The Periodic Table is very worthwhile reading.It is a little similar in its chemistry to Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks. The biography of Stephan Zweig is on my list as well.
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When I think of her novels, I see chinless curates and Church jumble sales. She was rediscovered by the excellent David Cecil. Her biography appeared quite recently and her taste in right wing members of the Herrenvolk worrying. Good to see the novels relaunched, however.
Something a little different from me today, a little celebration of one of my favourite women writers, the inimitable Barbara Pym. I have written before about my love of Pym’s novels with their unassuming women, hapless clergymen and fusty academics, moving in a world that feels both strangely absurd and highly relatable.
In the context of most Barbara Pym novels, the most pressing concerns are what to serve the new vicar when he comes over for tea and how to dress for the forthcoming church fete. (If only real life were like that, everything would be so much simpler!) On the surface, they may appear to be light social comedies, amusing sketches of village life; but dig a little deeper and you’ll discover a satisfying amount of depth. Pym wrote insightfully about unrequited love, often based on her own experiences of relationships and middle-class life. Through her engaging fiction…
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Postcards from Crete
Many, many lovely and detailed sketches. Makes me want to go away and definitely take watercolours!
I sent some hand-drawn postcards from Crete.
An experimental view from a restaurant:
Another view from a restaurant:
The Roman water cisterns at Aptera:
The beautiful monastery of Agias Triados:
Paint dries really quickly here!
Crete blog posts:
I like Bevan’s paintings which have an element of social realism and show how much horses were used to deliver goods. Wasn’t he on the fringes of the Camden group?
For a few years in the early twentieth century, André Derain, Henri Matisse and others known as the Fauves (‘wild beasts’) dazzled those who viewed their avant garde art. Not only were their colours intense, often raw from the tube, but they were so inappropriate. Flesh became vivid green, buildings and horses blue, and skies blood red. For most it was a passing phase, and by 1908 the wild beasts had stampeded on to the next fad as modernism evolved volcanically.
Their influence was more lasting and general, though, affecting other artists until the Second World War. In this article I look at how other, more mainstream painters had their own Fauvist phase.
In some ways a continuation of the changes seen in Post-Impressionism, high chroma paintings had become common among those painting in the south of France, the Midi, with its brilliant and different light.
Paul Signac (1863-1935), The…
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Autoportrait Day 138~ Erzsébet Korb
Somewhat austere and contemplative.
A random survey of self-portraits created by women through the centuries
Hungarian painter Erzsébet Korb (1899-1925)
1. Self-Portrait, ND / Charcoal on paper / Private collection
2. Self-Portrait, c.1921 / Oil on canvas / Private collection
[3 embedded links above]
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Autoportrait Day 137~ Yana Movchan
A random survey of self-portraits created by women through the centuries
Ukrainian-born artist Yana Movchan (born 1971)
Beautiful Me (Self Portrait), 2014 / Oil on canvas / Artist’s collection
[2 embedded links above]
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Franz Kafka – The Top (short story)
That story about the top is new to me but yet seems oddly familiar. Along with spirals and Yeats use of “gyre” it seems both mystical and philosophical. Then there was that magnificent musical, “Carousel” which had a huge effect on me when I was about twelve years old!
I recently read Kafka’s (unfinished) novel The Castle, which I had last read about thirty or so years ago. I thought The Trial, The Castle and The Metamorphosis were the bees’ knees when I originally read them, and still do, but didn’t really think much of Amerika or the other short stories at the time. I think I didn’t like them much because they were not like The Trial etc., but my relatively recent re-read of Amerika showed me that it was worth attempting these other works without expecting them to be another version of The Trial.
The Vintage collection I read is split between ‘Longer’ and ‘Shorter’ stories, with some of the shorter stories being less than a page long; some were just fragments of stories and many were only published posthumously. Having finished the collection, I’m beginning to appreciate just how inventive Kafka was as…
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Jan Potocki: Voyages
Interesting period and like Conrad a great traveller and reporter!
I bought this because I was planning to re-read his amazing novel The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, and then watch the film; I hadn’t known much about his life or that he was widely travelled, in the years at the end of the eighteenth century when his native Poland was gradually being dismembered and removed from the map of Europe.
Potocki is a careful observer with a good eye for detail and a focus on the exotic (or what would have seemed exotic to a European traveller at the time). The book is extremely well presented with a very detailed commentary and copious annotation, rather like the current Hakluyt Society volumes in the UK. The one thing seriously lacking is maps of any sort, to allow the curious reader to track the traveller’s progress.
It’s a strange mish-mash of places: travel through Holland during a revolution, extensive…
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A Day in ……….Fowey, Cornwall
Garabaldi had connections with Fowey and more can be discovered at the Museum there. Good place for secondhand books too!
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Summer Reading Suggestions
Looks like a useful list of recommendations. I think I would turn to The Sea Gate first for local reasons!
Any chance you’re making summer travel plans? International, local, or just with a lemonade in the backyard, you’ll need something to read, right? Here are books I’ve read over the last nine months and would highly recommend to keep your brain engaged and traveling, even if you don’t set foot outside your hometown.
The Admiral’s Wife by M.K. Tod – This book is just really good historical fiction, a page turner I could not put down. I learned about an era and culture I knew almost nothing about (early 20th century Hong Kong), and it was woven so well with the modern day story. The author did a wonderful job with the plot, the history, the emotions, the family dynamics, and the nuance. (Not to mention that I did a presentation with Mary this winter, and she’s…
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