B List--Gladys Hasty Carroll--As the Earth Turns...............................................263/339
C List--Jane Austen--Persuasion..........................................................................228/252
This is the first time I have ever read the Arabian Nights. Most of the stories I am finding to hold my interest so far, I have not yet been struck with a grand conception of the whole. Wife-murdering for the crime, or in some instances suspected crime, of infidelity, is a common theme. It's happened at least three times already. I am reading the Modern Library edition, which is a selection, as the complete Burton translation runs to 16 volumes, and I am not sure if the various sources that recommend these stories really intend that everyone should read all of it. When I was younger I was much more of an absolutist and wanted to read everything whole so as to be sure of not missing anything that might be of value, but I have become less so, at least in cases where it is generally agreed that the high esteem which a work enjoys is concentrated in specific parts of it that can be easily detached from the rest.
Persuasion was the only Jane Austen book I had never read, and now I sit 24 pages from having completed her entire oeuvre. I don't who else I can say that about, other than people who only wrote one or two distinct works, Homer, Proust. Even Emily Bronte wrote poems, and Henry Fielding wrote 30-something plays. I like the story in this one, though the characters are not as well-developed as in her better books and her snark is looser and more undisciplined throughout this one, which is also a detraction. I would rank it fourth among her books, after the two obvious ones and Mansfield Park, which I like a lot. I think I like this one better than Sense and Sensibility, which I remember as kind of lackluster compared to the other ones.
I was going to write something about a contemporary book of poetry I read, Look by Solmaz Sharif, which was nominated for the National Book Award in 2016. But given the time constraints I think I will try to do that in a separate post.
I had no idea there was a film of this book.
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