The Unvanquished

Book Description

Set in Mississippi during the Civil War and Reconstruction, THE UNVANQUISHED focuses on the Sartoris family, who, with their code of personal responsibility and courage, stand for the best of the Old South's traditions.

Customer Reviews:

Faulkner for beginners.......2007-05-05

If you've never read a Faulkner novel, this is the perfect place to get your feet wet. I did exactly the opposite, starting with THE SOUND AND THE FURY, AS I LAY DYING and ABSALOM, ABSALOM! Had I read this first, I might have been more accustomed to Faulkner's difficulties (i.e. using pronouns to keep the reader guessing, frequent repetition of key phrases, images and symbols, allusions to the Bible, occasionally using obscure vocabulary, providing minimal context to action especially early on, lengthy sentences and italic text to indicate a character's interior monologue) and not had to struggle so much when reading his masterpieces.

The characters and stories here (and please, read THE UNVANQUISHED as a collection of short stories told chronologically, rather than as a novel) are more simple and fun than his novels. And perhaps that's because he was taking a break from his most serious and difficult work and needed money and a vacation from ABSALOM, ABSALOM! The stories here progress in Faulknerian difficulty, the amount of Southern Gothic tragedy they depict, and the complexity and intricacy of the plots as the book goes along. By the time you're finished reading it, you're ready for SANCTUARY, THE WILD PALMS or LIGHT IN AUGUST.

But to dismiss THE UNVANQUISHED as a lesser work somehow, because the stories are more accessable, is to make a big mistake. The stories are teeming with beautiful prose and haunting storytelling, and they have a great deal to reveal about what the South endured during and immediately after the Civil War and about the mindset of Southerners at the time and for a long time afterward.

Splendid social history.......2006-12-21

This novel is the first Faulkner I read. I liked it. I think it gives a fair image of the South after the Civil war, although I am Dutch.

Though Faulkner has been compared to very difficult writers as Proust, and his style and works often have been called hard to understand, I thought it excellent written. The use of metaphor and symbols in this book is very stunning. E.g. When father Sartoris comes home from a lost battle, the first thing to do is build a fence. Yes a fence to keep northern influences away.

The book gives some good examples of the change in relations between black and white people. It helps to understand politics and society in Southern states.

Sartoris Redux.......2006-05-16

Although published in 1938, the initial appearance of this novel can be traced to September 1934. Pressed for cash, Faullkner sent off the first of a series of short stories, dealing with the adolescent adventures of two boys during the Civil War, to the Saturday Evening Post and Scribners Magazine. The idea of collecting these stories into a "novel" was first proposed to his publisher in late 1936 although it is obvious that Faulklner was interested in a quick sale rather than in the creation of another serious work of literature. He did not put a lot of work into the revision and editing of these stories for the novel and consequently the "chapters" of the novel are pretty much identical to the stories that appeared in the two magazines from 1934-36. Interestingly, he was not able to sale the most powerful of the stories, An Odor of Verbena, to the magazines and thus this "chapter" represents the only unique part of the novel. (For those readers who are interested in the original form of the stories that make up this novel, they can be found in The Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner).

Faulkner had already written of the Sartoris family in an earlier novel, Flags in the Dust, but he set that novel during the era of post-World War I disillusionment and in it dealt with the descendants of Bayard - one of the two boys of The Unvanquised - and the condition of the South some sixty years after the Civil War. It is by far the superior work. Perhaps because The Unvanquished was serialized over a period of two years and went through scant editing for re-publication, it is much too episodic and fairly soaks in sentimentality, incongruity, and disbelief - all key ingredients for stories published in the mass circulated periodicals of the day such as the Saturday Evening Post. If the Yankees of the novel were as stupid as Ringo and Granny Rosa made them out to be, we (I guess my Southern upbringing is showing through) would have been marching on the White House in the summer of 1862.

But with even the weakest Faulkner novel there are places in which his brilliance shows through. The description of the flow of recently freed slaves - having no concept of what freedom represented - following the retreating Union army is mesmerizing and the characterization of Ringo and Granny Rosa is among his best. Ringo is elevated from the stereotyped pickaninny, whose sole purpose was to serve and entertain his masters, to an intelligent and cunning boy who is not only the intellectual superior of his white playmate and master, Bayard, but is equal to Granny Rosa in her business dealings with the Yankees. The scene in the church where Ringo is forced to sit in the balcony with his fellow slaves although holding the ledger that could save or destroy the lives of his white "superiors" is brilliant and the irony is not lost even on the most casual reader. By the end of last story, "An Odor of Verbena," it appears that Bayard has made a significant movement away from the nebulous but clinging heritage of the South with all its manifestations of honor and codes of chivalry, to a more aware state of mind. However, to readers of Flags in the Dust, set in the 1920s, this same Bayard is shown as an old man unable to sever himself from the traditions of the Old South, and still rides to town in a horse drawn carriage driven by his family's old slave, Simon.

