What are you currently reading?

[Henk]

I just saw a copy of this at Strand here in New York a couple of days ago, and while I was there I read the first couple of pages. I really admire Thomas Mann and would love to read that one. Really want to read Zauberberg (of which I read the first half while in an inpatient mental health facility  but never finished) and Faustus as well, which I also started but never finished. Death in Venice and Buddenbrooks are two of my favorite books.

I read Buddenbrooks as well. Good book indeed.

[Ganondorf]

Buddenbrooks is probably my favorite novel of all time, going past even Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris. Read Zauberberg and Joseph some years ago and loved them both. Joseph is absolutely worth the effort if you can stand Joseph's narcissism. For what it's worth it is treated as a serious character flaw by the author as well. At least Joseph gets thrown down the well for his efforts. 

[DavidW]

Nice! Assuming you read it in English, may I ask what translation(s) you read?

Dunnigan, Maude, then Dunnigan again.  I love the Rosamund Bartlett translation of Anna Karenina, and I feel that if she translates War and Peace it would be for me the definitive translation experience.

[vers la flamme]

Dunnigan, Maude, then Dunnigan again.  I love the Rosamund Bartlett translation of Anna Karenina, and I feel that if she translates War and Peace it would be for me the definitive translation experience.

I do want to read the Bartlett Anna Karenina. What did you think of the Maudes' translation of War and Peace? Just for fun, I did a "blind taste test" looking at translations of a passage of Anna Karenina, and was surprised that Maude won out (Bartlett was second).

[vers la flamme]

Buddenbrooks is probably my favorite novel of all time, going past even Hugo's Notre Dame de Paris. Read Zauberberg and Joseph some years ago and loved them both. Joseph is absolutely worth the effort if you can stand Joseph's narcissism. For what it's worth it is treated as a serious character flaw by the author as well. At least Joseph gets thrown down the well for his efforts. 

I've only read Buddenbrooks once, in about a week during the height of the covid lockdowns. Immediately I was so struck by its beauty, its incredible characters (especially Hanno), that I've considered it among my favorites ever since, though I think I ought to spend much more time with it. I was 25 when I read it and it was blowing my mind over and over that Thomas Mann was the same age when he wrote it.

Hugo is an author I've been thinking about diving into recently—but I have so much on my plate I'd better put it off for now. So far though I must admit that my New Year resolution of reading more long books has been a success.

[DavidW]

I do want to read the Bartlett Anna Karenina. What did you think of the Maudes' translation of War and Peace? Just for fun, I did a "blind taste test" looking at translations of a passage of Anna Karenina, and was surprised that Maude won out (Bartlett was second).

I find it very easy to read, but really I liked Everyman Library having a three volume hardcover making it much easier to hold.  The Maudes anglicized the names, and they also translated the French.  Those are no nos.  But they didn't paraphrase or abridge like Garnett does.  btw I'm not saying I can read French but it should be translated in footnotes, else you will never know when characters changed language.

[vers la flamme]

I find it very easy to read, but really I liked Everyman Library having a three volume hardcover making it much easier to hold.  The Maudes anglicized the names, and they also translated the French.  Those are no nos.  But they didn't paraphrase or abridge like Garnett does.  btw I'm not saying I can read French but it should be translated in footnotes, else you will never know when characters changed language.

That's my one gripe with the Briggs translation I'm reading, the translated French; other than that, his language is incredibly gripping.

[Brian]

Speaking of big, thick books, has anyone read "The Strudlhof Steps"?

During the first COVID lockdown I read the Briggs translation of War & Peace - my first-ever read of the book; I figured COVID was the perfect time - and loved most of it. The historical lectures in the second half become slow going as Tolstoy makes his philosophy overt, but the first half, with its glittering mix of historical detail, social satire, and the epic cast of characters, totally enchanted me. Was a great experience!

[Henk]

I like to recommend Stendhal who wrote a few thick books too. I've only read 'The Duchess of Parma' which was a great read. Great characters, great plot, entertaining for it's historical sense and psychological insight. Classic in the sense of timeless. Btw he also wrote a biography on Rossini.

[vers la flamme]

Speaking of big, thick books, has anyone read "The Strudlhof Steps"?

