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Old 03-04-2016, 09:21 PM   #10
sun surfer
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I have two separate nominations to throw into the ring:

Historia Calamitatum (aka The Story of My Misfortunes) by Pierre Abélard

&

The Tongue Set Free by Elias Canetti


I've nominated the Abélard before in tandem with the letters of Abélard and Heloise because they're both rather short and related, but for this go-round I'm nominating only the Historia. It's around 100 pages and colourfully (if also haughtily) tells about his remarkable life including his forbidden love affair with the nun Heloise and the calamities that befell him.

From Goodreads:

In this classic of medieval literature, a brilliant and daring thinker relates the spellbinding story of his philosophical and spiritual enlightenment--and the tale of his tragic personal life as well. Peter Abélard paints an absorbing portrait of monastic and scholastic life in twelfth-century Paris, while also recounting the circumstances and consequences of one of history’s most famous love stories--his doomed romance with Heloise.

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The Tongue Set Free is unfortunately not available as an ebook as far as i can tell. It recounts Canetti's Jewish childhood in various European cities up until around 1920, including his relationship with his parents, his schooling and his love for learning and literature.

From Goodreads:

Elias Canetti, winner of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Literature, was one of the major intellectual figures and polymaths of the twentieth century. A master of many genres, he is known especially for his novel, Auto da Fe, and his great work of social theory, Crowds and Power. But Canetti's genius is perhaps nowhere more evident than in the three volumes of his autobiography. This first volume, Tongue Set Free, provides a searching portrait of the author's personal background and creative development as it presents the events, personalities (especially Canetti's mother), and intellectual forces that shaped the growth of the artist as a young man.


We have about a day left for nominations.
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