1001 Reads

37. Jean-Jacques Rosseau - Julie ou La Nouvelle Héloise (1760)

2010-04-06T16:22:00.000-07:00

Review

I keep forgetting to update this... I am already reading Anton Reiser some 14 books after this, but I have to come back. I really should do this more often so the books are fresher in my mind.

In the process I have read about four Rosseau books, this one being the first, and there is something I learned. Rosseau is never as interesting as when talking about himself, which is not the case here.

This books was a phenomenon of huge proportions, huge popularity, particularly among ladies in the late 1700s, but I don't know if it is the translation's fault or something, but it feels particularly dry and actually quite dull. For epistolary romance novels I'd go for Richardson any day. Yes, I'd rather read Clarissa again. But this is the book which made Rosseau the celebrity he became, and so, if only for that it deserves its place in history.

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The novel’s subtitle points to the history of Heloise and Pierre Abélard, a medieval story of passion and Christian renunciation. The novel was put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.

A passage from the book:

36. Samuel Johnsson - The Full History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (1759)

2009-12-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

Review

You might think I've abandoned this but really, I haven't. Even if it's been about a year since my last update... it only means I have 12 books that I need to update but haven't. I promise to try to get up to date here in the next few weeks... particularly because some of these books are slowly fading from memory... specially those which I didn't find particularly interesting as was the case here.

The plot strangely mirrors that of Voltaire's Candide, Rasselas leaves home with a philosopher... Panglo... Imlac and a girl Cune... Nekayah. Only here Nekayah is his sister and not love interest. The travels of Rasselas serve a different purpose than those of Candide, however, and Rasselas seeks the path to happiness only to find that it is not easily achieved and returns home.

Johnsson's style of prose is not particularly attractive and the novel, even if quite short ends up being quite dull as well. Johnsson is a bit too up his own ass to be a good storyteller and in comparison to Voltaire he seems almost reactionary in his ideas. There are none of the fascinating tableaux of Candide, you end up not really caring particularly for any of the characters... it really has not stood the test of time very well, and coming right after a much superior novel in the same style does not help as well. You can't stop comparing Johnsson to Voltaire and he loses in almost every point.

Final Grade

5/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

While the story is thematically similar to Candide by Voltaire — both concern young men traveling in the company of honored teachers, encountering and examining human suffering in an attempt to determine the root of happiness — their root concerns are distinctly different. Voltaire was very directly satirizing the widely-read philosophical work by Gottfried Leibniz, particularly the Theodicee, in which Leibniz asserts that the world, no matter how we may perceive it, is necessarily the "best of all possible worlds", whereas the question Rasselas confronts most directly is whether or not humanity is essentially capable of attaining happiness. Writing as a devout Christian, Johnson makes through his characters no blanket attacks on the viability of a religious response to this question, as Voltaire does, and while the story is in places light and humorous, it is not a piece of satire, as is Candide.

Some Ethiopian Hip-Hop by Rasselas:

35. Voltaire - Candide ou l'Optimisme (Candide) (1759)

2009-01-23T17:36:00.000-08:00

Review

Voltaire presents one of the funniest and darkest works on the list up until now. Candide works as a rabid attack on the idea of optimism, this is not, as Pangloss says, "the best of all possible worlds" in fact it is a pretty crappy world.

Near the beginning we fittingly have the earthquake in Lisbon in 1755, one of the great turning points in western thinking, when many European thinkers finally realised the cruelty of nature due to the death and destruction inflicted in one of the principal cities in the continent. This is compounded by the 7 year war, another disgraceful loss of innocent life. In this it bears a remarkable resemblance to Simplicissimus that we have already had here.

This shift in thought has repercussions on the perception of the universe. People now start thinking that this isn't a benevolent God that we all live under, but that we instead live at the mercy of a nature that does not give a shit. How Voltaire manages to transform this into a funny tale is the great merit of this book. One of the earliest and best exercises of schadenfreude, Candide follows the misfortunes of the main character who tries to keep cheery through it all, in a cruel, sadistic but poignant way. A great little book.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, tsunami and resulting fires of All Saints' Day had a strong influence on theologians of the day and on Voltaire, who was himself disillusioned by them. The earthquake had an especially large effect on the contemporary doctrine of optimism, a philosophical system which implies that such events should not occur. Optimism is founded on the theodicy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz that says all is for the best because God is a benevolent deity. This concept is often put into the form, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" (Fr. "Tout est pour le mieux dans le meilleur des mondes possibles"). Philosophers had trouble fitting the horrors of this earthquake into the optimist world view.

Voltaire actively rejected Leibnizian optimism after the natural disaster, convinced that if this were the best possible world, it should surely be better than it is. In both Candide and Poème sur le désastre de Lisbonne ("Poem on the Lisbon Disaster"), Voltaire attacks this optimist belief. He makes use of the Lisbon earthquake in both Candide and his Poème to argue this point, sarcastically describing the catastrophe as one of the most horrible disasters "in the best of all possible worlds". Immediately after the earthquake, unreliable rumours circulated around Europe, sometimes overestimating the severity of the event. Ira Wade, a noted expert on Voltaire and Candide, has analysed which sources Voltaire might have referenced in learning of the event. Wade speculates that Voltaire's primary source for information on the Lisbon earthquake was the 1755 work Relation historique du Tremblement de Terre survenu à Lisbonne by Ange Goudar.

Bernstein's overture to Candide, his opera based on the book:

34. Charlotte Lennox - The Female Quixote (1752)

2009-01-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

Review

As the name states the Female Quixote is a bit like Don Quixote but with a female main character... well it is a bit like it in the sense that it is a story about a character obsessed with romance literature and who presumes to act like the characters in those novels.

The main character Arabella acts aloof, presumes that men are always out to kidnap her, expects gallant knights to save her and dresses in what could only be considered extreme-retro fashion. Of course this leads to inumerous situations where she clashes with the society around her.

It is a good book, but it is much more hung up on its premiss than it should have been. Little else happens. It does not have the scope or the depth of Quixote, but it shows an interesting complementary perspective to that book. Romance novel obsession from a woman's point of view. Like Quixote it is a novel about novels, and that is its best, but derivative point.

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Samuel Richardson and Samuel Johnson both reviewed and helped out with Lennox's second and most successful novel, The Female Quixote, or, The Adventures of Arabella, and Henry Fielding praised the novel in his Covent Garden Journal. The Female Quixote was quite popular. It was reprinted and packaged in a series of great novels in 1783, 1799, and 1810. It was translated into German in 1754, French in 1773 and 1801, and Spanish in 1808. The novel formally inverts Don Quixote: as the don mistakes himself for the knightly hero of a Romance, so Arabella mistakes herself for the maiden love of a Romance. While the don thinks it his duty to praise the Platonically pure damsels he meets (such as the prostitute he loves), so Arabella believes it is in her power to kill with a look and it is the duty of her lovers to suffer ordeals on her behalf.

33. Tobias Smollett - The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751)

2009-01-10T16:14:00.000-08:00

Review

This coming on the list so soon after Fielding's Tom Jones really does it a great disservice, it reads like a poor and somewhat mean spirited copy of that great work. I do not like Smollett as a person, he feels like a bit of a mean vindictive xenophobic little shit.

The fact that most of this book is set abroad lets Smollett exercise his foreigner-hating muscles, something which would later be taken up by Laurence Sterne in his Sentimental Journey where the character of Smellfungus is a thinly veiled allusion to Smollett.

So about two thirds into the book I quit. None of it was very interesting or funny, although it was desperately trying to be witty. At the moment I am reading another Smollett book, Humphry Clinker, which is much better, and actually quite funny, so I might have to revise my opinion when we get to that review.

Final Grade

5/10 (read only 2/3rds).

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, now part of Renton, in present-day West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. He was the son of a judge and land-owner, and was educated at the University of Glasgow, qualifying as a surgeon. His career in medicine came second to his literary ambitions, and in 1739 he went to London to seek his fortune as a dramatist. Although unsuccessful, he obtained a commission as a naval surgeon on the HMS Chichester and travelled to Jamaica, where he settled down for several years. On his return, he set up practice in Downing Street and married a wealthy Jamaican heiress, Anne Lascelles, in 1747.

His first published work was a poem about the Battle of Culloden entitled "The Tears of Scotland", but it was The Adventures of Roderick Random which made his name. It was modelled on Le Sage's Gil Blas, and was published in 1748. Smollett followed it up by finally getting his tragedy, The Regicide, published, though it was never performed. In 1750, Smollett took his MD degree in Aberdeen, and also travelled to France, where he obtained material for his second novel, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, another big success.

No videos, sorry.

32. John Cleland - Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (Fanny Hill) (1748)

2009-01-08T16:35:00.001-08:00

Review

Fanny Hill is a breath of fresh air. It is not particularly fascinating as a novel, Moll Flanders is a much better book for example, however the depictions of sex acts are really what this novel is all about.

It is clearly a pornographic novel and it is at the more explicit moments that it really shines through as great writing. Another interesting point is the fact that the novel is seen from a woman's perspective, therefore Fanny's descriptions of male nudity invariably focusing on the throbbing member, are quite novel.

Fanny loves sex, she is not really a victim here, she seems to have a calling for prostitution, her endless fascination with the several fetishes of her costumers is a great example of this, however this is another thing that makes the novel so uncommon. The work revels in the pleasures of sex, unlike Richardson's it is not a fate worse than death, unlike Moll Flanders it isn't a means to an end, in Fanny Hill sex is its own reward as much as the money it pays.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Quote:

"...and now, disengag’d from the shirt, I saw, with wonder and surprise, what? not the play-thing of a boy, not the weapon of a man, but a maypole of so enormous a standard, that had proportions been observ’d, it must have belong’d to a young giant. Its prodigious size made me shrink again; yet I could not, without pleasure, behold, and even ventur’d to feel, such a length, such a breadth of animated ivory! perfectly well turn’d and fashion’d, the proud stiffness of which distended its skin, whose smooth polish and velvet softness might vie with that of the most delicate of our sex, and whose exquisite whiteness was not a little set off by a sprout of black curling hair round the root, through the jetty sprigs of which the fair skin shew’d as in a fine evening you may have remark’d the clear light ether through the branchwork of distant trees over-topping the summit of a hill: then the broad and blueish-casted incarnate of the head, and blue serpentines of its veins, altogether compos’d the most striking assemblage of figure and colours in nature. In short, it stood an object of terror and delight.

"But what was yet more surprising, the owner of this natural curiosity, through the want of occasions in the strictness of his home-breeding, and the little time he had been in town not having afforded him one, was hitherto an absolute stranger, in practice at least, to the use of all that manhood he was so nobly stock’d with; and it now fell to my lot to stand his first trial of it, if I could resolve to run the risks of its disproportion to that tender part of me, which such an oversiz’d machine was very fit to lay in ruins."

BBC made a version of it:

31. Henry Fielding - The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749)

2009-01-07T17:35:00.000-08:00

Review

This has been one of the books I've most enjoyed reading while going through this list, with the possible exception of Dom Quixote none have given me more pleasure while reading. Tom Jones is another thick book, divided into 18 volumes, but next to Clarissa it is a pamphlet.

Fortunately, unlike Clarissa, it is also very funny. You might like or dislike Fielding's introductions to each volume where he gives his own opinions about a myriad of thing, but I am sure that you will at least love and hate the characters of the book.

Fielding makes an excellent job of making the reader sympathise with the rakish Tom Jones the honoured Allworthy or the almost perfect Sophia Western, hate Blifil, Square and Thwackum and laugh with Squire Western.

The constant twists and turns of the plot keep the reader interested as does the sheer need to see Blifil get his comeuppance. One of the novels with the greatest number of enduring characters that I have had the pleasure to read for this list. Highly Recommended.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Few novels, indeed, have aroused such stark and abiding evaluative disagreements as 'Tom Jones'. From the first, what some readers hailed as a refreshingly broad-spirited tolerance was denounced by others, like Richardson, as moral coarseness and special pleading. Coleridge's admiration for the book's plot (shared by Smollett and Thackeray) as one of the three most perfect in literature ... was the reverse of Dr Johnson's or Frank Kermode's dismissal of it as clockwork. The chatty asides and prefatory discourses which charmed Empson were so disliked by Somerset Maugham that his own edition of 'Tom Jones' simply left the latter out. The omnipresent controlling narrator who fascinated Gide with his artiness and warmed Battestin with his genial wisdom struck Ford Madox Ford as boringly and clumsily intrusive.

Someone made a fan video for Blifil... gotta love the internet:

30. Samuel Richardson - Clarissa (1748)

2009-01-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

Review

After you read Clarissa, Pamela looks like a sketch for this thicker and better book. When I say thicker I mean that my edition is almost A4 sized, very small print and fills almost 1500 pages. I would say that it is possibly the largest single volume I've ever read, with the possible exception of A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth.

You are tempted to believe that Samuel Richardson could have done with a good editor, and sometimes it feels like that, but a large part of the strength of this novel is in the size itself. It is so long that the characters become a part of your life, as it is an epistolary novel it also means that you are constantly seeing the characters in their own mind, in first person narration shifting from character to character. Again a technique for identification.

Robert Lovelace the villain of the work is the best villain to date on this list, he is charming and terrifying, in love and a rapist all at the same time. Definitely the most psychologically complex character in the novel.

Richardson's story is again one of psychological horror and claustrophobia but the horror is heightened incredibly from that attempted in Pamela, unlike Mr. B, Lovelace is supremely intelligent and in Clarissa it is all heightened by her family's complicity in her disgrace. This is a book you will read once, it is draining and demands a lot of commitment but ultimately it is worth it. If you read it you will know why I was so delayed with this blog.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady epistolary novel, published in 1748, tells the tragic story of a heroine whose quest for virtue is continually thwarted by her family. It is commonly cited as the longest novel in the English language.

29. Samuel Richardson - Pamela (1740)

2009-01-03T17:26:00.000-08:00

Review

Samuel Richardson was a great writer, and if you really want to read a whopper you would do well to skip right over Pamela and go to Clarissa. Pamela is, however, where you should go if you don't want to read 1500 pages of epistolary novel which ends badly.

So Pamela seems more like a study for Clarissa than a work in itself, but it is a much more manageable one for the more casual reader. Richardson's novels are ostensibly all about Virtue but for the modern reader they are more than anything about claustrophobia and injustice.

Pamela does a great job of making the reader empathise with the main character, Pamela is slightly annoying due to her "virtuosity" but so much shit happens to her and her situation is so impossible and claustrophobic that as a reader you can't stop from sympathising with her. The main male character of the book, Mr. B is an oaf with good intention but using quite horrible means to get to his ends. Mr. B is unfortunately a much inferior villain to Mr. Lovelace in Clarissa. Richardson's epistolary novel is also not perfect, at one point he falls off the device of telling the novel through letters and puts in omniscient narrative. Again this technique is much improved in Clarissa. Pamela is however where I will go if I want to read Richardson again, Clarissa is a book you read once, Pamela is more manageable.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Pamela was the bestseller of its time. It was read by countless buyers of the novel and was also read aloud in groups. An anecdote which has been repeated in varying forms since 1777 described the novel's reception in an English village: "The blacksmith of the village had got hold of Richardson's novel of Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded, and used to read it aloud in the long summer evenings, seated on his anvil, and never failed to have a large and attentive audience....At length, when the happy turn of fortune arrived, which brings the hero and heroine together, and sets them living long and happily...the congregation were so delighted as to raise a great shout, and procuring the church keys, actually set the parish bells ringing."

