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Conversations in Bolzano
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd (2005-07-07)
ISBN: 0141018399
EAN: 9780141018393
Dewy Decimal #: 813
Paperback: 304 pages
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Customer Reviews
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Love is harmony
Rating  (4)
Date: 2008-09-12
After his escape out of a Venetian prison, Giacomo Casanova, the main character in this novel (I highly recommend his `real' autobiography) arrives in Bolzano for a rest. He unexpectedly meets his former opponent-duelist, the Duke of Parma, who married a young girl, Francesca, when she was in love (she still is) with Casanova.
The Duke forces the latter to meet Francesca again for one night and a last confrontation.
Casanova is `a sworn enemy of virtue and morality'. He is the incarnation of the unbridled sexual instinct looking for conquest after conquest: `A flame that burns but cannot warm. Only the thrill of seduction. You are doomed never to be satisfied.' For him, `love is too much'.
The Duke of Parma `lived by violence and will die in vanity.' He had the power to force Francesca to marry him.
Both consider Francesca as merchandise, whereupon a deal can be made. She has a price.
But Francesca responds: `I am life'. Francesca is the incarnation of love: `Love is life'.
However, for Sándor Márai, true love is not from this world.
This novel starts very slowly. The monologues are sometimes too long and not without some melodramatic effects. But it is a very worth-while read.
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A work of art
Rating  (5)
Date: 2006-04-02
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
In October 1756 Giacomo Casanova escapes, after an imprisonment of 16 months, from the cells of the ducal palace in Venice. As the author himselves states in his preface that's where the historical fact in his book ends.Marai has not so much written about Casanova as about men and women and this thing between them often called love. Indeed, throughout the book characters are often identified as 'the man' or 'the woman', making it clear that this is about much more than what happened to these 3 particular people. After his escape, Giacomo arrives in Bolzano and finds that it is the winter residence of the Duke of Parma and his wife Francesca. Years before Giacomo met both, and fought and lost a duel with the duke over Francesca... The book consist largely of three monologues (Giacomo, the duke and Francesca) in which Marai superbly explores the nature of love, seduction and betrayal. It takes getting used to (who else still writes in monologues?), and there's very little action (all conversations take place in the room in the inn where Giacomo stays) but it is well worth the effort to persist! Marai has succeeded in writing a very insightful and beautiful book about the nature of relationships between men and women, one to read and re-read. I very rarely give 5 stars but didn't hesitate in this case.
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Wow
Rating (5)
Date: 2005-11-15
4 out of 4 customers found this reveiw helpful
The potential for a great story revolving around the life of Casanova has long existed, his own autobiography being very unsatisfying, despite a dirth of subject matter. With exquisite genius, Marai takes Casanova on a journey of discovery as he revisits the love triangle that defined his youth. Through a series of powerful tense conversations, Marai creates a delicately real and insightful tale that will hold you to the very last page, more than a tale of Casanova, a meditation upon love, life, ambition, art, meaning. A very good book.
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Conversations? Monologues more likely.
Rating  (2)
Date: 2005-08-31
5 out of 6 customers found this reveiw helpful
Readers of Marai's masterpiece Embers (see my review) may expect lengthy, unrealistic, but totally gripping dialogues in this work also; but whereas that artifice worked very well in the other book, here it is for the most part tedious and repetitive. The central monologue, 60 pages long, is an almost uninterrupted one, with paragraphs of eight or eleven pages, and only the last monologue, which runs for some 37 pages, builds up a powerful momentum and develops a psychologically profound analysis of Casanova's personality - and perhaps of the personalities of other people who are afraid of committing themselves to truly loving relationships. I was several times tempted to abandon the book before I had reached this penultimate chapter. In the end I was glad I did not.
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Retail Price: £7.99
Amazon.com's Price:£0.01
That's 100% Off!
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