Corelli鈥檚 Mandolin in Reading 1001

Jun 16, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, historical-fiction, read-in-2019, war, european

I see this one has strong reviews that all rave about the beautiful story and writing, and although I agree that these thinks are strong and sweet and poetic, I never fully connected to the book. I love WW2 stories so I expected more, and wonder if perhaps I had expectations that were too high.

Corelli鈥檚 Mandolin transports the reader to the gorgeous Greek island of Cephallonia. I really felt I came away from the book knowing the place and that aspect of the book was actually my favorite. The fir ...more

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Jan 06, 2011 Kristel rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-challenge, greece, 1001-books, wwii

really enjoyed this book written about Greece during WWII and the post war years. The author wrote in very short chapters and from different points of view. The second chapter, Duce, was in stream of consciousness in such a fashion as to paint the picture of his insanity. Most of all this is an anti-war book and author did not favor any country or political ideology. War was all a product of megalomaniacs. War hurts nature and people. It is also a love story and a story about love. It is a stor ...more

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May 24, 2008 YoSafBridg rated it really liked it

Shelves: cathoused

I remember reading somewhere recently that some of the youth of today think they are living in the worst of times. I fear maybe they are unaware of history (or maybe it鈥檚 just a matter of thinking your own problems are worse than anyone else鈥檚?~it's all in the perspective). I never did see the movie Captain Corelli鈥檚 Mandolin, and i can鈥檛 remember if it was something i really wanted to see or not, but i鈥檓 glad there was nothing to corrupt my reading of Louis de Berni猫res鈥� novel Corelli鈥檚 Mandoli I remember reading somewhere recently that some of the youth of today think they are living in the worst of times. I fear maybe they are unaware of history (or maybe it鈥檚 just a matter of thinking your own problems are worse than anyone else鈥檚?~it's all in the perspective). I never did see the movie Captain Corelli鈥檚 Mandolin, and i can鈥檛 remember if it was something i really wanted to see or not, but i鈥檓 glad there was nothing to corrupt my reading of Louis de Berni猫res鈥� novel Corelli鈥檚 Mandolin. De Berni猫res writes with a lyrical wit and at the end of my reading i found my book riddled with highlighting marks.
Corelli's Mandolin is set on the idyllic Greek island of Cephallonia spanning from the early years of World War II to the mid 1990s (and though many readers seem to think the first hundred pages of this book were slow going, i found them to be a beautiful construction of the characters who will soon take over your heart and soul). Soon the island is occupied by the Italian forces and a certain Captain Corelli who starts to fall in love with the beautiful and willful Pelagia. The feeling is definitely mutual, though Pelagia is engaged to another.
De Berni猫res weaves together many voices to tell his story, and this book does not make for entirely easy reading. It is a very literary novel and i found myself consulting the dictionary quite often~rather unusual for me. I have been working on it for quite some time (slipping in a few other reads now and then~my neurologist has also been playing around with my migraine meds~a little chemistry experiment really, to see if maybe she can make my head stop hurting~and i think it has zapped my concentration a bit~and perhaps my attention span, and maybe i am getting even more tangential than usual, as evidenced by this whole parenthetical train of thought...). But today, a little more than halfway through, i found myself glued to the spot, unable to put it down. It's funny (or perhaps not so funny~maybe sad) how i can be reading a book set during a war and suddenly be rather surprised by the brutality and ugliness that it contains~and it seems a bit ironic that as i was reading it, just as things were at their worst, i was hearing fireworks outside, bombs bursting in air~at first i thought the imagery was miraculously powerful before i realized what day it was.
I was definitely crying at the end of this story. I sometimes wonder if we are truly crying for the characters we have come to know and love or if we are crying for some part of ourselves.
"History repeats itself, first as tragedy, and then again as tragedy."
...more

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Jan 31, 2011 Sara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-books, italy, pbt100, greece

Music is good. War is bad. Love is timeless. These are the thoughts I am left with upon completion of de Berniers'Corelli's Mandolin.