The novel was also integrated into sermons as an exemplar. It was even an early “multimedia” event, producing Pamela-themed cultural artifacts such as prints, paintings, waxworks, a fan, and a set of playing cards decorated with lines from Richardson's works.

No video, sorry.

28. Swift, Pope, Gay, Parnell and Artbuthnot - Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus (first published 1742)

2008-12-30T14:36:00.000-08:00

Buy it

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

It is hard to find a book that was at the same time so influential and so obscure as the Memories of Martinus Scriblerus. The book is the production of a literary group composed of some of the most important writers of the 18th century in Britain. As such it is closely related to Guliver's Travels, particularly the third book and the Dunciad by Pope.

That introduction out of the way it is also on of the funniest satires on the list. Yes, it does demand some previous knowledge of the conflicts around the nature of knowledge in the 18th century and it does defend an anti-enlightenment agenda. Swift, Pope and friends come across as luddites, but luddites with a sense of humour which is something quite rare.

There are some precious moments in what is quite a short book, Cornelius' concern for his ancient shield is particularly funny to me as it reminds me of my father and his antiques collection, the Double Mistress episode is also very funny in a more bawdy-comedy way. Still, worth reading for several reasons, firstly it is quite short, secondly it has the germ for all later British satire, thirdly it is genuinely funny in parts and fourthly it is completely wrong... but wrong in a funny way.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Encyclopedia Brittanica:

18th-century British literary club whose founding members were the brilliant Tory wits Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Gay, Thomas Parnell, and John Arbuthnot. Its purpose was to ridicule pretentious erudition and scholarly jargon through the person of a fictitious literary hack, Martinus Scriblerus. The name Martin was taken from John Dryden's comic character Sir Martin Mar-all, whose name had become synonymous with absurd error; Scriblerus was a reference to scribler, the contemporary term of contempt for a talentless writer. The collaboration of the five writers on the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus began as early as 1713 and led to frequent, spirited meetings when they were all in London. When they were separated, they pursued their project through correspondence. The zest, energy, and time that these five highly individualistic talents put into their joint enterprise may be gauged by Pope's statement in a letter to Swift, “The top of my own ambition is to contribute to that great work [the Memoirs], and I shall translate Homer by the by.”

Of the five, only Pope and Swift lived to see the publication of the Memoirs (1741), although miscellaneous minor pieces written in collaboration or individually had appeared earlier under the Scriblerus name. Although Pope is credited with originating the character of Scriblerus, most of the ideas were Arbuthnot's, and he was the most industrious of the collaborators. The stimulation the members derived from each other had far-reaching effects. Gay's The Beggar's Opera grew out of a suggestion made by Swift to the Scriblerus Club, and the imprint of Scriblerus on Swift's Gulliver's Travels, especially Book III, describing the voyage to Laputa, is unmistakable. Other prominent Tories—such as Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford, and Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke—were members of the club, but there is no evidence that they contributed to the writing.

27. Henry Fielding - Joseph Andrews (1742)

2008-12-30T14:25:00.000-08:00

Buy It

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: I must warn you that this is one of those stupid mistakes on the book list, this book comes on the list before Samuel Richardson's Pamela, seeing as this is not the first, but the second spoof of Pamela by Fielding, Pamela should really come first. Fortunately you don't need to have read Pamela to appreciate the book. I am reading Pamela now and it throws some light on Andrews, but nothing major. Shamela, Fielding's first spoof of Pamela does require previous knowledge of the book, in case you are interested or have the Penguin edition with Shamela and Joseph Andrews.

Well, as you can see in the frontispiece above this is a novel done in the imitation of Cervantes. As in most imitations it isn't nearly as good as the original. It starts off as a male version of Pamela, but it soon becomes an adventure story in the style of Don Quixote, where Andrews is the Quixote to Parson Adams' Sancho. It is an interesting book in the way that it attempt to transpose the ideas in Quixote to English reality.

I found that it took me a few dozen pages to get used to Fielding's writing, as soon as I did it became a quite enjoyable book. There are some particular speeches, about Good Works versus Faith for example which are very interesting and well worth the price of admition. The humour is never as sharp as that of Cervantes or even Swift however and the book loses points for that.

Vanda: Unlike my husband up there, I loathed this book. Dull, dullstown, dullsville, dullscontinent. Dear god, was it dull, uninteresting, unwitty, not funny at all, while trying desperately to amuse. I tried and tried to read it fast, to skim over some bits, and not even that was possible, with Fielding's confounded writing style that makes this absolutely impossible. It took me a while to finish it, because I simply was not interested at all in the characters, and the desperatly-trying-to-be-satirical-and-failing-miserably writing just got consistently on my nerves.

Seriously, you have better things to do with your time. It's a short book, but it takes too long to read to justify a tick in the list of books you've read. The plot is all rather pointless, and the writer's attempt at emulating Cervantes is nothing if not laughable. Why it was kept in the new list is absolutely beyond me. There have been books I haven't liked, but have usually understand their inclusion. With this one, I'm just plain baffled.

Final Grade

Francisco: 6/10
Vanda: 2/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The impetus for the novel, as Fielding claims in the preface, is the establishment of a genre of writing ‘which I do not remember to have been hitherto attempted in our language’, defined as the ‘comic epic-poem in prose’: a work of prose fiction, epic in length and variety of incident and character, in the hypothetical spirit of Homer’s lost (and possibly apocryphal) comic poem. As becomes apparent from the first few chapters of the novel in which Richardson and Cibber are parodied mercilessly, the real germ of Joseph Andrews is Fielding’s objection to the moral and technical limitations of the popular literature of his day. But while Shamela started and finished as a sustained subversion of a rival work, in Joseph Andrews Fielding merely uses the depravation of popular literature as a springboard to conceive more fully his own philosophy of prose fiction.

26. Jonathan Swift - A Modest Proposal (1729)

2008-12-30T14:23:00.001-08:00

Buy It

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: A Modest Proposal is not a novel of any kind, if anything it is a satirical political essay. But don't let stop you, firstly it is only 8 pages long and secondly it is great. There are very few thinks written in the 1700's that manage to shock you today, but this is definitely one of them.

Swifts satire is rabid here and terribly shocking, he facetiously argues for eating Irish children as a way to make them profitable to the United Kingdom. His tongue-in-cheek must have been terribly hard to spot in the 18th century and you only get that it is a satire by how shocking the whole argument is. You eventually reach the inevitable conclusion that the man is defending the opposite that the writes and this is definitely the birth of modern satire.

Really a brilliant essay for all those that think that all was clean fun in olden days.

Vanda: Ok, damn it, first, WHY IS THIS INCLUDED? These list makers are starting to get on my nerves. How is this a novel? Seriously!

Second, it's brilliant and you should most definetely read it. I think this sort of satire would not go down well today, nevermind in the 18th century. I really must admire Mr. Swift's pair of jewels for writing this, even if his previous efforts left me cold and somewhat unimpressed.

Go on, it'll take you like five minutes and you'll have something interesting to share next time you're sitting in the café (or dreaming of it if you're sad and don't have a café culture).

Final Grade

Francisco: 8/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

The full original title is: A Modest Proposal: For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Publick

The satirical intent of A Modest Proposal was misunderstood by many of Swift’s peers, and he was harshly criticized for writing prose in such exceptionally “bad taste.” He came close to losing his patronage because of this essay. Swift’s audience confused the essay’s subject—indifference to the suffering of the Irish poor—with the essay’s topic of cannibalism. This effect was accentuated because nothing in the unrelentingly sincere tone of the narrative voice hints that the proposal is unpalatable.

25. Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels (1726)

2008-12-30T14:23:00.000-08:00

Buy it

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: This is a brilliant book, it can be read in so many different levels, that make it all that much better. If you don't know much about 18th century Europe or are a bit dimwitted or a kid it's a great fantastical adventure story. IF you do care about the history it is a pretty funny and quite smart criticism of the state of affairs.

It is funny, not to say that I agree with most or even all of the points that Swift attempts to make in his satire. I also disagreed with the contents of Tale Of A Tub, and it's Swift's merit that he manages to be funny and elicit laughter wven when you strongly disagree with him, it's a mark of genius.

The race of horses, the Houyhnhnms, in the last book is a good example of some of the ideas I really dislike. The horses are supposedly the paragon of justice and perfectness, but there is at a time a meeting which seems out of a WWII movie, where the horses are deciding if they should exterminate the humans because they are dirty and useless, the horses are asexual, all their weddings are arranged and are an all around boring yet fanatical people who Swift seems to admire so.

Also the only people in Europe that Swift praises, other than the occasional Englishmen are the Portuguese... which is all right with me!

Vanda: I don't know, I don't think I was really in the mood to read this book. It seemed to me that Swift, as per usual, was trying to be very clever and not quite getting there. I think he writes quite well, but I don't think the book is all that could have been, as most of the satire and social commentary is just too visible, and heavy-handed.

I just didn't find it funny as Mr. Cisco did. It had touches of Rabelais once in a while, and you all know how much I loved that. Ahem.

Everybody will know this book from their childhood, and yes, you should probably read it again now if you're a bit older, since revisiting books with several layers is always interesting, but, honestly, I really wouldn't make it a priority.

Final Grade

Francisco: 9/10
Vanda: 7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Major themes

Gulliver's Travels has been called a lot of things from Menippean satire to a children's story, from proto-Science Fiction to a forerunner of the modern novel. Possibly one of the reasons for the book's classic status is that it can be seen as many things to many people. Broadly, the book has three themes:

* a satirical view of the state of European government, and of petty differences between religions.

* an inquiry into whether men are inherently corrupt or whether they become corrupted.

* a restatement of the older "ancients v. moderns" controversy previously addressed by Swift in the Battle of the Books.

In terms of storytelling and construction the parts follow a pattern:

* The causes of Gulliver's misadventures become more malignant as time goes on - he is first shipwrecked, then abandoned, then attacked by strangers, then attacked by his own crew.

* Gulliver's attitude hardens as the book progresses — he is genuinely surprised by the viciousness and politicking of the Lilliputians but finds the behavior of the Yahoos in the fourth part reflective of the behavior of people

* Each part is the reverse of the preceding part — Gulliver is big/small/sensible/ignorant, the countries are sophisticated/simple/scientific/natural, forms of Government are worse/better/worse/better than England's.

* Gulliver's view between parts contrasts with its other coinciding part — Gulliver sees the tiny Lilliputians as being vicious and unscrupulous, and then the king of Brobdingnag sees Europe in exactly the same light. Gulliver sees the Laputians as unreasonable, and Gulliver's houyhnhm master sees humanity (well, Yahoos) equally so.

* No form of government is ideal — the simplistic Brobdingnagians enjoy public executions and have streets infested with beggars, the honest and upright Houyhnhnms who have no word for lying are happy to suppress the true nature of Gulliver as a Yahoo and equally unconcerned about his reaction to being expelled

* Specific individuals may be good even where the race is bad — Gulliver finds a friend in each of his travels and, despite Gulliver's rejection of and horror toward all Yahoos, is treated very well by the Portuguese captain, Don Pedro, who returns him to England at the novel's end.

Of equal interest is the character of Gulliver himself — he progresses from a cheery optimist at the start of the first part to the pompous misanthrope of the book's conclusion and we may well have to filter our understanding of the work if we are to believe the final misanthrope wrote the whole work. In this sense Gulliver's Travels is a very modern and complex novel. There are subtle shifts throughout the book, such as when Gulliver begins to see all humans, not just those in Houyhnhnm-land, as Yahoos.

Despite the depth and subtlety of the book, it is often derided as a children's story because of the popularity of the Lilliput section (frequently bowdlerised) as a book for children. It is still possible to buy books entitled Gulliver's Travels which contain only parts of the Lilliput voyage.

24. Daniel Defoe - Moll Flanders (1722)

2008-12-30T14:22:00.000-08:00

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Review

Francisco: Defoe writes the most powerful woman character in the list up until now. Moll is an independent woman who owns her own life, even though that life is full of problems which arise mainly from her own decisions, the simple fact that she is able to make those decisions make this a book apart.

Most female characters in previous books, even the ones written by women like the Princesse de Cleves or Love In Excess are victims to exterior forces or to their own weakness. Cleves is the strongest character who is able to separate her passion from her rational needs. Defoe takes it one step further and Moll becomes a character who will do many things for her own profit, in fact she fights for herself and her position in life.

Of course this isn't something to be admired in Moll, it should be showing us the error of her ways, particularly in terms of criminal activity. Defoe is not against women's independence however, just against the means, and when Moll achieves religious redemption she gets her fortune and even though married, is independently wealthy, and ends the book rich, happy and penitent.

One fault of this book is the fact that it reads like a fly on the wall documentary, even though Moll is the narrator she doesn't seem to express her feelings or her thought as much as I would wish, the book follows her actions around more than anything. Defoe proves, as he would later with Roxana, that he can write strong women like no other person at the time. Kudos.

Vanda: Oh, this was great. Truly great. Moll is a fantastic character, the story is well told, and Defoe comes across once again as a truly sensitive, non-judgemental writer, that is incredible at putting himself in the shoes of his main character, be it a man in a desert island, or a woman trying to fend off for herself after being born in a prison.

I really enjoyed the fact that although Moll does commit a series of crimes, marries several times for money (always in an incredible intelligent way, although usually not with very good outcomes), and even accidentally marries and has children with her own brother, Defoe never judges her actions. They are always presented in a point-blank manner, and although there are some mentionings of she being sorry and penitent, she pretty much gets away with it all, remaining strong and dusting herself off everytime tragedy occurs. How shocking must this have been.

Now, while I don't condone the whole stealing/marrying for money malarky, Moll's strenght appealed to me more than any other character's written by women so far. Isn't this strange? I'd rather have her as a role model, with all her resourcefullness, independence, intelligence, and sheer strenght. Huzzah for whores, I say. And huzzah for Defoe.

Final Grade

Francisco: 8/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:
Defoe himself was a noted Puritan. His views are unambiguous, in that he believes and writes for hard work, devotion, and the work of providence as grace. There is some debate, however, as to whether Defoe intended Moll as an entirely sympathetic character. The novel, devoting many pages to crime and sin and very few to repentance or even remorse, leads the reader to question Moll's desire for forgiveness. She is therefore an ambivalent character. Some have even speculated that Defoe intended the book partially as a titillating moneymaker. These arguments often allude to Defoe's preface, in which he mentions "lewd ideas" and "immodest terms" that could lead the audience to read the work for scandalous entertainment instead of moral value.

The novel combines Defoe's interests in conversion narratives with his experience and interest in crime. Moll Flanders was a popular novel, and Defoe's reputation was aided by it. He had earlier written about criminals for various journals, and Moll Flanders increased his cachet as a writer of criminal lives. Soon after the publication of Moll Flanders, he wrote two different lives, of Jack Sheppard, the Cockney housebreaker, in 1724, and a novella length life of Jonathan Wild in 1725. Also in 1724, Defoe returned to the subject of fallen women with an even more salacious Roxana. The life of Moll Cutpurse, who is mentioned in the book, undoubtedly inspired Defoe although she is quite a different character to Moll Flanders.

From the point of view of historians, Moll Flanders is valuable for its information on the life, punishment, and habits of the criminal world. In addition to being one of the few detailed descriptions of life in The Mint, it is also one of the best narratives of life in Newgate prison, the punishments of prostitution (as well as a common prostitute's tale), and the way that America was viewed in the early 18th century. The novel is itself a bit of pro-immigration propaganda, in that it portrays America as a place of peace, religious tolerance (so long as it is dissenting Protestant), and opportunity. In contrast to later depictions (e.g. Oliver Goldsmith's The Deserted Village), Defoe's Puritan depiction is naive. Although Defoe is a biased witness, Moll Flanders has a high value for cultural history.

