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<![CDATA[Forums - Alle Foren]]> https://funtailix.com/portal/ Wed, 03 Jun 2026 08:14:02 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[East of Eden (1952)]]> https://funtailix.com/portal/showthread.php?tid=3992 Fri, 22 May 2026 13:14:12 +0000 Simon]]> https://funtailix.com/portal/showthread.php?tid=3992
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In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden “the first book,” and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California’s Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel.

Adam Trask came to California from the East to farm and raise his family on the new rich land. But the birth of his twins, Cal and Aaron, brings his wife to the brink of madness, and Adam is left alone to raise his boys to manhood. One boy thrives nurtured by the love of all those around him; the other grows up in loneliness enveloped by a mysterious darkness.

First published in 1952, East of Eden is the work in which Steinbeck created his most mesmerizing characters and explored his most enduring themes: the mystery of identity, the inexplicability of love, and the murderous consequences of love's absence. A masterpiece of Steinbeck's later years, East of Eden is a powerful and vastly ambitious novel that is at once a family saga and a modern retelling of the Book of Genesis.]]>
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"Political intrigue, sexual chicanery, disappointment, betrayal" combine with "dazzling" effect (Jane Shilling, The Sunday Telegraph) in this scandalous novel that exposed the secrets of Margaret Thatcher's government—as narrated by the Iron Lady herself.

As a senior clerk in the House of Commons, John is a man of gravitas, a well-respected widower with two grown-up daughters, who upholds establishmentarian codes of morality and decency. What his colleagues don't know is that he harbors a secret predilection for rent boys. Afternoon assignations in his current squeeze's discreet Earl's Court flat are one thing, but when his reputation, his job, and his relationship with his friends and family are all threatened, John takes desperate measures to protect himself. Set during the last days of Margaret Thatcher's premiership, and ingeniously narrated by an all-knowing incarnation of the Prime Minister herself, Kitchen Venom is a lethally entertaining story of sex, secrets, and scandal.

WINNER OF A SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD 1997 -- A stunning novel of political life, betrayal and passion, which lifts the lid on vice within the Palace of Westminster ... and cost Hensher his job as a House of Commons clerk. 'At the centre of this book is John, a distinguished widower with a hump, two daughters, and an important job in the House of Commons. He also has a fondness for visiting rent boys in the afternoons, and a passion for secrecy... Sharp and funny... a beautifully polished performance.' Times Literary Supplement

'Sex, politics and death are the classic themes of Hensher's original novel. Set in Parliament at the time of the fall of Margaret Thatcher, it follows the disintegration of the family of a Commons clerk... Hensher is both sharp and melancholic. Here he is on Thatcher: When she walked she seemed to extinguish a cigarette beneath every pace; in her walk, it could be seen that she was in the right.' Observer

'Incisive characterisation, first-class dialogue... Set amid the wigs and gowns of parliamentary officialdom, Philip Hensher's second novel exposes the hidden tensions in apparently banal lives.' Sunday Telegraph]]>
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Let It Come Down, with its title from Macbeth, tells the story of Dyar, a New York bank clerk who throws up his secure, humdrum job to find a reality abroad with which to identify himself, and his macabre experiences in the inferno of Tangiers as he gives in to his darkest impulses. Rich in descriptions of the corruption and decadence of the International Zone in the last days before Moroccan independence, Bowles's second novel is an alternately comic and horrific account of a descent into nihilism.

A bleak novel about a wealthy American living with his wife and pubescent son in Tangier and facing existential crisis as his hitherto unacknowledged attraction to adolescent boys is unleashed and his boundaries undermined.]]>
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A stunning work, first published in 1933 by Obelisk Press (Jack Kahane's legacy), The Young and the Evil is a non-judgmental depiction of gay life and men who earn their living there, told through characters like Julian (modeled on Ford) and Karel (based on Tyler). With the added interracial connotations (book was set in Harlem and Greenwich), err, anyone surprised that this title didn't clear customs across the Channel or the Pond? Girodias later republished this work as part of the Traveller's Companion series. Authors such as Djuna Barnes and Gertrude Stein praised it unflinchingly.

