What are we reading? 23/10/2023

[CCCubbon]

Berkley wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "
Here’s another typical from today’s T

15. Scaling limits unemployment benefit for young person (10)"


I think I have this one: [spoilers removed]"

You did! I will have a look for another example.

john Dickson Carr that’s a name from the past, used to read his books. Must look him up again.
Reading The Appealby Janice Hallett . Strange. Its a series of emails/messages but somehow it works. One can engage with the story. When Galbraith tried something similar - the Ink Black Heart - I think, I could not get on with it at all and skipped those pages but this book is okay so far.
Still dipping into the Book of Disquiet Pessoa , which is uniquely wonderful in tiny doses because there is so much to think about.
I’m looking for another good science book and reading around some autumn poems.
One more I will mention is I read Pearl, a little a day, the recent new translation of this 14C poem by Simon Armitage, original poet unknown. Here’s a lovely short descriptive stanza

Ornamenting the hills to every side
were crystal cliffs of the clearest form;
in and about stood bright coloured woods -
trees with trunks of Indian blue.
Layers of leaves like burnished silver
shivered and shook on every bough;
when clear daylight glidedacross them
they glinted and glimmered with a dazzling gleam.
The grinding gravel which crunched underfoot
was precious pearl of the Orient,
so even sunbeams seemed dark and dim,
outshone by opulent ornament.

[scarletnoir]

Bill wrote: "For me, a novel has to have some humor in it to really reflect reality, an element I think C&P lacked (I'm pretty sure of my memory in that regard)..."

I'm not directly going to challenge that, as I don't remember; I suspect, though, that there may have been some humour in the interviews carried out between investigator Porfiry Petrovich and Raskolnikov. Certainly, though, Dostoyevsky was perfectly capable of writing humorously - I was once challenged on this point by Georg, and when I had pointed her in the direction of the short story 'Bobok' she admitted I had a point.

I am more surprised by your statement that " For me, a novel has to have some humor in it to really reflect reality..." since I also much prefer books with a bit of humour in them - which is why I strongly disliked the depressing and humourless "Nightmare Alley" (I couldn't finish it) and also "Ride the Pink Horse" by Dorothy B Hughes - I can't see how that author could have written anything 'funny' in "In a Lonely Place", though I haven't read it - and won't.

As for " this is a problem crime novels tend to have - they either tend to be full-blown comic novels or are otherwise pretty grim", by chance the book I have just finished is a perfect counterexample - Ross Macdonald's The Way Some People Die has many very funny observations and one-liners, but is also 'grim' in the crimes committed. It's the best book by him I've read so far - review later.

[AB76]

Impressed with the first 60 odd pages of Vanish In An Instant by Margaret Millar, the novel has started with the aftermath of the crime and the slow procedural efforts of the law enforcement services, while scattering clues, motives and interesting observations.

I enjoy deliberate novels like these, alongside a touch that Millar has which brings more to the slightly noir-ish wisecracks and exchanges of some of the characters

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "I am more surprised by your statement that " For me, a novel has to have some humor in it to really reflect reality..." since I also much prefer books with a bit of humour in them - which is why I strongly disliked the depressing and humourless "Nightmare Alley" (I couldn't finish it) and also "Ride the Pink Horse" by Dorothy B Hughes - I can't see how that author could have written anything 'funny' in "In a Lonely Place", though I haven't read it - and won't."

Yeah, I admit that the crime novels I listed are pretty much devoid of humor, as are some of the other shorter novels I've enjoyed, like Fat City. I suppose in some cases a certain "all in" commitment to the grimmer aspects of life earns my admiration, though I'm not sure that for me it could carry works of over 300 pages or so.

I do think Nightmare Alley has something of a ludic element to it, if not exactly humor, in its relating individual chapters to the Tarot and its sometimes audacious transitions from chapter to chapter. But my admiration for it was cemented by the section describing the psychic test the protagonist undergoes involving a scale - a perfect demonstration of the virtues of "show, don't tell".

