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Carregando... Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City (1896)de S. R. Crockett
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When Cleg Kelly was first published, William Wallace in the Academy declared it 'out of sight the ablest and richest story of gamin life that has appeared in our time - the story that recalls most readily Oliver Twist and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.' Set partly in Edinburgh, and through the eyes and adventures of Cleg Kelly, 'Arab of the City', the author paints a vividly imaginative picture of life as it used to be in the poverty-ridden streets of the capital. Written immediately after the author resigned from his position as Minister in the Free Church of Scotland, the novel sets the natural Christian impulses of its rebellious boy hero against religious hypocrisy and the cruelty and mistreatment of children. Blending urban and rural realism with gothic mystery, the story confirmed Crockett's position as one of the leading novelists of his day. This edition includes a detailed introduction by Richard D. Jackson which draws extensively on archival evidence to reveal the biographical contexts of the novel and Crockett's sources and processes of composition, allowing readers a richly-informed approach to a novel that explodes the myths of the Kailyard and, in the words of Wallace, 'shows most clearly that Crockett has the supreme story-teller's gift of a vigorous, resourceful and genuinely creative imagination.' Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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Being 120 years old, it's showing its age, most prominently the title itself 'Arab' now refers to the panethnic group primarily inhabiting Western Asia and North Africa however at the time of writing 'Arab' actually means street urchin (aka tramp).
The other way the book shows it's age is the rather (at times) complicated dialogue between characters. Set in Edinburgh, Scotland the speech is relayed to the reader in a somewhat phonetic bastardisation of English. Such as the following exchange between Vara Kavannah and Cleg Kelly;
"Cleg, gang awa' like a guid lad. Dinna come here ony mair--"
"Vara, what's wrang? What for will ye no open the door?"
"I canna, Cleg; she's here, lyin' on the floor in the corner. I canna turn the key, for she has tied me to the bed-foot"
So whilst it's not indecipherable it certainly breaks the reading experience when you need to pause and establish what exact has been said, but then it's also somewhat quaint to have to do so.
The story itself is interesting and follows Cleg Kelly from being tossed out of boarding school to establishing himself as a young gentleman and being both a troublemaker and a saviour to the young Vara Kavannah.
I quite liked the ending.
I also found reading the c1920 Nelson edition, which is blue cloth with a black swastika on it, when travelling on public transport gets you strange looks. (