Currently re-reading John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I'm a devotee of the brilliant 1979 BBC TV adaptation having seen it umpteen times but not yet seen the film. Even though I know the story backwards (or perhaps because of it) I'm still finding it a compulsive page-turner.
What are you reading now?
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Richard Tarleton
Originally posted by Petrushka View PostCurrently re-reading John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I'm a devotee of the brilliant 1979 BBC TV adaptation having seen it umpteen times but not yet seen the film. Even though I know the story backwards (or perhaps because of it) I'm still finding it a compulsive page-turner.
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Dickens published all his novels in parts, like many of his contemporaries.
If they look daunting, you could try reading them in monthly episodes, as originally read. I read Thackery's The Newcomes that way. The trouble is, as ff says, you forget who Lady Kew is or was.
I read Dombey and Son recently. The opening third is wonderful but one Dickens has introduced all the characters (whoever will he come up with next?) my interest tails off.
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Well, a quiet weekend has done wonders for Our Mutual Friend (now on p 529 and the threads are beginning to come together). But Lizzie, Lizzie, you won't be betrayed to Bradley Headstone by the Deputy Lock Keeper who is none other than ... Rogue Riderhood, will you?
On coincidences: Betty Higden has wandered far from her native heath and yet in short time she has met with Rogue Riderhood and Lizzie, who have both fetched up (unbeknown to each other?) in the same place ... But on coincidences, I remember hearing Ian McEwan saying (roughly, it was a long time ago) that he used to think coincidences were bad fiction writing but, after all, coincidences do occur in real life so why not in fiction?It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by french frank View PostWell, a quiet weekend has done wonders for Our Mutual Friend (now on p 529 and the threads are beginning to come together).
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Currently reading The Equilibriad by William Sansom.
A sadly forgotten English writer of short fiction
posted in the vague hope the other fan may be on here....Last edited by Globaltruth; 05-12-11, 12:10. Reason: rearranged the words to make sense. it helps I find
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marthe
I've just started The Making of the English Landscape by WG Hoskins (the 1977 edition) complete with an atlas at hand to locate places mentioned in the text.
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Originally posted by vinteuil View Post... but don't you think, in the end, that tho' Dickens's plots are adequate to keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next - what you really remember is the characters - and often the small irrelevant details - like (I repeat myself, but... ) - the Man who said "Esker?" at the Veneerings' table? And Twemlow as the central leaf of that table??
And re: the BBC coverage this winter, I was interested and glad to note Ianucci stressing just that aspect of Dickens works. I'll be tuning in with interest.
And I was speaking to someone who's seen it: apparently in the "Great Expectations" on BBC1 (broadcast over three nights after Xmas), Gillian Anderson's 'Miss Havisham' is absolutely mesmerising and heartbreaking."...the isle is full of noises,
Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.
Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices..."
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Originally posted by Globaltruth View PostCurrently reading The Equilibriad by William Sansom.
A sadly forgotten English writer of short fiction
posted in the vague hope the other fan may be on here....
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Originally posted by vinteuil View Post... but don't you think, in the end, that tho' Dickens's plots are adequate to keep you turning the pages to find out what happens next - what you really remember is the characters - and often the small irrelevant details - like (I repeat myself, but... ) - the Man who said "Esker?" at the Veneerings' table? And Twemlow as the central leaf of that table??It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.
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Originally posted by Petrushka View PostCurrently re-reading John le Carre's Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I'm a devotee of the brilliant 1979 BBC TV adaptation having seen it umpteen times but not yet seen the film. Even though I know the story backwards (or perhaps because of it) I'm still finding it a compulsive page-turner.
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Anna
Originally posted by french frank View PostIt was a 4-log evening. Tonight the back parlour with the stove - good for griddling crumpets, keeping the soup pot warm and over brewing abominable coffee .
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Originally posted by vinteuil View Post- what you really remember is the characters - and often the small irrelevant details -
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Originally posted by Chris Newman View PostAs a teacher I often used Sanson's first short story The Wall in conjunction with Ambrose Bierce's Occurrence at Owl Creek to show those amazing literary moments when time stands still. Samson writes for some four pages as he and Fireman Flower play water on a blitzed London warehouse and describes everything in the scene as the wall falls onto them and their fellow firefighters. I won't give it away.
"....That long second held me hypnotized, rubber boots cemented to the pavement. Ton upon ton of red-hot brick hovering in the air above us numbed all initiative. I could only think. I couldn’t move."
Should I be asking Santa for a Kindle?Pacta sunt servanda !!!
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Originally posted by french frank View PostI could remember Twemlow was friend of Veneering, and the whole dinner-party crowd;
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