Many reviewers have suggested that this novel is the place to begin for readers new to Faulkner. It is most decidedly not. Start with Light in August, Sanctuary, or even Flags in the Dust - all three very approachable and far superior to The Unvanquished.

Underappreciated.......2006-04-05

The story is that of the civil war and reconstruction, and it is told from the perspective of two boys aged 10-20. Oh, and it works (not a given with Faulkner). That should be enough to sell you if you're interested in this sort of thing. Faulkner portrays children well, and the young Bayard is an enjoyable narrator. He also shows up in all kinds of other Faulkner, notably Sartoris, but this is his fullest representation. Other characters show up here that elucidate their later action, Buck McCaslin of Buck and Buddy fame in Go Down, Moses, and opinions about Thomas Sutpen, General Compson. This actually fills in a crucial piece of the Jefferson history and helps to establish the social pecking order.

This is a crucial book for Faulkner fanatics, but it's also a good place to start with Faulkner. It's not too difficult to read and introduces a newcomer to the history of everything sort of style that hooks people on Faulkner for life. It lacks some of the mysticism and depth of Absalom, Absalom or Go Down, Moses, but certainly rewards the time invested. You can see the ideas for Go Down, Moses germinating here. The nascent state for some of the thinking may be due to Bayard's youth, but I believe that some of it owes to Faulkner's youth as well. It would take a few more years before he would attempt to heal the society he had been documenting.

A Faulkner Classic.......2005-11-17

You can learn more about Southern history and culture from reading Faulkner than from a dozen "politically correct" textbooks written from a Northern perspective. THE UNVANQUISHED is about the Sartoris family during the time of the Civil War and Reconstruction. It's narrated by the boy Bayard, who is too young at first to really understand what is going on; the limited perspective of the narrator, the unconcern to explain the background to events, provides much of Faulkner's famous difficulty (it's said that you have to have already read a Faulkner novel in order to "read" it). But this "difficulty" is central to Faulkner's art, and to the meaning of his works. Bayard is a Sartoris through and through, which means he is fiercely independent, courageous, and stubborn as a mule. His Father is a colonel in the Confederate Army, and a legend in his own time. Even though the South was defeated, we learn that they were ultimately "unvanquished" in spirit. This novel really helps readers to understand the tragedy and chaos of the Civil War for the South, the destruction of their homes and cities, their traditions, and their whole way of life. Even though slavery is finally unjustifiable, much that was good and noble was lost and destroyed in the War. The description of hundreds and thousands newly-freed slaves wandering the roads searching for "Jordan" is unforgettable. Ultimately, the Sartoris family survives, but at great cost. They keep their values and integrity intact. Unlike some of Faulkner's other novels, this is finally a tale of heroism and triumph, but never sentimental.

William Faulkner : Novels 1936-1940 : Absalom, Absalom! / The Unvanquished / If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem / The Hamlet (Library of America)

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Great Value on Faulkner
great deal

William Faulkner : Novels 1936-1940 : Absalom, Absalom! / The Unvanquished / If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem / The Hamlet (Library of America)
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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William Faulkner : Novels 1930-1935 : As I Lay Dying, Sanctuary, Light in August, Pylon (Library of America)
William Faulkner : Novels 1942-1954 : Go Down, Moses / Intruder in the Dust / Requiem for a Nun / A Fable (Library of America)
William Faulkner: Novels, 1957-1962: The Town / The Mansion / The Reivers (Library of America)
William Faulkner: Novels 1926-1929: Soldiers' Pay / Mosquitoes / Flags in the Dust / The Sound and the Fury (Library of America)
John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath and Other Writings 1936-1941: The Grapes of Wrath, The Harvest Gypsies, The Long Valley, The Log from the Sea of Cortez (Library of America)

ASIN: 0940450550

Book Description

These four novels show one of America's greatest writers at the height of his powers. Presented in authoritative new texts, they explore the struggles of characters in a South caught between a romantic and a tragic past and the corrupting enticements of the present. Quentin Compson and his Harvard roomate re-create the story of the insanely ambitious patriarch Thomas Sutpen--and discover that his grief, pride, and doom are the inescapable legacy of a past that is not dead. "The Unvanquished" recounts the ordeals and triumphs of the Sartoris family during and after the Civil War. In "If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem" (first published as "The Wild Palms"), paired stories tell of desperate lovers and a fleeing convict. In "The Hamlet," the outrageous scheming energy of Flem Snopes and his clan is vividly and hilariously juxtaposed with the fragile community and customs of Frenchman's bend, Mississippi.

