Book Description
Recounts the enchanted career of the con man extraordinaire Felix Krull--a man unhampered by the moral precepts that govern the conduct of ordinary people.
Customer Reviews:
A Cautionary Tale For The Pseudo-Intellectual.......2007-08-30
THE CONFESSIONS OF FELIX KRULL CONFIDENCE MAN is Tomas Mann's last work, and reportedly the first part of a longer, fictitious autobiography that Mann was never to finish.
Felix Krull, the narrator, begins his story by recalling his upper middle class childhood, and recounting the loss of his family's fortune, which leads to a series of memorable adventures in Europe.
The book breezily entertains episode after episode until one long dreary stretch of drudgery near the end when Krull details a trip through a science museum in Lisbon. However, his tedious lapse into pedantry has a purpose. It finally separates Krull from any scintilla of Judeo/Christian moral constraint, allowing him, without conscience, to pursue his predatory ways.
Interesting how when I first read this book at age 20, I identified with Krull, cheering his every conquest and deception; but now, a generation later, I regret that Mann never finished the second part of this book in which the amoral Krull gets his comeuppance. Krull tantalizingly refers to his arrest, but alas, we never learn the details. We can only hope that Mann was going to put Krull away for a long, long time.
Krull's is a cautionary tale for today's arrogant, self-absorbed amoral pseudo-intellectual. He keeps telling us how smart he is, and how much above the common crowd he lives. Then he shows us how easily he can deceive others -- his mother, his uncle, his boss, and strangers who put their faith in him. He deceives without conscience, whether he steals jewelry or a young woman's virginity.
The particularly striking thing Krull reveals about his con man methods is his confession that he has the ability to learn just enough of any subject to deceive a person into thinking he is an expert. Krull is so taken with this ability, he even cons himself into believing he is an intellectual when he is, in fact, finally, a tedious pseudo-intellectual bore.
A Portrait of Narcissism.......2006-09-12
Finishing this novel left me wishing Mann had lived long enough to give us the second volume. I found his depiction of Krull to be an exquisite-- and hilarious-- exploration of narcissism from the narcissist's point of view. How delicious! The astounding egotism the protagnoist shows is a promise that he would have many adventures and his hints about jail time suggest that he over-stepped his bounds at least one time too many. How unfortunate for us readers that Mann died before he could complete the story. The situations at the end of this volume suggests the author got to about the halfway mark of where he wanted to go in the tale of this self-absorbed youth.
The fact that Mann was working at the end of his life was amazing enough. That he could so convincingly convey the inner life of an adolescent was, for me, proof of a talent that had dazzled me in *The Magic Mountain.* Comedy is a very difficult genre to work in effectively. The hints of the comic that were found in *Mountain* are in full effect in *Krull.* I'm eager to learn about Mann himself, given the titanic ability in evidence here.
Mann in a humorous vein.......2003-11-23
This picaresque novel of adventure by the writer of such ponderous masterpieces as _The Magic Mountain_ is one of my favorite books.
Many readers who come to it after _Buddenbrooks_ or "Tonio Kroeger" note the parallels Mann felt existed between the artist and the confidence man. In Tonio Kroeger, the eponymous central character has an encounter in his home town where he's mistaken briefly for a con man. In the earlier story, it's an incident full of irony. In _Felix Krull_, Mann turns that theme on its head and plays it as a burlesque and shows us the artist seen through the fun-house mirror of the artist-equals-con man metaphor.
A number of the themes of Mann's earlier novels are taken up here in humorous and ironic form, e.g., the rise of the artist through the decay of a respectable family (a theme in _Buddenbrooks_) is transmogrified into Krull's lineage from a good-but-dissolute family; in consequence, their respectability is more apparent than real, and as much an illusion as Felix Krull's career of deceit.
It may be that Mann intends that Felix Krull symbolically represents decay beneath his disguise (like the actor Mueller-Rose in the story), but the reader doesn't *feel* this is true. Krull might be the healthiest character in Mann's work, full of that zest for life that so wearied the bourgeois manque' Tonio Kroeger in Italy. Felix Krull isn't a "manque'" anything; a consummate actor on the stage of life, he is simply whatever or whomever he wants to be.
The elegance and suavity of the writing, captured well by the Lindley translation, are both a pleasure to read, and an analogue for the well-oiled confidence skills of the first person narrator. It's helpful to remember that we are being told "true confessions" by a man who has made his way in life by taking people in.
Another feature of the work, not often commented on, is the element of parody. Mann wrote the book with one eye, as it were, on the great German picaresque novel by Hans von Grimmelshausen, _Simplicius Simplicissimus_. Krull's travails, talents, and successes are at times a humorous transposition of those in Grimmelshausen's famous work. (Grimmelshausen's book is worth seeking out in its own right.)
