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Baswoods Books 2017

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1baswood
Jan 1, 2017, 7:02 pm

My plans for reading this year will largely be a continuation of themes that I started (but never finished last year)



1 Everything Tudor
Britain's contribution to the Renaissance took the form of playwriting and theatre going, culminating in Shakespeare, but there was already a strong tradition in existence before he hit the scene and so I will be reading those early plays.
Plenty of poetry around during the period and I will be reading George Gascoigne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser and of course lesser poets that probably deserve not to be read.
There were some novels starting to appear - Robert Geene, George Peel etc
Tudor History - I have probably read all I need to about Henry VIII, and so I will be concentrating on Edward VI, Queen Mary and Elizabeth I
I really like C J Ransom's historical novels and so I will complete the series of those.



2 Science Fiction
1950's science fiction mainly and so Robert Heinlein, Arthur C Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester and John Wyndham - mainly from the S F masterworks series.
I will also continue with earlier works of science fiction - a sort of history of science fiction before it was known as science fiction and so gothic novels, ghost stories etc might be included.



3 Books published in 1914
I started this topic two years ago and still keep finding more books to read.



4 Doris Lessing
Not tired of Doris yet, although I think I will be pleased to finish with her science fiction: Canopus in Argos series. I am about halfway through her oeuvre.



5 Books off my shelf
A new topic for me this year: there might even be some contemporary literature here, although most of it will be 20th century



2valkyrdeath
Jan 1, 2017, 7:26 pm

Looking forward to following your reviews again this year. I'll be especially interested to see the science fiction that you get to this time. My read through of all of Asimov's fiction has slowed down to a glacial pace recently so I'm hoping to increase that again, but I think I need to get back to reading some more science fiction in general.

3The_Hibernator
Jan 1, 2017, 9:13 pm

4dchaikin
Jan 1, 2017, 11:17 pm

"and I will be reading George Gascoigne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser

This going to be another special thread. Look forward to it. I never did get to Spenser's Shepheards Calendar. If you go that route I might be tempted to read it along with you.

5OscarWilde87
Jan 2, 2017, 4:01 am

Happy New Year! Dropping my star...

6tonikat
Jan 2, 2017, 5:16 am

"Britain's contribution to the Renaissance took the form of playwriting and theatre going, culminating in Shakespeare, but there was already a strong tradition in existence before he hit the scene and so I will be reading those early plays.
Plenty of poetry around during the period and I will be reading George Gascoigne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Philip Sidney, Edmund Spenser and of course lesser poets that probably deserve not to be read."


sounds wonderful, I'll look forward to reading your thoughts.

I know you listen to the music - do you know an album called 'My lady Rich - her teares and joy', I like it very much. Not listened to for some time. But a few days ago got listening to several versions of Lady Carey's Dompe a friend posted elsewhere, wonderful (you'll know Lady Carey), as my firend said hints if the east in it at times.

But Happy new year.

7AlisonY
Jan 2, 2017, 6:32 am

Sounds like a great reading year ahead. Dropping off my star.

8baswood
Jan 2, 2017, 6:34 am

>6 tonikat: No I have not heard that album by Emily Van Evera, but I will look into it - sounds very interesting.

Happy New Year to Everybody that strays onto this thread.

9baswood
Jan 2, 2017, 6:47 am

10baswood
Jan 2, 2017, 6:50 am

Tudor Tracts - A F Pollard
These are original documents/histories/news items printed originally between 1532 -1538. They have been gathered together with an introduction by A F Pollard and and published as Tudor Tracts around 1890. The spelling has been modernised, but apart from that they have been printed as they were originally published complete with front covers.

Pollard in an excellent introduction, stresses that these documents come straight from the horses mouth: we are able to read exactly what was written by theses Tudor authors. Their thoughts and descriptions come down to us untarnished leaving it for us to interpret as we wish. We cannot however take everything as gospel, much like the news items of today much of the writing has an element of propaganda. The Tudors were the winning side in the all important battle to be rulers of England and so it is their views that are expressed in theses largely official documents. The press was largely under their control and so there were few dissenting voices finding their way down the ages. However the modern reader can make inferences from what is in front of him and sometimes it is what is not said that is just as revealing as what is said. There are 21 of these mostly fascinating documents, along with the dates of the event described, date of composition and date of publication:

1 The Manner of the Triumph at Calais 1532
Describes the meeting between Henry VIII and Francis I of France, where peace treaties were signed as Henry sought to become a major player on the European scene and to shore up his relationship with Anne Boleyn.

2 The Coronation of Anne Boleyn - The Noble Triumphant Coronation of Queen Anne unto the most Noble King Henry VIII. 1533
The elaborate pageantry with the theme of Anne as a white Falcon is described. At various conduits (water systems) around London a stage was erected for amateur players to welcome the procession. Many of the speaking parts were by children in a mixture of Latin and English. What is not described is the reaction of the crowds to Anne and her reactions to them, which is in stark contrast to a similar description of Elizabeth I procession described in 1559.

3 How the Lord Cromwell helped Archbishop Cranmer’s Secretary 1539. This is an extract from John Fox the Martyrologists publication Acts and Monuments from 1570.
Not a contemporaneous story but an astonishing one nevertheless. It describes how a book written on the orders of Henry VIII against Parliaments objections to the Six Articles was lost in the River thames, when a bear bating got out of control. The Royal barge was indulging in bear bating in the river Thames when the bear managed to climb aboard one of the supporting boats causing mayhem for the occupants and the loss of the book. it was picked up by the bear keeper whose attempts to use it for his own profit was thwarted by the iron hand of Lord Cromwell. The bear baiting incident is picturesquely described as is the power politics and negotiations that came afterwards.

4 The late expedition to Scotland 1544 - burning of Leith and Edinburgh.
A journalistic account of the expedition that does not spare the reader the horrors of being caught up in the looting and devastation by the expedition. List of Noblemen who took part.

5 Expedition into Scotland by William Patten 1547.
A long rambling introduction giving praise to God and the grace of Duke of Somerset who led the expedition. When it eventually gets underway it takes the form of a diary and provides an almost blow by blow account of the battles with maps and diagrams. Again the horrors of war are described along with incidents such as the building of gallows to hang disruptive soldiers.

6) John Bon and Master Parson by Luke Sheppard 1548
Something a little different. A sketch or one act play involving two protagonists. John Bon is an honest ploughman who comes across a catholic procession and he asks the priest what he is carrying. The priest replies it is the body of Christ, but Jon replies that it looks like a piece of cake to him. A satire on the catholic sacrements, but without vitriol on either side and they part on friendly terms.

7 Underhill’s narrative describing events of 1553/4 but written in 1562.
This is a first person account of a member of the Gentlemen Pensioners (body guards to the king) who found himself under suspicion being a protestant in the reign of catholic Queen Mary. He is put in prison, becomes sick, eventually released and manages to get back his position in the Gentlemen pensioners. The narrative ends with a description of the gentlemen Pensioners marching up and down within the sight of the Queen Mary during Wyatt’s rebellion.

8 The History of Wyatt’s rebellion by John Proctor.
A very good narrative history of the rebellion against Queen Mary. Proctor talks of the vile rebellion and how rebels against the crown should be harshly dealt with. He stresses that Wyatt’s so called proclamation against the Spanish immigrants (the armed strangers) concealed his real intent for an insurrection against the catholic Queen. An attempt at rabble rousing against foreigners that bears comparison with contemporary politics.

9 Thomas Brice’s register of Martyrs.
Written as a poem it details the day, month and year when the protestant Martyrs died. Most are named.
“When raging reign of tyrants stout,
Causeless, did cruelly conspire
To rend and root the Simple out,
With furious force of sword and fire;
When man and wife were put to death:
We wished for our Queen Elizabeth.”

10 The winning of Calais by the French 1558
A narrative published in 1569. It blames Queen Mary and her government as well as traitors for the loss of Calais.

11 The siege of Guisnes 1558
Published in 1559 by the poet Thomas Churchyard who claims to have been an eyewitness of the events. Quite possibly so as he was one of a number of soldier poets.

12 The death of Queen Mary by John Fox the Martyrologist
One would expect a damming account of the reign of Queen Mary by this arch protestant writer.

13 The imprisonment of Princess Elizabeth by John Fox the Martyrologist
A detailed account of the future Queen Elizabeth’s imprisonment in the Tower of London and then at Woodstock, where she was accused of conspiracy in the Wyatt rebellion. Much is made of Elizabeths fortitude even when she was in fear of her life. There are plenty of quotes from those involved.

14 The passage of our most dread sovereign Queen Elizabeth through the city of London to Westminster the day before her coronation 1558
She is hailed by the people “so that on either side, there was nothing but gladness! nothing but prayer! nothing but comfort.”

15 Elizabeth arms England 1559
Not published until 1588 and another piece of propaganda against the inefficient reign of Queen Mary.
16 The Burning of St Pauls in London 1561
A vivid description of the steeple of St Paul’s struck by lightning and catching fire. The disorganisation in attempting to put it out and the pulling down of wooden buildings close by to arrest the fire.

17 A False fearful imagination of fire at Oxford University (from Acts and Monuments) by John Fox the Martyrologist.
Describes the panic inside a church when the shout of Fire causes the congregation to trample on each other to get out. Some humour (must have ben a catholic congregation).

18 The Spoil of Antwerp 1576 faithfully reported by a true Englishman who was present at the same.
The true Englishman has been identified as the poet George Gascoigne, however there is no way that he could have been an eye witness. Antwerp was a rich town and was sacked by Spanish soldiers who held the rich to ransom and killed and raped the poor. Gascoigne of course condemns the Spanish nobility for losing control of the soldiers and for allowing the ransoms, however he admires the Spanish soldiery in their ability to take the town while heavily outnumbered.

19 A very true report of the apprehension and taking of the arch papist EDMUND CAMPION, the pope his right hand; with three other lewd Jesuit priests, and divers other lay people, most seditious persons of like sort, by George Elliot. 1581
This is a detailed account of the arrest of Campion by the man responsible for making the arrest. It is interesting because Eliot says the reason for going into print were the accusations made against him. It shows that even in Elizabeth’s reign the old catholic religion was still flourishing even if underground. It is obvious that George Eliot was a spy.
Campion and two followers were eventually hung drawn and quartered.

20 The Scottish Queen’s burial 1587
A report of the pageantry and those in attendance at the funeral of Mary Queen of Scots.

21 Three ballads of the Armada fight by Thomas Deloney
first ballad describes the taking of a Spanish galleon near Calais
2nd ballad describes the Queen inspection of troops at Tilbury
3rd ballad details the atrocities that the Spanish would rent on the English population. According to the ballad they had devised special knotted whips to make the English people spill their blood.

Tudor Tracts is free on the internet and for those people wanting to read first hand accounts of life during those times it can hardly be beaten. A five star read



11RidgewayGirl
Jan 2, 2017, 7:48 am

Bear baiting on a boat. That cannot possibly go wrong.

12dchaikin
Jan 2, 2017, 9:05 am

Reading your summaries was geat fun. These almost primary sources seem to provide a unique level of history.

13ursula
Jan 2, 2017, 9:16 am

There's always something interesting going on here, so I'll be following along.

The bear baiting is quite a story. (Particularly when you misread it the first time and think that the bear picked up the book, rather than the keeper.)

14NanaCC
Jan 2, 2017, 10:56 am

Happy New Year! I am along for the ride.

15arubabookwoman
Jan 2, 2017, 7:03 pm

I'm looking forward to following your always interesting reading again this year. Last year I was a lurker, but I hope to comment once in a while this year.

16kidzdoc
Modifié : Jan 3, 2017, 5:13 am

Great summary of the documents contained in Tudor Tracts, Barry. I looked at the Wikipedia entry for bear baiting, and I was astonished to learn that this blood sport is still taking place in South Carolina.

Bear-Baiting Competitions

17tonikat
Jan 3, 2017, 5:04 am

Tudor tracts sounds fascinating, breathing life into history.

18Linda92007
Jan 3, 2017, 11:54 am

>10 baswood: Barry, I am always amazed at the works that you manage to find online. I looked up Tudor Tracts and after sampling from the Introduction and a few of the documents, have surprised myself by deciding to immediately add this to my reading! Not my usual leanings, but fascinating stuff!

I'm also happy to see that you are continuing with Doris Lessing this year. The Grass Is Singing is one of my all time favorites, so I don't know why I am dragging my feet in getting to some of her other works.

19AnnieMod
Jan 3, 2017, 11:56 am

The Tudor Tracts are an amazing source of information :) Nice review (and I probably should get around and look at them again)... Pollard is a bit out of fashion these days but he had done a lot of great work and any of the current batch of historians need to thank him for it.

20PaulCranswick
Jan 5, 2017, 8:44 am

21 years of marriage to my grouchy grizzly has taught me all about bear baiting!

Fascinating thread Barry. I can see that I will enjoy myself over here in 2017.

21mabith
Jan 5, 2017, 9:48 am

The Tudor Tracts sound fascinating, and an interesting start to the year.

22SassyLassy
Jan 5, 2017, 8:06 pm

First book bullet of the year in what looks to be a year laden with them. Happy Reading.

23baswood
Jan 8, 2017, 11:07 am

24baswood
Jan 8, 2017, 11:52 am

The Spider and the Fly, John Heywood 1497 - 1580
Heywood was a survivor, a practising catholic who managed to retain the patronage of Both Henry VIII and Edward VI, coming into his own when catholic Queen Mary enjoyed her brief and bloody reign. He fled to the continent when Elizabeth I came to the throne. He was employed by Henry VIII as a court musician, first as a boy singer and later as a virginal player, composer and director of plays and revels. His wit and ability to be curry favour saw him just about keep his head on his shoulders. He was arrested and spent some time in prison on charges of treason. He was also one of the talented band of early Tudor playwrights although his surviving works tend to be dialogues rather than drama. His major claim to fame was as a writer of epigrams, some of which are still recognisable today today:

• What you have, hold.
• Haste maketh waste. (1546)
• Out of sight out of mind. (1542)
• When the sun shineth, make hay. (1546)
• Look ere ye leap. (1546)
• Two heads are better than one. (1546)
• Love me, love my dog. (1546)
• Beggars should be no choosers. (1546)
• All is well that ends well. (1546)
• The fat is in the fire. (1546)
• I know on which side my bread is buttered. (1546)
• One good turn asketh another. (1546)
• A penny for your thought. (1546)
• Rome was not built in one day. (1546)
• Better late than never. (1546)
• An ill wind that bloweth no man to good. (1546)
• The more the merrier. (1546)
• You cannot see the wood for the trees. (1546)
• This hitteth the nail on the head. (1546)


I was therefore interested to read his magnum opus The Spider and the Fly: published in 1556 and now relatively obscure. There are reasons enough for some works to remain in obscurity and this case it is because this 400 page poem will test even the most interested reader. I gave up at page 300.

The idea is interesting enough; A reader sitting by the window notices a fly falling into a web and becoming trapped, the spider advances and the reader imagines a conversation between the two. The initial pleas from the fly for mercy are followed by pleas as in a court of law for justice. The spider gets caught up in the arguments which after an awful amount of tautology lead nowhere. Arbitrators are called in an ant represents the spider and a crude speaking butterfly the fly. The ant is captured by a fly army and threatened with hanging, an all out war follows between an enormous fly army and a smaller group of spiders. There are casualties on both sides and the leaders sue for peace. The original argument between the spider and the fly takes centre stage, which the fly looses and prepares himself for death. At the last moment a maid comes into the room and sweeps the cobweb away.

There is no doubt that this is an allegorical poem and it is thought that it refers to the war between the protestants and catholics. More pointedly the spider is supposed to be the Protestant Archbishop Cranmer and the maid Queen Mary. The poem was published in the last year of Queen Mary’s reign.

The poem with its lack of forward movement, it repetition, and its arcane legal arguments is difficult to read even with modern spelling. The allegory does not really pinpoint its target, with the battle at the centre of the poem relating to just about any war or conflict. The language only briefly flickers into life. It was not a success at the time and deserves its obscurity. The best thing about the poem is the full page etchings of some of the action. An early example of an author overreaching and so two stars from me.

25DieFledermaus
Jan 10, 2017, 4:26 am

Interesting choices to start off the year even though it sounds like The Spider and the Fly is a dud.

Did you have any concrete plans for Gothic novels/ghost stories? I was thinking about doing a similar project and was considering various options.

26baswood
Modifié : Jan 10, 2017, 6:18 am

>25 DieFledermaus:

Probably not so many gothic novels on my "to read" list which is as follows:

1727 Samuel Brunt - A voyage to Cacklogallinia (gutenberg)

1727 Murtagh McDermott - A trip to the moon

1751 Robert Paltock - The life and adventures of Peter Wilkins (archive org)

1753 Voltaire - Micromegas (gutenberg)

1751 Ralph Morris - The life and astonishing adventures of John Daniel ?

1771 Louis-Sebastien Mercier - Memoirs of the year 2 thousand five hundred (archive org)

1781 Restif de la Bretonne - Discovery by a flying man (English translation ?)

1803 Erasmus Darwin - The temple of nature (Gutenberg)

1805 Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville - The last man (complete English translation?)

Victorian

John Francis Bray - A voyage from Utopia 1841 (Amazon fr)

Edward Bulwey Lytton - Zanoni a rosicrucian tale 1842 (Gutenberg)

Nathaniel Hawthorne - Mosses from an old Manse 1846 (Gutenberg) (a short story collection and Birthmark, Rappaccini’s Daughter and The Art of the Beautiful are proto SF

Charles Rowcroft - The Triumph of women - A christmas story (free at archive org)

Elbert Perce - Gulliver Joi 1851 (free at archive org)

George McDonald - Phantastes 1858 (free at wikisource)

Fitz-james O’Brien - The Diamond Lens 1858 (gutenberg)

Jules Verne 1862 - need modern translations of his best novels (see Science Fiction encyclopedia)

27baswood
Jan 10, 2017, 6:24 am

28baswood
Modifié : Jan 10, 2017, 6:44 am

A Voyage to Cacklogallinia with a description of the religion, policy, customs and manners of that Country by Captain Samuel Brunt.

Published in 1727 by an unknown author under the pseudonym of Captain Samuel Brunt. This proto science fiction novel in my opinion has claims to be the first book of its type to have that all important sense of wonder, which is an essential element to most books of that genre. The book builds on a few earlier attempts at fantasy writing, but in its final section that tells of a trip to the moon it has one of those killer ideas that rockets the book up to another level.

Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift was published a year earlier in 1726 and was widely read. Speculation was rife at the time that The voyage to Cacklogallinia was also written by Swift, but this is not thought to be the case today. The larger second section of Brunt’s tale describing the politics and society of Cacklogallinia with its pointed satire does seem like a more racy version of Swifts book. It is certainly easier reading.

The book starts out as a pirate adventure story written in the first person, but after the second shipwreck our hero finds himself in an undiscovered land. Cacklogallinia is ruled by a race of large hens, whose civilisation mirrors that which would have been current in much of Europe in the 18th century. However the greed and corruption that was apparent in politics and society of that era is endemic in Cacklogallinia. Brunt’s description of the policy customs and manners of the society is a satire on England, bringing into play the reckless capitalism that fuelled the South Sea Bubble in the 1720’s

“When I have seen the Fowl of Honour thrust out to make Place for a Sycophant, Court paid to Pandars and lewd Hens, and no Posts disposed of, but thro' the Interest of Lust; how often, Britain, have I congratulated thy Happiness, where Virtue is rewarded, Vice discountenanc'd and punish'd; where the Man of Merit is provided for, and not oblig'd to pay a Levee to the kept Mistress of a Statesman; and where the Ignorant, Pusillanimous, and Vicious, however distinguish'd by Birth and Fortune, are held in Contempt, and never admitted to publick Employment!”

Captain Brunt is seen as an object of wonder in Cacklogallinia as there are no humans in the land, and soon finds himself as one of the sycophants around the Emperor in his court. The satire is obvious and it strikes at two key areas of corruption: the system of patronage that allows for everything to have its price and the granting of sexual favours for advancement. The second of these is most surprising with Brunt describing how he often found himself locked in a room with a hen/wife of a man seeking favours at court.

The need for more gold to fuel the economy precipitates a trip to the moon, where there are rumours of mountains made of gold. Brunt is chosen to go on the expedition, which is publicised as an opportunity to buy shares in the expedition. A period of adjustment on one of the earths highest mountains in Cacklogallinia is fervently reported in the press and fuels speculation in the enterprise. Brunt and his team must get used to thin atmosphere and conditions of intense cold for their flight to the moon. Knowledge of science especially in cosmology has moved on since Francis Godwin’s The Man in the Moone written a hundred years earlier and that is reflected in the preparations for the flight. The actual method of transportation however is quite similar with powerful flying hens providing the thrust to leave the earths atmosphere. Rumours of success and then failures in the preparation send share prices soaring and then falling in a tailspin, those in the know at court make their fortunes. Meanwhile Brunt and his team succeed in leaving the earths atmosphere and after a months journey enter into the moon’s atmosphere. They narrowly avoid burning up and land on a planet that looks like paradise.

Exploration of the moon is told in best fantasy tradition with wonders and surprises round every corner. Fantastic buildings are seen and then human figures from history appear to menace the party: they are revealed as phantoms or shades and the explanation is provided by one of the venerable moon men. They are the souls of earth people still fighting for their salvation. Brunt cannot stay on the moon, as harm will come to him and his party, they are not yet ready for this stage of the journey of their souls. Brunt tricks his fellow Cacklogallinians in retuning him to the part of the earth that he knows.

A novel that combines a pirate adventure, a satire on 18th century Britain through discovery of an unknown civilisation and then a greed fuelled expedition to the moon is told in a style that is easy to read. The author does not get bogged down and keeps the pages turning. The final section describing the expedition to the moon provides a suitable climax to the story. A four star read in the proto science fiction genre and free on the internet.

29dchaikin
Jan 10, 2017, 8:09 am

>24 baswood: too bad about the poem, but fascinated by the epigrams and their source. (i'll come back to read about Brunt)

30AnnieMod
Jan 10, 2017, 12:52 pm

>26 baswood: You had to go and post that, didn't you? :)

31valkyrdeath
Jan 10, 2017, 6:14 pm

>28 baswood: That sounds like a fun read. I've never come across that book before. I love learning about these early science fantasy works.

32baswood
Modifié : Jan 13, 2017, 4:42 am

33baswood
Modifié : Jan 13, 2017, 4:44 am

The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire by Doris Lessing.
The fifth and final book in Lessing’s Canopus in Argos science fiction series. There is no central plot or story line linking the novels, although the universe building that started with Shikasta continues. The Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire reads just like another book in the series and one wonders why Lessing bothered. It reads like the author herself was tiring in her efforts to keep this series afloat, perhaps she was obstinately ploughing ahead with her less than critically acclaimed series out of sheer obstinacy.

This like the previous novels consist of a series of reports from agents of Canopus on their work in nurturing the known universe. The Volyen empire consisting of a planet and two moons and a couple of satellite planets is in decline. Agent Klorathy is reporting to Johor on his efforts to bring the empire closer to the benevolent control of Canopus, but is up against agents from other Empire builders. The powerful Sirian empire which is also in decline and the evil Shammat (polar opposite of Canopus) are also active. Klorathy is also nurturing Incent a prodigy of his who is having particular difficulties.

The overriding theme of this novel is the power of rhetoric. Spies, agents and demagogues are all pitching for the hearts and minds of the populations in the Volyen empire. Incent is either afire with his own rhetoric or is in a depressive state and Klorathy has to make decisions on his mental health. As in previous novels in the series and perhaps even more so here, this is a novel of ideas: Lessing keeps her characters at arms length, the reader is not encouraged to feel any empathy for their situations. It is all just a series of reports.

The sense of wonder and a delight in story telling that was a feature of the first thee novels in this series has escaped Lessing in the final two and so I rate this as 2.5 stars.

34dchaikin
Jan 14, 2017, 12:03 am

Hmm. That one won't go on the list. Admiring your Lessing completionist persistence, though.

35baswood
Jan 18, 2017, 9:40 am

Edward VI: The Lost King of England by Chris Skidmore.
A well written history book aimed at the more general reader. Edward VI came to the throne after the death of his father Henry VIII in 1547, he was nine years old at the time and he died when he was 15. Skidmore makes a case for him having some influence on the government of England, in spite of the fact that the country was run by a Council of nobles largely under the influence of the Duke of Somerset (Edward Seymour) and later the Duke of Northumberland (John Dudley.)

Skidmore case rests largely on Edwards education and his academic abilities which were well recorded at the time. The young King kept a diary, but there is little here that points to him having much influence and just when he was approaching his age of consent he became terminally ill. (he died well over two years away from gaining real power). The History is really about the rival factions at court in an age when religion was almost as important as nobility of birth. The reformers (protestants) held the upper hand and were intent on securing the throne and so the country, but they were opposed by other factions and those out for personal gain. It was a time when monastery and church lands were up for grabs and families could and did take every opportunity to enrich themselves. Skidmore’s focus on the boy king does not get in the way of the history telling although opportunities are missed in analysing motives and wider social issues.

Skidmore’s book fills in the gap as to what was happening between the reigns of Henry VIII and ‘bloody” Mary I st. It paints a lively picture of a country in danger of being torn apart through infighting amongst those nearest to the throne. Edward VI although king in name looked on much of this from the sidelines. He was largely a pawn in a battle for power, although being a kings pawn he was the figurehead of that battle.

Whoever wrote the blurb on the dust jacket had not read the book, because there are two glaring errors of fact and interpretation. It says that Skidmore reveals how the countryside rebellions were orchestrated by the plotters at court - no he didn’t and no they were not. It goes on to claim that Edwards reign is equally as important as those of Henry VIII and Elizabeth 1st - of course it wasn’t. Dust jacket blurbs like this do an intelligently written history no favours at all.

The book has notes, a bibliography and an index. It also contains potted biographies of many of the leading courtiers, giving both their titles and their family names. This is most useful because Dukedoms and Earldoms frequently passed from one family to another and so the reader needs to be aware of the family name to that he can navigate through the influence, wealth and religious persuasions of the characters. A four star read.

36mabith
Jan 18, 2017, 7:55 pm

That's very frustrating about the inaccurate cover blurbs. I wonder if it was intentional in order to draw readers already familiar with the history who might otherwise skip the book.

37AnnieMod
Jan 18, 2017, 8:23 pm

>35 baswood:

Good review. As for the dusk jacket's blurbs - if they are not spoiling the end of a story on fiction and do not contain nonsense on non-fiction, I am throwing a party these days..,

38Oandthegang
Jan 21, 2017, 7:26 pm

At one stage I had a set of nice old books called something like The Tudors In Translation. I took them to a book dealer but he said there was no market for them as nobody read that kind of thing anymore, so I gave them to Oxfam. Reading your excellent thread I wish I still had them so I could give them to you.

Loved the catastrophe with the bear baiting. Sounded like something out of Shardlake.

Don't know if you picked up any of the discussion about a possible apology to Catholics from the Archbishop of Canterbury, which on Radio 4 led quickly into a who was burning whom discussion.

39auntmarge64
Jan 21, 2017, 7:41 pm

>33 baswood: - A couple of years ago I reassembled this series because I enjoyed it so much years ago. And, I like epistolary fiction. So far I've managed only Shikasta, but boy has that stuck in my mind all this election season, as I watched people I've long considered intelligent and decent align their thinking with someone who seems to be the candidate of the agents of the Shammat Empire. These agents' prowess at charming people towards evil and disorder rang such a bell. How I've wished I knew someone else in my life who'd read Shikasta so they'd know what I mean.

40baswood
Jan 25, 2017, 12:24 pm

>39 auntmarge64: I like the idea of one of the agents of the Shammat Empire. Seriously though, the first three books in Lessing's Canopus in Argos series are excellent, with a very special quality.

41baswood
Modifié : Jan 25, 2017, 12:28 pm

42baswood
Modifié : Jan 25, 2017, 12:30 pm

Hawkwood: Diabolical Englishman by Frances Stonor Saunders.
Writing a biography of a medieval mercenary soldier (1323-1394) is always going to be difficult because of the lack of hard information on the chosen subject. Some biographers might resort to surmising on what could have happened or even inventing stuff from best guesses; Francis Stonor Saunders, does a little of this but on the whole she has chosen to provide the reader with a lively account of events on the continent in which Hawkwood may or may not have been involved.

After the battle of Poitiers 1356, where the French army was routed and the English Nobility returned home with their prize of the King of France, there was a lull in the fighting. Suddenly a large number of soldiers found themselves at a loose end, with no pay and no one to fight for. They had been campaigning for some months and many were loathe to return to rural England. The prize of more booty kept them under arms and they soon formed themselves into mercenary companies for hire. France without it’s king became a particularly lawless country and there was profits to be had, especially as the catholic church was in schism with one of the two Popes based at Avignon. Rich opportunities presented themselves and Hawkwood emerged as one of the leaders of the so called Companies. In 1361 Hawkwood and the White Company crossed into Italy where the warring Italian city states presented the mercenaries with plenty of opportunity.

The Companies were organised on military lines and were for hire by the highest bidder. No national loyalties meant that they could cross and double cross their employers as they saw fit. They became so powerful that the only method of securing a cities safety was to either buy them off or hire another company to fight them off. Hawkwood like the leaders of other companies was ruthless in the extreme. His mercenaries lived off the land, murder, rape, and ransom was the order of the day and many villages and towns were laid to waste. Crops and houses were burned and castles and strongholds were besieged. Historical records of contracts made and ransoms paid enable historians to follow the progress of men like Hawkwood, but details of their characters and motives (apart from their need for money) remain elusive and much of what we know about them comes from their reputations.

Francis Stonor Saunders wisely does far more than present just an historical record of Hawkwood’s exploits, she attempts to place the Companies themselves within the context of life in Italy and France during that time. In an excellent introductory chapter titled the fourteenth century she paints a lively picture of life and death in that turbulent time. Drawing on the work of historians Barbara Tuchman and Johan Huizinga she tells of the horrors of war and rapine that were a fact of life for many people, but she balances this out with the opportunities that were there for people to forge for themselves a better life. Visitations of the Plague had thinned the population, presenting opportunities for the survivors, medieval service to the Lords of the manor were breaking down, city states were emerging where trade and enterprise spoke louder than fealty, or the power of the clergy. In some respects a figure such as Hawkwood may appear as a murderous mercenary leader or as a Knight (but not quite in shinning armour).

