What are you reading now?

[Historian]

Arnold Bennett's The Card (1911): great fun, a short read following Adam Bede. Must get a move on with finding vinteuil's recommendation of Riceyman Steps.

[AuntDaisy]

"House of Cards" by Michael Dobbs - not sure why
The TV version with Ian Richardson was excellent, as was the World Service radio version with Daniel Massey, Amanda Root & Anton Lesser. I've not seen the American series.

[smittims]

Ah well,there's one book I'll never read. I have a 'zero-tolerance ' policy with anyone who profited from that regime.

Talking of regimes, I'm re-reading Henry VI part III. Oh dear , what a lot of wasteful killing. It made me think of the Michael Collins film. One can't help thinking that a little skilful diplomacy could have avoided all that.

[LMcD]

Ah well,there's one book I'll never read. I have a 'zero-tolerance ' policy with anyone who profited from that regime.

Talking of regimes, I'm re-reading Henry VI part III. Oh dear , what a lot of wasteful killing. It made me think of the Michael Collins film. One can't help thinking that a little skilful diplomacy could have avoided all that.

Currently enjoying 'Edward Trencom's Nose - A Novel of History, Dark Intrigue and Cheese' by Giles Milton.

[Pulcinella]

Having typed the name Emelyanychev as the conductor of a version of Theodora for consideration in a BaL next month earlier this morning, I now find that he's the dedicatee of Donna Leon's Unto us a son is given, which I've just picked up as some light half-term reading from our local book exchange.
Serendipity or what?

[smittims]

Coincidence, I'd say.

I'm well into a re-reading of The Brothers Karamazov, and can't avoid the same heretical thought I had with Middlemarch, which will annoy the faithful , that it could do with a re-write to concentrate more concisely on the story. Yes, I know I'm supposed to enjoy the digressions into morality and theology, but like Ezra Pound's mother when her husband read Henry James to her , I want to cry 'Just get on with what happens!'

[french frank]

like Ezra Pound's mother when her husband read Henry James to her , I want to cry 'Just get on with what happens!'

Does that not reduce 'literature' to story-telling?

[smittims]

Well, yes, but is that a reduction? Isn't that what literature is? What about the Bible, the Iliad? aren't they story-telling? Granted that they're not just narrative. There's character and atmosphere.

[Rolmill]

Having typed the name Emelyanychev as the conductor of a version of Theodora for consideration in a BaL next month earlier this morning, I now find that he's the dedicatee of Donna Leon's Unto us a son is given, which I've just picked up as some light half-term reading from our local book exchange.
Serendipity or what?

Yes, I expect you are aware that Donna Leon has been a great supporter of baroque opera (especially Handel) for many years, initially helping to support financially Il Complesso Barocco and then (after Alan Curtis' death) Il Pomo d'Oro - hence the dedication presumably. She also writes excellent crime novels!

[Pulcinella]

Yes, I expect you are aware that Donna Leon has been a great supporter of baroque opera (especially Handel) for many years, initially helping to support financially Il Complesso Barocco and then (after Alan Curtis' death) Il Pomo d'Oro - hence the dedication presumably. She also writes excellent crime novels!

With as much emphasis on food as on solving the crimes!

[vinteuil]

Georges Simenon, Maigret en meublé (Maigret rents a room)

We have been watching the marvellous series of Maigret starring Bruno Cremer on Talking Pictures TV over the last year. In total there are 54 episodes, and Maigret en meublé will be episode 51, to be shown next Tuesday. I have been reading / re-reading them all as the series unrolls ; I shall be very sad when we reach the end next month.

.

[french frank]

Well, yes, but is that a reduction? Isn't that what literature is? What about the Bible, the Iliad? aren't they story-telling? Granted that they're not just narrative. There's character and atmosphere.

It's a reduction if that's all you're interested in (cf Ezra's mother), uninterested in character development or description. If all you want is a good yarn you're not interested in literature and there's plenty of stuff to choose from.

[smittims]

I think you're taking it a little too far. I do enjoy character development and atmospheer; I just don't like being preached to. I think this is why I prefer Turgenev to Tolstoy or Dostoievsky.

[richardfinegold]

I think you're taking it a little too far. I do enjoy character development and atmospheer; I just don't like being preached to. I think this is why I prefer Turgenev to Tolstoy or Dostoievsky.

It’s been a while since I read The Brothers K; I have more proximately re read Crime and Punishment, which was superb in depicting the atmosphere of St. Petersberg. I do remember the Brothers as having a hectoring, or preachy tone. I remember reading that by that point in his life Dostoyevsky, who had been a radical in his youth, had become a reactionary. As with many late nineteenth Russian intellectuals, he knew that the despotic Romanovs were doomed and feared that what might follow in their wake. His solution was that Russians should embrace a mystical cocktail of Russopphilia, pan Slavicism, and Christianity,. As he feared that this collapse was imminent, he was rather strident that his fellow Russians make haste. Perhaps that context may help you along

[vinteuil]

His solution was that Russians should embrace a mystical cocktail of Russopphilia, pan Slavicism, and Christianity,. As he feared that this collapse was imminent, he was rather strident that his fellow Russians make haste...

... hmmm - contemporary relevance or what!

.