I had read The Reivers in high school and only remembered I liked it and that for Faulkner it was totally accessible. Not the baffling experience of The Sound and the Fury. Upon re-reading it as an Audible listen on a long car trip, I found it pretty funny.
Plot summary: In 1906, the narrator, then 11 years old, and two family business employees steal his grandfather's automobile and drive it to Memphis. Hijinks ensue. Boy grows up.
I hadn't realized it was Faulkner's last novel until there was a line about someone being a Republican and "not the new kind of Goldwater Republican." What? When was this written? Wikipedia soon informed me it was 1962 and that Faulkner won a Pulitzer for the book posthumously. I had the notion he had finished writing by the late 1940s. I would not have known what the reference connoted in high school. Nor would I have understood Faulkner's relatively modern treatment of women. Positively third wave feminist compared to his contemporaries. Of course, the first wave had barely hit when I was in high school.
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Catching Up....
I have been reading decidedly un-classic literature the last few months -- some hilarious memoirs by femmes d'un age certain (I See You Made an Effort, Guts, How to Be a Woman, Attempting Normal (OK, by a man), Let's Pretend this Never Happened), Canadian murder writer Louise Penny, Reza Aslan's Zealot, The Elegance of the Hedgehog and work-related non-fiction. But I have enjoyed a few titles from my classics list -- FINALLY!
1. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
37-39. The Deptford Trilogy (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders) Robertson Davies
Enjoyed these four books though all had young white men as protagonists, a change from my middle-aged women writer binge.
I was assigned Le Rouge et Le Noir in the late 1970s in a French lit class and if memory serves, I dropped it before we got to Stendhal and because I found Sartre's La Nausee too hard and no fun whatsoever to 19-year-old me. But I recall a lot of talk about Stendhal having written the first modern novel because the characters were driven by psychology -- this was the 1830s I think? So I put it -- in English -- first on my Classics Club list to set the tone and provide a benchmark -- my list is about evenly split between pre- and post- Stendhal.
Now, about the novel: I recommend it more as a marker in the history of fiction writing innovation than as a moving work. It's the story of Julian, a socially ambitious young man, his social rise and fall, and migration from the provincial Jura region of his low birth to noble class Paris and back. It helps to have a grasp of post-Napoleon French society and politics but not necessary. "Red" indicates a military career, "Black" a scholar/religious vocation -- those are Julian's career choices. His choice of black sets him on a path to social success though his secret passion for the age of Napoleon carries him away a few times. It's his choices in love, not red or black, that drive the plot.
I re-read Davies classic trilogy because they are such odd stories with odd characters. If magic realism had first emerged in Canada, it would look like this. Much colder, distant, polite but still magic.
This week I started
13. The Reivers, William Faulkner (more outrageous and funnier than I remember...but I was 15 when I first read it)
and
49. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (was outrageous and wry if not funny then and now)
And bought a used copy of
10. Germinal, Emil Zola
1. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
37-39. The Deptford Trilogy (Fifth Business, The Manticore, World of Wonders) Robertson Davies
Enjoyed these four books though all had young white men as protagonists, a change from my middle-aged women writer binge.
I was assigned Le Rouge et Le Noir in the late 1970s in a French lit class and if memory serves, I dropped it before we got to Stendhal and because I found Sartre's La Nausee too hard and no fun whatsoever to 19-year-old me. But I recall a lot of talk about Stendhal having written the first modern novel because the characters were driven by psychology -- this was the 1830s I think? So I put it -- in English -- first on my Classics Club list to set the tone and provide a benchmark -- my list is about evenly split between pre- and post- Stendhal.
Now, about the novel: I recommend it more as a marker in the history of fiction writing innovation than as a moving work. It's the story of Julian, a socially ambitious young man, his social rise and fall, and migration from the provincial Jura region of his low birth to noble class Paris and back. It helps to have a grasp of post-Napoleon French society and politics but not necessary. "Red" indicates a military career, "Black" a scholar/religious vocation -- those are Julian's career choices. His choice of black sets him on a path to social success though his secret passion for the age of Napoleon carries him away a few times. It's his choices in love, not red or black, that drive the plot.
I re-read Davies classic trilogy because they are such odd stories with odd characters. If magic realism had first emerged in Canada, it would look like this. Much colder, distant, polite but still magic.
This week I started
13. The Reivers, William Faulkner (more outrageous and funnier than I remember...but I was 15 when I first read it)
and
49. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain (was outrageous and wry if not funny then and now)
And bought a used copy of
10. Germinal, Emil Zola
Saturday, January 4, 2014
Readathon Day!
Today's the day. I cleared the decks, except for a book. Plan to make it a progressive read, moving from coffee shop to library and back throughout the day. Looking forward to seeing Colleen along the way!
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Swapping out a title -- Pepys for Pope.
July, 2014: I'm updating my master list. Dropping Confucius and Palace Walk. Adding the 2nd and 3rd books in Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy.
