October 2019

A List: King Horn...……………………………….37/52
B List: Between books right now
C List: Scott--The Heart of Midlothian...……….234/570


The latest B-list entry was short, so hopefully my report on it will be up in a couple of days.


King Horn is one of those less-celebrated old English poems of which the world is not exactly awash in copies with modern translations. There was a series of these, including the Seafarer and the Wanderer, and Sir Orfeo is still to come. Since reading Old (as opposed to Middle) English is too much work for me at this time in my life, I am reading a 1911 "re-telling" of the story by one Laura Hibbard that I found online. Horn, who has not actually made it all the way to crowned head yet even though I am 3/4s of the way through his poem, is, in this telling at least, more recognizably human than your typical Dark Ages Beowulf type hero. Hibbard has given him some affection, both romantic and for certain of his comrades in arms, beyond the usual revenge and honor-driven rage. I don't read these A-stories carefully enough anymore to get anything out of them beyond what strikes me blatantly.


Though I am going slowly through his book--and in truth he is not an ideal C-list type of author--I do like Scott more than I thought I was going to, and he is a much more serious and thorough 19th century type novelist than I had been led to believe. Now he is not a pithy writer, which makes him almost impossible for me to read after 3 or 4 in the afternoon, so I foresee it taking me several months to get through this book. It has its worthy qualities however.


I am not yet finished with the porch for this year, though it has not been the warmest October (at least here), and I was even forced inside a couple of days last week when it was 58 degrees and raining (on this same day the weather map said it was 97 in Washington, 92 in Philadelphia, and 90 in New York. I was about 100 miles north of the heat line). Even in the week upcoming it is barely going to get above 60-65, but I can still go out. October 20th is usually about the limit anyway.


The leaves are already changing color with the cool evenings, but as it been a very dry summer, the colors are not as vivid and dynamic as they are sometimes. It is still poignant, especially on an overcast, melancholy day like last Sunday, but dull yellows and browns more like what you would find in the Mid-Atlantic are the primary impression. Well, we've got about 2 weeks left before they're all gone, maybe things will improve. I'll try to remember to take a picture.

  

I'll have to take some of my own autumn pictures. Almost all of the New England in Autumn pictures on the internet are of the perfect towns on the perfect days, which are not lies, but here in this busy and complicated part of my life I haven't been able to get out to see them for a few years. The picture above is from Brattleboro, a place I do get to, and which is pretty enough, and even has perfect picture days once in a while, though probably more common there in wintry than autumn scenes.

Kate Bilo discussing last week's heat wave in Philadelphia while trying to get into the October spirit.

Alessandro Manzoni--The Betrothed (1825-27)



So it took me two months, because of all the projects and distractions of the summer, but I finally finished The Betrothed, the traditional great novel of 19th-century Italy, though I am sure the more advanced modern readers have found numerous greater ones. It is considered to be a landmark in the development of Italian literary prose, a quality which obviously was lost on me, but aside from this it has many other characteristics associated with national or other widely loved types of books. It is set 200 years prior (around 1630) to the time when it was written, during the time of the Thirty Years' War, so that not merely the protagonists but the entire society are put through an exhausting series of ordeals, including famine, war and the plague. Some parts of it are much better than others, and while the book is interlarded throughout with sentimental descriptions of nature and the rituals of village life this is often done, admirably I think, as background amongst the more realistic conflicts and unpleasantnesses which give the story its thrust. As it approached its end, especially during the description of the overgrown orchard after the years neglect due to the war, plague, etc, I got that wistful, mildly sad feeling at the thought of passing away once and for all out of another grand, noble, old kind of story, not that there aren't more to look forward to, of course. If I could have gotten away this fall I might seriously have considered taking a trip to Milan, Lake Como and that area for a week or so, which seems particularly appealing to me at this time.    

