tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post6010303738269884347..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: A La Regenta readalong for July - and really also June - it's a long book - the profound self-pity of egotism aroused by its misfortuneAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-49954251447416891062016-07-17T15:12:26.155-05:002016-07-17T15:12:26.155-05:00I'm still in. I'm a bit slow, though ... J...I'm still in. I'm a bit slow, though ... Just finished the first part.The Argumentative Old Githttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09583407462940146876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-48852129196956319682016-07-15T11:44:14.473-05:002016-07-15T11:44:14.473-05:00It's too bad people are dropping out; the seco...It's too bad people are dropping out; the second half of <i>La Regenta</i> really cooks. Some great digressions and set pieces. scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-62346661966036910332016-07-15T09:47:50.031-05:002016-07-15T09:47:50.031-05:00La Regenta is more what The Maias would look like ...<i>La Regenta</i> is more what <i>The Maias</i> would look like if it were Eça's first novel. It is one ambitious first novel.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-74337435757997498952016-07-15T07:27:04.887-05:002016-07-15T07:27:04.887-05:00I, too, had to put this one down after almost 200 ...I, too, had to put this one down after almost 200 pages. I enjoyed certain small sections but for the most part the question of who will be Ana's confessor and why just seemed to circle and circle like water around a drain, and with almost the same level of anticipation. This certainly is not Tolstoy. And I thoroughly enjoyed Eça de Queiroz's The Mais when I read it a few years back--much better writing, in my opinion, than La Regenta. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02163788276943571422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84818507274205351392016-06-04T11:45:15.577-05:002016-06-04T11:45:15.577-05:00Every once in a while I am happy to read the unrea...Every once in a while I am happy to read the unreadable. I am neutral on "unreadable," just as I am on "forward thrust." I have read <i>JR</i> and basically love it.<br /><br />Maybe next year we should have an Adalbert Stifter readalong.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-57327005725260938562016-06-04T11:38:13.439-05:002016-06-04T11:38:13.439-05:00I don't wish!
A "1,000-page Ronald Firba...I don't wish! <br />A "1,000-page Ronald Firbank novel" would be unreadable. Firbank knew when to stop.<br />Have you read JR by William Gaddis? An enormous virtuoso novel, almost entirely in unattributed dialogue and all in one "take". Read a few pages and it's one of the funniest and saddest books you could imagine, but the whole thing is as if someone had carved the face of W.C. Fields on Mount Rushmore.Roger Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11012987757094423896noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-47419367133208842942016-06-04T11:05:39.494-05:002016-06-04T11:05:39.494-05:00"Farrago"! This is the home of the Ubu R..."Farrago"! This is the home of the <i>Ubu Roi</i> readalong!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-79053224828089790582016-06-03T23:09:44.798-05:002016-06-03T23:09:44.798-05:00Chapter 7 and its avena en la Habana joke was the ...Chapter 7 and its avena en la Habana joke was the final straw for me. I look forward to your review to see how this farrago, I mean masterpiece, ends. Cleanthesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15363416290397892659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-1306825625244430952016-06-03T16:21:43.883-05:002016-06-03T16:21:43.883-05:00123 pages of anything is a fair shot.
The newer P...123 pages of anything is a fair shot.<br /><br />The newer Penguin edition smartly omits any reference to Hardy. How strange; how wrong.<br /><br />The quotation marks are pretty odd. Jane Austen does something kind of similar, but not as peculiar as this.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-5276984043038075902016-06-03T16:16:53.964-05:002016-06-03T16:16:53.964-05:00After five strenuous days of slogging through the ...After five strenuous days of slogging through the first 123 pages of La Regenta, I do not know whether I have the stamina to continue. The ponderous backstory, the confusing free indirect discourse set off with quotation marks butting up against actual dialogue, the overripe prose (some of that is fun), and the near total absence of forward thrust makes this a tough call for me. Imagine Anna Karenina beginning with her birth, if you will, and having her marriage occur fully 15% into the novel. "In medias res" may have been Tolstoy's mantra, but it is, alas, not Alas's. I need some convincing to continue; while I wait I will move to something more accessible. There might just be a reason that this novel was not translated into English for almost 100 years after its publication. The back cover promises something like Jude the Obscure, but delivers something less. What, after all, is the ultimate test for pulling the bookmark when you are sixty years old and want to spend the rest of your reading life re-reading the greats and reading the lesser works of great artists? I throw the question open for discussion.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00014242874264804584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-29327808639415689662016-05-31T22:38:03.619-05:002016-05-31T22:38:03.619-05:00People are over-promising - first, the second-grea...People are over-promising - first, the second-greatest novel of the 19th century, and now something like a 1,000-page Ronald Firbank novel. I wish! Oh, how I wish.<br /><br />Next someone will tell me <i>La Regenta</i> is as intricate as <i>Pale Fire</i> and as metafictional as "Pierre Menard."