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Orsinia
Malafrena
The story takes place from 1825 to 1830, when Orsinia is ruled by the Austrian Empire. The hero is Itale Sorde, the son of the owner of an estate on a lake called Malafrena in a valley of the same name. Itale leaves the estate, against his father's will, to engage in nationalistic and revolutionary politics in the capital.
343 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
91 people are currently reading
1670 people want to read
About the author
Ursula K. Le Guin
1,046 books30.4k followersUrsula K. Le Guin published twenty-two novels, eleven volumes of short stories, four collections of essays, twelve books for children, six volumes of poetry and four of translation, and has received many awards: Hugo, Nebula, National Book Award, PEN-Malamud, etc. Her recent publications include the novel Lavinia, an essay collection, Cheek by Jowl, and The Wild Girls. She lived in Portland, Oregon.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
She was known for her treatment of gender (The Left Hand of Darkness, The Matter of Seggri), political systems (The Telling, The Dispossessed) and difference/otherness in any other form. Her interest in non-Western philosophies was reflected in works such as "Solitude" and The Telling but even more interesting are her imagined societies, often mixing traits extracted from her profound knowledge of anthropology acquired from growing up with her father, the famous anthropologist, Alfred Kroeber. The Hainish Cycle reflects the anthropologist's experience of immersing themselves in new strange cultures since most of their main characters and narrators (Le Guin favoured the first-person narration) are envoys from a humanitarian organization, the Ekumen, sent to investigate or ally themselves with the people of a different world and learn their ways.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 120 reviews
August 13, 2011
This has long been one of my all-time favorite books. The first time I read it it was a very slow read -- Le Guin's writing is so layered, full of subtlety, and this is a book that doesn't spoonfeed the ideas, but depends upon the reader to work out the themes. After the first time, I went back and read it again ... and again and again, each time with more enjoyment, yet each time finding something new. The language is lovely -- you just want to read passages out loud to hear the way she puts words together. It is a lovely, heartbreaking, yet ultimately hopeful story about the meaning of home, and growing up and learning that good intentions and just causes don't guarantee that you'll win the day ... but that's no reason not to try.
February 25, 2021
He would look unseeing out over Malafrena, with a heaviness in him. It was as if a spell was laid upon him here, which he could not break, though he might escape from it; a charm that grew strongest in certain hours, certain conversations.
The spell that binds young Itale Sorde to the family estate in Val Malafrena holds the same charm for this reader: but the French revolutionary motto, Vivre libre, ou mourir ("Live free, or die"), offers sentiments which tug him away from his mountain home. His progressive idealistic impulses draw him to Krasnoy, the capital of Orsinia, leading him to a sequence of events which impact not only on himself but on family, friends and acquaintances.
This restless, roving novel developed from the author's early forays into writing fiction, fired up by her reading of Russian literature; it has proved to divide opinion, from those who expect something either more radical or in her later more speculative style, to those who relish her way with language and her ability to create a believable alternative reality and credible individuals.
Myself, I fall into the second category and one doesn't have to go very far to find the reasons.
This alternative reality is vested in Orsinia, a country nested -- as if a component in a Russian doll -- somewhere within the Austrian Empire in the late 1820s. Revolutionary fervour remains in the air even as hegemonies try to tamp down any suspicion of rebellion. The touchstone which imparted to many French revolutionaries their zeal was the phrase Vivre libre, ou mourir! and this is precisely the motto that inspires Itale and other students at Solariy University to instigate subversive activities, and an up-and-coming poet Amadey Estenskar hailing from Polana province in southeast Orsinia.
Hopes are further raised by rumours that the Estates General -- in abeyance since a Hapsburg duchess became nominal head of state -- may be reconvened and thus signal a return to a constitutional monarchy. In expectation of being in the midst of the febrile atmosphere Itale becomes, as it were, an exile from Malafrena, the family estate in the eastern province of Montayna, and travels to Krasnoy. The question is, will the rallying cry, Live free or die, determine the direction his own life will ultimately take?
Originally entitled The Necessary Passion (now the name of one of the seven parts the novel is divided into), Malafrena is not just the chronicle of one apparently jejune graduate, though in fact everything and everyone can be tracked back to him. We hear much about friends, colleagues and extended family, seeing through their eyes as well as his and witnessing both humdrum happenings and momentous events. We learn about the provincial lives of the Sorde family, their close neighbours the Valtorskars and relatives in nearby Portacheyka; we observe the straits of the disadvantaged and the dispossessed in the capital and in the mills of the eastern province. Also in evidence are Itale's journalist associates from the journal Novesma Verba, his friends in the nobility, and intellectuals such as the poet Estenskar and novelist Givan Karantay, all of whom form a web of connections that draws the suspicions of the Austrian authorities: remember, the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819 were designed so that the Empire could contain and even eradicate any likelihood of dissent.
Le Guin's first choice of "the necessary passion" as a title for the novel relates, I think, to all forms of human feelings and emotions -- political, sexual, and familial -- and how Itale applies them according to belief, inclination and personal stamina. In Malafrena he felt bespelled with a certain heaviness that he's compelled to escape. He tells his childhood friend Piera that "Life's not a room, it's a road; what you leave you leave, and it's lost. You can't turn back. That's how it is." Amadey the poet confirms this viewpoint, describing a dream: "I saw my own life -- behind me and ahead of me. As if it were a road." This is one way to view the novel, it seems; if some Orsinians see themselves as on a road where there's no turning back, what happens when they run out of energy and impetus, fall prey to exhaustion, come up against impassable barriers and lose the necessary passion to continue? Youthful ambitions such as Amadey's vincam (meaning "I shall conquer!") are, even if carved into stone, all too soon eroded by seasons and weather.
This sense of melancholy seems to be one which Le Guin absorbed from her reading of Russian fiction. I've only read some of this literature -- some Chekhov short stories, for example, and Dostoyevsky's House of the Dead -- but I detect the same atmosphere in Le Guin's novel, the feeling that individuals setting themselves up against an oppressive system may not have it as easy as David against Goliath. When Itale's family hear he has been imprisoned for sedition his lawyer uncle attributes this moment of enlightenment which comes to Itale's father:
That injustice could be institutionalised under the name of law, that inhumanity could embody and perpetuate itself in the form of armed men and locked doors, this he knew but did not believe, had not believed, until now.
Itale's friend Piera comes to realise this part of realpolitik, reflecting that "The builder of the prisonhouse, the sneakthief, the weakener, the enemy, was fear. There was no way to serve fear and be free."
In actuality Le Guin's epic is not simply about the ripples caused by one young wouldbe progressive idealist and his coterie: it's also about the women Itale associates with, females who, as with many women of the time, had circumscribed existences but somehow still managed to make an impact. For instance there's his sister Laura who, though at one stage learns to understand what the phrase "borne down" may signify, attempts to forge a function for herself on the Malafrena estate; there's also Piera who like Itale has to leave her Valtorsa estate to discover whether it indeed is no longer 'home' or not. We mustn't forget either Baroness Luisa Paludeskar, who arranges Itale's release from prison and nurses him back to health, displaying a political nous that does her justice, but at what cost?
There's so much else to delight the attentive reader in Malafrena, such as le Guin's descriptions of weather, and nature, and landscapes: for example the incident of an owl that "flew in front of them from one oak to another, hunting, soft as a tossed ball of dark wool in the dusk." I like the occasional quiet joke, as in this little dialogue which punctuates -- though not quite puncturing -- a scene which follows momentous incidents of potential import:
He glanced at his friend and said, with his hands in his pockets, smiling irrepressibly, 'Do you believe in God, Francesco?' -- 'Of course. Don't you?' -- No. Thank God!'
Ultimately, in a novel about an imaginary land, the shoreless kingdom of the poet Estenskar which Le Guin brought into being in default of experiencing Europe herself, this vast wide-ranging narrative is about home. Where does it stand? Is it a place, or is it a phantom of the mind?
