(acommonreader.st)
Gravestone and plaque for Kafka family, Prague “Theoretically there is a perfect possibility of happiness: believing in the indestructible element in oneself and not striving towards it.” — Franz Kafka Back to my Modernism kick with a short work by Kafka. I don’t believe I’ve read any of his work since college, so it will […]
Statue of Machado de Assis at the Academia Brasileira de Letras (Machado was the first president of the Academy) Picture source“Time is an invisible web on which everything may be embroidered.” — Machado de Assis A wonderful introduction to an author that I had not heard about until recently. If it is possible to make […]
That Stendhal should have confessed to have written one of his books for a hundred readers is something that brings on wonder and concern. Something that will not cause wonder and probably no concern is whether this other book will have Stendhal’s hundred readers, or fifty, or twenty, or even ten. Ten? Five perhaps. The […]
Picture source Chapter CXXXV: Oblivion… Put that name in small caps. OBLIVION! It’s only proper that all honor be paid to a personage so despised and so worthy, a last-minute gues at the party, but a sure one. The lady who dazzled at the dawn of the present reign knows it and, even more painfully, […]
I’m beginning to regret this book. Not that it bores me, I have nothing to do and, really, putting together a few meager chapters for that other world is always a task that distracts me a little from eternity a little. But the book is tedious, it has the smell of the grave about it; […]
Well, you can tell what we did this weekend, much to the chagrin of a few pumpkins. Not much in the way of links this week since the Chrees household has been busy with spookier things. That being said… Brideshead undermined (link is dead) It seems the recent movie version of Evelyn Waugh’s novel decided […]
Rua Direita no Rio de Janeiro (by Johann Moritz Rugendas) Brás Cubas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Virgília . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brás […]
Picture source For some time I debated whether I should start these memoirs at the beginning or at the end, that is, whether I should put my birth or my death in first place. Since common usage would call for beginning with birth, two considerations led me to adopt a different method: the first is […]
Jay Walker’s library Picture sourceGeek meets library A few weeks ago I linked to an article featuring beautiful libraries. This article features Jay Walker’s library, “about 3,600 square feet on three mazelike levels”. The Escher-like library is a beauty to behold, as well as the interesting works it contains: What gets him excited are things […]
Joaquim Maria Machado de AssisIt took a while to find things online (in English) about Machado de Assis. While a few of these items are repetitive, I’ll include the links I found interesting: His Wikipedia entry A beautiful site created by the Academia Brasileira de Letras Reading Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, an article from […]
One of the unique marbled pages from Volume III Picture source In which I bid a fond farewell to the Shandy clan. When putting a book back on the bookshelf or returning it to the library I usually don’t consciously think whether I’ll revisit it again. So where does Tristram Shandy fall? “For those who […]
Thomas Patch: Sterne and Death“This is not a digression from it, but the work itself” — Pliny the Younger (epigraph to Volumes VII and VIII) If I have joked too facetiously with anything, by the muses and the graces and all the power of the poets, I beseech thee not to mistake me” — Julius […]
Torturing Machiavelli again Of the few biographies I’ve read in the past decade, Niccolo’s Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli is one of my favorites. However, the above article at The New Yorker provides a lot on his life and a relatively balanced picture of Machiavelli before the predictable ending. Mrs. Woolf and the Servants Mrs. Woolf […]
“Why do we want to spend a year of our lives making this film?” ” ’cause it’s funny.” “Is that all?” “Is that not enough?” Sterne would have undoubtedly said “Yes” as that exchange captures the spirit of his book. The reviews at IMDB and at Amazon.com are mixed, but I think that is the […]
Pages from Volume VI, Chapter 40 Picture sourceIf I should speak too jocosely, this bit of liberty you will indulgently grant me – Horace If anyone should censure [me] as too light for a proper churchman or too biting for a decent Christian, it is not I but Democritus who speaks (Latin) – Erasmus — […]
A melancholy man of letters Do we really need another biography of Samuel Johnson? Peter Martin and his publisher’s evidently think so, with the recent release of Samuel Johnson: A Biography Mr. Martin makes much of Johnson’s acute melancholy—but then so did Johnson, who claimed that he led “a life radically wretched.” It is an […]
Frontispiece of Volume III Designed by William Hogarth, engraved by Simon François Ravenet (the elder) Picture sourceI do not fear the opinions of the ignorant mob, but I ask that they spare my little book, in which I always proposed to pass from the mirthful to the serious, and from the serious to the mirthful […]
Library of the Benedictine Monastery of Admont, Austria Librophiliac Love Letter: A Compendium of Beautiful Libraries Posted over a year ago but I just discovered it this week. I’m still working my way through all the pictures of these gorgeous libraries (and will have to pace myself to work through the site). How to explain […]
Frontispiece and title page from Volume 1 (7th edition) “Trim’s reading the Sermon to my Father” Picture sourceMen are tormented with the Opinions they have of Things, and not by the Things themselves. — epigraph to Volumes I and II (from the Stoic Epicetus as translated by Montaigne) It has taken me a while to […]
Picture sourceI think I’ll go with the shortened name of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. The long title is the reader’s first clue that nothing in the novel will be to the point. Here are some links on the work and the author: Laurence Sterne Wikipedia’s entry on the author The Shandean […]