Saturday, July 1, 2023

Books I Read in June 2023

If only I had the will to write something.  But I can read.


PHILOSOPHY

Fragments or Sayings or Tall Tales (4th C. BCE), Diogenes the Cynic, tr. Guy Davenport

Cynics (2008), William Desmond - for an entry in a series aimed at students, surprisingly well written.  It helps that the Cynics are entertaining.


FICTION

Darkness at Noon (1941), Arthur Koestler

Between the Acts (1941), Virginia Woolf

Behind the Door (1964) &

The Heron (1968) &

The Smell of Hay (1972), Giorgio Bassani - the last half of the "Ferrara novel."  The Heron was my favorite, but all six books are worth reading.

Invisible Cities (1972), Italo Calvino


POETRY

Trilogy (1944-6), H. D.

Collected Poems (1943-87), Primo Levi

Otherwise: First and Last Poems (1984), Eugenio Montale


CRITICISM

The Art of Poetry (1958), Paul Valéry

Wonder Confronts Certainty: Russian Writers on the Timeless Questions and Why Their Answers Matter (2023), Gary Saul Morson - a major work.


IN FRENCH

“La jeune parque” (1917) &

Charmes (1922), Paul Valéry

Les armes miraculeuses (1946) &

Soleil cou-coupé (1948) &

Corps perdu (1950), Aimé Césaire

In Portuguese, I worked on grammar, although let’s not exaggerate how much.

4 comments:

  1. Yes. This is really a list of "Books Finished." Nothing in progress or, rare as it is, abandoned. This month I abandoned Céline's Journey to the End of the Night (in French). Too difficult for my available concentration.

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  2. Ah, Between the Acts. I keep meaning to get to it, probably in part from H Bloom's comments on it. I try to let those types of feelings subside before I read a recommendation, but any quick thoughts on it? I get the feeling if you like Woolf, you'll enjoy it. If not, well...

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  3. It was not the advance or move from Lighthouse that The Waves was, but anyone comfortable with Woolf will likely enjoy it. It is not as hard as The Waves.

    It has a play-within-the-novel that takes up a lot of space. I loved it, but I could see it being a patience-tester for some.

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