Roberta Seret's Blog, page 8
February 5, 2021
UN Professor Wrote Fiction Series
Gift of DiamondsUN Professor Wrote Fiction Series Set In Romania- Transylvania Trilogy
By Romania Journal Last updated Feb 5, 2021
https://www.romaniajournal.ro/spare-t...
By Romania Journal Last updated Feb 5, 2021
https://www.romaniajournal.ro/spare-t...
January 26, 2021
IN COMMEMORATION OF INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE – JANUARY 27
Gift of DiamondsIN COMMEMORATION OF INTERNATIONAL HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE – JANUARY 27
BABI YAR – POEM by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany, attacked the Soviet Union and arrived in Kiev on September 19, 1941. Ten days later, Jews were rounded up, marched out of town, made to strip naked and massacred; they were stacked up, layer upon layer, at Babi Yar (literally, a "grandmother's ravine.")
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a Russian poet, wrote this poem in 1961 in part to protest the Soviet Union's refusal to identify Babi Yar, a ravine in the suburbs of Kiev in the Ukraine, as a site of the mass murder of 33,000 Jews on September 29–30, 1941. Two months later the number became 75,000 dead Jews thrown into the ravine.
Dmitri Shostakovich's “Thirteenth Symphony” is based, in part, on this poem.
“No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A drop sheer as a crude gravestone.
I am afraid.
Today I am as old in years as all the Jewish people.
Now I seem to be a Jew.
Here I plod through ancient Egypt. Here I perish crucified on the cross, and to this day I bear the scars of nails.
I seem to be Dreyfus. T
he Philistine is both informer and judge.
I am behind bars. Beset on every side. Hounded, spat on, slandered.
Squealing, dainty ladies in flounced Brussels lace stick their parasols into my face.
I seem to be then a young boy in Byelostok.
Blood runs, spilling over the floors.
The barroom rabble-rousers give off a stench of vodka and onion.
A boot kicks me aside, helpless.
In vain I plead with these pogrom bullies.
While they jeer and shout, 'Beat the Yids. Save Russia!' Some grain-marketer beats up my mother.
O my Russian people! I know you are international to the core. But those with unclean hands have often made a jingle of your purest name.
I know the goodness of my land.
How vile these antisemites— without a qualm they pompously called themselves the Union of the Russian People!
I seem to be Anne Frank transparent as a branch in April.
And I love.
And have no need of phrases.
My need is that we gaze into each other.
How little we can see or smell! We are denied the leaves, we are denied the sky. Yet we can do so much— tenderly embrace each other in a darkened room. They're coming here?
Be not afraid.
Those are the booming sounds of spring: spring is coming here.
Come then to me.
Quick, give me your lips. Are they smashing down the door? No, it's the ice breaking
The wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar.
The trees look ominous, like judges.
Here all things scream silently, and, baring my head, slowly I feel myself turning grey.
And I myself am one massive, soundless scream above the thousand thousand buried here. each old man here shot dead.
I am every child here shot dead. Nothing in me shall ever forget!
The 'Internationale,' let it thunder when the last antisemite on earth is buried for ever. I
n my blood there is no Jewish blood.
In their callous rage, all antisemites must hate me now as a Jew.
For that reason I am a true Russian!
BABI YAR – POEM by Yevgeny Yevtushenko
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany, attacked the Soviet Union and arrived in Kiev on September 19, 1941. Ten days later, Jews were rounded up, marched out of town, made to strip naked and massacred; they were stacked up, layer upon layer, at Babi Yar (literally, a "grandmother's ravine.")
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a Russian poet, wrote this poem in 1961 in part to protest the Soviet Union's refusal to identify Babi Yar, a ravine in the suburbs of Kiev in the Ukraine, as a site of the mass murder of 33,000 Jews on September 29–30, 1941. Two months later the number became 75,000 dead Jews thrown into the ravine.
Dmitri Shostakovich's “Thirteenth Symphony” is based, in part, on this poem.
“No monument stands over Babi Yar.
A drop sheer as a crude gravestone.
I am afraid.
Today I am as old in years as all the Jewish people.
Now I seem to be a Jew.
Here I plod through ancient Egypt. Here I perish crucified on the cross, and to this day I bear the scars of nails.
