Notes on the road Day 3

It’s true what they say about losing track of time and days. I have no idea what day of the week it is and told someone we had been in a completely different city to one we’d just come from. So today. Today was even more of an epic drive than the Hamburg trip. We …

The Last House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward (2021)

This book made me sick. Honestly, the first few pages and I wasn't even sure how I was going to get through it all. The reason it made me sick was because of the gut wrenching, not sure where it's going and how it's going to end kind of a way. It's the same way …

Plenty Under The Counter, by Kathleen Hewitt (1943)

Behind the scenes at Pirate Towers things have been somewhat busy which has left little time for much else. Hopefully as things ease into the new month this will change and there'll be time to do the nice things like read and, y'know, normal stuff. I can't help think there's something else going on in …

Belinda, by Maria Edgeworth (1801)

Published in 1801 this little tome is much the same as many other books that followed in its wake in terms of themes of marriage, friendships, family and coming of age. But then it's also quite different. Young Belinda Portman is sent, by her Aunt Stanhope, to stay with Lady Delacour in London. Lady Delacour …

Travels with…

So, this week, we’re going slightly off piste. Rather than it being about a book per se it’s going to be about book locations I have visited. I’m sure this may have limited appeal to some but it really won’t take too long so do bear with. It all begins with a journey. This past …

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850)

Published in 1850 Hawthorne picks up the historical fiction baton and writes about the Puritans who came to America in the 1600s. The story opens with a description of the outside of a prison. Quite an auspicious beginning. It is revealed that a young woman will be passing through the doors into the public gaze …

The Last Tycoon, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1940)

From the Gilded Age, of the previous post, to the Golden Age of Hollywood, The Last Tycoon is the final, unfinished novel by the author F Scott Fitzgerald. Published posthumously in 1941, we are told the story of Monroe Stahr, one of the great movie producers of the golden age of cinema, through the eyes …

The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton (1920)

I imagine that when an author sets out to write something they do so to amuse themselves and hope that somewhere along the way someone else might enjoy it as well. Wharton's expectations were perhaps exceeded when this 1920 novel by her won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1921. A surprising and somewhat controversial decision, …

Vile Bodies, by Evelyn Waugh

Now, bear with me whilst it may seem that I'm starting off on a bit of a tangent (if that's even possible). By a quirk of fate I read recently a review of Paris Hilton's new Netflix series about her cooking. In a kitchen. I watched her first foray into this arena on Youtube and …

Perfume, by Patrick Süskind

Written by Patrick Süskind and published in 1985 this is the tale of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (which translates as frog, but has other interesting translations associated), born into abject poverty in pre-revolutionary Paris. A Bildungsroman of sorts we watch him grow to be the great perfumerer he was destined to be. However, this journey of a …

The Gothic one and the Final one

It's a truth universally unacknowledged that I've read less than half of the Austen canon. So, in an effort to rectify this terrible oversight I've been reading more Austen of late and this week's theme is about literary sandwiches. Actually, no, it isn't, but in a quirk of fate I've read Northanger Abbey and Persuasion. …

Once Upon a Time…

My reading material is somewhat mimicking life currently as I lurch precariously from one genre to another. Jane Austen to Quentin Tarantino? Is that even possible? It is, yes, when Tarantino's first novel ascends the world's stage. I love Quentin Tarantino. It's no secret. I will bore anyone and everyone about why I think he …

Art and Literature

The Doll Factory and Brideshead Revisted. On the surface there's not much to connect them. One is historical fiction, set in Victorian England and tells the story of a young woman on the fringes of a new art movement. The other is written just after the second war, set in the interwar years and weaves …

So much for that…and other stories

I've been on a bit of a reading spree in the past couple of weeks and so I needed to consult Goodreads to see what I've actually read. After Crime and Punishment I opted for some light reading - The Jane Austen Society (2020) by Natalie Jenner, The Big Sleep (1939) by Raymond Chandler, The …

Redemption (I’ve finished Crime and Punishment!)

**THERE MAY BE SPOILERS** It's been a while! In the millennia I've been absent I've moved, walked a lot and not read very much. I've also successfully relocated my cat, Edward and unpacked most of the boxes that have filled my life for...well, several months now. Life is more settled now so, hopefully, I can …

Intermission: Does Crime Pay?

I'm always quite curious to know about movie adaptations of books I'm currently reading - often it can be quite a diversionary interlude from the story if it's a little slow at any point. However, not so with Crime and Punishment although I have taken a little peek, in this case, to see how far …

Translations

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Where to begin? Well, most people would pick up a copy and turn to the first page. Not so simple in the world of Dostoyevsky, Russian literature and translations. What it seems to boil down to is how to capture the very essence of the writing. So, it's not …

India

More by accident than design I have embarked on some books this year which are set in, or refer to, this great continent. Miss Marjoribanks makes reference to Tom, Lucilla's cousin, who travels there to make something of himself. Despite Oliphant's extensive travels I'm not sure she made it to those shores herself. The second …

Miss Marjoribanks (1866), Margaret Oliphant

We meet Miss Marjoribanks at two periods of her life with an intermission of 10 years. In the first part of the book we arrive at the point her mother dies and she sets about making it her aim in life to be a comfort to her dear papa. A time limit of 10 years …

Intermission: The Conversation

As a child, and frequent cinema visitor, it was some years into my movie going career before I encountered an intermission. This must have been sometime around the late 70s into the early 80s. I'm trying to recall the movie - I think it must have been an older one that was doing the rounds. …