What are we reading? 25/03/2024

[Bill]

scarletnoir wrote: "You read them... but did you enjoy them? (I'm not convinced it's for me.)"

Oh, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't care for any of the authors I'm about to mention.

Of the postmodernists who formed an informal cohort of Barth, I’ve also read, in order of preference, Pynchon, Gaddis, Coover, and Gass. Barth probably seemed the less “urgent” of these writers, in that he didn’t seem as engaged in any kind of wide-ranging critique or analysis of aspects of American society; in Giles Goat-Boy (not so much in The End of the Road), he seemed to be setting out to have fun with what he was writing more than make any serious point about the cold war elements he included in the narrative (though my reading the novel well after the collapse of the USSR may have influenced my evaluation). Though I mention Barth in particular as having fun with his writing, humor and the ludic are essential elements in all these writers.

I do really enjoy the feeling of climbing into one of those big books, knowing that the length isn’t just a kind of metastasizing of plot complications and character count, but because the book is stuffed with stuff: parodies, riffs on various topics, flights of fancy, irreverent digressions. Giles Goat-Boy, for instance, contains a full length parody of Oedipus Rex set on a college campus.

A few years ago I picked up The Four Fingers of Death, hoping for something like this, but was disappointed in my expectations. Perhaps it’s a generational specialty that’s since been lost. Other books that have given me this kind of pleasure, presenting a sort of literary cornucopia or cabinet of wonders, are John Crowley’s Aegypt sequence and, in a shorter form, Fran Ross’ Oreo. Both writers are of more-or-less the same generation as those I mentioned, Crowley being the youngest, born in 1942.

[Berkley]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "You read them... but did you enjoy them? (I'm not convinced it's for me.)"

Oh, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't care for any of the authors I'm about to mention.

Of the postm..."

I like Pynchon and Gaddis, haven't tried Coover or Gass. I've had Crowley on my to-read list for years, I am now reminded - perhaps I'll look for the Aegypt books, since they more or less coincide with one of the periods I'm currently reading (late-80s-90s).

[Berkley]

Russell wrote: "Berkley wrote: "..My most recent failure in reading French was Nathalie Sarraute's Martereau..."

I read in a review somewhere recently that Sarraute’s style was to denude the text of plot, time, c..."


I had read (in English) another book of hers that I did like, The Planetarium, so my guess is that it was my French reading skills that let me down with Martereau rather than Sarraute's writing. I'll see how it goes if I get around to trying it again.

[Paul]

Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "You read them... but did you enjoy them? (I'm not convinced it's for me.)"

Oh, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't care for any of the authors I'm about to mention.

Of the postm..."

I've only read Engine Summer by Crowley, and that certainly wouldn't have led me to imagine him categorized amongst the postmodernists

[Paul]

Berkley wrote: "Bill wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "You read them... but did you enjoy them? (I'm not convinced it's for me.)"

Oh, I'm pretty sure that you wouldn't care for any of the authors I'm about to mention.
..."

I loved what little of Coover I've read

[AB76]

i have just ordered an OUP collection of essays by Francis Bacon. One of my aims in last 2-3 years is to try and read more from the 16c-18c, be it fiction or non-fiction.

It takes time to immerse yourself in the style and language used, especially with english language texts from this period(in translation things can be smoothed out).

My american 18c reading with Jefferson, Brockdon Brown, Federalist Papers and then a collection of pamphlets on the debates of the 1770s showed me how possibly, literature from the other side of the pond was more readable in that period.

Jefferson was wonderfully smooth and almost dateless, Brockden Brown was very good too, the Federalist Papers was less readable and at times tortious which was a shame, as its best prose was up there with anything else of that period

[Bill]

Paul wrote: "I've only read Engine Summer by Crowley, and that certainly wouldn't have led me to imagine him categorized amongst the postmodernists"
I kind of got past postmodernism as such in my post, in describing what I enjoy in reading the particular American postmodernists I mentioned, and reflected on what other novels have given me a similar pleasure.

So I wouldn’t classify Crowley as postmodernist, but there are definitely postmodern influences in his Aegypt books. Engine Summer was one of his earlier books, when he was still pretty solidly in the Science Fiction camp. He moved on after that into fantasy (Little, Big) and what appear to be more mainstream novels (such as The Translator, which I haven’t read). I’m not sure what genre I would put Aegypt into; it has elements of occult fiction, but that’s more present in a novel-within-the-novels than it is in the primary narrative.