And then, there's the Goethe reference: the artful, confessional style was intended (or so Mann claimed in an interview) as a parody of Goethe's style in _Dichtung und Wahrheit_. Mann had much to say about Goethe during his career, much of it freighted with a lot of seriousness (e.g., see his essay on "Goethe and Tolstoy"), but proves here he could regard his great predecessor with more than a little irony.
Because the book was started back in 1910, and reflects on a period 20 or more years earlier, it's a historical time capsule of sorts. This might annoy some readers; for others, it grants the work a certain period charm.
Finally, we should remember that the work is incomplete. This was intended to be the first part of a full-dress fictional memoir. Had he lived longer, Mann might have written 2 more volumes. The result is that the book is a bright fragment rather than a fully realized work of art. We're left to imagine what the remainder of Felix Krull's adventures might have been like. In an interview in 1955, Mann remarked that Krull would have a matrimonial adventure, as well as a prison sojourn and a retirement in England.
A pity we can never see the completed work, and cannot know with certainty how Krull's career would develop. I, for one, am happy with what Mann was able to bequeath us. I feel almost as if he left me a legacy.
Delightful!.......2003-10-22
This is a wonderfully eloquent autobiography of a wonderfully arrogant young man. It's so artful and creative, you'd think it was nonfiction. I highly recommend it.
The only reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is because toward the end, I found it got kind of boring when I thought it was about to get really interesting. It also ends abruptly, demanding a sequel, which there is not. But I won't spoil it by giving anything away.
For a good read, read Felix Krull!
A much lighter side to Thomas Mann.......2003-04-22
In this, the last of Thomas Mann's novels, we see him relaxing, letting his hair down, so to speak. Gone are the philosophical debates of Magic Mountain, the complicated musical discussions of Doctor Faustus, and even the attitude toward decline and decay from Buddenbrooks. This is a book about Felix Krull, a young man who learns early on that life is what he wants it to be. He becomes a `confidence man,' someone who changes his name frequently and acts in a `role' of an identity not his own.
The intriguing thing about Krull is that he is every bit the artist. He is an actor through and through, so good at his trade that he actually becomes (even in his own mind) the character he is portraying. The only difference is that his stage is the world at large. Throughout Felix's early years he deceives various people, steals from a couple of them, takes advantage of others. But Felix is not your typical conman. He seems not to want to hurt anyone, and often goes out of his way to be fair to people. The schemes he does pull he does not consider to be necessarily wrong--in fact, he sees himself acting in an acceptable way. His justification for this is that he is made of `finer clay' than other people.
In Felix we see many of Mann's other characters--Hans Castorp (in his education at the museum in Lisbon), Tonio Kroger (in his musings on the price and toll of being an artist), even Christian or Hanno Buddenbrook in a sense (what they may have been under other circumstances, without familial pressure). Certainly, anyone familiar with Mann's works will notice that most of the themes of this book are familiar, and have been used in other works as well. There really is nothing groundbreaking in Felix Krull--it is rather an enjoyable novel, especially for fans of Mann, that is easy to read and has some good insights in it. It is not his best work, but it is certainly worth the time to read it.
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Witty Women: Wise, Wicked, & Wonderful Words
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Limericks & Humorous Verse | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Quotations | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Foreign Languages | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0836230671 |
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Shockwave, Wicked and Wonderful Water (: Economics and Geography)
Judy Kentor Schmauss
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding
History | Subjects | Books | Africa | Americas | Ancient | Arctic & Antarctica | Asia | Australia & Oceania | Books on CD | Books on Cassette | Europe | Gay & Lesbian | Historical Study | Large Print | Middle East | Military | Military Science | Russia | United States | World
General | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0531177513 |
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Stepparents: Wicked or Wonderful? : An In-Depth Study of Stepparenthood
Christina Hughes
Manufacturer: Avebury
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Marriage & Family | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Culture | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Family Relationships | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books | Child Abuse | Divorce | Dysfunctional Relationships | Fatherhood | General | Grandparenting | Motherhood | Parent & Adult Child | Siblings | Stepparenting & Blended Families | Twins & Multiples
ASIN: 1856281450 |
Product Description
Whether poet, politician, homemaker, or diplomat, with wise and wicked words, these women take aim and always hit their mark. Famous women share their witty remarks with the world. Small gift book.
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Wonderful And Wicked (Zebra Regency Romance Series)
Manufacturer: Zebra
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Anthologies | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Romance | Subjects | Books
Regency | Historical | Romance | Subjects | Books
Zebra Regency Romance | Series | Romance | Subjects | Books
Regency | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0821766309 |
Product Description
7 mass market paperbacks. 7 Titles By Jill Barnett - Wonderful - Dreaming - Imagine - Carried Away - Wicked - Wild - Just a Kiss Away.
Book Description
On Blues Waters is the start of a major new work by Gene Wolfe, the first of three volumes that comprise The Book of the Short Sun, which takes place in the years after Wolfes four-volume Book of the Long Sun. Horn, the narrator of the earlier work, now tells his own story.
