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What Are You Reading / Reviews - July thru December 2022
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The Last Coyote –Michael Connelly – 3.5***
Book # 4 in the Harry Bosch series has our detective on ISL – Involuntary Stress Leave – after an “incident” involving an altercation with his supervising officer. This is a pretty dark episode in the series. But the reader gets to know much more about Harry and the way he operates, his background and what drives him. Despite the attention paid to his psychological problems, though, there is still a mystery to be solved with many clues, multiple suspects and enough twists and turns to keep any fan of thrillers interested and engaged.
LINK to my full review
Honoré de Balzac,
Les Cents contes drolatiques
[1832] 773 pages [Kindle, in French]The title, "The Hundred Droll Tales", is misleading; Balzac only finished thirty stories, divided into three groups of ten which were published separately, the last group in 1832. So, a very early work, which is outside the Comédie Humaine which includes most of his works. These are (mostly) "ribald" stories (mild enough by modern standards), set in the Middle Ages or Renaissance, supposedly in the manner of Rabelais, although Rabelais' works were not so completely devoted to sexual themes, if I remember them correctly (it's been thirty or forty years since I read the books by or attributed to Rabelais.) They are also written in an attempt at imitating Middle French, although this was mostly a matter of spelling and a few obsolete words.They are of course all intended to be "droll" or humorous; some were, some not so much, but that is really a subjective opinion. There is a strong anti-clerical element, which is traditional for this type of story. I started reading these tales in high school (in translation, which kind of misses the point) but ran into censorship issues and gave up; I'm glad I finally got around to reading them in French.
The edition I downloaded from the Internet (free Kindle book) besides the text itself (about 600 pages) contains four other works, which seem to have been selected mainly on the basis that they were in the common domain; there was a short collection of contemporary (1839) reviews of Balzac's novels by Eusèbe Girault de Saint-Fargeau, whom I've never heard of, a brief biography by Balzac's friend and fellow-author Théophile Gauthier (1855), a 93 page vitriolic Catholic attack on Balzac and all modern French literature by a lawyer named Eugène Poitou (1856) — certainly only because it was common domain, it was worthless and I ended up more or less skimming through it, and a long essay on the death of Balzac by Octave Mirbeau (1907).
Prosper Merimée,
La Perle de Tolède
[1829] 3 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]Prosper Merimée, Federigo [1829] 12 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Merimée, La Vase étrusque [1830] 22 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Merimée, La Partie de trictrac [1830] 14 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Merimée, La Double méprise [1829] 60 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Merimée, Les Âmes du Purgatoire [1834] 50 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
A few more of Merimée's nouvelles. La Perle de Tolède was only three pages, I'm embarassed to list it at all; it was a parody of Spanish stories about duels (maybe a self-parody because many of these nouvelles contain duels.) Federigo was also short but fun, a gambler outwits the Devil, Death, St. Peter and Jesus to get into heaven. La Vase étrusque is a story about jealousy (and a duel.) La Partie de trictrac has a romance, a gambling scene, a parody of duelling (the French garrison has to leave Brest because their officers are nearly all killed by the marine officers in duels) and a naval battle, among other things, all in fourteen pages. La Double méprise is the longest I've read so far, about an unhappy marriage; it reminded me strongly of Balzac. I was expecting it to also finish up in a duel, but Merimée chose another Romantic cliché for the ending. It's a story which like many from the early nineteenth century is difficult to appreciate today, when our social norms and hence the psychology are so different. Les Âmes du Purgatoire is the story of Don Juan de Maraña. When I read Dumas' play I assumed he had invented this variant of the Don Juan legend but apparently the play was based on this story by Merimée. Just as an aside, I was surprised to find out on the Internet that nearly all these nouvelles, except the very shortest, have been made into movies, some several times.
Mod
Letters From Father Christmas – J R R Tolkien – 4****
This lovely volume duplicates the letters from Father Christmas which were sent to Tolkien’s children beginning in 1920 and continuing for the next twenty-three years. The letters relate the many adventures Father Christmas and his helpers – The North Polar Bear, elves, etc – have both in preparation for the big day and throughout the year. I much enjoyed the inventiveness of these missives and loved the hand-drawn illustrations.