It is a difficult task for an author to extract a narrative from the chaos of the Italian city states in the latter part of the fourteenth century, especially when her subject is a man who profited so much from the chaos that he helped to create, but by concentrating on the difficulties of the schismatic Popes and the powerful Visconti family of Milan and the city state of Florence she does present a story that holds together. The closest she gets to her hero is the Hawkwood in later life when he became the captain of the Florentine mercenary army. His marriage to a daughter of the Visconti family allows her to describe: from historical records, the life of a wealthy young wife, whose older warrior husband was busily still trying to maintain his lifestyle through warring.

The book contains much of what might interest the more general reader. There are of course vivid accounts of atrocities, with all their barbarity, of battles, of bravery and cowardice as well as Hawkwood’s abilities to keep himself alive and on top of his game, but this is offset by a more rounded portrayal of 14th century life. Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales has all of this life in abundance and surely it is not a coincidence that in his role as soldier diplomat in his younger years he would have negotiated with Sir John Hawkwood. Francis Stonor Saunders points out that some critics believe that Chaucer’s Knight ( one of the characters on the Pilgrimage to Canterbury) is partly based on Hawkwood.

I have read widely of the history and literature from the fourteenth century, but I am still pleased to have read Francis Stonor Saunder’s Hawkwood. It paints a vivid and lively picture of many aspects of that time and while it does not really serve as an introduction to the period it enhances much of what has been written and would hold the interest of the more general reader. There are source notes a bibliography and an index and for me it was four star read.

43dchaikin
Jan 25, 2017, 6:51 pm

Enjoyed your two recent history reviews.

44wandering_star
Jan 25, 2017, 7:52 pm

That sounds extremely interesting! I have read some fictional stuff which covers similar ground (Bernard Cornwell) but I would love to know more about the situation at the time.

45edwinbcn
Jan 25, 2017, 8:15 pm

Interesting books about the Middle Ages.

46baswood
Jan 27, 2017, 6:22 pm

Beasts and Super-Beasts - Saki
Saki was the pen name for H H Munro and this is a collection of his short stories published in 1914 a couple of years before his death in 1916. They are short, amusing and occasionally laugh out loud funny, obviously some are better than others but their are very few without interest.

Most satirise the upper echelons of Edwardian society, but the human condition being what it is, some of the satire can be appreciated today. One of the stories is entitled Story Teller and I would say that Tall Story Teller would be a title that could describe much of what goes on. “The Lull” is typical: a precocious teenager successfully stops an electioneering politician who is staying at their house for the night from overworking on the eve of the election; she brings a piglet and a hen to his room and informs him that the house is surrounded by flood waters and his is the only room where these animals will be safe, the animals lead him a merry dance all night long and it is only when he peers out of his window in the morning that he discovers no signs of a flood. Some of the tales are a little macabre and in “The Lull” the young girl cannot resist in telling the politician that one of the maids is distraught at seeing her dead boyfriend circling in the flood waters round the house.

There is little social commentary in the stories; the main characters have servants who know their place, however in The Byzantium Omlette the lady of the house must cope with a servants strike: the master of the house gets stuck in his portable Turkish Bath when the strike happens, not being able to figure out how to extricate himself. Beasts and Superbeasts suggest animals and they do feature in about half of the stories, but it is the humans who are the stars. The Brogue is typical: a lady manages to hoodwink a rich newcomer to the village into buying a horse (the Brogue) who though amiable in appearance gets spooked by almost anything, her daughter falls in love with the rich newcomer who is considered quite a catch and so the family are left with the problem of how to buy/get back the dangerous Brogue.

I found most of theses gentle satires, sometimes with a hint of a ghost story, but almost always about people trying to pull the wool over other peoples eyes quite a delight. Locked in a time warp of Edwardian England they maybe, but they made me smile and so 3.5 stars

47SassyLassy
Jan 28, 2017, 4:46 pm

I do enjoy Saki and you have reminded me I should go back and read some more of his stories over the winter. These ones sound like fun.

48valkyrdeath
Jan 28, 2017, 6:21 pm

>46 baswood: I just bought a complete Saki collection recently but have yet to read any. I bought it after enjoying a TV adaptation of The Schartz-Metterklume Method from Alfred Hitchcock Presents. From your review, it sounds like I've got something fun to look forward to.

49auntmarge64
Jan 29, 2017, 8:08 pm

>46 baswood: I have a his complete works on Kindle, bought primarily so I could reread "Sredni Vashtar". It's such a strange and memorable little horror story. I'm sure I read more of his years ago, but that's the one that sticks in my mind.

50Oandthegang
Jan 30, 2017, 6:43 pm

>42 baswood: I've not yet opened the covers of Conan Doyle's The White Company, though there is a copy somewhere around the house. lf I'm ever to read it I will need to do so before reading Hawkwood as it looks like Hawkwood would leave it holed below the waterline.

>46 baswood: Does this include the excellent story about the talking cat (can't remember the title)? Like Sassy, I've been inspired by your review to go and find my Saki anthologies, to reread old favourites and get round to reading the rest.

51baswood
Jan 30, 2017, 7:05 pm

>50 Oandthegang: no talking cat, but there is a story called 'The Philanthropist and the Happy cat"

52RidgewayGirl
Jan 30, 2017, 7:46 pm

Oh, it's been years and years since I've read any Saki. Thanks for reminding me of him.

53baswood
Modifié : Fév 4, 2017, 11:06 am

54baswood
Modifié : Fév 4, 2017, 11:07 am

The Mirror for Magistrates, by William Baldwin et all edited by Lily B campbell

“note wel the cause of my decay and fall,
And make a mirrour for Magistrates all.”


A mirror for magistrates is a collection of Tudor poems originally edited by William Baldwin. The first collection was printed in 1559 and some of the poetry was written by Baldwin himself. In his introduction he presented the work as a volume of urgent political counsel. Baldwin urges men of government to see themselves not as servants of the crown but as servants of God. He hastily goes on to say that Kings and Queens are appointed by God and must be obeyed, any thoughts of rebellion should be firmly pushed out of mind. Baldwin attempted to get his first collection published during Queen Mary’e reign, but it could not get past political censorship. This was not surprising because the message of the text was: unless the political elite of Mary I’s regime was careful, the Mirror poems warned, good government officers (those who were Protestants especially) would be destroyed by the state in the same spirit as the medieval politicians as represented in the poems.) They had to wait for Queen Elizabeth to first see the light of day. The collection was a big success and in 1563 a further eight tragedies were added to the collection. Following this there were a number of reprints with further addition and after Baldwins death, when other editors took on the role of commissioning and writing more poems.

Twentieth century critics have been unkind to the Mirror for Magistrates: C S Lewis labelled it as a typical production of a drab age and others have decried its limitations pointing to a grinding out of the poetry in the form of Rhyme Royal (Stanzas of seven lines, in iambic pentameter, rhyming ababbcc). In fact Lewis criticised it for not even being able to keep to the Rhyme Royal form. I can only think that these critics were reading later versions of the Mirror, because the original versions collected by Wlliam Baldwin contain some striking poetry: some of the best of the period. The criticism is also unfair because the poetry was written by different authors and so the quality especially as regards to the form is not consistent. The men who wrote the poems were skilled writers of their time and were adroit enough to keep their heads on their shoulders; this is not the work of a bunch of hacks. The contributions by Thomas Sackville: his induction and the Complaint of Henry Duke of Buckingham have been recognised as worthy to be included in some poetry collections, probably because he was the most adept at writing poetry in the formal way, however in my opinion there is much here that is just as good. (Baldwin himself points out that the unevenness of some of the poetry is quite deliberate)

The poems (or tragedy’s) mostly take a similar form; a ghost of the chosen subject, usually the victim, while looking into a mirror addresses Baldwin; he/she explains what happened, sometimes the subject itself comments on the reasons for his demise or can draw a moral from his story, sometimes it is Baldwin who draws it all together, but in the best of the poems it is left to the reader to make a judgement. Tragedy no 28 is an example of a female subject and the title of the poem gives us the necessary information: “How Dame Elianor Cobham Duchesse of Glocester for Practicing Witchcraft and Sorcery, Suffered Open Penance, and after was Banished from the Realm into the Isle of Man”. In the poem the Duchesse of Glocester admits to having too much pride and says she dabbled in astrology, hiring various seers to predict her future (she had more than half an eye on becoming queen), but says: “for lawyers turned our offence to treason”. After death she is still very angry particularly because of the defamation she has suffered:

“A song was made in manner of a laye
Which old wives sing of me unto this day.”


She goes on to castigate Cardinal Beaufort for his lying, scheming part in her downfall and wants to see hell hounds harrie him to hell.

Between each of the poems Baldwin adds some prose explaining or amplifying the message of the previous poem, in the case of the Duchesse of Glocester he wonders if she goes beyond the bounds of female modesty in her hatred.

Another poem that is certainly worth a look is Thomas Churchyard’s “Shores Wife” or to give it its full title “How Shores Wife, Edward IV’s Concubine, was by King Richard Despoyled of All Her Goods and Forced To Do Open Penance” In the poem she has a number of memorable stanzas:

“Ye Princes all, and Rulers everychone,
In punyshment beware of hatreds yre.
Before ye skourge, take hede, looke well thereon:
In wrathes yl wil yf malice kyndle fyre
Your hartes wil bourne in such a hot desire,
That in those flames the smoake shal dym your sight,
Ye shal forget to joyne your justice ryght.”


She is given a sympathetic hearing and issues relating to force of circumstances making it so difficult for women to make their way in the world are stressed. Refreshingly the poems bear little evidence of misogyny

The Mirror then was an important pioneer work in literature because it transferred to the poet the accepted task of the historian. Much of the history deals with incidents from the Wars of the Roses, where there is much to be learned for present and future rulers. The morals and history taught is orthodox Tudor doctrine and so Richard III comes in for a thorough derogation: a real villain of the piece. I found it useful to read a potted history of the events before tackling the poems, so that I would have a good clue as to the story they would be telling.

The poems vary in length but most of them are over 200 lines with many being between 600-800 lines. There are 34 poems with prose passages in between, but I hardly ever found my interest flagging. I read an edition from original texts by Lily B Campbell. Spelling has not been modernised, but I found little difficulty in making sense of it: there are notes and alternative versions, together with a series of appendices. Campbells introduction takes the reader through the printing history of the Mirror and gives pointers to a better understanding of the texts. This is a five star read for anyone interested in Tudor poetry or in late medieval politics.

55ipsoivan
Fév 5, 2017, 10:52 am

I'll keep an eye out for this. Thanks for the review.

56FlorenceArt
Fév 5, 2017, 2:55 pm

Fascinating stuff! But I think I'll content myself with your review.

57Oandthegang
Fév 12, 2017, 1:53 pm

>51 baswood: The story I was thinking of is Tobermory, from the 1911 Chronicles Of Clovis, about the unforeseen consequences of teaching a cat to speak.

58baswood
Modifié : Fév 14, 2017, 6:25 am



Pebble in the Sky - Isaac Asimov
Science fiction novel from the 50’s, in fact from 1950 and a good one. Reading some science fiction from this era can feel a bit like wading through sexist, racist even misogynist, viewpoints with cheap and nasty gung-ho nationalism thrown in for good measure, but you are relatively safe from all this with Asimov: in fact Pebble in the Sky has some important things to say about racial prejudice.

The story has an unlikely premise to start with: a sixty two year old man (Schwartz) is walking past a building where a scientist is messing around with crude uranium, there is some sort of reaction and Schwartz is transported far into the future. He is still on earth which is now part of the galactic empire, but everyone seems to hate the earthlings and they in their turn hate all outsiders. Revolution is in the air and Schwartz is used as a guinea pig for a new procedure which can increase brain power exponentially. Schwarz survives the synapsifier and Asimov spends a couple of pages explaining how it might work. A leading demagogue is stirring things up and Schwartz and his new friends find themselves locked in a battle to save the Empire.

Asimov’s characters main function is to move the plot along and they do this well enough in this novel. There are themes about who can and can’t be trusted, how a planet and its people can be ostracised to such an extent that they want to bring everything else crashing down, a love story where racial divides have to be crossed, colonialism, subject races and the need for understanding. There is very little world building and Asimov does not go out of his way to create any atmosphere, however the story is a good one and there are moments of tension and some surprise plot twists. Asimov tries to explain some of the science in simple terms and there is a couple of pages devoted to a chess match. An enjoyable science fiction novel from the 1950’s and so 3.5 stars.

59baswood
Fév 12, 2017, 6:20 pm



Flamenco

Manuel Agujetas - Rey del Canto Gitano - 4.5 stars
Manuel Agujetas - Cantaor - 3.5 stars
Carmen Linares - Antologia (anthology of women flamenco singing) - 5 stars.


Living in the South of France means that there is usually an opportunity to watch and listen to Flamenco groups from across the border in Spain. The two artists I have been listening to recently are representative of two different aspects of flamenco music. Manuel Agujetas is a Gypsy Flamenco singer, self taught although his father was a flamenco singer. His style of flamenco has given rise to people labelling it as shouting and moaning rather than singing, but what it may lack in technique it gains in passion, which is an essential part of the flamenco tradition. Carmen Linares is a master of the Cante Jondo the deepest and most serious form of Flamenco music, She herself is noted for new ways in expressing the sounds of the flamenco tradition.

Manuel Agujetas - Rey del Canto Gitano.
Manuel Agujetas died in 2015 and was something of an eccentric; although revered as a flamenco artist he lived a simple life. His set of metal teeth would flash in the lights during a song giving an added spark to his passionate performances. Thirteen cantas (songs) are taken from three nights performance at the Cava del Agujetas in December 2008. He is accompanied by the guitarist Curro de Jerez and both men play and sing in the Jerez style. The recording is very good indeed capturing perfectly the guitar playing of Curro and the vocalising of Agujetas. They appear to be a single unit as they dovetail their playing and singing, the small audience claps appreciatively but only after each song is finished, but they can’t resist giving verbal encouragement, when the passion of the performance is turned up a notch. Agujetas and Curro play a selection of Bulerias (fast flamenco rhythm over 12 beats) Siguiriyas (similar but in a slower deeper expressive style ) or Fandangos (lively dance music in triple meter). Agujetas usually starts each song with vocal sounds that don’t quite translate into words, but then builds up the song by a selection of phrases that usually work themselves up into a climax, his voice can sound chocked one minute and then clear the next as he goes through the gamut of his performance, always striving to impart that extra bit of passion. Much of this music sounds improvised as the two men listen and play off each other. I have not heard a better example of Agujetas’ music.

Amazing performance by Agujetas on youtube https://youtu.be/Hqag90G27HU

Manuel Agujetas - Cantaor
Some of these songs are taken from another live performance with a more vocal audience. I don’t have any details of when or where, but they may have been culled from various concerts and some of the tracks are studio recordings. One track features him singing just to the accompaniment of sounds from a Blacksmiths shop (his father was a Blacksmith) and you probably need to be a real devotee of vocal flamenco music to appreciate this track. There are some good tracks especially a couple of siguiriyas and the recoding quality is generally good.

Carmen Linares - Antologia
A double CD package and there is not a bad track in the whole selection. An artist must be really sure of her own worth to even attempt to re-create songs by famous women singers of the past. There are several songs by Nina de los Peines, some by Perla de Cadiz, others by Maria la Morena and Nina de la Alfalfa and Linares sings them all superbly. She has an excellent vocal range; sumptuous low notes for the slower songs, but she can also go up the scales in the faster songs. When Flamenco singers go up or down the scales they usually do this in micro tones especially when the singing is melismatic (changing the note/pitch of a single syllable of the text of a song) sometimes several times. She is accompanied on guitar by a virtual whose who of contemporary flamenco music and this helps to create an individual identity for many of these twenty severn tracks. They are all studio recordings with selected musicians on guitar, handclaps and sometimes cajon. There is excitement, there is passion and tremendous sadness in many of these performances, along with superb musicianship.

On youtube https://youtu.be/wiLm2SHIi5Y?list=PLG7R3e6dwr15Y5PS3v7f6g_ykjVv8RW6o

60baswood
Modifié : Fév 14, 2017, 6:33 am

61baswood
Modifié : Fév 14, 2017, 6:34 am

Dracula’s Guest and Other Weird Tales by Bram Stoker.
Published in 1914 two years after Stoker’s death this collection of short stories are masterful tales of horror and the supernatural. Readers may well be familiar with some of the stories which have been plagiarised over the years, but reading the original versions in this collection will open some eyes to the quality of Stoker’s writing. He had the ability to create an atmosphere of dark, dense danger that his characters are unable to see for themselves. A dreadful happening seems to be lurking just around the corner and yet when it does there is no feeling of it being forced: we see it coming and are not disappointed. There are nine stories in this collection, five of which are first class examples of late gothic horror.

‘Dracula’s Guest’ opens the collection and it is a concise tableau of the Dracula legend. Like many of the stories it is written in the first person; in this case a young Englishman who is exploring the countryside around Munich in the company of his German guide and in their carriage and four horses. They come to a cross roads; it is Walpurgis Nacht, but the Englishman is keen to follow the road down into a valley. The horses are already disturbed, the guide looses most of his English in a frantic attempt to persuade the Englishman that this is a very bad idea. He will not go down the road under any circumstances and the stand off is only resolved by the Englishman getting down from the carriage and walking down the road on foot.

“With a despairing gesture, Johann turned his horses towards Munich. I leaned on my stick and looked after him. He went slowly along the road for a while then there came over the crest of the hill a man tall and thin. I could see so much in the distance. When he drew near the horses, they began to jump and kick about, then to scream with terror. Johann could not hold them in; they bolted down the road, running away madly. I watched them out of sight, then looked for the stranger and found that, he too, was gone.

With a light heart I turned down the side road through the deepening valley………………..”


The intrepid but foolish Englishman is soon in a horror story all of his own involving; a wolf who is not a wolf, a stake driven through the marble of the top of a tomb and a tornado like storm and it soon gets worse. A classic horror tale with a surprising twist at the end.

‘The Judge’s House’ is the second story and it is equally as good as the first. A student studying for his maths exams rents a house in a quiet village to get on with his work. The house (the Judge’s house) has a sinister history, but the villagers keep this to themselves. Alone in the house the student is disturbed by rats that become more confident as the nights pass. He is astonished one night when a rat considerably larger than the others is sitting opposite him across the table staring at him balefully. Stoker builds up the atmosphere and tension as the student battles with the rat who is reluctant to move. A haunted house story that has the expected tragic ending.

‘The Squaw’ follows and is another excellent story involving a cat out for revenge on a human that accidentally killed her only kitten. There is a torture chamber in an old castle and an iron maiden that we know is going to feature.

‘The Secret of Growing Gold’ is another revenge story, a revenge from beyond the gave perhaps. A woman has been murdered by her lover while on holiday in the Alps. Her lover soon replaces her with an ideal wife, but the ravaged figure of the former mistress reappears.

‘The Gipsy Prophecy’ is a neat story of a young couple who are seemingly doomed by the Gipsy Queens prophecy that the husband will be found standing over the prostrate body of his wife with his hands running with blood.

‘The Coming of Abel Behenna' is the story of two young men in a small Cornish coastal village who fall in love with the same girl. The girl’s mother arranges things so that her daughter will profit from delaying her decision to marry, this results in tragic consequences for the men and the tale takes in a shipwreck and a drowning.

‘The Burial of the Rats’ is my favourite story in the collection. Again it is told in the first person by a young man exploring the rag pickers hovels that surround an area of Paris. His curiosity leads him into danger as he goes deeper into the dust heaps where the rag pickers live. He becomes conscious that his diamond ring may be too tempting a prize for the residents of this shanty town and Stoker is able to ratchet up the tension for the readers who feel a growing menace from the young man’s surroundings. The elderly sub-human residents, together with a thriving rat population become more oppressive, until the young man explodes into action in an attempted escape. He is hopelessly lost in the shanty town of dust, but must run for his life and Stoker describes a breathless night time chase in an environment that is increasingly hostile.

‘A dream of Red Hands’ is a story of a man who cannot escape the nightmares from a murder that he committed in his youth. He must pay full retribution for his deeds and Stoker brings this about with a cleverly told tale.

‘Crooked Sands’ rounds out the collection and it ends on a high note. A wealthy London merchant takes his family on holiday to a Scottish seaside town. He kits himself out in full Scottish chieftains dress, much to the amusement of his family. He finds himself ridiculed in the village but his stubborn vanity will not allow him to back down and he takes to walking out alone in the evening on a beach where there is danger of quicksand. One evening he sees a mirror image of himself on the other side of the quicksands and he cannot resist stepping forward.

A very fine collection of horror stories that at their best create real tension and suspense. Stoker’s fine descriptive writing enable him to quickly place the reader inside his story and once inside you will want to read until the sometimes gruesome end. Four stars.


62valkyrdeath
Fév 15, 2017, 6:16 pm

>58 baswood: It's been a few years since I read Pebble in the Sky now, but I remember it being a pretty fun book. His longer works certainly improved over the following few years, but it was impressive enough considering it was his debut novel.

>61 baswood: You've got me rather interested in this one. I've only read Dracula by Stoker, but this sounds like a really good collection. I'm noting it to read at some point.

63Oandthegang
Fév 16, 2017, 5:18 pm

>59 baswood:. Interesting. I love what flamenco I've heard and seen, but it seems such difficult territory to the novice with various factions making assertions about authenticity, etc. Years ago I saw a really interesting documentary series - I think there may have been four programmes - which was wonderful, and I remember principally for people who would normally be regarded as well past dancing age getting up and dancing in wonderfully powerful, graceful, and sexy ways. I've also been to some of the performances at Sadlers Wells, during their annual Flamenco Festival, though inevitably those are decried as mere theatrical flimflam, not authentic. Many many years ago I saw Paco Peña and dance troupe there, and presumably the same applies there. If you've got any suggestions for guidance through this minefield I'd welcome them. It was interesting to note on the links you provided, and the videos that they in turn linked through to, which ones had comments entirely in Spanish and which had almost no Spanish comments.

>60 baswood: Brilliant cover! Sounds like a good collection.

64SassyLassy
Modifié : Fév 16, 2017, 8:01 pm

Ce message a été supprimé par son auteur

65SassyLassy
Fév 16, 2017, 8:00 pm

>63 Oandthegang: And then there is Sally Potter's The Tango Lesson

>61 baswood: My small Dracula collection needs this title.

66baswood
Modifié : Fév 20, 2017, 6:43 am

67baswood
Modifié : Fév 20, 2017, 6:44 am

The Good Terrorist - Doris Lessing
In the mid 1980’s it seemed that Doris Lessing had repudiated the gritty realism of her Children in Violence series to write her science fiction, or space fiction as she called it. She had published ‘Briefing for a Descent into Hell’ in 1971 and then the dystopia of ‘Memoirs of a Survivor’ in 1974 and since that time had written her five Canopus in Argos books. It must have seemed like the return of the classic Lessing when ‘The Good Terrorist’ hit the streets in 1985, because this book has gritty realism by the bucket loads, however Lessing had not abandoned her earlier writing style. In 1983 and 1984 she had written “The Diary of a Good Neighbour” and “If the Old Could…..under the pseudonym of Jane Somers. These two novels (neglected masterpieces IMO) explored the decrepit lives of old working class women struggling to survive in London in the 1970’s. She used the knowledge gained from her researches into social conditions to centre her new novel on the lives of younger people living in squats.

The Good Terrorist (is there such a thing; the title of the book seems deeply ironic) tells the story of a group of squatters who see themselves as young revolutionaries, they are going to tear down the rotten capitalist society and their rhetoric and enthusiasm attracts various people living on the edge of society into their nebulous. One of these is Alice a woman older than the rest, but full to the brim with hate and injustice who has a platonic but nonetheless needful relationship with the younger firebrand Jasper. The core of the group have formed their own political party based on communist groups that were prevalent a couple of decades earlier, again Lessing has inside knowledge of how these groups functioned from her own experiences, working in such groups in Zimbabwe. She combines these two strands of writing experience get inside the group of squatters at number 43, so however dysfunctional the house and the lives of these people may seem to the reader, we are being guided through the mess by Lessing’s sure hand. Alice because of her street credibility is the glue that binds the group together, she sorts out the derelict house, she deals with social services, the housing department and when necessary the police. She gets money from handouts and thieving from her family, but it all seems to hinge on her need to keep Jasper as close as she can.

The young group of revolutionaries at number 43 yearn to to do something for the cause (but of course the cause is nothing that they can define), they go on demonstrations, get themselves arrested and bound over, enjoying the buzz, the adrenaline of being able to openly express their hatred for the society that they want to tear down, but their activities are noticed, vaguely by the police, but more circumspectly by more professional groups, for example the I. R. A. and the KGB. They are being examined for their usefulness, sorted as possible recruits for training programmes. Alice becomes aware of this and Lessing says:

“She simply hadn’t had any idea, before! All over the country were these people - networks, to use comrade Andrew’s word. Kindly skilled people watched, and waited, judging when people (like herself) were ripe, could be really useful. Unsuspected by the petit bourgeoise who were in the thrall of the mental superstructures of fascist-imperialistic Britain, the poor slaves of propaganda, were these watchers, the observers, the people who held all the strings in their hands. In factories, in big industries - where comrade Andrew wanted her, Alice, to work; in the Civil Service, in the BBC, in the big newspapers - everywhere in fact was this network, and even in little unimportant places like these two houses Nos 43 and 45, just ordinary squats and communes. Nothing was too small to be overlooked, everyone with any sort of potential was noticed, observed, treasured….. It gave her a safe comfortable feeling.”

These are the thoughts of Alice when she realises that the Squat next door to hers is more professionally politicised, it soon becomes apparent that explosives and arms are being stored their for very short periods. The paragraph above is a frightening view of the underbelly of Britain at the time, but readers must remember it is Alice’s view, most of us will never know how accurate it is.

The narrative of the novel takes us into the lives of the people at No 43, they are all to some extent damaged, or think they are, by society, by their parents. They are too unstable to be taken seriously by the professionals and they blunder into taking their own action. A criticism of the book has been that Lessing’s characters are unsympathetic, there is really no one that we want to see turn their lives around to get out of the mess that they are in. They are largely selfish, unconfined by thoughts of finer feelings, they do what they want to do with the excuse that it is all everybody else’s fault - people get hurt and no one cares. Why should we care about these people? Well the obvious answer is that we should care because there are many people disaffected by their society just like those at No 43. How much of it is their fault? Lessing lets her readers make their own judgments and Lessing’s portrayal rings true for me. There is no order to their lives and their dysfunctionality (to many of us) is reflected in Lessing’s writing style. It is not always clear why her characters say and do the things that they do and this adds to the realism that the book is so keen to employ.

This is a very good novel, up there with Lessing’s best. Perhaps it is uncomfortable reading for many people, who do not want to see people behaving so unfeelingly, screwed up with an inner hatred that they may feel themselves, only very occasionally. From the moment that Alice moves into the squat at No 43 to find that the toilets have been filled with cement by the Council workers and the new tenants are busily filling up buckets of shit and storing them in upstairs rooms; we know we are in for the gritty realism that Lessing is known for, but in this novel a political realism is also very much part of her world view. An important book and a five star read.

68dchaikin
Fév 20, 2017, 9:13 am

The Good Terrorist sits on my shelf, inherited from my parents neglected shelves. They probably bought it new. I've wondered about it, especially as you have worked your way through Lessing. Great review.

69baswood
Modifié : Fév 23, 2017, 10:31 am

70baswood
Modifié : Fév 23, 2017, 10:32 am

The Great Cat Massacre and other episodes in French Cultural History - Robert Darnton
“We constantly need to be shaken out of a false sense of familiarity with the past, to be administered doses of cultural shock.”
Darnton says that to really appreciate documents and literature from the past we should try and place ourselves in the minds of the people of the time. We should try and view the world through their eyes so that we can have a better understanding of their culture (the way things worked for them).

Darnton has written six essays (and a conclusion) on documents that throw up challenges of cultural understanding for the modern reader. He has chosen a period of French History 1697-1784: the Ancien Régime of a more feudal France, although under attack from the growing class of the bourgeoise and the more scientific ideas of the enlightenment, was still a relatively stable period: the French revolution was just around the corner (starting in 1789). Darnton claims that in some respects the documents chosen reveal an alien mentality, that goes beyond our understanding. As modern readers we need to know the context surrounding the documents and the culture of the times, otherwise we may falsely interpret them and get a twisted view of their meaning. The documents chosen are not necessarily controversial, but Darnton is able to use them to make his points, which he does in an entertaining and informative way. Many of us with modern views on animal welfare; and pet lovers to boot, would be horrified by his second essay: titled The Great Cat Massacre, depicting a ritual slaughter of cats, which of course is exactly the point.

The first essay “Peasants Tell Tales: The Meaning of Mother Goose” compares various folk tales, but here Darnton already finds himself on somewhat dodgy ground, because many of these tales were not written down until much later than when they were in circulation. However by comparing the same tale from different country’s allows the cultural historian to sift out qualities that make them peculiarly French. He is on more solid ground with Workers Revolt: ‘The Great Cat Massacre of Saint-Séverin.’ This is from a document that tells the story of Nicholas Contat a printers apprentice working in appalling conditions in Paris during late 1730’s. The ritualistic killing of cats, by particularly cruel methods was something that happened fairly regularly in many layers of society, but this is not the point of this story for an Eighteenth century French person, who would be much more concerned with a workers revolt. In a ‘Bourgeoise puts his World in Order; The City as Text,’ Darnton takes a description of Montpellier (a large town in South West France) and teases from it those points that make it curious for modern readers. ‘A Police Inspector Sorts His Files’ is an essay about a dossier left by a police inspector, whose job seemed to be to keep records of all known authors/playwrights/pamphleteers during a five year period starting from 1748. What makes the dossier particularly interesting is the police Inspectors personal comments on the authors he was ‘spying on”. The final two essays bring us to the period of the enlightenment. The first of these concerns the new ideas that can be gleaned from a study of Diderot’s Encyclopedie, however It is the second essay ‘Reader respond to Rousseau’ that provides a suitable climax to the book. From a collection of letters written by Jean Ransom: a fan of Jean-Jaques Rousseau he examines a readers response to the celebrated author. Rousseau himself was conscious of how readers should respond to his writing and so he gave them advice on how they should read his work. He wanted to be seen as some sort of divine prophet on the one hand and yet wanted readers also to suspend belief on the other. This essay also provides an insight into early fan worship.

