Night Train To Lisbon

Product Information

Night Train to Lisbon is a philosophical novel by Swiss writer Pascal Mercier. It recounts the travels of Swiss Classics instructor Raimund Gregorius as he explores the life of Amadeu de Prado, a Portuguese doctor, during António de Oliveira Salazar's right-wing dictatorship in Portugal. Prado is a serious thinker whose active mind becomes evident in a series of his notes collected and read by Gregorius. Andere Figuren, die wenig zur Handlung beitragen, diese lähmen und den Leser langweilen, wie die jüngste Schwester von Amadeu, die Berner Studentin von Mundus und seine mühsame Ex-Ehefrau werden gleich ganz weggestrichen und fehlen nicht einmal. Das sagt auch viel über die Wichtigkeit dieser Personen für den Roman aus. Auch das Ende wird umgeschrieben, die angedeutete Analogie zwischen Amadeus Aneurysma und Mundus gesundheitlichen Problemen, die Pascal Mercier ohnehin auch nicht weiter verwendet, obwohl sich diese Wendung sogar anbietet, bzw. sie der Autor sogar vorbereitet hat, wird gar nicht erwähnt, stattdessen wird ganz zart ein Happy End in Portugal signalisiert. He was married for a while -- to a former student -- but it's no surprise that that didn't quite work out (even as we first meet him as some passion is awakened in him). Walking over a bridge on the way to his school in Bern, Raimund Gregorius, a Swiss professor of philosophy, notices a young woman in a red coat standing on the railing, about to leap. Dropping his briefcase, he runs and pulls her down. She helps him gather the papers that have spilled from his briefcase and accompanies him to the school where he teaches. But instead of waiting to talk, she leaves during the middle of his class, without her coat. Bieri co-founded the research unit "Cognition and Brain" at the German Research Foundation. The focuses of his research were the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and ethics. From 1990 through 1993, he was a professor of the history of philosophy at the University of Marburg; from 1993 he taught philosophy at the Free University of Berlin while holding the chair of philology, succeeding his mentor, Ernst Tugendhat. ( From Barnes & Noble and Wikipedia.)

Night Train to Lisbon: A Novel: Mercier, Pascal, Harshav Night Train to Lisbon: A Novel: Mercier, Pascal, Harshav

Bieri studied philosophy, English studies and Indian studies in both London and Heidelberg. From there he was awarded a doctoral degree for his work on the philosophy of time. After the conferral of his doctorate, Bieri worked as a scientific assistant at the Philosophical Seminar at University of Heidelberg. a b c Moyle, Robin (7 June 2008). "Riddle in Portuguese". Herald Sun. Melbourne, Australia. (Accessed on NewsBank database (Subscription required) We are treated to a lot of the local color of Lisbon and we learn a bit about Portugal’s Carnation Revolution of 1974 that overthrew the remnants of the dictatorship of Salazar. The book is reasonably fast-paced for including some heavy stuff. I highly recommend it. Another neighbourhood that is worth visiting is Belem, to know the famous tower of the same name, the Monument to the Discoverers or the beautiful Jerónimos monastery and taste the typical Belem cakes. Of the Portuguese gastronomy, you should not miss any of its fish, such as cod or grilled sardines, accompanied by local wine. To do some shopping, it is worth visiting the Feira da Ladra market, where you can find objects of all kinds in its antique stalls. The text of Amadeu’s writing is filled not with mere nuggets of wisdom but with a mother lode of insight, introspection, and an honest, self-conscious person’s illuminations of all the dark corners of his own soul.... Mercier has captured a time in history—one of time times—when men must take a stand.Only six days pass between the moment that Gregorius leaves his old life in Bern to the moment when he first encounters Prado’s sister, Adriana, at the casa azul, “As if my whole future were behind this door,” (p. 97). In this short time he has become immersed in another man’s life, a life that was ended by an aneurysm thirty-one years before. How does time and memory have an effect on what he learns inside the house? The protagonist, a teacher of dead languages in Bern, is inspired by this book he comes across to quit his job and travel to Portugal to find out more about the writer of the book, Prado. Many reviewers who hated this novel have commented how utterly new-ageishly purile the comments in the book are, more like the thoughts of an emo-goth teen than the profound workings of the inner mind of brilliant doctor-cum-resistance-fighter.

