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Mosquitoes
“Full of the kind of swift and lusty writing that comes from a healthy, fresh pen.” —Lillian Hellman, New York Herald Tribune
A delightful surprise, Faulkner’s second novel introduces us to a colorful band of passengers on a boating excursion from New Orleans. This engaging, high-spirited novel—which Faulkner wrote “for the sake of writing because it was fun”—offers a fasci...more
A delightful surprise, Faulkner’s second novel introduces us to a colorful band of passengers on a boating excursion from New Orleans. This engaging, high-spirited novel—which Faulkner wrote “for the sake of writing because it was fun”—offers a fasci...more
Paperback, 368 pages
Published
August 15th 2011
by Liveright
(first published 1927)
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Even with a whiskey chaser this is not exactly a page turner. The characters seem like rejects from a Tennessee Williams play who've forgotten how to talk. Faulkner is so in love with the sound of his own voice that he can't seem to write character dialogue. He also repeats himself repeats himself in a fashion that I'm sure he meant to be Homeric, but which is simply annoying. And speaking of all things Homeric, has this guy got a crush on James Joyce or what? I understand that Ulysses was all t...more
There are a few really beautiful parts to this book. But mostly I was bored. Because perhaps the only thing more boring than people talking about art is reading about people talking about art. And maybe thats the point. Because the only real artist in the book doesn't talk about it. He just does.
Unpopular opinion: Mosquitoes is actually my favorite Faulkner novel. It may not have the same "gravity of human experience" as his other works, but in it we find Faulkner as comedian attempting to explore and express his views on "serious art." And he does a fantastic job. Hugely entertaining and genuinely insightful, it's repeatedly the Faulkner novel I most look forward to reading again and again.
1 like · like · see review
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Aug 04, 2008
Mallory
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommended to Mallory by:
Ian Phillips
I'm giving this book a five star rating because at first and superficial glance it will make me look smart because I liked a book by Falkner finally. I'm supposed to because I live in New Orleans, right?
I don't know if it was a bad book because it took me five months to read as all the characters were so hateful and unbearable to be around for long periods of time or if it was a good book because Faulkner got me engaged enough to want to torture and kill all of the sniveling pieces on that boat....more
I don't know if it was a bad book because it took me five months to read as all the characters were so hateful and unbearable to be around for long periods of time or if it was a good book because Faulkner got me engaged enough to want to torture and kill all of the sniveling pieces on that boat....more
3 likes · like · see review
Was pretty scathing towards the rich, artists and what would today be called hipsters. Calling out the frivolity of their lives and prescribed roles they are called to fulfill.
Ultimately though it just felt uninspired. It plodded along, which after having lived in New Orleans, definitely gave a sense of the hot heavy summers, which sap everything out of you.
Not one of his best known works for a reason. Pass on this.
Ultimately though it just felt uninspired. It plodded along, which after having lived in New Orleans, definitely gave a sense of the hot heavy summers, which sap everything out of you.
Not one of his best known works for a reason. Pass on this.
As a disconnected and individual book, this one wasn't very good. However, in the context of Faulkner's artistic development (particularly juxtaposed with Soldiers' Pay), Mosquitoes is a very interesting read. Here, the young writer maintained his social interest in the characters inhabiting his world but compounded them with a much more elaborate and ambitious intellectual project. At times, sure, this came off as overly engineered and trying to hard, but the fact that he was even interested in...more
A definite step backwards from his first novel. This one still contains some beautiful images and prose, but far too much pedantic talk about art and aesthetics (which is part of the point: "mosquitoes" being parasites, and none of the artists portrayed in the book producing a bit of art during the course of the book [with one exception], instead using their reputations to sponge off the rich and TALK about art...endlessly). This is notable for what is perhaps one of the first modern novels to c...more
This novel has so much . . . potential. There are beautiful images abounding, and fascinating insights into artistic philosophy. That being said, without much of a plot to hold it together and with a fair dash of prose experiments on Faulkner's part, Mosquitoes is a supremely difficult read. It's almost as if the reader is alternately drowning and then coming up for air each time Faulkner offers a reprieve in the form of one of his more skillful passages (the foray into New Orleans' swamps is re...more
To be honest, it has been awhile since I've read this book. But I felt the need to put up on my list with the other amazing works of fiction I've read lately. I am a pretty big Faulkner fan, but I grew tired with the similarities between most of his better known books.
