edwinbcn is still reading in Nanning, China 2021, Part 1

This will be my 11th year as a member of Club Read.

Since 2017, my participation was often severely hampered because of limited access to the Internet in China. Sometimes it works well for a while, and this often goes unnoticed by me, and them it gets blocked again. As of late, it seems I can post messages, but I cannot edit the catalogue.

About myself:

I am 54 years old, born in the Netherlands, and I have been living and working in China for morew than 20 years. I work as a teacher and textbook author, and have published two textbook series for learning English in China. I now live and work in Nanning, a city about 600 km to the west of Hong Kong, and about 200 km to the north of Hanoi, Vietnam.

I am mainly reading from my unread book collection. Since last year, I have changed to mainly reading classics and so-called modern classics, with some contemporary fiction thrown in. Last year, I started reading more non-fiction and biographies, and will continue with that this year. My ambition is to read more in foreign languages in the coming year, notably more German, French and Spanish.

Last weekend, we had a bit of a panic in Nanning when they discovered one person with a locally transmitted infection of COVID. Mind you, at the start of the epidemic Nanning only saw 52 active cases of which none were lethal (there were a mere 252 cases in Guangxi Province and ever since January 2019 only two fatalities). Our lives here are mostly very carefree, but still with all precautions in place. Last week, they quarantined 15 train passengers from Hebei Province, one of whom developed a mild infection (the other 14 were in the same carriage). A cleaner at the central quarantine facility became infected and was detected in a routine check, but he had already been out and about for a few days. So, there was quite a scare, and the city put his local neighborhood in lockdown, and in just two days swab tested nearly 200 thousand people in all neighborhoods he had visited. No other cases were detected. Right now, China is on full alert ahead of the Lunar New Year travel rush.

The temporary COVID scare caused some upheval and rearranged classes, and all in all I have been quite busy the past few weeks, so I haven't finished reading any books so far, this year.

I am bogged down in some tomes, such as Sinclair Lewis's Elmer Gantry, the collected short stories of both Edgar Alan Poe and Thomas Hardy and
The Portrait of a Lady, besides a few other books.

Edwin's reading in 2020:

January

1. Yasunari Kawabata, Beauty and sadness 4 stars January 1
2. Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood tree, or The Mellstock quire 3.5 stars, January 6
3. Andrea Barrett, Servants of the map, 3 stars, January 8
4. Emma Donoghue, Astray, 2.5 stars, January 9
5. Hella S. Haasse, Uitgesproken, opgeschreven. Essays over achttiende-eeuwse vrouwen, een bosgezicht, verlichte geesten, vorstenlot, satire, de pers en Vestdijks Avondrood, 4 stars, January 9
6. Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Hell screen, 4.5 stars, January 12
7. Maria Dermoût, Nog pas gisteren, 4 stars, January 13
8. Maria Dermoût, Spel van tifa-gongs, 4.5 stars, January 13
9. Christopher Isherwood, All the conspirators, 2 stars, January 22
10. Hella S. Haasse, Mevrouw Bentinck of Onverenigbaarheid van karakter, 3.5 stars, January 26
11. Nevil Shute, A town like Alice, 4.5 stars, January 28
12. Constantijn Huygens, Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen, Vol. 2 Commentaar en annotitie, 4.5 stars, January 28
13. Hella S. Haasse, De groten der aarde, of Bentinck tegen Bentinck, 3.5 stars, January 30
14. Hella S. Haasse, Mevrouw Bentinck. Onverenigbaarheid van karakter & De groten der aarde, 3.5 stars, January 30

February

15. E. Phillips Oppenheim, The great impersonation, 4 stars, February 2
16. Dirk van Miert, Illuster onderwijs. Het Amsterdamse Athenaeum in de Gouden Eeuw, 1632-1704, 4 stars, February 2
17. John Sutherland, Stephen Spender. A literary life, 4 stars, February 4
18. Groucho Marx, The essential Groucho. Writings by, for and about Groucho Marx, 3 stars, February 5
19. Maria Dermoût, De tienduizend dingen, 4.5 stars, February 8
20. Peter Ackroyd, London. The biography, 4.5 stars, February 10
21. John O'Hara, A rage to live, 2.5 stars, February 12
22. Maria Dermoût, De juwelen haarkam, 4 stars, February 12
23. John Steinbeck, Of mice and men, 4.5 stars, February 13
24. Penelope Lively, A house unlocked, 4 stars, February 14
25. Robert Macfarlane, The old ways. A journey on foot, 4 stars, February 15
26. Maria Dermoût, De kist, 4.5 stars, February 17
27. John Updike, Higher gossip. Essays and criticism, 4 stars, February 18
28. Graham Greene, The confidential agent, 4 stars, February 20
29. Bennett A. Cerf, Three famous spy novels. Complete and unabridged in one volume. The great impersonation; Journey into fear; The confidential agent., 4 stars, February 20
30. George Orwell, A Life in Letters, 4 stars, February 22
31. Jean-Claude Carrière, This is not the end of the book. A conversation curated by Jean-Philippe de Tonnac, 3 stars, February 23
32. Joseph Brodsky, Less than one. Selected essays, 2 stars, February 23
33. Frances Hodgson Burnett, The little princess, 5 stars, February 24
34. Frances Hodgson Burnett, The secret garden / The little princess, 5 stars, February 24
35. Thomas Love Peacock, Gryll Grange, 4 stars, February 25
36. Paul Auster, Man in the dark, 1 star, February 26
37. George Brennand, Walton's delight, 4 stars, February 28
38. Angus Wilson, A bit off the map, and other stories, 2 stars, February 28
39. J. G. van Rossum-du Chattel, El gran bal. Leven en werk van Chris Dekker, 2 stars, February 29

March

40. Nicholas Jose, Chinese whispers. Cultural essays, 4 stars, March 7
41. Henry David Thoreau, Letters to a spiritual seeker, 2.5 stars, March 7
42. Minke Douwesz, Strikt, 5 stars, March 17
43. Willem G. van Maanen, Vertelde tijd, 1 star, March 21
44. Elizabeth Bowen, The mulberry tree. Writings of Elizabeth Bowen, 3.5 stars, March 22
45. Willem G. van Maanen, Vrouw met Dobermann, 2 stars, March 22
46. Willem G. van Maanen, Alle verhalen, 2 stars, March 22
47. Philip Roth, Operation Shylock. A confession, 4 stars, March 23
48. Nescio, Boven het dal, en andere verhalen, 4 stars, March 24
49. Maria Dermoût, De sirenen, 3 stars, March 25
50. Andrea Barrett, Ship fever, 2.5 stars, March 26
51. Maria Dermoût, Donker van uiterlijk, en andere verhalen, 4 stars, March 26
52. Maria Dermoût, Alle verhalen, 4.5 stars, March 26
53. Constantijn Huygens, Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen, Vol. 1, 4 stars, March 27
54. Constantijn Huygens, Mijn leven verteld aan mijn kinderen, (2 Vols. Set), 4.5 stars, March 27
55. Bruce Chatwin, On the Black Hill, 3 stars, March 28
56. Andreas Burnier, Een gevaar dat de ziel in wil. Essays, brieven en interviews 1965-2002, 3.5 stars, March 30
57. Alex Ross, The rest is noise. Listening to the Twentieth Century, 4.5 stars, March 31

April

58. Hella S. Haasse, Sleuteloog, 4 stars, April 2
59. Wally Lamb, The hour I first believed, 1.5 stars, April 8
60. Edgar Alan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, 4.5 stars, April 11
61. Sven Anders Hedin, My life as an explorer, 4.5 stars, April 19
62. Edgar Alan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and related tales, 4.5 stars, April 19
63. Steven Pinker, The stuff of thought. Language as a window into human nature, 3 stars, April 26
64. Aldous Huxley, After many a summer dies the swan, 4.5 stars, April 27
65. Iain Banks, Stonemouth, 3 stars, April 29
66. Harry Mulisch, De ontdekking van de hemel, 3.5 stars, April 30

May

67. Siri Hustvedt, The Blazing World, 2 stars, May 8
68. Nicolas Jose, The rose crossing, 3 stars, May 12
69. John Steinbeck, The red pony, 2 stars, May 13
70. Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford, 2 stars, May 15
71. Elizabeth Gaskell, Cousin Phillis, 4 stars, May 18
72. Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford / Cousin Phillis, 3.5 stars, May 18
73. David Garnett, Aspects of love, 4 stars, May 21
74. Elizabeth Gaskell, Mr Harrison's confessions, 2 stars, May 22
75. Elizabeth Gaskell, My Lady Ludlow, 3.5 stars, May 22
76. Elizabeth Gaskell, The Cranford chronicles: Mr. Harrison's Confession / Cranford / My Lady Ludlow, 3 stars, May 22
77. Edgar Alan Poe, Eureka, 2 stars, May 23
78. John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, May 4 stars, May 23
79. David Malouf, An imaginary life, 3 stars, May 24

June

80. William Maxwell, The folded leaf, 2 stars, June 6
81. Gerard Reve, Op weg naar het einde, 4 stars, June 6
82. Gerard Reve, Brief aan mijn bank, 3 stars, June 6
83. Edgar Alan Poe, The science fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, 4 stars, June 8
84. Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Estate, 3 stars, June 16
85. Gerard Reve, Nader tot U, 4 stars, June 18
86. Elizabeth Gaskell, Lois the witch, 4.5 stars, June 24 {Reread}
87. Elizabeth C. Gaskell, Cranford & selected short stories, 4 stars, June 24

July

88. Jennifer Johnston, Fool's sanctuary, 1 star, July 4
89. Daniel Defoe, The King of Pirates, 4 stars, July 5
90. Anthony Powell, A buyer's market, 3 stars, July 6
91. Anthony Powell, The acceptance world, 3.5 stars, July 6
92. Anthony Powell, A Dance to the Music of Time, Vol. I: Spring, 4 stars, July 6
93. Anthony Powell, The acceptance world, 3.5 stars, July 6
94. Anthony Powell, At Lady Molly's, 4 stars, July 7
95. Jennifer Johnston, The gates, 3.5 stars, July 22
96. Joyce & Co., Werkbrieven 1968-1981 (Ego documenten), 4 stars, July 22
96. Charlotte Bronte, Selected letters of Charlotte Brontë, 4.5, July 23
97. Dorothy Stratchey, Olivia, 2.5 stars, July 24
98. Robert Masterson, Artificial rats and electric cats: Communications from transitional China, 1985-1986, 1.5 stars, July 25

August

99. Frida Vogels, Dagboek 1954-1957, 2 stars, August 9
100. Peter Matthiessen, Nine-headed Dragon River, 3.5 stars, August 11
101. Paul Watkins, The story of my disappearance, 3.5 stars, August 13
102. Thomas Hardy, The Trumpet-Major, 4 stars, August 13
103. Nol Gregoor, De jongen die Werther Nieland werd, 3.5 stars, August 13
104. James Shapiro, Contested Will. Who wrote Shakespeare?, 3.5 stars, August 17
105. Willa Cather, My Ántonia, 4 stars, August 17
106. Germaine Greer, Shakespeare's wife, 3.5 stars, August 26.
107. Simon Vestdijk, Sint Sebastiaan, 4 stars, 29 August

September

108. Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty, 2 stars, 1 September
109. William Trevor, After rain, 2 stars, 2 September
110. Rose Gronon, De ramkoning, 1.5 stars, 2 September
111. William Golding, The Scorpion God, 3 stars, 4 September
112. William Golding, Clonk! Clonk!, 3 stars, 4 September
113. William Golding, Envoy Extraordinaire, 4 stars, 4 September,
114. William Golding, The Scorpion God, 3 stars, 4 September
115. Jerome Garcin, C'etait tous les jours tempete, 3 stars, 5 September
116. Katherine Mansfield, Collected Stories, 2 stars, 6 September
117. Aldous Huxley, Ends and Means. An Enquiry into the Nature of Ideals and into Methods Employed for their Realization, 3 stars., 7 September
118. Marjorie King, China's American daughter. Ida Pruitt (1888 - 1985), 4 stars, 8 September
119. Sissela Bok, Exploring Happiness. From Aristotle to brain science, 3 stars, 9 September

Since August 26, I can no longer edit the catalogue and I have fallen behind keeping a record of my reading, especially because I had to create a record of the 1000+ donation of books I made to a local library.

Nice to catch up on some of your reading last year

>2 edwinbcn: Fascinating to hear about the speed of response within China to a single case of COVID. Clearly that's the secret to limiting spread. The UK response seems to be wait until we're in a significant crisis in terms of cases and then react.

>4 edwinbcn: It's a shame you weren't able to post much last year. I'd have loved to have read your review of Hardy's The Trumpet-Major. It's not one of his that I'm familiar with (or maybe you did review it and I missed it?).

Hello. Hoping you have the access to post more this year. Finally catching your thread. : )

>7 dchaikin: Thanks。 So far so good. Previously it was either full access or none at all. This time around I can post messages, but many other functions are either impossible or severely limited. I cannot edit the catalogue, and looking at other people's profile pages is near impossible because pages take long to load.

>6 AlisonY: I haven't read any major novels by Hardy for many years and much enjoyed reading The Trumpet-Major. I think Baswood read it a few years ago and wrote a review.

Earlier last year, I read Under the greenwood tree but that was rather disappointing. I had tried reading that many times before, abandoning it each time, but last year made it to finish reading it.

The Trumpet-Major isn't considered one of the major novels, but it sure was a pleasurable read, especially because of the beautiful language and beautiful descriptions. I felt the plot was slightly confusing because of the three suitors, two of whom are brothers, one apparently giving up but then, later, coming back.

The novel had a very light feel to it, a bit like a Shakespeare comedy (all those lovers), but with serious and dark overtones about making a good match (as for wealth).

Thanks to all members who warmly welcomed me back on the Introductions thread.

In previous years various members have suggested I write reviews off-line and try to post them later when access is restored, but I cannot do that. With each exclusion there is no telling whether I will ever be able to get back or not, and loss of access is very, very frustrating. I feel I can only write reviews when I can post them rightaway, not many weeks later if at all. It is very encouraging, though, to hear that so many of you enjoyed reading them.

I am not sure whether I will write reviews as before, because in the current situation, I do not only have limited access to LT but many other websites are blocked as well. Goodreads and wikipedia are blocked, so it is hard to look up basic facts about writers and their work.

My intention and hope is to keep posting and write some form of review, but I hope at least this limited access can be maintained.

Fingers crossed that your access continues Edwin. I always enjoy your reviews.

You are a great inspiration that I could/should be doing a lot more than I am. Thanks for your posts.

>4 edwinbcn: As always, an impressive list of reading, Edwin. btw, a belated Happy New Year to you. I found your Covid reports very interesting. And we will be happy with whatever amount of reviews you are able to share when conditions are amenable :-)

Finally, the holiday is there, and I came back to my apartment to do some cleaning up and rearrange my books. Yesterday, I finally managed to clear up the floor space in the study. Piles of books took up two square meters for several years, blocking access to the main book case.

I am still reading the collected stories of Edgar Allan Poe and Thomas Hardy. Yes, it is like a mega-project. This is because each story deserves so much attention that I cannot rush. However, I did manage reading several other things this year, but not as much as in previous years. Then, too, we have another half year to go.

I have maintained the same trend as last year, by reading more classics.

The first seven entries in the catalogue for this year are a technological catch up. I sometimes discover that I read another book in one year. Usually, I add such books to the end of the catalogue, but since I had to go back to keeping a written paper-based record and cannot edit the LT catalogue, and since they are six titles, I decided to enter them at the beginning of the 2021 Reading List. But, in fact, I think I read these between 2013 and 2015.



001. Empty mirror. Gates of wrath (1947-1952)
002. The green automobile (1953-1954)
003. Howl, before & after. San Francisco Bay area (1955-1956)
004. Reality sandwiches. Europe! Europe! (1957-1959)
005. Kaddish and related poems (1959-1960)
006. Planet news. To Europe and Asia (1961-1963)
007. King of May. America to Europe (1963-1965)

I started reading novels and related works by authors of the Beat generation relatively late, and have worked my way through most novels by Kerouac, Burroughs including letters of Kerouac and Ginsberg, etc. I was very sceptical about reading modern poetry in general, but through participation in Club Read since 2007 have started reading modern and contemporary poetry, and I must say I am stark impressed by the poetry of Allen Ginsberg, particularly Howl and Kaddish, but there are also many other very beautiful or startling poems. The dare-do surprise is an important element. Reading long poems also requires developing a certain reading technique, not exactly like skimming, but with various degrees of attention, sometimes at a glance, and sometimes with great attention. Not all is great and worthwhile, though.

I am in the habit of listing separate works separately, so these seven albums of poetry are listed as seven entries in the catalogue. However, they are all collected in one huge paperback edition of nearly 1200 pages in Penguin Modern Classics. The reading of this tome is another ongoing project, and before I am done with it, I may go back to reading portions of Howl and Kaddish, as I did in January.

in: Allen Ginsberg (2009). Collected poems 1947-1997
London: Penguin Books.

Other books I have read by Allen Ginsberg:
Family business. Selected letters between a father and son
The Yage letters. Redux

008. Wagner. The terrible man and his truthful art
Finished reading: 25 January 2021



As a high school student I liked browsing antiquarian bookshops and often came across 4-volume sets of collected plays by Richard Wagner as there were similar sets of collected works of Goethe, Schiller and Heine, but somehow, because Wagner was never praised as a writer, I would not buy them. I knew he was a great composer, and I knew these plays were the librettos of his operas, but for some reason as such I would disregard them as great literature.

One of the main points of M. Owen Lee's lectures is that this is a common misconception. Wagner's opera's deserve as much to be read as listened to. Wagner was serious about everything: the music, the text of his operas and the stage performance, as well known, and pointed out once more much of our concert hall experience is owed to the practice first insisted on by Wagner.

Apparently, Brian Magee's Aspects of Wagner (OUP), a very slim biography is indispensible reading when it comes to Wagner. (I read that slim volume in 2019). By contrast, Wagner. The terrible man and his truthful art, also a slim volume, of just three lectures, is a mere epiphany, a light afterthought. It is more about what other people thought of Wagner (yes, including the Nazis) and how he influenced others, including many writers, than about the music. It ponders more on the smaller operas, like Die Meistersinger, Parsifal, and Tannhauser than on the Ring.

009. Music for Chameleons. New writing
Finished reading: 28 January 2021



Music for Chameleons. New writing is a somewhat uneven, but interesting collection of short fiction, or perhaps better say short prose. Truman Capote is most famous for his novel In cold blood which is often described as nonfiction. This collection of "new writing" contains a long prose text "Handcarved coffins", subtitles 'A nonfiction account of an American crime' which deploys the same technique. It is an exciting, and intriguing story. The most memorable other story in this collection is the title story "Music for Chameleons" for it's startling idea.

Other books I have read by Truman Capote:
Other voices, other rooms
Summer crossing
In cold blood. A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Breakfast at Tiffany's. A short novel and three stories

010. The Bohemian girl
Finished reading: 28 January 2021



I did not like these stories as much as I had thought I would. I had very much enjoyed "A Wagner matinee" when I read it separately in 2011, but the other stories in this volume could barely hold my attention. Each story is about a different kind of artist, or so it seems. The stories are well-written, but often my attention wandered, and retrospectively, now a half year later, I cannot recall any, except "A Wagner matinee".

Other books I have read by Willa Cather:
My Ántonia
Death comes for the Archbishop
Wagner matinee
O Pioneers!

011. What was the hipster. A sociological investigation
Finished reading: 2 February 2021



Obviously, living abroad long-term, you may expect to miss some developments at home. Returning on annually short holidays each year, it was apparent that there were some developments that I had missed. I had no idea what was meant by tiles in the pavement depicting a ladybird (indication of location of unprovoked molestation), and my unfamiliarity with the many small euro coins causes some awkward pauses at cash registers (people think I am dumb). However, these are localized phenomena. I would vain have expected to miss out on an international sociological phenomenon, but there it is.

Living in China means not only detachment from the physical environment of the home country, but also, especially electronic isolation. China very sparsely reports on foreign countries. The first five years, Internet access was very limited, and as Internet access widened, China started blocking websites or overall hampering Internet access. Thus, with limited access for foreign news, foreign printed news media and increasingly difficult Internet access, I missed out on the hipster.

I have hear the term, but never gave it much thought, and had no picture in my mind of a classifyable person. In the introduction, the editors of What was the hipster. A sociological investigation state that the hey days of the hipster as a phenomenon are between 1999 and 2010. (I moved to China in 1999 and been here ever since.)

As a graduate in social sciences, I naturally have an interest in this topic, but must say the type of publication does not seem very solid. Below the names of the three editors, it says "Transcribed by Avner Davis". What or how much is transcribed and from what source is not very clear. Page 185 gives a list on contributors, most of whom are designated as writers or critics, but none specifically as sociologists of academics attached to research institutes.

The very small book consists of four sections: Symposium, Dossier, Responses and Essays. Half of the first part consists of a (transcribed) discussion of about 25 pages. The Dossier consists of just two very short articles (indeed they were previously published elsewhere) but together just 10 pages. The Responses (to what?) are also just two pieces, altogether barely 20 pages.

