tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42685643199846773942024-03-14T00:04:36.828-07:00the bookshop readerthereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-11421222315805888882015-01-01T10:20:00.002-08:002015-01-01T10:20:38.931-08:00Middlemarch<a href="http://juliaritson.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/penguin-cover-george-eliot-middlemarch.jpg?w=710" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-5856" src="http://juliaritson.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/penguin-cover-george-eliot-middlemarch.jpg?w=710" height="320" title="Penguin-Cover-George-Eliot-Middlemarch" width="191" /></a><u>Blurb</u>: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">Middlemarch </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">is a complex tale of idealism, disillusion, profligacy, loyalty and frustrated love. This penetrating analysis of the life of an English provincial town during the time of social unrest prior to the Reform Bill of 1832 is told through the lives of Dorothea Brooke and Dr Tertius Lydgate and includes a host of other paradigm characters who illumi</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">nate the condition of English life in the mid-nineteenth century.</span><br />
<br />
<u>Thoughts</u>: Brilliant. I'll be frank and say that it is, to start with, a pretty impossible read. But when you get into the rhythm of the narration, it is an incredible one. The novel is simultaneously epic and minute, profound and insignificant, a metaphor for life and a simple documentary.<br />
<br />
Realism as a literary concept is a tricky one. Fiction is by definition not real. Yet <i>Middlemarch</i> manages to create a world that has a sense of the real in it. I read an essay somewhere that said that no one really knows how to define realism, but everyone agrees that Eliot is it. The beauty of her writing is tied up in her belief that 'all truth and beauty are to be attained by a humble and faithful study of nature'. Her focus on the minute and inner workings of the seemingly insignificant is not only beautifully executed but also succeeds in slowing down our sense of our own reality: shaping how we observe the world around us.<br />
<br />
It is a marathon of a read, and like many marathon reads it is not really until after it is over that you realise what a masterpiece you just experienced, but there are moments of this novel so profound and beautiful that reading it is truly a joy. Here is one of my favourites:<br />
<br />
<i><span style="color: #999999;">"An eminent philosopher among my friends, who can dignify even your
ugly furniture by lifting it into the serene light of science,
has shown me this pregnant little fact. Your pier-glass or extensive
surface of polished steel made to be rubbed by a housemaid,
will be minutely and multitudinously scratched in all directions;
but place now against it a lighted candle as a centre of illumination,
and lo! the scratches will seem to arrange themselves in a fine
series of concentric circles round that little sun. It is
demonstrable that the scratches are going everywhere impartially
and it is only your candle which produces the flattering illusion
of a concentric arrangement, its light falling with an exclusive
optical selection. These things are a parable. The scratches
are events, and the candle is the egoism of any person now absent--
of Miss Vincy, for example."</span></i><br />
<br />thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-10504795307495960412014-09-14T02:30:00.000-07:002014-09-14T04:04:35.178-07:00Heart of Darkness<div>
<a href="http://www.studentpulse.com/article-images/uploaded/348_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Joseph Conrad's He<a href=" art="" border="0" class="article-image-left" src="http://www.studentpulse.com/article-images/uploaded/348_1.jpg" height="320" keyword="" title="View 5 other articles with tag 'Art'" width="212" /></a><u>Blurb</u>: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the peak of European Imperialism, steamboat captain Charles Marlow travels deep into the African Congo on his way to relieve the elusive Mr Kurtz, an ivory trader renowned for his fearsome reputation. On his journey into the unknown Marlow takes a terrifying trip into his own subconscious, overwhelmed by his menacing, perilous and horrifying surroundings.</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: -4px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The landscape and the people he meets force him to reflect on human nature and society, and in turn Conrad writes revealingly about the dangers of imperialism.</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">
</span><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<u>Thoughts</u>: I really enjoyed this. The atmosphere that surrounds the tale is incredible. The story unfolds through the haze of Marlow's memory - but at the same time Conrad creates an incredibly vivid sensory world. As he himself said, "My task is to make you hear, to make you feel -- it is, before all, to make you see."<br />
<br />
It is an oddly hard read, which at first I wasn't sure if was due to English not being his first language (he had no knowledge of the language at the age of 20) or an intention towards disturbance and disorientation. On reflection I think it is definitely the latter. In either case, the often unconventional use of lexis is both incredibly powerful and disturbing. </div>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-49146176314746300242014-08-25T06:46:00.002-07:002015-05-12T12:31:25.158-07:00The Portrait of a Lady<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yjKgEcxU_bY/U_sToccAn4I/AAAAAAAAAPg/mMU8zivTAvQ/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yjKgEcxU_bY/U_sToccAn4I/AAAAAAAAAPg/mMU8zivTAvQ/s1600/Unknown.jpeg" width="209" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Blurb</u>: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">In this portrait of a "young woman affronting her destiny," Henry James created one of his most magnificent heroines, and a story of intense poignancy. When Isabel Archer, a beautiful, spirited American, is brought to Europe by her wealthy aunt, it is expected that she will soon marry. But Isabel, resolved to enjoy her freedom, does not hesitate to turn down two eligible suitors. Then she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the charming and cultivated Gilb</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22px;">ert Osmond. Isabel, however, soon discovers the cruelty and stifling darkness beneath Gilbert's civilized veneer.</span><br />
<br />
<u>Comments</u>: I loved this book. I found the writing beautifully subtle and thoughtfully observed. The characters have incredible psychological depth and development (something perhaps not entirely surprising given Henry James' closeness with his brother William, who has been labelled "the father of American psychology").<br />
<br />
The structure of the novel, too, impressed me. The gradual wearing away of her naive outlook and its ideals - the development novel's tragedy - is incredibly well conceived and gently brought upon the reader. Isabel's realisation at the end of novel is skilfully built and last hundred pages are unputdownable.<br />
<br />
I did find it slightly tricky to get into at first. The pace of the novel is much slower and the writing more thoughtful than a lot of what I read. But I think a bit of a challenge for our 21st century short attention span is no bad thing.thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-48628128298218830612014-08-18T06:19:00.001-07:002014-08-18T06:19:11.579-07:00Great Expectations<a href="http://greatexpectationsnovel.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/0/1/2301863/708939_orig.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><img border="0" height="419" id="irc_mi" src="http://greatexpectationsnovel.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/0/1/2301863/708939_orig.gif" style="margin-top: 0px;" width="259" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Blurb:</u> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;">Great Expectations charts the progress of Pip from childhood through often painful experiences to adulthood, as he moves from the Kent marshes to busy, commercial London, encountering a variety of extraordinary characters ranging from Magwitch, the escaped convict, to Miss Havisham, locked up with her unhappy past and living with her ward, the arrogant, beautiful Estella. Pip must discover his true self, and his own set of values and priorities. Whether such values allow one to prosper in the complex world of early Victorian England is the major question posed by Great Expectations, one of Dickens's most fascinating, and disturbing, novels.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 22px;"><br /></span></span>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><u>Thoughts:</u> This was actually my first Dickens novel. In fact, I haven't read a huge amount of Victorian literature at all and I think it's something quite different to get into (the length, the heavy description, the format of the novels given that a lot were originally released serially). </span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">I suppose also because I tend to prefer modernist literature, I'm used to the style of writing being - very consciously - the most important component of a novel, and while it is undoubtedly well written, I think that the characterisation is more important. (Although I suppose the characterisation is wrapped up in the narrative as it's in first person...) Every character is incredibly well formed and feels so present.</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">I must admit though that it took me a while to get through, but maybe that is partly to do with me having to get used to the length of Victorian novels. Still, the storyline itself actually wasn't my favourite. I was slightly frustrated at the way it came together so neatly (although I suppose that could be seen as one of the book's successes). Nonetheless, I think I'd recommend it simply for its characters.</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-29032596162645244542014-03-25T13:20:00.000-07:002014-04-01T15:50:35.862-07:00on altering facesI've noticed, although I am slightly reluctant to admit it, that talking with people here I write with a slightly different 'face'. I read myself say things like "oh you must" and "it's darling" that I would never say in any other context. It makes me wonder to what extent our sense of self (through language) changes in different contexts and among different groups.<br />
