Book Review: The Birthplace by Henry James

Title: The Birthplace
Author: Henry James
Publisher: Hesperus Press
ISBN: 978-1-84391-207-1
Genre: Classics, Literary Fiction
Pages: 120
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

If there is one novelist whose entire body of work I am eager to read, it would but definitely have to be Henry James. Henry James as a writer is something else and I feel his works are either loved or hated. You cannot be in-between when it comes to Mr. James’ writing. Either you like it or you do not.

Henry James wrote of an era and time when manners were the key to discriminating in societies and classes. He wrote making fun of the culture and as one would say, provided the much needed, “black comedy”. His writing was unlike any of his contemporaries and maybe that’s why it turned out to be this different and sometimes difficult to read. Not everyone can get used to his style – the sometimes so called big choice of words and then others simply told with the much needed twist can be quite a challenging task for a reader.

In the two short stories in this book, “The Birthplace”, one can clearly see James’ style shining through. The title story is of a family moving in to the birthplace of their nation’s literary hero to become live-in guardians of a house, which reveals itself to be sinister in more than one way, thus diminishing their view and opinion of everything around them.

The story had the sinister feel to it for sure and more than that it had reactions from every character in the story that added to its presence. The second story, “The Private Life”, one of James’ lesser known works centers around the importance of an author in the literary grand scheme of things keeping in mind literary criticism and arts in general.

I think the second story must have been very close to Henry James’ heart given the context and the way it is written. Also it is my favourite now after, “The Spoils of Poynton”, which I think is his best work (but that’s just my opinion). Read Henry James if you haven’t read him before. He has a way with words like no other and an author you will not regret reading.

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Book Review: The Devil’s Disciple by Hamao Shiro

Title: The Devil’s Disciple
Author: Hamao Shiro
Publisher: Hesperus Press
ISBN: 9781843918578
Genre: Crime
Pages: 112
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

Most Japanese fiction has an element of suicide attached to it and almost every Japanese writer has explored it. Besides suicide, their favourite topic is Death and it is with this topic, The Devil’s Disciple begins.
The Devil’s Disciple written by Shiro Hamao is a decadent, quirky, druggy and kinky sort of a book. The Devil’s Disciple published by Hesperus Press consists of two short novels – the title novel and “Did He Kill Them?”. Both these novels feature pulp fiction crime like no other Japanese crime books I’ve read in the past.

The Devil’s Disciple is a story of a man called Eizo charged with and facing a trial for murder. The story starts with Eizo writing a letter to his once school friend, mentor and lover Tsuchida Hachiro. The two met in their school days and Eizo quickly fell under the spell of Tsuchida. Eizo sets forth his case in the letter, telling him that although someone did die, he isn’t the cause of it and neither is it murder. What unravels in the letter is also that Eizo blames Tsuchida for his life and philosophy, hence generating the title of the story.

The second story, “Did He Kill Them?” is a twisted and gory tale of a couple killed in their own home. There is only one possible suspect on the scene – Otera Ichiro, who is arrested for the crime and refuses to speak about it, even though he is sentenced to death. After the death of the suspect, the barrister finds a manuscript he wrote in jail, explaining what really happened and why he kept his silence.

I don’t think a lot has been written in this genre, Japanese Crime Fiction that is, however I consider myself lucky to have read these two stories. They are dark and build the atmosphere to perfection. The psychological elements are in place and they do depress you for a while. The translation is done to the last detail, which is required in a book like this. Hamao’s writing is not only powerful, but also contemplative. Besides this, I am only too happy that Hesperus Press has published this work. I would recommend this book to all lovers of crime fiction.

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Book Review: Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl by Jenny Wren

Title: Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl
Author: Jenny Wren
Publisher: Hesperus Classics
ISBN: 978-1843911685
Genre: Classics, Non-Fiction
PP: 120 pages
Price: £7.99
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

Consider: Women in Victorian England. Year: Pick any year of Victorian England, but do consider the conditions of women in that era and time. Any idea of what they must have experienced and gone through? No, right? I thought as much. At that time, in the year 1891, Jenny Wren’s book Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl was published. It is a meditation of almost everything from a woman’s perspective – love, dogs, and social classes, to teas and to bills and to life.