Customer Reviews:

Great Value on Faulkner.......2005-08-17

I agree with the previous review: Faulkner is an acquired taste. However, if you like his work and want to own some of his greatest novels without breaking the bank, this book fills the bill. It's a high-quality book. It's bound well, the paper stock is not flimsy and it holds up to reading after reading. I received mine as a graduation gift in 1997. Since then it's been read by me, some friends, family members and coworkers and it shows little wear.

These are some of Faulkner's greatest works. To own them under one cover for this price? You won't find a better deal.

great deal.......2003-08-21

You probably either love Faulkner's work or you hate it. If you hate it I won't argue with you. There are good reasons why you might not like his work (talk about acquired tastes). If you love him then you can't really find a much better deal than this book. "Absalom, Absalom," "If I Forget Thee Oh Jerusalem," and "The Hamlet" are some of his best work and you can get this book, which is a nice little volume in about every way, for about 2/3 of what you'd pay to get them seperately as paperbacks. I'm not overly impressed by what I've read of "The Unvanquished," and scholars seem to share my opinion, but with works as good as the other three I think a little filler is okay.

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A good read exploring the complexities of the US-UN relation
Valuable to Leaders and Observers of International Politics.
The reality revealed in this book.
Boutros-Ghali bites back
The truth is coming out

Unvanquished: A U.S. - U.N. Saga
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Pilgrimage For Peace: A Secretary General's Memoir
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Kofi Annan: A Man of Peace in a World of War

ASIN: 0812992040
Release Date: 1999-06-01

Amazon.com

Boutros Boutros-Ghali offers a frank chronicle of his five years as secretary-general of the United Nations. Although Unvanquished describes ambitious activities in the Middle East, the Balkans, Central America, and elsewhere, its title is clearly a pun (capitalize those first two letters and look at it again), and this is a bitter memoir of hardball diplomacy. The central story line features Boutros-Ghali's confrontations with the United States, with a special focus on how the Clinton administration prevented him from serving a second term as secretary-general--a "rejection of democracy," he calls it, because the United States was the only member of the Security Council to vote against him. The serious trouble began as a result of election-year politics in the United States: "the White House apparently felt a growing need to compete with the GOP over which party was more anti-United Nations." Yet it seems clear that trouble was brewing for much longer. Consider how Boutros-Ghali describes his early impression of Madeleine Albright, who was the U.S. representative to the United Nations before she became secretary of state: "I was puzzled, however, by what seemed her desire to strike attitudes rather than address substantive issues.... She seemed to assume that her mere assertion of a U.S. policy should be sufficient to achieve the support of other nations." Boutros-Ghali is fiercely unapologetic, and his narrative is feisty and engaging. --John J. Miller

Book Description

For years the United States has treated the United Nations as an extension of its own foreign policy, while other member states--especially smaller, less influential countries--have looked to the United Nations to represent their collective interests. This conflict escalated in the fall of 1996, when the United States unilaterally decided to deny Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali a second term.
        In this book Boutros-Ghali argues that U.S. policy toward the United Nations threatens the fragile fabric of the international organization. By selectively consulting the Security Council, the United States has frequently condemned the United Nations to the status of scapegoat in international affairs, notably during peacekeeping missions in Bosnia, Somalia, and Rwanda. Meanwhile, the United Nations's financial crisis persists as the United States fails to pay its bills while seeking to further increase its already considerable influence within the organization.
        In October 1995 President Clinton lavishly praised Boutros-Ghali for his "outstanding leadership," and thanked him for his "vision." Yet, a mere four months later, the Clinton administration decided that Boutros-Ghali would have to go. What happened in that short time to convince the United States that the secretary-general was now a liability? United States domestic electoral politics were decisive: While campaigning for the primaries, Bob Dole was scoring heavily by repeatedly ridiculing Boutros-Ghali. To neutralize Dole's challenge, Clinton denied the controversial secretary-general a second term, vetoing his reelection in the Security Council despite unanimous support from its other members.
        Boutros-Ghali reveals the dramatic conflict and the personalities involved and considers the future of the United Nations in light of American domination.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

A good read exploring the complexities of the US-UN relation.......2003-03-15

An excellent book which the focuses mainly on the US - UN relationship. In fact the author exposes some of the main issues related to UN reform and how political the workings are for a Secretary General to implement reforms; even the reforms adopted by the security council.

