🦚 “Der Pfau” by Isabel Bogdan 🦚

German Reading Book Clubs
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Welcome to “Der Pfau” by Isabel Bogdan :peacock:

Recently mitrac and I decided to read a book together, so I asked my friendly neighbourhood bookstore, who recommended this book to me, and here we are!

We will read this in an informal manner. All discussions will take place in this thread. There is no fixed schedule, everybody can read at their own pace and start whenever they see fit.

Discussion Rules

  • Please use spoiler tags for major events.
  • When asking for help, please mention the chapter and page number. Also mention what version of the book you are reading. Unfortunately there are no chapter numbers in the book but I will set up a list so that we can keep track for ourselves.
  • Don’t be afraid of asking questions, even if they seem embarrassing at first. All of us are here to learn.
  • To you lurkers out there: Join the conversation, it’s fun!

Chapter Numbers

No. Start phrase Paperback page
1 Einer der Pfauen 7
2 Aileen machte 24
3 Lady Fiona 33
4 Und dann 36
5 Die Gruppe 41
6 Ryszard tat 51
7 Während Helen 53
8 Lord McIntosh 69
9 Mervyn allerdings 73
10 Lord Hamish 77
11 David hatte 80
12 Aileen hatte 83
13 Die Köchin 90
14 Im WestflĂĽgel 105
15 Im Wald 112
16 Im Haus 122
17 Im Bautrupp 125
18 Es schneite 146
19 Zum Abendessen 177
20 Im WestflĂĽgel 187
21 Die Chefin 191
22 Im Laufe 207
23 Am Abend 209
24 Hamish und 219
25 Die drei 223
26 Am nächsten 227
27 Nach dem 233
28 Hamish und 237
29 Kurz vor 246
Ende 248

Member List

Are you planning to read Der Pfau with the book club?

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  • Yes, but I might start late
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If so, which version will you be reading?

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The Seeking Recommendations Thread :books:
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First time hearing of this book and author. There seems to also be a movie. The synopsis sounds up my alley.

I just put a hold on the audiobook, but there’s no option in the poll for that. :face_in_clouds:

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Copy on the way!

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Ok I am done with some work travel and things finally settled to start a new book. I read the first chapter and it’s love at first sight

comments on Ch 1... Einer der Pfauen

OMG so lustig und trifft genau was ich in GroĂźbritannien/ Schottland erlebt habe

This dry humour about the old building and dealing with it, especially the scenes with the cottage - I laughed out loud a lot. It’s already funny, but 1000x funnier because yes, that kind of thing is life in a lot of buildings and is described as charming there

:sweat_smile:

I’m going to get along with Isabel Bogdan great.

Language wise it’s great and easily understood. Although I should say, the first time i read the first page going in blind was so confusing. I had no idea what to take literally or metaphorically. Then I read the book blurb. Oh, it’s literally about a Pfau going crazy :joy: I didn’t realise that. Reread the page and it was 100% comprehensible. What a funny premise for a book.

Love the setting in Scotland and I love how the characters are so far very believably of that world

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Oh great to have you on board :blush: I read the first chapter shortly after buying the book, but I never got around to commenting on it so let’s see what I remember:

I also love the dry humor and the somewhat quirky writing style! Had a few moments of laughing out loud as well. Took me a minute to get the Victoria and Albert reference but then it was twice as funny. And yeah, having a huge old building and not knowing how to pay the ever increasing cost for the renovations and other mending felt so real - I once owned a 100+ years old house, and it was not as bad (it was not as large by far) but there was always a new surprise coming along :sweat_smile: so I can relate.

Really curious to see how the story will unfold. I don’t have the book with me until Friday, but I will continue reading after that. The next sections will be much shorter so we can check in more often. Please feel free to post any questions here - if you provide me with a bit of a sentence I should be able to answer anyhow.

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Well that’s a relief, good timing then!

You’ll have to enlighten me I must have missed that

One word that I swear I hear more often is entzückt but my SO said it’s an old fashioned word and he thought it was used here to give it that charming flare we’re amused by. So I’m either a bit confused as I swear I’ve heard that word in more normal use, or I’m a bit concerned I’ve been missing some kind of connotation it carries when used. So not so much a specific question but if you have thoughts on that I’d be interested. Or once you get back to the book if you see words that pop out to you where you think I might be missing some subtext that could be interesting to discuss, but don’t let it distract you too much!

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The dogs are named Victoria and Albert iirc, which coincidentally are the names of a British queen and her husband. Naming the dogs in that way feels somehow very quirky and very fitting to me.