Another SF author who picked up elements from the postmodernists is John Sladek in The Complete Roderick.

[Bill]

Paul wrote: "I loved what little of Coover I've read"

What have you read by Coover? I really know only his early work: The Origin of the Brunists, The Public Burning, and The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop..

I've had Huck Out West for a few years, but starting it requires the additional burden of reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and re-reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which I haven't been a big fan of since first reading it more than 40 years ago).

Stanley Elkin is another American author of that generation who I read quite a bit of at the same time as the ones I've been talking about. I wouldn't call him postmodernist, but he's stylistically much closer to them than he is to other Jewish authors like Bellow and Roth.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "Right!"

So we agree (at last) then that:

1. the phrase "premature anti-fascist" was coined by someone on the right - probably linked to the US Army in some way, but

2. the phrase ..."

At some point, Tedium reigns.

[Paul]

Bill wrote: "Paul wrote: "I loved what little of Coover I've read"

What have you read by Coover? I really know only his early work: The Origin of the Brunists, The Public Burning, a..."

I've read Pricksongs and Descants and some of his other short stories collected in Going For a Beer. I have The Public Burning and Gerald's Party lying around somewhere

[AB76]

Paul wrote: "Bill wrote: "Paul wrote: "I loved what little of Coover I've read"

What have you read by Coover? I really know only his early work: The Origin of the Brunists, [book:The Public Burni..."

whats The Public Burning like? just googled Coover and he really doesnt seem my cup of tea!

[Robert]

AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "PM was 1940s New York's Popular Front paper. This supports the theory that the buzz phrase came fro..."

Thanks. I think that Malcom Muggeridge made some sensible early comments on Stalinism, too.
The Russian emigre Boris Souvarine was one of the founders of the French Communist Party. (He was a Marxist exile who became a French soldier in World War I, and a French citizen.) Souvarine wrote an insightful biography of Stalin in the 1930s, a clear break with the party line and an interesting read.

[Robert]

scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "Right!"

So we agree (at last) then that:

1. the phrase "premature anti-fascist" was coined by someone on the right - probably linked to the US Army in some way, but

2. the phrase ..."

Since neither of us is arguing about what interests the other, and neither of us makes concessions as to facts, perhaps we could move on. Perhaps to the Stalin biography by Boris Souvarine, a premature anti-Stalinist.

[Bill]

AB76 wrote: "whats The Public Burning like? just googled Coover and he really doesnt seem my cup of tea!"

It's been several decades since I read it ... it's an account of the Rosenberg execution told in a kind of pop-culture mythologizing style, Uncle Sam and Richard Nixon are both major characters in the novel.

I recall that I had a week vacation that I spent at my parents during which I read The Origin of the Brunists, The Public Burning, Arthur Rex, and a lengthy adventure from the E. C. Segar Popeye comic strip (in The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics). The Public Burning seemed to fit well in this company and I recall that I enjoyed it at the time.

You might want to try The Origin of the Brunists, a fairly realistic novel, though with mythological / religious subtexts.

[Berkley]

AB76 wrote: "ihave just ordered an OUP collection of essays by Francis Bacon. One of my aims in last 2-3 years is to try and read more from the 16c-18c, be it fiction or non-fiction.

It takes time to immerse yourself in the style and language used, especially with english language texts from this period(in translation things can be smoothed out).

My american 18c reading with Jefferson, Brockdon Brown, Federalist Papers and then a collection of pamphlets on the debates of the 1770s showed me how possibly, literature from the other side of the pond was more readable in that period.

Jefferson was wonderfully smooth and almost dateless, Brockden Brown was very good too, the Federalist Papers was less readable and at times tortious which was a shame, as its best prose was up there with anything else of that period"

I've read Bacon's essays and will read them again. From a little later in the 17th and into the 18thC I've enjoyed Swift's satires - there are lots of good collections that go beyond Gulliver's Travels. I like Alexander Pope's prose as well - most editions of his collected poems will include some pieces but my favourite is his introduction to his own translation of the Iliad, included in the Penguin paperback.

