What are you reading?

[dirac]

As to whether she would have preferred an obscurer but happier life, there is no historical evidence to support this. Her own behavior suggests the contrary.

My comment was in reference to what might have been her state of mind at the time of her execution, if you look at the entire sentence. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.

As for ‘evidence’ -- life as the Countess of Ormonde or the Countess of Northumberland would have been quite comfortable, but not necessarily exciting unless the married pair were at court. Certainly nothing that would place Anne in any history books. (The proposed Ormonde marriage, in which Anne apparently had no say, might have landed her in Ireland.) Alone in the Tower, awaiting her fate – who knows what she thought.

(I’m not sure what you mean by ‘her own behavior’ but it’s true she was no shrinking violet.)

[canbelto]

I finished reading Antonia Fraser's Marie Antoinette and I was very disappointed. I like Fraser's polished and witty writing style, her attention to detail (she points out the huge difference between the paintings of Marie Antoinette, which show a cherry mouth, with the sculptures and contemporary descriptions, which clearly indicate the infamous Hapsburg lip) but as history I found it to be lacking. I like that Fraser tries to clear the name of Marie Antoinette, who was no doubt a scapegoat and cruelly treated, but her knowledge of the French revolution seems very lacking. For instance, in the trial she brings up how Marie Antoinette was tried for the "Carnation Plot" but doesn't explain what the plot in much detail, nor does she speculate on the Queen's involvement. She writes that Marie Antoinette wrote many letters to her Austrian relatives asking for help, but doesn't quote a single one of those letters, and also doesn't really mention the queen's rigid royalist position. Her portrayal of Louis XVI is insensitive and crude. She seems openly contemptuous of him, taking some potshots at his perceived weakness of character and personal appearance, and even his hobbies. Scarce mention is made of his kind character and loyalty to his family.

This is not up to Fraser's other efforts.

[whetherwax]

You seem to be doing a great deal of historical reading Canbelto. For a mix of history and literature I am loving Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell. I 've just finished re reading it and enjoying the BBC 4 DVD ( a brilliant adaptation). It gives such a picture of England in the 20's 30's up to the 70's. It consists of twelve novels and has 300 characters. Erudite and amusing.

[cubanmiamiboy]

My current reading goes as follows. In my beach backpack I have like two John Grisham-(I know, I know, but it's a guilty pleasure, and I'm loving "The Firm" ). At my bedside I'm devouring Markova's "Giselle and I" and "Markova Remembers", and from my school bag there is "Gender-related differences in myocardial inflammatory and contractile responses to major burn trauma" by Jureta W. Horton, D. Jean White, and David L. Maass .

[dirac]

I kinda liked The Firm, too, until the Big Revelation at the end, which was a letdown.

No apologies needed, sometimes a little airport reading can be fun.

[innopac]

I am "reading" this beautiful photographic essay by KayLynn Deveney called The Day-to-Day Life of Albert Hastings. The book was mentioned in Allison Arieff's NYT's blog on memories.

[papeetepatrick]

Patrick McGilligan's 'Nature of the Beast', an excellent bio of Fritz Lang, director of 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari', the 3 Dr. Mabuse films, 'Die Nibelungen', 'Metropolis', 'M', 'Scarlett Street', and many others. The exhaustive detail of early German film-making and the Ufa Studios is a great pleasure, but I had no idea what a sadistic person Lang was. He was tyrannical and cruel to all the stars (esp. Brigitte Helm as Maria and the robot-Maria), as well as the thousands of extras who he constantly put at great risk to their health and lives, and may even have killed his first wife Lisa Rosenthal. His mistress Thea Von Harbou, who was also his brilliant writer and collaborator through the 20s, testified to his innocence in court, but that doesn't prove anything, of course. I've seen some 15-18 of the films so I wanted to find out where they came from--and they are often involving crime, courtrooms, and the unjustly accused.

[dirac]

Thank you for keeping us posted on your reading. I hope others will, as well.

Currently reading: A People's History of the Civil War and Gettysburg by Noah Andre Trudeau.

[Adam]

Fritz Lang . . .may even have killed his first wife Lisa Rosenthal. His mistress Thea Von Harbou, who was also his brilliant writer and collaborator through the 20s, testified to his innocence in court, but that doesn't prove anything, of course.

