What are we reading? 20/11/2023

[[deleted user]]

I’ve finished Waverley and really enjoyed it. Scott describes his style, within the novel itself, as partaking of “the periphrastic and ambagitory.” The first third is certainly leisurely, and none the worse for that, as it lays the ground. Then the romance comes on full stream, and the ‘45 breaks out.

Among the many themes the most striking for me was the deep loyalty of the clansmen to their Chief. It was not just a question of following him in war. In a graphic and not readily forgotten moment, Scott shows it as a loyalty unto death.

One other feature I found remarkable is that a laird and lady, out in their remote lands, are portrayed not just as being at ease with Gaelic but also as quoting freely from English, French, Italian, Spanish and Latin authors. I suppose such discourse may have been much more general then. I would guess it was the habit of Scott himself and his circle.

I knew of course of the popularity of Scott’s novels but did not appreciate quite what a phenomenon they were. The impact, it is said in the Introduction to the Penguin edition, was indescribably sensational. Apparently, in Britain alone, never mind Europe and America, the sales of his books could be counted in the millions, in his own lifetime.

As for the story, it becomes quite compelling. The young hero is suitably ardent and guileless. The young women possess accomplishments and beauty. The Prince is gracious. A gallery of colourful types fills out the scene. While it is not always in the foreground, the violence, confusion and fear of the Rebellion is convincing. (Imagine if the French had in fact given their military aid to the rebels, as they did 30+ years later in North America.)

Having said all that, I did prefer Heart of Midlothian, where I especially liked the moral seriousness of the heroine’s father, an old and unbending Covenanter, much as I believe Scott’s father was.

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "I’ve finished Waverley and really enjoyed it. Scott describes his style, within the novel itself, as partaking of “the periphrastic and ambagitory.” The first third is certainly leisurely, and none..."

Big Walter Scott fan here, though i am reading his novels slowly, i found Waverley and Old Mortality superb, the latter even better than Waverley and both cover historical scottish events before Scott's time

I think he bridges perfectly the gap between the epistolary and picaresque novels of Fielding and Richardson and the early victorian era of Dickens, Thackeray and Trollope.

While Scott was raised Presbyterian(Church of Scotland), it seems he moved over to the Anglican church (aka Scottish Episcopal Church) in later life, or was maybe in communion with both very different traditions, which is quite unusual. (Though i'#m not sure how the Anglican church in scotland may differ from down south, whether it was more like the moderate Church of Ireland or England)

NB: all anglicans in the four kingdoms were deemed Church of England, Ireland or Wales, except in Scotland where the Church of Scotland was Presbyterian

[MK]

Yesterday, I waxed (for me) poetic about . After thinking about it, I want to add that the book infers part of Joe Biden's problem is the fact that he is from Pennsylvania and did not graduate from Yale or Harvard. I'm thinking that the uppercrust in the Democratic Party look down their noses at him (Larry Summers anyone?). This includes the newspapers of record - the NYT and the Washington Post. I think it is subtle, but that it is there.

To that end I ignore polls (actually all polls). Doing an unbiased one is extremely difficult.

And I say it is well worth a read.

[AB76]

MK wrote: "Yesterday, I waxed (for me) poetic about . After thinking about it, I want to add that..."

interesting, is PA seen as a bit of backwards state then, i would have thought with the Philly connection to the 18c and its size it would be seen as a positive state but then i am not good on the subtle east coast snobberies

also how did people look on Tricky Dicky Nixon or LBJ, neither came from the Ivy League world, though Nixon was offered a grant to Harvard. Do these Californians and Texans show their class and roots, despite political status, was their attending local colleges part of their personality? I ask about those two as they seemed the most outside the establishment examples, origins not later life.

i have to confess i find all american accents confuse me, some deep south people sound neutral and some northerners(outside boston) can sound Southern. I am still amused that i cna just about pick canadians with the out and about prononciations....Biden to me seems accentless.....or to be more precise, no extremes of terrminology, drawls or noticeable unusual pronouncations

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "I think you might like this explanation..

https://www.abc.net.au/science/articl....


