Cervantes’ pulp fiction

October 14, 2020 In the 1885 edition of "Don Quixote" there is this, in the introduction (penned presumably by Ormsby): But it would be idle to deny that the ingredient which, more than its humour, or its wisdom, or the fertility of invention or knowledge of human nature it displays, has insured its success with … Continue reading Cervantes’ pulp fiction →

Halfway through Don Quixote

October 2, 2020 I've finished Volume 1. I’m going to miss all the side-characters. Even before they split off from our core group, saying goodbye to our knight, squire, priest and barber, it was clear that their stories were now more-or-less resolved and that the rest of Vol. I would probably just take the core … Continue reading Halfway through Don Quixote →

Digesting Big Books

September 24, 2020 “War and Peace” might be having long-term effects on me. Possibly. - I am more forgiving of myself when I am confused by a situation, whether personal or intellectual, or even when I’m just looking out physically and finding the things in front of me confusing. Tolstoy hammered home the point that … Continue reading Digesting Big Books →

Gaugamela and Austerlitz

September 2, 2020 I am struck by some parallels between two battles -- Gaugamela and Austerlitz. I wonder in fact to what degree Napoleon copied Alexander’s tactics. My son and I have enjoyed watching these videos and it's great fun to think about these things, though comments, clarifications and corrections are more than welcome here; … Continue reading Gaugamela and Austerlitz →

Napoleon and Alexander the Greats?

September 1, 2020 Reading “War and Peace” and watching Epic History TV’s documentaries about Napoleon and Alexander the Great (see below), I’m struck by some parallels between the two men. Alexander’s conquests spread Hellenistic culture and some Greek ideas about democracy (even though Alexander himself -- a student of Aristotle -- seems to have favored … Continue reading Napoleon and Alexander the Greats? →

Finishing War and Peace

August 30, 2020 I’ve finished the novel. One disadvantage of reading out-of-sequence is that when I came to the second half, I had already read most of the truly great stuff in that half. I was then able to skip over those passages as I did my read-through, but that meant that I was only … Continue reading Finishing War and Peace →

Tolstoy’s crowd scenes

August 28, 2020 A long time ago I read that "War and Peace" was renowned for its great “crowd scenes.” Possibly this means two-back-to-back crowd scenes in Vol. III, Part 1, Chs. 21-22: Petya getting nearly crushed by the crowd swarming to see Alexander at the Kremlin; and the Council of the Nobility, attended by … Continue reading Tolstoy’s crowd scenes →

Reading left to right

August 26, 2020 Nearing the end of a two-week vacation, I’ve managed now to reach the midway point of "War and Peace", having started over from the beginning. I reached the end of the novel but there were many chapters I had skipped, and I'm sweeping through now, from the beginning, to read those. Wonderful … Continue reading Reading left to right →

My quarantine addiction

August 22, 2020 I saw the BBC's "War and Peace" on a Saturday and a Sunday. I spent the following week getting other books “out of the way,” so to speak. On Monday I did my Zoom reading on a “Moby-Dick” marathon, which finished the next day (in the middle of a tropical storm left … Continue reading My quarantine addiction →

Natasha, Pierre, and that comet again

August 19, 2020 In my first searches for “War and Peace” on YouTube -- the day after I’d shown my kids some summaries of Moby-Dick, The Odyssey, and Frankenstein -- I learned that there had been a play in 2012-17, “Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812” . It played in New York (and … Continue reading Natasha, Pierre, and that comet again →