For five years he had been sick for home, and now, forced to it as a fugitive, he must come to it knowing that he had no home.
Far from being a novel of dashed hopes and tragic consequences for me Malafrena is a work which fills my heart to bursting: filled with players who would like to effect change in a time of tumult, they seem to reflect our own hopes and visions; it is a land not unlike our own, in a time which in so many ways closely matches the one we live in now.
December 6, 2016
I just reread the title story after a twenty year hiatus and am stunned. This book is a youthful masterpiece from a masterful writer. The language is sublime. The story, while measured and slow, unfolds purposefully. I see many reviewers have struggled with the book. It's not for someone who reads lightly, but rather for those who seek substantial literature.
Le Guin puts us into the heads and hearts of her characters as fully realized human beings dealing with human situations. She creates a world of perfect internal consistency and actually has something meaningful to say about the biggest moments of life. Her use of language and ability to be poetic without pretense, makes this a luscious and filling read.
The Library of America honor a book long deserving such accolades.
Le Guin puts us into the heads and hearts of her characters as fully realized human beings dealing with human situations. She creates a world of perfect internal consistency and actually has something meaningful to say about the biggest moments of life. Her use of language and ability to be poetic without pretense, makes this a luscious and filling read.
The Library of America honor a book long deserving such accolades.
December 26, 2020
The cover screams adventure story. Reviewers have called it her “dryest” story. The first few chapters suggest dark academia with a lot of talk of revolution while sitting down and eating cheese. What this Ursula K. Leguin novel is: a love story stiffled by a bigger, nobler, and tragically, pointless dream.
Itale Sorde is young, rich and leaving home. He is renouncing his inheritance and running away to write about the factories and everything wrong in his country. But while his revolution takes up most of the pages of the novel, this is not a story of political intrigue. The exact conditions of the workers are scarcely depicted. Nor are we introduced to any high up opposing figures. There are no intricate strategizing scenes or big battles. It's all grand sweeping statements of Us versus Them in the name Liberty and Freedom as they lounge in coffee houses and dissect a book by a fellow visonary. An armchair revolution.
The real story is the one left out. Itale's unexpressed feelings for his childhood friend, Piera. Her tears he mistakes for wind in her eyes. The Countess she knows to be his mistress without her ever having to say it. Excuse me for being a girl, but Malafrena is a romance. An unromance, if you will.
Page 343, second to last page, after all the cheese and talk of politics and being emprisoned and engaged to the wrong person and not expressing their feelings to one another, the confession:
That's it. The closest we get to a romance. An unspoken declaration. Quiet as a heartbeat. Then, they're interrupted and it's a regular afternoon again, “Have an apple, your face is purple,” and off they go somewhere, and the novel ends there.
“Why write a romance about an unromantic people?” coyly asks Le Guin through one of her characters. If the characters are unfeeling, if nothing happens, if no one's says anything to one another, it makes the heartbreak all the more felt. Because it is not, cannot, be said. Only betrayed in gestures.
Just like Tehanu is a quiet novel about domestic life in a world of heroes, Malafrena is a love story in a world that has no time for sentiment.
And so, I can't help but appreciate the infuriating emotions the ending creates. The tone of the story has been leading up to it all along.
I especially like the aesthetics of how it 'fades out' in banal dialogue. A day in a life. But by God, life is short. Piera and Itale's story ran out of pages. Read this as warning not to take matters of the heart so spinelessly!
My favourite line:
If you like realistic stories set in make-believe countries, you might also like Last Letters From Hav.
My blog
Itale Sorde is young, rich and leaving home. He is renouncing his inheritance and running away to write about the factories and everything wrong in his country. But while his revolution takes up most of the pages of the novel, this is not a story of political intrigue. The exact conditions of the workers are scarcely depicted. Nor are we introduced to any high up opposing figures. There are no intricate strategizing scenes or big battles. It's all grand sweeping statements of Us versus Them in the name Liberty and Freedom as they lounge in coffee houses and dissect a book by a fellow visonary. An armchair revolution.
The real story is the one left out. Itale's unexpressed feelings for his childhood friend, Piera. Her tears he mistakes for wind in her eyes. The Countess she knows to be his mistress without her ever having to say it. Excuse me for being a girl, but Malafrena is a romance. An unromance, if you will.
Page 343, second to last page, after all the cheese and talk of politics and being emprisoned and engaged to the wrong person and not expressing their feelings to one another, the confession:
“I should like to be your friend.”
“You are,” he said almost inaudibly; but his heart said, your are my house, my home; the journey and the journey's end; my care, and sleep after care.
That's it. The closest we get to a romance. An unspoken declaration. Quiet as a heartbeat. Then, they're interrupted and it's a regular afternoon again, “Have an apple, your face is purple,” and off they go somewhere, and the novel ends there.
“Why write a romance about an unromantic people?” coyly asks Le Guin through one of her characters. If the characters are unfeeling, if nothing happens, if no one's says anything to one another, it makes the heartbreak all the more felt. Because it is not, cannot, be said. Only betrayed in gestures.
Just like Tehanu is a quiet novel about domestic life in a world of heroes, Malafrena is a love story in a world that has no time for sentiment.
And so, I can't help but appreciate the infuriating emotions the ending creates. The tone of the story has been leading up to it all along.
I especially like the aesthetics of how it 'fades out' in banal dialogue. A day in a life. But by God, life is short. Piera and Itale's story ran out of pages. Read this as warning not to take matters of the heart so spinelessly!
My favourite line:
“How can I turn my back on all the rest?”
“The rest?”
“The darkness,” Piera said, looking up from her work. “Air. Space. The wind, the night. I don’t know how to say it, Laura! The things you can’t trust, the things that are too big for you, that don’t care about you. I am just learning what that is and what I am, and I can’t leave it, give it up, not yet!”
If you like realistic stories set in make-believe countries, you might also like Last Letters From Hav.
My blog
September 3, 2018
Malefrena (1979) by Ursula LeGuin took me almost 40 years to complete. I began reading it as a school kid when I saw it in the fantasy section, because LeGuin was a fantasy author. The book did not belong there. I read it expecting fantasy to happen at any moment, but the book never got around to any fantasy because the book was actually a pastoral set in the early 1800's, after the time of Napoleon. There was no way that young me would have gotten through it and had any idea what to make it of.
One does not just happen to read Malafrena. One chooses to read this book. I dogged through this book, one or two chapters a night, for an entire month, having read as much as I could take, for I sought to read all the words and not merely skim through.
The book concerns itself with several characters, but primarily Sorde, and sometimes Piera. Each goes about their lives in a country occupied by the Austrio-Hungary Empire in a part of Europe where industrialization has yet to happen. The tale of Sorde is one of politics, from idealism to defeat, from dreams to pragmatism. Like all good pastorals, it begins with our protagonist leaving home for the city, and ends with his return to his country home. Between there is fortune, politics, romance, heartache, rising and falling circumstances, and a few footsteps of history.
What is the book about? Humanity in this time and in this place.
While LeGuin often seems cold to me, the style of a pastoral offsets her usual sterility, necessitating an examination of the winds of human emotion. The people here are more human than icons or archetypes. They each struggle against the systems that they are trapped in, the men against the politics, and the women against their situations. Where is there to go in a system when there is nowhere to go?
I can't say that this is a book that you should or ought to read. It's not that sort of book. I think that it's worth reading, but I'm not sure that it's worth it for you. If you enjoy LeGuin, then you should definitely give this a shot, but if you've never read a difficult book, then this is not a good book to start with.
One does not just happen to read Malafrena. One chooses to read this book. I dogged through this book, one or two chapters a night, for an entire month, having read as much as I could take, for I sought to read all the words and not merely skim through.