I took my first note for this pretty early on, regarding the episode at pages 59-61 where Don Cristoforo recounts the fight to the death he had had as a young man with an imperious nobleman over who would walk closest to the wall, which was the prerogative of the higher ranking individual. I remarked that it was a powerful scene.

p. 95 "...(he will) flee like the devil from holy water." An oft-repeated phrase, but for good reason, as it is funny.

p. 95 again "It is said that trouble sharpens the wit; and Renzo, who...had never had occasion to sharpen his in any great degree, planned a design that would have done honour to a lawyer."

p. 150 "Dolls dressed like nuns were the first playthings put into her hands" The strange, sad case of the Signora who was designated from birth by her father to go into the nunnery, very much against her will, though she could never bring herself to say as much publicly, and who became in her bitterness a rather cruel and soul-dead person. She was the most alluring female character in the book, however.  

pp. 202-5 The emoting of the mob with regard to solving the bread shortage is eerily akin to a certain, not insubstantial, portion of our current electorate:

"And besides, not being a man superior to his age, he entertained the common opinion, or prejudice, that the scarcity of bread was produced by monopolists and bakers; and readily did he esteem every method justifiable of rescuing from their grasp the food, which they, according to this opinion, so cruelly denied to the hunger of a whole people...But when the price of food reaches a certain point, there always arises (at least, hitherto it has always arisen; and if it is so still, after all that has been written by so many learned men, what must it have been in those days!)--there always arises an opinion among the many that it is not the effect of scarcity...The multitude attributed such an effect to the scarcity and feebleness of the remedies, and loudly solicited some more spirited and decisive measures."

p. 245 "...the reader must know that, amongst the lower orders in Milan, and still more in the country, the term poet did not signify, as among all educated people, a sacred genius..."

pp. 323-4 "...if it does not come to this, and quickly too, I foresee a mountain of disorders--an Iliad of woes."

p. 434 My favorite character, the cowardly village priest Don Abbondio, trying to explain his behavior to the unflappable, saintlike Cardinal:

"Perhaps I have not sufficiently myself...I was prohibited, under pain of death, to perform this marriage."

"And does this appear to you a sufficient reason for omitting a positive duty?"

p. 435 "Don Abbondio hung his head. His mind during these arguments was like a chicken in the talons of a hawk, which holds its prey elevated to an unknown region, to an atmosphere it has never before breathed."

The whole discourse between the Cardinal and Don Abbondio is very good, I have rarely seen the tenets of Christianity laid out so clearly and forcefully.

p. 540 "...for anger burns to execute its revenge, and...would rather attribute evils to human wickedness, upon which it might vent its tormenting energies, than acknowledge them from a source which leaves no other remedy than resignation." 

This is just like all the current politics, the global warming argument. There is so clearly an element of the latter that slavers to place the blame squarely on their personal enemies and inflict lifestyle punishments on them. But of course no one will own that this is the case.  

p. 641 "It was still early when he arrived there; for he was no less willing and in a hurry to bring matters to an end, than the reader probably is." This was near the end, though there were still 27 pages before the story could finally wind down, though in this particular book I liked the long denouement.

p. 647 Poor Don Ferrante's dilettantism, and absurd cogitations about the nature of the plague. This aspect of life is sad, a minor sadness compared to famines, wars, and plagues, but very sad in its way.

pp. 661-2 "I have said that he was humble, but not that he was a prodigy of humility."

p. 662 "To have seen the different projects that passed through that mind,--the fancies--the debates...it was as if two academies of the last century had there met together." Manzoni carried through with some humor all the way to the final pages of the book, at which point most authors--Dickens comes to mind--falter in that regard.

If I took that trip to Milan I could see this painting in one of the Pinotecas there.

p. 664 The gossip of the villagers in the new town where Renzo and Lucia settle at the end about how Lucia is not so great looking as they were expecting based on Renzo's long years of pining after her when he first came there alone was an unexpected and twist on the romantic tradition: "Is this she?After such a time, after so much talk, one expected something better! What is she, after all? A peasant, like hundreds more..." But on the other hand, this doesn't seem quite fair, the powerful Don Rodrigo after all wanted her badly enough to go to the trouble of preventing her marriage, having her kidnapped, etc, so she clearly must have had some greater than ordinary appeal.    

The role of the church in this book is quite profound. It is a flawed institution populated by regular people with the expected human qualities, but even with all its faults it holds this entire world together and provides all of the nobler characters in the story with a basis from which to become their best selves at the very least, and in some cases to perform near-heroic work. One comes away with a respect for it.

There haven't been a lot of editions of this book published in English. The only older hardcover one I could find in any quantity was from the Harvard Classics set. This copy is from the 20s(?) maybe, and has a kind of flimsy cover that is good for carrying around and reading. Here it is, in fact.

Like many older copies of foreign classics, this edition doesn't indicate anywhere who the translator is, which is too bad, because I think whoever it was did a good job, the book reads very smoothly and pleasantly in English.