Mosquitoes is a breath of fresh air after reading Faulkner's other works--not because he isn't an incredible writer, but because it is more Fitzgerald-like than it is Faulkner-like. I vividly recall the characters eating grapefruit...more
Mosquitoes is a breath of fresh air after reading Faulkner's other works--not because he isn't an incredible writer, but because it is more Fitzgerald-like than it is Faulkner-like. I vividly recall the characters eating grapefruit...more
Though slagged as Faulkner's worse novel by the all knowing academia, I actually found it to be a good read. It was far, far superior to Faulkner's first, Soldier's Pay. This reads much more like Faulkner in his prime. More a novel of ideas than anything else, it introduces us to some of his future favorite words like... "fecund." Sadly, "ratiocination" and "apotheosis" have yet to surface. As Faulkner himself references, this may perhaps be his ode to Balzac. And as another Facebook review note...more
I give it two stars because I couldn't give it one and a half, and I'm a little ashamed to do so, because I have so much affection for Faulkner.
I purchased this book, his second novel, at Faulkner House Books in New Orleans, where Faulkner wrote it and also A Soldier's Pay, his first. Faulkner called Mosquitoes a "novel of ideas" (or a "book of ideas", I don't remember) and in my opinion he may have shown why a "novel of ideas" is a tough thing to pull off -- one of the old rules of writing is...more
I purchased this book, his second novel, at Faulkner House Books in New Orleans, where Faulkner wrote it and also A Soldier's Pay, his first. Faulkner called Mosquitoes a "novel of ideas" (or a "book of ideas", I don't remember) and in my opinion he may have shown why a "novel of ideas" is a tough thing to pull off -- one of the old rules of writing is...more
Jan 03, 2009
Matt
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Hard core Faulkner lovers who have patience
Shelves:
fiction
The main reason I read this is because I wanted to read something by Faulkner. Apparently, I chose the wrong one! This is all I had on my shelf. It didn't seem to have any point and as one reviewer points out - never mentions mosquitoes! I would have loved to ask Faulkner what he was doing with this. Perhaps, I missed it.
There are moments of literary excellence and clever writing, but overall, it's a dud.
I found a few interesting quotes in the book. Some embedded in the conversation and others f...more
There are moments of literary excellence and clever writing, but overall, it's a dud.
I found a few interesting quotes in the book. Some embedded in the conversation and others f...more
Not the easiest book that I have ever read, but enjoyable nevertheless.
Mrs Maurier invites a number of artistic New Orleans folk to join her and some others on a cruise on her private yacht. Thus confined, numerous conversations, many of an elevated nature, occur along with much flirtation. Serious conversations in which the author explores the meaning of art are interspersed with sensuous descriptions of frustrated amorous adventures.
Though not an easy read, it made me want to read more of Fa...more
Mrs Maurier invites a number of artistic New Orleans folk to join her and some others on a cruise on her private yacht. Thus confined, numerous conversations, many of an elevated nature, occur along with much flirtation. Serious conversations in which the author explores the meaning of art are interspersed with sensuous descriptions of frustrated amorous adventures.
Though not an easy read, it made me want to read more of Fa...more
Faulkner popular for his 'baggy monsters' or early twentieth novels are something I had not read much of before picking up this rather short novella about some Bohemians on a boat. In his later novels I expect to know the characters more, but I found it a romantic choice on the author to shorten the prose to a brief vacation on a boat, and to have drawn in so much of the society of the times in doing so. As for me, why not give a term to describe Charles Dickens in London to Faulkner in the Amer...more
I loved this book. It's been a while since I've read it, but I thought it was just wonderful.
I suspect that this was near autobiographical to a young Faulkner, as most early works are, and therefore giving the reader personal insight into the man; much like Portrait was to Joyce.