The book concerns itself with several characters, but primarily Sorde, and sometimes Piera. Each goes about their lives in a country occupied by the Austrio-Hungary Empire in a part of Europe where industrialization has yet to happen. The tale of Sorde is one of politics, from idealism to defeat, from dreams to pragmatism. Like all good pastorals, it begins with our protagonist leaving home for the city, and ends with his return to his country home. Between there is fortune, politics, romance, heartache, rising and falling circumstances, and a few footsteps of history.
What is the book about? Humanity in this time and in this place.
While LeGuin often seems cold to me, the style of a pastoral offsets her usual sterility, necessitating an examination of the winds of human emotion. The people here are more human than icons or archetypes. They each struggle against the systems that they are trapped in, the men against the politics, and the women against their situations. Where is there to go in a system when there is nowhere to go?
I can't say that this is a book that you should or ought to read. It's not that sort of book. I think that it's worth reading, but I'm not sure that it's worth it for you. If you enjoy LeGuin, then you should definitely give this a shot, but if you've never read a difficult book, then this is not a good book to start with.
February 27, 2018
Öykünün bütünlüğü, nefis doğa betimlemeleri, sevgi ve dostluk vurgusu her zamanki Le Guin ama sonu tahmin edilebilir gibiydi, belirsizliği sevemediğim için belki bu 2 yıldız. Son vardı ama final yoktu diye...
January 18, 2022
Despite Le Guin's elegant writing, not really my cup of tea.
November 23, 2025
No es una de mis novelas favoritas de Le Guin, pero no por eso deja de ser una muy buena novela.
Le Guin en esta instancia abandona el género que la lanzó a la fama y nos regala una novela de intrigas políticas , costumbrismo social y personajes profundos , es decir , un poco lo mismo de siempre pero sin ciencia ficción a la vista .
Nota:6/10
Le Guin en esta instancia abandona el género que la lanzó a la fama y nos regala una novela de intrigas políticas , costumbrismo social y personajes profundos , es decir , un poco lo mismo de siempre pero sin ciencia ficción a la vista .
Nota:6/10
May 27, 2020
This book will stay with me for a long time, and I honestly think that I will re-read it at some point (which I don’t normally do). If you are like me, then I would not want you to go another day without reading Malafrena. If you are not like me, then perhaps you would find it dull or slow, or not to your taste for some other reason. I will try to put down my thoughts on this incredible work, with a view of helping those like me to go and begin reading without delay, and helping those unlike me to save their time by not beginning it.
First of all, if you have read other works by Le Guin and know that you love her writing style and that it draws you in like nothing else, then go for it; this book will blow your mind and give you so much to ponder and enjoy, as it did for me.
The storyline weaves through the life of a provincial gentleman and his acquaintances as he decides to leave home for the city to pursue social reform. He is an enthusiastic young man and has many grand visions for how the world could be made a better place, and how freedom for his country could be attained. The staggering aspects of this book don’t lie in the storyline so much, though, as in the questions pondered by the characters as they live their lives. Le Guin shows you their actions and musings, and lets you decide for yourself about each topic along with the characters. One of my pet peeves in books is when the author doesn’t take the old advice “show, don’t tell”, and Le Guin is wonderful in this work at not trying to tell you what to think. Her characters develop and change their own minds about important aspects of life as they live, just as we do in ‘real’ life.
The story, just like life, is a rollercoaster (in a 'one day melds in to the next, even while everything is changing' kind of way), and by the end I was attached to this world in a way that I hadn’t truly been for any book in a long time. If you are someone who enjoys books that draw you in and make you think, then go for it.
I also love how Le Guin is so raw with the physical strain which oppresses her characters at times. Unlike some authors, whose characters will get injured and then heal miraculously or mope over them forever (often making me wonder whether their authors have even bothered to think about what real people would do in those situations), Le Guin’s characters are all too human with their injuries, their pain and pushing through it, and the lasting nature of mental struggles.
If you are someone who doesn’t like stories that make you think, if you prefer stories that focus entirely on love triangles (and whose characters don’t seem to have anything more important to do with their lives than base their every decision on one of those love triangles), then go find a book like that; if that is what you like, don’t read this one.
I have not done justice to this epic tale in this review, but I’ve tried to take out some key points. Personally, I absolutely love Le Guin’s writing style, and I sincerely hope that if you choose to read this work, you will get as much out of it as I did.
First of all, if you have read other works by Le Guin and know that you love her writing style and that it draws you in like nothing else, then go for it; this book will blow your mind and give you so much to ponder and enjoy, as it did for me.
The storyline weaves through the life of a provincial gentleman and his acquaintances as he decides to leave home for the city to pursue social reform. He is an enthusiastic young man and has many grand visions for how the world could be made a better place, and how freedom for his country could be attained. The staggering aspects of this book don’t lie in the storyline so much, though, as in the questions pondered by the characters as they live their lives. Le Guin shows you their actions and musings, and lets you decide for yourself about each topic along with the characters. One of my pet peeves in books is when the author doesn’t take the old advice “show, don’t tell”, and Le Guin is wonderful in this work at not trying to tell you what to think. Her characters develop and change their own minds about important aspects of life as they live, just as we do in ‘real’ life.
The story, just like life, is a rollercoaster (in a 'one day melds in to the next, even while everything is changing' kind of way), and by the end I was attached to this world in a way that I hadn’t truly been for any book in a long time. If you are someone who enjoys books that draw you in and make you think, then go for it.
I also love how Le Guin is so raw with the physical strain which oppresses her characters at times. Unlike some authors, whose characters will get injured and then heal miraculously or mope over them forever (often making me wonder whether their authors have even bothered to think about what real people would do in those situations), Le Guin’s characters are all too human with their injuries, their pain and pushing through it, and the lasting nature of mental struggles.
If you are someone who doesn’t like stories that make you think, if you prefer stories that focus entirely on love triangles (and whose characters don’t seem to have anything more important to do with their lives than base their every decision on one of those love triangles), then go find a book like that; if that is what you like, don’t read this one.
I have not done justice to this epic tale in this review, but I’ve tried to take out some key points. Personally, I absolutely love Le Guin’s writing style, and I sincerely hope that if you choose to read this work, you will get as much out of it as I did.
August 21, 2016
"Söylenmeden kalmış yasaklı her kelime içinde sessizliğin gücünü barındırır."
Şimdi dağılabiliriz.
Şaka bir yana, Le Guin'in kurgusal ama bizimkinin bir yansıması olan, tamamen gerçekçi bir dünyada, 19. yüzyıl Avrupa'sından esinlenerek kaleme aldığı bu kalın eser, ilginç de bir sona sahip. İçinde gazetecilik, yasaklı sözler, itaat ve aşkı barındırıyor bu kitap. Hiçbir doğaüstü etmene de sahip değil. İlginç olansa, bu tür romanlarda bir yan etmen olan o aşk hikayesinin alıştığımız sonda bitmemesi. Çok ama çok gerçekçi olmuş bu bakımdan.
Geri kalanı mı? En başta yazdığım alıntı her şeyi özetliyor aslında :).
Şimdi dağılabiliriz.
Şaka bir yana, Le Guin'in kurgusal ama bizimkinin bir yansıması olan, tamamen gerçekçi bir dünyada, 19. yüzyıl Avrupa'sından esinlenerek kaleme aldığı bu kalın eser, ilginç de bir sona sahip. İçinde gazetecilik, yasaklı sözler, itaat ve aşkı barındırıyor bu kitap. Hiçbir doğaüstü etmene de sahip değil. İlginç olansa, bu tür romanlarda bir yan etmen olan o aşk hikayesinin alıştığımız sonda bitmemesi. Çok ama çok gerçekçi olmuş bu bakımdan.
Geri kalanı mı? En başta yazdığım alıntı her şeyi özetliyor aslında :).
December 15, 2019
This book was the hardest of all of Le Guin's for me to read. It was just a permanent emotional wringer. I feel like I need to rest and recover after reading it, it drained me completely.