Seems for shorter distances the 42 minutes still holds but longer distances would be around 38+ minutes ."

Well, that answers some of my questions - the assumptions that the tunnel is airless and frictionless, for example. I realised after writing my previous comment that I should have mentioned the variation in earth's density as well - this is apparently taken into account in the more recent calculation (though how it was done isn't explained). The article doesn't say - except by analogy with a pendulum - that in this ideal setup the object dropped into the tunnel would move with simple harmonic motion - something which I took great pleasure in teaching to A level maths groups.

However... my other objection still stands. I do not believe that a tunnel passing through a chord (rather than the centre of the earth) would give the same result) even if we assume uniform density.

[Paul]

AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "I’ve finished Waverley and really enjoyed it. Scott describes his style, within the novel itself, as partaking of “the periphrastic and ambagitory.” The first third is certainly lei..."



Count me as a Walter Scott superfan as well. He, and Alexandre Dumas, unjustly gets labeled as a writer for adolescents but they are absolute masters of plotting and description. And neither one is the clumsy, simplistic writer they are made out to be.

[Gpfr]

A while ago some of us posted here and on WWR about bookmarks.

In the winter issue of Slightly Foxed, Sue Gee writes "In Praise of the Bookmark". She has over 50, a man in the Netherlands has 80,000 (!). I counted mine — 59. She writes,

So here are over fifty of the things, culled from here and there. Why have I kept them all? Because my relationship with the bookmark is intense. This I've come to realize, as I carefully select one for each book. Does size matter? I like a nice big bookmark for a nice big book. ... I like to colour co-ordinate ... A little paperback needs a little bookmark ... And I try to reflect the atmosphere of novels: for something plangent I look for blues and greys in the details of a painting.

I could have written this myself!

As well as sharing her views on bookmarks, I like her novels very much. For example, Letters from Prague

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "A while ago some of us posted here and on WWR about bookmarks."

I'm not sure what I did as a kid - probably, since library books often already came significantly dog-eared from 'folder-downs' I likely did the same with those. I may have treated my own books even then with more respect; certainly, as an adult I have never folded down the corners of books and use either a 'proper' bookmark (if I had one available) or a piece of paper/ticket/anything flat which was to hand. The nicest one I have at present is made of pewter backed onto material, and which I reckon was bought at St. David's cathedral... it represents the Carew Cross.
https://thejournalofantiquities.com/2...

Edit: After writing that, I wondered what bookmark I was currently using in Évariste, as I hadn't paid it any attention. To my surprise, it turned out to be a freebie I don't even remember picking up, advertising holidays in tree houses (!) not far from our place in France - I'm definitely too old for that sort of thing but if it floats your boat...
https://www.hebergement-quenecan.fr/fr

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Russell wrote: "I’ve finished Waverley and really enjoyed it. Scott describes his style, within the novel itself, as partaking of “the periphrastic and ambagitory.” The first third is ..."

good point on Dumas, i read his Mauritius novel Georges recently and it was exactly as you described his writing

[MK]

Gpfr wrote: "A while ago some of us posted here and on WWR about bookmarks.

In the winter issue of Slightly Foxed, Sue Gee writes "In Praise of the Bookmark". She has over 50, a man in the Netherlands has 80,0..."

The mention of bookmarks brings this picture to mind. Powells of Portland book fame has more than one store. One of the smaller stores is on Hawthorne in SW Portland.

One of the things I appreciate about Powells is that they provide shoppers with store catalog access via computer terminals in store. I know, I know, I'm getting there.

One of these terminals in the Hawthorne store is against a wall - which is covered completely with bookmarks. Of course one has to stop and look at all of them. To my surprise there was even one from our local Magnolia bookshop. I should have taken a picture of the wall. Darn.

[CCCubbon]

scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "I think you might like this explanation..

https://www.abc.net.au/science/articl....


