Berättelser från Orsinien

I enjoyed about five of the stories, with the last two being my favorites. In the middle of the book, I was going to just stop midway. ( )

Read, favourite. ( )

Le Guin is a national treasure whose name I shall constantly type with a Q until I edit it later, and Orsinian Tales might be one of her great forgotten classics. Despite the, in my edition, romantic cover art, meant to match the covers of her Earthsea novels and other fantasy output, these stories are not fantasy in the genre-sense.

Orsinian Tales covers the history of Orsinia, a small Eastern European country from a feudal holding of early medieval times to a part of the Eastern Bloc in the 1960s. Perhaps because of the stories removal from science fiction and fantasy they are the best example of Le Guin's unique understanding of human nature and society.

The stories are realistic, often poetic and sad, portraits of humanity and would have been especially poignant for those who understood what was happening under the Communist regimes.

I had been slightly put-off by the early Earthsea novels, it was this book that put me back on the track to enjoying the products of Le Guin's imaginative talent. ( )

My favorite story here is “An die Musik", a prose tribute to music. “The Barrow,” “Ile Forest”, and “The Lady of Moge” are also interesting for the troubling perspectives they present. The remaining stories at times create an enjoyable atmosphere, but can be a bit slow. I was not really touched by the idyllic, plotless “Imaginary Countries,” and the grandiose self-analysis making up much of the dialog in “The House” seems overwrought. ( )

An uneven but overall enjoyable collection of short stories by Le Guin; my particular favorites were "The Barrow," "Ile Forest," and "Imaginary Countries." ( )