December, 2013: I am firing Alexander Pope and putting Pepys in his place. Pepys' 1660s London seems more ribald, raunchy and fun than Pope's of a few decades later. See #44.
x1. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
2. Montaigne's essays -- the 20 in How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, Sarah Blakewell
3. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
4. The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
5. Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
6. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche
7. Candide, Voltaire
8. Tartuffe, Moliere
9.Something by Montesquieu Common Sense, Thomas Paine
10. Germinal, Emil Zola
11. The Chouans, Honore Balzac
12. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
x13. The Reivers, William Faulkner
14. Madame Bovary, Gustav Flaubert
15.Emma The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton
16. House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
17. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
18. Quick Service, P. G. Wodehouse
19.Breakfast at Tiffany's Other Voices, Other Rooms, Truman Capote
20. The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber
21. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
22. Silas Marner, George Eliot
23. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
24. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
25. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
26. Paul's Letters, New Testament
27. Augustine's writing
28.Sappho Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Sojourner Truth
29. Euripedes Medea
30. Plutarch's Lives
31. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, Rachel Field
32.The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
33. Complete Stories, Dorothy Parker, edited by Colleen Breese
34.Simone de Beauvoir A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
35. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
36. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
x37. Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
x38.Confucius The Manticore, Robertson Davies
x39. World of Wonders, Robertson Davies
40. The Charioteer, Mary Renault
40. Palace Walk, Nahguib Mahfouz
41.The Adventures of Augie March A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
42. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis
43. Trinity, Leon Uris
44.An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope Pepys' Diary -- an edited 1978 version which is about 1/12 of the original 1,300,000 word work.
45. The Tale of Genji
46.Studs Lonigan Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
47.Working Division Street, Studs Terkel
48.The Water's Wide To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
49.Jerry Engels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
50.The Tastemakers Manon Lescaut, Antoine Francois Prevost...after all, I named this blog after her.
December, 2013: I am firing Alexander Pope and putting Pepys in his place. Pepys' 1660s London seems more ribald, raunchy and fun than Pope's of a few decades later. See #44.
x1. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
2. Montaigne's essays -- the 20 in How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, Sarah Blakewell
3. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
4. The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
5. Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
6. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche
7. Candide, Voltaire
8. Tartuffe, Moliere
9.
10. Germinal, Emil Zola
11. The Chouans, Honore Balzac
12. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
x13. The Reivers, William Faulkner
14. Madame Bovary, Gustav Flaubert
15.
16. House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
17. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
18. Quick Service, P. G. Wodehouse
19.
20. The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber
21. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
22. Silas Marner, George Eliot
23. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
24. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
25. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
26. Paul's Letters, New Testament
27. Augustine's writing
28.
29. Euripedes Medea
30. Plutarch's Lives
31. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, Rachel Field
32.
33. Complete Stories, Dorothy Parker, edited by Colleen Breese
34.
35. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
36. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
x37. Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
x38.
x39. World of Wonders, Robertson Davies
40. The Charioteer, Mary Renault
41.
42. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis
43. Trinity, Leon Uris
44.
45. The Tale of Genji
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
Still slogging through my first book........
Almost four months ago I started reading The Red and the Black by Stendhal. I am still at it -- and it's not that I don't like the book. I do. But oh, what MTV started in the 1980s, the Internet continued in the 1990s and my smart phone managed to finally kill off in me around 2012: my attention span. Stendhal's Julien had no such distractions in the 1830s and therefore could spend thousands of hours happily concentrating on memorizing the Bible and Horace in Latin. I expect to finish before Christmas, gad. Next in cue will be something short from my list...perhaps some of the short stories in my list.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
I've been reading from my list for 6 weeks and have made progress mainly by making a pile of books and reading a few pages from each. Have decided to dig in with Stendhal first. My reading around also led to several revisions to my original list. I guess I don't want to read Jane Austen, Simone de Beauvoir or Montesquieu after all.
1. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
2. Montaigne's essays -- the 20 in How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, Sarah Blakewell
3. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
4. The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
5. Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
6. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche
7. Candide, Voltaire
8. Tartuffe, Moliere
9.Something by Montesquieu Common Sense, Thomas Paine
10. Germinal, Emil Zola
11. The Chouans, Honore Balzac
12. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. The Reivers, William Faulkner
14. Madame Bovary, Gustav Flaubert
15.Emma The Custom of the Country, Edith Wharton
16. House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
17. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
18. Quick Service, P. G. Wodehouse
19.Breakfast at Tiffany's Other Voices, Other Rooms, Truman Capote
20. The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber
21. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
22. Silas Marner, George Eliot
23. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
24. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
25. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
26. Paul's Letters, New Testament
27. Augustine's writing
28.Sappho Narrative of Sojourner Truth, Sojourner Truth
29. Euripedes Medea
30. Plutarch's Lives
31. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, Rachel Field
32.The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
33. Complete Stories, Dorothy Parker, edited by Colleen Breese
34.Simone de Beauvoir A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
35. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
36. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
37. Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
38. Confucius
39. The Charioteer, Mary Renault
40. Palace Walk, Nahguib Mahfouz
41.The Adventures of Augie March A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith
42. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis
43. Trinity, Leon Uris
44.An Essay on Man, Alexander Pope
45. The Tale of Genji
46.Studs Lonigan Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
47.Working Division Street, Studs Terkel
48.The Water's Wide To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
49.Jerry Engels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
50.The Tastemakers Manon Lescaut, Antoine Francois Prevost...after all, I named this blog after her.
