What are you currently reading?

[pjme]

I recently read something old & classic, Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre.
Last year, I found a lovely old, illustrated copy in a garage sale. Today, it may seem strange that this (18th century short, sentimental) novel became immensely popular, and I wouldn't classify it as "great literature" (compared to Stendhal, Balzac, Sue...etc.). However, Bernardin de Saint Pierre does raise some very interesting and pertinent questions concerning love, slavery, respect for nature, motherhood, poverty/wealth, friendship. The language is old fashioned but very elegant and refined.



I started Annie Proulx ' Barkskins (2016) ... translated.

[Florestan]

I recently read something old & classic, Paul et Virginie, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre.
Last year, I found a lovely old, illustrated copy in a garage sale. Today, it may seem strange that this (18th century short, sentimental) novel became immensely popular, and I wouldn't classify it as "great literature" (compared to Stendhal, Balzac, Sue...etc.). However, Bernardin de Saint Pierre does raise some very interesting and pertinent questions concerning love, slavery, respect for nature, motherhood, poverty/wealth, friendship. The language is old fashioned but very elegant and refined.

I'll gladly grant you Stendhal and Balzac --- but Sue? In what respect are his swashbuckling fictions superior to the sentimentality of Paul and Virginie? Not to mention that "old fashioned" is a very good shorthand for "elegant and refined". 

[pjme]

Ah! You are such a strict master!
Sue definitely is less sentimental (less naive) than de Saint Pierre.
They are both adorably "old fashioned".
Mais, que c'est beau!

[Florestan]

Ah! You are such a strict master!
Sue definitely is less sentimental (less naive) than de Saint Pierre.
They are both adorably "old fashioned".
Mais, que c'est beau!

I actually like Sue. 

[Draško]

[Ken B]

I actually like Sue. 

Have you read that whole frickin Mysteries of Paris? And is it good?

[Florestan]

Have you read that whole frickin Mysteries of Paris? And is it good?

I've started reading it in my teens, loved it, but never finished the whole thing. I do remember it's about a Rudolph count chasing his low-class love all around Paris (long before Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann made it a modern metropolis, mind you!). Sort of a second-rate Victor Hugo and a first-rate Paul Feval. --- so yes, in my book it's good, very good (just think of it --- the Paris of Paganini, Rossini, Liszt, Thalberg, Chopin, Herz --- truly the misterious one!)

NB: Me likes both Sue and (Hugo and Feval). 

[Jaakko Keskinen]

The only work by Calvino that I've read so far is The Cloven Viscount. It was okay.

[Ken B]

I've started reading it in my teens, loved it, but never finished the whole thing. I do remember it's about a Rudolph count chasing his low-class love all around Paris (long before Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann made it a modern metropolis, mind you!). Sort of a second-rate Victor Hugo and a first-rate Paul Feval. --- so yes, in my book it's good, very good (just think of it --- the Paris of Paganini, Rossini, Liszt, Thalberg, Chopin, Herz --- truly the misterious one!)

NB: Me likes both Sue and (Hugo and Feval). 

Merci. There is a new translation available, and it does tempt me a bit.
I should really read Monte Cristo first though ... (I read the Blair abridgment eons ago).

[SimonNZ]

[Mandryka]

I'd be very interested to know if anyone's read this.

[JBS]

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/bracing-impact

[Ken B]

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/bracing-impact

Repressed memory is a myth.
And the U of Chicago letter is excellent.

[Karl Henning]

Yay!

Fine reading both of them. OMF is on my reread list, it was the Dickens I liked most.

This is wonderful!

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Badly written incoherent mess of a historic novel. Hard to believe a genius like Ludwig Tieck wrote this.

[SimonNZ]

Hadn't intended to read another book on the Hilary campaign, but this unexpectedly turns out to be the one I was wanting: a blow by blow warts and all view from inside pieced together from very candid interviews (because of the promise of anonymity) from everyone involved. The authors say at the beginning that there was no one they wanted to talk to who they didn't get.

What emerges is endless infighting and jockeying for position and access to a distant candidate with no clear and consistent message and being constantly pulled in conflicting directions or stuck in indecision. I'm only up to the winning of the primaries, but already there's been much more information about the fear of a Biden run and about the inability to grasp the appeal of Sanders than elsewhere. Lots and lots of good detail about the mechanics of money getting, vote getting, and delegate getting.


First time I've read Niall Fergusson. His writing style is very good, an excellent communicator.

[NikF]

[Christo]

Btw, another firm recommendation is Vasily Grossman's Life and Fate --- sort of a War and Peace set during WWII. A masterpiece as well.

Four years ago, met a Russian woman at the airport and in the plane on my way back from Saint-Peterburg and we discussed Russian literature. I promised her to read Life and Fate - already long envisaged - and only now started this undertaking. Will report back when I'm finished.

[lisa needs braces]

Alright, to get a bit personal, this is one of my favorite books, as someone who is not exactly where he'd like to be in life, professionally.  I find the audiobook very therapeutic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7xqmkOx-W4

[steve ridgway]

I enjoyed The Consolations of Philosophy book and TV series. Much unhappiness comes from comparing yourself against other people and judging your own worth by their expectations.