<br />
Clearly we change how we write in an academic context, having to avoid contractions or using the word 'I'. I find myself always writing "indeed, ..." in essays, something I would never say or write anywhere else. But when you are making point upon point, it makes sense to adapt language to fit need.<br />
<br />
But it interests me the way that I take on a slightly different persona writing with different groups of people. It's in human nature to mirror what we see around us - like how often in stressful situations people copy the body language of those around them. And it is true that in many cases I mirror other people's speech habits. But with so many altering faces, I wonder what it is that defines me. It's likely that this altering of tone and voice is something I do subconsciously when speaking aloud, but having a written account really makes me aware of how I change and what defines me - as a writer (in the informal sense) and as a person. I wonder whether finding this balance of flexibility vs continuity and working out what in my language marks who I am is something that will naturally develop as I get older, or whether identity through language is something that has to be consciously sought.<br />
<br />
I guess in many ways it is the same with authors: they try out different settings, different voices, different styles. But throughout there is some essence of who it is they are as a writer.<br />
<br />
I have no answer or conclusion here, or any real question for that matter, just thought I'd share some thoughts...thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-59708261223085303892014-03-18T11:26:00.000-07:002014-03-18T11:31:13.820-07:00classics club march meme: what is your favourite literary period and why?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">In response to the this month's <a href="http://theclassicsclubblog.wordpress.com/">Classics Club</a> meme, I'd definitely say early twentieth century modernism. This can almost 100% be accounted for by my love of T.S. Eliot and Virginia Woolf. While this is driven primarily the beauty and creativity of the writing, there is also something to be said for what puts a lot of people off modernist writers. I think the sometimes off-puttingly "difficult" nature of the texts in fact makes the reader an active participant in the development of narrative and the emphasis on literature as a form makes us more conscious of how we shape our sense of self through language. Of course I say all this without ever having attempted Joyce's <i>Ulysses</i>, so maybe after struggling through that I might change my mind!</span><br />
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I thought I'd leave you with one of my favourite Eliot poems, a poem whose protagonist was rather amusingly proposed by Roger Mitchell to be representative of early Modernism itself: self-aware, overly perceptive and contemplative, retiring and isolated.</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">(If anyone's interested, <a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/eliot/prufrock.htm">here</a> are some really interesting critical views of the poem)</span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock</span></b><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></b>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; font-weight: normal;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">S’io credesse che mia risposta fosse</span></i></span></b></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Ma perciocche giammai di questo fondo</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Non torno vivo alcun, s’i’odo il vero,</span></i></span></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Senza tema d’infamia ti rispondo.</span></i></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<table align="CENTER" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" style="text-align: left; width: 601px;"><tbody>
<tr><td><table align="CENTER" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">LET us go then, you and I,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="1"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">When the evening is spread out against the sky</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="2"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Like a patient etherized upon a table;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="3"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Let us go, through certain half-deserted streets,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="4"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The muttering retreats</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="5"><i> 5</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="6"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And sawdust restaurants with oyster-shells:</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="7"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Streets that follow like a tedious argument</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="8"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Of insidious intent</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="9"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To lead you to an overwhelming question….</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="10"><i> 10</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Oh, do not ask, “What is it?”</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="11"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Let us go and make our visit.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="12"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">In the room the women come and go</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="13"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Talking of Michelangelo.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="14"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="15"><i> 15</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the window-panes</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="16"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Licked its tongue into the corners of the evening,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="17"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="18"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Let fall upon its back the soot that falls from chimneys,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="19"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Slipped by the terrace, made a sudden leap,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="20"><i> 20</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And seeing that it was a soft October night,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="21"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Curled once about the house, and fell asleep.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="22"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And indeed there will be time</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="23"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">For the yellow smoke that slides along the street,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="24"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Rubbing its back upon the window panes;</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="25"><i> 25</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">There will be time, there will be time</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="26"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="27"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">There will be time to murder and create,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="28"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And time for all the works and days of hands</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="29"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">That lift and drop a question on your plate;</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="30"><i> 30</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Time for you and time for me,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="31"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And time yet for a hundred indecisions,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="32"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And for a hundred visions and revisions,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="33"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Before the taking of a toast and tea.