An infamous novel returns. Originally published in 1933, The Young and Evil was an immediate sensation due to its unprecedented portrayal of young gay artists living in New York's notorious Greenwich Village. From flamboyant drag balls to squalid bohemian flats, Ford & Tyler's characters followed love and art wherever it led them - with a frankness that had the novel banned for many years. A moving portrait of a very particular time and place, by two writers who lived its highs and lows. -- from back cover

In THE YOUNG AND EVIL, Julien (Charles Henri Ford) and Karel (Parker Tyler) are fleeing a homophobic attack by a gang of sailors when they run into the police and get arrested. I start with that because the novel seems so modern. Neither has a problem with their sexuality; each is looking for love or at least a good time; they all too briefly think they may have found it in each other but remain friends. It’s set in Greenwich Village bohemia of the early Thirties, during Prohibition. Julien and Karel drink too much, have parties, take a lot of drugs, go up to Harlem for drag balls, get involved with married men, sometimes trade sex for rent money….or a fur coat, and sometimes even with a woman. Mostly, they fall in love with the wrong people. They don’t suffer psychologically because they’re different. They like being different: they want to be poets. But mamma mia! The world they live in! They’re constantly being robbed, thrown out, beaten up, arrested. Their sexuality is a problem for the world, and that is what creates problems for them, which they mainly shrug off because, l’important c’est d’aimer and to create art. It’s a very uneven book, with some chapters written in a surrealist, stream of consciousness style, others in a more linear narrative. Part of the pleasure of reading is that it is a roman-à-cléf and it’s fun to try and figure out who is who. The book was published in 1933 by the Obelisk Press in Paris and considered so scandalous it wasn’t allowed to become a scandal. 500 copies were seized and burnt at port in the UK; shipments to the US were intercepted and turned back. It’s not a great novel, but it’s a great document of a particular structure of feeling. It was compared to Fitzgerald’s THE FAR SIDE OF PARADISE; and I suspect young queers might recognise more aspects of their conditions and experience in this almost hundred-years-old book than they’d like to .]]>
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In 1967 Antonioni's 'Blow Up' was received by stunned audiences across the world. It was one of the most beautiful and enigmatic pictures to capture the zeitgeist and by the end of '60s, David Hemmings who played the central role, was one of the biggest movie stars in the world. From ordinary beginnings, with a doting mother and a father bitterly determined to see his son succeed where he had failed, Hemmings was launched early into an extraordinary life at the age of 12, when he was picked by Benjamin Britten to sing in his new operatic version of 'The Turn of the Screw'. Becoming something of a muse to Britten, a normal life was impossible and, going on to stage school in London, David was soon appearing regularly on films and television. His relationship with his father though, had deteriorated beyond repair, and he was left to look after himself. Hemmings's career spanned 50 years, from a quintessentially charismatic icon of the swinging sixties, to a hugely influential television director and producer, of the 'A-Team', 'Quantum Leap' and 'Airwolf', among others.

The book has a 16 page plate section of exclusive colour and black and white photos from the family album, as well as previously unseen pictures from friends. Anecdotes from the sets of films from 'Barbarella' and 'Blow Up' to 'Gladiator' and 'Gangs of New York', and insights into Hollywood and the lives of his numerous famous friends and acquaintances make this the essentail reference to one of Britain's most accomplished actors.]]>
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Britten's Children confronts the edgy subject of the composer's obsessional yet strangely innocent relationships with adolescent boys. One of the hallmarks of Benjamin Britten's music is his use of boys' voices, and John Bridcut uses this to create a fresh prism through which to view the composer's life. Interweaving discussion of the music he wrote for and about children with interviews with the boys whom Britten befriended, Bridcut explores the influence of these unique friendships - notably with the late David Hemmings - and how they helped Britten maintain links with his own happy childhood.

In a remarkable part of the book Bridcut tells for the first time the full story of Britten's love affair in the 1930s with the 18-year-old German Wulff Scherchen, son of the conductor Hermann Scherchen. As Paul Hoggart of The Times commented, 'this type of love belonged to an emotional landscape that has vanished for ever, and we are the poorer for it'. Since making the film, the author has extended his research to include friendships Britten had with children which have not previously been documented.

