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Woland
Journeyman

Posts: 301

Literary Landscapes Sept 21, 2020 16:41:26 GMT -5

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Post by Woland on Sept 21, 2020 16:41:26 GMT -5

Even amidst fierce flames the golden lotus can be planted

The semi-autobiographical "Bell Jar" was the only novel by Sylvia Plath, she took her own life aged just 30. Her poetry earned her a posthumous Nobel prize, an enormous fanbase and a simultaneous loathing for her husband Ted Hughes. Her novel contrasts her Massachusetts childhood with her New York experiences.

Manhattan, New York:

575 Madison Avenue is the office address of Mademoiselle magazine, a women's magazine mostly dedicated to fashion with a bit of short story publishing, it ran from 1935 until its final publication in 2001. The building itself was constructed in 1950 and still stands today.

https://images.skyscrapercenter.com/building/madave-575-6a.jpg

Esther's Manhattan residence is the Amazon Hotel, the real life Barbizon Hotel. A women-only residential hotel for new arrivals wanting a permanent stay in the city

https://ds3.cityrealty.com/img/16a25702f866fbdb429a6c2207af97de5616d974+w+h+0+60/barbizon-63-140-east-63rd-street-10.jpg

When Esther talks to Konstantin over the phone she mentions the United Nations Building is visible from her window.

https://i.insider.com/562a82b8bd86ef10008c43a8?width=750&format=jpeg&auto=webp

Sylvia Plath loved the poet Dylan Thomas, during her Manhattan stay she spent two days hanging around his favourite haunt to see him: the White Horse Tavern. She did not see him.

All the girls attended a dance hosted by Mademoiselle magazine at the St. Regis Hotel, an historic 5* hotel popular with Salvador & Gala Dali who spent several autumns and winters there. The hotel is now owned by Marriott.

https://i.insider.com/5e2f202262fa8102d36adb99?width=1100&format=jpeg&auto=webp

383 Madison Avenue was the lunchtime scene of the tainted crabmeat. Formerly Knapp Building, then Bear Sterns, now owned by JPMorgan Chase

https://images.skyscrapercenter.com/building/383madison_ext-overall_(c)aric_austermann.jpg

When Buddy is diagnosed with tuberculosis he's sent to a sanatorium in the Adirondacks in New York state. The Ray Brook sanatorium closed in mid 60s. After the 1980 Winter Olympics it became a Federal Prison.

In a moment directly lifted from real life Esther Greenwood breaks her leg skiing on Mount Pisgah near Saranac Lake, near Buddy's sanatorium.

https://www.adirondackalmanack.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/pisgah_view.jpg

Massachusetts:

Sylvia Plath was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She lived in Jamaica Plain before she moved to Winthrop aged 4 and Wellesley aged 10. This is Sylvia Plath's first home

Sylvia/Esther studied at Smith College, Massachusetts a private liberal arts women’s college founded in 1875

Esther’s/Sylvia’s father was buried at Winthrop Cemetery. The Biology professor and entomologist died when Sylvia was 8.

During a trip to the beach Esther tries to drown herself. Near Boston Harbour is the Deer Island Prison which closed in 1991, the site became a waste water treatment plant.

Sylvia Plath stayed at the McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts. Now an affiliate of Harvard Medical School, other notable residents include John Nash, Ray Charles, Susanna Kaysen (Girl, Interrupted).

Esther mentions meeting Irwin at Widener Library in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sitting on Harvard University Campus.

Buddy studies at Yale University, Connecticut, Esther attends Yale Junior Prom with Buddy just like Sylvia did in real life. Here's a photo of Sylvia and Dick Norton at Yale Junior Prom, March 1951.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/1d/c1/62/1dc1625ff719e45b9f065a10ba4d9dc4.jpg

www.sylviaplath.info/

Woland
Journeyman

Posts: 301

Literary Landscapes Oct 3, 2020 18:36:07 GMT -5 andrew likes this

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Post by Woland on Oct 3, 2020 18:36:07 GMT -5

All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way

Thus begins one of the greatest novels ever written, Lev Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina". Written over the course of 4 years covering a multitude of themes over 800 pages, it simultaneously follows the socialite Anna Karenina's affair with the dashing Count Vronsky and the world's most obvious Tolstoy surrogate Konstantin Levin's spiritual and romantic struggle while he maintains his country estate. Set in a modernising Russia of the 1870s full of reforms and the railway linking the exuberant capital St. Petersburg with the more provincial Moscow. The Russian countryside and Western Europe serving as escape from the two major cities.

