Reviews

The Terrors of the Night, by Thomas Nashe

dithaonth's review

challenging lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

regitzexenia's review

2.0

This was so boring and dreary, there was none of the more horrific imaginings I wanted.

seanius's review

4.0

The author of the excellently deranged Unfortunate Traveler sallies forth on a witty treatise on the nature of dreams, the foolishness of treating them as portents, and on the general hilarity of various self deceptions and delusions that border on the dream world. Progressing from a pagan world view of sprites, spirits and devils, through to a satirical consideration of the fripperies, hypocrisies and manipulations of a sophisticated polis, the text at the last breath is a quite serious tome on the benefits of a moral life, if only for the sake of a good nights sleep. I removed one star due to wife jokes...

bluminth's review

informative

3.0

nusighba's review

2.0

Dreams. Melancholy. (Half)witches. Terror.
And why we choose the night to let out the darkness within us.
I probably could've liked it more if the writing was more comprehensive, or easily approachable.
Also the fact that this book is actually a clickbait is hilarious lmao y'all got

woolfardis's review

1.0

Thomas Nashe was a 16th Century English playwright and poet, and is considered as the greatest Elizabethan Pamphleteer and was an early purveyor of erotic poetry. He is most famous for his work Summer's Last Will and Testament and The Unfortunate Traveller.

The Terrors of the Night is the 30th Little Black Classic and it has thus far been the worst. I'm loath to even give it any stars at all as it was terrible written, confusing and extremely misogynistic. Whilst I can tolerate historical religious writings, Nashe is so utterly mind-numbingly boring he cannot even bring me to find anything good about his writing, except perhaps the few references he makes to English folklore and makes a lightly amusing joke about the terribleness of Holland cheese:

"God is my witness, in all this relation I borrow no essential part from stretched-out invention, nor have I one jot abused my informations; only for the recreation of my readers, whom loath to tire with a coarse home-spin tale that should dull them worse than Holland cheese."

There is no flow to his writings; sentences blend in to one another using punctuation which makes the sentence itself around two pages long on average. He has a tendency to ramble and forget what he is speaking of, then return to it several pages later.

I would suggest you skip this LBC completely, but if you're looking to complete your collection, there's really no reason why you should read it.


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evareading's review

challenging funny slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

urlphantomhive's review

2.0

1.5 Stars

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

I realize that in a collection of 80 (or 127) works, not everything can stand out. Well, this one did, but unfortunately not in a good way. The blurb, as other reviewers have pointed out, was looking quite good, but doesn't fit the book at all.

I guess if you're into long Elizabethan ramblings about the devil and such things, this might be for you. Otherwise, I'm sure there are better books for you in this collection...

~Little Black Classics #30~

peckreadsbooks's review

2.0

For the night is dark and full of terrors.

roseofmay's review

2.0

The first half was really interesting and informative but the other half... was not.