I seem to be Dreyfus. T
he Philistine is both informer and judge.
I am behind bars. Beset on every side. Hounded, spat on, slandered.
Squealing, dainty ladies in flounced Brussels lace stick their parasols into my face.
I seem to be then a young boy in Byelostok.
Blood runs, spilling over the floors.
The barroom rabble-rousers give off a stench of vodka and onion.
A boot kicks me aside, helpless.
In vain I plead with these pogrom bullies.
While they jeer and shout, 'Beat the Yids. Save Russia!' Some grain-marketer beats up my mother.
O my Russian people! I know you are international to the core. But those with unclean hands have often made a jingle of your purest name.
I know the goodness of my land.
How vile these antisemites— without a qualm they pompously called themselves the Union of the Russian People!
I seem to be Anne Frank transparent as a branch in April.
And I love.
And have no need of phrases.
My need is that we gaze into each other.
How little we can see or smell! We are denied the leaves, we are denied the sky. Yet we can do so much— tenderly embrace each other in a darkened room. They're coming here?
Be not afraid.
Those are the booming sounds of spring: spring is coming here.
Come then to me.
Quick, give me your lips. Are they smashing down the door? No, it's the ice breaking
The wild grasses rustle over Babi Yar.
The trees look ominous, like judges.
Here all things scream silently, and, baring my head, slowly I feel myself turning grey.
And I myself am one massive, soundless scream above the thousand thousand buried here. each old man here shot dead.
I am every child here shot dead. Nothing in me shall ever forget!
The 'Internationale,' let it thunder when the last antisemite on earth is buried for ever. I
n my blood there is no Jewish blood.
In their callous rage, all antisemites must hate me now as a Jew.
For that reason I am a true Russian!
January 22, 2021
GIFT OF DIAMONDS
GIFT OF DIAMONDS
SOON TO BE PUBLISHED
PUBLICATION DATE: February 23, 2021
PAPERBACK and DIGITAL ON AMAZON
AN EARLY REVIEW PRAISES GIFT OF DIAMONDS:
Seret vividly captures life under dictatorial rule in Romania and the ghastly compromises that good people are compelled to make in order to survive. In addition, the plot is briskly paced and filled with intrigue and gripping adventures. But the author’s prose oscillates between flatly mundane and melodramatically overwrought, and the story sometimes stretches the limits of readers’ credulity. Still, Seret has created a strong protagonist who must navigate a perilous path.
It's a captivating tale of survival and guilt. Kirkus Review
SOON TO BE PUBLISHED
PUBLICATION DATE: February 23, 2021
PAPERBACK and DIGITAL ON AMAZON
AN EARLY REVIEW PRAISES GIFT OF DIAMONDS:
Seret vividly captures life under dictatorial rule in Romania and the ghastly compromises that good people are compelled to make in order to survive. In addition, the plot is briskly paced and filled with intrigue and gripping adventures. But the author’s prose oscillates between flatly mundane and melodramatically overwrought, and the story sometimes stretches the limits of readers’ credulity. Still, Seret has created a strong protagonist who must navigate a perilous path.
It's a captivating tale of survival and guilt. Kirkus Review
December 25, 2020
December 21, 2020
HAPPY HOLIDAYS
WISHING YOU ALL GOOD THINGS FOR A SAFE AND HEALTHY 2021
WITH DEEPEST THOUGHTS, ROBERTA
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GZ54...
WITH DEEPEST THOUGHTS, ROBERTA
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GZ54...
November 30, 2020
NEWS FROM TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY
New Book Release by Roberta Seret
GIFT OF DIAMONDS
Book ISBN 10- 1938757866 Book ISBN 13- 978-1938757860
🎉 WE ARE HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE 🎉
First Book Series of TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY is available on Amazon in both formats Digital and Paperback
Please Visit and Share our Website https://transylvaniantrilogy.com
TO ORDER CLICK THE LINK BELOW
#Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938757866/...
GIFT OF DIAMONDS
Book ISBN 10- 1938757866 Book ISBN 13- 978-1938757860
🎉 WE ARE HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE 🎉
First Book Series of TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY is available on Amazon in both formats Digital and Paperback
Please Visit and Share our Website https://transylvaniantrilogy.com
TO ORDER CLICK THE LINK BELOW
#Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1938757866/...
