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Smoke, and Other Early Stories
fiction, ed w/intro by Douglas Messerli
Paperback
First published January 1, 1917
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434 people want to read
About the author
Djuna Barnes
98 books563 followersDjuna Barnes was an artist, illustrator, journalist, playwright, and poet associated with the early 20th-century Greenwich Village bohemians and the Modernist literary movement.
Barnes has been cited as an influence by writers as diverse as Truman Capote, William Goyen, Isak Dinesen, John Hawkes, and Anaïs Nin. Bertha Harris described her work as "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world" since Sappho.
Barnes played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens. Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T. S. Eliot. It stands out today for its portrayal of lesbian themes and its distinctive writing style. Since Barnes's death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.
Barnes has been cited as an influence by writers as diverse as Truman Capote, William Goyen, Isak Dinesen, John Hawkes, and Anaïs Nin. Bertha Harris described her work as "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world" since Sappho.
Barnes played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens. Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T. S. Eliot. It stands out today for its portrayal of lesbian themes and its distinctive writing style. Since Barnes's death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
February 3, 2019
No estoy con mucho tiempo para leer con esto de preparar finales, pero logré colar este mientras hacía cola para ponerme una vacuna.
Sentí que la traducción no era óptima. Quizás demasiado literal, no sé. Me pareció que los cuentos se volvían... no oscuros, sino un poco... aparatosos. Antes de esto había leído "Aller et Retour" de otro traductor y la prosa me generó una sensación totalmente distinta. Igual, puedo estar muy equivocado. Sé poco y nada de Barnes y no vi el original en inglés.
El cuento que más me gustó fue "Paprika Johnson". Me hizo acordar un poco a la película Breakfast at Tiffany's (específicamente a la peli, no a la novela corta de Capote en la que se basa). Probablemente por la escena del balcón en la que Audrey Hepburn canta "Moon River" con ese tono tan melanconostálgico.
Sentí que la traducción no era óptima. Quizás demasiado literal, no sé. Me pareció que los cuentos se volvían... no oscuros, sino un poco... aparatosos. Antes de esto había leído "Aller et Retour" de otro traductor y la prosa me generó una sensación totalmente distinta. Igual, puedo estar muy equivocado. Sé poco y nada de Barnes y no vi el original en inglés.
El cuento que más me gustó fue "Paprika Johnson". Me hizo acordar un poco a la película Breakfast at Tiffany's (específicamente a la peli, no a la novela corta de Capote en la que se basa). Probablemente por la escena del balcón en la que Audrey Hepburn canta "Moon River" con ese tono tan melanconostálgico.
December 16, 2008
I have the l985 edition by Virago Modern Classics Press. The cover shows a detail from "Card Players" by Tamara de Lempicka, which I think quite suits the era and mood.
14 incisive tales in the book wonderfully evoke Greenwich Village Bohemia between 1914 and 1916. Her writing is exquisite and decadent and full of lovers and loners, schemers and dreamers and more. Beginning in 1923, when Djuna was 21, and through the next 6 yrs, she published over 100 articles and interviews in New York newspapers as well as 25 dramas and fiction pieces in the New York Morning Telegraph's Sunday magazine. These fiction stories add one more important chapter to what Eugune Jolas called " The revolution of the word".
14 incisive tales in the book wonderfully evoke Greenwich Village Bohemia between 1914 and 1916. Her writing is exquisite and decadent and full of lovers and loners, schemers and dreamers and more. Beginning in 1923, when Djuna was 21, and through the next 6 yrs, she published over 100 articles and interviews in New York newspapers as well as 25 dramas and fiction pieces in the New York Morning Telegraph's Sunday magazine. These fiction stories add one more important chapter to what Eugune Jolas called " The revolution of the word".