Moscow to Petersburg railway lines, 1857

The Skating Rink, Zoological Gardens: The Moscow Zoo was founded in 1864 by two biologists, covering 25 acres houseing 286 animals when first opened. Konstantin Levin comes here to see the love of his life Kitty Shcherbatskaya.

At four o’clock, conscious of his throbbing heart, Levin stepped out of a hired sledge at the Zoological Gardens, and turned along the path to the frozen mounds and the skating ground, knowing that he would certainly find her there, as he had seen the Shtcherbatskys’ carriage at the entrance.
It was a bright, frosty day. Rows of carriages, sledges, drivers, and policemen were standing in the approach. Crowds of well-dressed people, with hats bright in the sun, swarmed about the entrance and along the well-swept little paths between the little houses adorned with carving in the Russian style. The old curly birches of the gardens, all their twigs laden with snow, looked as though freshly decked in sacred vestments.

Part I, Chapter 9

Moscow Zoo entrance

Leningrad Station, Moscow: The oldest of 9 railway terminals in Moscow, it served as the terminus for the Moscow-St. Petersburg line finished in 1851 (the longest double-track railway line in the world at the time). The pivotal scene of Anna Karenina meeting Count Vronsky for the first time, her brother Stiva is hoping she can convince Dolly Shcherbatskaya to forgive his philandering.

Next day at eleven o’clock in the morning Vronsky drove to the station of the Petersburg railway to meet his mother, and the first person he came across on the great flight of steps was Oblonsky, who was expecting his sister by the same train.
“Ah! your excellency!” cried Oblonsky, “whom are you meeting?”
“My mother,” Vronsky responded, smiling, as everyone did who met Oblonsky. He shook hands with him, and together they ascended the steps. “She is to be here from Petersburg today.”
“I was looking out for you till two o’clock last night. Where did you go after the Shtcherbatskys’?”
“Home,” answered Vronsky. “I must own I felt so well content yesterday after the Shtcherbatskys’ that I didn’t care to go anywhere.

Part I, Chapter 17

Leningradsky Station, Moscow

Soden, Germany (now Bad Soden): Soden is a German spa town situated between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden which Tolstoy visited in 1860. On advice of her doctor Kitty comes her in hope of curing her illness.

“I’ve no liking for foreign tours. And take note: if there is an early stage of tuberculous process, of which we cannot be certain, a foreign tour will be of no use. What is wanted is means of improving nutrition, and not for lowering it.” And the celebrated doctor expounded his plan of treatment with Soden waters, a remedy obviously prescribed primarily on the ground that they could do no harm.”

Part II, Chapter 1

Bad Soden

The Imperial Mikhailovsky Theatre was the home of a celebrated French drama troupe, which also started staging operettas in 1866, Vronsky is referring to the round wooden circus building of the ‘Theatre Bouffe’, opposite the Imperial Alexandrinsky Theatre, where French operetta was staged between 1870 and 1878. Renamed the ‘Opera Bouffe’ in 1873, it became very fashionable amongst the aristocracy, who came to hear French stars perform in the latest operettas from Paris.

Vronsky drove to the French theater, where he really had to see the colonel of his regiment, who never missed a single performance there. He wanted to see him, to report on the result of his mediation, which had occupied and amused him for the last three days. Petritsky, whom he liked, was implicated in the affair, and the other culprit was a capital fellow and first-rate comrade, who had lately joined the regiment, the young Prince Kedrov. And what was most important, the interests of the regiment were involved in it too.

Part II, Chapter 5

https://mikhailovsky.ru/upload/iblock/dd5/theatre_history_1.jpg

Inside the Mikhailovsky Theatre, 1860s

Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa is one of the main streets in St. Petersburg connected to Nevsky Prospekt. Initially housing sailors and workers from the nearby Admiralty, the number of jewellers making their home earned it the nickname "Brilliantovaya" (Diamond). Count Vronsky's address in St. Petersburg is around here, his cousin the socialite Betsy Tverskaya also holds parties in her fashionable home.