I'm thinking of the line near the end of "Witness for the Prosecution" where Charles Laughton says to Marlene Dietrich "You testified [on behalf of Tyrone Power] because you knew he was innocent". And I won't go any further here, in case some of you haven't seen the film.

[Rosa]

I am currently reading Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria, by Julia P. Gelardi. So far I've been really enjoying this fascinating book about Alexandra of Russia, Marie of Romania, Victoria Eugenie of Spain, Maud of Norway, and Sophie of Greece. (Of the five I'm only familiar with Alexandra's tragic story.) Mrs. Gelardi has done a good job of weaving the stories of the queens together.

[cubanmiamiboy]

...revisiting Marx's "Capital" after many years since I read some of it...(last time I did it was included as a mandatory textbook in one of my college classes: Marxism-Leninism Theory). Now it has a vintage feeling, at least to me. Oh boy...time has changed for sure...! Anybody with a similar experience with the book out there, by any chance...?

[kfw]

I'm reading Daniel Bell's "The Cultural Contradictions of Capitalism" and Sasha Anawalt's "Joffrey Ballet: Robert Joffrey and the Making of an American Dance Company." My wife and I are reading together Richard John Neuhaus' "Death on a Friday Afternoon: Meditations on the Last Words of Jesus from the Cross" and Studs Terkel's memoir "Talking to Myself."

I recently read K. Robert Schwart's "Minimalists," Julia Hartwig's "In Praise of the Unfinished: Selected Poems," and Barrack Obama's "The Audacity of Hope."

[papeetepatrick]

...revisiting Marx's "Capital" after many years since I read some of it...(last time I did it was included as a mandatory textbook in one of my college classes: Marxism-Leninism Theory). Now it has a vintage feeling, at least to me. Oh boy...time has changed for sure...! Anybody with a similar experience with the book out there, by any chance...?

No, I read all of it in 1999 or 2000, and I'm glad I did, because I know what Marxists and Marxist theorists are talking about--use value, exchange value, fetishes, commodification. It's an analysis of capitalism, of course, and I wouldn't call it all that 'vintage' in some ways, given that things are so complicated in the economy that one doesn't know from free markets, socialized health care possibilities, etc., It's made it possible for me to recognize where some of the ideas have worked and where they have failed (in all the totalitarian versions. The better aspects of Marxism seem to have been appropriated by highly successful capitalistic nations in Western Europe, i.e., they are like a final luxury for rich, mature nations. The welfare states of Sweden and the others are where a successful socialism is found, much more than originating in proletarian revolutions, where they always had to hire the decadent leftovers to help them run the bureaucracies.) Marxist critiques of art, which I've mentioned elsewhere recently, are interesting although I'm no fan of most of them; some of the Frankfurt Marxists like Agnes Heller and Theodor Adorno are interesting on art, but they are always dead serious and rule out all frivolity--reading ideology into every work. There's nothing more revealing than Adorno's discussions of the 'light popular cinema' and jazz, but these people always conveniently ignore the fact the most famous Marxist state, the Soviet Union, could not do without Classical Ballet, and used it shamelessly (fortunately for us, of course), given that it's not very much like Franz Kafka...or Karl Marx...I mean, can you imagine a truly Marxist ballet? What they kept at the Kirov and Bolshoi had to do with their grip on totalitarian power, it didn't have a thing to do with, say, the workers owning the means of production or price ratios, etc. Lenin's silly talk about Beethoven's 'Appassionata Sonata' is pretty awful too. But here and there you can find things in 'Kapital' that do seem very valid, especially in the over-commodification of High Capitalism as reflected in current commercial products like mainstream film and television, which get flatter and more bloated by the week. This may change, but it has yet to.

[cubanmiamiboy]

I know what Marxists and Marxist theorists are talking about-

One of the things i always found fascinating, and i still do, is the whole surplus value/surplus labor theory. Back in the days many tests questions were based on resolving this type of problems in a numeric format, in which specific data was given to us to calculate the amount of exploitation taking place to the worker by " the capitalist"...I had the tendency to found the concept pretty reasonable...(and still do)-although not being totally clarified and/or resolved.