One Penguin I think you might want to look for if you don't have it already: Selections from The Tatler and The Spectator, by Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, which is fascinating both as a window onto the times and to see how their influential writings helped shape standard English prose (according to the intro, if I recall).

[Robert]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "ihave just ordered an OUP collection of essays by Francis Bacon. One of my aims in last 2-3 years is to try and read more from the 16c-18c, be it fiction or non-fiction.

It takes time..."

Interesting. Henry Fielding's The Life and Death of Johnathan Wild the Great, which I read many years ago, was a good read-- a sort of Tory humanism, by turns satire and sentiment, following the most cunning manipulator of a mercenary legal system.

[CCCubbon]

I have just ordered the book recommended by tiojo over on the G -

Time and Tide; The long long life of Landscape by Fiona Stafford

Couldn’t resist

[Gpfr]

Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: " One of my aims in last 2-3 years is to try and read more from the 16c-18c, be it fiction or non-fiction..."

"I've enjoyed Swift's satires ... Selections from The Tatler and The Spectator, by Richard Steele and Joseph Addison... "

Henry Fielding's The Life and Death of Jonathan Wild...

I've got various volumes on my shelves of Fielding, Swift, Pope and Johnson (Rasselas anyone?), from university, when, as I think I wrote on WWR rather than here, the 18th century was for most of us our least favourite period.
The mention of The Spectator sends a special shudder down my spine — a particularly boring series of lectures. However, on reading Golden Hill by Francis Spufford, I was amused to realise that the play the characters were putting on was Addison's Cato. Received wisdom on getting a pass mark on that particular paper in our finals was that one just had to read the essay on the play our lecturer had had published. So I'm afraid that's what we all did , with some last minute panic about whether there would in fact be a question on it. Well, there was ... so all was undeservedly well.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "AB76 wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "scarletnoir wrote: "Robert wrote: "PM was 1940s New York's Popular Front paper. This supports the theory that the buzz ph..."

will make a note of that, thanks robert

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: "ihave just ordered an OUP collection of essays by Francis Bacon. One of my aims in last 2-3 years is to try and read more from the 16c-18c, be it fiction or non-fiction.

It takes time..."

i have a 1960s hardback Addisson-Steele but that Penguin may have more than my volume thanks. I havent read much of the early Fielding, Johnathan Wild is one i am interested in. Pope and Swift i have read quite a lot of

thanks for your tips Gp, Berkley and Robert

i will be digesting Bacon slowly and at my leisure, that book fits into my "less modern history" reading which over the last decade has involved the civil war, macauleys history and the 1640-1711 period in english history, then moving onto the american non-fiction from 1760-1770. I have just bought Bartrams nature writing as another wing of this

[AB76]

Bill wrote: "AB76 wrote: "whats The Public Burning like? just googled Coover and he really doesnt seem my cup of tea!"

It's been several decades since I read it ... it's an account of the Rosenberg execution t..."

thanks bill

[Gpfr]

CCCubbon wrote: "I have just ordered the book recommended by tiojo over on the G -

Time and Tide; The long long life of Landscape by Fiona Stafford

Couldn’t resist"

It does sound good.

[Gpfr]

The Last Thing to Burn
I remember CCCubbon praising this scary book — a chilling story of human trafficking and a woman trapped with a controlling and abusive man. A real page-turner.

It's a bit strange about Will Dean. This one is very good and I've also liked the Tuva Moodyson series, but First Born was not good and according to CC and someone else The Last Passenger aka The Last One is terrible. And it's not as if they were earlier books and he's improved — it's the contrary, they're more recent than the others I've cited.

[[deleted user]]

Gpfr wrote: "Robert wrote: "Berkley wrote: "AB76 wrote: ..."

I've got various volumes on my shelves of Fielding, Swift, Pope and Johnson (Rasselas anyone?), from university..."

I've quite enjoyed reading around all of them at one time or another (Tom Jones satisfying, Rasselas deadly). One title seldom mentioned is Richardson's monumental Clarissa. Not having to read it as a student, under a deadline, I was able to take my time. For me, it is the grandest work of fiction of the 18th century, in any language.