23. Eliza Haywood - Love In Excess (1719- 20)

2008-12-30T14:21:00.000-08:00

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Review

Francisco: Yawn... I think that book lists which include female writers for the simple fact that they are female are doing a disservice both to feminists and the whole of womanhood. There is a reason why there were not many female writers, and that was the social inequality and the place in which women were put in society. This seems to be glossed over by trying to put some books written by women in the 17th and 18th century... the problem is that they are scraping a tiny barrel, and the stuff that comes out is pretty terrible, for the simple reason that there is very little to choose from, as women writers were very rare. This is not a slight on women or their capacity but on the society that didn't allow them to write. You had to get only the pampered elite women writing and while it was sometimes sucessful as in the case of the Princesse de Cleves, more often it wasn't.

This is an example of that. Particularly after reading Dafoe, Haywood seems like a hack. The writing is clunky and hardgoing and while the first of the three parts is quite enjoyable and readable the same cannot be said of the other 2 thirds of the book, which came out in the coattails of the success of the first part, after a while you just don't care anymore. There is some depiction of female sexuality which is quite interesting, as is D'Elmont, the main character, but you soon lose interest.

The book went unread for a long time since when it was published until the 20th century, some claim that it was because Victorian Britain couldn't take the image of powerful women... I say that it's because it was shit, and feminist barrel scraping brought it back from it's well deserved oblivion.

Vanda: Dull, overwritten, with such pseudo-complex sentences that you loose interest in after about 5 words.

I'm having problems coming up with any good points about this book. I simply don't understand why this is included. Is it because it mentions female sexuality? Defoe does that in the two next books on the list and he does it better. Is it simply because she's a woman writer? If so, then it's a pretty bollocks reason (and I've talked about this already in the review of god-awful Oronooko.)

Haywood is also excessively fond of Deux Ex Machina endings. Is this character a nuisance to the plot? Kill her off. Is this other character impeding where she wants the story to go? Kill him off! This happens over and over. Seriously. It's like she doesn't have the commitment to stick with pre-designed plot lines, and so everything misteriously turns out fine because all the impediments die. How fantastically convenient, and how crappily written.

Honestly, I wouldn't bother. The books coming after this one are very much superior. Read those instead. I wish they'd stop including women writer's just because, you know, they're women. It's offensive.

Final Grade

Francisco: 4/10
Vanda: 3/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Haywood’s first novel, Love in Excess; or The Fatal Enquiry (1719-1720) touches on themes of education and marriage. Termed an amatory bodice-ripper by some, this novel is also notable for its treatment of the fallen woman. D’Elmonte, the novel’s male protagonist, reassures one woman that she should not condemn herself: “There are times, madam,” he says “in which the wisest have not power over their own actions.” The fallen woman is given an unusually positive portrait.

Wow

22. Daniel Dafoe - Robinson Crusoe (1719)

2008-12-30T14:20:00.000-08:00

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Review

Francisco: This is the first true novel in the English language, and it does show. The leap is immense from something like Oronooko, which was the most novel-like book in the English language that I read before this.

Defoe has a great sense of pacing, and the story develops throughout the book, as a well contructed narrative. This is not to say, however, that the whole book is riveting. It isn't. And in the first 100 pages you start to despair with boredom, which is actually quite appropriate in terms of making you empathise with the main character - you go through the horrible affair of being stranded with nothing to do with him. And you start to get him. Only towards the end does stuff start happening, and some excitement comes along.

Defoe is a good writer, and although not an astonishing piece of work, Robinson Crusoe is quite entertaining, and much more so that whatever else had come before in the English language. For that only it really deserves a place here, as a work which achieves it's purpose: to entertain the reader. A thing did grate on my nerves however, Crusoe is a racist pig and a slaver... don't care much for that... he does however learn to appreciate Friday as a friend and not only a servant.

Something which I also found interesting while reading is the fact that the English language was not normalised, Defoe's spelling is all over the place, he writes the same words in different ways. We'd have to wait for Samuel Johnsson to fix it...

Vanda: I quite enjoyed this book! I'd read it before, as a child (as I think most people will have), in a translated version. I actually remember really trying to hunt it down for a while, although I'm at a loss to know why. There was a time when I was obsessed with desert islands, and had thouroghly enjoyed A Familia Robinson so maybe that was it. Anyway.

Dafoe writes in a deadpan style that almost reaches what Hemingway would do a couple of centuries later. He is not one for pointless embellishments, or reduntant metaphor, and yet he is terribly good at putting himself in the shoes of the characters he creates. Crusoe does have an affinity with wandering around pointlessly shooting at inedible animals, but he comes across as a very human, and, later, a very wise man. You feel his joys and his terrors, and his internal dialogs are the most interesting things I've read in a while, particularly his reasoning of wether he should kill all the cannibals, or not, and why.

If you haven't read this yet, you're missing out, and should really give it a go.

Final Grade

Francisco: 7/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

Why the fuck is Friday always portrayed as black? Crusoe is stranded near America! Friday is "olive skinned", as described in the book. It makes no sense, as Friday was not a slave but a native American. Probably too many years of stupid British people presuming all "natives" are black.

21. Aphra Behn - Oroonoko (1688)

2008-12-30T14:19:00.000-08:00

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Review

Francisco: Ok I disliked this book, in fact I profoundly disliked it. Not that there aren't any redeeming factors to it, it is the first English novel set in the Americas and the hero is actually a black slave. This would be a good thing if the book was in any way against slavery which it isn't. The book is basically a apology of class division, it is wrong for Oroonoko to be a slave because he is a king, not because he is a human being.

Aphra Behn was a commited royalist and defended an existence of an innefable quality of nobility which was shared by all those of noble blood and therefore Oroonoko. It is in fact an inherently racist book. Behn's description of Oroonoko shows a woman debating between her racism and her sexual attraction more than anything. She reaches the conclusion that Oroonoko is beautiful because all his features are those of a white man, his hair is straight and it is unfortunate but alluring that he is black.

And don't talk to me about plot, the events that lead to the tragic end of the story only start about 10 pages from the end! The rest of the book is spent with platitudes and fawning over Oroonoko and his lover. Really would be better off doing something else.

Vanda: I don't understand how this book is upheld so much as a paragon of anti-racism, or woman's writing, for that matter. It manages to fail spectacularly at both, and be dull and irritating at the same time.

Now, I don't say that Behn was particularly racist - she didn't really go out of her way to write racist prose; I just think that she didn't object at all to the status quo of her time, which, if we stop being post-modern about this, we can accept and move along to examine the book as a whole. She was as racist as most of her comtemporaries, I would say, though there certainly were people at the time who would deserve her status of aforementioned paragon I had mentioned before. Moving along.

I also feel a bit embarassed when this is sold and applauded as an example of female prose. I understand the overcompensating that comes with equal opportunities, but for God's sake, this is a terrible book. I just read Princesse de Cléves! That was a good example! Oh, is it because it's not British? Is that it?

Behn as a narrator is self-centered, dull and annoying. It's all about her, her experiences, and how charming she is. This book might be important, but if you read it, read it only because of that.

Final Grade

Francisco: 4/10
Vanda: 3/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The colony of Surinam began importing slaves in the 1650s, since there were not enough indentured servants coming from England for the labor-intensive sugar cane production. In 1662, the Duke of York got a commission to supply 3,000 slaves to the Caribbean, and Lord Willoughby was also a slave trader. For the most part, English slavers dealt with slave-takers in Africa and rarely captured slaves themselves. The story of Oroonoko's abduction is plausible, for such raids did take place, but English slave traders avoided them where possible for fear of accidentally capturing a person who would anger the friendly groups on the coast. Most of the slaves came from the Gold Coast, and in particular from modern-day Ghana.

According to biographer Janet Todd, Behn did not oppose slavery per se. She accepted the idea that powerful groups would enslave the powerless, and she would have grown up with Oriental tales of "The Turk" taking European slaves. The most likely candidate for Aphra Behn's husband is Johan Behn, who sailed on The King David from the German imperial free city of Hamburg. This Johan Behn was a slaver whose residence in London later was probably a result of acting as a mercantile cover for Dutch trade with the English colonies under a false flag. Had Aphra Behn been opposed to slavery as an institution, it is not very likely that she would have married a slave trader. At the same time, it is fairly clear that she was not happy in marriage, and Oroonoko, written twenty years after the death of her husband, has, among its cast of characters, no one more evil than the slave ship captain who tricks and captures Oroonoko.

Todd is probably correct in saying that Aphra Behn did not set out to protest slavery, but however tepid her feelings about slavery, there is no doubt about her feelings on the subject of natural kingship. The final words of the novel are a slight expiation of the narrator's guilt, but it is for the individual man she mourns and for the individual that she writes a tribute, and she lodges no protest over slavery itself. A natural king could not be enslaved, and, as in the play Behn wrote while in Surinam, The Young King, no land could prosper without a king. Her fictional Surinam is a headless body. Without a true and natural leader, a king, the feeble and corrupt men of position abuse their power. What was missing was Lord Willoughby, or the narrator's father: a true lord. In the absence of such leadership, a true king, Oroonoko, is misjudged, mistreated, and killed.

One potential motive for the novel, or at least one political inspiration, was Behn's view that Surinam was a fruitful and potentially wealthy settlement that needed only a true noble to lead it. Like others sent to investigate the colony, she felt that Charles was not properly informed of the place's potential. When Charles gave up Surinam in 1667 with the Treaty of Breda, Behn was dismayed. This dismay is enacted in the novel in a graphic fashion: if the English, with their aristocracy, mismanaged the colony and the slaves by having an insufficiently noble ruler there, then the democratic and mercantile Dutch would be far worse. Accordingly, the passionate misrule of Byam is replaced by the efficient and immoral management of the Dutch. Charles had a strategy for a united North American presence, however, and his gaining of New Amsterdam for Surinam was part of that larger vision. Neither Charles II nor Aphra Behn could have known how correct Charles's bargain was, but Oroonoko can be seen as a royalist's demurral.

20. Madame de La Fayette - Princesse de Cleves (1678)

2008-12-30T14:18:00.000-08:00

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Review

Francisco: Here's a book I really enjoyed, it's short and sweet, focuses on the main plot for the most part and is a pretty good reconstructive historical novel. The story is set 100 years in the past with the title character as the focus of the story. This book actually marks quite an evolution from previous novels as it is mainly a psychological novel, meaning that the events aren't nearly as important as the thoughts and feelings of the main characters.

This simple innovation is actually quite meaningful, and it is something that the English could not achieve until later on, and it has always remained a French speciality to write novels about feelings and not events. Not that events and setting are meaningless here, in fact the historical reconstruction of Henry II's court in France is quite a perfect one and La Fayette drew from a great number of sources to be able to achieve it.

I would definitely reccomend it, particularly to the English speaking audience who hasn't come across it. If you are stuck with Aphra Bhen's Oroonoko as an example of 17th century female writing, you are in the fucking stone-age when compared to this in terms of character development and emotional complexity.

Vanda: That was beautiful! Really, truly beautiful. I'm actually surprised to no end; after the books that came before, I was not expecting such emotional and intellectual complexity (sure, D. Quixote was fantastic, but a completly different kettle of fish).

Most of the fascinating passages here happen when characters reflect on their emotions, and believe me, it's more interesting than it sounds. The plot is very, very simple, but not simplistic. It's also beautifully written, with depth, excellent pacing, and thoughtfulness.

I have to admit to the urge of screaming at the Princess a bit towards the end, but the fact that Madame de La Fayette did not go for the obvious ending makes this a superior book. It's truly wonderful. Read it.

Final Grade

Francisco: 9/10
Vanda: 9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Popular reception

The novel was an enormous commercial success at the time of its publication, and would-be readers outside of Paris had to wait months to receive copies. The novel also sparked several public debates, including one about its authorship, and another about the sensibility of the Princess' decision to confess her adulterous feelings to her husband.

Influence

One of the earliest psychological novels which is also the first roman d'analyse (novel of analysis), La Princesse de Clèves marked a major turning point in the history of the novel, which to that point had largely been used to tell romances, implausible stories of heroes overcoming odds to find a happy marriage, with myriad subplots and running ten to twelve volumes. La Princesse de Clèves turned that on its head with a highly realistic plot, introspective language that explored the characters' inner thoughts and emotions, and no major subplots.

19. Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen - Simplicius Simplicissimus (Die Abentheuerliche Simplicissimus Teutsch) (1668)

2008-12-29T18:02:00.000-08:00

Review

I am so behind on this blog it's not even funny, I read this a long time ago already, but I promise to try to update this more often in order to catch up to where I am right now. At the moment I am finishing A Sentimental Journey by Sterne, and that is over a century after this.

Simplicissimus is a delightful book however, and I can highly recommend it. The story is comparable to that of other picaresque novels of the time, particularly with Lazarillo de Tormes. It follows the life of an apparently simple-minded German boy who quickly reveals himself to be much smarter than anyone gives him credit for.

Parts of the novel are sheer delights, Simplicissimus' description of the house where he is born at the beginning of the book is one of these moments, but then the whole story develops in a great way, charting historical and political developments of the time. It often reminded me of Umberto Eco's Baudolino and that is high praise indeed.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Inspired by the events and horrors of the Thirty Years' War which had devastated Germany from 1618 to 1648, it is regarded as the first adventure novel in the German language. It contains autobiographic elements, inspired by Grimmelshausen's experience in the war. The historian Robert Ergang, however, draws upon Gustav Könnecke's Quellen und Forschungen zur Lebensgeschichte Grimmelshausens to convey the assertion that "the events related in the novel Simplicissimus could hardly have been autobiographical since [Grimmelshausen] lived a peaceful existence in quiet towns and villages on the fringe of the Black Forest and that the material he incorporated in his work was not taken from actual experience, but was either borrowed from the past, collected from hearsay, or created by a vivid imagination.

Trailer for the Operatic version of the book:

18. Bernal Diaz del Castillo - The Conquest Of New Spain (Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de Nueva Espana) (1632)

2008-08-20T18:37:00.001-07:00

Review

Well this isn't exactly a novel, or even a book of fiction, although I am sure that parts of it are fictionalised. It is, however a fascinating account of the Spanish conquest of the Americas through the eyes of a footsoldier.

The fact that it is a footsoldier telling the tale is what makes this precious. Del Castillo has little need to embellish the story, he isn't writing for glory or political gain, he is an old man writing what he remembers. He has little to gain from it, he has little education and it shows. The text is plain, but the story is fascinating, he is not above reproaching his former military leaders and pointing out mistakes.

The fact that he seems to have little reason to lie kind of gets you on the side of the Spanish throughout, yes the decimated a culture, and in this book it is the Aztecs who are killed, but the Aztecs are bloodthirsty bastards, the gruesome human sacrifices are depicted vividly, and there was no way that the Spanish could conquer them by themselves coming across the ocean on crappy boats. The Aztecs are decimated because the Spanish rally all the other people of the area who positively hate the Aztecs, who regularly invade them, sacrifice their people to their gods and make them pay tribute, only a small amount of the Spanish army consists of actual Spaniards. It is a fascinating antidote to the Leyenda Niegra that later colonising powers created around the Spanish conquest of America as a way to say "hey we just sit in the plantation and watch you work while we have a Gin and Tonic, the Spanish were worse". Yeah but the Aztecs weren't nice.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Written at eighty-four years of age on his encomienda estates in Guatemala, Díaz wrote his work to defend the common conquistador history of the conquest. He wanted to provide an alternative to the critical writings of Bartolomé de Las Casas who emphasized the cruelty of the conquest and also the hagiographic biographers of Hernán Cortés, among them Francisco López de Gómara, who he believed to be downplaying the role of the 700 common footmen who were instrumental in bringing down the Aztec empire. Accusing these chroniclers of speaking the truth "neither in the beginning, nor the middle, nor the end", Díaz vociferously defended the actions of the conquistadors, while at the same time bringing the elements of humanism and honesty to his eyewitness narrative, famously summarised in his famous throwaway line; "we went there to serve God, and also to get rich".

