The Drinking Den (Penguin Classics)

Product Information

Slang and profanities all included (and as I understand, this was a massively controversial choice when the novel was published in 1877). The other “wet canteens” closed over the next couple of years the last being one above Camden Town Station.

m. y bueno, me dieron las 12 y la 1 y las 2 y las 3 (cálmate Joaquín Sabina), y cuando menos me di cuenta ya eran las 4 a. Tutt’attorno a loro, Parigi distendeva la sua grigia immensità, le sue lontananze azzurrastre, le sue vallate profonde, dove i tetti sembravano scorrere e ondeggiare. Con il tempo troverà un altro uomo, un operaio di nome Coupeau ed avrà un altro figlio, anzi una figlia: Anna detta Nanà. La protagonista del libro è Gervaise Macquart, una donna giovane con due figli piccoli che viene abbandonata dal marito, cliente fisso dell’Assommoir (Ammazzatoio).

Mentre ascoltavo pensavo che una simile dovizia di particolari, un intreccio così stretto, dei personaggi così perseguitati dal destino, sono marcatamente ottocenteschi. E’ una storia viva che ci racconta come anche le più buone intenzioni possano essere guastate dall’indole associata all’ambiente: un coup d’assommoir sempre in agguato. At Liverpool Street station could be found Pat-Mac’s Drinking Den, which was on the eastbound platform of the Metropolitan Line. Da li nad samim čitaocem probijaći mu svaki mogući oklop kojim se naoruža kad krene čitati njegove romane (pod uslovom da je iole upućen u njegov književni opus) ili uopšteno nad svim društvenim slojevima lagano i precizno ih razotkrivajući i sjeckajući dio po dio. Set in France's Second Empire, the series traces the "environmental" influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution.

Noted for his gritty realism, Zola paints a vivid-harsh life of the worker society of Paris in 1860-70s. Asimismo, menciona la dificultad que tuvo el traductor al traducir ciertas expresiones propias del lenguaje informal y de entrada, el título del francés L'Assommoir a La taberna; en mi opinión, pienso que el título debería mantenerse como en el original, si bien cuando se inicia la lectura no se sabe el por qué, al final, se convierte en uno de los títulos más certeros que he visto en una novela. Il suo sogno era vivere in mezzo a gente onesta, perché la frequentazione della gente disonesta, diceva, era come una mazzata, che spacca la testa e schiaccia una donna in men che non si dica. Little Lalie, the eight-year-old kid who was no bigger than two sous' worth of butter, kept house as well as any grown-up, and it was no easy job, for there were two younger ones to look after, her brother Jules and her sister Henriette, tots of three and five, whom she had to keep an eye on all day long while also sweeping the floor and washing the dishes. Then, when they make their way to the galleries of more modern art, we read, “Centuries of art passed before their bewildered ignorance, the fine sharpness of the early masters, the splendors of the Venetians, the vigorous life, beautiful with light, of the Dutch painters.I had started to pick at it around the same time that I was reading Les Misérables, and the difference in style showed. A Broom Cupboard is the average size of a flat today but was once the nickname of the pub to be found at Kings Cross underground station, due to its compact size. I haven’t been as stupefied by a work of hysterical genius since the hectoring morality of Tolstoy’s Resurrection or the brutal sadism of Hubert Selby’s ‘Tralala.