LINK to my full review
Honoré de Balzac,
Le Faiseur
[1848] 77 pages [in French]About seven years ago I began a reading project to read Balzac in the original French and in Balzac's preferred order, a few books or stories a month; from time to time I got busy with other reading and dropped it for a while, or cut back to one every two or three months. I started with the Avant-propos of the Comédie Humaine, and read all of the first (and longest) two divisions, Scènes de la vie privée and Scènes de la vie de province, then from the other divisions I read the best-known works or those which I happened to have physical copies of in my garage/library. Altogether I read 52 works of the Comédie (about three-quarters of the whole series), of which about 40% were novels and the rest novellas or short stories. This month I read two more works not part of the Comédie, the 600 page Contes drolatiques and finally this play, Le Faiseur, to represent his dramatic works. I hope to finish two biographies of Balzac this month as well, and then I will be leaving him until my next chronological literature project, beginning with Blake and Burns, reaches him again in another three or four years when I may (or may not) fill in one or two other works.
To paraphrase someone or other, as a dramatist Balzac was a good novelist. His descriptive and psychological style was utterly unsuited for drama, and dialogue was not his strongest point even in the novels. Not surprisingly, none of his plays were successful, and if occasionally (very rarely) performed today as novelties, they have never been part of the standard repertoire. This play in particular, which was titled Le faiseur in the edition I read, although the original title and the most often used was Mercadet, ou le faiseur (one recent English translation calls it Waiting for Godeau!!), was found to be very difficult to follow, and it was confusing enough for me even reading it.
"Le faiseur" is literally "the maker", but it also has the slang sense of someone who presents a false image of himself, an "imposter". Mercadet, the protagonist of the play, is a speculator who has been largely unsuccessful in life, which he blames on his former partner Godeau, who left for overseas with their joint treasury a decade earlier. At the point at which the play begins, he is very much in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy. He tries various schemes to get a reprieve in the hopes of making a killing on the stock market in the meantime. These schemes constitute the plot and are very obscure; they were even to play-goers in 1848, and are more so today when laws and financial practices are very different. I figured out most of what was going on eventually (think Trading Places)but I would never have understood it on stage even in English. There is also a sub-plot concerning his daughter and her suitors, which is more obvious.
Claribel Alegria and Darwin J. Flakoll,
Cenizas de Izalco
[1966] 209 pages [in Spanish]Carmen, a young married woman living in the United States, has returned to her native city of Santa Ana in El Salvador for the funeral of her mother, Isabel. Her father, the retired and now near-invalid Alfonso, is devastated by the loss of his wife. We learn that he is a Nicaraguan who fought with Sandino against the U.S. occupation. Carmen for reasons which she doesn't understand has been given the diary of Frank, a recovering alcholic from Oregon who visited Santa Ana in 1931-1932 and with whom her mother fell in love. He tried to get her to leave her dead-end life in Santa Ana and go with him to Paris, but in the end she decided to stay with her husband in Santa Ana. I suspect Isabel may have left the diary to Carmen as a way of encouraging her to break with her own dead-end life with her "organization-man" husband Paul. The story alternates between Carmen's present, with her brother and other relatives, and her memories of childhood, and the diary of Frank.
The story of Frank and Isabel takes place against the background of an eruption of the volcano Izalco and the revolt (and massacre) of the Salvadorean Indians and peasants under the leadership of Farabundo Marti. (I recall that in the eighties, when the Sandinista Front (FSLN) was in power in Nicaragua, the Salvadorean guerillas were called the Frente Farabundo Marti (FLMN). Both have since become opportunist electoral parties.) The novel has a feminist theme of the boredom of both Isabel and Carmen, denied any real life of their own apart from their husbands and children, in places where "nothing happens, nothing has ever changed".
This was one of the few novels of the Latin American "Boom" written by a woman author, and one of the few from Central America.
Legendary (Caraval Trilogy #2) by Stephanie Garber
4 ★
Welcome, welcome to Caraval...the games have only just begun.
