Salambo by Gustave Flaubert (PDF)

Description

Text: English, French (translation)

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Evil triumphs over evilFlaubert spent several years researching this book about an army of mercenaries who revolt against ancient Carthage.The book is a combination of history and myth not unlike Homer’s Iliad. Like the Iliad it is a larger than life epic tale, but this tale has neither poetry nor heroes.Carthage does not want to pay the mercenaries their due; the mercenaries seek to plunder Carthage in revenge. Both sides rely on deceit and treachery to advance their cause.In the background, the sensual and mysterious Salammbo, seeking her own objective, indifferently and unwittingly affects the outcome.The war becomes long and brutal as the balance shifts back and forth. The horror of war becomes increasingly indefensible as the author offers neither heroes nor justifications. Fed only by greed, pride and revenge, the war and the slaughter grind on endlessly.Some would criticize, “This is not Madame Bovary, and this is too much violence without a point.” Others would say, “This is not Madame Bovary, but to criticize that it is too much violence without a point, is to miss the point.”Flaubert, painting with exquisite detail and unapologetic language, tells an epic, exotic and sensual tale of failure.

⭐I read the Mondial release of this book and I found the translation horribly confusing at times. There are also several typos. Once you get far enough into the book things start to make more sense, but I found myself rereading passages several times earlier on to get my head around what was trying to be conveyed. Later into it you have more of a sense of the plot and characters, which helps you piece together what is going on better.I can’t imagine the Penguin edition being any worse than this, so I’ll point you in that direction and hope it turns out well.

⭐This review is specifically referring to the Mondial edition of Salammbo. Within the first 10 pages, I counted many sloppy typos – it’s regrettable that there isn’t really another English translation available on Amazon. The translator must not have been happy with his work either, as there is actually no listed translator – that’s the first time I’ve ever seen that.

⭐This is an incredible tale!

⭐I was really looking forward to reading this book based on all the favorable reviews. The subject matter is right up my alley, because I like historical books, and some of the other descriptions made it sound like this was going to be interesting. But I find this to be a painful read. The way this is printed is such that there’s not even a space between paragraphs. So it’s a little bit as if somebody is talking and there is no pauses or no breaks at all. It is just an incessant onslaught of words. It has made reading this book very difficult, and this would be challenging to read under even the best of circumstances. I’m going to have to find a different edition to read, because this is just too much of a battle to deal with.

⭐This is a monstrous, depraved, beautiful and lofty book, obviously the work of a genius – the last third I found completely riveting, but I have to say it felt like I was being pulled deeper and deeper into the dark vortex of Flaubert’s psychology, where terrible brutality is mixed with rapturous lyricism – hate and love, pleasure and pain become one and the same – very disturbing, actually – EROS/THANATOS unleashed. I now have certain images in my head that will be difficult to forget. This was probably one of the most violent and disturbing things that I’ve read; it’s a book obsessed with sadomasochistic impulses, on an epic scale; it’s quite troubling because it makes the reader complicit by joining in the eroticization of torture and killing, of human barbarity and degradation; nevertheless, I was compelled to keep reading – because of Flaubert’s amazing artistry, I couldn’t look away. “Salammbo” makes the horrors of battle real and visceral, while turning hell-on-earth into intoxicating poetry – a very strange but beautiful work. The original french readers of “Salammbo” (1862) must have experienced quite a shock; it was a financial success (following the sensation of “Madame Bovary”), but it wasn’t translated into english until much later – now I think I understand why.The true nature of Salammbo (more an archetype than a mortal heroine) isn’t revealed to the reader, or to her, until the final pages of the book. What were Flaubert’s motivations for writing this novel? I guess he had to get it out of his system; he’s like a dangerous, intoxicated, wild animal, filled with blood lust, who can transform his cravings into mystical poetry. But perhaps this represents Flaubert’s personal portrait of humanity, expressed through ancient history and myth: a twisted, eternal conflict encompassing light and dark, masculine and feminine, civilization and chaos, war and religion, mystic and erotic, but essentially, when stripped of it’s outer forms, barbaric.

⭐The great book has been spoiled by ridiculous edition. Unbelievably tiny font makes it nearly impossible to read even wearing reading glasses.

⭐The letters are tiny and the format rather large in order to make the cheapest copy possible. Hard to read due to the tiny letters.

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