I was a young un at 'Oogli,
Shy as a girl to begin;
Aggie de Castrer she made me,
An' Aggie was clever as sin;
Older than me, but my first un --
More like a mother she were --
Showed me the way to promotion an' pay,
An' I learned about women from 'er!
Then I was ordered to Burma,
Actin' in charge o' Bazar,
An' I got me a tiddy live 'eathen
Through buyin' supplies off 'er pa.
Funny an' yellow an' faithful --
Doll in a teacup she were,
But we lived on the square, like a true-married pair,
An' I learned about women from 'er!
Then we was shifted to Neemuch
(Or I might ha' been keepin' 'er now),
An' I took with a shiny she-devil,
The wife of a nigger at Mhow;
'Taught me the gipsy-folks' bolee;
Kind o' volcano she were,
For she knifed me one night 'cause I wished she was white,
And I learned about women from 'er!
Then I come 'ome in the trooper,
'Long of a kid o' sixteen --
Girl from a convent at Meerut,
The straightest I ever 'ave seen.
Love at first sight was 'er trouble,
She didn't know what it were;
An' I wouldn't do such, 'cause I liked 'er too much,
But -- I learned about women from 'er!
I've taken my fun where I've found it,
An' now I must pay for my fun,
For the more you 'ave known o' the others
The less will you settle to one;
An' the end of it's sittin' and thinkin',
An' dreamin' Hell-fires to see;
So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not),
An' learn about women from me!
What did the Colonel's Lady think?
Nobody never knew.
Somebody asked the Sergeant's wife,
An' she told 'em true!
When you get to a man in the case,
They're like as a row of pins --
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins!
I've rogued an' I've ranged in my time;
I've 'ad my pickin' o' sweet'earts,
An' four o' the lot was prime.
One was an 'arf-caste widow,
One was a woman at Prome,
One was the wife of a jemadar-sais,
An' one is a girl at 'ome.
Now I aren't no 'and with the ladies,
For, takin' 'em all along,
You never can say till you've tried 'em,
An' then you are like to be wrong.
There's times when you'll think that you mightn't,
There's times when you'll know that you might;
But the things you will learn from the Yellow an' Brown,
They'll 'elp you a lot with the White!
I was a young un at 'Oogli,
Shy as a girl to begin;
Aggie de Castrer she made me,
An' Aggie was clever as sin;
Older than me, but my first un --
More like a mother she were --
Showed me the way to promotion an' pay,
An' I learned about women from 'er!
Then I was ordered to Burma,
Actin' in charge o' Bazar,
An' I got me a tiddy live 'eathen
Through buyin' supplies off 'er pa.
Funny an' yellow an' faithful --
Doll in a teacup she were,
But we lived on the square, like a true-married pair,
An' I learned about women from 'er!
Then we was shifted to Neemuch
(Or I might ha' been keepin' 'er now),
An' I took with a shiny she-devil,
The wife of a nigger at Mhow;
'Taught me the gipsy-folks' bolee;
Kind o' volcano she were,
For she knifed me one night 'cause I wished she was white,
And I learned about women from 'er!
Then I come 'ome in the trooper,
'Long of a kid o' sixteen --
Girl from a convent at Meerut,
The straightest I ever 'ave seen.
Love at first sight was 'er trouble,
She didn't know what it were;
An' I wouldn't do such, 'cause I liked 'er too much,
But -- I learned about women from 'er!
I've taken my fun where I've found it,
An' now I must pay for my fun,
For the more you 'ave known o' the others
The less will you settle to one;
An' the end of it's sittin' and thinkin',
An' dreamin' Hell-fires to see;
So be warned by my lot (which I know you will not),
An' learn about women from me!
What did the Colonel's Lady think?
Nobody never knew.
Somebody asked the Sergeant's wife,
An' she told 'em true!
When you get to a man in the case,
They're like as a row of pins --
For the Colonel's Lady an' Judy O'Grady
Are sisters under their skins!
 |
| Jimmy Britt |
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| Richard Realf |
 |
| August Bebel |
 |
| Matthew Arnold |
 |
| William Edward Hartpole Lecky |
 |
| Henry James |
 |
| Brander Matthews |
Linked mythological figures...
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| Nemesis |
Linked words...
burilou - abrir sulcos com buril.
=
ENTALHAR, GRAVAR, LAVRAR; retocar ou melhorar o estilo de.
=
APRIMORAR, APURAR; ficar indelevelmente na memória.
=
GRAVAR, INCUTIR
pusilânime - excessivamente tímido; que não tem coragem para reagir.
despautério - (francês Despautère, antropónimo [afrancesamento de J. van Pauteren, 1480-1520, gramático flamengo autor de gramática latina muito difundida na Europa])
despautério - (francês Despautère, antropónimo [afrancesamento de J. van Pauteren, 1480-1520, gramático flamengo autor de gramática latina muito difundida na Europa])
grande disparate; tolice de marca maior.
=
CONTRA-SENSO, DESCONCHAVO, DESPROPÓSITO
inanidade - qualidade de inane. = VACUIDADE; nenhum valor; futilidade; vaidade.
marçano - aprendiz de caixeiro.
escolho - penhasco que está de todo escondido ou só à superfície do mar; [figurado] perigo; obstáculo.
diatribe - escrito ou discurso violento e injurioso (que acusa ou critica).
batoque - espécie de rolha (geralmente de madeira) com que se tapa o orifício que há no alto das pipas e de outras vasilhas de aduela; [informal, depreciativo] indivíduo baixo e gordo.
madraço - que ou quem é dado à ociosidade ou não gosta de trabalhar. = MANDRIÃO
malsã - nocivo à saúde. = COMBALIDO, INSALUBRE; que tem saúde frágil; que tem más intenções. = MALDOSO, MAL-INTENCIONADO ≠ BEM-INTENCIONADO
almotolia - vasilha portátil, de forma cónica, para azeite e outros líquidos oleaginosos. = AZEITEIRA, AZEITEIRO, GALHETA; recipiente, dotado de bico longo, destinado a conter líquido oleoso para lubrificar peças ou mecanismos. = CANTIMPLORA.
