Laurel wrote:You can be sure he always answers politely. As for The Turn of the Screw, it's just that it's maddening to never be able to figure out just what has been going on. He means to madden me, I'm convinced.
In Washington Square, there is so much cruelty that I can't turn anywhere for consolation. The American is next on my list.
foxycat wrote:Why foul?
And what do you argue about in Turn, which I've also experienced in many versions? And has he been answering you? And what does he say?
foxycat wrote:Why foul?
And what do you argue about in Turn, which I've also experienced in many versions? And has he been answering you? And what does he say?
I read them both for the first time so long ago that I don't remember my reactions. But I've read both many times since. There are also 2 fine film versions of WS, although the 1948 plays with the ending. Try the newer version with Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Yes, it's about cruelty, and I know you don't like that kind of unpleasantness in your books. But I related to it. Parents can destroy their children lives, although sometimes in more subtle ways than her father did.
And it can take many years before the the child learns to deal with the world, but will always be scarred by such an upbringing. There is no consolation in the book. The consolation is in your own life, Laurel, but realizing that this does happen in other families.
I was just reading that, too, Rae. Her comment, 'Did you catch the equation of “reading the great literary and philosophical works” with “a humanities education at an elite liberal arts school”?' made me reply 'Yes' and turn back to C. S. Lewis's essay on Dante's Similes in
Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature .
Lewis says that The Divine Comedy performs the services of four different kinds of books (book of travel, poetic expression of the current philosophy, religious allegory, and autobiography) as books would be written today. "All old works of art show the same contrast to modern works, and the history of all arts tells the same miserable story of progressive specialization and impoverishment. . . . The separation of the low-brow from the high-brow in its present sharpness is a comparatively recent thing: and with the loss of the old unified function all curb on the eccentricity of real artists and the vulgarity of mere entertainers has vanished." (p. 68)
In other words, the great books were not written for the elite, but for all people.
rbehr wrote:Speaking of reading, these blog comments by Susan Wise Bauer (author of The Well-Trained Mind and others) are good. Apparently there are students getting turned away from humanities courses - they should be referred to this board.
RB
Here's what I read in February 2009:
- Martin Jarvis's reading of this wonderful classic
- is marvelous. He gets every voice and emotional
- fluctuation right.
Washington Square
What a change from Dickens! Dickens is warm and cheerful compared to the cruel, cool, calculating James.
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.
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!
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.
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.
There's nothing like a brief escape to Ruritania to cure what ails one.Great fun!
An excellent extended essay on the dangers of the word 'only.'
The Complete Arkangel Shakespeare
My plays for this month:
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!
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. I also watched a charming production of the play starring Helena Bonham Carter and Richard E. Grant:
Nigel Hawthorne is priceless as Malvolio. (Does the man act?)
Also reading from the Bible: Mostly 2 Samuel, Mark, Galatians, Ephesians.
From Spurgeon's Morning and Evening: February selections. I'm a third of the way through David Copperfield (tenth reading or so) and near the end of The Last Chronicle of Barset (have been reading eight chapters a week with the Yahoo online Trollope group).
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
You put most of us to shame, Laurel. I wish I had the time to read as much as you do!
But I guess grandchildren are an acceptable excuse for having less reading time. Not to mention helping my sons in law start a new business.
I did get a few books read.
Oliver Twist, of course. Hadn't read for many years.
And Sense and Sensibility.
Masterpiece Classics were a good excuse to re-read a favorite.
For the First Look book club.
Again, revisiting an old favorite.
Interesting book on the tribal mind.
A new collection of Orwell's writing, some favorite essays (his wonderful Shooting and Elephant) and some I hadn't read before.
Read The Clouds, his paraody on Socrates.
Reread the Apology and Crito. I try to read through all the dialogues every few years.
Really just skimmed this from the library. Not as enjoyable as I thought it would be.
Started in reading the Musa translation a few weeks ago. Reading one canto per day.
And Michael Gilbert's Into Battle, now out of print but available in used books.
And of course the Oxford Book of English Verse is constantly at my bedside for nighttime browsing.
My current reading, on top of reading associated with the Dante discussion, includes so far:
Lucas's fascinating life of Lamb. I've always loved Lamb's essays and Lucas's essays, and the combination is irresistable.
Getting read for the Masterpiece Classics coming up.
I normally read either the Jowett or the Bloom translations, but I decided this time to try the new Sachs translation. So far I'm not sure about it, but I'm only in Book 2 so far.
That's all, folks.
Laurel,
You have a very impressive reading list!! I just ordered The Prisoner of Zenda myself and hoping it will get here this week. I look forward to reading that one. I have a goal of reading two books per month this year. I looked into the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge, but I believe some books need to be enjoyed and studied, so I'm exchanging quantity for quality in my case! Plus the fact that work and school take up most of my time, not enough time to read as much as I want
.
So far this year I've read the following:
Coraline
Coraline - This is a short, fun and easy read. It's a fantasy story about a child who finds an alternative universe right in her own apartment! Very nice read.
The Tragedy of Richard the Third
A Midsummer Night's Dream
And I am currently reading:
The Inferno (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Team of Rivals - An excellent history on Lincoln and his cabinet members. I'm finding this a very interesting read.
A Good and Happy Child - A dark and interesting book about, well, I'm not sure what. It's very well written and I'm thinking we decide for ourselves at the end what actually happened. Do not read alone in the dark!
Laurel wrote:Here's what I read in February 2009:
There's nothing like a brief escape to Ruritania to cure what ails one.Great fun!