First of all, as usual, Le Guin's writing is exquisite and so evocative (although in this one I've noticed her favourite word is "pale"). It's very dreamlike and atmospheric, with this somewhat idealised, almost quaint vision of a past society that is complete unto itself, fully functional, like a well oiled machine. And the descriptions of human relationships, social hierarchy and interactions are fascinating and complex. The characterisation is masterful, as ever, these people are so fully realised.
She has a very shrewd observation of the unformed, vague feelings of a young woman growing up in a benevolent but rigid patriarchy, and how she comes into her own. I loved Piera. Her parts were the ones I read with the most pleasure. I would have loved to have her as a friend.
Itale was fascinating, he is charismatic and sincere and draws everyone to himself, even the reader. But he is so privileged, he is entirely unaware of the immensity of his selfishness and the harm he does to those who love him, and how much he will lose through his rash, romantic decisions. He has good intentions and his heart is in the right place, but that doesn't excuse how unaware he is of his own self-importance. This made it very hard reading his parts because I was constantly disturbed by the fact that I thought he was making huge mistakes and messing his life up. It's very difficult to stomach reading about this silly, childish fool damaging himself and the people he loves, with complete self-righteousness. In the end though, I am fond of him, much as his family is. Aware of his faults, but loving him anyway. He does inspire that.
I also really didn't like Luisa. She was even more selfish than Itale, even more privileged, arrogant and snobbish, devoid of any empathy or other qualities. She was manipulative, twisted and jaded. Itale's relationship with her was sterile and toxic. It was horrible to read about, these two people who were no good for each other, I couldn't wait for it to be over. The only good thing I can say for her was that
This is a bit of a depressing book about depressed people. Everyone is so angsty. I like how these people think, and analyse their thoughts, feelings, their lives. It reminds me of one of my friends' mindsets. But too much of this is heavy, and drags one down. My friend has an optimism this book lacks, to compensate. Here, there is none of Le Guin's usual warmth in the connection between people, and I missed it badly. They are all so lonely. It made it hard to read for me because with my overempathy I suck up all the feelings of misery, loneliness, emptiness, uncertainty, the pointlessness of it all, their pain and suffering, the waste. I frequently needed a break or I became too affected by it.
In a way I'm glad it's not the story of a glorious hero, because he would have done too much damage around him for it to be worth it. But it's tragic that instead it's the story of a naive, idealistic young man being broken by a totalitarian regime, his dreams ground to dust under the weight of that huge, impersonal machinery. It really is a tragedy, this book. Unlike all her others I've read, where there was some meaning, some point to it all. There is so much loss here. The ending is faintly hopeful, it ends as well as it could. It's better than I was expecting in some ways, worse in others.
So. This book feels very literary, it's extremely well written, the characters jump off the page. The only part that's fantasy about it is that the country it's set in, Orsinia, is made up. But it's a hard read. Le Guin said it was inspired by Russian literature. I've never read Russian literature, but if you can stomach it, or want to read some beautiful, intelligent writing, then give this a try. Only if your emotions are ironclad or you have a masochistic streak, though.
First of all, as usual, Le Guin's writing is exquisite and so evocative (although in this one I've noticed her favourite word is "pale"). It's very dreamlike and atmospheric, with this somewhat idealised, almost quaint vision of a past society that is complete unto itself, fully functional, like a well oiled machine. And the descriptions of human relationships, social hierarchy and interactions are fascinating and complex. The characterisation is masterful, as ever, these people are so fully realised.
She has a very shrewd observation of the unformed, vague feelings of a young woman growing up in a benevolent but rigid patriarchy, and how she comes into her own. I loved Piera. Her parts were the ones I read with the most pleasure. I would have loved to have her as a friend.
Itale was fascinating, he is charismatic and sincere and draws everyone to himself, even the reader. But he is so privileged, he is entirely unaware of the immensity of his selfishness and the harm he does to those who love him, and how much he will lose through his rash, romantic decisions. He has good intentions and his heart is in the right place, but that doesn't excuse how unaware he is of his own self-importance. This made it very hard reading his parts because I was constantly disturbed by the fact that I thought he was making huge mistakes and messing his life up. It's very difficult to stomach reading about this silly, childish fool damaging himself and the people he loves, with complete self-righteousness. In the end though, I am fond of him, much as his family is. Aware of his faults, but loving him anyway. He does inspire that.
I also really didn't like Luisa. She was even more selfish than Itale, even more privileged, arrogant and snobbish, devoid of any empathy or other qualities. She was manipulative, twisted and jaded. Itale's relationship with her was sterile and toxic. It was horrible to read about, these two people who were no good for each other, I couldn't wait for it to be over. The only good thing I can say for her was that
This is a bit of a depressing book about depressed people. Everyone is so angsty. I like how these people think, and analyse their thoughts, feelings, their lives. It reminds me of one of my friends' mindsets. But too much of this is heavy, and drags one down. My friend has an optimism this book lacks, to compensate. Here, there is none of Le Guin's usual warmth in the connection between people, and I missed it badly. They are all so lonely. It made it hard to read for me because with my overempathy I suck up all the feelings of misery, loneliness, emptiness, uncertainty, the pointlessness of it all, their pain and suffering, the waste. I frequently needed a break or I became too affected by it.
In a way I'm glad it's not the story of a glorious hero, because he would have done too much damage around him for it to be worth it. But it's tragic that instead it's the story of a naive, idealistic young man being broken by a totalitarian regime, his dreams ground to dust under the weight of that huge, impersonal machinery. It really is a tragedy, this book. Unlike all her others I've read, where there was some meaning, some point to it all. There is so much loss here. The ending is faintly hopeful, it ends as well as it could. It's better than I was expecting in some ways, worse in others.
So. This book feels very literary, it's extremely well written, the characters jump off the page. The only part that's fantasy about it is that the country it's set in, Orsinia, is made up. But it's a hard read. Le Guin said it was inspired by Russian literature. I've never read Russian literature, but if you can stomach it, or want to read some beautiful, intelligent writing, then give this a try. Only if your emotions are ironclad or you have a masochistic streak, though.
March 13, 2015
הוצ´ זמורה ביתן מודן, 1982, 313 עמ´.
הקדמה: כחובבת מד"ב ופנטסיה, קראתי במספר הזדמנויות על נפלאות הכתיבה של אחת אורסולה ק. לה גווין. היא נחשבת בין הנשים היוצרות החשובות בזאנר האמור. אולם, לא נפגשתי בספריה עד לא מזמן.
ומדוע אני כותבת עד לא מזמן? כי לאחרונה נקרתה לי ההזדמנות כאשר חברתי רצתה, באכזריות מה אני מודה, להתפטר ממספר ספרים בספרייתה הצנועה, ובשמחה על ההזדמנות אימצתי את הפליטים לליבי למרות היותם ישנים ובינהם מצאתי את הספר שבכותרת.
ולגוף הסרט: העלילה ממוקמת במאה ה- 19 עם REFERENCE חזק גם למאה ה- 18 בהן מושגים כמו שוויון, חירות, זכויות, השכלה ולאומיות חוללו מהפכות.
המחברת מזכירה דמויות כמו נפוליאון, מטרניך, רוסו ומעלה באוב אירועים כמו המהפכה הצרפתית. האיזכורים גורמים לקורא, שגם כך יש לציין נאבק בתרגום בעייתי, כבד ועיקש, להתבלבל ולערבב בין מציאות ודמיון עד כי לא ידע ימינו ושמאלו.מה שמחמיר את הבעיה ומקצין אותה למימדים קטסטרופליים היא העובדה שהמחברת בוחרת למקם את הסיפור ג"ג באירופה בתקופת ההתעוררות הלאומית אי שם בין אוסטרייה וגרמניה.
זורדה איטלה, בן לאצולה כפרית בעמק מאלאפרנה נשלח ללמוד באוניברסיטת סולאריי. בשעמומו כי רב, הוא פונה לפוליטיקה והופך מנהיג באגודת הסטודנטים "אציקטייה" שברוב מדינות אירופה הוצאה מהחוק.
