What are you currently reading?

[ritter]

Starting Gregorio Marañón's mammoth (1000 pages+, spread over two volumes) biography of Antonio Pérez.



Antonio Pérez (1540-1611) was private secretary to Philip II (his father had been secretary to him and to his father Charles V before that), and an immensely powerful man. Some miscalculated scheming against Philip's half-brother Juan de Austria (involving Ana de Mendoza de la Cerda, the famous Princess Éboli) led to his downfall and arrest. He managed to escape, first to Aragon (where he was protected by the local laws, which were different from those of Castile) and finally to France (where he sided with Henri IV, plotting against his former master).

I am kind of predestined to read this. My father was a great admirer of Marañón (one of the leading intellectual voices in Spain's "silver age", apart from being a prestigious doctor), and I now see that the book is dedicated to the grandparents of a close friend of mine. My flat in Madrid is across the street from the Royal Monastery of Santa Isabel, which was founded by Philip II's daughter Isabel Clara Eugenia, and occupies the land on which stood Pérez's "casilla" ("hut"), the ostentatious country retreat he owned in what was then extramuros in the outskirts of the city.

[SimonNZ]

Keep getting distracted from the 1848 book (which is excellent, but can't be read at the end of the day when tired) to knock of some quicker reads. Getting through this essay collection:




Also found a volume I was missing in this series and am picking away at it:



It has a Joseph Brodsky essay which takes as its starting point the Russian post office producing a stamp with Kim Philby on it, which I'd read some years ago.

[Brian]

Since you mention it again...

I just read the London Review of Books review of this - glowingly positive - and am thinking of giving it to my father for Christmas. His ancestors arrived in the USA from Germany after 1848 as a direct result of the conflict so he has always had a mild interest (but, as far as I can tell, no book on the subject).

[Steinway D]

This is very good so far (I'm about half-way through it), but animal lovers might have difficulties with a few scenes; I certainly have.

[Mookalafalas]

So I'm now approaching the end of this puppy and it's more interesting than my comments above - made after reading the first five chapters - suggest. It's a novel of two halves, and the nature of the second half is rather different than the nature of the first half.

Experimental; avant garde. There are many challenges, the most pressing of which, IMO, is to make it cohere. I need help, I need secondary literature, I need a course. This is not light, relaxing, reading.

The Sound and the Fury is challenging because of the stream of consciousness writing, and maybe because of the end. This is more difficult - more experimental -  both at the level of form and at the level of function - Faulkner's aim.

  Probably Faulkner's greatest. I can understand how confusing aspects of it must be to non-Americans. I'm not sure what to say to  you about comments like "Something big must have happened in 1865." That was the end of the US civil war, and the end of slavery--and of the "old south." That's a rather key point in all of Faulkner's work---and American history. Anyway, feel free to PM me if there is anything you feel I might be able to help with.

[Mandryka]

Probably Faulkner's greatest.

 

For me, personally, trying to make sense of memories is a major part of my mental life. I am in fact preoccupied with understanding the stories my parents told me, and my memories of my own past -- people now lost for ever. There's no way of course, it's hopeless, the past is elusive and slippery,  I am acutely aware of this.

I am from the North of England, but all my adult life I have lived in the South. The cultures are very different. Do I hate the North? I don't hate the North . . . .  I don't. I don't!  I don't hate it! I don't hate it!

So I'm kind of hoping that I'll find a way of reading Absalom Absalom where I will find myself in it.

Probably Faulkner's greatest. I can understand how confusing aspects of it must be to non-Americans. I'm not sure what to say to  you about comments like "Something big must have happened in 1865." That was the end of the US civil war, and the end of slavery--and of the "old south." That's a rather key point in all of Faulkner's work---and American history. Anyway, feel free to PM me if there is anything you feel I might be able to help with.

I knew that about 1865 of course, I was being slightly faux naif.  Sorry


Thanks for your kind offer, much appreciated.

[AnotherSpin]

[San Antone]

Almost finished this:

The Crossing: Book 2 of The Border Trilogy
by Cormac McCarthy



I stared it just after finish the first book, All the Pretty Horses. The protagonist in each is a teenage boy who grew up on a ranch, one from Texas the other from New Mexico, and both ride into Mexico and have adventures.

The last book in the trilogy, Cities of the Plain, finds these characters as ranch hands meeting up later in life.

I had forgotten how good these novels are - having spent most of time with McCarthy with Blood Meridian, Suttree, Child of God, and the early novels Outer Dark and The Orchard Keeper. 

I guess I had avoided these because of the movie with Matt Damon. But that was a mistake since I am finding them among McCarthy's best work. Thankfully, my Kindle easily translates all the Spanish dialog McCarthy has peppered the books.