[Gpfr]

Continuing to explore the BBC's A Good Read, I chose a programme where the guests were Joanna Trollope and Sabrina Mahfouz and found the first book being discussed was Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels. I'd had this book for a while and this spurred me to read it.

A short and delightful read, set in Cambridge in 1912, introduces us to Fred, junior fellow in a very small college, who to retain his position must remain unmarried, and Daisy, who wants to be a nurse. There are other splendid characters, an M.R. Jamesish ghost story ... lots of good things.

Sabrina Mahfouz, poet & playwright, had never heard of Fitzgerald and on reading the introduction was thrilled to learn that she started being published at 60.

[CCCubbon]

Gpfr wrote: "The Last Thing to Burn
I remember CCCubbon praising this scary book — a chilling story of human trafficking and a woman trapped with a controlling and abusive man. A real page-turne..."

Yes, 2/3 years since I read it but it still stays in my mind, quite horrifying in places.
But that last one is dreadful - almost as if written by someone else.

Still reading The Hunter which is a slow burner but I am in that village again every night expecting something to happen. Love the Irish dialogue - reminds me a little of living in a Somerset village - the ins and outs and all the goings on under the surface.

[[deleted user]]

Gpfr wrote: "Continuing to explore the BBC's A Good Read, I chose a programme where the guests were Joanna Trollope and Sabrina Mahfouz and found the first book being discussed was Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels. I'd had this book for a while and this spurred me to read it.

A short and delightful read, set in Cambridge in 1912..."

I loved it too, especially no-nonsense Daisy, and the picture it gives of the social condition of women in Edwardian England. If I hadn't already been dazzled by The Blue Flower I would have called it her best.

[AB76]

Just read "East Coker" from 1940, the second of TS Eliots "Four Quartets" and i loved the lines:

“……….we must be still and still moving, into another intensity, for a further union, a deeper communion”

While i'm more moderate Anglican than High Church Anglo-Catholic like Eliot, i feel questions of faith and life grow stronger as we age, as we contemplate the something or nothing that awaits us when its all over...

[scarletnoir]

Robert wrote: "Since neither of us is arguing about what interests the other..."


Oh, indeed, let's move on.

I did provide significant evidence to support my POV, whereas you provided none whatsoever, though. Must be the scientist in me.

[scarletnoir]

Robert wrote: "Tory humanism..."

Presumably written at a time when such a thing could be claimed to exist.

[Bill]

Gpfr wrote: "I've got various volumes on my shelves of Fielding, Swift, Pope and Johnson (Rasselas anyone?), from university, when, as I think I wrote on WWR rather than here, the 18th century was for most of us our least favourite period."

The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia is definitely one of the duller works in the canon, but The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman are among the greatest.

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "Received wisdom on getting a pass mark on that particular paper in our finals was that one just had to read the essay on the play our lecturer had had published. So I'm afraid that's what we all did ..."

A significant weakness of the exam system, in the case of lecturers who are too lazy to vary their questions. It happened on my science courses too, with some of them!

[scarletnoir]

Gpfr wrote: "Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels. I'd had this book for a while and this spurred me to read it.."

I have it too, but haven't read it yet... I've read three or four by Fitzgerald with mixed results. At worst, I quite liked the novels but was only really impressed with 'Offshore' - so far. No doubt I'll get around to this one - eventually.

[Berkley]

Bill wrote: "The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia is definitely one of the duller works in the canon, but The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman are among the greatest."

I think I liked Rasselas well enough when I read it but in general I'm not a great admirer of Samuel Johnson.

Agreed on Fielding, Swift, and Sterne - all in the very top rank. It's possible that reading about Johnson's dismissive attitude towards Tom Jones ("A vicious book") has prejudiced me against him.

Richardson I have yet to tackle. But I'll make time for Clarissa one of these days. Perhaps not Pamela - though I'm half -tempted by the idea that perhaps I'll appreciate Fielding's Shamela better if I know the book it was parodying.

[AB76]

scarletnoir wrote: "Gpfr wrote: "Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels. I'd had this book for a while and this spurred me to read it.."

I have it too, but haven't read it yet... I've read three or four by Fitzgera..."

i enjoyed Offshore...

[AB76]

Solidarity: Poland 1980-81 by Alain Touraine is shedding important light on the nature of the movement and its place in the 1980s movements.