The tone of all parts of the book is "chatty", "dropping names". Surely, 40 years ago these people would style themselves as Marxists. I must say, I also only just recently, as in less than one month, learnt the meaning of "woke". Maybe I should hide out a little longer in China.

012. The evening of the holiday
Finished reading: 10 February 2021



Bland story. Beautiful descriptions but the story didn't really open up for me.

Other books I have read by Shirley Hazzard:
People in glass houses
The bay of noon

013. Een tevreden lach
Finished reading: 20 February 2021



Published in 1965, this is the earliest novel by the Dutch author Andreas Burnier. A short, but interesting novel that seems to play with the concept of gender. Although I had to read some passages twice, I enjoyed this.

Other books I have read by Andreas Burnier:
Het jongensuur
De litteraire salon
De trein naar Tarascon
Het jongensuur / De litteraire salon / De trein naar Tarascon
De rondgang der gevangenen. Een essay over goed en kwaad in de vorm van zeven brieven aan de Platoclub
Een gevaar dat de ziel in wil. Essays, brieven en interviews 1965-2002

014. The fall of America (1965-1971)
Finished reading: 26 February 2021

Another volume of poetry The fall of America (1965-1971) in Allen Ginsberg (2009). Collected poems 1947-1997.
London: Penguin Books.

Other books I have read by Allen Ginsberg:
Family business. Selected letters between a father and son
The Yage letters. Redux
Empty mirror. Gates of wrath (1947-1952)
The green automobile (1953-1954)
Howl, before & after. San Francisco Bay area (1955-1956)
Reality sandwiches. Europe! Europe! (1957-1959)
Kaddish and related poems (1959-1960)
Planet news. To Europe and Asia (1961-1963)
King of May. America to Europe (1963-1965)

015. Vier pleidooien
Finished reading: 2 March 2021



During the 1960, the Dutch author Gerard van het Reve was entangled in court cases brought against him on the grounds that his writing and personal statements about God were blasphemous. These four exploits were written by the author in his own defence, with obvious sarcasm and fully convinced that he ought to be acquitted. Despite the fact that this case is very well known in general terms, I am not much aware of the details. Then, too, despite the fact that this is a very short publication, it failed to keep my attention, and I read it with little interest. I suppose I will later read more about it in the 3-volume biography of Reve that is still on my TBR pile.

Other books I have read by Gerard Reve:
De avonden
The acrobat and other stories
De ondergang van de familie Boslowits
Werther Nieland
Een circusjongen
Tien vrolijke verhalen
Ik had hem lief
De taal der liefde
Lieve jongens
Brieven aan Wimie, 1959-1963
Brieven aan Wim B., 1968-1975
Brieven aan Frans P., 1965-1969
Brieven aan Simon C., 1971-1975
Brieven aan Josine M., 1959-1975
Brieven aan kandidaat katholiek A., 1962-1969
Met niks begonnen. Correspondentie
Brieven aan Bram P.
Lieve Gerard. Brieven aan Gerard Reve, 1965-1980
Brieven aan Bernard S., 1965-1975
Op weg naar het einde
Brief aan mijn bank
Nader tot U

016. De taal der liefde
Finished reading: 12 March 2021



In 2004 I bought the 6-volume collected works of Gerard Reve. This set only contains novels, short story collections and other short prose and poetry. A large part of Reve's fame is based on his letters, but the letters are not included in this set of collected works. In reading the collected works of Reve, I have started with volume 2. Starting with volume 1 would mean only rereads of works I did not enjoy reading much in the past. Although, I think, my appreciation may have changed, I was also worried I might get bored and abandon it, so instead I have started out by first reading volume 2, which contains 7 works of which I have previously read 3 or 4.

So, reading De taal der liefde was a reread, I originally read this book in 1981. The books in this volume are all books I also very much liked during my first reading. In terms of openness and kinky-ness, De taal der liefde still hold back a bit. Reve has a pleasant, easy style of writing, free of the pompousness of some of the later letters. This was a very enjoyable read.

Other books I have read by Gerard Reve:
De avonden
The acrobat and other stories
De ondergang van de familie Boslowits
Werther Nieland
Een circusjongen
Tien vrolijke verhalen
Ik had hem lief
De taal der liefde
Lieve jongens
Brieven aan Wimie, 1959-1963
Brieven aan Wim B., 1968-1975
Brieven aan Frans P., 1965-1969
Brieven aan Simon C., 1971-1975
Brieven aan Josine M., 1959-1975
Brieven aan kandidaat katholiek A., 1962-1969
Met niks begonnen. Correspondentie
Brieven aan Bram P.
Lieve Gerard. Brieven aan Gerard Reve, 1965-1980
Brieven aan Bernard S., 1965-1975
Op weg naar het einde
Brief aan mijn bank
Nader tot U Reread
Vier pleidooien

017. Lady Audley's secret
Finished reading: 5 April 2021



Lady Audley's secret was serialized between 1861-2, and then published in novel form. The novel has all the characteristics of a who-dunnit, although I think to most readers the culprit of the story will be evident from early on, as in fact the title reveals. The power of the story is to keep readers excited and interested. In the first place, of course, there is the focal point of interest, to find out what exactly Lucy Graham is hiding, and this turns out to be quite a lot. The concealment is in fact very clever, much too clever for an apparently little lamb she is supposed to be.

I first read this novel in a new "Pocket Penguin Classic" edition without an introduction, and later read the introduction by Jenny Bourne Taylor and Russell Croft to the Penguin Classics edition, and must say that introduction was pretty useless, especially its slant on supposed women roles and homosexual undercurrent. That all seems far-fetched to me.

The opening paragraphs are kind of striking, with an odd description of the age-old manor, where everything seems a bit broken and out of joint. The novel might well be a warning to the elderly rich, not to be dazed and dazzled by a 'blondie' into a late-age marriage. The metaphor of being blind is persistent, blinded by love, befuddled by appearance, and at a deeper level, deceit.

One possible theme seems to be the idea of making a new beginning, which bleakly seems to suggest that such new beginnings should be sought overseas, not at home, as Audley Manor may perhaps be a metaphor for England.

Lady Audley's secret is a very entertaining read, that I would surely recommend.

018. Elmer Gantry
Finished reading: 8 April 2021



It is surprising that the novels of Sinclair Lewis are not seen more in publication of classics, as such they now really are. Elmer Gantry should be read as a classic. The novel is a bit long drawn, and might be more accessible with notes. The introduction to the edition of Signet Classics is well worth reading. Readers with little experience of preachers as in the US might find the novel difficult to understand, even if the purport of the novel is extended to politicians.

Reading Elmer Gantry was not very rewardingf, and quite a bit of a struggle. I think the theme and main idea still comes out clearly, but to modern readers the novel is probably a bit too long-winded. However, I am glad I read it.

Other books I have read by Sinclair Lewis:
Babbitt
It Can't Happen Here.

019. Onder andere. Herinneringen en dagboekbladen
Finished reading: 13 April 2021



I often warn my students that for the purpose of making a bibliography they should find the title of the book on the title page, not on the cover. This is one of the books where the title on the cover is different from that on the title page, Onder andere. Herinneringen en dagboekbladen. On the cover it says "Portretten en herinneringen, as subtitle which is both clearer and more attractive to prospective readers.

One reason for reading this book is for readers who cannot get enough of Voskuil's stilted prose. The first half of the book describes various episodes of his early marriage, in Amsterdam, particularly dealing with neighbours. The second half of the book contains two fabulous portraits, firstly, of Geert van Oorschot, his publisher, and secondly, Frida Vogels, as Voskuil describes the genesis and publication history (a near fiasco) of his first great novel Bij nader inzien, which I am currently reading.

On the strength of these two parts, the book is a must read for those interested in the writers around Voskuil, or Van Oorschot.

Other books I have read by J.J. Voskuil:
Het Bureau, Vol. 1. Meneer Beerta
Het Bureau, Vol. 2. Vuile handen
Het Bureau, Vol. 3. Plankton
Het Bureau, Vol. 4. Het A. P. Beerta-Instituut
Het Bureau, Vol. 5. En ook weemoedigheid
Het Bureau, Vol. 6. Afgang
Het Bureau, Vol. 7. De dood van Maarten Koning
Jeugdherinneringen
De buurman
De moeder van Nicolien
Terloops. Voettochten 1957 - 1973
Gaandeweg. Voettochten 1983-1992

020. The physiology of taste
Finished reading: 13 April 2021



The publication of The physiology of taste in the Penguin Classics series is a translation of La physiologie du gout, first published in French in 1825. A few years back, I was interested in writing wine and fine dining reviews professionally and collected and read some books in that field. While other reviews described this book as a must read, I was rather disappointed. I can only say that is this is perhaps due to the early publication date. The book may be remarkable in this form for the genre, but both modern cookbooks as well as novels about gastronomy are much better.

021. De verschrikkingen van het noorden
Finished reading: 14 April 2021



Another short novel by Andreas Burnier (Dutch).

Other books I have read by Andreas Burnier:
Het jongensuur
De litteraire salon
De trein naar Tarascon
Het jongensuur / De litteraire salon / De trein naar Tarascon
De rondgang der gevangenen. Een essay over goed en kwaad in de vorm van zeven brieven aan de Platoclub
Een gevaar dat de ziel in wil. Essays, brieven en interviews 1965-2002
Een tevreden lach

022. Island landfalls. Reflections from the South Seas
Finished reading: 14 April 2021



Having lived most of my life separated from my books, either by living in different countries or by living in different cities, not having access to my books, there are many classics for which I have double, or even triple copies. In the case of Robert Louis Stevenson have have multiple copies of his shorter prose in different editions, sometimes bought unwittingly, unaware I already had a version, and sometimes because no other edition was available. This Canongate Classics (3) edition, is probably one of the first collections of shorter prose of Stevenson that I bought in Amsterdam in 1998.

This edition consist of three parts:
LETTERS
IN THE SOUTH SEAS
FICTION

The first part consists of circa 30 pages of correspondence, between 1888-1891, just ten letters. The second part consists of nine short stories, set in the South Seas, together about 80 pages. The third part is made up of three novellas, "The bottle imp", "The isle of voices" and "The beach of falesa".

As I had already read the three novellas, in this edition, I merely read the letters and the short stories. One might wonder what one gets from just 10 letters, but one should remember that Stevenson died young and only lived in the South Seas for a few years. The letters are evocative, and will be well remembered when one goes on to read In the South Seas or other (auto)biographical works. I should therefore say that this selection of letters is worthwhile.

Perhaps one reason for confusion when buying or choosing what to read by Stevenson, is that many of his books of collections of his works have similar titles. It is very confusing that in this edition Part 2, consisting of nine short stories is given the title "In the South Seas" which is the title of another autobioraphical work of Stevenson consisting of essays in the form of personal anecdotes, historical accounts, and anthropological observations, In the South Seas, published posthumously in 1896.

Part 3, simply named "Fiction" ought to be entitled Island Nights' Entertainments, the title of the original, first book publication of these three short stories in 1893.

Other books I have read by Robert Louis Stevenson:
Travels with a donkey in the Cevennes
Treasure island
Weir of Hermiston and Other Stories
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde & other stories
South Sea tales

023. Lieve jongens
Finished reading: 15 April 2021



Another book by Gerard Reve (Dutch).

This was a re-read.

Other books I have read by Gerard Reve:
De avonden
The acrobat and other stories
De ondergang van de familie Boslowits
Werther Nieland
Een circusjongen
Tien vrolijke verhalen
Ik had hem lief
De taal der liefde
Lieve jongens
Brieven aan Wimie, 1959-1963
Brieven aan Wim B., 1968-1975
Brieven aan Frans P., 1965-1969
Brieven aan Simon C., 1971-1975
Brieven aan Josine M., 1959-1975
Brieven aan kandidaat katholiek A., 1962-1969
Met niks begonnen. Correspondentie
Brieven aan Bram P.
Lieve Gerard. Brieven aan Gerard Reve, 1965-1980
Brieven aan Bernard S., 1965-1975
Op weg naar het einde
Brief aan mijn bank
Nader tot U Reread
Vier pleidooien
The taal der liefde

024. Het zingend hart
Finished reading: 15 April 2021



Gerard Reve is not known as a poet, but this edition of his collected works does contain a volume of poetry published in 1973. They are all very short poems.
Not very interesting.

Other books I have read by Gerard Reve:
De avonden
The acrobat and other stories
De ondergang van de familie Boslowits
Werther Nieland
Een circusjongen
Tien vrolijke verhalen
Ik had hem lief
De taal der liefde
Lieve jongens
Brieven aan Wimie, 1959-1963
Brieven aan Wim B., 1968-1975
Brieven aan Frans P., 1965-1969
Brieven aan Simon C., 1971-1975
Brieven aan Josine M., 1959-1975
Brieven aan kandidaat katholiek A., 1962-1969
Met niks begonnen. Correspondentie
Brieven aan Bram P.
Lieve Gerard. Brieven aan Gerard Reve, 1965-1980
Brieven aan Bernard S., 1965-1975
Op weg naar het einde
Brief aan mijn bank
Nader tot U Reread
Vier pleidooien
The taal der liefde
Lieve jongens

025. Verzameld werk, Deel 2
Finished reading: 15 April 2021



Gerard Reve (1999). Verzameld werk, Deel 2
Amsterdam: Veen, 1999, 765 p.
978020456233 (HB)
13-2-2004 Bol
15-4-2021 Nanning

026. A Tidewater morning. Three tales from youth
Finished reading: 15 April 2021



Each of these tales, quite long short stories, is a well-crafted, finely poised story of American life.

Other books I have read by William Styron:
Sophie's choice
The confessions of Nat Turner
Set this house on fire

027. Majesteit
Finished reading: 19 April 2021



Majesteit is the first of Louis Couperus three Koningsromans (King's novels), respectively Majesteit (1893) / Wereldvrede (1895) / Hoge troeven (1896), that is two novels and a novella.

After the revolutions overthrowing the monarchy in the late 18th Century in France, and renewed rebellion by the middle of the 19th Century, there was a growing pressure on the monarchy in various European countries to modernize or make place for a republic. Revolutionaries pressed forward with demands for change, pushing absolute monarchs to accept a more modest position in a constitutional monarchy or get lost. This is the political background to these three novels, an atmosphere as could still be felt for a few more decades, including Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes.

Such actuality is quite unusual in the novelistic oevre of Louis Couperus, whose novels are often set in dreamlike settings of either the distant past, ancient Greece or Rome, or the distant colony, birthplace of the author, the colonial Dutch Indies (presently Indonesia).

The Koningsromans are situated in the imaginary kingdom of Liparie, ruled by an aged imperial family. The three novels show the succesive demise of the old emperor, and how his son, the new emperor manages the new situation and salvages the empire.

All three novels are written in Couperus high exalted style of decadence, in stunningly beautiful descriptions. The action and the development of the plot is highly credible, and very well done. Highly recommended.

Other books I have read by Louis Couperus:
Het zwevende schaakbord
De berg van licht
God en goden
Herakles
Xerxes, of De hoogmoed
De komedianten
De stille kracht
Extaze. Een boek van geluk

028. Wereldvrede
Finished reading: 20 April 2021



Wereldvrede is the second of Louis Couperus three Koningsromans (King's novels), respectively Majesteit (1893) / Wereldvrede (1895) / Hoge troeven (1896), that is two novels and a novella.

After the revolutions overthrowing the monarchy in the late 18th Century in France, and renewed rebellion by the middle of the 19th Century, there was a growing pressure on the monarchy in various European countries to modernize or make place for a republic. Revolutionaries pressed forward with demands for change, pushing absolute monarchs to accept a more modest position in a constitutional monarchy or get lost. This is the political background to these three novels, an atmosphere as could still be felt for a few more decades, including Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes.

Such actuality is quite unusual in the novelistic oevre of Louis Couperus, whose novels are often set in dreamlike settings of either the distant past, ancient Greece or Rome, or the distant colony, birthplace of the author, the colonial Dutch Indies (presently Indonesia).

The Koningsromans are situated in the imaginary kingdom of Liparie, ruled by an aged imperial family. The three novels show the succesive demise of the old emperor, and how his son, the new emperor manages the new situation and salvages the empire.

All three novels are written in Couperus high exalted style of decadence, in stunningly beautiful descriptions. The action and the development of the plot is highly credible, and very well done. Highly recommended.

Other books I have read by Louis Couperus:
Het zwevende schaakbord
De berg van licht
God en goden
Herakles
Xerxes, of De hoogmoed
De komedianten
De stille kracht
Extaze. Een boek van geluk
Majesteit

029. Maggie. A girl of the streets and other fiction
Finished reading: 26 April 2021



Praised as experimental fiction, I struggled through Maggie. A girl of the streets and did not find much pleasure reading the other stories.

030. An experiment in misery
Finished reading: 29 April 2021



More short stories by Stephen Crane. I did not enjoy reading this.

Other books I have read by Stephen Crane:
Maggie. A girl of the streets and other fiction

031. Hoge troeven
Finished reading: 2 May 2021



Hoge troeven is the third of Louis Couperus three Koningsromans (King's novels), respectively Majesteit (1893) / Wereldvrede (1895) / Hoge troeven (1896), that is two novels and a novella.

After the revolutions overthrowing the monarchy in the late 18th Century in France, and renewed rebellion by the middle of the 19th Century, there was a growing pressure on the monarchy in various European countries to modernize or make place for a republic. Revolutionaries pressed forward with demands for change, pushing absolute monarchs to accept a more modest position in a constitutional monarchy or get lost. This is the political background to these three novels, an atmosphere as could still be felt for a few more decades, including Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes.

Such actuality is quite unusual in the novelistic oevre of Louis Couperus, whose novels are often set in dreamlike settings of either the distant past, ancient Greece or Rome, or the distant colony, birthplace of the author, the colonial Dutch Indies (presently Indonesia).

The Koningsromans are situated in the imaginary kingdom of Liparie, ruled by an aged imperial family. The three novels show the succesive demise of the old emperor, and how his son, the new emperor manages the new situation and salvages the empire.

All three novels are written in Couperus high exalted style of decadence, in stunningly beautiful descriptions. The action and the development of the plot is highly credible, and very well done. Highly recommended.

Other books I have read by Louis Couperus:
Het zwevende schaakbord
De berg van licht
God en goden
Herakles
Xerxes, of De hoogmoed
De komedianten
De stille kracht
Extaze. Een boek van geluk
Majesteit
Wereldvrede

032. Life's little ironies. Strange, lively and commonplace
Finished reading: 4 May 2021



There is nothing more contentious than trying to define what a "short story" is and of what length, and differentiate it from a novella. Some of the broadest categorizations will put the number of anywhere between 7,500 and 30,000 words. The development of the modern "short story" is situated in the 19th century.

The shorter works of many 19th century German and French authors are often referred to as "novellen" and they may comprise 20 - 30 pages, sometimes upwards of 50-80 pages. Many of the short stories of Edgar Allan Poe are long, 20-40 pages, but some of his stories are short. The stories of Thomas Hardy tend to be long 20-30 pages.

Thomas Hardy did not write very many short stories, and the short story collections published in his life time usually consist of eight short stories forming a book of about 200 pages (modern format). Most of Hardy's short stories were wtitten alongside his novels. Personally, I find Hardy's novels more interesting than the short stories that seem somewhat underdeveloped, as if they are "too short".

Hardy's elaborate and precious writing style asks for careful reading of the stories. The short stories are more like the later novels; not like Under the Greenwood Tree, which I did not like very much. Still, not every story seems equally “gelungen"; some are beautiful and memorable, while some could not capture my attention.

On LT many selections of Hardy's short stories are lumped together. This volume in the series Wordworth Classics was originally published as "Selected Short Stories in 1995, but in 2002 reissued with an introduction by Claire Seymour and given the title Life's little ironies. Strange, lively and commonplace.

Life's little ironies was first published in 1894, containing eight stories, nl. "The Son’s Veto", "For Conscience’ Sake", "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions", "On the Western Circuit", "To Please his Wife", "The Melancholy Hussar of the German Legion", "A Tradition of Eighteen Hundred and Four" and "A Few Crusted Characters". The 2002 edition of Wordsworth Classics also consists of eight tales, but reshuffled to contain "An Imaginative Woman", "The Son’s Veto", "For Conscience’ Sake", "A Tragedy of Two Ambitions", "On the Western Circuit", "To Please his Wife", "The Fiddler of the Reels", and "A Few Crusted Characters". This is Hardy's own rearrangment of the contents of Life's little ironies for the 1912 Wessex edition.

While not entirely as satisfactory as reading Hardy's novels, I am still very happy to read his short stories.

Other works I have read by Thomas Hardy:
The mayor of Casterbridge
Jude the Obscure
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
A pair of blue eyes
The well-beloved. A sketch of a temperament
Far from the madding crowd
Under the Greenwood tree, or The Mellstock quire
The Trumpet-Major

033. A good school
Finished reading: 5 May 2021



A good school by Richard Yates is another novel in the long tradition of "public school writing". The introduction by the author seems a bit tongue-in-cheek, confusing me as whether to see this as autobiographical or pure fiction. I felt the first part of the book more enticing than the later part.