Díaz is not always charitable to Cortés. As with many of the other soldiers involved in the conquest, Díaz found himself among the ruins of Tenochtitlan little richer than when he had arrived, a state for which many of his comrades blamed Cortés, accused by some of taking far more than his previously-agreed 'fifth' of the Aztec treasury as loot. Certainly, the compensation many conquistadors received, both in land and gold, was a poor return for the months of marching and hard fighting across Mexico and Anahuac. Other readings of The Conquest of New Spain have noted that Díaz was one of a number of relatives serving with Cortés of Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar, governor of Cuba and mortal enemy of Cortés, many of whom ended up plotting against the conquistador. Díaz may have deliberately played down this relationship because it played a more prominent role than he pretends in the text; his involved relationship with Cortés and his captains suggests that he may have been the representative of the Velázquez faction, and was one of the few who remained loyal to Cortés to the end. There has even been speculation among historical sources that Díaz's account was entirely fictional. But disregarding some of his possible omissions, Díaz's narrative is widely acknowledged to be a true one, and that his attitude to Cortés expresses no more ambivalence towards the conquistador's legacy than it has since inspired among many others.

The Conquest of New Spain is a vivid account of one of the most startling episodes in colonial history, and Díaz stands "among chroniclers what Daniel Defoe is among novelists".

A little bit on Human Sacrifice:

17. Cervantes - Los Trabajos de Persiles y Sigismunda (1617)

2008-08-06T18:51:00.000-07:00

Review

After such an amazing book as D. Quixote this is an attempt by Cervantes to write something respectable... well he should have enjoyed his retirement. It's quite boring.

Also I had to read it in the original as there is no translation. Essentially it is a romance, of the kind that drove Quixote mad, in this sense it is interesting to see what Cervantes makes of a romance. Frankly he was better at spoofing them.

Honestly I kind of quit half-way through, it wasn't grabbing me in anyway, a lot of it was re-runs of Amadis of Gaul and my 17th century Spanish isn't that amazing. Frankly it bored me to tears. I'll hope for a good translation so I can give it another go.

Final Grade

5/10 (unfinished)

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The romance of Persiles and Sigismunda, which Cervantes finished shortly before his death, must be regarded as an interesting appendix to his other works. The language and the whole composition of the story exhibit the purest simplicity, combined with singular precision and polish. The idea of this romance was not new, and scarcely deserved to be reproduced in a new manner. But it appears that Cervantes, at the close of his glorious career, took a fancy to imitate Heliodorus. He has maintained the interest of the situations, but the whole work is merely a romantic description of travels, rich enough in fearful adventures, both by sea and land. Real and fabulous geography and history are mixed together in an absurd and monstrous manner; and the second half of the romance, in which the scene is transferred to Spain and Italy, does not exactly harmonize with the spirit of the first half.

Cervantes in Man of La Mancha:

16. Cervantes - D. Quixote (Part I: 1605, Part II: 1615)

2008-07-29T09:03:00.000-07:00

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Review

Francisco: Well this was at the same time the longest but also most enjoyable read of the list until now. Let's start with the negative points of the book. Mr. Cervantes could have done with a good editor, whole sections of the book are pretty useless to the main story but fortunately Cervantes was smart enough to realise this by the time he published D. Quixote part deux. Curiously he actually apologises for wasting the readers time with his drivel.

His drivel is actually quite good, it just doesn't fit the book. Of course this didn't stop many of the writers before him doing pointless interpolations in the middle of their main stories. The simple fact that Cervantes is aware of this shows a big shift in novel writing. And Quixote is the most recognisable book as a modern novel on the list up until now actually it is spectacularly modern in many parts.

D. Quixote is about much more than fighting windmills and laughing at Alzheimer's. It is also fiction about fiction, and very much a book about itself. The self-referencing is insane, from characters finding books from Cervantes and prasing them to high-heavens to Part II where everyone knows Quixote and Pança because they have read Part I. It isn't strange that Borges paid tribute to Quixote in Pierre Menard, Author of The Quixote there is much of Cervantes in Borges and what our minds think of as very 20th century innovations in literature stare mockingly at us from the 1600's.

Is it overly long? Yes. Do you empathise with the characters and let them become a part of your family? Yes. Do You feel sad when you finish it, because you want more? Yes.

So, it is a good novel but like all universally loved books you can fall in the trap of being acritical, and this is not a perfect book, parts of it can be done without and it can become repetitive at times. It is however a very enjoyable and innovative one.

Vanda: Now this, my friends, is a lovely book. Very very long, but very, very good.

Cervantes has been added to my imaginary "dream dinner party" scenario. He's funny, but also very sensitive. He thinks nothing of going off on tangents to tell stories he (probably) dreamed up the night before, or on badly disguised rants against the writer who dared to write the continuation of the D. Quixote story, without his knowledge or permission. You don't mind this however. You don't mind this a bit! (Well...I didn't, at least)

As is probably fairly clear on the last paragraph, the story doesn't have a linear structure per se, but the beauty is that Cervantes writes so well that you're quite happy to follow him (and D. Quixote) wherever they go. And once you've come to love the madman, he throws you a very sad ending, not so much because D. Quixote dies (which you start predicting since the beginning), but that he regains his sanity in the last moments of his life. It was a beautiful madness, and you're sorry to see it go.

Final Grade

Francisco: 9/10
Vanda: 9/10

Trivia

From Wiki

Don Quixote is often nominated as the world's greatest work of fiction. It stands in a unique position between medieval chivalric romance and the modern novel. The former consist of disconnected stories with little exploration of the inner life of even the main character. The latter are usually focused on the psychological evolution of their characters. In Part I, Quixote imposes himself on his environment. By Part II, he is no longer physically capable, but people know about him, "having read his adventures," and so, he needs to do less to maintain his image. By his deathbed, he has begun to assume a new identity, including a nickname, "the Good."

The novel contains many minor literary "firsts" for European literature—a woman complaining of her menopause, someone with an eating disorder, and the psychological revealing of their troubles as something inner to themselves.

Subtle touches regarding perspective are everywhere: characters talk about a woman who is the cause of the death of a suitor, portraying her as evil, but when she comes on stage, she gives a different perspective entirely that makes Quixote (and thus the reader) defend her. When Quixote descends into a cave, Cervantes admits that he does not know what went on there.

Quixote's adventures tend to involve situations in which he attempts to apply a knight's sure, simple morality to situations in which much more complex issues are at hand. For example, upon seeing a band of galley slaves being mistreated by their guards, he believes their cries of innocence and attacks the guards. After they are freed, he demands that they honor his lady Dulcinea, but instead they pelt him with stones and leave.

Different ages have tended to read different things into the novel. When it was first published, it was usually interpreted as a comic novel. After the French Revolution it was popular in part due to its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is quite wrong and disenchanting—not comic at all. In the 19th century it was seen as a social commentary, but no one could easily tell "whose side Cervantes was on." By the 20th century it had come to occupy a canonical space as one of the foundations of modern literature.

American author Barry Gifford described "Don Quixote" as "the first Beat novel."

Following the Cuban revolution, the revolutionary government founded a publishing house called Instituto Cubano del Libro (Cuban Book Institute), to publish large runs of great literature for distribution at low prices to the masses. The first book published by the Instituto was Don Quixote.

For the 400th anniversary of the original publication of the novel, the Venezuelan government printed one million summarized copies for free distribution. Similar initiatives took place in Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries around the world.

15. Thomas Deloney - Thomas Of Reading (c. 1600)

2008-07-28T16:26:00.000-07:00

Review

Thomas of Reading is a bit of an unremarkable piece of literature as a novel, but as an historical and social document it is quite an important one. This is one of the first novels in the English language that seeks to depict the life of the common people.

Deloney was probably a tailor and therefore the "clothiers" are the main characters here, but it doesn't work exactly as a novel but more as a sequence of separate episodes.

Well, I wasn't to impressed with it, as I am not with most Elizabethan fiction, it's ok, but in no way great, others had depicted the common people before, look at Lazarillo de Tormes, it just wasn't in English.

Final Grade

6/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

He [Thomas Deloney] appears to have worked as a silk-weaver in Norwich, but was in London by 1586, and in the course of the next ten years is known to have written about fifty ballads, some of which got him into trouble, and caused him to keep a low profile for a time. His more important work as a novelist, in which he ranks with Robert Greene and Thomas Nashe, was not noted until much later. He appears to have turned to this genre to try to keep out of trouble. Less under the influence of John Lyly and other preceding writers than Greene, he is more natural, simple, and direct, and writes of middle-class citizens and tradesmen with light humour. Of his novels, Thomas of Reading is in honour of clothiers, Jack of Newbury celebrates weaving, and The Gentle Craft is dedicated to the praise of shoemakers. He "dy'd poorely," but was "honestly buried."

There is evidence to suggest that his son travelled to the Virginia colony. His descendents then spread into Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee.

A little video on Elizabethan Fashion :

14. Thomas Nashe - The Unfortunate Traveller (1594)

2008-07-27T00:00:00.000-07:00

Buy It

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: This is a pretty interesting book. It does have one major problem however, particularly if you are not a native speaker... or born in the fucking 16th century, it is written in 16th century English, so it hath been writteneth in thee's and thou's. But if thou hast a reasonable command of the language thou shouldst have gotten into its own gear by about the 20th page.

Anon, dear friends, not all is bad with this most exquisite piece of writing. In fact this is quite an achievement, Nashe is quite a racy fellow. There is depicted here a most impressive rape scene near the ending and if thou dost not quiver with disgust at the most vivid depiction of vileness thou hath no heart! Also, near the end there is the most harrowing tale of some Italian who gets revenge in good Neapolitan fashion on his brother's killer by first making him pray to Satan so his immortal soul be cast down into the fiery pits of hell and then shoot ye litte fuckwit in the very throat. Or when some Jew gets tortured in very ugly ways indeed. Still, the novel form is pretty loose here and there isn't so much a central plot but a compilation of stories brought together by a general frame of the travellers' travels.

Still, parts of the book are quite dull, particularly when Nashe uses his travels as an excuse for talking ye bollocks for a number of pages about whatever subject he wants to, completely forgetting any semblance of plot. So... not really essential reading but there are some bits which are very much worth it. And it fucks Euphues right in his poncy Elizabethan ass. Verily!

Vanda: I had a strange experience with this book, in the sense that I would sometimes catch myself after 5 pages not remembering anything I had just read. Apart from the racier, more violent parts, I found it rather dull, and it didn't manage to retain my attention, which very rarely happens. It was rather bizarre.

Sometimes, I would read a page over and over and nothing would stick. Very strange.

I had no problems with ye olde englishe, and still managed to find it interesting, particularly towards the end. I just..don't have much to say about it, since I don't really remember half of it (and I tried, really I did). I'm glad I'm finally reading D. Quixote.

Final Grade

Francisco: Thou gettest a 6 out of a total of 10.
Vanda: 5/10

Trivia

It seems that no one really reads Elizabethan prose, I can understand why. This one is worth it, however. Plays are really famous and so is poetry... but prose... not really.

13. Wú Chéng'ēn - Journey to the West (a.k.a. Monkey, a.k.a. 西遊記) (1592)

2008-07-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Review

Well, this was a fun book. For some reason it is the most popular of the several classic Chinese literary works we have had here. Firstly the more widely available version of the work, published by Penguin is abridged and entitled Monkey, translated by Arthur Waley, however it is really what you should read, you will enjoy it more. If you have a deep interest in the text you should go on to Anthony C. Yu's translation.

Then it is one of those works that at least the UK you will have seen adaptations of, either in a TV series or as a Damon Albarn Chinese Opera/Circus thing, which was pretty amazing.

As a book, it is a fun filled action-fantasy-adventure tale, full of monsters and wisecracking, very funny but with an interesting historical background. And it is this historical background that particularly interests me. Tripitaka, the monk in the book is an example of the Chinese who travelled to India in order to bring back Buddhist texts. He is actually based on Xuanzang, a real monk who did an amazing trip to India. In that sense it is fascinating, but then he has demons, a crazy monkey-God and a guy who was turned into a pig as assistants, as well as a magical horse. A great read.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The classic story of the Journey to the West was based on real events. In real life, Xuanzang (born c. 602 - 664) was a monk at Jingtu Temple in late-Sui Dynasty and early-Tang Dynasty Chang'an. Motivated by the poor quality of Chinese translations of Buddhist scripture at the time, Xuanzang left Chang'an in 629, despite the border being closed at the time due to war with the Gokturks. Helped by sympathetic Buddhists, he travelled via Gansu and Qinghai to Kumul (Hami), thence following the Tian Shan mountains to Turfan. He then crossed what are today Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Afghanistan, into Gandhara, reaching India in 630. Xuanzang travelled throughout the Indian subcontinent for the next thirteen years, visiting important Buddhist pilgrimage sites and studying at the ancient university at Nalanda.

Xuanzang left India in 643 and arrived back in Chang'an in 646 to a warm reception by Emperor Taizong of Tang. He joined Da Ci'en Monastery (Monastery of Great Maternal Grace), where he led the building of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in order to store the scriptures and icons he had brought back from India. He recorded his journey in the book Journey to the West in the Great Tang Dynasty. With the support of the Emperor, he established an institute at Yuhua Gong (Palace of the Lustre of Jade) monastery dedicated to translating into Chinese the scriptures he had brought back. His translation and commentary work established him as the founder of the Dharma character school of Buddhism. Xuanzang died on March 7, 664. The Xingjiao Monastery was established in 669 to house his ashes.

Popular stories of Xuánzàng's journey were in existence long before Journey to the West was written. In these versions, dating as far back as Southern Song, a monkey character was already a primary protagonist. Before the Yuan Dynasty and early Ming, elements of the Monkey story were already seen.

The Damon Albarn Opera, go see it if you can:

12. Luis Vaz de Camoes - The Lusiads (Os Lusiadas) (1572)

2008-07-21T16:16:00.001-07:00

Review

This is a text that if you were brought up in a Portuguese speaking country you will know, and you will probably know it inside out and have spent long hours of your schooling analysing and interpreting it. That also probably means you didn't have a lot of fun with it.

Also, although there are several translations into English, none of them are that good, the only one that kind of approaches it is the Oxford World Classics one by Landeg White. It's cheap as well.

The book consists of the heavily fictionalised voyage of Vasco da Gama in verse, but it is much more than this, it is also a work of fantasy where the Roman gods take an active part and a book that is essential in understanding the Portuguese idea of themselves that comes down to this day.

It is not of course the most politically correct book you can get, it is an apology of empire and colonialism, but it is one that in the effort to portray the Portuguese people as great also has the decency not to demonise its opponents, the people the Portuguese meet are courageous and honourable for the most part, although Muslims in India come off pretty badly from it. But you can't really be projecting our sensibilities onto a 16th century work. What is amazing about it is what a close mimic it is of works like the Illiad and Odyssey, Camoes very purposefully attempts to create the great Portuguese fantastic epic, and does it with considerable brilliance.

