What are you currently reading?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

It's really good fun when he's in Waterloo -- reminds me of Voyage au bout de la nuit. The battle is complete chaos!  But Waterloo's over now and I'm asking myself, do I want to go further. It looks like an action novel, but occasionally I think there may be more to it than that (Fabrice seems to be trying to "find himself" maybe.)


Actually looking at Gallimard's blurb I think I'd better press on


Stendhal's prose is good: limpid, lively.

Masterpiece- a story about a romantic young mans quest for meaning of life. In contrast to Julien Sorel in the Red and the Black, who is exceptionally intelligent and beautiful, it seems to me that Fabrice is an average guy except for his social status. Still, the story is exciting and dramatic, and his passionate relationships w women and the nuanced relationship between him and his aunt are beautifully presented in the novel. While Sorel sees an achievement of upper social status as a goal/meaning of his life, Fabrice searches for aesthetic and passionate dimensions in life.

As always, Stendhal proffers his deep insights into the human nature and psychology, as well as the corruption in society.

Jfyi, the below is a fine review article.

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/29/reviews/990829.29mendelt.html

[Florestan]

Jan Potocki --- The Manuscript Found in Zaragoza

One third into it. Stories within stories within stories. My head is spinning. 

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Jan Potocki --- The Manuscript Found in Zaragoza

One third into it. Stories within stories within stories. My head is spinning. 

One Thousand and One Nights is like that. I don't recall any other work that presents stories in that manner.

[Mandryka]

Go ahead, it's a fabulous book. Gallimard is spot on.

I'm at page 240 (out of about 700.)

Anyway I've been listening to this

https://www.youtube.com/v/rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

and this phrase of Stendhal's came to mind: une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation.

L'imagination est touchée par le son lointain de la cloche de quelque petit village caché sous les arbres : ces sons portés sur les eaux qui les adoucissent prennent une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation, et semblent dire à l'homme : la vie s'enfuit, ne te montre donc point si difficile envers le bonheur qui se présente hâte-toi de jouir.

[ritter]

Starting Georges Bernanos'novel Monsieur Ouine.



Bernanos, one of the great French catholic writers of the 20th century, took 10 years to finish this novel, considered an extremely pessimistic work, but also kind of a literary tour de force. The works by Bernanos I've read in the past, Diary of a Country Priest (on which Robert Bresson's stunning film is based), Dialogues des Carmélites (used by Poulenc as libretto for his opera) and his book on the Spanish civil war —which he experienced first-hand—, Les Grands cimetières sous la lune, have been quite impressive. The latter is an extremely interesting pamphlet: Bernanos, a catholic of conservative tendencies, initially sympathised with Franco's uprising, but soon became disenchanted and revolted by the repression he was seeing in Majorca (where he was living), and scandalised by the Catholic Church's condoning of the excesses being perpetrated. This very honest stance caused Bernanos to be rejected by the French right-wing circles, to which he traditionally had been close. Apparently, no less a figure than Hannah Arendt considered the book one of the best ever written against fascism.

[André]

Starting Georges Bernanos'novel Monsieur Ouine.



Bernanos, one of the great French catholic writers of the 20th century, took 10 years to finish this novel, considered as extremely pessimistic work, but also a kind of literary tour de force. The works by Bernanos I've read in the past, Diary of a Country Priest (on which Robert Bresson's stunning film is based), Dialogues des Carmélites (used by Poulenc as libretto for his opera) and his book on the Spanish civil war —which he experienced firsthand—, Les Grands cimetières sous la lune, have been quite impressive. The latter is an extremely interesting pamphlet: Bernanos, a catholic of conservative tendencies, initially sympathised with Franco's uprising, but soon became disenchanted and revolted by the repression he was seeing in Majorca (where he was living), and scandalised by the Catholic Church's condoning of the excesses being perpetrated. This very honest stance caused Bernanos to be rejected by the French right-wing circles, to which he traditionally had been close. Apparently, no less a figure than Hannah Arendt considered the book one of the best ever written against fascism.

Very interesting, thanks Rafael. I know Bernanos's work by reputation only. Bresson used another Bernanos novel for one his most personal and bleakest (even for him) movies, Mouchette. Obviously Bernanos had a rather pessimistic look on mankind.

[Florestan]

I'm at page 240 (out of about 700.)

Anyway I've been listening to this

https://www.youtube.com/v/rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTvfO-Jveg0&ab_channel=pianushko

and this phrase of Stendhal's came to mind: une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation.

L'imagination est touchée par le son lointain de la cloche de quelque petit village caché sous les arbres : ces sons portés sur les eaux qui les adoucissent prennent une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation, et semblent dire à l'homme : la vie s'enfuit, ne te montre donc point si difficile envers le bonheur qui se présente hâte-toi de jouir.

Very good.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Very good.

I would prefer The Red and The Black to Parma though I think the both are masterpieces. Stendhal loved music, including Rossini and Mozart.

[Florestan]

I would prefer The Red and The Black to Parma though I think the both are masterpieces. Stendhal loved music, including Rossini and Mozart.

