I must confess, this wasn’t the book I was looking for when I wandered out into the stacks at the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library with my sights set on William Styron’s, William Styron has crafted an electrifying and deeply unsettling novel of rape, murder, and suicide -- a work with a Dostoevskian insight into the dreadful persuasiveness of evil.-- The New York Times Book Review. The portraits of its 2 main characters are searingly detailed, revelling in the weaknesses of Cass & Mason. A profound exploration of the evil that men do, and what the innocent must endure to accommodate it, Set This House on Fire is more than a byzantine murder mystery, it’s “one of the finest novels of our times” from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Confessions of Nat Turner, Darkness Visible, and other modern classics (San Francisco Chronicle). About Set This House on Fire The day after Peter Leverett met his old friend Mason Flagg in Italy, Mason was found dead. Recalling various unpleasant scenes from his schooldays, he begins to wonder what horrible crimes Mason may have committed to draw down the wrath of divine justice. The sequences involving the movie set, Wendy Flagg, Mason’s war record and his collections, the sex people, and the week in New York: these are thrilling and nuanced and sometimes hysterically funny. This is a well told story, interesting and engaging. I would be curious to read the opinions of other Goodreads friends who have read this novel. ), The novel was a success in France, but received mixed reviews in the US, some of which, such as the New York Times and The New Yorker, criticized its supposed heavy-handedness (particularly in the character of Luigi, a police-officer-cum-philosopher) and slow pacing, thought to detract from the writing. Publisher: Open Road Media 0 3 0 Summary A New York Times bestseller by the author of Sophie’s Choice: Two Americans search for the truth about a mysterious long-ago murder in Italy. - William Styron, from Set This House on Fire, Like most of Styron's works, Set This House on Fire is concerned with sex and death, as well as with aspects of Styron's personal life—in this case, the experience of growing up in Newport News, Virginia. Finally he takes action, writing to Cass in Charleston and begging for a chance to talk about the murder and other strange events in Italy. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Set This House on Fire is a novel set in a small village of the Amalfi coast in Italy, centered on the themes of evil and redemption. While I understand that this is a study in guilt and redemption, still I found that the internalized ramblings of inebriate Cass were tedious and self-indulgent and went on and on for pages and pages. Cass Kinsolving: A "friend" of Peter's, who Peter suspects might have knowledge on what happened to Mason and was possibly involved in his death Mason Flagg: Peter's Writing that it almost intimidating in its power. Many descriptions of events left me satisfied and wanting more, but they were too far and few between the ramblings that should have been edited out. Stunned by the remark, Izzy runs away. Set This House on Fire plays on the idea of salvation within the framework of crime and punishment. Topics: Psychology, Interpersonal relationship, Mind Pages: 2 (507 words) Published: March 8, 2007. About Set This House on Fire. Styron seems to think it is interesting for characters to rant eccentrically about whatever is on their mind, but I would disagree, and I soon started skipping all rants. It's discursive, ruminative, deeply felt, passionate. It's "Naked in New York," which I'd never seen or even heard of. William Styron (1925-2006), a native of the Virginia Tidewater, was a graduate of Duke University and a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps. Search. ADELE TUTTER. Nevertheless, I did finish it. 2. Publisher: Open Road Media 0 3 0 Summary A New York Times bestseller by the author of Sophie’s Choice: Two Americans search for the truth about a mysterious long-ago murder in Italy. Taraaaa [♥] Lv 5. Set This House on Fire is intended to be a psychologically intense, earnest rumination on evil, redemption, cruelty, the various ways human beings exploit and deceive one another. The hours leading up to his death were a nightmare for Peter - both in their violence and in their maddening unreality.The blaze of events which followed was, Peter soon realised, ignited by a conflict between two men: Mason Flagg himself and Cass Kinsolving, a tortured, self-destructive painter, a natural enemy and prey to the monstrous evil of Mason Flagg. Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this Set This House on Fire study guide. Set This House on Fire plays on the idea of salvation within the framework of crime and punishment. Hmmm...sophomore slump? The one I had was an old paperback published after WS's preceding work. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published Subjects. A great deal of philosophical discussion concerning good, evil, and God's Grace set in post-WWII Italy. Many times I thought I just might Set This Kindle on Fire, but I finally finished it in 2 months(!!! Image:Set this house Styron.jpg is being used on this article. Of the three main characters, Peter, the narrator, Mason, the privileged and sleazy poseur, and Cass, the failed, self-absorbed artist, only Cass elicited any sympathy from me despite his monstrous crime. Elena then takes the blame and says she started the fire — finally owning up to her mistakes. What I remember about this? Young southern lawyer Peter Leverett is on vacation, and is thrilled to meet his old friend Mason Flagg on a film set in the town of Sambuco. The day after Peter Leverett met his old friend Mason Flagg in Italy, Mason was found dead. Styron it is. See 2 questions about Set This House On Fire…, An American Family: The Baby with the Curious Markings, Chef David Chang’s Newest Project? First of all, it's about writers and drunkenness and being artistically blocked and expatriate escapism, and if one is into those sorts of things (ahem) then one may find oneself folding down multiple page corners, or, if one is forced to get the book via digital e-library because one is in China and can't find a hard copy, highlighting multiple. It borrows from the structure of confessional literature for presenting plot within a plot but not limits itself with the inner dynamics. This book was exhausting. Corresponding Author. Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! Skip to main content.ca. Their first meeting in the town of Sambuco does not bode well for their friendship, as Cass is falling-down drunk and rudely spewing threats towards Mason Flagg and his wealthy Hollywood friends. This begins with an entire chapter of the sort of rant that I found so unpleasant, and then proceeds through a tedious accounting of an unpleasant and dull tortured artist type. Set This House on Fire. Cass Kinsolving: A "friend" of Peter's, who Peter suspects might have knowledge on what happened to Mason and was possibly involved in his death Mason Flagg: Peter's Answer Save. Peter is disgusted by him at the time, but some months later he begins to be troubled by the sense that brooding, enigmatic Cass Kinsolving may know something about Mason's death. Home. Fiction , Americans , Artist's block , Artists , American fiction (fictional works by one author) , Italy, fiction , Artists, fiction , Fiction, psychological. For reasons of their own, the corrupt local police quickly label his death a suicide, but Peter suspects foul play. he's a master framer. Cass Kinsolving and Peter Leverett are both southerners, but strikingly different in appearance, behavior, and social background. Places. The roof was on fire, the doors and the windows were on fire, fire was even coming out of the house through various openings, looking like a fire-breathing dragon was inside the house, puffing fire. The narrator, Peter Leverett, is a lawyer from the South, but the story is primarily told through the recollections of its protagonist, a troubled artist named Cass Kinsolving. SET THIS HOUSE ON FIRE: THE SELF‐ANALYSIS OF RAYMOND CARVER. It borrows from the structure of confessional literature for presenting plot within a plot but not limits itself with the inner dynamics. I would have stopped after the first few chapters, but there was enough of a plot buried in all the unnecessary language to keep me interested. I'd just put the novel on the bookshelf, and there it is on the TV screen, and there is the man himself. Set this House on Fire. Title: Set This House On Fire Author: sgs359.kapook.com-2021-04-19T00:00:00+00:01 Subject: Set This House On Fire Keywords: set, this, house, on, fire Oh yeah, and there was a tepid orgy scene too. It's not that the writing is bad, in fact, quite the opposite, it's really good. flag. 1 decade ago. I struggled to gain momentum or find a rhythm as a reader. I picked this up because of the author but was not rewarded. Set This House on Fire. I remember throwing myself eagerly on this book and giving up, totally puzzled, a third of the way through. To begin burning something. Firefighters set this house on fire on purpose and for a good reason! Yes, there were several scenes that were gut wrenching and highly captivating. This book was exhausting. And despite some wondrously lyrical prose, the casual and cruel racism, misogyny, and xenophobia were really hard to take. Ultimately, Cass' experiences with Flagg provide Cass with the inspiration he needs to redeem himself. The story is seemingly known very early, and the bulk of the book concerns itself with explaining it and revealing that which was assumed incorrectly. Read it if you are a Styron admirer. But, when Styron hits, he hits hard. Styron is a master craftsman at the top of his game here. EMBED (for wordpress.com hosted blogs and archive.org item
