I recently read John Steinbeck's "East of Eden", a novel so rich, and long, that one blog post couldn't begin to uncover even 2% of it. But below I've quoted passages from the novel that I'll talk about both in themselves and in relation to certain texts: the Bible, principally Genesis and Job; Miguel de … Continue reading East of Eden
Category: Tolstoy
Tolstoy descendant takes in Ukrainian refugees
Marta Albertini, the great-granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy, has taken a Ukrainian mother and daughter into her home in Switzerland. Anastasia Sheludko and Marta Albertini Apparently Albertini and many others of Tolstoy's descendants have signed a letter to Putin saying that the family opposed the war and that Tolstoy himself, a renowned pacifist, would have been … Continue reading Tolstoy descendant takes in Ukrainian refugees
Russia Against Napoleon
Back in 2009 Dominic Lieven wrote a book, "Russia Against Napoleon", that challenged Leo Tolstoy's view of history as expressed in "War and Peace." I read it recently and it's excellent, heavy on military analysis but brimming with other kinds of insights as well. The subtitle, "The True Story of the Campaigns of War and … Continue reading Russia Against Napoleon
Favorite books of 2021 (and 2020)
My blog is new, so I've never picked out favorite books for a year, but here we go. My ten faves for 2021, fiction and nonfiction, out of the 66 books I read: 1. New Testament -- the recent translation by David Bentley Hart 2. Notre Dame de Paris Translated by Alban Krailsheimer 3. Lonesome … Continue reading Favorite books of 2021 (and 2020)
Christmas, 1811
Some bloggers and BookTubers have been presenting Christmas material from novels, for example, this selection from "Little House In the Big Woods." That one is part of a full series of Christmas-related readings, and I don't have enough reading under me to list that many readings. But I'll give one. It's a scene, or rather … Continue reading Christmas, 1811
Notre Dame de Paris
I recently finished reading "Notre Dame de Paris," or as it's known in the English-speaking world, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." I was surprised to find that the book is all about architecture. I only knew anything about this novel from the movies, none of which speak two syllables about architecture. Hugo was passionate about … Continue reading Notre Dame de Paris
The Birchbark House
During the first quarantine summer (2020), my family and I were binging heavily on the "Little House On the Prairie" television show and starting to read Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" novels. My wife, who read all those novels as a child, suggested we look into a series of young adult novels told from the … Continue reading The Birchbark House
Pilgrim’s Progress
I picked up “Pilgrim’s Progress” only because I was reading “Little Women,” which I found made constant reference to Bunyan’s earlier novel. So I put down Alcott and started “Pilgrim,” and it was a mixed experience – riveting in many places, but often hard-going. As often happens when I pick up a new author, the … Continue reading Pilgrim’s Progress
Hero, meet your villain; or, never mind
It's a common trope in fiction: a final confrontation between the central hero of a story and its central villain. It's an important trope in Westerns, both on the page and screen -- Clint Eastwood's "Unforgiven" is just one famous example. And we see it in works of fiction that are too many to count: … Continue reading Hero, meet your villain; or, never mind
Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary Discuss Their Suicides
"Anna Karenina" is not quite letting me go. Partly that's because it was just that good. I went back to re-read Part 8; and generally I don't re-read books until years later; but I had to drink in that last section of the novel again, and slowly. Partly the book is hanging on because I've … Continue reading Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary Discuss Their Suicides