what are you reading?

[nrh]

& 19th century english literature of course has the brontes, wilkie collins, william morris, rudyard kipling etc, all very removed from the realist mode (would say the best dickens also fits here).

have just started reading friends & relations by elizabeth bowen, don't know much about her work (this is an early novel) but was intrigued when the unlikely trio of john banville, michael moorcock & robert aickman all repped her. only a few dozen pages in but strong so far, a social comedy with moments of strangeness that remind me a little of murdoch.

[wba]

Yeah, I might be generalizing as I'm sure there's lots to discover. But I sure wish the human characters out of a Cervantes would have been the norm in later centuries, rather than the exception.
I have a Bulwer-Lytton lying around for too long which I'm eager to read and some Ann Radcliffe so that will probably be my next Brits.

[Lencho of the Apes]

I take it the mid-18th c. picaresque novels don't do it for you... But you seem to be overlooking the Gothic novels that pushed toward the sensibility of the Romantic poets. What could be more lively/magical/un-realist/melodramatic than The Monk, Melmoth, Justified Sinner... ? Radcliffe never did much for me...

[wba]

I take it the mid-18th c. picaresque novels don't do it for you... But you seem to be overlooking the Gothic novels that pushed toward the sensibility of the Romantic poets. What could be more lively/magical/un-realist/melodramatic than The Monk, Melmoth, Justified Sinner... ? Radcliffe never did much for me...

As I said, I surely was a bit over-generalizing, and you are right to point to the gothic novel and the romantic poets. I surely need to read more of that stuff. Radcliffe would also be a first to me (as was Hardy), so I still have hope.

As to the mid-18th century picaresque british novels, I'm totally in the dark. Maybe you can give me some recs?

[Lencho of the Apes]

Henry Fielding -- my first pick would be Jonathan Wild, then any others; perhaps not Amelia. Tobias Smollett, I've only read Roderick Random, which fits the bill perfectly, and I have the impression his other books are very much in the same mold. While you're in there, though it's a different thing altogether, you could go for Tristram Shandy, definitely one of the pinnacles of pre-modern anti-realism.

[wba]

Ah, good to know! Wanted to read something by Fielding and Smollett but didn't know they did mostly picaresque! I'll keep that in mind.
I definitely need to get my hands on Tristram Shandy!

[sally]

fielding's piss-take of richardson's earnest (don't know, never read it, can't read it now) novel pamela - shamela - published only one year later in 1741, whilst not a great novel, or even that funny a satire, is still the greatest giggle-inducing effrontery of a title that i've ever come across, and for that alone i am eternally grateful to fielding.

but if i ever felt the slightest bit patriotic, which i am keenly aware this week that i utterly don't (other than indulging in the past-time of national self-deprecation) it would be because i'm oozing tristram shandy from my deepest english bones.

https://twitter.com/PublicDomainRev/sta ... 5991876610

[wba]

WOW, just WOW!

[rischka]

i have acquired a copy of melmoth the wanderer. thx lencho. gotta stop reading this thread or i'll be buying another bookcase

[rischka]

going back to bed to read tristram shandy, it's delightful

crispy fall weather this morning

[wba]

Currently reading Fritz Meyer's first novel "Ich unter anderem", finished in 1951 in Paris and published in 1957 in Switzerland. It's been reissued (in Switzerland) this year and is pretty entertaining, so far.
Now I can only hope his other work gets re-published again as well, cause I don't have the bucks to get my hands on one of the rare and pricy first editions from back then, and my library doesn't really carry much Swiss literature (certainly not obscure Swiss stuff...). The afterword - which I read first before starting the novel ^^ - also got me curious about Max Frisch' first novel "Jürg Reinhart" which he finished and published in 1934. Fortunately my library does carry this one, at least.

And I also started reading Jules Amédée Barbey d’Aurevilly's UNE VIEILLE MAITRESSE from 1951, which is excellent (and excellently translated into German). The prose is so good, so simple, so effortless, it seems clear as crystal, it must be a delight reading this in French. Also not much is happening in the first 80 pages and we learn little about anybody or anything as it's just d'Aurevilly making his observations, basically, which gives the novel a loungy feeling. The prose style is also very relaxing... I don't think I've so far read an older novel than this one that feels so strange (regarding social conventions and the lives of the people - it takes place in the 1830s in Paris) and so far away on the one hand and so modern and "timeless" on the other. Let's see if some Stendhalian shenanigans will start happening soon - which i fully expect, as I simply can't believe the novel to go on like that. I must say this could have made an excellent epistolary novel as well.

