and we won’t go into how soon it will be to see if she still needs / feeds / etc. me. A picture from a day I couldn’t stop smiling…
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I had a long post on this, but I’ll shorten my comments on this viral video…brilliant on so many levels. One of my favorite songs, ever. And a book and movie that I couldn’t stand. Which is why laughing at it probably makes me enjoy it that much more. (Warning–simulated violence and sex.) I posted […]
Preparations for Hunt by Evgraf Krendovsky (1836) Picture sourceI come back to Turgenev’s own description of this book (which I quoted on the resources post): “Much has come out pale and scrappy, much is only just hinted at, some of it’s not — right, oversalted or undercooked — but there are other notes pitched exactly […]
A brief post on the last nine stories in (my version of) A Sportsman’s Notebook: “The Singers”, “Pyotr Petrovich Karataev”, “The Rendezvous”, “Prince Hamlet of Shchigrovo”, “Chertopkhanov and Nedopyuskin”, “The End of Chertopkhanov”, “The Live Relic”, “The Knocking”, and “Forest and Steppe”. The text and other links related to A Sportsman’s Notebook can be found […]
Landscape with Oaks by Alexey Savrasov (1850s) Picture sourceA brief post on the next nine stories in A Sportsman’s Notebook: “Bezhin Meadow”, “ Kasyan from Fair Springs”, “ The Bailiff”, “The Estate Office”, “The Bear”, “Two Landowners”, “Lebedyan”, “Tatyana Borisovna and Her Nephew”, and “Death”. The text and other links related to A Sportsman’s Notebook […]
Since I’m reading several of Turgenev’s works, I thought I would take a take a quick look at Reading Turgenev, the first half of William Trevor’s 1991 book Two Lives. For a brief editorial review and a good summary, see the Amazon.com product page—the May 19, 2000 review covers the book fairly well. While the […]
There is July, and then there is Turgenev’s July. Here is the wonderful and magical first paragraph of “Bezhin Meadow” (translation by Charles and Natasha Hepburn): It was a beautiful July day, one of those days which come only after long spells of settled weather. From the earliest morning the sky is clear; the dawn […]
The Overgrown Pond by Valentin Serov (1888) Picture sourceA brief discussion covering the first seven of the “sketches”: Khor and Kalinich, Ermolai and the Miller’s Wife, Raspberry Water, The Country Doctor, My Neighbor Radilov, Ovsyanikov the Freeholder, Lgov. The text and other links related to A Sportsman’s Notebook can be found here. All quotes are […]
During my week off, I finally read The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss that I mentioned a couple of months ago. Several books I’ve read lately raises the question of what makes a successful history when little trustworthy material is available on the subject. Persistent use of qualifiers like “perhaps”, “he might have seen”, and […]
I’ve been enjoying a week off from work and staying offline as much as possible. Here’s wishing everyone a happy Fourth of July.