[sandik]

Patrick McGilligan's 'Nature of the Beast', an excellent bio of Fritz Lang, director of 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari', the 3 Dr. Mabuse films, 'Die Nibelungen', 'Metropolis', 'M', 'Scarlett Street', and many others....

I'll have to look for this -- I'm very fond of his films, but didn't know he was such a harsh individual.

I'm almost done with The Wisdom of Whores, by Elisabeth Pisani, about epidemiology and AIDS research. Full of information, and very engaging. Great writing about medical research for those of us who are not in the sciences.

[papeetepatrick]

sandik--I'm still not finished with it, maybe another 150 pages, but it is definitely phenomenal in terms of giving 4-8 pages for even the minor Hollywood films (much more for 'Metropolis' and 'M' and 'Siegfried'). McGilligan's style gets a little tiring with wanting to point out literally all of Lang's unpopular habits, e.g., every one of his exaggerated tales in which he aggrandizes himself, esp the 'Goebbels episode', when Goebbels wanted to make him run the propaganda films for Hitler; but the research and scholarship are first-rate. (He fled Germany and Goebbles because he was afraid, being half-Jewish, although raised a Catholic; but even here he turned it into a meeting with Goebbels in which he was always watching a clock so he could escape ("5 minutes too late to get to the bank and withdraw all my money', etc--then we find out he took several months and going back and forth freely to get to Paris.). The most fascinating thing about this book for me is you inadvertently get a very sharp and unexpectedly new perspective on Hollywood, because Lang the master of German film directors was forced to compromise in ways he hadn't in Germany, and yet managed to get it to work for him anyway, albeit after some setbacks and a few big flops like 'You and Me.'

Edited to add: There's esp. interesting stuff about Brecht, who wrote most of the screenplay but was only credited with the story, and the making of 'Hangmen Also Die'.

[Giannina]

I have spent the past couple of years reading Christopher Hibbert. Discovered him and now I can't get enough of his books. History was my worst subject in school, and his books are easy historical reading. I particularly like his biographies, but am currently reading his histories of cities, i.e. Venice and Florence. I break the monotony with books on ballet and art.

Giannina

[bart]

Giannina, I like Hibbert too. He must have written dozens of books, all quite well-researched and well written. They're good introductions to major historical periods/figures/etc. The library branches where I've lived often stocked a number of Hibberts.

This past summer I re-read his Medici book and the book on Florence, enjoying both thoroughly. (My father's family came from Lucca, which was rather nearby. Unfortunately, Lucca and Florence were always at war with one another. My grandfather never entirely accepted the unification of Italy. We were, he said, Lucchese, though he was sometimes willing to admit to being a "Toscano.")

Which have been your favorites?

[Giannina]

Bart, I started with the Medici's and was hooked. I recently read George IV and truly enjoyed it. Soon afterwards I was in London, and since the book had no illustrations (paintings, etc.) I had a wonderful time in the Portrait Gallery searching for the characters in the book; I found many of them and it was like meeting old friends. Of the cities I've read Venice (who can't love Venice in any form?), and am now reading Florence; I'm having trouble getting into it but I know treasures await me. I also enjoyed Il Duce. My Dad was from Italy and often talked about him. My only total failure so far has been Samuel Johnson. To begin with the book is a tome, and I think the size of the book more than anything deterred me. I'll eventually go back to it; fascinating man, and he appears in so many of the books I've already read.

The emotional/personal unification of Italy is such a lost cause, and so much a part of their history. One of our Elderhostel guides (Italian) said that not only are the districts divided but also the cities, neighborhoods, streets, and houses! Such a shame, but it makes for great stories.

I buy most of my books second hand through Amazon; many times the price of the book is less than the shipping charges. There are treasures out there.

Giannina

[bart]

I buy most of my books second hand through Amazon; many times the price of the book is less than the shipping charges. There are treasures out there.

Indeed. But I've found that all those bargain books require periodic shelf-building, which adds considerably to the cost.

Have you read John Julius Norwich's history of Venice? Another Englishman. More detailed, but marvellous. He also has some fascinating volumes on the history of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily plus a 3-volume work on the Byzantine Empire.