034. Nationalism and the imagination
Finished reading: 8 May 2021



Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (2015). Nationalism and the imagination
London: Seagull Books, 2015(1), 84 p.
9780857423184 (PB)
9-8-2016 Fangsuo (GZ)
8-5-2021 Nanning

035. Een handvol achtergrond. 'Parang Sawat‘ Autobiografische teksten
Finished reading: 20 May 2021



Hella S. Haasse (1918 - 2011) was born in Jakarta (then called Batavia). During her long career as a writer she published various autobiographical works with reminiscences of her youth in the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia). Several of these works were excerpted in Het dieptelood van de herinnering. Unfortunately, this is not an omnibus edition, but more like an anthology bringing together essays and autobiographical writings from various periods and various books, including Een handvol achtergrond. However, Een handvol achtergrond. 'Parang Sawat‘ Autobiografische teksten in turn is also a compilation of texts sampled from (partly) the same sources, notably Zelfportret als legkaart (1954) and Krassen op een rots (1970).

Haasse grew up in the Dutch Indies and left the colony in 1938, not to return until 1969, as the Second World War in the Indonesian War of Independence blocked an earlier return. Most texts are descriptions of memories or revisits, dated 1954, 1969, 1985 and 1992.

Other books I have read by Hella Haasse:
Sleuteloog
De groten der aarde, of Bentinck tegen Bentinck
Mevrouw Bentinck. Onverenigbaarheid van karakter & De groten der aarde
Mevrouw Bentinck of Onverenigbaarheid van karakter
Uitgesproken, opgeschreven. Essays over achttiende-eeuwse vrouwen, een bosgezicht, verlichte geesten, vorstenlot, satire, de pers en Vestdijks Avondrood
Lezen achter de letters
Dat weet ik zelf niet. Jonge mensen in boek en verhaal
Ogenblikken in Valois
De meermin
De wegen der verbeelding
Cider voor arme mensen
Het dieptelood van de herinnering
Transit
Een gevaarlijke verhouding, of Daal-en-Bergse brieven
Een doolhof van relaties
De Meester van de Neerdaling
Een nieuwer testament
Berichten van het Blauwe Huis
De tuinen van Bomarzo
Oeroeg
De verborgen bron
Zwanen schieten

036. De ontwrichting van de Duitse literatuur
Finished reading: 28 May 2021



Walter Muschg (1898 - 1965) was a Swiss literary historian and essayist. This Dutch edition of De ontwrichting van de Duitse literatuur is a posthumously published collection of essays of literary criticism including Die Zerstörung der deutschen Literatur, which was originally published in 1956, together with essays from a later date. There are essays on Kafka, Gerhart Hauptmann, Alfred Doeblin, Ernest Barlach, Freud and Eliza Butler. Solid, conventional essays.

037. The ebony tower
Finished reading: 3 June 2021



It seems some writers are better at writing novels, while some excel at writing short stories. John Fowles seems to belong to the former category. I think The ebony tower is his only book of short stories, together just 300 pages. These stories are apparently interconnected, but not to the extent that they form a novel. I didn't enjoy reading these stories very much as they seem to esoteric. Like some of his aother work, particularly A maggot and Mantissa these stories have a strong streak of the 1960s - 70s flower power and hippie culture, especially the title story " The ebony tower" with its apparent focus on free sex and unconventional relationships. The other stories did not interest me.

Other books I have read by John Fowles:
A maggot
Mantissa
The collector
The tree
Wormholes. Essays and occasional writings
Daniel Martin
The Magus

038. Selected poems
Finished reading: 7 June 2021



Usually publishers have a clear distinct understanding in the use of "selected poetry" and "collected poetry", the former suggesting a selection and the latter suggesting completeness albeit "up till then". It is also true that occasionally the title of a book on the cover is different from the title on the title page, often for marketing purposes. I wonder why the title of this volume is "Collected poems" on the title page but "Selected poems" on the cover. (Patrick Kavanagh (2005). Selected poems in Penguin Classics. The editor Antoinnette Quinn has quite a lot to say about about this in the bibliographical note (pp. xli-xlii), insisting that the present volume is named "Selected poems", making the title on the title page all the more puzzling, as in academic practice the title on the title page should take precedence over the title on the cover.

Patrick Kavanagh (1904-1967) was an Irish poet. The introduction mentions that Kavanagh's poetry was not very well received by critics. He saw himself as an outsider, hesitant to call himself a poet.

The poems show an independent mind that doesn't regard or follow the trends of the time. The reading is not easy. as poems seem of a certain roughness or stubbornness or even clumsiness over melodious flow. The poetry is marked my religion and rural, elements not often associated with modern poetry. Still, the poet seems to try to reconcile the modern form with traditional rhythm and form of ballads.

I did not enjoy reading this collection, few poems really interested me.

Other works I have read by Patrick Kavanagh:
Tarry Flynn

039. Sense and sensibility
Finished reading: 7 June 2021



I tremendously enjoyed reading Jane Austen's Sense and sensibility. For once I wished I could close off all knowledge about Austen and her time, and hadn't read the critical introduction by Tony Tanner. This is really a story to enjoy without all the academic knowledge lurking around. On the other hand, Austen's style paired with all that knowledge makes for supremely sublime reading.

Other works I have read by Jane Austen:
Persuasion
Pride and prejudice
Northanger Abbey

040. The fifth column and four stories of the Spanish Civil War
Finished reading: 12 June 2021



The fifth column is a play about the Spanish Civil War. Together with four short stories about that same period this book of just under 200 pages brings together Hemingway's works about the Spanish Civil War. Both the play and the short stories breathe strong authenticity.

Other works I have read by Ernest Hemingway:
Green hills of Africa
The snows of Kilimanjaro, and other stories
A farewell to arms
Men without women
For whom the bell tolls
Death in the afternoon
Fiesta. The sun also rises
The old man and the sea
A moveable feast
Across the river and into the trees
To have and have not

041. In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus
Finished reading: 12 June 2021



I am not sure what this book is about. I never detected a story line, and never noticed the main characters. The prose is very readable, in Handke's typical style, but unlike most of his other works, I did not get into this book. Some of Handke's book are like that, just endless. cool, observations, so I still enjoyed reading it on the basis of style, but I did not discover the elements mentioned on the flap text.

Other works I have read by Peter Handke:
Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht
Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
Der Chinese des Schmerzes
Falsche Bewegung
Kindergeschichte
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
Die linkshändige Frau
Langsame Heimkehr
Wunschloses Unglück
Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land

042. Voyage in the dark
Finished reading: 12 June 2021



This was a very bleak story.

Other works I have read by Jean Rhys:
Wide Sargasso Sea

043. Bloei der decadence
Finished reading: 12 June 2021



Based on my veneration of the author, Johan Polak, my expectation for this book was very high, and although it was perhaps a bit too high, I still very much enjoyed reading this. Bloei der decadence is a volume of literary criticism by the author / publisher Johan Polak. His main intererest is with the classics, but only the first two essays, i.e. 60 pages (still one third of the book) are devoted to this area, not counting the essay about "Petronius bij Couperus". The most surprising is the essay on Piet Paaltjens. As the title suggests, there are essays as expected about Couperus and Oscar Wilde.

The author was known for his great erudition, as shows in these essays.

Other works I have read by Johan Polak:
Het oude heden

044. Tarantula
Finished reading: 15 June 2021



The winning of the Nobel Prize by Bob Dylan must be the reason why the Guilin-based Guangxi Normal University Press decided to publish Dylan's only prose novel called Tarantula (1966). This edition is a bi-lingual Chinese-English (on opposing pages) heavily annotated hardback edition. For study purposes, line numering is added.

It is a beautiful edition for a horrible work! I found this utterly unreadable. Basically, it is free association, stream-of-consciousness prose, although the inclusion of very unusual references suggests post-editing and enrichment of the text. Many punctuation conventions have been abandoned, and there is frequent usage of ampersand.

It is mindboggling how anyone can produce such B.S. particularly consistently is such a large quantity (roughly 150 pages). (The total number of pages in this edition is 529.). I wonder whether the author used substances.

Kerouac's stream-of-consciousness prose can be challenging at times, but at least it seems artful, and one can detect beauty and meaning. Tarantula merely gave me a great sense of irritation. Phew!

045. Lark Rise
Finished reading: 18 June 2021



Flora Thompson is best remembered for three (or four) memoirs she wrote, Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941), Candleford Green (1943) and pothumously published Still glides the stream (1948. The first three volumes were also printed in one volume entitled Lark rise to Candleford.

I thought this was a novel, but it turned out to be more like a work of social history of late-Victorian village life. Clearly, Flora Thompson doesn't have the skill of her contemporaries Thomas Hardy or Hugh Walpole. Lark Rise is well-written but rather boring.There isn't such an awful lot to write about village life, so at 247 pages the book seems a bit too long, with some information repeated. After about 150 pages it became a bit of a drag.

Belatedly catching up, Edwin, and good to see you back posting again regularly.

I'm also a bit Thomas Hardy fan. Of the novels I think I've read 7 so far. The Woodlanders and The Return of the Native are two I've read that I don't think are on your read list yet - I haven't read A Pair of Blue Eyes or The Trumpet-Major yet, nor some of the other lesser known novels. I can never decide if it's a good idea to read an author's full back catalogue, warts and all, or to stick with the much loved titles. The Return of the Native was up there with some of my favourite Hardy novels, so I would definitely recommend that one.

>42 edwinbcn: I'm also a big Richard Yates fan, so was interested to read this review as it's not one I've got to yet. I think I've 3 of his novels yet to read, but a bit like Hardy suspect I've already read his best.

>55 AlisonY: Yes, thanks, Alison. There are still some problems, e.g. I cannot edit the catalogue or add books. I can only "star" books or delete them. Also, I cannot see any book covers. That's why I stopped including book covers in my posts.

In the past few years there were many times for months on end that I couldn't do anything, neither catalogue nor leave messages. But, each time, all functions would be restored after some time (but then I wouldn't detect it until fairly late). Now, it seems I can only post messages, and it has been like this for about a year now.

Due to falling out of habit, and with apprehension functionality may fall out again, I am no longer writing long reviews as before. I am not reviewing all books, and in most cases the reviews are short. It has to do with my work that is taking me more time, and changed interests. I want to spend more time away from my computer.

I do have a tendency to read all books of favourite authors. I find that for many authors each book is a renewal of the previous wonderful experience. It also depends on the author. I think each Hardy novel is of equivalent quality and wonderful experience, but with some authors, I like the earlier, but not the later novels. I have no qualms is one or two books are disappointing, but nowadays tend to stop reading an author after two disappointing books.

Richard Yates is a new author to me. That short novel was a starter, I have several other books by Yates on my shelves. I liked it more than some other works in the same category of public school writing, although I think my favourite is still Paul Watkins's Stand before your God.

>56 edwinbcn: On Yates, I loved Revolutionary Road and The Easter Parade. Young Hearts Crying was also up there, but not quite as much of a favourite as the other too.

I like Updike, who's definitely a Marmite author (I read his stuff in the context of the times it was written in), and although Yates is a much more sensitive writer than Updike they're definitely both of a certain era.

Paul Watkins is a new name to me - I'll check that out.

046. In the cage
Finished reading: 25 June 2021



In the cage is a nice, very readable novella by Henry James. The story is based on the day dreams of a young woman, who as a switch board operator connects the rich and the wealthy. In her dreams she doesn't merely connect them, but connects with them. As the novella is writen from the perspective of the girl, the reader cannot see the rich very clearly, and is all but limited to her view. However, with just a little bit more insight into her reality developing gradually, the novella has a wry tang of irony. At just over 110 pages, this is a short, and light read among the many works of Henry James. Very enjoyable.

Other works I have read by Henry James:
The Europeans
The turn of the screw
The Aspern papers
The spoils of Poynton
Washington Square
On Provence
The birthplace
The turn of the screw and Other short fiction
Daisy Miller

047. Making cocoa for Kingsley Amis
Finished reading: 29 June 2021



It's a bit startling, really, to realize that "vital" rhymes with "title". You wouldn't say so at first sight, but that's why you need to read poetry, aloud.

Making cocoa for Kingsley Amis has three parts, and there is only one poem in Part III:

Making cocoa for Kingsley Amis

It was a dream I had last week
And some kind of record seemed vital.
I knew it wouldn't be much of a poem
But I love the title.

It isn't much of a poem, but it does make you smile. That's what many poems in this volume do. There is rhyme and artifice, less beauty and more fun.

While I read a lot of poetry as a student, that was all but over after graduation. I kept buying poetry, but never came to it. My idea was that poetry was exhalted, grand, and all about beauty. The idea to read a book of poetry from cover to cover didn't make sense to me. A few talks with a few good friends about reading poetry, and Club Read on LT made me go back to reading poetry, al first mainly contemporary poetry, and recently classical English poetry as well. (I am currently reading the collected poems of Coleridge and some are hilariously funny.)

The poetry of Wendy Cope in this volume is mostly of the tongue-in-cheek, ironic variety. As in the first lines of this sonnet.

Not only marble, but the plastic toys
From cornflakes packets will outlive this rhyme:
I can't immortalize you, love - our joys
Will lie unnoticed in the vault of time.

These poems of Wendy Cope, first published in 1986, were reissued in a special Poetry Firsts edition of quarto hard cover editions in 2010.

048. Diesseits
Finished reading: 8 July 2021



Perhaps for as long as since the Second World War, it seems "short stories" are significantly shorter than 30 pages (I suggest this length fairly randomly), but there was a time, perhaps roughly between 1870 and 1930, when writers wrote relatively few such short stories, and shorter works were often between 20 and 50 pages long, ocassionally extended to 70-100 pages, and it seems this high tide of novellas was also more typical in Germany and France than in England and America.

Hermann Hesse is one of the German writers who wrote a number of novellas and five of them are collected in Diesseits: Aus Kinderzeiten (1904), Die Marmorsäge (1904), Heumond (1905), Der Lateinschüler (1906) and Eine Fußreise im Herbst (1906). The collection Diesseits was first published in 1907, and reissued in an extended edition in 1930. This edition contains the original five novellas but in revised versions following the 1930 edition.

Each of these novellas is a gem, and the popularity of these tales can be derived from the multiple editions of them, sometimes in collections and sometimes printed separately. They all require patient reading, rewarded with beautiful descriptions and true emotion.

I bought this book in 1991, in Stuttgart, and this is the first time in nearly 30 years to go back to reading Hesse since 1992.

Other works I have read by Hermann Hesse:
Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung
Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
Unterm Rad
Freunde
Roßhalde
Die Nürnberger Reise
Peter Camenzind
Der Steppenwolf
Kurgast
Klingsors letzter Sommer
Die Morgenlandfahrt
Narziß und Goldmund

049. Between father and son. Family letters
Finished reading: 10 July 2021



I am still so happy that I read The world is what it is. The authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul, Patrick Frenches biography of V.S. Naipaul. If not exactly autobiographical, Naipaul's work is deeply based in his own experience, and the biography creates the perfect background to his works.

Between father and son. Family letters is an (auto-)biographical work bringing together the letters of V.S. Naipaul and those of his father, and sister over the period 1949 -1957, during which he settled in England and developed into being an author. What is great about this book is that it prints his letters together with those of his correspondents, so you can read the letters and answers in fully transparent context. The letters are often of medium length and informative. Naipaul's father was a journalistic writer, who was hesitant about writing fiction. Their interaction and mutual support strengthened both writers, and the father was able to help his son significantly with introductions to media that would pay for contributions

Obviously, very well-written and very readable.

Other works I have read by V.S. Naipaul:
Half a life
The Middle Passage. Impressions of five colonial societies
The loss of El Dorado. A colonial history
India. A wounded civilization
The suffrage of Elvira
Mr Stone and the Knights Companion
A flag on the island
The night watchman's occurrence book. And other comic inventions
Literary occasions
The masque of Africa. Glimpses of African belief
A writer's people. Ways of looking and feeling
Visiting Mrs Nabokov, and other excursions
Reading and writing. A personal account
Among the believers. An Islamic journey
Beyond belief. Islamic Excursions among the converted peoples
Miguel Street

050. Ewald Tragy
Finished reading: 11 July 2021



Rainer Maria Rilke's long short story Ewald Tragy can be classified as an "artist's roman". With its dark autobiographical detail it will appeal to readers interested in the birth of the artist. The first part of the story, based on autobiographical fact, describes the peculiar relation between the young man and his father, who refuses to walk beside his son, each time crossing the street to walk alone on the pavement across, though on a parallel course. This chapter concludes with the description of a tea gathering in the family, and the choking atmosphere which oppresses the young Ewald. In the next chapter, Ewald has moved and lives on his own. He sets out to work hard as an artist. His early published work brings him into contact with an admirer, Kranz. They become friends, but it is Thalmann, not Kranz who fascinates Ewald. Thalmann is presented as a very strong, independent character, a dark power whom Ewald admires and fears.

Ewald Tragy, probably written in 1899, evokes the atmosphere of late-nineteenth century Prague or Vienna, the influence of Nietzsche and Schiele.

This was a re-read. I hadn't noted the date I had read it first time, in January 2014.

051. Schön ist die Jugend
Finished reading: 11 July 2021



Hermann Hesse is one of the German writers who wrote a number of novellas, often between 20 and 50 pages long. Each of these novellas is a gem, and the popularity of these tales can be derived from the multiple editions of them, sometimes in collections and sometimes printed separately. They all require patient reading, rewarded with beautiful descriptions and true emotion.

The collection Diesseits was first published in 1907, and reissued in an extended edition in 1930. The novella Heumond (1905) was first published in the 1907 edition, while Schön ist die Jugend (1916) and Der Zyklon appeared in the 1930 edition.

Tornados are a rare phenomenon in continental Europe, and as such extra terrifying. This is one of the few stories of Hesse in which external circumstances are so obviously connected to the turmoil in the mind of the main character.

Other works I have read by Hermann Hesse:
Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung
Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
Unterm Rad
Freunde
Roßhalde
Die Nürnberger Reise
Peter Camenzind
Der Steppenwolf
Kurgast
Klingsors letzter Sommer
Die Morgenlandfahrt
Narziß und Goldmund
Diesseits

052. Paper, Scissors, Stone
Finished reading: 11 July 2021



Kit Fan was born and grew up in Hong Kong before moving to the UK at the age of 21. He has published two volumes of poetry and a novel. Paper, Scissors, Stone was his first collection of poems, published in 2011.

The title of the volume, "Paper, Scissors, Stone" refers to a popular game, the poems lack a clear connection to Chinese experience. Although titles of poems are often suggestive and the poems contain direct explicit references to Chinese history or locations in HK, these connections miss subtlety or are too bland or vague to create any strong recognition.

053. Die Heimkehr
Finished reading: 14 July 2021



Hermann Hesse is one of the German writers who wrote a number of novellas, often between 20 and 50 pages long. Each of these novellas is a gem, and the popularity of these tales can be derived from the multiple editions of them, sometimes in collections and sometimes printed separately. They all require patient reading, rewarded with beautiful descriptions and true emotion.

The novella Die Heimkehr (1909) was first published in bookform in 1912. It is about the return to his hometown of a man who spent most of his life working overseas.

Other works I have read by Hermann Hesse:
Siddhartha. Eine indische Dichtung
Demian. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend
Unterm Rad
Freunde
Roßhalde
Die Nürnberger Reise
Peter Camenzind
Der Steppenwolf
Kurgast
Klingsors letzter Sommer
Die Morgenlandfahrt
Narziß und Goldmund
Diesseits
Schön ist die Jugend

054. Isabella von Ägypten
Finished reading: 18 July 2021



Karl Joachim Friedrich Ludwig von Arnim, (1781—1831) is also known as Ludwig Achim von Arnim. Several members of the family are well-known authors, including Elisabeth von Arnim.

I often hear western people say they cannot enjoy Chinese movies because the cannot appreciate Chinese images such as people apparently flying through the air or other magic worked through kung fu practices which are the stock and barrel of the popular Chinese imagination. I have never been bewildered by a classic novel before, but I was by this one. The imagery and elements of this novel, first published in 1812, seem more to belong to the European imagination of the Middle Ages. I was truly bewildered by it and as a result lost interest, although I did read through till the end. I cannot understand why such a queer work is a German classic.

There are numerous editions of classic literature, but I must say this series of DTV is among the more original. The edition is issued in the "Bibliothek der Erstausgaben" (Library of First Editions). Although published without extensive introduction, and only a small glossary, the book throughout has line numbers and the page breaks of the original (historical first) edition are indicated by "page numbers" in square brackets in the text.

>59 edwinbcn: That Wendy Cope collection always makes me smile. Her version of “The Waste-land” in five limericks is almost more memorable than the original…

>60 edwinbcn: etc. I used to read a lot of Hesse, but somehow got the idea in my head that he’s someone you only read when you’re young — maybe I should give him another try as well. It seems to be working for you…

>61 edwinbcn: Interesting, I must look out for those letters.