As you indicate, in the crime books I've read, the "hardboiled" genre seems the most capable of incorporating humor into an otherwise serious narrative - I think of Sam Spade's put-downs or Marlowe's similes. I can never remember for sure which M[a]cDonald was married to Margaret Millar, but I think it was Ross, whom I've never read.

[MK]

Berkley wrote: "Speaking of crime novels, I'm reading my first ever book by John Dickson Carr, The Devil n Velvet. So far it reads more like historical adventure, though there is a crime (attempted or perhaps succ..."

Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyone?

[giveusaclue]

MK wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyone?

Read the whole series a little while ago Berkley. I enjoyed their quirkiness.

[MK]

CCCubbon wrote: "Berkley wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "
Here’s another typical from today’s T

15. Scaling limits unemployment benefit for young person (10)"


I think I have this one: [spoilers removed]"

You did! I wi..."

Only a few authors upset me so much that I put them on a DNR (Do Not Read) list. Janice Hallett is one. I found The Appeal quite frustrating.

At this moment, the only other author on the list that comes to mind is Joseph Canon because of the disdainful way women were depicted in an early book. Of course, I know that women were treated poorly even more so in the past than now but he seemed to rub it in. There are plenty of authors around.

[Bill]

I'm wondering whether those who do cryptic crosswords have read or are inclined to read Finnegans Wake.

If not, why not?

The kind of decoding and interpretation required to move through that novel seems to me in some ways similar to the leaps of imaginative association, as well as general knowledge, displayed in the cryptic clue examples that have been posted, though for me the understanding of Joyce's language seems, if anything, more straightforward.

[MK]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "I am more surprised by your statement that " For me, a novel has to have some humor in it to really reflect reality..." since I also much prefer books with a bit of humour in th..."

Funny? Do you want funny mysteries? Put Donald E. Westlake at the top of your list. You can chuckle at Dortmunder and his feckless NYC heisters, or find one of his standalones like Baby, Would I Lie? or my absolute favorite (which I am sorry to say is hard to find at what I consider a reasonable price) Good Behavior.

[Bill]

MK wrote: "Funny? Do you want funny mysteries? Put Donald E. Westlake at the top of your list. You can chuckle at Dortmunder and his feckless NYC heisters, or find one of his standalones like Baby, Would I Lie? or my absolute favorite (which I am sorry to say is hard to find at what I consider a reasonable price) Good Behavior."

A number of years ago a co-worker tried to get me to read Brothers Keepers, but at the time I couldn't get into it. I have read one Westlake, The Ax, not a comic novel, but I remember very little of it other than the premise (which drew me in in the first place) - an unemployed worker in a specialist field (I forget what exactly - the nature of the job was more of a MacGuffin) seeks to improve his chances at a job by murdering rivals. Because I don't remember much of it, I'm not inclined to read more Westlake, though I think I have a copy of The Hook somewhere around the house.

[MK]

Bill wrote: "MK wrote: "Funny? Do you want funny mysteries? Put Donald E. Westlake at the top of your list. You can chuckle at Dortmunder and his feckless NYC heisters, or find one of his standalones like Baby,..."

Well, if you ever run across a copy of Baby, Would I Lie? . . .

[Gpfr]

giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyone?

Read the whole series a little while ago..."

Yes, I've got (and have read 😉) them all.
Other heroines of series by American women writers I like are:
- Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski
- Marcia Muller's Sharon McCone — but not the later books in the series
- one that I haven't heard other people mention, Carlotta Carlyle by Linda Barnes.

[MK]

Honest, this is my last post this a.m. Long ago, I was lured to Facebook (FB) because of a miscreant hack of a message board that followed the Norwich Cathedral Peregrine family. The group relocated to FB, and I, enamored as I am of all things English, did as well.

FB algorithms know this - which means I received a link to -https://fitzrovianews.com/2023/11/03/...

Several years ago I checked out this workhouse building when in London. Its connection with Dickens had been discovered. It looks as if not much has changed. But I have stuck Dickens and the Workhouse: Oliver Twist and the London Poor in my cart at Better World (looking for a Black Friday sale).