Princess Betsy drove home from the theater, without waiting for the end of the last act. She had only just time to go into her dressing-room, sprinkle her long, pale face with powder, rub it, set her dress to rights, and order tea in the big drawing-room, when one after another carriages drove up to her huge house in Bolshaia Morskaia. Her guests stepped out at the wide entrance, and the stout porter, who used to read the newspapers in the mornings behind the glass door, to the edification of the passers-by, noiselessly opened the immense door, letting the visitors pass by him into the house. Almost at the same instant the hostess, with freshly arranged coiffure and freshened face, walked in at one door and her guests at the other door of the drawing-room, a large room with dark walls, downy rugs, and a brightly lighted table, gleaming with the light of candles, white cloth, silver samovar, and transparent china tea-things.

Part II, Chapter 6

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/images/addresses/bolshaya-morskaya-street/panoramic-view-of-bolshaya-morskaya-street-in-st-petersburg.jpg

Bolshaya Morskaya Ulitsa

Situated 15 miles south of the capital is Krasnoye Selo, a fashionable recreation centre full of summer dachas and villas, the Romanovs had palaces there too. The memorable horse-racing scene with Vronsky and his horse Frou-Frou closely watched by Anna on the sidelines accompanied by her husband Alexei Karenin.

On the day of the races at Krasnoe Selo, Vronsky had come earlier than usual to eat beefsteak in the common messroom of the regiment. He had no need to be strict with himself, as he had very quickly been brought down to the required light weight; but still he had to avoid gaining flesh, and so he eschewed farinaceous and sweet dishes. He sat with his coat unbuttoned over a white waistcoat, resting both elbows on the table, and while waiting for the steak he had ordered he looked at a French novel that lay open on his plate. He was only looking at the book to avoid conversation with the officers coming in and out; he was thinking.

Part II, Chapter 19

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Nicholas II reviews a horse parade at Krasnoye Selo, 1909

Sitting on the Gulf of Finland is the tiny town of Petergof (often used interchangeably with "Peterhof"), by far the most famous site is the Peterhof Palace and Gardens built by Peter the Great, often called the Russian Versailles. The Karenins have their permanent summer villa near there, this time out their marriage doesn't feel so permanent.

Alexey Alexandrovitch’s permanent summer villa was in Peterhof, and the Countess Lidia Ivanovna used as a rule to spend the summer there, close to Anna, and constantly seeing her. That year Countess Lidia Ivanovna declined to settle in Peterhof, was not once at Anna Arkadyevna’s, and in conversation with Alexey Alexandrovitch hinted at the unsuitability of Anna’s close intimacy with Betsy and Vronsky. Alexey Alexandrovitch sternly cut her short, roundly declaring his wife to be above suspicion, and from that time began to avoid Countess Lidia Ivanovna. He did not want to see, and did not see, that many people in society cast dubious glances on his wife; he did not want to understand, and did not understand, why his wife had so particularly insisted on staying at Tsarskoe, where Betsy was staying, and not far from the camp of Vronsky’s regiment. He did not allow himself to think about it, and he did not think about it; but all the same though he never admitted it to himself, and had no proofs, not even suspicious evidence, in the bottom of his heart he knew beyond all doubt that he was a deceived husband, and he was profoundly miserable about it.

Part II, Chapter 26

Peterhof Palace, Petergof

The spatown of Karlsbad in south-west Germany is visited by Kitty’s father, who doesn't share his daughter's views on Western European life.

Before the end of the course of drinking the waters, Prince Shtcherbatsky, who had gone on from Carlsbad to Baden and Kissingen to Russian friends—to get a breath of Russian air, as he said—came back to his wife and daughter. The views of the prince and of the princess on life abroad were completely opposed. The princess thought everything delightful, and in spite of her established position in Russian society, she tried abroad to be like a European fashionable lady, which she was not—for the simple reason that she was a typical Russian gentlewoman; and so she was affected, which did not altogether suit her. The prince, on the contrary, thought everything foreign detestable, got sick of European life, kept to his Russian habits, and purposely tried to show himself abroad less European than he was in reality.

Part II,Chapter 34

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Karlsbad, Germany

The Bolshoy (Kamenniy) Theatre in St. Petersburg (not to be confused with the Bolshoi in Moscow) was home of the Imperial Russian Ballet and Opera until 1886 when the building was torn down, replaced by the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Attending the theatre is de rigueur for all the fashionable types in St. Petersburg, being outside that social circle makes life very difficult as Anna finds out later.