>66 edwinbcn: Maybe people really admire him for his exceptional courage in marrying Bettina? I don’t suppose he can have had an easy time of it, even if he was able to retire to his castle and leave her in Berlin.

>67 thorold:

I don't know why Hesse would particularly be an author for younger people; perhaps he was popular with young Babyboomers during the Sixties and Seventies because of his interest in Budhism, notably his short novel Siddharta, and the far-East long before the Beat generation and hippies got there.

The letters are very interesting, but if you are really interested in Naipaul I suggest you read the letters in comjunction with Patrick French Naipaul biography. Together, those are also a very good preparation for The enigma of arrival, which I read in August.

055. Peter Handke
Finished reading: 18 July 2021

This book by Rainer Naegele & Renate Vois (in Beck's series Autorenbuecher) was really a disappointment. I had hoped this to be biographical but it turned out to be literary criticism, and since the book was published in 1978, it deals with Peter Handke's early work in three section: Part A: Kurzproza, Die Hornissen, Der Hausierer, Die Angst des Tormans beim Elfmeter, Der kurze Brief zum langen Abschied, Wuenschloses Ungluck, Die Stunde der waren Empfindung and Die linkshaendige Frau; Part B: Theaterstuecke, Hoerspiele, Filme; and Part C: Lyrik. These are all works which I either have not yet read or read more than 30 years ago, too long ago to remember any detail. Since the whole book is less than 150 pages, each work is discussed very briefly and succinctly.

My subsequent reading of various works by Handke later in July and August wasn't particularly informed by this work.

056. Arctic summer
Finished reading: 23 July 2021



However much I looked forward to reading this, now barely three months later I cannot recall any detail or even a broad outline of this short novel by E.M. Forster. It is a languid and smooth tale, very much in the style of Howard's End, partially set in Italy, and partially set in England. Perhaps because it is a more or less abandoned fragment, dated to 1951, and first published in 1980.

Nice to read, and nice to spend some time with, but clearly not memorable.

Other works I have read by E.M. Forster:
Maurice
A room with a view
Where angels fear to tread
Howards end

057. A complete collection of tales
Finished reading: 23 July 2021



It took me a little over a year to read the prose works of Edgar Allen Poe. Like with many classics, I had several editions of these tales, which contained either selections or collections of the tales. I eventually decided on actually reading a Chinese edition by Shanghai: World Publishing (上海：世界图书出版) because this edition had the most comfortable size, with a flexible hard cover and because the tales are arranged in thematic categories. However, this edition does not contain The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and Eureka, which, fair enough, aren't "tales".

I started reading The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and related tales in the Oxford Classics edition, and I must say I am very happy to have read the extremely insightful introduction. I then read Eureka in an edition by the Hesperus Press (London) and completed the so-called "Tales of Science" by reading The science fiction of Edgar Allan Poe in the Penguin Classics edition. All short stories and novellas in these three editions are also included in the Chinese (English-language) edition, but I did not reread them.

The short stories and novellas of Edgar Allen Poe are truly amazing classics of the highest order. The reason it too me so long to finish reading them (about 900 pages) is that to digest them it is advisable to read them leisurely, and not in a hurry, at least for me. I often took break of several days or weeks, to return to them.

The tales display a large variety of what I would call themes, some are like detective stories while others are more like horror stories, others yet very humoristic. The language is always very precise, and detailed. It is very obvious that these tales would likely be read aloud in a homely setting. In many tales the language has a poetic quality, words and names give clues to characters or the development of the tale, or are humorous in the given context.

I am very glad to have read this.

Other works I have read by Edgar Allen Poe:
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, and related tales
Eureka
The science fiction of Edgar Allan Poe

059. Good morning, midnight
Finished reading: 24 July 2021



Another very bleak novel by Jean Rhys about survival in Paris. I find these short novels quite depressing.

Other works I have read of Jean Rhys:
Wide Sargasso Sea
Voyage in the dark

060. Recollected Essays, 1965 - 1980
Finished reading: 24 July 2021



Published under the title Recollected Essays, 1965 - 1980 the author brings together 11 pieces of writing selected from five book publications as well as one essays published in a journal. The other essays are selected from The Long-Legged House (1969), The Hidden Wound (1970), The Unforseen Wilderness (1971), A Continuous Harmony (1972), and The Unsettling of America (1977).

The author is a good writer, which raises the quality of the writing of these essays quite above that of other contemporary writing. Berry is a poet and a novelist, besides essaist. The writing style is calm and mature almost throwing it back to an earlier era tying it to the writing of Thoreau's Walden, with similar themes and emphasis on agrarianism. His advocacy is not based on empty rhetoric. In 1965 he bought a farm to till the land, choosing for local culture and small farming as the basis of life.

The strength of his writing is that it arises from profound conviction and lived experience. Although, inevitably, as large part of the writing belongs to the genre of protesting environmentalism, particularly the later work (not in this collection), Recollected Essays, 1965 - 1980 harks back to the earlier period of writing, and although the years in the title set a wide interval, most works were written between 1965 - 1971.

Surely, one day this writing will be recognized as belonging to the classics of environmentalist writing. The essays are not just an plea for a more conscientious relation with our environment, they offer profound insight in the changes in our culture which have shaped our world and threaten it's existence to this very day and on into the future.

The essays write about degradation of the environment, e.g. trash lying around everywhere, but also, more importantly, degradation of standards. "The standard of efficiency displaces and destroys the standards of quality because, by definition, it cannot even consider them. Instead of asking a man what he can do well, it asks him what he can do fast and cheap."

Although the ideas of Berry may be the truest, they are also the least likely to find wide acceptance. His advocacy to return to the land, and his rejection of modern culture, not modern culture per se, but his rejection of consumerism and capitalism, will prevent it from ever becoming mainstream, and by definition marginalist. His ideas are true as ever, but that way of thinking does now really seem to lie far in the past.

061. Fellow-Townsmen
Finished reading: 24 July 2021



Thomas Hardy is much more recognisable as a writer of novels than of short stories, although poetry became more important in his later life. His total output of short stories equals about the number of pages of one of his novels. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Hardy did not write novellas; his shorter works are mostly what we would consider short stories with a length of 15 - 20 pages, while longer ones are cameo-like, offering portraits of characters. Perhaps Hardy used the short story as a character sketch. Likewise, Fellow-Townsmen could be seen as a sketch for a novel. It was included in Wessex Tales (1888), numbering 45 pages (70 pages in this Hesperus edition).

Fellow-Townsmen is like a miniature Hardy novel. Like many of his novels there are three main characters and the theme of unrequitted love. Set in the imaginary landscape of Wessex, a young woman falls for and loves a man of moderate means, while the other lover moves away. When he returns years later, and finds out she is a widow he proposes to her, but is rejected. She changes her mind, and when she starts out to look for him the following day, discovers that he has left again. As with many of Hardy's major novels, a love-triangle and fate are important elements. Although Fellow-Townsmen is conceived as a short story, the time line in the story spans several decades, as a novel would need to develop the plot.

Still, the story cannot be a real substitute for the magnificent novels, but a nice intermezzo. Or perhaps a nice introduction for readers new to Thomas Hardy, who might look for a short work to taste before tackling one of the novels.

Other works I have read by Thomas Hardy:
The mayor of Casterbridge
Jude the Obscure
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
A pair of blue eyes
The well-beloved. A sketch of a temperament
Far from the madding crowd
Under the Greenwood tree, or The Mellstock quire
The Trumpet-Major
Life's little ironies. Strange, lively and commonplace

062. Representations of the Intellectual
Finished reading: 24 July 2021



A good introduction to the main ideas of Edward Said.

063. The psychedelic experience. A manual based on the "Tibetan Book of the Dead"
Finished reading: 26 July 2021



This was a very tiresome and boring read.

Starting with the Confessions of an opium eater by De Quincey, first published in 1821, a small group of writers has kept coming back to exploring and writing about drugs, with names often mentioned randing from Baudelaire, Aldous Huxley in The doors of perception and Heaven and Hell, and William Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg in The Yage Letters. The debate about drugs seems to have run a course from innocense in De Quincy to curiosity and exploration in Huxley and guilt in the writers of the 1960s. As drug use, particularly opium, came to be seen as a bad thing, the spreading illicit use of hard drugs such as cocaine and heroine soon became stigmatized and criminalized. The use of these drugs by William Burroughs and described e.g. in Junky led in the process of criminalization and shame about its use.

Perhaps it is for this reason that the three authors of The psychedelic experience, like Burroughs all style themselves as PhDs. It seems the Penguin Modern Classics series often does not seem to select potential classics, but is more focused on selecting works that defined the period, and in that sense inclusion of this work seems fully justified.

The psychedelic experience consists of five parts, an introduction by Daniel Pinchbeck to the book, and a "general introduction" which is part of the book. This is followed by "Tibetan Book of the Dead" and a manual with instructions for a psychedelic session. This is all very technical stuff and it is hard to imagine who would read it with the purpose of being instructed. Otherwise it is just totally boring stuff.

For the purpose of my general interest, I was delighted with Daniel Pinchbeck's 2007 introduction, while the reading of The psychedelic experience is no more than hitting another tick box.

064. What happened to the Corbetts
Finished reading: 27 July 2021



What happened to the Corbetts is in a way a dystopian science fiction novel about the collapse of society after a catastrophic event. The writing style and atmosphere is similar to works of that period, its positively upbeat tone now feeling quite typical for that time.

It is a didactic novel, helpful to teach what to think of in case of such an event. This edition includes a preface written by the author explaining that the novel was written in 1938 when the reality of war with Nazi Germany was taking contours, and as an airman Shute rightly predicted that air raids would be an important part of an armed conflict. What happened to the Corbetts was published in 1939, five months before the outbreak of the war.

Other works I have read by Nevil Shute:
A town like Alice
So disdained
Slide rule. The autobiography of an engineer
Round the bend

065. Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter
Finished reading: 28 July 2021



Like my book buying, my reading has always been impulsive, without a premeditated plan, but as my aim is now to finish reading what I already have (TBR) and haven't bought any large number of books since 2014, I decided to turn to Peter Handke. Due to the increasingly repressive Internet restrictions here, I had missed the news that Handke has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Peter Handke is one of my favourite authors, although I find his later work brooding and obscure, missing the brio of the earlier work. Last month, I read In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus, and a volume of literary criticism about his early work by Rainer Nägele & Renate Vois (in Beck's series Autorenbuecher).

In my mind, Handke's Langsame Heimkehr has always been a quintessential work. The observation of geology, of rocks, least involves subjectivity. The landscape, stripped from time, names, each detail having no greater importance than another, one pebble no greater significance than the other. Ultimately, we are detached from our surroundings. We can enter into a relation with our surroundings by caring. Depicting, turning observations into interpretations involves subjectivity, as shown in Handke's other early novel Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire.

Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter is a psychological novel. The murder by Bloch is mentioned as casually as any other detail, on his short journey. The murder is not the cause of his journey, it happens, casually, without intent, on the way. Bloch is an outsider. He has no fixed relations, neither to people, nor to any place. He is not only detached from his surroundings, but even from his own actions. In effect, the reader is disinclined to judge him for those actions. He never really seems a murderer, he isn't on the run.

Other works I have read by Peter Handke:
Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht
Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
Der Chinese des Schmerzes
Falsche Bewegung
Kindergeschichte
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
Die linkshändige Frau
Langsame Heimkehr
Wunschloses Unglück
Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land
In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus

066. Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda
Finished reading: 31 July 2021



In my mind, Handke's Langsame Heimkehr has always been a quintessential work. The observation of geology, of rocks, least involves subjectivity. The landscape, stripped from time, names, each detail having no greater importance than another, one pebble no greater significance than the other. Ultimately, we are detached from our surroundings. We can enter into a relation with our surroundings by caring. Depicting, turning observations into interpretations involves subjectivity, as shown in Handke's other early novel Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire.

Children more than any other represent the group of carefree observers, much inclined to giving names, but not always able to name things correctly ("Dingsda") subjective but not judgemental.

Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda is a very light, carefee short story, much in line with Handke's philosophy. Illustrated by the author.

Other books I have read by Peter Handke:
Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht
Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
Der Chinese des Schmerzes
Falsche Bewegung
Kindergeschichte
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
Die linkshändige Frau
Langsame Heimkehr
Wunschloses Unglück
Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land
In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus
Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter

067. The enigma of arrival
Finished reading: 3 August 2021



For readers familiar with Naipaul's biography, for instance, The world is what it is. The authorized biography of V.S. Naipaul or his autobiographical Between father and son. Family letters it is immediately clear that The enigma of arrival is a fictionalized version of his own first years in England.

To be frank, I have read much more non-fiction than fiction of Naipaul, and then mostly his earlier short novels set in Trinidad, and reading The enigma of arrival I was struck by the beautiful descriptions. The biographical background information deepened my appreciation, although I am sure the book can be enjoyed without that.

Although Naipaul was very poor during the first years of his stay in London, little of that is visible in this book, which seems more focused on the period he was coming into his own, and found a safe have on the estate of Stephen Tennant (1906-1987), who offerend him a kind of writer's residence. The atmosphere of the book throughout is that of nostalgia, melancholy.

Other books I have read by V.S. Naipaul:
Half a life
The Middle Passage. Impressions of five colonial societies
The loss of El Dorado. A colonial history
India. A wounded civilization
The suffrage of Elvira
Mr Stone and the Knights Companion
A flag on the island
The night watchman's occurrence book. And other comic inventions
Literary occasions
The masque of Africa. Glimpses of African belief
A writer's people. Ways of looking and feeling
Visiting Mrs Nabokov, and other excursions
Reading and writing. A personal account
Among the believers. An Islamic journey
Beyond belief. Islamic Excursions among the converted peoples
Miguel Street
Between father and son. Family letters

068. The grass harp
Finished reading: 4 August 2021



Of all stories I have read by Capote this one seems the most sincere and beautiful. Besides, In cold blood, which is an entirely different genre, this is the first shorter work of Capote that I really liked.

Other works I have read by Truman Capote:
Breakfast at Tiffany's. A short novel and three stories
In cold blood. A true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
Summer crossing
Other voices, other rooms
Music for chameleons. New

069. Title
Finished reading: 4 August 2021



Other books I have read by Max Frisch:
Briefwechsel
Der Mensch erscheint im Holozän
Montauk
Homo Faber
Kleine Prosaschriften, 1957 - 1963

070. Bending genre. Essays on creative nonfiction
Finished reading: 4 August 2021



This was an impulsive buy on a visit to my hometown. Perhaps the biggest mistake was that it isn't creative nonfiction, but essays on creative nonfiction. Obviously, the beauty of the cover, and my interest in natural history played an important role.

I suppose much of the book is about "unnatural history" and if upon viewing the cover and the title "Bending Genre" your gut feeling is "gender bending" you aren't far off.

The first essay is interesting because it demonstrates how etymologically the words gene, genre and gender are related. Academic essays are usually 10 - 12 pages long, but most essays in this collection max out at four or five pages. Much of it belongs to "Queer studies" and the content ranges from infantile and simple to contrived and incomprehensible.

A caricature of academic writing.

071. Herland
Finished reading: 4 August 2021



Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman was published in 1915. The setting of a lost matriarchal society, stumbled upon by a small expedition is strongly reminiscent of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The lost world, published just three years earlier in 1912.

Herland doesn't present much of a story or description of the environs. It is more of a social science fiction novel contrasting our world with a possible alternative reality, but as such the story is a bit boring.

072. Title
Finished reading: 5 August 2021



In May 2005 the first volume of Frida Vogel's Dagboek (Diaries) was published. Altogether the series will comprise 16 volumes. So far, 10 volumes have been published, eight of which I have.

The diaries are considered of interest because three Dutch authors appear in their pages, describing their friendship and respective literary careers as they developed. They are Frida Vogels, J.J. Voskuil and Bert Weijde.

However, the reception of the diaries is disappointing. Volume 1, Dagboek 1954-1957 comprises four years is stylistically the weakest. The main criticism for most early volumes is the totally uninteresting content of the diaries.

Frida Vogels moved to Italy and married an Italian. In her diaries she describes her extended Italian family in detail. From Volume 2, Dagboek 1958-1959 each volume covers two years. While spending most of the year in Italy, Vogels regularly visits Strassburg in relation to work as a translator and regular visits to Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands for family visits. Over the years these visits to Amsterdam gain interest as the three authors, particularly the contact with J.J. Voskuil, expands and their literary career takes shape, discussing the literary scene in the Netherlands at that time, and the publication of Voskuil's work.

To me the large text portions about her life in Italy are of little interest, although it must be said that objectively her writing style improves, and they become more readable, and even of more interest, as her focus shifts from very personal, to more general observations. For me the most interesting parts are her visits to the Netherlands, and the descriptions of the city, people, literary events and the circle around Voskuil.

Although the diaries are rather boring, I am committed to finish reading at least the eight volumes that are in my possession, and I would probably finish the whole series when I can lay my hands on subsequent volumes.

Other books I have read by Frida Vogels:
Dagboek 1954-1957
De harde kern, Vol 2. Met zijn drieën
De harde kern, Vol. 1. Kanker & De naakte waarheid
De harde kern 2. De naakte waarheid
De harde kern 1. Kanker

073. Das Fräulein von Scuderi
Finished reading: 4 August 2021



I have a large pile of slim Reclam editions, usually each of one novella a two short stories, seldom more than 90 pages. They are very cheap, but good editions of mostly German classics. Last year I read a few by Theodor Storm and to go for a change, I picked up this novella by E.T.A Hoffmann.

I was quite surprised that this is a detective story, not my favourite genre, but every now and then, I can enjoy reading some, and this is particularly well-written. I can remember how often I have read that this or that was the first or earliest detective story, but published in 1819, this apparently is a strong contender.

074. The road through the wall
Finished reading: 6 August 2021

075. Die Tablas von Daimiel. Ein Umwegzeugenbericht zum Prozeß gegen Slobodan Milošević
Finished reading: 10 August 2021



Peter Handke is an Austrian writer. One of his ancestors came from Slovenia, which was then a province of Austria. The north-western part of the Yugoslavian federation, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and the Voivodina were once part of the Habsburg Empire, the Austro-Hungarian double monarchy. It seems, as such Handke feels tied to the recent history of these lands.

The war in Yugoslavia has altogether been very hard to understand, especially because of the ambiguous role of the United States. I never really understood the whole conflict. However, in this vacuum of comprehension, Austrian author Peter Handke has stepped in to make an apology for and side with Slobodan Milošević, who is otherwise seen as one of the main culprits.

In Die Tablas von Daimiel Handke describes his visits to Milošević is prison in The Hague，the Netherlands, and tries to make a plea. However, this slim booklet cannot even clarify the situation to me, and it never becomes clear why Handke thinks he is justified.

It seems Handke uses his unique position as a renowned writer to get access to this war criminal and against all others take a position, as a lone gainsayer.

Other works I have read by Peter Handke:
Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht
Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
Der Chinese des Schmerzes
Falsche Bewegung
Kindergeschichte
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
Die linkshändige Frau
Langsame Heimkehr
Wunschloses Unglück
Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land
In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus
Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter
Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda

076. Der Sandmann
Finished reading: 10 August 2021



It seems Central-European Gothic stories are much more frightening than there Anglo-American counterparts, perhaps because they go back deeper having roots in pre-Christian stories and medieval literature. Within barely 70 pages Der Sandmann can be shown to have several layers of meaning, each more frightening than the other.

There are numerous editions of classic literature, but I must say this series of DTV is among the more original. The edition is issued in the "Bibliothek der Erstausgaben" (Library of First Editions). Although published without extensive introduction, and only a small glossary, the book throughout has line numbers and the page breaks of the original (historical first) edition are indicated by "page numbers" in square brackets in the text. This edition is published with an afterword by Joseph Kiermeier-Debre, but I also read the afterword to the Reclam edition by Rudolf Drux, which I liked more.

I was elated to discover that Delibes ballet "Coppelia" is a reference to this short story.

This was a very impressive story, and while the critical literature opened some avenues for understanding, the story completely speaks for itself, and offers a thoroughly thrilling reading experience. Highly recommended.

Other books I have read by E.T.A Hoffmann:
Das Fräulein von Scuderi

Great to see you posting again Edwin. I have read and enjoyed The Grass Harp and I am interested in those essays by Wendell Berry.

I have also read La Femme Gauchere, which I enjoyed and notice that you have read. I will look out for more by this author

077. Who sings the nation-state? Language, politics, belonging
Finished reading: 15 August 2021



This small-size booklet (nonetheless 121 pages) consists of an unstructured, free-ranging discussion about the nation-state. The discussion is between Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Judith Butler, the latter seems to be far out of her field.

Basically, the discussion touches upon too many issues, effectively lacking focus. It might still be read as an introduction of some of the main issues and introduction to some of the main thinkers in this area.

I think academia has moved on to viewing nationalism and the issue of the nation-state in a broader context of citizen theory, which as a framework is much more apt to address real-world problems while the nation-state issue seems to be somewhat outdated, despite the fact that nationalism is still widespread.

Perhaps this lack of focus is also caused by the fact that on the first page, in her opening remark Judith Butler asks why "are we bringing together comparative literature and global states" while in the subsequent discussion there is no attention for writers, except for philosophers and social scientists.