In his sociological study of the movement, Touraine makes clear how Solidarity were careful to become a movement within a socialist reality but without the militant approach that could alienate and cause a response from Moscow.

Touraine outlines the intermingling groups of intellectuals,workers, journalists and priests within the movement. Soldarity was loyal to the church and to the idea of a Socialist Poland but vehemently opposed to the regime that was destroying Poland in the name of socialism.

Keen to avoid antagonism beyond the shipyards and mines, Solidarity self-censored and repressed dissent internally, as it fought to be a free, independent trade-union, in an era when trade unions were merely wings of state repression.

Unlike in Hungary'56 and Prague'68, it was not a movement led from the top, or from intellectuals, it was more worker led with intellectual participation. The ultimate result sadly was that the Polish regime did crack down on the movement, probably before Moscow could do something even worse.

The negative "foreign" exploitation by the USSR was felt strongly by Solidarity,especially the miners

[Bill]

Berkley wrote: "It's possible that reading about Johnson's dismissive attitude towards Tom Jones ("A vicious book") has prejudiced me against him."

Though I am fond of quoting him on occasion, I sometimes think that Johnson may be the most overrated figure in English letters.

[Berkley]

Robert wrote: "Interesting. Henry Fielding's The Life and Death of Johnathan Wild the Great, which I read many years ago, was a good read-- a sort of Tory humanism, by turns satire and sentiment, following the most cunning manipulator of a mercenary legal system."

Everything I've read by Fielding has been worthwhile, and usually much more than that, even relatively minor works - another shorter piece I liked was A Journey from this World to the Next.

The obvious complement to his Jonathan Wild book would of course be John Gay's hugely popular Beggar's Opera.

And a really excellent non-fiction book about the criminal underworld of 18th century London is Lucy Moore's The Thieves' Opera, which talks about Wild as well as many of the other notorious characters of the day (Jack Sheppard, Dick Turpin, etc.

(edited to add:) BTW, Fielding's politics might seem a bit confusing as he wrote for a Tory journal but was friends with prominent Whigs like Pitt. However, according to wiki, he was firmly in the Whig camp - but linked to a subgroup of Whigs and Tories that opposed the Whig government of Robert Walpole, widely seen as corrupt (can we imagine anything like this happening in today's ultra-partisan political atmosphere, whether in the UK, the US, Canada, or wherever?)

[Robert]

Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "Interesting. Henry Fielding's The Life and Death of Johnathan Wild the Great, which I read many years ago, was a good read-- a sort of Tory humanism, by turns satire and sentiment, f..."

The Beggar's Opera? You've anticipated my next post. Walpole is the model for the "statesmen" of the local jail. "My daughter should be to me as a court lady is to a minister of state, the key to the whole gang." Loved the lines in the original English version of this story-- much better than Bertoldt Brecht's "Threepenny Opera."

[AB76]

Berkley wrote: "Robert wrote: "Interesting. Henry Fielding's The Life and Death of Johnathan Wild the Great, which I read many years ago, was a good read-- a sort of Tory humanism, by turns satire and sentiment, f..."

Walpole, a fascinating and polarising character and longest serving PM of these fair isles. I loved the fact in Macauleys History of England he has a small but minor role near the end(Secretary at War), a discreet cameo for the dominance he exercised until the mid 18c

that made it sound like Macauley wrote a novel

[Robert]

So Macauley elided Walpole's years in power? In his biography of Walpole, Professor Plumb just couldn't bear to go into detail about his final defeat. He only informs us that his hero headed for defeat, and ends his tome.
Whigs and hunters: the origins of the Black Act, by E.P. Thompson, shows "Bob Booty" at his best. To protect the rural property of himself and his allies, Walpole enacted a ferocious statute, almost a section of legal code in itself, with death penalties folding out like a Swiss army knife.

