What are you reading now?

[Belgrove]

Jean Echenoz’s ‘Ravel - a novel’, is as slender, precise and elegant as its subject. It charts the last decade of Ravel’s life in nine brief chapters, written in different styles, starting from his tour of the USA in 1928. It covers the period during which Bolero and the piano concertos were composed. Ravel’s decline, possibly accelerated by a car accident, is as tragic as any in the history of music. A poignant read.

[muzzer]

Buddenbrooks or Magic Mountain?

MM

[DracoM]

'Felix Holt' / George Eliot.
Seismic politics around the huge tipping point of Reform Bill mid 19th century England.
.........And we think Brexit's a prob? Ha!

[Rjw]

V2 by Robert Harris

The history bit was ok the fiction total twaddle.

[Petrushka]

V2 by Robert Harris

The history bit was ok the fiction total twaddle.

I went off Robert Harris a long time ago for exactly this reason.

Now reading: Home Run by John Nichol and Tony Rennell.

[french frank]

Just finished Bruges-la-Morte which highlights the very different concept that the Korngolds had in creating Die tote Stadt, turning a "shabby little shocker" (albeit with literary qualities) into an operatic psychodrama completely different from Rodenbach's intention. They even introduce a 'did he, didn't he?' idea - and surprisingly decide that, No, he didn't …

By calling the novel a 'shabby little shocker' I simply mean that it's far less complex psychologically: slightly unbalanced man becomes besotted with a dancer who is basically only interested in his money, taunts him in a way that acts as a trigger to his unstable mental condition and he murders her. The whole tale is set against the 1890s background of Bruges whose fossilised townscape and unbending Catholicity reflect his state of mind and influence his actions. The Korngolds are having none of that and Die tote Stadt becomes a mix of uncontrolled passion and eerie mystery. Which turns it into an opera .

My sort-of system, insofar as I have a system, suggests I look at John Evelyn's diary next, another 'been on my shelves a long time' item, but I'm not sure I'm quite in the right mood. Perhaps James's Turn of the Screw or Mérimée's Carmen, neither of which I have.

[Joseph K]

Perhaps James's Turn of the Screw

I remember enjoying that.

I've just started Huxley's Brave New World.

[DracoM]

Silas Marner followed by an Ian Rankin Rebus!!

[french frank]

I've just started Huxley's Brave New World.

Which now rubs it in that I did, at some point, get rid of certain books - I had the Folio edition of BNW and I don't have it now. I do have other Huxley paperbacks, Eyeless in Gaza, Antic Hay, Point Counter Point and maybe one or two others. Chrome Yellow? Well, I'm easily led, so maybe I'll ditch J. Evelyn for Huxley. I remember PCP, so maybe I should look out Eyeless in Gaza I will do that now. It'll be under H in the left hand bookshelf in the 'library' (front room) - if I haven't got rid of that too

[Serial_Apologist]

I remember enjoying that.

I've just started Huxley's Brave New World.

The next "logical" novel would be Huxley's "Island", then, in which, right at the end of his life, he posed the idea of some sort of post-capitalist antidote based on ecological principles, a form of cod-Freudianism, and a substance called "moksha medecine", probably a euphemism for either Pscillocybin or LSD, in which Huxley indulged in his later years. The ruler of the island, like Ashoka, accepted the new syncretic guiding principles; however his son - about whom if I remember correctly Huxley unfortunately imputes homosexual tendencies - is in league with the ruler and friend of big oil on the neighbouring mainland, and so invites the latter to invade, affording his country lucrative exploitation of Pala's oil reserves and generous backhanders to collaborators, thereby missing out on the necessity of home defense, which Huxley in his ideological generosity omitted from the equation. Huxley characterises the proto-hippyfied buddhism which is unfolded throughout as at root basically humanistic rather than religious, which is a plus. As with Brave New World the author paints his leading protagonists somewhat as cardboard characters, but, apart from not having read the book for several decades now - I really should right that - most of the ingredients in combination might well have worked had they remembered to arm themselves!

[vinteuil]

My sort-of system, insofar as I have a system, suggests I look at John Evelyn's diary next, another 'been on my shelves a long time' item, but I'm not sure I'm quite in the right mood. Perhaps James's Turn of the Screw or Mérimée's Carmen, neither of which I have.

... I didn't know that anyone had made an opera from Evelyn's Diary

[french frank]

... I didn't know that anyone had made an opera from Evelyn's Diary

No, my sort-of system was to move rightwards along the top shelf of the shelves on the right-hand wall in my workroom, the previous volume being the Thos More/Walpole. Next along was John Evelyn. Reading Bruges-la-Morte was getting sidetracked for a reason I can no longer remember - perhaps a thread here about Korngold?

[muzzer]

Which now rubs it in that I did, at some point, get rid of certain books - I had the Folio edition of BNW and I don't have it now. I do have other Huxley paperbacks, Eyeless in Gaza, Antic Hay, Point Counter Point and maybe one or two others. Chrome Yellow? Well, I'm easily led, so maybe I'll ditch J. Evelyn for Huxley. I remember PCP, so maybe I should look out Eyeless in Gaza I will do that now. It'll be under H in the left hand bookshelf in the 'library' (front room) - if I haven't got rid of that too

All of Huxley is worth reading imho. As well as the essays, from memory the best collection is called Music at Night. I started buying the collected volumes a few years ago but got distracted. A visionary and brilliant thinker.

[vinteuil]

I do have other Huxley paperbacks, Eyeless in Gaza, Antic Hay, Point Counter Point and maybe one or two others. Chrome Yellow? Well, I'm easily led, so maybe I'll ditch J. Evelyn for Huxley. I remember PCP, so maybe I should look out Eyeless in Gaza I will do that now. It'll be under H in the left hand bookshelf in the 'library' (front room) - if I haven't got rid of that too

... I think French Frank might enjoy Huxley's Along the Road - his travel writing. It was having read his essay The Best Picture from that book that prevented a British artillery officer from destroying Sansepolcro -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resurrection_(Piero_della_Francesca)

Huxley's early stuff - like Crome Yellow - can be fun

The chatto & windus pocket editions from the 1920s and 30s are nice to have

.

[gradus]

... I think French Frank might enjoy Huxley's Along the Road - his travel writing. It was having read his essay The Best Picture from that book that prevented a British artillery officer from destroying Sansepolcro -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Resurrection_(Piero_della_Francesca)

Huxley's early stuff - like Crome Yellow - can be fun

The chatto & windus pocket editions from the 1920s and 30s are nice to have

.

Eyeless in Gaza prompted me to Huxley's The Art of Seeing, all about 'visual re-education' - get rid of your specs.