“From what is eternal, love has the shortest term” - the lines that became the epigraph of “Loneliness in the Network” - the debut work of the modern Polish prose writer Janusz Wisniewski. In part, its content can be judged by its name. Love, loneliness and the World Wide Web - these are the three whales on which the novel is built. The current topic of online relationships, consonant with many these days, has attracted many readers. However, not all of them admire the novel.
Reviews about him are both enthusiastic and exalted, and sharply negative. Therefore, those who are still pondering whether to read or put aside “Loneliness in the network”, a brief summary of this book will come in handy.
The story of the creation of the novel
The author wrote his first novel, under the influence of a difficult life situation. While Vishnevsky received the Nobel Prize in chemistry, he divorced his wife. As the author himself recalls, he was simply very sad and lonely. And the creation of a literary work seemed to him a better and less costly option than a visit to a fashionable psychotherapist. The debut of the novel took place in 2001.
What is Loneliness on the Net about? Yes, perhaps, about what worries each of us. Here is a search for oneself and a congenial person, albeit not in real reality, but in virtual reality, and innermost thoughts and experiences that appear in the soul of any person, and the acquisition of love, albeit a ghostly and short-lived one.
Brief storyline
Retelling "Loneliness in the network", a brief summary of it can be represented like this. The novel takes place almost twenty years ago, when the active spread of Internet technologies had just begun. The main characters of the story are introduced through the Web. They communicate on different topics, share experiences and feelings, gradually fall in love with each other.
Most of the book is the correspondence of the heroes. The author also offers the reader to get acquainted with their real life, friends, family, work. Virtual communication is followed by a meeting that forever changes the lives of heroes, and the ending is unexpected and piercing.
main characters
What else needs to be recalled when retelling Loneliness on the Net? The description of the book will be incomplete without a description of the main characters. He is a young, promising scientist, a Pole, who moved to Germany. Loneliness and a desire to open up before someone pushes Yakub into a virtual relationship.
She is a young, beautiful and lonely woman. Although she has a husband, family life has long brought no joy or excitement. And in the relationship there has been a serious crisis. Therefore, she is trying to get distracted by using virtual communication on the Web, where she accidentally meets with Yakub.
The characters' characters are displayed very clearly and in detail. A man is a romantic with a capital letter, subtly perceiving the most secret thoughts of a woman, while not devoid of wisdom, charm and wit. It is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. It is significant that the author left the main character of the novel anonymous. Perhaps because this is a collective image. It shows not one heroine, but many at once, whose experiences Janush Vishnevsky wanted to display.
“Loneliness in the network”, the brief content of which is given in the article, can reflect the whole depth of emotions and sensations inherent in a woman. Interestingly, many critics called Vishnevsky a true connoisseur of female nature and psychology, and this is clearly manifested in this novel.
Book Starts - Relationship Development
For those who can’t decide whether to read “Loneliness in the Network” or not, a brief summary of the chapters will help to figure this out. Just a few words about how the book is built. It is divided into 10 chapters and an epilogue, and they do not have titles, but simply marked with an @. The narration is alternately conducted from the point of view of the main characters.
So, from the first pages the reader gets acquainted with Yakub and his lover. In the initial chapters, the author talks about their life, work, relationships with people around them. Correspondence begins between them, at first light and not binding to anything, and then - touching on more and more personal and frank topics.
They talk about life and science, love and religion, tell each other about the past and share the present. Their conversations are like experiences or dates, and each time they become more tangible.
The climax is a meeting in Paris. Passion and despair
Of course, you should not try to retell Loneliness on the Web, a brief summary can only approximately convey the meaning of this novel, almost completely filled with feelings, feelings and revelations. Especially when it comes to climax.
So, after several months of languid correspondence, the main characters finally have the opportunity to meet. The date is set in Paris, the city of love, happiness and romance.
Interestingly, the meeting itself, which is the culmination of the whole story, takes place only in the middle of chapter nine, at the end of the book. Thus, more than eight chapters are devoted to the development of action, to an ever-increasing tension.