In addition the book demonstrates how critical and powerful a role US plays in the working of the UN (even without having payed the UN dues at the time). To quote Jamie Rubin "The UN can only do what the US Lets it do".

However I was a little dissapointed that the author did not bring out how the UN works in terms of how the resolutions are proposed, voted, adopted and implemented. Also all the focus is on the US-UN relationship and all other member relations are viewed through this prism. Also I felt the author was preoccupied with explaining the reader how he was deprived of the second term in the office.

The author has singled out Madeline Albright for some special treatment in the book. This personality of Madeline Albright is very different from what the US media has portrayed her. She comes across as very insecure and cunning (For example: what Joseph Verner Reed says he heard her say " I will make Boutros think I am his friend; then I will break his legs").

Another thing I want to mention here is in relation to what US keeps saying about how ineffectual the UN is in regards to imposing restrictions on Iraq. But what I realize from the book is that we often forget that US, its allies and its enemies are all part of the UN and the UN can only be as effective as its member states want it to be!

Valuable to Leaders and Observers of International Politics........2000-07-09

Politics is generally way beyond the scope of my field of interest. I did, however, buy the book and I did enjoy it.

For someone of very little political background as myself, I found the book very easy to read and even gripping in parts. (you must bear in mind that gripping me by the happenings in Somalia is a superior achievement of a very able author.)

Mr. Ghali's writing style is awesome. He makes the complex simple and does so with such grace that reading the book becomes a recreational activity rather than a study of contemporary political events.

The book reveals a lot of the "happenings" in the international political scene and points at many "obstacles" that the UN has encountered and describes why he was not re-elected for a "generally given" second term.

The book is divided into 8 chapters. Each describes a particular event or string of events that happen during a defined period of time from 1991 till 1996.

An enjoyable book. Dr. Ghali takes you by the hand on a tour around the world as the UN saw it in those 5 years.

Essentail reading for Statesmen. Enjoyable reading for others.

The reality revealed in this book........1999-08-19

Boutros Boutros Ghali is very courageous and expericence man. In this world if you don"t follow you are out of the way and this is the new policy of world only super-power. Are we going to be hostage of one naation?

Boutros-Ghali bites back.......1999-06-07

As compelling as a good novel, BB-G's memoir of his service as UN Secretary-General skilfully blends an account of some of the more disastrous episodes of our time -- Iraq, Rwanda, Bosnia -- with one of the more outrageous US assaults on the will of the international community -- its rejection of BB-G's own re-election to a second term as UN chief. What's truly scary is to compare the intense apathy which the US brought to many foreign catastrophes (in the Rwandan case, a kind of criminal disregard as the genocide raged) with the zealousness and fanaticism of Madeleine Albright's campaign against B-G. The passages in which B-G relates Albright's attempt to buy him off with a title -- the hilarious 'Secretary-General Emeritus', as if to acknowledge the vanity of former academics -- are especially compelling. You'll quake with terror as even Barbara Walters is brought into service as an instrument of US diplomacy (or non-diplomacy, as B-G would probably put it).

Of course, this book needs to be read carefully. B-G has every reason to be bitter about the treatment he received, and his own lifelong service as a diplomat and privileged list of friends (Ted Turner, George Soros and even Kissinger apparently among them) make it clear that he's hardly an innocent in all this. His persistent emphasis on 'democratization' also clashes uncomfortably with his prior service of Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak, the latter still rigging Egyptian elections during BB-G's term at the UN. However, even these caveats cannot diminish the simple, brutal force of B-G's argument -- that the US frequently acts unilaterally, selfishly and destructively to undermine a genuinely multilateral and effective response to international crises.

Of course, this is an imperfect world made up of many players, some far more reprehensible than the likes of Clinton and Albright; but, through B-G's strained prose, we get a real sense of the particular criminality and dereliction of the current US administration, of a gulf between rhetoric and actions which stretches from New York to Sarajevo, from Washington to Kigali.

The truth is coming out.......1999-05-25

Finally a book that is not afraid to talk about the most poisonous snake of them all: Madeline K. Albright. Favourite line: Labeling Washington an imperial power, Boutros-Ghali said the United States ``sees little need for diplomacy; power is enough. Only the weak rely on diplomacy...the Roman Empire had no need for diplomacy. Nor does the United States.''

