Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

The Moon Is Down The story tells of the military occupation of a small town in Northern Europe by the army of an unnamed nation at war with England and Russia (much like the occupation of Norway by the Germans during World War II). A French language translation of the book was published illegally in Nazi-occupied France by Les Éditions de Minuit, a French Resistance publishing house.Furthermore, numerous other editions were also secretly published across all of occupied Europe, including Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, and Italian versions (as well as a Swedish version); it was the best known work of U.S. literature in the Soviet Union during the war.

Taken by surprise, a small coastal town is overrun by an invading army with little resistance. The town is important because it is a port that serves a large coal mine. Colonel Lanser, the head of the invading battalion, along with his staff establishes their headquarters in the house of Orden, the democratically elected and popular mayor.

The Moon Is Down was adapted for a 1943 film directed by Irving Pichel, starring Cedric Hardwicke as Colonel Lanser, Henry Travers as Mayor Orden, and Lee J. Cobb as Dr. Winter.

Members are you in on this one?

Once There Was a War published in 1958, is a collection of articles written by John Steinbeck while he was a special war correspondent for the New York Herald Tribune from June to December 1943.

Steinbeck's articles include descriptions of life on a troop transporter, an account of the liberation of a small Sicilian town, a description of how homesick US soldiers tried to grow their native vegetables in the English gardens where they billeted, and an account of how a detachment of US paratroopers tricked the German garrison at Ventotene into surrendering.

Steinbeck confesses that he felt 'a visitor' to the war, and was uncomfortable knowing that he could go home at any time, while the serving personnel could not. For this reason, he said, 'I never admitted to seeing anything myself, but always put my story in the mouth of another.'

I read this a couple of years ago and highly recommend it.

This sounds tempting. I'll try to join in.

I've never read this one, so I'll be joining in.

Glad to have you join in on this one Piyangie and John!

I got the Kindle. I'm reading Knut Hamsun's Growth of the Soil at present. Once that's done, I'll be able to start.

I've just finished The Moon Is Down - its a very short, and very readable book; and I can't understand why I'd never read it before now.

It demonstrates Steinbeck's typical empathy with his characters, even in a scenario that you instinctively expect to be good vs evil, with the bad guys clearly identifiable. And as you'd expect from Steinbeck, its beautifully written.

I'm sure I read somewhere than Steinbeck had initially wrote it as a play, and then developed it as a novel. I can see why it would readily lend itself to the theatre - I'm not convinced it would make a successful film, yet there was a movie from it - has anybody seen it?

In the last couple of months "Never too late to read classics" has covered a novel that started life as a film script (The Third Man) and a novel that started life intended for the theatre (The Moon Is Down)......can anybody suggest a classic novel that started out as a poem????

Lesle, since this one was so short, I'm thinking that I might also read Once There Was a War this month. Should comments on that be posted to this same thread, or are you opening a separate thread for it?

Oh shoot John! I missed that for some reason. Let's just add it to this thread.

Thanks for the reminder!

I added an introduction for the read. Seems very interesting John.

Just finished the "The moon is down". It's a nice, short story. I loved how Steinbeck showed emotions of all characters and portrayed them as humans, no matter on which side they were.

I noticed that as well. Steinbeck is interested in portraying people, not stereotypes.
He is also good at creating mood and atmosphere.

Rosemarie wrote: "I noticed that as well. Steinbeck is interested in portraying people, not stereotypes.
He is also good at creating mood and atmosphere."
Yes, exactly. It's very well written. You get very quickly dragged into the atmosphere.

Thank you for the reminder to read “The Moon is Down”. This book had everything that I love about Steinbeck. So evocative of the era, clear writing, excellent characters. I loved the persistence of the townspeople. And delighted by a quick read to break up my week.

Rosemarie wrote: "Steinbeck is interested in portraying people, not stereotypes. He is also good at creating mood and atmosphere."

Very much agree with you there, Rosemarie. That's what makes him an outstanding author.

I've been unable to begin The Moon is Down yet. Yesterday I tried to squeeze it in through a free time and realized that I need to give it more attention. I've managed to read the first chapter, but I think I'll have to reread it. Get this feeling that I've missed noticing something significant. Anyway, fingers crossed that I'll be able to get into it properly in a couple of days.

Piyangie thank you for the thought that should be read with full attention.
Hope to get to this one by the end of the week!

I read Once There Was a War. It was an interesting read with numerous very short stories. I preferred the earlier section as it was set in the UK & I found it fascinating to read about the US troops from their own point of view. Places weren’t named, but part of it reminded me of a visit to Lincolnshire years ago with an older friend. We went a village where there had been a US base, visited the war memorial & talked to a local who had also lived there during the war. Even many years later I remember the appreciation & respect still given to those who served there.

The Moon is Down is a great book. The similarities between it and the WWII events who were an inspiration to it is very clear indeed when you know that.

Just finished Once There Was a War, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Like all of Steinbeck's books, his focus is on people and his empathy shines through in this book also. The book approaches the war with humour and honesty. It would be interesting to know a bit more about his time as a war correspondent - I might read a biography for this.

I don't know if it was deliberate, but it was an interesting approach by Lesle to give us both a fiction and a non-fiction book about the same topic.

Unsurprisingly, this months choices confirm that a great writer is a great writer no matter his subject or genre. It would be interesting to look at similar combinations for other authors - although it might be tricky getting two shorter books that can be combined in one month.

I started The Moon Is Down one of six shorts in The Short Novels of John Steinbeck.

Not his usual tell of Americans struggling in California. This one is set during the war in an unnamed Norweigan town. The enemy soldiers try to take over the town but the town folk love their life and resist and sabotage the enemy.
Steinbeck as is his norm makes all the folk, town or enemy seem human and as always there is a moral.

4 stars

I started again and finished the first four chapters. So far I like his character portrayal. The subject matter is another thing. The stories of atrocities of humans against humans are the kind that I find most difficult to read.

I finished this yesterday. It was a moving tragedy. Steinbeck's writing is different here from what I've come to relish, yet the message he's trying to deliver across is powerful. I liked the quotations cited from Socrates's Apology. They were quite relevant to the situation. Thank you, Lesle, for choosing this book. I'm glad I got the opportunity to read it.

Wasn't sure myself that I would like it.

War is not one I read very often. It was hard getting into it for me but I kept going since John seemed to and glad I did.

I really like Steinbeck's writing and his meanings behind them.