What are you currently reading?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Cool. That's another on my 'to read' list. The only work of his that I've read is The Woman in White.
When you've finished reading The Moonstone let us know what you think?

I most certainly will, although it may take some time because I'm reading so many novels at the same time.

[NikF]

I readthose back to back in a day and a half when I was young and foolish.

Ah well, at least being young passes.

I most certainly will, although it may take some time because I'm reading so many novels at the same time.

Of course. I've tried reading more than one book at a time - usually a novel alongside some kind of non-fiction - but I found it resulted in a growing pile of 'books I've started and yet to finish'.

[Florestan]

And what are your favorite novels set in Venice?

Paul Heyse - Andrea Delfin
D'Annunzio - The Flame of Life
Barry Unsworth - Stone Virgin

Not a novel, but just as fascinating, if not more: Casanova's Memoirs, the relevant chapters.

[Jo498]

Ever read the Donna Leon novels? People recommend them to me but I have never actually made the effort to read one.

I have read maybe a handful years ago, usually when travelling and out of stuff to read. I don't think they are very good although not that bad either. I have been to Venice but not often or long enough to evaluate them on that aspect. What struck me is that the Commisario and his wife (who happens to be a professor of English literature) often seem the lonely PC lighthouses within an utterly corrupt and hypocritical if quaintly stylish Italian society. (I think this also pissed off Italians who don't think an elderly American lady should paint them like and lecture them on that.)

[Florestan]

The absolute worst Venice nove I've readl is "The Vivaldi Enigma" by Peter Harris (nom de plume for a Spanish author). Suffice to say that in this book people and the Police move around in Venice by car... 

[Jo498]

Cool. That's another on my 'to read' list. The only work of his that I've read is The Woman in White.
When you've finished reading The Moonstone let us know what you think?

I have read both (although the Woman in White only in translation). There are both pretty good, the "Moonstone" is somewhat lighter and more entertaining with the changing narrators (the funniest of which is an old butler who takes "Robinson Crusoe" as his bible and general guiding light of life). Both are early and quite convincing cases of "Mystery + Romance".

[Jo498]

The absolute worst Venice nove I've readl is "The Vivaldi Enigma" by Peter Harris (nom de plume for a Spanish author). Suffice to say that in this book people and the Police move around in Venice by car... 

I'll grant the Donna Leon is better than that. She has been living in Venice for quite a while, I think, and knows her way around. Still, there are probably better books around, even when restricted to the genre "crime mystery in colorful/famous city". Didn't Highsmith (certainly a more convincing and more original writer than Leon) write a book taking place in Venice?

A fun romp is Alejo Carpentier's "Concierto barocco" with Handel, Bach and Vivaldi meeting in Venice.

[Florestan]

A fun romp is Alejo Carpentier's "Concierto barocco" with Handel, Bach and Vivaldi meeting in Venice.

That's been on my wishlist for quite a while. Thanks for the reminder. 

[NikF]

Mademoiselle de Maupin by Theophile Gautier.

[asin]0140448136[/asin]

Now that Hazel has scurried off to join his new Owsla, I thought I'd start reading this.

[Wakefield]

That's been on my wishlist for quite a while. Thanks for the reminder. 

As Carpentier was one of the most baroque writers in Spanish during the XXth Century, it's probably quite apt for his theme...

P.S.: I love Casanova's Histoire de ma vie, too.

[Florestan]

As Carpentier was one of the most baroque writers in Spanish during the XXth Century, it's probably quite apt for his theme...

I've read --- and loved --- The Rite of Spring, The Lost Steps and The Harp and the Shadow.

P.S.: I love Casanova's Histoire de ma vie, too.

One of the most enjoyable, entertaining and humane books ever written. I have it in an abridged Romanian translation but I would love to read the whole French original.

[Wakefield]

One of the most enjoyable, entertaining and humane books ever written. I have it in an abridged Romanian translation but I would love to read the whole French original.

Yes, it is! Fortunately, we have a "complete" edition in two vols., wonderfully released by Atalanta:



I have slowly progressed through its 3,500 pages during the last year or something so. 

[Karl Henning]

The absolute worst Venice nove I've readl is "The Vivaldi Enigma" by Peter Harris (nom de plume for a Spanish author). Suffice to say that in this book people and the Police move around in Venice by car... 

Why does that appear to be a parasite upon The Da Vinci Code? (Not that one feels sorry for this host . . . .)

[Florestan]

Why does that appear to be a parasite upon The Da Vinci Code? (Not that one feels sorry for this host . . . .)

Frankly, I can't even remotely remember the plot. 

[Drasko]

Paul Heyse - Andrea Delfin
D'Annunzio - The Flame of Life
Barry Unsworth - Stone Virgin

Not a novel, but just as fascinating, if not more: Casanova's Memoirs, the relevant chapters.

Thank you! Of the three the Unsworth hasn't been translated to Serbian, will have to get it in English.

I've been meaning to read Casanova's Memoirs for some time, there is very nice ex-Yu edition in five volumes, but it's a large text and the time has proven bit difficult to find.

[kishnevi]

I have never read the novels, but Donna Leon has a book of essays out centred on living in Venice which is worth reading once.

Even better is Judith Martin's book about Venice.  Those who don't recognize her name will undoubtedly know her pen name: Miss Manners.

TD
Via Google Books, partly inspired by this discussion
Henry James, Italian Hours.  Not stories, but travel essays, the first of which is devoted to Venice.

ETA

[Drasko]

Even better is Judith Martin's book about Venice.  Those who don't recognize her name will undoubtedly know her pen name: Miss Manners.

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with her pen name but what I am familiar with is the subtitle of her book, which is paraphrase of a title of another obscure early 20th century novel set in Venice that I've been meaning to read - The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole by Frederick Rolfe.

Talking of essays on Venice my favorite book of essays (short lyrical ones in this case) is Watermark by Josif Brodsky.

[SimonNZ]

Talking of essays on Venice my favorite book of essays (short lyrical ones in this case) is Watermark by Josif Brodsky.

I was thinking of Brodsky's Watermark as I was reading this discussion, and heartily second its recommendation.

[Todd]

 


A couple short books that are timely now more than ever.  From the 1980s, Harry Frankfurt's On Bullshit.  The brief essay, written by an actual philosopher, seeks nothing less than a "theoretical understanding of bullshit."  Complete with the use of words like "pleonastic" and references to Wittgenstein, its intellectual bona fides cannot be denied.  Ultimately, it is not wholly satisfying.

Much better is Edward Bernays' Propaganda from the 1920s.  This nephew of Freud and collaborator of Lippman and member of the Great War era Committee on Public Information writes in a clear, concise style, and some of what he writes could be written today.  For instance, one could just replace what constitutes new media, and the rest of his argument pertaining to dissemination of ideas and its impact holds, and the same could be true of various public associations, just throwing online echo chambers into the mix.  The PR man uses a neutral definition of propaganda and offers examples of how it can be used, how it is used, to direct public opinion.  He is brief and unsentimental and practical.  No less a personage than Noam Chomsky offers (sort of?) praise in a cover blurb.

[Drasko]

http://www.gq.com/story/cary-grant-on-style

Still perfectly applicable 50 years later.