Generally, I am very interested in dialogue / interview publications, but perhaps for this topic this format is less suitable, or could have benefitted from a more structured approach.

Other books I have read by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak:
Nationalism and the Imagination

078. Hotel Savoy
Finished reading: 15 August 2021



To me, the paintings of Otto Dix most powerfully show the broken people who came back from the front of World War I, particularly paintings such as "Prager Strasse" (1920).

In a similar way, Hotel Savoy is a novel about a collection of "broken people," bankrupt, scattered but come together in a "louche" hotel, all hoping and looking out for a fabled, rich American. A story of poverty and despair.

079. The Art of Reading Poetry
Finished reading: 15 August 2021



Although I had already read and been very disappointed with the author's How to read and why in 2012, I still putchased this book in 2014, and am likewise disappointed. This slim booklet offers just the scantest introduction to reading poetry. Most of it's 82 pages is taken up by long quotations. In fact, just the recommended reading section of names of poets and recommended poems takes up more than a third of the total number of pages. Thus, the text portion written by the author is negligeable. Besides, the author recommends many very obscure poets, and over-emphasizes American poetry, dwelling too long on what are probably his favourites, such as Hart Crane.

Other books I have read by Harold Bloom:
How to read and why

Good to see you back, Edwin. I enjoyed catching up on your reviews, particularly on the Hardy collection of short stories which I've not got to yet. Still got a few titles of his to get to.

>94 AlisonY: As with many classics, I have multiple editions of many works, often because I lived in different countries and felt the need to buy a new copy, and often because of impulsive buying, I would end up with the same book though unrecognized because of a different cover.

What is nice about the Wordsworth Classics is that they are reprints of the original editions, that is they have the same tales as published by Hardy in his time. The Penguin Classics edition are just a mish-mash, a randon selection of a number of tales from across all of Hardy's short stories.

The Hesperus edition has just one longish tale, blown up to double the number of pages. On top of that, I also have en edition with the collected short stories of Hardy (all short stories).

I also located several of his unread novels, and found I have two copies of the Woodlanders, and two copies of The Return of the Native.

Since I no longer want to buy books, and cannot guarantee access to LT, I don't want to tie my reading to the plans of the LT group (a few years back I bought tons of books, like Great War writers and poets, or all of Steinbeck, etc to read along with group reads.)

I will get to Hardy when I get to Hardy, but will likely read some more stories and one or two novels. (On my TRB I still have 6 or 7 of his novels).

My plan for next year is to continue with the Romantic writers and join in with the group theme of the Victorians.

080. Quartet
Finished reading: 15 August 2021



Another bleak story of poverty in 1920s Paris. I liked this a little bit more than some of the other novels, but it is too depressing. Obviously, very well-written.

The Penguin Modern Classics edition has a very good introduction by Katie Owen which places Rhys early novels in perspective.

Other books I have read by Jean Rhys:
Good morning, midnight
Voyage in the dark
Wide Sargasso Sea

081. Nightwood
Finished reading: 17 August 2021



Other than as a feeble ploy to keep plugging a book in the hope of raising sales, it is no use saying that a book should not be forgotten, that it should be a modern classics. Some books are justly "the preserve of academics and students" (Introd. Winterson, p. ix).

082. The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry
Finished reading: 21 August 2021



This is a bulky anthology of First World War poetry, nearly 400 pages. There is some overlap with Three poets of the First World War, the latter focusing on the poetry of Ivor Gurney, Isaac Rosenberg and Wilfred Owen, but even so, it is worthwhile reading both books, as overall they are supplementary, while the reading of the identical poems in each just intensifies the impact.

The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry differs in several other aspects. First of all, it is an anthology with poems spanning the whole period of the year(s) leading up to the fighting, describing the months before going to the front, recruitment and preparation, and the aftermath. There is even a poem entotled "To a Conscript of 1940".

This anothology also includes the poetry of many women who often served different roles during the war, offereing a different perspective, not less horrible.

Much of the poetry is terrifying, creating strong images of the horrors of that war. Many of the poets also looked for moments of beauty, perhaps for consolation, but on the whole most poems convey the slaughter and the infernal horror of the war in the trenches.

Very impressive.

083. Versuch über den Stillen Ort
Finished reading: 21 August 2021



When I read it at the time, in 1991, I was not overmuch impressed with Handke's Versuch über den geglückten Tag. However, having read so many other books by Handke, I have come to recognize his stilled style, which can calm you down, if you have the patience to follow his pace and look at each detail he dishes up.

I was surprised to find out that Versuch über den Stillen Ort is only the fourth essay in this series of "Versuche", attempts, or otherwise aptly known as essays. This means there is a gap of 21 years between the writing of Versuch über den geglückten Tag and Versuch über den Stillen Ort.

These book length essays are usually about 80 pages, Versuch über den Stillen Ort a bit longer with 108 pages, but in the first edition hardcovers there print is large, they may appear shorter in a paperback edition. The essay has a lot of steam in the first 70 pages, but them seems to slack down as if it costs the author more effort, or suffering from lack of inspiration, to get on. One almost wonders why not stop there.

It was quite banal that about ten pages before the actual moment, I realized that he was going to bring up a toilet. In fact, he writes about a toilet in a Tempelgarden in Japan. The idea that the essay might bring this up was not in my mind before reading or looking at the title, and it is humoristic and banal at the same time.

It is obvious that these essays represent just a free meandering of the author's mind, and as such they bring up ample interesting contemporary observations, such as the contemporary movement to restrict smoking

The leisurely style translates into reading ease, making for a pleasant leisurely reading experience.

Other books I have read by Peter Handke:
Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht
Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
Der Chinese des Schmerzes
Falsche Bewegung
Kindergeschichte
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
Die linkshändige Frau
Langsame Heimkehr
Wunschloses Unglück
Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land
In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus
Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter
Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda
Die Tablas von Daimiel. Ein Umwegzeugenbericht zum Prozeß gegen Slobodan Milošević

084. Aquis submersus
Finished reading: 25 August 2021



This dramatic novella by Theodor Storm is a variation of the theme of Romeo and Juliet. The story itself takes the form of a reconstruction, consisting of a young man reading a manuscript and wondering about the past of the life of painter whose painting is mysteriously signed C.P.A.S. Early on, the narrator correctly deducts that A.S. stands for "Aquis submersus", submerged by the flood.

The novella is a brooding story thrown back in an older time. The painting is in the style of the Dutch masters. Many of Storm's novellas suggest links with the northern Netherlands, both in culture, landscape and history.

The Nobel Prize winner Paul Heyse, a contemporary of Theodor Storm and famed for his novellas, wrote that Aquis submersus should be counted among one of his best.

Other works I have read by Theodor Storm:
Am grauen Meer
Pole Poppenspäler
Der Schimmelreiter

085. On flirtation
Finished reading: 29 August 2021



My main objection to On flirtation is that this is a book of literary criticism, rather than psychology. So instead of writing essays on these topics, they are in almost each case reviews of books. They are the kind of reviews that you find in a literary supplement, obviously very well-written. However, if I had known that these were book reviews, -- of books which I will never buy -- I would probably not have bought this book. In that sense, it is also somewhat misleading to praise the author of erudition, while in fact it is just professional knowledge.

The topics are tantalizing: On flirtation, on love, on success, depression, perversion and cross-dressing, to name a few. There are also reviews of books on Freud's circle and Erich Fromm. However, many reviews are rather technical, addressing specific issues more of interest to the professional than a layman in the field of psycho-analysis.

As an odd after-thought, the book ends with four reviews or essays of literary criticism on Philip Roth, Isaac Rosenberg, Karl Kraus and John Clare. These essays are very interesting.

Other books I have read by Adam Phillips:
Monogamy
Terrors and experts

086. E. du Perron. Het leven van een smalle mens
Finished reading: 31 August 2021



Kees Snoek has produced a magnificent new biography of E. du Perron. Du Perron has always been one of the Dutch writers I have had great interest in, though this has always been more based on reputation than actual reading of his works. This interest stems from my interest in literature of the fifty years around the turn on the 20th century, and for Dutch literature the writers who came up during the 1930s, particularly the group around Vestdijk, Marsman, Ter Braak and Du Perron.

I have learnt a tremendous lot from reading this biography. I knew nothing of the erotic poetry that Du Perron wrote and self-published to kick of his career. Very naughty, and humorous poems. I was very disappointed to read that Du Perron came from a very wealthy, bourgeois background, not really having a need to work, leisurely and somewhat self-indulgently writing and self-publishing works that never really broke through.

Obviously, the biography provides a wealth of material of Du Perron's life in the former colony Indonesia. In his later years, Du Perron became very interested in, and wrote several books about Multatuli. The biography about Du Perron illuminates the existence and activities of a writing relative of Multatuli, and other Indonesian freedom fighters who are contemporaries of Du Perron.

It is hard to tell whether it is a strength or weakness that the biography is heavily reliant on Du Perron's own autobiographical novel Het land van herkomst. Well beyond page 500, the biography closely follows the events of the novel, mostly proving them accurate. This cross-referencing the novel is a bit irritating, and makes you wonder whether the author has truly followed up on all developments in Du Perron's life if he had not had the guidance of the novel.

The biography has nearly 1,250 pages, of which 996 pages text followed by 250 pages of notes, etc. A major investment of reading time, but very satisfactory and well worth.

Other books I have read by Kees Snoek:
Pramoedya Ananta Toer. Essay en interview

087. The portrait of a lady
Finished reading: 4 September 2021



The portrait of a lady by Henry James is a magnificent novel. Three years ago, I started reading more classics. Over the past 15 years, I have three times started reading this novel, with two false starts abandoning it each time after a false start, but this time round the magnificent prose style gripped me.

I was really blown away by this novel. It is one of the best novels I have ever read. So far, I had only read some of the shorter novels and novellas or tales of Henry James. The portrait of a lady is an incomparable reading experience.

It is incredible how James can keep the story so enticing for more than sixhundred pages, without ever giving the reader a sense of reading fatigue. It has given me a push to read more of his grand novels.

I rarely give five stars to a novel, but The portrait of a lady belongs to the category of ultimate novels, generously earning a five-star rating.

Other books I have read by Henry James:
The Europeans
The turn of the screw
The Aspern papers
The spoils of Poynton
Washington Square
On Provence
The birthplace
The turn of the screw and Other short fiction
Daisy Miller
In the cage

088. Scoop
Finished reading: 6 September 2021



Scoop is one of the funniest and most carefree novels of Evelyn Waugh. Its appeal lies partly in our own strenuous relation with the media. Above all, the plot of the novel is based on the classic ploy of mistaken identity, sending the wrong man for the job. As a result of misfired nepotism， a newspaper, "The Daily Beast" sends one of its reporters to a war zone. What follows is just purely hilarious, truly a very funny story.

Evelyn Waugh at his best!

Other books I have read by Evelyn Waugh:
Rossetti. His life and works
Tactical exercise, and other late stories
Black mischief
Labels. A Mediterranean journal
Brideshead revisited
Decline and Fall
The ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold
Helena
Vile bodies
The loved one. An anglo-american tragedy
A handful of dust

089. The woman in white
Finished reading: 21 September 2021



I am very glad I read this book and it has immediately propelled Wilkie Collins to a high position in my reading plans. Although I read English literature at university, and have been buying books in antiquarian bookstore since I was 14 or 15, I had never heard of or any clear idea of this Victorian author. I suppose in the 1980s this author was of less interest. The cover page of this edition suggest that The woman in white wasn't included in the Penguin Classics series until 1999. In 2004, I skim read The Moonstone for a publishing project, but the author did not register much in my consciousness, and I did not count The Moonstone as a have-read.

Two years ago, I had a failed attempt at reading The woman in white. I enjoyed it tremendously, but got lost after about 130 pages, that is shortly after the end of the first narrative. The introduction already had me confused about the characters. Mistaken identity, and character likeness are important parts of the story and bringing all those names together in such a short space, the introduction was more confusing than clarifying. The woman in white also has a very unusual narrative structure, unlike any other novels, except some other works by Collins. The narrative consists in successive witness depositions, sometimes letters or fragments of diaries that together, more or less chronologically, and with minimal interruption present a flowing narrative. Although the introduction talked about it, I wasn't fully prepared and with the switch of the narrative, I got lost. I couldn't follow it because it did not answer to my expectations, so I abandoned it. Picking it up again two years later, merited a full re-read from the beginning.

I do not fear spoilers, so usually read the introduction to novels before reading the book. However, in this case the introduction worked counterproductive, confusing me. It would have been better not to have read the introduction first. Obviously, the novel itself can perfectly well be read and understood without academic introduction.

The woman in white is a very big, and also a great novel. I am not particularly interested in detective stories. The woman in white is characterized as a forerunner of the genre. Besides, the story contains so many other highlights and is of such psychological depth that it need not be categorized as a detective novel. Although the novel has more than 600 pages, it is an enticing read, and the narrative structure invigorates the plot compelling the reader on. The story is full of action, particularly in the last part of the novel, where an increase of plot events help propel the story.

The woman in white presents the reader with great prose, wonderful descriptions. Apart from a compelling plot, the novel presents a number of unforgettable characters. Some characters have all the sense and sensibility of Jane Austen's characters, while other characters are as peculiar as some of Charles Dickens's characters. The evil characters are Faustian and Falstaffian, and the novel might as well be characterized as high Gothic fiction.

This was my first novel by Wilkie Collins and deemed a five-star read.

090. Die drei Versuche
Versuch über die Müdigkeit
Versuch über die Jukebox
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum

Finished reading: 23 September 2021



As of this date, Peter Handke has published five book-length essays: Versuch über die Müdigkeit (1989) -- 52 pages
Versuch über die Jukebox (1990) -- 80 pages
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum (1991) -- 108 pages
Versuch über den Stillen Ort (2012) -- 109 pages
Versuch über den Pilznarren: Eine Geschichte für sich (2013) -- 217 pages.

These book length essays are usually about 80 pages, but in the first edition hardcovers there print is large, they may appear shorter in a paperback edition. The essay has a lot of steam in the first 70 pages, but them seems to slack down as if it costs the author more effort, or suffering from lack of inspiration, to get on. One almost wonders why not stop there.

This means there is a gap of 23 years between the writing of Versuch über die Müdigkeit and Versuch über den Stillen Ort. The first three essays were published in three consecutive years between 1989 and 1991, while the last two were published in the consecutive years 2012 and 2013. Reading the essays it is obvious that the first two essays were conceived in the same time period, as there are interdependent references. For all essays it seems they were written in an initial spurt of creativity which lasts for the first two-thirds of the essay, while attention seems to wander, and the latter part is more strained, the writing not as spontaneous as the first part.

The first essays, Versuch über die Müdigkeit is the shortest and the least coherent. The second essay, Versuch über die Jukebox, is interesting because it describes the the phenomenon of the jukebox. Interestingly, the first two essays were apparently written while travelling in Spain, and that is also the only place I recall having seen and used a jukebox in the 1970s, as at that time they were still in use there.

Peter Handke's writing style is stilled, which can calm you down, if you have the patience to follow his pace and look at each detail he dishes up. All these essays represent just a free meandering of the author's mind, and the leisurely style translates into reading ease, making for a pleasant leisurely reading experience.

There is some development in the essays, in the sense that they become "better" and more focused, but more focused on "nothing". In a sense, they are a perfect waste of time: perhaps that's what literature is about.

Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum was a re-read.

Other books I have read by Peter Handke:
Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht
Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
Der Chinese des Schmerzes
Falsche Bewegung
Kindergeschichte
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
Die linkshändige Frau
Langsame Heimkehr
Wunschloses Unglück
Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land
In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus
Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter
Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda
Die Tablas von Daimiel. Ein Umwegzeugenbericht zum Prozeß gegen Slobodan Milošević
Versuch über den Stillen Ort

wow! two five star reads

>105 edwinbcn:

I read The Woman in White this year as well and just could not put it down and found myself thinking about how much I wanted to keep reading it while I was working or otherwise busy. I was just so entirely and utterly entranced. It's unfortunate that an overly fussy introduction almost led you to abandon the book. While I prefer not having spoilers, I never feel spoiled if I'm accidentally told an event, but I do find those introductions tend to turn everything into an academic lecture on the most trite of topics, often used as a means to prove the author's "intelligence". I just want to read the book first and make my own decisions and conclusions before I let someone else tell me what they think. Especially for a book like this one where it's just a fun book and doesn't really require any meticulous analysis.

>104 edwinbcn:

I really disliked the Waugh I read (The Loved One) and so I'm in no hurry to read anymore of his works but that cover to the Penguin edition is fabulous!

>108 lilisin:

I think Evelyn Waugh is not at all an easy or likeable author. Waugh is considered an humorous and rather jolly author, but I think that reputation is just based on two novels Brideshead revisited which popularized the author when it was filmed and Decline and Fall. But many of his works are gloomy, dealing with some interrelated obsessions such as a kind of oppressive sense of Catholiscism, and depression.

Many people first come to Waugh reading The loved one although I think that book is an outlier in his oevre. People pick it up because it is thin. I think it is interesting because it describes the death cult and obsession with immortality in the United States of the Twenties. In that sense it is closely related to Aldous Huxley's After many a summer dies the swan, a rather peculiar, but also very funny book.

Many of Waugh's books are rather boring, and many modern readers object to the very evident racism in novels such as Black mischief and Scoop. But I am interested in his style, and in writers of this period, so I have typically read nearly everything by Waugh. I just have The Sword of Honor-trilogy waiting to be read (on my TBR).

091. Noch einmal für Thukydides
Finished reading: 25 September 2021



Noch einmal für Thukydides is quintessential Handke. It perfectly exemplifies his style.

I suppose the book could be classified as "Travel" but could equally well be considered as "Essays". Each piece, however, is very short, ranging from just a page and a half to a few pages. Sometimes the term "vignettes" is used for these short pieces of writing.

Each piece consists of some observations, usually a stilled focusing on nature, or landscape. There are moments in former Yugoslavia, Italy, Spain and as far away as Japan.

Peter Handke's writing style is stilled, which can calm you down, if you have the patience to follow his pace and look at each detail he describes. All these short vignettes are very detailed descriptions of nature. The leisurely style translates into reading ease, making for a pleasant leisurely reading experience. The prose is very beautiful.

In the early novels and essays the observational technique is applied to nature, as in Die langsame Heimkehr as well as social life. In the later works, the nature observations appear as gems embedded in the text, for example in Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda and Versuch über den Stillen Ort.

In Noch einmal für Thukydides the nature observations are the main thing, in their purest form. Highly recommended especially to readers new to Peter Handke.

Other books I have read by Peter Handke:
Über die Dörfer. Dramatisches Gedicht
Abschied des Träumers / Winterliche Reise / Sommerlicher Nachtrag
Unter Tränen fragend. Nachträgliche Aufzeichnungen von zwei Jugoslawien-Durchquerungen im Krieg, März und April 1999
Der Chinese des Schmerzes
Falsche Bewegung
Kindergeschichte
Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum
Aber ich lebe nur von den Zwischenräumen. Ein Gespräch, geführt von Herbert Gamper
Die Lehre der Sainte-Victoire
Die linkshändige Frau
Langsame Heimkehr
Wunschloses Unglück
Nachmittag eines Schriftstellers
Das Spiel vom Fragen, oder die Reise zum sonoren Land
In einer dunklen Nacht ging ich aus meinem stillen Haus
Die Angst des Tormanns beim Elfmeter
Lucie im Wald mit den Dingsda
Die Tablas von Daimiel. Ein Umwegzeugenbericht zum Prozeß gegen Slobodan Milošević
Versuch über den Stillen Ort
Die drei Versuche Versuch über die Müdigkeit Versuch über die Jukebox Versuch über den geglückten Tag. Ein Wintertagtraum

092. Eyeless in Gaza
Finished reading: 30 September 2021



Eyeless in Gaza is considered a novel that is difficult to read because of its narrative structure consisting of random flash backs. It is Aldous Huxley's most autobiographical novel. With this in mind, the key to the structure of the novel is the author's birthdate. Aldous Huxley was born on 26 July 1894. The main character in the book was born on that date, and the flash backs to apparently random dates can be understood as mental flashbacks. This is just the way the mind works! The structure of the novel is entirely clear after the reader has internalized the age of the main character.

I have read many books by Aldous Huxley but never a biography. The introduction by David Bradshaw merely consists of a short biography of Huxley's life, without any interpretation of the novel. The novel's plot mirrors the life of the author, with focal points around the tree most traumatic events in Huxley's life being the death of his mother, his temporary loss of eye sight and the suicide of his brother.

I would not agree to the idea that Eyeless in Gaza is Huxley's most philosophical novel, but it is perhaps the heaviest, most pondersome. Most of his other novels are light and humorous.

Other books I have read by Aldous Huxley:
The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell
Ends and means. An inquiry into the nature of ideals and into methods employed for their realization
After many a summer dies the swan
Ape and essence
After the fireworks
Brave New World revisited
The genius and the goddess
Heaven and hell
The devils of Loudun
Antic hay
Brave new world

093. Dagboek 1960-1961
Finished reading: 30 September 2021



In May 2005 the first volume of Frida Vogel's Dagboek (Diaries) was published. Altogether the series will comprise 16 volumes. So far, 10 volumes have been published, eight of which I have.

