McCullers' second novel, REFLECTIONS IN A GOLDEN EYE, is set on a Southern army base in the 1930s, REFLECTIONS tells the story of Captain Penderton, a bisexual whose life is upset by the arrival of Major Langdon, a charming womanizer who has an affair with Penderton's tempestuous and flirtatious wife, Leonora.
Reflections in a Golden Eye (Penguin Modern Classics)
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"The greatest prose writer that the South produced" -- Tennessee Williams
"Again [McCullers] shows a sort of subterranean and ageless instinct for probing the hidden in men's hearts and minds."
The New York Herald-Tribune
"The novel is a masterpiece . . . as mature and finished as Henry James's THE TURN OF THE SCREW." Time Magazine
"Again [McCullers] shows a sort of subterranean and ageless instinct for probing the hidden in men's hearts and minds."
The New York Herald-Tribune
"The novel is a masterpiece . . . as mature and finished as Henry James's THE TURN OF THE SCREW." Time Magazine
About the Author
Carson McCullers was born at Columbus, Georgia, in 1917. She published The Heart is a Lonely Hunter at the age of twenty-three. Her other works include Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941), The Member of the Wedding (1946), The Ballad of the Sad Café (1951), The Square Root of Wonderful (1958), a play, Clock Without Hands (1961), Sweet as a Pickle, Clean as a Pig (1964) and The Mortgaged Heart (published posthumously in 1972). She died in 1967.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
By John Davison
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I picked up a copy of Reflections in a Golden Eye because I had enjoyed The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and hoped this might be as good. It is better.
Carson McCullers has that flawless limpid style found in the best 20th century American writers, but what is unusual is her capacity to take the reader into the hearts and minds of her characters, and the tenderness with which she delineates them.
One is left wondering - are these people drawn from life, or are they the product of an extraordinary imagination?
I could have done with a more thorough working out of the plot, and it is slightly disappointing that one sees pretty clearly how it is going to turn out from the beginning, but when every line is a joy to read, who cares? It has to be five stars.
Carson McCullers has that flawless limpid style found in the best 20th century American writers, but what is unusual is her capacity to take the reader into the hearts and minds of her characters, and the tenderness with which she delineates them.
One is left wondering - are these people drawn from life, or are they the product of an extraordinary imagination?
I could have done with a more thorough working out of the plot, and it is slightly disappointing that one sees pretty clearly how it is going to turn out from the beginning, but when every line is a joy to read, who cares? It has to be five stars.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Phil O'Sofa
Format:Paperback
This short novel, like the author's more successful 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter', is about loneliness and failed relationships. Set on a US Army base in Georgia, a captain tries to ignore an affair that is going on between his wife and a major, while the major's wife slides into ill health. The captain's repressed homosexuality draws him towards a love-hate relationship with a soldier, who is himself obsessed with the captain's horse-loving wife.
If this sounds complicated it is handled in such a way as to be easy to read, though certainly there are a lot of subjects covered here, subjects that are obviously close to the author's heart. Besides homosexuality, loneliness and failure in love, she also touches on religious excess and voyeurism. McCullers peaked very early in her life, at 23, battled ill-health and died at 50. Her writing shows an amazing intelligence and a distinctive style, though I think this book could have been better if it was developed further as I found the characters a little shallow. I didn't care very much what happened to them.
If this sounds complicated it is handled in such a way as to be easy to read, though certainly there are a lot of subjects covered here, subjects that are obviously close to the author's heart. Besides homosexuality, loneliness and failure in love, she also touches on religious excess and voyeurism. McCullers peaked very early in her life, at 23, battled ill-health and died at 50. Her writing shows an amazing intelligence and a distinctive style, though I think this book could have been better if it was developed further as I found the characters a little shallow. I didn't care very much what happened to them.
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Ancient Greek drama in the 1940s deep america. The Aristotelician unity of place is respected: a military camp. And since the first sentences, we know that a murder will be committed . "Was committed". A sacrifice. This young man, its only pleasure : riding horses, naked, in lonely places. Is he not the brother of Hippolytus from Phaedra (Seneca, Jean Racine) ? Innocent. Nearly a young child or a sweet silent animal. He discovers, by chance, the fascinating pleasure to look at a blossoming woman sleeping....That, and only that. Only the beauty of this reflection in his own eyes. Unfortunately, the husband of the woman, uncomfortable between homosexuality and heterosexuality, between life and death, has also received an irreparable shock. Just a glimpse: reflection on his own eyes of a gorgeous half man half animal riding a horse, naked, under an unbearably wonderful light.... Neighbours with a dead child... Death needs death. This is also how the ancient Greek tragedy advances.
I cannot resist to give you a few extracts of how is lighted all the beginning of the book.
"(The leaves): in late autumn they were flaming gold- (the young soldier):" his round sunburned face (...) his hair lay brown(...).In his eyes which were a curious blend of amber and brown.(...)"-
(The captain's wife rides a) "chestnut stallion"- (Their house is surrounded) by "scrubs oaks "- The captain wore a gold ring (..), he was dressed in khaki shorts(...)and a suede jacket"- (His wife) "wore her straight bronze hair"- (somebody takes) "a pint bottle of rye, a whisky jigger"- "the late autumn sun laid a radiant haze over the new sodded winter grass of the lawn and even in the woods, the sun shone through places where the leaves were not dense, to make fiery golden patterns on the grounds"- "the sky filled with a pale, sold, yellow light"- (the captain) "poured himself a cup of tea" (...)" he had a "brilliant career"- (the captain's wife) "took a ham a sprinkled the top with brown sugar and bread crumbs"- " a fire was laid in the grate"- "before the bright gold and orange light of the fire her body was magnificent"- "a breeze blew and lifted a loose strand of her bronze hair"- "the house brightly lighted(...) he kept a decanter of old strong brandy"....
Golden and golden light. Everywhere. Just read what follows....A real and (not so many so-called) masterpiece to read and read again. But nearly everybody knows that.
I cannot resist to give you a few extracts of how is lighted all the beginning of the book.
"(The leaves): in late autumn they were flaming gold- (the young soldier):" his round sunburned face (...) his hair lay brown(...).In his eyes which were a curious blend of amber and brown.(...)"-
(The captain's wife rides a) "chestnut stallion"- (Their house is surrounded) by "scrubs oaks "- The captain wore a gold ring (..), he was dressed in khaki shorts(...)and a suede jacket"- (His wife) "wore her straight bronze hair"- (somebody takes) "a pint bottle of rye, a whisky jigger"- "the late autumn sun laid a radiant haze over the new sodded winter grass of the lawn and even in the woods, the sun shone through places where the leaves were not dense, to make fiery golden patterns on the grounds"- "the sky filled with a pale, sold, yellow light"- (the captain) "poured himself a cup of tea" (...)" he had a "brilliant career"- (the captain's wife) "took a ham a sprinkled the top with brown sugar and bread crumbs"- " a fire was laid in the grate"- "before the bright gold and orange light of the fire her body was magnificent"- "a breeze blew and lifted a loose strand of her bronze hair"- "the house brightly lighted(...) he kept a decanter of old strong brandy"....
Golden and golden light. Everywhere. Just read what follows....A real and (not so many so-called) masterpiece to read and read again. But nearly everybody knows that.
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