I'm interested in post-unification Italian history, and increasingly in the 20th century part of it.. I've never read Hibbert's bio of Mussolini. It's now on my list. Thanks for the suggestion.

[sandik]

sandik--I'm still not finished with it, maybe another 150 pages, but it is definitely phenomenal in terms of giving 4-8 pages for even the minor Hollywood films (much more for 'Metropolis' and 'M' and 'Siegfried').

It sounds quite juicy, but I'll have to look out for it -- my local library doesn't have it yet.

I did see, though, while I was searching their catalog, that he wrote a book on the blacklist -- looks interesting as well!

[Rosa]

Just finished Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. A finely crafted novel with the narratives more engaging and the characterizations stronger IMO compared to The Moonstone, I can understand why this is considered Collins' best novel. I really connected with the characters and I often swung between despair and faint hope as each character related their part of the story.

This was an excellent and suspenseful read. The Moonstone is still my personal favorite.

[dirac]

Just finished Wilkie Collins' The Woman in White. A finely crafted novel with the narratives more engaging and the characterizations stronger IMO compared to The Moonstone, I can understand why this is considered Collins' best novel. I really connected with the characters and I often swung between despair and faint hope as each character related their part of the story.

This was an excellent and suspenseful read. The Moonstone is still my personal favorite.

Thanks for posting, Rosa. I really enjoyed The Moonstone back in the day but never got around to The Woman in White. Would be curious to know what Collins' other works are like.

I'm currently reading A Coffin for King Charles by C.V. Wedgwood, which is about guess what.

[bart]

dirac, it's great to learn that C.Vv. Wedgwood (of the pottery family) is still in print. Her books on 17th-century British (and French, Dutch, etc.) history are a nice combination of (a) super-readability and (b) serious research. I have The King's Peace and the King's War on my shelf and will now have to get them down, dust them off, and spend some time living through the English Civil War. I asaume That it's Charles the First whose "Coffin" you are now reading about?

Just finished Durrell's Alexandria Quartet (Justine, Baltazar, Mountolive, and Clea) which I pick up every 10 years or so. I still love it, though I can see its flaws better than I could when I was 20 and imagined that living in Egypt in the 1930s and 40s was infinitely preferable to living in Massachusetts in the 1960s.

Next up: a Thomas Mann I've never read, Dr. Faustus, in a new translation by John E. Woods. I decided to do this more for the reason "It's Good for You" than out of any expectation I'd actually enjoy it. But, after the first few chapters, I'm getting hooked. Fascinating topic set in a very scarey time.

[Quiggin]

Like Bart I read the Alexandria Quartet more than once. The first time was in college where a group of us passed around copies (the shiny Signets with red or gold page edges). We each identified with a character--Justine, Balthazar, Mountolive, Clea, Pursewarden (there was also Darley and the hilarious Scobie). We also speculated what character the others of us were like--without them knowing who we had picked. I liked the books a lot, but even for me the overripe adjective--like fruits that grew only in Alexandria--were a bit of a problem, especially during the second reading.

Later I was happy to learn that the great cookbook writer Elizabeth David was in Alexandria at the same time as Lawrence Durrell. I imagined that she somehow had an influence on, or a been part of, the Quartet (though her lean prose style certainly wasn’t). Also it seemed to me that Durrell owed a lot of the tone of the book to the real life Constantine Cavafy, the unnamed Old Poet in the book, who lived in Alexandria from 1890 to 1940 or so.

Anyway, the parts I liked are pretty the same ones Michael Wood (who could never figure out whether AQ was a patchy masterpiece or simply unreadable) cited in a recent London Review article. This from his review (“Sink or Skim” LRB, 1/1/2009) gives a sense of the goings on:

Among the considerable achievements of the Quartet are the large set-pieces: the duck shoot on Lake Mareotis at the end of Justine; the carnival at the end of Balthazar; the ecstatic Coptic wake at the end of Mountolive. All of these scenes are patiently, lovingly described, for their own sake rather than for any symbolism they may deliver – the prose is rich but not richer than the material. And yet each of these scenes contains a twist or a mystery. In the first a body is discovered and identified – wrongly. In the second the wrong person gets killed. In the third the wrong person is killed too, but not by mistake.