Il labirinto

Scrittori dimenticati:Lagerkvist

Pär Fabian Lagerkvist (Växjö, 23 maggio 1891 – Stoccolma, 11 luglio 1974) è stato uno scrittore svedese, premio Nobel per la letteratura nel 1951. Poeta, drammaturgo e autore di romanzi e racconti, è uno dei più noti classici svedesi.

Gli anni di esordio sono caratterizzati dall’interesse per le avanguardie, dalla violenza espressionistica di poesie che riflettono gli orrori della guerra e da una produzione teatrale influenzata dallo Strindberg mistico e surreale. Le sue opere, anche le più pessimistiche, sono dettate dalla necessità di affermare i valori fondamentali della vita e dalla costante ricerca di un ateo che non riesce a superare il vuoto lasciato da una fede perduta. Vinse il premio Nobel grazie al romanzo "Barabba" per il suo vigore artistico e per l'indipendenza del suo pensiero con cui cercò, nelle sue opere, di trovare risposte alle eterne domande che l'umanità affronta^[1]

Il suo romanzo più famoso è Dvärgen del 1944, che venne tradotto in lingua inglese nel 1945 da Alexandra Dick con il titolo: The Dwarf (il nano)

Scrittori dimenticati:James Hilton

James Hilton (Leigh, 9 settembre 1900 – Long Beach, 20 dicembre 1954) è stato uno scrittore e sceneggiatore britannico.

Nato nel Lancashire, suo padre, John, era un insegnante e si trasferì con la famiglia a Londra dove James frequentò varie scuole prima di iscriversi alla Leys School di Cambridge. Contribuì nella pubblicazione della rivista della scuola e successivamente, mentre era uno studente non laureato di diciassette anni del Christ's College di Cambridge, uno dei suoi articoli fu accettato dal Manchester Guardian. Il suo primo romanzo, Catherine Herself fu pubblicato nel 1920 mentre doveva ancora laurearsi.

Negli anni trenta Hilton si consolidò come sceneggiatore a Hollywood, divenendone una figura popolare, Frank Capra, Ronald Colman e Greer Garson si annoveravano tra i suoi amici.

Tra i suoi romanzi più celebri si ricordano: Goodbye, Mr. Chips (Addio, Mr. Chips! del 1938), oggetto di una fortunata riduzione cinematografica. Un particolare interessante è il fatto che per scrivere questo libro abbia impiegato, solo quattro giorni. Scrisse anche i famosi Lost Horizon (Orizzonte perduto del 1933) e Random Harvest (Prigionieri del passato del 1941).

Scrittrici dimenticate:Wlla Cather

Willa Cather was born on December 7, 1873 in Back Creek Valley (a small farming community close to the Blue Ridge Mountains) in Virginia. She was the eldest child of Charles Cather, a deputy Sheriff, and Mary Virginia Boak Cather. The family came to Pennsylvania from Ireland in the 1750's.

In 1883 the Cather family moved to join Willa's grandparents William and Caroline and her uncle George in Webster County, Nebraska. At the time her family included Willa's two brothers, a sister, and her grandmother. Ayear later they moved to Red Cloud, a nearby railroad town, where her father opened a loan and insurance office. The family never became rich or influential, and Willa attributed their lack of financial success to her father, whom she claimed placed intellectual and spiritual matters over the commercial. Her mother was a vain woman, mostly concerned with fashion and trying to turn Willa into "a lady", in spite of the fact that Willa defied the norms for girls and cut her hair short and wore trousers. While living in the town Willa met Annie Sadilek, whom she later used for the Antonia character in My Antonia. Many of Willa's characters are inspired by people she met in her youth. Another notable example is Olive Fremstad, an opera singer, who inspired the character Thea Kronborg in The Song of the Lark.