The diaries are considered of interest because three Dutch authors appear in their pages, describing their friendship and respective literary careers as they developed. They are Frida Vogels, J.J. Voskuil and Bert Weijde.

However, the reception of the diaries is disappointing. Volume 1, Dagboek 1954-1957 comprises four years is stylistically the weakest. The main criticism for most early volumes is the totally uninteresting content of the diaries.

Frida Vogels moved to Italy and married an Italian. In her diaries she describes her extended Italian family in detail. From Volume 2, Dagboek 1958-1959 each volume covers two years. While spending most of the year in Italy, Vogels regularly visits Strassburg in relation to work as a translator and regular visits to Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands for family visits. Over the years these visits to Amsterdam gain interest as the three authors, particularly the contact with J.J. Voskuil, expands and their literary career takes shape, discussing the literary scene in the Netherlands at that time, and the publication of Voskuil's work.

To me the large text portions about her life in Italy are of little interest, although it must be said that objectively her writing style improves, and they become more readable, and even of more interest, as her focus shifts from very personal, to more general observations. For me the most interesting parts are her visits to the Netherlands, and the descriptions of the city, people, literary events and the circle around Voskuil.

Although the diaries are rather boring, I am committed to finish reading at least the eight volumes that are in my possession, and I would probably finish the whole series when I can lay my hands on subsequent volumes.

Other books I have read by Frida Vogels:
Dagboek 1954-1957
Dagboek 1958-1959
De harde kern, Vol 2. Met zijn drieën
De harde kern, Vol. 1. Kanker & De naakte waarheid
De harde kern 2. De naakte waarheid
De harde kern 1. Kanker

094. Secondary Worlds
Finished reading: 2 October 2021



In February 1993, I bought two small volumes of lectures / essays by W.H. Auden. I was very happy to read The enchafèd flood, or the Romantic iconography of the sea, which appeared in the series of Page-Barbour Lectures at the University of Virginia (1949). The enchafèd flood, or the Romantic iconography of the sea is of particular interest to readers of Melville's Moby Dick, which I was reading at the time, in 2014. Auden brings together a store of ideas on how to read Moby Dick at a symbolic level, such as pointing out the significance of the number and the names of the nine ships the Pequod encounters before hunting down the whale.

I was much less taken with Secondary Worlds, the T.S. Eliot memorial lectures delivered at Eliot College in the University of Kent at Canterbury, October 1967. These four lectures are about drama, particularly that of T.S. Eliot, Icelandic sagas and Opera. The fourth essay is about language. The lacture about opera is more specifically about Auden's own activities as a writer of libretto's. While all essays demonstrate Auden's great erudition, I was not really interested in any of these topics, apart from a moderate interest in T.S. Eliot.

Other works I have read by W.H. Auden:
The enchafèd flood, or the Romantic iconography of the sea
Academic graffiti (In memoriam Ogden Nash)
Journey to a war

>97 edwinbcn: I'm always suspicious when the author's name is in a larger font than the title.

>103 edwinbcn: This gives me encouragement to start this again. I'm not sure what the block is, as I have read six or seven of his other books.

>105 edwinbcn: Through all the ups and downs of whether or not Wilkie Collins is a "real" writer, I have always been a true believer. The Woman in White was my first Collins book, given to me by my grandmother to read on the Glasgow-London train. Usually I just people watch and look out the windows on train rides, but this consumed me and I have read it several times since. I have also read nine other of his books, and am struck by his social consciousness for those left behind in his time.
As for introductions, I learned after reading the one to The Black Arrow never to read them first.

>113 edwinbcn: I did not know of this Auden essay on a topic that really appeals to me. I have an 'Ahoy' category on LT, so this would be a good reference. I also finally managed to read Moby Dick this year, so it is also timely.

I'm so glad to see you back and posting on LT.

>114 SassyLassy:

Smart observation. The publisher knows that many book lovers are more familiar with the name Djuna Barnes than her work.

I don't mind about spoilers and I like the background information that an introduction provides. Sometimes the analysis is interesting. A lot of introductions are poor, some even useless, but I think the introductions to Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics usually very good. I used to buy a lot of literary criticism, but now regret that. I find only reviews written by other authors interesting and find reading academic essays about literature tiring and sometimes ridiculous.

095. No man's land
Finished reading: 4 October 2021



The Hesperus Press often reprints novellas prised from the collected works of English classics, blowing up a 30-page short story to an 80 page booklet, but occasionally brings out a volume of works that are difficult to find in other editions. This is the case with Graham Greene's No man's land.

No Man's Land comprises two novel fragments, unfinished novels or novellas: "No Man's Land" and "The Stranger's Hand". Greene wrote them in the 1950, at about the same time as The Third Man.

Although short and unfinished, they are developed well enough for an exciting and interesting read, and the full enjoyment of a typical Greene novel. Especially the first work, "No Man's Land" strongly evokes the atmosphere of Cold War spying in Berlin.

Other works I have read by Graham Greene:
The confidential agent
A gun for sale
The power and the glory
The lawless roads
The comedians
Travels with my aunt
Ways of escape
Dr. Fischer of Geneva or the bomb party
The Ministry of Fear. An entertainment
May we borrow your husband? and Other comedies of the sexual life
The quiet American
The end of the affair
A sort of life
A sense of reality
The tenth man
The honorary consul

096. In youth is pleasure
Finished reading: 6 October 2021



Denton Welch lived but a short life, and died early, several years after a car accident he had at the age of 20, and suffered from the remainder of his life. The paintings he has left show an extraordinary talent and great originality. Likewise, his prose, most of it composed in the final years of his life, is highly original and externalises his innermost feelings. The prose style is somewhat reminiscent of the writing of Stella Gibbons, as it highlights peculiarities in people, characterizing their features and speech.

Denton Welch prose has a very poetic quality. Like I left my grandfather's house, In youth is pleasure is a shortish novel of fictionalized autobiography looking back to his early youth as a young teenager on a summer holiday.

Other books I have read by Denton Welch:
I left my grandfather's house
Maiden voyage

097. «Sire, ich eile ...»: Voltaire bei Friedrich II.
Finished reading: 7 October 2021



«Sire, ich eile ...»: Voltaire bei Friedrich II. is a novella but it is written in a very factual style, often given me the feeling that I was reading an essay or an historical account.

The novella has two intersecting story lines. The first describes the illicit love relationship between Voltaire and Émilie du Châtelet. Émilie was the wife of Marquis Florent-Claude du Châstellet-Lomont, but could not get along with a man she considered dull, formal, and cold. The other story line describes the friendship between Voltaire and the German King Frederik the Great.

The novella explores and contrasts several ideals of the enlightenment. Voltaire is shown as a man who needs freedom, and does not want to be tied down by convention. Émilie du Châtelet was caught up in an arranged marriage to a man she did not like, and as an intelligent women was much attracted to Voltaire, and theirs is the story of their adulterous love.

In their friendship, Frederik the Great is first shown as an enlightened young man, pursuing and embracing new ideals, but as he assumed the role of King he is increasingly portrayed as a possessive and demanding despot, leaving the reader to wonder whether power corrupts or the youthful ideals were merely a fad.

098. The Moonstone
Finished reading: 21 October 2021



Besides The woman in white The Moonstone is the other great novel for which Wilkie Collins is best remembered. Both novels are based on a detective element, and maybe this is why they find more readers than his other novels. Both novels make use of an innovative narrative technique of succesive witness statements. While in The woman in white these "episodes" or "narratives" are of fairly equal, balanced length, The Moonstone begins with a very long narrative of 160+ pages, subsequent "narratives" are ever shorter. The successive episodes make for a rush in ongoing reading

There are many legends about cursed gems, but this story element is far in the background. The main interest in in the very rational probe into the disappearance of the diamond. The plot has many unexpected twists and hence a very exciting and interesting development.

It is tempting to see whether the novel could be interpreted other than merely a detective story. The meme of Betteridge insistent reading of Robinson Crusoe is so pertinent that I would take it as a clue to a deeper meaning of the book. Betteridge reads Robinson Crusoe as other people read the Bible. He reads nothing but, and tends to open it randomly and then always finds an appropriate piece of wisdom (exactly the way the bible is used). This slight at "bible readers" in fact the majority of the Victorian establishment is like a criticism of their moral values. Various motives of the novel also suggest a contrasting of the religious zeal of the Indians as opposed to the mere interest in money of Western people.

Reading The Moonstone gave me the feeling that Sarah Waters seems much more influenced by Collins than by Dickens. To me some elements of The Moonstone came unexpectedly together while I was simultaneously reading works by Coleridge and De Quincey.

Other books I have read by Wilkie Collins:
The woman in white

099. Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Finished reading: 21 October 2021



When it comes to reading Confessions of an English Opium Eater the choice of edition is of considerable interest. Short of money and in need to sustain his habit De Quincey wrote it is a frenzy in 1821. More than 30 years later, in 1856, he revised it, and it is widely agreed that in doing so he spoilt it. That is why in most modern editions the text will be that of the 1821 version.

While nowadays there are many books describing first-hand experience with drugs, either describing experimenting with drugs or a life-destroying habit, Confessions of an English Opium Eater was the first of its kind. It set an example to Beaudelaire, Aldous Huxley and Burroughs & Ginsberg to name just a few of the early writers, although they are mainly experimenters who did not suffer a life-long, destructive addiction, with the exception of William Burroughs. The 1970s saw the publication of long-term heroine addicts, often held up to frighten. While the Twentieth century was the age of marihuana, heroine and cocaine, the Nineteenth century was the age of opium.

Thomas de Quincey was not an outlier or exception in his drug habit. The use of opium in the form of laudanum was widespread, and many prominent figures, including Samuel Coleridge struggled with a life-long addiction and had to kick-off to become clean. But Thomas de Quincey was the first to write about it from his own experience. De Quincey also mentions Coleridge in his book, as they were contemporaries and knew each other well.

One of the main tenets of De Quincey about the effects of opium and the kind of hallucinatory effects it brings about is that the user's past is the substrate for their hallucinatory experience. Most of the revisions of 1856 are in adding more biographical detail, to describe the foundations of his life, and thus the foundations of the effects that sprang up into his mind under the influence of the drug.

In the first part, De Quincey sets out to give a short autobiographical sketch. This is followed by a short description entitled "The Pleasures of Opium in which he describes the beginning of his addiction, namely as a relief for a tooth ache and how the prescription opened the doors to "the Paradise of Opium-eaters" (p. 70). In this part he provides some basic facts about the usage and the way laudanum was used, the cost, and he debunks some myths about drug addiction held in his time.

Like Samuel Johnson, De Quincey rose from the state of a tramp to a man at the centre of the literary world. De Quincey had had a good education, but had run away from home. In his later life he became a member of the circle around Wordsworth and Coleridge. The passage about the pleasures of opium has some delightful descriptions of society and cultural life in the late 18th and early 19th century.

De Quincey first started using opium in 1804, and between 1804 and 1812 used is unencumbered and occasionally. However, from 1813 he started taking it daily and developed an unbreakable addiction. He describes this in the next section entitled "Introduction to the pains of opium".

his then, let me repeat, I postulate - that, at the time I began to take opium daily, I could not have done otherwise. Whether, indeed, afterwards I might not have succeeded in breaking off the habit, even when it seemed to me that all efforts would be unavailing, and whether many of the innumerable efforts which I did make, might not have been carried much further, and my gradual reconquests of ground lost might not have been followed up much more energetically - these are questions which I must decline. Perhaps I might make out a case of palliation; but, shall I speak ingenuously? I confess it, as a besetting infirmity of mine, that I am too much of an Eudaemonist: I hanker too much after a state of happiness, both for myself and others: I cannot face misery, whether my own or not, with an eye of sufficient firmness: and am little capable of encountering present pain for the sake of any reversionary benefit.

Like Coleridge, De Quincey was a very erudite man, and it is perhaps not well known that both English writers shared a profound interest in German metaphysics, reading Kant, Fichte, Schelling etc and translated some of their works in English. The prose of De Quincey reflects his broad knowledge of the scholarly side but also the contemporary scene, and good notes as provided by an annotated edition are indispensible.

The final part "The pains of opium" describes how he became fully dependent on opium, taking ever larger doses. It also vividly describes some of his hallucinations, however, this is not the main point of the book as whole. Readers who are specifically hoping to find these descriptions may be underwhelmed by the book. Confessions of an English Opium Eater is a classic because of its masterly prose, describing all aspects of De Quincey's experience with opium, of which the hallucinatory state is a part.

I read two editions of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, as Penguin Books re-issued the book in its Penguin Classics series in a new, and very different edition. Although cataloguing on LT suggests some division, it seems editions are also mixed up quite considerable.

The two Penguin Classics editions are complementary, and it is worth reading both of them. Both editions are based on the 1821 version of De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

The 1971 edition (reprinted in 1986) was edited by Alethea Hayter. This edition has an introduction of about 25 pages, followed by the 1821 text of Confessions of an English Opium Eater taking about 90 pages, which is followed by two interesting appendices and a short section of notes, including notes on both appendices. Appendix A consists of notes, letters and articles commenting on the 'confessions' between 1821 and 1855. They include comments by other writers who mentioned the work or comments by De Quincey. Appendix B consists of a selection of substantial revisions that De Quincey made in the 1856 revision. As mentioned above, it is widely considered that the revisions had a spoiling effect. They are seen as distractions and dilutions of the original text. They mainly consist in adding more biographical detail, sometimes of a rather sentimental nature.

In 2003, Penguin Books published a new edition in its Penguin Classics series. The new edition is entirely different from the 1971 edition. The 2003 edition was edited by Barry Milligan. Like the 1971 edition it takes the 1821 version of Confessions of an English Opium Eater as its basics text (88 pages). This is preceded by a much longer introduction by the editor, in 44 pages.

Obviously, his opium addiction was a life-long obsession to Thomas De Quincey. The Penguin Classics 2003 edition is an extended edition, and the extension is reflected in the title of the edition, namely Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings. The other writings consist of two sequels that De Quincey wrote, namely Suspira de Profundis and The English Mail-Coach. It seems a wry biographical detail that De Quincey’s son Horace De Quincey died in military service in China in 1842 during the Opium War.

As mentioned above, one of the main tenets of De Quincey about the effects of opium and the kind of hallucinatory effects it brings about is that the user's past is the substrate for their hallucinatory experience. Suspira de Profundis is an unfinished fragment of about 100 pages, intended as a sequel to the ‘Confessions’. It consists of two parts, the most substantive of which is Part 1 “The affliction of childhood”. Although unfinished, it was published in Blackwood’s in 1845.

Although Thomas de Quincey was not a Victorian writer, some of his later works appeared during the Victorian period. The English Mail-Coach, or The Glory of Motion is a kind of long essay of 55 pages about transportation in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is of interest to readers of early Victorian fiction because it describes the experience of travelling by mail-coach. During the first quarter of the 19th century this mode of transportation was soon replaced by the rail roads. Both the mail-coach and the rail roads as an up-coming phenomenon played an important part in early Victorian writing, particularly as the rail roads enabled characters in Victorian fiction to swiftly travel between London and the countryside. De Quincey wrote this as a sequel to Confessions of an English Opium Eater because it illustrates a further element of his autobiographical experience underlying his hallucinations.

The 2003 edition of Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings is concluded with a short appendix of some short sections on “Opium in the Nineteenth Century”, “Opium and the medical professions” and “Opium and the orient” followed by notes.

100. Wallace Stevens
Finished reading: 24 October 2021



This is a monography on the poet Wallace Stevens by the reknowned scholar Frank Kermode. It is a bit tricky to buy a critical work on a poet with whose work I am unfamiliar, and may likely not be interested in. However, this is a short work of almost essay-like length of just 126 pages.

Kermode makes some poignent observations about the role and nature of reality as seen by Wallace Stevens that struck me and stuck with me.

reality is what you see finely and imagine fully from where you are and as what you are. 'The Gods of China are always Chinese' is one of the fundamental ideas of Wallace Stevens (p.11). "I am what is around me" (p.35).

At least in his poetry, Stevens creates a divide between reality and the world of the imagination, effectively cutting himself off from life. To most people life is an affair of people and not of places. Instead, he says, life is an affair of places, and elsewhere Life is not people and scene but thought and feeling.

This culminates in the horrific observation that reality is in fact unbearable to us, that we cannot truly face it, and that we can only live with it through the overlay of our imagination. In The Snow Man "winter" is a metaphor for a "pure abstracted reality, a bare icy outline purged clean of all the accretions brought by the human mind to make it possible for us to conceive of reality and live our lives." In winter, things are seen as they are. (p. 31).

In the same context, Stevens wrote: "No doubt there is nothing more morbid in itself, more inimical to nature, than to see things as they are.... The real, in its pure state, stops the heart instantaneously .... O, Socrates, the universe cannot for one instant endure to be only what it is ... " (p. 32) from Stevens' introduction to Valéry's Dance and the Soul.

The imagination is described as a power to transform the environment and ensure comfort and survival. " Poets, with this power, once made gods and myths, but these are irrelevant to modern reality. Now the same power must be our defense against the poverty of fact" (p. 36) (Italics are mine).

This bleak view that pits the harsh world of Darwinian biology against culture as a soft blanket to delude ourselves by shying away from harsh reality is incredibly convincing to me.

I did not much care for the poetry of Wallace Stevens, but believe Kermode provides an excellent introduction to Stevens' overall output, mainly poetry, and dedicates one chapter to his prose works. To me, reading the critical sections underlying Stevens ideas was what made reading this book so valuable to me.

I also wrote a long review of Confessions of an Opium Eater. I read a penguin classic edition, but I do not know which one and it was interesting to read your history of the modern editions. My review ended like this:

Yes, there is plenty of humour and amusement in the writing of this intelligent man, who, while well aware of the deficiencies in his character that hinders him in day to day business, can still make a case for his world view. It was in some respects in tune with the Romantics and today will strike a chord with some disaffected people. The confessions can often be seen listed among the genre of fantasy and even science fiction, but I would not put it there at all. These are the writings of a man with both feet firmly planted in the 19th century, looking backward rather than forward and while his drug induced dreams could be seen as fantasies; to De Quincey they were essential parts of his very being that he was keen to explore. De Quincey was a prolific writer of essays, as that was how he earned his living and I am keen to read some more, but I would not hesitate in recommending this collection to all readers. 4.5 stars.

>122 baswood:
I looked up your review and read it. Our reading experience and appreciation is overall very similar.

Your review shows that you read an edition which included "The English Mail-Coach," and "Suspiria de Profundis". If you are sure you read a Penguin edition, then it must have been the 2003 edition edited by Barry Milligan.

However, your catalogue suggests that you own (and you posted your review on the page of) an edition of the Oxford World Classics, which also comprises those works.

Like me you may have more than one edition.I have multiple editions for most classics because I traveled a lot and often lived far from home, having the need to re-purchase.

Back home, in Holland, I still have three antiquarian editions of volumes 8, 9 and 10 of De Quincey's works, published in Edinburgh by Adam & Charles Black in 1863. They are part of a 14-vols collected works edition.

Early next year, I will read Quincey: On murder

101. The man who was Thursday
Finished reading: 24 October 2021



My feelings about this book are almost exactly the same as expressed by bookomaniac in their review on LT on Nov 12, 2021.

Although is is well-written, I hate the style and the genre. The "terrorists" of the early Twentieth century or 'bomb-throwers' feature in several stories and novels of the period, and most recognizably in Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent, published in 1907. It is unclear whether The man who was Thursday, published a year later in 1908 is meant as a satire of the earlier work. In any case is is a laughing mirror-image.

My Penguin English Library edition does not have an introduction or notes, so it is difficult to see whether it belonged to some literary movement (apparently not). It seems absurd and grotesk like no other work of that period. It is doubtful whether it was meant to be funny, and if it is serious it seems to be almost 'camp' avant-la-lettre.

I thoroughly disliked it.

Other books I have read by C.K. Chesterton:
The Napoleon of Notting Hill
Father Brown

>116 edwinbcn: I've only read one Graham Greene novel (the end of the affair). I enjoyed it, but it was really quite dark and sombre. Is this his general style of writing?

102. Eliot
Finished reading: 25 October 2021



The Fontana Modern Masters was a series of pocket guides on writers, philosophers, and other thinkers and theorists who shaped the intellectual landscape of the twentieth century, and the series editor was Frank Kermode who was Professor of Modern English Literature at University College London. Each volume aimed to be an introduction to the life and writings.

T.S. Eliot left instructions that his biography should not be written. (p. 22). Yet, in The function of criticism he had written that 'the critic should be a master of fact‘ and these facts include biographical information about the writer. Eliot's idea that his relationship to his readership should be through his work, and not through his biography has now become a mainstream idea about the appreciation of literary works. Descpite his caution about his private life, Eliot did let out some biographical information about himself, for example in his correspondence.