הוא שב לביתו רק כדי להודיע לאביו שהוא בחר דרך אחרת מיעודו, הוא יוצא לעיר קראסנויי להילחם בשם עקרונות של חירות, שוויון, וזכויות.
התנגשות בין העקרונות הישנים הפטריאכלים המיוצגים ע"י האב והעקרונות החדשים הליברליים והלאומיים אינה מאחרת להופיע. הקורא ה"אומלל" שאינו בקיא ברזי ודקויות הליברליזם מול הלאומיות מול הפטריאכליים והמלוכנים הולך בשלב מסויים לאיבוד במלל הפילוסופי.
אטילה, אציל הנפש, מוותר על ��ונו ונכסיו כדי להניע את המהפכה הלאומית (משום מה באיזה שלב היא מכניסה גם את הליברליזם והמלוכנות הליברלית דבר שבכלל מוציא מהדעת).
טוף יקירי מה אומר, העומס הפילוסופי שלא בא לידי מיצוי וכיוון, בפונט 8 מתיש, מייגע ולא אכיל. עם כל הרצון הטוב (ויש לי כזה) ההתקדמות בספר נעשית בקצב של צב איטי במיוחד.
המלצתי לבעלי לב חזק, סובלנות ואולי אף תעשו טוב אם תקראו בשפת מקור.
הקדמה: כחובבת מד"ב ופנטסיה, קראתי במספר הזדמנויות על נפלאות הכתיבה של אחת אורסולה ק. לה גווין. היא נחשבת בין הנשים היוצרות החשובות בזאנר האמור. אולם, לא נפגשתי בספריה עד לא מזמן.
ומדוע אני כותבת עד לא מזמן? כי לאחרונה נקרתה לי ההזדמנות כאשר חברתי רצתה, באכזריות מה אני מודה, להתפטר ממספר ספרים בספרייתה הצנועה, ובשמחה על ההזדמנות אימצתי את הפליטים לליבי למרות היותם ישנים ובינהם מצאתי את הספר שבכותרת.
ולגוף הסרט: העלילה ממוקמת במאה ה- 19 עם REFERENCE חזק גם למאה ה- 18 בהן מושגים כמו שוויון, חירות, זכויות, השכלה ולאומיות חוללו מהפכות.
המחברת מזכירה דמויות כמו נפוליאון, מטרניך, רוסו ומעלה באוב אירועים כמו המהפכה הצרפתית. האיזכורים גורמים לקורא, שגם כך יש לציין נאבק בתרגום בעייתי, כבד ועיקש, להתבלבל ולערבב בין מציאות ודמיון עד כי לא ידע ימינו ושמאלו.מה שמחמיר את הבעיה ומקצין אותה למימדים קטסטרופליים היא העובדה שהמחברת בוחרת למקם את הסיפור ג"ג באירופה בתקופת ההתעוררות הלאומית אי שם בין אוסטרייה וגרמניה.
זורדה איטלה, בן לאצולה כפרית בעמק מאלאפרנה נשלח ללמוד באוניברסיטת סולאריי. בשעמומו כי רב, הוא פונה לפוליטיקה והופך מנהיג באגודת הסטודנטים "אציקטייה" שברוב מדינות אירופה הוצאה מהחוק.
הוא שב לביתו רק כדי להודיע לאביו שהוא בחר דרך אחרת מיעודו, הוא יוצא לעיר קראסנויי להילחם בשם עקרונות של חירות, שוויון, וזכויות.
התנגשות בין העקרונות הישנים הפטריאכלים המיוצגים ע"י האב והעקרונות החדשים הליברליים והלאומיים אינה מאחרת להופיע. הקורא ה"אומלל" שאינו בקיא ברזי ודקויות הליברליזם מול הלאומיות מול הפטריאכליים והמלוכנים הולך בשלב מסויים לאיבוד במלל הפילוסופי.
אטילה, אציל הנפש, מוותר על ��ונו ונכסיו כדי להניע את המהפכה הלאומית (משום מה באיזה שלב היא מכניסה גם את הליברליזם והמלוכנות הליברלית דבר שבכלל מוציא מהדעת).
טוף יקירי מה אומר, העומס הפילוסופי שלא בא לידי מיצוי וכיוון, בפונט 8 מתיש, מייגע ולא אכיל. עם כל הרצון הטוב (ויש לי כזה) ההתקדמות בספר נעשית בקצב של צב איטי במיוחד.
המלצתי לבעלי לב חזק, סובלנות ואולי אף תעשו טוב אם תקראו בשפת מקור.
June 11, 2019
Usually, Ursula K. Le Guin embeds her powerful philosophy deep in her prose, allowing a reader to turn a sentence over and discover its hidden powers at their own pace. Malafrena is different.
This novel is dense with dialectical dialogue and complex, ever-evolving characters. Considering this was one Le Guin’s earliest pieces of writing, in ways, its difficult prose feels like an unrefined element of her style.
Although Malafrena was completed and published after The Dispossessed, (which is perhaps why we also see some of Le Guin’s masterful later-style strung through the text), a significant portion of Malafrena was written long before her work on The Dispossessed began. This is interesting because, as the author herself notes, the plots are basically identical. This does not detract from either work but makes them interesting to consider together. In fact, my five-star rating is based mostly on my interest in comparing the two pieces and reading Malafrena as insight into Le Guin’s early writing process - in general and on Dispossessed in particular.
To stay honest, I will highlight two interesting distinctions between the two texts:
1. Whereas The Dispossessed is science-fiction, set off-world in the distant future, Malafrena is set in the early 1800s in a fictional country (Orsinia) in Europe, allowing European history to influence the story.
2. The Dispossessed is powered by Russian, left-Marxist, anarchist theories (source: Le Guin’s introduction to “The Day Before the Revolution”), but the politics of Malafrena are informed by classical revolutionary French liberalism.
That’s all. Long live Matiyas!
This novel is dense with dialectical dialogue and complex, ever-evolving characters. Considering this was one Le Guin’s earliest pieces of writing, in ways, its difficult prose feels like an unrefined element of her style.
Although Malafrena was completed and published after The Dispossessed, (which is perhaps why we also see some of Le Guin’s masterful later-style strung through the text), a significant portion of Malafrena was written long before her work on The Dispossessed began. This is interesting because, as the author herself notes, the plots are basically identical. This does not detract from either work but makes them interesting to consider together. In fact, my five-star rating is based mostly on my interest in comparing the two pieces and reading Malafrena as insight into Le Guin’s early writing process - in general and on Dispossessed in particular.
To stay honest, I will highlight two interesting distinctions between the two texts:
1. Whereas The Dispossessed is science-fiction, set off-world in the distant future, Malafrena is set in the early 1800s in a fictional country (Orsinia) in Europe, allowing European history to influence the story.
2. The Dispossessed is powered by Russian, left-Marxist, anarchist theories (source: Le Guin’s introduction to “The Day Before the Revolution”), but the politics of Malafrena are informed by classical revolutionary French liberalism.
That’s all. Long live Matiyas!
February 11, 2019
Early in her career, Ursula Le Guin wanted to write a grand tale of Europe, in the vein of Tolstoy or Hugo. But she'd never actually been there. This would have been no problem for most people, but Le Guin, being the insane genius that she was, decided to create her own country instead.
Reading Malafrena, you would be forgiven for thinking Orsinia was in fact a real place. Le Guin goes to incredible lengths to make it believable. She nestled it in eastern Europe, gave it ties to Austrian and French history, wrote songs and poetry and created a typically eastern European religion. Again, she made all this up. At some point, you have to think it would have been easier to just use the real thing, but she created her own, and it's remarkable.
The novel itself is just okay. If you've ever read Russian literature, you've read this story before. Small town boy dreams of revolution, goes off to the big city. There's a little more to it than that, and Le Guin does an excellent job showing how the rest of the people in his life live, but not much more. It's a fairly restrained novel, all things considered.