This is the view from the front porch that I talk about so much where I sit and read during the few warm months of the year. I've got about a month left before I'll have to bring it inside for the winter. This day here was somewhat overcast. 

And here it is, the big finish, with my trusty bookmark. 

The Bourgeois Surrender Challenge

As so often happens, only fifteen of the thirty aspirants to the tournament could manage to score a review, so we have a 30-team field for this one.

1. Solomon Northrup--Thirty Years a Slave.........................................................6.694

2. Shayne Parkinson--Sentence of Marriage................................................……2,423

3. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie--Half of a Yellow Sun...………………………..1,068

4. Anne Bronte--The Tenant of Wildfell Hall...…………………………………...151

5. Karl Marlantes--Deep River...…………………………………………………...61

6. Arthur Conan Doyle--The Return of Sherlock Holmes...………………………..59

7. Kevin Lucia--Devourer of Souls...………………………………………………42

8. Garet Garrett--The Driver...…….………………………………………………..16

9. Charles Leland--Gypsy Sorcery and Story Telling...…………………………….14

10. Laurens Van der Post--Jung and the Story of Our Time...………………………9

11. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine...……………………………….6

12. Eric Hill--Time for Bed, Spot...…………………………………………………..1

13. The Poems of Heine (Bowring, ed)………………………………………………1

14. Bayard Taylor--Joseph and His Friend: A Story of Pennsylvania...……………..1

15. Agnes Strickland--Queens of England, vol. 2...………………………………….1

16. Promissory Notes on the Treasury of Merits (ed. Swanson)………………………..0

17. T. W. J. Connolly--History of the Royal Sappers and Miners, vol 1...…………...0

18. Jane Campbell Hutchinson--Albrecht Durer...…………………………………...0

19. Work in the Colonies (Church of England 1865)…………………………………0

20. Louis Baudin--A Socialist Empire: The Incas of Peru...…………………………0

21. Meredith Gaston--Your Bed Loves You...………………………………………...0

22. Malatesta & Monte..?--A Journey Through the Hills of Rimini...………………..0

23. Charles Killinger--Culture and Customs of Italy...……………………………….0

24. D. Medina Lasansky--Hidden Mysteries: The Alternative Guide to Florence...….0

25. A. F. Holmes--Dictionary of Neutral Language...………………………………..0

26. Deslandes--Treatise on Diseases Produced by Onanism, et al...…………………0

27. The Works of William Robertson, Vol. VII...………………………………………0

28. Greek Romances of Heliodorus, Longus and Achilles Tatius……………………..0

29. Leonardo dopo Milano--La Madonna dei Fusi……………………………………0

30. Rome Italy Renaissance: Essays in Art History (ed. Lavin)………………………0

1st Round

#3 Adichie over #30 Rome Italy Renaissance

#29 Milano over #4 Bronte

Upset time

#5 Marlantes over #28 Greek Romances

#6 Doyle over #27 Robertson

#7 Lucia over #26 Deslandes

#8 Garrett over #25 Holmes

#24 Lasansky over #9 Leland

#10 Van der Post over #23 Killinger

This was a close call though.

#11 Cambridge over #22 Malatesta

#12 Hill over #21 Gaston

Time For Bed, Spot has a stronger library presence.

#20 Baudin over #13 Heine

This isn't much Heine available at all, and this edition nowhere.

#14 Taylor over #19 Work

This Taylor book is referred to in one place on the internet as "America's first gay novel", which would seem to make it more noteworthy than it is.

#15 Strickland over #18 Hutchinson

#17 Connolly over #16 Promissory Notes

Not much to choose from here

Round of 16

#29 Milano over #1 Northrup

The upset factor is strong here.

#2 Parkinson over #24 Lasansky

#3 Adichie over #20 Baudin

This one was really close too.

#5 Marlantes over #17 Connolly

#6 Doyle over #15 Strickland

#7 Lucia over #14 Taylor

One library carries the Lucia book.

#12 Hill over #8 Garrett

#10 Van der Post over #11 Cambridge

Considerably shorter. I need to get some short books on the list.

Elite 8

#2 Parkinson over #29 Milano

#12 Hill over #3 Adichie

After scooting through 2 rounds on his library prowess, Hill also has an upset to play

#10 Van der Post over #5 Marlantes

Van der Post clocks in at over 400 fewer pages.

#6 Doyle over #7 Lucia

Final Four

#12 Hill over #2 Parkinson

Libraries do not carry the Parkinson book. Any of them.