Seems for shorter distances the 42 minutes still holds but longer distances would be around 3..."
Another article that I read said there was a difference of about 4 minutes between the time taken to fall short and long distances. Applied math isn’t my thing so I leave it to your good self. I taught statistics, pure math and formal specification - forgotten most after twenty odd years.
( you may shudder but I am reading the second Quirke book - The Silver Swan. Found that there was a series made of the first three books with Michael Gambon which I may well look at after I have finished those three)

[AB76]

The Patriots by James Barlow(1960),
an Oxfam browse pick has started well and suprised me, in that i expected grimy english locations and disaffected ex-paras. Instead it opens with one of the protaganists on a flight to Arnhem, a decade after the battle he fought in as a para and his observations of the city in 1954 and vivid recollections of the desperate fighting as the British were surrounded and bombed into submission by the Germans in 1944. 88 guns ripping through five houses...etc

The turn of phrase and the style suggests Barlow is a major neglected talent, only 39 when he wrote this novel. I do like to be suprised and i didnt expect to be reading about the legendary fighting at Arnhem in this book

I found a German journalists report on Arnhem, where i found out for the first time how the Germans managed to piece together a huge array of troops to fight alongside the SS divisions in the area. The report describes flak gunnners, coastal artillery look-outs, a sea captain with a wooden leg, various sapper units and all the scattered divisions that had fled Normandy being re-deployed and thrown against the british paratroops

[Robert]

Bill wrote: "MK wrote: "And then there is Bibi - who I would like to be history once and for all and back on trial as he should be."

It seems like every commentary on the present situation I've read from the I..."

I found Bibi, by the Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer most helpful. Pfeffer points out that after the passing of the founder generation (Ben Gurion, Meier, Begin) one Israeli Prime Minister after another got into some trouble about money. The public, he thinks became jaded.
He also points out that the religious parties support Bibi, despite the fact that his way of life is completely secular. Pfeffer remarks that the Orthodox rabbis think that all secular politicians are damned, but Bibi is the one willing to work with them.
Photographs of Natanyahu and his two brothers show American teenagers. Their introduction to Israel came through the military. They were all members of the Israeli army and served in the IDF's special operations unit. Bibi's brother Yonni, who seems to have been his idol and confidante, was killed in the rescue mission at Entebbe. Natanyahu "has been shot twice" and lived. Pfeffer believes that Natanyahu much admired the Israeli general who commanded the special operations unit, and took his leadership style from him.
The English-speaking world does not appreciate how much things military, and the pressures facing a Jewish state in an Arab region, affect Israeli public life. Can you imagine a former general becoming the leader of a western Labour party? Yet former Israeli generals have held this position.
He also argues that we must view Netanyahu as representing the triumph of the underdogs in the Zionist enterprise. Immigrants from Arab countries seem to gravitate to tribal leaders who are willing to use force; they also have private business, on whatever scale, as part of their background and see it as a normal part of life.
Bibi is a cunning tactician, able to sew together unlikely coalitions. He may finish this war in Gaza.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Regarding Lewis Carroll...She wonders if she will fall right through the earth. It’s a curious mathematical fact that falling through a tunnel leading between any two points on the..."

Carroll was a mathematical-minded fellow, not a physicist. I remember hearing a mathematician friend, whose engineer husband liked to build his own computers, baffle her husband by saying that she didn't care if the dots on her screen were brought by little elves, as long as they did what she asked.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "FrancesBurgundy wrote: "Robert wrote: "Lewis Carroll, an insomnia sufferer, wrote a little book designed for the dead of night-- mathematical puzzles are one thing I remember..."

I can't find any ..."

Hope you enjoy it. Please let us know.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "When i first read Effi Briest, about 20 years ago, the sections dedicated to the cult of the military and its celebration days showed me the roots of the duty and h..."

Years ago I browsed through Gerhardt Ritter's The Sword and the Scepter, an analysis of the increasing role of the military in German life during the decades before World War One. He wrote that the Prussian model influenced the German middle class through reserve organizations.