And here is a 2021 article about the Workhouse from the NYT (gift link) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/23/bu...

[CCCubbon]

Another crossword clue. Different type.

3. Her co-stars playing in big bands (10)

[CCCubbon]

MK wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Berkley wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "
Here’s another typical from today’s T

15. Scaling limits unemployment benefit for young person (10)"


I think I have this one: [spoilers removed..."

Jane Harper is on my list and Wodehouse because like some others here in the uK I still regard him as a traitor.

[giveusaclue]

CCCubbon wrote: "Another crossword clue. Different type.

3. Her co-stars playing in big bands (10)"

(view spoiler)[Orchestra? (hide spoiler)]

[Bill]

MK wrote: "Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyone?"

I find myself very resistant to the idea of starting on novels featuring serial characters. I find the prospect dreadful. Maybe it’s too much like being married.

I’ve thought back over my reading life to the various serial characters I have read and came up with this list (I’m sure some have slipped from my memory):

• Sherlock Holmes (all)
• James Bond (all)
• Conan of Cimmeria (all)
• Morris Klaw (all)*
• John Shadow (all)*
• Aylmer Vance (all)*
• Carnacki (all)*
• Simon Carne (all)*
• Solar Pons (possibly all – 6 volumes of stories)
• Fu Manchu (6 novels)
• Abel Jones (5 novels)
• Bulldog Drummond (4 novels)
• Philip Marlowe (3 novels)
• Pellucidar (2 novels)
• Alan Grant (2 novels)
• Flashman (2 novels)
• Ellery Queen (1 novel, 1 story)
• Nero Wolfe (1 novel)
• Tarzan (1 novel)
• John Carter of Mars (1 novel)
• Tom Ripley (1 novel)
• Mike Hammer (1 novel)

I know have read individual stories of a number of series characters in various detective anthologies, but can’t recall the names at this point. The characters marked with a (*) in my list were featured in collections of short stories which fit into a single volume; in total these each ended up being about the length of a short novel, which I think is a good length for most such characters, stopping before they begin to grow stale.

In general I would say that I prefer reading short stories for most types of genre fiction (SF, horror, mysteries of the whodunit type).

[Bill]

Am I the only one who's kind of tempted by the 400th anniversary Shakespeare First Folio facsimile?

Since I haven't bought many books over the past year, it isn't so much the price that bothers me. It's the fact that it's a big-ass book that by its sheer bulk has "special needs" both for storage and reading.

[CCCubbon]

giveusaclue wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Another crossword clue. Different type.

3. Her co-stars playing in big bands (10)"

[spoilers removed]"

Thought you said you couldn’t do cryptic!!

This one’s a bit more difficult I think

27. Rugby player confused ref with right move for three-quarters, say (6,8)

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "Am I the only one who's kind of tempted by the 400th anniversary Shakespeare First Folio facsimile?

Since I haven't bought many books over the past year, it isn't so much the price that bothers m..."

what price is it retailing at? either side of the pond?

[Bill]

AB76 wrote: "Bill wrote: "Am I the only one who's kind of tempted by the 400th anniversary Shakespeare First Folio facsimile?

Since I haven't bought many books over the past year, it isn't so much the price t..."

Over here it lists for $135 - looks like it's selling for around $100 on Amazon.

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Bill wrote: "Am I the only one who's kind of tempted by the 400th anniversary Shakespeare First Folio facsimile?

Since I haven't bought many books over the past year, it isn't so muc..."

thats not as expensive as i expected but still pricey!

just been looking at interiors of the Folger Shakespeare Library reading room in DC. Interiors meant to recall english colleges, which i think are remarkably accurate, though the exterior of the building is horrible

[giveusaclue]

CCCubbon wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Another crossword clue. Different type.

3. Her co-stars playing in big bands (10)"

[spoilers removed]"

Thought you said you couldn’t do cryptic!!

This one’s..."

I don't, but was just lucky with that one!

[Robert]

Paul wrote: "MK wrote: "Paul wrote: "Bill wrote: "MK wrote: "Attenborough's Note to Self should include 'where are the predators'?' Any of those - like wolves in PA?."

