Starting Monday on BBC 4 Radio’s “Book at Bedtime” series, the book will be Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, read by David Horovitch and abridged by Tom Holland. And what an abridgment, since the total air time will be an hour and fifteen minutes. I have no idea what it will be like, but […]
Author: Dwight
Asymptote Journal had passed along an article about The Library of Congress Is Uploading 75 Years of Poetry and Literature Recordings. I’ve had fun listening to a few of the recordings, especially the ones with Joseph Brodsky, Czesław Miłosz, and James Merrill, and plan on listening to many more. Since I’m more of a “scroll” […]
Details on the screening Written up at midnight after seeing the Stratford Festival’s screening of King John, while a few thoughts I actually had during the viewing are with me. Forgive the hasty nature of this post. Philip Faulconbridge, the Bastard, is a marvelous character, and not just in the sense he’s a “type” that […]
I have been looking forward to the upcoming Stratford Festival screening of King John for several reasons, but especially since I’ve only seen it once. The play can be described as erratic, but there are some wonderful moments in it. The selection of incidents Shakespeare includes in the play brings home the parallels between the […]
The Death of Caesar by Barry Strauss Simon & Schuster, 323 pages, $27I’m rushing through this post since I want to post it on the Ides of March (and I just finished the book)… Barry Strauss, professor of history and classics at Cornell University, has provided an insightful study of the actions, motivations, and fallout […]
I wish I could say I’ve read Hilary Mantel’s books Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies. I want to say that…I really do. But I’ve been knee-deep in readings about the Plantagenets lately. I’ll get to Mantel’s books soon, I know I will. In the meantime I just found out about PBS’ upcoming series […]
Adding to the continuing series of books in movies… In Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Steve Rogers’ climbs in through the window of his apartment after realizing someone has broken in. There are two shelves you see him pass by on his way to see who’s in his apartment. He passes by the second […]
The Firemen’s Ball. 1967. Czechoslovakia. Directed by Milos FormanPicture source First a few links, since they provide useful information and background: The movie’s page on Milos Forman’s official website provides a nice overview, troubles in releasing it, interesting trivia, some of Forman’s comments, and links to reviews. My favorite part is at the […]
The Collected Works posted a link earlier today to a YouTube video of Leonard Nimoy as Roger in the 1963 movie version of Jean Genet’s The Balcony. I have not watched the movie, but I was happy to watch these short clips. It highlights the absurdity of the play while providing Nimoy a great role. […]
This was the first screening of the Stratford Festival HD: From Stage to Screen Series that is now underway. They intend to offer 38 of Shakespeare’s plays…similar to that of the BBC’s Shakespeare project from 1978-1985 plus Two Noble Kinsmen. If last night’s show is any indication of the quality of the series, I am […]
Picture source Looking forward to seeing King Lear in the Stratford Festival HD: From Stage to Screen Series tonight. I could do much worse for a cheat-sheet on the play than the above summary. It almost puts me in the mood to review the movie from the standpoint of a Joe Bob Briggs Drive-In Movie […]
The Asymptote Blog has an interview with translator Tim Wilkinson. I’ve read his translations of Imre Kertész’s Facelessness and Fiasco, Miklós Szentkuthy’s Marginalia on Casanova and Towards the One and Only Metaphor (along with excerpts from other of his books, and I have Prae on deck), and Death of an Athlete by Miklós Mészöly. I […]
Well, despite the press release over two months ago this was news to me: Three of Shakespeare’s great dramas about the burdens, madness and romance of ruling, all performed by one of the world’s premier repertory theater companies – The Stratford Festival in Ontario Canada – come to select U.S. cinemas courtesy of Fathom Events […]
Saturday evening my wife and I went to see The Collected Works present “The Balcony” by Jean Genet. I’ve never completely connected with the play, although I do enjoy certain parts of it. I think my hesitancy with the play is in the randomness (for lack of a better word) in parts of it, a […]
It made me happy to see Richard’s post on Andrei Bely’s Petersburg because it was a book I loved and I don’t see a lot of comments on it (my apologies to those of you have posted on it). It’s weird. It’s sprawling. And it’s wonderful. As Amateur Reader expressed in the comments, “It has a […]
Judging by recent publications, there has been a resurgence in interest about William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke (c. 1146 – 1219). Marshal will be the focus of several posts, so I wanted to have something masquerading as an introduction before I cover books and a TV program about him. My planned posts will be […]
I’ve mentioned the Collected Works theater company after going to see their production of Witold Gombrowicz’s Princess Ivona. Their current production is Jean Genet’s play “The Balcony.” Making the production even more intriguing is its performance at The Old Mint in San Francisco. From the Collected Works’ page about this location: The Old Mint (affectionately […]
Trevor at The Mookse and the Gripes was kind enough to post my comments on the recent translation of Tristana by Benito Pérez Galdós, so please give him some click-love: the review NYRB has provided a major service to readers by publishing Margaret Jull Costa’s translation of Galdós’ novel. While I really enjoyed the earlier […]
Last week BBC Radio 4’s program “In Our Time” featured a great discussion of Thucydides, his writing, and his role as historian. I don’t know how long this link will remain active so I recommend listening to it soon (although many of their previous episodes are available in their archives). If you’re interested in reading […]
I’ve only given a handful of books my highest recommendation (when I add a semi-ranking), and Chevengur by Andrei Platonov was one. Robert Chandler (a polite but definite critic of the only previous available English translation), Elizabeth Chandler, and Olga Meerson will have a new translation of Chevengur, hopefully available soon. Fortunately there are a […]