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The Trojan Horse
"This is Morley's first novel in five years, and (as usual) it is completely different from anything he has done before.
He has here attempted a dangerous theme which has long fascinated him. The legend of Troilus and Cressida, which includes every phase of human passion - joy, intrigue, comedy and despair - is one of the world's most famous love stories. Here it is brought to modern emotions and issues. It varies from ribaldry to tragic beauty. It will be diversely interpreted, and arouse both enthusiasm and dismay. What, for instance, does the Fatal Horse itself symbolize?
Laid in the present tense of Now, without a moment wasted on description or "style," this startling story - equal in satire, mirth and tenderness - takes the story made classic by Boccaccio and Chaucer and Shakespeare - and troubles it with new wine.
It actually happens to the reader as he reads."
-Front jacket leaf description, 1937, first edition.
He has here attempted a dangerous theme which has long fascinated him. The legend of Troilus and Cressida, which includes every phase of human passion - joy, intrigue, comedy and despair - is one of the world's most famous love stories. Here it is brought to modern emotions and issues. It varies from ribaldry to tragic beauty. It will be diversely interpreted, and arouse both enthusiasm and dismay. What, for instance, does the Fatal Horse itself symbolize?
Laid in the present tense of Now, without a moment wasted on description or "style," this startling story - equal in satire, mirth and tenderness - takes the story made classic by Boccaccio and Chaucer and Shakespeare - and troubles it with new wine.
It actually happens to the reader as he reads."
-Front jacket leaf description, 1937, first edition.
- GenresFiction
248 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1937
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Morley
372 books194 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
American writer Christopher Darlington Morley founded the Saturday Review, from 1924 to 1940 edited it, and prolifically, most notably authored popular novels.
Christopher Morley, a journalist, essayist, and poet, also produced on stage for a few years and gave college lectures.
American writer Christopher Darlington Morley founded the Saturday Review, from 1924 to 1940 edited it, and prolifically, most notably authored popular novels.
Christopher Morley, a journalist, essayist, and poet, also produced on stage for a few years and gave college lectures.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
July 17, 2023
Cool idea but i probably didn't get the humor. Not really for me but I liked the setting.
November 8, 2021
"It's still the same old story / A fight for love and glory / A case of do or die...." Time has come and gone for the city Schliemann sought, where heroic figures did and died. Here is a timeless tale of love
against a backdrop of war. Here are skyscrapers' topless towers, tickertape, and a choric Radio Voice
to maximize or minimize the latest news while an Extra Edition is going to press. Here are Helen and
Paris, Achilles and Diomedes, Antenor and Aeneas--all the usual suspects--but most of all Troilus
and Cressida, and Pandarus busily making a name for himself. Rick's Cafe or Sarpedoni's Shore
Dinner roadhouse, tweeds & tux or togas & tunics, letters of transit or prisoner exchanges--the new is
made old again.
Of course there are battle scenes, from a distance or in review, as a coach might critique last week's
game, and locker room banter-cum-brag-cum-braggadocio, as these soldiers are but big bully boys
after all, beneath the bronze and brass. (A favorite focus for their amiable abuse is the black trainer
Fuscus, who is quite comfortable with words like "deltoid" and "trapezius," but stumbles over arch-
enemy Ash-heels or the callow T-r-o-l-i-u-s.)
And love scenes dramatic and comic, poetic and prosaic, as the situation warrants:
CRESSIDA: "Since he believes in dichotomy / I'd like him to think a lot o' me."
TROILUS: "I used to take a boat down at the shore / And drift about on sleepy afternoons /
Between the wrinkled windrows of the sea."
CRESSIDA: "My blessed, when you know a woman's heart / So easy to be wrung /
You will not wring it."
And treachery, too, come round: as Helen was taken from Sparta to Troy, so Cresssida was taken
from Troy to Sparta.
And who will frolic with whom upon the Fields Elysian?
*****************************************************************************
Folks, all this has come to you straight from the Horse's mouth. Pick up a copy of our print
edition, first thing tomorrow!
against a backdrop of war. Here are skyscrapers' topless towers, tickertape, and a choric Radio Voice
to maximize or minimize the latest news while an Extra Edition is going to press. Here are Helen and
Paris, Achilles and Diomedes, Antenor and Aeneas--all the usual suspects--but most of all Troilus
and Cressida, and Pandarus busily making a name for himself. Rick's Cafe or Sarpedoni's Shore
Dinner roadhouse, tweeds & tux or togas & tunics, letters of transit or prisoner exchanges--the new is
made old again.