Willa graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1890. She soon moved to the state capitol in Lincoln in order to study for entrance at the University of Nebraska. At this time Willa was actually interested in studying medicine. In Red Cloud she had spent time with and learned from a local doctor, and she dreamed of becoming a physician. But, when one of Willa's stories for a writing class got published, she discovered a passion for writing had been fermenting within her. In college, Willa spent time editing the school magazine and publishing articles and play reviews in the local papers. In 1892 she published her short story "Peter" in a Boston magazine, a story that later became part of her novel My Antonia. After graduating in 1895, she returned to Red Cloud until she was offered a position editing Home Monthly in Pittsburgh.

While editing the magazine, she wrote short stories to fill its pages. Between 1901 and 1906, Willa worked as a high school English teacher. During this time she wrote the stories that would be published in her first collection, called the Troll Garden (1905). These stories brought her to the attention of S.S. McClure, owner of one of the most widely read magazines of the day. In 1906 Cather moved to New York to join McClure's Magazine, initially as a member of the staff and ultimately as its managing editor. During this time she met Sara Orne Jewett, a woman from Maine who inspired her to later write about Nebraska. In 1912, after five years with McClure's, she left the magazine to have time for her own writing. After the publication of Alexander's Bridge, also in 1912, Cather visited the Southwest where she was fascinated by the Anasazi cliff dwellings.

In 1913 O Pioneers was published and in 1917 she wrote My Antonia while living in New Hampshire. By 1923 she had won the Pulitzer Prize for her One of Ours, and in this year her modernist book A Lost Lady was published. At the time her novels focused on the destruction of provincial life and the death of the pioneering tradition.

Perhaps overwhelmed by so much success, Cather suffered a period of despair reflected in the darker tones of the novels written during this period. Despite her problems, she wrote some of her greatest novels during this period, such as The Professor's House (1925), My Mortal Enemy (1926), and Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927).

Willa Cather’s fiction is infused with many of her deeply-held beliefs and values. Among these values are a reverence for art, for history, and for the “pomp and circumstance” of organized Catholic and Episcopalian religion. Cather also felt strongly that peoples and civilizations who live in harmony with their natural environments are, and should be, sources of inspiration. She decried materialism and the advent of modern mass culture, which she believed blunted human intellectual achievement and polluted public taste.

From early on in her career, Cather received not only with widespread popular success, but also astonishing critical success. This pattern began to change in the 1930s with the advent of Marxist Criticism. Marxist critics suggested that Cather did not understand or show concern for modern social issues, and they made fun of the romanticism which infused her stories. Whether or not Cather was affected by such criticism, these years were made more difficult by the death of her mother, brothers and her good friend Isabelle McClung.

Cather maintained an active writing career, publishing novels and short stories for many years until her death on April 24, 1947. At the time of her death, she ordered her letters burned. Though thousands of letters escaped destruction, Cather's will prevents their publication. Willa Cather was buried in New Hampshire; in Red Cloud, the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Foundation was created to honor her memory.

Scrittrici dimenticate:Betty Smith

Betty Smith, pseudonimo di Sophina Elisabeth Werner, nasce nel 1896 a Brooklyn da genitori figli di immigrati tedeschi. Scrittrice soprattutto di teatro, nel 1943 pubblica Un albero cresce a Brooklyn, cui seguiranno Tomorrow will be better (1947), Maggie-Now (1958) e Joy in the morning (1963).Muore nel 1972

Edoardo VI

Uno dei grandi “se” della storia inglese, fu presentato dalla prematura morte di Edoardo VI. A quel tempo, nessuno avrebbe potuto prevedere che il più grande monarca Tudor sarebbe stato la principessa Elizabeth, figlia della sfortunata Anna Bolena.

Le speranze inglesi per una forte monarchia s'incentravano nella sopravvivenza di Edoardo VI. Durante la sua minore età, nonostante il desiderio di Enrico che governasse un consiglio di ministri, il Duca di Somerset (zio di Edoardo) si proclamò Lord protettore. Continuò così la politica del re di operare cambiamenti religiosi promuovendo riforme protestanti.

Edoardo VI regna per sei anni, ed aveva solo sedici anni quando morì. Fisicamente fragile, intelligente e sincero, era ingenuo, ed inevitabilmente divenne lo strumento di consiglieri, in particolare il Duca di Northumberland, le cui motivazioni erano lungi dall'essere religiose.