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="34"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">In the room the women come and go</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="35"><i> 35</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Talking of Michelangelo.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="36"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And indeed there will be time</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="37"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To wonder, “Do I dare?” and, “Do I dare?”</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="38"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Time to turn back and descend the stair,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="39"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">With a bald spot in the middle of my hair—</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="40"><i> 40</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">(They will say: “How his hair is growing thin!”)</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="41"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="42"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin—</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="43"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">(They will say: “But how his arms and legs are thin!”)</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="44"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Do I dare</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="45"><i> 45</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Disturb the universe?</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="46"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">In a minute there is time</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="47"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="48"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">For I have known them all already, known them all:</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="49"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="50"><i> 50</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="51"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I know the voices dying with a dying fall</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="52"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Beneath the music from a farther room.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="53"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> So how should I presume?</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="54"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And I have known the eyes already, known them all—</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="55"><i> 55</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">The eyes that fix you in a formulated phrase,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="56"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And when I am formulated, sprawling on a pin,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="57"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">When I am pinned and wriggling on the wall,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="58"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Then how should I begin</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="59"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To spit out all the butt-ends of my days and ways?</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="60"><i> 60</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> And how should I presume?</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="61"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And I have known the arms already, known them all—</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="62"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Arms that are braceleted and white and bare</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="63"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">(But in the lamplight, downed with light brown hair!)</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="64"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Is it perfume from a dress</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="65"><i> 65</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">That makes me so digress?</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="66"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Arms that lie along a table, or wrap about a shawl.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="67"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> And should I then presume?</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="68"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> And how should I begin?</span><br />
<div align="center">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">. . . . . . . .</span></div>
</td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="69"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="70"><i> 70</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="71"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?…</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="72"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I should have been a pair of ragged claws</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="73"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Scuttling across the floors of silent seas.</span><br />
<div align="center">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">. . . . . . . .</span></div>
</td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="74"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And the afternoon, the evening, sleeps so peacefully!</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="75"><i> 75</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Smoothed by long fingers,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="76"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Asleep … tired … or it malingers,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="77"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Stretched on the floor, here beside you and me.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="78"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Should I, after tea and cakes and ices,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="79"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Have the strength to force the moment to its crisis?</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="80"><i> 80</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="81"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="82"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I am no prophet—and here’s no great matter;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="83"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I have seen the moment of my greatness flicker,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="84"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And I have seen the eternal Footman hold my coat, and snicker,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="85"><i> 85</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And in short, I was afraid.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="86"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And would it have been worth it, after all,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="87"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">After the cups, the marmalade, the tea,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="88"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Among the porcelain, among some talk of you and me,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="89"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Would it have been worth while,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="90"><i> 90</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To have bitten off the matter with a smile,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="91"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To have squeezed the universe into a ball</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="92"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To roll it toward some overwhelming question,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="93"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To say: “I am Lazarus, come from the dead,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="94"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”—</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="95"><i> 95</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">If one, settling a pillow by her head,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="96"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="97"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> That is not it, at all.”