What a wonderful novel! The story of an orphan in England circa 1845 who becomes a governess and falls in love with her employer, the troubled Mr. Rochester. A romantic plot with the usual reversals of fortune, but beautiful language, insightful commentary, suspense and a very interesting heroine. I really cared what happened to these characters. Â (2/12/10)
Category Archives: Fiction
Breakout by Richard Stark
One in the series of Parker crime novels. Tough guy Parker gets arrested doing a burglary and has to break out of jail. Then he agrees to perform another job and that gets fouled up too. Earlier ones in the series are better. Â (1/14/10)
The Iliad by Homer, translated by Robert Fagles
Another disappointment, especially compared to The Odyssey.
Achilles is offended by Agamemnon and becomes so angry that he withdraws himself and his troops from the war with the Trojans. He refuses repeated attempts to coax him to return to battle, even though the Greeks are losing without him. He eventually allows his best friend to lead his troops into battle, and when his best friend is killed, he finally decides that he should fight again, after much lamenting. He kills Hector and that’s The Iliad. Honor is honor, but as depicted in The Iliad, Achilles must be the biggest drama queen in the history of Western literature.
Maybe we have made cultural progress since Homer’s time. (1/14/10)
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I think The Brothers Karamazov is the best novel I’ve ever read, but The Idiot was a disappointment. Too much silly talk and too many silly people. Maybe you need to have lived in Russia at that time to appreciate the characters. And it would have helped if Nastasya Filippovna had been in it more. She disappears for most of the novel.  (1/14/10)
Whereof One Can Speak 🇺🇦 