The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway tells a story that feels simple at first, almost like something you could explain in a few sentences. An old fisherman goes out to sea, catches a great
Charles Dickens'ın bence en güzel, en yoğun en hisli eseri. Yazıldığı dönemin toplumunu, insani ilişkilerini oldukça iyi bir şekilde yansıtıyor. Öksüz bir çocuk ve onun hayalleri bazen fazlaca üzer insanı. Kitapta kendisi hakkında en çok hüzne itildiğim karakter Pip'den ziyade bayan Havisham' ın kurbanı olan Estella'ydı.
I am what you have made me. Take all the praise, take all the blame; take all the success, take all the failure; in short, take me.
Biraz uzun bir zamana yayıldı, yer yer koptum hikaye bağlamından ancak okuduğum her bir sayfa için bu kadar mutlu olduğum nadir kitap vardır. Pip'in hayatını okurken aynaya bakıyor gibiydim. Belki de herkesin hikayenin bir yerlerinde kendisinden izler bulabileceği bir kitap kâh bir katil kâh bir maktul...
Hikayenin sonu okuyucunun tahayyülüne bırakılmıştı ki bana yine severek okuduğum bir kitap olan Doğu'nun Limanlarını hatırlattı. Birkaç alıntı:
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
We changed again, and yet again, and it was now too late and too far to go back, and I went on. And the mists had all solemnly risen now, and the world lay spread before me.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.
In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.