[Robert]

CCCubbon wrote: "Regarding Lewis Carroll.

I thought that you might find this extract from Once upon a Prime by Sarah Hart interesting;

There’s one specific number that Lewis Carroll seems to have been a little ob..."

Interesting. Lewis Carroll loved games with words, coining a number of them. Games with numbers shouldn't be surprising.

[[deleted user]]

My copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has a frontispiece and then, in the text, 42 drawings by Tenniel, the result of "long talks" with the author, per wikipedia.

[Berkley]

Paul wrote: "
Count me as a Walter Scott superfan as well. He, and Alexandre Dumas, unjustly gets labeled as a writer for adolescents but they are absolute masters of plotting and description. And neither one is the clumsy, simplistic writer they are made out to be."

Very much the same feeling here. I'm currently read, one chapter or rather letter at a time, his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft. I was a bit thrown off by the first letter or two as he takes a much more cynical or rationalising attitude to the supernatural than I'd expected (while accepting implicitly the supernatural elements of his own religion), but having accepted this I've found it a great compendium of folklore and legend. I've just finished Letter IV, dealing with fairies, earlier tonight and will probably carry on reading one letter a month (there are ten altogether).

[Berkley]

scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "In the latest issue of Slightly Foxed, there's an article on Maigret. Fans may be interested to know, if you don't already, that there are fresh translations of all 75(!) Maigret novels..."

Simenon is all about atmosphere - I don't know of any author who does it better. The basic conceit of the Maigret books is that the inspector enters into the atmosphere of wherever the crime was committed, and by a sort of osmosis gets to the truth of what happened. It works especially well in those books set in real places (most - maybe all - of the Maigrets, but not all of the romans noirs). The earlier books are sometimes too melodramatic - perhaps Simenon thought that would be more appealing to the readers - but later depend more on suspense and intrigue. They are not police procedurals in any normal sense of the word.

Though I originally read pretty much all of the Maigrets in English - and saw the excellent BBC TV adaptations starring Rupert Davies (1960-63) which I have been re-viewing on Freeview Ch. 82 - Talking Pictures - later on, when I moved to France, I re-read many of them in French to improve my knowledge of the language. Since I was already familiar with the character and the stories, even when I didn't 'know' all the words I could often guess at the meaning, which was a great help. I reckon that I'd be able to produce a pretty good translation myself, by now!

Recently, I saw the adaptation of Félicie from that 1960s series - it was well done, but I did miss the comical scene where the inspector rides a bicycle back to Félicie's house with a lobster on the carrier (!) - they left the bike ride out."

Good description of the Maigret stories. Do you have any special favourites you remember? Just curious, I'm probably going to read all of them eventually.

I used one of those new translations to help me along while reading Le Charretier de la Providence last month. Yes, I've gone back to the earlier stories after coming to Les Mémoires de Maigret in a collection of later stories I had started recently. After reading the first few pages of the Mémoires, I remembered that I had the first collection but had never progressed beyond Pietr le Letton, instead jumping ahead to the 1950s, so I decided to go back and carry on from there.

[scarletnoir]

CCCubbon wrote: "Found that there was a series made of the first three books with Michael Gambon which I may well look at..."

Gambon made a very poor Maigret - though not as bad as Rowan Atkinson or French actor Jean Richard. Don't know if it was only down to him or to the script as well, but Maigret - often described in the books as 'bougon' (grumpy) or 'maussade' (gloomy) was played as a chatty - even garrulous - 'hail fellow, well met' type. Totally wrong.
Of course, Quirke needs to be cheered up a bit as he's depressing as well as depressed - maybe Gambon's sunniness is just what he needs (!) Besides, as I've said before, bad books can make brilliant TV series (Morse) and vice-versa.

[scarletnoir]

Robert wrote: "He also points out that the religious parties support Bibi, despite the fact that his way of life is completely secular."

