While I try to exclude personal items from this site, I did want to pass on a recommendation as well as a tribute. My father passed away last month and, as part of the preparations for the funeral, the minister presiding over it talked quite a bit with the family. Here is an expanded version […]
Author: Dwight
Mrs. Dalloway, London: Hogarth Press, 1925. Dust jacket designed by Vanessa Bell. Picture source It is difficult–perhaps impossible–for a writer to say anything about his own work. All he has to say has been said as fully and as well as he can in the body of the book itself. If he has failed to […]
Picture sourceMy posts on Isaac Babel, and all the quotes in them, come from The Complete Works of Isaac Babel, edited by Nathalie Babel and translated by Peter Constantine. This review of the translation is far from glowing, noting “other translations give you a much better sense of his [Babel’s] abilities.” But I liked the completeness […]
List of victims in 1905 Odessa pogrom The most terrible pogrom in the history of Jewish Odessa took place on October 18-22, 1905, when there were some 175,000 Jews living in the city. It enveloped the entire city and the bloody [activity] spread from the central streets to the outlying districts, primarily Moldovanka, which had […]
Starting August 9th, The Orwell Prize will begin running the entry from George Orwell’s diary that was written 70 years ago. Here is the introduction from The Orwell Diaries page, where the entries will be posted: ‘When one reads any strongly individual piece of writing, one has the impression of seeing a face somewhere behind […]
Pratique Harbor, Odessa (circa 1890 – 1900) Picture sourceBabel’s stories of life in Odessa, or more properly in the Moldavanka neighborhood, were published starting in 1921 and continued into the 1930s. Jan Dudas’ recent pictures of the district can be found on Flickr here. If possible, these works feel more direct than The Red Cavalry […]
Konarmiya (Red Cavalry) and The Odessa Stories “In late May 1920, the First Cavalry of the Soviet Red Army, under the command of General Budyonny, rode into Volhynia, today the border region of western Ukraine and eastern Poland. The Russian-Polish campaign was under way, the new Soviet government’s first foreign offensive, which was viewed back […]
Isaac Babel Picture sourceThere is a wealth of information regarding Isaac Babel available online, a tribute to the power of his stories despite having been “erased” by the Soviet regime for many years. Here is a list of some of the available resources: Babel’s Wikipedia entry Gregory Freidin, Professor, Director of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities […]
Picture sourceMost of the so-called “romances” of Shakespeare get mixed reviews, sometimes called failed experiments. The blending of tragedy and comedy in A Winter’s Tale mimics the fine line in real life between the two (and the play itself seems to be making somewhat of a comeback). While the whole is enjoyable what really stands […]
This production is a filmed stage production from the RSC’s 1998/99 season performed at the Barbican Theatre, London. The staging is mostly stark (with the pastoral scene as a notable exception), which allows the players’ performances to be the central focus. Despite the minimal sets, some uses were rather innovative (for example the draped sheets […]