The only predators threatening the deer i..."

When coyotes are after prey, they make a shrill sound that sounds like a crying child or woman. And when they catch their prey, the cries sound like an gleeful mob.

[Berkley]

CCCubbon wrote: "27. Rugby player confused ref with right move for three-quarters, say (6,8) "

I think maybe (view spoiler)[ proper fraction: prop=rugby player; ref with right move = erf; move = action; I agree, this one was a bit of a stretch (hide spoiler)]

[Berkley]

Bill wrote: "I find myself very resistant to the idea of starting on novels featuring serial characters. I find the prospect dreadful. Maybe it’s too much like being married. "

I don't usually get that feeling myself, since most of them aren't meant to comprise an over-arching narrative, so you can dip into, say, Agatha Christie's Poirot books without feeling any pressure to finish them all unless you enjoy them so much that you really want to.

There are exceptions, of course - for example the last few Nero Wolfe books should be kept for last, but I think most of the others can be read in any order, perhaps with one exception, in which a character returns in a way that is interesting in a metafictional sense (using that word loosely).

BTW, on the subject of humour in detective or crime series, I thnk the Nero Wolfe books do it better than most, without crossing the line into actual comedy writing or whatever the term is - I think something like the Fletch series is meant to be more that kind of thing, though it's been so long since I read the one book of that series I have read that I can't recall much about it. I've heard good things about Charles Hiasson in terms of combining crime and humour but have yet to try any.

[Berkley]

Bill wrote: "I'm wondering whether those who do cryptic crosswords have read or are inclined to read Finnegans Wake.

If not, why not?

The kind of decoding and interpretation required to move thr..."

I agree, though for myself I must admit that when I read Finnegans Wake I was left feeling more or less defeated by it, in the sense that I never felt that I had gained any intuitive understanding of what I was reading while I was reading it (as opposed to afterwards, with the help of commentaries, which I kept to a minimum), at least apart from some isolated passages.

I plan to read it again someday and next time to swallow my pride and make more extensive use of the critical aids that are available. I've picked up two or three that seem to be the most highly recommended, forget the authors now. It will probably be some years before I get to it, though.

[CCCubbon]

Berkley wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "27. Rugby player confused ref with right move for three-quarters, say (6,8) "

I think maybe [spoilers removed]"

Great. I thought it tricky .

[Berkley]

CCCubbon wrote: "Berkley wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "27. Rugby player confused ref with right move for three-quarters, say (6,8) "

I think maybe [spoilers removed]"

Great. I thought it tricky ."

For a second there I was wondering if they weren't being really cute and somehow making the length of the two words of the answer part of the clue, but I imagine it was just a coincidence that 6/8 is three-quarters.

[AB76]

Sometimes i am suprised by books i havent read, which have stared me in the face, fiction or non-fiction

Having read a lot about WW2 and Nuremberg, i had not bothered to order and read Nuremberg Diary by GM Gilbert(1947). I cannot quite remember why this is, unless it was not available or over priced

Anyway, after watching the third series of the BBC documentary Rise of the Nazis with covers the trials, the ratlines and the de-nazification process, Gilbert featured prominently and i ordered the book.

Just the intro is fascinating as he tests and assesses the mentality of the gathered fallen nazi bigwigs. hearing them converse, the banalities, the guilt(occasionally) and the obsessions is fascinating, looking foward to reading more

Hans Frank, the murderous gauleiter of the krakow area suprised me with his strong re-found catholic faith, his contempt for his godless co-defendants and his reading of books of faith constantly, turning the pages with his left hand little finger as his hands were damaged in a suicide attempt

[CCCubbon]

Berkley wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Berkley wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "27. Rugby player confused ref with right move for three-quarters, say (6,8) "

I think maybe [spoilers removed]

Three quarters is a proper fraction i.e. one where the numerator is smaller than the denominator - 3/4 or 7/8 or 4/9………..
An improper fraction has the numerator larger than the denominator
I.e 7/3 or 10/5 or 6/5………which could of course be written as mixed fractions.
Vulgar fractions are any simple ones where the numerator and denominator are whole numbers

[MK]

Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyone?