The Call of Fife and Drum: Three Novels of the Revolution, the Unvanquished, Conceived in Liberty, the Proud and the Free

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The Call of Fife and Drum: Three Novels of the Revolution, the Unvanquished, Conceived in Liberty, the Proud and the Free
Howard Fast
Manufacturer: Citadel Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0806510277

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Wonderful!
the unvanquished

Cliffsnotes Unvanquished (Cliffs Notes)
James Lamar Roberts
Manufacturer: Cliffs Notes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Unvanquished
Cliffsnotes Light in August (Cliffs Notes)
Absalom, Absalom! (Cliffs Notes)

ASIN: 0822013169

Book Description

This is a novel from Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha series, dealing with the Sartori and Snopes families, representing the noblest aspects of humanity and the worst, respectively.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful!.......2002-12-09

This book is wonderful! Anyone with any intellectual ability could see that! :)

the unvanquished.......2002-03-13

very bad book. would not recommmend reading it. He just drags the story on and not very interesting.

Unvanquished: Cuba's Resistance to Fidel Castro

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A powerful testament
Every college student in America should read this book...
Cuban Martyrs
A Much Needed Study
A concise yet complete history of the past 50 years in Cuba

Unvanquished: Cuba's Resistance to Fidel Castro
Enrique Encinosa
Manufacturer: Pureplay Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0971436665

Book Description

In UNVANQUISHED, Cuban-American historian Enrique Encinosa gives us the first comprehensive history in English of the forty-six-year war that Cuba's people have waged against Fidel Castro. A concise and riveting narrative, mainly in the voices of its participants, UNVANQUISHED unmistakably shows Castro's main opposition is not the exile community in Miami or the U.S. government, but rather the Cuban people who must live under his rule.

Customer Reviews:

A powerful testament.......2007-02-07

An extremely well researched book that leaves no doubt in the mind of this reader that despite almost fifty years of totalitarian rule the dissident voices calling for freedom and justice in Cuba will never be silenced.

Every college student in America should read this book..........2006-10-09

Academia claims that the basis for intellectual advancement is the un-biased pursuit of the truth. However, when it comes to events that challenge leftist and liberal views, there is a vacum of "openess and understanding" to opposing realities. This is the case with the study of Cuban socialism and the Cuban exiled community which opposes it. Academias' cover up and blatant manipulation of the exile point of view is a classic example of brainwashing in a massive scale.

Anyone wishing to break away from Academia's stranglehold on the minds of the young, should read this book. You will begin to see the truth about what has happened in Cuba, and how it has been covered up in the US by the liberals and the left.

Cuban Martyrs.......2004-10-25

This book will likely be dismissed by the Castrophiles on the academic left who paint the Cuban exile community as a collection of ignorant fascists. Those who approach the text with moral sobriety and decency, however, will be moved by Mr. Encinosa's tribute to the Cuban martyrs who were either murdered, or suffered in Castro's gulags, while having been ignored by the world press. The romantic delusion that Cuba represents a good faith attempt to create a socialist society while defending itself against evil capitalists has been refuted over and over again by the brutality and mendacity of the system. Like Che Guevara's false archetype of the saintly revolutionary, the revolution itself was a pathetic lie and Cuba eventually became the playground for Castro's egocentric fantasies. I should know. During the revolution my father fought against Batista in the Escambray front and my maternal grandparents ran one of the largest safe houses on the island, which offered refuge to many who later became ranking members of the regime. Fortunately, my family recognized the nature of the beast early on and we fled paradise in 1965.

Among the many stories that Mr. Encinosa recounts, one that Americans should become familiar with is the imprisonment of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, an Afro-Cuban physician who is currently wasting away in a Cuban prison. While the left is busy denouncing the detention of Islamic radicals at Guantanamo, Dr. Biscet, a Christian pro-life activist and advocate of Dr. Martin Luther King's teachings of nonviolent resistence, is serving a 25 year sentence. He previously served a three year prison sentence for holding a Cuban flag upside down during a press conference. After his conviction on April 7, 2003, Dr. Biscet was placed in solitary confinement in a tiny cell where he was denied sunlight for the first year of his imprisonment. He has been forced to live on handouts from other prisoners because the authorities refused to feed him, he lost several teeth and exists on the verge of starvation. Dr. Biscet's plight is a living synopsis of Castro's experiment in Carribean Stalinism and the motivation for the resistance movements described in the book.