The author of this short biography and critical introduction to T.S. Eliot was Stephen Spender. Spender himself was a poet, and wrote a novel, travel and autobiographical works, as well as literary criticism. He was a contemporary of T.S Eliot and a friend, and in turn a contemporary of the friends they had in common, many of whom were also writers, poets and scholars active during the same period. Thus, Spender writes: "On one occasion I was having tea with Leonard and Virginia Woolf when Eliot was also a fellow-guest." (p. 129) Stephen Spender first met T.S. Eliot in 1928.

Despite these close personal relations, Eliot is foremostly a critical introduction to Eliot's works, based of wide reading of primary and secondary sources. One gets the feeling that the author secretly honoured Eliot's wish. Spender's analyses and interpretation of Eliot's works is precise and elegant, and obviously Spender's writing style is superior to any academic scholar, with very, very few exceptions.

Besides having Frank Kermode as the series editor, the acknowledgements also mention the contributions of Eliot's wife, Valerie Eliot, Professor John Bayley and Mrs Bayley (Iris Murdoch).

Other books I have read by Stephen Spender:
China diary
The temple
Love-hate relations. A study of Anglo-American sensibilities
Journals 1939-1983

>125 AlisonY:

Hi Alison,

I also only gave The end of the affair three stars. I think your assessment of Greene is pretty accurate. Many of his novels are dour, kind of dark and sombre. I had a discussion about that with a friend during my college days, although at that time I had only read one novel by Greene, nl The honorary consul. At the time, I was reading Evelyn Waugh's Helena. I said that I liked novels with beautiful descriptions of surroundings, something utterly lacking in novels by Greene. My friend said that Greene's novels are focused on character. So many years on, I guess he was right.

It was a coincidence that at the time I just happened to be reading a novel by Waugh, but it illustrates the point nicely. Waugh's novels are kind of frivolous entertainment, while Greene is serious about character and moral dilemma. Although both Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh were Catholic authors, Greene much more focuses on moral issues.

I can't really say Graham Greene is a favourite author, although I have 23 of his books, and have read 17 of them. I usually give them 2.5 - 3.5 stars, with some exceptions.

Incidentally, I honored both The honorary consul and Helena with only two stars.

>127 edwinbcn: Thanks - that's useful. That sort of writing I'm happy to dip into every now and then, but it kills the soul a little if I read too much of that stuff.

Hi Edwin, I just caught up with the last 25 or so posts in your very interesting thread. Thanks for all those great reviews. I am a big fan of Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, for whatever that might be worth to you. Also, I reread The Comedians, Graham Greene's novel about Haiti in the latter stages of the Duvalier regime this year and thought it was very good.

>129 rocketjk:

Thanks, Jerry.

I have read twelve books by Evelyn Waugh and the Sword of Honour trilogy is the last unread on my TBR.

103. Rites of Passage
Finished reading: 26 October 2021



The first 80 pages of Rites of Passage make for wonderful reading. Rites of Passage is a historical novel set in the early to mid-Nineteeth century about a gentleman aboard a ship making a passage to Australia. The main character appears to be losing his mind, apparently losing track of time, hallucinating and becoming quite totally delusional. The captain probably quite rightly ignores his. This early stage of the novel quite resembles Evelyn Waugh's novel The ordeal of Gilbert Pinfold. More careful readers would perhaps have discovered sooner what is going on by looking up what the paregoric means which the young man ingests to fight the effects of seasickness. On others (like me) the truth dawns as the story brings up to destroy an albatross (...) and Mr Coleridge and Superstition together (p. 73). The main character's delusional state is induced by the opium tincture he is taking by the spoonful every day.

Unfortunately, after that, I lost interest in the novel that rambled on for another 200 pages that were utterly confusing and could not hold my interest.

Other books I have read by William Golding:
The Scorpion God
Clonk! Clonk!
Envoy Extraordinaire
The paper men
The spire
Lord of the Flies
The double tongue

104. Confessions of an English opium eater and other writings
Finished reading: 27 October 2021



When it comes to reading Confessions of an English Opium Eater the choice of edition is of considerable interest. Short of money and in need to sustain his habit De Quincey wrote it is a frenzy in 1821. More than 30 years later, in 1856, he revised it, and it is widely agreed that in doing so he spoilt it. That is why in most modern editions the text will be that of the 1821 version.

While nowadays there are many books describing first-hand experience with drugs, either describing experimenting with drugs or a life-destroying habit, Confessions of an English Opium Eater was the first of its kind. It set an example to Beaudelaire, Aldous Huxley and Burroughs & Ginsberg to name just a few of the early writers, although they are mainly experimenters who did not suffer a life-long, destructive addiction, with the exception of William Burroughs. The 1970s saw the publication of long-term heroine addicts, often held up to frighten. While the Twentieth century was the age of marihuana, heroine and cocaine, the Nineteenth century was the age of opium.

Thomas de Quincey was not an outlier or exception in his drug habit. The use of opium in the form of laudanum was widespread, and many prominent figures, including Samuel Coleridge struggled with a life-long addiction and had to kick-off to become clean. But Thomas de Quincey was the first to write about it from his own experience. De Quincey also mentions Coleridge in his book, as they were contemporaries and knew each other well.

One of the main tenets of De Quincey about the effects of opium and the kind of hallucinatory effects it brings about is that the user's past is the substrate for their hallucinatory experience. Most of the revisions of 1856 are in adding more biographical detail, to describe the foundations of his life, and thus the foundations of the effects that sprang up into his mind under the influence of the drug.

In the first part, De Quincey sets out to give a short autobiographical sketch. This is followed by a short description entitled "The Pleasures of Opium in which he describes the beginning of his addiction, namely as a relief for a tooth ache and how the prescription opened the doors to "the Paradise of Opium-eaters" (p. 70). In this part he provides some basic facts about the usage and the way laudanum was used, the cost, and he debunks some myths about drug addiction held in his time.

Like Samuel Johnson, De Quincey rose from the state of a tramp to a man at the centre of the literary world. De Quincey had had a good education, but had run away from home. In his later life he became a member of the circle around Wordsworth and Coleridge. The passage about the pleasures of opium has some delightful descriptions of society and cultural life in the late 18th and early 19th century.

De Quincey first started using opium in 1804, and between 1804 and 1812 used is unencumbered and occasionally. However, from 1813 he started taking it daily and developed an unbreakable addiction. He describes this in the next section entitled "Introduction to the pains of opium".

his then, let me repeat, I postulate - that, at the time I began to take opium daily, I could not have done otherwise. Whether, indeed, afterwards I might not have succeeded in breaking off the habit, even when it seemed to me that all efforts would be unavailing, and whether many of the innumerable efforts which I did make, might not have been carried much further, and my gradual reconquests of ground lost might not have been followed up much more energetically - these are questions which I must decline. Perhaps I might make out a case of palliation; but, shall I speak ingenuously? I confess it, as a besetting infirmity of mine, that I am too much of an Eudaemonist: I hanker too much after a state of happiness, both for myself and others: I cannot face misery, whether my own or not, with an eye of sufficient firmness: and am little capable of encountering present pain for the sake of any reversionary benefit.

Like Coleridge, De Quincey was a very erudite man, and it is perhaps not well known that both English writers shared a profound interest in German metaphysics, reading Kant, Fichte, Schelling etc and translated some of their works in English. The prose of De Quincey reflects his broad knowledge of the scholarly side but also the contemporary scene, and good notes as provided by an annotated edition are indispensible.

The final part "The pains of opium" describes how he became fully dependent on opium, taking ever larger doses. It also vividly describes some of his hallucinations, however, this is not the main point of the book as whole. Readers who are specifically hoping to find these descriptions may be underwhelmed by the book. Confessions of an English Opium Eater is a classic because of its masterly prose, describing all aspects of De Quincey's experience with opium, of which the hallucinatory state is a part.

I read two editions of Confessions of an English Opium Eater, as Penguin Books re-issued the book in its Penguin Classics series in a new, and very different edition. Although cataloguing on LT suggests some division, it seems editions are also mixed up quite considerable.

The two Penguin Classics editions are complementary, and it is worth reading both of them. Both editions are based on the 1821 version of De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater.

The 1971 edition (reprinted in 1986) was edited by Alethea Hayter. This edition has an introduction of about 25 pages, followed by the 1821 text of Confessions of an English Opium Eater taking about 90 pages, which is followed by two interesting appendices and a short section of notes, including notes on both appendices. Appendix A consists of notes, letters and articles commenting on the 'confessions' between 1821 and 1855. They include comments by other writers who mentioned the work or comments by De Quincey. Appendix B consists of a selection of substantial revisions that De Quincey made in the 1856 revision. As mentioned above, it is widely considered that the revisions had a spoiling effect. They are seen as distractions and dilutions of the original text. They mainly consist in adding more biographical detail, sometimes of a rather sentimental nature.

In 2003, Penguin Books published a new edition in its Penguin Classics series. The new edition is entirely different from the 1971 edition. The 2003 edition was edited by Barry Milligan. Like the 1971 edition it takes the 1821 version of Confessions of an English Opium Eater as its basics text (88 pages). This is preceded by a much longer introduction by the editor, in 44 pages.

Obviously, his opium addiction was a life-long obsession to Thomas De Quincey. The Penguin Classics 2003 edition is an extended edition, and the extension is reflected in the title of the edition, namely Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings. The other writings consist of two sequels that De Quincey wrote, namely Suspira de Profundis and The English Mail-Coach. It seems a wry biographical detail that De Quincey’s son Horace De Quincey died in military service in China in 1842 during the Opium War.

As mentioned above, one of the main tenets of De Quincey about the effects of opium and the kind of hallucinatory effects it brings about is that the user's past is the substrate for their hallucinatory experience. Suspira de Profundis is an unfinished fragment of about 100 pages, intended as a sequel to the ‘Confessions’. It consists of two parts, the most substantive of which is Part 1 “The affliction of childhood”. Although unfinished, it was published in Blackwood’s in 1845.

Although Thomas de Quincey was not a Victorian writer, some of his later works appeared during the Victorian period. The English Mail-Coach, or The Glory of Motion is a kind of long essay of 55 pages about transportation in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It is of interest to readers of early Victorian fiction because it describes the experience of travelling by mail-coach. During the first quarter of the 19th century this mode of transportation was soon replaced by the rail roads. Both the mail-coach and the rail roads as an up-coming phenomenon played an important part in early Victorian writing, particularly as the rail roads enabled characters in Victorian fiction to swiftly travel between London and the countryside. De Quincey wrote this as a sequel to Confessions of an English Opium Eater because it illustrates a further element of his autobiographical experience underlying his hallucinations.

The 2003 edition of Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Other Writings is concluded with a short appendix of some short sections on “Opium in the Nineteenth Century”, “Opium and the medical professions” and “Opium and the orient” followed by notes.

105. The diary of a nobody
Finished reading: 31 October 2021



The diary of a nobody is a work of the collaborative effort of the Grossmith brothers, George Grossmith(1847-1912) and Weedon Grossmith (1854-1919).

George Grossmith wasa singer, comedian and an actor who shone in many principal roles in the light operas of that other artistic pair Gilbert and Sullivan light operas at Savoy Theater. Weedon Grossmith was an a painter, playwright, actor and writer. Together they wrote the comic Victorian novel The diary of a nobody.

While in contemporary literature mock or even fully serious biographies of insignificant persons is a standard feature of literary output, spoofing the genre back then created an hilarious uproar. Published in 1892 it established a whole new genre of humorous fiction.

The diary of a nobody contains illustrations made by Weedon Grossmith.

I am not such a great fan of humorous fiction, but as a classic of Victorian literature, I thought is was still quite worthwhile.

106. Young Romantics. The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives
Finished reading: 6 November 2021



Young Romantics. The Shelleys, Byron, and Other Tangled Lives is a kind of group biography, describing the lives and involvement of the foremost Romantic poets and writers of the early 19th century. The beginning of the book is a bit heavy-handed and the entire framework of the book is based upon the biography of James Henry Leigh Hunt better known as Leigh Hunt.

Leigh Hunt is now largely forgotten. Of all the writers involved in the Romantic period described in this book he was the most long-lived, born in 1784 and died in August 1859. Although he was a poet, writer and essayist in his own right, as much work went into his publishing business. He was the central figure in the ‘Hunt Circle’ which included great writers such as Charles Lamb, Shelley, William Hazlitt, Benjamin Haydon, Keats and many others.

The book follows a group of writers and their friends as they settle in Italy, and most attention is given to Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and Claire Claremont. There are also very interesting appearances of other poets and writers of the period, of course, John Keats, but also for example, Thomas Love Peacock.

A very interesting book to introduce the Romantic writers.

107. Zuckerman unbound
Finished reading: 10 November 2021



Zuckerman bound is a four-volume trilogy plus epilogue comprising The ghost writer, Zuckerman unbound, The anatomy lesson and epilogue The Prague Orgy. It is a series of novels describing the rise of a Jewish novelist who resembles Philip Roth. Identity, particularly Jewish identity is one of the main themes in Roth's work.

I did not care much for The ghost writer which I read in 1996, and then abandoned the trilogy, but picking it up last November and reading Zuckerman unbound, I was gripped again as with many of his great novels.

While The ghost writer describes the struggles of the young, beginning writer, both the struggles with identity and carving out a place as a writer, in Zuckerman unbound the main character Nathan Zuckerman achieves celebrity status. At this stage the theme of identity gains a new dimensions broadening into exploring private and public appearance, and shaping a new identity as a successful, rich author.

Other books I have read by Philip Roth:
Nemesis
Operation Shylock. A confession
The facts. A novelist's autobiography
The humbling
Exit ghost
Indignation
Our gang (Starring Tricky and his friends)
Everyman
The human stain
The plot against America
Shop talk. A writer and his colleagues and their work
The dying animal
The ghost writer
My life as a man
Deception
Portnoy's complaint
The breast
Goodbye, Columbus and five short stories
The professor of desire

108. Dagboek 1962-1963
Finished reading: 11 November 2021



In May 2005 the first volume of Frida Vogel's Dagboek (Diaries) was published. Altogether the series will comprise 16 volumes. So far, 10 volumes have been published, eight of which I have.

The diaries are considered of interest because three Dutch authors appear in their pages, describing their friendship and respective literary careers as they developed. They are Frida Vogels, J.J. Voskuil and Bert Weijde.

However, the reception of the diaries is disappointing. Volume 1, Dagboek 1954-1957 comprises four years is stylistically the weakest. The main criticism for most early volumes is the totally uninteresting content of the diaries.

Frida Vogels moved to Italy and married an Italian. In her diaries she describes her extended Italian family in detail. From Volume 2, Dagboek 1958-1959 each volume covers two years. While spending most of the year in Italy, Vogels regularly visits Strassburg in relation to work as a translator and regular visits to Amsterdam and other parts of the Netherlands for family visits. Over the years these visits to Amsterdam gain interest as the three authors, particularly the contact with J.J. Voskuil, expands and their literary career takes shape, discussing the literary scene in the Netherlands at that time, and the publication of Voskuil's work.

To me the large text portions about her life in Italy are of little interest, although it must be said that objectively her writing style improves, and they become more readable, and even of more interest, as her focus shifts from very personal, to more general observations. For me the most interesting parts are her visits to the Netherlands, and the descriptions of the city, people, literary events and the circle around Voskuil.

Particularly, Volume 4, the diary for 1962-1963 is of interest because it is in these two years that Voskuil finished writing and published his first great novel Bij nader inzien. Frida Vogels is one of the friends of Voskuil who all appear under different names in that novel of more than 1200 pages. Vogels records in her diary that she finished reading it in 6 days.

Although the diaries are rather boring, I am committed to finish reading at least the eight volumes that are in my possession, and I would probably finish the whole series when I can lay my hands on subsequent volumes.

Other books I have read by Frida Vogels:
Dagboek 1954-1957
Dagboek 1958-1959
Dagboek 1960-1961
De harde kern, Vol 2. Met zijn drieën
De harde kern, Vol. 1. Kanker & De naakte waarheid
De harde kern 2. De naakte waarheid
De harde kern 1. Kanker

109. The anatomy lesson
Finished reading: 13 November 2021



Zuckerman bound is a four-volume trilogy plus epilogue comprising The ghost writer, Zuckerman unbound, The anatomy lesson and epilogue The Prague Orgy. It is a series of novels describing the rise of a Jewish novelist who resembles Philip Roth. Identity, particularly Jewish identity is one of the main themes in Roth's work.

I did not care much for The ghost writer which I read in 1996, and then abandoned the trilogy, but picking it up last November and reading Zuckerman unbound, I was gripped again as with many of his great novels.

While The ghost writer describes the struggles of the young, beginning writer, both the struggles with identity and carving out a place as a writer, in Zuckerman unbound the main character Nathan Zuckerman achieves celebrity status. At this stage the theme of identity gains a new dimensions broadening into exploring private and public appearance, and shaping a new identity as a successful, rich author.

The anatomy lesson is the next book in the trilogy. It is quitessential Roth. This novel is absolutely hilarious. I will never again look in the same way at a play mat. This novels is a must-read for fans of Roth.

Other books I have read by Philip Roth:
The ghost writer
Zuckerman unbound
Nemesis
Operation Shylock. A confession
The facts. A novelist's autobiography
The humbling
Exit ghost
Indignation
Our gang (Starring Tricky and his friends)
Everyman
The human stain
The plot against America
Shop talk. A writer and his colleagues and their work
The dying animal
My life as a man
Deception
Portnoy's complaint
The breast
Goodbye, Columbus and five short stories
The professor of desire

110. The Prague orgy
Finished reading: 16 November 2021



Zuckerman bound is a four-volume trilogy plus epilogue comprising The ghost writer, Zuckerman unbound, The anatomy lesson and epilogue The Prague Orgy. It is a series of novels describing the rise of a Jewish novelist who resembles Philip Roth. Identity, particularly Jewish identity is one of the main themes in Roth's work.

I did not care much for The ghost writer which I read in 1996, and then abandoned the trilogy, but picking it up last November and reading Zuckerman unbound, I was gripped again as with many of his great novels.

While The ghost writer describes the struggles of the young, beginning writer, both the struggles with identity and carving out a place as a writer, in Zuckerman unbound the main character Nathan Zuckerman achieves celebrity status. At this stage the theme of identity gains a new dimensions broadening into exploring private and public appearance, and shaping a new identity as a successful, rich author.

The anatomy lesson is the next book in the trilogy. It is quitessential Roth. This novel is absolutely hilarious. I will never again look in the same way at a play mat. This novels is a must-read for fans of Roth.

Like Paul Auster, another Jewish-American author who often explores the Jewish identity, Roth is also unmistakenly attracted to Prague and Kafka. The Prague Orgy is a coda to the American trilogy.

Other books I have read by Philip Roth:
The ghost writer
Zuckerman unbound
The anatomy lesson
Nemesis
Operation Shylock. A confession
The facts. A novelist's autobiography
The humbling
Exit ghost
Indignation
Our gang (Starring Tricky and his friends)
Everyman
The human stain
The plot against America
Shop talk. A writer and his colleagues and their work
The dying animal
My life as a man
Deception
Portnoy's complaint
The breast
Goodbye, Columbus and five short stories
The professor of desire

111. Zuckerman bound
Finished reading: 16 November 2021



Zuckerman bound is a four-volume trilogy plus epilogue comprising The ghost writer, Zuckerman unbound, The anatomy lesson and epilogue The Prague Orgy. It is a series of novels describing the rise of a Jewish novelist who resembles Philip Roth. Identity, particularly Jewish identity is one of the main themes in Roth's work.

I did not care much for The ghost writer which I read in 1996, and then abandoned the trilogy, but picking it up last November and reading Zuckerman unbound, I was gripped again as with many of his great novels.

While The ghost writer describes the struggles of the young, beginning writer, both the struggles with identity and carving out a place as a writer, in Zuckerman unbound the main character Nathan Zuckerman achieves celebrity status. At this stage the theme of identity gains a new dimensions broadening into exploring private and public appearance, and shaping a new identity as a successful, rich author.

The anatomy lesson is the next book in the trilogy. It is quitessential Roth. This novel is absolutely hilarious. I will never again look in the same way at a play mat. This novels is a must-read for fans of Roth.

Like Paul Auster, another Jewish-American author who often explores the Jewish identity, Roth is also unmistakenly attracted to Prague and Kafka. The Prague Orgy is a coda to the American trilogy.

Other books I have read by Philip Roth:
The ghost writer
Zuckerman unbound
The anatomy lesson
The Prague Orgy
Nemesis
Operation Shylock. A confession
The facts. A novelist's autobiography
The humbling
Exit ghost
Indignation
Our gang (Starring Tricky and his friends)
Everyman
The human stain
The plot against America
Shop talk. A writer and his colleagues and their work
The dying animal
My life as a man
Deception
Portnoy's complaint
The breast
Goodbye, Columbus and five short stories
The professor of desire

112. Lions & Shadows. An education in the Twenties
Finished reading: 16 November 2021



Lions & Shadows. An education in the Twenties is one of the mostly autobiographical novels of Christopher Isherwood. It was published in 1938, and looks back on the 1920s, the period from 1922 to 1929.