I am not even sure where to start in a review of this novel. We are given the story of the Greek island of Cephellonia during and following World War II. Pelagia, lives an easy life in a picturesque village on the island. The daughter of the village doctor, she is unusually educated for a girl in those times and engaged to a handsome fisherman. And then the war. H

Music is good. War is bad. Love is timeless. These are the thoughts I am left with upon completion of de Berniers'Corelli's Mandolin.

I am not even sure where to start in a review of this novel. We are given the story of the Greek island of Cephellonia during and following World War II. Pelagia, lives an easy life in a picturesque village on the island. The daughter of the village doctor, she is unusually educated for a girl in those times and engaged to a handsome fisherman. And then the war. Her fisherman leaves to fight and comes back broken before once again leaving. The Italians bring war to Greece, followed by the Germans. On the heals of victory is occupation and Pelagia and her father find themselves host to a charming musician who just happens to be a captain in the Italian army. His presence in their life changes everything, and their tragic love story is the major theme through the rest of the book.

Yet Corelli's mandolin is more than a love story. Interwoven throughout is the story of doomed Italian soldier, Carlo, the stories of several of the village inhabitants, a German soldier, Mussolini, the Greek Prime Minister, and even a goatherder. It is also a history lesson and treatise on music and culture. As much as I thrilled in the beautiful romance of Pelagia and Corelli, I enjoyed each of the additional threads equally. They completed the story. Life is never about just one great love. It is everything else happening around the couple that allowed that love to blossom. These additional stories complimented and completed the story of Corelli and Pelagia.

Louis de Bernieres is obviously a master of the written word. He weaved all of the stories in and out of each other expertly. He made me care about each of the characters and he captured their individual voices perfectly. Despite the rapid changes in perspective and voice, it was never difficult to determine who was speaking. Unfortunately, this also made it easy for me to put the book down and not pick it up again for days at a time. Because the chapters were short, I was able to finish one before putting the book down and didn't feel immediately compelled to pick it back up to find out what happens next. This is my only quibble with the book however, and admittedly it is a minor one. I enjoyed every moment of this book and will definitely be seeking out others by de Bernieres. ...more

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Jul 05, 2012 Pippin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 20th-century, read-aloud, wwii, historical-fiction, romance, favorites, pre-gr, boxall-1001

2023 rereading, some quotes:
'This is how we should be. We should care for each other more than we care for ideas, or else we will end up killing each other. Am I not right?' ~Dr. Iannis

He turned and looked at her gently. 'He's too young. Everyone is too young when they marry. I was. Also, I have not done you a favour. You read the poetry of Cavafy, I have taught you to speak...Italian. He isn't your equal, and he would expect to be better than his wife. He is a man after all.' ~Dr. Iannis

Dr. Ian ...more

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Jul 06, 2012 Anita Pomerantz rated it really liked it

Shelves: 1001-books

This book had so much going for it. Set in WWII, de Bernieres tells the tale of a doctor and his daughter living in Greece. The focus of the book is on the daughter as she is initially wooed by a local fisherman, but later falls in love with an Italian captain, Corelli, who is living in their home while Greece is occupied.
de Bernieres does an amazing job of weaving together multiple storylines as we are introduced to a number of quirky and interesting characters, and we fall in love with them al ...more

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Jun 29, 2010 Jgrace rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, romance, jgrace, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, ww2, play-book-tag, read-in-2010, 20th-century, epistolary, greece

Corelli鈥檚 Mandolin - Louis de Bernieres
5 stars

On the Greek island of Cephallonia, village life is picturesque. It is populated by colorful old men, beautiful young girls, industrious fishermen, a hypocritical priest, a flamboyant strongman and 鈥渢roupes of casual and impertinent goats鈥�. But war comes to Cephallonia as it does to all of Europe. The village experiences foreign occupation, privation, violence, hardship and the Italian, Captain Corelli, with his mandolin.
Bernieres tells this story th ...more

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