The language in the original is beautiful and extremely intricate, the references to classical works are extensive to the point where the annotations in my version composed half the book. But there is plenty to enjoy, sea voyages, monsters, gods, political and religious intrigue it is all here.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

At the end of his obligatory service, Camoes was given the position of chief warrant officer in Macau. He was charged with managing the properties of missing and deceased soldiers in the Orient. During this time he worked on his epic poem Os Lusíadas ("The Lusiads") in a grotto. He was later accused of misappropriations and traveled to Goa to respond to the accusations of the tribunal. During his return journey, near the Mekong River along the Cambodian coast, he was shipwrecked, saving his manuscript but losing his Chinese lover. His shipwreck survival in the Mekong Delta was enhanced by the legendary detail that he succeeded in swimming ashore while holding aloft the manuscript of his still-unfinished epic.

Some kids decide to sing the beginning of the Lusiads to the sound of Blitzkrieg Bop, interestingly the metric fits:

11. Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532 - 1564)

2008-07-16T14:03:00.000-07:00

Buy it

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: Well this was a fun read, albeit a bit too long for what it is. Gargantua and Pantagruel is actually composed of 5 books, bringing it to something like 700 pages in the Penguin edition. If it would be taken as 5 independent books it would probably be an easier read, when you get non-stop, hardcore satire for 700 hundred pages it stops having the same effect towards the middle. Gargantua is the first book story-wise but was published after book I of Pantagruel, making it one of the first prequels ever, I imagine.

This book actually surprised me, I had no idea it was so uncompromising not only on the language and subjects that it covers (lots of fart jokes and quite open sexual jokes) but also in ideological terms it surprised me. Rabelais' attacks on the church are quite scathing and when you think that one of the books is dedicated to a member of the clergy it shows a very open society. Rabelais wasn't persecuted for his writings, maybe because the whole book is quite a funny one and satirical, the Catholic church is just another target here.

The major problem with this book is the fact that it is so early. The novel form isn't very well developed and there is no overarching plot until book 3 when Panurge decides to get married. And that is a pretty loose plot as well. It is still a lot of fun to read, but it's definitely not for those who are squeamish about hard, soft or liquid shit. You can very much tell the Rabelais was a doctor by profession, his anatomical descriptions are some of the best stuff i've ever read.

Another great thing about Rabelais is his immense love for language, you can see that he's experimenting with language the whole way through the book. It is almost Joycean in his love of words and word creation.

Vanda: Ok, so I took almost three months to read through this book. I apologize and all.

The reason I took so long is because I hated it. Hated it, hated it hated it. Now this may be because I'm a girl, am not 11, and am not particularly fond of fart and poo jokes. Which pretty much sums up this book for me. I can't believe I was looking forward to satyres.

We have every conceivable nuance of toilet humour here. We have the chapter of young Gargantua trying out 300 different places to wipe his ass to find out which one is better, including his mother's gloves, dress, hats, curtains, different animals, different foliage, kitchen implements, etc. (the winner was the neck of a live goose). Then you have stories that you can just imagine being told by the aformoentioned 11 year old boy. "So he has this huge mule, right, and then it pisses, and there's this huge river, and it floods the whole of Paris, and everyone drowns!". "And he's so big, right, that he has whole cities in his teeth, and it's brilliant and really funny!"

So, uh, no, sorry. I'm probably missing the point here, I realize. I'm sure it had its saving graces, but even the thinly-veiled metaphors can only be described as stupid, it has a very very loose plot, and I just don't see the point. Sure, he was a monk, and a brave monk at that, but that doesn't make him a good writer. I'm just glad it's over, though I know there's even worse coming.

Final Grade

Francisco: 7/10
Vanda: 3/10

Trivia

Rabelais gave the name to the religious/occult movement of Thelema, founded by Aleister Crowley, who had read Rabelais foundation of the Abbey of Thelema in Gargantua.

From Wiki:

Rabelais has attracted many modern writers and scholars. Most notably, perhaps, was English mystic Aleister Crowley.

Anatole France lectured on him in Argentina. John Cowper Powys, D. B. Wyndham Lewis, and Lucien Febvre (one of the founders of the French historical school Annales) wrote books about him. Mikhail Bakhtin derived his celebrated concept of the carnivalesque and grotesque body from the world of Rabelais. Rabelais was also a major reference point for a few main characters (University Professors and Assistant) in Robertson Davies's novel The Rebel Angels, part of the Cornish Trilogy.

10. Anonymous - Lazarillo de Tormes ( The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes and of His Fortunes and Adversities) (1554)

2008-07-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Review

We now move to some more interesting writing, Lazarillo is one of the first picaresque novels, and it is a pretty funny and amazing one. Lazarillo is basically a Huck Finn kind of character, who moves through several masters and on the way you get a witty criticism of the society of the time through the eyes of a child.

The book is genuinely funny, and is incredibly influential or just prescient, as I said above you have Huck Finn, and you have Tom Jones and the never-ending roster of young witty children criticising the society around them.

The last thing Lazarillo is is another of those gallant knights to chivalry romances, he is the ultimate anti-hero, and for that he is all the more human, it is this humanity that endears him to the reader and makes his feel much more multi-dimensional than heroes in previous books here.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

In contrast to the fancifully poetic language devoted to fantastic and supernatural events about unbelievable creatures and chivalric knights, the realistic prose of Lazarillo described suppliants purchasing indulgences from the Church, servants forced to die with masters on the battlefield (as Lazarillo's father did), thousands of refugees wandering from town to town, poor beggars flogged out by whips because of the lack of food. The anonymous author included many popular sayings and ironically interpreted popular stories.

The Prologue with Lazaro's extensive protest against injustice is addressed to a high-level cleric, and four of his seven masters in the novel served the church. Lazarillo attacked the appearance of the church and its hypocrisy, though not its essential beliefs, a balance not often present in picaresque novels that followed.

The work is a masterpiece for its internal artistic unity. For example, as Lázaro's masters rise up the social scale (from beggar to priest to nobleman) so their ability to feed him diminishes; Lázaro leaves his first master, is thrown out by the second and is abandoned by the third.

The work is riotously funny, often relying upon slapstick humour (such as the young Lázaro leading his blind master to jump against a stone column, in revenge for his master banging his young servant's head against a stone statue); some of its funniest episodes are apparently based upon traditional material. But there is a deeper, more unsettling humour and irony here. Nothing is what it seems in this book: the blind beggar's public prayers are a sham and the nobleman's nobility is pure facade; and at the end of the book, Lázaro professes to have reached the pinnacle of success, but is little more than a cuckold living off the immoral earnings of his wife.

Besides creating a new genre, Lazarillo de Tormes was critically innovative in world literature in several aspects:

1. Long before the Emile (Jean-Jacques Rousseau) or Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens) or Huckleberry Finn the anonymous author of Lazarillo treated a boy as a boy, not a small adult.

2. Long before Moll Flanders (Daniel Defoe), Lazarillo describes the domestic and working life of a poor woman, wife, mother, climaxing in the flogging of Lazarillo's mother through the streets of the town after her black husband Zayde is hanged as a thief.

3. Long before modern treatment of "persons of color", this author treats sympathetically the pleasures and pains of an interracial family in his descriptions of life with his black stepfather and negrito half-brother, though their characterization is based on stereotypes

A little video resuming the story of Lazarillo... does anyone know if this is a trailer for an actual film? :

9. Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo - Amadis de Gaula (Amadis Of Gaul) (c.1450-1505)

2008-07-11T11:34:00.001-07:00

Review

A particularly long and particularly dull book. Chivalric romance can be better than this, but this is the ultimate descriptive book. No dialogue, not psychological insight into the characters, we are just told what is happening, in a very uptight writing style.

Yes it is representative of a style that was incredibly influential on the birth of the modern novel,without it there would have been no one to inspire Quixote, whose hero was Amadis.

But, boy is it dull... Although it does have the merit of giving the name to California, as that is the name of one of the places in the book (an island of Amazons), leading the Spanish conquistadores to give that name to the Area.

Final Grade

3/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The book's style was praised by the usually demanding Juan de Valdés, although he considered that from time to time it was too low or too high a style. The language is characterized by a certain "Latinizing" influence in its syntax, especially the tendency to place the verb at the end of the sentence; as well as other such details, such as the use of the present participle, which bring Amadís into line with the allegorical style of the 15th century.

Nevertheless, there is a breach of style when Garci Rodriguez de Montalvo presents the fourth book. It becomes dull and solemn reflecting the nature of the intruding writer. The first three books are inspired in deeds and feats by knights errant, dating back to the XIII century, while the fourth book emerges as a less brilliant attachment of the XVI century. The very pristine style of the "Amadis" can be perceived in the few original famous pages analyzed by Antonio Rodriguez Moñino: It is lively and straight to the facts of war and love, with brief dialogs, all quite elegant and amusing. Amadís of Gaul is frequently referenced in the satirical classic Don Quixote, written by Miguel de Cervantes in the early 17th century. The character Don Quixote idolizes Amadís, and often compares his hero's adventures to his own.

Historically, Amadís was very influential amongst the Spanish conquistadores. Bernal Diaz del Castillo mentioned the wonders of Amadís upon witnessing the wonders of the New World - and such place names as California come directly from the work.

Some Spaniards have a dog named Amadis de Gaula, this is all I could find, sorry:

8. Fernando de Rojas - The Celestina (La Celestina) (1499)

2008-06-25T17:41:00.000-07:00

Review

This is an interesting book, firstly it is a pretty short one, which is always nice in these early ages, it can become incredibly dull (look for the upcoming review of Amadis de Gaula). That is not, however what makes this an interesting book.

Firstly, it is written in the format of a play, but it does not seem to have been intended for performance, but for reading aloud. This is an interesting remnant of orality, but that said it is also the most modern book up to now. The themes, characters and situations are not those of even the racy Tirant Lo Blanc.

The Celestina is not a cavalry romance, it isn't set in some distant past and the characters are better rounded than any book before it. It it the birth of the golden age of Spanish renaissance writing, which would culminate with Quixote. It is not perfect, the plot is overly complicated and almost farcical in a bad way, the tragic ending(s) feel tacked on, and the best character (Celestina) is secondary, but there is enough here to make this work a landmark. Read it, it takes only an hour or so.

Final Grade

8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Fernando de Rojas liked to create characters in pairs, to help build character development through relationships between complimentary or opposing characters. In the play in general there are two opposite groups of characters, the servants and the nobles, and within each group are characters divided into pairs: Pármeno and Sempronio, Tristán and Sosia, Elicia and Areusa, in the group of servants, and Calisto and Melibea, Pleberio and Alisa, in the group of nobles. Only Celestina and Lucrecia do not have a corresponding character, but this is because they perform opposite roles in the plot: Celestina is the element that catalizes the tragedy, and represents a life lived with wild abandon, while Lucrecia, Melibea’s personal servant, represents the other extreme, total oppression. In this sense, the character of the rascal Centurino added in the second version is an addition with little function, although he has something to do with the disorder that calls the attention of Calisto and causes his death.

Thank the internets... the ending of Celestina in Playmobil... in the original language:

7. Joanot Martorell - Tirant Lo Blanc (1490)

2008-06-13T19:08:00.000-07:00

Review

Sorry for all of this delay, I have read plenty of the books on the list since I last updated, but I have been frustrated waiting for my wife to read them and from now on, seeing as she isn't an obsessed freak she will only read those books that she feels like, making this mainly my blog, she'll chime in if she wants to.

Now let's move on to Tirant Lo Blanc, this was actually a very entertaining read, albeit a quite inconsistent one. The book is divided into several episodes, and you only really start getting into the meat of it about 200 pages into the thing. And then there is much to like there.

The last 15th century romance you read probably did not have much girl-on-girl action to it. Well that can all be remedied by a reading of Tirant, it is hard to imagine how this book could have been published all that time ago, we all seem to have this "evolutionary" concept of history that would tell us that times are more permissive now than in the past. Well, that is bollocks, this book would be seen as "depraved" in the 19th century, hell it would shock sensibilities today.

I have finished reading it quite a while ago, but what sticks in your memory are not the par for the course cavalry exploits but the extremely interesting sexual contents of the whole thing. Lesbianism, threesomes and so forth are all things practised by the heroes and heroins of the story, you actually get the sense that this wasn't really frowned upon, it is never presented as morally reprehensible, if anything it is seen as a bit mischievous. All in all a pretty fun book that will show you that those 15th century people were really not that innocent, and had a lot more fun that us historical revisionists give them credit for.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It is considered a major influence for Miguel de Cervantes' book, Don Quixote de la Mancha, which was written in 1605 (Part I) and 1615 (Part II); comparisons between the two show many similarities.[citation needed] The similarities in both works can also be appreciated in their critical and skeptical view of the unlikely and exaggerated and fantastic chivalric novels in use at the time. At the time Don Quixote was written, there was only one Spanish translation of the Tirant (Valladolid, 1511) published anonymously, and Cervantes was probably not aware the original was written in Valencian.

In the following passage from Don Quixote, the famous "scrutiny of the library" the priest and the barber throw Don Alonso Quijada's (Don Quixote) books onto the bonfire:

"God help me!" said the priest in a loud voice, "That we have here the 'Tirant lo Blanch' ! Hand it over to me, my friend, for I am telling you that I found on it a treasure of enjoyment and a gold mine of recreation. Here it is Don Kyrieleison of Montalvan, valiant knight, and his brother Thomas of Montalvan, and the knight Fonseca, and the battle the brave Tirante fought with the mastiff, and the witt of damsel Placerdemivida (Pleasureofmylife - ed. note), and the loves and lies of the widow Reposada (Rested -ed note), and lady Emperatriz (Empress - ed note) in love with the squire Hipolito--in all truth, my friend, by right of its style this is the best book in the world: here Knights eat, sleep, and they die even doing a will, things that all the rest of books of this genre lack. Having said all this, I am telling you that he deserved to have this book written because he did not do as many silly things as to deserve to be thrown to the galleys for the rest of his life. Take the book home and read it, and then you will realize that all I told you about it is true."

Trailer for a film made in Spain in 2006, not safe for work:

6. Apuleius - The Golden Ass (first edition 1469)

2008-01-31T20:02:00.000-08:00

Review

Francisco: A pretty great read, The Golden Ass is at the same time funny, rude, sexy and also quite deep and meaningful. Although the deep bit is a bit tacked on at the end it still contextualises the story of Lucius from just a funny story and propells it into a deeper level.

This deeper level of the novel has all to do with Isis' mistery religion, it is actually a very interesting document from a religious studies point of view. Still, this is not the strong point of the book. The strong point is the simple fact that it is so entertaining and the main carachter is an ass, in more than one way. The story follows Lucius who is transformed into an ass and his quest to regain normality, which he eventually achieves.

One criticism of the story is that it could have done with some editing, but clearly the art of novel writing wasn't fully perfected. There is for example a big interlude with the story of Cupid and Psyche, which although very good and interesting diverts the story from Lucius into a completely different field. You are reading Cupid and Psyche, but you really want to go back to Lucius. Honestly this is a compliment to the main character more than a criticism.

Essential Reading.

Vanda: I really, really liked this book, and it was bloody refreshing after all the tragedies that came before.

It's rather funny, enjoyable read, and pretty darn racy at times - bestiality (the main character, Lucius, gets transformed into a donkey pretty early - hence the title - and this seems to be pretty irresistible to both catamites and society ladies alike) and anal sex galore, including a husband who buggers his wife's lover all through a night as a punishment. Hum.