[Robert]

Interesting new book by David Grann: The Wager. A disaster at sea during The War of Jenkins' Ear (Spanish: Guerra del Asiento, lit. 'War of the Agreement'). One episode of the war was an expedition mounted by Commodore Anson, who planned to sail around Cape Horn and attack a treasure galleon in the Pacific. The expedition left months late, the seemingly endless storm off Cape Horn was overwhelming, and one small ship, the Wager, was driven away from the rest and wrecked on a small barren island off Chile. The crew was weakened by cholera, then by scurvy, and had too few healthy sailors to operate the ship.
As the cover promises, it is a story of shipwreck, mutiny, and murder, with a Bounty-style court martial at its climax. Good narrative, though Grann's style can be clunky.

[AB76]

Robert wrote: "So Macauley elided Walpole's years in power? In his biography of Walpole, Professor Plumb just couldn't bear to go into detail about his final defeat. He only informs us that his hero headed for de..."

my 3 volume Macauley ends with the death of Queen Anne and doesnt cover the Hanoverian succession and subsequently where Walpole became the PM

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "So Macauley elided Walpole's years in power? In his biography of Walpole, Professor Plumb just couldn't bear to go into detail about his final defeat. He only informs us that his hero headed for de..."

my 3 volume Macauley ends with the death of Queen Anne and doesnt cover the Hanoverian succession and subsequently where Walpole became the PM."

The full version of the History ends with the death of William III. The last volume was completed by Macaulay's sister after his death, which is perhaps why it is omitted in your set.

Macaulay does write about Sir Robert Walpole, though not at great length. It's a 12-page segment embedded in his review of the Letters of Horace Walpole.

Somewhere I have a History of the 18th Century by Macaulay put together by an editor from bits like that.

[[deleted user]]

Robert wrote: "Interesting new book by David Grann: The Wager. A disaster at sea during The War of Jenkins' Ear (Spanish: Guerra del Asiento, lit. 'War of the Agreement'). One episode of the war was an expedition..."

Thanks for that review. I was given a copy. of The Wager and now have a prompt to read it

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "AB76 wrote: "Robert wrote: "So Macauley elided Walpole's years in power? In his biography of Walpole, Professor Plumb just couldn't bear to go into detail about his final defeat. He only informs us..."

fourth re-type lol

so i think i do have the entire volume, ending before Walpole became PM, with him being a player in the cabinets under Queen Anne. I wasnt clear enough about the Hanoverian Sucession, as Macauley doesnt cover anything more than the arrival of "German" George in England at the end of his book

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "...so i think i do have the entire volume, ending before Walpole became PM, with him being a player in the cabinets under Queen Anne..."

How odd - my Complete Works has the History stopping with the death of William. Perhaps it’s my set that’s missing something on Queen Anne between vol 4 (end of History) and 5 (start of Essays)..

[AB76]

Vagabond Voices have supplied some great novels, baltic literature especially and they used to have an interesting newsletter by its editor but since he started to go all conspiracy theory on the Ukraine war and even worse on Gaza, its a simple delete every time

It concerns me that both conflicts have a third stream of nonsense behind the western or ukranianian angles in the media. This third stream just feeds constant silo'd echo chamber fake news but the worrying thing is that people believe it.

Gaza is a less nuanced conflict and is starting to look like a disaster for the IDF in propaganda terms, let alone humanitarian ones but the fake news is just nauseating and seems to stem from an idea that everything the supposed "mainstream" news channels tell you is lies. Rather than watching and listening carefully to what they say and investigating other sources

Curiosity and free inquiry is replaced by a loud howl of denial and conspiracy theories....Orwell would turn in his grave...

[AB76]

Russell wrote: "AB76 wrote: "...so i think i do have the entire volume, ending before Walpole became PM, with him being a player in the cabinets under Queen Anne..."

How odd - my Complete Works has the History st..."

no its me who is leading you astray! just dug out my 3 volumes and they end with death of King Billy

I dont have vol 4 or 5 though

i must be confusing a book i read on Queen Anne with Macauley,

[[deleted user]]

AB76 wrote: "... no its me who is leading you astray! just dug out my 3 volumes and they end with death of King Billy
..."

I wonder if you were thinking of the magnificently Macaulay-esque A History of England under Queen Anne by GM Trevelyan, which I used to pore over in my youth. My father bequeathed his beautiful 3-volume set, with those wonderful fold-out coloured maps, to someone else!

Macaulay said he proposed to write the history of England down to events within the memory of men still alive in his day. You wonder how far he would have got had he lived. The American Revolution?