Read the whole serie..."

How could I have missed Linda Barnes? A female PI in Boston no less. I lived there for several years and later had work-related trips.

I've downloaded her first and look forward to it. Books in settings already known are especially good. I'm a Spenser fan - even though they can be rather predictable.

Thanks for a new mystery author.

[Tam]

Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyone?

Read the whole serie..."

Not posting very much at the moment as I am having both very trying times, as well as joyous ones, all at the same time, but I wondered if you could perhaps help Gp, knowing Paris so well, and perhaps the Bibliothèque Nationale as well? I am a big fan of this medieval painting, and would love to track down an (enlarged) copy! https://www.wga.hu/html_m/zgothic/min... 'The Mysterious Garden'
Guillaume de Machaut: Poetical Works
(1350-55) at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

I contacted them by e-mail, a while back but didn't get a reply from them, as to whether they sold copies, or where I could get a copy of it to frame myself. Russel is also a fan, and said he would like a copy as well. Maybe you might have a more reliable way of contacting them (and in French, which might help as my French is minimal?) or finding whether a replica exists that I could buy? Any info would be gratefully received... all the best... Tam

[MK]

AB76 wrote: "Sometimes i am suprised by books i havent read, which have stared me in the face, fiction or non-fiction

Having read a lot about WW2 and Nuremberg, i had not bothered to order and read Nuremberg ..."

Earlier in time are 2 books with the title - 1923. I have downloaded (yet to listen to) 1923: The Crisis of German Democracy in the Year of Hitler's Putsch. This is the second, in case the rise of Hitler is of interest - Germany 1923: Hyperinflation, Hitler's Putsch, and Democracy in Crisis

[MK]

Tam wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyone?

Read th..."

Interesting picture. Now I'll be bad. I'm not sure what you would like to do with the picture, but, if you have a PC you can download a snip app which will allow you to make a copy - probably its best use would be as a screen saver. Who knows?

I routinely clip a couple of Sudokus from my local paper where I have an online subscription. Not the early in the week ones, but later on.

PS - to show how brazen I am, I have uploaded a picture in the photos section which I recently clipped. It shows up on my PC screen after booting up. I'm trying to get into a holiday mood.

[Tam]

MK wrote: "Tam wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "MK wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Now if we (I use the word loosely) can only get some reading a series like Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone. A Is for Alibi anyo..."

I'd like it as a print to hang on the wall. It's a very small original, so the challenge is to get a digital version at a very high pixel rate. I guess I could put my art training to use, and paint a copy myself though I think that getting a good resemblance to this particular picture would be very difficult as the use of colour is really very subtle not to mention the highly patterned sky (as if it was wallpaper!) background.

A modernist painting would be a lot easier!... I visited a Bruegel exhibition in Vienna quite a few years back and they had blown up some of his painting (most are quite small, for the amount of detail he packs in). His 'Tower of Babel' has a tiny, amusing detail that can only be seen with such enlargements, and that is in the near foreground there is a chap with his trousers down, seen from the back, having a poo in the stream!... https://i.postimg.cc/zXrXPzt1/1732435.... I have to say it is these kind of tiny details that I really enjoy... It is possible that I am a bit odd though... but I think that is why I like writing about them https://jediperson.wordpress.com/2022... here is the Tower of Babel One... Late in the Day - Countercultures V's Babylon

[Gpfr]

Tam wrote: " I wondered if you could perhaps help Gp, knowing Paris so well, and perhaps the Bibliothèque Nationale as well? I am a big fan of this medieval painting, and would love to track down an (enlarged) copy! ..."

Lovely picture!
I'll see what I can do.

[Bill]

Berkley wrote: "I plan to read it again someday and next time to swallow my pride and make more extensive use of the critical aids that are available. I've picked up two or three that seem to be the most highly recommended, forget the authors now. It will probably be some years before I get to it, though"

Based on the enthusiasm expressed by Anthony Burgess, in my late teens, on the cusp of 20, I just dived into Ulysses without having previously read any of commentary or guides (not even that by Burgess). I had even given up on A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man a few years previously, so had no particular attraction to what I knew of Joyce. It became one of my two favorite novels, rivaled only by Moby Dick.