Darnton’s book was published over forty years ago at a time when cultural history was making something of a breakthrough and is now considered an exemplar of the genre. It has as much to say about how we read as it does cultural history and because it is so well written it will be of interest to anyone who reads books for pleasure and/or for information. Valuable lessons perhaps for modern readers, when reading books from an ‘alien culture’; for example those of us who dip into science fiction of the 1950’s and struggle to get past some of the sexism and racism that can be inherent in the genre: an alien culture and it is only 60 years ago. Darnton’s conclusion raises as many questions as possible answers provided when he examines his own methods: our conception of times past is ever changing, but perhaps the cultural historian is better placed with his ability to follow his nose and trust to his sense of smell. You don’t need to know anything about French history to appreciate the ideas thrown up by these essays, you just need to enjoy reading. Great stuff and five stars.

71dukedom_enough
Fév 23, 2017, 10:36 am

>58 baswood:

What I most remember from Pebble in the Sky was that, Earth being a damaged planet where existence was tenuous, citizens were euthanised at age 60 to make room for the young. Just a neat detail when I read the book in my teens, it carries a different weight now that I'm 65!

72SassyLassy
Modifié : Fév 28, 2017, 8:22 am

Ce message a été supprimé par son auteur

73SassyLassy
Modifié : Fév 28, 2017, 8:23 am

I've been considering a reread of this as it was a long time ago that I read it, and now you have convinced me. I also see that for some reason I don't have it in LT. That needs correction.

_______________________
72 above deleted as duplicate

74mabith
Fév 23, 2017, 5:43 pm

Very glad to read your review of The Great Cat Massacre. It's been on my list for a few years and I'll push it forward in the queue now.

75PaulCranswick
Fév 27, 2017, 11:22 pm

>70 baswood: Great review Bas of The Great Cat Massacre. My own three cats (well they belong to my kids really) drive me nuts but I have never considered them fit for a feline genocide.

76janeajones
Mar 1, 2017, 12:27 pm

Great review of the Lessing. I remember reading this when it first came out and seeing the film with, I think, Diane Keaton.

77baswood
Modifié : Mar 4, 2017, 4:27 am

78baswood
Modifié : Mar 4, 2017, 4:19 am

Late Tudor Minor poets
The Poems of Lord Vaux: Books of the Renaissance series edited by Larry P Vonalt
Thomas Vaux, 2nd Baron of Vaux of Harrowdon (April 1509 - October 1556) was a courtier at the time of Henry VIII. He accompanied Cardinal Wolsey on his embassy to France, but privately disapproved of The Kings attempts to divorce from his first wife Catherine of Aragon. He was lieutenant Governer of Jersey in 1536. He made a reappearance at court when the catholic queen Mary 1st came to the throne. Keeping his head down during Henry VIII’s reign probably helped to keep his head on his shoulders. He was a friend of other court poets: Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard Earl of Surrey and some of his poems were collected in a couple of early anthologies.

17 of his poems have been collected by Larry P Vonalt, which are all that can be attributed to him. I think of Lord Vaux as the death bed poet. His best poems seem to have been written at the end of his life when he looks backwards on lessons learnt, they have a moral tone to them and look forward to when he will meet his maker. They are for the most part plain speaking with Lord Vaux giving his readers thoughts from the benefit of his experience. In "His Extreme Sickness is" an example which starts:

“What grieves my bones and makes my body faint ?
What pricks my flesh and tears my head in twain ?
Why do I wake when rest should me attaint ?
When others laugh why do I live in pain?
I toss, I turn, I change from side to side
And stretch me oft in sorrow’s links betied.”


"The aged Lover Renounceth Love":

“The harbinger of death
To me I see him ride;
The cough, the cold, the gasping breath,
Doth bid me to provide.”


My favourite poem is "He Renounceth All The Effects of Love" which has an excellent final rhyming couplet:

“In time, as Phoenix ends her care and carks,
I make the fire and burn myself with sparks.”


He uses alliteration to good effect and his poems have a regular rhyming scheme, some are written in iambic pentameter and most of them read well. This collection of poems has a very short introduction, but presents the poems nicely with modern spelling. The poems are worth a look and are concise, clear and easy to read.

Eclogues, Epitaphs, and Sonnets by Barnaby Googe edited by Edward Arber
Barnaby Googe (1540 - 1594) did not move in the same exalted circles as Lord Vaux, he had connections to the court of Queen Elizabeth rather than being a courtier himself. He seems to have been in the service of William Cecil contracting dysentery on a military expedition to Ireland. Later he was appointed provost-marshall of the court of Connaught, he also served as an MP in London for Aldborough, Yorkshire. His book Eglogs, Epytaphes & Sonettes was published in 1563 and I read a reprint edited by Edward Arber in 1871. This was the first collection of poems published by an English writer under his own name.

Googe is mainly remembered for his eclogs or eclogues of which their are eight in this volume. An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Alexander Barclay was the first English poet to use the form in 1514 and so Googe had a tradition to work from. Barclays poems were based on Virgil’s Eclogues which immediately denote a poem with a pastoral theme. Googe takes us into the world of shepherds, located probably somewhere in Arcadia and they discuss their quiet pastoral existence, sometimes comparing it with the pressures of living in the cities. In the first eclogue Amyntas describes to Daphne the pains of sensual love. Eclogue 3 reflects something of the life and feeling of Tudor England. The evils of the towns are rehearsed along with the decay of feudal customs in the country and the rise of the new aristocracy. Eclogue 4 takes us back to a lovers lament and in this case Damaetas who commits suicide for unrequited love and winds up in hell. Eclogue 5 is a good story told well; Claudia falls in love with Valerius who has been sent by his master to press his suite to the lady - a tragedy all round for all involved. Eclogue 6: Faustus bewails his unrequited passion to his friend Felix, who advises him to find an occupation and to do some sport to take his mind off his love. Eclogue 7 features a women’s retort to two men who accuse the fair sex of fickleness and finally Eclogue 8 describes the idyllic world of shepherds in heaven who have left behind the world of Cupid and Venus.

I have to say that I found little inspiration in the Eclogues, which perhaps are mainly admired for being one of the first of their kind. The epitaphs are a curious set of poems with the Epitaph to Lord Sheffield being a good example. Googe seems more intent on describing the manner of his subjects death, rather than celebrating his life. The poems described as sonettes are not sonnets at all, but a collection of various poems. The book ends with the long Cupido conquered which is an allegorical poem in which the poet falls asleep under a tree in the bucolic sunshine and dreams he is transported to a castle.

The poetry has been left in the original english and so it takes a little practice to read. Some of it is of interest, but really there is little here to hold the modern reader.

The Worthines of Wales a poem by Thomas Churchyard
Thomas Churchyard (1520-1604) was the son of a farmer, who received a good education. He entered the household of Henry Howard Earl of Surrey where he remained for twenty years, no doubt learning something of the art of poetry. In 1541 he began his career as a soldier of fortune and continued this on and off for most of the rest of his long life. He campaigned in Scotland, Flanders, Netherlands Spain and Ireland. He was taken prisoner by the Scots but boasted that he charmed them with his language and writing skills to the extent that he was treated more like an honoured guest, while he waited for a ransom to be paid. He wrote much poetry, history, travelogues and other entertainments, he was employed to provide pageants for Queen Elizabeth, but sometimes his writing got him into trouble and he was forced to go on campaign again.

The Worthines of Wales is a panegyric to Wales and its people, written mainly in verse using iambic pentameter in eight line stanzas. There are some digressions; at one point he castigates other writers for their lack of knowledge, particularly foreigners, he then goes on to claim that stories about Robin Hood were all based on folk lore while tales about King Arthur were not. Much of this seems to be based on the writing of the old historian Geoffrey of Monmouth. Churchyard soon gets back to his main subject a 'walk through' description of towns and castles in Wales. He pays particular attention to the tombs of famous people, sometimes including a little history. For the most part the verse flows by and is interesting because Churchyard is a good observer.

In his introduction and dedication to queen Elizabeth Churchyard says "It is a work in honour of Wales where your highnesses ancestors took name and where your majesty is as much loved and feared as in any place of your highness domain."
He points out he wishes to describe the castles and warns that some of them are falling into decay. He stresses what good subjects the Welsh are. there are no roberries everyone is law abiding and they would go overboard to welcome anyone from Elizabeth’s court. There is much of interest here, but again the transcription that I read contains the original spelling and so a little patience is required.

Churchyard's Misery's of Flanders etc. Calamity of France, Misfortune of Portugal, Unquietnesse of Ireland, Troubles of Scotland and the blessed state of England by Thomas Churchyard:

What Kyngdome maie, compare with wofull Fraunce,
Whose ciuill warrres, did laste God wot too long:
The mightie men, thereby felt greate mischaunce,
The feeble folke, were forest to suffer wrong,
And no estate, was free from scath and •oile,
Suche furie raingde, in rage of peoples mynds,
The weaklyngs went, to ruin, to wracke, and spoile,
As trees be torne, with blast and whirlyng wynds,
Strong goodly tounes, were beaten doune to grounde
Hye walls and towers, were battred flat as Cake,
When trompetts blast, and drum did slaughter sounde,
And bloudie blade, did wicked murther make.
O listen now, and heare my tale a while,
The warrs of Fraunce, so sharpe and cruell weare,
The sonne hymself, the father would begile,
And brother still, of brother stoode in feare,
With poison foule, and murther euery wheare.


The Calamity of France is typical of the poetry on offer here. An anti-war poem written by a poet-soldier who had seen it all. Descriptions of torn countryside and the disease of men who are infected by a lust to kill. The poetic form here is 26 line stanzas with a fairly regular rhyming scheme, much of it is in iambic pentameter.

The Misfortune of Portugal tells of a good and graceful ruler that compared well with the ruinous rulers of France, wanted to do a great deed. He could not sit still and so he decided to fight against the Turks. He set sail with an army, but on landing they were thoroughly beaten and he was killed.
Churchyard likens this to a country that lost the lamp that gave them light
There are some decent metaphors used, but the story telling is a little pedestrian

"God is displeasd, and sure his wrathe is greate,
When Turcks doe scorge, and plage the chrsten kings:
This angrie signe, and fearfull sodaine heate,
Maks wisemen waie, the weight of further things.”


In the unquietness of Ireland Churchyard tells of a poor country that cannot find peace. His time is too short to tell of all its troubles.

To all of this he compares the Blessed state of England with our warring neighbours :

No state nor Kyngdome at this daie,
doeth in suche plentie flowe.
The trau'lar that hath paste the worlde,
and gone through many a lande:
VVhen he comes home, and noets these thyngs,
to heauen holds vp hande:”


These poems are well worth searching out on the internet

Churchyard’s Chips Concerning Scotland Being a Collection of his Pieces Relative to that Country ed by George Chalmers.
This contains a prose piece about the Scottish wars during the reign of Queen Mary. The Siege of Leith in 1560 is a lively piece in verse format concerning the taking of Leith castle (seaport to Edinburgh) by the English. It is in 7 line stanzas with a regular rhyming scheme.

It is The Earle of Morton’s tragedy the final poem that makes delving into these works so worthwhile. The 4th Earle of Morton ruled Scotland as regent to the infant king James VI, however when James VI reached the age of maturity the 4th earl was implicated in the murder of James’ father in 1567 and was executed in 1581. Churchyard starts his poem with an excellent summation of the perils facing a man in Morton’s position and then switches to the first person to allow Morton to tell his story. Morton is allowed to tell how he ruled in a Machiavellian way in order to hold onto power, he makes enemies and when the time comes they seek retribution. He accepts his fate meekly although makes a spirited defence at his trial, which he knows to be a show trial. “I was condemned, the world would have it so”He now looks to God as he prepares himself for death and Churchyard captures this brilliantly saying “ I felt a spark of grace”

“Blush not to see, the raging world despite
The bloody axe, nor scaffolde full of bils
My mercy seat shall be thy chief delight
And though on earth, thine enemies have their wills
I am the God, that storms and tempests still,
In quiet calme, passe gentle thou away,
And suffer much, but do but little say.”


Churchyard is not finished yet as he imagines the severed head of Morton seeing Churchyard in the crowd, it pulses with blood as it recognises that Churchyard will write the poem about his life. The poem ends with an excellent series of stanzas on fate and fortune and how the mighty and good can fall.

Churchyard had earlier in his career wrote arguably the best poem in the anthology collection “A Mirror for magistrates” His “Shores Wife” told a story from the viewpoint of a kings mistress and how she was mistreated, when she lost her place at Court. I think Churchyard has equalled that here with The Earl of Morton’s Tragedy.
A five star poem.

79VivienneR
Mar 4, 2017, 3:32 pm

>67 baswood: Your excellent review of The Good Terrorist by Doris Lessing has put the title on my wishlist. I've always enjoyed Lessing.

>70 baswood: I think I'll take a pass on The Great Cat Massacre even with your five-star review!

80thorold
Mar 8, 2017, 7:26 am

>78 baswood:
Strong goodly tounes, were beaten doune to grounde
Hye walls and towers, were battred flat as Cake,
When trompetts blast, and drum did slaughter sounde,
And bloudie blade, did wicked murther make.


That made me look up "cake" in the OED - it looks as though the 16th century was just about the time when the main meaning was shifting from "flat bread" (as in modern "oatcake", "pancake", etc.) to "fancy bread". For a soldier, it obviously must have meant the flat bread he got in his rations.

I had a look in Shakespeare, but the few cake references there are could go either way (e.g. "your cake is dough on both sides" in Taming of the Shrew).

81baswood
Modifié : Mar 16, 2017, 7:23 pm

82baswood
Modifié : Mar 16, 2017, 7:24 pm

The Paradise of Dainty Devices 1576-1606, edited by Hyder Edward Rollins 1927
A poetry miscellany which proved to be the most popular collection printed during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It was immediately successful and reprinted in each of the subsequent two years and became a trend setter with other collections such as “a Gorgeous gallery of Gallant Inventions” quickly following suit, but nothing equaled the popularity of The Paradise. It was a collection of the minor poets of the day with the big names: Edmond Spenser, Sir Philip Sydney, and George Gascoigne not being represented. There were other omissions George Turberville, Thomas Howell and Nicholas Grimald and although further poems were added with the first few reprints this practice had ceased by 1585 and so it was too early for Shakespeare and Raleigh.
Richard Edwards edited the first editions and contributed the most poems; Lord Vaux, William Hunnis, Jasper Heywood, Edward De Verre and Francis Kindlemarsh made other sizeable contributions.

“Death is the door whereby we draw to joy
Life is a lake, that drowneth all in pain
Death is so dole it seaseth all awaie,
Life is so leude that all it yelds is vaine.
And as by life, in bondage man is brought,
Even so by death is freedom likewise wrought.”


This was a stanza from a poem from a person referred to as D. S. (there are a good number of poems where the only clue to the identity of the poet are initials), but it does highlight the overall melancholy feel of the collection. Ten of the 127 poems has death as it’s main subject, but it is a preoccupation that is prevalent in many others. This should not be such a great surprise as war, disease, and unrest added to a short life expectancy was a major concern of the poets of the time, who came largely from the Court surrounding Elizabeth I or from the academic classes. Ideas associated with courtly love conventions still predominate with 16 of the poems being little more than lovers complaints, there are epitaphs and other poems in praise of great men and many deal with the subject of false friends and lack of trust. There are a handful of religious poems, but nothing from the clergy, although fear of God and fortunes wheel are significant themes.

Many of the poems have a song like quality and would probably have been sung rather than recited, there are references to this scattered among them. However the overall feel that I get from reading through is one of morality, or at least wise/good advice. M Edwards poem “Of perfect wisdom” is a good example it starts with the lines:

“Who so wii be accompted wise, and truly claim the same,
By joining virtue to his deeds, he must achieve the same:”


There are some good poems scattered through this collection and few outstay their welcome. It does also contain a sizeable number of poems by Lord Vaux, whose melancholia fits so well here. This edition contains a wealth of information for scholars who wish to note how the different version or words within the poems have changed, with the different versions that were printed. There are pen pictures of those poets about whom something is known and some educated thoughts on those that remain something of a mystery; who for example is the poet who signed himself “My Luck is Loss”

It is a good collection for those interested in Elizabethan poetry, but there is little here that will entertain the more general reader.

Epitaphes, Epigrams, songs and sonets,
with a discourse of the friendly affections of Tymetes to Pyndara his ladie by George Turberville.
This book newly corrected, with additions and set out by George Turbervile, Gentleman, was printed in 1567 and contains 165 of his poems and epigrams. Reading through the poems today I think he should have been nick named George Turgidville. He is a poet who would never use one line when five lines would do. He was much admired at the time, because he could smooth out the metres, he could make his poems read well. He was a master of many styles and provided a useful blueprint for those that came after him. Originality of thought, ideas or metaphors; he had none, but he demonstrated how poems could look and sound on the page. He wasn’t included in The Paradise collection and that may have been because he had his own collection printed; a rarity at the time.

I failed to enjoy very much of this book and so two stars.

The LIfe and Poems of Nicholas Grimald by L R Merrill
Grimald was another of the Elizabethan poets who was not collected in The Paradise of Dainty Devices, but this may well have been because of him being a persona non grata. There are 44 poems collected here by Merrill, many of which were included in the very first Tottels miscelleny, but subsequently removed. They are mainly on a par with many of the poems included in Tottel, with a couple being quite outstanding.

Merrill claims that Grimald along with Wyatt and Surrey was responsible for the introduction of the fourteen line sonnet: there are three included in this collection.. He was a student of Greek and Latin and used his knowledge of classical versification to render it into the English language. He was also able to encapsulate his ideas into terse sententious expression while making it read well. Perhaps his most important service to poetry was his use of blank verse, there are two good examples here.

“The lover to his dear, of his exceeding love” breaks away from the Courtly Love cliches enabling Grimald to impart some feeling into his poem that is believable:

“Or peeplepestered London lykes thee nought
But pleasant ayr, in quiet countrie sought.”

These are not the rhymes of a Courtier. There is genuine feeling in his poem ‘Of Friendship and even more so in “A funeral song, upon the decease of Annes his mother” The final poem in the collection entitled ‘To the Reder’ is a real gem; Grimald likens the plague to the scourge of the catholic faith, not sparing the reader the horrors of the infection of the plague sufferers

Grimald was appointed chaplain to Nicholas Ridley Bishop of London in 1552 and followed him into prison when Queen Mary I declared war on the heretic protestants. Ridley and his companions were burnt at the stake, but Grimald was set free. Ridley later confirmed that it was likely that he had been betrayed by Grimald who turned apostate to catholicism. Grimald was later despised by his protestant contemporaries.

Merrill’s book contains a lengthy introduction and a life of the poet and playwright. There are also two of his Latin Plays: Christus Redivivus and Archiproheta both in latin with an English prose translation. It was good to be able to read Grimald’s poems and to be able to form an opinion on one of the forgotten Tudor Poets and so a 4 star read.

83Oandthegang
Mar 17, 2017, 2:39 pm

Do you continue the melancholy with likes of Dowland or do you escape it with your jazz?

85baswood
Modifié : Mar 22, 2017, 7:20 pm

86baswood
Modifié : Mar 22, 2017, 7:21 pm

Zanoni: a Rosicrucian tale by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
According to the Fulham Football Club, he (Bulwer-Lytton) once resided in the original Craven Cottage, today the site of their stadium. This was not the reason for reading a novel by Bulwer-Lytton, but of course it should have been. A couple of his novels have appeared on reading lists for Victorian science fiction (or proto science fiction: as in 1842 the genre had not been invented). Bulwer-Lytton was a popular and successful novelist, (he was also a politician and a bit of a cad), Zanoni was not amongst his most popular titles and its uneven mixture of occult, romance, theology and historicism may well have puzzled a few of his readers.

The author is in a bookshop which specialises in the occult, he is interested in the Rosicrucians and befriends a fellow customer who invites him to his home, this new friend dies and leaves the author with a legacy: a book written in strange hieroglyphics which he wants published. The author translates the book and publishes it under the title of Zanoni and so we are reading a book within a book. It is set originally in Naples where a beautiful young opera singer (Viola) is attracting a number of admirers. Glyndon a wealthy young Englshman is one of these, but finds that his path to happiness is alternately helped and hindered by the mysterious Zanoni. There are rumours of Zanoni’s immortality and certainly he has strange powers at his disposal and saves Glyndons life. The story relocates to Rome where Zanoni meets with Mejnour a man of power who lives alone; the time line advances by a few months and we are listening in on a select dinner party in Paris hosted by Condorcet and revolution is in the air.

Glyndon cannot bring himself to propose marriage to Viola (his social position will not allow him to marry a singer) and so Zanoni spirits Viola way, meanwhile he has introduced Glyndon to the master Mejnour to learn the secrets of Rosicrucian power. A large section of the book is devoted to Glyndon’s failed apprenticeship, he is unable to evoke the Guardian of the Threshold and his inability to curb his human desires leads him to be cursed with an evil presence. Meanwhile Zanoni and Viola have a son, but the human relationship has weakened Zanoni’s powers and he realises that he must soon face his own death. Viola is troubled by Zanoni’s preoccupations and worried about her son she leaves him and meets up with Glyndon in Paris at the time of Robespierre’s reign of terror. Here the novel reaches its inevitable conclusion under the blade of the guillotine.

The path to immortality is littered with failure, only Zanoni and Mejnour have been able to sup the elixir of life. It is a power based on knowledge and sacrifice. Zanoni knows the secrets of nature, he has an in depth knowledge of plants and their properties and together with a suppression of his natural desires he is able to seek protection from death through the Guardian of the Threshold. Reading the novel with its ideas of gaining power and immortality through knowledge and sacrifice is a concept that wouldn’t be out of place today and yet the ideas of a Platonic universe with spirits inhabiting the space between the earth and the moon is medieval. The medievalism is backed up by a thread of religion that runs through the book:

“who shall argue with the most stubborn of all bigotries - the fanaticism of unbelief” “To know nature is to know there must be a God” “Knowledge and atheism is incompatible”

The Paris revolutionaries were atheists and so responsible for the reign of blood.

Bulwer-Lytton manages to evoke the mysticism that surrounds Zanoni and the master Mejnour and along the way he philosophises about art, science and religion. He is good at placing his characters in natural or unnatural settings and can convince his readers of the mystery behind the power of the Rosicrucians. I sometimes had to remind myself that I was reading a 19th century novel and yet after a few more pages I found myself immersed in 19th century thoughts. If all this sounds a little like Victorian gothic then this is exactly what it is. A well written but at times uneven gothic novel. Proto science fiction? yes why not. 3.5 stars.

87SassyLassy
Mar 23, 2017, 11:07 am

>86 baswood: Italian setting, non believers, supernatural powers, beautiful young woman: nothing like some good Victorian gothic to while away the time. This one sounds like a good one.

At Naples, in the latter half of the last century, a worthy artist named Gaetano Pisani lived and flourished.

I had to look up the first sentence!

88Oandthegang
Mar 23, 2017, 9:35 pm

>84 baswood: Yup. Leaves Dowland at the starting gate. Smiling and tapping of feet all over the place.

89baswood
Modifié : Mar 28, 2017, 7:14 am

90Oandthegang
Mar 28, 2017, 5:38 am

Good Heavens! I have some of his books and used to scare myself with them many years ago. I had no idea he looked like that!

91baswood
Modifié : Mar 28, 2017, 7:16 am

Incredible Adventures by Algernon Blackwood.
Ghost stories (without any ghosts) religious fervour, spiritualism, acrophilia, passion, mystery and an uncanny weirdness set these tales apart, from anything I have read before. Algernon Blackwood makes his readers believe in events that probably exist just in the minds and heightened senses of his characters; does anything really happen? no nothing happens Blackwood repeatedly tells us in the longest story: “The Damned”. These stories are all about mood and atmosphere and the writing is fine enough for the reader to be caught up in the mysteries and then wonder at the denouement….. they linger afterwards.

The Regeneration of Lord Ernie is the first story and is set in an Alpine village. Hendricks is a tutor to the young Lord Ernie and they are travelling back to England after a year long European tour, where Hendricks has been trying to find something that will spark some life into his pleasant, amiable companion. The Alpine village is a last throw of the dice and Hendricks arranges for them to stay at a catholic priests house that he remembers from his own youth, and an unrequited love affair. It is the season of wind and turbulence in the mountains above the village where a tribe of mountain people take part in pagan like rituals. Their huge bonfires are clearly visible from the village and messengers arrive sporadically from the mountains to lure villagers up to their dancing rituals. Lord Ernie for the first time has found something of interest and the priest suggests that they hike up and observe the rituals for themselves the next evening. Lord Ernie is literally captivated and a fight ensues to summon him back down to normality.

The second story: “The Sacrifice” is also set in the high mountains. Limasson is a man who has dabbled in all sorts of religions and a series of personal tragedies has led him to the high mountains, which are the only places where he can find peace. He plans a series of solo expeditions to fully engage his skills and more importantly his mind. One evening at the hotel he meets a couple of other climbers who coincidently are planning to conquer an unclimbed peak that Limasson is thinking of tackling, they agree to climb together. There is a brilliant description of setting off in the dark of the early morning for a strenuous climb, but who are Limasson’s two companions, do they really exist or are they a fantasy invented by a man who is seeking some sort of answer to his life difficulties.

The third story: “The Damned” is the longest and is a curious tale of a haunting. Mabel Franklyn has been widowed for a year and her late husband (Samuel) was a larger than life lay preacher of hell and damnation. She is desperately alone in her large house and invites Bill and Francis (brother and sister) who are old friends to stay with her for a month. We observe the events through Bill’s eyes, who finds that he cannot settle in the house and sees that Mabel is both physically and mentally ill. Both Bill and Francis believe that it is the after presence of Samuel who is causing a psychic disruption and Bill has a feeling of layers of people damned through the ages who are seeking to drag down the current occupants of the house. This is the story where nothing happens it is all in the minds of the occupants and after a fruitless panic one night when a strange noise upsets everybody and Bill goes on a midnight exploration of the house things seem to settle down.

A Descent into Egypt is my favourite story of the five here. Again written in the first person; the unnamed speaker travelling in Egypt meets an old friend George Isley. George has just returned from an archeological dig where he has spent the last couple of years and the speaker has an impression that part of George is still out there amongst the ruins. He stays in the hotel with George who seems to need his company, but observes that less and less of the old George is evident, he seems to be lost in the landscape. The speaker is also affected and Blackwood ramps up the atmosphere with some fine writing describing the two men gazing out of the dinning room in the hotel:

“Across the glare and glitter of the uncompromising modern dining-room, past crowded tables, and over the heads of Germans feeding unpicturesquely, I saw—the moon. Her reddish disc, hanging unreal and enormous, lifted the spread sheet of desert till it floated off the surface of the world. The great window faced the east, where the Arabian desert breaks into a ruin of gorges, cliffs, and flat-topped ridges; it looked unfriendly, ominous, with danger in it; unlike the serener sand-dunes of the Libyan desert, there lay both menace and seduction behind its flood of shadows. And the moonlight emphasised this aspect: its ghostly desolation, its cruelty, its bleak hostility, turning it murderous. For no river sweetens this Arabian desert; instead of sandy softness, it has fangs of limestone rock, sharp and aggressive. Across it, just visible in the moonlight as a thread of paler grey, the old camel-trail to Suez beckoned faintly. And it was this that he was looking at so intently.”

A sense of danger and fear is evoked and when another character from their past: Moleson joins them and talks of the old religions and the sun worshippers; the speaker feels that George is barely functioning in the present; his mind is with the sun worshippers. Moleson breaks the introspection by playing the hotel piano, but his playing of popular tunes segues into a chant that evokes old Egypt and the three men are back under the influence of the past. They walk trance like out of the hotel into the desert and the speaker imagines his two companions expanding in size to take on the stone like qualities of the statues of the old Gods. Blackwood’s story brilliantly captures a sense of something different, something from the past that is taking over the minds of these men heightening their senses and feverish imaginings.

The final story Wayfarers is the shortest and its simple telling harks back to the subject matter of the previous four stories. A man is travelling in a motor vehicle on the way to a climbing expedition; there is a crash, he blacks out and wakes up in a familiar room. He is being nursed by a woman who is the love of his life but is married to his best friend, they kiss they declare their love. He slips in and out of consciousness and the woman becomes more remote, as his health improves from the bullet wound, she finally says that they must part for the time being. He awakes to find his mountain climbing friend by his bedside.

How much of these stories are in the feverish imaginings of the minds of Blackwood’s characters is anyones guess, but this goes a long way in building the mystery, however some excellent writing and observations of the natural world give them a unique feeling of time and place that provides tension and frisson to all that happens (or doesn’t happen). These tales may be a little slow for some readers and a lack of plot may frustrate, but I found them incredibly exciting in the way that they build levels and layers of mystery. I read this as part of my reading novels published in 1914 project, but I will certainly be dipping into more of Algernon Blackwood. A five star read.

92baswood
Avr 14, 2017, 6:46 pm

93baswood
Modifié : Avr 17, 2017, 3:17 am

Owen Glendower by John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powy’s last two major novels were works of historical fiction both set in Wales: Owen Glendower published in 1941 and Porius in 1951 (restored texts in 1994 and 2006.) They are both significant not only because they are great novels but because Powys was concerned with imagining what it might have been like to be party to the thoughts that go on inside the head of his principal character. It would seem he wished to give his readers a feeling of looking out at the world through the conscious (and unconscious) turmoil that shaped their actions or lack of actions. Although Owen Gendower is set in the early fifteenth century and Porius in 499 AD, Powys’s method of telling his story appears to be quite similar. Both Owen Glendower and Porius were leaders of their people and members of the ruling elite and with their privileged positions comes the responsibilities of would be kings. Powys tries to combine their attachment to legends of the past, folk heroes and mythic lore with minute observations of the natural world around them, which shapes how they look towards an uncertain future.