[nrh]

partway through kalpa imperial by angelica gorodischer (who just passed away this year), and impressed by it so far. a history of a fictional empire told by (often acerbic) storytellers in fable like fragments, connected more by language and the shared rise and fall of power than by any overarching narrative through line. doesn't really fall into the trap of allegory, almost reminds me a little of sylvia townsend warner's great kingdoms of elfin stories, though a little less savage and without the fantasy trappings.

translated by ursula leguin in what seems like a long a collaborative process between the two women, which is probably the reason this is the best known of her novels in english (i've read tralfalgar, another set of linked stories, these more obviously satirical science fiction tales told by a traveling merchant, which is very good, and have a copy of prodigies, which she says is her best), hoping more of her work gets translated.

[rischka]

i'm deep in tristram shandy - just reached the accidental circumcision by window sash "because nothing is well-hung in our family" i feel like i could happily spend the rest of my life on supplemental readings

slow going but delightful!

[wba]

I'm currently reading SPAZIERGÄNGE (1909) by Theodor Wolff, a collection of his various travel accounts which were published in numerous newspapers over the previous 10 or so years. Every vignette is between 5 and 10 pages, and Wolff is a wonderful writer, so it is a pure delight reading about his experiences. Some are mere fluff, some are heavy going (slavery in the sicilian sulfur mines), some are about paintings and painters (he's a fan of Correggio).

Has anyone by chance read anything by Mark (A.) Aldanov? He sounds very intriguing but seems to be one of the forgotten great Russian writers (that is, outside of Russia, of course).

PS: My interest in Tristram Shandy has risen considerably ever since all your delightful asides and quips here on our forum.

[brian d]

about to start the comic romance, by paul scarron, who is incidentally one of the three writers (along with rabelais and cervantes) that sterne mentions worth reading in tristram shandy. never noticed him being mentioned the first time i read tristram shandy, but he caught my eye this last time, so we'll see how it goes.

[wba]

I've started reading Anne Bronte's THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL (1848) which so far I'm enjoying immensly, thanks mostly to its strong-willed somewhat feminist heroine. I haven't read anythinge else before by any of the Bronte sisters and this was a chance pickup from my local library. Hopefully Mrs. Graham remains as interesting throughout the rest of the novel. This is an epistolary novel, a literary device which I greatly love but which here in the first 8 chapters so far appears a bit "disguised". I don't know quite how to put it, but I can't imagine any human being in the world ever writing such letters to somebody else. Nevertheless it's interesting to get the tale told and presented by the insipid twentysomething Gilbert Markham, who mostly observes Mrs. Graham and some other people living in the area and it's quite funny getting the tale told from his perspective, which seems very different from that of the author, Anne Bronte. Markham talso often seems to me more like a woman "in disguise" than an honest portrait of a male character. Anyway, this "shape-shifting" makes for an extremely satisfying reading experience so far, as you have a stupid tewntysomething guy describing his feelings and life in his letters more like an infatuated tewntysomething woman and this all is contrasted with the sole fleshed-out and believable human being in the character of Helen Graham, who is not only the letter-writers myserious object of desire (so the tale also feels a tiny bit like a gothic novel), but who seems to be the only person in the novel Anne Bronte is actually interested in. A complicated literary device which works as a wonderful hall of mirrors so far. I hope Miss Bronte will somehow be able to keep this up or even expand on it till the end of the novel.

[sally]

strolled by anne bronte's grave when i went to scarborough earlier in the year (didn't realise i strolled by it as i was too busy muttering outrage at the extortionate entrance fee to the castle) but nice view of the ocean all the same. i've read wildfell hall but can't remember a single thing about it

am currently reading diary of a film by niven govinden, published to much acclaim in britain from people i can only assume aren't cinephiles. it. is. infuriating twaddle. opens with a robert bresson quote and then spends many pages anaemically rhapsodizing over actors 'feeling' & 'expressing' the characters they are playing. utterly atrocious nonsense. if this is what those directors that are given funding to make films really think about then no wonder so many contemporary films are complete crap. it's like someone fantasizing that they're the director of call me by your name (haven't finished it yet, maybe that could be the big reveal at the end, would only make it marginally better)