The next day was Sunday. Stepan Arkadyevitch went to the Grand Theater to a rehearsal of the ballet, and gave Masha Tchibisova, a pretty dancing-girl whom he had just taken under his protection, the coral necklace he had promised her the evening before, and behind the scenes in the dim daylight of the theater, managed to kiss her pretty little face, radiant over her present. Besides the gift of the necklace he wanted to arrange with her about meeting after the ballet. After explaining that he could not come at the beginning of the ballet, he promised he would come for the last act and take her to supper. From the theater Stepan Arkadyevitch drove to Ohotny Row, selected himself the fish and asparagus for dinner, and by twelve o’clock was at Dussots’, where he had to see three people, luckily all staying at the same hotel: Levin, who had recently come back from abroad and was staying there; the new head of his department, who had just been promoted to that position, and had come on a tour of revision to Moscow; and his brother-in-law, Karenin, whom he must see, so as to be sure of bringing him to dinner.

Part IV, Chapter 7

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Bolshoikamenny.jpg

Theatre Square by Benjamin Patersen, 1806

The artery running through St. Petersburg is Nevsky Prospekt, loaded with churches, palaces and dozens of other important buildings. Alexei Karenin receives a telegram stating his wife Anna is dying, unsure whether to believe it or not, he drives across Nevsky Prospekt filled with inner turmoil at the situation.

With a sense of weariness and uncleanness from the night spent in the train, in the early fog of Petersburg Alexey Alexandrovitch drove through the deserted Nevsky and stared straight before him, not thinking of what was awaiting him. He could not think about it, because in picturing what would happen, he could not drive away the reflection that her death would at once remove all the difficulty of his position. Bakers, closed shops, night-cabmen, porters sweeping the pavements flashed past his eyes, and he watched it all, trying to smother the thought of what was awaiting him, and what he dared not hope for, and yet was hoping for. He drove up to the steps. A sledge and a carriage with the coachman asleep stood at the entrance. As he went into the entry, Alexey Alexandrovitch, as it were, got out his resolution from the remotest corner of his brain, and mastered it thoroughly. Its meaning ran: “If it’s a trick, then calm contempt and departure. If truth, do what is proper.”

Part IV, Chapter 17

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c3/35/93/c335936f16d36fb38b7af75a968d3d17.jpg

Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg

To get away from it all and to live as a couple Vronsky and Anna visit Italy. Anna gets her portrait painted while Vronsky ponders his future career, they have to return to Russia eventually.

Vronsky and Anna had been traveling for three months together in Europe. They had visited Venice, Rome, and Naples, and had just arrived at a small Italian town where they meant to stay some time. A handsome head waiter, with thick pomaded hair parted from the neck upwards, an evening coat, a broad white cambric shirt front, and a bunch of trinkets hanging above his rounded stomach, stood with his hands in the full curve of his pockets, looking contemptuously from under his eyelids while he gave some frigid reply to a gentleman who had stopped him.

Part V, Chapter 7

https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/preview/M/M443/M443973_View-of-Rome-Italy-mid-19th-Century.jpg

View of Rome, mid-19th century

30 miles west of Moscow is Vozdvizhenskoe Estate, Leshkovo, Moscow Oblast, the country estate of Anna and Count Vronsky.

Their conversation was interrupted by Anna, who had found the men of the party in the billiard room, and returned with them to the terrace. There was still a long time before the dinner-hour, it was exquisite weather, and so several different methods of spending the next two hours were proposed. There were very many methods of passing the time at Vozdvizhenskoe, and these were all unlike those in use at Pokrovskoe.
“Une partie de lawn-tennis,” Veslovsky proposed, with his handsome smile. “We’ll be partners again, Anna Arkadyevna.”
“No, it’s too hot; better stroll about the garden and have a row in the boat, show Darya Alexandrovna the river banks.” Vronsky proposed.
“I agree to anything,” said Sviazhsky.
“I imagine that what Dolly would like best would be a stroll—wouldn’t you? And then the boat, perhaps,” said Anna.
So it was decided. Veslovsky and Tushkevitch went off to the bathing place, promising to get the boat ready and to wait there for them.

Part VI, Chapter 20

http://alexeevopark.com/img/infrasctructure/infrasctructure.png

Leshkovo, Moscow Oblast

130 miles north of Moscow is Kashin in Tverskaya Oblast. The provincial elections there are attended by Levin, wrapped up in improving the lives of peasants who didn't feel the full benefits of the Emancipation of the Serfs.