The documentary Britten's Children won the Royal Philharmonic Society's 2005 Award for Creative Communication: 'this serious and beautiful film explored one aspect of a composer's life in great depth. Avoiding the temptation of sensationalism, Britten's Children was imaginatively researched and both touching and revelatory'.]]>
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Tagsüber ist der kleine Niklas mutig, frech und wild. Nachts hingegen plagen ihn Albträume und Ängste. Da kann es schon mal vorkommen, dass er zu seinem zwei Jahre älteren Freund Simon ins Bett gekrochen kommt, denn sein Vater glänzt durch Abwesenheit und die Mutter versinkt in ihrer Tablettensucht. Der behütet aufwachsende Simon genießt die Nähe zu dem hübschen Nachbarsjungen - bis eine schicksalshafte Nacht die beiden abrupt auseinanderbringt. Jahre später, bereits als junger Mann, beschließt Simon, den Verlust seiner ersten großen Liebe aufzuarbeiten und entwickelt einen ausgeklügelten Plan. Doch was hat der beliebte Jugendclub-Chef Big Joe mit der in die Brüche gegangenen Freundschaft zu tun? Nur langsam offenbart sich ein dunkles Geheimnis...

The awakening of innocence

During the day, little Niklas is brave, cheeky and wild. At night, however, he is plagued by nightmares and fears. It can happen that he crawls into bed with his friend Simon, who is two years older than him, because his father is conspicuous by his absence and his mother is sinking into her addiction to pills. Growing up in a sheltered manner, Simon enjoys being close to the handsome neighbor boy - until one fateful night abruptly separates the two. Years later, as a young man, Simon decides to come to terms with the loss of his first great love and develops a sophisticated plan. But what does the popular youth club boss Big Joe have to do with the friendship that has broken down? A dark secret slowly reveals itself...]]>
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WAS THE PRINCE OF MANTUA IMPOTENT?
In Italy in 1581-82 this was a question of such, in all respects, consummate political importance — having as it did a bearing on the Prince’s possible marriage to the Duke of Tuscany’s daughter — that the Church was moved to step, as it were, into the breech.
With Vatican sanction, a test, popularly known as the Congress of Venice, was arranged: the Prince was to deflower a virgin in the presence of witnesses, “in a single night, but in three attempts” — Pope Gregory XIII remarking: “The time seems reasonable to Us.”

'Admittedly scabrous. This extensive anecdote is diabolically comic. Gallic irony revelling in Latin folly' - The Time

'Elegantly translated by Peter Fryer, The Prince's Person is quite scurrilous and very, very funny' - Sunday Times

'History presides, a detached comic muse, and the effect is hilarious' - New Statesman]]>
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The classic story of life in Apartheid South Africa.

Mark Mathabane was weaned on devastating poverty and schooled in the cruel streets of South Africa's most desperate ghetto, where bloody gang wars and midnight police raids were his rites of passage. Like every other child born in the hopelessness of apartheid, he learned to measure his life in days, not years. Yet Mark Mathabane, armed only with the courage of his family and a hard-won education, raised himself up from the squalor and humiliation to win a scholarship to an American university.

This extraordinary memoir of life under apartheid is a triumph of the human spirit over hatred and unspeakable degradation. For Mark Mathabane did what no physically and psychologically battered "Kaffir" from the rat-infested alleys of Alexandra was supposed to do -- he escaped to tell about it.]]>
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Seventeen-year old Ronald Wilby is an introverted young man with a protective single mother.
Walking home one evening, Ronald stumbles into young Carol Mathews; in the encounter, Carol ends up assaulted and dead. Ronald leaves his jacket at the scene.
Elaine Wilby is convinced that Carol's death was an accident, and converts a small part of the old house to a secret room where Ronald must hide-until she saves enough that they can move, and start over. She tells everyone that her son ran away.
The plan works until Mrs. Wilby is taken by sudden illness. The house is sold to another family-a family with three pretty daughters...Lurking behind the walls, Ronald is tempted more than he can bear.]]>
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Als de vijftienjarige Antonij op zaterdagochtend aankomt op het kerkhof waar hij een bijbaantje heeft, ontdekt hij een man die hakt in een grafsteen. Die reageert afhoudend als de jongen hem daarop aanspreekt, maar Antonij laat zich niet afschrikken. Hij vindt de man aantrekkelijk en probeert meer over hem aan de weet te komen. Dat heeft verstrekkende gevolgen, tot de komst van de politie aan toe. (Seksueel) misbruik en de omgang met slachtoffers en daders zijn belangrijke thema’s in het werk van de veelbekroonde Ted van Lieshout. In Beitelaar snijdt hij een kant aan die zelden wordt gehoord, in een verhaal dat zowel spannend als confronterend is.