tags) Want more? This book is nowhere near as good as Styron's stunning debut novel, Lie Down in Darkness*, but it was interesting in a few ways. Finally, and thankfully, it came to a satisfactory ending. Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this Set This House on Fire study guide. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Howells Medal, the American Book Award, the Légion d’Honneur, and the Witness to Justice Award from the … I put it back on the bookshelf. I was even about to recommend the book solely on that basis as a way to learn a bit of Italian with zero language-class effort, but then I got to the in-defense-of-the-orgy scene and was suddenly unsure about recommending the book to anyone, for fear of what they might think I was preaching to them about. Provenance: JAMES JONES (1921-1977), American writer (presentation inscription). The narrator, Peter Leverett, is a lawyer from the South, but the story is primarily told through the recollections of its protagonist, a troubled artist named Cass Kinsolving. Read this book using Google Play Books app on your PC, android, iOS devices. A profound exploration of the evil that men do, and what the innocent must endure to accommodate it, Set This House on Fire is more than a byzantine murder mystery, it’s “one of the finest novels of our times” from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Confessions of Nat Turner, Darkness Visible, and other modern classics (San Francisco Chronicle). I put it back on the bookshelf. The hours leading up to his death were a nightmare for Peter - both in their violence and in their maddening unreality.The blaze of events which followed was, Peter soon realised, ignited by a conflict between two men: Mason Flagg himself and Cass Kinsolving, a tortured, self-destru. Set This House on Fire William Styron. Something ferocious and tragic, like what happened to Jericho or the cities of the plain - something terrible I mean, son, so that when the people have been through hellfire and the crucible, and have suffered agony enough and grief, they’ll be people again, human beings, not a bunch of smug contented cows rooting at the trough.”. Lexie, Trip, and Moody are left in tears, pleading with their mother to go after Izzy. I did read Sophie's Choice, also by Styron, years ago and don't remember it being nearly this difficult to get through. Irwin Shaw's Two Weeks in Another Town featured an American in Italy mixed up with the movie business. What is the theme of Set This House on Fire? I would have stopped after the first few chapters, but there was enough of a plot buried in all the unnecessary language to keep me interested. Set This House on Fire, is a novel by William Styron, set in Italy centred on the themes of evil and redemption. WorldCat Home About WorldCat Help. Half way through, the book becomes fairly unreadable as it change. Human depravity on display. When I was young I felt this was Styron's richest, most entertaining novel, and I still enjoy it. The narrator, Leverett, is a lawyer from the South, but the story is primarily told through the recollections of its protagonist, a troubled artist named Cass. Corresponding Author. Relevance. He makes me feel drunk. All in all, it is, somehow, an experimental gateway for Styron’s later works. First of all, it's about writers and drunkenness and being artistically blocked and expatriate escapism, and if one is into those sorts of things (ahem) then one may find oneself folding down multiple page corners, or, if one is forced to get the book via digital e-library because one is in China and can't find a hard copy, highlighting multiple passages in one's kindle-for-PC, not that one is proud of having had to do it this way. I see a lot of people here like this book, but I don't get why. The first half is unpleasant though absorbing. No_Favorite. And despite some wondrously lyrical prose, the casual and cruel racism, misogyny, and xenophobia were really hard. But it isn't a piece of work that cuts to your core like Nat Turner and perhaps Sophie's Choice. I'm trying to figure out what to read next, six books laid out on the coffee table before me. Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! It uses the means of Gothic romance for developing this salvation story of Cass Kinsolving even though it does not follow Gothic conventions step by step. Many times I considered moving on, putting it down, but I kept with it and I'm glad I did. I'm afraid it will be a long while before I read another book by Styron. Not my favorite Styron, but still pretty darn good. Original cloth (upper hinge starting); dust jacket (minor darkening to spine). Smoke is really, really dangerous. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Pretty much a total crap fest once the action gets to the Villa/movie set. The narrator, Peter Leverett, is a lawyer from the South, but the story is primarily told through the recollections of its protagonist, a troubled artist named Cass Kinsolving. ADELE TUTTER. Not my cup of tea. Set this house on fire. Set this house on fire Item Preview > remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. 9 Answers. Ironically, Styron attempts to represent Cass' destruction of Mason as a heroic and redemptive act, even as he resorts to the oldest and most self-pitying stereotypes (the Yankee is a sniveling coward, the Southerner fearless on the field of battle. I wouldn't be too concerned with what he thinks of you. This will only be the 2nd from Styron for me, the first, Hmmm...sophomore slump? He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Howells Medal, the American Book Award, the Légion d’Honneur, and the Witness to Justice Award from the … No_Favorite. FIRST EDITION. Fortunately Styron redeemed himself with Nat Turner and Sophie's Choice. ADELE TUTTER. The novel's title refers to a line from one of John Donne's epigraphs: His mercies hath applied His judgments, and hath shaked the house, this body, with agues and palsies, and set this house on fire with fevers and calentures, and frightened the master of the house, which is my soul, with horrors, and heavy apprehensions, and so made an entrance into me. Set This House on Fire is a 1960 psychological novel by American essayist and novelist William Styron. The only way I managed to finish was to skim over all the drunk ravings and pontifications, and the endless needless descriptions, and focus on the occasional sentence or two that actually advanced the story. And to his horror and dismay, the main suspect is a fellow American named Cass Kinsolving. To Peter Leverett, a good-natured, rather gullible young man, he has always been a hero. Kirkus Reviews was more favorable, saying that the book was "a complex, ambitious book which sets out to explore the limits and varieties of good and evil and in the process presents a picture of recent American life which is drawn in compelling detail and with strong authority. Half way through, the book becomes fairly unreadable as it changes focus to a different character. I tried reading this for a while but it was so annoying that I just skimmed the second half to see how everything was tied up, which it was in a perfunctory fashion. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read Set This House on Fire. set (something) on fire 1. There was fire everywhere. Refresh and try again. share. Holy crap. Set This House on Fire is a novel by William Styron, set in a small village of the Amalfi coast in Italy, centred on the themes of evil and redemption. 2. To do wonderful or exciting things that cause a great or remarkable sensation; to be extremely popular, famous, renowned, etc. Also, the book is essentially a free Italian lesson, and some of us (ahem) are very into that kind of thing as well. Excellent writer and does not disappoint in beautifully drawn vignettes and fabulous descriptions. William Styron is the bee's knees. If you follow the world of food, chances are you’ve heard of David Chang. It's more that there is so little going on in this book. Set this house on fire Item Preview > remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. There was a whole side story in Styron's book involving movie business folks. Publisher: Open Road Media 0 3 0 Summary A New York Times bestseller by the author of Sophie’s Choice: Two Americans search for the truth about a mysterious long-ago murder in Italy. All in all, it is, somehow, an experimental, Set This House on Fire plays on the idea of salvation within the framework of crime and punishment. I struggled to gain momentum or find a rhythm as a reader. William Styron died in 2006. William Styron's Set This House on Fire. Set This House on Fire is a novel by William Styron, set in a small village of the Amalfi coast in Italy, centred on the themes of evil and redemption. The third and long-awaited novel by the author of the critically celebrated Lie Down in Darkness, this is a complex, ambitious book which sets out to explore the limits and varieties of good and evil and in the process presents a picture of recent American life which is drawn in compelling detail and with strong authority. Must be a sign, I think. To do wonderful or exciting things that cause a great or remarkable sensation; to be extremely popular, famous, renowned, etc. Great writing here and there but an archetypal love triangle and incessant descriptions of drunkenness begin to grate after a while. Start by marking “Set This House On Fire” as Want to Read: Error rating book. 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