Re „entzückt“: Your husband is right, it feels a bit old-fashioned (but it still feels like a normal word to me - I guess I can also be a bit old-fashioned :sweat_smile:). When I hear it it always reminds me of an anime that was aired in my childhood: „Wickie und die starken Männer“ and one of the guys likes to jump into the air, clang his feet together and exclaim „Ich bin entzückt! Entzückt!“ :rofl:

Maybe you are thinking of „entzückend“? That feels much more normal to me.

Will keep an eye out for interesting words :+1:

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Oh I see that in the next chapter now, I totally flitted over their names. That is pretty funny

:sweat_smile:

ooooh, I bet you are right. I learned German from speaking and have a lot of words I’m still untangling from each other due to not knowing how they are spelled exactly - or they are just close enough I mixed them up. That looks much closer to my feeling for the word I was expecting it to be and explains my confusion since that didn’t 100% fit. Thank you!

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Yeah it’s sort of the opposite! Es ist entzückend, und ich bin entzückt. I bet you got confused by mixing these up :+1:

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I did a re-read of chapter 1 and paid attention to interesting words and phrases. Here comes:

Chapter 1 Interesting Words and Phrases

p. 8: “Die Heizkosten trieben den McIntoshs regelmäßig den Schweiß auf die Stirn, was man von den Temperaturen im Haus nicht behaupten konnte.” - Nice switch between metaphorical and real sweat

p. 8: “Es gab eine Zentralheizung, die den Namen nicht verdiente” - meaning “it was not really a heating” i.e. could not heat the house

p. 9: “Beide beherrschten die Grundrechenarten.” - Of course you would expect this from adults. I take this to mean “they were not stupid”, maybe especially regarding financial things.

p. 20 “Albert und die McIntoshs trauerten und hatten anderes im Kopf, als…” - as if the author knew about the dog’s thoughts :laughing: Very quirky phrasing.

Other than that, there are a few slightly old-fashioned phrases but nothing that stood out to me as exceptional.

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Thanks! Fun thoughts

ch 1

This kind of tongue in cheek humour is really well done by this author, I loved this sentence!

I was wondering about this :joy: thinking, well, shouldn’t they? And then I wondered if it was a bit of a cheeky formulation to point out they’re not so rich that they can just ignore costs. I like your thought - it does give that underlying, well they’re not stupid vibe, like you said, not because we think they’re stupid or can’t do basic maths, but just as an idiomatic phrase

:joy: yes so true

Now that you’re back I’ll continue

ch 2 Aileen machte Ăśberstunden

The first paragraph annoyed me a lot. An omniscient narrator declaring someone suitable to be a great Hausfrau and then that person having really low expectations for a future partner, and still wanting to work after starting s family etc etc, the combo made my heart bleed but moving on

Aside from that, I like how this chapter sets up the relationship between Aileen and the Lady, and what kind of person the Lady is. She turns out to be quite nice and helpful, but there’s still some class distance

"Notfalls würde die Lady eben selbst mit Henry durch die Cottages tanzen. Aileen wusste nicht recht, ob sie über diese Vorstellung lachen durfte oder ob die Lady dann beleidigt wäre…

Ch 3 Lady Fiona McIntosh

Not much to say, a bit more getting to know the Lady

I like this, which is probably normally been my assumption when it comes to these people:

Sie war verblüffend lange davon ausgegangen, dass die Lady hauptberuflich Lady war…

Ch 4 Und dann war es

Madame sei mit einem blauen Auto angereist

Ok I guess this is where it really starts :joy:

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Oh, well then :rofl:

Ch 2 Aileen machte

Simply mentioning the Durchlauferhitzer and the insects in the frames makes me anticipate lots of fun with the important guests :rofl:

Aileen seems to be the person that the McIntoshs really need! I hope she will get better soon, and that Ryszard can really cover for her for a bit…

Ch 3 Lady Fiona

Liking the intro of the Lady, who seems to be a very down-to-earth person. From what we know so far, the Lord might be sliiightly different though :sweat_smile: Looking forward to getting to know him a little bit more.

“Die Lady entgegnete, Aileen habe sich ja vermutlich nicht absichtlich den Arm gebrochen” :rofl:

Ch 4 Und dann

“nagelneuen blaumetallicfarbenen Sportwagen” :popcorn: :rofl:

“ihre Vorbehalte gegen so große Vögel” - and so the disaster gets more graphic with each sentence :dizzy_face:

I like a lot how the lord’s stress level is reflected in the language, with long sentences that got chopped down into small bits that endlessly pile upon one another.

Famous last words: “Ryszard versprach, sich darum zu kümmern.” :melting_face:

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This setup is great

Ch 4 response

I didn’t notice that but just went back to reread it and agree! That really adds to the atmosphere

So I laughed so much now by request I’m reading this out loud to my so as our evening read. We’ve now caught up to these comments

Ch 5 die Gruppe aus London

This is great, it feels like a murder mystery setup. We get a nice view of all characters and which room they’re in. I’m going to have a hard time remembering all the men. It feels like Jim and Bernard are older and Andrew and David are younger.