Book Description
There are one billion Catholics in the world today, spread over every continent, speaking almost every conceivable language, and all answering to a single authority. The Vatican is a unique international organization, both in terms of its extraordinary power and influence, and in terms of its endurance. Popes come and go, but the elaborate and complex bureaucracy called the Vatican lives on. For centuries, it has served and sometimes undermined popes; it has been praised and blamed for the actions of the pope and for the state of the church. Yet an objective examination of the workings of the Vatican has been unavailable until now.
Drawing on more than a hundred interviews with Vatican officials, this book affords a firsthand look at the people, the politics, and the organization behind the institution. Reese brings remarkable clarity to the almost Byzantine bureaucracy of congregations, agencies, secretariats, tribunals, nunciature, and offices, showing how they serve the pope and, through him, the universal church. He gives a lively account of how popes are elected and bishops appointed, how dissident theologians are disciplined and civil authorities dealt with. Throughout, revealing and colorful anecdotes from church history and the present day bring the unique culture of the Vatican to life.
The Vatican is a fascinating institution, a model of continuity and adaptation, which remains constant while functioning powerfully in a changing world. As never before, this book provides a clear, objective perspective on how the enormously complex institution surrounding the papacy operates on a day-to-day level, how it has adapted and endured for close to two thousand years, and how it is likely to face the challenges of the next millennium.
Customer Reviews:
Not the salt that preserves.......2005-11-24
Beware Fr. Reese SJ's unconventional opinions and you will not be misguided by unorthodox Catholic thought. He is a very political character himself and colors his statements. His recent attack on limits placed by Pope Benedict against practicing gays entering the priesthood betray an extreme bias. He contends pedophilia the problem although the vast majority of abuse cases were against adolescent boys, not young children -- just as example of his penchant for being loose with facts.
Scary but true........2004-12-31
Once you know what goes on Inside the Vatican, as a Catholic, you may want to get out.
Methodist anyone?
Ever wonder what it'd be like to be a Vatican bureaucrat?.......2004-04-29
Thomas Reese, Jesuit professor and journalist, has carved a very narrow niche for himself as an author, explaining the organizational mechanics of the Catholic church. Most people would find his books to have far too much detail, but there are a few, like me, who are curious about what really happens behind the closed doors of the Catholic administrative apparatus. His 1989 book, "Archbishop," described how dioceses are run, and "Inside the Vatican" describes how the Vatican functions. What decisions do cardinals actually make? What is it like to be a Vatican ambassador to a foreign country? What is it like to have a career as a Vatican bureaucrat? (One tidbit: No air conditioning!)
If these are things you've wondered about, this is the book for you. Reese approaches these things as though he were an anthropologist or a management consultant, with a keen eye for the nuances of interpersonal relationships within the Vatican bureaucracy. My only complaints are that the amount of detail can be overwhelming, and Reese sometimes gets bogged down in a wooden style of writing. It's best to start reading this book in the middle, because the beginning is rather dry. On the other hand, the anecdotes are a strong plus. To give one example, the story of John Paul II reprimanding the Archbishop of Denver to his face creates a mental image that is hard to forget.
The last chapter is the most provocative, where Reese suggests reforms that are both logical and unrealistic: He argues that Vatican administrators should not be allowed to become cardinals, which in papal elections would cause a monumental power shift toward those who are in closer touch with the laity. Reese suggests priests play a major role in selecting bishops, as was the case before the 1800s, in contrast to the current practice in which the pope appoints ultraconservative bishops who can't relate to anyone in their diocese.
According to Reese, the underlying problem is that the Vatican is more interested in doctrinal purity than keeping people in the church. Meanwhile the laity are voting with their feet, gravitating to pastors who ignore papal instructions, or leaving the church altogether.
A Balanced View.......2002-05-07
Reese has written a book that can be daunting to someone who may be looking for quick answers. The Vatican is such an arcane institution that it is impossible to give a short, comprehensive answer on the operation of the Curia. As a researcher, I found Reese's work immensely informative; it also provides some balance to the more sensational allegations of Luigi Marinelli, although I doubt that his work is to be discounted either. It shows an institution that is prone to the same errors of judgement and behaviour in its denizens as any other, but with a higher degree of moral rectitude expected from it. It is a fascinating excursion into one of the world's oldest surviving bureaucracies.
an authoritative book on the Vatican!.......2002-04-13
A must buy in order to understand the Roman Curia!
Books:
- Cordelia Underwood: Or, The Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League
- Crawl Space: A Novel
- Crazy in Alabama
- Crime Novels: American Noir of the 1930s and 40s: The Postman Always Rings Twice / They Shoot Horses, Don't They? / Thieves Like Us / The Big Clock / Nightmare ... / I Married a Dead Man (Library of America)
- Days of Bitter Strength (Chung Kuo Series , No 7)
- Death Is Lighter Than a Feather
- Delta of Venus
- Digging the Vein
- Dirt Music : A Novel
- Dorian Greyhound: A Novel
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