Peppermill wrote:I suppose I should check in to say I'm still slogging my way through this frickin' thing, but I don't feel as if I have anything intelligent to add to the conversation.
Mostly I listen while reading Hollander, then read their notes, then read Ciardi and his notes, maybe listening again.
Pepper
Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
This is a sweet story about thwarted love between a Chinese American and a Japanese American in Seattle during World War II and what happened many years later. It had special interest to me because I am familiar with many of the places mentioned in the book. I had not realized, though, that Japanese were detained at the Puyallup fair grounds before being sent to Idaho and points beyond.
There are a large number of coincidences here, even for Dickens, and a very clear battle between good and evil, with good gaining a clear victory. Many endearing characters.
Emma (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Ah, Emma! This book becomes more of a masterpiece each time I read it. Surely Jane Austen searched deep inside her own mind to create her endearing and impetuous heroine.
The Inferno (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
This is a book to read and reread often in many translations. Pinsky's is quite amazing. I think my favorite is Dorothy Sayers', especially for her notes. Now it's on to Purgatorio.
This book surprised me. I don't usually read best-sellers, and I was expecting something mushy, New-Ageish, and not very well written. I'll have to let it settle a while to know exactly what I think of it, so I'll just say right now that my response is positive.
A finely honed masterpiece! I love Dickens' novels, but I do not usually expect them to be as pristine and disciplined and poetic as this work. I was amazed at the number of dualities throughout--two cities, two classes of people, two philosophies, a man and his double, sin and redemption, death and resurrection, characters with dual identities, old and young, bound and free, and on and on and on. I think Dickens just about reached perfection in this, his twelfth novel. I listened to Martin Jarvis's reading of it, and that capped the perfection.
Professor Guy P. Raffa's notes on Dante's Inferno give just enough information and then some.
I love Shakespeare's histories, which turn out to be quite comic. I can't get enough of the Arkangel recordings (well, actually, I have them all).
From the Bible: John, Acts, 1 and 2 Peter
MarchDavid Copperfield
I cry everytime I read it.
My plan is to read all 15 of Dickens's novels in 2009-2010, including the ones I have read previously.
2. Little Dorrit New to me, and wonderful.
3. Death Comes for the Archbishop Another wonderful new one.
4. Twenty-One Balloons This is a great little book about a group of people who live on an island that is rich in an immense treasure of diamonds. They build a magnificent little utopian community. Only trouble: the year is 1883 and the island is Krakatoa. A great read for anyone from 9 to 109.
5. Last Chronicle of Barset Unfortunately, this is the end of a great series. I plan to read them all again someday:
- The Warden (1855)
- Barchester Towers (1857)
- Doctor Thorne (1858)
- Framley Parsonage (1861)
- The Small House at Allington (1864)
- The Last Chronicle of Barset (1867)
The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare:
All magnificent, as usual.
From the Bible: mostly Luke, 1 and 2 Peter, Jude.Spurgeon's Morning an Evening: March selections.
February readings:
1. Oliver Twist Martin Jarvis's reading of this wonderful classic is marvelous. He gets every voice and emotional fluctuation right.
2. Washington Square What a change from Dickens! Dickens is warm and cheerful compared to the cruel, cool, calculating James.3. The Courtship of Miles Standish A great story beautifully told. Longfellow does a wonderful job of transporting the rhythm of Homer and Virgil to the New World.4. The Moon And Sixpence Maugham's tale of an artist who ended his days in Tahiti. The book is inspired by but not a biography of, Paul Gauguin. I have the Easton Press edition, which is illustrated with ink sketches by Fredrick Dorr Steele up to the time the artist shows his first painting and then by Gauguin's prints in color. A fascinating book!
5. The Great Divorce In this brief and beautiful allegory, Lewis takes us on a tour of heaven and hell, where we learn about our power to choose between self and salvation. Breathtaking! I remembered reading this long, long, ago and thought it would be a good companion to Dante. I was right.
6. The Confessions of St. Augustine I must confess, this book got a bit tedious for me at times, but there are some great gems that sparkle out and make it worth the work: his boyhood in Carthage as a reluctant scholar but lover of Dido; his youthful prayer, "Lord make me continent, but not yet"; his taking up the book to read and finding life and freedom at last. The section on memory is amazingly modern, and the section on time boggles the mind. This is a book I'm sure to read again.