Il regno di Edoardo si mosse decisamente in direzione del Protestantesimo. Gran parte della legislazione contro l'eresia fu abolita, e l'Inghilterra divenne un santuario per tutti i perseguitati d'Europa. Le Bibbie inglesi potevano essere liberamente stampate e lette.
Il libro di Cranmer “Il libro della preghiera comunitaria” (the Book of Common Prayer) del 1552, che andava oltre alla versione già fortemente protestante del 1549, presentava i sacramenti como essenzialmente un memoriale e venne reso obbligatorio in tutte le chiese e fu abolita la Messa latina. I Quarantadue Articoli del 1553, codificavano in termini irenici questi ed altri cambiamenti.

Questi atti coraggiosi incontrarono la resistenza di molte aree cattoliche del paese, per non menzionare l'Irlanda, per sempre fedele a Roma, e, a causa di questo, l'Irlanda fu sempre sospetta agli occhi inglesi, come centro di ribellione. In Inghilterra, i tentativi di imporre il nuovo Libro di preghiera, condusse ad una serie rivolta in Cornovaglia e nel Devon. A questo si aggiunse una sollevazione nel Norfolk contro l'aumento dei prezzi e le ingiustizie sociali. Come se non bastasse, egli coinvolse l'inghilterra in una guerra contro la Scozia, da sempre alleata alla Francia, riuscì a perdere in una battaglia, come pure fu deposto e condannato a morte. Sullo stato degli affari, Sir Thomas Moore considerava la lotta per l'influenza e il bottino fra le grandi famiglie dell'Inghilterra come niente di più che “una cospirazione di gente ricca che persegue solo i propri comodi sotto il pretesto d'aver titolo a governare la nazione”.

Dopo la morte del Somerset, però, il Paese su amministrato da un personaggio molto più abile, John Dudley, Conte di Warwick e Duca del Northumberland. Egli riesce a districare il Paese da una disastrosa guerra contro la Scozia, ritorna a Boulogne, in Francia e ristabilisce l'ordine sociale in Inghilterra. Ora il Protestantesimo diventa ufficiale con il nuovo Libro delle Preghiere del 1552 ed un nuovo Atto di Uniformità era passato.

Nonostante le inevitabili limitazioni, Edoardo era un cristiano sincero. Il suo regno vide poche esecuzioni capitali. Mary, la sua mezza sorella poteva avere la sua Messa ed il suo cappellano. Il vescovo cattolico-romano Stephen Gardiner, sebbene messo in prigione e privato della sua sede, poteva scrivere sei volumi di controversie teologiche.
Il malaticcio Edward, però, stava morendo.

Il Northumberland è molto preoccupato perché il legittimo erede al trono è Maria, l'unica figlia superstite di Enrico e di Caterina d'Aragona, una cattolica impegnata. Persuade così Edward a dichiarare Maria figlia illegittima e di nominare Lady Jane Grey come erede al trono (la nipote della sorella di Enrico VIII e sposata a suo figlio). La povera Lady Jane, timida e inadatta al ruolo, non era sostenuta dal Paese, che stava tutto dalla parte di Maria, una Tudor, e quindi, legittima sovrana.

Maria, così, giunge a Londra, acclamata dalla folla, per assumere il trono che le spetta.

Il conte di Essex

Robert Devereux, II conte di Essex (10 novembre 1566 – 25 febbraio 1601), un favorito della Regina Elisabetta I d'Inghilterra, è il più conosciuto fra quelli che hanno portato il titolo di "Conte di Essex". Fu un eroe militare e il favorito della regina Elisabetta I d'Inghilterra, ma a causa di una campagna fallimentare contro i ribelli irlandesi durante la Guerra dei nove anni nel 1599, deluse la regina e fu giustiziato per tradimento.