There are also plenty of different tales intermingled with the main plot, of magic and deceit, and although they seem tacked on a bit, they still make very good reading. The poor ass gets mistreated quite a lot, but this is never portrayed a big tragedy, since Lucius pretty much keeps his spirits high, due mainly to his rather curious nature (who led to the transformation in the first place).

The only letdown in this book is the ending, where he obtains redemption through the Goddess (mainly portrayed as Isis), which leads to his transformation back into a human being, but also to a lot of gushing about divine powers and how he was so special he was initiated three times and so forth. It's a bit of a dissapointment, but you should read the book anyway. As Mafalda put it, they were very modern, these ancients.

Final Grade

Francisco: 8/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

This title always reminds me of a Brazilian nudist beach.

From Wiki:

In 1517, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote his own version of the story, as a terza rima poem.

In the 20th Century, T. E. Lawrence carried a small copy of the "Golden Ass" in his saddlebags all through the Arab Revolt. It was Lawrence who first introduced the book to his friend Robert Graves, who later translated the work.

In April 1999, the Canadian Opera Company produced an operatic version of the "Golden Ass", the libretto for which was written by celebrated Canadian author Robertson Davies.

In 2002, Shakespeare's Globe theatre for the first time rehearsed the drama The Golden Ass or the Curious Man (starring Mark Rylance as Lucius) written by Peter Oswald after Apuleius' novel, while performing A Midsummer Night's Dream during the same season, thus showing connections, and how Shakespeare used ancient literature as a source for his comedy (Bottom accidentally being transformed into an ass).

Batshit crazy theories:

5. Water Margin / Outlaws Of The Marsh (Shuǐhǔ Zhuàn - 水滸傳) (compiled in the 16th Century)

2008-01-31T10:04:00.000-08:00

Review

Francisco: From now on, my wife will only review the books she feels like, she has a lot less of a sense of self-sacrifice, and she's not as OCD as I am and therefore feels no necessity to finish a book or even give it too much time if she just isn't getting into it. I will always review the books, she may or may not. It all depends.

Well this was more interesting than the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms, for a while at least. The structure of the book starts by following the individual stories of characters which very smartly intersect with other characters and the you follow their story. Eventually, however, about 1000 pages into it, still less than half the way through, all the 108 main characters of the book get together at the Marsh of the book title and it becomes extremely confusing.

This is my problem with these two Chinese classics, they kind of demand a cultural context which is not mine, if I had grown up hearing the names of these characters, like I believe a lot of Chinese readers have, and if I was better at recognising Chinese names when I read them this would be a different story.

When you get to the point in the book where what happens is "A did this, B did that, C the other, ZY so forth, X so on" you have no idea what the hell is happening, the whole thing just gets dispersed in your head. The first half of the book when it is more focused is however very funny and the loose morals of it are actually quite surprising. Water Margin is a much more humorous book than Three Kingdoms, and that makes it a more interesting read, at least for half of it.

Final Grade

7/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Water Margin is vaguely based upon the historical bandit Song Jiang and his 36 companions. The group was active in the Huai River region and eventually surrendered to government troops in 1119. They are recorded in the Song Shi (Chinese: 宋史 - "History of the Song Dynasty) (1345), the name of Song Jiang appearing in the chapter of Emperor Huizong, the activities of the gang in the chapter for Zhang Shuye (Chinese: 張叔夜). Folk stories about Song Jiang circulated during the Southern Song. The first text to name Song Jiang's thirty-six companions was the 13th century Guixin Zashi (Chinese: 癸辛雜識 - "Miscellaneous Observations from the Year Guixin") by Zhou Mi (Chinese: 周密) (1232 - 1298). Among the thirty-six are Lu Junyi, Guan Sheng, Ruan Xiaoer, Ruan Xiaowu, Ruan Xiaoqi, Liu Tang, Hua Rong and Wu Yong. Some of the characters to later become associated with Song Jiang also appeared around this time. They include Sun Li, Yang Zhi, Lin Chong, Lu Zhishen and Wu Song.

The Water Margin was also a cult TV series in the 70's and 80's in the UK and Australia, from a Japanese adaptation of the story. here's the show's intro:

4. The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms (sānguó yǎnyì - 三國演義) (14th Century)

2007-11-08T08:05:00.000-08:00

Review

Francisco: Sorry this is another one which took so long, but it is about 1500 pages long, of pretty hard going stuff. The main problem with this book is the sheer amount of characters and how much the focus of the action shifts in the book. Very rarely do you get to know any character to any level of depth, except for the three main characters of Liu Bei, Chang Fei and Kuan Yu and some secondary ones like Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang and Lu Bu for example. But the book is populated by thousands all of which have more than one name, there's at least two names for each character all of which hard to memorise unless you are Chinese and are used to those names.

This is definitely a case of a book which works much better in the context of China, everyone grew up with these stories over there. They know the characters and their actions and are therefore harder to confuse. Of course the translation might not be very helpful.

There are however fun things about the book, and I was really liking it before I got too bogged down in the story. Firstly it is extremely violent and gory and that's fun, it also has quite a sense of humour, sometimes brutal and sometimes gentle, and you are often surprised at how smart (Zhuge Liang) or how stupid (Chang Fei) some of the characters are. It is however difficult to keep paying much attention to the book after the three main characters die about two thirds into the thing. After the ghost of Kuan Yu takes revenge, Chang Fei dies, Cao Cao dies and Liu Bei dies and are avenged there is little of interest to keep you going except for Zhuge Liang.

Another problem with the book is simply the scale of it, it is epic in content as well as size, there are so many battles, so many opposing sides, so many generals and so many references to a geography that I know nothing about, measured in distances that I am not familiar with (by the way a li is about half a kilometre) that you soon lose interest. Still it gripped me for much longer than Genji.

Vanda: Sorry couldn't do this one either, next.

Final Grade

Francisco: 6/10
Vanda: n/a

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Regarding this novel and another Chinese classic Water Margin, there is a popular saying in China that goes: "少不讀水滸, 老不讀三國", translated as "The young shouldn't read Water Margin while the old shouldn't read The Three Kingdoms." The former depicts the lives of outlaws and their defiance with the established social system. Along with the frequent violence, brawls, passionate brotherhood and an emphasis on machismo, it could easily have a negative influence on young boys. The latter presents all kinds of sophisticated stratagem, deceptions, frauds, trickeries, traps and snares employed by the three kingdoms and their individual characters to compete with each other, which might tempt the experienced old readers (the elderly are traditionally well respected, trusted and considered wise and kind-hearted in Chinese society) to use them to harm other people. Also, old people are supposed to "know the will of the heavens" (says Confucius). They shouldn't exhaust or strain themselves with always having to consider how to deceive others.

Here you go the first bit of an anime based on the book... loosely based:

3. Murasaki Shikibu - The Tale Of Genji (源氏物語 - Genji Monogatari ) (early 11th century)

2007-09-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Review

Francisco: Well that was a fun read... sorry for the delay but if you try to read it and then pass it on to someone else to read it it will take some time. This isn't the most reader friendly book in the world, there is a huge amount of problems with it. Firstly in 11th century Japan it was bad form to address people by their names, so they were addressed by their titles. All very fine and dandy if the work was set in a limited amount of time and had a limited amount of characters. This book however charts the life of Genji since a child to his death and beyond, meaning it has dozens of characters all of which keep changing title because they are promoted, demoted or whatever. The book soon, about around page 300 becomes near impossible to follow without keeping a very complex chart of all the character who they are related to and how many times they have changed name throughout the book. It's basically insane.

So that was my major gripe with it, that and feeling that by page 800 I was just reading because I had to. I wasn't understanding what the hell was happening or who the hell was talking or doing anything. And then there's the characters, Genji, the hero is a good for nothing spoilt boy rapist. He does nothing in the whole book except play music, fuck loads whether the women are willing or not (except he's so great they are then happy they were raped). The closest comparison I can make in terms of western society is to those Chekov plays where everyone is bored aristocracy doing nothing and looking out the window thinking how exciting life must be in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Except in Genji there is no internal monologue or deep existential problems everyone is as superficial as a cardboard cut-out.

This is not to say that the book isn't interesting, in fact it is fascinating because the Heian society is completely Alien, it is like something out of this world. And for that simple reason it is a book worth reading at least until chapter 12 or something and then put away forever.

Vanda: Erm, yeah. I'm sorry, I couldn't finish this. It's so long, and long winded, and dull, and dull, and dull.. I must admit to perhaps not having the necessary sacrificial spirit to read this book for the List's sake, as the husband up there did. It's the longest book where nothing ever actually happens, except romantic conquests, and some sex, and aristocrats sending poems to each other. That actually makes it sound more exciting than it actually is. I know, perhaps I'm being shallow, I'm sorry. I'll do better on the next one.

Final Grade

Francisco: 5/10
Vanda: n/a

Trivia

From Wikipedia: The Genji is an important fictional work of Japanese literature and numerous modern authors have cited it as inspiration. It is noted for its internal consistency, psychological depiction, and characterization. The novelist Yasunari Kawabata said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech: "The Tale of Genji in particular is the highest pinnacle of Japanese literature. Even down to our day there has not been a piece of fiction to compare with it." The Genji is also often referred to as "the first novel", though there is considerable debate over this — some of the debate involving whether Genji can even be considered a "novel". Some consider the psychological insight, complexity, and unity of the work to qualify it for "novel" status while simultaneously disqualifying earlier works. Others see these arguments as subjective and unconvincing. Related claims, perhaps in an attempt to sidestep these debates, are that Genji is the "first psychological novel", "the first novel still considered to be a classic", or other more qualified terms. It is, however, difficult to claim that it is the world's first novel without denying the claims of the Greek novel (for example, Daphnis and Chloe, the Aethiopica, etc.) (The debate exists in Japanese as well, with comparison between the terms monogatari -- "tale" -- and shosetsu -- "novel".)

Heian people doing Heian things with REAL Heian music... they were big on guitars and sax:

2. The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter (竹取物語 - Taketori Monogatari) (circa 10th century)

2007-04-14T18:35:00.000-07:00

Buy it

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: Well this was an interesting read, somehow in the 10th century the Japanese were reading stories about alien visitations... really. There's this princess which is found by a bamboo cutter inside a stalk, and at the end her people come to get her back to the moon.

As in most good alien visitation stories, and The Man Who Fell To Earth comes to mind, there is a certain disafection and lack of empathy by the part of the alien itself. This is what happens here, intrestingly. Maybe we shouldn't be post-modernist and project our cultural equivalents on the story, the alien might very well be a divinity or a kind of spirit, but in the end the story is the same.

The princess comes to love mankind at the end and pities her return to the Moon, where she'll forget all her time on Earth. It is a very pretty story and reads like a fairy tale, it is "alien" enough culturally, being from 10th century Japan to actually make very interesting reading to us westerners today. It was stories like this which made me switch the list to the international version, and based on this I am very glad I did.

The story is actually composed of several different tales of the quests that the several suitors of the Moon princess go through in order to please her, or cheat her, so that actually adds another level of interest to the story.

Vanda: I'd read this tale before, a few years back in a book of Japanese traditional tales. It's truly beautiful - the imagery, the story, the flow of the simple plot. Unlike Aesop, and unlike European tales that would be collected centuries later by the Brothers Grimm, I don't think it encompasses any particular moral tale, except perhaps that dishonesty and forgery will get you nowhere. It's rather evocative of far away lands and mysterious and magical objects, which I confess is something I tend to love in books and stories.

I'm actually quite happy we have reset the list, although now I'm looking for someone to blame for spending precious hours of my life reading Pilgrim's Progress. This is the sort of book which sheer antiquity and beauty should have made it a shoe-in for the previous list, were it not so anglo-centric. Read this, and, if possible, get the same edition we did. It's wonderful, will take very little of your time as it's quite short, and will make your day a litte bit more special.

Final Grade

Francisco: 8/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Kaguya, the mouse born by quasi-parthenogenesis, and the asteroid 7991 Kaguyahime are among the many things named after the Princess Kaguya in the tale.

The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter is nearly identical in form to a Tibetan tale of a similar name, and some researchers believe that the Japanese legend may have been drawn from the Tibetan one, perhaps through ancient contacts with China. The part of the legend that relates to the name of Mt. Fuji is unique to the Japanese version. However, this Tibetan tale appears only in a collection of Tibetan stories published in 1950s and similar stories are nonexistent in regions between Japan and Tibet. Thus, some researchers believe that Japanese explorers venturing into Tibet introduced the Japanese tale where it became a classic.

There have also been suggestions that it is related to the tale of Swan Lake. This probably is due to Princess Kaguya-hime wearing the hagoromo 羽衣 "feather robe" when she ascends to her homeland. But the feather robe figures more famously in a group of tales known as the hagoromo densetsu (in one example recorded in the Ohmi-no-kuni Fudo ki tells of a man who instructs his dog to steal the feather garments of eight heavenly maidens while they were bathing, forcing one of them to become his bride). And the latter is remarkably similar to the tale of how Völundr the Smith and his brothers wedded the swan-maidens.

Japanese 1973 neo-folk by a band called Kaguyahime! (Moon Princess):

1. 1001 Arabian Nights (first published c. 840)

2007-04-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

Buy it

At Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: Firstly let me say that I haven't got the whole complete version of the Arabian Nights. Actually, there doesn't seem to exist one really, the closest is the 19th century Burton edition but he was a crap translator. You are better off with a good compilation of tales like the Penguin one, which is a nice 400 pages long instead of like 10 volumes.

These tales are the first book reviewed here which is pure entertainment. There is no serious moral to most of the tales and they are all the better for it. They are just plain entertaining. The whole book is set in its own universe of Arabian fantasy, where there seem to be as many Djinns around as people. And the whole magic fantasy thing really works in a universe which is as detailed as that of the Arabian Nights, which developed through centuries or even millenia of folk tales.

So, if you like the idea of magic lamps, Djinns and some deeply developed fantastic world this is something for you. Just remember that the book itself is nothing more than a compilation of many many tales from different areas of Arabic influence, and formulated in very different times. The idea of a framing story for it is also brilliant, and having Sherahzad telling these stories to the Sultan helps transport us to the fantasy world of the thing. I really loved it.

Vanda: This is another of the books I grew up with, although my version of the Arabian Nights, I recognise now, was considerably tamer. (It was for children, after all). It is still full of wonders now, though, at least to me.

These are beautiful, beautiful stories, and while the book is not short, it lets itself be read with ease, from story to story, and from story inside story inside story to next story. Metanarratives are again abundant, but not complicated, and they keep you interested in the book.

This is a very good collection that is easy to pick up, or to read a story from, and put it down again until it strikes your fancy. Also, if you have children, read them this book (well, maybe a slighter tamer version), because they'll love you for it.

Final Grade

Francisco: 8/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

Will forever look at brass lamps in a new light!

From Wiki:

The nucleus of the stories is formed by a Pahlavi Sassanid Persian book called Hazār Afsānah ("Thousand Myths", in Persian: هزارافسانه). During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 8th century, Baghdad had become an important cosmopolitan city. Merchants from Persia, China, India, Africa, and Europe were all found in Baghdad. It was during this time that many of the stories, which were originally folk stories, are thought to have been collected orally over many years and later then compiled into a single book. The later compiler and translator into Arabic is reputedly storyteller Abu abd-Allah Muhammed el-Gahshigar in the 9th century. The frame story of Shahrzad seems to have been added in the 14th century. The first modern Arabic compilation, made out of Egyptian writings, was published in Cairo in 1835.