#10 Van der Post over #6 Doyle

This was a very tough game. I went back and forth on this one. I decided I needed a (slightly) more modern, non-fiction title in the queue.

Championship

#10 Van der Post over #12 Hill

Author List Volume XX

Ben Jonson (1572-1637) Volpone (1605) Born: Westminster, London, England. Buried: North Aisle of Nave, Westminster Abbey, Westminster, London, England.


Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) Walden (1854) Born: Thoreau Farm, 341 Virginia Road, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts (*****8-6-1997*****) Buried: Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts  (*****8-6-1997*****) Thoreau House, Walden Pond, Route 126, Concord, Middlesex, Massachusetts (*****8-6-1997*****) College: Harvard


Eugene Sue (1804-1857) The Wandering Jew (1844-5) Born: Paris, France. Buried: Cimitiere de Loverchy, Annecy, Rhone-Alpes, France.


Orson Welles (1915-1985) Born: Kenosha, Wisconsin. Buried: Sculpture, Paseo de Blas Infante 1, Ronda, Malaga, Spain. College: Art Institute of Chicago.


Adam Smith (1723-1790) The Wealth of Nations (1776) Born: Kirkcaldy, Fife, Scotland. Buried: Canongate Kirkyard, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Adam Smith Statue, 192 Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. College: Glasgow, Balliol (Oxford)

Charles Kingsley (1819-1875) Westward Ho! (1855) Born: Holme, Devon, England Buried: St. Mary Churchyard, Eversley, Hampshire, England. Museum, Clovelly, Devon, England. College: Kings (London), Magdalene (Cambridge).


Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946) Wild Animals I Have Known (1898) Born: South Shields, Durham, England.  Buried: Ashes scattered, Seton Village, New Mexico. Seton Memorial Library and Museum, Philmont Scout Ranch, Philmont, New Mexico. College: Royal Academy of Art (London).


Johan Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) William Tell (1804) Born: Schillers Geburtshaus, Niklastorstrasse 31, Marbach am Neckar, Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany. Buried: Weimarer Furstengruoft, Am Poseckchen Garten, Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. Schillerhaus Weimar, Schillerstrasse 12, Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. Schiller-Nationalmuseum, Schillerhohe 8, Marbach am Neckar, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany. Schillers Gartenhaus, Schillergasschen 8, Jena, Thuringia, Germany. Schillers Wohnhaus, Schillerstrasse 12, Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. Goethe-und-Schiller-Archiv, Jenaer Strasse 1, Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. Schillerhaus Leipzig, Menckestrasse 42, Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. Schillerhaus Rudolstadt, Schillerstrasse 25, Rudolstadt, Thuringia, Germany. Schillerhauschen, Schillerstrasse 19, Dresden, Saxony, Germany. Schiller-Museum Bauerbach, 1 Friedrich Schiller Strasse, Grabfeld, Thuringia, Germany. Statue, Schillerplatz, Vienna, Austria. Schiller Monument, Gendarmenmarkt, Vor dem Schauspielhaus, Berlin, Germany. Statue, Furtwangler Park, Salzburg, Austria.


William Tell: (fl. ca. 1307) Tell-Museum, Burglen, Switzerland. Wilhelm Tell Monument, Rathausplatz 1, Altdorf, Switzerland. Rutli, Seelisberg, Switzerland.

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) The Wind in the Willows (1908) Born: 30 Castle Street, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Buried: Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England. River and Rowing Museum, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England.


A. A. Milne (1882-1956) Born: Kilburn, London, England. Buried: Unknown. College: Trinity (Cambridge)


Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) Winesburg, Ohio (1919) Born: Camden, Ohio. Buried: Round Hill Cemetery, Marion, Virginia.


L. Frank Baum (1856-1919) The Wizard of Oz (1900) Born: All Things Oz Museum, 219 Genesee Street, Chittenango, Madison, New York. Buried: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles, California.

David Montgomery (1870-1917) Born: St Joseph, Missouri. Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, New York.

Fred Stone (1873-1959) Born: Longmont, Colorado. Buried: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Hollywood Hills, Los Angeles, California.

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) A Woman's Life (1883) Born: Chateau de Miromesnil, Tourville-sur-Arques, Normandy, France. Buried: Cimitiere de Montparnasse, 14eme, Paris, Ile, France. Monument a Guy de Maupassant, Parc Monceau, 8eme, Paris, Ile, France.

Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958) The World of the Thibaults/Summer 1914 (1922-1940) Born: 69 Boulevard Bineau, Neuilly-Sur-Seine, Ile-de-France, France. Buried: Cimiez Monastery Cemetery, Cimiez, Nice, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France. College: L'Ecole National des Chartes


Emily Bronte (1818-1848) Wuthering Heights (1847) Born: 72-74 Market Street, Thornton, Yorkshire, England. Buried: St. Michael and All Angels' Church, Haworth, Yorkshire, England.  Bronte Parsonage Museum, Church Street, Haworth, Yorkshire, England. Bronte Waterfalls, Haworth Moor, Haworth, Yorkshire, England. Top Withens, Hebden Bridge, nr Haworth, Yorkshire, England.


Xenophon (431 B.C.-354 B.C.) Xenophon's Anabasis (399-394 B.C.) Born: Athens, Attica, Greece.

George S. Kaufman (1889-1961)  You Can't Take It With You (1937) Born: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Buried: Cremated/Unknown.


Moss Hart (1904-) You Can't Take It With You (1937) Born: 74 East 105th Street, New York, New York. Buried: Ferncliff Cemetery, Hartsdale, Westchester, New York.


Josephine Hull (1877-1957) Born: Newtonville, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Buried: Newton Cemetery, Newton, Middlesex, Massachusetts. College: New England Conservatory of Music, Radcliffe.


Henry Travers (1874-1965) Born: Prudhoe, Northumberland, England. Buried: Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Los Angeles, California.


Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) Dr. Zhivago (1957) Born: 3 Oruzheiny Lane, Moscow, Russia. Buried: Peredelkino Cemetery, Peredelkino, Moscow obl., Russia. Boris Pasternak's House Museum, Ulitsa Pavelenko 3, Michurinets (Peredelkino), Moscow obl., Russia. College: Moscow Conservatory, Marburg.

Now that, as they say, is a face. (2/10/21--picture lost)


Giangiacomo Feltrinelli (1926-1972) Born: Milan, Italy. Buried: Monumental Cemetery, Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, Via Romagnosi 3, Milan, Lombardy, Italy.



This guy died when he was blown up, most likely by his own explosives, while trying to knock out Milan's power grid as part of a militant left wing operation that he had himself founded.


Max Beerbohm (1872-1956)  Zuleika Dobson (1911) Born: 57 Palace Gardens Terrace, Kensington, London, England. Buried: St. Paul's Cathedral, City, London, England. College: Merton (Oxford).


So I have come to the last volume and the end of the author lists, barring the addition of any new museums or monuments or addresses that come to my attention. But this is not the end of IWE-themed lists, as I am going to take up their travel recommendations, and that should take up another 4-5 years of post-padding.

September 2019

A List: R.W. Southern--The Making of the Middle Ages...……………...95/265
B List: Manzoni--I Promessi Sposi……………………………………..652/668
C List: Walter Scott--The Heart of Midlothian...………………………..38/540


So I wasn't quite able to finish Manzoni in time for this month's report. I have been very busy, especially in the weeks leading up to the beginning of school there were several days where I wasn't able to read it at all. But I am getting back on more of a regular schedule now.


Taking up Scott at the same time one is reading Manzoni is not ideal, as they are kind of similar books, long, romantic, set in the past, and they even were written around the same time. However, I can see already why Scott was popular in his day even if he is a bit long-winded by our standards (as is Manzoni). He is lively, he has more humor thus far than I was expecting, and he seems to know how to roll out a story. I should be able to plow through a decent amount of it during the 1-2 week interval when I am working on the report for the Betrothed.