The novel gives an excellent impression of life in Cambridge and London of that time, and the development of the friendship between Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender, and Edward Upward, who appear in the novel under fictionalized names, as Chalmers, Cheuret, Linsley, and Weston.

Other books I have read by Christopher Isherwood:
All the conspirators
The condor and the cows. A South American travel diary
A single man
Christopher and his kind 1929 - 1939
A meeting by the river
Prater Violet
The memorial
Journey to a war

113. Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark
Finished reading: 17 November 2021



Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is a collection of letters written by Mary Wollstonecraft during a voyage to Skandinavia. There are beautiful descriptions of landscapes, nature and the places she visits.

114. Memoirs of the author of A vindication of the rights of woman
Finished reading: 18 November 2021



After the death of Mary Wollstonecraft her husband, the writer William Godwin wrote a short memoir describing her life. Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist, in favor of free love. She had a passionate love affair and a child with the American Gilbert Imlay during the French Revolution in Paris. She is most well known for her A vindication of the rights of woman.

She later married Wlliam Godwin and had a second daughter with him, the later Mary Shelley.

Godwin's honest and truthful memoir caused a scandal upon publication.

115. A short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark / Memoirs of the author of The Rights of Women
Finished reading: 18 November 2021



This edition of Penguin Classics bring together two short works, namely Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark by Mary Wollstonecraft and Memoirs of the author of A vindication of the rights of woman by William Godwin, her husband.

The Letters written during a short residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark is a collection of letters written by Mary Wollstonecraft during a voyage to Skandinavia. There are beautiful descriptions of landscapes, nature and the places she visits. According to the introduction by Richard Holmes this voyage to Skandinavia was no trip for mere pleasure. Holmes convincingly makes the case that Mary Wollstonecraft undertook the trip to search for a cargo of plate silver, valued at a fortune, on behalf of her lover, Gilbert Imlay. The silver originated from confiscated goods during the French Revolution. Dealing with and shipping such cargo was illegal, and the captain made away with the cargo and disappeared. The introduction suggests that she searched for the cargo and successfully negotiated a deal for its return.

In the letters themselves there is never any mention of business dealings. Holmes underlines the point to emphasize how remarkable a woman Mary Wollstonecraft was in her time. Undertaking such a journey with such a mission was certainly not free from danger.

After the death of Mary Wollstonecraft her husband, the writer William Godwin wrote a short memoir describing her life. Mary Wollstonecraft was a feminist, in favor of free love. She had a passionate love affair and a child with the American Gilbert Imlay during the French Revolution in Paris. She is most well known for her A vindication of the rights of woman.

She later married Wlliam Godwin and had a second daughter with him, the later Mary Shelley.

Godwin's honest and truthful memoir caused a scandal upon publication.

Richard Holmes is an expert on writers and history of the late 18th and early 19th century. It is obvious that his 55 page introduction to the Penguin Classics edition far exceeds the normal needs of an introduction. The introductory essay should be considered a third work in this edition. It is a speculative essay on the biography and the purpose of Wollstonecraft's trip to Skandinavia.

Although the letters are not so spectacular, the edition with Holmes essay and Godwin's memoir makes this a very interesting book. Highly recommended.

116. Selected letters
Finished reading: 18 November 2021



This was a fascinating book to read that completely changed my view of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. But is was also a difficult book to read.

Although Coleridge writes in modern English his elaborate writing style is still quite difficult, and in line with publications of that time many more words are capitalized. Another reason why this is not an easy book is that the letters are selected from a very long period of time from the first letter (in this selection) dated 5 feb 1793 till the last dated 13 july 1834. Although the introduction provides some biographical information, the background to some problems discussed in the letters is not always immediately clear, although much of it is fascinating stuff.

Many letters are very long. While most correspondents of Coleridge are unknown to me, there are also some great names such as letters exchanged with Robert Southey, Charles Lamb, Dorothy and William Wordsworth, Thomas Wedgwood, William Godwin, and Thomas De Quincey.

Some of the letters include some of Coleridge poetry. Coleridge also appears as a very erudite man, who took and interest in and translated German metaphysical thinkers

These letters contain very few biographical information. They are mainly about ideas and ideals. Altogether, as I said, fascinating reading. It took me many months, reading in small instalments.

117. Early Auden
Finished reading: 19 November 2021



To be frank, I am not very interested in Auden's poetry, but I am interested in the man, and although I also have the Auden biography by Humphrey Carpenter, I bought this book as it seems to contain so much biographical information.

I am also more interested in the young Auden than the early Auden, and of course the group of friends at the time of their budding friendship. It was entirely serendipitous that I was reading Christopher Isherwood's Lions & Shadows. An education in the Twenties, which is also mentioned, at almost the same time. As these two books cover about the same periods, the Twenties.

Edward Mendelson's Early Auden cover the period up to 1938, which biographically is the most interesting period and covers some of his travels to China and their stay in Germany, where he watched the rise of fascism. This period between schooling and the outbreak of the war is also the period of discovering his homosexuality and the development of life-long friendships with Isherwood and other writers and thinkers of the period.

Mendelson gives in-depth psychological explanations for the development and maturing of Auden's poetry, with many excerpts to illustrate. The book can be read as a biography of the young Auden, with a lot of attention given to his poetry.

Very well-written and very well done.

118. After leaving Mr. Mackenzie
Finished reading: 21 November 2021



This summer I read the four Parisian novels of Jean Rhys: Quartet (1928), After leaving Mr. Mackenzie (1930), Voyage in the dark (1934) and Good morning, midnight (1939). In their time none was particularly successful: they describe the horrible situation of a woman who can barely keep herself afloat, as a model, a dancer, an escort or prostitute.

I found After leaving Mr. Mackenzie the most readable, and also the most realistic. It describes the ship wreck of a life, as it may still happen today. The other books are less easy to understand in contemporary terms.

They are a painful reminder that the much romanticized life of the Left Bank of the 1920s - 30s had winners and losers. These novels depict the losers, too honestly to be enjoyable.

Other books I have read by Jean Rhys:
Quartet
Good morning, midnight
Voyage in the dark
Wide Sargasso Sea

119. The Bostonians
Finished reading: 22 November 2021



The Bostonians is a novel of manners. We can appreciate is much more pleasurably when taking the role as observers than when trying to analyze of explain the characters. While the 1820s - 1840s are traditionally described as the hey-day of the American reform movement, culminating with the triumph of the abolitionist movement at the end of the Civil War, the reform movement picked up unabated after the Civil War with idealists striving for women's rights, both voting and emancipation, the abolition of tobacco use, vegetarianism, health reform, homeopathic medicine, and pacifism among others. Henry James describes Boston as the city where this activism thrived in the circuit of lectures, together with lectures by quacks, cranks, faddists, and “do-gooders". The best part of Book 1, running well over 80 pages is all devoted to describing a single event like that, where the reader is taken on a tour observing speakers and attendants on an evening.

This type of environment exists up until the day of today: magical healers, homeopaths, veganists, religious fanatics, environmental activists: and the three characters as embodied in The Bostonians are also still found in the same scene: Olive Chancellor as the establishment within a movement but possible with a hidden agenda, some personal interest, Verena Tarrant, the child who grew up within the movement, lacking critical judgement, and Basil Ransom, the common-sense skeptic.

While the scene itself is described to make it amusing, neither pro nor contra, the substance of the novel focuses on the competition for Verena's heart.

Other books I have read by Henry James:
The portrait of a lady
The Europeans
The turn of the screw
The Aspern papers
The spoils of Poynton
Washington Square
On Provence
The birthplace
The turn of the screw and Other short fiction
Daisy Miller
In the cage

120. The Waste Land and Other Poems
Finished reading: 26 November 2021



Reading Stephen Spender's biography and critical introduction to the work of T. S. Eliot did not do anything to change my opinion about these poems. Reading them may be interesting but I do not care much for this intellectualism.

Just as in my student days, I still only really like "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufock" but I did not like any of the other poems.

121. First Love
Finished reading: 28 November 2021



I found this novella the most accessible and most pleasurable read of the shorter works I have read of Ivan Turgenev, so far. Probably, because the number of characters is relatively small, and the sentiment of the story is easy to understand.

Other books I have read by Ivan Turgenev:
Rudin
On the eve
Fathers and sons

122. The Coxon Fund
Finished reading: 28 November 2021



Less anthologized and less well known is Henry James's novella The Coxon Fund. The story is rather boring and most of the time it isn't very clear where the story is going. This can be explained by the fact that, oddly enough, the narrator does not seem to be really involved. It is as if the narrator is an agent who is standing outside the story. In fact, it is quite a jolt to realize that the narrator is probably Henry James. This first occurred to me in the off-hand comment the name-less narrator makes by comparing the speakers' scene in London with the speakers' circuit in Boston.

Reading fiction we are often warned not to identify the first person narrator with the author, but in The Coxon Fund this seems inevitable. This is because the narrator describes scenes that are not relevant to the story, with personages (that aren't characters in the story either) that the author may have known, e.g. the MP is his railway carriage.

The story itself is about two contestants for the fund, an endowment of a considerable sum. The narrator's reference to the scene in Boston seems to suggest that Frank Saltram is a fraud, although praise about his qualities and skill as a speaker seems to contradict this.

While the narrator seems in independent observer, aloof from the action, one wonders whether James ever had a real interest or envy about such funds and endowments for upcoming and promising talented artists.

Other books I have read by Henry James:
The Bostonians
The portrait of a lady
The Europeans
The turn of the screw
The Aspern papers
The spoils of Poynton
Washington Square
On Provence
The birthplace
The turn of the screw and Other short fiction
Daisy Miller
In the cage

123. Iris. The Life of Iris Murdoch
Finished reading: 30 November 2021



I was very disappointed by this biography of one of my all-time favourite authors, Iris Murdoch.

At over 700 pages, written and published shortly after she died, one wonders whether the urge to quickly bring out a biography won from careful research.

In my opinion, the biographer writes too much about other people who were important in Murdoch's life, and too little about Iris Murdoch and her novels.

It is to be hoped that another biographer will attempt to write a more comprehensive biography of Iris Murdoch, with more attention for her life, her ideas and philosophy, and her novels, both how they came to be written and a descroption of all her works.

Really disappointing.

124. Bee Journal
Finished reading: 4 December 2021



Bee Journal is a volume of poetry, the cycle of poems follows a year round of bee keeping.

On more than 90 pages, the author presents a cycle of poems, some short of just a few lines, and some long. Most poems are written in free verse.

Some descriptions in the poems were quite technical. Interesting to read, but with emphasis on "interesting", not on "beauty".

I've been enjoying your recently surge of reviewing activity. I'm glad you liked the Zuckerman trilogy plus The Prague Orgy. Will you read on to The Counterlife? It's a true tour de force in my view.

>153 rocketjk:

Yes. What you call my "recent surge of reviewing activity" is the result of renewed (full) access to LibraryThing. Living in China, I experience hindrance in accessing LT. Sometimes for many months I cannot do anything, neither edit the catalogue nor post messages. For most on 2021 I was able to post messages, but unable to edit the catalogue. Since late November, full access has been restored, so I have tried to catch up with my activities on LT.

I have copies of most novels by Roth on my TBR pile, and The Counterlife is one of them. Last week I started in American Pastoral but in 2022 I really want to read along with the Victorian theme read.

Four more books to review for 2021, then over to CR 2022.

125. Old New York
Finished reading: 5 December 2021



Describing the same scene as in The age of innocence is Old New York. Four novellas. These four novellas of 70 - 90 pages each, was first published in 1924.

The four novellas are:

False dawn: the Forties
The old maid: the Fifties
The spark: the Sixties
New Year's Day: the Seventies

The four novellas were published in separate volumes in a boxed set, later often together in one volume. Not as suave as novellas by Henry James, but an entertaining story, nonetheless.

The first novella is about a father-son relationship that goes awry. A typical generation conflict in the scene of the new wealthy, the son is not just misunderstood by his father, but far ahead of his contemporaries. The second novella "The Old Maid" is considered the best, while the fourth story is widely considered the weakest. Personally, I felt the first and second were the best.

"Old New York" does not refer to the place name. These novellas are not specifically about old-time New York city. In American upper-class parlance "Old New York" refers to the upper crust oldest and wealthiest families "Old Money" families in New York, the Rockefellers of the 19th century.

Just like The age of innocence, these four novellas are about the moral values of these Old Families. It was a theme Henry James has often suggested her to write about.

It isn't entirely clear why Wharton suggests each novella belongs to a decade, the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Edith Wharton was born in 1862, so in a sense these stories are historical fiction. Not exactly written from her own experience, although the stories would be set in the time of her mother or grandmother's youth, a time she might still be sufficiently able to glean from first-hand narratives by contemporaries. Nothing suggests that the succession of these decades involves a development.

Of the four novellas two are about men, and two are about women. The two novellas about young men, "False dawn" and "The spark" are both about inspiration, a glimmer that lights up in the minds of these young men. In each case, this new idea is sparked by art, in "False Dawn" it is the art of the renaissance, itself an expression of a new way to viewing man, that sets the young man on a new path, breaking with the conventionalism of his father, while in "The spark" the young soldier is inspired by a chance meeting with the American poet, Walt Whitman.

The two novellas about women, "The old maid" and "New Year's Day" are about sacrifices that the two women make in social situations that are strongly disapproved of by society.

In my opinion, the two novellas about the women are better than the two novellas about the men, and I think the four novellas should be read as a quartet. With the exception of "The old maid" I would hardly believe the stories would carry much conviction. I also think that Old New York. Four novellas is stronger and more convincing than The age of innocence. The four novellas were published two years after the novel. They seem to be more focused and thematically stronger.

Not as suave as the novellas by Henry James, I think this collection is still worth while reading.

Other books I have read by Edith Wharton:
Ethan Frome, and other short fiction
The custom of the country
Ethan Frome
Summer

126. Daisy Miller
Finished reading: 9December 2021



In 2021 I read two major novels and several novellas by Henry James, after finishing an anthology of shorter fiction by James in September 2020. I have several volumes of tales or novellas of Henry James, and there is some overlap between them. Following my reading of four works earlier this year, I started in Tales of Henry James, that is the Norton Critical Edition. This volume comprises 9 novellas and short stories. The Norton Critical Edition also contains about 200 pages of literary criticism. I do not always enjoy reading that, but this edition contains Henry James long essay "The Art of Fiction" and his Prefaces and excerpt from the notebooks with introductions to his own novels.

At first I was determined only to read the short stories and novellas which I have not yet read, but reading the additional materials spurred me on to re-read some of the novellas. So although I first read Daisy Miller in September 2020, I reread it this year.

The rereading was just as fresh and just as enjoyable as the first-time reading, only a year ago. The Norton Critical Edition provides notes which the Penguin English Library lacks, which gave more depth and a better understanding of the story.

Other books I have read by Henry James:
The Coxon Fund
The Bostonians
The portrait of a lady
The Europeans
The turn of the screw
The Aspern papers
The spoils of Poynton
Washington Square
On Provence
The birthplace
The turn of the screw and Other short fiction
Daisy Miller
In the cage

127. Romantic image
Finished reading: 13 December 2021



This year I have been reading several books by writers from the Romantic Period and some books about this period too, and I thought Romantic image would be a nice edition to that. However, I was very disappointed with this books and even irritated.

First of all, it is not the first time I have heard the suggestion that the Romantic period is not finished, although I think my tutors who brought this idea up got it from this book by Kermode. Frank Kermode was really a big name at that time.

Generally, the Romantic period refers to the writings of the period of the late Eighteenth century till the end of the first quarter of the Nineteenth century, with writers such as Coleridge, Keats, Shelley, Byron and Wordsworth, etc. In Romantic image Kermode suggests that the Romantic period is not finished and that for example Yeats belongs to this epoch.

What I don't like about Romantic image is that it barely pays attention to they traditional poets of what is convetionally considered to be the romantic period, while focussing on outliers and obscure writers. There seems to be a lot of names-dropping and high-brow elitism in this book.

Other books I have read by Frank Kermode:
Wallace Stevens

126. The Aspern papers
Finished reading: 15 December 2021



In 2021 I read two major novels and several novellas by Henry James, after finishing an anthology of shorter fiction by James in September 2020. I have several volumes of tales or novellas of Henry James, and there is some overlap between them. Following my reading of four works earlier this year, I started in Tales of Henry James, that is the Norton Critical Edition. This volume comprises 9 novellas and short stories. The Norton Critical Edition also contains about 200 pages of literary criticism. I do not always enjoy reading that, but this edition contains Henry James long essay "The Art of Fiction" and his Prefaces and excerpt from the notebooks with introductions to his own novels.

At first I was determined only to read the short stories and novellas which I have not yet read, but reading the additional materials spurred me on to re-read some of the novellas. So first I reread Daisy Miller which is really quite short, although I had read it only last year September..

At first I was determined not to reread The Aspern papers, but the additional material sparked my interest. Recently, I have been reading a lot about poets from the Romantic period, specifically Young Romantics. The Shelleys, Byron, and other tangled lives by Daisy Hay. This book extensively deals with Lord Byron and his relation with Claire Claremont, and their lives in Italy. It was the story of Claire Claremont and the possibility that she might possess a hoard of Shelley or Lord Byron papers that inspired Henry James to write The Aspern papers.

I twice read The Aspern papers in 1990, so with my renewed interest and part of my reading project of reading all major works of Henry James, I decided to reread it this December.

Obviously, I had forgotten a lot of details, and rereading it after so many years, with so much more information, and against the background of the Lord Byron - Claremont -Allegra history, it was thoroughly enjoyable.

The Aspern papers is probably one of James most impressive novellas.

Other books I have read by Henry James:
The Coxon Fund
The Bostonians
The portrait of a lady
The Europeans
The turn of the screw
The Aspern papers
The spoils of Poynton
Washington Square
On Provence
The birthplace
The turn of the screw and Other short fiction
Daisy Miller
In the cage

127. Vondel. Het verhaal van zijn leven (1587-1679)
Finished reading: 15 December 2021



Joost van den Vondel usually simply referred to as Vondel was one of the greatest Dutch authors of all times. His statures measures that of William Shakespeare. Vondel was a contemporary of Rembrandt van Rijn, the great Seventeenth century painter. In fact, they lived very closely.

However, the Dutch literary scene and Dutch publishing are unlike the English-speaking world, where multiple editions of Shakespeare's works are readily available. And as a result of the scarcity of editions, Vondel remains largely unread. People know his name, but would be hard pressed to name any of his plays.

Therefore it is a good thing Piet Calis wrote this new biography of Vondel. Calis has a very modern, accessible writing style, free of academic pretense. Some of his comments are even boderline banal, or a bit too colloquial, but this is quite typical on the contemporary no-nonsense Dutch style.

The book starts with the controversy around the Gijsbrecht van Amstel, the only play of Vondel that was regularly on the play roll as it is considered closely connected with the history of Amsterdam and the spirit of Dutch people.

However, after that the biography is mostly chronological, discussing all the major plays and book publications of Vondel's works in his day. Besides playwright, Vondel was a magnificent poet.

Vondel, who lived to the high age of 91, was also a contemporary of John Milton. It is known that Milton could read Dutch and it has often been suggested that Milton found inspiration in Vondel for his famous poem Paradise Lost, although this assertion is more or less refuted in this Vondel biography.

Besides describing and explaining Vondel's plays, the biography gives a wealth of detail about Vondel's life. Not only was Vondel a hard-working writer, he also conducted business successfully, and despite effectively being a millionaire in his time, worked as an employee at a pawn shop for many years, until he asked for and was gracefully released into old-age retirement.

The most shocking episode in his life was his relation with his son, and the guilt complex he developed after his son's death.

Vondel's life ran parralell to the development of the city of Amsterdam and the glory of the Netherlands it it's Golden Age.

128. The age of innocence
Finished reading: 26 December 2021




For more than 20 years Henry James suggested to Edith Wharton to write about the social circles she grew up in. DO NEW YORK, he told her. When finally she did, she produced The age of innocence, about, in American upper-class parlance "Old New York", the upper crust oldest and wealthiest families or the "Old Money" families in New York, the Rockefellers of the 19th century.

The age of innocence is about the moral values of these Old Families. The moral dilemma in this novel is the same as that in James's The portrait of a lady, published 30 years earlier, but Wharton's style is much lighter, and the treatment of this theme much more frivolous.

Countess Olenska is a still young American woman, who left the US to get married to a Polish Count. Unhappy in her marriage she shows up in New York, in an attempt to return her family in America. There she meets Newland Archer, who is engaged to get married with her cousin May Welland.

Written from the point of view of Newland, Countess Olenska is the young, exotic new belle on the block, making his newly-wed wife May look dull. It isn't until the very last part of the book that the conservative, conventional morals of Old New York, the family and all their friends become clear. A married woman should stay with her husband, no matter what.

The age of innocence is much drawn out and rather unfocussed, with its main theme not becoming fully clear until the end. It would probably have been much more forceful if it was a novella, of less than half its number of pages.

Other books I have read by Edith Wharton:
Ethan Frome, and other short fiction
The custom of the country
Ethan Frome
Summer
Old New York. Four novellas

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