As a result of reading Alexander Herzen's brilliant My Past and My Thoughts (about which I am still trying to start writing) I have embarked on a course of 19thC Russian literature to try and, very slowly, enlighten my dismal ignorance in this area. My first book was Nikolay Gogol's novel Dead Souls. Due to …
Category: books
McIntyre on Hester Lynch Piozzi
I have recently finished Ian McIntrye's 2008 biography of Hester Lynch Piozzi - Hester: The Remarkable Life of Dr Johnson's 'Dear Mistress'. This book has been lavishly praised so I have to admit to considerable disappointment. While it is a fairly easy read, it is in a remorseless chronological style - in May 1780 Hester did …
Goldsmith’s Traveller
On the EighteenthCenturyWorlds List ( see right for link) Ellen recently posted some verses from Goldsmith's The Traveller..... Goldsmith, from "The Traveller" Creations' mildest charms are there combined, Extremes are only in the master's mind. Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state, With daring aims irregularly great; Pride in their port, defiance in their …
July Miscellany (2009)
I re-read, with more concentration, Caryl Churchill's Fen (1983). It is a remarkable piece of work mainly concerned with the lives of a number of women in a Fen village. There are a couple of male characters - Mr Tewson, the landowner, and Frank, for whom one of the women, Val, is leaving her husband and …
July Days – Witley Court and Church
Witley Court is a country house in Worcestershire which was largely gutted by fire in 1937. Although the house is still a ruin, English Heritage, who acquired the property in the 1980's, have been working to restore the historically important gardens. In addition Great Witley Church, which is attached to the house, fortunately escaped the …
Reeves on Mill – Chapters 1-5
The following are my comments on Richard Reeves biography John Stuart Mill Victorian Firebrand (2007) taken directly from my comments on Trollope-l - some of the remarks therefore refer to debates on list but these are pertinent so I have refrained from any editing. Chapters 1 and 2 I have now started Richard …
J.I.M. Stewart – Myself and Michael Innes
J.I.M. Stewart – Myself and Michael Innes (1987) This book is subtitled A Memoir, which is certainly a far more suitable description than auto-biography. Indeed it is short on some basic biographical facts which can more easily be picked up from Wikipedia. Stewart was born in 1906 in Edinburgh, where he attended the Edinburgh Academy, before …
Crabbe – Tale 9: Arabella
One thing which I have failed to comment on is the way in which certain of The Tales are grouped, or follow on from one another. There are dialogues between the Tales some of which take of the forms of oppositions, others of complements. This is most definitely true of Tales 6-9 all of which …
Crabbe – Tale 8: The Mother
Another hard tale of a parent and a child - in this case a Mother and daughter. The Tale actually begins with the Mother's parents who are fatefully indulgent, granting Dorothea, their only surviving child's ('Sons they had lost' - Crabbe is always alive to social facts such as the infant mortality rate) every wish, so …
June Miscellany (2009)
A scanty month dominated by another bout of Depression. In fact a week of recovery at the beginning June has only punctuated an episode which began in May and from which I am far from recovered. The problem in writing about Depression is that it is miserably re-iterative, solipsistic and impossible to make interesting. Depression …
Moving Toyshop 