Donatella Dragna and her sister, Scarlett, made it through the last Caraval and now that they are free of their father, they journey with the Caraval crew to Velanda. Elantine, empress of the Meridian Empire, has asked Legend to host a Caraval for her birthday celebration. Donatella has made a bargain with a mysterious man and she owes him Legend’s true name. To get this information she must win Caraval. But there is an issue, if she gives this man Legend’s true name Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever. If she loses, she could lose her life.
”The air was so thick with magic it felt like confectioner’s sugar on Tella’s tongue”
Statements like this throughout the book describe the scenes so very well. The author definitely has a way with words. As in the first book the world of Caraval is enchanting and intriguing. The reader is pulled into the story from the start with a scene from the past. It was hard to put the book down sometimes due to the suspense of what would come next.
Many of the same characters from book 1 are back with the addition of the Fates. The reader gets to meet a few personally. From the manipulative Prince of Hearts to the murderous Undead Queen the reader gets to experience true evil, fear, and desperation. The fates want their freedom and in return, Legend. Some secrets get revealed throughout the book and yet, more questions pop up.
”He smelled like ink and other dark, seductive things.”
Dante did not make a very good impression on me in book 1, but he grew on me in this one. He follows Tella around and makes sure she is safe. Even though Tella is stubborn and will not listen to him most of the time, he still tries his hardest to protect her from herself.
I look forward to the final chapter of this trilogy. There is a surprise ending in this book that makes the reader very eager to move on to the next book to see what will become of Legend, Caraval, and the Dragna sisters.
A Firefighter Christmas Carol and Other Stories by Douglas R. Brown
4 ★
Firefighters, serial killers, ghosts, and the mentally ill. It’s all here in this collection of psychological and supernatural suspense.
A Firefighter Christmas Carol
Elliot was once a good medic, but since the untimely death of his partner, Carl, Elliot has become depressed and could care less about the job, his family or himself. When Carl visits him on Christmas, along with 3 other ghosts, Elliott starts to find his purpose in life again.
I have worked as an Emergency Medical Dispatcher for just over 9 years and the crews at EMS have become my family. I have had to deal with the suicide of one and our community has lost 2 firefighters to suicide. I have seen what it does to the others in the field. This story really made me think about things and reminded me to keep an eye on my “peeps”. Some suffer in silence while some strike out. This was an excellent retelling and the ended warmed my heart.
Janitor
Oh my….this one freaked me out. Mental illness is not something to joke about and this story took it to a new level for me. It showed a side of the illness that I, thankfully, have never had to deal with. It was truly heartbreaking and terrifying.
Death Alarm
A rookie firefighter makes a mistake and pays dearly for it. His mistake saves another life years later. An interesting story that makes one wonder just what is going on behind the scenes at the calls we go on.
Catchtime
A happily married man spirals into obsession over a comment by an internet troll. How many times have we all gotten mad at a stupid comment online? Well, Daniel takes his anger a bit far. The story alternates between then and now, JD and Daniel with a surprising ending.
Skelwaller Lane
Why is Billy running for his life and who is the man chasing him? Why is the man chasing him? He’s a stranger to Billy, but the man knows what Billy has done and plans on righting that wrong. A terrifying story of love and revenge.
DOA
Toni and her partner, Steve, catch a DOA call first thing Christmas morning. Most DOA calls are fairly routine, but this one takes a turn when the deceased visits Toni in the truck. She has a rare ability to see ghosts and he needs her help. He does not give her a choice in the matter and what she does goes against everything she believes in.
This collection of stories was intense, interesting, and terrifying. The author has other books out and I look forward to reading more of his work.
Mod
The Heartbreak Bakery – A R Capetta – 3***
A teen who is unsure which pronouns to use displays feelings through baking. At the outset, I had some difficulty with the constantly changing pronouns – not just Syd but Harley and others seem unsure which pronouns they prefer on any given day. But I got over this and began to enjoy this YA romance. Syd is a great character, and I liked how Capetta explored relationships and changing feelings and how we need to learn to communicate openly and honestly.