The major difference between the novels is that Owen Glendower is based on historical facts, that are largely accepted by historians and Powys is careful to give a list of characters mentioned in history along with a shorter list of those that are un-mentioned in history (those that Powys has made up). The need to keep the story line tuned to historical events does not seem to have curbed Powys’ imagination; rather they provide a framework from which he can launch his more crucial observations. Owen Glendower covers a fifteen year period, whereas Porius’ action is squeezed inside a much shorter time scale and is described by its author as an historical romance.

The Subject of the book is Owen Glendower’s uprising against Henry IV. This took place initially in 1400 when Glendower first raised his standard following a dispute with English overlords over land and property. Henry IV the previous year had defeated Richard II’s army in Wales and captured the king, there were consistent rumours that Richard had been murdered on Henry’s instructions and Henry was being hard pressed by Richard’s supporters in the North of England, he was therefore in no position to deal with the Welsh revolt. The Welsh under Owen Glendower won a famous victory against an English army at Bryn Glas near the town of Knighton in Powys. Two years later Glendower set up his headquarters in Harlech castle. Welshmen flocked to his standard and Glendower negotiated a treaty with the Percy family in the North of England in which Glendower would become king of an independent Wales. An alliance was negotiated with the French who arrived in force late-on in 1405 and the allies marched towards Worcester. This time Henry IV was stronger and was at Worcester in person, there was indecision amongst the allies who never attacked the town and their armies melted away. Harlech Castle was recaptured by the English in 1409 but Glendower was never taken (although his family were and died in prison).

Powy’s novel concentrates on the years when Glendower was in the asendency, and in doing so concentrates on key events in those years. It is like a series of set pieces and the first time we meet Glendower is at his stronghold at Glyndyfrdwy where he raises his standard. He is involved in a daring recapture of Welsh hostages from Dinas Bran castle but is soon mourning the death of his friend the bard Lolo Goch. We witness The Welsh army victorious at the battle of Bryn Glas and the horrific despatching of the wounded English on the battlefield and the desecration of their bodies. We are inside Glendower’s stronghold at Harlech castle where he pins everything on the French fleet arriving and then at his camp above Worcester and his disgust at the antics of the French army. From 1405 until the final appearance and probable death of Glendower in about 1416 Powy’s attention is elsewhere; there is a meeting with king Henry IV in dungeons in Worcester but Glendower is not involved; instead his Oxford clerk Rhisiart ab Owen who we meet at the start of the novel and who has has shared the spotlight comes back into the narrative.

Powys’s method of allowing his readers to see the events through the eyes of his characters, goes further than other authors, in that we are a witness to their conscious thoughts and from these we glimpse their unconscious thoughts as well. Rhisiart is the first character that Powys sets before us; he is a young scholar anxious to get in touch with his Welsh roots, he rides an old but faithful horse, he has an unwieldy crusader sword in his scabbard and has built up a magical picture in his mind of the castle of Dinas Bran where he hopes to meet his cousin Owen Glendower. He is full of thoughts and forebodings about his approaching destination but his attention has wandered back to the natural world.

“Rhisiart stared and stared at a flimsy current-moth that was now fluttering feebly through the twigs of a thick growing elder. He felt as though, with the panicky distaste of those slender antennae, he himself was cursing the raw pungency of that rough foliage”

Powys’s fifteenth century characters are in tune with their environment much more so than our modern minds, it reflects their thoughts. Rhisiart we are told is a young man with little experience of women and so his thoughts even at times of considerable stress and danger take on a sexual/sensual/faintly sadistic line, that can influence his actions. It is like an abstracted consciousness that Powys plays out before his readers. An example: Rhisiart and his companions come upon a girl who is pleading for the life of a monk in a hostile English environment. English archers have arrows trained on the girl and the monk, urgent action is required, but Rhisiarts conscious thoughts seemingly get in the way:

“Below the disturbing whiteness of that soft flesh throbbed a living soul that he longed to guard and protect; but something else in the youthful beauty, her torn doublet exposed had a fearful power in it that turned this pity into its extreme opposite and the object of it into a dedicated victim of arrows and spears…………… But how pearly-white, how smooth, how polished her shoulder was, and how daintily twisted was the red wisp that fell across it! To save his soul from instant damnation, he couldn’t stop himself from imagining one of those terrible modern arrows quivering in that tantalizing flesh.”

The first third of the novel is seen through the eyes of Rhisiart and because Powys is intent on revealing his thoughts as they tumble into his consciousness then events that happen quickly can take pages to relate. Also Rhisiart does not always see or understand what is happening around him and so the reader must pick through the prose to keep hold of the narrative flow. Things become a little clearer when the point of view changes to Glendower, however Glendower’s thoughts are influenced by Welsh legends, by his prophets and by his bards. He also has the power to step outside of his consciousness and when he does this Rhisiart notices that time stops for him as he goes into one of his trances: Powys describes it like this:

"He gave himself up THEN, trimmed and combed and anoited into the hands of destiny: and his cherished faith in his power of exteriorizing his soul had only increased the appalling passivity with which upon the image of fate, as upon a dark rolling tidal wave, he let himself drift.”

The narrative point of view switches from Rhisiart to Glendower, but can switch back again, however for much of the last third of the novel Rhisiart has been captured by the English and is effectively out of the narrative. Increasingly as the story unfolds Powys’s writing takes on the characteristics of an omnipresent authorial view, as the need arises to fill in the background and historical detail.

This is a long novel (over 900 pages) and one whose writing style makes the pace of the action slow down as in a sort of slow motion, a bit like Glendower exteriorising his soul, but Powys I think achieves something rather wonderful in that he places the reader back in the 15th century experiencing the thoughts, sights and sounds as his characters search for a way forward and not at all sure why they do the things that they do. The reader is party to their consciousness, feels the inner turmoil and can make his own judgement as to the sense of the actions taken. This is an historical novel, and Powys has invented a number of characters that give some structure to the events and help the narrative, but they also add to the mystery and in the female characters, particularly, they give us an exoticism that enriches the story. G. Wilson Knight claims on the front cover of my copy of the novel that John Cowper Powys is the finest historical novelist in English literature and if we are going in for comparisons then Powys makes Hilary Mantel appear very lightweight. Five stars.

94baswood
Modifié : Avr 20, 2017, 10:05 am

95baswood
Modifié : Avr 20, 2017, 10:11 am

Mary Tudor: The Tragical history of the first Queen of England by David Loades
This is an excellent biography of Mary Tudor who reigned as Queen from July 1553 until her death in November 1558. During her reign she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake as she attempted to reverse the protestant policies of her half brother Edward VI back to the old catholic religion. She earned the posthumous sobriquet as Bloody Mary, however David Loades gives us a rounded portrait of this troubled queen and woman. He makes no excuses for her religious zeal, but does a good job in explaining why she pursued the policies that looked like religious persecution from our standpoint today. He concentrates on the character and issues facing Mary herself who is the star of this book. There are some social commentaries and pen portraits of the people around the queen, certainly enough to make her story understandable and to demonstrate the pressures that she was under from a turbulent Tudor Court.

Loades reminds his readers that Mary was the first female English sovereign - a ruling queen who was not simply the consort of the king and so faced unique difficulties as a woman in a man’s world. She was 37 years old, unmarried and fiercely proud of her virginity when she became queen and had to face the immediate problem of the succession. She chose to marry the Spanish prince Philip: a staunchly catholic man who had no time or much inclination to get to know the issues facing an English monarch and who proved to be very unpopular with the English people. Mary kept it all together to a certain extant, but failure to produce an heir and the prospect of her protestant half sister Elizabeth next in line for the throne were difficulties that she could not overcome. David Loades ends his biography by saying that “It is time that England’s first queen was better appreciated” and if this means understanding the problems facing her and also appreciating a stubborn, dogmatic and at times indecisive character then Loades has done a very good job.

A very readable and easily digestible history book that uses both primary and secondary sources to provide an up to date (2006) summary of current knowledge on this catholic queen’s reign. A four star read.

96janeajones
Avr 22, 2017, 4:18 pm

Thoughtful, meaty reviews.

97edwinbcn
Avr 23, 2017, 4:46 am

I think I would like to read each of these books. Nice reviews.

98baswood
Modifié : Avr 25, 2017, 12:16 pm

99baswood
Modifié : Avr 25, 2017, 12:18 pm

The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare’s Youth: Awdeley’s Fraternity of Vacabondes and Harman’s ‘Caveat’: Edited with an introduction by Edward Viles and F. J. Furnivall
Rogue literature is a literary genre that tells stories from the world of thieves and other criminals that was popular in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. The stories were mostly in a confessional form and full of vivid descriptions. Rogue literature is an important source in understanding the everyday life of the ordinary people and their language, and the language of thieves and beggars. This edition edited by Viles and Furnivall contains the seminal works in this genre.

The earliest piece is by John Awdeley: “The Fraternity of Vacabondes: As well as ruflyng Vacabondes, as of beggerly, of women as of men, of Gyrles as of Boyes, with their proper names and qualities: with a description of the crafty company of Couseners and Shifters: whereunto is also adjoined the order of Knaves. probably first published in 1561”.
It starts with a couple of poems one of which tells the reader that at a Sessions (local court of justice) a Vagabond was on trial and he traded the information for his release (they were often hanged) with the proviso that his name should not be made known or the Fraternity would have him killed.

Awdeley then lists those members of the Fraternity by their various trades with a brief description and so we learn about; An Abraham man, a Ruffler, A Prygman, A Whipjacke, A Frater, A Quire Bird, An Upright man, A Palliard, An Irish Toyle, Mortes and Doxies and some others. The next section is headed The Company of Cousoners and Shifters and there are three longer descriptions of some of the tricks that are used by the Fraternity to cheat people of money, goods and livestock.
My favourite one is ‘A Ring Faller’ where a con man or woman will approach a likely subject and in view of them will bend down and appear to pick a ring off the ground, they then approach the person and ask if the ring belongs to them; a conversation will develop which may be a dupe for a pickpocket or it may be an attempt to get a reward for finding the ring or selling the ring (which appears to be good quality gold). This trick is still practised in Paris on tourists as I found out last year. Back to Awdeley who continues with his order of Knaves: similar to the Fraternity of vagabonds, this is a list with short descriptions of how servants will cheat their masters.

The second and largest piece is Thomas Harman’s: “A caveat or warning for common cursetors vulgarly called Vagabonds” published in 1567, which has become the standard work. Thomas Harman acknowledges the previous publication by Awdeley and goes on to enrich and enhance it. He starts with a dedication to Lady Elisabeth the Countess of Shrewsbury and explains that it is his duty to acquaint her with the abominable, wicked, and detestable behaviour of all these rowsey ragged, rabblement of rakehells. Its tone is something like we might find today in the popular (gutter) press who claim to take the moral high ground when in fact mostly they aim to titillate their readers.

Harman takes some of Awdeley’s Fraternity and expands his descriptions of them and weaves in his own stories, They are by turns amusing, titillating and moralising and remind me very much of the more bawdy tales that you might find in Bocaccio’s Decameron. They are firmly based in villages around London and are valuable in themselves for providing a snapshot of street life in Elizabethan England. Thomas Harman is not content with telling his stories he also names and shames those involved concentrating on The Upright men, the Rogues and the Pallyards who he claims are the most notorious vagabonds. He declines to name the Mortes and Doxes (women) saying it is superfluous to name them; he could have done it, but it would make the book far too large. Harman has told his readers in his introduction that the vagabonds use a language of their own and he provides a short dictionary of their words and phrases and an example of a conversation between an Upright man and a Rogue

“Thus I conclude my bolde Beggars booke,
That all estates most playnely maye see,
As in a glasse well pollyshed to looke,
Their double demeaner in eche degree.
Their lyues, their language, their names as they be,
That with this warning their myndes may be warmed,
To amend their mysdeedes, and so lyue vnharmed.”


This edition then continues with Parson Habens (or Hyberdine’s) Sermon in Praise of Theives and Theivery and this is Viles and Furnivals description in their introduction :

“The third piece in the present volume is a larky Sermon in praise of Thieves and Thievery, the title of which (p. 93, below) happened to catch my eye when I was turning over the Cotton Catalogue, and which was printed here, as well from its suiting the subject, as from a pleasant recollection of a gallop some 30 years ago in a four-horse coach across Harford-Bridge-Flat, where Parson Haben (or Hyberdyne), who is said to have preached the Sermon, was no doubt robbed. My respected friend Goody-goody declares the sermon to be 'dreadfully irreverent;' but one needn't mind him. An earlier copy than the Cotton one turned up among the Lansdowne MSS, and as it differed a good deal from the Cotton text, it has been printed opposite to that.”

The final piece is The Groundworke of Conny Catching written some time after Thomas Harman’s Caveat and it is basically an introduction to Harman’s work and a couple more short stories.

Edward Viles and F J Furnivals edition of these 16th century texts was published in 1907. They have written an interesting and at times amusing introduction but with plenty of notes and additional material. There are additional notes at the end and an index of words and terms used, making the whole thing a bit of a gem for anybody interested in the 16th century. For me this was a delight and a four star read.

100auntmarge64
Avr 25, 2017, 6:20 pm

>94 baswood: Now that is one really, really pissed-off woman.

101janeajones
Avr 26, 2017, 7:19 pm

99> Amusing review.

102baswood
Modifié : Avr 30, 2017, 2:02 pm

103baswood
Modifié : Avr 30, 2017, 2:02 pm

City, Clifford D Simak
Published in 1952 this is another novel from the science fiction masterworks series, which according to wiki:

“began in 1999 and comprises selected pieces of science-fiction literature from 1950 onwards (with a few exceptions). The list was compiled by the managing director of Orion Books, Malcolm Edwards, with the help of "leading SF writers and editors" and the goal of bringing important books back into print. The list was described by science fiction author Iain M. Banks as "amazing" and "genuinely the best novels from sixty years of SF”

City is definitely worth its place in the 170 odd books that now form the masterworks series. It is a collection of eight short stories linked by generations of one family and covers a 12000 year span of the future of the human race and their future is not great. Simak’s theme that man is a self destructive animal is present in nearly all of these stories. Each tale is forwarded by a short essay written by a representative of the dogs at a time in the far distant future when the existence of man no more than the stuff of myth and legend. The stories are tales that the dogs tell their pups when they are close together in the family circle and the inevitable questions arise:

“What is Man?
“What is a city?
“What is a war?”


The Webster family are the anti-heroes of the tales; they hold positions of power and influence and it is to some extant the result of their decision making that leads to man no longer being present on earth. Dogs, ants and robots are the inheritors of a world where killing is almost unknown.

This book is very much of it’s time with Simak’s use of generations of one family giving the whole book a sense of home spun story telling. It does not pretend to be great literature but it is well enough written and the forward progression of the tales with an intelligent linking device provides an expectation of things to come. No hard science fiction, no over the top moralising just a series of intriguing stories with some interesting ideas. A four star read.

104baswood
Mai 4, 2017, 5:39 pm

The Man upstairs and other stories - P G Wodehouse
16 short stories all written by Wodehouse before the war years and published in 1914. Certainly there is no hint of a troubled world in these frothy light tales as the only tension in the majority of them is will love prevail despite misunderstandings or some duplicity. The only thing that can be said for them is that they have a certain period charm and can be mildly amusing. Not my cup of tea, I read 13 of the sixteen before abject boredom set in.

105baswood
Mai 11, 2017, 11:09 am

Prisons We Choose To Live Inside by Doris Lessing 1986
These essays are taken from a series of five lectures given by Doris Lessing under the auspices of the Canadian Broadcasting Company in 1985. The overriding themes of of these lectures are that we do not learn from history, we as a civilization keep repeating the same mistakes, despite being better informed and we fail to take notice of the developing sciences of psychology and anthropology. Lessing makes her case persuasively and asks the questions that continue to baffle some people. Why do we continue to go to war, why do we elect leaders that we know or at least suspect are telling us lies.

“ I think it is sentimental to discuss the subject of war or peace, without acknowledging that a great many people enjoy war - not only the idea of it but the fighting itself……… people who have lived through a war know that as it approaches, an at first secret, unacknowledged, elation begins, as if an almost invisible drum is beating……….an awful, illicit, violent excitement is abroad….. everyone is possessed by it.”

“ We have now reached the stage where a political leader not only uses, skilfully, time-honoured rabble rousing tricks - see Shakespeare's Julius Caesar - but employ experts to make it even more effective. But the antidote is that, in an open society, we may also examine these tricks being used on us. If, that is, we choose to examine them”


My favourite of the five short essays (they are all good) is her one on Group Minds: nothing scientific here and nothing particularly new but she gets across her points as to how difficult it is to stand apart from the majority, whether it is a social group, an income level group, or even a protest movement. How easy it is to be carried along by emotions instead of examining the evidence at hand in the light of reason.

The Wind Blows Away our Words by Doris Lessing 1987
This is reportage and stories following Lessing’s trip to Peshawar and Chitral in Pakistan in 1986. She had for some time been involved in the Resistance to the Russian invasion of Afghanistan through the aid organisation Afghan Relief. Peshawar in Northern Pakistan is as near as many people could get to the front line resistance in Afghanistan and was at that time the home to a huge number of refugees. She got to interview some of the leaders of the Muhjahadin, but her primary focus in this extended essay is the plight of the refugees, particularly the women, who having fled the bombing found themselves imprisoned in camps where their freedom was curtailed by the rising power of the Mullahs

She bemoans the fact that the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and the plight of the refugees received little coverage in the Western press; famine in Africa was much higher in the list of priorities, in spite of the fact that there were an estimated five million Afghan refugees and over a million civilians killed by the Russians.

There is no doubt that Lessing had points to make from her own perspective, but I see them as particularly valid. I had stayed in Peshawar and Chitral ten years earlier and had spent a little time in Afghanistan as well staying in the same hotels that Lessing was reporting from and so her descriptions of the towns and villages brought them back vividly to life. I have no reason to doubt that her descriptions of the border regions on the edge of conflict are no less accurate.

Both of these collections of essays are well worth reading, 4 stars.

106janeajones
Mai 11, 2017, 7:11 pm

I've not encountered this aspect of Lessing -- interesting reviews.

107baswood
Modifié : Mai 24, 2017, 12:57 pm



Don Quixote, Kathy Acker
Nice cover shame about the book
Experimental writing from the mid 1980's that could have been from the mid seventies or the mid sixties. I found it just plain silly, couldn't be bothered to plow on past the halfway mark, just in the hope that a few more of her asides would hit home.

108baswood
Modifié : Juin 1, 2017, 10:57 am

109baswood
Modifié : Juin 1, 2017, 10:58 am

Fires of Faith: Catholic England under Mary Tudor By Eamon Duffy.
Describing himself as a cradle catholic historian Eamon Duffy sets himself the target of re-evaluating the religious policy of Queen Mary 1 who ruled England from July 1553 until her death in November 1558. Mary Tudor known today as bloody Mary attempted to role back the protestant revolution instigated by her Father Henry VIII and taken forward by her half brother Edward VI. During a four year campaign she burnt alive 284 protestants 56 of them women who were found guilty of heresy. Duffy is keen to challenge the perception that Mary’s church was backward looking and reactionary sharing the queen’s bitter pre-occupation with the past and her tragic sterility and that her atrocious campaign of burnings was not merely an outrage against human decency but also a devastating political blunder.

One of the most high profile burnings was that of the Archbishop of Canterbury; Thomas Cranmer. This execution seemed personal as Cranmer had recanted and had embraced the catholic faith, but a witness to the execution while having every sympathy with the old man’s plight reflected that Cranmer must pay for his sins and so deserved his terrible fate. Duffy reminds us that:

This nuanced, humane, but ultimately steely assessment should give us pause before reading twenty-first century attitudes and values into the complexities of the remote past.

The hero of Duffy’s book (if we can call him that) is Cardinal Reginald Pole who came hotfoot from Rome when Mary seized her crown from Jane Seymour. Pole was Mary’s cousin and had been in exile, he returned to England and masterminded the queens religious programme. Duffy says that the policy was well thought out, well controlled and used inducements as well as coercion to change the face of religion in England. Duffy makes the telling point that the protestant reformation had been largely grafted onto the government of England. Henry VIII for conjugal, political and largely financial reasons had made himself Head of the church of England, but it was his son Edward who took the policy much further surrounding himself with protestant sympathisers. The old catholic religion was still very much the religion of the people especially in the north of the Country and the stripping of the altars had caused much resentment. It was not surprising therefore that a Catholic queen was able to first of all to get the support of the common people, who saw few problems in going back to the old ways.

Duffy does not play down the atrocities of the executions, but confronts them head on. He points out that much of what we know about the individual executions comes from John Fox’s Acts and Monuments written during Elizabeth I reign and by a protestant (the winning side). Duffy while not playing down the brutality of the burnings is concerned with putting them in the perspective of the religious policies. The executions were carried out only after the catholic commissioners were completely satisfied that their victims would not recant. Most of them were examined over long periods of time and every effort was made to get them to change their minds and so escape execution. Duffy points out that this could have been a propaganda coup for the catholics if they could get leading protestants to recant, but this must be seen in conjunction with the commissioners overarching belief that they were on a mission to save people’s souls. Duffy is able to provide evidence from the commissioners own paperwork and instructions to them provided by Cardinal Pole.

Duffy tackles issues surrounding martyrdom and the need for Queen Mary and her government to stamp out dissent which could have resulted in her overthrow. In his final chapter he talks about Mary’s governments legacy; with the death of the queen and very shortly after Cardinal Pole, the repressive measures died with them. Queen Elizabeth I made her own religious settlement making herself Head of the Church and welcoming back those protestants who had sought exile. Duffy says that the main legacy was in providing writers and thinkers who would influence the counter revolution in Europe. Duffy’s book provides ample reasons why it is worthwhile to look again at religious persecution during Mary’s reign.

The book is not a general history of religion in England during Mary’s time, nor is it a political assessment of her reign; it focuses on her religious policies and how they were implemented. It is an interesting and thought provoking read backed up with notes, an index and a select bibliography. A four star read.

110SassyLassy
Juin 1, 2017, 6:14 pm

>109 baswood: Another book on my TBR. I need to get back to reading. It is difficult to find books that examine Mary's policies in detail, and this at least seems to cover one aspect.

111NanaCC
Juin 1, 2017, 7:53 pm

>109 baswood: Nice review! I'm really interested in this one. I'll have to look for it.

112Oandthegang
Juin 2, 2017, 5:40 pm

>109 baswood:. Sounds very interesting. Do I take it that Thomas Cranmer was unique in being burnt as a heretic despite having returned to Catholicism?

113baswood
Juin 25, 2017, 8:25 am

>112 Oandthegang: I have been on holiday apologies for not getting back to you. In answer to your question I think he may have been one of the few who were burnt despite recanting, but his execution was personal. Queen Mary and Reginald Pole were intent on securing propaganda victories and many accused of heresy did escape the fire through recanting, but even though Cranmer would have been an enormous coup, his past actions had put him beyond the pale in Mary's eyes.

114baswood
Modifié : Juin 25, 2017, 8:31 am

115baswood
Modifié : Juin 25, 2017, 8:34 am

A Trip to the Moon, Murtagh McDermot by Murtagh McDermot
It is presumed that Murtagh McDermot was a pseudonym for an English or Irish writer who was inspired by Jonathan Swift’s Gullivers travels published a year earlier in 1736. The book is a curious mixture of fantasy and satire: fast paced and inclined to silliness it still presents an intriguing read to anybody wishing to explore the genre of proto-science fiction.

McDermot’s preface castigates those people who do not believe that he had ever been to the moon (his book is written as a first person account of his trip) because much of it is taken up with talk of Plays, Coffee-houses, Balls, Ladies, Tea, Intriguing and Pythagoreans, which he says may be easily applied to ourselves rather than to those people that live on the moon. He goes on to say that nobody has any evidence to say that he has not been to the moon, but I think his real intention was to make it clear that his book is a satire on British society. It is not surprising that Murtagh McDermot is a pseudonym because the writer lets his imagination go free and untrammelled, for example he tells us about people living inside a hollow rock under the sea, who make a living churning out mechanical poetry, or his account of staying for 39 years with a philosopher who had invisible servants and who had made himself a philosopher’s stone. Ideas, fantasies, thoughts tend to pile on top of each other as McDermot lets rip: packing in as much as he can in his 90 page account.

There is much to enjoy and much that is just silly and so you have to be in the right frame of mind when reading the book, I particularly liked McDermot’ explanation of how people become book critics: he says that it is well known that tiny insects can make holes in paper so small that we can hardly see them and that light can pass through such tiny holes that are invisible to the naked eye: on the moon there are very small animals known as bookworms that can pass into a persons brain, take up residence and grow; the worms enter the brain through the eyes which become heated through intense thinking. McDermot says his journey to the moon was a matter of chance; he had climbed to the top of Mount Teide on the island of Tenerife and had vomited so violently that his body had swelled, so that a hurricane like gust of wind took him off and upward until he was outside the earth”s sphere of influence; a hailstorm had then batted him towards the moon where he fell into a pool of water and was hooked out by some noble persons fishing.

Silly? yes, but no sillier than Brexit or Donald Trump and so three stars.

116baswood
Juin 25, 2017, 9:07 am

Tudor Rebellions by Anthony Fletcher.
Brilliant little history textbook published in the Seminar Studies in History series. It covers the major rebellions during the reins of HenryVII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. There are a couple of introductory chapters setting out the Tudor mindset and then a chapter each to the rebellions. These start with an account of the rebellion and are followed by an analysis of why they took place, all of course were unsuccessful in their objectives. There are maps and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources, but there are also transcriptions of some original documents that serve to put students right in touch with the history that is going on here. It is a first stop for anybody interested in The Pilgrimage of Grace, The Western Rebellion, Kett’s rebellion, Wyatt’s rebellion and the Northern Rebellions.

The book was first published in 1968 and so will not take into account the latest research on the rebellions, but they are a solid and reliable introduction. People approaching this book would gain more if they have some previous knowledge of the period as the essays are too succinct to introduce all the characters involved. For me a Five star read.

117baswood
Modifié : Juin 27, 2017, 9:33 am

Six Anonymous Plays, second series edited by John S Farmer
Continuing my troll through mid 16th century drama I stumbled on this collection edited by John S Farmer which was privately printed for subscribers by the English drama society probably in 1906. It is now happily freely available on the net and contains some gems. The six plays are:
The History of Jacob and Esau - 1568
The interlude of Youth - 1560
A Moral play of Albion Knight - this is a fragment of a moral play date uncertain.
A Comedy called Misogonus - survived in manuscript only probably dates from 1577 or earlier
An interlude of Godly Queen Hester - 1561
Tom Tyler and his wife. - 1561
The dates are all approximate, for example An interlude of Godly Queen Hester might have existed in a printed version some thirty years earlier.

The prologue to Tom Tyler and his wife ends with a call to the assembled audience that they:

“…….. which was to come before to pray of you
To make them room, and silence as you may
which being done, they shall come to play”


This extract from the prologue puts these “plays” in context, because it would be more accurate to call them interludes. At the time of their publication, they would not have been performed on a stage in a theatre (the first theatre for staging plays was not licensed until 1576), they would probably have been performed as an interlude at another event, perhaps a dinner or a private party, and a space would have to be cleared to allow the players to perform.

The two pieces that interested me the most were; The History of Jacob and Esau and Misogonus. They both look forward to modern drama, breaking away from the morality plays format that still held sway in the earlier part of the 16th century. They have similarities; both could be described as comedies, the major plot theme is that of the prodigal son, there is Christian comment and moral sentiment, they both have real characters rather than allegorical entities, they tell a story that has a satisfying conclusion, but there is real drama in the telling, musical interludes feature at appropriate moments to assist the drama. The History of Jacob and Esau sticks pretty closely to the biblical story, but the author is able to inject much drama into the situation by his telling of the incident where the blind Isaac is tricked into giving his blessing to Jacob rather than Esau despite Esau being the eldest of the two. The humour is present both in the trickery performed by Jacob and his mother and by the dialogue from the servants. The overriding message of the play is that all happenings are God’s will, but characters can make it God’s will by their own actions. It was God’s will that Esau the spendthrift and waster was the eldest son, but it is also God’s will that Jacob was able to trick his father into giving him the inheritance, because he was the most deserving son.

Misogonus although a prodigal son story does not follow a biblical tale. It is a little looser in its construction with sharper dialogue and real comic characters. The main theme here is the proper upbringing of children with the idea that sparing the rod will spoil the child. Misogonus is the son that goes astray, spending his time gambling and whoring with his servants egging him on. His father tries to take him to task but is rebuffed and when the fathers friend also tries to talk to Misogonus he is even more rudely treated. The centre piece of the play is the long episode in a gambling house where Sir John the local priest is a more than a willing participant. There is much humour at the expense of Father John as a bawdy time is had by all. The servant Cacugas is a mischief maker, and although his actions help in moving the plot along his scheming does not succeed. The resolution to the story is the discovery of a twin brother unknown to the father who is persuaded to return home. Two old retainers are aware of his existence and the scene where they go about telling the worried father is wrung for much drama as it seems that they will never actually get round to revealing the truth. Codrus one of the retainers is particularly comical in the way he always manages to say the wrong word, getting muddled and providing much misinformation. The play ends with two appeals to the audience: Cacugas has been thrown out for his mischeif making and he asks someone from the audience to take him in and Misogonus asks the audience to forgive his youthful vanity as he asks and gets his fathers forgiveness. There is a more recent version of Misogonus in the form of a thesis by L E Barber that is worth searching for on the net.

The Interlude of Youth and the fragment of Albion Knight seem to belong to an earlier period as they both use stock characters from the medieval morality plays. The dialogue may be sharper, but they do not look forward to a more modern dramatic tradition. Tom Tyler and his wife is a very early precursor to The Taming of the Shrew and although it is fast paced and has some lively speech making it also looks backwards rather than forwards. The same could also be said of Godly Queen Hester which is a dramatisation of a story from the bible, as it has its share of moral characters. Both of these plays however feature strong female characters. They have control over the men in their lives who appear weak and boorish beside them.