And this meeting happens under tragic circumstances: the plane on which the protagonist was supposed to fly to his beloved gets into a catastrophe, and he miraculously avoids death.
The sweeter and more beautiful becomes their longed-for meeting, which completely turns the usual life of the main characters.
The final
Trying to retell “Loneliness on the net” (summary), the end is probably not worth describing, it’s better to read this novel and find out for yourself.
A month and a half after a date in Paris, the main character finds out that she is expecting a baby. Not knowing who he is from, she still assumes that from her husband. And decides to end the relationship with a virtual lover. The novel ends with the birth of a son, whom she names after Yakub. And the epilogue is ambiguous and makes you think for a long time.
Love and Network
So what is Loneliness on the Net about? Perhaps, about ordinary people who can be found in any corner of our planet. About love in its various manifestations, since the novel depicts not one tragic history of relations, but several, and all of them are beautiful and surprising in their own way. About what role the Internet plays in the fate of modern man and how he can change the usual course of life.
There are readers who do not perceive this book, but for many it will become an outlet, and a diary, and perhaps even a kind of mirror of their own being.
Film adaptation
In 2006, a movie adaptation of the novel was released on cinema screens . Of course, she does not accurately convey the entire plot and does not reveal all of “Loneliness on the Net”. The summary of the book, diluted with many beautiful scenes, is how this picture can be characterized.
However, in the film it is difficult to dynamically convey the communication of the heroes, which is the main part of the novel. Nevertheless, the film was a success and in the first weeks of rental, the fees amounted to a record amount. And in general, the creators of the picture were able to convey the emotions and feelings of the main characters and the tension that arises from the reader when reading a book.
And the novel differs significantly from the film adaptation of the ending - in the film, this love story ends differently. Also, the changes affected the main character, unlike the book, now she has a name.
Extended version of "Loneliness ..."
An expanded version of the novel is called “Triptych. Loneliness on the net. ” The description of the book in this version, in short, can be represented as follows. After the publication of the novel, the author received a huge number of letters from readers - more than twenty thousand e-mail messages.
In them, fans of "Loneliness ..." shared their impressions of the book, as well as amazing, not fictional stories from their lives. Each of them, according to Vishnevsky himself, was in no way inferior to the events depicted in the novel. The author selected and commented on the most interesting of these stories, and they entered the second part of the Triptych. The ending of the expanded version of the novel was Postepilogue, which allows you to take a different look at the last lines of Loneliness on the Web, as well as some of the events described by Vishnevsky.
Interesting facts about the book
In addition to directly describing the personal experiences of the heroes, a considerable amount of scientific data and real facts was supplemented by Janusz Vishnevsky “Loneliness in the network”. The summary does not make it possible to convey all these details, of course, it is better to read the book yourself. However, you can list some of them.
The novel depicts several real events. For example, the abduction of the brain of Albert Einstein.
The plane crash described in the penultimate chapter did indeed take place - and, like in the book, July 17, 1996.
Many of the heroes of the novel are real people who have ever been met by the author.
This, of course, is far from everything that is interesting for “Loneliness in the Network”. The summary provides only a rough idea of this book.
about the author
Janusz Leon Wisniewski is today one of the most widely read and popular writers in Poland. Literature has become a kind of hobby for him, since he considers science to be his main occupation.
Vishnevsky is a doctor in computer science and chemistry. This is reflected in the works. For example, the protagonist of Loneliness on the Net is a young and talented scientist.
Vishnevsky’s novels are distinguished by a subtle understanding of psychology, primarily female. Descriptions of emotions and experiences are unobtrusively interspersed with scientific facts. The writer currently lives in Germany. He has two daughters, whom he calls the most important women in his life.
The debut and one of the most moving and piercing novels created by Vishnevsky - "Loneliness in the network." The summary presented in this article, we hope, aroused interest and prompted to read this book. She may not like it, but in any case it touches the living and penetrates the very heart. After all, the events described in the novel are relevant for many of us, as well as the topics raised by the writer.