In October there were the provincial elections in the Kashinsky province, where were the estates of Vronsky, Sviazhsky, Koznishev, Oblonsky, and a small part of Levin’s land.
These elections were attracting public attention from several circumstances connected with them, and also from the people taking part in them. There had been a great deal of talk about them, and great preparations were being made for them. Persons who never attended the elections were coming from Moscow, from Petersburg, and from abroad to attend these. Vronsky had long before promised Sviazhsky to go to them. Before the elections Sviazhsky, who often visited Vozdvizhenskoe, drove over to fetch Vronsky. On the day before there had been almost a quarrel between Vronsky and Anna over this proposed expedition. It was the very dullest autumn weather, which is so dreary in the country, and so, preparing himself for a struggle, Vronsky, with a hard and cold expression, informed Anna of his departure as he had never spoken to her before. But, to his surprise, Anna accepted the information with great composure, and merely asked when he would be back. He looked intently at her, at a loss to explain this composure. She smiled at his look. He knew that way she had of withdrawing into herself, and knew that it only happened when she had determined upon something without letting him know her plans. He was afraid of this; but he was so anxious to avoid a scene that he kept up appearances, and half sincerely believed in what he longed to believe in—her reasonableness.

Part VI, Chapter 25

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/ff/Market_square_kashin.jpg

Market Square, Kashin, 1894

13 miles from Moscow is Obiralovska (now Zheleznodorozhny), an increasingly jealous Anna arrives here from Moscow to see Vronsky. Once again a pivotal and memorable scene occurs at a railway station.

“A ticket to Obiralovka?” said Pyotr.
She had utterly forgotten where and why she was going, and only by a great effort she understood the question.
“Yes,” she said, handing him her purse, and taking a little red bag in her hand, she got out of the carriage.
Making her way through the crowd to the first-class waiting-room, she gradually recollected all the details of her position, and the plans between which she was hesitating. And again at the old sore places, hope and then despair poisoned the wounds of her tortured, fearfully throbbing heart. As she sat on the star-shaped sofa waiting for the train, she gazed with aversion at the people coming and going (they were all hateful to her), and thought how she would arrive at the station, would write him a note, and what she would write to him, and how he was at this moment complaining to his mother of his position, not understanding her sufferings, and how she would go into the room, and what she would say to him. Then she thought that life might still be happy, and how miserably she loved and hated him, and how fearfully her heart was beating.

Part VII, Chapter 30

Zheleznodorozhny Station, Moscow Oblast

Built in 1896, Kurski Station is the scene of Count Vronsky leaving for war in the Balkans, Levin's half-brother Koznyshev passes through here to see Levin at his country estate.

Sergey Ivanovitch and Katavasov had only just reached the station of the Kursk line, which was particularly busy and full of people that day, when, looking round for the groom who was following with their things, they saw a party of volunteers driving up in four cabs. Ladies met them with bouquets of flowers, and followed by the rushing crowd they went into the station.

Part VIII, Chapter 2

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Kurskvokzal.jpg

Moscow Kurskaya Railway Station

Last Edit: Oct 3, 2020 19:52:22 GMT -5 by Woland

Woland
Journeyman

Posts: 301

Literary Landscapes Nov 10, 2020 11:32:55 GMT -5

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Post by Woland on Nov 10, 2020 11:32:55 GMT -5

The fast-paced Candide published and banned in 1759 depicts real events while ridiculing society of its time. Short on vivid depictions, Candide’s travels takes him across the Atlantic and back again, encountering an array of societies and governments. Voltaire's most famous work still delights.

https://www.learner.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/map_lg-7.jpg

Westphalia: Candide grows up in the castle of Baron of Thunder-ten-tronkh, he gets kicked out for kissing Cunegonde, forced by the Bulgars to fight against the Avars

https://cdn.britannica.com/s:700x500/50/114950-050-E17BE141/North-Rhine-Westphalia.jpg

Map of Westphalia

In a castle of Westphalia, belonging to the Baron of Thunder-ten-Tronckh, lived a youth, whom nature had endowed with the most gentle manners. His countenance was a true picture of his soul. He combined a true judgment with simplicity of spirit, which was the reason, I apprehend, of his being called Candide. The old servants of the family suspected him to have been the son of the Baron's sister, by a good, honest gentleman of the neighborhood, whom that young lady would never marry because he had been able to prove only seventy-one quarterings, the rest of his genealogical tree having been lost through the injuries of time.
The Baron was one of the most powerful lords in Westphalia, for his castle had not only a gate, but windows. His great hall, even, was[Pg 2] hung with tapestry. All the dogs of his farm-yards formed a pack of hounds at need; his grooms were his huntsmen; and the curate of the village was his grand almoner. They called him "My Lord," and laughed at all his stories.

