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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 […]