September 17, 2009
wow, i had no idea. i always thought of barnes as an inscrutable modernist. but the stories in this book are exactly the opposite: clear and simple and sparkly, light but with real weight and depth. they're sort of like fitzgerald in terms of style, with a little dorothy parker thrown in, but then the stories themselves are almost folk-tale-ish, or like something from maupassant or o. henry (minus the endings). and actually "prize ticket 177" could be o. henry. anyway, good stuff. i feel like i finally get why she's famous. i bet she was fun to be around. and i bet she was a good dancer.
January 8, 2018
Djuna Barnes' short stories have proved to be very difficult to get hold of, so when I spotted this near pristine Virago edition in Skoob Books in London for just £4, I could not resist snapping it up. I adore Nightwood, and whilst this collection does not quite reach the same heady heights, it is still well worth seeking out. Barnes herself described this collection as juvenilia. A lot of the tales here - in fact, almost all of them - are very strange in terms of both plot and execution, but there is a wonderful, beguiling sense to them too. One can see the ideas which she adapted and carried into Nightwood. Inventive and absorbing, Smoke and Other Early Stories is just the collection which I was expecting from Barnes; startling and powerful.
March 18, 2016
3,5 stars. I wrote about this book here: http://wp.me/p79SOn-Gn
January 16, 2023
'Nightwood' is one of those books I think I might like to read and then ignore doing anything about it. Instead, I picked this up for a few pennies on a bookstall.
There are red flags for me when the introducer of a volume (in this case Douglas Messerli) states 'they are not major works of literature' (Barnes herself apparently described the collection as juvenilia) but that they are important 'in the context of our current literary concerns'. This seems to indicate (to me at least) that they are possibly poor fare for a reader who has no 'literary concerns' beyond being entertained in some way.
Whilst I wouldn't go quite as far as to say they are rubbish, they are, if you like a plot and I tend to do so, rather plotless. They are more slice-of-life observations than stories per se; they have a touch of the Jean Lorrains about them but he is a lot funnier.
They also have aspirations towards modernism in style with odd flashes of stream-of-consciousness type sentences. This makes for a fairly uneasy read, added to which some of the New York argot of the period is so obscure to me that one is often caught trying to work out what exactly is being said/written. Thankfully this irritating element seems less prevalent in the latter stories. They are also described as set in NY 'bohemia' which again leads me to think of Lorrain but if that is the case then Lorrains' Paris is far more fun than NY. Barnes was in her early 20s when she wrote these and yet to make the move to Paris.
What boggles my mind a little is that they are 'commercial' stories written for newspapers, tales which I doubt many newspapers would ever touch. It's a bit like knowing that W. S Burroughs appeared in Penthouse magazine. You know it's true and yet how can it be?
I left this volume still intrigued by Nightwood (or perhaps other of her later Paris-based work) but perhaps less inspired to locate a copy. I'm not sure if that is damming this book with faint praise given Nightwoods reputation...
There are red flags for me when the introducer of a volume (in this case Douglas Messerli) states 'they are not major works of literature' (Barnes herself apparently described the collection as juvenilia) but that they are important 'in the context of our current literary concerns'. This seems to indicate (to me at least) that they are possibly poor fare for a reader who has no 'literary concerns' beyond being entertained in some way.
Whilst I wouldn't go quite as far as to say they are rubbish, they are, if you like a plot and I tend to do so, rather plotless. They are more slice-of-life observations than stories per se; they have a touch of the Jean Lorrains about them but he is a lot funnier.
They also have aspirations towards modernism in style with odd flashes of stream-of-consciousness type sentences. This makes for a fairly uneasy read, added to which some of the New York argot of the period is so obscure to me that one is often caught trying to work out what exactly is being said/written. Thankfully this irritating element seems less prevalent in the latter stories. They are also described as set in NY 'bohemia' which again leads me to think of Lorrain but if that is the case then Lorrains' Paris is far more fun than NY. Barnes was in her early 20s when she wrote these and yet to make the move to Paris.
What boggles my mind a little is that they are 'commercial' stories written for newspapers, tales which I doubt many newspapers would ever touch. It's a bit like knowing that W. S Burroughs appeared in Penthouse magazine. You know it's true and yet how can it be?