Well, here's an American Born Chinese lady with her origins in the then English colony of Hong Kong performing a song by Russian composer Rimsky Korsakov about the Persian princess Scheherazade of the 1001 Arabian nights:

Reboot

2007-04-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

Hey. I've been pretty disappointed at this list so far. Mainly it is caused by it's extreme Anglo-Centrism and Euro-Centrism. Stuff like Euphues or the Pilgrim's Progress have no place in any reading list of quality, I'm sorry.

That was why I was excited, when I was in Portugal recently, to find an international version of the list. This immediately got my attention, a lot of books which were inexcusably left out were now a part of the canon, a lot of these are now representing literatures absent from the English version of the list. A lot of Chinese and Japanese literature for example, as well as Portuguese, Spanish and German language texts as well as a much wider selection of Eastern European texts. So now things like Tale Of Genji, the Romance Of The Three Kingdoms and my favourite writer in the Portuguese language, Antonio Lobo Antunes are in, as are some of Vanda's favourite writers like Eça de Queiroz. Don Quixote is finally put into context with the addition of chivalry romances like Amadis Of Gaul and Tirant Lo Blanc. And a lot of crap which was was really not looking forward to has been dropped, as well as the crappy Greek melodramas.

So we agreed to reset the project and start from the beggining; a lot of the books are the same we have already read, and Roxana by Defoe, one book I actually liked, was dropped. The gains greatly outweigh the losses, however. The previous reviews are left here for posterity but we're restarting from number 1.

18. Daniel Defoe - Roxana (1724)

2007-03-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

Buy It

From Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: If one thing can be said about Daniel Defoe, it is that he was an expert at getting himself inside another character's skin. Defoe does that again here with Roxana, probably the best of his novels.

There is a problem however, it is quite similar in some respects to Moll Flanders and having read the two books in quick succession they sometimes meld into each other. Roxana, however, is the more introspective of the two; it is a book more interested in the psychological plight of the main character rather than just saying what is happening, which is what happened in Moll Flanders. Roxana is an even more fiercely independent woman than Moll, and although the book ends up condemning her actions you can't help but admire her attitude or think that Defoe did the same.

So, Roxana, even tough the less known of the books by Defoe on the list is also the best of them, it is also his last novel unfortunately, and here's a guy you could see evolving in his books, as they get progressively better from the lacklustre Robinson Crusoe to the very good Roxana.

Vanda: When reading his work, you can really see Defoe evolving, which is a very interesting experience. Roxana can be quite shocking at times - being the mistress of her landlord for convenience sake, Roxana has no problem in inviting her servant into bed to sleep with him, while she watches, for example, and, while, unlike Moll, she only faces poverty and starvation once, she is quite happy with taking several lovers over the years, while amassing an impressive fortune.

I cannot fault the book, but I must say the main character can be very annoying at times; she's too coquettish, too extensive in the praises of her own beauty and of other's admiration for it, and, after a while, this starts to grate. It is, however, fantastically done because you completely forget it's not actually written by a woman. Defoe is in fact impressive in knowing how to write through the mouth of his characters. That being said, Moll is certainly the nicest of the two, and the one that makes for more exciting reading.

Final Grade

Francisco: 8/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress is a 1724 novel by Daniel Defoe. Its full title is Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress Or, a History of the Life and Vast Variety of Fortunes of Mademoiselle De Beleau, Afterwards Called the Countess De wintselshei. The novel concerns the story of an unnamed "fallen woman", the second time Defoe wrote about this theme after Moll Flanders. In the book, a woman who takes on various pseudonyms including, "Roxana," decribes her fall from wealth thanks to a "fool" of a husband and movement into prostitution upon his abandonment. The woman moves up and down through the social spectrum various times, by secretly courting a prince, marrying a jeweller, and marrying a dutch merchant, being finally able to afford her own freedom by accumilating wealth from these men. The novel examines the possiblity of eighteenth century women owning their own estate despite a patriarchal society and draws attention to the incompatability between sexual freedom and freedom from motherhood -- the woman becomes pregnant many times due to her sexual exploits and it one of her children which come back to expose her, years later, by the closing scenes in the novel.

The character of Roxana can be described as a proto-feminist because she carries out her actions of prostitution for her own ends of freedom, but before a feminist ideology was fully formed, which would rule out freedom through such a technique.

14. Jonathan Swift - A Tale of A Tub (1704)

2007-01-30T17:08:00.000-08:00

Buy It

From Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: So, now we come to the 18th century and to the most enjoyable English language book reviewed up until now. A Tale Of A Tub cannot really be classified as a novel, but more as a bit of very clever, very interesting satire.

There is a main storyline, but it is interrupted constantly by digressions of the author which take up as much of the book as the story itself. I have to admire Swift for being very funny and clever, even when arguing ideas that I disagree with. In fact Swift is a brilliant arguer for the myriad of opinions that he expresses in the book.

Admirably, although it is a book about the advantages of the Church of England over other Christian Churches, it is not vitriolic or offensive for offensiveness sake towards the other churches. Swift makes the subject a light-hearted dig at other churches, and while he makes fun of them he is also quite sympathetic to them, even while being uncompromising about his opinion. Of course his digressions cover much more than Churches, he talks extensively about literary criticism for example and is hilarious while doing it. Swift is good.

Vanda: There are some things that annoy me in life, and poor excuses for novels are one of them. Now, I think everyone has the right to write whatever style of books they want. But throwing a couple of pages of bad metaphorical story into what is essentially a political treatise does not a novel make. I protest, Gentlemen, at the inclusion of this book into this list. Swift's political and religious opinions are not given through the mouths of characters or developments of plot. Nay! These would just get in the way! Instead, there is a loose story spread throughout rant upon rant, which, although most times amusing and intelligent, does not constitute a plot!

And with this protest, I go off to read Robinson Crusoe. Nothing like a proper story.

Final Grade

Francisco: 7/10
Vanda: 5/10 (simply because I'm having problems qualifying this as a novel)

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Although today very little of this debate remains, questions of the authorship of the Tale occupied many notable critics both in the 18th and 19th centuries. Famously, Samuel Johnson claimed that A Tale of a Tub was a work of true genius (in contrast to Gulliver's Travels where once one imagines "big people and little people" the rest is easy) and too good to be Jonathan Swift's. In the 19th century, many critics who saw in Jonathan Swift's later work misanthropy and madness wished to reject the Tale as his. In a way, a critic's view on who wrote the Tale reflected that critic's politics. Swift was such a powerful champion of Tory, or anti-Whig, causes that fans of the Tale were eager to attribute the book to another author from nearly the day of its publication.

The work appeared anonymously in 1704. It was Swift's habit to publish anonymously throughout his career. This anonymity was partially a way of protecting his career, and partially his person. (Swift's publisher for the "Drapier Letters" was thrown in jail, and other authors had found themselves beaten by thugs hired by their satirical targets.) As a struggling churchman, Swift needed the support of nobles to gain a living. Additionally, nobles were still responsible for Church affairs in the House of Lords, so his political effectiveness in church affairs depended upon the lords. Swift needed to be at some distance from the sometimes bawdy and scatological work that he wrote.

The Tale was immediately popular and controversial. Consequently, there were rumors of various people as the author of the work -- Jonathan Swift then being not largely known except for his work in the House of Lords for the passage of the First Fruits and Fifths bill for tithing. Some people thought that William Temple wrote it. Francis Atterbury said people at Oxford thought it had been written by Edmund Smith and John Philips, though he thought it was by Jonathan Swift. Some people thought it belonged to Lord Somers.

However, Jonathan Swift had a cousin, also in the church, named Thomas Swift. Thomas and Jonathan were in correspondence during the time of the composition of the Tale, and Thomas Swift later claimed to have written the work. Jonathan responded to this allegation by saying that Thomas had no hand in anything but the smallest of passages, and he would welcome hearing Thomas 'explain' the work, if he had written it.

The controversy over authorship is aggravated by the choice of publisher. Not only did Swift use Tooke after the publication of the Tale, he had used Tooke before its publication as well, so the appearance of the work in John Nutt's shop was atypical.

Stylistically and in sentiment, the Tale is undeniably Jonathan's. Most important in this regard is the narrative pose and the creation of narrative parody. (Previously, parody had referred only to poetic compositions.) The dramatic (and we would now say novelistic) pretense of writing as a character is in keeping with Jonathan Swift's lifelong practice. Furthermore, Thomas Swift has left few literary remains.

Those wishing to pursue the evidence for Thomas Swift may see the summary in A. C. Guthkelch and D. Nichol Smith's authoritative edition of A Tale of a Tub (1920 and 1958) for Oxford University Press, where they say, "all the evidence for Thomas Swift's participation in the Tale (is) nothing but rumour and (Edmund) Curll's Key." Indeed, in 1710 Swift had the fifth edition republished by Tooke, and he explained in a letter how the rumor had been started. He said that, when the publication initially took place, Swift was abroad in Ireland and "that little Parson-cousin of mine" "affected to talk suspiciously, as if he had some share in it." In other words, anonymity conspired with Thomas Swift's desire for fame to create the confusion. Afterward, only critical preference seems to account for anyone holding Thomas Swift the author.

11. John Bunyan - The Pilgrim's Progress (1678)

2007-01-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

Buy it

At Amazon UK or US

Review

Francisco: I feel nothing but contempt for this book as a work of fiction. Really. Firstly although I am an atheist myself I was brought up in a Catholic environment in a Catholic country and some of the values espoused in Progress are simply aberrant to me. As an example the whole diatribe in favour of faith and against "good works" makes me throw up a little bit in my mouth. Particularly as the argument goes that good works will make you "proud". As if the main characters and the author himself weren't self-righteous arrogant assholes.

I really cannot empathise with a book where all the people that I am supposed to take as examples elicit nothing but contempt in me and those that I am supposed to condemn I sympathise with. I just fucking hated it. I also hated the whole obviousness of the allegories, particularly calling people by obvious names like the main character in the first book is called Christian and other characters are Evangelist, Honest, Pliable, Mr. Worldly Wiseman, Mistrustful, Watchful etc.. ad nauseum. I know this is very puritanical, but also moronic.

For a country which later produced such great novels England seems to have produced nothing but crap until the 18th century. Fortunately the next book is French. My one phrase description of Progress? A book by retards for retards.

Vanda: Well, that was awful. Simplistic, annoying, literal and dense while being too simplistic (I know, but I can find no other way to describe it.) I pity the poor children (and indigenous populations) that had this piece of tripe shoved down their throats for centuries. It's the 17th century equivalent of a Jack Chick tract. No, it's even worse, since at least those you can read through in 20 seconds.

Seriously, there are much better things to do with your time. Paint some walls! Watch them dry! Seriously.

Final Grade

Francisco: 1/10
Vanda: 1/10

Trivia

Simplistic pig swill.

Wikipedia:

Because of the widespread longtime popularity of this classic, Christian's hazards (the "Slough of Despond," the "Hill Difficulty," the "Valley of the Shadow of Death," "Doubting Castle," and the "Enchanted Ground"), his temptations (the wares of "Vanity Fair" and the pleasantness of "By-Path Meadow"), his foes ("Apollyon" and "Giant Despair"), and the helpful stopping places he visits (the "House of the Interpreter," the "House Beautiful," the "Delectable Mountains," and the "Land of Beulah") as phrases have become proverbial in English. For example, "One has one's own Slough of Despond to trudge through."

8. John Lyly - Euphues : The Anatomy of Wit (1578)

2006-10-10T12:25:00.000-07:00

Buy it at Amazon UK or US.

Review

Francisco: Ok, this was a terrible book. John Lyly invented a new form of writing, and that is not a good thing. Lyly invented "euphuism" or writing stuff in an overly complex way. If you can imagine this book it is something like: endless monologue, followed by endless "monologuical" reply followed by another monologue and then a letter to top it off. It's like a dialogue where each person takes 2 or 3 pages to say his line. It's terrible.

This style of writing also becomes very silly very quickly. In fact, even though there was a fashion for speaking in "euphuism" in the Elizabethan court it quickly fell out of fashion and became a style of mockery. It is later used by Shakespere for comic effect. Lyly just doesn't stop when he should, if he gets a comparison he doesn't use one but a hundred. It's exhausting to read, as nothing much ever happens, and for god's sake if you are reading it avoid reading beyond the narrative bit (after Euphues leaves Lucillia) as it is just him writing letters about a variety of themes. I got the text in an Anthology of Elizabethan Prose Fiction where they don't even print the remaining of the book because of its dullness.

I would advise you to look at the book, get a feel for it and then burn the bastard. It is interesting in terms of: "How could anyone ever have found this good?" and I do admire the effort that Lyly had to put into this. But it really is a book to avoid if you like to enjoy what you read.

Vanda: Oh, dear gods, the boredom.

Extensive use of metaphor in this book seems interesting at first, but it spirals down into the realm of overwhelming ridiculousness, where a simple sentence takes up half a page just due to sheer amount of (sometimes contradictory) comparisons. This gets very old, very fast. After three pages, I decided that I just didn't care, and that this was not an anatomy of wit, but a prolipherous pseudo-intelectual, look-at-how-many-metaphors-I-can-fit-in wankathon.
Nevermind the plot. Actually, it doesn't have a plot per se, at least not in my opinion. Guy wants best friend's girl, girl says no, girl says yes, girl trades guy for half-wit. There. You've read it now!

Still have another of these Elizabethan monstrosities to get through before I get to Cervantes, damn them all to hell. Honestly, at this time, the English couldn't write prose if their lives depended on it.

Final Grade

Francisco: 3/10
Vanda: 2/10

Trivia

Quote:

It is virtue, yea virtue, gentlemen, that maketh gentlemen; that maketh the poor rich, the base-born noble, the subject a sovereign, the deformed beautiful, the sick whole, the weak strong, the most miserable most happy. There are two principal and peculiar gifts in the nature of man, knowledge and reason; the one commandeth, and the other obeyeth: these things neither the whirling wheel of fortune can change, neither the deceitful cavillings of worldlings separate, neither sickness abate, neither age abolish.

--- Euphues, the Anatomy of Wit

And so on Ad Nauseam.

From Wikipedia

Euphuism is a mannered style of English prose, taking its name from works by John Lyly. It was a preciously ornate and sophisticated prose style that was fashionable in the 1580s, but never subsequently. The term was not invented by Lyly. Euphuism is a style that focuses on a wide range of literary devices such as antitheses, alliterations, repetitions, rhetorical questions and others. Classical learning and remote knowledge of all kinds is displayed.

The euphuistic sentence followed principles of balance and antithesis. John Lyly set up three basic structural principles:

1. phrases of equal length that appear in succession;
2. the balance of key verbal elements in successive sentences;
3. the correspondence of sounds and syllables, especially between words that are already balanced against each other.

Lyly's style influenced Shakespeare (Polonius in Hamlet; Moth in Love's Labour's Lost; Beatrice and Benedict in Much Ado About Nothing). Many critics thought that Lyly overused comparisons as well as alliterations; Philip Sidney and Gabriel Harvey castigated his style. Euphuism was, however, taken up by the Elizabethan novelists Robert Greene, Thomas Lodge and Barnabe Rich.

Euphuism was not particular to Britain, a manifestation of some social structure and artistic opportunity unique to that country. There were equivalents in other major European languages, each of which was called by a different name: Gongorism in Spain, Marinismo in Italy, and Préciosité in France, for example.

6. 1001 Arabian Nights (first published c. 840)

2006-07-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

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Review

Francsico: Firstly let me say that I haven't got the whole complete version of the Arabian Nights. Actually, there doesn't seem to exist one really, the closest is the 19th century Burton edition but he was a crap translator. You are better off with a good compilation of tales like the Penguin one, which is a nice 400 pages long instead of like 10 volumes.

