An awesome ride, as usual with Tchaikovsky, a page-turner. Amazing world-building, unsurprising for me, as I have read quite a few books by this author (most notably the “Children of Time” series, which I strongly recommend. I mean, INTELLIGENT SPIDERS, wow! And of course these are Jumping Spiders.).
Sry, too lazy, resp. chronically too distracted for a real review, time is always after me with its whip. I have highest respect for all of you who can do that (@Conrad_Melville ofc, for example, but others in this thread also).
“Have you heard the joke about the difference between an optimist and a pessimist?” I asked. “The optimist thinks that this is the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears the optimist is right.”
Yes, I do know that too-true joke. As I have mentioned before (perhaps in this thread), Jane Goodall was a childhood hero of mine ever since I was nine, when I read the 1963 National Geographic profile of her. I highly recommend her masterpiece, The Chimpanzees of Gombe (1986).
I am currently reading The Greek Alexander Romance (Richard Stoneman, tr.; Penguin Classics, 1991), which I picked up at a used book store a year ago. Despite my love of ancient literature, I unaccountably had never heard of this work, nor seen it in a used book store before.
It is the major source of the cloud of legend surrounding Alexander the Great, with a gestation spanning more than a thousand years from c. third-century BC to the tenth-century AD. The story is highly readable simply as a narrative, but the nuggets of general folklore (aside from Alexander) make it especially interesting for me. For example, I wonder if there is any truth in the claim that the winners in the early Olympics killed the losers. It doesn’t seem to comport with the Olympic spirit, and I certainly wouldn’t want to compete in that competition.
Reading this book about Reynard the fox.
It is about the history of this epic poem: the several manuscripts it was derived from, the academical disputes about it (not only now, but certainly also then), the interpretations, etc.
When I have finished this one, I will start the 4000 line poem itself (in modern Dutch).
Welcome to OGS and the non-go books thread. In my long-ago youth I disliked Dickens, but he grew on me to become one of my favorite authors, probably because my appreciation for dense narratives increased with age. My favorite Dickens book is Our Mutual Friend. I’m also a fan of the Arthurian cycle, which is huge. I recommend the four novelettes by Chrétien de Troyes. They are highly readable and among the best of the Arthurian cycle, I think.
Ok! I’ll check that out! Is it a simple coincidence that your username includes Melville (referring to the novelist Herman M) and you post most frequently here? Also I would assume that you have an excellent vocabulary which I love. Anyway, thanks for a kind, cordial greeting.
My username is a deliberate combination of Joseph Conrad (my favorite author) and Herman Melville (another of my favorites). Books have always been my greatest passion. I have been a professional writer and editor for most of my life. Just retired last week. BTW, I recommend reading this whole thread, if it is to your taste, as it has a lot of great discussions, recommendations, and reviews.
When I first came tp OGS in 2016, I read the whole thread of every thread that interested me. Some posts, of course, are of less interest, so I would skim them or skip over them. It got me up to speed on each conversation. But that’s just me.
Already in 1836 Joseph Bosworth wrote about Reynard the Fox: " If it were the only interesting and valuable work existing in Old Dutch, it alone would fully repay the trouble of learning that language."
Maybe you should learn to read Dutch.
I hope so. If I find out about this, I will let you know.
Fun fact: the French word for fox used to be “goupil”, but since this book, it has become “renard”. (The word “goupil” still exists, but is almost unseen outside of poetry and Pokemon names)
(Of course) I just had to look it up (remembering my German childhood “Reineke Fuchs” fables) … and it seems they were originally written in Old French?
And neither the German nor the English Wikipedia pages links to a Nederlands version This I find quite disappointing, considering that the OId Dutch fables received such praise.
For those of you who read a children’s version; they have been adapted so as not to hurt the fragile soul of children.
The original poem is much rougher, at times downright sadistic flavoured with sardonic humour.
It is not a one on one translation, but it certainly is inspired on a French text.
Willem added quite some extras to it and made it more spicy and critical of certain echelons of the medieval society he lived in.
Edit: fun fact, there even is a Reynard the Fox chess set.
This I find quite disappointing, considering that the OId Dutch fables received such praise.