For me most of these issues are relevant even today – in so-called modern times. This collection of 12 essays, present’s the woman – the way she thinks and what she thinks about. The thoughts are funny most of the time and I loved reading the essays. For instance, she wants to “injure the man who invented it” – It being the game of Tennis. And another one, when she doesn’t want to devote much thought to, “the creature ‘man’”. What got me started with this book was the style and the nature of the essays – how they were written and what they were all about. A woman’s perspective is very introspective and that is a given always according to me.

Jenny Wren’s book sure is humourous; however it is also a mirror to the times that the book was written in. I for one loved the essays, the style of writing – lucid and to the point. I for one would recommend this book to all women – read it and figure out for yourselves what you think, live, and breathe in today’s age and time.

Book Review: The Seven Poor Travellers by Charles Dickens

Title: The Seven Poor Travellers
Author: Charles Dickens
Publisher: Hesperus Press. Hesperus Classics
ISBN: 978-1843912064
Genre: Classics, Short Tales
PP: 152 pages
Price: £7.99
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4/5

Dickens but of course has to be on the list of everyone’s favourite writers. One book or the other has done it for them. From Great Expectations to Pickwick Papers to Our Mutual Friend, we have identified our favourites and the ones we do not like. Charles Dickens had spun tales, which we cherish today.

Hesperus Press publishes gems of books, and some of the reviews can be found on my blog. For me reading these novellas is like entering another world – of beauty, sometimes madness and sheer excitement. The Seven Poor Travellers is one such rare work and thank you Hesperus Press for publishing it.

The Seven Poor Travellers is a collection of Seven Tales (Six plus One) about seven travellers, all gathered at Watts’ Charity – a sparse yet cosy almhouse, where they share stories following a Christmas Eve Dinner. For me the book was marvellously written. Four stories from this collection are from Dickens’ contemporaries – Wilkie Collins, Adelaide Proctor, George Sala, and Eliza Linton. This is in addition to his own stories.

Personally, for me, the book hit a chord, mainly because of the ending, the seven travelers – seventh one being the story teller – left Christmas Day from the Watt’s Charity Home and went their own ways without any link between the story teller, the characters in the story, and the travelers. The reason I liked it this way was because of the leaving to assumption, what happened to each character and where did their lives go after that one night, or where it could have was brilliant and that can only come about by some great writing.

Book Review: The Three Fat Men by Yuri Olesha

Title: The Three Fat Men
Author: Yuri Olesha
Publisher: Hesperus Press
ISBN: 9781843914525
PP: 156 Pages
Genre: Fiction
Source: Publisher
Price: £7.99
Rating: 5/5

It’s funny, if somewhat scary, how when you’re a kid you don’t really see even explicit political propaganda in your favourite books. When I was five, or seven, or whatever I was when I read The Three Fat Men for the first time, it was, to me, a book about brave little dancer Suok and romantic Heir Tutti and smart Doctor Gaspar. Now it is unmistakably a book about Revolution and Class Struggle, its real main characters.

Set in a fictional, magical Italian-type world, the tale tells of a revolution in a country that is ruled by a greedy and immoral aristocracy (that indulges opulently while the populace starves) headed by the Three Fat Men. The men have a young boy Tutti who they are raising as their heir. To make him cruel they forbid contact with children allowing him only a doll for a companion and they build a zoo with wild animals so that he learns cruelty.

The book begins with the capture and encagement of the revolutionary Prospero and the breaking of Tutti’s doll. Enter the elderly Dr Gaspar and a bunch of ordinary extraordinary people whose lives are brought together in this crucial moment in the life of the country.

What remains unchanged though is that this tale is written extremely well and moreover with this edition, translated beautifully. Olesha has a great sense of language and his unexpected and witty metaphors cracked me up more than once – I doubt I noticed all these small details as a child. The translation helps you understand these nuances for sure. Even though the plot is rather simplistic, the language and the illustrations make me think that The Three Fat Men wasn’t really aimed at children. Or, at least, not only at children.

Having said this this, it is definitely a must read, if you need the biting sarcasm and underlying tones of revolutionary spirit.