Infanzia

Lord Essex nacque a Netherwood, Cumbria, nel 1567, figlio di Walter Devereux, I conte di Essex e Lettice Knollys. Fu allevato nelle tenute del padre in Galles e istruito al Trinity College, Cambridge. Suo padre morì nel 1576, e quattro anni dopo sua madre sposò Robert Dudley, I conte di Leicester, favorito della regina Elisabetta I. La bisnonna Maria Bolena era sorella di Anna Bolena, seconda moglie di Enrico VIII e madre della regina Elisabetta. Essex fece il servizio militare sotto il suo patrigno prima di essere introdotto a corte ed ottenere il favore della regina.

Sposò Frances Walsingham, figlia di sir Francis e vedova di sir Philip Sidney, nipote di Leicester, morto nella battaglia di Zutphen nella quale anche Essex si era distinto.

La Corte e la carriera militare
Essex fu introdotto a Corte nel 1584 e già nel 1587 era divenuto uno dei favoriti della Regina, che apprezzò il suo ingegno vivace e la sua eloquenza, nonché le sue doti di uomo di spettacolo e di cortigiano. Inoltre, ricompensò Essex con la concessione del monopolio sui vini dolci, delle cui accise Essex beneficiò. Cionondimeno, alcuni problemi nel rapporto con la Regina portarono alle sue dimissioni. Egli aveva sottovalutato la Regina, credendo di essere suo pari (per la sua discendenza da Enrico IV), e il suo comportamento verso la Sovrana mancò di rispetto e mostrò disdegno per l'influenza del suo segretario principale, Sir Robert Cecil. In un'occasione durante un animato dibattito del Consiglio Privato sui problemi dell'Irlanda la Regina schiaffeggiò un insolente Essex, che estrasse contro di lei la sua spada.

Dopo la morte di Leicester nel 1588, Essex sostituì il conte come Cavallerizzo Maggiore (Master of the Horse), la terza dignità della Corte. Nel 1589, prese parte alla flotta inglese guidata da Sir Francis Drake, che mosse verso la penisola iberica in un vano tentativo di concretizzare il vantaggio inglese dopo la sconfitta dell'Invincibile Armada; la Regina gli aveva ordinato di non prendere parte alla spedizione, ma il Conte fece ritorno solo dopo il fallimento della conquista di Lisbona. Nel 1591 gli fu affidato il comando delle truppe inviate in soccorso di re Enrico IV di Francia. Nel 1596 si distinse nella conquista di Cadice. Durante la spedizione alle Azzorre nel 1597, in cui Sir Walter Raleigh era comandante in seconda, sfidò gli ordini della Regina, attaccando la flotta spagnola del tesoro senza prima mettere fuori causa la marina militare nemica.

Robert Dudley

though contemporaries believed that Robert was born on the same day, in the same year, as the Queen, it is more likely that he was at least a year older. Recent calculations put his birthday on the 24th of June 1532. He was the son of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, Duke of Northumberland, and Protector of England during the reign of Edward VI. Robert was the fifth child of thirteen, but not all his siblings survived into adulthood, and even of those that did, only Ambrose, Mary and Catherine survived into the reign of Elizabeth I. Little is known about Catherine, who became Countess of Huntingdon following her marriage to Henry Hastings, Earl of Huntingdon, but perhaps the interest in Mary comes from the fact that she was the mother of the famous poet, Sir Philip Sidney.

Robert first met Elizabeth when he was eight years old, perhaps when they were both pupils in the royal classroom. They became good friends, and their friendship lasted throughout their lives. Robert was an intelligent boy, certainly a match for Elizabeth intellectually, but he had little interest in the Classics. His passion, even as a youngster, was mathematics, astronomy, and astrology. He was also an incredibly gifted horseman, and nurtured this gift all his life. Speaking of his childhood relations with Elizabeth later in life, he said that "he knew her better than anyone else from when she was eight years old." He also added: "and from that age she always said that she would never marry."


In 1550, Robert married Amy Robsart, the daughter of a Norfolk squire. Traditionally, their marriage has been seen as a love match, but a clause in the marriage treaty suggests that it may have been for less romantic reasons. Robert was the fifth son, and therefore any marriage that could be secured for him would be advantageous. It was easier to marry off daughters than it was younger sons, as they were often not heirs to their father's lands and titles. Amy herself was an heiress, so the marriage was even more desirable in that respect. The wedding was celebrated with great style, and was attended by Elizabeth, and the Boy King himself.