These tales are the first book reviewed here which is pure entertainment. There is no serious moral to most of the tales and they are all the better for it. They are just plain entertaining. The whole book is set in its own universe of Arabian fantasy, where there seem to be as many Djinns around as people. And the whole magic fantasy thing really works in a universe which is as detailed as that of the Arabian Nights, which developed through centuries or even millenia of folk tales.

So, if you like the idea of magic lamps, Djinns and some deeply developed fantastic world this is something for you. Just remember that the book itself is nothing more than a compilation of many many tales from different areas of Arabic influence, and formulated in very different times. The idea of a framing story for it is also brilliant, and having Sherahzad telling these stories to the Sultan helps transport us to the fantasy world of the thing. I really loved it.

Vanda: This is another of the books I grew up with, although my version of the Arabian Nights, I recognise now, was considerably tamer. (It was for children, after all). It is still full of wonders now, though, at least to me.

These are beautiful, beautiful stories, and while the book is not short, it lets itself be read with ease, from story to story, and from story inside story inside story to next story. Metanarratives are again abundant, but not complicated, and they keep you interested in the book.

This is a very good collection that is easy to pick up, or to read a story from, and put it down again until it strikes your fancy. Also, if you have children, read them this book (well, maybe a slighter tamer version), because they'll love you for it.

Final Grade

Francisco: 8/10
Vanda: 8/10

Trivia

Will forever look at brass lamps in a new light!

From Wiki:

The nucleus of the stories is formed by a Pahlavi Sassanid Persian book called Hazār Afsānah ("Thousand Myths", in Persian: هزارافسانه). During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph Harun al-Rashid in the 8th century, Baghdad had become an important cosmopolitan city. Merchants from Persia, China, India, Africa, and Europe were all found in Baghdad. It was during this time that many of the stories, which were originally folk stories, are thought to have been collected orally over many years and later then compiled into a single book. The later compiler and translator into Arabic is reputedly storyteller Abu abd-Allah Muhammed el-Gahshigar in the 9th century. The frame story of Shahrzad seems to have been added in the 14th century. The first modern Arabic compilation, made out of Egyptian writings, was published in Cairo in 1835.

4. Heliodorus - An Ethiopian Romance (Aithiopika) c.250

2006-06-11T16:44:00.000-07:00

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Review

Francisco: This novel is actually quite similar to the previous one, Callirhoe but while Callirhoe is a very linear novel this one is much more innovative in terms of storytelling. Firstly it starts after a disaster has happened, and you only understand why it has happened in a flashback quite into the book. The use of flashbacks is quite overwhelming here, in fact about two thirds of the book is done in meta-narrative where some guy is telling what happened in the past to another guy. This novel also relies a lot more on description that Carllihoe and that is interesting, while sometimes a bit of overindulgence is present in the descriptions, making them frankly boring.

Plotwise, it is indeed very similar to Callirhoe. Two star-crossed lovers keep being sold as slaves, so on and so forth the girl Charicleia is again very beautiful and that again causes her an innumerable number of problems. The twist in this one is that she is actually a princess of Ethiopia trying to go back home to parents she has never seen, with her husband to be. Another interesting fact is the suppostion the Heliodorus the writer might have actually have been black, as the portrayal of the Ethiopians is in fact a very positive one, and although the heroine is not actually black, because her mother stared at an image of white Andromeda while conceiving (an ancient myth), she is still an Ethiopian and questing to go back to her rightful place in the Ethiopian royal family.

The typical Greek despise of barbarians is quite absent from this story, and although we don't know much of Heliodorus the idea that he might be the first black novelist is quite an attractive theory. But no more than that.

Vanda: Well, that's slightly better! I won't lie to you - it's basically the same story from Callirhoe, but more complexly written, more plot developments, and more tragedy. A lot more tragedy.

The mains characters are still annoying, but thankfully secondary characters play larger roles in this book, which adds interest. Arsace, for example, is a fascinating character (but maybe it's just like me to root for the baddie), and Callarisis vocalizes so much of the narrative that you also sort of miss him when he's gone.

It also offers a view of hellenistic scientific theories which are fascinating, to say the least. There are narratives and meta-narratives, and meta-meta narratives which might make you stop and think for a couple of seconds (in the line of "What? Who? Who's telling this again?") but nothing too confusing, and it definetly adds something to the book.

Heliodorus also seems to try and pack as much tragedy, or possibility for tragedy for the heroes as much as he can in this work, except when he gets distracted relating some battles and a siege towards the end. I was desperatly trying to finish the book quickly (because I knew, just knew, that you were all trembling with antecipation for a new review...), and everytime I started to relax a bit in the last couple of pages, Heliodorus would throw ome more tragic possibilities my way. The good news is, although the heroes still whine along the lines of "oh-poor-us-we're-so-beautiful!", and are always, annoyingly, very True Love Waits, they don't whine half as much as that Callirhoe freak. Which is a good thing, obviously.

Satire, here I come! (Finally!)

Final Grade

Francisco: 6/10
Vanda: 6/10 (damn, originality foiled again!)

Trivia

from Wiki

The rapid succession of events, the variety of the characters, the graphic descriptions of manners and of natural scenery, and the simplicity and elegance of the style give the Aethiopica great charm. But what has been regarded as most remarkable is that the novel opens in the middle of the story ("in medias res") with a mystery that is solved for the reader only through a complex thread of retrospective narratives or dialogues in which various characters describe their adventures. This feature makes the Aethiopica stand out from all the other ancient Greek romances.

The Aethiopica was first brought to light during Renaissance times in a manuscript from the library of Matthias Corvinus, found at the sack of Buda (today the western part of Budapest) in 1526, and printed at Basel in 1534. Other codices have since been discovered. It was first translated into French by the celebrated translator Jacques Amyot in 1547. It was first translated into English in 1569 by Thomas Underdowne, who used the 1551 Latin translation of Stanislaus Warschewiczki to create his Aethiopian Historie.

3. Chariton - Callirhoe (1st century BCE to 1st century CE)

2006-06-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

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Review

Francisco: Firstly as a disclaimer, I am calling it Callirhoe and not Chaireas and Kallirhoe because the introduction to my version makes quite a convinving case for why that should be its title... read it if you want to know more.

Well, this was an interesting read, mostly because of how modern it reads and how easy a read it is when compared to Ovid for example. In fact this was a very popular light read of the ancient world. The kind of stuff they'd sell at the Triremeport bookstores. "I'll have a tzatziki sandwich and a Callirhoe to spend some time between Ithaca and Corfu", I hear echoing down the ages. Actually It is a quite short novel as well as a light one.

Callirhoe is a very funny book, but in a very unintentional way. It is basically a melodrama, but one which takes things to such a level of pathos that you can't help but snigger all the way through the book. The suicide attempts and near death experiences of Chaireas are particularly funny, as he is always very disappointed wit the fact that he survives. Also extremely funny is the notion that Callirhoe is a woman who has a very sad life by the fact that every one who looks at her falls in love with her, making for some overly dramatic moments where she bemoans her good looks.

The pacing of the novel itself is very fast, and this is helped by the great amounts of direct dialogue in the novel, making the plot flow along nicely. It was an easy read then and so it is now, and I think the merit of this goes to the translation which managed to put a 2000 year old book in a register somewhat similar to the one that the literate greek would get from it. Definitely worth a read.

Vanda: Well, that was interesting! It's not everyday that I'm rooting for the hero of a book to die, already!, you and your revoltingly annoying little oh-poor-me-I'm-so-beautiful twit of a wife.

I'm sure the Other Half has already given you some plot details (remember, we're not discussing the books until after the reviews are written), so I'll save you having to read them twice.

Let me put it this way - if you enjoy pulpy, overly dramatic stories, you'll love this one. If you have no patience for teeth-gnashingly absurdly over the top chest beating, hair tearing, and suicide attempting then steer well clear of this book. Yes, I'm aware I can't be post-modern and judge this work by contemporary standards, but I'm also aware that I genuinely didn't like it. What made Cisco laugh (probably) made me roll my eyes in annoyance.

There wasn't one character that I liked, or even warmed to throughout the book. The plot isn't really that interesting although it advances quickly when Callirhoe isn't screaming the shopping list of abuse that befell her (really, she keeps doing this), and since the book is mostly dialog, and is also mercifully quite short, so you can easily read through it in a couple of days.

This could probably be turned into a successful shoujo manga.

Final Grade

Francisco 7/10
Vanda 3/10

Trivia

The fun bit! :

The novel exists in only one (unreliable) manuscript from the 13th century, and was not published until the 18th century. Editions by J. P. D'Orville (1783), G. A. Hirschig (1856) and R. Hercher (1859); there is an (anonymous) English translation (1764); see also E. Rohde, Der griechische Roman (1900). There is now a recent (1995) translation in the Loeb series, and a translation by B. P. Reardon in his anthology Collected Ancient Greek Novels (1989) ISBN 0-520-04306-5.

The main characters are soooooooooooooooooo annoying!

2. Ovid - Metamophoses (composed year 2-8 ce)

2006-05-28T20:33:00.000-07:00

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Review

Francisco: Okay, this should probably have been read in Latin, and mine is a bit rusty. Well too rusty for epic poetry anyway, I can probably read shopping lists... Ovid writes an encyclopedia of mythology in this book, connecting some 250 stories chronologically into one single story. It starts with the creation of the world and ends with the apoteosis of Julius Caesar.

Ovid was an interesting guy, and in his writing there is no squemishness, the fight scenes are like a gore film. When Actaeon gets shred to pieces by his dogs after seeing the naked Artemis bathing for example. Or in several hunt scenes or battle involving Perseus where he basically kills everyone by turning them to stone in a completely disproportionate display of power.

Power, along with metamorphosis, is the theme of the book itself. Power, and more important misuse of power. If I took anything away from this book it was than whenever any one or any god got a bit of power they completely fucked up. Even the supposedly heroic stories come across are barbaric acts of abuse. Even so, it reads as a very proper epic poem. It works within its formal constraints etc.. and Ovid himself comes off as a cynical narrator, as he never condems what are clearly random acts of violence, rape, vengance and so on. He does it in dead-pan style. The reader is the one that winces. This is, until you reach the last book, where Pythagoras has a monologue, which seems to state the author's point of view. But you've already endured 9/10ths of the book by then. Actually this is really what I found more interesting in the book, much more than the metamorphosing quality of all the tales. Which seem to demonstrate obvious moral points more than anything.

Vanda: First of all, I'm sorry this review took so long - it was entirely my fault.

There were times where I loved this book, and other times when I was so tired of it I didn't pick it up for days. It's one of those experiences where if you actually start something, you enjoy it. It's the starting again that is problematic.

I loved this book because I love mythology, and the Roman Gods in particular were my passion as a child - it made, in my mind, more sense in terms of worldview that the gods were flawed, and cruel, and liked tricking or helping mortals according to their mood. Now, this might have had a heavy influence on the reviewing of Metamorphoses: I knew most of the stories, I already loved most of the "characters", and so I did love the book. It is, however, bloody long. If you think you can manage to multitask, keep it by your bedside, and read it intermitently with other books. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be surprised at the graphic descriptions of violence in battles and brawls, and you'll start looking at birds differently (well, trees and other animals too, but especially birds). If you are a Neo-Pagan, pay attention - you'll enjoy this and will wonder why the hell you haven't read this book before. If you're vegetarian, you'll be able to start sentences with "Yes, well, but as Ovid puts it in the last book of the Metamorphoses..." which will undoubtedly earn you some points in cafe converstaions.

I promise I'll try to get through the next books a lot quicker - and get Cisco off my back for 5 minutes..

Final Grade

Francisco: 7/10
Vanda: 7/10

Trivia

GORE GORE GORE! Yay! Romans made perversion like no one else...

From Wikipedia:

Augustus banished Ovid in AD 8 to Tomis on the Black Sea for reasons that remain mysterious. Ovid himself wrote that it was because of carmen et error – "a poem and a mistake" (Tr. 2.207). The error itself is uncertain. Ovid may have had an affair with a female relative of Augustus, or withheld knowledge of such an affair. The carmen, however, is probably his Ars Amatoria, a didactic poem offering amatory advice to Roman men and women, which had been in circulation for several years.

1. Aesop - Aesop's Fables (first edition 4 BCE)

2006-05-16T19:45:00.000-07:00

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Review

Francisco: Fun little booky. Strangely enough I knew about 90% of the very short tales contained in this book. You're brought up on them, at least in Portugal. But disregarding that and looking at the book with non-5 year old eyes I have to say it is an interesting bit of storytelling.

Firstly, the tales are not all written by the same person. This happens with all these ancient collections but it is completely obvious in the Fables. There are stories which are all about freedom from oppression and bringing down the system, while others are all about upholding the Status Quo (not the band, which is probably contemporary to Aesop). Of course, lefty as I am I find the "stick it to the man stories" much more interesting.

In terms of form, it's the kind of book you read in one sitting, each story is usually less than a page long and there's about 203 of them. All stories end with a little moral teaching, either explicit in italics or implicit, some of them however just look they were written by a shroom-head. And it's not all about talking animals either. There's stories about people and even some about inanimate speaking objects.

All in all, an easy read that is readily available everywhere (kind of copyright free) and that won't make you lose to much time reading it.

Vanda: We all grew up with these stories, in one version or another, so it was no big surprise that I already knew most of them. I had never read them in the "original" format (no such thing, I'm aware, but indulge me), however, and what DID surprise me was how condensed they originally are. There are no embellishments, or any kind of back story - the tales are simply presented in a way that they get as quickly as possible to the moral lesson it was meant to convey.

Some of them made me go "ah, yes, how true", some of them are quite pedestrian in their obviousness, and some of them make me believe that mushrooms were in plentiful supply when of the penning of some of the tales. Some have contradictory morals, and a fairly big percentage are only concerned with perpetuating the status quo, in the "stick to your place in life, stop being uppity" sense. The best ones, however, and the most probable to have actually been written by Aesop (if there are indeed any) are the ones which concern personal freedom, and the sillyness and cruelty of authority figures.

It has to be read, I think. It gains a new dimension with age a better understanding of human nature that comes with it.

Final Grade

6/10 Francisco
6/10 Vanda (how original)

Trivia

The number of the tales is uncertain it goes form 55 in some versions to 359 in the biggest available one. I read the Penguin one, which contains 203.

For the heck of it, a William Caxton published tale (first version in English) here you go:

Men ought not to leue that thynge whiche is sure & certayne / for hope to haue the vncertayn / as to vs reherceth this fable of a fyssher whiche with his lyne toke a lytyll fysshe whiche sayd to hym / My frend I pray the / doo to me none euylle / ne putte me not to dethe / For now I am nought / for to be eten / but whanne I shalle be grete / yf thow come ageyne hyther / of me shalt thow mowe haue grete auaylle / For thenne I shalle goo with the a good whyle / And the Fyssher sayd to the fysshe Syn I hold the now / thou shalt not scape fro me / For grete foly hit were to me for to seke the here another tyme.

Wasn't that fun?

Can you tell that we'd talked about the book before we reviewed it? We have just now made the decision that we will not discuss the book before the next review. But hey! Great minds....

Intro

2006-05-16T19:42:00.000-07:00

I bought a book called 1001 Books You Must Read Before you Die:

You too can buy it at Amazon US or UK

Well in the now long established tradition of 1001 albums and 1001 flicks I'll do the same for books! yay!

Should be finished in 80 years!

But this one will be different. It will actually be in two voices. Both me and my girlfriend will read the books and give two reviews for each. So under Francisco are my reviews and under Vanda are her's... get it? You will.