A Much Needed Study.......2004-07-17

A concise, but comprehensive look at anti-Castro resistance by Cubans inside and outside the island from 1959 to the present. Encinosa tells an important story that is rarely known outside of the Cuban exile community, as such it is an invaluable study for serious Cuba watchers.

Of special interest, from a military history perspective, was the chapter on the mid-60's anti-Castro guerilla campaign centered in the Escambray mountains of central Cuba. This story is virtually unknown to the outside world, yet captures the courage and defiance to Communist rule, while detailing the uncompromising and brutal tactics Castro used in putting it down. I only wish that a more detailed examination of the Escambray campaign could someday be published. The book flows easily through the various decades, using numerous first-hand accounts of the bravery of those who resisted and the savagery of those who repressed them. Readers will also realize that many of those who took up arms against Castro, had previously supported him. Encinosa also details little known facts about Cuban domestic opposition to their overseas wars. Lastly, a discussion on resistance in the last decade brings to light the viciousness of the Castro regime, best captured in the comments of an individual who tried to set up an 'independent library'.

This book is a great eye-opener that reveals the regime for what it is - repressive and unpopular. Very necessary in light of the constant, and effective propaganda that comes from the island as it tries to influence the more gullible and economic minded sectors of the US. A relevant read given today's developing events.

A concise yet complete history of the past 50 years in Cuba.......2004-05-11

Using primary and secondary sources Enrique Encinosa offers an account of Cuban history from the democratic forces who lived it.

It takes us from the 1950s to the present day in a concise yet detailed manner that lays out the evolving Cuban scene over the past half century.

It is an enjoyable read that grabs you from the first page and keeps you enthralled until the very end. Nevertheless, it leaves you asking the nagging question: what next for the Cuban people?

Aparajito: the Unvanquished
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Discovering the Beauty of Life

Aparajito: the Unvanquished
Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay
Manufacturer: HarperCollins India
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Hill of Devi

ASIN: 8172233205

Book Description

classic novel on India, trans. from Bengali by Gopa Majumdar

Customer Reviews:

Discovering the Beauty of Life.......2007-06-19

Aparajito is sequel to Pather Panchali. You have to read Aparijito if you liked Pather Panchali. Satyajit Ray's film Apartijito and Apur Sansar look like patchy collages compared to the treatment of characters in the novels.

Aparajito starts with Apu's adult struggles in city life. You would expect the character to somehow come over the unending series of tragedy that he goes through, but Bibhutibhushan takes his time, like a life really running its urban grind. I kept peeking through latter pages to see if Apu was ever going to have that happy turn of events that novels are supposed to have. But what you get is not a tale but Apu's own experience of slow discovery of beauty in life. There is no story. There is only a character that refuses to give in, that lives "lives" of drudgery, passion, freedom with the adamant spirit of a crusader. Nothing earth-shattering except the will to believe that life is and will be what he wants to see it as, not what the city has defined for others.

Gopa Majumdar's choice of words is decidedly British, and therefore, at some points, knots the easy flow of the passages. Nevertheless, the beauty of the original seems to come through the translation because the strength of the book is not in the language used but in the detailed exploration of its charming charcater, Apu.

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Southern society

The Unvanquished V351
William Faulkner
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Customer Reviews:

Southern society.......2000-05-11

The Unvanquished is an excellent book, which depicts life in the South during and after the Civil War. The title means "the undefeated or the unconquered," and Faulkner expounds on this topic. One by one, the characters are defeated by either disillusionment, selfishness, or vainity ,and only one character withstands the terrible effects of the war: Bayard. Faulker does a remarkable job depicting the emotions of Southerners during this time and uses great imagery.

Unvanquished Puritan, A Portrait of Lyman Beecher

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Unvanquished Puritan, A Portrait of Lyman Beecher
Stuart C. Henry
Manufacturer: W. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

Here is a portrait of a fascinating and influential figure, a study that provides new insights into an important era of American religious history. Frequent quotations from contemporary chronicles and Beecher's own prodigious writings enhance the flavor or the era, and Professor Henry has included several short essays on culture and religion which further illumine both the man and his times. An appendix contains short biographical sketches of the eleven Beecher children who lived beyond childhood.

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The Unvanquished (Signet Classics)

Manufacturer: New American Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

Set against the backdrop of the Civil War, this is the magnificent story of the proud Sartoris family, who lived with violence in order to survive. But it is particularly the account of how young Bayard Sartoris, well tutored in killing, found the wisdom to decide that there had been enough bloodshed, and the courage to face the enemy alone - and unarmed.

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