“Between two tall gate-posts of rough-hewn stone we beheld the gray front of the old parsonage, terminating the vista off of an avenue of black-ash trees.”
There‘s something magical about seeing a place described so perfectly by an author. We stumbled upon the Old Manse while hiking near the North Bridge. Emerson and Hawthorne both lived here, but it was Hawthorne who memorialized it.
pickThough brilliant in its own way like Dickens' other later novels (Bleak House & Our Mutual Friend), I didn't enjoy this like those two. It seemed duller; the main characters were pretty boring. Could be that now I expect or somewhat understand the Dickens narrative style, character sketching (mainly of supportive characters) and technique of weaving together several subplots into a whole. All with the necessary quintessence of the Victorian era.
It's LGBTQ Pride month & I am reading a play by the Russian author, film director & gay activist Kirill Serebrennikov. He was put under house arrest and only managed to leave Russia last year. The play retells the story of Chekhov's Black Monk, also included in the book, from the point of view of each main characters in turn. Not sure it's entirely successful, but I enjoyed the original story.
Photo of St Petersburg's Gay Pride from Wikipedia
Daisy the Ever-Dignified helped me finish this 1953 publication earlier. On the plus side, it‘s a strong call for readers to consider what words actually MEAN and the effect they produce. On the downside, Coombes often presents subjective responses as The One Great Truth—with, of course, a slew of white British dudes as exemplars. (To be fair, his dud examples are also white British dudes.) Basically, it‘s interesting, if biased and limited.
pickSentimental, but not saccharine. If you've read 84, Charing Cross Road, this builds out from there - some background to how the book came to be, and subsequently how the author's life was shaped by it, and intermittently slipped out of the public eye. Interesting to see an older person deal with the trappings of being KNOWN. Will definitely be reading The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street as well. Blame the '80s for this cover. 🤦🏼♂️
didn‘t want to spend an audible credit…the waitlist on libby is too long…guess we‘re listening to this audiobook old school 😉 😂 ❤️
A positive spin...😅