R.W. Southern (1912-2001), who sounds like an American (perhaps I was getting him confused with the 1970s Texas-raised songwriter J. D. Sothern), was an Oxford institution, and The Making of the Middle Ages is one of the most respected humanities books to emerge from the heady days, such a contrast with the present, of the postwar research university. It is the kind of book that is good for me, because while I have some familiarity with many of the names, places, and events that populate its pages, I didn't have a terribly coherent picture of how they fit both in relation to each other and to other parts of history, and this should at least move me a further along in the formation of one. For a guy writing in the supposedly unenlightened 1950s, Southern frequently could pass for a modern professor. His attitude toward the Islamic world (or at least the medieval Islamic world) is highly respectful, and he is not in thrall to any kind of jingoistic view of Anglo-Saxon or Western European superiority that I can see. Reading him on the Crusades, I am struck by the juvenility with which people in our times will casually cite them as some kind of example of toxic masculinity or Western arrogance or privilege that has some kind of relation to people's behavior in the present. "The First Crusade burst on a world which had long been preparing for it in the recesses of its being, but there had been few outward signs of the work of preparation...The passionate acceptance of the Crusade as an established aim of Latin Christendom, which characterizes the twelfth century, did not come to birth without a struggle, and it is not irrelevant to note that the Eastern Church remained permanently antipathetic to the ideal. The monastic ideals of the eleventh century were in the main hostile to the idea of the Crusade. To a St. Anselm, for instance, or a St. Peter Damian, the Crusade made no appeal. There could be no place for it in the world which St. Anselm pictured as a vast, turbulent, impure river, carrying off to destruction those who became immersed in it: against this destructive flood there stood only one safe refuge with peace within its walls--the Monastery." (p.50)

I hadn't known that the "Heart of Midlothian" was, in one sense anyway, an actual "thing".

Kate gives the dish on the hurricane, the remains of which are coming my way tomorrow.

Programming Update

Noting that this evening I finished the readings from the 3rd exam of the 6 on my "A" list. I took it up on November 9, 1994 (1st book--Wuthering Heights), so it's taken a few months shy of 25 years to reach the halfway point. I am now on pace to finish it when I am 74, but as I have noted before, the further I go in these exams the more the books, especially the longer ones, start to repeat themselves, so I don't think it will take another 25 years to get to the end. I was on pace before to finish it when I was 78, so I have shaved off a few years in this last cycle.


Are you going to the SJC homecoming next month? It's my 25 year reunion, so I am probably going, indeed I have signed up for it, though various issues could prevent me from making it down. I stopped going to my high school reunions. No one really remembered me, or showed much interest in trying to, and while in my 30s it was at least still a party with attractive women to look at and hope to strike up a conversation with, the last time it was just a bunch of middle aged people who didn't know me, so I don't think there is much of a point in trying to go to them anymore. The St John's people have largely grown away from me as well, but they'll know who I am at least, and I usually enjoy going down and being back in that atmosphere. I have heard it said that the reunions when you are 45-50 are the most lightly attended because that is the age when people are either the busiest or the most disillusioned with their personal results after attending the school, and I am certainly at that point, but still, it was a very important part of my life and I am getting to the age where, although it is not immediately likely, I could be stricken with some affliction that prevents me from ever going back again, so it is likely I will be down.

 

August 2019

A List: Poems
B List: Manzoni--Betrothed...……………………………...361/668
C List: Hoffman--The Marriage of Opposites...…………...218/365


The set of poems I am in the middle of are Burns's "Scots Wha Hae", "Lycidas" (Milton), "Whispers of Immortality" (Eliot), "The Hound of Heaven" (Francis Thompson), and Shelley, "To a Sky-Lark", which I still have to get to.


Burns was great. I have read enough of Milton that his poems mean something to me. With Eliot I have always liked his form and language, the references in this one were a little too outside of my core knowledge to really feel the poem on the initial go. The Thompson started out all right but my attention was wandering by the end. I thought I might be at the point in my life where I could immerse myself in the poetic medium like I once did but I guess I am still too distracted, apart from a poet like Burns who has a very immediate, stirring kind of style.


So this took an extra day and I have been reading over Shelley as well ("Hail to thee, blithe Spirit!"). At one time when I was reading and thinking about these things more intently I decided that Shelley was the most innately talented of the English romantics, I don't remember why, I think it struck me that his thought process seemed to operate the most naturally in the terms of poetic imagery or something. "Skylark" is a meditation on the nature of artistic creation, not wholly devoid of charm or style. Today was for whatever reason a calmer day so I was able (a little) to enter into such of the spirit of 1820 as calls down through the ages.


I've been busy and haven't gotten as far in the Manzoni as I might have liked. It is good while also being different from other great European books of its type in presentation, etc. While I suspect that Renzo and Lucia are going to overcome their presently formidable obstacles and get married in the end, I don't see yet by what clever means the author is going to make this happen, or at least didn't until today, when the most savage and ruthless of the villains yet introduced seemed to undergo a crisis of conscience. Also there are a number of interesting characters whose roles do not require them by the conventions of the Romantic novel to come to a pre-ordained end either good or otherwise, and I am interested in seeing what becomes of them. Hopefully I will be able to finish this and have the report out before the next month is up.