Not my favorite of her work, but I respect the crap out of it. Definitely glad I read it. Will need to read the rest of the Orsinian tales next.
Reading Malafrena, you would be forgiven for thinking Orsinia was in fact a real place. Le Guin goes to incredible lengths to make it believable. She nestled it in eastern Europe, gave it ties to Austrian and French history, wrote songs and poetry and created a typically eastern European religion. Again, she made all this up. At some point, you have to think it would have been easier to just use the real thing, but she created her own, and it's remarkable.
The novel itself is just okay. If you've ever read Russian literature, you've read this story before. Small town boy dreams of revolution, goes off to the big city. There's a little more to it than that, and Le Guin does an excellent job showing how the rest of the people in his life live, but not much more. It's a fairly restrained novel, all things considered.
Not my favorite of her work, but I respect the crap out of it. Definitely glad I read it. Will need to read the rest of the Orsinian tales next.
Read
March 13, 2021Reviews and more on my blog: Entering the Enchanted Castle
I was never interested in Orsinia when I read Le Guin as a kid. I bought Orsinian Tales thinking it would be more Earthsea or The Wind's Twelve Quarters and put it aside, baffled and bored by the lack of magic or spaceships. But now it strikes me as one of her most impressive works, utterly immersive and not at all fantastic, except in being about an imaginary country. The characters live, within their vividly described setting, the language is beautiful, subtle and oblique, the thoughts about love and freedom as as relevant now as in the 1825 of the story. So glad I finally read this and I'll definitely be reading the Tales as well.
I was never interested in Orsinia when I read Le Guin as a kid. I bought Orsinian Tales thinking it would be more Earthsea or The Wind's Twelve Quarters and put it aside, baffled and bored by the lack of magic or spaceships. But now it strikes me as one of her most impressive works, utterly immersive and not at all fantastic, except in being about an imaginary country. The characters live, within their vividly described setting, the language is beautiful, subtle and oblique, the thoughts about love and freedom as as relevant now as in the 1825 of the story. So glad I finally read this and I'll definitely be reading the Tales as well.
October 7, 2023
A fascinating hybrid of historical and speculative fiction, wherein Le Guin crafts a fictitious Central European country for her characters' quest for freedom, amidst very real 19th century historical events. The main character is Itale Sorde, a young idealist from the Montayna province, of a well-off (but non-noble) landowning family. He leaves the security of the Montayna for Krasnoy, the capital of fictional Orsinia, to work for independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, spouting idealistic phrases reminiscent of the French Revolution: "I can't live for myself until everyone is free to do so!" (loc 632), for example. I could both agree with Itale's ideals of freedom, while seeing him as hopelessly naive, while feeling a vague nostalgia for the time when I was as idealistic. Mixed feelings, the ones you want to get from a novel. I feel more like Brunoy, the sickly thirty-something teacher Itale befriends in Krasnoy: "I have nothing but patience to fill the gap between my old ideals and my actual achievement", he says to Itale (loc 1485) in a pretty heartbreaking conversation that made me feel old and jaded.
Itale's development is sometimes mirrored by and sometimes collides with the trajectory of several other memorable characters. First is his sister Laura, whom Le Guin describes in the introduction as the closest she came to autobiography and who sees in his brother the promise of a freedom women at that time couldn't attain for themselves. With her, too, I found it easy to empathise, the frustration and longing for a wider world: "I never get bored. I just feel unnecessary" (loc 1732), she says in conversation with Piera Valtorskar, the younger neighbor who is Laura's friend and Itale's potential love interest throughout the novel, up until their significant final conversation.
Then there is Estenskar, a young poet whom Itale admires from afar in the Montayna and then meets in Krasnoy. Coincidences like these stretch plausibility, but then the weirdest consequences can happen in a fictional land of an indeterminate amount of individuals. He befriends several notables: a novelist (Givan Karantay), a radical politican (Oragon), a nobleman-diplomat (Enrike Paludeskar). It's like Le Guin took a sample of 19th century European society and crafted one character out of each social archetype. As I write this it seems forced, but in the novel it works.
In Krasnoy, Itale also befriends the poor little rich girl Luisa Paludeskar, all her material needs satisfied by her wealth and noble family yet trapped in the golden, diamond-studded cage of aristocracy. Her arc goes from unlikeable socialite to one of the most tragic, in my opinion, and her actions are among the noblest in the book, the most generous, despite the narrator describing her as "ungenerous" more than once. I think the narrator is playing games with the reader, sometimes.
Yet another young man who serves as foil for Itale is Sangiusto, an Italian exile who utters what might be my favorite idea in the book: "A liberal is a man who says the means justify the end" (loc 2279). I've seen liberals get a lot of disdain from both sides of the political spectrum in my times, but I like this idea of rescuing some original spirit of liberalism, of valuing freedom as the highest good human society can aspire to provide its people. The problem is how that freedom gets defined - and I think the book tries out various definitions but never settles for one. Plus, things get messy when the political starts to bleed into the personal. For example, consider Itale's reflection when contemplating a possible affair with Luisa: "For a liberal the means justify the end. To attain freedom one must live free. It was freedom she wanted, freedom she offered--and he was already so lost among contingencies, petty considerations, and conventional moralities that he could consider rejecting that offer! Was he a man or not?" (loc 2361).
The prose is somewhat flowery, and delves in rich detail into the various character's reflections and philosophical dialogues. It might get preachy at times, at others we could accuse Le Guin of telling rather than showing what her characters are going through. However, it all seems a self-conscious, chosen style, to depict in somewhat dated language the historical period she is portraying, to allow the reader a distance from the times while also allowing us to appreciate the continuities in the search for freedom. There are also some blunter references to ideals of progress that go hand in hand with liberalism, when Itale contemplates the proletarian urban workers of the industrializing city of Rakava: "If this was progress, if this was the future, did he want it--did anyone want it except the rich, the powerful, the owners?" (loc 3370).
At times, freedom (and other political ideals) starts to seem like a wild-card word standing in for whatever the characters most deeply desire. The problem is that even they seem to be in the dark most of the time as to what it is they desire. When Itale grows disillusioned with his work, he articulates this pretty explicitly:
"Had he outgrown that ambition, or merely fallen short of it? It was hard enough to keep the single candle alight in the depths of one's mutable, vulnerable being, against the indifferent winds of heaven; it was hard to stand up alone, and know where one stood, let alone where one was going." (loc 3387)
And then, after much comings and goings, imprisonments, an affair, a failed revolution with several wonderful images and a disappointing outcome (is that the fate of all revolutions?), Itale comes home, comes to realizations about freedom as a personal, not a political, achievement. There is much disillusionment in the final part of the novel--I even had to stop reading at times, it was so sad. But the closing scene is full of hope: "his heart said, you are my house, my home; the journey and the journey's end; my care, and sleep after care." (loc 5959). Itale realizes in all the dimensions of his life that, ultimately, the means are the ends.
Itale's development is sometimes mirrored by and sometimes collides with the trajectory of several other memorable characters. First is his sister Laura, whom Le Guin describes in the introduction as the closest she came to autobiography and who sees in his brother the promise of a freedom women at that time couldn't attain for themselves. With her, too, I found it easy to empathise, the frustration and longing for a wider world: "I never get bored. I just feel unnecessary" (loc 1732), she says in conversation with Piera Valtorskar, the younger neighbor who is Laura's friend and Itale's potential love interest throughout the novel, up until their significant final conversation.
Then there is Estenskar, a young poet whom Itale admires from afar in the Montayna and then meets in Krasnoy. Coincidences like these stretch plausibility, but then the weirdest consequences can happen in a fictional land of an indeterminate amount of individuals. He befriends several notables: a novelist (Givan Karantay), a radical politican (Oragon), a nobleman-diplomat (Enrike Paludeskar). It's like Le Guin took a sample of 19th century European society and crafted one character out of each social archetype. As I write this it seems forced, but in the novel it works.
