MarysLibrary

Finally Faulkner

You would think someone with all this literature background, who has read as many books as I have would have read Faulkner by now. Depending on whom you talk with he is either the greatest novelist the US has produced, or at least in the top three.

So how did I get away with reading nothing more demanding than "Barn Burning," and watching a Paul Newman/Joann Woodward movie? Dunno, but I did.

And now I shall rectify the situation. I'm of course starting at the beginning of the oeuvre and plan to read the books in order, but I may change my mind and skip The Sound and the Fury, about which I've Been Warned, or I may decide to read the Yoknapatawpha County novels as a group. I need to get my feet wet before I go diving off any Southern Gothic literary piers.

Here are the novels:

• Soldiers' Pay (1926)
• Mosquitoes (1927)
• Sartoris (Flags in the Dust) (1929)
• The Sound and the Fury (1929)
• As I Lay Dying (1930)
• Sanctuary (1931)
• Light in August (1932)
• Pylon (1935)
• Absalom, Absalom! (1936)
• The Unvanquished (1938)
• If I Forget Thee Jerusalem (The Wild Palms) (1939)
• Go Down, Moses (1942)
• Intruder in the Dust (1948)
• Requiem for a Nun (1951)
• A Fable (1954)
• The Reivers (1962)

Snopes Trilogy

• The Hamlet (1940)
• The Town (1957)
• The Mansion (1959)

Persephone Books

One of the most encouraging developments in the world of books in recent years is the arrival on the publishing scene of Persephone Books. 

These couragous folks have undertaken to republish fine 20th century English books that deserve our attention, most of them by women. Their catalog now contains seventy titles; they have been quite successful.

Two things set Persephone apart: their unadorned grey covers and their endpapers and bookmarks. Each book boasts a carefully chosen and entirely appropriate fabric or paper design. 

This New Year's Resolution is to acquire the Persephone books and to read them all. I own eight Persephone titles:

• The Making of a Marchioness, by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1901.) I've read this book and will review it soon.
• Consequences, by E M Delafield (1919)
• Alas, Poor Lady, by Rachel Ferguson (1937)
• Lady Rose and Mrs Memmary, by Ruby Ferguson (1937)
• Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927)
• Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, by Winifred Watson (1938)
• They Were Sisters, by Dorothy Whipple (1943)
• Betty Dorval, by Ethel Wilson (1947)

The Waverly Novels

Which of Sir Walter Scott's books are the Waverly novels? I found myself asking that question a couple of years ago when I decided it was time to move beyond Ivanhoe and read some of the other novels by this author, who was enormously important in the history of the English novel.

Turns out it's all of them. Scott published his first novel, Waverly, anonymously, and thereafter the title pages of his novels said, "By the Author of Waverly." Thus the Waverly novels.

I found a reasonably priced collection of Scott's fiction and planned to read my way through the oeuvre, starting with a re-reading of Ivanhoe. I did re-read Ivanhoe, but that was as far as it went. The only other novel I've read, peculiarly enough, is a third-rate work called St Ronan's Well, which I read because my maiden name was Ronan. (It seemed like a sufficient reason at the time.)

And so I now embark on the reading of the Scott novels listed here:

The picture of Scott above is from Wikipedia and was painted by Victoria's favorite painter, Landseer. The picture of the books is my collection of Waverly novels.

Classics Challenge - The Railway Children

I'm enchanted with E Nesbit's The Railway Children, which is my second Classic for the winter Classics Challenge.

Written for serial publication in 1905, the book is a happy-sad story with a wonderfully fulfilling ending where  justice triumphs and a happy family is reunited to be even happier than before difficulties beset them.

The introduction to my copy of the book says that Nesbit was inspired by the Dreyfus case to concoct this plot in which the father, a government employee, is arrested, tried, and found guilty of treason. The collapse of the family finances prompts a move to  an inexpensive cottage in the country. Because the new house is near a railway line and not too far from the local station, the children become friends with employees of the railway and with one passenger in particular.

The book is old and old-fashioned. Mild fun is poked at the son who thinks he is superior to his sisters, but then common stereotypes of women and mothers prevail. The oldest child, a girl, is certainly brave, ingenious, and a leader, however.

I can't tell you how much I enjoyed this book.  Everything was appealing, from the narrator, who turns to address her audience periodically, to the character of Perks, the railway porter, who is a good friend to the children -- and vice versa

Reading the beautifully illustrated Folio edition was a delight.

A Ball of Blue Bunny Yarn

My Stickley Rocker

My Living Room

Inspired by Lisa at Bluestockingreader, who has a new camera and has been posting some fine photos, and Cornflower, whose photos are nonpareil, I thought I'd take some pictures and show you my living room. I spend much of my time here working or reading. This is the view over the top of my laptop.

Tomalin's Hardy

Tomorrow's New York Times Book Review features a review on the front page of Clair Tomalin's new biography of Thomas Hardy.

Thomas Mallon, the reviewer, calls the book a "case study in mid-Victorian literary sociology," a term that you might apply to Hardy's novels. He agrees with Tomalin's judgment that Hardy's novels were uneven, that Tess of the d'Urbervilles is both awkward in places and glowing with imagination.

I've read enough of the biography to note, as does Mallon, that Tomalin emphasizes Hardy's decision after Jude the Obscure was slammed by the critics to write nothing but poetry for his remaining 30 years. Tomalin approves. I regret the loss of the fine novels Hardy might have continued to write.

Reading Philip Roth

I had already started back in 2006 on a project to read all of Philip Roth's novels, which has now become an official New Year's Resolution for 2007. I didn't expect to enjoy his work as much as I'm doing.

I've used the categories the Wickipedia uses. I'm not sure what "Roth books" means, but I suppose I'll find out when I get there. The Facts and Patrimony are non-fiction memoirs cum lit crit.

A list of the novels:

• Goodbye, Columbus (1959) - read in Nov 2006
• Letting Go (1962) - currently reading
• When She Was Good (1967)
• Portnoy's Complaint (1969)
• Our Gang (1971)
• The Great American Novel (1973)
• My Life As a Man (1974)
• Sabbath's Theater (1995)
• Everyman (2006)

Kepesh novels:

• The Breast (1972)
• The Professor of Desire (1977)
• The Dying Animal (2001)

Zuckerman novels:

• The Ghost Writer (1979)
• Zuckerman Unbound (1981)
• The Anatomy Lesson (1983)
• The Prague Orgy (1985)
• The Counterlife (1986)
• American Pastoral (1997)
• I Married a Communist (1998)
• The Human Stain (2000)
• Exit Ghost (2007) - not yet published

Roth books:

• The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography (1988)
• Deception: A Novel (1990)
• Patrimony: A Memoir (1991)
• Operation Shylock: A Confession (1993)
• The Plot Against America (2004)

Freezing Fog

Last night we experienced here in Spokane a phenomenon I don't recall seeing anywhere else I've lived: freezing fog. It gets foggy and then, yup, the temperature falls below freezing and the fog freezes on everything it touches. Which is everything, including the lovely twigs of bushes and trees and the needles on the pines. And the windshield of the Volvo and the sidewalk.

It's lovely but treacherous, like so many other things in life. I tiptoed across the icy driveway this morning (I'm leery of falling again before I even get the hardware out of my head from the last tumble) and took the above photo of the bushes in our side yard.

Here's a photo of the bushes a week ago.

Clearly, I need to get me a book about how to take pictures. Does anybody have any suggestions?