I worried for a while that I might have to take a part-time (2nd) job, which would further cut into my reading, and writing, time, but it looks like I might be able to put that off for this year at least. Joking about cutting into the reading aside, it would also cut into my ability to keep up with the laundry, the dishes, cooking dinner, monitoring my children's schoolwork at all. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad to do this (take a second job) later on, but right now it would be difficult to do.


I've actually given up on The Marriage of Opposites. I was kind of going through the motions anyway because it wasn't grabbing me, and then when the rich, smoldering love interest showed up it basically turned into a Harlequin romance. It checks a lot of the boxes of popular contemporary novels. Strong female white/Jewish protagonist, personally progressive, not as racist as everybody else, best friend is black, etc, conveniently set in colonial times so she can express her indignation with the injustice of it all while her hands are largely tied as far as her ability to overthrow the system. I don't mean to make fun of it, I think most of these contemporary writers are probably sincere in wanting to be good and atone for the crimes of history literary and otherwise, but most of the time it just kind of weighs down the story and puts the characters in straitjackets because of course they have no capacity to surprise. Besides, I think there are like four books still waiting on the C list and at least 3 of them are pretty long, if I were to finish them.

Author List Volume XIX

Richard F Burton (1821-1890) Born: Torquay, Devon, England. Buried: St Mary Magdalene Roman Catholic Church, Mortlake, Richmond, London, England. Capt Sir Richard Francis Burton Museum, 28 Trenwith Place, St. Ives, Cornwall, England. College: Trinity (Oxford)

Haroun Al-Raschid (766-809) Born: Ray, Iran. Buried: Imam Reza Mosque, Mashhad, Iran.
Giafar (767-803)

Douglas Fairbanks (1883-1939) Born: Denver, Colorado. Buried: Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.




Elizabeth Madox Roberts (1881-1941) The Time of Man (1926) Born: Perryville, Kentucky. Buried: Cemetery Hill Cemetery, Springville, Kentucky. College: Chicago.


Verner von Heidenstam (1859-1940) The Tree of the Folkungs (1905-7) Born: Olshammar, Sweden. Buried: Ovralid, Motala, Sweden. College: Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.


George du Maurier (1834-1896) Trilby (1894) Born: Paris, Ile, France. Buried: St John-at-Hamspstead Churchyard, Hampstead, London, England.


Kirk Douglas (1916-2020) Born:  Kirk Douglas Park, 1 Guy Park Avenue, Amsterdam, Montgomery, New York. College: St. Lawrence. Buried: Pierce Brothers Westwood Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California. 


Not an author, but the 2nd person cited in the "Literary Treasures" (other than Herman Wouk, now 103 or 104) who is still alive. (note: as of August, 2019). 






Richard Henry Dana, Jr (1815-1882) Two Years Before the Mast (1840) Born: (4 Berkeley Street), Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Buried: Campo Cestio Cemetery, Piramide, Rome, Lazio, Italy. College: Harvard


Oliver St. John Gogarty (1878-1957) Born: Rutland Square, Dublin, Ireland. Buried: Cartron Church, Moyard (nr Renvyle), Galway, Ireland. Oliver St. John Gogarty's Pub 58/59 Fleet Street, Dublin, Ireland. College: Trinity (Dublin)


Nora Joyce (1884-1951) Born: Galway Workhouse, Galway, Galway, Ireland. Buried: Fluntern Cemetery, Zurich, Switzerland. Nora Barnacle House, 8 Bowling Green, Galway, Ireland.


Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) Born: Litchfield, Connecticut. Buried: Cemetery, Philips Academy, Andover, Essex, Massachusetts. Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 77 Forest Street, Hartford, Connecticut. Harriet Beecher Stowe House, 2950 Gilbert Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio. Harriet Beecher Stowe House, 63 Federal Street, Brunswick, Maine.

John Dos Passos (1896-1970) The 42nd Parallel (1930), 1919 (1933), The Big Money (1936) Born: Chicago, Illinois. Buried: Yeocomico Churchyard Cemetery, Cople Parish, Virginia. College: Harvard.


Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) Utopia (1516) Born: Milk Street, City, London, England. Buried: Chapel, St Peter ad Vincula, Tower of London, City, London, England. Head, St Dunstan's Church, Canterbury, Kent, England. College: St Mary Hall (Oxford) or Canterbury (Oxford).