What are you currently reading?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

We live quite near to Charleston Farmhouse where members of the Bloomsbury Group (including Keynes) lived or visited.

That's wonderful Jeffrey! As you know, he was a cultured man who loved and supported music, theatre, literature, fine art, etc. more than economics. He and his Russian wife must have loved there.

[Mandryka]

Just read Gavin Stevens's poetic account of Eula's failed attempt to seduce him. But my real reason for posting is to see if anyone can recommend any secondary literature about the Snopes trilogy. I have a book of annotations of The Hamlet, which is helpful because I know so little about American history and culture and even language. But I have nothing on The Town or The Mansion.

I see that Jefferson County Mississippi exists, and is presumably related to Faulkner's town. Wiki talks about how it was in something called The Antebellum South. This is a new concept for me, and I'd like to know more if it impacts what Faulkner was talking about. This is why I need secondary literature. I've just never studied America before.

I have, amazingly, actually been to Mississippi -- to Jackson -- where I ate grits and biscuits and gravy for the first time (and in the case of grits, the last!)

[Spotted Horses]

Just read Gavin Stevens's poetic account of Eula's failed attempt to seduce him. But my real reason for posting is to see if anyone can recommend any secondary literature about the Snopes trilogy. I have a book of annotations of The Hamlet, which is helpful because I know so little about American history and culture and even language. But I have nothing on The Town or The Mansion.

I see that Jefferson County Mississippi exists, and is presumably related to Faulkner's town. Wiki talks about how it was in something called The Antebellum South. This is a new concept for me, and I'd like to know more if it impacts what Faulkner was talking about. This is why I need secondary literature. I've just never studied America before.

I have, amazingly, actually been to Mississippi -- to Jackson -- where I ate grits and biscuits and gravy for the first time (and in the case of grits, the last!)

Yoknapatawpha country and it's capital city Jefferson, in Faulkner's work, is thought to be based on Lafayette county, Mississippi, and the city of Oxford, where Faulkner lived.

I am originally from The Bronx, New York, which not quite as distant from Frenchman's Bend as London, England, but close. I learned about Faulkner's world by reading Faulkner.

Before continuing with the Snopes trilogy you might consider Absalom, Absalom.

I stumbled on this, which might be of some use.

https://faulkner.drupal.shanti.virginia.edu

[j winter]

Greetings!  Wow, you have just poked into a gigantic can of worms

One thing you need to understand is that Faulkner's work is *deeply* interconnected with the history and culture of the American South, and is often most celebrated for the ways that it comments upon and reflects on that society in all of it's many facets - race, economics, religion, urban vs rural, modernism and 19th vs 20th century ideas of morality... there's a LOT packed into it.  Reading Faulkner without any grounding in US history will be a challenge -- I'm not saying it wouldn't be a worthwhile challenge, but it would be somewhat like reading Tolstoy if you had no prior knowledge of Russian history or culture, or didn't know who Napoleon was -- you could still likely enjoy the story and the characters and learn a lot in the process, but you'd miss an awful lot as well.

Depending on how much you want to invest in this... A good brief history of the US might be helpful as a starting point.  The antebellum period means roughly between the War of 1812 and the US Civil War in 1861 -- meaning the period when plantation slave culture was at its apex in the South.  That period is the foundation upon which the rest of Southern history rests; Faulkner's South is a place that has recently been cast down from that height, very much against its will (think of Milton's Satan bestirring himself in Hell), and one large focus of his work is on how the New South differs (or doesn't) or makes it's peace (or doesn't) or moves beyond (or doesn't) those antebellum ideas.  Sometime it's the main theme of a work, other times it's very subtly brought forward through a line of dialogue or a stray thought, but it's a thread that's almost always there if you look for it.  Which is not at all to say that this is the only thing going on in Faulkner -- like many great writers he's usually doing several things at once, in every convoluted sentence, but this is often one of them.

There are several good literary biographies of Faulkner -- Jay Parini's is fairly accessible, though it assumes that you've read many of his books.