</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="98"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And would it have been worth it, after all,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="99"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Would it have been worth while,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="100"><i> 100</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">After the sunsets and the dooryards and the sprinkled streets,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="101"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">After the novels, after the teacups, after the skirts that trail along the floor—</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="102"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And this, and so much more?—</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="103"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">It is impossible to say just what I mean!</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="104"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">But as if a magic lantern threw the nerves in patterns on a screen:</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="105"><i> 105</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Would it have been worth while</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="106"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="107"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">And turning toward the window, should say:</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="108"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> “That is not it at all,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="109"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> That is not what I meant, at all.”</span><br />
<div align="center">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">. . . . . . . .</span></div>
</td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="110"><i> 110</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">No! I am not Prince Hamlet, nor was meant to be;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="111"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Am an attendant lord, one that will do</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="112"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">To swell a progress, start a scene or two,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="113"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Advise the prince; no doubt, an easy tool,</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="114"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Deferential, glad to be of use,</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="115"><i> 115</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Politic, cautious, and meticulous;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="116"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Full of high sentence, but a bit obtuse;</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="117"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">At times, indeed, almost ridiculous—</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="118"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Almost, at times, the Fool.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="119"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I grow old … I grow old …</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="120"><i> 120</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="121"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="122"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="123"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="124"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I do not think that they will sing to me.</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="125"><i> 125</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">I have seen them riding seaward on the waves</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="126"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Combing the white hair of the waves blown back</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="127"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">When the wind blows the water white and black.</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="128"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">We have lingered in the chambers of the sea</span></td><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="129"></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown</span></td><td align="RIGHT" valign="TOP"><span style="color: #444444;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=4268564319984677394" name="130"><i> 130</i></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;">Till human voices wake us, and we drown.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-69145056567275107122014-03-18T10:17:00.003-07:002014-03-18T11:33:14.143-07:00yet another of these...Looking though this blog, I've realised that there are almost as many posts apologising for not blogging or setting out new reading resolutions that there are actual book reviews. So logically I thought the solution to this was to write another post apologising and setting out a new reading resolution!<br />
<br />
A lot has happened since I last wrote here. Most excitingly, I got into my top uni choice and fingers crossed on me getting my grades I'll be off to read English next year! Rather more dauntingly, I received a fifty book long reading list from them last week...<br />
<br />
So I thought as I really do have to read at least the majority of these books before October, this would be the perfect place for me to share and discuss my thoughts about them - especially as once term starts it'll be very useful to have a record of what I thought.<br />
<br />
A lot of the list were literary theory books and preparatory reading for studying Anglo-Saxon literature (which I'd be happy to copy into this blog if anyone is interested). But I thought as a lot of you will have read books from the Victorian literature list, it might be a good idea to pop that down here. Let me know which ones you've read and would recommend, and which ones for which I should prepare myself for a hard read...<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Novels</span></b></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Charlotte, <i>Jane Eyre</i> (1847); <i>Villette</i> (1853) </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Emily Brontë, <i>Wuthering Heights</i> (1847)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Anne Brontë, <i>The Tenant of Wildfell Hall</i> (1848) </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Charles Dickens, <i>Hard Times</i> (1854)<i>; Bleak House</i> (1852-3); <i>Great Expectations</i> (1860-1) </span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Elizabeth Gaskell, <i>Mary Barton</i> (1848); <i>North and South</i> (1855)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">George Eliot, <i>Adam Bede</i> (1859); <i>The Mill on the Floss</i> (1860)<i>; Middlemarch</i> (1874)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Wilkie Collins, <i>The Woman in White</i> (1859)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Mary Elizabeth Braddon, <i>Lady Audley’s Secret</i> (1862)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Thomas Hardy, <i>The Return of the Native</i> (1878); <i>Tess of the D’Urbevilles</i> (1891); <i>Jude the Obscure</i> (1895)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Henry James, <i>The Portrait of a Lady</i> (1881)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Robert Louis Stevenson, <i>The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde</i> (1886)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Oscar Wilde, <i>The Picture of Dorian Gray</i> (1891)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Joseph Conrad, <i>Heart of Darkness</i> (1902); <i>Nostromo</i> (1904)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Poetry</span></b></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Alfred Tennyson, especially <i>In Memoriam</i>, <i>Ulysses</i>, <i>Tithonus</i> (Longman edition)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Robert Browning, (Penguin edition of the complete works)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Either</b>: <i>Nineteenth-Century Women’s Poetry</i>, eds. Isobel Armstrong and Joseph Bristow, especially Emily Brontë, Christina Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Oxford University Press, 1996)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Or</b>: Gerard Manley Hopkins (Penguin Edition of the Poems and Prose)</span></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Drama</span></b></div>
