B List: Alessandro Manzoni--Il Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)……………16/668
C List: Alice Hoffman--The Marriage of Opposites...….......………………..72/365
The Noctes Ambrosianae are a kind of fictionalized and one suspects, highly embellished, record of the tavern gatherings of the literary world of Edinburgh circa 1822-1830. Although none of the Scottish personalities represented are widely known today, I was familiar with a few of the names, such as John Wilson and John Gibson Lockhart, the author of Adam Blair, a novel I have actually read. The full collection of the Noctes runs to about 20 volumes, so I found an edition that samples some of the greatest hits. I have no doubt that these guys were very witty, talked a mile a minute, and were a howl to get drunk with if you belonged to this society, but most of the time I admit I don't have any idea what exactly they're talking about. In one session for example, I know that they are talking about the shortcomings of the poet Southey, but the extravagance which some of their flights take, along with the allusions to temporary politics, forgotten magazine writers, the quality of the fowl at other establishments and so on, is usually lost on me.
The Betrothed has traditionally been regarded as the greatest Italian novel, certainly of the 19th century and maybe even of all time. I have only read the beginning of it, but it is striking me as something I am going to like.
Alice Hoffman is a contemporary author of more than 30 books. She is a competent writer I guess, but she isn't very funny, and she adheres closely to the pieties of the times. Her book, like the Noctes Ambrosianae, takes place largely in the 1820s (The Betrothed was written in the 1820s, but is actually set in the 1620s), but her heroine doesn't meekly do as she is told, is educated, fierce of spirit, has a black best friend, etc. In a less polite and enlightened age this would be dismissed as a "woman's novel", probably. Look, I know it is hard to write an interesting book, or, goodness knows, an interesting blog post, or tweet, or Facebook update, or comment or anything else. Maybe this book will grow on me. I don't feel quite entitled to put it aside yet on grounds of being indisputably inferior, as a winner of one of my tournaments. And this is the last book of this type on the C-list for a while, there being a string of titles with much more exalted reputations (albeit all written by white males) coming up.
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