In Krasnoy, Itale also befriends the poor little rich girl Luisa Paludeskar, all her material needs satisfied by her wealth and noble family yet trapped in the golden, diamond-studded cage of aristocracy. Her arc goes from unlikeable socialite to one of the most tragic, in my opinion, and her actions are among the noblest in the book, the most generous, despite the narrator describing her as "ungenerous" more than once. I think the narrator is playing games with the reader, sometimes.
Yet another young man who serves as foil for Itale is Sangiusto, an Italian exile who utters what might be my favorite idea in the book: "A liberal is a man who says the means justify the end" (loc 2279). I've seen liberals get a lot of disdain from both sides of the political spectrum in my times, but I like this idea of rescuing some original spirit of liberalism, of valuing freedom as the highest good human society can aspire to provide its people. The problem is how that freedom gets defined - and I think the book tries out various definitions but never settles for one. Plus, things get messy when the political starts to bleed into the personal. For example, consider Itale's reflection when contemplating a possible affair with Luisa: "For a liberal the means justify the end. To attain freedom one must live free. It was freedom she wanted, freedom she offered--and he was already so lost among contingencies, petty considerations, and conventional moralities that he could consider rejecting that offer! Was he a man or not?" (loc 2361).
The prose is somewhat flowery, and delves in rich detail into the various character's reflections and philosophical dialogues. It might get preachy at times, at others we could accuse Le Guin of telling rather than showing what her characters are going through. However, it all seems a self-conscious, chosen style, to depict in somewhat dated language the historical period she is portraying, to allow the reader a distance from the times while also allowing us to appreciate the continuities in the search for freedom. There are also some blunter references to ideals of progress that go hand in hand with liberalism, when Itale contemplates the proletarian urban workers of the industrializing city of Rakava: "If this was progress, if this was the future, did he want it--did anyone want it except the rich, the powerful, the owners?" (loc 3370).
At times, freedom (and other political ideals) starts to seem like a wild-card word standing in for whatever the characters most deeply desire. The problem is that even they seem to be in the dark most of the time as to what it is they desire. When Itale grows disillusioned with his work, he articulates this pretty explicitly:
"Had he outgrown that ambition, or merely fallen short of it? It was hard enough to keep the single candle alight in the depths of one's mutable, vulnerable being, against the indifferent winds of heaven; it was hard to stand up alone, and know where one stood, let alone where one was going." (loc 3387)
And then, after much comings and goings, imprisonments, an affair, a failed revolution with several wonderful images and a disappointing outcome (is that the fate of all revolutions?), Itale comes home, comes to realizations about freedom as a personal, not a political, achievement. There is much disillusionment in the final part of the novel--I even had to stop reading at times, it was so sad. But the closing scene is full of hope: "his heart said, you are my house, my home; the journey and the journey's end; my care, and sleep after care." (loc 5959). Itale realizes in all the dimensions of his life that, ultimately, the means are the ends.
January 7, 2026
Some of the best characters Le Guin has written, in my opinion.
Plot leaves something to be desired, especially the ending.
Plot leaves something to be desired, especially the ending.
December 21, 2022
My favorite part of the book involved two men talking for hours in a room before one of them asked about the cheese on the table. Then the cheese is described as a yard across?? How is this the first I’m hearing of this huge cheese on the table?
Other than that it was sort of slow/boring, but I still enjoyed it.
Other than that it was sort of slow/boring, but I still enjoyed it.
December 4, 2012
I don't know what I think about this book. I've had it for years but never tried to read it until recently, which is odd since UKL is one of my very favorite writers. I think perhaps I don't yet "get" this one. It was hard for me to get into. The characters weren't compelling for me. Rather than quit reading, I decided to skip over chunks of it to see if it pulled me in later on, then I could go back and fill in the blank spots once it had my interest. Only it never really captured my interest. Other people, it seems, find it their very favorite of all her books. So I'm convinced something important and good is there, but I just don't know how to see it yet.
Another book of hers I didn't respond to much was The Dispossessed, which other people I've talked to have passionately loved. And there are some similarities between these two books, I think. They're both basically about worldsaving, idealism, activitism, people trying to shape their societies to be more amenable or conducive to whatever it is that the human heart craves and needs most: Freedom, maybe, or perhaps Justice, or maybe just a true Community of living souls. They involve power and how it's used to control or restrict others, how it's experienced by different members of a community. I think this is a really important subject, and I can't at all put my finger on why the protagonists of either story never stirred my emotions and got me involved in their troubles.
That's a kind of magical thing that good authors do, get you to care about what happens to the characters, and it often happens right away, on the very first page or two of a novel. But I haven't heard many ideas of how exactly it's done. Somehow, though UKL's characters nearly always do grab me, in this book they never did. I skipped rather large chunks two or three times, and never got to the part that made me care.
I know when I first read the Earthsea trilogy (as it was then), my very first books by UKL, I went all the way through without getting them. I then talked about them with my brother who had recommended them to me, and realized I had totally wrong expectations from the start. He was so adamant that the series was extremely good that I read it again and that time it got me. I think the whole series is great and have read it many times since. So, for The Dispossessed and now Malafrena, are they just awaiting another read through before they yield to me this delicious fruit that other readers talk about? Or do they just not have the power to speak to me, by some quirk or other of who I am? Risk another read? Yes or no? You guys decide for me.
Another book of hers I didn't respond to much was The Dispossessed, which other people I've talked to have passionately loved. And there are some similarities between these two books, I think. They're both basically about worldsaving, idealism, activitism, people trying to shape their societies to be more amenable or conducive to whatever it is that the human heart craves and needs most: Freedom, maybe, or perhaps Justice, or maybe just a true Community of living souls. They involve power and how it's used to control or restrict others, how it's experienced by different members of a community. I think this is a really important subject, and I can't at all put my finger on why the protagonists of either story never stirred my emotions and got me involved in their troubles.
That's a kind of magical thing that good authors do, get you to care about what happens to the characters, and it often happens right away, on the very first page or two of a novel. But I haven't heard many ideas of how exactly it's done. Somehow, though UKL's characters nearly always do grab me, in this book they never did. I skipped rather large chunks two or three times, and never got to the part that made me care.
I know when I first read the Earthsea trilogy (as it was then), my very first books by UKL, I went all the way through without getting them. I then talked about them with my brother who had recommended them to me, and realized I had totally wrong expectations from the start. He was so adamant that the series was extremely good that I read it again and that time it got me. I think the whole series is great and have read it many times since. So, for The Dispossessed and now Malafrena, are they just awaiting another read through before they yield to me this delicious fruit that other readers talk about? Or do they just not have the power to speak to me, by some quirk or other of who I am? Risk another read? Yes or no? You guys decide for me.
August 3, 2023
The beauty of Le Guin’s prose and her ability to delineate memorable characters with a few brushstrokes are both on display in Malafrena. I adored all of them—Sorde, Estenkar, Laura, Luisa, Piera—and felt my heart break as they tried to do what they thought was right and necessary and broke each other’s hearts.
I love Le Guin’s attention to questions of duty, loyalty, fidelity, ends and means. It comes across in all her fiction but very strongly in Malafrena. The right thing is not the thing that will have no unfortunate consequences. To break off an engagement that one cannot keep is necessary and right, but that does not mean that no one’s feelings or name will be hurt.
Le Guin has her familiar character archetypes so I could tell [redacted] was marked for death since the character’s first scene, but I was still struck by tears when it happened.
I love Le Guin’s attention to questions of duty, loyalty, fidelity, ends and means. It comes across in all her fiction but very strongly in Malafrena. The right thing is not the thing that will have no unfortunate consequences. To break off an engagement that one cannot keep is necessary and right, but that does not mean that no one’s feelings or name will be hurt.