<div style="font: 12.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Oscar Wilde, <i>A Woman of No Importance</i> (1893)<i>, The Importance of Being Ernest</i> (1895); <i>An Ideal Husband </i>(1895); and a selection from <i>Nineteenth-Century Plays</i> ed. by George Rowell (Oxford UP, 1972) </span></div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-74190312093045105972013-06-14T17:15:00.000-07:002013-06-14T17:15:00.046-07:00Franny and Zooey<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i08JR36n25I/Ube9ho8OBfI/AAAAAAAAANo/XfYxYpS5TZc/s1600/Frannyzoey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-i08JR36n25I/Ube9ho8OBfI/AAAAAAAAANo/XfYxYpS5TZc/s320/Frannyzoey.jpg" width="215" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Blurb: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;">Two wonderful stories about members of the Glass family by the author of ‘The Catcher in the Rye’. The first story takes place in downtown New Haven during the weekend of ‘the Yale game’ and follows Franny Glass on a date with her collegiate boyfriend. The second focuses on Zooey Glass, a somewhat emotionally toughened genius. As his younger sister Franny hits an emotional crisis in her parents' Manhattan living room, Zooey comes to her aid, offering love, understanding, and words of sage advice.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">Thoughts: In short, I fell in love with this book (or more technically, short story and novella). It manages to be incredibly profound while retaining a feeling of total inconsequentiality. It deals with religious philosophy, devotion and fanaticism, but so conversationally and uniquely and it doesn't feel at all didactic or overbearing. Salinger manages to talk about</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"> the meaning, or lack thereof, of life in a way that doesn't feel at all hackneyed or like it's been done before.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">I also, as I did with <i>The Catcher in the Rye,</i> fell in love with his characters. Something about them - the patterns in their speech, their movement and what they say - makes them feel very real, but at the same time utterly unique. For me at least, they are the kind of characters you want to know and understand everything about. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">I think in a way I preferred this book to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><i>The Catcher in the Rye</i>. It may have much less of a plot, but for me the characters and the ideas were much more interesting. Either way, I would wholeheartedly recommend it.</span>thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-6402543634173663052013-06-11T16:40:00.002-07:002013-06-11T16:40:38.656-07:00a bit of a catch upSo it's been quite a while (again..)! I've been wrapped up the in wonderful land of revision! (Note sarcasm.)<br />
<br />
But to be fair, it could be worse: I've also been in Normandy, and there are worse things than spending my breaks going for walks in an orchard and eating lots of cheese...<br />
<br />
In fact, I suppose it's not been so bad - days reading Tom Stoppard plays, speaking Spanish and learning about the Vietnam War and Indian independence. Despite the impending threat of exams, there definitely are worse things to do in life.<br />
<br />
But now the exams are over! Finally, I can read! Or so I thought...<br />
<br />
I always find that after a period of time when I have spend hours dreaming about having nothing to do but curl up in bed with a good book, when I actually find myself with spare time - with no exams to feel guilty about not revising for - I just don't read. I suppose it's something to do with being out of the habit, or our wonderful propensity for procrastination, or just needing a break from doing anything - but for my two weeks off before going back to school, I only read one book!<br />
<br />
Well, whatever the reason, now I've had my break. And I am feeling so enthusiastic and excited to jump back into my reading! Having decided to apply to do English at university next year, I have lists of novels and books on literary theory and literary criticism which honestly fill me with such excitement I find it hard to believe. (No sarcasm intended this time.) First off, Jean-Paul Sartre's <i>What is Literature?</i><br />
<br />
So hopefully, this blog will come alive again as I dive into mountains of books. And after my break from reading I couldn't be feeling more inspired and excited to jump into it.thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-54911954945972924652013-02-15T16:13:00.000-08:002013-02-15T16:13:00.255-08:00A Country Doctor's Notebook<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6k4zhvyudTw/URraczkljKI/AAAAAAAAANI/WTskyQSFsNI/s1600/countrydoc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6k4zhvyudTw/URraczkljKI/AAAAAAAAANI/WTskyQSFsNI/s320/countrydoc.jpg" width="199" /></a>Blurb: <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the ink still wet on his diploma, the twenty-five-year-old Dr Mikhail Bulgakov was flung into the depths of rural Russia which, in 1916-17, was still largely unaffected by such novelties as the motor car, the telephone or electric light. How his alter-ego copes (or fails to cope) with the new and often appalling responsibilities of a lone doctor in a vast country practice - on the eve of Revolution - is described in Bulgakov's delightful blend of candid realism and imaginative exuberance.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
Thoughts: I really enjoyed these. They are very understated and quite shockingly realist, having read the Master and Margarita. The first seven short stories are - as the title would suggest - the anecdotes of a doctor. They are incredibly simple - but beautiful, funny and expertly written. There is a real sense of the harrowing isolation. In fact I think I preferred these simpler stories to the last two: <i>Morphine</i> and <i>The Murdere</i>r which seem different to the anecdotal tone of the first seven, and more profound in subject. Indeed for me it was Bulkagov's skilful simplicity that really made these stories so enjoyable.thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-34028798563812584632013-02-12T15:01:00.000-08:002013-02-12T15:01:01.382-08:00The Picture of Dorian Gray<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JxPdbVw4uyg/URgmsMtkWZI/AAAAAAAAAM0/BWV8WLCjrMI/s1600/doriangray1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JxPdbVw4uyg/URgmsMtkWZI/AAAAAAAAAM0/BWV8WLCjrMI/s320/doriangray1.jpg" width="206" /></a><u>Blurb:</u> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dorian is a good-natured young man until he discovers the power of his own exceptional beauty. As he gradually sinks deep into a frivolous, glamourous world of selfish luxury, he apparently remains physically unchanged by the stresses of his corrupt lifestyle and untouched by age. But up in his attic, hidden behind a curtain, his portrait tells a different story…</span></span><br />
<br />
<u>Thoughts: </u>My thoughts changed quite a lot over the course of the novel. When I first started it, I loved it. It does feel like an indulgence on Oscar Wilde's part and he clearly relishes Lord Henry's paradoxical and sententious epigrams and his flamboyant descriptions. I really love when you can tell an author has enjoyed writing something and I think with this is very much the case in <i>The Picture of Dorian Gray</i>.<br />
<br />
Around the middle of the book I started not to enjoy it so much. I think it was partly because I knew the premise of the story beforehand, so it started to feel a little inevitable and predictable. For me the happier section of Dorian's life seemed to be a bit of a page filler; although it was necessary, it wasn't as exciting or enjoyable as the rest of the novel. I also wasn't quite sure I liked how the slightly magical aspect was working...<br />
<br />
However by the end it really picked up again for me. I loved the whole of the end section when the fear starts to creep in. In fact here, where it is done more eerily, I really enjoyed the unnatural element (of the portrait). Wilde's writing truly is incredible, and there are passages that were so beautifully formed that I read them at least five times. I also think it is an incredibly interesting idea and is very well executed. Saying that, I'm still not decided on whether I enjoyed it as much as the short stories of his I read, with their more outright sarcastic commentary, but it was a very enjoyable read and one I think will stay with me.thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-20548433233668459282013-02-07T14:28:00.001-08:002013-02-07T14:29:22.120-08:00The Castle<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0rjsSA6F4o/URQqSZHtdcI/AAAAAAAAAMg/lrCd_TbUPj4/s1600/kafka_castle-penguin-classics.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Y0rjsSA6F4o/URQqSZHtdcI/AAAAAAAAAMg/lrCd_TbUPj4/s320/kafka_castle-penguin-classics.jpg" width="197" /></a><u>Blurb</u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u style="color: #444444;">:</u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;">The story of K, the unwanted Land Surveyor who is never to be admitted to the Castle nor accepted in the village, and yet cannot go home, seems to reveal an inexplicable truth about the nature of existence. In his Introduction, Idris Parry shows that duality - to Kafka a perpetual human condition - lies at the heart of this magnum opus: dualities of certainty and doubt, hope and fear, reason and nonsense, harmony and disintegration.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"><em>The Castle</em></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 15px;">then, is an unfinished novel that feels strangely complete, in which a labyrinthine world is described in simple language and absurd fantasy reveals profound truth.</span></span></span><br />