This edition of these anonymous works feature modernised spelling and punctuation, but wherever possible the original orthography has been maintained. At the back of the book there is an alphabetical word list with some extensive explanations, there is some musical notation to a few of the songs and some information on the history of the publication of the plays. It is not at all convenient to read these alongside the plays as their is no linking device apart from being arranged alphabetically yet they do provide a lot of information and provide much entertainment in their own write. I found real enjoyment in reading Misogonus and Jacob and Esau was also interesting the other pieces really do require an interest in 16th century literature, but overall a four star read

118dchaikin
Juin 27, 2017, 2:40 pm

Stopping by to say hi. I'm way behind, but hoping to catch up and read everything here.

119baswood
Juin 27, 2017, 4:58 pm

Hi Dan

120janeajones
Juin 29, 2017, 9:38 am

Misogonus sounds like an early prototype for Prince Hal in Henry IV Part 1 with the priest as his Falstaff.

121baswood
Modifié : Juil 3, 2017, 5:03 pm

Two More Early Plays: Damon and Pithias 1564 and Gismond of Salerne 1566
Neither of the plays are original one is adapted from a Greek story and the other from the Italian renaissance writer Bocaccio, however they are very early examples of English theatre; a Tragicomedy on the one hand and a full blown tragedy on the other. Both of these plays were performed before Queen Elizabeth 1 and both are a good step away from earlier morality plays or interludes.

Damon and Pithias was written by Richard Edwards and tells the story of an extraordinary friendship. Pythias is accused and charged of creating a plot against the tyrannical Dionysius I of Syracuse. Pythias makes a request of Dionysius that he be allowed to settle his affairs on the condition that he leaves his friend, Damon, as a hostage, so if Pythias does not return, Damon would be executed. Eventually, Pythias returns to face execution to the amazement of Dionysius, who because of the sincere trust and love of their friendship, then lets both Damon and Pythias go free. Edwards manages to impart some tension in the story by delaying the return of Pythias and so Damon has his head on the block when Pythias manages to burst through the crowds around the court of Dionysius. Damon and Pythias then calmly debate who should be executed both are more than willing to die for each other.

The play takes a little while to get going but there is some intrigue at the court of Dionysius who is presented as a tyrannical king; one who lives in fear of assassination and who therefore can be manipulated. It is left to Gronos the hangman and later Grimmes the Collier to provide some comedy and some trenchant comments on the behaviour of the courtiers (nobility). This is a speech by Grimmes:

“Yes I trow, blacke Coliers go in threade bare cotes,
Yet so prouide they, that they haue the faire white groates:
Ich may say in counsell, though all day I moyle in dourte,
Chill not change liues with any in Dionisius Courte:
For though their apparell be neuer so fine,
Yet sure their credit is farre worse then mine:
And by cocke I may say, for all their hie lookes,
I know some stickes full deepe in Marchants bookes:
And deeper will fall in, as fame me telles,
As long as in steede of Money, they take vp Haukes hoods & Belles:
Wherby they fall into a swelling disease, which Coliers doo not know
Hath a mad name, it is called ich weene, Centum pro cento.
Some other in Courtes, make others laugh merily,
When they wayle and lament their owne estate secretly:
Friendship is dead in Courte, Hipocrisie doth raigne,
Who is in fauour now, to morow is out agayne:
The state is so vncertaine, that I by my wyll,
Will neuer be courtier, but a Colier “


Gismond of Salern was presented before Queen Elizabeth by the Gentlemen of the Temple and consists of five acts each one being written by different authors. It is the stuff of real tragedy: Gismond who has just been widowed returns to Tancred her fathers house where she falls in love with one of his courtiers: the Earl Palurin. Tancred discovers the lovers in flagrante delicto and is insensed because of the Earl’s betrayal and his own and Gismunds reputation. He arranges to have the Earl murdered and to have his heart torn out so that it can be presented to Gismond in a gold drinking cup. Gismond commits suicide by drinking poison from the cup and Tancred kills himself in grief.

A greek chorus is used to provide commentary on the action and despite the play being written by different authors it flows well enough. There is a graphic description of the murder of the Earl which gives the story a real sense of the horror:

"His naked bellie, and unript it so
that out the bowels gusht: who can rehearse
their tyrannie, wherewith my heart yet bleeds
The warm entrails were torn out of his brest
Within their hands trembling not fully dead
His veines smoked, his bowels all to reeked
Ruthless were rent and thrown about the place
All clotted lay the the blood in lumps of gore
Sprent on his corps, and on his paled face,
His trembling heart, yet leaping, out they tore
and cruelly on a rapier
They fixed the same, and in this hateful wise
Unto the king this heart they do present.”


The person who wrote this scene was no doubt familiar with the violence in Greek tragedy.

Two plays that were seen fit to be performed before a queen and now can be read as early examples of English theatre. 3.5 stars.

122baswood
Modifié : Juil 7, 2017, 8:37 am

123baswood
Modifié : Juil 7, 2017, 8:39 am

Once A Week - A A Milne.
A A Milne became a household figure following the publication of Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926, but he had been writing novels, poetry, plays and poetry from 1917 onwards and before that he had been a journalist and humorist making regular contributions to Punch Magazine, which in 1914 was a weekly publication. The Magazine had been launched in 1841 and had become the most successful humorous and satirical magazine of it’s time, famous for it’s cartoons. This book is a collection of short stories comedy sketches and vignettes that A A Milne contributed to the magazine, published in book form in 1914.

The humour is very British and features mostly characters from the upper classes who seem not to have a care in the world, but have gentle fun poked at them rather in the way that we associate with P G Wodehouse. A whole collection of these sketches is a little too much, but I found some of them quite amusing, here is an opening paragraph from one of the stories:

“WHEN nice people ask me to their houses for the week-end, I reply that I shall be delighted to come, but that pressure of work will prevent my staying beyond Tuesday. Sometimes, in spite of this, they try to kick me out on the Monday; and if I find that they are serious about it I may possibly consent to go by an evening train. In any case, it always seems to me a pity to have to leave a house just as you are beginning to know your way to the bathroom.”

Gentle fun, well written with an undercurrent of satire: much of the satire is aimed at upper class men who glide through life, seemingly doing as little as possible, relying on wives, secretaries and servants to take up all of the slack. Reading this collection you would hardly think that Britain was on the verge of entering the first world war, until you come upon one story about the attempt to uncover a possible German spy who is working as a hairdresser in Hull: his house is broken into by a couple of amateur sleuths who steal a suspicious document from him, which turns out to be a shopping list connected with his business. Thats as near to a sense of the war in England that you get, however in the cartoons from Punch magazines of that year, they are dominated with issues concerning the war.

The working classes of course hardly existed for Punch magazine and its readers and when they do make an entrance they are not shown in a good light here is an example:

He had just flashed past a labourer in the road—known to his cronies as the Flap-eared Denizen of the Turnip-patch—a labourer who in the dear dead days of Queen Victoria would have touched his hat humbly, but who now, in this horrible age of attempts to level all class distinctions, actually went on lighting his pipe! Alas, that the respectful deference of the poor toward the rich is now a thing of the past!

Perhaps A A Milne was being ironic? - perhaps he wasn’t.

If you like P G Wodehouse you might like this. It made me smile occasionally and so three stars.

124baswood
Juil 10, 2017, 7:01 am

125baswood
Modifié : Juil 10, 2017, 7:32 am

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing
Elements of fantasy, of science fiction, of horror are held together by Lessing’s realistic description of family life in late 1960’s London, when the working middle class could still afford to buy a huge rambling Victorian house with a large garden. Harriet is a robust twenty something still a virgin when she meets David at an office party, they get talking and soon discover they are soul mates; they both have a vision of a large, perhaps extended family living in an old house with children running round their feet. They soon discover they have a knack for making babies and with the help of financial support from David’s ex wife’s rich husband they can have the lifestyle, that they had planned for themselves when they had first met. They have family and friends staying with them for weeks at a time during the school holidays and at every Christmas Harriet is pregnant again. Family life is like one big fantasy for Harriet and David, of course Harriet is tired from all the pregnancies and child minding (she has help from her mother) and David has to take on extra work to support the family and their friends, but they glow with pleasure. The old house is soon bursting at the seems, but the almost frantic family life is taking its toll on Harriet, and her mother counsels her about not having any more children for a while.

Harriet and David come to the same conclusion, they have four children already and reluctantly agree that they need a rest, however Harriet becomes pregnant again almost immediately and although all her pregnancies have made her ill, this one is different again. After just three months she feels the child inside her fighting her and she goes to her family doctor who prescribes tranquillisers, telling her that everything is normal and the foetus is just hyperactive. The child is born a month premature and is a monster baby, not only in size, but in looks as well. They call him Ben. It soon becomes apparent that Ben is an abnormal child, tremendously strong and fighting everything almost from the moment he is born. His presence in the house disturbs the other children and disturbs the rest of the family. After the first vacation period friends and then family stop coming to stay for the holidays. Ben has to be locked in his room and bars are put on his window. Harriet and David cannot cope with Ben who appears to be some sort of throwback to a more primitive life form, perhaps even alien life form. Help for the couple is not forthcoming and so reluctantly they agree to have Ben taken away to a place for children who do not conform to any known childhood patterns.

Harriet cannot live with the knowledge that her son will be badly treated and against the family wishes she tracks down the hospital like prison where Ben is being sedated and snatches him away. Back in the family home they realise that their life will be different now with Ben. The other children are sent away to schools or relations, because they are frightened to stay in the house with Ben, who has already taken to murdering their pets. Harriet can only control him with threats that she will have him taken away again. Her marriage is falling apart under the strain, but she is partially rescued by a gang of local unemployed youths, who agree to look after Ben for cash payments, during the daytime and he becomes a sort of mascot to this motorcycle community. Ben survives, grows older and when the original youths find employment he gathers round him other disaffected young people and Harriet suspects that Ben’s gang are getting into a life of crime……

Doris Lessing has described her book as a horror story, but I don’t think that is quite accurate. Nobody dies, the fantasy of a happy and boisterous family life in which everybody shared, was always going to come under some strain, when it threatened to outdo itself. Ben, when he arrives is a dominating presence, but ways are found to lessen his threat and although the reader fears a horrific incident just around the corner it never arrives. At 160 pages it is short enough to have won the Booker prize, but the writing is of a far better quality than many of those contenders. It is a page turner and I read it in one sitting, caught up the 1960’s dream of an extended family life with all its issues and problems and then with the arrival of Ben wondering just where the story was going to take me. I was not disappointed and what do you know……. there is a sequel.
A four star read.

126janeajones
Juil 10, 2017, 11:18 am

Excellent review. I remember reading The Fifth Child and Ben in the World when they first came out. Lessing's worldview here is compelling, but chilling.

127baswood
Modifié : Juil 17, 2017, 9:27 am

128baswood
Juil 17, 2017, 9:24 am

Mosses from an old Manse and other stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Books on the history of Science fiction writing invariably mention a sub genre which I understand to be pro-to science fiction. The term science fiction came into prominence in the 1920’s and so novels published before that time, that can now be encompassed in the genre fall into the pro-to science fiction category. I was surprised to find that some short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne are considered to be pro-to science fiction and they are contained in the collection Mosses from an Old Manse published in 1846.

Nathaniel Hawthorne would of course have had no idea that he was writing science fiction stories, but Rappaccinis daughter, The birthmark, Feathertop, and Artist of the Beautiful would easily fit into that category and were a precursor to many stories that would find a place in magazines such as Amazing stories or Astounding stories from the 1920’3 and 1930’s respectively. Whatever Hawthorne might or might not have thought he was writing at the time, gave cause for him to reflect at the time of the second publication in 1854 that:

"I remember that I always had a meaning—or, at least, thought I had", and noted, "Upon my honor, I am not quite sure that I entirely comprehend my own meaning in some of these blasted allegories... I am a good deal changed since those times; and to tell you the truth, my past self is not very much to my taste, as I see in this book”

This reflection really does hit the nail on the head, because many of the stories are clearly allegorical and in that respect look backwards rather than forwards, however a few of the tales transcend their allegory and prove to be weird little mystery stories that can be enjoyed by readers who love early science fiction. In The Birthmark; the scientist Alymer is searching for the elixir of life. His pretty wife Georgiana has a birthmark on her face in the shape of a small hand, that is only really visible when she becomes flushed or excited, however this preys on Alymer’s mind until he views his wife as being disfigured. He puts all his scientific knowledge into finding a potion that will rid his wife of the birthmark, which he feels runs deep into her features. Eventually he is successful, his wife takes the potion with predictable results. Rappaccini’s daughter is perhaps the best story with a tongue-in-cheek introduction by Hawthorne who says the story comes from a collection by the obscure French author Aubepin (french for hawthorn). Beatrice is Rappaccini’s daughter and she inhabits a secret garden which is overlooked by lodgings where the young student Giovanni resides. He becomes fascinated by the garden of exotic flowers and by Dr Rappaccini and Beatrice who tend to it. He notices that many of the plants appear poisonous and that even the breath of Beatrice can kill flying insects. Giovanni learns from Dr Baglioni that Dr Rappaccini is notorious for producing medications that are curiously effective. Baglioni advises Giovanni to leave the Rappaccini’s well alone, but Giovanni becomes fascinated by Beatrice and meets her in the secret garden………. The story has a seductive, mysterious atmosphere and it is no surprise when it ends in tragedy. The Artist of the Beautiful tells of a young watchmaker (Owen) who spends much of his time trying to invent an artifice that will resemble the motion of a butterfly. His friend Robert Danforth is a blacksmith whose lusty strokes with his hammer and anvil are the opposite to Owens delicate craftsmanship. They both vie for the love of Annie who eventually goes to the Blacksmith. Owen finally crafts his masterpiece and is invited to dinner by Robert and Annie.

There are a couple of other excellent stories in the collection. Young Goodman Browne lives in a Puritan community but finds himself on Halloween’s night drawn into the forest, leaving his wife Faith behind; he meets mysterious people on the way and eventually comes upon an unholy scene that appears to be some sort of ancient ceremony attended by the pillars of his community. Is he dreaming? he might be, but that night has a profound effect on the rest of his life and his relationship with his wife. Feathertop: A Moralised legend is about a scarecrow who is brought to life by witchcraft and the power of pipe smoking. It is a well written story, but the moral behind the story of men made of straw is fairly obvious from the start.

Stories like The Procession of Life and The Celestial Railroad are heavily allegorical and are little more than morality plays as is Egotism or The Bosom Serpent. A mixed bag of stories many of which contain elements of mystery and even fantasy, some of which may appeal and so 3.5 stars.

129OscarWilde87
Juil 19, 2017, 11:10 am

>128 baswood: Great review!

130baswood
Modifié : Juil 23, 2017, 6:08 am

131baswood
Modifié : Juil 23, 2017, 6:20 am

Roger Ascham 1515-1568
A Greek and Latin scholar who became a courtier when he was employed as tutor to a young Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth). Although much of his correspondence was in Latin he published two books in English which were noted for their approachability and readability. He was a protestant and throughout his life maintained his faith in the “honest and true religion”. He secured a fellowship at Cambridge university at a time when the master of the college of St Johns was a catholic, he got into some trouble because of his religion but managed to weather the storm through good grace and intelligence. He had ambitions to be at Court and prospered under Henry VIII and Edward VI and when Catholic queen Mary came to the throne it would seem that his religion did not get in his way, he was friendly with the Lord Chancellor Stephen Gardiner and his exemplary Latin style enabled him to compose correspondence and documents for Queen Mary. He ended his days back at Cambridge University and two years after his death his book “The Schoolmaster” on which much of his fame rests was published.


Toxophilus (Lover of the Bow) was published in 1545 and was dedicated to Henry VIII. Its main aim was to commend the art of shooting the long bow: Ascham was an enthusiast but also he demonstrated the art of writing in English with such good style that it could compare with the more usual Latin compositions. The tradition of long bow shooting had been a staple of English life both as a leisure activity and as a weapon of war, ever since Edward III had made it a requirement that every able bodied man must learn to shoot. This was no longer the case in Tudor England although there was still much emphasis on archery as a weapon of artillery: muskets and the use of gunpowder were still in their infancy and were slow and cumbersome to use. Henry VIII had fixed the price of long bows for young people in a further attempt to encourage their use.

Ascham used the traditional conversational style in both of the two books that make up Toxophilus. In book one Toxophilus is in conversation with his friend Philogolus and Toxophilus is making the case for the shooting of the long bow and is also encouraging Philogolus to practice the art himself. Philogolus has his doubts and Toxophilus must persuade him that it is in his best interests to follow his example. Their conversation ranges far and wide, taking in music, education and touching on religion, but Toxophilus concludes that:

"Therefore to look on all pastimes and exercises wholesome for the body, pleasant for the mind, comely for every man to do, honest for all other to look on, profitable to be set by of every man, worthy to be rebuked of no man, fit for all ages, persons, and places, only shooting shall appear, wherein all these commodities may be found”

There is a large section on the pastime (or vice) of gambling, Toxophilus says that shooting cannot be done at night, it is an open and transparent activity, whereas gambling usually takes place in hidden corners or in the dark. This is interesting because Ascham was allegedly a keen gambler himself, almost addicted to the cockfighting rings.
Much of the rest of part one is taken up with a history of archery. Ascham as a classical scholar delights in telling his friend about decisive battles in Greek and Roman history won by archery, he describes the various types of bows used and their effectiveness in battle. This leads him of course into the famous battles in more recent English history where the long bow proved decisive. He reflects that the failure of the Scots to become skilled in archery has led to them suffering many defeats at the hands of the English. Finally Philogolus asks Toxophilus to teach him how to shoot.

Part two is a fairly detailed guide on how to shoot a long bow. As in many guides it falls into two parts; the equipment to be used and the skills to be employed. This reminded me of when I studied photography at night school, the students could be divided into two clear groups. One group were almost fanatically interested in the equipment; the latest cameras on the market, filters that enhanced the pictures, speed of the film etc. so much so that they hardly spent any time actually taking pictures. The other group were almost the opposite, they just wanted to get out and take pictures using whatever equipment that came to hand. I think perhaps Ascham would have fallen into the first category had he been in that night class. Most of part two of Toxophilus concentrates on the equipment, however his knowledge and enthusiasm makes it a fascinating read as he describes the types of wood that can be used for bow making, how they should be shaped and designed; he goes on to describe various types of arrows, how they are made and what to look for, when buying. Part two is very much like an instruction manual, perhaps one of the first of its kind.

The Scholemaster was published posthumously in 1570. In its preface it tells the reader that the book was written following a conversation with Richard Sackville over dinner one evening. Sackville wanted Ascham to either tutor his children or suggest someone else who could do the job, Sackville blamed his own lack of education on the beatings he received from his masters, that put him off scholarship for life. A traditional method of teaching at the time was to literally beat education into pupils, Ascham agreed that this was not the way to proceed and undertook to write a book on the subject. Persuasion rather than coercion became the watchwords of Ascham’s book.

Ascham abandoned the more traditional conversational style he had used for Toxophilus, but kept a similar format of two books, the first being a more general theory on education the second a more practical guide with examples of teaching methods. The first part emphasises the need for a change in the way children should be taught; he says:

“I have now wished twice or thrice, this gentle nature to be in a schoolmaster: and that I have done so, neither by chance, nor without some reason, I will now declare at large why, in mine opinion, love is fitter than fear, gentleness better than beating, to bring up a child rightly in learning”

He makes the point that the slower witted children need to be encouraged to learn and the schoolmaster may well find that a pupil who at first appears slow is perhaps more thoughtful, more careful and will in the end make the better scholar. He calls these type of children hard wits and says:

“hard wits tend to be kept from learning by fond fathers, or beat from learning by lewd schoolmasters”

It is no surprise that Ascham being a classical scholar himself should recommend that education should be based on the classics and his suggested method for learning is to translate a passage from a latin writer (he continually suggests Tully) and then retranslate that back into Latin with an attempt to imitate the perfect style of the Latin author. The highlights for the modern reader may well be the digressions that Ascham apologises for in his tract. He criticises the life style of some of the courtiers and suggests ways that they could improve themselves. He tells of a meeting he had with Lady Jane Grey (the young protestant queen who reigned for just a number of days before being overthrown and eventually executed by Queen Mary); he is lost in admiration to find the 15 year old woman hard at work at her Greek studies. He tells of his time in Italy where he found a degenerate nobility lost in the evils of Papistry, he rails against such rubbish as Morte D’arthur in which he says the noblest of knights kill men without any quarrel and commit adulteries by subtlest shifts, books written by idle monks or wanton canons that corrupt the mind. There is a lengthy passage about the truth of religion and honesty of living.

The second book is more technical but still has passages of interest, he reminisces fondly about his life at Cambridge and then goes on to tell of the corruption that came with the reign of Queen Mary. The hedge priests that held sway, the taking up of courtly gallantries, the idle games taking place in hidden corners. The book also contains a critique of Roman playwrights and pointers to those authors in England who attempt to write in the noble style. He has no truck with pointless rhyming, but his poem on the death of his friend John Whitney included here has some depth of feeling. The book ends somewhat precipitously and points to the fact that it was not quite completed when he died.

Michael Pincombe a sixteenth century historian has described the Schoolmaster as reading like a genial scholar, talking informally about a subject close to his heart. It would appear that Ascham traded on his geniality and this comes across in his letters, a few of which were written in English. These books would be of interest to those wishing to read primary sources from the sixteenth century, there are versions available where spelling and punctuation have been modernised and Ascham’s English is a delight to read. 4 stars.

132baswood
Modifié : Juil 27, 2017, 8:32 am

133baswood
Modifié : Juil 27, 2017, 8:32 am

Goslings, J D Beresford
Wow! how come this novel: aka. World of Women is not better known. Published in 1913 it slots neatly into the history of Science fiction writing; a dystopia that heralds a possible Utopia, an almost all female society, treated with some degree of sympathy by a male author, (which was probably the first in the genre.), exceptionally well written in a style similar to H G Wells, but avoiding the preaching and the bombast, and a story that reaches a satisfying conclusion.

The novel opens with a view of the Gosling household in the contemporary England (London) of 1913. George Gosling is a respectable family man, who has worked hard to earn his respectability; a man of position now as head of the counting house in a reputable firm with aspirations of venturing into local politics. He is married with two daughters and runs the household in a way that best serves his purpose. Although Beresford says that if you observed George Gosling in the street you would notice that he took a strange and unaccountable interest in the feet and ankles of young women, but his thoughts never translated into actions and he was like a quarter of a million respectable men living comfortably in London’s suburbs. A travelling man (Thrale) revisits the Gosling household where he had been a tenant some years ago with stories of a strange plague that was killing people in the far east. The plague becomes a news item but is dismissed as irrelevant by Britain whose government believe that it could never happen here. This first section of the book is a good view of a society at ease with itself. The two daughters spend their energies in getting more allowance money out of their father to go shopping and the author indulges in a rant against the fashion industry, which reflects badly on the frivolous nature of the Gosling females. Beresford’s depiction of contemporary society, politics and culture is one where there is a distinct feeling that it has reached a peak and that something will happen to cause a downturn, that something is not a world war but a plague. Britain remains complacent even when the first cases in Berlin are reported, the people believe that it won’t be allowed to cross the channel. Thrale tries hard to shake the government into action by writing articles in the newspapers but political events always take precedence. First cases are reported in Scotland and when the plague hits, it is devastating, killing off the vast majority of the male population within 24 hours of infection.

The Goslings having had the inside track through their friend Thrale develop a siege mentality and after acquiring a huge stock of canned food barricade themselves inside the house. A power struggle between George and his women which George wins in the short term but soon leads to him looking elsewhere, (he is one of the very few men who is immune to the plague) and soon as he realises this he is off looking for those well shaped ankles. When food stocks get low the Gosling women leave their house to find an almost deserted London. Blanche the eldest daughter soon takes command and after initial excursions she becomes convinced that they need to get into the countryside to search for food. Almost all the survivors are women and they have already made the trek to the countryside and so following in the footsteps of the wave of refugees is a hard journey for the three women. They manage to keep themselves alive and find a community of women in Marlow a small town 40 miles from London. Here they are able to find work and also discover Mr Thrale another male survivor who is helping the community with his technical and engineering skills. The surviving communities all face the immediate problem of feeding themselves, the destruction of pre plague civilisation has been complete. The community of Marlow does survive and eventually Mr Thrale and his female companion feel strong enough to seek out other survivors……………….

The books finest moments are the descriptions of a devastated London and the Gosling women’s journey through a collapsed city in an attempt to find redemption of a sort in the countryside. Beresford writes well on the issues that survivors of a dystopia would face and he has plenty of thoughts on how people would react and what type of communities might emerge. It should be born in mind that in 1913 there were few women involved in Engineering and technical work and so the loss of the male population would quickly lead to a complete breakdown of the infrastructure. The fact that the women would eventually turn things around and even thrive leads Beresford to say at the end of the novel that Equality (between the sexes) is a beautiful word and presents a wonderful opportunity to future generations.

As in much science fiction the story and the ideas behind it lead to little time for serious character development, but Beresford does far better than most and in Jasper Thrale, Blanche Gosling and then Eileen the leader of the Marlow community he creates characters who add more than just moving the story along. A very enjoyable read that serves as both a snapshot of London just before the war and a new kind of dystopia and so 4 stars.

134janeajones
Juil 27, 2017, 11:25 am

Interesting review of Goslings. I had never of it before.

135baswood
Modifié : Août 2, 2017, 6:37 am



Fury by Henry Kuttner
Those gold coloured covers of the Gollancz SF series proved irresistible to me as I haunted the local libraries when I was in my teens; their simple design made them leap out from the shelves. This edition was published in 2000 exactly 50 years after its first publication and the simple design looks even more pared down to how I remember them.

I don’t remember having read Fury before, but if I had read it way back then, I know I would have enjoyed it. The story line is a good one; no hard science fiction to confuse an already failed physics student, but plenty of good characterisation and imagination to delight an avid reader of science fiction. The story is set in a future where the human race has destroyed earth through atomic warfare and the survivors have fled to Venus and built impervious domes on the floor of the Venusian ocean. Selective breeding has produced a race of immortals who control the day to day lives of the vast majority of people who have a short term existence. Life in the domes (keeps) is peaceful but people are by nature inward looking and there is widespread use of narcotics. There has been a previous attempt to establish a colony on the Venusian land mass but an extremely hostile environment and hostilities amongst the colonists has driven the pioneers back to the keeps where they seem to be content to dream away their lives. Sam Reed bursts onto the scene a genetically altered immortal, unaware of his parentage or immortality looking to break through the somnambulistic existence and wrest the power away from the immortals.

One of the key themes throughout the book is living with and living without immortality; actually the people here who are called immortals live for about 1000 years, but during that time they can attain a certain amount of wisdom that puts them at a distinct advantage over the shorter term lifespan people. They become the social and political leaders living in enclaves separated largely from the rest of the population. Time is always on their side in as much as they can more easily endure difficult periods knowing that they will have plenty of life span to enjoy the good times when they come round again, however they cannot see a certain moribundity to their thinking and slowly the human race is loosing its energy, its vitality. Sam Reed changes all that, having to endure a difficult upbringing where he has to rely on becoming streetwise to survive. He is a man unafraid of taking risks, unscrupulous to a fault, he sees the colonisation of the land mass as his way forward and the main thrust of the book is his battle with the immortals to lead a revolution from the keeps. There is plenty of adventure and skullduggery to keep the pages turning, along with the contrast between the drug infused life style of the immortals and the adventures of the new pioneers.

Henry Kuttner collaborated with his wife L. C. Moore on many of his novels and perhaps this is why they tend to be more literate, and have better developed characters than many of the books in the genre at the time: certainly the female characters have more of a part to play. A good read for science fiction lovers even today and so 3.5 stars.

136FlorenceArt
Août 5, 2017, 7:21 am

Fascinating reviews! I don't think I'll ever read any of those books but I'm glad I learned about them thanks to you.

137dchaikin
Août 6, 2017, 4:32 pm

So, I did finally catch up. Terrific posts here. Quite a variety and obscurity, and you make it all interesting. Wish I could say something more.

138mabith
Août 8, 2017, 11:28 pm

I'll definitely look into Goslings.

139baswood
Août 10, 2017, 10:14 am

140baswood
Août 10, 2017, 1:28 pm

Five Hundred points of Good Husbandry by Thomas Tusser along with A book of Huswifery:
Subtitled as “being a calendar of rural and domestic Economy for every month of the year and exhibiting a picture of the Agriculture, Customs, and manners of England in the sixteenth century.
First published as a hundred points of Good Husbandry in 1557, it started with an admonishment:

“A hundred good point of husbandry,
Maintaineth good household, with huswifery.
Housekeeping and husbandry, if it be good:
Must love one another like cousinnes in blood.
The wife to, must husband as well as the man,
Or farewell thy husbandry do what thou can."


Tusser’s husbandry meant farm management and huswifery was the wife’s management of the household, however reading this today I was immediately struck with the play on words making it seem like a marriage of husband and wife, but I do not know if that was Tusser’s intention. Whatever he intended; he hit the spot with Elizabethan England, because his book was reprinted numerous times and in 1573 expanded to Five hundred points of Good Husbandry.

The first thing to note is that it is all written in verse and Tusser uses so many different forms that he could lay claim to being one of the most original poets of the sixteenth century. Much of it is in rhyming couplets, but there are sonnets, acrostics and even a poem of ten lines: ten words for each line and each word beginning with the letter T. Nothing if not inventive, but the various verse forms can make the explanatory text more difficult to follow and of course over the 300 or so pages there is much repetition.

The majority of the book is taken up with the 500 points of good husbandry and this is set out in a month to month formula. The first poem for each month he calls an abstract and its pithy four/five syllable lines gives an overview of the longer poem that follows. Together they describe the work that needs to be done on the farm during the month in question. The version I was reading is an 1812 edition with modernised spelling and commentary by William Mavor LL. D. (honorary member of the board of Agriculture). Mavor’s commentary for the most part concerns the advice that Tusser gives to his readers, and it appears that Mavor is concerned that early 19th century farmers might go astray if they follow Tusser’s 16th century guidelines for example Tusser tells his readers how to cure loose teeth in bullocks:

“poor bullock with browsing, and naughtily fed,
Scarce feedeth, her teeth be so loose in her head
Then slice ye the tail. where ye feel it so soft
With soot and with garlick, bound to it aloft.”