Chapter I

Holland: Candide escapes to Holland, receives alms from an Anabaptist. Finds his tutor Pangloss who informs him Cunegonde and the Baron’s castle were sacked.

https://assets.catawiki.nl/assets/2017/6/24/b/f/e/bfe6a3ff-8e35-4d95-bad5-6b7721298bd6.jpg

Map of the Netherlands 1756

His provisions failed him when he arrived in Holland; but having heard that everybody was rich in that country, and that they were Christians, he did not doubt but he should meet with the same treatment from them as he had met with in the Baron's castle, before Miss Cunegonde's bright eyes were the cause of his expulsion thence.
He asked alms of several grave-looking people, who all answered him, that if he continued to follow this trade they would confine him to the house of correction, where he should be taught to get a living.

Chapter III

Lisbon: The three of them set sail for Lisbon, the Anabaptist dies in a shipwreck enroute. Candide and Pangloss experience an earthquake when they reach Lisbon. Pangloss is executed, Candide discovers Cunegonde alive, kills her captors and flees Lisbon.

1755 Lisbon Earthquake

As soon as they recovered themselves a little they walked toward Lisbon. They had some money left, with which they hoped to save themselves from starving, after they had escaped drowning. Scarcely had they reached the city, lamenting the death of their benefactor, when they felt the earth tremble under their feet. The sea swelled and foamed in the harbour, and beat to pieces the vessels riding at anchor. Whirlwinds of fire and ashes covered the streets and public places; houses fell, roofs were flung upon the pavements, and the pavements were scattered.

Chapter V

Cadiz: Candide and Cunegonde flee Lisbon to here, they stopover at Avacena in the Sierra Moreno mountains

Cadiz, Spain

In the same inn there was a Benedictine prior who bought the horse for a cheap price. Candide, Cunegonde, and the old woman, having passed through Lucena, Chillas, and Lebrixa, arrived at length at Cadiz. A fleet was there getting ready, and troops assembling to bring to reason the reverend Jesuit Fathers of Paraguay, accused of having made one of the native tribes in the neighborhood of San Sacrament revolt against the Kings of Spain and Portugal.

Chapter X

Buenos Aires: Candide is appointed Governor of Buenos Aires

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Buenos Aires today

While each passenger was recounting his story, the ship made her way. They landed at Buenos Aires. Cunegonde, Captain Candide, and the old woman, waited on the Governor, Don Fernando d'Ibaraa, y Figueora, y Mascarenes, y Lampourdos, y Souza. This nobleman had a stateliness becoming a person who bore so many[Pg 55] names. He spoke to men with so noble a disdain, carried his nose so loftily, raised his voice so unmercifully, assumed so imperious an air, and stalked with such intolerable pride, that those who saluted him were strongly inclined to give him a good drubbing.

Chapter XIII

Paraguay: Candide flees here with his servant Cacombo. Candide ends up killing Cunegonde’s brother and flees once again.

Paraguay

"You have before been in Paraguay, then?" said Candide.
"Ay, sure," answered Cacambo, "I was servant in the College of the Assumption, and am acquainted with the government of the good Fathers as well as I am with the streets of Cadiz. It is an admirable government. The kingdom is upwards of three hundred leagues in diameter, and divided into thirty provinces; there the Fathers possess all, and the people nothing; it is a masterpiece of reason and justice. For my part I see nothing so divine as the Fathers who here make war upon the kings of Spain and Portugal, and in Europe confess those kings; who here kill Spaniards, and in Madrid send them to heaven; this delights me, let us push forward. You are going to be the happiest of mortals. What pleasure will it be to those Fathers to hear that a captain who knows the Bulgarian exercise has come to them!"

Chapter XIV

“El Dorado”: Candide feels lonely without Cunegonde, he tells the hilarious King he wants to leave, the King helps him out.

Muisca raft figure, gold.

"More wise by far were the princes of their family, who remained in their native country; and they ordained, with the consent of the whole nation, that none of the inhabitants should ever be permitted to quit this little kingdom; and this has preserved our innocence and happiness. The Spaniards have had a confused notion of this country, and have called it El Dorado; and an Englishman, whose name was Sir Walter Raleigh, came very near it about a hundred years ago; but being surrounded by inaccessible rocks and precipices, we have hitherto been sheltered from the rapaciousness of European nations, who have an inconceivable passion for the pebbles and dirt of our land, for the sake of which they would murder us to the last man."