November 6, 2020
NEWS FROM TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY
Ben was holding the blue diamond up to the light again. “Let me tell you about the second of Tavernier’s diamond cut from the original, 112-carat-blue. After the Hope diamond was the blue, Bonaparte diamond, square and forty-three carats. Tavernier sold it first to the Sultan of India in 1669 who in turn, sold it to a Japanese samurai who hid it in his sailboat on the way to Egypt. One of Napoleon’s generals found it in a Pharaoh’s pyramid when he and his army were there in 1798. Napoleon Bonaparte took the diamond back with him to France and embedded the jewel in his sword for his inauguration. Defying tradition, Napoleon raised his diamond sword and crowned himself emperor by taking the crown from the Pope's hands into his own. That’s when Napoleon's good luck turned bad.”
“Do you think that was because of the diamond?” Mica asked, horrified.
“Who knows?” Ben said, “but even after he died, the curse didn’t end. The Bonaparte diamond went to his second wife, Marie-Louise, and continued to cause misery.”
“Yes?” Mica said, eager to hear that diamond’s history.
“Marie-Louise was the daughter of Franz Joseph, emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Within a year Marie-Louise gave Napoleon a son, Le Roi de Rome- L’Aiglon.
“At this time, Napoleon's success was over. He started losing on the battlefield. After Waterloo, he was exiled to the island of Elba and then after that, he was exiled again to St. Helena, where he died alone and miserable.
“Marie-Louise returned to Vienna with the diamond, prying it from Napoleon's sword. She was a greedy woman.
“Misery followed the blue diamond. Her son, called The Duke of Reichstadt by the Austrians, died in his early twenties. Some say he was poisoned by Metternich, the emperor’s ambitious, Foreign Minister.
“The Bonaparte diamond stayed in Vienna with Marie-Louise until her father, the emperor, was afraid of the diamond's curse and insisted she send it back to France. But it was too late. She had already possessed the diamond. In fact, the story goes that Marie-Louise was quite possessed- she was a nymphomaniac.
To Be Continued...
“Do you think that was because of the diamond?” Mica asked, horrified.
“Who knows?” Ben said, “but even after he died, the curse didn’t end. The Bonaparte diamond went to his second wife, Marie-Louise, and continued to cause misery.”
“Yes?” Mica said, eager to hear that diamond’s history.
“Marie-Louise was the daughter of Franz Joseph, emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Within a year Marie-Louise gave Napoleon a son, Le Roi de Rome- L’Aiglon.
“At this time, Napoleon's success was over. He started losing on the battlefield. After Waterloo, he was exiled to the island of Elba and then after that, he was exiled again to St. Helena, where he died alone and miserable.
“Marie-Louise returned to Vienna with the diamond, prying it from Napoleon's sword. She was a greedy woman.
“Misery followed the blue diamond. Her son, called The Duke of Reichstadt by the Austrians, died in his early twenties. Some say he was poisoned by Metternich, the emperor’s ambitious, Foreign Minister.
“The Bonaparte diamond stayed in Vienna with Marie-Louise until her father, the emperor, was afraid of the diamond's curse and insisted she send it back to France. But it was too late. She had already possessed the diamond. In fact, the story goes that Marie-Louise was quite possessed- she was a nymphomaniac.
To Be Continued...
October 20, 2020
NEWS FROM TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY
For a moment, Mica imagined herself going to the Chain Bridge and throwing not just the blue diamond, but all of her diamonds into the river!
“What happened to the Hope diamond?” Magda asked.
“It brought nothing but sorrow to the people who owned it. Tavernier sold it to Louis XlV in 1668. The Sun King died in Versailles from gangrene. The diamond went down the family line to Louis XVI, who gave it to Marie Antoinette to wear around her neck. Legends say it caused the beginning of the French Revolution. Who knows? But history does state that Marie Antoinette finished her life with the guillotine around her neck.
“Then it disappeared for two hundred years and reappeared mysteriously in London in 1830, where it was bought at an auction by Henry Philip Hope, a wealthy banker. Since then, it kept going into different hands, each time causing havoc.