Mavor points out the more obvious outdated methods, he is also critical of Tusser’s advice on following the phases of the moon for sowing, but this advice has now come full circle with some modern day horticultural guides being based on the lunar calendar. Here is Mavor's commentary on Tusser’s advice on attracting swarming bees.

“the custom of entertaining bees with the rough music of the key, the warming pan, or the fire shovel, in order to make them settle, has probably little effect: except as far as it ascertains property, by giving notice to the neighbours that a swarm is in the air, which may be claimed wherever it alights.”

Tusser is concerned with the economics of farming, his advice is as much biased towards making profit as to good farming methods. He takes the view that the total family unit must be involved full time in the work on the farm. Children as soon as they are strong enough should be put to work clearing stones or scaring the birds, although he is careful to say that their education should also be taken into account. Tusser does have a social conscience, certainly a christian social conscience and he advises that the family has a duty not only to look after their servants, but also to help the poor when they are able.

“At this time and that time, some make a great matter,
Some help not, but hinder the poor with their clatter.
Take custom from feasting, what cometh then last?
Where one hath a dinner, a hundred shall fast.”

“At christmas be merry, and thankful withall,
And feast thy poor neighbour, the great with the small;
Yea all the year long, to the poor let us give,
God’s blessing to follow us, whiles we do live.”


The second longest section of the book gives a summary; again in verse form, of the work to be carried out by the housewife in managing the domestic domain. He assumes that there will be servants to supervise and this takes up a fair proportion of the advice. It would seem that corporal punishment of servants was common place and Tusser acknowledges this, but does not encourage it. There are fascinating sections on the use of herbs for cooking and medicine and the management of the cottage garden. A good idea of domestic arrangements in an Elizabethan farmhouse is evoked in these poems and that is perhaps the main reason for reading Tusser’s book. Much of the poetry is quaint and although Tusser is skilled enough to stop it becoming mere doggerel, I don’t think the modern reader would be thrilled by the poems themselves. Tusser was an educated man whose patron was attached to the court of Queen Elizabeth. He was wealthy enough to own a farm in Norfolk and being something of a business man set himself the task of retiring to the country. However he was unsuccessful in his farming ventures and proved to be much better and more successful in writing about it than in actually doing it. He moved back to a more suitable urban environment.

Concluding the book are more poems in a sort of miscellaneous section on the principle points of religion, the author’s beliefs, departing from the Elizabethan court to the country and some translations from St Augustine. There are also small sections on enclosures and their advantages over common land as well as a dialogue on the advantages of taking a wife (mostly economic). All in all a picture emerges of country life in Elizabethan England from this virtual primary source and so provides much enjoyment for anybody having an historical or literary interest in the period - 4 stars.

141dchaikin
Août 10, 2017, 5:29 pm

Puzzling "make sure, for term of thy life" because apparently that's my current stage. Except, I don't know what that means. Enjoyed your review of Tusser and Mavor's commentary.

142baswood
Août 11, 2017, 1:57 pm

>141 dchaikin: Money in the bank perhaps? hope you've got some Dan.

143dchaikin
Août 11, 2017, 5:09 pm

Not enough. (Five years till college tuitions start... )

144baswood
Modifié : Août 14, 2017, 5:27 am



The Poison Belt by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
I had never thought of Arthur Conan Doyle as a science fiction writer but the Poison Belt (which has nothing to do with an item of clothing) is the real deal. The earth will pass through a poisonous belt of ether which will kill all life on the planet predicts the redoubtable Dr Challenger. Of course no one believes him except a select group of friends who gather at his house and with a few canisters of oxygen and in a temporary sealed room they plan to prolong their existence by a few hours. From an upstairs window they look out across the countryside and witness the deaths of workers and golfers and via telephone calls receive updates on a world wide annihilation. Their oxygen supply to their great surprise lasts long enough for them to survive the poisonous belt and they venture outside to search for other survivors. Everybody appears to be dead and major fires have erupted in some of the big cities and the six survivors contemplate a dead world and their place in it……………..

This novella was published in 1914 and it coincides with two of my themed reads: early science fiction and books published in 1914 and is an excellent example of both. It has a good story line with lively characters especially the irascible Dr Challenger that moves quickly along and it explores a major science fiction trope of the end of the world. It attempts a little more with the characters engaging in lively conversations about their fate both from the viewpoint of believing they only have hours to live and then when they realise they are perhaps the only survivors. There is perhaps a bit too much of the British stiff upper lip from the Dr Challenger character, to make it a serious contemplation on the end of the world, but Conan Doyle was writing an adventure story that would appeal to the imaginative reader. I enjoyed it and so 3.5 stars.

145baswood
Modifié : Août 14, 2017, 5:27 am



Maigret S’amuse by Simenon
J’ai lu en français. C’est le premier roman que j’ai lu en français, et j’ai compris assez pour se rendre compte qui n’a l’assassinat. Donc, tout est bien.

146FlorenceArt
Août 17, 2017, 6:52 am

Excellent, je suis fière de toi !

147baswood
Modifié : Août 23, 2017, 10:48 am

148baswood
Modifié : Août 23, 2017, 10:50 am

Winter Pollen by Ted Hughes.
This is a selection of prose pieces by Ted Hughes that he helped put together with his editor William Scammell. There are some short critical reviews, longer introductions to other poets works and his own collections, there is his introduction to Poetry in the making, extracts from his Shakespeare and the Goddess of Complete Being and two long unpublished essays on Myths, Metres and Rhythms and a critic of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s visionary poetry. There are five pieces on his wife Sylvia Plath including his introductions to her poems and journals and decisions he made on collecting and publishing her work after her death. On whatever subject he is writing the immense character of Hughes comes shining through. Sylvia Plath said of Ted Hughes that “Living with him is like being told a perpetual story: his mind is the biggest, most imaginative I have ever met. I could live in its growing countries forever’, and something of that comes across in these essays.

The opening sentence in a short essay published in the London Magazine in 1961 states that:

“The poets only hope is to be infinitely sensitive to what his gift is, and this in itself seems to be another gift that few poets possess.”

Hughes certainly believed he had that gift and the beauty of many of these essays is the insights that they provide into the mind of the poet. Hughes describes how he makes poetry, what influences his thoughts, and then goes on to explain how his poems should be read. In perhaps the best essay in the book (there are many excellent ones) Myths Metres and Rhythms he tells how he received a letter from a young reader asking him what the hell was going on in his poem “In the Likeness of a Grasshopper” In his reply Hughes explained what he was trying to say and then reflects on how poems can or on this case cannot be interpreted by the reader. Hughes wonders wether the young reader had ever seen a grasshopper if not then he would have been completely at a loss in interpreting the poem. Hughes had been making the point that literary people in the Western world would have a working knowledge of myths, legends and stories from the past and the poet can draw down on these myths to make his points, however there might have already come a time when peoples’ experience of the natural world has become so limited that a nature poet such as himself would struggle with communicating a more realistic subject.

Hughes writes best when he is writing about poetry or other poets and most of these essays do just that. His love and fascination for words, for meanings, for imaginative writing hurtle off the page and may ignite or rekindle his readers’ interest in the subjects. I would describe Hughes as a writer of conviction and while this might be empowering for some readers, others might be put off when he carries this too far. Rather like D H Lawrence he can go off on an imaginative foray which can take him far beyond where his readers may want to be. For example in his introduction to a collection of prints of Leonard Baskin he describes a print of The Hanged Man so rigorously and imaginatively that he is in danger of losing even those readers that are familiar with the prints. Hughes writes that ‘Traces and variations of Shamanism are found all over the world’ and his interest in the subject and the mysterious inner world of the psyche can lead to writing that is difficult to get to grips with. However if we are reading an author because we admire his adventurous imagination we should not worry if we cannot always follow in his footsteps. An essay entitled Shakespeare and Occult Neoplatonism put me on my defence, but it turned out to be clear and incisive and the issues raised will stay with me next time I read Shakespeare.

The two longest essays are the most fruitful. Myths, Metres, Rhythms starting with the sentence ‘Mythologies are dodgy things’ takes as its subject the unorthodox metres of the Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins and stretches back to the Elizabethan poet Thomas Wyatt with stops in between taking in Wordsworth and Coleridge. Hughes uses the rough metaphor of a turbulent woman for unorthodox metres to delightful effect. It is Coleridge that is the subject of The Snake and the Oak, the other long essay and here Hughes goes out on one of his limbs with his idea that Coleridge’s battle between his unleavened self and his Christian self resulted in his three major visionary poems - Kubla Khan, The Ancient Mariner and Christabel. He provides an interesting reading of the three poems that made me want to re-visit them immediately.

Lovers of poetry will delight in Hughes enthusiasm and who would not want to read essays by one of the greatest post second world war poets and so 4.5 stars.

149baswood
Modifié : Août 27, 2017, 7:55 am



London Observed Stories and Sketches by Doris Lessing.
As the title suggests these are a collection of short stories which are sometimes little more than sketches or observations and so of the 18 pieces in a book of 200 pages, I would describe three perhaps four as genuine short stories. This is by no means to denigrate the rest of the collection because the shorter pieces are just as well written and just as delightful in their way as the stories.

Doris Lessing’s observations are of the people that live and work in London, she does not have any interest in walking the reader around the tourist sites of the capital. They were written when Lessing was in her late 60’s and early 70’s and are the thoughts and reflections of an elderly lady at peace with herself enjoying the freedom of looking around with some amusement in restaurants, in cafes or parks, perhaps hearing snatches of conversation from which she can make up her stories and sketches. Her wise thoughts and lively imagination never intrude too much on her observations: she had always been a writer that could capture a moment; particularly of relationships between people and sometimes animals, that ring so true to this reader that he could imagine the situation as though it occurred in his own life. Apart from her science fiction much of Lessing’s fiction has that unmistakable feeling of being autobiographical and so she is well placed to develop these sketches from her own memories having lived much of her adult life in London.

Apart from the first story which tells of a young desperate girl delivering her own baby in an old watchman’s hut, so that she can hide her predicament from her friends and family, most of the other pieces have a more gentle feel to them. It is as though the author is able to look on the world through more kindly eyes. There is some humour, but no jokes and a lightness of touch that mitigates any blame we may feel towards the more selfish actions of some of the characters in the stories. To get a feel for the book you might imagine that you had perhaps come across one of these pieces in your favourite magazine, or newspaper and took the time necessary to indulge yourself in a short fiction read, and at the end of which you would be glad you had done so. London Observed is just such a collection of stories and so 3.5 stars.

150tonikat
Modifié : Août 27, 2017, 8:18 am

Thanks for those last two reviews Bas. I've not read Winter Pollen, I thought I had a copy but its not catalogued, will have a search, maybe others' have pointed me to it before but didn't get a copy. You've refreshed and reminded me of some of his qualities and made me think of going back to him. I loved that collection of Lessing's when it came out, it spoke to what I was starting to learn of London and that gentle understanding a relief.

151baswood
Sep 24, 2017, 1:43 pm

George Gascoigne 1535 -1577
A man of many parts: he wrote poetry, plays, novels, masques, entertainments for Queen Elizabeth I as well as much non fiction including a famous treatise on hunting and a report on the sack of Antwerp. He was born into a wealthy family and sold off much of his land to become a courtier at the court of Queen Elizabeth I, where he failed to rise above others and ruined himself in the attempt, his love affairs and unwise marriage took their toll and he returned to Grays Inn to continue with his studies in law. Marital problems and increasing debts forced him back out to the countryside to make his living from his remaining land. His farming ventures were unsuccessful and his poor reputation at court and in business meant that the only career open to him was soldering. He went to the Dutch wars with an English company to fight for the Prince of orange in 1571, whilst abroad his first volume of literary pieces were published and he ran into problems with the censors. After some success as a soldier he was imprisoned by the Spanish and lost much of his money, he became thoroughly disillusioned by war and the treachery of his friends and allies. He returned to England where his fortunes changed following the re-publishing of some of his work and his success in finding wealthy patrons. The highpoint of his fame came with his writing entertainments for the Queen for her progress in 1576 and his publication of more moral treatise which were well received at court. He was widely read at the time of his death a year later.

George Gascoigne’s star went into decline when smoother, more elaborate poetry headed by Edmund Spenser and Philip Sydney, became popular with readers. Critics until fairly recently while noting his achievements have tended to dismiss him as a minor voice in literature. Much of the criticism is based on the sheer number of literary forms that he tried and the amount of work that he published with the thought that he dissipated his talents. He has also been criticised for his poetic style and for the unevenness and even roughness of much of his work. His oeuvre is currently undergoing a bit of a revival and one that I would fully support after having read much of what is available today.

Stephen Hamrick has said:

“The list of Gascoigne’s innovations and experiments is even more impressive than the sheer volume of his work: The Adventures of Master F.J. is one of the earliest and best instances of English prose fiction; The Supposes loosely follows Ariosto’s I suppositi to become the first English comedy of the Italian type; The Glasse of Governement brought to England the Dutch type of the prodigal-son play; the masque composed for the Montagu wedding in 1572 is one of the earliest masques we have; the satire The Steel Glas (1576) is the first nondramatic poem in blank verse in English; Jocasta is the first version of a Greek tragedy in English; The Noble Arte of Venerie or Hunting, with its familiar woodcuts of Elizabeth at the hunt, is the most cited of the Elizabethan hunting treatises; Gascoigne’s sonnet sequences are among the earliest in English; and, to cap this host of literary performances, he was also the first published vernacular theorist of poetic composition.”

A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres was first published in 1573 and it appeared as a miscellany of literature. There are seventy pages of poetry, ranging from short lyrics to poems of more than three hundred lines, there are two dramas and a prose romance that is arguably England’s first novel. There are dedications and valedictory letters and more confusingly there appears to be several authors, however it now appears that nearly everything was written by George Gascoigne. The 1573 edition ran into censorship problems and created something of a scandal: Some of the love poetry with its portraits of various people at the court of Queen Elizabeth was too readily identified and the prose novel: The Adventures of Master J was considered far too erotic. Perhaps also his criticisms of society and particularly courtiers rankled with those very people that would read his poetry. It was fortunate for Gascoigne that he was out of the Country a the time. When Gascoigne returned from the wars it was all repackaged with some additions and very few excisions with an epistle from Gascoigne to the “greybeards” who might sit in judgement. In his epistle he said:

So shal your reverend judgements behold in this seconde edition, my poems gelded from all filthie phrases, corrected in all erroneous places, and beautified with addition of many moral examples……….yet hope I that it shall be apparent I have rather regarde to make our native language commendable in itself, than gay with the feathers of strange birdes.

Gascoigne also reorganised the various pieces into three sections Flowers, Herbes and Weeds with an explanation to the young gentlemen who might read them:

I term some Floures bycause being indeed invented upon a verie light occasion, they have yet in them (in my judgement) some rare invention and Method before not commonly used. And therefore being more pleasant than profitable I have named them Floures.
The second (being indeed moral discourses and reformed inventions, and therefore more profitable I have named Hearbes.
The third (being Weedes) might seem to some judgements, neither pleasant nor yet profitable, and therefore meete to be cast away. But as many weedes are right medicinable, so you may find in this none so vile or stinking, but that it hath in it some virtue.


It is interesting to see which pieces he put in his new sections. Much of the love poetry is contained in Flowers. The drama and poems that reminisce about Gascoigne’s own failings are contained in Herbs while the scandalous “The Adventures of Master J and his more overt criticisms of Elizabethan society have been relegated to the Weedes.. The repackaging was a success and the collection was widely read and more importantly secured for Gascoigne much needed patronage for future work.

And so what about the actual literature…………

Much of Gascoigne’s best poetry is contained in A Hundreth Sundrie Flowres, he claims in his introduction that he is attempting some rare invention and although many poems take the form of courtly love lyrics, Gascoigne strives to add more honesty, irony and more down to earth language to make something a little different. He prised invention above lyrical content and this is evident from the poems. It makes for interesting reading as much of the poetry appears more approachable for 21st century readers even if it might not read so smoothly. The first poem: “The Anatomy of a Lover” takes as a starting point the old Petrarchan theme of the tormented lover, but is taken to such excess that it becomes almost satyrical. “The Lullabie of a Lover” uses the idea of a lyrical lullaby and Gascoigne takes pains to ensure that this flows softly and sweetly just as a lullaby would, however this is Gascoigne and so the final stanza is bitter-sweet: it has become his most anthologised poem. He writes poems with the two voices of the would be lover and his intended conquest, with coquettishness and recriminations in equal measure. The overall tone of much of the poetry is pessimistic with an overriding theme of life wasted in the pursuit of youthful pleasures. Gascoigne looks back on his days as a courtier with equal measures of regret for the loss of his vigour and potency, but also a sense that he could and should have done more.

“Gascoigne’s Woodmanship” appears in his section of Herbs and it contains much of what is good in his poetry. He uses as a central theme his failure at shooting down a deer with a crossbow given to him by one of his patrons. His inability to hit the target even when presented with the best of opportunities are used by him to reflect on his failures in life:

Alas my Lord, while I do muze hereon
And call to minde my youthful years myspent,
They give me such a boane to gnawe upon,
That all my senses are in silence pente,
My mind is rapt in contemplation,
Wherein my dazzled eyes onely beholde
The black hour of my constellation,
Which framed me so lucklesse on the molde.


Much of Gascoigne’s poetry is personal, he is the subject of the poems and although he can and does use many voices it all comes back to his own personal views.

Gascoigne was much more than a courtly love poet, he stretched himself to cover many other themes. Running throughout are comments on the Elizabethan social order, about which he was pessimistic. He looks back to an imagined golden age where greed, deceit and flattery were not so common. He left behind the life a courtier to return to his studies at the Law Courts and was challenged by five friends to compose poems whilst out riding, the idea being that they would be composed on the hoof as it were. He claims to have done this remembering them to write down at a later date. Starting with Satis Sufis they form a critique of the ills of the Elizabethan social order.

Gascoigne drew on his experiences in life in order to write his poetry, he was interested in getting to the truth: “Dulce Bellum inexpertis” starts with the line:

“To write of war and wot* not what it is” * NB wot means know in this context.

This is Gascoigne the war poet, writing from his own experiences of war and castigating those who write about it without ever having been involved in the fighting. For 192 stanzas he documents his war time experiences and as with most of his poetry it is both intensely personal and also critical of war and the hows and whys of the fighting. A couple of stanza’s towards the end of the poem illustrate this:

So loss of goods shall never trouble me,
Since God which gives can take what pleaseth him,
But loss of fame or slaundered so to be,
That makes my wittes to break above the brimme,
And frettes my heart, and lames me every limme:
For noble minds their honour more esteem,
For worldly wights, or wealth, or life can deeme

And yet in warres, such graffes and grudge do growe,
Such lewdness lutkes, such malicfe makes mischief,
Such envie boyles, such falsehoods fire doth blow,
That Bountie burns, and truth is called theif,
And good deserts are brought into such brief,
That saunder snuffe which swears the matter out,
Brings oftentimes the noblest names in doubt.


The concluding lines of the poem sums up Gascoigne’s views:

To warne the wise, that they such faults do flie
As put down peace, by covine or debate,
Since warre and strife bryng woe to every state.


There are some poems with religious lyrics and they are from a man with a simple faith in God.

It would seem obvious to me that Gascoigne was a major poetical voice of the sixteenth century. Much of his poetry is successful and speaks to us with an honesty and a search for truth that makes it relevant to readers, from many ages, but there is much more to A hundreth Sundrie Flowres than just the poetry. The two plays: “The Tragedie called Jocasta” and the “Comedie called Supposes” are not original works, both are translations and yet I suspect there is much that is original from Gascoigne in both pieces.

Gascoigne claims that “Jocasta is a Tragedie written in Greek by Euripides, translated into Acts by George Gascoigne, and Francis Kinwelmershe of Grayes Inn and there by them presented 1566.” It is now known that only fragments of Euripides play survives and Gascoigne was translating from a renaissance Italian version which was itself a translation from a Roman translation of the original play. However it has come down to us, we have Gascoigne’s version, complete with dumb shows at the start of each of the five acts and a Greek chorus. It is a play to be read for enjoyment rather than being acted on stage. It tells the story of Jocasta the wife/mother of Oedipus Rex. and their two sons Pollynices and Eteocles. Oedipus Rex himself exists blinded in a dungeon in the castle and Jocasta is left with the responsibilities of the State of Thebes. She is perplexed in choosing her successor and decides that her two sons should both rule, but on alternate years. This does not work because Eteocles is not prepared to give up the kingship after a year and so Pollynices with the help of a foreign army (Greeks) attempts to take what he has been promised by force. Both sons are killed in the fighting and Creon (Jocasta’s brother) depicted as a tyrant takes the throne for himself banishing both Jocasta and Oedipus Rex. The play has many moral conundrums, not fully resolved by the playwrights, but one can see why it was chosen by Gascoigne to translate. Elizabeth the virgin queen did not have an heir and the whole issue of her successor was a hot topic of debate. The play is written largely in blank verse with a rhyming scheme used for the Greek chorus. Much of the action takes place off stage and there is little in the way of repartee and so the only drama of note is supplied by the dumb shows, which are fully described in the text.

“The Supposes” is a translation of a play by Ariosto. Gascoigne’s translation emphasises the moral position of the characters and he also does not loose sight of the comedy. It is a fast moving plot driven play with conventional stock characters. The story centres around two young lovers trying to get together against the desires of two old men and in some respects society. There are many twists in the play based on false identities and mistaken identities. The dialogue is lively and witty and the action moves along at a fast pace.

“The Adventures of Master F J” is something else again and has been described as one of England’s first novels. Gascoigne uses prose, poetry and letters to tell his story of high eroticism. Characterisation takes centre stage in the story and the Characters are F J a young courtier invited to a castle to woo the Dukes daughter Frances. Lady Elinor married to the Duke’s son intervenes to seduce FJ. who we soon discover is way out of his depth. F.J. is easily seduced and he spends his time writing poems and riddles and arranging possible meetings with lady Elinor. The Duke’s son travels away on business and Lady Elinor seizes the chance to get F J into her bed. Frances who is described as a chaste virgin falls in love with F.J. to the extent that she helps him with his arrangements with Lady Elinor because she just wants to give him what he wants. Inevitably Lady Elinor tires of F J and when her husband returns she wants nothing more to do with him. Frances offers herself to F J but he rejects her, filled with his own self pity and a sense of outrage. Gascoigne manages to make the chaste Francis’ offer/sacrifice of herself completely believable as he does F J’s rejection of her. The story is extremely well written with some excellent scenes. I particularly enjoyed the courtship/seduction of F.J by Lady Elinor where the two of them are out hunting with the full retinue from the castle, it is skilfully done and has moments of real poetry. This story which develops characters to novel proportions can rank highly amongst the best stories from the Italian Renaissance. This is the story that caused much of the trouble with the censors for the 1573 edition of Gascoigne’s book and it was the subject of most of his excisions to get it re-published in 1575.

Certayne notes of Instruction Concerning the Making of Verse or Ryme in English, George Gascoigne.
Published as a separate pamphlet this is one of the first books of instruction to would be poets and it’s advice turns fully away from the courtly love poetry of the previous generation. The guidelines are clear and concise and to a large extent were followed by Gascoigne himself when he was writing his own poetry. He stresses the importance of fine invention telling poets to not be carried away from invention by the form or rhyme of the poem. He was keen to see the same measure used at the beginning of a poem carried right through until the end. He gave some details about placing words in their natural sounding order with examples. He stressed the importance of using words of one syllable whenever possible, in an attempt not to complicate the poetry. “Don’t change good reason for rumbling rhyme” He gives advice on the use of caesuras and gives examples of rhyming schemes and various poetic forms, including his definition of a sonnet. It is all good sound practical advice.

The complete works of George Gascoigne, volume 2
The Glasse of Government
This is Gascoigne’s only original play and is a highly moralistic drama based on the prodigal son theme. The early part of the play is almost a lecture on good schooling as Gnomaticus is hired to instruct the four sons of two families. The instruction is based on Roger Ascham’s treatise on education and elicits the same warning about quick witted learners as opposed to slower more considered pupils. The elder two sons are the quick witted ones who only have eyes for the girls. They are soon lured away from their studies by Lamia a young women of the town spreading her wings for the first time. The fathers pack their sons off to college, but it is too late for the elder two as they have been corrupted. While the play works to a certain extent it does not have the same flow as his previous two translations and I did not enjoy this play as much.

The Princely Pleasures at Kenilworth
Gascoigne had really arrived as a literary figure when he was hired to provide some of the entertainments for the progress of Queen Elizabeth in 1776 for her visit to Kenilworth. This was the home of the Quenn’s great friend Robert Dudley and so one imagines that the entertainments had to be top notch. What has come down to us is a welcoming pageant a short scenario to accompany some fire works, a masque that featured a wild man from the woods (perhaps Gascoigne himself) following the Queens return from a hunting expidition and finally an end piece written in haste following the queens announcement of a hurried departure. Much of it is based on classical themes and of course there is much praise for Queen Elizabeth herself. There are some not so coded messages about leaving the country without an heir, which Gascoigne as the wild man might have got away with. This is commendatory poetry and drama, but it is interesting to read and imagine it being produced in front of the royal party.

The Spoyle of Antwerp.
This is reportage by a Johnny on the spot when Gascoigne was lodged in the city and witnessed first hand the Spanish sack of the city. It is a lively piece of newspaper reportage with a few graphic scenes of rape and violence. It is curious for the dichotomy in the piece, because on the one hand Gascoigne cannot fail to admire the Spanish military machine whilst on the other he condemns them for the cruelty of their actions. He describes how it all started and how he got caught up in it. It is a vivid account with Gascoigne himself on hand to help with saving some members of the English community caught up in the violence.

The Steele Glass
In his dedication to the Lord Grey Of Wilton. He says:
I have misgoverned my youth I confess it, but what should I do then? …. I am derided, suspected, accused and condemned……
But neither will magnaminitie suffer me to become unhonest, nor yet can industry see me sink in idleness….
And in ful hope therof, I have presumed to present your honour with this Satyre written without rime, but I trust not without reason.
1576


This has been described as the first regular or formal satire in English and the first using blank verse but has not been highly praised by critics. I think it is a brilliant concept that Gascoigne almost pulls off. The steele glass acts as a mirror and its reflection shows what people really are and what they should be, but there is also the crystal glass that shows people what they would like to be. The steele glass shows us the morally ideal world as well as the actual world so that we can change our ways to achieve it. The crystal glass is doubly dangerous in that it shows us both what we think we are and what we would like to be apart from moral restrictions. The theme of the two glasses is not carried through the entire poem and there is some difficulty in understanding just which reflection we are looking at. What we do get is a fascinating and fairly detailed picture of all levels of society in Elizabethan England and as this is Gascoigne writing it is no panegyric. Throughout the poem he tries to contrast the less than perfect present with a golden age from the past.

The satire ranges far and wide and includes some biting remarks about other countries in Europe. He is conscious of being an English poet writing for the English and so the picture that emerges has the characteristics of his native country. Perhaps the poem is a little too far reaching in its ambitions, but is worth reading to see the Elizabethan world through the eyes of one of its best writers.


I have read many of Gascoignes surviving works and have discovered a fascinating and at times brilliant writer. Much of the poetry is worth a re-read and closer study, while his novel: The Adventures of Master J. was a great discovery. There are still a couple of long moralist tracts available to read, which were written in the final year of his life, but those I think I can give a miss having dipped into them and found that they were written very much to seal his reputation with the greybeards who caused him so much trouble. As with much writing from the sixteenth century it is difficult to place ourselves in the footsteps of the authors, who will remain something of a mystery; for example in a sonnet written in praise of the browne beautie, compiled for the love of Mistresse E P he ends with the lines:

Twixt faire and fowle therefor, twixt great and small,
A lovely nutbrowne face is best of all.


A mystery woman or just a fashionable line from the sixteenth century: that lovely nutbrowne face crops up in a couple of other pieces.


152baswood
Modifié : Sep 24, 2017, 5:25 pm

George Gascoigne, Ronald C. Johnson
This is a book of literary criticism in the Twayne's English Authors Series. In his preface Ronald c Johnson says the purpose of the book is to discuss as a critic, not a historian - the writings of Gascoigne and to determine the merits and faults as they actually appear in the individual pieces. He does allow himself space for a short biography, but other than that he fully completes the stated purpose. An excellent book of criticism aimed at the student, with plenty of examples from the works of Gascoigne.

153SassyLassy
Sep 27, 2017, 9:27 am

>151 baswood: Good to see you back.

What a fascinating character Gascoigne was. It is too bad his star fell so early. Taking particular note of The Princely Pleasures of Kenilworth.

>145 baswood: Congratulations on the Simenon in French! Sans doute, tout est bien.

154Caroline_McElwee
Sep 28, 2017, 10:29 am

I'm not sure how you fell off my radar Barry, but I have caught up a bit. Glad you are still sticking with Lessing. I own though that I never got on with The Good Terrorist, the voice just didn't ring authentically for me. But that is the only one I had a problem with, of the few I have read (in comparison with your reading). Shikasta is on next year's reading for my local book group, so I need to dig it out.

Love the portrait of Ted Hughes at >147 baswood: .

I like the idea of having themes, maybe I will chose one for next year.

155baswood
Oct 14, 2017, 9:25 am

156baswood
Oct 14, 2017, 9:27 am

The House of Doctor Dee Peter Ackroyd
I must admit to not being a Peter Ackroyd fan. I read his breakthrough novel Hawksmoor, quite a while ago and while I appreciated his ability to create tensions in time and space by the juxtaposition of two story threads: one in the past and one in the present, I felt that he was more concerned in creating a sense of place and an atmosphere of a part of London that fascinates him than he was in telling the story. I found some of his writing a little pedantic and struggled to maintain my interest through the novel. It just somehow didn’t work. I have also read his poetry collection The diversions of Purley, and other poems and found a similar difficulty in getting involved with the author. The House of Doctor Dee in my opinion is a step up in both the story telling aspects and his writing style, somehow his writing has lost some of its density, which made it much easier for me to become involved in the novel and to appreciate his ability to conjure up the links between two different periods of time.