[wba]

After having finfished Anne Bronte's THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL (1848) I must confess that this is one of the weakest novels I have read this year. Every great thing I described in my above post (see "Nov. 14") seems now more a freak accident than anything else, brought on by Miss Bronte's inability to write, and I suppose she had no idea of the actual brilliance of that first 15 chapters (see what I described in my above post). Moreover, what starts out as a feminist novel - and a great one at that - evolves into a religious novel. THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL is a deeply religious work and as such the opposite of a feminist novel, as no emancipation or even an idea of freedom can take place inside the constraints of any religious belief. Therefore the novel is clearly anti-feminist. That wouldn't be anything bad in itself, if Miss Bronte knew how to write. Well, she has only limited capabilities in this regard, and mostly the novel reads like not too interesting pulp fiction of the most trivial sort. The characters are flat and one-note, each sounding like the other, and the writing of an Alexandre Dumas seems in comparison to Anne Bronte like the writing of a Dostoevsky.
If you're a fan of deeply religious novels, this is for you. And if you enjoy highly melodramatic stories with clear-cut characters and lots of unnecessary twists and turns that amount to nothing (the book is very tedious and has some of the worst traits of the serialized novel from the second half of the 19th century) this is also for you. As for writing an epistolary novel, she is totally incapable of actually doing that or doing anything much with this genre as well. In the hands of a gifted writer this could have been something and the perspective should have went from the male protagonist (first 15 chapters) to the diary of the female protagonist (next 20+ chapters) to that of the female character (instead of going back to the male protagonist once more). All things considered this is a deeply moral novel, written by a moralist, being extremely repetitive, and making the same points over and over and over again. A simplistic and moralistic tale by an author without much literary talent.

When I compare my recent experience of reading Thomas Hardy's THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE (1878) with reading Anne Bronte's THE TENANT FO WILDFELL HALL (1848) the only parallel is my ongoing disappointment and disillusionment with both writers in regards to the general thrust of their novels and the neglect of their prime qualities. But whereas Hardy's novel began as the work of a master and descended from those heights to the work of a talented craftsman, Bronte's writing started out as that of a promising talent which then revealed itself to basically not be there, as the quality of her work at the start was a mere accident resulting from inexperience and actual inability to write what she had intended. So in the end, there can be no comparison at all between those 2 writers.

If it weren't for the great first 15 chapters this would be an almost unreadable two star novel of the worthless and forgettable kind.

[brian d]

emily brontë's wuthering heights might be the best brontë for you to read. there's barely any moralizing, or even morality, to be found, and it seems to fit the types of works you enjoy a lot more. from what i recall, tenant of wildfell hall was written in part as a response to their brother's alcoholism, which is partly why it's preachy, but anne is the weakest writer of the three in my mind.

(and return of the native is thomas hardy, for what it's worth. i really don't see you finding much to appreciate in henry james.)

[wba]

emily brontë's wuthering heights might be the best brontë for you to read. there's barely any moralizing, or even morality, to be found, and it seems to fit the types of works you enjoy a lot more. from what i recall, tenant of wildfell hall was written in part as a response to their brother's alcoholism, which is partly why it's preachy, but anne is the weakest writer of the three in my mind.

(and return of the native is thomas hardy, for what it's worth. i really don't see you finding much to appreciate in henry james.)

Haha, sorry! Fixed it.

Yeah, I already figured that WUTHERING HEIGHTS might be my best bet out of all the Bronte novels after having fiished THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL.

[rischka]

so i've finished tristram shandy - as much as one can say it's ever finished. seems like he could have gone on and on. what an amazing book

downloaded the film out of curiosity

[nrh]

just started nathalie sarraute's childhood, which i found in our neighborhood bookswap. i love her tropismes and planetarium but somehow have never read any else from her (i guess i've just not run into her work in bookstores, new or used?). definitely one of the more interesting takes on memoir i've read.

https://twitter.com/nrogershancock/stat ... df7D6jarIg

(& typo in tweet - should read aira obviously)

[karl]

On the road again.