Well, TRATB is a book I started twice over a decade and twice gave it up before halfway through. A decade later, I started it again and this time it was a page turner from start to finish. I think it's a book that needs a certain amount of living and life experiences to appreciate. Ditto for TCOP, which I started and abandoned only once before reading it in full, though.

[Florestan]

and this phrase of Stendhal's came to mind: une teinte de douce mélancolie et de résignation.

This is also a very apt description of many places in Mozart's KV 496 which I listened to last night.

[Mandryka]

The phrase which keeps coming up in Chartreuse is "gens d'esprit" So, for example, we learn that in Italy, the "gens d'esprit" are tortured by their imagination, and they lack something in the "sang-froid" department. I suppose people with sang-froid aren't gens d'esprit.

Anyone here feeling up to translating "gens d'esprit"  into English.

[Florestan]

The phrase which keeps coming up in Chartreuse is "gens d'esprit" So, for example, we learn that in Italy, the "gens d'esprit" are tortured by their imagination, and they lack something in the "saing-froid department. Anyone here feeling up to translating "gens d'esprit"  into English.

Reminds me of Pascal's distinguishing between esprit de finesse and esprit de géométrie.

While I get the gist in each case, I can't translate them in Romanian, let alone English.

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Well, TRATB is a book I started twice over a decade and twice gave it up before halfway through. A decade later, I started it again and this time it was a page turner from start to finish. I think it's a book that needs a certain amount of living and life experiences to appreciate. Ditto for TCOP, which I started and abandoned only once before reading it in full, though.

I was thinking why The Red and The Black remains one of my all-time favorites. First of all, just like Dostoevsky, Stendhal's observation and depiction of human psychology/nature are very insightful, thereby making the characters and incidents very realistic. Jealousy, hypocrisy, intrigues, etc. in the society are well-depicted in the novel (as well as the Charterhouse of Parma). Secondly, the story is romantic and thrilling. Since the plot involves with a love-triangle relationship, interferences from their family members, and Julien Sorel's ruthless, ambitious plan to attain a high social status, it is a page-turner. Thirdly, there are many paradoxes and surprises. Though Julien strives to enter the high circle, he detests and despises the members of high society. He totally focuses on deception and pretends to respect the upper-society. Also, he shoots his former lover for her letter to his fiancé's father, which destroyed his engagement to an aristocratic lady. However, he realizes that he really loves the former, whom he shot, rather than his fiancé. While this lady survives the assault and doesn't lose her life, she realizes that she dearly loves him too!
Because of the innovative (and twisted) plot and credible depiction of characters' psychology, I believe that the R&B is a masterpiece among the masterpieces.

[Mandryka]

characters and incidents very realistic.

I don't think Frabrice de Dongo is like anyone I've ever met. I'd say he's as caricatural as Don Juan.

The class content of Chartreuse is interesting, all those prols, surfs, loyal to their masters and hearts of gold; and the self interested self centred manipulative nastiness of the aristocrats. I wonder if you can be a working class gens d'esprit. I should say that I've only just started Part II -- so maybe things will change in prison. Money is a big big thing in the book -- mostly to say how much money rich people have, rarely, very rarely so far, to say how little poor people have. If I were to criticise the book so far negatively, it would be for a lack of humanity. (Contrast Hugo, where the humanity of the narration is palpable. Can you imagine Stendhal writing a passage like those two little children abandoned to their own devices in Paris in Winter, housed by Gavroche in the elephant, stealing the bread thrown to the swans by the rich people in the Tuileries? I think not.)

Can you imagine any teenager saying to himself, "When I grow up I will be an archbishop, mummy and daddy will make it happen." ?

What's the relation with his aunt? Sexual and unrequited?

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

As you say, I don't see Stendhal as a humanist, or moralist, writer. It seems to me, he is a realist (realpolitik), and analytic, writer.
Sorry, no comment on the relation w his aunt.

Nietzsche called Stendhal "France's last great psychologist".

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

Director Oliver Hermanus did a remake of Akira Kurosawa's famous movie, "Ikiru". The title is "living," and Kazuo Ishiguro wrote the script.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jan/21/living-bill-night-kurosawa-ikiru-remake

[SimonNZ]

Finished a reread of Joan Didion's first essay collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Sent back to this after hearing an excellent podcast looking at her now forgotten early years as a National Review writer and Goldwater republican before turning democrat. Much discussion of how you can still see traces of that in this post NR collection and in some of her later writing, which may come as a surprise to many of her fans.

now most of the way through:

[Mandryka]

Charteuse abandoned for a while shortly after del Dongo was sent to jail -- I'm tired of Stendhal's tone of voice -- I keep saying to myself "this story is daft" -- I may well finish it later.

But I've gone back to L'education Sentimentale, I've got to the end of Part 1 -- which was where I abandoned it last time. This time I can see it is pretty special actuall, so looking forward to Part 2 tomorrow or Wednesday. It's like music, you have to be in the right frame of mind for these things.

[SimonNZ]

third reading

[Karl Henning]

third reading

Aujourd'hui, maman est morte