<u><br /></u>
<u>Thoughts:</u> I am really growing to love Kafka. The way he writes is incredibly unique. The book has a very surreal dreamlike - or rather nightmarish - narrative and feeling to it. I think his style of writing has a lot to do with this; Kafka did not write with an idea of where the narrative was going, instead it seems to unravel itself. This experimentative way of writing and lack of real plot does create a rambling and sometimes laborious read, but it also gives rise to really very interesting conclusions about human nature.<br />
<br />
There are many aspects of <i>The Castle</i> that reminded me of <i>The Trial</i>; the lone protagonist, endless bureaucracy, lack of reason or meaning despite endless interpretations. However, although in many ways it a harder read, I think on balance I actually found it to be more thought-provoking than The Trial.<br />
<br />
The feeling that persists is a nightmarish sense of isolation. There are I'm sure copious interpretations, but my impression was that it is this aloneness in the world that <i>The Castle</i> speaks of, and the endless search for understanding and human connection.<br />
<br />
The fact that the book is unfinished did not bother me. In fact it felt bizarrely apt that there was no conclusion to K.'s aims and struggles, with the implication of never-ending complications and misunderstanding. In truth this aptness did make me wonder about the reality of Kafka's intentions and whether or not its incompletion was intentional.thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-77044071953213863032013-01-19T08:08:00.000-08:002013-01-19T08:09:49.552-08:00Oscar Wilde<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7-r6ewA850E/UPq_T594a2I/AAAAAAAAAMM/8Nowv_SF3zc/s1600/WILDE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7-r6ewA850E/UPq_T594a2I/AAAAAAAAAMM/8Nowv_SF3zc/s1600/WILDE.jpg" /></a></div>
Well I've started reading his short stories, and I think I'm in love.<br />
<br />
I've only read a few (the four published in <i>Lord Arthur Saville's Crime and Other Stories</i>) but already he has me looking like an idiot grinning ear to ear on the bus. He's witty (and knowingly so), satirical, socially critical and truly entertaining. In short, I completely understand why Morrissey was obsessed by him.<br />
<br />
The list is already piling high of his work I'd love to read: books<i>, </i>essays, letters (especially the one he wrote to Alfred Douglas from prison), plays, poetry...thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-71328659290867830092013-01-06T17:37:00.001-08:002013-01-06T17:37:19.167-08:00InspirationTo be honest, the end of last year was really lacking it. And my new years resolutions for that matter were just a bit tired. A bit weary. But inspiration has struck, finally.<br />
<br />
It was carried down by a midnight run and <a href="http://ahappieremily.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/blissfully-aware/">blog post</a>. And with it has come a desire for serenity, self-understanding and knowledge.<br />
<br />
I don't like rules and strict resolutions. I like making them, but then they stop me from achieving my goals. I work better on a feeling, or an aim. A sense of how I want to feel or where I want to go.<br />
<br />
And I've realised that I think I want to find my person. An author that intrigues me so much that I can't get enough. That I read their letters, their essays, their journals. It was Sylvia Plath, and to be honest it could still be, but there could be somebody else. So I'm on a new quest, and I'm going to read and read until I find them. And then I'm going to read and read some more.<br />
<br />
I read an article about <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/12/new_year_s_resolutions_reading_a_book_every_day.html">someone</a> who read effectively a book a day. I'm not planning something so drastic - in fact I'm not <i>planning</i> anything at all - but what I took from it was how he did it, and it wasn't by giving up his work or time with his family. He said he replaced all his reading, and watching, with reading books. No facebook, no youtube, no re-watching old episodes of Grey's Anatomy. Just book upon book. And that sounds like bliss.<br />
<br />
And I'm not saying we don't need down time, a little time to not be productive. But it's so easy to waste time. To see a week go by in a flash, without a second to let your head catch up with it. So I think it goes back to awareness. Just being aware of what I'm doing and where I'm going rather than letting it all carry me along with no real sense of direction.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Raax1IcaxoI/UOol4m8qRHI/AAAAAAAAAL4/4yojQjE7gDA/s1600/witw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Raax1IcaxoI/UOol4m8qRHI/AAAAAAAAAL4/4yojQjE7gDA/s320/witw.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
So that's my non-plan-plan. And it may be a bit late, but for a second time - happy new year.thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-66327489236779511202013-01-01T10:00:00.000-08:002013-01-20T08:37:22.796-08:00New YearNew year, new year's resolution. And mine is - reading. Reading, reading, reading. So i think that ought to be accompanied by blogging, blogging, blogging.<br />
<br />
I think a weekly blog post is what's in order, which will hopefully push me to read a book a week!<br />
<br />
I'm just finishing <i>A Little History of the World</i> E. H. Gombrich, which one of the families I babysit for really sweetly gave me as a Christmas present, and then on to a bit of good ole Kafka with <i>The Castle</i>.<br />
<br />
I've decided to write an EPQ (which is basically a qualification worth half an A level in the form of an extended essay) on Soviet dissident writers - so expect a lot of Russian literature in the next year! (If anyone has any suggestions of books I should read, please let me know)<br />
<br />
Anyway so - happy new year everyone, and let 2013 be as brilliant and book-filled (or more) as last year :)<br />
<br />thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-72275288137786859022012-11-10T02:07:00.004-08:002012-11-10T02:07:42.196-08:00The Trial<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hazqgw56-9o/UI3Hv5BubHI/AAAAAAAAALI/WQjrktpzw6k/s1600/kafka.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hazqgw56-9o/UI3Hv5BubHI/AAAAAAAAALI/WQjrktpzw6k/s1600/kafka.tiff" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><u>Blurb</u>: Somebody must have laid false information against Josef K., for he was arrested one morning without having done anything wrong.' From this first sentence onwards, Josef K. is on trial for his right to exist in a novel which, more than any other, is infinitely perceptive about the nature of terror.<br /><br /><u>Thoughts</u>: In a word: amazing. The story is gripping, tormenting and the writing is brilliant. But what is incredible is the depth. It could be read as a note on simply the ridiculous bureaucracy and inaccessibility of the legal system, which within the Austro-Hungarian Empire of that time, I think it is hard to imagine the extent of. But beyond that there are so many levels to see metaphor. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Religion; the idea of sin and guilt, as well as perhaps the inaccessibility of sacred texts, and the irreconcilable, endless and contradictory nature of the interpretation of these texts and of religion itself. In fact Kafka was seemingly obsessed with the idea of guilt, writing in a diary "I am sinful in every nook and cranny of my being." </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book could even stand as a metaphor for life itself; the pursuit of meaning and self-understanding when in fact I believe both K in The Trial and Kafka himself, though they tried to convince themselves otherwise, fundamentally knew this to be impossible. Kafka's dissatisfaction with himself and with his struggles to find meaning can be seen in his self-depreciation and destruction, though the burning of about 90% of his work. He in fact wanted the majority of his remaining work, including The Trial, to also be burnt. And for not carrying out this act: Max Brod, I am eternally grateful.</span>thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-41148214346119674352012-10-14T12:08:00.001-07:002012-10-14T12:08:10.319-07:00The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-13Fd8gUSEJs/UHsNc-nOcfI/AAAAAAAAAJs/VPsMpDez7Fk/s1600/6167396587_21dfdd49a2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-13Fd8gUSEJs/UHsNc-nOcfI/AAAAAAAAAJs/VPsMpDez7Fk/s320/6167396587_21dfdd49a2.jpg" width="208" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Blurb</u>: </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5a5a5a;">On arriving at a rural monastery, the monk Ambrosius meets a young girl, Benedicta. She is shunned by the local community for being the daughter of the local hangman, but Ambrosius is drawn into a dangerous sympathy with her, and in defiance of the community and his superiors, he starts spending time alone with her. But when her virtue is corrupted by an impetuous young man, the stage is set for a battle between heart, mind, body, spirit, the sins of the past and redemption.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5a5a5a;"> </span></span><br />
