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“During late 1905 and several times in 1906, Andrei Bely stayed in one of the furnished rooms at the “Bel-vu” in the corner building on 64 Nevsky and Karavannaia Street. It was during these stays in Petersburg, prompted by his frenzied and tormented love for Blok’s wife Liubov Dmitrievna, that the vision of Petersburg began […]
Gabriel García Márquez in 1976 after Mario Vargas Llosa punched himPicture source and story
The post title is not a sequel to a John Candy movie (fortunately) but a recent release by the Yale University Press: The Invisible Harry Gold: The Man Who Gave the Soviets the Atom Bomb by Allen M. Hornblum. Even with the overstated title, this book caught my eye because of recent discussion about Solzhenitsyn’s In […]
Map of St. Petersburg, 1893 Picture sourceI wasn’t sure what I would read next but after opening Andrei Bely’s Petersburg and reading the two-page prologue, I am hooked. So Petersburg it is. I am reading the Pushkin Press release, translation by John Elsworth. A quick internet search on the author and title shows more available […]
From Open Culture, “Internet Archive has opened up access to 74 banned books.” Click on over and download any favorites or books you have been wanting to read.
In the previous post I provided a summary from the back cover of Mikhail Bulgakov’s satirical work. You can see a preview of the translation by Mirra Ginsburg at Google books. This was the perfect book I needed after finishing The Histories and I know I will return to it again—I loved it and highly […]
I started Bulgakov’s Heart of a Dog this week and quickly fell in love with it. I also have a copy of the 1988 Russian movie that I hope to watch this weekend. For anyone not familiar with this short novel, it “tells the story of a scroungy Moscow mongrel named Sharik. Thanks to the […]
I may be obliged to tell what is said, but I am not at all obliged to believe it. And you may consider this statement to be valid for my entire work. – from Book Seven, Paragraph 152 Wow. That’s about all I can manage at this point. What a long strange trip this has […]
This post covers Book Nine from Paragraph 90 through the end of the work, covering the battle of Mycale, the siege of Sestos, and the final anecdotes. The Greeks had sailed to Delos under the command of the Spartan Leotychidas. Messengers from Samos urge the Greeks to travel to their island to attack the Persians […]
So here I am within sight of the finish line of this project I semi-unwittingly tackled and I’m slamming on the brakes to post about a topic I glossed over in Book Seven. For this post I wanted to look at the battle of Himera in Sicily that was supposed to have occurred on the […]
The Persians were not inferior in courage or strength, but they did not have hoplite arms, and besides, they were untrained and no match for their opponents in tactical skill. They were dashing out beyond the front lines individually or in groups of ten, joining together in larger or smaller bands, and charging right into […]
This map covers earlier battles, but it also provides the topography of the area surrounding Plataea (located just below the “oe” in Boeotia) Picture source After dinner, as they lingered drinking, the Persian on the couch with Thersandros asked him in Greek what country he came from, to which he replied, “Orchomenus.” The Persian then […]
The Athenians first answered Alexandros as follows: “We ourselves are already well aware that the forces of the Mede are many times greater than our own, so there is no need to admonish us about that. Nevertheless, we shall defend ourselves however we can in our devotion to freedom. So do not attempt to seduce […]
Sea Fight at Salamis, Wilhelm von Kaulbach, 1868 Picture source As Themistokles was saying this, Adeimantos the Corinthian again attacked him, ordering him to be silent since he had no fatherland, and forbidding Eurybiades to allow any man who had no city to propose a motion for a vote. He told Themistokles that when he […]
The Troizen decreePicture source When the allies brought their ships to Salamis, the Athenians put in at their own shore and made a proclamation that every Athenian should try to save his children and other members of his household in any way that he could. Most of them dispatched their households to Troizen, through some […]
Even though this turned into the summer of Herodotus, I have also listened to some books during my commute. The local library system is rather hit or miss on what is available but here are a few things I’ve listened to over the last couple of months: The Mill on the Floss, George Eliot Thoroughly […]
Thermopylae & Artemision campaign Picture source We know very little of Pindar’s life. He was born in or about the year B.C. 522, at the village of Kynoskephalai near Thebes. He was thus a citizen of Thebes and seems to have always had his home there. But he travelled among other states, many of which […]
The Spartans provided the commander who had supreme authority over them all, Eurybiades son of Eurykleides. For the allies had refused to follow Athenian leaders and had asserted that unless a Laconian led them, they would call off the anticipated assembly of their armed forces. … [T]he Athenians yielded to them because they considered the […]
Xerxes at the Hellespont, Jean Adrien Guignet I exercised my kingship on condition that I led a hard, sober and industrious life, just like that of my people. I was king solely to defend my fatherland and to ensure the rule of law. My kingship gave me the power to do good without permitting me […]
Jacques-Louis David, “Leonidas at Thermopylae” (1814) Picture and poem shamelessly lifted from Stephen Pentz Thermopylae Honor to those who in the life they lead define and guard a Thermopylae. Never betraying what is right, consistent and just in all they do but showing pity also, and compassion; generous when they are rich, and when they […]