The relationship between benefactor and artist, from the perspective of the artist, is laid out perfectly by all those blood sucking mosquitoes.
OK, it's no Absalom Absalom, but it's pretty damn good.
I suspect that this was near autobiographical to a young Faulkner, as most early works are, and therefore giving the reader personal insight into the man; much like Portrait was to Joyce.
The relationship between benefactor and artist, from the perspective of the artist, is laid out perfectly by all those blood sucking mosquitoes.
OK, it's no Absalom Absalom, but it's pretty damn good.
Drags in places. Not just because of Faulkner's long passages of stream of consciousness...though that is here too. But just because there's not really a story here. Faulkner is working out a lot of how he sees art and its purpose. And how he sees women...less than flatteringly. An interesting early novel. Better than the first one, but it's a big jump from this to The Sound and the Fury, two books later.
Feels wierd to give anything written by this all-time great author less than 4 or 5 stars but this book is a 3 star book, no better. He was trying something different with this book, but the thing about Faulkner is he never needed to do anything different. He was, obviously, an amazing writer. This may just happen to be his worst book in this reader's opinion.
Second Faulkner novel, written in 1920s New Orleans, which is captured nicely in epilogue. Most of it takes place in the company of writers and other artsy types on a boat trip on Lake Pontchartrain. Interesting as history of a writer (last year enjoyed early novels of Mailer, Updike in same vein), early 20th-century writing, etc.
Jan 21, 2013
Devin Bruce
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
bookhouse-boys,
fiction
I don't know what to think of this book. It's my first exposure to Faulkner, and I hear that he gets much better later in his career, and at this point I feel he kind of has to. There are flashes of brilliance but they always sputter out to nowhere. I think Mosquitoes is trying to say something about art and sex and women and the upper class and human nature, but I will be damned if I can tell you what it is. It's so damn opaque. I don't know what the point of the book is, other than to get a co...more
I enjoyed this book although it had a kind of weird, flapper-style in terms of the way everyone spoke that felt put on to me in the same that his first book, Soldier's Pay, had a kind of hard-boiled talk. The fixed setting, a luxury yacht,and some of the monologues were enjoyable.
This felt very odd. Faulkner doing Jazz Age stuff? The tone seemed off and the first chapters were a bore. I’m sending this back to the library for now.
سرد رائع للأحداث , مع تضمين بناء محكم للرواية,جميلة ,و لكن كثرة التفاصيل قد تعيق الأستمتاع بالأحداث التي هي اقل
Jul 25, 2009
Che
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ridiculously-good-ones-for-all-to-l
I'm blown away by the beauty of this book. I could read it forever.
Did not finish book. Very difficult.
Fastidiose!
Amusing
Read 100 pages, and am giving up. The language seems awkward with word choices that are fancy and incredibly inapt. The tone is dull and it is unclear to me whether it is supposed to be humorous or what. The characters and the narrative seem to contradict themselves and I can't tell what's even going on.
Definite improvement over his first novel. The book contained the most humor of any Faulkner novel, which made it strange due to my past experiences with his writing. He starts to dabble with a bit more adventurous writing techniques that would become his halmark later on. All and all a pretty enjoyable read.
New Orleans - viele Menschen auf einer Yacht - viele Moskitos, ohne dass die Viecher wirklich beim Namen genannt werden. So weit ich weiß, das einzige Mal, dass Faulkner sich an einer Gesellschaftssatire versucht hat. Und ich denke, man sollte es lieber auf englisch lesen.
Faulkner cracks me up with this wry light social commentary of southern gentility and how the spirit of beauty and life survives despite the characters accepting their stations in society. Loved the buzzing thread.
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| The Bookhouse Boys: Mosquitoes Discussion | 51 | 13 | Nov 27, 2012 07:17pm |
William Cuthbert Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American novelist and short story writer. One of the most influential writers of the twentieth century, his reputation is based mostly on his novels, novellas, and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.
The majority of his works are based in his native state of Mississippi. Though his work was published as earl...more
More about William Faulkner...
The majority of his works are based in his native state of Mississippi. Though his work was published as earl...more
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