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="color: black;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5a5a5a;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #5a5a5a;">Allegedly a rewriting from a lost German original, Ambrose Bierce's 1892 novel reads as a seamless, almost folktale-like masterpiece.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="color: black; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Thoughts</u>: I actually didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. There a great delicacy to the way it's written and to the monk's observation, and some of the descriptions are truly beautiful. It is quite a quiet book and I did like that about it in some ways. But I think I was just expecting it to be slightly more gritty - for lack of a better word. I guess I found it too beautiful and I wanted something more to get my teeth into. I also found the monk incredibly frustrating; his silent pining with no action. In a way, the portrayal of this inner turmoil is a strength of the book, but I don't think I understood the protagonist enough to fully </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">appreciate it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">. To leave you with an annoying teaser though - the ending is brilliant.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-33320416206787553182012-10-07T11:32:00.002-07:002012-10-07T11:32:54.446-07:00Why are you reading the classics?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, the truth is at the moment I'm not. For the past few weeks I've barely been reading at all. And I'm miserable. I feel so uninterested and uninteresting. So I guess that's why I'm reading the classics: without them life is incredibly dull.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think the common misconception is that classics are classics <i>because</i> they're difficult. Like they're some sort of entrance exam to an elite group of 'the educated'. But what I've found is that they're not. They're classics because they say something new about life and the way we live it. They're thought-provoking, they're inspiring and yes: sometimes they are challenging. But they are challenging for a reason, because it's difficult for something to challenge your views and to change the way you see about the world. The 'classics,' in my opinion are not, or shouldn't be, a definitive list - but an evolving compilation of the books that really change people. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">'Books' are an escape, but true 'classics' are life altering. So I guess that's why I'm reading them.</span>thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-76443623099453940282012-09-13T14:47:00.000-07:002012-09-13T14:47:14.048-07:00Sorry!This is just to say a quick sorry for seemingly disappearing off the face of the earth. Starting sixth form has been pretty hectic.. But I have about five books to write up reviews for so hopefully I should get writing some this weekend. For now - back to homework!<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DANtTUeDS5E/UFJUUnppW_I/AAAAAAAAAJA/8Q-qkkSkkCA/s1600/MOOMIN+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DANtTUeDS5E/UFJUUnppW_I/AAAAAAAAAJA/8Q-qkkSkkCA/s320/MOOMIN+6.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-26079489874366823712012-08-25T12:48:00.001-07:002012-08-25T12:48:19.117-07:00Wuthering Heights<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z0t6oChZCKs/UDjIKlugRJI/AAAAAAAAAII/HX_OfWlPqsc/s1600/wuthering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z0t6oChZCKs/UDjIKlugRJI/AAAAAAAAAII/HX_OfWlPqsc/s320/wuthering.jpg" width="202" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Blurb</u>: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Emily Bronte's dark, brooding vision finds expression in her masterpiece of passion and force. Her only novel,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i>Wuthering Heights</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">, published a year before her death in 1848 at the age of thirty, stands as perhaps the most intensely original work in the English language. In it Emily Bronte records the story of the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and the wild Heathcliff with such truth, imagination and emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire Moors acquires the depth and simplicity of an ancient tragedy.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Thoughts</u>: I had no idea what to expect when I began this. Stupidly I guessed it would be somewhat like Jane Eyre, which couldn't be further from the truth. The best way I can describe it is twisted. Messy, twisted and passionate. It has an incredible, brooding yet beautiful force that carries it along, which I suppose represents in many ways in the spirit of the moors. I liked it and I didn't like. I wouldn't say it was an enjoyable read, but it was strangely absorbing. It's kind of like a place; when you're reading it, it surrounds you completely. My mind keeps wandering back there, and I think it's a book that will grow on me as a contemplate it further.</span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span></span></div>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span></div>
</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Times; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-17590315782926219362012-08-17T17:30:00.001-07:002012-08-17T17:46:46.759-07:00One Hundred Years of Solitude<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CE7RDiCxadU/UC7htFi8I2I/AAAAAAAAAH0/o8ajS4F3FyE/s1600/lg86383-5+one-hundred-years-of-solitude-gabriel-garcia-marquez-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CE7RDiCxadU/UC7htFi8I2I/AAAAAAAAAH0/o8ajS4F3FyE/s320/lg86383-5+one-hundred-years-of-solitude-gabriel-garcia-marquez-poster.jpg" width="213" /></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Blurb</u>: <i>One Hundred Years of Solitude</i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> tells the magical story of the Buendía family, who love, lie, fight and rule for a century in Macondo, their settlement in the South American jungle. Part</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> exotic paradise, part nightmare, Macondo is a fantastic world of miracles and mirages where nothing is as it seems. Its secrets lie hidden for years in an encoded book, and only Aureliano Buendía, the last in the dynasty, can unlock its mysteries and discover the fate of this strange land ...</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Thoughts</u></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">: In short, I loved it. I don't think I have ever been so excited by the ending of a book - the final pages are truly magical. I've become so wrapped up in Macondo that I've had numerous dreams set there. I never knew magic realism could work so well and seem so uncontrived as it does when García Márquez writes it. </span></span></div>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: Times; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br />
<br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: Times; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span><div>
<br /></div>
</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">
</span></span></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: Times; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;">I thought it'd be fun to paste in my book report for it in Spanish below for anyone who speaks Spanish. And please let me know about of corrections - my Spanish is a little rusty after two months of summer holidays!</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><i>
</i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Habiendo oído
mucho sobre este libro, tenía muchas ganas de leerlo. Me sorprendió
inmediatamente por el estilo de la escritura. Es muy diferente a todo lo que he
leído antes, ¡con sentencias de dos páginas! Sin embargo pronto lo encontré
casi adictivo. La combinación de crudo realismo y elementos fantásticos lo hace
bastante extraordinario, y el término "realismo mágico” fue inventado para
describirlo.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>El alcance
épico de la novela, sigueindo cinco generaciones de la familia Buendía es muy
impresionante. García Márquez hace un mundo en lo que el lector puede perderse
y sobre lo que nos importa mucha. La negligencia en el cumplimiento de la casa
de la familia es muy triste y refleja la caída en desgracia de la familia
propia.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>En esencia, este es un libro sobre el destino y la imposibilidad de
escaparlo. Por todo el libro, vemos las historias se repiten de generación en
generación, y en las últimas páginas, las historias individuales de todos los personajes,
pasados </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><i>y presentes, se unen en un clímax final. Esta es coreografiada increíblemente y