LINK to my full review
Prosper Mérimée,
La Vénus d'Ille
[1837] 27 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]Prosper Mérimée, Colomba [1840] 125 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Mérimée, Arsène Guillot [1844] 42 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Mérimée, Carmen [1845] 51 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Four more nouvelles of Mérimée. La Vénus d'Ille is a supernatural horror story about a statue of Venus discovered at the town of Ille; not a bad story but rather obvious, perhaps because I had already read it at some point, probably in some anthology, or perhaps because the basic idea has been used too often by others in the last two centuries. Colomba is by far his longest story, more than twice the length of any of the others. It is an exotic adventure story very much in the style of Sir Walter Scott set in Corsica, with the theme of a vendetta. Arsène Guillot is very much in the Romantic style as well, based on a coincidence and also rather obvious, about a poor dying woman, a wealthy religious woman who takes an interest in her, and a young man who turns out to have been in love with both of them. Carmen is of course his best-known work, having been the subject of Bizet's opera and several well-known films, and one that I am sure I have read before. The table of contents lists another story between Arsène Guillot and Carmen, L'Abbé Aubain, but it was not actually in the book I downloaded.
Gaëtan Picon,
Balzac par lui-même
[1956] 191 pages [in French]A volume in the series "Écrivains de Toujours", this was not what I expected it to be. I assumed it would be a biography mainly in Balzac's own words, probably from letters and so forth. In fact it was an attempt to describe Balzac's psychology rather than his life, based mostly on selected passages from his novels with Picon's "profound" commentary; essentially it was what Picon imagined Balzac to have thought, and to the extant I could even follow his confused "literary" prose, it was not at all how I would imagine the author of the Comédie Humaine. Picon seems to forget at times that personages in novels think and speak in character and don't always present the ideas of the author; and that Balzac's novels have novelistic plots as well as character description. In fact, he actually says that all Balzac's important characters are really aspects of Balzac himself. Although I have read three-quarters of the Comédie Humaine, he somehow manages to quote mainly from the books I haven't read, so it was hard to know what the context of the quotations might have been or even whether they were from the narrator (not necessarily identical with Balzac) or from a character. The only real redeeming feature of the book was the many (black and white) illustrations, both portraits (and cartoons) of Balzac and people he interacted with and illustrations obviously taken from editions of his works (none of the illustrations were sourced).
Mod
Shroud For a Nightingale – P D James – 3***
Book 4 in the Adam Dalgliesh mystery series has the detective investigating two deaths at a school of nursing, Nightingale House. I really like how Dalgliesh is so methodical and contemplative. He never rushes to a conclusion, and carefully constructs and explores the possibilities before proclaiming a case is solved. This one took several turns I didn’t expect.
LINK to my full review
Mod
The Burden of Proof – Scott Turow – 3.5***
Turow turns his attention to the defense attorney from Presumed Innocent , Alejandro “Sandy” Stern. It opens with a shocking discovery. And quickly expands to a complicated legal mess, involving securities / commodities trading, that frankly lost me in its complexity. I really loved how Turow wrote Sandy and his relationships. This is really more character-driven than most legal thrillers. But the plot complexities, however puzzling to me, were also what kept me interested and engaged and wondering and guessing right to the end … which is a stunner.
LINK to my full review
Claribel Alegria,
Luisa en el País de la Realidad
[1987] 165 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in Spanish]This is a wonderful book. The title Luisa en el País de la Realidad, i.e. Luisa in Realityland as the English version is titled, is an allusion to Alice in Wonderland. Luisa is obviously Alegria herself, possibly a bit fictionalized, and the names of some friends and family members are changed, but this is clearly autobiographical. The form is a hybrid, like Ruben Darío's Azul. . ., with short stories (she calls them viñetos, or vignettes) interspersed with poetry. The stories are mostly memories of her childhood, set in Santa Ana, and have obvious resemblances to the novel she wrote with her husband, Bud, Cenizas de Izalco. The poetry is partly also about her childhood, but there are also some really good political poems, perhaps influenced ultimately by Neruda, and more directly by Roque Dalton, who is mentioned frequently in the book, although for a Salvadoran poet to write political poetry doesn't really require any models.