I'm not exactly familiar with the Israeli political system, but I have read that small parties can wield disproportionate power thanks to a PR system which elects members to their parliament even with only a small number of votes. This means that a cunning horse-trading politician (Bibi, presumably) can get the top job whereas others can not.
It also in a way reflects the USA, where Trump - hardly a model of a Christian lifestyle - manages to get the evangelicals on board by pandering to some of their more extreme political desires. The USA has also elected former generals to the presidency, and some of those presidents with little to be proud of in the military sense don't seem averse to poncing about in unearned (if legitimate) uniforms.

[Gpfr]

Russell wrote: "My copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has a frontispiece and then, in the text, 42 drawings by Tenniel, the result of "long talks" with the author, per wikipedia."

This complete works I mentioned before has "all 276 original drawings".

This is my childhood copy of Alice, a pretty book. (Amusingly, if you put your cursor on the thumbnail it's by "unknown author"!) This edition was first published in 1949 and reprinted every year until 1956 which is when I was given it. The illustrations — not Tenniel, but very attractive, with several in colour — are by Philip Gough.

Philip Gough (1908 - 1986)

Illustrator, born in Warrington, Lancashire, who studied at Liverpool School of Art and Chelsea School of Art and originally trained as a stage designer.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "CCCubbon wrote: "Found that there was a series made of the first three books with Michael Gambon which I may well look at..."

Gambon made a very poor Maigret - though not as bad as Rowan Atkinson ..."

Rupert Davies was the best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM90i...

[scarletnoir]

Berkley wrote: "Do you have any special favourites you remember? Just curious, I'm probably going to read all of them eventually..."

Read them all, if you like the style!

I struggle to remember individual titles, and you should also bear in mind that many of the Maigrets have been published under several different titles - here is a link to a list:

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/ge...

Try to avoid buying the same book twice - it's happened to me on a couple of occasions!

My own preference is for stories set near water - set in ports, or along the canals and rivers of France - for example:
Maigret Meets a Milord (book 2 on the list)
The Grand Banks Café (9)
The Two-Penny Bar(10)
The Flemish House(12)... etc.

Other than those, titles (rather than the plots, necessarily) which stick in my mind include:
Cécile is Dead (22)
Signed, Picpus (23)
Félicie (24)
Inspector Cadaver (25)
Maigret and the Tall Woman (38)
Maigret Sets a Trap (48)
Maigret and the Lazy Burglar (57)
Maigret Hesitates (68)
Maigret and Monsieur Charles (75 - and last).

Although some are better than others, they're all readable and have elements of 'atmosphere' and also manage a subtle portrayal of human interactions and frailties.

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "Rupert Davies was the best."

Definitely (in English), though madame understandably can't bear to see the character speak anything other than French. As I mentioned, this series is currently being shown on Freeview Ch. 82 (Talking Pictures) at 8pm on Saturdays... tomorrow's episode is called 'The Crystal Ball' which iirc does not correspond to any of the book titles - can't remember which book it's based on. The series benefits greatly from a very large number of location shots and sequences, at a time when France still looked pretty grimy not that many years after the war... and the set designer was a genius, faithfully recreating all sorts of typical French interiors.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0159178/...

Best in French was the Bruno Cremer series... though as these had a runtime of 2h they were often very slow paced. I think the ideal length for the Maigret stories would be 1h15 or 1h30... the Davies series had to squeeze a lot into a 1h slot, sometimes too much. Oddly, the settings were less convincing in this series. It was filmed much more recently (1991-2005) and since France had been 'tidied up' and it would also have been difficult to eliminate all signs of more modern times, many episodes were filmed in Eastern Europe... where architectural details were noticeably different to what they should have been.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0167644/...

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "Bill wrote: "MK wrote: "And then there is Bibi - who I would like to be history once and for all and back on trial as he should be."