If you really want to go whole hog on the history of Yoknapatawpha county, Cleanth Brooks is the classic account:



I also recall this as being pretty useful back in the day...



If it makes you feel any better, I was born and raised in the US, not in the deep South but in an area very much influenced by southern culture; and I still struggle quite a bit with Faulkner sometimes.  He can be one of the most difficult writers I've ever read, but it's definitely worth the effort.

Enjoy the journey!   

[Mandryka]

Really helpful posts, thanks.

[SimonNZ]

various things on the go:








and given up on early as being all style and no substance - the same reaction I had to one of the author's previous books:

[Florestan]

An informative and entertaining book which makes lots of points I've been making for years. 

[Spotted Horses]

The Black Prince, Iris Murdoch



One remarkable thing about Iris Murdoch novels is that old, unattractive characters can conceive passionate attractions to other old, unattractive people, which can lead to irrational or immoral behavior.

In The Black Prince the central characters are Bradley Pearson, a 58 year old man who has written a single novel and is a retired Tax Inspector, and Arnold Baffin, Pearson's friend and a prolific writer who Pearson considers himself to have "discovered." Pearson considers Baffin's work to be of lesser quality, due to Baffin's high productivity, and decides that in his retirement he seclude himself at a seaside cottage and write his great work. Entanglement with Baffin, Baffin's wife and daughter, Pearson's ex-wife and his ex-wife's brother, Pearson's sister and husband keep getting in the way. As the story develops things get more and more out of control. The novel is in the form of a memoir supposedly written by Pearson.

I enjoyed the book a great deal.

[Mandryka]

Just finishing The Town and I feel ready to pursue it with The Mansion. But my main reason for posting is to see if anyone can refer me to some secondary literature about Faulkner and women characters. What do the feminist critics make of him?

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Faulkner was influenced by Balzac in this trilogy, and indeed elsewhere. Flem Snopes is a Balzacian character, the Rastignac of Yoknapatawpha!  But the women are enigmatic - interesting to think of Eula alongside great female literary suicides - Emma Bovary, Anna Korenina.

[Brian]

I enjoyed the book a great deal.

Thanks for this. The only Murdoch book I've read was After Claude, a stylistically fun but very strange book that delayed me exploring further. This sounds fun.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. Elizabeth Dunn.

[SimonNZ]

Finished John Le Carre's A Perfect Spy.

Many have claimed this is Le Carre's masterpiece, Philip Roth going further to say it is "the best English novel since the war". I can't agree, though the novel has much to recommend it, and I was happy to have taken the time.

I've still got maybe four or five left to read, but my favorite and most admired of his would be The Little Drummer Girl. (with a shout-out for the unjustly neglected The Mission Song)

[JBS]

Thanks for this. The only Murdoch book I've read was After Claude, a stylistically fun but very strange book that delayed me exploring further. This sounds fun.

Only Murdoch I've ever read is A Severed Head. I have to admit sexual chaos among a bunch of upper-middle class Englishpeople didn't make me want to read more of her.

TD
While at Barnes and Noble today, I reminded myself I have no Bukowski.
So

A selection by John Martin of 200+ poems.
Also saw this is now available in paperbook so snagged it as well

If you've never read his book on Gettysburg, I recommend it, even if you're not particularly interested in the U.S. Civil War or military history in general.

[Spotted Horses]

Thanks for this. The only Murdoch book I've read was After Claude, a stylistically fun but very strange book that delayed me exploring further. This sounds fun.

Despite enjoying all of the Murdoch novels I have read I find myself reluctant to "recommend" any work. The other Murdoch books I have read are The Italian Girl, Bruno's Dream and An Unofficial Rose. I used to work with a guy who would never "recommend" any piece of software. If you asked him, "can Adobe Illustrator do X?" the most you could get out of him is "I've used Adobe Illustrator to do X." I don't actually clearly remember the plots of the Murdoch books I've read, but when I get a noticed from BookBub that a the Kindle edition of a Murdoch book is on sale I inevitably get it.