<br /><br />So far it looks to me a lot like Eça de Queiroz, like a blend of <i>The Sin of Padre Amaro</i> and <i>Cousin Basilio</i>.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-35598369101386913592016-05-31T18:32:55.410-05:002016-05-31T18:32:55.410-05:00I am only six pages in and I heartily concur; this...I am only six pages in and I heartily concur; this is not Tolstoy. This is a kind of maximalist floribunda prose that makes Michael Chabon look like Ann Beattie. I'm exhausted already with such nuggets as "he [a 13 year-old boy] moved and gesticulated like some cheap brazen barracks siren." And "sometimes a piercing gleam would shoot out from [the priest's eyes]--an unpleasant surprise, like finding a needle in a feather pillow." I feel as if the Spanish deSade has gone upscale without losing a scintilla of loucheness. This is NOT going to be a fast--or easy--read.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00014242874264804584noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-45281700011528195772016-05-31T16:22:25.962-05:002016-05-31T16:22:25.962-05:00What a wonderfully fussy change. What difference ...What a wonderfully fussy change. What difference could that make?Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-76600945371155173352016-05-31T14:29:10.950-05:002016-05-31T14:29:10.950-05:00I wish I remembered the 1831 in greater detail; I&...I wish I remembered the 1831 in greater detail; I'm only 40% of the way through, but a large difference is from where Elizabeth comes. In 1818, she is his cousin; in 1831 she was found by his parents in a cottage in Italy while they were on holiday. Not sure why that's significant, but it is a difference. Surely more differences are to come.Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-60726398065807454222016-05-31T14:22:48.334-05:002016-05-31T14:22:48.334-05:00The opening letters in the 1818 edition are suspic...The opening letters in the 1818 edition are suspiciously similar to those of 1831. Are bigger changes coming?<br /><br />I'd forgotten how much of Percy Shelley is in the polar explorer.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-86811722916711786242016-05-31T13:44:52.350-05:002016-05-31T13:44:52.350-05:00Oh, dear. I'm finishing Frankenstein (wonderfu...Oh, dear. I'm finishing Frankenstein (wonderful in the 1818 edition!) and then beginning La Regenta. At any rate, we shall have a grand discussion as always.Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-33575539828315086052016-05-30T21:40:50.777-05:002016-05-30T21:40:50.777-05:00One chapter into La Regenta, I am skeptical of &qu...One chapter into <i>La Regenta</i>, I am skeptical of "quickly" - this book is dense. Alas can't keep this up, can he?Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-62184457977093717222016-05-29T18:50:58.197-05:002016-05-29T18:50:58.197-05:00"Go quickly" would be a plus for me when..."Go quickly" would be a plus for me when it comes to Trollope. Or, Willa Cather's My Antonia. Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84001085195378215922016-05-29T18:04:39.947-05:002016-05-29T18:04:39.947-05:00I don't think of "go quickly" as a p...I don't think of "go quickly" as a plus in literature, I guess, as it is in dentistry and waiting in line.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-87352107345962536362016-05-28T23:32:52.874-05:002016-05-28T23:32:52.874-05:00Yeah, but, they go quickly. And the time is well s...Yeah, but, they go quickly. And the time is well spent.Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-20754672025947859482016-05-28T19:20:24.371-05:002016-05-28T19:20:24.371-05:00I feel that 700 pages of Tolstoy is still a lot of...I feel that 700 pages of Tolstoy is still a lot of pages.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-14939933927253366042016-05-28T12:14:35.641-05:002016-05-28T12:14:35.641-05:00Indeed! I love love love Anna Karenina, and so hol...Indeed! I love love love Anna Karenina, and so hold high hopes for La Regenta. 700 pages is nothing in the hands of Tolstoy, perhaps the same will be true of Alas. We shall see.Bellezza https://www.blogger.com/profile/18073864187188953633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-3342214037222218672016-05-27T09:49:02.050-05:002016-05-27T09:49:02.050-05:00!!! Anna Karenina! High praise. The highest.!!! <i>Anna Karenina</i>! High praise. The highest.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-76823862722775251342016-05-27T09:22:15.103-05:002016-05-27T09:22:15.103-05:00One of my all-time favorite books. I read Anna Kar...One of my all-time favorite books. I read <i>Anna Karenina</i> this year and, like most people, was bowled over by it. AK is widely acknowledged as one of the pillars of world literature and one of the very greatest of novels; <i>La Regenta</i> isn't nearly so celebrated. Thinking back to them both, I don't see anything about the Tolstoy that sets it so far above Alas. I wouldn't say that Alas is better than Tolstoy, because when you're dealing with that magnitude of achievement, one thing being better or worse than another means very little. <i>La Regenta</i> is certainly in the same class as <i>Anna Karenina</i>, and is as good as or better than any novel I've read.Mimic Hootingshttp://mimichootings.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-25605642928676072392016-05-27T08:21:48.921-05:002016-05-27T08:21:48.921-05:00Fanaticism in a good cause.
In a sense, this is t...Fanaticism in a good cause.<br /><br />In a sense, this is the warning. It will take me a month to six weeks to read the novel - and this will be "zooming along" for me. The middle of July is about when I will be ready to write.<br /><br />Scott is aiming at the end of July on Bennett. I might miss that - vacation - or might not.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.com