Mod
The Christmas Cookie Collection – Lori Wilde – 2**
I knew going into it that this collection of novellas (originally published separately) would be a schmaltzy romance. I’ve read another work by Wilde previously and liked it; I found this one charming for its genre, though unremarkable. It was a fast read, but I’ve basically forgotten the characters and their stories already.
LINK to my full review
Claribel Alegria,
Pasos Inciertos: Antología 1948-2014
321 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in Spanish]This was an anthology of about 140 poems from sixteen of Alegria's books. They were a bit uneven in the early books, but the later books were very powerful. There was personal poetry about her childhood, her mother and her mother's death, love poems to her husband Bud and about his death, much political poetry, and some mythology in the last books. I'm adding her to my short list of favorite modern poets.
Prosper Mérimée,
Il Viccolo di Madama Lucrezia
[1846] 22 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]Prosper Mérimée, La Chambre bleu [1866] 16 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Mérimée, Lokis [1869] 40 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
Prosper Mérimée, Djoûmane [1870] 8 pages [Kindle Unlimited] [in French]
The rest of Mérimée. Il Viccolo di Madama Lucrezia is a story which appears to be one genre but is actually not. There are no more nouvelles for twenty years, and then three which are not very good in my opinion, La Chambre bleu and Djoûmane have "surprise" endings which are just annoying and Lokis is a supernatural tale which is just too trite and obvious, though perhaps it wasn't when it was written.
Chimamanda Adiche,
The Visit
[2021] 20 pages [Kindle Unlimited]I'm going through my short Kindle Unlimited books so I can download more next year, and to try to catch up on my reading goals for the year, which I am really behind on. This short story is an Amazon Original, part of a series called "Black Stars" of science fiction by Black authors.
The story is set in an alternate reality in which women dominate government and industry and the men are submissive and concerned mainly with appearance, pleasing their husbands and taking care of the house and children. In other words, a reversed-role story. This sort of story had a point at the beginning of the feminist movement (I remember some examples from the 1950's which were thought-provoking at the time) but today they seem less original and more trite. On the other hand, Adiche is a Nigerian author and the story is set in Nigeria, so if it is intended for a Nigerian audience, where the feminist movement is still at an early level, it may be more justified. Of course it is very well done, as one would expect from Adiche, who is a very good writer (Half of a Yellow Sun is one of my favorite novels.)
Nalo Hopkinson,
Clap Back
[2021] 21 pages [Kindle Unlimited]Another book in the "Black Stars" series, by Caribbean/Canadian author Nalo Hopkinson, this is about a fashion designer and a Black protest performance artist who use a future nanobot technology — with unexpected consequences.
139. Nnedi Okorafor,
The Black Pages
[2021] 31 pages [Kindle Unlimited]In this strange fantasy, also in the "Black Stars" series, a genie trapped in a manuscript is released when a library is burned by al-Qaeda jihadists. She meets up with a young man on a vacation from Chicago to see his parents, who is also somehow the person responsible for trapping her in the book centuries ago. The point seems to be the description of the Arab terrorists; the plot makes little sense and the ending explains nothing. It almost seems as though it is the first chapter of a longer book.
Mistletoe Murder (Lucy Stone #1) Leslie Meier
4 ★
When the founder of the mail-order company Lucy Stone works for is found dead in his car of an apparent suicide, Lucy’s instincts tell her that it was murder. Secrets start to come out and the danger for Lucy increases as she investigates on her own to find the person responsible.
This is the first book I have read by Leslie Meier. I enjoy cozy mysteries and I think I’ll enjoy this series. Lucy Stone is practical, but determined. The series is set in a small town in Maine called Tinker’s Cove and all the people you meet in this book are delightful. Everyone knows everyone and everyone’s business. Each chapter starts off with an item number and description from the Country Cousins catalog and some of them I would have bought myself. Also, somewhere in the chapter the item, or similar item, is mentioned being used. It was kind of cool.
The mystery throughout the book is well organized and played out. There are multiple twists and some pretty funny situations that made me chuckle. The story never gets overly complicated or serious, hence the cozy mystery label. It was a nice change for me since I enjoy the real gritty mysteries. The outcome of the murder is swift, but thorough. There are no loose ends.