It has to be said that Ackroyd plays fast and loose with historical accuracy. Dr John Dee’s main residence was at Mortlake in South West London and it was here at the turn of the sixteenth century that his prodigious library was vandalised, this fact does not get in Ackroyd’s way of wanting to maintain his love affair with the streets of East London and so he transpose Dee’s residence to Clerkenwell in East central London. He tells the story of John Dee’s obsession with magic and his relationship with Edward Kelly a shady character who is best described as a mountebank, Its a kind of master pupil relationship, but with hazy lines as to who is in control. with the aid of a crystal ball they are attempting to divine the future and Dr Dee who uses Kelly as a medium is also attempting to create a homunculus. The novel starts with a story from the present: Mathew Palmer has inherited a house in Clerkenwell, he is an archivist and historian and soon realises that it is the house of John Dee and it has a strange fascination from the moment he sees it. He has a friend Daniel Moore and both men are steeped in archival work and are a little solitary although Moore seems to be the more senior figure. The two stories are told in the first person and in alternate chapters and it is Dr Dee’s old house that makes the initial connection. Mathew feels a presence in the house at times he can almost see Dr Dee as he explores the basement where Dee did some of his work. Edward Kelly scrying with the crystal ball at one point says he sees two men in strange costumes calling each other Mathew and Daniel.

The relationships in both stories are fraught with difficulties. Dr Dee has implicit faith in Edward Kelly, but reluctantly starts to doubt his motives. His wife and servants both warn him that Kelly is a crook, only working with Dee to gain access to his work in alchemy, magic and the homunculus. Kelly is accused by the servants of poisoning Dr Dee’s wife. Dee himself becomes convinced that he is about to discover some sort of portal that will take him back to a time of London’s glorious past. Mathew Palmer glimpses his friend Daniel in a cross dressing establishment and then learns that he was his fathers lover and that he himself may have been molested by his father. He has an uneasy relationship with his mother only starting to realise the reasons for her estrangement from her husband. His mother cannot bear to be in the house in Clerkenwell sensing that it was a place where activities took place that she cannot face. A house then with many secrets that seems to give glimpses of a past and a future. Troubled relationships, magic, sex, murder provide a heady brew that permeates the house in Clerkenwell and the two stories describe a palimpsest, where a curtain between the past and the present quivers; always threatening to open up.

I like the way Ackroyd writes about Elizabethan times, he creates an atmosphere and feel for the period by using language and a style of writing that evokes those times. The reader usually knows when he is in the sixteenth century or more recent times, however Ackroyd does not quite achieve this with his present day story, his nostalgia for the past seems to carry him back to a London in the 1950’s. Troubled psyches perhaps tend to dream, even have visions and Ackroyd uses these to enhance the tension in the lives of his characters. Dr Dee and Mathew are both in fear of what they might find, but their quest for knowledge keeps them pushing for answers. Dr Dee has his religious faith to bolster his spirits, even when searching for angels, but this is something that Mathew lacks in present times and this is an interesting juxtaposition between the two stories.

Ghosts, visions, dreams in two parallel stories can provide novelists with difficulties to reconcile, but the reader is not disappointed in this book. Ackroyd lets his two stories speak for themselves and the reader can make the connections that the author clearly signposts. At the end of the book, Ackroyd can’t resist blurring the lines between himself and the first person character of John Dee that he has created. He asks:

“ And what is the past after all? is it that that is created in the formal act of writing, or does it have some substantial reality. Am I discovering it or inventing it? or could it be that I am Discovering it within myself, so that it bears both the authenticity of surviving evidence and the immediacy of present intuition? The House of Doctor Dee leads me to that conclusion……”

There is mystery, there is atmosphere and even a resolution of sorts and some brilliant evocative writing that kept this reader enthralled throughout the whole novel. The best thing that I have read by Peter Ackroyd (perhaps I need to do some re-reading) and so 4.5 stars.

157Caroline_McElwee
Oct 14, 2017, 12:58 pm

I have to say I do like most of Ackroyd’s work Barry. I’ve probably read about 2/3rds. I remember loving Hawksmoor but that may be because I like place and atmosphere in a novel. I also loved English Music. However, I read these when they were first published, so they are long overdue a reread. His biography of Dickens could have been 150 pages shorter but I loved it. The House of Dr Dee is on the shelf, I’ll nudge it up the pile.

158dchaikin
Oct 14, 2017, 6:09 pm

really loved your post on George Gascoigne. Certainly seems like you enjoyed your experience with him.

A great review of The (misplaced?) House of Doctor Dee, but it does leave with the impression that Ackroyd is not for me.

159baswood
Modifié : Oct 14, 2017, 7:59 pm

160baswood
Modifié : Oct 14, 2017, 8:02 pm

Limbo - Bernard Wolfe
David Pringle in his introduction to my SF Masterworks copy said in 1985:

“That it was time that Limbo was recognised for what it is: the most ambitious work of Science fiction and one of the most successful ever to come out of America”

While I might agree with it being an ambitious work I would certainly quibble with it being the most successful: however you define most successful, Limbo ain’t it. Approach with caution any books labelled underground classic or forgotten classic and this has both labels. I can’t think that it sold very many copies when it was published in 1952 as it would not have appealed to many science fiction readers at the time and the truly science fiction nature of the book would have taken it far away from a more literary readership. It was originally published as a novel by Random House with the dust jacket claiming it as “a diabolic tale - mad merry and monstrous of men and women caught in the vortex of history yet to happen.” Its emergence as an underground classic in 1985 is also fraught with problems, although classing it as a science fiction novel certainly rings true. There is no getting away from the novels glorification of its treatment of women, whose only function seems to be the service of men, and more disturbingly aiding their masochistic tendencies. The novel is also badly structured and too long with its post Freudian analysis sometimes descending into mumbo-jumbo. Having said all of that, the novel does not lack ambition, it contains some brilliant ideas with writing that is several steps ahead of much science fiction writing at the time.

The central character of the novel is Doctor Martine whom we first encounter on an unmapped Pacific island in 1990. He is a neuro-surgeon performing lobotomies on the local native population at the request of the elders in efforts to drive the “mad dogs” from peoples brains (before Martine’s arrival they performed their own version of lobotomies with much lower recovery rates.) Dr Martine’s past life is sketched in and we learn that he is a fugitive from the third world war, which went nuclear destroying much of the population. The war effort was run by two opposing super computer type machines and Dr Martine’s escape from the war zone in 1972 was one of the first in history. His peaceful existence on the island is shattered by a visit from a company of survivors from the war, these new men all have prosthetic limbs that allow them to do super feats of running, jumping and all sorts of gymnastics. Martine decides to flee again but this time sets sail for America to learn what has happened in the intervening 18 years. He learns that the prosthetic limbs are an essential part of the Immob movement that now holds sway. Survivors from the war are determined to cure all aggressive tendencies and voluntary amputation of one, two, three or all four limbs is the ultimate goal of the new pacifists. The new computerised prosthetics however give these new men even more power, but they can easily be removed if aggression becomes an issue. Dr Martine finds to his horror that notes he made about aggressive tendencies back before the nuclear war are now seen as a sort of bible for the Immob movement. The element used in making the new super prosthetics is in very short supply and once again there are two rival factions based on the old East - West divide in competition for the scarce resource - another war looms.

The plot as good as it is, seems to be a vehicle on which the author can hang various theories and these are explored at length throughout the novel for example: voluntary amputation and how it differs from accidental amputation, the vol-amps are treated as heroes of the people in contradiction to how accidentally disabled people are normally treated. There are many theories about achieving peace through voluntary amputation or lobotomy and what effect this has on the volunteer: how is he restricted, when he loses the will or the ability to fight back, how much does voluntary amputation pander to man’s natural masochistic tendencies; a disturbing theory emerges that man is in his infancy at the mercy of his mother or his nurse and perhaps later his wife, he welcomes this suffering in a masochistic way and so can continue this in adulthood with voluntary amputation. How to make pacifism irreversible in a world where aggression is so necessary a part of mans psyche, that deep desire to hurt other people and to hurt yourself. Theories on all these themes are discussed at some length in the book almost totally from a male perspective. They are rehearsed and then rehashed later in such a way that some original thinking gets mixed up with much that hardly makes any sense at all.

And now we come to sex and particularly the orgasm. Bernard Wolfe seems to think himself something of an expert in this field and sexual couplings are described in some detail with some analysis afterwards. Sex with a voluntary amputee usually takes place with the prosthetics off (there have been far too many accidents with the inability to control them during the sex act). In the case of a quadro-amp this means almost complete passivity with the woman on top and in complete control (Women are not encouraged to join the Immob movement), this represents more masochism for the male as women can prolong the sex act for their own satisfaction. Women are represented largely as either being frigid or whores and it is only on the island in the Pacific where Dr Martin can experience a loving relationship with a native women. This is Doctor Martine committing rape with one of the new women in America after he has been the victim of the established passive sex:

“Youve had your fun” he said “its my turn now”
She Fought him, her body writhing with the effort to break her hold, but he was determined. Equal rights - he was not asking much, just equal rights. It was not going to be exactly the best he had ever had, but it was better than nothing. And didn’t she really want this after all? Rape was a pretty difficult business without a bit of ambivalence in the woman …………”


Wolfe goes on to describe the rape in some detail with Dr Martine thinking of other women in his past life who have denied him pleasure.

During these passages and some of the other theories that are expounded in the book I had to keep reminding myself that this was science fiction - a vision of a not very pleasant future, but they are written with such passion that I began to wonder if Wolfe actually believed that the human psyche is just as he is describing it in this novel. He backs up his theories with quotes from Sigmund Freud and there are plenty of literary references to Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground as well as Mann’s Magic Mountain and even Melville’s Moby-Dick ( Captain Ahab was of course an involuntary amputee and so unable to control his aggression to the white whale). In Wolfe’s defence he gives Dr Martine a sense of humour (he can’t resist a good pun) and in a note afterwards titled “author’s notes and warnings” he refers to the irony and satire in the novel saying:

“This book, then, is a rather bilious rib on 1950 - on what 1950 might have been like if it had been allowed to fulfil itself, if it had gone on being 1950 only more and more so for the next four decades”

This doesn’t say much for 1950 as the humour is of the blackest kind.

It is a novel that is easy to criticise, it faults are there for all to see, but this should not get in the way of appreciating its startling originality, its courage in exploring areas of the human psyche and sexuality where many other authors would fear to tread and there is a great science fiction novel lurking amongst the verbiage. However I would struggle to give it more than a 3.5 rating.

161dchaikin
Oct 14, 2017, 11:35 pm

Terrific, fun review. The sexism sounds really extreme.

162baswood
Oct 15, 2017, 3:35 am

>157 Caroline_McElwee: I have English Music high up on my TBR pile and I am now looking forward to it.

163baswood
Oct 31, 2017, 10:50 am

Spies I have Known by Doris Lessing.
Spies I have Known is a collection of short stories published in 1995. My edition published by Cascade books does not contain a list of titles, which is most annoying when you wish to check on the stories to see if you have previously read them. The stories date from 1954 through to 1990 and so if you have read some of Lessing’s stories there is a good chance that these will not be new to you.

I need to tell myself that I am not reading a novel when starting a short story. In the 20-30 page length of most of the stories there will be little space for deep character development or for a complicated plot. The best ones here offer a slice of life where open ended beginnings often give way to open ended endings. These are not clever little stories with plot twists or ones that have a moral point: although there are plenty of acute observations on moral dilemmas. There are nine stories in this collection and I enjoyed them all, but it was a shame that I had read them all before.
Three stars.

164baswood
Modifié : Oct 31, 2017, 11:05 am

>163 baswood: I have since learned that Cascades is a series of titles published by Collins educational and that one of the consultants was John Mannion, Head of English at Elliott School Wandsworth, which by coincidence is where I went to school.

165baswood
Modifié : Oct 31, 2017, 12:10 pm

166baswood
Modifié : Oct 31, 2017, 12:10 pm

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
I should have known that I would be disappointed by a book that was the winner of the Man Booker prize in 2008 and was described as “A Masterpiece” by the Times and as “Blazingly Savage and Brilliant” by the Sunday Telegraph.

The book is one dimensional in the extreme. It is a lampoon of corruption in Modern India, which appears to have been written by somebody who got most of his information from reading the more outlandish reports published in the English language newspaper The India Times. It is written in the first person by one Balram Halwai who tells his story of rising from an obscure village in the province of Bangalore to becoming one of its leading entrepreneurs. He describes his life as a poor youth in the village desperate to make his way in the world; he sees an opportunity to become a driver in the service of one of the local big business man and tells how he uses the corruption in the system to obtain his first goal and from then how he manages to become an entrepreneur himself.

There is plenty of local colour and wild stories of the bribery and corruption that Aravind Adiga claims is all encompassing throughout Indian society and business practices. This may be true but Adiga’s heavy handed story telling was wearing extremely thin by the time I was 50 pages into this 300 page novel. The author had by this time also given away much of the plot and so it was a case of reading the same thing over and over again until the end: it was like reading a particularly moribund version of a script for the film Slumdog Millionaire, without a love story.

No plot to speak of, no characterisation but plenty of stock characters, no intimation that the book could go anywhere but down a dreary lampoon route. I am at a loss as to how the Man Booker judges considered this book to be anything approaching literature. Perhaps they were taken in by the more outlandish descriptions of modern Indian society, or perhaps by the authors complete lack of humour or humanity. or perhaps the author/publisher did what most of his characters did in the novel - came up with a huge bribe that the judging panel could not refuse.
A waste of time and two stars.

167OscarWilde87
Nov 1, 2017, 4:21 am

>166 baswood: I'm sorry to hear this. I usually take the Man Booker Prize as an indication of literary quality. Apparently, this is not the case anymore.

168SassyLassy
Nov 2, 2017, 7:26 pm

>166 baswood: I would agree completely. I was very disappointed in the book.

169avaland
Nov 3, 2017, 4:02 pm

>166 baswood: Interesting comments on The White Tiger, Barry. I've not been tempted by it (too many books to choose from...)

170Caroline_McElwee
Nov 3, 2017, 4:13 pm

I read it years ago, I wasn’t as disappointed as you Barry, but I was disappointed.

171dchaikin
Nov 4, 2017, 11:09 am

>166 baswood: it's a great review, the book is well attacked

I wonder about the Booker and what leads to the odd decisions. Of course, opinions vary and the judges know these author usually directly in some way and they oftern know their history. But also these judges have to read so many books so quickly without any time for reflection, while under public scrutiny. It might be a poor system of awarding.

172baswood
Nov 10, 2017, 8:44 am

173baswood
Modifié : Nov 10, 2017, 11:16 am

The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins by Robert Paltock
An early adventure story novel published in 1751 that now claims a place in the proto science fiction genre. The subtitle says “containing an account of his visit to the Flying Islanders taken from his own mouth in his passage to England, from off Cape Horn in America in the ship Hector”
The novel was originally published in two volumes and was something of a success being reprinted several times. It is a well written account which in the majority of its first volume owes much to Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe published thirty years earlier: but then in the latter part of the novel Youwarkee the flying woman literally drops from the sky and Paltock’s novel moves into fantasy land and in my opinion moves up a gear to present a story that makes this well worth reading.

Peter Wilkins voyages take him to the Southern seas and shipwrecks and Pirates result in him being sold into slavery in South America. He becomes heavily reliant on his fellow prisoner Glanlipze (Portuguese) and the two of them escape and flee to where Glanlipze has made his home and married a local woman. Peter is impressed by the love both physical and affectionate that is shared by the two of them and this becomes a theme throughout the book along with Peter’s deep devotion to God which fires him with an almost missionary zeal in the second volume. Peters adventures continue and after hi-jacking a fully stocked ocean going ship he becomes the only survivor of another encounter with pirates, this time he drifts into the waters close to Antartica. Shipwrecked again with his ship magnetised to a rocky archway on an unexplored island, he eventually finds a way onto the island via an underground sea-way and finds an almost idyllic lake and forest where he makes his home. Here he re-enacts the story of Robinson Crusoe, using salvaged tools and materials to build a home for himself. Like Crusoe his is a voyage of discovery as he painstakingly learns about his new home and figures out how to survive through hard work and ingenuity and his faith in God. When he gets depressed he turns to his religion and says:

“These thoughts brought me to my knees, and I poured out my soul to God, in a strain of humiliation, resignation to his will and earnest petitions for deliverance or support in this distress.”

Like Crusoe having spent a number of years on the Island he receives a visitation, but not from pirates, but in the form of the beautiful Youwarkee a naked flying primitive woman who tumbles from the sky with damaged wings. Peter nurses Youwarkee and as soon as they are able they make love and enjoy a relationship similar to his friend Glanlipze. Paltock’s description of their first night together is handled with charm and some eroticism. They go on to have a number of children together and it is Youwarkee’s developing self belief that enables her to broach the question of returning home when she is able to fly again. Peter is loath to lose his partner and is in fear of losing everything whenever she goes on flying missions back to the wrecked ship. Paltock describes well this almost idyllic life on the island and he makes Youwarkee’s graundee (the wing like material with its intricate webbing) come to life. Towards the end of the first volume Youwarkee fly’s back to her homeland, where her father is king of the realm, leaving Peter fretting about her return, she takes the three children who have been born with fully functioning graundees. The second volume describes Youwarkee’s return and Peter’s eventual departure (transported: roped to a chair) to met the king. He finds a primitive community of people living in cave like systems and who are at war with neighbouring countries. Peter is accepted by the king and agrees to lead his army if they will convert to Christianity, the people currently worship images of God and it is Peter’s mission to destroy the images. The second volume does not have the same tensions as the first, as Peter’s leadership is always going to be successful and he uncovers a plot to kill the king with ease. The primitive culture holds few surprises and Peter’s rapid elevation to the king’s right hand man failed to hold my interest. Their is some light satire made of Peter’s clothing and manners among the primitives and of their religious beliefs which tend towards catholicism, but their is little subtlety and it is all a bit ham fisted.

As a fantasy adventure story this works well, and considering it’s date of publication it can be admired as one of the first novels to combine adventure, fantasy and a more realistic depiction of a different culture. Peter does become a bit insufferable as the story unwinds, but there is always Youwarkee to dream about. Predates Edgar Rice Burroughs stories by about 150 years and stands up well. 3.5 stars.


174baswood
Modifié : Nov 10, 2017, 11:16 am

175thorold
Nov 10, 2017, 11:24 am

... it is Youwarkee’s developing self belief that enables her to broach the question of returning home when she is able to fly again. Peter is loath to lose his partner and is in fear of losing everything whenever she goes on flying missions ...

Clap your hands if you believe in fairies!
I wonder if J.M. Barrie could have read this?

176SassyLassy
Nov 10, 2017, 3:39 pm

>175 thorold:

I wonder if J.M. Barrie could have read this?

C S Lewis did. Also Evelyn Waugh and Charles Lamb owned a copy according to the Legacy Library feature, as well as Samuel Roth.

Unfortunately J M Barrie doesn't have a Legacy Library on LT. It would be a really interesting one I think.

177baswood
Nov 10, 2017, 4:49 pm

>175 thorold: just clapped my hands.

178auntmarge64
Modifié : Nov 10, 2017, 6:41 pm

>135 baswood: Fury by Henry Kuttner looks very promising. I don't think I've read anything by him, but I do love John Wyndham and others from the period. I see my library has a collection of his stories and I've put it on my wishlist, and Paperback Swap had Fury available, so I ordered it.

179baswood
Modifié : Nov 13, 2017, 2:27 pm

180baswood
Modifié : Déc 12, 2017, 5:35 pm

John Lyly and Early Modern authorship by Andy Kesson
A book of literary criticism that makes a case for John Lyly securing a place in the canon of English Literature. Lyly had two book length novels published in 1578 and 1580 and then turned his hand to playwriting: having nine plays published between 1584 and 1597, he therefore predates Shakespeare, but Kesson argues he has been overlooked in the rush to eulogise Shakespeare and although Lyly was highly regarded during his active writing life and for some time afterwards, he has suffered at the hands of critics since the mid 17th century. There are however good reasons for this which Kesson revisits throughout his book.

Lyly was the most famous and critically acclaimed writer during the period when he was active. He published the first book length novel in 1578: Euphues: Anatomy of Wit. He created a kind of prose fiction that was not only new but which came to define the shape the future novel was to take. He was the first professional Elizabethan playwright to see a succession of plays into print. He created characters, phrases and literary forms that dominated contemporary writing. His style was imitated and lauded at the Court of Queen Elizabeth, but for all of this he is not read much today and his plays are not performed. His reputation has diminished to such an extent that critics in the nineteenth century boasted about not reading him, but still were able to put forward a view of his worth.

In the mid eighteenth century Campaspe one of Lyly’s plays was republished as part of a collection of other plays and the leading critic of the time S T Dodsley wrote a preface that summed up the critical thinking at the time: writing about the novel Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit he said the style of writing was an “unnatural affected jargon in which the perpetual use of metaphors, allusions, allegories and analogies, is to pass for wit and stiff bombast for language and with this nonsense the court of Queen Elizabeth became infected”, he goes on to talk of vile pedantry and attempts to improve on the simplicity of nature. The labelling of Lily’s style as an infection is something that has been repeated ever since. Lily’s cause was not helped by nineteenth century writers who increasingly used the word Euphuism: a corruption of Euphues. Sir Walter Scott used the term Euphuist for one of his characters; not only was his language prone to hyperbolic excess, it was also pervaded by dilettantism and a French influence that was most unmanly. (Scotts Euphuist goes by the name of Sir Piercie Shafton). In the 20th century Euphuism became confused with euphemism further adding to Lyly’s woes, although by this time any connection with Lily’s authorial style would probably not be made.

Lyly was at the start of the times of authorial recognition. His name sold books and plays and the title character Euphues was not only taken up by other writers but helped to sell Lyly’s second book Euphues and his England. The single story book also set a further precedent and Lyly’s books and plays were reprinted several times during the 1590’s with Lily’s name prominent. The subtitle of Kesson’s book is Early Modern authorship and he explores this theme in relation to Lily and his publisher Cawood.

So the question is: was John Lily a writer of excessive hyperbole that caught on in the fashionable world of Queen Elizabeth’s court and is now best forgotten, or is he a writer unduly neglected today, whose distinct writing style can still amuse and entertain and which forms the bedrock of novels and plays that came after him? I won’t know until I read some John Lyly, but it is useful to be aware of the arguments for and against before I start. An interesting read.

181mabith
Nov 22, 2017, 12:22 am

>173 baswood: The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins sounds like just what I need right now.

182baswood
Modifié : Nov 22, 2017, 11:26 am

183baswood
Nov 22, 2017, 11:25 am

The Arch-Conjuror of England: John Dee - Glyn Parry
John Dee may not have been away with the fairies, but he was certainly away with the angels. This is a history book/biography of John Dee (1527 - 1608) which follows his long career both as a man of science and as a maker of magic; deep into occult philosophy. Biographies of Tudor personalities who were not major figures in the government or leading figures at Court sometimes suffer through lack of information, unless the subject person has left behind their own writings or written testimony, which have come down to us. This is not the case with John Dee many of whose publications have survived along with some diary notes, unfortunately much of what he wrote would appear to be as unintelligible to us today as it was to his contemporaries, but they were more likely to be convinced as to the sagacity of his writings than we are today.

Mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, alchemist, arch-conjuror, leading expert in navigation and Hermetic philosopher: John Dee was all these, but he was no mere dabbler, he was a leading expert in many of these fields at a time when it was difficult to separate the magic from the science. One hundred and fifty years before the age of enlightenment and scientists and magicians rubbed shoulders together in a world that is difficult for us to imagine. Glyn Parry guides his readers through the early life and education of Dee and his catholic education, but then assumptions have to be made about how Dee came to have such a high reputation and how he managed to acquire such high level patrons. There is plenty of evidence that he became a relatively rich man with a large house at Mortlake (some ten miles from the city of London) a house full of servants and one of the largest collection of books and manuscripts in England. Parry struggles at times to lead us through the maze of Tudor Politics, but what is clear is that courtiers and those on the fringe had to be flexible to survive. Henry VIII’s court inclined towards a protestant religion which was followed by the Protestant reformist government lead by the young king Edward, his early death heralded in Queen Mary whose counter reformist government turned things back to catholicism and then Elizabeth I who embraced a more protestant view and who had to tread a wary path between the Puritans on one side and the Jesuit catholics on the other. John Dee had to negotiate this ebb and swell of religious belief as well as being careful not to be branded a dark mage in league with the devil. He was not always entirely successful and survived by a mixture of good and bad fortune, never having much control of events and always subject to being impoverished.

John Dee’s reputation as an astrologer and alchemist got him close to Queen Elizabeth I, who from time to time visited his house in Mortlake, however the queens interests did not stop with Dee and he found himself in competition with other astrologers on the periphery of the Court. Tensions created by the threat from Catholic Spain and factions inside the Queen’s court meant that Dee found himself used as the ball in a sort a sort of political football match. He seems to have become more desperate in his claims as a magician; prophesying that the Queen would effectively come to rule most of Europe and would pave the way for some sort of second coming. Increasingly Dee seemed to be relying on his conversations with the angels through his scryer Edward Kelly. The two men through prayer and fasting would make themselves mentally ready for Kelly to receive words from the angels through Dee’s crystal ball. It fell to Dee to make sense of the universal language that was spoken through the crystal. Receiving messages from angels was something that was readily believed to a greater or lesser extent by the courtiers close to the Queen, but Dee had to tread a careful line between science, magic and the black arts. Albrecht Laski a Polish catholic prince arrived in England to pay court to Elizabeth I and an interest in alchemy lead him to befriend Dee. This time Dee had really backed the wrong horse and Laski left England owing money, Dee realised that he was no longer welcome at court and followed Laski to Europe with Edward Kelly in tow.

Dee spent over seven years in Europe at first relying on his reputation as a mathematician and scholar and later as an alchemist and fortune teller, He travelled from princedom to princedom with his train of six wagons, two carriages for his and Edward Kelly’s family and four wagons full of his books. At times desperate for money and patronage and increasingly reliant on Edward Kelly who became the senior partner and who claimed to have discovered the philosophers stone and the ability to make gold from cheaper metals. Dee retuned to England when the game was up in Europe and he was no longer needed by Kelly and when he established that he would again be welcome at the Queen’s court. He eventually secured a position as warden of Manchester, but the posting gave him plenty of legal and administrative headaches and he seems to have made money through his astrology and navigational aids businesses. He searched for but never found a scryer as effective as Edward Kelly and so his conversations with the angels became increasingly difficult.

Glyn Parry paints a picture of the Queen and influential politicians at her court, who were steeped in learning, but also ready to believe in astrology, alchemy and angel magic. Occult philosophy and angel magic could be used by those factions that believed in its efficacy and those who recognised its power over others. Dee was on safe ground when the political faction that supported him were in the ascendent, but was exposed when his supporters floundered. Tensions at court caused ripples and waves that Dee was not always able to ride and he found patronage sometimes difficult to attain. Parry’s attempts to piece all this together does not always convince but he does give a feel for the hurly burly of Tudor Politics. The issue of whether Dee was for the most part a charlatan, a conjuror, or a learned man can probably never be realised and his character never really comes through, but this is not the fault of Parry’s meticulous research. 3.5 stars.

184dchaikin
Nov 22, 2017, 6:20 pm

Enjoyed your latest.

185janeajones
Nov 26, 2017, 10:40 pm

Fascinating reviews of the Lyly and John Dee books. I read some Lyly in graduate school -- not worthy of contemporary productions. Pretty boring actually.

186baswood
Modifié : Déc 2, 2017, 9:17 am

Euphues: The anatomy of Wit and Euphues and his England - John Lyly edited by Leah Scragg
These courtly expressions of the language of love excited my love of language. Lyly’s two novels published in 1578 and 1580 are largely an exercise in style over content, but oh! what a style: delightful passages of prose tumble over one another in a gushing rhetoric that are witty, clever and delight the senses. There are turgid passages where Lyly is more interested in moralising or keeping his nose clean, but for much of these two books it is Lyly’s wit and language skills that carry the reader through.

The art of conversation is alive and well in Euphues and he makes his conversations into an art form. One of the major themes throughout the novels is youth versus old age and the education of the young. Here is an example of the prose where the youthful Euphues challenges his father:

“Put you no difference between the young flourishing bay-tree and the old withered beech, no kind of distinction between the waxing and the waning of the moon, and the rising and setting of the sun? Do you measure the hot assaults of youth by the cold skirmishes of age. whose years are subject to more infirmities than our youth? We merry, you melancholy; we zealous in affection, you jealous in all your doings; you testy without cause, we hasty for no quarrel, you careful, we careless; we bold, you fearful; we in all points contrary unto you, and you in all points unlike unto us.”

It is clever in that the schematically constructed sentences are designed to enforce opposition to give a duality, a contrast and it delights the senses with the word play, the sound patterning (syllabic repetition, assonance and alliteration). It should be remembered that Lyly was writing for an educated audience, his target group were probably the courtiers and their allies hovering around the court of Queen Elizabeth I. These people would have been educated in typical sixteenth century fashion to appreciate dialect and rhetoric, as scholastic disputations were an essential part of their education. Lyly uses analogies from proverbial wisdom, classical history and mythology to make his points, but intersperses them in such a way that they are not entirely lost on the less classically educated modern reader. If we don’t always understand the references we can still appreciate the word play and are rarely lost because of the multitude of examples used in any one sentence or paragraph.

Lets have some more Lyly: in the second book Euphues friend Philautus is trying to win the hand of Camilla, a virtuous young lady that has given him no encouragement. He takes the opportunity at a masked ball to declare his love for Camilla and she firmly puts him in his place:

“I will end where you begun, hoping you will begin where I end. You let fall your question which I looked for, and picked a quarrel which I thought not of, and that is love. But let her that is disposed to answer your quarrel, be curious to demand your question. And this gentleman, I desire you, all questions and quarrels set apart: you think me as a friend so far forth as I can grant with modesty or you require with good manners; and as a friend I wish that you blow no more this fire of love, which will waste you before it warms me, and make a coal in you before it can kindle in me. If you think otherwise, I may as well use a shift to drive you off, as you did a show to draw me on. I have answered your custom, lest you accuse me of coyness, no otherwise than I might, mine honour saved and your name unknown.”