7. The Prisoner of Zenda There's nothing like a brief escape to Ruritania to cure what ails one.Great fun!
8. The Abolition of Man An excellent extended essay on the dangers of the word 'only.'
This is a wonderful performance of the great play.
"...let us sit upon the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of kings."
Gardens, plots, and sundry tales enrich this sad story of the unkinging of gentle Richard. Excellent performance!
11. Twelfth Night Another great play by the Bard. I found this audio presentation a bit harder to follow than some of the others in the series, but it is a complicated play.
Also reading from the Bible: Mostly 2 Samuel, Mark, Galatians, Ephesians.
From Spurgeon's Morning and Evening: February selections.
January readings:
- Kipling, The Light That Failed First time for this. I really enjoyed the glimpse into the world of an artist who is going blind.
- Maugham, The Painted Veil Another first read for me. This is a startling novel of redemption. In the introduction Maugham says the idea came to him while he was reading Dante. An important quotation in the novel is from Goldsmith's 'Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog': "The dog it was that died!" A new word that I learned: tiffin.
- Austen, Sense and Sensibility Not my favorite Austen, but for a first novel it is amazing.
- Bronte, Wuthering Heights Breathtaking. It gets better each time I read it.
- Wodehouse, The Adventures Of Sally
- Virgil, The Aeneid You know what I think about this.
- Eliot, Silas Marner Another beautiful story of redemption.
- Dumas fils, La Dame aux Camelias A first reading and a real disappointment. It makes for wonderful opera, though (Verdi's La Traviata).
- Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra
- Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale
- Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well It's amazing what Shakespeare can do with such a silly story.
- Johnson, God's Trombones These wonderful poems have been favorites of mine for many years.
I have The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare and plan to listen to all 38 plays this year.
I also read from the Bible each day (mostly from 1 Samuel and Matthew this month) and am reading through Spurgeon's Morning and Evening
Boys will be boys!
Laurel wrote:This morning I heard an ominous yowling from the front room and hurried out to investigate. Precious, my little Siamese tabby was backed as far as she could get into a corner, and Riley, the red tabby, was nose-to-nose with another red tabby, a little teen-age boy cat who probably was due for a quick snip at the vet's.
He was an adorable little guy--turned belly up and wriggled on the rug when he saw me and then played with one of the catnip toys. I petted him and gave him a treat and put him out. Haven't seen him since. I guess it really happened.
An excellent study of relationships. I thoroughly enjoyed everything about this book.
Could there ever be a better ending? Sigh.
Dickens' seventh novel is packed with memorable characters. My favorite, I think, is Captain Cuttle, though perhaps he ties with the amiable and devoted Mr. Toots. The best thing about this novel: Dombey and Son is a daughter.
Well done, Mr. Dickens! This novel is as scathing an indictment of materialism as anything I have ever read, and in sentences as measured and poetic as those of A Tale of Two Cities.
When a witless young man and his witty pet raven get swept into the furor of the Gordon "no-Popery" riots in the London of 1780, you can be sure you're reading Dickens. This is his first historical novel, and I can see how it leads the way to the other one, A Tale of Two Cities. Grip, the raven, caught the attention of Edgar Allen Poe and probably inspired his poem "The Raven." I suspect that Barnaby Rudge also inspired Poe's "The Bells."
This book is a crazy quilt of stories stitched together into a satisfying tale. I almost put it down a couple of times, but the ending made it amazingly satisfying.
This was a tiresome book, but I soldiered through. It attempts to answer the question, "Did God create the brain or did the brain create God?" I agreed with the conclusion (God created the brain) but did not think it followed from the process taken.
I love this play! This time around, coming fresh from reading Virgil and Dante, I especially noticed the school-boy references to Aeneas and "Widow Dido." The Aeneid is the back-story for the founding of Rome, and The Tempest is all about the varieties of government and being governed.
Romeo and Juliet Lovely!
From the Bible: Genesis, 1 and 2 Peter
Laurel wrote:
Amazing! Even Tolstoy is here.
(Oops! Just gave strange laurels for me to give, besides the ones I intended! I think someone described how to edit a misplaced laurel, but I don't see how again now. So be it. Consider the extras as really just general, rather than specific?) 