“A Ziegfeld Follies star received the diamond as a present and was afterwards murdered by her lover. Then a Greek bought it and subsequently fell off a cliff with his wife and children. In 1908, it went into the hands of a Turkish collector who soon died in a shipwreck. Next, the diamond went into the hands of the Sultan of Turkey, Selim Habib, but he had to sell it when he found himself in the middle of a revolution and a sword pointed between his eyes.
“Pierre Cartier purchased the gem from the Sultan and sold it to Mr. and Mrs. McClean in 1911, the owners of the Washington Post. But still the blue diamond didn't carry much hope. In 1912, their son was killed by a car. Years later their daughter died of an overdose of sleeping pills. The husband finished his life insane and with cirrhosis of the liver while Mrs. McClean committed suicide after losing her entire fortune.
“In 1949, the Hope diamond was sold to the jeweler, Harry Winston, but no one wanted to buy it from him. They were afraid. People claimed it was cursed. He ended up donating it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. It’s there now.”
“Do you believe these stories?" Mica asked Ben. “Did all of this really happen?”
“Before I started learning about the history of the diamonds, I would have said no; they’re stories, legends,” he answered. “But history is history, and diamonds have strange powers that I never understood until my father starting teaching me how to cut them and understand their stories. And now, I see their stories as real, part of history.”
To Be Continued...
“What happened to the Hope diamond?” Magda asked.
“It brought nothing but sorrow to the people who owned it. Tavernier sold it to Louis XlV in 1668. The Sun King died in Versailles from gangrene. The diamond went down the family line to Louis XVI, who gave it to Marie Antoinette to wear around her neck. Legends say it caused the beginning of the French Revolution. Who knows? But history does state that Marie Antoinette finished her life with the guillotine around her neck.
“Then it disappeared for two hundred years and reappeared mysteriously in London in 1830, where it was bought at an auction by Henry Philip Hope, a wealthy banker. Since then, it kept going into different hands, each time causing havoc.
“A Ziegfeld Follies star received the diamond as a present and was afterwards murdered by her lover. Then a Greek bought it and subsequently fell off a cliff with his wife and children. In 1908, it went into the hands of a Turkish collector who soon died in a shipwreck. Next, the diamond went into the hands of the Sultan of Turkey, Selim Habib, but he had to sell it when he found himself in the middle of a revolution and a sword pointed between his eyes.
“Pierre Cartier purchased the gem from the Sultan and sold it to Mr. and Mrs. McClean in 1911, the owners of the Washington Post. But still the blue diamond didn't carry much hope. In 1912, their son was killed by a car. Years later their daughter died of an overdose of sleeping pills. The husband finished his life insane and with cirrhosis of the liver while Mrs. McClean committed suicide after losing her entire fortune.
“In 1949, the Hope diamond was sold to the jeweler, Harry Winston, but no one wanted to buy it from him. They were afraid. People claimed it was cursed. He ended up donating it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. It’s there now.”
“Do you believe these stories?" Mica asked Ben. “Did all of this really happen?”
“Before I started learning about the history of the diamonds, I would have said no; they’re stories, legends,” he answered. “But history is history, and diamonds have strange powers that I never understood until my father starting teaching me how to cut them and understand their stories. And now, I see their stories as real, part of history.”
To Be Continued...
October 13, 2020
NEWS FROM TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY
“THE CURSE OF DIAMONDS”
Ben stared at the jewel and his blue eyes lit up. “Amazing.” He put the diamond under his microscope and counted in Hungarian, “Egy, ketto, három, nègy, öt. Unbelievable! I can’t believe it! This diamond seems to have sixty-two facets. Most diamonds have fifty-eight.
“There was a French explorer-jeweler, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, in the seventeenth century, who hand-cut his diamonds into sixty-two facets so maximum light would enter in and out. Your blue has the same number of facets and cuttings as Tavernier’s Grand Blue.”
Mica remembered her father had spoken of Tavernier who didn’t listen to warnings not to cut his original, 112-carat blue diamond into smaller ones. Tavernier was told that man should not interfere with nature. If he did, he’d be punished- all the smaller diamonds he’d cut from the large one, would be cursed.
