Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog: Dylan Thomas

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Published when Thomas was in his mid-twenties, this is a series of 10 sketches, some of which are more explicitly autobiographical (as in first person, with a narrator named Dylan Thomas) than others. There is a rough chronological trajectory to the stories, with the main character a mischievous boy, then a grandstanding teenager, then a young journalist in his first job. The countryside and seaside towns of South Wales recur as settings, and – as will be no surprise to readers of Under Milk Wood – banter-filled dialogue is the priority. I most enjoyed the childhood japes in the first two pieces, “The Peaches” and “A Visit to Grandpa’s.” The rest failed to hold my attention, but I marked out two long passages that to me represent the voice and scene-setting that the Dylan Thomas Prize is looking for. The latter is the ending of the book and reminds me of the close of James Joyce’s “The Dead.” And he saw Dante in a maroon velvet dress and with a green velvet mantle hanging from her shoulders walking proudly and silently past the people who knelt by the water's edge. Mr Casey was still struggling through his fit of coughing and laughter. Stephen, seeing and hearing the hotel keeper through his father's face and voice, laughed. A great fire, banked high and red, flamed in the grate and under the ivy-twined branches of the chandelier the Christmas table was spread. They had come home a little late and still dinner was not ready: but it would be ready in a jiffy his mother had said. They were waiting for the door to open and for the servants to come in, holding the big dishes covered with their heavy metal covers. He poured sauce freely over Stephen's plate and set the boat again on the table. Then he asked uncle Charles was it tender. Uncle Charles could not speak because his mouth was full; but he nodded that it was.

Sons of bitches! cried Mr Dedalus. When he was down they turned on him to betray him and rend him like rats in a sewer. Low-lived dogs! And they look it! By Christ, they look it! It was wrong; it was unfair and cruel; and, as he sat in the refectory, he suffered time after time in memory the same humiliation until he began to wonder whether it might not really be that there was something in his face which made him look like a schemer and he wished he had a little mirror to see. But there could not be; and it was unjust and cruel and unfair. Stephen bent forward his head to hear. Wells looked round to see if anyone was coming. Then he said secretly:

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But what was the name the woman had called Kitty O'Shea that Mr Casey would not repeat? He thought of Mr Casey walking through the crowds of people and making speeches from a wagonette. That was what he had been in prison for and he remembered that one night Sergeant O'Neill had come to the house and had stood in the hall, talking in a low voice with his father and chewing nervously at the chinstrap of his cap. And that night Mr Casey had not gone to Dublin by train but a car had come to the door and he had heard his father say something about the Cabinteely road. Haven't I? he cried. Mrs Riordan, pity the poor blind. Dante covered her plate with her hands and said: They went together down the staircase and along the corridor and past the bath. As he passed the door he remembered with a vague fear the warm turf-coloured bogwater, the warm moist air, the noise of plunges, the smell of the towels, like medicine. Ez egy olyasfajta könyv, amit nagyon el tud rontani, ha épp rossz passzban kezdünk bele. Masszív költői képekkel dolgozik, amikhez szükségeltetik egyfajta optimális hangulat, és elég rövid ahhoz, hogy ha az első oldalakon nem találjuk meg az ívét, akkor ez a későbbiekben is így maradjon. Szerencsére én jó időpontban kaptam elő, minek következtében: tetszett. Dylan Thomas legnagyobb bravúrja, hogy a lírai eszközöket képes kombinálni a helyenként naturalista-realista ábrázolásmóddal, így színekből és szeretetből egy nagyon élményszerű Wales-képet épít fel. Mindemellett Thomas novellái úgy ábrázolják az átmenetet a gyermekkorból a férfikorba, hogy a gyermek által érzékelt idegen, helyenként ellenséges, helyenként pedig varázslatos világ az elbeszélések során egyre inkább kinyílik (bezárul?), és átalakul valami új minőséggé: a felnőttkorrá. Nagyon szép folyamatábrázolás egy igazán érzékeny írótól, aki hála Istennek megfelelő fordítót is kapott a kiteljesedéshez: Gergely Ágnest. Akinek külön köszönöm. It would be better to be in the study hall than out there in the cold. The sky was pale and cold but there were lights in the castle. He wondered from which window Hamilton Rowan had thrown his hat on the ha-ha and had there been flowerbeds at that time under the windows. One day when he had been called to the castle the butler had shown him the marks of the soldiers' slugs in the wood of the door and had given him a piece of shortbread that the community ate. It was nice and warm to see the lights in the castle. It was like something in a book. Perhaps Leicester Abbey was like that. And there were nice sentences in Doctor Cornwell's Spelling Book . They were like poetry but they were only sentences to learn the spelling from.

Then the higher line fellows began to come down along the matting in the middle of the refectory, Paddy Rath and Jimmy Magee and the Spaniard who was allowed to smoke cigars and the little Portuguese who wore the woolly cap. And then the lower line tables and the tables of the third line. And every single fellow had a different way of walking. Visit, we beseech Thee, O Lord, this habitation and drive away from it all the snares of the enemy. May Thy holy angels dwell herein to preserve us in peace and may Thy blessing be always upon us through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.It was easy what he had to do. All he had to do was when the dinner was over and he came out in his turn to go on walking but not out to the corridor but up the staircase on the right that led to the castle. He had nothing to do but that: to turn to the right and walk fast up the staircase and in half a minute he would be in the low dark narrow corridor that led through the castle to the rector's room. And every fellow had said that it was unfair, even the fellow out of second of grammar who had said that about the senate and the Roman people. Gli lessi tutto un quaderno di poesie. Mi ascoltava con aria saputa, come un fanciullo centenario, a testa reclinata, con gli occhiali in bilico sul naso tumefatto. Yes, do. Yes, go up and tell the rector on him, Dedalus, said Nasty Roche, because he said that he'd come in tomorrow again and pandy you. I wouldn't like to be Simon Moonan and Tusker Cecil Thunder said. But I don't believe they will be flogged. Perhaps they will be sent up for twice nine .

Just as Adrian Mole defined me aged 13¾, Dylan Thomas’ ‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog’ did so at 18. After receiving this as a gift from my parents at age 13, I’m glad I waited to read this when I was a little older. In 10 short stories, Thomas takes you through his childhood starting as a youngster and finishing as a young man. Rife with his signature poetic style; his prose are full of youthful misadventure, naturalistic description and genuine feeling.Because there is a thigh in it, he said. Do you see the joke? Athy is the town in the county Kildare and a thigh is the other thigh. His face was glowing with anger and Stephen felt the glow rise to his own cheek as the spoken words thrilled him. Mr Dedalus uttered a guffaw of coarse scorn.