I read through Finnegans Wake a few years after discovering Ulysses, but can’t say that a lot stuck at that time (I kept thinking, “This is all going to click into place”, which it didn’t), though its endless punning was kind of fun and kept me going.

Three years ago I decided to “re-read” Wake. I didn’t do any preparation. The only hint of what to expect came from my previous run-through and whatever I might recall from the two Burgess books on Joyce, Re Joyce and Joysprick: An Introduction to the Language of James Joyce, which I read 40 years ago or more. I think I got a good deal out of it on this reading, thanks mainly to several decades of reading and living that came between my first and second reading.

Afterwards, I started reading A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake: Unlocking James Joyce's Masterwork, which I had picked up at a used book sale a number of years ago. I gave up on it fairly early. It starts out with a great deal of Irish history (or prehistory) as alluded to in Wake’s opening pages; I didn’t know any of this, but, though it explains many of Joyce’s allusions, it didn’t convince me that Wake is “about” these historical events any more than Bleak House is about Victorian inheritance laws. Once the authors got away from historical explication, however, I found that much of the matter in subsequent pages consisted of little more than a paraphrasing of sections of Joyce’s text in somewhat more straightforward English, which was like reading an explanation that didn’t explain.

There’s very much a Rorschach element to Wake in that the reader who submits to it will find their own interests and knowledge reflected back to them. I’m an avid Wagnerian, so I picked up on the various references to Tristan and Isolde and the Flying Dutchman, as well as recognizing the composer himself and one of his amours in one passage (“would accoster her coume il fou in teto-dous as a wagoner would his mudheeldy wheesindonk”). On the other hand most of the Irish historical references (and no doubt much else) were invisible to me. But just about every passage in Wake has multiple allusions and meanings, so a reader can hit on one understanding of a given sentence while missing another.

I have thought of getting a copy of Annotations to Finnegans Wake just to catch some more references in the text, though I intend to avoid any overall interpretations other than what I can achieve on my own.

[Gpfr]

Tam wrote: "I'd like it as a print to hang on the wall...."

I suppose you've looked at the BNF image bank? If not, you'll like it, quite apart from this particular work. I've just enjoyed looking at de Machaut's work :)

Here's a link to that: https://images.bnf.fr/#/doclist/16992...

Ah, now this is a link to just that page:
https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/84...

If you click on L'image sur gallica, you can select just the picture and download it. I've just tried but the quality isn't great.

You can buy an HD image which I suppose you could then print. I'm not finding any information about reproductions. I'll investigate further.

The poem it illustrates is Le Dit du Lion. The image is called Le printemps on the BNF site.

[Tam]

Gpfr wrote: "Tam wrote: "I'd like it as a print to hang on the wall...."

I suppose you've looked at the BNF image bank? If not, you'll like it, quite apart from this particular work. I've just enjoyed looking ..."

That's a very washed out colour! It has lost all of the rich greens that takes the viewer right into the heart of a garden. I wonder what it actually looks like in the flesh, so to speak? Thanks for taking a look for me... I guess, like most archives, only the properly 'qualified' will ever get to actually have a look at it.

Though come to think of it perhaps that the richer greens are caused by the 'yellowing' of age. I went to see one of my favourite paintings, of the Madonna, in a church in Rome, the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, by Filopinno Lippi, a few years back. Alas they had cleaned it up in the meantime and it was a pale shadow of what I thought it should be. "The fault dear Brutus" etc....

[Bill]

Gpfr wrote: "Ah, now this is a link to just that page:
https://essentiels.bnf.fr/fr/image/84..."

Gee, except for the bear (and, bien sûr, the lion), it looks something like a time-lapse image of the small local park I walk through every day. The other animaux have shown up there, but not all at the same time.