I left this volume still intrigued by Nightwood (or perhaps other of her later Paris-based work) but perhaps less inspired to locate a copy. I'm not sure if that is damming this book with faint praise given Nightwoods reputation...
November 22, 2023
(Maybe more a 3 than 4 idk.)
Ooh she's got it. Had a break from Woolf and accidentally found an even more wacky original modernist queen. It took me about a week to realise what that oft cited "mother/counterpane/white exclamation mark on this side of error" sentence meant but it's a great, startling collection of words. Loved all the character descriptions she started off each story with, especially the hands like large flowers weighing down the tender stems of the arms image in one. Also, her line illustrations are sick. Fav story either the deeply strange and lovely Head of Babylon or Paprika Johnson... Precocious like a lot of early stories by maybe overintelligent young authors (Beckett, Pynchon come to mind) but everything here ranged from at least fun to genuinely New. Nightwood lfgg
Ooh she's got it. Had a break from Woolf and accidentally found an even more wacky original modernist queen. It took me about a week to realise what that oft cited "mother/counterpane/white exclamation mark on this side of error" sentence meant but it's a great, startling collection of words. Loved all the character descriptions she started off each story with, especially the hands like large flowers weighing down the tender stems of the arms image in one. Also, her line illustrations are sick. Fav story either the deeply strange and lovely Head of Babylon or Paprika Johnson... Precocious like a lot of early stories by maybe overintelligent young authors (Beckett, Pynchon come to mind) but everything here ranged from at least fun to genuinely New. Nightwood lfgg
December 11, 2022
This book is interesting when you think of the style of writing and where these stories were published, in news papers. It’s hard to imagine such literature appearing in a newspaper these days. The writing is quirky, imaginative and the stories often centre around deceit or pathos. Some characters are wicked while others timid and pathetic.
January 25, 2025
"La broma mas pesada" fue el cuento que más me gustó
didn-t-finish
November 11, 2025These early stories are in the author's own opinion juvenalia. Unless you are already a fan, and a completist, there seems no reason to seek these out.
February 9, 2022
pensé que no la estaba entendiendo pero al final si (creo) (capaz no) (honestamente es probable)
October 23, 2021
"Llora, necesitamos un trago."
January 18, 2022
Some stories are brilliant, others tragic. All pointed and sharp. Recommended for fans of Dorothy Parker.
January 26, 2022
Djuna is a force of nature.
June 20, 2022
The best short stories I’ve read in a while!
Barnes really astonished me with her refreshing style of prose.
Barnes really astonished me with her refreshing style of prose.
February 21, 2023
buenísimos cuentos.
Read
October 15, 2024Faves are “Smoke,” “Monsieur Ampee,” “The Terrorists”
March 18, 2020
Había leído algunos fragmentos de la obra de Djuna Barnes en inglés antes de empezar a leer este libro. Me decepcionó bastante encontrarme con estos cuentos en los que se llega a entrever buenas premisas pero que la traducción opaca el cuadro general. Voy a buscar nuevas traducciones de la obra de Djuna para recuperar ese entusiasmo que tuve en mi primer acercamiento a sus textos.
January 24, 2023
(Versión de la colección Los 40 de Anagrama, editorial Página 12)
Terminé de leer este libro hace unos días. A mí me pareció fantástico. Cuentos con una gran riqueza de contenido. Tienen esos toques nihilistas y filosóficos que te dejan pensando. Lo recomiendo.
La edición que tengo también contiene ilustraciones hechas por Djuna Barnes, que me fascinaron.
Terminé de leer este libro hace unos días. A mí me pareció fantástico. Cuentos con una gran riqueza de contenido. Tienen esos toques nihilistas y filosóficos que te dejan pensando. Lo recomiendo.
La edición que tengo también contiene ilustraciones hechas por Djuna Barnes, que me fascinaron.
April 26, 2009
Another suggestion by Garth Holder for the Switzerland trip. I am glad I trusted his literary taste,it worked out well for me.
July 2, 2012
I tried to understand you, Djuana. I really did.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews