This collection of Ursula K. Le Guin and Tolstoy alike. Personally, I knew Le Guin as a science fiction writer so it surprised me to learn that she had also published a collection of historical fiction. However, her fictional Eastern European country of Orsinia to a engrossing construction. In it, Le Guin explores many of the same themes that appear in her science fiction writing like how societal norms affect a person's identity.
The novel Malafrena makes up about half of the collection. It is set in the 19th century when Orsinia is part of the Austrian Empire. The plot focuses on a young man caught up in revolutionary politics, his relationship with his family and his romance with a wealthy baroness. Readers of Tolstoy will find Malafrena very familiar, but it is not just a carbon copy of Russian novels. Le Guin subverts the 19th century tale a bit with modern ideas such as strong women who take on traditional male roles. At times, the plot seems disjointed as some characters disappear and have little time to develop. Nevertheless, Malafrena is fantastic personal drama that fans of classic literature will enjoy.
The other half of the book is a collection of short stories. They flesh out the history of Orsinia from medieval times to the Cold War. The stories are personal dramas set during times of political upheaval, and I found them to be an enjoyable collection of historical fiction and a nice addendum to Malafrena.
This collection may not be the Le Guin novel I would start with, but it is certainly worth owning if you enjoy her writing.
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From the Publisher
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Complete Orsinia (LOA #281)
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Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels & Stories I (LOA #296)
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Ursula K. Le Guin: Hainish Novels & Stories II (LOA #297)
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Ursula K. Le Guin: Always Coming Home--Author's Expanded Edition (LOA #315)
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Ursula K. Le Guin: Annals of the Western Shore (LOA #335)
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| Price | — no data | $22.40 | $28.74 | $22.28 | $26.14 |
| Deluxe hardcover volumes | Complete in one volume for the first time, the richly imagined historical fiction series set in the central European nation of Orsinia by Hugo, Nebula, and National Book Award winner Ursula K. Le Guin | The first five Hainish novels: Rocannon’s World, Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, and the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning masterpieces The Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed—plus four related short stories | The final two Hainish novels, The Word for World Is Forest and The Telling, plus seven short stories and the story suite Five Ways to Forgiveness, published here in full for the first time, with endpapers charting the known worlds of Hainish descent | A mid-career masterpiece that showcases Le Guin’s genius for world building, in a new expanded edition featuring material added just before her death, including for the first time two “missing” chapters the novel-within-the-novel, Dangerous People | Le Guin’s Nebula Award–winning young adult fantasy trilogy—gathered for the first time in a deluxe collector’s edition for readers of all ages featuring Le Guin’s own previously unseen hand-drawn maps |
Ursula K. Le Guin: Collected Poems (LOA #368)
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Ursula K. Le Guin: Five Novels (LOA #379)
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| Price | $26.03 | $25.68 |
| A definitive edition of Le Guin’s collected poems—from her earliest collection Wild Angels (1974) through her final publication, the collection So Far So Good, which she delivered to her editor just a week before her death in 2018 | This 7th volume in the definitive Library of America edition presents Le Guin's 5 remarkable standalone novels: The Lathe of Heaven, The Eye of the Heron, The Beginning Place, Searoad: Chronicles of Klatsand, and Lavinia |
Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories (2-vol. boxed set)
The complete Hainish novels and stories—the visionary, star-spanning saga that redrew the map of modern science fiction—in a deluxe two-volume Library of America boxed set, with new introductions by the author.
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