Ernest Hemingway - A Farewell to Arms

Ernest Hemingway veröffentlichte A Farewell to Arms (dt. Titel In einem anderen Land) im Jahr 1929 nach seinen Erfahrungen im ersten Weltkrieg, wo er als Sanitäter an der italienischen Front diente. Sein Protagonist Lieutenant Frederic Henry wird im Dienst verwundet und verliebt sich in die englische Krankenschwester Catherine Barkley. Die Geschichte berichtet von verschiedenen Erlebnissen an der Front, mit anderen Mitgliedern der Armee und die Liebesgeschichte. Es wird viel getrunken, es gibt derbe Sprache und einigen Sex. Letzteres führt zu einer Schwangerschaft Catherines. Das Paar flieht aufgrund der sich zuspitzenden militärischen Situation in die Schweiz, entkommt so zwar dem Krieg, aber schließlich bleibt Frederic allein im Regen zurück. Soviel in aller Kürze. 
Bedenkt man den biografischen Aspekt, so ist klar, dass Hemingways Erfahrungen dramatisch/traumatisch gewesen sein müssen, so drastisch und ablehnend sind seine Schilderungen. Die Liebesgeschichte blieb mir fremd, da ich wenig nachvollziehen konnte, was die beiden zueinander zieht. Catherine ist als Figur eher ein Schattenriss als ein Charakter. Sprachlich wird Hemingways Ansatz, möglichst klar und unprätentiös zu schreiben, sehr deutlich, allerdings wirkt dies passagenweise sehr emotionslos und ein wenig hölzern. Die häufigen Wiederholungen einzelner Phrasen und Wörter haben mich wenig berührt, sondern sorgten eher für Ermüdungserscheinungen. Die Aufnahme von Librivox hat mir dann geholfen, bis zum Ende zu kommen...

Nun ist es ein Klassiker mehr, den ich auf den "gelesen"-Stapel schieben kann, mit Hemingway werde ich wohl immer eine schwierige Beziehung behalten, soviel ist zumindest klar. 

Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms. Arrow Books 2004 / librivox recording. 

 

H.G. Wells - The Time Machine

H.G. Wells' (1866-1945) classic novella The Time Machine (1895) was the first science fiction story that mentioned a device with which one can travel through time. In fact, he coined the phrase for all other time travellers' stories.
The story is not too complicated: The protagonist, a Victorian English scientist, tells his guests at a dinner party that a) time is the fourth dimension and b) he invented a device with which he can travel through time. He also tries to prove his theory with a smaller prototype of this device which disappears from a table.
A week later he arrives disheveledly in front of his guests and tells the story of his time travel from which he has just returned. On his own recount, he went to the year A.D. 802,701. He found two different kinds of creatures there, the small and peaceful Elois and the frightening Morlocks. While the Elois live happily above ground and seem to be content with a very simple life, the Morlocks exist underground and only come out in the darkness and apparently feed on the Elois although they also seem to work to keep them carefree.
The Morlocks had taken the time traveller's machine and he had to fight to get it back. After several adventures and a somehow romantic relationship with one of the Eloi he suceeded and was able to return home after some more time travelling into the far future of the earth.
His dinner guests aren't sure whether to believe him. One of them returns on the next day only to witness the time traveller disapperaring with his machine - never to come back. 

Apart from the fascinating idea of the time machine, H.G. Wells' readers might have been interested to read about his time traveller's theories on how the Elois and the Morlocks descended from the present humans in the 19th century. As a socialist, these theories had to do with industrialism, capitalism and the working class. Though things have definitely changed since Wells' times, the gap between rich and poor couldn't be greater which is why The Time Machine - apart from being an important story in the development of science fiction literature - is still a valuable read and rightly a classic. 

I enjoyed listening to this librivox recording of the story - I like to thank all the volunteers who put a lot of time and effort into recording these audiobooks. 

H.G. Wells, The Time Machine. Librivox 2011. 

Anna Sewell - Black Beauty

It wasn't a good time for a horse to be born into the Victorian Age. Anna Sewell (1820-1878) surely thought so too. In Black Beauty she lets a beautiful and well-tempered horse tell his story. Black Beauty is a grateful horse most of the time, happy about a good stable, good food and fair treatment, and very willing to work. But he also criticizes the things that went wrong during that time. Humans had flaws and the general view on animals was that they were beasts without a soul. But Sewell thought to change the cruel misuse of horses in a time when carriages still were used to get around a already very busy London but weren't treated as sentient beings.
Black Beauty has a very intense way of telling his readers about the right and the wrong ways to treat a horse while also touching a number of other problems in society of the time. I wasn't surprised to read that it became a bestseller in 1878, influencing the ways people thought about horses and even achieving some changes in the way carriage horses were bridled.
The author didn't really intend it to be a children's book but rather thought it as a guide for people working with horses. Unfortunately, she died from a long illness shortly after her book was finished so she couldn't see the impact her book had.
The Sterling Classic edition has very nice illustrations by Scott McKowen but I also listened to parts of the book with the librivox recording (by Cori Samuel) which was very good.

Anna Sewell, Black Beauty. Sterling, London 2004.