Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent

ISBN-13: 9781908236210 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016

Mircea Eliade

Opis

My attic is the same as ever: quiet, lonely, sad. I m going to writeThe Novel of the Short-Sighted Adolescent. But I ll write it as if I m writing the author sDiary. My book won t be a novel, but a collection of comments, notes, sketches for a novel. It s the only way of capturing reality, both natural and dramatic at once - See more at: http: //istrosbooks.com/products/catalogue/diary-short-sighted-adolescent-66/#sthash.a7DPd1db.dpuf"My attic is the same as ever: quiet, lonely, sad. I m going to writeThe Novel of the Short-Sighted Adolescent. But I ll write it as if I m writing the author sDiary. My book won t be a novel, but a collection of comments, notes, sketches for a novel. It s the only way of capturing reality, both natural and dramatic at once."
My attic is the same as ever: quiet, lonely, sad. I m going to writeThe Novel of the Short-Sighted Adolescent. But I ll write it as if I m writing the author sDiary. My book won t be a novel, but a collection of comments, notes, sketches for a novel. It s the only way of capturing reality, both natural and dramatic at once - See more at: http: //istrosbooks.com/products/catalogue/diary-short-sighted-adolescent-66/#sthash.a7DPd1db.dpuf
The short-sighted adolescent is a passionate reader who takes various cultural figures as models, trying to emulate both their lives and their works. The pupil protagonist is a poor student, who likes science and reads a lot of books, sometimes staying up all night to do so. At the age of 15, he decides to write a novel to demonstrate to his teachers that he is not as mediocre as all the other students, and is prepared to give up everything he holds dear for his art. The novel is written in a number of notebooks the "diary" of the title but our myopic hero ultimately fails in three subjects and is too lazy to learn and has to repeat the school year. "Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent "was written by the young Mircea Eliade, one of Romania's greatest writers and intellectuals. The book can be viewed as an early 20th century "Catcher in the Rye," and allows us an intimate view of the developing genius his teachers, his classmates' academic and amorous rivalries, his first sexual experiences and an introduction to the themes of religion, self-knowledge, erotic sensibility, artistic creation, and otherness; ideas which would preoccupy him until the end of his life."

The short-sighted adolescent is a poor schoolboy who is in love with literature, and tries to emulate the lives and works of the writers he most admires. He is also fascinated by science and history, and stays up all night reading. At the age of 17 he decides to write a novel to prove to his teachers that he is not as mediocre as his fellow pupils, and is prepared to give up everything in order to do so. The novel is written in a series of notebooks - the diary of the title - but instead of achieving fame as an author, the myopic protagonist fails his exams and has to repeat the school year.From the perspective of a schoolboys diary of everyday life in Bucharest in the early 20th century, - his teachers, his classmates academic and amorous rivalries, his first sexual experiences - we are introduced to the themes of religion, self-knowledge, erotic sensibility, artistic creation and otherness, subjects that would preoccupy Mircea Eliade, one of Romanias most prominent intellectuals, until the end of his life. Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent was written when he was the same age as the books adolescent hero, and remained unpublished until it was found in an attic in Bucharest after the authors death in 1986. As such it provides a unique insight into the early career of a great novelist and religious philosopher whose work has been neglected in the English language for too long.