HomeGroupsTalkMoreZeitgeist
Search Site
This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. By using LibraryThing you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Your use of the site and services is subject to these policies and terms.

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Loading...

Primeval and Other Times (1996)

by Olga Tokarczuk

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
5231346,034 (4.02)11
"Set in the mythical village of Primeval, a microcosm of the world populated by eccentric, archetypal characters and guarded by four archangels, the novel chronicles the lives of the village's inhabitants over the course of the feral 20th century and the episodice violence visited on them."--Book flap.… (more)
  1. 00
    House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk (agl1)
  2. 00
    Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (Oct326)
    Oct326: Due esempi di narrazioni fantastiche di grande ricchezza e suggestione, più cristalline, sfaccettate e rigorose quelle di Borges, più morbida e avvolgente quella di Tokarczuk.
Loading...

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

No current Talk conversations about this book.

» See also 11 mentions

English (6)  Dutch (3)  Italian (2)  Catalan (1)  Finnish (1)  All languages (13)
Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
Và e non fermarti in nessuno dei mondi. E non cercare ritorno.

(303)

L’uomo è una creatura sciocca, ha bisogno di imparare. E così fa aderire su di sé il sapere, lo va raccogliendo come un’ape e via via lo accumula, per poi usarlo e trasformarlo. Questo però non cambia quel tanto di “sciocco” che è in lui e che ha bisogno di apprendere.

(19)

Gli uomini credono di vivere più intensamente degli animali, delle piante, e a maggior ragione delle cose. Gli animali intuiscono di vivere più intensamente delle piante e delle cose. Quanto alle cose, durano, e questa durata è più vitale di tutto il resto.

(50)

Dunque le facce erano tre. All'improvviso Izydor provò una profonda sensazione di incompiutezza, avvertì la mancanza di qualcosa di straordinariamente importante.
...
Capì dunque quale fosse la causa di quella sensazione di mancanza, della tristezza che è al fondo di tutto, che da sempre è presente in ogni oggetto, in ogni singolo fenomeno: l9mpossibilità di comprendere contemporaneamente ogni cosa.


(201)

Cosa significava che erano passati? Erano passati come i paesaggi che ci lasciamo alle spalle quando camminiamo, ma che rimangono comunque in qualche luogo e continuano a esistere per altri occhi? O forse il tempo, preferendo cancellare ogni traccia dietro di sé, riduce in polvere il passato e lo annienta irrevocabilmente?

(250) ( )
  NewLibrary78 | Jul 22, 2023 |
Wow. A generational story with philosophical interludes. Simple and profound. Sad and beautiful. ( )
  andrewlorien | Aug 21, 2022 |
I had already read House of Day, House of Night by Olga Tokarczuk and liked it very much. The same kind of form happens in Primeval, where we are given stories about common people, millers, housewives, in a small village . Their stories are divided into "Times" and given a mythological quality in the telling. In the background, or around them, we would read too about the larger workings of history, the Nazis, the Wars. But the main thrust of the book is still very much about presenting history from the common person, not a big-man/official/objective telling of history.

What I liked most was probably how the common, the banal stories were written with such grandiose that seems contrary to the people the stories were coming from. Also always enjoy Olga's ponderings and renderings of religious (in the Christian tradition usually) thought & myths. Within the story, there is a "game" where she introduces 7 different kinds of worlds where God manifests or exists differently. It's one of my favourite parts of the book. ( )
  verkur | Jan 8, 2021 |
This is an intriguingly unusual book, and not one I feel I understood well enough to review adequately. It is an allegorical modern fairy tale set in a Polish village as it is subjected to the vagaries of twentieth century history. Tokarczuk's vision has a creator God at its centre, but one who has lost much of his power, and the whole thing is suffused with a rather surreal folklorish atmosphere. ( )
  bodachliath | Feb 23, 2018 |
Realismo mágico polaco, que no es como el colombiano pero encandila lo mismo. Otra forma de narrar una saga familiar, en apenas 200 páginas vemos desfilar 3 generaciones de un entorno rural y llegamos a conocerlas como si fuera una de las familiar de Tolstoi. Sentimientos a flor de piel, magia interior, el paso del tiempo, nacimiento, muerte... las guerras europeas como telón de fondo, con su horror y sus "herencias", la vida entendida por cada uno según su historia y su caracter.
Un gusto de lectura. ( )
  naturaworld | Aug 12, 2016 |
Showing 1-5 of 6 (next | show all)
For me, it’s rare for an author of fiction to accomplish “soul-touch,” but Olga Tokarczuk does just that with her captivating spiritual imagery and layers of characters that touch the heart-depths of readers’ imaginations. Primeval and Other Times is an award winning novel (first published in the 1990s) that takes place in a mystical Polish village guarded by four archangels through the 20th century.
 

» Add other authors (36 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Olga Tokarczukprimary authorall editionscalculated
Belletti, RaffaellaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Kinsky, EstherTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Krastev, GeorgiTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lloyd-Jones, AntoniaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Lombardi, RoccoIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Canonical title
Original title
Alternative titles
Original publication date
People/Characters
Information from the Italian Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Important places
Important events
Related movies
Epigraph
Dedication
First words
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Oer is een plek gelegen in het midden van het heelal.
Quotations
Last words
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers
Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

"Set in the mythical village of Primeval, a microcosm of the world populated by eccentric, archetypal characters and guarded by four archangels, the novel chronicles the lives of the village's inhabitants over the course of the feral 20th century and the episodice violence visited on them."--Book flap.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
Tokarczuk's third novel, Primeval and Other Times was awarded the Koscielski Foundation Prize in 1997, which established the author as one of the leading voices in Polish letters. It is set in the mythical Polish village of Primeval, which is populated by eccentric, archetypal characters. The village, a microcosm of Europe and the world, is guarded by four archangels, from whose perspective the novel chronicles the lives of Primeval's inhabitants over the course of the feral 20th century. In prose that is forceful and direct, the narrative follows Poland's tortured political history from 1914 to the contemporary era and the episodic brutality that is visited on ordinary village life. Yet Primeval and Other Times is a novel of universal dimension that does not dwell on the parochial. A stylized fable as well as epic allegory about the inexorable grind of time, the clash between modernity (the masculine) and nature (the feminine), it has been translated into most European languages.

Tokarczuk has said of the novel: "I always wanted to write a book such as this. One that creates and describes a world. It is the story of a world that, like all things living, is born, develops, and then dies." Kitchens, bedrooms, childhood memories, dreams and insomnia, reminiscences, and amnesia — these are part of the existential and acoustic spaces from which the voices of Tokarczuk's tale come, her "boxes in boxes."
Haiku summary

Current Discussions

None

Popular covers

Quick Links

Rating

Average: (4.02)
0.5 1
1
1.5
2 2
2.5
3 14
3.5 10
4 36
4.5 7
5 25

Is this you?

Become a LibraryThing Author.

 

About | Contact | Privacy/Terms | Help/FAQs | Blog | Store | APIs | TinyCat | Legacy Libraries | Early Reviewers | Common Knowledge | 202,660,112 books! | Top bar: Always visible