Chapter XVIII

Surinam: he decides to return to Europe while Cacombo heads to Buenos Aires to retrieve Cunegonde.

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Illustration for Candide by Jean Michel Moreau

Looking at the negro, he shed tears, and weeping, he entered Surinam.
The first thing they inquired after was whether there was a vessel in the harbour which could be sent to Buenos Ayres. The person to whom they applied was a Spanish sea-captain, who offered to agree with them upon reasonable terms. He appointed to meet them at a public-house, whither Candide and the faithful Cacambo went with their two sheep, and awaited his coming.

Chapter XIX

Portsmouth, England: Candide arrives with his new companion Martin, they witness an Admiral getting shot for not killing enough of the enemy.

Portsmouth and its harbour

You know England? Are they as foolish there as in France?"
"It is another kind of folly," said Martin. "You know that these two nations are at war for a few acres of snow in Canada, and that they spend over this beautiful war much more than Canada is worth. To tell you exactly, whether there are more people fit to send to a madhouse in one country than the other, is what my imperfect intelligence will not permit. I only know in general that the people we are going to see are very atrabilious."
Talking thus they arrived at Portsmouth. The coast was lined with crowds of people, whose eyes were fixed on a fine man kneeling, with his eyes bandaged, on board one of the men of war in the harbour. Four soldiers stood opposite to this man; each of them fired three balls at his head, with all the calmness in the world; and the whole assembly went away very well satisfied.

Chapter XXIII

Venice: Candide runs into the chambermaid Paquette (she infected Pangloss with Syphilis)

Venice

Upon their arrival at Venice, Candide went to search for Cacambo at every inn and coffee-house, and among all the ladies of pleasure, but to no purpose. He sent every day to inquire on all the ships that came in. But there was no news of Cacambo.
"What!" said he to Martin, "I have had time to voyage from Surinam to Bordeaux, to go from Bordeaux to Paris, from Paris to Dieppe, from Dieppe to Portsmouth, to coast along Portugal and Spain, to cross the whole Mediterranean, to spend some months, and yet the beautiful Cunegonde has not arrived! Instead of her I have only met a Parisian wench and a Perigordian Abbé. Cunegonde is dead without doubt, and there is nothing for me but to die. Alas! how much better it would have been for me to have remained in the paradise of El Dorado than to come back to this cursed Europe! You are in the right, my dear Martin: all is misery and illusion."

Chapter XXIV

Constantinople, Turkey: Candide finds Cunegonde here

https://i1.wp.com/islamicartsmagazine.com/images/uploads/magazine/Panorama_of_Istanbul_Ottoman,_late_18th_%E2%80%93_early_19th_century_58x27.1cm_SHM_12449_-_I_.1285_.jpg

Constantinople, late 18th century

In a few days they reached the Bosphorus, and Candide began by paying a very high ransom for Cacambo. Then without losing time, he and his companions went on board a galley, in order to search on the banks of the Propontis for his Cunegonde, however ugly she might have become.
Among the crew there were two slaves who rowed very badly, and to whose bare shoulders the Levantine captain would now and then apply blows from a bull's pizzle. Candide, from a natural impulse, looked at these two slaves more attentively than at the other oarsmen, and approached them with pity. Their features though greatly disfigured, had a slight resemblance to those of Pangloss and the unhappy Jesuit and Westphalian Baron, brother to Miss Cunegonde. This moved and saddened him. He looked at them still more attentively.

Chapter XXVII

andrew
Apprentice

Posts: 164

Literary Landscapes Nov 10, 2020 12:11:51 GMT -5

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Post by andrew on Nov 10, 2020 12:11:51 GMT -5

Nov 10, 2020 11:32:55 GMT -5 Woland said:

Portsmouth, England: Candide arrives with his new companion Martin, they witness an Admiral getting shot for not killing enough of the enemy.

Portsmouth and its harbour

‘in this country, it is good to kill an admiral from time to time, in order to encourage the others...'

Literary Landscapes

Post by Woland on Sept 21, 2020 16:41:26 GMT -5

Post by Woland on Oct 3, 2020 18:36:07 GMT -5

Post by Woland on Nov 10, 2020 11:32:55 GMT -5

Post by andrew on Nov 10, 2020 12:11:51 GMT -5

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