[Berkley]

Bill wrote: "Afterwards, I started reading A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake: Unlocking James Joyce's Masterwork, which I had picked up at a used book sale a number of years ago. I gave up on it fairly early.
...

I have thought of getting a copy of Annotations to Finnegans Wake just to catch some more references in the text, though I intend to avoid any overall interpretations other than what I can achieve on my own.."

I have those two, plus a third one, A Reader's Guide to FW, by someone named William York Tindall, that I must have seen recommended somewhere or other but can't recall where now.

The Campbell and the Tindall I picked up after the fact, with a view to future re-reading; the Annotations I did have at the time of reading but didn't make much use of it. So I can't say how useful any of them might or might not be, but I plan to give them all a try whenever I get around to my next stab at FW.

[[deleted user]]

Tam wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Tam wrote: "I'd like it as a print to hang on the wall...."

I suppose you've looked at the BNF image bank? If not, you'll like it, quite apart from this particular work. I've just enjoyed looking ..."

That's a very washed out colour! It has lost all of the rich greens that takes the viewer right into the heart of a garden...."

Thanks for your research, Gp. I do love that picture. Even the building (château? chapelle? donjon?) adds to the mysterious aura. As Tam says, it's a pity the color doesn't come through so strongly in the BNL link. I may have a go with MK's suggestion.

[[deleted user]]

The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories – Ivan Bunin (Penguin, 1987)

Having enjoyed the collection of later stories in Dark Avenues, I was happy to find this earlier collection every bit as good – the same smooth authority in the writing, the same settings (the pre-revolutionary Russia of country estates and river boats, then the European resorts of the well-to-do), and in many of them the same themes of love and despair. It’s not the despair of alienation but rather its opposite, a voluptuous oneness with life and nature. After that, what is left? he seems to ask.

Bunin deserves to be much better known. He won’t suit someone wanting an emigré’s reflections on Russia under the Bolsheviks. There is barely a breath of that. He is an artist of mood and time and human connection.

It was SydneyH on WWAR who first drew attention to these books.
....

I’m also enjoying Why the West Rules – For Now by Ian Morris (2010). The author, an archaeologist by training, sets out to find the patterns in history. I don’t know what kind of a reputation the book has - I imagine plenty of people have questioned his title.

He says early on that the advantages of the West are not due to superior intellectual skills inherited from the ancient Greeks, nor to superior industrial skills developed by the 18th century British. There’s an indication that it’s all due to geography (more coastline in the West). We shall see.

For the moment he has begun by examining the evidence from archaeological digs around the world which allows him to dispose of any idea that the advantages are due to racial differences. (It hadn’t occurred to me that they were – shows how little I’m tuned in to such debates.) There was indeed a time when there was such a difference – Homo ergaster in the West being more advanced than Homo erectus in the East, the latter not having the more sophisticated axes used in the West. But both of those early ancestors were displaced by Neanderthal man, and Homo sapiens throughout the world has a component of Neanderthal DNA, between 1% and 4%.

The globe is now warming up after the Ice Age, and I’m interested to see how the argument proceeds. His style is fact-heavy but still quite chatty.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories – Ivan Bunin (Penguin, 1987)

Having enjoyed the collection of later stories in Dark Avenues, I was happy to find this earlier collection every bi..."

Bunin is an excellent writer and i agree that he deserves to be much better known

I recommend trying some Bely or Andreyev, his contemporaries , again both rather neglected over time. Bely is a slightly more mysterious writer, his prose loaded with meaning, while Andreyev offers a stark, unsettling vision. His photography is worth checking out too

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories – Ivan Bunin... "

I recommend trying some Bely or Andreyev, his contemporaries...

OK, thanks.

[Gpfr]

Tam wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Tam wrote: "I'd like it as a print to hang on the wall...."

That's a very washed out colour! ..."

I would think the BNF's own digitilisation is more accurate in terms of colour ... who knows ...

I haven't found any trace of reproductions to buy. As I said, you can buy an HD image, but I don't know what it would look like.

[Gpfr]

I'll be closing this thread this afternoon.