I love the description of Bernard’s bunkbed phobia

Ch 6 Ryszard tat was

Not much to say except he sounds overconfident that this won’t be a problem (rubs hands together in anticipation)

Ch 7 während Helen in der Küche

I can really relate to Rachel’s naive optimism on her first coaching assignment and then being faced by thee bankers who really don’t want to engage with her process.

I feel like we see Rachel observing and learning in real time how these people tick (it’s a bit like each one taking a different drink is her first clue as to the disharmony between them) whereas the more experienced Helen has an intuitive feeling for the group dynamics and how to respond (the wide ranging dinner buffet, but then she brings them all the same gin and tonics later).

This really can go in any direction. I feel likenow that we have been introduced to the tension in and out of the house ( the Lord and Lady vs the bankers) it’s that feeling that the wire is taught and ready to snap. You can just feel that their will be a ricochet of events coming.

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Now that I’ve finished my Japanese Bingo for the year, I thought I could throw some more German into the mix before the new year starts :rofl:

Ch 5 - 7

I agree with everything you said. Everybody is sort of tense, maybe except Jim and Helen.

The men are really not well-pictured in my mind yet, except for Jim who is sort of the country boy in this group of snobs. What surprised me was the short bout of affection of Liz towards him - is there something cooking in the depths of her mind?

Also, I think it’s so typical that their lack of communication - right from the start - will be the main cause of a lot of subsequent issues, I’m sure. Rachel not telling Ryszard about the peacock attacking the blue paper was a key scene, I guess. Ryszard is overconfident (as well as the Lady, I guess) and so the disaster takes its course. Curious to see how far this will go :rofl:

Ch 8 Lord McIntosh

Now that escalated quickly! And we have another prime example of unwillingness to communicate: The lord doesn’t want to admit the damage to the car…
Then he hides the dead peacock in the underwood, but I’m sure the dogs will go get it! dun dun dun duuuun

Ch 9 Mervyn allerdings

Haha ok check! Peacock corpse acquired. Again a total refusal of communication. The dog couldn’t explain that the peacock had already been dead, and Liz doesn’t want to admit that the dog killed the peacock (or so she thinks). Now what happens next? :thinking:

Ch 10 Lord Hamish

Again a lack of communication :rofl: hmm I wonder if this is the theme of the book? The lord doesn’t tell Aileen, and the lady doesn’t know yet either. Let’s see…

Ch 11 David hatte

OMG this is getting way darker than I had expected… :nauseated_face:

Ch 12 Aileen hatte

“fürderhin” - another very old-fashioned word but I like it a lot in this context! Adds to the atmosphere a lot, I think.

Also, Aileen is taking a walk with the dogs. Will she be faster than Helen?

Meanwhile, lord and lady exercise themselves in non-communication of their love for each other… :thinking:

Ok and so Liz likes Jim, and Jim likes Aileen. Will this continue somehow?

Ch 13 Die Köchin

OK I should stop counting the number of non-communication events by now :slight_smile: Helen thinks they don’t know which peacock is which, but she doesn’t know that maybe Aileen knows :flushed:

And so Helen and David plot the peacock-meal-story, which contains quite the number of plotholes :rofl:

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ch 8-13

Haha love that you foresaw one of the dogs finding the peacock. The way he went about this and then just dashed offto his academic job has great absent-minded professor vibes

I laughed along with your comments. This all going bang and unraveling over these chapters was rather amusing

Thanks for calling that one out!

:joy: yeah as I was reading your comments I was thinking, ok pretty soon I think you’ll see a theme emerging :joy:

Or more like, Helen plots it and David is like (deer in headlights) - sure?

Ch 14 Im WestflĂĽgel

After the Hüttenbau discussion and Andrew striking I feel like the men’s personalities have taken shape more clearly. It’s actually pretty funny that Andrew just flat out refuses to go along with the planned activity and the boss is mostly angry because that’s the move she’d liked to have been able to make :joy:

Ch 15 Im Wald

This whole Hüttenbau project is pretty funny. So I’m just waiting for someone to find some bird parts and a pile of feathers (without the bird :face_with_hand_over_mouth:) or ask David where it is. And then with that tension we have Jim just merrily making his stone wall because he wants to :joy: and the boss directing some impractical twig structure. They care about the roof enough to mention that it is not looking good but not so much to bother solving it

Ch 16 Im Haus

I was expecting Helen to tell Andrew actually! It would have been a lot easier than waiting for him to go

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