Lucy’s family is wonderful and I look forward to continuing the series and seeing the kids grow and see where Lucy’s sleuthing skills go.
Jeff VanderMeer,
Wildlife
[2022] 56 pages [Kindle Unlimited]Another Amazon Original, from a different series (the "Trespass Collection"), this is a strange story with the same "feeling" as VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy: Nature that isn't quite "right" and an ending which doesn't really explain anything.
Stefan Zweig,
Balzac
[Eng. tr. 1946] 404 pagesStefan Zweig was many things, novelist, playwright, historian, but he is probably best remembered as a biographer. This last work was left unfinished — but not incomplete — when he died in Brazilian exile from the Nazis; although it covers the whole of Balzac's life without any serious gaps, apparently he intended to significantly expand it. Some material was added or slightly rewritten from his notes by the editor, Richard Friedenthal, as Friedenthal relates in a short epilogue.
Balzac was one of the greatest French novelists; in his own lifetime, only Stendhal could be compared (and only Balzac recognized Stendhal's genius). As a person, however, he had little judgement, and took everything to extremes. Zweig does a good job in my opinion of balancing the description of his novels with the "novel of his life". Of course, it was the literary side which interested me the most; this is the last book of a long project of reading Balzac.
Finale (Caraval Trilogy #3) by Stephanie Garber
4 ★
Welcome, welcome to Finale . . . all games must come to an end.
Two months ago the Fates were released from the Deck of Destiny and Legend claimed the throne. Now Scarlett and Donatella find themselves in situations that will take bravery, trust, and risk to get through. Caraval may be over, but a new game has begun.
This was a delightful ending to the Caraval trilogy. It was devious, haunting, humorous, loving, violent, and magical. The reader gets to see a side of the Fates that you would not expect. Some of them are actually caring and helpful. They only want what everyone else has: freedom.
There is a lot of tragedy in the book also. Sad deaths and ridiculous deals made. I don’t know how many times I wanted to reach into the book and smack Donatella and Scarlet. Neither of them can seem to make up their minds on who they want to love. They end up playing games and find out how much of a mistake that is too late. I will give them a positive aspect though: they both really grew up in this book and finally found their place in the world. Their mother plays a pretty big part of that.
Julian and Legend…where do I start? These are two characters that definitely stole my heart. They were not the most trustworthy two in the beginning of the trilogy, but they grow on you and you so badly want to believe everything they say. Don’t worry; it gets easier by book three.
I will miss this group of characters, but I look forward to reading the next series by this author. Her storytelling is excellent and her descriptions are so visual.
Mod
End of Watch – Stephen King – 4****
Book three in the Bill Hodges Trilogy has the retired detective (now a private investigator) and his partner, Holly Gibney, intrigued by the recent murder / suicide involving a survivor the original Mercedes Killer rampage. King gives us a fast-paced, intricate plot, with complex characters, and a fascinating exploration into brain activity and the possibilities. I really like Bill Hodges, but I love Holly, and she really shines in this episode
LINK to my full review
John Winchester’s Journal by Alexander C. Irvine
3 ★
This is an interesting book for anyone who has watched the Supernatural TV series. The book description on the back of the book states, “Sam and Dean Winchester know all the secrets their father recorded in his journal. Now you can, too.” I do not agree with the “all the secrets” part. It’s definitely not the book the boys have in the TV series. It is detailed in some areas and not so much in others. Each chapter is a new year and John states how long Mary has been dead and how many years they would have been married in each one. To me, it was a bit annoying, but I’m not a big fan of books written in journal or diary format anyway. I did like how the reader gets to see Dean and Sam grow up. There is some of that in the TV series, but this book gives you John’s thoughts on it.
If you like quick reads, this book is for you. I had to skip a bunch of it because it’s either written in code or another language (spells, incantations, etc.). The drawing are interesting and if you have time, it would be cool to search for some of the ghosts stories he talks about and learn more about them. I look forward to reading Bobby Singer’s Guide to Hunting and see how the two compare.
