I am now reading the final
stages of the novel Nana by Zola. I
am inclined to say that I am in the final furlong as I’ve just read the amazing
sequence set at the Grand Prix de Paris horse race at Longchamp. This occasion
is a crucial turning point in the novel as it marks a high-water mark in the
eponymous hero’s social ascent. Moreover, the horse that bears her name comes
home first in defiance of the odds, a result which eventually leads to the
death of her lover, its owner, Vandeuvres.
This sequence is wonderfully
written (I should say that I’ve read it in translation). It is an exhilarating piece
of prose that manages to capture the thrill of the occasion whilst
simultaneously offering a devastating social portrait. During the depiction of
the race itself I actually found myself caring about which horse won.
This sequence reminded me of
an equivalent scene in an even more brilliant novel – namely, the horse race in
Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, which
was published just three years earlier. Tolstoy’s prose is, in this passage,
viscerally exciting and filled with danger.
Now I’m trying to think of
other great sporting scenes in classic literature. I’m thinking here of texts
that are not explicitly sporting texts. There is, of course, the great Poirot novel
by Dame Agatha Christie, The Murder on the Links.
Can you think of any others?
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