The Book of Eve is a novel by Canadian writer Constance Beresford Howe , published for the first time in 1973 in the United States. This is the most famous work of the writer. The novel was not translated into Russian, but its Canadian film adaptation was shown on Russian television and was remembered by the television audience due to the starring star of Hollywood and British cinema Claire Bloom and the popular Franco-Canadian singer and songwriter Daniel Lavoie .
| Book of eve | |
|---|---|
| The book of eve | |
 Cover of the first edition of the Book of Eve | |
| Genre | novel |
| Author | Constance Beresford Howe |
| Original language | English |
| Date of first publication | 1973 |
| Publishing house | Avon |
The novel “The Book of Eve” is the beginning of the trilogy “ The voices of Eve ”, which also includes the novels “The population is one person” ( A population of one , 1977) and “The marriage bed” ( The marriage bed , 1981) . The theme of the woman’s inner freedom - freedom, which may have nothing to do with well-being or publicly accepted ideas about the role of women, runs through all three books. In order to achieve this freedom, the heroines have to resist circumstances and overcome misunderstanding on the part of those around them. Thus, the trilogy was a kind of response of the writer to the ideas of feminism of the 1960s: from the point of view of Beresford-Howe, every woman should only choose between family or career, marriage or loneliness, etc. [1] It is noteworthy that all three novels were filmed by Canadian television.
Content
Story
Eve Carrol, a 65-year-old housewife, unexpectedly leaves home, leaving her husband and husband Bert, with whom she has long been no longer bound except as a caregiver. From a prosperous “English” area in the west of Montreal, the heroine moves to a poor (and more diverse ethnically) quarter and rents an apartment in the basement. Freedom gained by Eva turns out to be more important for her than losing social status and material comforts (Eva lives only on a social pension and resolutely refuses offers of help from her son Neil, whom she sometimes calls). It turns out that you can buy things not only in stores, but also pick them up on the street, and city libraries and parks make it possible to have a great time.
Left alone with herself, Eve turns over the pages of her biography and realizes that the reason for her deep dissatisfaction with life is the fact that her actions were always based on practical considerations and fit into predetermined formulas. “I am typical of our twentieth century product of dried moral rules. Or a victim of two of his illnesses: comfort and boredom. " [2] Once in her youth, Eve was a teacher at a private school. During these years, she entered into a relationship with the married headmaster of the school, however, for Eve there was more ambition than love in this novel, and only a squeamish aftertaste remained in his soul. Having married Bert, Eve made her decision to have a family. There was no love in this case either, and over the years the mutual respect between Eve and her selfish husband disappeared. An additional touch is the fact that when she got married, Eva left her job and graduate school, abandoning the dream of doing science. So, step by step, Eve lost her dreams, and with them her freedom, gaining visible prosperity, but not finding happiness. The fate of Eve is contrasted with the fate of her dearly beloved friend May, who died prematurely many years ago, who all her life preferred freedom to marriage.
Eve’s newfound loneliness is suddenly disturbed by her acquaintance with a housewife - a political immigrant from Hungary named Johnny Horvath, who is fit for Eve to be her sons. Czech by father and Hungarian by mother, Johnny is a man of indomitable energy and liveliness, a gourmet and a joker, always ready to help everyone and everyone, attracting people, as well as homeless cats. However, despite his sociability, Johnny is lonely in his soul, since having left his homeland, he lost touch with his family; he realizes that he will most likely never see his mother again. A romance is struck between a forty-eight-year-old immigrant and Eve.
Thanks to Johnny, Eva learns a lot about her neighbors. Among them stands out the dysfunctional family of Jeanne Leblanc. One of the three sons of Jeanne, a down boy named Jean-Paul Eve and Johnny, is actually taken under their care.
Gradually, Johnny takes up more and more space in Eve's life, and this begins to bother her. Johnny actively intrudes into Eve’s affairs, takes various economic decisions, brings guests and even dreams of settling in with Eve, but for her any semblance of family life means losing the independence that she has so hard gained. Eve even starts looking for another apartment, but agreeing to persuade Johnny, leaves this idea. Suddenly, Eve finds out that at the same time as their romance, the indefatigable Johnny had a relationship with a young girl some time ago. This discovery gave Eve a reason to break off her relationship with Johnny. Freedom is achieved.
For Eve, a period of reflection and rethinking of the events of the last year begins. Unexpectedly for her, longed loneliness loses its appeal. The heroine comes to a final insight after talking with an elderly neighbor who has just lost her husband. The woman tells Eve what moral support Johnny gave her in this difficult moment. Eve can no longer resist her heart, she finds Johnny sunk into a deep binge after their break, and the ending of the novel makes it clear to the reader that the characters will be together. [3]
Screen versions / Theatrical performances
- Performance "Eve" ( Eve ), 1976: Stratford Shakespeare Theater Festival ( Stratford , Ontario, Canada); Director: Larry Finberg , as Eve: Jessica Thandy . [four]
- The Book of Eve television movie, 2002: Canadian-British co-production (The Book of Eve Productions Inc., Focus Films); director: Claude Fournier; Cast: Claire Bloom , Daniel Lavoie , Susanne York , Julian Glover , et al. [5]
Notes
- ↑ Rose, Marilyn Beresford-Howe, Constance . The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature (2 ed.) . Date of treatment June 1, 2013. Archived June 5, 2013.
- ↑ Beresford-Howe, Constance. The book of Eve. - Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1994 .-- P. 18. - ISBN 0771011040 .
- ↑ Beresford-Howe, Constance. The books of Eve. - Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1994 .-- ISBN 0771011040 .
- ↑ Portman, Jamie. It's all about Eve: Tandy explores a woman's mind (neopr.) // The Montreal gazette. - 1976. - June. - S. 33 .
- ↑ The Book of Eve (2002) - IMDb
Links
- Constance Beresford Howe on English Wikipedia
- Constance Beresford Howe at The Canadian Encyclopedia