The Pilgrim Hawk
by Glenway Wescott
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This powerful short novel describes the events of a single afternoon. Alwyn Towers, an American expatriate and sometime novelist, is staying with a friend outside of Paris, when a well-heeled, itinerant Irish couple drops in - with Lucy, their trained hawk, a restless, sullen, disturbingly totemic presence. Lunch is prepared, drink flows. A masquerade, at once harrowing and farcical, begins. A work of classical elegance and concision, The Pilgrim Hawk stands with Faulkner's The Bear as one show more of the finest American short novels: a beautifully crafted story that is also a poignant evocation of the implacable power of love. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Very nicely done, the sort of thing that'll appeal to people involved in crafting something, while also causing them/we to feel a little ripped off. As even the introduction points out, making a hawk into a symbol isn't much of a novelty, nor is the Anglos-abroad (Wescott does make me want to read Henry James, which is a mark in his favor), nor is the ever so slightly farcical country-house plot.
So, to justify my own enjoyment of this, I'm forced to interpret the book thusly: the hawk is not, in fact, a symbol for anything, and the point of the novel is the narrator's failure to discover anything worthy to be symbolized by the 'symbol'. The hawk exceeds all of Alwyn Towers' life experiences, his thoughts, and his feelings; the hawk show more certainly exceeds the experiences, thoughts and feelings of its Irish keeper and her husband. Any romantic, idealizing, transcendentalist attitudes fail to capture the real danger and magnificence of the animal. In short, this is a short novel about the writer's failure to produce a work adequate to its subject--while, at the same time, it's a perfect little gem of a book. show less
So, to justify my own enjoyment of this, I'm forced to interpret the book thusly: the hawk is not, in fact, a symbol for anything, and the point of the novel is the narrator's failure to discover anything worthy to be symbolized by the 'symbol'. The hawk exceeds all of Alwyn Towers' life experiences, his thoughts, and his feelings; the hawk show more certainly exceeds the experiences, thoughts and feelings of its Irish keeper and her husband. Any romantic, idealizing, transcendentalist attitudes fail to capture the real danger and magnificence of the animal. In short, this is a short novel about the writer's failure to produce a work adequate to its subject--while, at the same time, it's a perfect little gem of a book. show less
Brief, elegant, edgy, and profound, I found myself enraptured by this little gem. I was quickly taken in by the narrator's voice, and while not much happens, there is an incredible tension in all this not-happening. A masterpiece of restrained narration.
Regarded by a longstanding cult audience as a minor masterpiece, it is hard to come to this book objectively. I think without the reputation I would not have made it beyond the first few pages of this very short novella because the style is so mannered: short sentences, often broken into little clausal fragments - paragraphs frequently concluding with elaborately conceived apothegms. Wescott's narrator is staying with a female friend at her French country house. They are visited by a somewhat eccentric Irish couple, the female half of which takes a hunting hawk everywhere she goes. Tensions develop, there is some byplay among the three servants. The hawk causes a disruption. That is all. But it is observed so carefully and described so show more exquisitely that one becomes drawn in and fascinated. Michael Cunningham's introduction to this edition is helpful. show less
This was the story of a weird love between Madeleine Cullen, a wealthy, middle-aged, Irishwoman and her pet hawk. She ignored her "wild children" and Irish aristocrat husband in favor of her hawk. The entire story takes place in 1929, in just one afternoon in the garden of Madeleine's friend, Alexandra, a wealthy young American living in Chacellet, France. I did not see a lot of plot, the story is told through the dialogue of the characters. This was pretty boring! I gotta stop reading novellas and/or short stories! But hey, am cleaning off those shelves. The cover is also odd, and I've spent too much time trying to connect it to the story. 136 pages
A quiet masterpiece; a single afternoon, drinks, conversation, scandal, and a hawk. Maugham admired Wescott's prose, and reading this you can see why.
My YouTube review is here: https://youtu.be/XCZyivmZ07k
My YouTube review is here: https://youtu.be/XCZyivmZ07k
In één ruk uitgelezen, dit dunne boekje van Glenway Wescott. Af en toe wat te simpel, wat te kort door de bocht in algemeenheden en generalisaties over de vrouw. Maar werd er ooit een boek over valken geschreven dat teleurstelde?*
Dit boek ademt de jaren '20 in al zijn observaties. The great Gatsby bazuint vanop de achtergrond en dit vanaf de eerste pagina waarop de jonge Amerikaan de deur opendoet en het echtpaar Cullen binnenlaat - mevrouw Cullen met een valk op de gehandschoende vuist. De Amerikaan - een talentloos schrijver vanzelfsprekend - tracht tijdens het verloop van een middag, die bruusk wordt afgebroken, de verhouding te schetsen, & laat zich daarbij voornl. leiden door hoe ze zich t.a.v. de valk gedragen. Af en toe zet hij show more (en hij sleurt daarin de lezer mee) de valk (en zijn honger) en de vrouw (en haar begeerte) op gelijke hoogte. Dat zijn misschien wel de beste stukken uit het boek.
http://occamsrazorlibrary.blogspot.com/2009/06/de-slechtvalk.html show less
Dit boek ademt de jaren '20 in al zijn observaties. The great Gatsby bazuint vanop de achtergrond en dit vanaf de eerste pagina waarop de jonge Amerikaan de deur opendoet en het echtpaar Cullen binnenlaat - mevrouw Cullen met een valk op de gehandschoende vuist. De Amerikaan - een talentloos schrijver vanzelfsprekend - tracht tijdens het verloop van een middag, die bruusk wordt afgebroken, de verhouding te schetsen, & laat zich daarbij voornl. leiden door hoe ze zich t.a.v. de valk gedragen. Af en toe zet hij show more (en hij sleurt daarin de lezer mee) de valk (en zijn honger) en de vrouw (en haar begeerte) op gelijke hoogte. Dat zijn misschien wel de beste stukken uit het boek.
http://occamsrazorlibrary.blogspot.com/2009/06/de-slechtvalk.html show less
Jun 4, 2009Dutch
La acción del libro transcurre en un sola tarde de verano a finales de la década de 1920 en una casa de campo francesa, cuya propietaria, Alexandra Henry, una joven heredera norteamericana, hospeda a un compatriota llamado Alwyn Tower, el narrador del libro.
Jun 24, 2012 (Edited)Spanish
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- Canonical title
- The Pilgrim Hawk
- Original title
- The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story; The Pilgrim Hawk
- Original publication date
- 1940
- Important places
- France
- Dedication
- For Nelson
March to July, 1940;
Stone-blossom and New York - First words
- We may consider Glenway Wescott's The Pilgrim Hawk to be a short novel or a long novella, but whatever we call it, it is exactly as long as it needs to be. It is murderously precise and succinct. It contains, in its 10... (show all)8 pages, more levels and layers of experience than many books five times its length. -Introduction
The Cullens were Irish; but it was in France that I met them and was able to form an impression of their love and their trouble. They were on their way to a property that had rented in Hungary; and one afternoon they came to ... (show all)Chancellet to see my great friend Alexandra Henry. That was in May of 1928 or 1929, before we all returned to America, and she met my brother and married him. - Original language
- English
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 813.52
- Canonical LCC
- PS3545.E827 P5
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