Reviews

Slapti didžiųjų rašytojų gyvenimai by Robert Schnakenberg

freshkatsu's review against another edition

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4.0

I wish I read this book before I wrote all the essays on Shakespeare.

sooyaam's review against another edition

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3.0

More like 2.5⭐
There are a lot of red flags in this book, mostly the author's attempt to make it "funny" and "quirky" just comes off as cringey at best and straight up offensive at worst.

I did enjoy some of the chapters but overall this was a letdown.

alemia25's review against another edition

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2.0

Funny, but chaotic. There was no clear structure, the authors being described randomly and jumping from one period to another, or from one style to another. Furthermore, the choice of some of the authors is questionable, some of them cannot be considered between "the greatest", in my opinion.

stoks's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

2.0

brandiwyne4018's review against another edition

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4.0

Awesome reference books for readers who are nosy enough to want to know about the genius behind some of the best literary works in history. Of course, their histories might be a bit skewed by the opinion of the author but all history books are skewed. I picked it up on clearance at HPB. Not a bad deal.

librarylapin's review against another edition

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4.0

this was such a fun read! i love literary gossip. i don't agree with the positions the author takes in some places. it comes off judgmental at times but it is pithy and full of tidbits i didn't know about these authors.

cdhotwing's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

3.5

bethzovko47's review against another edition

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5.0

3 to 5 pages per author; brief bio followed by strange facts. did you know gertrude stein supported hitler? one more reason she sucks.

zimlicious's review against another edition

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3.0

If you're a literary nerd, this book is definitely for you. Beware, though, because if you already like to do research about authors like myself, there will be things in here that you already know. Having said that, there are also things that I've never heard of before. It's such a quick read where you can read one author's story, put the book down and then pick it up again later. Insightful and humorous, it reminded me that my favorite authors have flaws (some of which are BIG!), but it just made me love them even more.


Here are some of them that I didn't know about before (SPOILER ALERT!):
- Lewis Carroll was an inventor.
- During most of their childhoods both Oscar Wilde and Ernest Hemingway were dressed in girls' clothing by their mothers.
- Hemingway also wore frilly underpants.
- Kafka spent time at a nudist health spa, but he refused to take his clothes off.
- Virginia Woolf got the inspiration form his painter sister and wrote standing up toward the end of her career.
- Sylvia Plath took an IQ test in 1944, and scored a genius-level 166.
- When she was working as an editor, Toni Morrison used to send her own money to struggling writers she believed in.
- Lord Byron kept snippets of his girlfriends' pubic hair in envelopes and he had A LOT of them.
- Edgar Allan Poe went to school by the cemetery, and his teachers would make them find out how old the dead people were when they died by using the dates on their headstones.

* * *


Eğer edebiyat meraklısıysanız bu kitap sizin için ancak çok fazla heyecanlanmayın. Siz de benim gibi sevdiğiniz yazarların hayatlarını kendi kendinize araştırma alışkanlığına sahipseniz, bu kitapta yazanların çoğunu zaten biliyor olacaksınız. Ancak hiç bir yerde duymadığım, şaşırtıcı bilgiler de vardı doğrusu. Ayrıca kitap şıp diye okunuyor ve hayranı olduğumuz yazarların da abuk subuk davranışlarının olduğunu hatırlatıyor.

Önceden bilmediklerimden bazıları:
- Lewis Carroll aynı zamanda bir mucitti.
- Çocukluklarının büyük bir kısmı boyunca hem Oscar Wilde hem de Ernest Hemingway'in anneleri onlara kız kıyafetleri giydirdi.
- Hemingway aynı zamanda fırfırlı iç çamaşırları giyiyordu.
- Kafka çıplaklar spasında zaman geçirdi fakat soyunmayı reddetti.
- Virginia Woolf ressam kız kardeşinden fikir alarak kariyerinin sonlarına doğru tüm yazılarını ayakta yazdı.
- Sylvia Plath 1944 yılında bir IQ testi aldı ve sonucu süper zeka derecesi 166ydı.
- Editör olarak çalıştığı zamanlarda Toni Morrison inandığı amatör yazarlara kendi cebinden para gönderirdi.
- Lord Byron kız arkadaşlarının pubik tüylerini zarflarda saklardı ve çok çok fazla kız arkadaşı olmuştu.
- Edgar Allan Poe'nun gittiği okul mezarın yanındaydı ve öğretmenleri matemetik derslerinde mezar taşlarından yola çıkarak ölenlerin kaç yaşında olduklarını hesaplatırdı.

ipb's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

4.0