[rischka]

must remember not to read pym before bed

[wba]

An overwhelmingly wonderful book about lesbian love and longing. The writing and especially the dialogue is incredibly good and incredibly appropriate. I didn't expect this at all (as I assumed the book was about race, a subject the writer clearly isn't interested in at all - but I still have one third of the book left to read, so who knows what further revelations will happen at the end?).
The main protagonist named Irene Redfield from whose perspective the tale is told is an absolute asshole - but I suppose living a closeted upper-class life in the 1920s can take it's toll on you. The psychological intricacies of hiding your needs and desires (especially in front of yourself) twisting a very simple and obvious truth in every possible way in order to justify your feelings and behaviour in front of your own psyche - all of this is described so splendidly and in such detail, that I simply have to assume that Nella Larsen herself must have been gay as well. If she wasn't, she was definitely an unmatched observer of human interactions as well as waaaaaaaay ahead of Freud and most of his peers and disciples.

[wba]

I finished "Passing" today, and while I personally didn't enjoy the last third as much as the first two thirds of the novel (for me, it could also have endef after the second part, and it would have been a fitting and perfect ending as well), I have to confess that Larsen knew exactly what she was doing, now playing with genre tropes the same way she had been playing with everything else before, going full circle and sparing the reader nothing.
Our asshole protagonist Irene Redfield starts to get into full psycho mode, actually going slightly mad, and though it's pretty clear where the novel is headed as Larsen switches from 2nd gear to third, fourth, fifth and sixth, as she goes into complete over-the-top melodrama territory, I was still shocked when

Spoiler!

Irene kills Clare by pushing her to her death. Psychologically this is still excellent and the last 3 or 4 pages of the book, after the murder has taken place, are some of the best (if not the best!) descriptions of the psychological and physiological turmoil a person has to go through after she has commited a murder - in public, no less - that I have ever read.

With this novel alone, Larsen has in my opinion catapulted herself to the forefront of literary greats of "modernism" and the literature of the 20th century, and it's a real shame that she decided to end her career as a writer after this one.

For anyone interested in literature, modernism in literature, the process of writing or any other thing that has to do with how you build a novel, how you build a character, how a psychological novel works, how you can play with genre, etc. etc. I really can't recommend this enough. This was one of my "slowest" reads in my life, as I didn't want to miss a single sentence or a nuance, as Miss Larsen is similarly to Franz Kafka clearly interested in every word and their placement in every phrase she writes and the book can also be read as a disturbing satire on people, literature, the way writers use to write, etc. etc. etc.

And yes, I now absolutely have to read her other novel "Quicksand" and everything else she has ever written.

[Monsieur Arkadin]

so i've finished tristram shandy - as much as one can say it's ever finished. seems like he could have gone on and on. what an amazing book

This was probably the book I've come closest to not finishing. I found it charming, and genuinely funny at parts, but also completely tedious to a degree I'd never before experienced. Glad I forced myself through it, but my god...

Currently reading Mircea Cartarescu's Blinding which I began without the knowledge that it was the first part of a trilogy that hasn't been translated into English after the first book. Proust by way of Magritte I guess is the quick pitch. The book itself is divided into thirds, and the second third is much better than the first.

[rischka]

yeah i got that reaction from a few people! it's not like other books. and maybe second only to shakespeare in it's influence on the modern english language?

i wondered how many plagiarism suits he would face if written today haha. it was fun to imagine him as a sober churchman writing something so unconventional and naughty. he laughs in the face of death in a most inspiring way

[nrh]

about 100 pages into mary gentle's enormous, perverse dumas pastiche (not really adequate to describe what this is, but it will do) a sundial in a grave: 1610, and i am realizing it is important, for me at least, to have at least some books with flamboyant sword fighting in your regular book rotation.

[brian d]

so i've finished tristram shandy - as much as one can say it's ever finished. seems like he could have gone on and on. what an amazing book

This was probably the book I've come closest to not finishing. I found it charming, and genuinely funny at parts, but also completely tedious to a degree I'd never before experienced. Glad I forced myself through it, but my god...

yeah i've read it twice and am not in disagreement. i love it, but he'll spend 12 tedious pages to set up a single joke, and some of them are so dated that it's easy to miss it, and then it feels like there was no point. definitely worth having some kind of companion to it nearby just to at least get what the joke was, and even if it's no longer funny. his sentimental journey is largely the same, just a bunch of dick jokes and whatnot, most of which are lost on readers now, but are funny if there's a bit of help.