Following his father's attempt to usurp the throne for his daughter in law, lady Jane Grey, Robert was imprisoned with his brothers in the Tower of London. He was kept in the Beauchamp Tower, which was only a walkway from the Bell Tower, where Elizabeth was herself a prisoner after the rebellion of Thomas Wyatt. Legend has it that they saw a lot of each other during at this time, and their friendship turned to love, but this is unlikely, given that both were strictly guarded. John Dudley went to the block, and Guildford was executed along with Lady Jane following Wyatt's rebellion, but the rest of the Dudley sons were spared.



After a year's imprisonment, they were released, probably following the death of their mother, Jane Dudley, in 1555. John Dudley, the eldest son, died shortly afterwards, but Henry and Robert joined the forces of Philip II and went to fight in France, where Henry was killed in battle. Robert then returned to England. At some point during Mary's reign, it seems that he sold some of his land to help Elizabeth out of financial difficulty. He was struggling financially himself, and Elizabeth never forgot his sacrifice.

With the accession of Elizabeth to the throne in 1558, his fortunes changed. He was made Master of the Queen's horse, a prestigious position that required much personal attendance on the Queen, as well as organizing her public appearances, progresses, and her personal entertainment. This position suited him perfectly. Not only was he a skilled horseman, but was a great athlete, had a flair for the spectacular, and shared the Queen's love of drama and music. It was obvious from almost the beginning of her reign that he was to be her favourite. Within the first year she had lavished titles, properties, and money on him, and had spent more time with him than with anyone else. Tongues wagged at their intimacy, and it was said that they were lovers, that Elizabeth was even carrying his child. However, while such stories can easily be dismissed, it is almost certain that they were, by this time, very much in love. Perhaps it was an inevitability. They knew each other better than they knew anyone else, had suffered very similarly in the past, and perhaps most importantly, respected and trusted one another. Like any couple they argued, but Robert always treated her with the respect her position demanded, and she would allow him to behave and speak with her in ways that she would allow no one else.

Their familiarity, and his position as favourite, meant that he incurred a lot of hatred, and if he benefited financially from the Queen's favour, he suffered for it in other ways. By 1560, he was the most unpopular man in Elizabethan England, and remained so until his death. It seemed no one, except the Queen and his family, had a good word to say about him. No matter what he did, he was never able to shake this hostile public opinion, and it haunted him for the rest of his life. It has also coloured his reputation over the past 400 years. Elizabeth was an astute judge of character, and it is unlikely that he would have been able to maintain pretended affection for thirty years. He seems to have genuinely loved the Queen, and his behaviour at times testifies to genuine affection, rather than calculated manipulation. Had the political circumstances been more favourable, the Queen may well have married him. Privately, she told him she would marry no one else.


The insuperable bar to their marriage lay in the circumstances of his wife's death. She was found dead of a broken neck at the bottom of a stair case, and many pointed the finger at Robert. For a long time people had been saying he meant to kill her so that he would be free to marry the Queen. The dissolving of a legally valid marriage was virtually unknown in Tudor times, and so divorce was not really an option for the couple. Certainly it would have made the legitimacy of any children Elizabeth had by Robert if they married, dubious. Whatever Robert's personal feelings for Amy may have been, it is incredibly unlikely that he had anything to do with her death. Amy was probably terminally ill with breast cancer as she was said to be suffering from a "malady in the breast." Recent medical advances suggests that a woman in this condition may have a spontaneous bone fracture, and walking up the stairs of her house in Oxfordshire, may have been enough to cause a spontaneous fracture in her spine, that proved fatal.

