List Based On Books Barry Lyndon
| Title | : | Barry Lyndon |
| Author | : | William Makepeace Thackeray |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 220 pages |
| Published | : | September 25th 2006 by Echo Library (first published 1844) |
| Categories | : | Classics. Fiction. Literature. 19th Century. Historical. Historical Fiction. European Literature. British Literature. Novels |
William Makepeace Thackeray
Paperback | Pages: 220 pages Rating: 3.65 | 1863 Users | 169 Reviews
Interpretation In Pursuance Of Books Barry Lyndon
Had someone asked me last week to name them a film better than the book, off the top of my head I couldn't give a definitive answer. If the same question popped up today, my immediate response would be, Stanley Kubrick's 'Barry Lyndon'. A film I adore so much it even had me playing the Film's beautiful music softy in the background whilst reading Thackeray's novel, hoping it would start to dazzle the book. It didn't. That's not to say there wasn't much to enjoy about the Irish rogue's escapades around 18th Century Europe, but it just never reached the heights I thought it would. Thackeray spent ten gruelling years as a journalist covering burlesques, travel-articles, short-stories, as well as being a critic on books and pictures. His early promise came in the fashion of serial publications. Barry Lyndon (1844), opened up his golden decadence of the successful novel.Written as an 18th century pastiche, the work draws a portrait of a dashing schemer who is a liar, a boaster, a self-flatterer, and womanizer, in other words, an arrogant toerag. He plans to enter Europe's social elite with the hope of gaining access to huge wealth through the love of a woman. In this case, her Ladyship, the Countess Honoria of Lyndon. A melancholy sort, who also has a son, Lord Bullingdon. It all starts off for Redmond Barry in Ireland, he narrates through his adventures, first falling foul of Captain Quin because of Nora Brady (who Barry happens to love). There is a duel, which he wins, but has to flee for his own good. He ends up joining the Army, and after deserting at the time of the seven years war, manages to establish himself as a man of fashion, worth and snobbery, and also a professional gambler, touring the courts and spas of Europe with The Chevalier du Balibari, who happens to be his uncle. This would eventually lead him into the arms of Countess Lyndon, safe to say she is filthy rich and highly important. Redmond takes the title of 'Barry Lyndon' after marriage.
He finds the code of respectability a protective shield under which he can violate with impunity every social decency, but this can only last so long, before virtue finally outwits him. Thackeray's sense of irony restrains his novel drifting into sentimental excess, and mixes scoundrels with the elite to good effect. Barry, like most of Thackeray's characters succumbs to the code of respectability. In rejecting all the stereotypes of heroism through which the novelist evaded his responsibility to give what he called 'the sentiment of reality', he explores married life deconstructing the convention of the literature of his times, that is, the obligatory plot in which marriage is very emphatically enshrined as the happy ending. As an ironic inversion of the romantic nonsense of his time, the astringent view of marriage signals the real origins of Thackeray's novels.
There is no virtue in Barry Lyndon, but he is allowed some capacity for what we may call genuiness when he feels the pains of nostalgia, affections, paternal love, and the hostility of war. The film contained a most heart-breaking scene involving Barry's young son, the emotions of moments like this just never felt as true in the book. Although when there is sorrow, it isn't pretended, Barry recounts the death of his son, making him appear less simple than first thought. The result of such oscillation between sympathy and impartiality, sentiment and cynicism, is that he dramatises the business of judging the characters while not encouraging the reader in their black-and-white views on morals. Maybe one of the reasons why he was undervalued by posterity in relation to Charles Dickens, his chief Victorian rival.
The problem I had was Kubrick's film streaming constantly through my mind. And the book does differ from the film in places, upsetting my rhythm. It's a decent novel on rogues and aristocracy, a bit boring at times, but captures the setting and time solid enough. Still prefer the film though, by some considerable distance.
Identify Books To Barry Lyndon
| Original Title: | The Luck of Barry Lyndon |
| ISBN: | 1406808466 (ISBN13: 9781406808469) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Redmond Barry, John Quin, Nora Brady, The Chevalier de Balibari, Countess Honoria of Lyndon, Reverend Samuel Runt, Lord Bullingdon |
| Setting: | Ireland England Prussia …more France …less |
Rating Based On Books Barry Lyndon
Ratings: 3.65 From 1863 Users | 169 ReviewsCritique Based On Books Barry Lyndon
(too bad I don't beleive in Past lives, otherwise, I would have the strong feeling I lived during the 7 Years War)Barry Lyndon is my first venture into a Thackeray novel. I have tried and forsaken Vanity Fair multiple times and have been avoiding the movie like hell because I still hope I may finish it. In the meantime, this book, the Stanley Kubrick movie and its soundtrack crossed my path, so I gave it a sympathetic try and do not regret it at all. Barry Lyndon is an Irishman whose temper isBarry Lyndon is a fine, rollicking example of the picaresque novel, in the tradition of Tom Jones perhaps. Redmond Barry is ambitious and headstrong, meant for a life of pleasure and recognition, but there is one slight problem--he was born into a decayed, dubiously aristocratic family in Ireland. After fighting his first duel at fifteen, he flees Ireland and goes through a hilarious series of adventures: army deserter, spy, gambler and card cheat, seducer, and sycophant. Unscrupulous but
The eponymous Barry Lyndon is the ultimate unreliable narrator; as he lies, swindles, fights, gambles and flirts his way across late 18th century Europe he consistently presents himself in an unfeasibly flattering light. This makes for an entertaining and amusing novel, although taken objectively the "hero" is not at all likeable. The chief pleasures of this book are reading between the lines to the unsavoury truth, and the lively wit - I laughed very much at phrases like "a girl with no more
This isn't exactly a huge book but it did take me longer than usual to finish, mostly because of it's slow pace and it's biographical style. He's a very anti-hero sort of character, his morals are low and he thinks very highly of himself. Much like the main character on the only other Thackeray book I have read, Becky Sharp on Vanity Fair. Interesting to see a writer from the 19th century that wrote basically the same character, but with different genders in two different books.
I went into the book thinking I was going to get a picaresque novel à la Three Musketeers and was left disappointed. While it certainly fits the basic definition, I felt it lacked any of the liveliness found in Dumas' work. This might have to do with the fact that the story is told by Barry as an old man looking back on his life rather than it happening in the moment. I am still interested in seeing how Kubrick interpreted the novel into film. My advice: if you want to read Thackeray, go for
A crazy story about a self-deluded loafer who wanders through Europe in the 1880s. He constantly fails at whatever he tries, but is under the impression that he's succeeded marvelously. A cynical book about human nature and how well people can deceive themselves. A fun read.
Barry Lyndon is a classically "unreliable narrator". He's an Irish rogue who joins the British army after an unhappy love affair and then goes on to fame and fortune as a fashionable gambler. As in Vanity Fair, Thackeray is interested in representing his characters accurately and realistically, and his portrayal of the dissolute, amoral Barry, a rake who thinks he's a prince among men, is masterful.
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