Sigh…another book I want…and just pre-ordered… Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s ‘last stories’ will appear in English at last A collection of nine short stories by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, described by scholars as ranking alongside his best work, is to be published in English for the first time. In one of the publishing events of the autumn, the collection […]
I want to highlight some quotes (all quotes are from the translation by Joachim Neugroschel) from this section since the themes I outlined in the post on Part One continue in Part Two. I’ll go into detail on some of the themes and motifs of Part Two in a separate post. While the following quotes […]
Back then, before the Great War, when the incidents reported on these pages took place, it was not yet a matter of indifference whether a person lived or died. If a life was snuffed out from the host of the living, another life did not instantly replace it and make people forget the deceased. Instead, […]
Gang of One: Memoirs of a Red Guard by Fan Shen (University of Nebraska, 294 pp.) From the University of Nebraska Press page: In 1966 twelve-year-old Fan Shen, a newly minted Red Guard, plunged happily into China’s Cultural Revolution. Disillusion soon followed, then turned to disgust and fear when Shen discovered that his compatriots had […]
“Jefferson’s Fiddle is a delightful collection of modern arrangements and readings of classical and traditional repertoire that showcase Thomas Jefferson’s extensive music library.” I expect the interest in the music on this recording to be limited but I also post this for the liner notes available. Here is the note for “Jefferson and Liberty: In […]
A quick post on a movie and a couple of non-fiction books which relies on the words of others… I only get to see a few movies at the theater each year that don’t involve talking animals or cars so it was a nice change of pace to see The Tree of Life yesterday. It’s […]
My thoughts stray to the many books I want to read or themes I want to explore, causing me to lose focus on what I planned on reading. Since the year is half gone, I thought it a good time to refocus on what I want to accomplish by the end of the year. I […]
All quotes and references are from The Landmark Arrian: The Campaigns of Alexander (translation by Pamela Mensch) unless noted. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the paradoxical figure of Alexander continues to emerge in Book Three. I wanted to look a little at Alexander’s relationship with the Greeks, leading to the dismissal of Greek […]
“Alexander deserves the glory which he has enjoyed for so many centuries and among all nations; but what if he had been beaten at Arbela [Gaugamela] having the Euphrates, the Tigris, and the deserts in his rear, without any strong places of refuge, nine hundred leagues from Macedonia?” Napoleon, from The Fifteen Decisive Battles of […]
Green: A song for someone aspiring to be an ordinary god may still strike a chord with those of us aspiring to something less. Then again, it may simply be a reminder of having to mow around a grandparent’s fig tree in the heat of an Alabama summer. And wishing I had sampled more of […]
Book Three sees several changes in Alexander’s administrative choices and style. To date, most of the officers installed by Alexander as he marched through Ionia and the Levant have been Macedonians friends or trustees. The exceptions in the first two books, such as Queen Ada who had surrendered Alinda and “adopted” Alexander (1.23.7-8), stand out […]
Chapters 3 and 4 of Book Three cover Alexander’s visit to the shrine of Ammon, but questions raised by this trip linger long after the close of these chapters. Even though Arrian provides detail about the journey, full of marvels and supernatural events, his list of Alexander’s motivations and the uncertainty of the trip’s results […]
The remarkable events I’m going to chronicle here would likely never have unfolded, in 1917, if young Dr. John Brinkley had not been hired as house doctor at the Swift meatpacking company, located in Kansas. He was dazzled by the vigorous mating activities of the goats destined for the slaughterhouse. A couple of years later, […]
“Sightseeing is the art of disappointment.” Robert Louis Stevenson (incorrect in this instance) in The Silverado Squatters Left side: This tablet placed by the Club Women of Napa County marks the site of the cabin occupied in 1880 by Robert Louis Stevenson and bride while he wrote The Silverado Squatters.Right side: “Doomed to know not […]
Title page of The Tree of Knowledge by Pio Baroja, translated by Aubrey F. G. Bell (Alfred A. Knopf, 1928)Posts on the novel: (Part 1) The nose of a cockatoo and more years than the oldest of parrots (Parts 2 – 3) Charity seemed to have fled from the world (Part 4) Interlude (Parts 5 […]
This post follows the final three parts of The Tree of Knowledge: Part Five (“A Provincial Experiment”), Part Six (”Experiences at Madrid”), and Part Seven (“A Son”). All quotes from the text use The Tree of Knowledge by Pio Baroja, translated by Aubrey F. G. Bell (Alfred A. Knopf, 1928). I’ll copy the summary of […]
Baroja abruptly halts the storyline at Part Four (“Inquiries”) in order to have a brief philosophical interlude. Andrés Hurtado and his uncle Iturrioz discuss different approaches on how to view life. All quotes are from The Tree of Knowledge by Pio Baroja, translated by Aubrey F. G. Bell (Alfred A. Knopf, 1928). To date, Andrés […]
Parts Two (“The Minglanillas”) and Three (“Sadness and Sorrow”) round out the medical student days of Andrés Hurtado. We follow him through his fourth and final year at medical school, his first (temporary) position in the country, and the care and death of his younger brother. All quotes are from The Tree of Knowledge by […]
Bronze statue of Pío Baroja (1872–1956) Picture source In looking at my sidebar on books I have reviewed, I see a disproportionate number by Pío Baroja and this post begins another book by him. Part of the reason has to do with limited information in English on Baroja and I have wanted to find out […]
Back home and back to work today after a week away. I avoided internet access while away so I have a lot piled up. I hope to get back to a semi-normal posting schedule next week (depending on work). The only book I read while I was away was Charles Hill’s Grand Strategies: Literature, Statecraft […]