It seems like every commentary on the present situation I've re..."

what is unique i think about the Israeli army in public life is the reputation it has for probity, in latin america a medal festooned uniform and dark shades means nothing but bad news, in Israel they are a much more positive force and seem to adapt well into civilian life. of course with maybe 60% of every age group serving, it is a nation with a far higher ex-military contingent than any other i can think of

Bibi is a cunning snake and a survivor, its a shame really, Israel has only gone backwards morally under him

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "When i first read Effi Briest, about 20 years ago, the sections dedicated to the cult of the military and its celebration days showed me the roo..."

spot on Robert, thats the picture i get from a lot of my studies of the 1870-1914 period, the incredible amount of military style organisations that flourished for reservists, usually based around sport and outdoor activities. so even outside regular service, the military cult was embedded in fraternities, public schools, civil service.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Rupert Davies was the best."

Definitely (in English), though madame understandably can't bear to see the character speak anything other than French. As I mentioned, this series..."

Or on Virgin Channel 445 The original was aired 1962!!!

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "The original was aired 1962!!!

I don't know about you, but I am old enough to have watched - and enjoyed - the series first time around... as well as the original 'Perry Mason' starring Raymond Burr (1957-66)* - a very good TV series, though the books by Erle Stanley Gardner are nowhere near the outstanding Simenon in quality.

*Edit - dates refer to the series, not Burr!

[Paul]

I see signs of unmedicated schizophrenia over on the new Guardian TLS columns, it's been a while since we've had that kind of post.

[Gpfr]

Paul wrote: "I see signs of unmedicated schizophrenia over on the new Guardian TLS columns, it's been a while since we've had that kind of post."

Mmm, I've just seen that too.

[[deleted user]]

Gpfr wrote: "...This is my childhood copy of Alice, a pretty book. ...The illustrations — not Tenniel, but very attractive, with several in colour — are by Philip Gough."

That does look a lovely book to have. I found it also has a charming ribbony cover, nicely shown on ABE. If my skills are up to it, it should come up full size by clicking twice on the image here:
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/servlet/Bo...

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "The original was aired 1962!!!

I don't know about you, but I am old enough to have watched - and enjoyed - the series first time around... as well as the original 'Perry Mason'..."

Me too (75). We used to look forward to watching them every week. And:

23. Signed, Picpus (1944)
aka To Any Lengths / Maigret and the Fortune Teller

a list of aliases:

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/ge...

[Berkley]

One of the most enjoyable pieces of fiction I've read recently is an excerpt from a new short story collection by Margaret Atwood - in French translation, oddly enough, since it appeared in the November issue of Le Monde Diplomatique, where it was entitled Les Filles de l'Air, réunion au sommet. It appears in Promenons-nous dans les bois (English title Old Babes in the Wood) . Normally I would plan to read it in the original English, but I find myself tempted to continue at least this one story in French because the translation came across so well - so I may have to buy both, wasteful as that seems.

[[deleted user]]

The Midnight Library - Matt Haig (2020)

This book incredibly has sold six million copies. I can take a certain amount of magic realism. Here it tried my patience. A philosophical woman in her 30s is deeply depressed. She feels she does not deserve to be happy. OK, sympathy engaged. She is full of regrets over her poor choices in life. The might-have-been of each choice is now examined. Sympathy very soon disengaged. The best line occurs early on. She used to be the singer in a band. It was called The Labyrinths, and they were going nowhere.

That’s viewing it as a novel. Viewed as a self-help text I can see it having some possible value for a person prone to depression. There is a thumping message that to wish for a better life in a parallel universe is a delusion. The snippets of philosophy are designed to encourage. The end is uplifting.

[Berkley]

scarletnoir wrote: "Berkley wrote: "Do you have any special favourites you remember? Just curious, I'm probably going to read all of them eventually..."

Read them all, if you like the style!


I struggle to remember individual titles, and you should also bear in mind that many of the Maigrets have been published under several different titles - here is a link to a list:

https://www.fantasticfiction.com/s/ge...

Try to avoid buying the same book twice - it's happened to me on a couple of occasions!