Widukindus Corbeius,
Rerum gestarum Saxonicarum libri tres
Book 1 [967?] 61 pages [HTML, Biblioteca Augustana] [in Latin]Widukind of Corvey (ca. 925-after 973) was a monk at the monastery of Corvey; we know almost nothing else about him. He may or may not have been associated with the court of Otto the Great, whose reign is the subject of the second and third books of the history; in any event the work is dedicated to Otto's daughter, the princess Mathilda. The title in English would be Three books of the Deeds of the Saxons. The version I am reading is freely available in HTML from the Biblioteca Augustana website; the text is that of the latest modern edition, edited by Hirsch and Lohmann in 1935, which is also apparently available free from the Digital Monumenta Germania Historica online, though I haven't checked out that site. Given that it took me four days to get through these 61 pages, it may take me a while to get through the two longer books, so I'm listing them separately. Although honestly I am reading this mainly as practice in Mediaeval Latin before I attempt other things I am more interested in (i.e. Hrotsvita's plays), the book is not without its own interest.
While the second and third books about events in his own lifetime and in which he might have been to some extent a particpant are important primary sources, this first book is hardly up to the standards even of tenth-century historiography, which are not very high. (Though I admit that the "crazy" parts were the most fun to read.)
He begins by admitting that the origins of the Saxons are unknown, and that there are two theories, the first that they were "Northmen" (not an unreasonable guess for the time) and the second, which of course he considers more probable, that they were descended from Macedonian soldiers who wandered North after the death of Alexander the Great. (He doesn't question why they speak German rather than Greek.) He says that they arrived in Germany on ships, and that their coming into the land was made more difficult because of the resistance of the natives "who were called Thuringians"; he then gives a folktale story about how a Saxon boy from the ships tricked a Thuringian into selling him the land (the boy gives a heavy gold ornament for a bucketful of dirt, and then spreads it on the land, which apparently gives him ownership of the land).
He has a brief digression about the Saxon conquest of Britain, which ends up by telling the reader that the Saxons in Britain are called Angli-Saxons because Britain is in an angle of the the ocean.
The next few chapters are about a war between the Franks and the Thuringians, which ends with Thuringia being given to the Saxons. This is loosely based on facts, but in contrast to the more sober chronicles written about the same time he apparently follows a rather imaginative and probably oral tradition. Like the ancient and other mediaeval historians, he makes up speeches by the leaders, but goes them one better giving us private conversations between conspirators. Essentially he is writing a historical novel, and since most people get what little they know of mediaeval history from historical novels, a historical novel written at the time is probably better than one from a nineteenth-century Romantic writer.
He sums up the next three centuries with a paragraph about how Charlemagne "converted" the Saxons. He then digresses to the history of the Hungarians ("Ungarii"): he says that they are properly called "Goths"; some women in the camp of the Gothic army were fighting about hunting, and the Gothic king banished them into the swamps beyond the camp, where some of them being pregnant gave birth and eventually there arose in the marshes the people called the Huns, who later became the Hungarians. (Again, he doesn't ask why they speak Hungarian rather than Gothic.) He then proceeds to the rise of Duke Heinricus to become the first King of the Saxons (the figure known to historians, though not to Widikund, as "Henry the Fowler"). The remainder of the book deals with the deeds — mainly the wars — by which Henry expanded the Saxon kingdom at the expense of Slavs, Bohemians, and Hungarians. The book ends with the death of King Henry and the succession of his son Otto, whose reign is the subject of the next two books. Henry died when Widukind was probably about twelve years old, so the rest of the work is contemporary and presumably more accurate — I'll know when I finish it.
Paging All Bookworms!
Books mentioned in this topic
John Winchester's Journal (other topics)End of Watch (other topics)
Finale (other topics)
Mistletoe Murder (other topics)
The Christmas Cookie Collection (other topics)
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The Shop On Royal Street – Karen White – 2.5**
This is the beginning of a spinoff series from White’s popular Tradd Street novels (which I haven’t read). White has included all the tropes of Southern gothic and chick-lit romance: ghosts, family secrets, an irascible grandmother, enemies-to-friends (lovers), a stereotypical Southern Belle best friend who speaks in cute-n-colorful Southernism. It was a fast read, but I’ve already forgotten it.
LINK to my full review