What are you currently reading?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Reading a collection of Goethe's scientific writings. Boy it's gonna be a jolly good fun when I get to Farbenlehre. 

[Parsifal]

Swing Time, by Zadie Smith. If I try to summarize the plot, it will seem nothing to base a book on. And yet, like every book I've read by this author, it is extremely compelling. The story of two childhood friends who like to dance.

In the prologue, we are introduced to this bit of film history, whose existence is a source of astonishment to me. Fred Astaire, in blackface, performing a dance which is ostensibly a tribute to Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A6h12Qj9Cc

You can't un-see this.

Then, there's Jeni Legon in "Ali Baba Goes to Town."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtsxiw4ZHa8&t=76s

[Florestan]

Reading a collection of Goethe's scientific writings. Boy it's gonna be a jolly good fun when I get to Farbenlehre. 

That should be proof enough for Unamuno's dictum: Science is a cemetery of dead ideas 

[Mirror Image]

I'm making my way through Absolute Preacher, Vol. 1:



Absolutely love this series so far!

[nodogen]

A short, practical work in these times when the world is staring into the abyss.

[asin]1847924883[/asin]

[North Star]

Coplas

                    i

'One cannot lose what one has not possessed.'
So much for that abrasive gem.
I can lose what I want. I want you.


                    ii

Oh my dear one, I shall grieve for you
For the rest of my life with slightly
Varying cadence, oh my dear one.


                    iii

Half-mocking the half-truth, I note
'The wild brevity of sensual love'.
I am shaken, even by that.


                    iv

It is to him I write, it is to her
I speak in contained silence. Will they be touched
By the unfamiliar passion between them?

[asin]014102500X[/asin]

[SimonNZ]

[Jaakko Keskinen]

I'm also currently back (once again) reading Dickens. David Copperfield, that is. I've read A tale of two cities only once and recall liking it, even if it doesn't rank among my personal favorites.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Also, I am finally getting more acquainted with other plays than Faust with Goethe. Started recently reading Iphigenia in Tauris. Never have read Euripides's version.

[kishnevi]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

That is one of the total of four novels of his I still haven't read. I've also heard that it quite possibly is his longest.

[Ken B]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.

[Karl Henning]

Dickens for me as well.

This edition has the added value of Phiz's illustrations.

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.

I do need to read both of those.

[Ken B]

I finally broke down/took the plunge/got around to this

[asin]0618057072[/asin]

I am enjoying it so far. Is it weird to call such a book beautifully written? It really is, Gibbon-like, elegant, clear, flowing.

[SimonNZ]

Its my first time reading Tale Of Two Cities, which has some of his best descriptive passages of time and place, alongside some pretty standard potboiler characters and characterization.

I remember liking Bleak House very much. Great Expectations probably remains my favorite. Haven't read Our Mutual Friend, but intend to.

Has anyone read American Notes? I've been considering that one recently, along with some of his other nonfiction.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

That and Our Mutual Friend are the best. I keep thinking of rereading each.

Our Mutual Friend is definitely the best. Fitting that his last finished novel should be his greatest.

[SimonNZ]

Interesting. What is it that makes it the best?

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Interesting. What is it that makes it the best?

For example, the often mentioned point, more and more morally grey characters. Best example is probably Bradley Headstone, who despite his unpleasantness evokes sympathy in the reader, showing great skill of mature writer. In fact I find it hard to find single one pure evil character in the book who doesn't have at least a fleeting moment of sympathy. Silas Wegg seems a most jovial fellow when he's not scheming (as noted by G.K. Chesterton) and IMO Rogue Riderhood as well, who is funny as hell despite being probably the most "evil" character in the book and he gets his spotlights of sympathy as well, and a kind of begrudging acknowledgement from his skill in plotting. And the other one of the book's two heroines as well as of the heroes are not always the most pleasant people to be around, at least initially. Now, complex characters are not a new thing at all in literature - those have existed pretty much as long as literature has existed in the world but Dickens in general has often been accused of flat, black-and white characters which don't develop much. Sure there were some exceptions here and there (Rosa Dartle and James Steerforth in Copperfield, Pip, Estella, Magwitch and Miss Havisham in Great Expectations, Miss Wade and Mr. Merdle in Little Dorrit) but many can basically be divided in the league "the character agrees with the author" and "the character doesn't agree with the author" and have relatively few redeeming qualities. Of course this also depends on how the reader interprets the characters.

The plot handling is remarkably strong in Our Mutual Friend, many small points in the book are found out to have relevance later.

Hope I didn't spoil too much, the best part is reading the book and finding out all the cool things yourself and making your own reflections.

[SimonNZ]

Wow - great information. Thanks!

It also highlights the points I had to deduct from Tale Of Two Cities for the three or four ultimately bland pure-of-heart characters.

Speaking of TOTC: one thing i didn't understand was why Sydney Carton thinks of himself - and, more importantly, why we are meant to agree - as a squandered life of no merit, when he's clearly an excellent lawyer who can save his clients, and his worst character flaws are just alcoholism and possibly depression.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Speaking of TOTC: one thing i didn't understand was why Sydney Carton thinks of himself - and, more importantly, why we are meant to agree - as a squandered life of no merit, when he's clearly an excellent lawyer who can save his clients, and his worst character flaws are just alcoholism and possibly depression.

Hmm, that may have had something to do with Victorian standards - about striving towards "perfection", in the Victorian sense of the word. In Our Mutual Friend there is a minor character who clearly suffers from alcoholism and he is not handled as understandingly as modern society probably would - especially as he isn't shown beating anyone while drunk or anything.