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Traces the parallel stories of nineteenth-century art patron Charles Ephrussi and his unique collection of 360 miniature netsuke Japanese ivory carvings, documenting Ephrussi's relationship with Marcel Proust and the impact of the Holocaust on his cosmopolitan family.
AmourFou: A very different story than The Hare with Amber Eyes but I found myself thinking of this book for its apt reinforcement of fin de siècle Vienna.
This was a beautifully told memoir (and history book) about Edmund De Waal's ancestors as he traces back the path of his inherited netsuke collection.
The book begins with Charles Ephrussi purchasing the collection in 1870s Paris where Charles is a patron of the arts and rubs elbows with many of the Impressionist painters and Proust, among other notables. With the next generation, the netsuke move on to high society in Vienna and then the horrors of Nazism and war. Lastly the netsuke end up in Tokyo after the war. ( )
Here's what I wrote in 2012 about this read: "Very nice, suprisingly. A very interesting family history told through the story of a treasured set of tiny Japanese wood and ivory carvings, called netsuke. The family is Jewish, of immense wealth via banking, and loses nearly everything in WWII . . . but not the netsuke." ( )
This book disappointed, annoyed and fascinated me all at the same time. I'm tempted to give it a 2, but there were enough lovely sentences to give it a 3. I found the writing and treatment of the characters and topics incredibly pretentious. de Waal's skill at crafting sentences cannot be denied, but everything was so overladen with significance to the point that it verged on parody. Every thought, every vista, every piece of furniture was hyper-imbued with meaning--no ancestral purchase, daily task or friendship was unworthy of deep reflection. For me this work verged on and often into melodrama, which interfered greatly with the author's unfolding tale. ( )
'Even when one is no longer attached to things, it's still something to have been attached to them; because it was always for reasons which other people didn't grasp...Well, now that I'm a little too weary to live with other people, these old feelings, so personal and individual, that I had in the past, seem to me - it's a mania for all collectors - very precious. I open my heart to myself like a sort of vitrine, and examine one by one all those love affairs of which the world can know nothing. And of this collection to which I'm now much more attached than to my others, I say to myself, rather as Mazarin said of his books, but in fact without the least distress, that it will be very tiresome to have to leave it at all.' Charles Swann.
Marcel Proust, Cities of the Plain.
"Aún cuando uno ya no tenga apego por las cosas, sigue importando haberlo tenido; porque siempre fue por razones que los demás no comprendían... Y bueno, ahora que estoy algo cansado para vivir con otros, estos viejos sentimientos del pasado, tan personales e individuales, me parecen -es la manía de los coleccionistas- muy valiosos. Abro mi corazón para mi como si fuera una vitrina y examino una a una todas esas historias de amor de las que el mundo no puede saber nada. Y de esta colección, a la que más unido estoy entre las mías, me digo, un poco como decía Mazarino en sus libros, pero en realidad sin la menor aflicción, que tener que dejarlo todo sería muy fatigoso". Charles Swann. Marcel Proust "Sodoma y Gomorra".
Dedication
For Ben, Matthew and Anna and for my father.
First words
In 1991 I was given a two-year scholarship by a Japanese foundation.
Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
"De haas met de amberkleurige ogen" was de eerste vertaling in het Nederlands. Al in 2017 publiceerde De Bezig Bij een nieuwe, correctere vertaling onder de titel "De haas met ogen van barnsteen". Ook vertaling van de tekst werd op tal van punten aangepast. Zie: https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achte...
Dit is de nieuwe, betere vertaling van het boek dat eerst onder de titel "De haas met de amberkleurige ogen" werd uitgebracht, maar niet alleen een verkeerde titel bevatte maar ook tal van fouten in de tekst zelf. Zie bijvoorbeeld https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achte...
Traces the parallel stories of nineteenth-century art patron Charles Ephrussi and his unique collection of 360 miniature netsuke Japanese ivory carvings, documenting Ephrussi's relationship with Marcel Proust and the impact of the Holocaust on his cosmopolitan family.
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Wikipedia in English (6)
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