During the first COVID lockdown I read the Briggs translation of War & Peace - my first-ever read of the book; I figured COVID was the perfect time - and loved most of it. The historical lectures in the second half become slow going as Tolstoy makes his philosophy overt, but the first half, with its glittering mix of historical detail, social satire, and the epic cast of characters, totally enchanted me. Was a great experience!

The satire you mention is what is most striking to me at first glance. The impression I get is that Tolstoy absolutely despises every single one of his characters, finding them all morally bankrupt and entirely too self-important, and that he can't help but to mercilessly lampoon them at every opportunity. Whether this is true or a reflection on me more than on the author, who's to say, but it is intriguing.

In what will surely turn out to be an ill-fated simultaneous reading project (for want of free time, and precedence of more important uses of my time than reading two massive books at once...), I am also starting Andrew Roberts' Napoleon: A Life. Entertaining read so far, on the subject of a person and an era that is a huge blank spot in my understanding of the world. I am hoping that understanding Napoleon a bit better will enhance my appreciation of War and Peace; I fear that I will end up bailing on both books midway through

[SimonNZ]

Starting:



This will be the seventh I'll have read from last year's Baille Gifford prize longlist, from a possible thirteen. Three of the remaining titles seem less interesting to me, so there will only be three more to read for now, including the winner "Fire Weather".

[Brian]

I enjoyed The Wager, gave it to my father for his birthday, and just found out my friend gave it to her husband for Christmas and she plans to steal it back and read it herself... a fascinating story well-told.

[SimonNZ]

I enjoyed The Wager, gave it to my father for his birthday, and just found out my friend gave it to her husband for Christmas and she plans to steal it back and read it herself... a fascinating story well-told.

Yeah, a real page-turner.

I thought I had some sense of how grim life at sea could be in the 1700s, but I was wrong. For example I don't think I've ever heard the exact details of the progress of scurvy. Or the extent to which a ship is rotting before it even leaves the building yard.

[AnotherSpin]

The satire you mention is what is most striking to me at first glance. The impression I get is that Tolstoy absolutely despises every single one of his characters, finding them all morally bankrupt and entirely too self-important, and that he can't help but to mercilessly lampoon them at every opportunity. Whether this is true or a reflection on me more than on the author, who's to say, but it is intriguing.

[..]

It's rather strange to read about Tolstoy's satire. He always seemed serious to me. One of the few writers whose seriousness doesn't get in the way. Tolstoy doesn't seem to have any more satire than the Upanishads. Maybe satire appears in translation? Anyway, for satire in Russian literature one should turn to others, to Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin.

[Brian]

Anyway, for satire in Russian literature one should turn to others, to Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin.

Oh, there is no competition in comparison to Gogol! But I did detect - and it might be my personal frame of reference - a distinct comic element, maybe a gentle mocking of the characters, in the tone of the "society" parts of the first portion of War & Peace. And there are comic episodes like the drinking bear.

[SimonNZ]

The preface to one of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's Dostoevsky translations claims that what previous translators have missed is his humour. They then give a couple of examples. Both of which are as absolutely unfunny as everything else in his writing. A very, very slight ironical turn of phrase at best, and not in a humourous context.

[Bachtoven]

I love his previous three sci-fi thrillers, and this is off to an excellent start.

[Irons]

Starting: the winner of last year's Orwell prize:



I know it shouldn't matter, especially as the reporting is by all reviews excellent, but I'm amazed they couldn't do better with the cover, given how many striking images there are of the fire.


Also dipping into this when wanting something lighter:

I read just the other day that Clive James spent his last days reading Forester 'Hornblower' novels.

[Florestan]

For humour in Dostoevsky one has to turn to The Diary of a Writer and The Double, the latter being almost Gogolian in atmosphere and presentation.

As for the writer absolutely despising his characters in relentlessly bitter satire, Feodor Sologub's The Petty Demon might beat even Gogol.

[San Antone]

Bound For Glory - Woody Guthrie (1.5 chapters in)

Intruders in the Dust - William Faulkner (about two-thirds finished)

Visions of Cody - Jack Kerourac (just started)