sorprendentemente no se siente en absoluto artificial. La última línea todavía
resuena en los oídos del lector; “las estirpes condenadas a cien años de
soledad no tenían una segunda oportunidad sobre la tierra.”</i></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"></span></span></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div>
</div>
</div>
thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-75822949601346886622012-08-07T03:52:00.004-07:002012-08-07T13:50:28.277-07:00Favourite classic book<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So this month's Classic Club meme is what is your favourite classic book and why. Well I've been avoiding thinking about this question for a long time, but I think the time has come to face it. I'm not sure I feel qualified enough to say really, having not read enough classics </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in my opinion</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, but here goes...</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">...I've been thinking for the past five minutes - and I still haven't been able to narrow it down! One should jump out at me, but instead five jump out at me, and then another two trickle along, followed by another latecomer. I've decided the best way to do this is to have a big ole brainstorm, or blogstorm:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">-The Master and Margarita was brilliant, but I read it so recently and I'm still not sure it will stand up as my favourite in the long run...</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Anna Karenina perhaps</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-The Bell Jar was an amazing book</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Oh but then if we're including children's classics then there's Wind in the Willows!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-I loved The Great Gatsby </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-and The Road</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-Nineteen Eighty-four was brilliant</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-But if we're doing it in terms of enjoyment then maybe a Sherlock Holmes....</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Aahh - I can't decide.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Okay I'll be strict: The Wind in the Willows. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">Instead of explaining why I love it, I think I'll just leave you with the opening passage - and you'll understand :)</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;"><br /></span>
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666;">The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring- cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said `Bother!' and `O blow!' and also `Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gravelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, `Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, pop! his snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.</span></i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-79103315801219977062012-07-29T11:01:00.001-07:002012-07-29T14:51:22.099-07:00Frankenstein<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally!</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></u></span><br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4APm1rTbmJE/UBV6arbDXcI/AAAAAAAAAGY/SszNdogTjQg/s1600/frankenstein.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4APm1rTbmJE/UBV6arbDXcI/AAAAAAAAAGY/SszNdogTjQg/s320/frankenstein.png" width="212" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Blurb</u>: </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px;">One of the best-known horror stories ever. Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss scientist, has a great ambition: to create intelligent life. But when his creature first stirs, he realizes he has made a monster. A monster which, abandoned by its maker and shunned by everyone who sees it, dogs Dr Frankenstein with murder and horrors to the very ends of the earth . . .</span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><u>Thoughts</u>: I resent that this is defined as a horror story. That a creature is a 'horror' because it is shunned and sent to desperation I think is a tragedy not a horror story. It brought up so many questions about our need for acceptance and our rejection of difference. I found myself having no sympathy whatsoever for Frankenstein himself, only the creature. So in many ways I did not like the angle of the book. There were passages showing 'sympathy for the devil' but I wanted more from the creature's angle. Perhaps it's because I saw Danny Boyle's production of it, which is very much exploring the creature's point of view, before reading the book. (And perhaps also because the creature was played by Benedict Cumberbatch!) So I really loved the passages of interaction between the creature and his maker and hearing his story, but didn't like so much the sections of Frankenstein fleeing his creation - which I think somewhat requires fear of the creature to fully enjoy and appreciate. However the tension and passion of some of the scenes really was amazing:</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i>All men hate the wretched; how, then, must I be hated, who am miserable beyond all living things! Yet you, my creator, detest and spurn me, thy creature, to whom thou art bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us. You purpose to kill me. How dare you sport thus with life?</i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><i><br /></i></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;">Yeah - you tell him!</span></span><br />
<div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span></span><br />
<div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Times; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #858989; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(http://r.mzstatic.com/htmlResources/1043/web-storefront/images/rating_star.png); background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span><div>
<br /></div>
</span></span></span><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; line-height: 18px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span></span></span></span></span></div>
<div>
</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="rating-star" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; display: block; float: left; height: 11px; margin-right: 2px; width: 11px;"> </span><div>
<br /></div>
</span></span></span></span><br />
<div>
</div>
<br />
<div>
</div>
</div>thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-35780727849322117862012-07-22T07:08:00.002-07:002012-07-22T07:08:41.146-07:00Reading... or a lack thereof<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have bought so many books lately, and I am excited to read each and every one of them, but I can't get past Frankenstein!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-krqAGIofrg4/UAwJTUJCPoI/AAAAAAAAAGM/Evny-u08Gag/s1600/moominread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="227" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-krqAGIofrg4/UAwJTUJCPoI/AAAAAAAAAGM/Evny-u08Gag/s320/moominread.jpg" width="320" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's odd because I am really enjoying it. I've just been so restless. Stupidly I went to see a showing of last years national theatre production of it last week (which was amazing) - but I didn't manage to finish the book first. So I've been struggling to make time to read it because I already know what happens. (Obviously finding out what happens is not the only reason to read a book, but it is the main one that keeps up momentum.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well now I'm off the paint a wall, and trying but failing to find a good free audiobook of Frankenstein to listen to while I paint. And then hopefully off to the park and I <i>will</i> finish it today!</span>thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4268564319984677394.post-90778246725436620022012-07-15T13:54:00.000-07:002012-07-15T13:54:00.337-07:00I want to be back in Paris!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the rain pouring in grey old London, it really doesn't feel much like a summer holiday. So I thought I'd cast my mind back to sunnier days and beautiful buildings in Paris...</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GKmc1Qi-Y6I/UAHc_J2dUSI/AAAAAAAAAFo/zDZeQXLBdhE/s1600/DSC_0088.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GKmc1Qi-Y6I/UAHc_J2dUSI/AAAAAAAAAFo/zDZeQXLBdhE/s640/DSC_0088.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UZa0HQ-q2jk/UAHdEOhPNbI/AAAAAAAAAF0/0TIAkVUyyvg/s1600/DSC_0098.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UZa0HQ-q2jk/UAHdEOhPNbI/AAAAAAAAAF0/0TIAkVUyyvg/s640/DSC_0098.jpg" width="428" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3TZ_13LcyIE/UAHdJ7SbH2I/AAAAAAAAAF8/V5pK7VMIG5A/s1600/DSC_0221.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="428" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3TZ_13LcyIE/UAHdJ7SbH2I/AAAAAAAAAF8/V5pK7VMIG5A/s640/DSC_0221.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>thereaderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02725046041197064971noreply@blogger.com0