My own preference is for stories set near water - set in ports, or along the canals and rivers of France - for example:
Maigret Meets a Milord (book 2 on the list)
The Grand Banks Café (9)
The Two-Penny Bar(10)
The Flemish House(12)... etc.

Other than those, titles (rather than the plots, necessarily) which stick in my mind include:
Cécile is Dead (22)
Signed, Picpus (23)
Félicie (24)
Inspector Cadaver (25)
Maigret and the Tall Woman (38)
Maigret Sets a Trap (48)
Maigret and the Lazy Burglar (57)
Maigret Hesitates (68)
Maigret and Monsieur Charles (75 - and last).

Although some are better than others, they're all readable and have elements of 'atmosphere' and also manage a subtle portrayal of human interactions and frailties.."

Thanks. Looking through the list, I've read 1, 2, 34, 43 - 46, 50 - 54. I've been reading them in the French collections that usually contain eight or nine stories.

The only one I've read from your list is Maigret Meets a Milord (Le Charretier de la Providence), and one thing I noticed was that it's much more in the style of the later books than was the first one Pietr-le-Letton. I've just started #3 Monsieur Gallet, décédé, and it too feels more in tune with what seems to have become the settled style of the series pretty quickly.

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "I see signs of unmedicated schizophrenia over on the new Guardian TLS columns, it's been a while since we've had that kind of post."

how did the fun police at the G not censor or remove that? its just random typing....

[AB76]

Two american reads i am enjoying. one is The White Album by Joan Didion, which in some ways seems to be a study of the Californian condition from 1968 to 1979. Didion is a major female voice from that era and its great to read her prose and thoughts

Alongside this, via a reference in the Didion book, is Viet Journal by James Jones. The great author visits South Vietnam in 1973, as peace falls and the Yanks begin withdrawing from the South. I havent read his war novels and aim to do so soon

the Gaza crisis sadly removed a lot of my planned autumn reading, i had made a vague plan or theme of reading about Israel in 2023, it started so well but the Gaza situation meant i have postponed it now till next year. Eeerily the siege of jerusalem in 1948 was one book i did read with tales from the 1967 war planned for October, which i didnt read, alongside some novels

[scarletnoir]

Paul wrote: "I see signs of unmedicated schizophrenia over on the new Guardian TLS columns, it's been a while since we've had that kind of post."

I'm lost here - what is 'TLS' in this context?

[scarletnoir]

giveusaclue wrote: "Me too (75). We used to look forward to watching them every week. And:

23. Signed, Picpus (1944)
aka To Any Lengths / Maigret and the Fortune Teller.."

We are exactly the same age, then...

Thanks for spotting the alternative name for the 'fortune teller' story - I did post a link myself to that list, but failed to spot the title. As I mentioned, that story is being aired tomorrow at 8pm.

[scarletnoir]

Berkley wrote: "The only one I've read from your list is Maigret Meets a Milord (Le Charretier de la Providence), and one thing I noticed was that it's much more in the style of the later books than was the first one Pietr-le-Letton."

You're right - Pietr le Letton was melodramatic, but his second Maigret was far calmer. I had thought/assumed that the change came over time, but reviewing the list I can see that the early books contained many excellent stories. The seventh book - 'Maigret at the crossroads' was another melodrama. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Rowan Atkinson series doubled down on a bad choice of lead actor with a bad choice of story, and adapted this one! ('Night at the Crossroads')

In that context, I fail to understand why film makers have thought it worth adapting Agatha Christie's ludicrous 'Murder on the Orient Express' more than once, except as a vehicle for many stars to play brief cameos. The story is daft beyond belief.

[giveusaclue]

scarletnoir wrote: "giveusaclue wrote: "Me too (75). We used to look forward to watching them every week. And:

23. Signed, Picpus (1944)
aka To Any Lengths / Maigret and the Fortune Teller.."

We are exactly the same..."

I failed to spot you had posted the link (must be our ages!) Set the episode to record.

