Most helpful customer reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Fine book, sub-standard translation, Nov 6 2002
By A Customer
Some previous editions of Jan Potocki's great saga have been severely edited, or else divided over several volumes. One great strength of the present version is its completeness. And while it reads satisfactorily, no version has yet surpassed Elizabeth Abbott's pioneering English translation from the early 60s. Published in two volumes (The Saragossa Manuscript & The New Decameron), Abbott's is the only version that captures the humor of the original -- and let it be said, this is a hilarious novel, full of educated wit and irony (though you wouldn't guess it after reading the somber editions that have come out lately). On one hand, it courts Enlightenment ideas as they meld into what we know as science; on the other, it skewers superstition and religion. Elizabeth Abbott's version may only be available in used or antiquarian book stores, but it's really the only way to enjoy the book as it was intended to be read. Newer fans of this wonderful decameron will discover additional pleasures, and will drawn into the tale all over again. You also may want to rent or purchase the DVD of the great film version. Director Wojeich Has, noted for his meticulous adaptations, captures all the droll humor and twists in narrative in a way that makes the film a cult classic.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Traveler's Tales, Feb 29 2004
This is a huge, creaking, Spanish galleon of a book. Centered on tales told by travelers during a sixty-six day mule trip through the mountains of 18th century Spain, it begins to wear on the reader rather like such an arduous journey might. Still, you stick with it, for the scenery if not the destination. It is broken up into reasonably sized chapters, and the chapters are often broken down further into "tales", so you can readily find places to lay it down. The problem is, that the tales are divided and interwoven so intricately, that if you lay it down too many times, then you have to backtrack to refamiliarize yourself with the story and the characters.You have a little of everything in this book, it is really a rather amazing assemblage. You have stories dealing with adventure, romance, the supernatural, history, humor, philosophy, moral instruction, etc. Not only that, but the stories are related by a wide variety of characters in their own words- men and women; Christian, Moslem, and Jew. Yet it is all at least loosely tied into the overall frame work of the story of a young officer of the Walloon Guards, Alphonse van Worden, traveling to Madrid to take up his command- and his relation to the mysterious Gomelez family, and to two hanged brothers- and the remarkable way that characters tend to awaken beneath their common gallows. Even one of the characters in the story, a mathematician, repeatedly states that he has to use mathematical notation to keep all the different storylines straight. I personally believe that the author, Jan Potocki, used this book as a framework to tell the tales that he heard during a lifetime as an adventurer. He was famed for his travels from Siberia to Egypt. Moreover, the late 18th century and early 19th century were a time of story telling. Travelers entertained each other nightly with tales told around an inn or campfire. Story telling was an extremely valuable and respected skill in those days. Potocki here seems to use this book to as a place to hang every remarkable tale that he has ever heard in a remarkable life.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A Classic that deserves more attention. Plus its funny!, Feb 22 2004
The book is a collection of intertwining, often hilarious, stories of various natures, styles, and character: gothic, romance, a singular mathmatician, erotica, chivalry, adventure, greed, religion from many perspectives. It seems that this novel deserves to be more popular, it fits the modern attention span with its substratum of vignettes, and the larger grand story that encompasses them, a timeless tale. The book is funny and the message profound, but of the bewildering conundrum sort that some great poems often leave one with, as the story intertwines the symbols of various lives into something that was mature and introspective but uplifting and cathartic -- it doesn't rely on words but on situations to do this; so probably losses little in translation as many poems do. If anything it leaves one with stronger sense of brotherhood and love for one's neighbor. Definitely fits with modern multiculturalism, or what it should be anyway, and I guess the author was also a Freemason; a strange bag of humanism. I will never forget some of the images, Potocki had quite an imagination. There are also a lot of parallels with Parzival (the Grail Story) of the farcical sort. The man who can neither stand, nor sit, nor lie (A symbolic castrated Christian in the Grail); the apostasy of onefs religion for the sake of a beautiful girl(s) (in Parzival the Muslim gives up his religion without a second thought); mindful, mocking anchorites (in the Grail he scolds Parzival for blowing his chance); the lone search verse the social search. How does one end a book like this? I think the question is was it really meant to end?
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