The Gadfly
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Product Description
A fabulous tale set in Italy. Simple to read and keeps your attention.
From the book…
They went out into the still, dark cloister garden. The seminary occupied the buildings of an ancient Dominican monastery, and two hundred years ago the square courtyard had been stiff and trim, and the rosemary and lilac had grown in
close-cut bushes between the straight box edgings.
Now the white-robed monks who had tended them were laid away and forgotten; but the scented herbs flowered still in the gracious mid-summer evening, though no man gathered their
blossoms for simples any more. Tufts of wild sage and…
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This book was recommended to me many years ago when I was going through a personal crisis. The friend suggested it was about Anarchism. {Anarchism in the political sense – independence of thought; not believing in political (or religious) control; not being seduced by power over (or by) others, be it through materialism/wealth or any additional form, etc.
Recently, I have had a new struggle with the growing blight of `Globalisation’ and the erosion of our personal power, to feel truly independent and be strong enough to prompt OUR independent views and feelings while being heard. Now as never before, we must re-assert our individuality. Reading the reviews of `The Gadfly’ it is clear I need to lay my hands on a copy.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
“The gadfly” is one of the best books I have ever read.It tells us what will take place when human quit God. Montanelli, a Cardinal, born a illegitimate child when he had an affair with a merchant’s wife and gave up God. Gemma,a devoted Christian, misunderstood her beloved and broke off their relationship when she thought and acted her own way and place God behind herself. Arthur,who might be a fantastic person in the kingdom of God, renounced his faith in Christ and got executed eventually when the situations seemed changing. Never is God changeable. From creation to eternity, He was there,is there and will still be there. Only are the world and human unstable. I’m very pleased I’m a Christian. Thank God!
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
After seeing the film, which was really excellent (I saw the Chinese voice-dubbed 1955 version)I went yet to be and bought the book, but was suprisingly disappointed. The Gadfly is attractive in that it is a page-turner, but it is one of the worst classics I’ve read. The writing is amature at best, and the plot, while touching, is unconvincing, especially it supposedly sets in a historic time, it felt like history being altered into a fairy-tale.
The several problems I encountered with this novel include:
1. incoherence. for example, on page 96 it writes: “Signora Grassini alone did not appear to have noticed anything; she was fluttering her fan coquettishly and chattering to the secretary of the Dutch embassy, who listened with a broad smile on his face”
Then it says:
“There was no mistaking the malicious triumph in his eyes as he glanced from the face of the blissfully unconscious hostess (which we know is Signora Grassini) to a sofa at the end of the room.”
So one moment the lady is chattering and the next she passed out???
Another problem with the novel is it tends to overpraise its protagonists and likes to tell us how fantastic the character is before giving us any concrete details. Any avid reader knows that a excellent book shows before telling, any book that tells the reader this and that is just terrible writing.
For example, on page 101 to 102, Gemma says: “As political criticism is is very fine. I had no thought he could write so well (slot in eye-rolling here). He says things which need adage and which none of us have had the courage to say. This passage, where he compares Italy to a tipsy man crying with tenderness on the neck of the thief who is alternative his pocket, is splendidly written.”
Notice that a skilled writer would really show us what The Gadfly really wrote before telling us he is “just fantastic.” Here Voynich only summarized it and then expects us to also reflect it “splendid” because her additional protagonist says so. We didn’t get to meet The Gadfly but we are already biased into believing that he is fantastic, this is terrible form. And with the Gadfly, alone with most of her additional characters, didn’t really show much quality until maybe the very end in which he had the conversation with his Padre. It felt explosive in that it seemed Voynich had the ending all in her mind, the rest is just “I had to write it to get there.”
with Gemma Voynich also likes to overpraise her and says that she is level-headed and is permanently right and everybody is impressed by her (except the reader of course) blah blah blah.
Another thing that bugs me is that Voynich seemed to place down Blacks and Chinese, as the Gadfly (who is really fantastic because Voynich tells us so then and then again) basically despises anyone who is dark-skinned because they are the ones who tortured him. I don’t get how no Chinese get offended by this (I suspect when it was translated into Chinese the part mensioning the Chinese is either omitted or mistranslated). On one hand I have to be open-minded and accept it as something of a fact, another hand I kept suspecting why Voynich would choose this plot line. If it’s trying to show that sympathy for dark-skinned slaves is overrated she certainly did not give us much detail behind the whole social issue. but then that’s pretty much like most of the book, just plots, no insightful obeservation on the actual human condition during that period.
Overall, I reflect the book could be classified as pleasure read than taking it seriously and call it a “classic.” If you are a classic fan I reflect you’ll be disappointed and better off reading stuff like Les Mis; the writing is so much better and you’ll really get some insightful details on the human condition and the social problems of that time period–that’s what classics are about.
If you are interested in The Gadfly I suggest you should just go see the film (if you can get your hand on it), since it’s much shorter than the book it is much more exciting and omitted/changed all the absurd parts from the book.
Reader’s Rating: 3 / 5
“The gadfly” is one of the best books I have ever read.It tells us what will take place when human quit God. Montanelli, a Cardinal, born a illegitimate child when he had an affair with a merchant’s wife and gave up God. Gemma,a devoted Christian, misunderstood her beloved and broke off their relationship when she thought and acted her own way and place God behind herself. Arthur,who might be a fantastic person in the kingdom of God, renounced his faith in Christ and got executed eventually when the situations seemed changing. Never is God changeable. From creation to eternity, He was there,is there and will still be there. Only are the world and human unstable. I’m very pleased I’m a Christian. Thank God!
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
I first read the Gadfly in Spanish when I was twelve, even though I couldn’t know it fully at tat time, something attracted me as a magnet.
I read it again when I was seventeen, and it has been my favorite book since then.
The Gadfy is (In my humble opinion) one of the greatest novels ever written. Beyond political or religious considerations, The Gadfly is a must-have and of course a must-read.
It escapes my understanding why it hasn’t been taken to the silver screen after the brilliant (1955) very hard to find russian version. I can only imagine the success it would have today.
I’m buying a new copy for my kids, and I recommend The Gadfly to everyone.
Can anyone award it less than five stars?
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5