1. The Red and the Black, Stendhal
2. Montaigne's essays -- the 20 in How to Live: A Life of Montaigne, Sarah Blakewell
3. Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
4. The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder
5. Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse
6. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche
7. Candide, Voltaire
8. Tartuffe, Moliere
9.
10. Germinal, Emil Zola
11. The Chouans, Honore Balzac
12. The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. The Reivers, William Faulkner
14. Madame Bovary, Gustav Flaubert
15.
16. House of Mirth, Edith Wharton
17. All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
18. Quick Service, P. G. Wodehouse
19.
20. The Thurber Carnival, James Thurber
21. One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez
22. Silas Marner, George Eliot
23. The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West
24. Uncle Tom's Cabin, Harriet Beecher Stowe
25. Babbitt, Sinclair Lewis
26. Paul's Letters, New Testament
27. Augustine's writing
28.
29. Euripedes Medea
30. Plutarch's Lives
31. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, Rachel Field
32.
33. Complete Stories, Dorothy Parker, edited by Colleen Breese
34.
35. The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan
36. The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
37. Fifth Business, Robertson Davies
38. Confucius
39. The Charioteer, Mary Renault
40. Palace Walk, Nahguib Mahfouz
41.
42. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis
43. Trinity, Leon Uris
44.
45. The Tale of Genji
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Having just joined The Classics Club, this is to announce the first few books of what will eventually be a list of 50 classics. My goal is to read 50 titles in 60 months...and I'm a slow reader so I'll have to get going soon. I've chosen authors more than titles at this point so please suggest works you've loved by these writers. I sense a definite 18th and 19th century French streak...not sure why, I've just wanted to read or re-read some of these authors. So here's the first stab at a list of Lescaut's classics...
1. The Red and the Black
2. Montaigne's essays
3. Just So Stories
4. The Soul of a New Machine
5. Siddhartha
6. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
7. Candide
8. Tartuffe
9. Something by Montesquieu
10. Something by Zola
11. Something by Balzac...I heard he wrote about food.
12. The Great Gatsby
13. The Reivers
14. Madame Bovary
15. Emma
16. Something by Wharton
17. All Quiet on the Western Front
18. Something by P.G. Wodehouse
19. Breakfast at Tiffany's
20. Something by Thurber
21. One Hundred Years of Solitude
22. Silas Marner
23. All Quiet on the Western Front
24. Uncle Tom's Cabin
25. Babbitt
26. Paul's Letters, New Testament
27. Augustine's writing
28. Sappho
29. Euripedes Medea
30. Plutarch's Lives
31. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
32. The Knight's Tale in Canterbury Tales
33. Dorothy Parker
34. Simone de Beauvoir
35. The Feminine Mystique
36. The Portrait of Dorian Gray
37. Fifth Business
38. Confucius
39. The Charioteer
40. Palace Walk
41. The Adventures of Augie March
42. Zorba the Greek
43. Trinity
44. An Essay on Man
45. The Tale of Genji
46. Studs Lonigan
47. Working
48. The Water's Wide
49. Jerry Engels
50. The Tastemakers
1. The Red and the Black
2. Montaigne's essays
3. Just So Stories
4. The Soul of a New Machine
5. Siddhartha
6. The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
7. Candide
8. Tartuffe
9. Something by Montesquieu
10. Something by Zola
11. Something by Balzac...I heard he wrote about food.
12. The Great Gatsby
13. The Reivers
14. Madame Bovary
15. Emma
16. Something by Wharton
17. All Quiet on the Western Front
18. Something by P.G. Wodehouse
19. Breakfast at Tiffany's
20. Something by Thurber
21. One Hundred Years of Solitude
22. Silas Marner
23. All Quiet on the Western Front
24. Uncle Tom's Cabin
25. Babbitt
26. Paul's Letters, New Testament
27. Augustine's writing
28. Sappho
29. Euripedes Medea
30. Plutarch's Lives
31. Hitty: Her First Hundred Years
32. The Knight's Tale in Canterbury Tales
33. Dorothy Parker
34. Simone de Beauvoir
35. The Feminine Mystique
36. The Portrait of Dorian Gray
37. Fifth Business
38. Confucius
39. The Charioteer
40. Palace Walk
41. The Adventures of Augie March
42. Zorba the Greek
43. Trinity
44. An Essay on Man
45. The Tale of Genji
46. Studs Lonigan
47. Working
48. The Water's Wide
49. Jerry Engels
50. The Tastemakers
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