Living in Oakland at the beginning of the 20th century, Martin Eden struggles to rise above his destitute, proletarian circumstances through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite. His principal motivation is his love for Ruth Morse. Because Eden is a rough, uneducated sailor from a working-class background and the Morses are a bourgeois family, a union between them would be impossible unless and until he reached their level of wealth and refinement.Over a ...
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Living in Oakland at the beginning of the 20th century, Martin Eden struggles to rise above his destitute, proletarian circumstances through an intense and passionate pursuit of self-education, hoping to achieve a place among the literary elite. His principal motivation is his love for Ruth Morse. Because Eden is a rough, uneducated sailor from a working-class background and the Morses are a bourgeois family, a union between them would be impossible unless and until he reached their level of wealth and refinement.Over a period of two years, Eden promises Ruth that success will come, but just before it does, Ruth loses her patience and rejects him in a letter, saying, "if only you had settled down ... and attempted to make something of yourself". By the time Eden attains the favour of the publishers and the bourgeoisie who had shunned him, he has already developed a grudge against them and become jaded by toil and unrequited love. Instead of enjoying his success, he retreats into a quiet indifference, interrupted only to rail mentally against the genteelness of bourgeois society or to donate his new wealth to working-class friends and family. He felt that people did not value him for himself or for his work but only for his fame.
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Add this copy of Martin Eden to cart. $24.30, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2016 by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform.
Add this copy of Martin Eden to cart. $46.81, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2016 by CreateSpace Independent Publis.
Among my friend it's very common to listen Pink Floyd's "Another brick in the wall" after reading Martin Eden. The book is very succesful for drawing a concrete portrait of a highly-bourgeoisly-educated person as Ruth Morse, whom Martin felt in love with. On the other hand there is Martin Eden, a sailor who educates himself especially in and soon becomes an author. The main theme is the struggle of initially uneducated sailor Martin's efforts to be with Ruth, member of a bourgeois family. By the time he self-teaches and develops a world view combining Nietzsche-oriented individualism and social darwinism. There are interesting dialogues in the book that clearly indicates the limits of Ruth's thinking, based on modern and blindly bourgeois education. Whereas, Martin can simply criticize anything. The book ends tragically. However, it is a great book to read hence see the potential of human ability.