[ritter]

Sticking to 20th century Spanish literature, revisiting the authors of my youth, with Pío Baroja's Las Inquietudes de Shanti Andía (The Restlessness of Shanti Andía). In the second volume of (now sadly defunct) publisher's Biblioteca Nueva lavish 8-volume edition of Baroja's works.



Shanti Andía is the first novel of Baroja's "Sea Trilogy" (he tended to assemble his novels in groups of three), and so far is very enjoyable: beautifully written (with a certain naïf feel to it), with components of an adventure novel but also with strongly nostalgic (but also realistic) descriptions of life in the Basque coast (so far —I'm still in the early pages, where the title character talks about his childhood).

Baroja was a leading figure in Spanish literature in the first half of the last century. Ernest Hemingway visited him at his deathbed in Madrid in October 1956 (and made sure there were journalists and photographers present  ). He said something to the effect that Baroja should have been awarded the Nobel prize instead of many others (including himself). Apparently, Baroja was rather confused, didn't quite understand who that foreigner was, and just wanted to be left in peace. 

Here they are during that visit:

[Florestan]

Sticking to 20th century Spanish literature, revisiting the authors of my youth, with Pío Baroja's Las Inquietudes de Shanti Andía (The Restlessness of Shanti Andía). In the second volume of (now sadly defunct) publisher's Biblioteca Nueva lavish 8-volume edition of Baroja's works.



Shanti Andía is the first novel of Baroja's "Sea Trilogy" (he tended to assemble his novels in groups of three), and so far is very enjoyable: beautifully written (with a certain naïf feel to it), with components of an adventure novel but also with strongly nostalgic (but also realistic) descriptions of life in the Basque coast (so far —I'm still in the early pages, where the title character talks about his childhood).

Have and have read this one too in Romanian translation:



(the Romanian title would translate in French as Les péripéties de Shanti Andia).

[Florestan]

[Mandryka]

Just finishing The Town and I feel ready to pursue it with The Mansion. But my main reason for posting is to see if anyone can refer me to some secondary literature about Faulkner and women characters. What do the feminist critics make of him?

I wouldn't be surprised to find that Faulkner was influenced by Balzac in this trilogy, and indeed elsewhere. Flem Snopes is a Balzacian character, the Rastignac of Yoknapatawpha!  But the women are enigmatic - interesting to think of Eula alongside great female literary suicides - Emma Bovary, Anna Korenina.

Abandoned hal way through. I think Faulkner lost the knack of writing in it.  Maybe all late Faulkner is weaker than the first novels -- and the later you get, the weaker it becomes.

[Spotted Horses]

Abandoned hal way through. I think Faulkner lost the knack of writing in it.  Maybe all late Faulkner is weaker than the first novels -- and the later you get, the weaker it becomes.

I'm sorry you didn't find the Mansion compelling. My own reaction to the Snopes trilogy is that the first book is very direct and that the final installments, written many years later, are somewhat disjointed in their connection with the The Hamlet, but rewarding in their way. I personally don't agree with your suggestion of a monotonic decline of quality if Faulkner's writing. I wouldn't suggest anyone try to read straight through Faulkner. I've spent months or years before feeling I am ready for another encounter with Faulkner

[Mandryka]

I'm sorry you didn't find the Mansion compelling. My own reaction to the Snopes trilogy is that the first book is very direct and that the final installments, written many years later, are somewhat disjointed in their connection with the The Hamlet, but rewarding in their way. I personally don't agree with your suggestion of a monotonic decline of quality if Faulkner's writing. I wouldn't suggest anyone try to read straight through Faulkner. I've spent months or years before feeling I am ready for another encounter with Faulkner

One thing that started to frustrate me is the lack of a feminine voice. I wanna see inside Eula's head! Re late Faulkner, have you read The Fable?  The reason I suggested a deterioration is that I felt that The Town was rather successful, but maybe you're right, maybe I've ODed on Faulkner.

Mink is a strange person - is he mad?