Ben held Mica’s diamond up to the light. The basement took a bluish hue. He stared at the diamond in amazement. “Tavernier took the diamonds he discovered in the mines and caves of India and traveled throughout Europe and Asia to sell them. A few of them found their way to Russia. There was the huge, blue-green Orlov diamond, 189 carats, given by Prince Orlov to his mistress, Catherine the Great. It’s now in the Kremlin Diamond Fund Museum.”
“Is it cursed?” Mica asked.
“It may be. It was associated with many tragedies. Like Tavernier’s pale-blue-white Regent diamond of 141 carats. It’s in the Louvre, now, also out of trouble.”
Mica remembered her father saying that the Regent diamond had belonged to Marie Antoinette and then to Napoleon. Tragedies for both.
“I dare say,” Ben concluded, “your blue diamond reminds me of these famous treasures, and there were four other blue diamonds, all cut from the original 112-carat Grand Tavernier Blue. Two of them are in museums- the Hope diamond, which is heart-shaped, and the Bonaparte diamond, square. But the other two, the Grisha and the St. Petersburg disappeared during the war. Not found since.”
To Be Continued...
Ben stared at the jewel and his blue eyes lit up. “Amazing.” He put the diamond under his microscope and counted in Hungarian, “Egy, ketto, három, nègy, öt. Unbelievable! I can’t believe it! This diamond seems to have sixty-two facets. Most diamonds have fifty-eight.
“There was a French explorer-jeweler, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, in the seventeenth century, who hand-cut his diamonds into sixty-two facets so maximum light would enter in and out. Your blue has the same number of facets and cuttings as Tavernier’s Grand Blue.”
Mica remembered her father had spoken of Tavernier who didn’t listen to warnings not to cut his original, 112-carat blue diamond into smaller ones. Tavernier was told that man should not interfere with nature. If he did, he’d be punished- all the smaller diamonds he’d cut from the large one, would be cursed.
Ben held Mica’s diamond up to the light. The basement took a bluish hue. He stared at the diamond in amazement. “Tavernier took the diamonds he discovered in the mines and caves of India and traveled throughout Europe and Asia to sell them. A few of them found their way to Russia. There was the huge, blue-green Orlov diamond, 189 carats, given by Prince Orlov to his mistress, Catherine the Great. It’s now in the Kremlin Diamond Fund Museum.”
“Is it cursed?” Mica asked.
“It may be. It was associated with many tragedies. Like Tavernier’s pale-blue-white Regent diamond of 141 carats. It’s in the Louvre, now, also out of trouble.”
Mica remembered her father saying that the Regent diamond had belonged to Marie Antoinette and then to Napoleon. Tragedies for both.
“I dare say,” Ben concluded, “your blue diamond reminds me of these famous treasures, and there were four other blue diamonds, all cut from the original 112-carat Grand Tavernier Blue. Two of them are in museums- the Hope diamond, which is heart-shaped, and the Bonaparte diamond, square. But the other two, the Grisha and the St. Petersburg disappeared during the war. Not found since.”
To Be Continued...
October 5, 2020
“THE CURSE OF DIAMONDS”
NEWS FROM TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY
“THE CURSE OF DIAMONDS”
The infamous cursed diamonds of tales and legends, can find their origin in the hands of French explorer, Tavernier. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was a 16th century world traveler searching for diamonds in India and then selling them to the Kings of Europe.
Mica learns about Tavernier first from her father, as he takes her down to their basement, removes the key from under a brick, and unlocks the treasures that one day will offer secrets to Mica. But he also confesses, “These Tavernier diamonds may be cursed!”
Let us hear again in Roberta Seret’s novel, GIFT OF DIAMONDS, as Ben, the nurse’s brother in Budapest, offers another facet to the legend’s curse:
To Be Continued....
“THE CURSE OF DIAMONDS”
The infamous cursed diamonds of tales and legends, can find their origin in the hands of French explorer, Tavernier. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was a 16th century world traveler searching for diamonds in India and then selling them to the Kings of Europe.
Mica learns about Tavernier first from her father, as he takes her down to their basement, removes the key from under a brick, and unlocks the treasures that one day will offer secrets to Mica. But he also confesses, “These Tavernier diamonds may be cursed!”
Let us hear again in Roberta Seret’s novel, GIFT OF DIAMONDS, as Ben, the nurse’s brother in Budapest, offers another facet to the legend’s curse:
To Be Continued....