Of course there are battle scenes, from a distance or in review, as a coach might critique last week's
game, and locker room banter-cum-brag-cum-braggadocio, as these soldiers are but big bully boys
after all, beneath the bronze and brass. (A favorite focus for their amiable abuse is the black trainer
Fuscus, who is quite comfortable with words like "deltoid" and "trapezius," but stumbles over arch-
enemy Ash-heels or the callow T-r-o-l-i-u-s.)
And love scenes dramatic and comic, poetic and prosaic, as the situation warrants:
CRESSIDA: "Since he believes in dichotomy / I'd like him to think a lot o' me."
TROILUS: "I used to take a boat down at the shore / And drift about on sleepy afternoons /
Between the wrinkled windrows of the sea."
CRESSIDA: "My blessed, when you know a woman's heart / So easy to be wrung /
You will not wring it."
And treachery, too, come round: as Helen was taken from Sparta to Troy, so Cresssida was taken
from Troy to Sparta.
And who will frolic with whom upon the Fields Elysian?
*****************************************************************************
Folks, all this has come to you straight from the Horse's mouth. Pick up a copy of our print
edition, first thing tomorrow!
September 2, 2022
"Dimenticavo dove siamo. Dove siamo?" - "Insieme"
"Il cavallo di Troia" è un romanzo di Christopher Morley del 1937. Pubblicato In Italia da Bompiani e tradotto da Cesare Pavese nel 1941.
.
"Ecco finalmente la guerra di Troia veduta da un americano" così scrive nella prefazione Pavese ed è questo, infatti, l'espediente letterario: la visione americana.
Messo filtro "american style": il campo di battaglia diventa un campo di calcio, i guerrieri si ritirano negli spogliatoi, c'è la radio che racconta notizie ma principalmente gossip, una immancabile storia di amore e, fedele all'originale, una tragedia annunciata. La narrazione segue la sequenza filmica del cinema americano, in pieno sviluppo negli anni di Morley: c'è azione, velocità e dialoghi brillanti.
.
Sapevo già che l'autore non mi avrebbe delusa, avendo già letto, e amato, "Il Parnaso Ambulante" e "La libreria stregata" ma non mi aspettavo di trovare un libro così divertente. Per chi ha letto "La sovrana lettrice" ricorda molto lo stile di Bennet, ma meno ironico. Sia chiaro, comunque, che non è una parodia irriverente del poema greco ma più un "ammodernamento" non diverso da quello che, ben prima di Morley, fecero Shakespeare e Boccaccio.
.
"Il cavallo di Troia" rientra in quelle letture confort che so già che andranno bene mentre cerco di capire se mi piace il #mattonedelweekend in lettura - aka "Infinite Jest"!
"Il cavallo di Troia" è un romanzo di Christopher Morley del 1937. Pubblicato In Italia da Bompiani e tradotto da Cesare Pavese nel 1941.
.
"Ecco finalmente la guerra di Troia veduta da un americano" così scrive nella prefazione Pavese ed è questo, infatti, l'espediente letterario: la visione americana.
Messo filtro "american style": il campo di battaglia diventa un campo di calcio, i guerrieri si ritirano negli spogliatoi, c'è la radio che racconta notizie ma principalmente gossip, una immancabile storia di amore e, fedele all'originale, una tragedia annunciata. La narrazione segue la sequenza filmica del cinema americano, in pieno sviluppo negli anni di Morley: c'è azione, velocità e dialoghi brillanti.
.
Sapevo già che l'autore non mi avrebbe delusa, avendo già letto, e amato, "Il Parnaso Ambulante" e "La libreria stregata" ma non mi aspettavo di trovare un libro così divertente. Per chi ha letto "La sovrana lettrice" ricorda molto lo stile di Bennet, ma meno ironico. Sia chiaro, comunque, che non è una parodia irriverente del poema greco ma più un "ammodernamento" non diverso da quello che, ben prima di Morley, fecero Shakespeare e Boccaccio.
.
"Il cavallo di Troia" rientra in quelle letture confort che so già che andranno bene mentre cerco di capire se mi piace il #mattonedelweekend in lettura - aka "Infinite Jest"!
May 21, 2022
il cavallo di troia è interessante, specialmente se letto nel contesto storico dell'autore. i personaggi, conosciuti grazie alla mitologia, lottano in un'ambientazione decisamente straniante e piena di curiose novità. molta invenzione da parte di morley, che porta beniamini greci e troiani sotto una luce nuova.
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April 5, 2021Letteratura americana
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April 8, 2013Finiti
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews