What are you reading now?

[french frank]

No wish to see Shakespeare performed in the theatre or on tv or radio, though, as the present generation of actors have not the first clue about verse-speaking and the current crop of directors (at the RSC, in particular) seem set in their belief that WS was ‘the first Woke guy’.

How I agree with that! Unlike you, in my late teens and early twenties, as a direct legacy of school lessons, I never missed the local theatre performances. I saw Olivier's Richard III five times and even bought the LP set of the complete soundtrack. No question of school putting me off Shakespeare. Also, now reading Thomas More - for the first time - I appreciate what Shakespeare did with the narrative that he was using.

[Richard Barrett]

school putting me off Shakespeare

School put me on to Shakespeare! Either that or my O level class trip to Stratford in 1975 to see Helen Mirren as Lady M.

[gurnemanz]

You might like to have another try at Buddenbrooks if you go with John Woods’ excellent translation, published by Everyman Library. His version is so much more readable than the awful old Lowe Porter version which you’ll probably have attempted to read. His version of The Magic Mountain is also excellent.

I haven't read Mann in translation but remember one of our lecturers slagging off Lowe Porter as a reason why Mann was not as widely read as he might have been in the English-speaking world.

[DracoM]

'Felix Holt' / George Eliot

[Richard Barrett]

I haven't read Mann in translation but remember one of our lecturers slagging off Lowe Porter as a reason why Mann was not as widely read as he might have been in the English-speaking world.

I read Mann in translation before my German was good enough for that sort of thing and found The Magic Mountain impossible to get through, although on the other hand I've read the translation of Faustus several times and found it quite absorbing enough to retain my attention (probably because the subject is much closer to my heart of course!), although I have to admit I skipped the account of Zeitblom's student years after the first time.

[french frank]

I haven't read Mann in translation but remember one of our lecturers slagging off Lowe Porter as a reason why Mann was not as widely read as he might have been in the English-speaking world.

Just looked up, with sinking feeling, my largely unread Penguin Modern Classics edition (Buddenbrooks). Perhaps that's why I didn't get very far!

But on a brighter note, talk about association of ideas:

Richard mentioned aporia and a play by Beckett (L'Innommable)
I go to inspect my paltry post-classical French theatre texts collection.
Anouilh, Giraudoux, Camus, Sartre &c … and Georges Rodenbach

I bought Le Voile and Le Mirage because I was going to see Korngold's Die Tote Stadt at the ROH (my only visit there). It's actually based on Rodenbach's Symbolist novel Bruges-la-Morte but I couldn't locate a copy of that so I got the others instead . Have now ordered Bruges-la-Morte from leslibraires.fr at no doubt horrendous cost (French price €6.80). Fingers crossed, I think it's an edition with all the original photos which Rodenbach intended to form part of the novel.

PS CC card has just messaged me: €27.46=£24.49 (excluding any customs or whatever charges - but it is now on its way!)

[Leinster Lass]

School put me on to Shakespeare! Either that or my O level class trip to Stratford in 1975 to see Helen Mirren as Lady M.

That would certainly have done wonders for my appreciation of the Bard. Our school wouldn't even agree to a special showing at the local cinema of Olivier's Richard the Third.

[Serial_Apologist]

I read ....Werther before I read Elective Affinities. I didn’t think it was very good, though I could (sort of) understand the massive appeal it had in its day. Goethe himself had a low opinion of it and was embarrassed that it was the only work of his that ‘ordinary people’ seemed aware of. The way the narrative halts just before the end to make way for W’s (pretty awful, imo) translation of Ossian is unforgivable.

Found it impossible not to imagine Werther as being an Alain de Bouton lookalike....albeit one with hair! .

You mean a minted original, I suppose.

[LHC]

That would certainly have done wonders for my appreciation of the Bard. Our school wouldn't even agree to a special showing at the local cinema of Olivier's Richard the Third.

When I was at School doing O level English, we were supposed to go and see Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet at the cinema, but this was vetoed by the Head because one scene featured a naked male bum. So instead of this we were taken to see Polanski’s Macbeth, which included a great deal more nudity, as well as being much more violent (and as it was an AA certificate, several of the children attending were technically underage).

Judging from the pallid demeanor of our teachers at the end, I don’t think any of them knew what it was going to be like beforehand.

[Leinster Lass]

When I was at School doing O level English, we were supposed to go and see Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet at the cinema, but this was vetoed by the Head because one scene featured a naked male bum. So instead of this we were taken to see Polanski’s Macbeth, which included a great deal more nudity, as well as being much more violent (and as it was an AA certificate, several of the children attending were technically underage).

Judging from the pallid demeanor of our teachers at the end, I don’t think any of them knew what it was going to be like beforehand.

I recently watched that Romeo and Juliet on one of my Freesat channels - can't remember which one - a joyous romp! I keep meaning to check whether the BBC 'Bardathon' production with John Clees is to be found anywhere.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's funny: I have never got on with Shakespeare plays - which seems odd, given the (arguable) analogies between his multi-levelled and Schoenberg's respective uses of language - piled up musical idiom and syntax being somehow easier to take on board - initially by way of peripheral sound vision - than verbal, for a brain such as mine! Autistics have problems dealing with meanings, especially when presented and delivered in compressed form, and particularly in heightened emotional and dramatic gesture. (Others who have known me for years were alerted to my being autistic before I became aware of it). It has always fascinated me that it should be someone living at the end of the Renaissance, a time also of architectural embellishment, who should have brought about New Complexity in prose and poetry, 300 years ahead of music.

[Katzelmacher]

I haven't read Mann in translation but remember one of our lecturers slagging off Lowe Porter as a reason why Mann was not as widely read as he might have been in the English-speaking world.

The L P translations were supposedly quite successful in their day, but they’re unreliable and they do miss Mann’s humour (it’s there alright) and his striking use of metaphor and choice of words. When it comes to Joseph and his Brothers, she gets bogged down in the King James Bible. The result is something that it neither Mann nor English. John Woods is the way to go, though his translation of Buddenbrooks does include one aspect that will be jarring to British readers: an important minor character is ‘translated’ as a hick southern states American, where a British reader would expect a northern provincial or a ‘geezer’ from Essex.

[muzzer]

I haven't read Mann in translation but remember one of our lecturers slagging off Lowe Porter as a reason why Mann was not as widely read as he might have been in the English-speaking world.

I picked up a copy of the US paperback of the Woods translation last year for pennies

[Katzelmacher]

I picked up a copy of the US paperback of the Woods translation last year for pennies

Buddenbrooks or Magic Mountain?

[Katzelmacher]

Back on topic, I’ve just started reading Der Untertan (or ‘Man of Straw’, as it is known in English) by Thomas’s younger and more left-wing brother Heinrich.

This was the subject of a BBC dramatisation in 1972, which featured Derek Jacobi in an early starring role. It hasn’t been repeated in recent years and has not been made available on DVD or streaming. Another item of interest which the Beeb is content to sit on, just like they’re sitting on their Roads To Freedom (allegedly over concerns that its portrayal of homosexuality might get them into hot water, if rumours are to be believed).