Clarice Lispector

'The morning became a long, drawn-out afternoon that became depthless night dawning innocently through the house' Tales of desire and madness from this giant of Brazilian literature. Penguin Modern: fifty new books celebrating the pioneering spirit of the iconic Penguin Modern Classics series, with each one offering a concentrated hit of its contemporary, international flavour. Here are authors ranging from Kathy Acker to James Baldwin, Truman Capote to Stanislaw Lem and George Orwell to Shirley Jackson; essays radical and inspiring; poems moving and disturbing; stories surreal and fabulous; taking us from the deep South to modern Japan, New York's underground scene to the farthest reaches of outer space.

Clarice Lispector összes novelláját tartja kezében az olvasó: azt a sok történetből összeálló nagy történetet, amely szerzőjüket igazi legendává tették. Lispector sokáig az ínyenc olvasók titkos világtippje volt, napjainkban megkerülhetetlen alkotóként fedezték fel újra. Kritikusai joggal hasonlítják az életmű jelentőségét Franz Kafka és Jorge Louis Borges munkáihoz. A hol szürrealista, hol patetikus, gyakran szarkasztikus humorú írások varázslatos módon beszélnek el nem mindennapi történeteket. Az írások főszereplői saját szexuális és művészei erejükre ráébredő kamaszok, unatkozó háziasszonyok, akik számára minden történet önmagát túlmutató eseménnyé válik, a mindennapokat végzetes választási lehetőségekként megélő emberek. A hol teljesen hétköznapi, hol természetfölötti látomásokat megjelenítő írásokban mégis megmutatkozik valami közös: az emberi lélek feltárulkozása.

Jedna z najvýznamnejších moderných spisovateliek po prvý raz v slovenčine. V tejto knihe nájdete všetkých 85 poviedok, ktoré z nej urobili brazílsku legendu. Nie je to len súbor poviedok, táto kniha je oveľa viac je portrétom samej Clarice Lispectorovej. Môžeme tu sledovať jej dozrievanie ako ženy aj spisovateľky. Hrdinky jej prvých poviedok sú mladé dievčatá riešiace problémy dospievania. Neskôr sa jej hlavnými postavami stávajú ženy matky a ženy v domácnosti, ktoré bojujú s ubíjajúcou jednotvárnosťou manželského života. Keď niekdajšia vyhlásená krásavica Clarice starne, starnú aj jej hrdinky, ktoré sa musia vyrovnávať s vlastnou smrteľnosťou a telesným úpadkom.

One of the hidden geniuses of the twentieth century' Colm Toibin 'She suddenly leaned toward the mirror and sought the love-liest way to see herself' Lucrecia Neves is vain, unreflective, insolently superficial, almost mute. She may have no inner life at all. As she morphs from small-town girl to worldly wife of a rich man, and her small home town surrenders to the forces of progress, Lucrecia seeks perfection: to be an object, serene, smooth, beyond the burden of words or even thought itself. A book that obsessed its author, The Besieged City is unlike any other work in Lispector's canon: a story of transformation, of what it means to see and to be seen.

Blízko divokého srdca je prvý román brazílskej spisovateľky Clarice Lispectorovej. Dielo, ktoré napísala ako dvadsaťdvaročná študentka v malej prenajatej izbičke, vyvolalo okamžitý ohlas. Kritici ho nazvali najlepším románom, aký kedy žena napísala v portugalskom jazyku, a jeho mladučkú autorku označili za najvýraznejšiu osobnosť brazílskej literatúry. Príbeh Joany, ktorá spomína na detstvo i na roky nevydareného manželstva, je prienikom do vnútorného sveta hĺbavej dievčiny a neskôr mladej ženy, čo len ťažko hľadá pochopenie u ľudí okolo seba, a zároveň úsilím preniknúť do podstaty ľudskej existencie. Pri čítaní diel brazílskej autorky Clarice Lispectorovej má človek často pocit, akoby sa ponáral do jazera s temnou vodou, kde ho strach z utopenia neodrádza od túžby pohrúžiť sa do tajomstva. Tí, ktorí sú pripravení vrhnúť sa do týchto vôd, sa v jej dielach dočkajú odmeny: neraz im pripomenú, že je tu niekto, kto hlboko v sebe skrýva rovnaké obavy, vášne a dokonca zdanlivo neľudské myšlienky. Jose Solís, The New York Times

The publication of Clarice Lispector's Collected Stories, eighty-five in all, is a major literary event. Now, for the first time in English, are all the stories that made her a Brazilian legend: from teenagers coming into awareness of their sexual and artistic powers to humdrum housewives whose lives are shattered by unexpected epiphanies to old people who don't know what to do with themselves. Lispector's stories take us through their lives - and ours. From one of the greatest modern writers, these 85 stories, gathered from the nine collections published during her lifetime, follow Clarice Lispector throughout her life.

"That woman who killed the fish unfortunately is me," begins the title story, but "if it were my fault, I'd own up to you, since I don't lie to boys and girls. I only lie sometimes to a certain type of grownup because there's no other way." Enumerating all the animals she's loved-cats, dogs, lizards, chickens, monkeys-Clarice finally asks: "Do you forgive me?" "The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit" is a detective story that explains that bunnies think with their noses: for a single idea a bunny might "scrunch up his nose fifteen thousand times" (he may not be too bright, but "he's not foolish at all when it comes to making babies"). The third tale, "Almost True," is a shaggy dog yarn narrated by a pooch who is very worried about a wicked witch: "I am a dog named Ulisses and my owner is Clarice." The wonderful last story, "Laura's Intimate Life" stars "the nicest hen I've ever seen." Laura is "quite dumb," but she has her "little thoughts and feelings. Not a lot, but she's definitely got them. Just knowing she's not completely dumb makes her feel all chatty and giddy. She thinks that she thinks." A one-eyed visitor from Jupiter arrives and vows Laura will never be eaten: she's been worrying, because "humans are a weird sort of person" who can love hens and eat them, too. Such throw away wisdom abounds: "Don't even get me started." These delightful, high-hearted stories, written for her own boys, have charm to burn and are a treat for every Lispector reader.

This exhilarating collection of non-fiction sees one of the greatest twentieth-century writers meditating on the moments that make up a life 'How did I so unwittingly transform the joy of living into the great luxury of being alive?' Between 1967 and 1977, the internationally renowned author Clarice Lispector wrote weekly dispatches from her desk in Rio for the Jornal do Brasil. Already famous for her revolutionary, interior, metaphysical novels and short stories, in her Chronicles she turned her attention to the everyday, reshaping the material of her life into profound, touching and funny, tiny revelations. Observing the world around her, small encounters like hearing tales of the lost loves of a taxi driver, or the bitterness lurking beneath the prettiness of an old friend, become an exposition of the currents and foibles that define our lives. Everything from the meaning of cosmonauts to the new ideas, writers and artists that populate the sparkling international world of the sixties and seventies are considered and transformed into jewels of insight, delight and devastation. Sincere and playful, exhilarating and contemplative, Too Much of Life: Complete Chronicles opens up a new way of seeing the world.

Little Clothbound Classics: irresistible, mini editions of short stories, novellas and essays from the world's greatest writers, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith Thirteen short tales from one of the most blistering and innovative writers of the twentieth century. The small incidents of life become moments of inner revelation in the luminous writing of Clarice Lispector. A woman contemplating a vase of roses after a nervous breakdown; a tangled mother-daughter relationship; a man's abandonment of a dog; an animal in a zoo: each one leads to mystery and self-discovery, delight and devastation.