The Anatomy of Wit is an apt title for the book and it is the wit and style that Samuel Johnson would appreciate and use later in the eighteenth century. I can just imagine him sitting in the Lamb and Flag with his circle of cronies having boned up on John Lyly, making their puns and witticisms. Oscar Wilde’s famous epigrams owe much to Lyly as well and if you enjoy that style of writing then it is worth going back to Lyly who probably took this style as far as it could go.

E M Forster in his Aspects of the Novel identified essential requisites for a novel, which were: story and plot, people, pattern and rhythm and it is worth using those aspects on Lyly’s books as their are many claims that they are the earliest novel books in the English Language. There are earlier claimants for example; Malory’s Le Morte dArthur; yet this was a collection of stories without much discernible pattern and later George Gascoigne’s The Adventures of master F J, but this was part of a collection of poetry. The weakness of Euphues is its lack of story line and plot; there is one, but it is very simple. In the Anatomy of Wit, it is little more than two friends and gentleman courtiers of Naples: Euphues and Philautus’ rivalry for Lucilla whose change of mind from one to the other causes a break in their friendship. The resolution to the story is laid out in a series of letters between the two men and Euphues takes the moral high ground and lectures Philautus with his Cooling Card for Philautus and all Fond Lovers. The book peters out with more lectures on the education of Young men, a missive to The Grave Matrons and Honest Maidens of Italy, a debate between Euphues and the atheist Atheos and finally various letters from Euphues to all and sundry to tie up loose ends. Euphues and his England starts with a reconciled Euphues and Philautus on their way to make a show at Queen Elizabeth’s court in England. It features a succession of stories within stories as Euphues tells the story of Callimachus to Philautus while he is hanging his head over the side of the boat with sea-sickness. It is a good story of a prodigal son which was a popular theme of the times. The two gentlemen arrive in Dover explore the town and seek the road to London. On the way they look for accommodation and stop at the house of Fidus; a beekeeper, there is some suspicion between them, but once this is resolved Fidus tells a story from his own past; when he himself was a courtier and of his love affair with Iffida. The two men eventually make it to London where Euphues is a big hit at court with his wit and manners. Philautus is not so fortunate in that he falls in love with Camilla; a lady in waiting and finds himself out of his depth. This near disastrous love affair leads to Euphues retiring from courtly life and again becoming estranged from Philautus. Again the story is resolved through a series of letters and Philautus and Euphues draw closer together but it ends with Euphues back in Greece and the relationship still not certain. The book ends with a panegyric on England and its wonderful Queen.

John Lyly was one of the first authors not to rely on patronage for his work, but he did rely on his writings to gain himself a position at court. His criticisms of courtiers that ended the first novel is vehemently put to right at the start of the second book where he apologises for any offence caused claiming that he was only criticising courtiers in Italy and Greece. The panegyric to the Queen and her court which ends the second novel cements his position on this issue and there is no dichotomy here, however this is not true of the story telling proper, where during most conversations, the duality and contrasts in the witty ripostes sometimes provides more questions than answers. It certainly adds to the depth within the novel, which might have otherwise been a pretty dull story. Male friendship under attack from heterosexual love, nature versus nurture, education of the young and the duties and position of courtiers are all themes explored through these two works, however no final position is ever apparent while Lyly is writing in his euphuistic style.

His two novels were popular during the 1580’s being reprinted several times and did enough to gain him a position at court, it has been said that his books had an influence on the way courtiers to the queen made use of language and he was certainly revered by his contemporaries, however after this period he went fairly quickly out of fashion and has never really been in fashion since. It would seem to me that Lyly’s so distinctive style of writing would be a hard act to follow and would soon lead to a dead end; for example how far can you take witticism without destroying the purpose of the novel, this to my mind was a problem for Lyly hence the use of the epistolary device to bring some shape and form to his books. There is no doubt that he influenced other writers and for this reason alone it is worth reading him, as well as the fact that their are some purple patches of prose that are a sheer delight to read. 4.5 stars.

187dchaikin
Déc 2, 2017, 10:03 am

Fascinating as always, B.

188janeajones
Déc 5, 2017, 7:16 pm

I applaud your delight in Lyly, though I cannot share it.

189baswood
Modifié : Déc 6, 2017, 8:47 am

190baswood
Modifié : Déc 6, 2017, 8:48 am

The Man Who Sold the Moon - Robert A. Heinlein
Published in 1950 this a collection of early Heinlein short stories, the earliest of these: Lifeline was published in 1939 and was his first published short story in Astounding magazine. They are all pretty much earth bound yarns with only the title story from 1950 venturing as far as the moon and that is for the final denouement.

“Let There be Light” from 1940 deals with a scientific breakthrough that leads to the ability to tap power from the sun and hinges on who owns the rights to the relatively cheap process. ‘The Roads Must Roll’ is also from 1940 and this is a far more satisfying story with Heinlein able to introduce some psychology into the mix. Like all the stories it is set in the near future when moving roads keep the transport moving with varying traction speeds. A fundamentalist group working inside the transport industry aims to stop the roads moving to gain an advantage for their own programme. Chaos threatens and an armed intervention is needed to flush out the revolutionaries. This is the first of Heinlein’s stories that creates a futuristic scenario which is well thought out and provides a decent storyline with a satisfying conclusion: its probably the best story. ‘The Man Who sold the Moon’ is the longest story and is centred around the energy and enterprise of D D Harriman in his bid to own the rights to the moon. Heinlein imagines a situation where governments have ceased trying to land on the moon and it is left to entrepreneurship to carry the torch for future space travel. The story just about gets off the ground. ‘Blowups Happen’ is from 1940 and it imagines a situation where atomic power is being used for industrial purposes but scientists are fighting a losing battle in keeping the fusion process under control: this is a good story with some tension, which raises issues which could have happened and might still happen. Lifeline is the earliest story and it concerns a man from outside the scientific establishment who has invented a machine which gives an accurate forecast of the life span of individuals.

The writing achieves a reasonable standard for the genre and in ‘The Roads Must Roll’ and ‘Blowups Happen’ there is enough science, enough characterisation and enough scene setting to mark these two stories as well worth reading. Unfortunately the longest story is not the best and so I would rate this collection as 3 stars.

191baswood
Modifié : Déc 12, 2017, 5:10 pm

192baswood
Modifié : Déc 12, 2017, 5:10 pm

John Lyly, John Dover Wilson
People who write about John Lyly (Elizabethan playwright and novelist 1553-1606) always seem to have a point to prove. Lyly was the most popular author/playwright of his time: 1590’s and was respected by his peers (Shakespeare et al) but his elaborate writing style labelled Euphuism was open to criticism some 50 years later. The criticism continued in the 18th and 19th centuries to such a point that when he wasn’t neglected he was ridiculed. John Dover Wilson’s extended essay from 1905 aims to set matters aright: claiming in his introduction that:

In the first place John Lyly, inasmuch as he was one of the earliest writers who considered prose as an artistic end in itself, and not simply as a medium of expression, may be justly described as a founder, if not the founder, of English prose style.
In the second place he was the author of the first novel of manners in the language.
And in the third place, and from the point of view of Elizabethan literature most important of all, he was one of our very earliest dramatists, and without doubt merits the title of Father of English Comedy.


Wilson then continues with a thoroughgoing analysis of Lyly’s style, which he describes intelligently and succinctly and then goes on to examine how it developed. He makes a good case for Lyly being the high priest of Euphuism rather than the inventor. Wilson’s contention is that there were other writers using a similarly ornate style that was popular with readers (many of whom would have been closely associated with the court of Queen Elizabeth I) and it was Lyly who took it to its best conclusion. I think this makes a lot of sense and would account for the popularity that Lyly enjoyed in the 1590’s.

Wilson claims that Lyly was the first author of prose who aimed to fascinate and entice the reader “not merely by what is said, but also by the manner of saying it”. By the time he published his second book Euphues and his England Lyly had identified a new literary public who were prepared to buy his books, and these were the ladies at court; he dedicates his second book to them and so Wilson says discovered the future patrons and purchasers of novels.

Wilson goes on to criticise Lyly’s plays; there are six that have been attributed to him and he finds them witty and amusing even to the modern reader (1905) and says that they must have appeared to the court of Queen Elizabeth I as a marvel of wit and dramatic power compared with what had gone before. There is no doubt that Wilson is beating the drum for Lyly, however I find his criticism intelligent and thoughtful.

I have recently read Andy Keeson’s John Lyly and early modern authorship published in 2015 which also makes a case for Lyly’s place in the literary canon. Keeson covers the same ground as Wilson did 110 years ago with the additional theme of authorship; in as much as Lyly was the first author of a book length novel and Keeson examines how and why this came about. Where Keeson and Wilson cover the same ground I find Wilson more convincing in his ability to explain just what the Elizabethans found so special in the work of Lyly. Keeson refers to Wilson’s previous study and can’t resist taking a swipe at him claiming that Wilson’s work was an undergraduate essay and he says that;

”Perhaps most obviously, Dover Wilson appears to be a little in love with Lyly”

It is true that Wilson’s essay started out as an undergraduate essay, but he revised and expanded it for publication. I find Keeson’s comment that Wilson “appears to be a little in love with Lyly” as just sour grapes for a writer who had not only done much of the spade work, but had also written a better description of Lyly’s oeuvre. So Ya boo Sucks to you Andy Keeson Dover Wilson’s is the better book of criticism (and its free on the net) and so 4 stars.

193baswood
Modifié : Déc 12, 2017, 6:33 pm

The Cambridge Introduction to Early English Theatre by Janette Dillon
This is an excellent introduction to Early English Theatre, although there are some caveats. It is a very well written and engaging text set out in five subject based chapters:

Places of Performance
Actors and audiences
Writers, controllers and the place of theatre
Genre and Tradition
Instruction and Spectacle.

Within each chapter the subject matter is dealt largely chronologically for example in Places of Performance it starts with the late medieval period and goes through to the closing of the theatres in 1642. This gives the chapters a storyline where the reader can follow the history in a logical way and appreciate how the theatre developed. There are examples from texts of some of the plays and some eye witness accounts shaded in grey with references as appropriate. I like the way they are arranged within the text so as to enhance the points made by the author; there is some fascinating stuff here that might interest the casual reader.

The first three subject headings are full of fascinating information, however I found the fourth subject heading Genre and Tradition a step down from the high standards of the first three chapters. Genre is an issue for 20th/21st century students/critics who feel the need to pigeonhole plays and as Dillon points out this was not an issue for 17th century theatre goers and readers. In my opinion Dillon transgresses into talking about definitions of tragedies, of comedies and other genres in a way that has little bearing on early theatre. The book ends with a good section on Instruction and Spectacle that again takes the reader back into the world of early theatre.

There are some excellent appendices particularly the first which is a Select Chronology of Plays and Other Performances, which is a gold mine for those readers interested in reading the plays that are mentioned in the text. I think it is useful to have read some early theatre material but not essential to enjoy this book. A must for anybody who wants a grounding in early English theatre and also much to enjoy for the more casual reader. 4.5 stars.

194baswood
Modifié : Déc 15, 2017, 8:08 pm

Five Anonymous Plays - John S Farmer
Another in the series of anonymous plays from the sixteenth century edited by John S Farmer. These five take us into the 1570’s, however some of them have now been credited to certain playwrights. There is a mixed bag here and nothing really that would warrant attention from prospective producers for theatre events today. So no hidden gems.

Appius and Virginia
This was probably performed about 1563, but not printed until 1575 and although short in running time it provided the best entertainment for me. Set in Roman times it is the story of Virginia who would rather die than lose her virginity to a man who was not approved by her parents.

“The rather, dear father, if it be thy pleasure
Grant me my death; then keep I my treasure”


Judge Appius has the hots for Virginia and he is spurred on by Haphazard an evil devil like character, who reminds him that as ruler he can do as he wishes. Appius concocts a charge against Virginius (Virginias father) and instructs him to submit his daughter as punishment. Virginia asks her father to kill her rather than submit and so he cuts off her head and takes it wrapped in cloth to Appius. Appius is enraged and orders Virginius to be executed, but two characters Justice and Reward turn the tables and Virginius arrests judge Appius and hangs Haphazard.
This is a play that has not quite broken from the morality plays of medieval times; allegorical figures of Justice, Conscience, Fame and Reward appear to shape events, but there are plenty of good speeches from the human characters who dominate the action. The play is full of word play and the devil like character of Haphazard has the best lines.
A Tragi-comedy which I enjoyed.

A New and Pleasant Interlude - The Marriage of Wit and Science
Written by Ulpian Fulwell probably in 1567.A morality play - allegorical as the young Wit seeks to marry Science but he must fight Tediousness and get Study and Diligence on his side. He refuses to spend 4 years with them, but wants to marry Science at once. It is mostly debate and dialogue, but there is a fight with Tediousness followed by a song for the Vanquished Wit.

GRIM THE COLLIER OF CROYDON or the Devil and his dame; with the devil and Saint Dunstan
The devil Belphagor comes to live on Earth for a time, to investigate reports that women have grown extreme in their misbehaviors and have made marriage a curse. He disguises himself as a Spanish doctor named Castiliano. He offers to cure a mute woman named Honoria if she will marry him in return — a proposal that is accepted by the young woman and her family. Once he cures her, however, she repudiates her marital promise, calling him a "base Spaniard" who she wouldn't allow her slave to marry. All the English seem to turn on him: he is bed-tricked into marrying Honoria's shrewish maid, who cheats on him; one of the maid's former suitors tries to kill him; and his wife eventually poisons him. Castiliano dies just as Belphagor's predetermined time on Earth expires, and the devil returns to Hell with great relief at escaping the toils of earthly existence and its ferocious females. (The play's depiction of its devil is surprisingly restrained; he is described as "patient, mild, and pitiful," and is rather a sympathetic character than otherwise. Its infernal domain, ruled by Pluto, is a mixture of Christian and classical elements.)
In the play's subplot, Grim the collier is a simple and good-hearted soul who is devoted to his love, Joan of Badenstock. After complications with Clack the Miller and Parson Shorthose, Grim wins her in the end, with the help of Puck or Robin Goodfellow (alias Akercock; in this play, a devil like Belphagor). This is a play from the mid 17th century, but is based on one from the late 16th century. It is written largely in blank verse and the ample stage directions signify it is a play from a different century than the others included here.

Common Conditions
This one really is anonymous, which is no surprise because it is a bit of a mess. it reads like it was written by several different people, which was probably the case. The convoluted plot involves…………… well just too convoluted. It does not help that the beginning and end is missing. Written in rhyming couplets it is an adventure story of sorts involving pirates, chance meetings, disguises, kidnapping and general confusion. More pantomime than anything else and dating from 1576.

Interlude of a Contract of Marriage between Wit and Wisdom
The final piece was probably written between 1571-6 by Francis Maybury, who was a Puritan Preacher. A morality play; it is well written with a rhyming scheme that transcends some of the dialogue. There are some good lines and it is witty, with language that can get quite bawdy. There are fights and there are songs, no long speeches and it is all over fairly quickly. It was probably good entertainment.

These plays and interludes were collected for publication in the Early English Dramatists series in 1908. Spelling has been modernised and their are copious notes at the back of the book which help with the language and also tells of the difficulties of locating the original texts: the edition that is free on the internet is from 1966. You would need to have an interest in early English drama to read these from cover to cover, but they are not difficult and provide a snapshot of drama from the 1570’s. 3 stars

195baswood
Modifié : Déc 19, 2017, 7:26 am

196baswood
Modifié : Déc 19, 2017, 7:26 am

A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren
A Walk on the Wild Side - a great title for a book, great title for a film and a great title for a song (Lou Reed), but the book came first and I wonder how many people have read it. Of course it takes longer to read the book than to watch the film, but the song you can listen to in just 4mins and twelve seconds, so why bother with the book? The clue is in the title “A Walk on the Wild Side” its catchy it has that marvellous alliteration that runs right through the text and it encourages the prospective reader that there might be danger here; a danger that can safely be negotiated from the safety of your armchair, or your seat in the doctors waiting room, or your bench in the bus shelter.

Published in 1956 a year before Jack Kerouac’s On the Road it covers the same territory in that it is a rejection of the illusion of ‘the American Dream’; it looks at the underbelly of America, those trapped in poverty, in crime, in prostitution in one of the big cities, all through the eyes of a young man with plenty of youthful energy who is not afraid to get his hands dirty to get what he wants. Unlike the Beat generation of the 1950’s, whose protagonists were looking for kicks, Algren’s book is set in the early 1930’s, the years that heralded the great depression, when people were scrambling to keep alive. Dove Linkhorn is the main character and we pick him up in Arroyo a town in Texas, his father scratches a living emptying cess pools and spends his free time, when not drinking, as an itinerant preacher on the steps of the court house. He sees no reason to be sending Dove to school and Dove gains his education by hanging out with the hobo’s near the railroad tracks and listening to their stories. The illiterate 16 year old gets a job at the local cantina and has a brief affair with the Mexican Lady owner, who kicks him out after catching him stealing from the cash register. After adventures with a female runaway he hops a freight train to N’wawlins (New Orleans) and arrives in town barefoot in blue jeans with just some change in his pocket. He gets a bed in a run down flop with two older men; Fort and Luke and learns how to make a dollar through conniving semi-criminal enterprises. Door to door selling leads him to Oliver Finnerty’s brothel where he gets his big break as a stud breaking in young girls to a life of prostitution. Styling himself as Big Stingaree he moves into the brothel, a police raid lands him in jail and when he gets out, his quest to learn to read leads him to an affair with one of the girls in the brothel and when he absconds with her, he leaves himself open to recriminations.

Algren reworked older material to put together A Walk on the Wild Side, but you wouldn’t know this from reading the novel as it flows logically forward, but with hind sight you can pick out the various pieces that make up the novel. Young Dove growing up in Arroyo, his life as a young hobo, his work for a couple manufacturing condoms in their bungalow home, his six months in jail, but the largest chunk of the book is based in Oliver Finnerty’s brothel and Dock Dockery’s speakeasy that provides the cover. Algren spends 40 odd pages describing the characters and their way of life before Dove arrives at it’s door. Kerouac and the Beats tended to give impressions of the seamy side of life usually through first hand impressions in a new cool style of writing. Algren is more intent in rubbing our noses in it. He wants us to be moved by what we see and he is not averse to step in under the guise of one of his characters to tell us just what is wrong with the system, he stops short of preaching against the evils of capitalism and the differences between the haves and the have nots, but he leaves the reader no doubt as to where he stands. Algren seems to me to be a link between the more melodramatic style of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle and the cooler clipped style of the Beats, but what makes Algren special is his own way of writing, which is a good marriage of style and content. An example from an early section of the book when young Dove is drawn to the hobos out by the railroad tracks:

“Dove felt the uneasy guilt go round them like the perfumed glove; it too had made the circle of homeless men.
Their home was ten thousand water towers, their home was any tin-can circle. Their home was down all lawless deeps where buffalo coloured box cars make their last stand in the West.
He saw their night fires burn and burn against the homeless heart, and felt he himself had gone West. That it had come to nothing then, and yet that he would go again.
Someone had done some cheating all right.”


Repetition, alliteration and word sound are as important as content, along with well used idioms that together give unique atmosphere to the scene, but there is more; there is social comment running all through this paragraph ending with “Someone had done some cheating all right” There are other stunning paragraphs and purple patches of writing throughout the novel, but Algren never loses sight of the tawdry meanness of some of his characters and their society. There is plenty of dialogue which Algren uses to highlight the social world of his character, they speak in homilies, they exaggerate, however they don’t often swear and sometimes the word play is a little too clever.

The dollar is king in Algren’s America; almost the first thing that characters say to each other when meeting is ‘Making any Money’. The richest, strongest and most unscrupulous are the ones that survive the hard times and they bear down on the weakest, their is little room for sentiment, but there is room for love and this can make people act out of character although coercion and force is the most usual method of operation. Algren’s world is an unedifying sight, but the way he manages to wrap it up in some inventive and radiant writing makes this a novel well worth reading. Five stars from me

197dchaikin
Déc 20, 2017, 12:12 am

Enjoyed catching up and terrific review if A Walk on the Wild Side. Did I understand correctly that the song is based on the book?

198dchaikin
Déc 20, 2017, 12:20 am

Had fun looking that up. In all my cluelessness I never knew the song was about real people, or at least about real movie characters.

199mabith
Déc 20, 2017, 2:27 pm

Great review of A Walk on the Wild Side, and a major book bullet.

200baswood
Modifié : Déc 24, 2017, 5:59 am

201baswood
Modifié : Déc 24, 2017, 6:00 am

Love Again by Doris Lessing
You have got to be over 60 years old to really appreciate this novel (and it would help if you or a friend had ever suffered from depression). If you think people over 60 don’t fall in love (again) or spend much of their time thinking about sex, well you gotta believe that this ain’t necessarily so. Doris Lessing was in her seventies when she wrote this novel and so had time to think about her feelings and sexuality when she was in her sixties. This is pertinent because, many of her novels appear to draw down from her own life experiences. Of course her science fiction novels found her in a different place, but Love Again set firmly in the 1980’s brought her right back down to earth.

We find Sarah Durham in her mid sixties; her husband had died over twenty years ago and since his death she has thrown herself into her work. She is running a professional theatre group with three other people who have worked together to make a success of the Green Bird theatre company. Her group carry out research on the life of Julie Vairon, a beautiful quadroon girl from Martinique as material for a new play. It becomes Sarah’s project as she uses material from Julie’s diaries and music that she composed. Julie lived in Belles Rivieres in a small house in the woods on the French Mediterranean coast. She had love affairs with three Frenchmen, the first two caused major disquiet within the community and the young men were dispatched into the army by their families, the third affair was with a master printer but this ended in tragedy when Julie was found dead at the bottom of a rock pool. The story of Julie Vairon’s life had become a major event for the modern town of Belles Riviéres attracting tourists and now Sarah finds herself being caught up in the almost mythic tale, however when she meets Stephen a financial backer for the project she finds someone more affected than her; Stephen is hopelessly in love with the dead Julie Vairon.

The Julie Vairon project comes to fruition; actors are hired an American director is in place and musicians are rehearsing Julie’s songs and music. Sarah and Stephen become ‘hands on’ involved with the practical side of the production and Sarah finds a latent sexual desire burning through her defences, first with the handsome young actor Bill Collins who plays Tom, Julie’s first lover and then with Henry the American director. Passionate intense feelings almost take over Sarah and she finds that both Bill and Henry are attracted to her and serious flirting, battles with trying to get the project completed. Julie Vairon the play will open in Belles Riviéres and the troupe decamp to the little town in preparation and Sarah wishes that first Bill and then Henry might be knocking on her hotel bedroom door. Later Sarah finds that Andrew the actor playing Julies third lover the master printer desperately wants to sleep with her. The handsome Bill Collins proves to be bisexual and he hooks up with another man and Henry who has a wife and son at home in America cannot bring himself to be unfaithful. Sarah cannot contemplate Andrew and so her life in effect mirrors Julie Vairon, meanwhile her soul-mate Stephen is sinking further into terminal depression.

Love, lust, sexual desire are themes that run through the novel along with mental illness; Lessing repeatedly asks the question throughout the book as to just how much is love the result of mental illness, what is the connection, This is Sarah in her hotel room alone with her thoughts:

“For people are often in love and they are not in love equally, or even at the same time. They fall in love with people not in love with them as if there was a law about it, and this leads to……….if the condition she was in were not tagged with the innocuous “in love” then her symptoms would be those of real illness.”

Sarah as a young women was attractive and was never short of admirers, she is still attractive in her mid sixties and although she may not be turning heads anymore, men are still interested in her.

“Millions spend their lives trapped behind ugly masks, longing for the simplicities of love known to attractive people. There is now no difference between me and those people barred from love, but this is the first time it has been brought home to me that all my youth I was in a privileged class sexually, but never thought about it or what it must mean not to be. Yet no matter how unfeeling or callous one is when young, everyone but everyone will learn what it is to be in a desert of deprivation, and it is just as well, travelling so fast towards old age, that we don’t know it yet………….. There is a terrible arrogance that goes with physical attractiveness, and far from criticising it, we even admire it”

Family, a familiar theme of Lessing is again present in the novel. Hal, Sarah’s bother is a successful surgeon with a practice in Harley Street, one of his daughters (Joyce) is a wayward teenager full of problems bordering on mental illness and Hal parks her on Sarah when he has enough of her. Joyce keeps turning up at Sarah’s door and has to be dealt with, meanwhile Sarah is trying to help the wealthy Stephen whose own family life is in ruins. Family, work-life balance and the ‘social life’ within a close knit working group are all given the Lessing treatment and make fascinating reading for anyone who has read her early novels.

As usual with a Lessing novel it takes time to get into the book, patience is required especially here where the story of Julie Vairon takes precedence in the first part. This is largely the back story to the novel, but this is the part that I found less than convincing. If it was Lessing’s aim to interweave the story of the modern day Sarah with that of Julie Vairon then for me she doesn’t pull it off, essential though it is, Julie Vairon remains a back story and I never felt the connection.

All in all I found myself loving this novel for large stretches, but then finding some of it not quite working. I was convinced by the depiction of a sixty five year old woman falling in love again. I have read some criticisms of this being faintly ridiculous, with the thought that how could younger men find her attractive or how could a woman of that age have feelings of lust and love to such an extent that they threaten to overwhelm her. What I would say to such criticism is ‘just wait till you get to sixty five’ and of course young men are attracted to older women; look at President Macron here in France.

I also loved Lessing’s writing about the cafe culture in France and the atmosphere she was able to create of the small busy town that was also an epitome of a more relaxed social environment, which suited the bonhomie created amongst the theatre group. Lessing found the magic here if she did not quite find it in the story of Julie Vairon. Lessing once again pushes and probes into modern life, admittedly into the lives of people who are less than worried about money problems, but much of it rings true. Thoughts and ideas dominate the proceedings of this very literate novel and if Lessing has not quite found all of the magic then she has written a book that has great appeal to us older citizens - and why not we are in the majority. 4 stars.

202auntmarge64
Déc 24, 2017, 8:37 am

>201 baswood: Love, Again sounds wonderful (me being in the target group ). I'm so glad I saw the review!

203dchaikin
Déc 26, 2017, 7:26 pm

Another enjoyable essay, special in its own way, on a Lessing novel. Thanks Bas. The whole age thing has me thinking of the Beattles song.

204kidzdoc
Déc 27, 2017, 7:55 am

Great review of Love Again, Barry! I'll add this to my wish list.

205baswood
Modifié : Déc 28, 2017, 4:50 am

206baswood
Modifié : Déc 28, 2017, 4:50 am

Micromegas - Voltaire
Published in 1752 this short novella has now been claimed as the first/one of the first science fiction stories. It is in fact a satire on philosophical thought held at the dawn of the age of enlightenment.

Micromegas inhabits a planet orbiting the star Sirius, he is 20,000 feet tall and at 450 years old is still considered a child. He is banished from his planet after publishing a book which was deemed as heresy. He decides to go travelling and arrives on the planet Saturn, where he meets the secretary of the Academy of Saturn, who is a third of his size. They discuss philosophy and decide to explore together other worlds. They arrive on the small planet of earth and discover they are able to walk round it in 36 hours. At first they believe the place is uninhabited until they become aware of a boat on one of the oceans, with the use of microscopes they manage to examine the new species and communicate with them. They soon get onto philosophy and they are not impressed with the ideas of Aristotle, Descartes, Malebranche, Leibnitz Locke, and when they get to Thomas Aquinas and his idea that the universe was made for mankind they fall about laughing.

A satire on the insignificance of mankind in the universe and the central theme comes across loud and clear. Voltaire was a wicked satirist (Candide) and gave his imagination free reign to indulge his craft here. I can imagine that Micromegas would have been viewed with disdain by religious leaders, but was in the vanguard of the thinking of the enlightenment movement in the mid eighteenth century. Reading today feels a bit like being excluded from a number of in-jokes, but we get the idea. Now it is a curiosity more than anything else, but the central theme still holds true. Here is the final paragraph;

“The Sirian resumed his discussion with the little mites. He spoke to them with great kindness, although in the depths of his heart he was a little angry that the infinitely small had an almost infinitely great pride. He promised to make them a beautiful philosophical book, written very small for their usage, and said that in this book they would see the point of everything. Indeed, he gave them this book before leaving. It was taken to the academy of science in Paris, but when the ancient secretary opened it, he saw nothing but blank pages. "Ah!" he said, "I suspected as much.”

3 stars

207baswood
Déc 30, 2017, 1:38 pm

208baswood
Modifié : Déc 30, 2017, 1:40 pm

The Growth and Structure of Elizabethan Comedy - M. C. Bradbrook
Originally Published in 1955, this textbook is aimed at the English Student, but having said that it starts off strongly with a good introduction and three general chapters on Elizabethan comedy before Shakespeare. Good points are made about the use of language, the development of plays through the tradition of rhetoric, the development of comedy from early Tudor times and the context in which plays were performed.

Part II takes the reader through the playwrights in reasonable chronological order ending with Shakespeare and reasons why he stood above the others in the late sixteenth century. Shakespeare’s legacy now dominates what was a major evolution of artistic growth, but it wasn’t quite as clear cut as that in Tudor times and Bradbrook makes a good case for Shakespeare being a synthesis of what was happening. Other playwrights such as Lyly, Greene, Peele and Nash get due consideration. Part III again in roughly chronological order trots through contemporaries of Shakespeare and those that followed in the reign of King James. This is perhaps the weakest part of the book because any general themes are overtaken by the work of the individual playwrights. Dekker, Heywood, Jonson, Marston, Middleton, Fletcher, Day and Chapmen each get small sections where Bradbrook sums up their work and attempts to put them in context.

The book is more concerned with the texts of the plays as they have come down to us, rather than thoughts about actual performance, this is particularly noticeable in the third section. There is a chronological table of the plays as well as notes at the back of the book, overall I found this to be a good overview of the plays that were performed with some examples and pointers to those that are still worth reading. 3.5 stars