3.5. Full review to come. I enjoyed Discourse far more than Meditations. I also read an older Penguin edition translated by Wollast104th book of 2021.
3.5. Full review to come. I enjoyed Discourse far more than Meditations. I also read an older Penguin edition translated by Wollaston that I cannot find on GR for some reason, so this newer Penguin cover will suffice. Though I wanted to read Aristotle before branching out into Descartes, Aristotle is proving to be annoyingly hard to find (for a reasonable price, that is). Descartes is a good writer and his work is clearly written but some of his ideas are quite transparently outdated and no longer stand as they must have done at first. Nevertheless, I found this to be an enjoyable and thought-provoking read. Now to backtrack and find some Aristotle, which is the universe's intended order, no doubt....more
Another good play, though it could have done without the Witches, in my opinion, or else less Witches. The prophecy element was fai119th book of 2020.
Another good play, though it could have done without the Witches, in my opinion, or else less Witches. The prophecy element was fairly interesting, at least.
Macbeth is a good character. Interestingly, in the beginning, where his wife questions him and his manliness (When you durst do it, then you were a man), I was reminded of Jude the Obscure. My University lecturer once asked the class if there were any scenes from novels that stuck with them, though they didn't know why. He said that Frankenstein: The 1818 Text slipping around on the ice has haunted him for many years, just that image of him. I thought to myself, though I don't know why, the scene in Jude the Obscure where Jude is reluctant to kill the pig, and makes a mess of it has always made a great impression on me. The image of him trying to do it and failing, his wife getting frustrated with him and his 'manliness' and in the end, her doing it herself. Especially in Hardy's time, it is quite the scene. I found Macbeth and his wife's relationship very similar.
It is one of Shakespeare's tragedies, so tragedy was expected, and tragedy was delivered. It is famous for a reason, Macbeth's quote about life is brilliant:
a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing...more
O, let me kiss that hand! Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
Despite being a little convoluted at times, plot-wise, this i118th book of 2020.
O, let me kiss that hand! Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
Despite being a little convoluted at times, plot-wise, this is a strong play. I’d say Edgar is pretty much my new favourite Shakespeare character, and he carried the play for me. Lear was great too, and the Fool. In fact, Lear, the Fool and Edgar together going mad was the best part of the play. And Edgar with Gloucester on the ‘cliff’ – those are my highlights.
The soliloquies were also great in this play, up there with some of them from Hamlet. The plot of this was stronger though, so I would say this was better on the whole. Emotion-wise: Though, Othello I felt for greatly, and the jealousy in the play made an impression on me, my feelings for Edgar here were quite strong, and I did feel somewhat sympathetic with Lear, so they are possibly neck-and-neck. My verdict at the moment: better than Hamlet, at least. Macbeth is next.
But yet thou art my flesh, my blood, my daughter – Or rather a disease that’s in my flesh, Which I must needs call mine. Thou art a boil, A plague-sore or embossed carbuncle In my corrupted blood. But I’ll not chide thee. Let shame come when it will, I do not call it. I do not bid the thunder-bearer shoot, Nor tell tales of thee to high-judging Jove....more
O, another tragedy. This one interested me far more than Hamlet. Though the latter intrigued with the ghost in the beginning, the r114th book of 2020.
O, another tragedy. This one interested me far more than Hamlet. Though the latter intrigued with the ghost in the beginning, the revenge, it descended first into boredom and then into ridicule. Othello is a far greater play.
The theme of jealousy is one I find quite interesting to read about in characters, though I am not sure why. I first discovered my love for it in Greene's magnificent The End of the Affair, and was most recently reminded of it again (before this) in the beautiful "Swann in Love" in Swann's Way. Though in both instances I preferred how the jealousy was approached, I still appreciated the jealousy here. The difference is also good - Iago is thrown into the mix; he is a conniving, evil character who does 'make' the play. I felt for Othello more than I did for Hamlet. He was just mislead, lied to, betrayed and confused... and paid many a price for that. The ending, though tragic, was not as far-fetched as the ending of Hamlet, which makes this one all the better still.
No, my heart is turned to stone; I strike it, and it hurts my hand....more
I think most people know the story of Hamlet now. Or, at best, quoting 'To be or not to be,' whenever one mentions Shakespeare is t102nd book of 2020.
I think most people know the story of Hamlet now. Or, at best, quoting 'To be or not to be,' whenever one mentions Shakespeare is the norm. On the whole, I don't care for Shakespeare. Of course, I understand his significance, I understand the love people have for him, and I don't dislike him because I think his plays are bad. But, tragedies are a difficult one for me.
On the whole, Shakespeare is a little too much for me. Tragedy, revenge, the gossip... I don't care for it. The tragedies that do work for me are things like As I Lay Dying; the reason is, the language and the style fascinates me. I am a huge fan of good language, and experimental language. Can I compare a novel to a play? No, not in that sense. Shakespeare must be performed.
Hamlet is an interesting character. Anyone mad is interesting, we see that across all literature and film. I was pleasantly surprised and invested in the beginning with the appearance of the ghost. In the middle, it lost its way. The plot meandered a little too long, sometimes it was as if Shakespeare himself wasn't sure what his direction was. I have read criticisms of Hamlet that say that - that the plot is clumsy, aimless, etc., etc. I partly see that. The ending...
