Cliquer sur une vignette pour aller sur Google Books.
Chargement... The Silent Sinpar Anja Sicking
Aucun Chargement...
Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. A short and rather unsatisfying Dutch historical novel. Dismissed from her great aunt's household following her sister's disgrace, Anna takes a post as a servant to M. de Malapert, a bachelor music seller. She's attracted to him; he'd rather cavort with the boys. She's almost 30 but seems to have no understanding of what's going on until the authorities start rounding up "suspects." ( ) The Silent Sin The Silent Sin of the title is, in Oscar Wilde’s time, ‘the love that dare not speak its name’, ie homosexuality (I'm not spoiling the ending as it is very clear early on). Two young, lower middle-class girls fall down the social ladder when their parents are killed in a fire taking the families wealth with it. They become maids for a distant relative, and when this family also find their financial position slipping they let the sisters go. Anna finds herself in Amsterdam and gets a job working for an artisan merchant, a music printer and musical instrument seller. Over time she begins to sense a connection between them and believes he sees through her position as maid to the young woman of a better family that she is. However, things soon begin to evolve that show her all is not as her fantasies would have it. There are some wonderfully observed domestic details in the first third of the novel, which put me in mind of Dutch Stilleven (still life paintings). However, I felt that the writer didn’t make enough of the literacy of the maid who in reality had come from a higher station, I felt that although she might not have been especially ‘knowing’ about the society she found herself in, neither would she necessarily be quite as naïve, at least in her own self deception. For me the novel was also flawed by its singular perspective. That said, for a debut novel, it was well crafted showed promise for the future. Set in mid-18th Century Amsterdam, this novel has a limited domestic setting and is narrated by a young girl of good upbringing who has fallen on hard times and now works as a house servant for a printer of music. The young protagonist and domestic setting is reminiscent of [Girl with a Pearl Earring] (based on my distant memories of that book) and offered some wonderful domestic details. Essentially a mystery, the story parcels out small references to 'the silent sin' and increasing 'clues' as the young woman works it out for herself. While a mildly entertaining story, I thought it somewhat disappointing. There are various elements to the story (a sister, for example), that broaden the reader's expectations but go nowhere. OK, I get the point that people used to be executed for this 'sin' but I failed to be truly moved by it, and I cannot help but think that the book could've been so much more. (January 2008). A story about a dutch woman who has to go into service because her parents died in a fire who finds herself in a house where there are secrets, as she learns more about these secrets she also settles into her job. She lost her last job because her sister was up to no good and you hear about her sisters' adventures through her letters. The lives of the two are contrasted throughout this short tome aucune critique | ajouter une critique
When Anna's fortune is lost, she is forced to become a maid for music publisher De Malapert. Intrigued by her employer, she spends her free time conjuring up ways to impress him. However, De Malapert remains unaware of her attentions. Working in the shop by day and transcribing opera scores by night, he is distracted only by the occasional visit from his flamboyant friend Everard Borgholt. As Anna's obsession deepens, however, she begins to eavesdrop on these late-night soirees. Unwittingly, she contributes to the downfall of both the "only man she could imagine giving herself to" and herself. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)839.31364Literature German literature and literatures of related languages Other Germanic literatures Netherlandish literatures Dutch Dutch fiction 20th Century 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
Est-ce vous ?Devenez un(e) auteur LibraryThing. |