When fifteen-year-old Antonij arrives at the cemetery where he has a part-time job on Saturday morning, he discovers a man chiseling into a tombstone. The man reacts evasively when the boy confronts him about it, but Antonij is not deterred. He finds the man attractive and tries to find out more about him. This has far-reaching consequences, even leading to the arrival of the police. (Sexual) abuse and the treatment of victims and perpetrators are important themes in the work of the multi-award-winning Ted van Lieshout. In *Beitelaar*, he touches upon a side that is rarely heard, in a story that is both thrilling and confronting.]]>
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Publié en 1955, interdit très vite, Les Mauvais anges traîneront pendant de longues années (trente ans !) la malédiction d'une décision prise à l'époque par la fameuse Commission du Livre, entraînée par l'abbé Pihan, naturellement très averti, sans doute, de ces " amours particulières ". Pourtant la première édition comportait deux textes, l'un de Max-Pol Fouchet, l'autre de Robert Margerit. L'un et l'autre célèbrant le " don de poésie exceptionnel " de l'auteur, adolescent à l'époque (nous reproduisons ces textes en fin de volume). Ce que nous soulignons surtout, c'est à que point ce court roman de folle passion de deux très jeunes hommes garde - aujourd'hui que la "littérature homosexuelle" se perd dans le réalisme le plus plat, le plus répétitif, le plus gratuit - une aura de trouble infini qui ira droit au coeur, même de ceux qui sont le plus étrangers à cet entraînement amoureux. Annexes par Max-Pol Fouchet et Robert Margerit.

Published in 1955, banned very quickly, Les Mauvais Anges will drag on for many years (thirty years!), the curse of a decision taken at the time by the famous Book Commission, led by Father Pihan, naturally very informed , undoubtedly, of these “special loves”.
However, the first edition included two texts, one by Max-Pol Fouchet, the other by Robert Margerit. Both celebrating the “exceptional gift of poetry” of the author, a teenager at the time (we reproduce these texts at the end of the volume).
What we will especially emphasize is the extent to which this short novel of the crazy passion of two very young men keeps - today when "homosexual literature" is lost in the flattest, most repetitive, most free – an aura of infinite trouble that will go straight to the heart, even of those who are the most foreign to this amorous training.]]>
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Nils Hallbeck var född i Hörby i Skåne och hade en pappa som var rektor vid realskolan där. Följdriktigt utbildade sig därför Hallbeck till lärare, en roll som ofta hans berättar-jag också fick. I tjugoårsåldern utvecklade Hallbeck sin homosexuella identitet och han började snart engagera sig i samhällets homosexdebatt. Grabb på glid som publicerades året efter den uppmärksammade Kinsey-rapporten, skildrar på ett för den tiden ovanligt öppet sätt en ung killes sökande efter sin identitet. Graden av socialrealism (eller snusk, om man så vill) blev för mycket för förlaget Natur och Kultur som inte ville ge ut fler av Hallbecks böcker. En som istället fick höra talas om Grabb på glid var Curth Hson och på hans förlag fick Hallbeck en stor roll.

