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Leopoldo Alas’ Wikipedia entry In addition to La Regenta Leopoldo Alas only finished one other novel (His Only Son, which I plan to read soon) but wrote more than 80 short stories. I hope the short stories are some of the untranslated works Margaret Jull Costa will be working on in the near future. Alas’ […]
Statue of Ana Ozores, (La Regenta) Located in the plaza of the Cathedral of San Salvador, Oviedo, Spain Picture source This post will be a scattershot introduction to La Regenta, one of the best 19th-century novels I’ve read. Since its release, La Regenta has had its share of misrepresentation. Alas was initially accused of plagiarizing […]
Berkeley, G., Beckett, S., Keaton, B., Schneider, A., Rosset, B., Evergreen Theatre, Inc., & Applause Video Productions. (1997). Film. New York, NY: Applause. Samuel Beckett’s only venture into the medium of the cinema, it was written in 1963 and filmed in New York in the summer of 1964, directed by Alan Schneider and featuring Buster […]
I continue with my erratic foreign movie posts for this year as well as posting on movies adapted from books (as usual, this post will look at the differences between the film adaptation and the novel). For more foreign movies, check out Caroline’s World Cinema Series 2012 and Richard’s blog. Add this movie to the […]
I was unplugged for a few days–I highly recommend it. Sometimes it’s fun just to have fun. I’ll be unplugged again this coming weekend (although with a much lower fun factor). Subjects for posts I have planned to write: The Desert of the Tartars movie Film, 20-minute feature by Samuel Beckett, starring (if that’s the […]
It turns out this wasn’t the latest Sue Grafton mystery, although it does sound scary. I just discovered AbeBooks’ Weird Book Room –if you need a laugh today, you could do worse. Although you’ll have to stand behind me for Whose Bottom is This?: A Lift-the-flap Book.
The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati Translation by Stuart C. Hood Introduction by Tim Parks Canongate Books Ltd. (2007); paperback ISBN: 978-1841959283I have had this in my to be read pile for a while but Miguel’s post at St. Orberose on Jorge Luis Borges’ “personal library” recommendations pushed me to open it the other evening. […]
I finally finished listening to How to Live, or A life of Montaigne in one question and twenty attempts at an answer and thoroughly enjoyed it. A mix of Montaigne’s biography and review of his works, it made my commute much more pleasurable. Now the only question is what version of the Essays to start […]
Work threw me a knuckleball this week, but hopefully I’ll be back to semi-regular posting in the next few days (offset by some travel days). So expect some posts on The Tartar Steppe by Dino Buzzati and the screen adaptation The Desert of the Tartars (both highly recommended). I still have some ways to go […]
Title page to Clerks / Chasing Amy: Two Screenplays: by Kevin Smith Robin, See? Now this sucks. You get this cool gift, right. And that’s okay. But now you know Dwight’s going to hold it over your head forever. Maybe even extort sex from you as well (if he’s not a relative…hell, maybe even if […]
At the start of the year, The Neglected Books Page posted on Fortunata and Jacinta as “The Greatest Novel You’ve Never Heard of.” Please read that post about the book and follow the links provided—it’s a great overview of the novel and introduction to Galdós. I seconded the enthusiasm for the novel and author and […]
Pornografia by Witold Gombrowicz Translation by Danuta Borchardt Grove Press, 248 pages (paperback) ISBN: 978-0802145130I’m having trouble getting motivated to read or post so I’ll provide a wrap-up on Pornografia that is heavy on links, quotes, and impressions. First, the summary from the Publishers Weekly review (taken from Bacacay: The Polish Literature Weblog): While recuperating […]
At Frederick’s command, Henia (Sandra Samos) rolls up Karol’s torn pants legI continue with my erratic foreign movie posts for this year as well as posting on movies adapted from books (as usual, this post will look at the differences between the film adaptation and the novel). For more foreign movies, check out Caroline’s World […]
My last post while I’m taking a break… An article by David Mikics, “The Diplomat of Shoah History,” fits in well with much of my recent reading and I highly recommend it (even with some reservations). In the article Mikics looks at Timoth Snyder’s book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin and the question “Does […]
Another post while I’m away… “A gentleman does not kick a woman.” “Your lordship is right as far as that goes,” said Kazmer Rezeda. “If the occasion arises, strangling is far more appropriate.” Hungarian Literature Online had a recent excerpt from next year’s release of Gyula Krúdy’s 1931 novel The Knight of the Cordon Bleu. […]
While I’m away from wifi service I have a few miscellaneous posts lined up… Many thanks to Sheila O’Malley for the link to Kim Morgan’s interview with the four stars (Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty and Ronny Cox) of the movie Deliverance. She only had ten minutes for the interview. Ten minutes. As Sheila […]
I’ll be taking a few days off as my wife and I celebrate our anniversary. Since we’ll be in the area where we held the wedding, I’ll add a link to my post on The Art of Eating Well.
Witold Gombrowicz wrote A Kind of Testament, an autobiographical account of his life and work, in 1968, a year before he died. While anything that comes directly from Gombrowicz has to be taken with a grain of salt, the flow of information and insight that comes from the book feels as wonderful as his other […]
I plan on posting occasional entries from Diary by Witold Gombrowicz over the next few months (or however long it takes me to get through it). I’m reading the 2012 Yale University Press edition, translation by Lillian Vallee. There are several references to Pornografia in the Diary and I’ll post from two related entries. Before […]
I’ll tell you about yet another adventure of mine, probably one of the most disastrous. At the time—the year was 1943—I was living in what was once Poland and what was once Warsaw, at the rock-bottom of an accomplished fact. Silence. The thinned-out bunch of companions and friends from the former cafes—the Zodiac, the Ziemiańska, […]