Night Train to Lisbon (film) - Wikipedia Night Train to Lisbon (film) - Wikipedia

I remember too when I was eighteen or nineteen, and a friend of a friend committed suicide, I was mad. How could she do that? I could use another life, you know! Oddly perhaps, it is never quite clear what makes Raimund so passionate about his mission or what lessons he draws from his personal excavation of the man's life. One wonders if the book & the man behind it have become Raimund's own version of a Rosetta Stone in need of decoding? Long philosophical interludes in Prado's voice may not play as well in the U.S., but the book comes through on the enigmas of trying to live and write under fascism." - Publishers Weekly.Later, it seemed to dawn on me that what Raimund continues to do after briefly meeting a Portuguese woman on a bridge, someone he never sees again, is not that far distant from what he has been doing for ages, mining old books written in classical languages for shreds of meaning. Magical. Profoundly moving. Overwhelmingly beautiful. Compelling exploration of consciousness and the inner life.

Night Train to Lisbon by Pascal Mercier | Goodreads

Amadeu de Prado lived in Lisbon, so Raimund searches for him, hoping that this will lead to the woman. He finds Amadeu's home, where the writer's sister, Adriana, welcomes Raimund; she gives him the impression her brother still lives there. Raimund learns that Amadeu was a doctor, and that only 100 copies of his book were printed after his death. When Raimund asks what happened to their father, Adriana's reaction is hostile. As Raimund is leaving, the maid informs him that he can find Amadeu in the town's cemetery. Raimund finds the tomb: Amadeu had died in 1974. Tram: Perhaps the most typical means of transport in Lisbon, it has five lines and is a great way to explore the city. Especially known is the number 28, which runs through the historic centre. Night Train to Lisbon" to surface at Tehran institute". Mehr News Agency. 22 September 2013 . Retrieved 10 March 2021. Is the soul a place of facts? Or are the alleged facts only the deceptive shadows of our stories?” Mercier, P., Night Train to Lisbon, London: Atlantic Books, 2019 Dreamlike.... A meditative, deliberate exploration of loneliness, language and the human condition.... The reader is transported and, like Gregorius, better for having taken the journey.

The novel does attempt to probe the motivation to change course in life & to comprehend the forces that determine behavior, as when he reads from a Prado letter: I start trembling at the thought of the unplanned & unknown but inevitable & unstoppable force with which parents leave traces in their children that, like traces of branding, can never be erased. The outlines of parental will & fear are written with a white-hot stylus in the souls of children who are helpless & ignorant of what is happening to them. We need a whole life to find & decipher the branded text & we can never be sure that we have understood it. Raimund's enchantment with the life of Amadeu de Prado, who had enjoyed a brilliant childhood, causes him to work at translating the thoughts of the man, while pursuing clues to the man's later life in Lisbon, always it seems in search of deeper meaning about the moral decisions that had been made & which ultimately determined Dr. Prado's fate. a b c Johnson, Daniel (24 February 2008). "Throwing in one life to look for another". Telegraph (UK) . Retrieved 10 March 2021. There were the people who read and the others. Whether you were a reader or a non-reader - it was soon apparent. There was no greater distinction between people. Fazit: Guter Beginn und grausam starkes Nachlassen in der Qualität. Das Potenzial der Geschichte wurde nie ausgeschöpft. Als Gesamtroman ist dieses Werk total entbehrlich, weist enorme Schwächen im Plot und in den Figuren auf, flankiert von nutzlosem pseudointellektuellem Geschwafel, das nicht wirklich zur Geschichte passt. Ich frage mich tatsächlich, wieso so ein schlechter Zafon-Verschnitt einen derartigen literarischen Erfolg feiern konnte. There is a lot of wisdom in this book, and a lot of beautiful writing. If I hadn't read To the Lighthouse this year, it would be hands-down the best book I read this year. As it is, I'm calling it a tie.