Such understandings were beyond the medical knowledge of the Elizabethans, however, and everyone, including Robert himself, thought that Amy had been murdered. Had the Queen married him, people would have believed the gossip, even that Elizabeth herself had been involved. Also, as Robert was hated only because of his monopoly of royal favour, promoting him to prince consort may have provoked a rebellion against the Queen. However, for some years, it seems that both entertained the possibility of marriage, and Robert in particular continued to hope for it for many years. He did not remarry until 1578 when it seemed certain that the Queen would not marry him. In 1575, during the glorious entertainments at Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire, Robert made his last proposal of marriage to the Queen. As she had done in the past, she refused him.

In 1578, he married the Queen's cousin, Lettice Devereux, Countess of Essex. He may well have been in love with her, as she was certainly a very vivacious, attractive woman, but in all probability he married her because she was pregnant, and was pressurised into making an honest woman of her by her influential family. Legend has it that Robert kept his marriage from the Queen for a year, but recently this has been brought into question. It is more likely that the Queen knew of his marriage shortly after it took place. It would have been very difficult for him to hide his marriage, as his enemies would have been very eager to tell the Queen about it. Lettice miscarried of their first child, but in 1579/80 gave birth to a son ,who she also named Robert. However, the child was not healthy and died in 1584. Robert was devastated. He had idolised his little son, and with his death, died his dream of perpetuating his dynasty. He had another son, also named Robert, from his affair with Lady Dudley Sheffield in the early 1570's, but he was illegitimate, and illegitimate children could not usually inherit their father's titles.

Lady Sheffield later claimed that Robert had married her in a secret ceremony, and while this is still a popular belief, there is no evidence to support her claims, and Robert always denied it. In the seventeenth century, she brought forward a court case to try and prove that he had married her, but she was unsuccessful. Perhaps her motivation was the desire to secure for her son the estates of the Earl. It is interesting that she did not bring forth this case following Robert's death, or in the lifetime of the Queen. But while Robert's son could not inherit, Robert was a good father to him, and provided him with a respectable education. His son was very talented, and grew up to be quite a romantic figure, eloping to Europe with a maid of honour of the Queen after her death, despite having a wife and five daughters.

In 1585, Robert was made commander of the English forces in the Netherlands. The Netherlands were revolting against the rule of Philip II, and the English were helping the Dutch in their campaign. Robert stayed in the Netherlands until 1587, although he did return to England during the Mary Queen of Scots crisis of 1586/7, and was present in England when Mary was executed. English involvement in the Netherlands was not particularly successful, and when he did return permanently, he received a lot of criticism for his actions there. Although Elizabeth herself had not always been pleased by what he had done, she would not hear a word said against his efforts there.




In 1588, when the Spanish sent their fleet against England , Robert was put in charge of the land army, and he organised Elizabeth's famous visit to Tilbury. However, by now he was not a well man, probably suffering from stomach cancer, and his days were numbered. Following the defeat of the Armada, he travelled to Buxton to try and take the healing waters there, but he never made it. He died at his house in Oxfordshire on the 4th September, 1588. Elizabeth was devastated at the loss of her old friend and companion, and reputedly locked herself in her apartment for hours, if not days. She treasured the letter he had sent her only days before his death, and wrote on it "His Last letter". She put it in her treasure box, and it was still there when she died 15 years later.

Quando sarai vecchia (Yeats)

Quando sarai vecchia e grigia e di sonno onusta,
e sonnecchierai vicino al fuoco, prendi questo libro
e lenta leggi, e sogna il dolce sguardo
che avevano un tempo i tuoi occhi, e la loro ombra profonda.

In molti amarono i tuoi attimi di felice grazia
e amarono la tua bellezza con amore falso o vero,
ma un uomo solo amò la tua anima pellegrina,
e amo le pene del viso tuo che incessante mutava.

Piegati ora accanto all'ardente griglia del camino
e sussurra, con qualche tristezza, come l'amore scomparve,
e vagò alto sopra le montagne,
e nascose il suo viso in uno sciame di stelle.

Libri dimenticati:Bitter harvest

Romanzo di Anne Rule,che parla di un delitto avvenuto veramente in America

Frase del giorno

morti sanno una cosa sola:è meglio essere vivi (Full Metal Jacket)