När Hallbeck skrev om de homosexuellas situation valde han att skriva under pseudonymen Jan Hogan. Olyckligtvis avslöjades hans identitet redan med första boken Brinnande blomma av DN´s recensent Torsten Jonsson som såg stilistiska likheter med Grabb på glid. Flera böcker i Hogans namn kom likväl ut, både romaner och diktsamlingar. Diktsamlingarna gavs ut på Foibos förlag (Hallbecks eget?) och trycktes ofta bara i ett par hundra exemplar. I dessa dikter kunde Hallbeck vara mycket personlig och mer vågad än situationen tillät honom på Hsons förlag. Romanerna på Hsons förlag sålde däremot bra, det verkade finnas ett uppdämt behov av böcker som behandlade homosexualiteten. Någon renodlad pornografi var det inte tal om vid denna tidpunkten, syftet var att föra fram ett bredare budskap mot moralen och hyckleriet. Då hade man inte råd med sådana skandaler som drabbade t.ex. Jag var en kärlekskonstens mästare 1950 och Min kärlek var till salu 1952.]]>
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В предисловии к повести «Добрый маленький чертёнок» писательница обращается к своей внучке:

Моя милая Мадлен! В этой книге ты прочтёшь про одну добрую девочку, которая лишена была того, что даёт такую радость, такое счастье всем людям, — зрения. Она была слепая. Несмотря на это ужасное несчастье, маленькая Юлия была очень хорошей, умной и доброй девочкой и всеми силами стремилась к тому, чтобы и всех окружающих сделать такими же. И, как ты узнаешь из настоящей книги, один мальчик, отчаянный шалун и проказник, настоящий «маленький чертёнок», с помощью слепой Юлии, под её защитой и влиянием сделался добрым, хорошим, отзывчивым человеком. Такой перемены в своём юном друге, как ты сама убедишься, Юлия достигла лишь с помощью своей истинно-христианской кротости, нежности и доброты.

Заметь это, милая внучка, и постарайся поступать так же, если тебе когда-нибудь в жизни встретится такой же «добрый маленький чертёнок».

Твоя бабушка графиня Сегюр, урождённая Ростопчина.

In the preface to the story "The Good Little Devil," the writer addresses her granddaughter.:

My dear Madeleine! In this book you will read about a kind girl who was deprived of that which gives such joy, such happiness to all people — sight. She was blind. Despite this terrible misfortune, little Julia was a very good, intelligent and kind girl and tried her best to make everyone around her the same. And, as you will learn from this book, one boy, a desperate minx and prankster, a real "little devil", with the help of blind Julia, under her protection and influence, became a kind, good, sympathetic person. As you will see for yourself, Julia achieved such a change in her young friend only with the help of her true Christian meekness, tenderness and kindness.

Take note of this, dear granddaughter, and try to do the same if you ever meet the same "kind little devil" in your life.

Your grandmother is Countess Segur, nee Rostopchina.]]>
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Langzaam liep ridder Ristridin verder. De sneeuw kraakte onder zijn voeten en nu en dan braken er takjes af. Verder geen geluid. Hij voelde zich als een reiziger in het Land van de Dood. Dit was het Wilde Woud, waar Dagonout koning was, al had hij het nooit betreden en wist hij niet welke geheimen het verborg. En ik? dacht Ristridin. Ik die ze ontraadseld heb, zal ik er ooit levend uit komen om te vertellen wat ik weet? Ridder Tiuri en zijn vriend Piak gaan op zoek naar ridder Ristridin, want hij is nooit teruggekeerd in zijn kasteel. Er worden vreemde verhalen verteld over het Wilde Woud: van ruwe rovers en bosgeesten, van doodlopende dwaalwegen en ruïnes, en van mysterieuze Mannen in het Groen...

Knight Ristridin walked on slowly. The snow crunched under his feet and now and then twigs snapped off. Otherwise, no sound. He felt like a traveler in the Land of the Dead. This was the Wild Wood, where Dagonout was king, even though he had never entered it and did not know what secrets it concealed. And I? thought Ristridin. I, who have unraveled them, will I ever get out alive to tell what I know? Knight Tiuri and his friend Piak go in search of Knight Ristridin, for he has never returned to his castle. Strange stories are told about the Wild Wood: of rough bandits and forest spirits, of dead-end paths and ruins, and of mysterious Men in Green...]]>
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