Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Night (book)

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[edit] Night (book)

Night is an autobiographical novel by Elie Wiesel about his time, as a teenager, in Auschwitz and Buchenwald with his father during the Holocaust. It is told in the first person singular. In quoting from the novel, I've put the narrator's voice in an ordinary font when he is talking to the reader, but in italics when anyone else is talking, or when the narrator is talking to someone else or to himself. Sometimes I use blockquotes and a smaller font; sometimes not, depending on what seems appropriate. It was nominated once before by Wetman, but it was still undergoing a rewrite at the time, so it didn't get far. This is mostly a self-nomination. SlimVirgin (talk) 11:27, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

I should also add that anything from the novel itself is in the present tense. SlimVirgin (talk) 20:58, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
MusicalLinguist tells me that the blockquotes are the same size text on her browser as the rest of the text, so I'm just noting here that they are meant to be smaller (currently at 92 percent) for ease of reading. I'm going to find someone with technical know-how so I can work out how to make them look smaller for everyone without being too small. SlimVirgin (talk) 10:35, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
Instead of fiddling with percentages, I've been advised to write <small>, so hopefully everyone will now see the text in blockquotes as smaller than the rest, which should make it easier to read. SlimVirgin (talk) 00:33, 5 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Oppose for now, this is an excellent summary of the book and its journey to publication, but I was surprised to find nothing about its critical reception (other than the brief mention that critics received it), and its role as one of the most widely known books on the holocaust. There's really no critical analysis of the book at all, or anything directly about it's importance. In fact I'm not really sure that someone reading this article who hadn't heard of of the book would really get the idea that it was particularly important or influential, other than through inference that someone had spent a lot of time on the article for some reason. See Aradia, or the Gospel of the Witches, The Old Man and the Sea or even Starship Troopers for FA's about books that deal with critical responses, controversy and the overall importance of the works they cover, which honestly should be a key feature of articles on important books. --W.marsh 12:00, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Hi, thanks. Jayjg has pointed me to some good sources for the above, so I'm going to try to add to the article today. SlimVirgin (talk) 20:58, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
  • WM, I've expanded it to include more information about the critics' response, and a bit more about how it first came to be written. SlimVirgin (talk) 12:51, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
Looks like an excellent effort has been made to address my concerns, so my oppose is withdrawn. At a glance though it looks like it's a bit lengthy now, but that's not something I'd oppose over, for a few reasons. Will consider changing to support, still thinking. --W.marsh 13:59, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support A great article about a book whose importance cannot be overstated.- Moshe Constantine Hassan Al-Silverburg | Talk 14:12, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support A great article...very descriptive and well-written. Michael 04:30, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Object Support The material currently in the article is very good but a summary of the critical reception, as detailed by W.marsh, is a must for a comprehensive article. --Allen3 talk 11:23, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
  • The addition looks good to me. --Allen3 talk 17:26, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Object—2a
    • This should be split into two sentences: "Having lost his faith in God and humanity, for ten years he kept his story to himself and contemplated suicide, but during a meeting in Paris in May 1955, Wiesel was persuaded to start writing by François Mauriac, the French novelist and Nobel laureate." So should this: "Wiesel was born on 30 September 1928 in Sighet, a village in the Carpathian mountains in northern Transylvania, annexed by Hungary in 1940, and now part of Romania. With his father Shlomo, his mother Sarah, and his three sisters, Hilda, Beatrice, and Tzipora, Wiesel lived as part of a close-knit community of between 10,000 and 20,000 mostly Orthodox Jews." Not only are the long sentences a problem; I find the word order and the placement of commas awkward in much of the article.
    • "Over the next 18 months, restrictions on Jews gradually increase." Now, for some reason, it switches to present tense. I hope that the relationship between in-universe and out-of-universe worlds is handled well here.
    Needs considerable work. Tony 11:46, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
    Thanks, Tony. I'll go through it and try to tighten the writing. SlimVirgin (talk) 20:58, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Tony, I've gone through and tried to find and tighten any awkward sentences, and I think I've made sure the tenses are used consistently. SlimVirgin (talk) 12:51, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
  • I think you've pretty much cleaned it up, SlimVirgin. Tony's personal views are interesting, and I'm sure he's trying to be helpful, but his vague, subjective, and somewhat idiosyncratic take on things represent, at best, his personal preferences, not any sort of objective guidelines for good writing. Jayjg (talk) 01:09, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support. Interesting and well written. AnnH ♫ 07:53, 3 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Strong support. With the addition of the "Memoir or novel" section, this article has moved from Good to Excellent. The author of this article is not afraid to tackle controversial issues in a nuanced and NPOV way - you won't find this kind of discussion in the CliffsNotes version, or on Oprah's website. This is exactly what a Wikipedia article should be. Jayjg (talk) 19:18, 4 August 2006 (UTC)
  • It should also be noted that it is common practice to notify WikiProjects when an article related to them is up for FAC (or AfD) nomination. --Tim4christ17 03:47, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support This article is an excellent synopsis of the book (which is one of my favourites) and its history. I was surprised to find such a detailed article on it. I would support its candidacy as a featured article. Ziv Goldstein 07:49, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support. Would like some more material on the reception of this seminal work; it has received some criticism, for example for suggesting that experiencing the Holocaust should of necessity lead one to lose faith in God. JFW | T@lk 18:49, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support. Excellent article - better than several others I've seen as Featured Articles. --Tim4christ17 03:47, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Strong Support. Another great article from SV. The maps and illustrations are a good complement to well-written and informative text. Briangotts (Talk) (Contrib) 15:17, 7 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support pe above. It is a fine article. And we should neve suggst that featured aticles ae perfect. No Wikipedia aticle should ever be held to that standard, we are and should constantly be looking for ways to improve any article, including featured ones. user:Slrubenstein
  • Support! Amazing work, especially the choice of photographs. Wow. --Masamage 03:56, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Weak Support - well done, except it needs more historical background. --GoOdCoNtEnT 07:07, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support. I think it more than meets all criteria. I like the precise and compact writing style of the plot synopsis, that seems to echo Wiesel's own sparse style, and which is in contract to the style of the rest of the article. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think that is beautifully done. (as is the entire article). Rossrs 13:26, 8 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support. As per above Masterhomer 07:06, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support: A nice article about a wonderful book by a Peace prize winner. The book records a dark chapter in the history of humanity, and this article reflects it with all sincerity. While reading the page, I remembered my rendezvous with an abridged version of these memoirs. --Bhadani 12:06, 9 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support. Wow. This will set the benchmark for all book FAs to come. Rebecca 03:16, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support. Excellent article for an excellent book! The Wookieepedian 20:13, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
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