“John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters [and] The Witches of Eastwick [is one of his] most ambitious works. . . . [A] comedy of the blackest sort.”—The New York Times Book Review
Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorcées with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick—and through the even darker fantasies of the town’s collective psyche.
“A great deal of fun to read . . . fresh, constantly entertaining . . . John Updike [is] a wizard of language and observation.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Vintage Updike, which is to say among the best fiction we have.”—Newsday
Mr. Updike takes ''sisterhood is powerful'' at its word and imagines it literally. What if sisterhood really is powerful? What will the sisters use their ''powers'' for? And what - given human nature, of which Mr. Updike takes not too bright a view - what then? Luckily these witches are only interested in the ''personal,'' rather than the ''political''; otherwise they might have done something unfrivolous, like inventing the hydrogen bomb.... ''The Witches of Eastwick'' is an excursion rather than a destination. Like its characters, it indulges in metamorphoses, reading at one moment like Kierkegaard, at the next like Swift's ''Modest Proposal,'' and at the next like Archie comics, with some John Keats thrown in. This quirkiness is part of its charm, for, despite everything, charming it is. As for the witches themselves, there's a strong suggestion that they are products of Eastwick's - read America's - own fantasy life.
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
He was a meikle blak roch man, werie cold. —Isobel Gowdie, in 1662
Now efter that the deuell had endit his admonitions, he cam down out of the pulpit, and caused all the company to com and kiss his ers, quihilk they said was cauld lyk yce; his body was hard lyk yrn, as they thocht that handled him. —Agnes Sampson, in 1590
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"And oh yes," Jane Smart said in her hasty yet purposeful way; each s seemed the black tip of a just-extinguished match held in a playful hurt, as children do, against the skin. "Sukie said a man has bought the Lenox mansion."
Citations
Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
For the last time...the exact blue of such a July day falls into my eyes. My lids lift, my corneas admit the light, my lenses focus it, my retinas and optic nerve report it to the brain. Tomorrow the Earth's poles will tilt a day more toward August and autumn, and a slightly different tincture of light and vapor will be distilled.
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Informations provenant du Partage des connaissances anglais.Modifiez pour passer à votre langue.
We meet it turning the corner where Hemlock meets Oak; it is there when we walk the beach in off-season and the Atlantic in its blackness mirrors the dense packed gray of the clouds: a scandal, life like smoke rising twisted into legend.
“John Updike is the great genial sorcerer of American letters [and] The Witches of Eastwick [is one of his] most ambitious works. . . . [A] comedy of the blackest sort.”—The New York Times Book Review
Toward the end of the Vietnam era, in a snug little Rhode Island seacoast town, wonderful powers have descended upon Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie, bewitching divorcées with sudden access to all that is female, fecund, and mysterious. Alexandra, a sculptor, summons thunderstorms; Jane, a cellist, floats on the air; and Sukie, the local gossip columnist, turns milk into cream. Their happy little coven takes on new, malignant life when a dark and moneyed stranger, Darryl Van Horne, refurbishes the long-derelict Lenox mansion and invites them in to play. Thenceforth scandal flits through the darkening, crooked streets of Eastwick—and through the even darker fantasies of the town’s collective psyche.
“A great deal of fun to read . . . fresh, constantly entertaining . . . John Updike [is] a wizard of language and observation.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Vintage Updike, which is to say among the best fiction we have.”—Newsday
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Alexandra est sculptrice, elle crée des statuettes de femmes plutôt dodues, Sukie est chargée de la rubrique des faits divers dans le journal local et, à ce titre, informée de tous les ragots et menus évènements de la ville, Jane est une violoncelliste assez douée qui enseigne la musique. Toutes trois entretiennent des relations amoureuses avec les maris d’autres femmes. Elles se rencontrent chaque jeudi pour papoter et, éventuellement, jeter quelques petits sorts plus ou moins malicieux à leurs meilleures ennemies.
Arrive alors Darryl Van Horne, célibataire new-yorkais richissime, scientifique et amateur d’art, qui a décidé de rénover et de s’installer dans l’immense manoir Lennox, situé au cœur d’un vaste espace naturel protégé. Autant dire le diable en personne !
Darryl Van Horne, malgré une description peu flatteuse (bourru, velu, les cheveux gras) va tour à tour séduire les trois sorcières, semer la zizanie et ruiner leur amitié, pour finalement jeter son dévolu sur la douce et jeune Jenny, récemment de retour en ville.
Dépitées et jalouses, les trois amies vont passer d’une magie plutôt inoffensive à une magie plus noire qui aura des conséquences tragiques.
Souvent présenté comme un roman sulfureux, The Witches of Eastwick est une fine observation de la société américaine des années 70, ancrée dans la réalité de l'époque, où les femmes commencent à s’émanciper, souvent drôle et sarcastique. (