Le Guin has her familiar character archetypes so I could tell [redacted] was marked for death since the character’s first scene, but I was still struck by tears when it happened.
October 19, 2011
Brilliant and beautiful. Orsinian Tales is perhaps my favorite book, and this is more in that vein, but much more, and much heavier. It resonated with me because it asks all the same questions I've asked. I was disappointed that it didn't offer any answers--but perhaps there aren't any to be had.
It's deliberately paced, but absolutely full of powerful ideas and compelling characters. Sad, because it tells the truth about the world rather than distracting us from it.
I've always felt that there was something missing in Le Guin's books: that they reached for greatness and fell short by a hands-breadth. With these books, she made it. Read it, but read Orsinian Tales first.
It's deliberately paced, but absolutely full of powerful ideas and compelling characters. Sad, because it tells the truth about the world rather than distracting us from it.
I've always felt that there was something missing in Le Guin's books: that they reached for greatness and fell short by a hands-breadth. With these books, she made it. Read it, but read Orsinian Tales first.
June 29, 2019
Ursula K. Le Guin never hid her mistrust for writers and artists "who make a show of boldly overthrowing conventions long since overthrown, or adopt a style for mere novelty, or in cynical mockery of an older style, or to shock." Malafrena is, in that respect, an imitatio/aemulatio of the great realist novels of Stendhal, Austen or Tolstoj. I especially liked the patience and joy with which she unravels the psyche of the side characters, and how she eventually choses one of them to become the true antagonist of the complex hero Itale Sorde. A masterpiece for the happy few, with a (for the modern reader) very uncommon and unpopular morality.
June 17, 2013
In a way this seemed like an expansion on the themes in the short story "The Lady of Moge" from Orsinian Tales. Though it's set at least a hundred years later, it involves the same wondering about women's positions and whether or not men and women can be friends — as well as many other things.
October 13, 2015
I was surprised how close to "real" this book was. It was so familiar that I didn't have the awe for the little creative details, which I normally love in Ursula Le Guin's books.
Still, I read it non-stop. After all, it is Ursula Le Guin.. :)
Still, I read it non-stop. After all, it is Ursula Le Guin.. :)
August 26, 2014
A well written book in which lots of events occur but still remains unexciting. I'll stick to LeGuin's sci-fi from now on.
Read
June 25, 2025'To be that self which one truly is'
Soren Kierkegaard posited this aspiration as the meaning of life, and here Ursula shows what the cost of that can be. What I love about Ursula is she presents such big ideas moreso as considerations, rather than trying to prove a point or position.
Here she's asking, 'What does it take to fulfill your potential? And how does that affect those around you?' She explores the ideas of fate and purpose and what I would call cosmic unfairness. She explores disillusionment and the price we pay for wisdom.
With all that, you also get Ursula. I've seen her prose described as poetry without pretense and I think that's a good start. Her writing is always just so refreshing and this time you get it with a fictional European country experiencing foreign rule as a backdrop. That said, while it makes you think it definitely doesn't make you turn the page, so don't go into this expecting anything fast paced or exciting.
Soren Kierkegaard posited this aspiration as the meaning of life, and here Ursula shows what the cost of that can be. What I love about Ursula is she presents such big ideas moreso as considerations, rather than trying to prove a point or position.
Here she's asking, 'What does it take to fulfill your potential? And how does that affect those around you?' She explores the ideas of fate and purpose and what I would call cosmic unfairness. She explores disillusionment and the price we pay for wisdom.
With all that, you also get Ursula. I've seen her prose described as poetry without pretense and I think that's a good start. Her writing is always just so refreshing and this time you get it with a fictional European country experiencing foreign rule as a backdrop. That said, while it makes you think it definitely doesn't make you turn the page, so don't go into this expecting anything fast paced or exciting.
July 26, 2025
- Very impressive female characters, wish they got more time as the leads. Though some male characters dont really distinguish themselves. Itales friends kind of felt like one big mass at some points.
- Did not like Itale as a revolutionary or main character, though that was kind of the point?
- The tragic parts are worth the parts where nothing much happens, though there is too much build up. I started to like this book at page 250 or so. Thats a bit late. I started speedreading but towards the second half it really comes together so I read it carefully after all.
- Would have liked and expected a bit more critique of the bourgeois liberal folly from Le Guin, though its here, there, and between the lines somewhat.
-The quote in the beginning is tied in with the ending with intelligence
- And of course, very imaginative writing
- Did not like Itale as a revolutionary or main character, though that was kind of the point?
- The tragic parts are worth the parts where nothing much happens, though there is too much build up. I started to like this book at page 250 or so. Thats a bit late. I started speedreading but towards the second half it really comes together so I read it carefully after all.
- Would have liked and expected a bit more critique of the bourgeois liberal folly from Le Guin, though its here, there, and between the lines somewhat.
-The quote in the beginning is tied in with the ending with intelligence
- And of course, very imaginative writing
August 2, 2021
An epic fantasy novel? Nope. A romance novel? Nope. A philosophical thing? Yup. This came in a sci-fi/fantasy bundle I got a year ago, and yet, all it was were a couple of young people in the 19th century making bad choices (and the couple I wanted to end up together didn't end up together. I mean, they might eventually, but knowing them, they never will).
January 12, 2021
This book made me want to live in a small castle in the mountains where I could read great novels like this one. A great coming of age story wrapped in a grand narrative.
October 23, 2018
I first read Ursula le Guin when I was very young, and devoured the Earthsea quartet, before adding the fifth book later on. However, I tried reading some of her other work, and just didnt get into it. Now though, Im in my 30s, and I picked this up on a whim.
I would never have enjoyed this in my teens or 20s, but it is a quiet epic. The characters are all fleshed out and human, and they are all full of quiet foibles and failings. There isn't a happy ending, and nor is there a great tragedy. Its just a tale of people living, and the quiet triumphs and small failings of these people. I thought it was wonderful.
Its come at a time in my life when I was ready for it, and while it was not a page turner, the language was vivid and colourful, and a thoroughly enjoyable read. And its made me think! I really cared about the characters, none of whom were cartoonish. This could have easily been a true story. The ending was a mild irritation, but probably because I wanted a sappy happy ending. And it was a happy ending, just not the one I expected!
Would I recommend it? No. I wouldnt have enjoyed it even in my mid-20s. Maybe I felt some reflections in it, having been involved in a political campaign, felt defeat, moved far away from home, or maybe Im just getting old. But if you've come from Earthsea, you'll recognise the quiet heroes, and the strong female characters who quietly question what it means to be a woman, and what is a woman's place in the world. But that's all you'll recognise! This isn't a fantasy novel, as another reviewer said, this is more like historical fiction.
However, I will say this, I signed up to goodreads to post this review. I never had any desire to review a book before!
I would never have enjoyed this in my teens or 20s, but it is a quiet epic. The characters are all fleshed out and human, and they are all full of quiet foibles and failings. There isn't a happy ending, and nor is there a great tragedy. Its just a tale of people living, and the quiet triumphs and small failings of these people. I thought it was wonderful.
Its come at a time in my life when I was ready for it, and while it was not a page turner, the language was vivid and colourful, and a thoroughly enjoyable read. And its made me think! I really cared about the characters, none of whom were cartoonish. This could have easily been a true story. The ending was a mild irritation, but probably because I wanted a sappy happy ending. And it was a happy ending, just not the one I expected!
Would I recommend it? No. I wouldnt have enjoyed it even in my mid-20s. Maybe I felt some reflections in it, having been involved in a political campaign, felt defeat, moved far away from home, or maybe Im just getting old. But if you've come from Earthsea, you'll recognise the quiet heroes, and the strong female characters who quietly question what it means to be a woman, and what is a woman's place in the world. But that's all you'll recognise! This isn't a fantasy novel, as another reviewer said, this is more like historical fiction.
However, I will say this, I signed up to goodreads to post this review. I never had any desire to review a book before!
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