Book Review: Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson

Title: Comedy in a Minor Key
Author: Hans Keilson
ISBN: 9781843914563
Genre: Literary Fiction, Novella
Publisher: Hesperus Press
PP: 112 pages
Price:  £9.99
Source: Publisher
Rating: 5/5

I believe in the cliché “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Too often over the years, a book has made me feel like the author was being paid by the word. I appreciate books whose author doesn’t waste words; Comedy in a Minor Key is a perfect example to me of how succinctness doesn’t have to compromise the story, and in fact, how succinctness can work in the favor of a story’s overall construct.

The book tells the story of a Dutch couple (Wim and Marie) during WWII who are providing secret housing for a middle-aged Jewish man (Nico), but who then must find a way to dispose of his body when he dies of pneumonia in their care. Even though the book was written in 1947, the book spends no unnecessary time explaining the context of their dilemma and assumes the reader knows what happened in the Netherlands during WWII, and what the inherent dangers of their predicament were.

Barely 135 pages, Comedy in a Minor Key is a subtle, compassionate, richly human story with more complexity and mystery than one would think was possible to sneak into such a slim, matter of fact volume. “Wim slowly regained his usual composure. Even if he was the younger man here, he was still the host, and that brought with it various responsibilities. He felt that the other man had understood precisely the reasons for Wim’s initial discomfort and that he had made an effort to dispel it, even though he found himself in an even less comfortable situation. Wim offered him a cigarette and said, as he lit the match, ‘My wife and I are happy we can do something for you.’” These small true moments reveal the character of people who do the right thing in extreme circumstances, yet maintain the ambiguity and complexity of character and motive that are universal in circumstances great and small, profound and banal.

As a reader I found the story contained poignant passages which serve as displays of the simple kindness and generosity of humans shown towards others facing adversity and torment. There is something very spiritually renewing about this book. I must mention that I failed to see the comedy or wit as the title would lend, being that it would be extremely difficult to find anything humorous about this dark period in world history. Would I read it again? Most definitely.

You can buy the book here on Flipkart

The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell

Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell is a short novella that was first published around 1850 after her first novel Mary Barton but before one of her more famous novels Cranford. It centers on Maggie Browne, her brother Edward, and their mother who live at the novella’s title Moorland Cottage. Mr. Browne died when the children were very young and Mrs. Browne has spent most of the rest of her time neglecting Maggie and catering to her Edward, allowing him all of life’s pleasures and ambitions. Maggie obediently stands by and watches her mother spoil Edward and never complains when she is ordered around or criticized for every little thing she does wrong. Maggie’s fortune changes when a friend of her father’s Mr. Buxton visits the family and invites them to come and spend the day at his home. Maggie becomes a favorite to his sick wife and only son Frank and spends a day a week in their company. Mrs. Buxton teaches Maggie alot of self-sacrificing, and as Maggie grows she becomes a beautiful, pious young woman and she must learn to find her voice if she is to overcome some of the obstacles that come into her way.

For the most part I really enjoyed this novella. I love the way that Mrs. Gaskell writes and I have enjoyed all of the previous books of hers that I have read. She is one of my favorite authors. I think she has such a way with words and expressing simple thoughts and ideas, she can make the most mundane circumstances sound charming and poetic. This novella has all of the things that I love so much about her work. Also, for a novella the pace is never hurried and I never felt as if the story was skipping over major events to save time.

On the other hand, I don’t think this is one of her strongest works. The story is at time too sentimental and I found that some of the characters were a little flat or too perfect. Maggie is so virtuous and never does anything wrong or complain about her lot in life. She feels horribly about the way her mother treats her but she doesn’t moan about it. It seems a bit too much for a young girl to accept her life like that. Edward is so bad that at times he seems so flat and hardly ever shows any remorse for his actions. Also I see a lot of similarities in the relationships between Maggie and Frank and the relationship between Roger and Molly in Wives and Daughters but I think that by the time Mrs. Gaskell went to write Wives and Daughters she expanded so much on Roger and Molly and perfected this relationship perfectly. Also I see a lot of similarities in the relationships between Maggie and Frank and the relationship between Roger and Molly in Wives and Daughters but I think that by the time Mrs. Gaskell went to write Wives and Daughters she expanded so much on Roger and Molly and perfected this relationship perfectly. This novella is an excellent way to introduce Mrs. Gaskell’s writings and see how well her writing develops when reading some of her later novels.

Moorland Cottage, The; Gaskell, Elizabeth; Hesperus Classics; $12.95