- Paperback: 284 pages
- Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press; First English Translation edition (1 Dec 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1564784517
- ISBN-13: 978-1564784513
- Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 2.1 x 21.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 794,628 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Melancholy for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"What he writes is so simple and so deep at the same time. He has a restlessness, a tension in his narrative style, and he writes about situations everyone feels involved in, no matter where in the world they are." --Bergens Tidende
"His novel presents itself as an exploration of zones that are murky, dangerous, crucial, where craftsmanship and inspiration seek and repulse each other up to the coils of madness. . . . It is the restrained patience and anxiety that shape, beleaguer and design this radiant nucleus that justifies writing--or painting." --Le Monde
"He has a surgeon's ability to use the scalpel and to cut into the most prosaic, everyday happenings, to tear loose fragments from life, to place them under the microscope and examine them minutely, in order to present them afterwards as a precipitous, West-Norway-colored, feverish dream of a Hieronymous Bosch nightmare, sometimes so endlessly desolate, dark, and fearful that Kafka himself would have been frightened." --Aftenposten
"His novel presents itself as an exploration of zones that are murky, dangerous, crucial, where craftsmanship and inspiration seek and repulse each other up to the coils of madness. . . . It is the restrained patience and anxiety that shape, beleaguer and design this radiant nucleus that justifies writing--or painting." --Le Monde
"He has a surgeon's ability to use the scalpel and to cut into the most prosaic, everyday happenings, to tear loose fragments from life, to place them under the microscope and examine them minutely, in order to present them afterwards as a precipitous, West-Norway-colored, feverish dream of a Hieronymous Bosch nightmare, sometimes so endlessly desolate, dark, and fearful that Kafka himself would have been frightened." --Aftenposten
Product Description
In real life, Lars Hertervig would become, along with Edvard Munch, one of Norway's most renowned painters--but in Melancholy he is a promising young artist tortured by doubt and unhinged by unrequited love. After agonizing over his work, drinking alone in a student bar, and obsessively revisiting the loss of his great love, he quits painting entirely, suffers a nervous collapse, and finds himself incarcerated in an insane asylum. Told with a seamlessly powerful and compulsive voice, the narrator;s art becomes, in the end, a means of extricating himself from the tortures of love. "I'll get away from Gaustad Asylum," he says when he's finally released, "and I'll paint your picture away."
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
do not ignore this title
15 July 2008
Format:Paperback
I don't want to spend my time writing this review. But I have to counter, the negative review. the book was patient, beautifully vague, and insightful.
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Poor rendition of an interesting story
5 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you want to read repetitive prose that is witty, rhythmic and intelligent pick up any of Gertrude Stein's books. If you want to know what the stream-of-consciousness style is all about refer to Virginia Woolf or James Joyce. This book is a poor and annoying imitation of them. If you take out all the unnecessary, page-filling, repetitions this "novel" would become a pamphlet illustrating the workings of an obsesive, possibly deranged, mind; of interest, perhaps, to pop psychology enthusiasts. The story of Lars Hertervig, Norwegian painter of beautifully luminous landscapes, is lost somewhere in the mind of the author. The "glimmer of light" does not shine through!
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