I found the ending enjoyable to read but I was also laughing at the deliverance of the events, or rather, the fates of the characters. I knew certain characters died, but on finally reading the play, it seemed bizarre how quickly it all happened. Suddenly the whole cast was dropping left right and centre with several pages to go and that was it, wrapped up, and put to bed. Again, this is reading the play though. The performance would be far longer, the fighting would be seen, the deaths dramatic, no doubt. The way in which some characters die, I still think, is a little ridiculous.
However, all said and done, enjoyable, in a soap sort of way - drama!...more
84th book of 2021. Artist for this review is French painter Honoré Daumier.
3.5. Don Quixote rather famously stands as the first “modern” novel, publis84th book of 2021. Artist for this review is French painter Honoré Daumier.
3.5. Don Quixote rather famously stands as the first “modern” novel, published in two parts, the first in 1605 and the second in 1615. They are very different beasts. The first part, or Book I, is perhaps the Don Quixote people think of: the thin, mad(?), Spanish man (Alonso Quixano) who decides to become a knight errant and rename himself Don Quixote. He manages to acquire a squire in the portly Sancho Panza and thus their adventures begin. Don Quixote sees inns as castles, ugly women as princesses, your everyday vagabond as some great criminal. . . He is always attempting to exact some knightly behaviour on the unsuspecting; and famously, of course, attacks windmills, claiming they are giants. On opening the novel at the beginning and starting to read I was stunned by the freshness of the prose (thanks to Grossman’s translation, whom I trust for her translations of Gabo) and the humour, which I believed to be actually humorous. The problem with the humour is though it never technically faulters, Don Quixote is almost 1000 pages long and so at times it feels as if it is the same gag running, told over and over, with slightly different twists. And besides, in the beginning we find Don Quixote’s madness humorous and by even the midway point, we start to find it endearing. I won’t go into all the possible interpretations of his madness as they are spoken about elsewhere by better speakers, but for me, Quixote’s unwavering desire to be a knight errant did strike me as being quite poignant when thought as simply as him staying true to what he believed in. At one point, after all, Don Quixote says to a man, ‘“Let me conclude by saying, Señor, that you should allow your son to walk the path to which his star calls him.”’
[image]
Book 1, for all its humour and chivalric tales of madness, was slow reading to me. Don Quixote feels long, much longer than it actually is. This derives mainly from the episodic nature of the first Book (and in part the second); it is full of stories, stories within stories, tangents, monologues. . . Minor characters appear and when asked by Don Quixote who they are and what they are doing (before he runs them through with his lance, for no good reason) they spin a long yarn about their life, their love, their failures, and all the while we know as readers that this minor character will finish his spiel, Don Quixote will realise that killing him because he is the devil or whoever else isn’t so wise and let him go, and down the same road another fellow will come along with a tale. At times it had the stop-start feeling of a short story collection. This presented a problem for me and damaged my experience of reading it. I had heard Book II is considered different and by some “better”, so that kept me reading through the longer and more uninteresting side-plots of the first Book.
[image] "Don Quixote and Sancho Panza"—1855
And Book II is better. The humour feels reinvigorated and there’s a new angle to the already slight meta elements of the first part: now, in Spain, in reality, there is a fraudulent Don Quixote Book II. Cervantes is returning to set the record straight, it seems. But he does so with wit and grace. The characters in the novel are also aware of a fraudulent copy (for, I forget to mention, the book is actually published within the story too, and Don Quixote becomes “famous” in his own universe). It reminded me somewhat of Byron’s poem “A Vision of Judgement” which is a satirical poetic smackdown of Robert Southey’s own “A Vision of Judgement” from the year before. Cervantes not only mocks the fraudulent copy of his work but also mocks himself and addresses errors in Book 1 (which Grossman helpfully points out at the time: the misnaming of Sancho Panza’s wife (she has about 4 different names in Book I), the inconsistencies in the plot, most notably, the discussion of the disappearance/theft of Sancho’s donkey without it occurring in the plot). Quite meta. So we then have stories within stories, stories within stories again, real stories in reality within the fictional story, etc. Book II is far more enjoyable than Book I in my opinion and almost caused me to be magnanimous and give this 4-stars but the truth is despite loving Don Quixote, Sancho Panza and all the ridiculous things they got up to, this novel is long-winded. There are pages and pages that I didn’t care for aside from the famous duo. As far as the literary world goes this is perhaps a vital read and I am glad I finally read it. Despite the seemingly subpar rating, I’ll be thinking about the pair for a long time, about them vomiting on one another, about them arguing, about Don Quixote standing up to lions, getting caught hanging from a window, the two of them being tricked more times than there are pages, about every bruised body, broken tooth, windmill/giant, love for a lady one has never met, sweeping 17th century Spain with all its bandits, priests, prostitutes, soldiers, innkeepers, dukes and duchesses. . . all its kaleidoscopic madness that has kept it surviving until today as one of the most translated book in the world. And now I can refer to something as Quixotic with good faith and intention (and good memories of the beloved and most insane sane man to live: Don Quixote).
Matthew Ted
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