[Berkley]

scarletnoir wrote: "Paul wrote: "I see signs of unmedicated schizophrenia over on the new Guardian TLS columns, it's been a while since we've had that kind of post."

I'm lost here - what is 'TLS' in this context?"

They call it "What We're Reading" now. I just had a look at it and the post in question seems to be a long, rambling screed by someone who mentions in passing that he "trusts Elon" more than the Guardian to support free speech. That's only a sample, you have to read the whole thing to appreciate just how bizarre it is. It's actually pretty funny, though also sad when you think he's serious.

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Paul wrote: "I see signs of unmedicated schizophrenia over on the new Guardian TLS columns, it's been a while since we've had that kind of post."

I'm lost here - what is 'TLS' ..."

didnt dandy indulge in the same long rambling updates? he had charm but sometimes i feared for his sanity, especially as he tried to dodge the siren call of Dominic Raab, during covid, in Patagonia, as the psychotic foreign sec summonsed all stray brits home

[Berkley]

AB76 wrote: "Two american reads i am enjoying. one is The White Album by Joan Didion, which in some ways seems to be a study of the Californian condition from 1968 to 1979. Didion is a major female voice from that era and its great to read her prose and thoughts

Alongside this, via a reference in the Didion book, is Viet Journal by James Jones. The great author visits South Vietnam in 1973, as peace falls and the Yanks begin withdrawing from the South. I havent read his war novels and aim to do so soon.."

Two authors on my list that I have yet to get to. I recently had the idea of reading Joyce's Some Came Running (this one more of a post-war story, if I recall), partly because I remembered liking the movie version with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Shirley MacLaine when I saw it on tv as a teenager. I ordered a used copy online but it turned out to be an abridgement - though still over 600 pages long and the full version I believe nearly twice that.

So I've put that idea on the back-burner for now. Perhaps I'll read the more famous From Here to Eternity instead, though that's a big one too (820 pages in my paperback edition).

But then I'm reminded that I've been putting off another big American WWII novel for a while now, Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead (500+pp).

What are considered the greatest WWII novels, since the subject has arisen?

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Two american reads i am enjoying. one is The White Album by Joan Didion, which in some ways seems to be a study of the Californian condition from 1968 to 1979. Didion is a major female..."

hmmm..good question..sections of the Powell and Sartre novels on ww2 are superb...i read a great Finnish novel about the war(unknown soldiers by vaino linna) and a few german novels too but due to the immense number its hard to pick the greatest and i havent read the Mailer or the Jones novels

two new ww2 novels were published this year, one by Victor Serge about the fall of france and one by Grossman about the german invasion of Russia, new translations of old novels i think

big long novels are not my thing in last 4-5 years but i need to go for a few 600 pagers!

[Robert]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Two american reads i am enjoying. one is The White Album by Joan Didion, which in some ways seems to be a study of the Californian condition from 1968 to 1979. Didion is a major female..."

I've enjoyed Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy and Herman Wouk's The Caine Mutiny as World War II novels; Grossman's Life and Fate, with the Battle of Stalingrad as its hub, is also a good choice.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "He also points out that the religious parties support Bibi, despite the fact that his way of life is completely secular."

I'm not exactly familiar with the Israeli political system,..."

The only 20th century general elected US President was Dwight Eisenhower. During the Second World War, Ike went from complete obscurity (outside the US Army, at least) to world fame without losing his sense of proportion-- always a valuable trait, which I wish that Trump and Biden shared.

[Berkley]

Robert wrote: "
I've enjoyed Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy and Michener's The Caine Mutiny as World War II novels; Grossman's Life and Fate, with the Battle of Stalingrad as its hub, is also a good choice.."

Thanks and to AB&? as well for the suggestions. This of course is the problem once you start looking at any particular sub-set of literature - there are so many choices, you want to read them all at once! Partly for that reason, the last few years I've tended, like AB76, to choose shorter books first, with the idea of being able to get more variety in that way.