[Mandryka]

Americans - a question. After the civil war, what happened to the land in the South? I mean the land which had been owned by whites and farmed with slaves? Was it divided up and allocated equitably, like after the French Revolution. And what happened to the wealth of the landed whites?

(Why post this here? It's relevant to Faulkner. Sutpen lost his wealth after the war, but I'm not clear why. Part of it was that the land was not tended during the war, because so many men were fighting maybe (but the blacks weren't fighting were they? Why couldn't the women have continued to use slave labour? What did the blacks do during the civil war?)   But I get the feeling that he lost his wealth due to land confiscation and taxation after 1865 too. )

[Mandryka]

Panorama du Quatuor à cordes.

A one-volume summary of 4 books on the history of string quartets.

Does he explain what is "new and special" about Haydn op 33?

How far does it go in time? I mean, does it mention Pascal Dusapin or Franck Bedrossian, for example? Or Brian Ferneyhough and Giancinto Scelsi? Or Valentin Silvestrov and George Rochberg?

And how far back? Does it cover Alessandro Scarlatti or Franz Ignaz von Beeke or Joseph Starzer?

(No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!)

[SimonNZ]

Americans - a question. After the civil war, what happened to the land in the South? I mean the land which had been owned by whites and farmed with slaves? Was it divided up and allocated equitably, like after the French Revolution. And what happened to the wealth of the landed whites?

(Why post this here? It's relevant to Faulkner. Sutpen lost his wealth after the war, but I'm not clear why. Part of it was that the land was not tended during the war, because so many men were fighting maybe (but the blacks weren't fighting were they? Why couldn't the women have continued to use slave labour? What did the blacks do during the civil war?)   But I get the feeling that he lost his wealth due to land confiscation and taxation after 1865 too. )

Not American, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping#United_States

[Mandryka]

Not American, but:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping#United_States

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. The whites were bastards! That's the first time I've come across the concept of the post war Reconstruction. I really know nothing about America!

[Papy Oli]

Does he explain what is "new and special" about Haydn op 33?

How far does it go in time? I mean, does it mention Pascal Dusapin or Franck Bedrossian, for example? Or Brian Ferneyhough and Giancinto Scelsi? Or Valentin Silvestrov and George Rochberg?

And how far back? Does it cover Alessandro Scarlatti or Franz Ignaz von Beeke or Joseph Starzer?

(No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!)

I'll make a note to come back to you tomorrow on this @Mandryka

[SimonNZ]

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. The whites were bastards! That's the first time I've come across the concept of the post war Reconstruction. I really know nothing about America!

PBS did a very good 3-hour documentary called "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War", which you might find a useful introduction. Here's the first half:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ge90PXpgg0

[SimonNZ]

Heh. I actually collect the Harper Torchbook series, and that's one I don't have.

Though I do have this Heisenberg in the series:

[San Antone]

PBS did a very good 3-hour documentary called "Reconstruction: The Second Civil War", which you might find a useful introduction. Here's the first half:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ge90PXpgg0

What is not widely known is that most of the Southern solders fighting in the Civil War did not own slaves.  They were poor sharecroppers themselves. The reason they fought was because the Union army invaded their land.

[Steinway D]

After giving up on Disgrace (The animal cruelty was too much for me), I started this today. I like it very much so far. Apparently there's a lot of human cruelty in it, but I can deal with that! 

[Brian]

After giving up on Disgrace (The animal cruelty was too much for me), I started this today. I like it very much so far. Apparently there's a lot of human cruelty in it, but I can deal with that! 

This was quite an entertaining read. A well-told tale of human nature and weakness at the point of extremity. I need to read Grann's previous book, now a famous and acclaimed Scorsese film.

[Florestan]

While browsing the Internet Archive I stumbled upon this and was instantly hooked.

[Papy Oli]

does it mention Pascal Dusapin or Franck Bedrossian, for example? Or Brian Ferneyhough and Giancinto Scelsi? Or Valentin Silvestrov and George Rochberg?

And how far back? Does it cover Alessandro Scarlatti or Franz Ignaz von Beeke or Joseph Starzer?

(No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!)

Dusapin - Yes
Bedrossian - No
Ferneyhough - Yes
Scelsi - Yes
Silvestrov - No
Rochberg - Yes
Scarlatti - No
Beeke - No
Starzer - No


Bear in mind, this is a summarised one-volume version of 4 books, maybe the coverage is wider in the full version.

Does he explain what is "new and special" about Haydn op 33?

Please PM me your email address and I'll send you photos of the full composer index, the tables of contents and the three pages relating to Op.33