Review: How to Read and Why

How to Read and Why by Harold Bloom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

As soon as I started this book I thought it would be a pompous look into old-fashioned "elite" Western literature. And it many ways it is. But this doesn't make it any less fascinating. It's great to take a journey through some excellent writing, passing rather quickly from one to the next, along with some background for each.

I'm not sure I'd call this "How to read and why". Maybe "What the author enjoys and why" would be more apt. There is plenty of literature he doesn't touch upon. He seems fine with works in translation (like Dante, Borges and Cervantes), but doesn't venture into Asia, Africa, or the Middle East.

Still, an interesting read.


https://4201mass.blogspot.com/

View all my reviews

Review: Traversing the Frontier: The Man'yōshū Account of a Japanese Mission to Silla in 736-737

Traversing the Frontier: The Man'yōshū Account of a Japanese Mission to Silla in 736-737 by H. Mack Horton
My rating: 0 of 5 stars

I can't really rate this, since most of it was over my head. The actual travel account is from page 10 to 44 (with the Kanji and Japanese sounds transliterated as well). The rest is pretty much commentary. 

The first part is more or less an introduction, then the travelogue itself. Then "Traversing the Frontier", or basically a geographical tracing of where they (most likely) traveled. The sections after this (Internal contexts, Historical contexts, Literary contexts, Authorial and Editorial contexts) were pretty much over my head. I scanned some of the Historical contexts section, but even then I didn't absorb much. 

As for the travelogue itself, it isn't really a travelogue, but more a collection of poems and sentiments, most about how much they miss home and miss their wives. This was a bit disappointing, although I would be lying if I said I didn't enjoy reading it. 

Still, obviously much work was done on this book, which from what I can tell is exhaustive and excellent, so hopefully someone more knowledgable than I am on the subject can give it a more thorough review. 

View all my reviews

Review: The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors

The Brontës: Wild Genius on the Moors by Juliet Barker
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Are you trying to seduce me Mrs. Robinson?"
- Branwell Brontë, possibly(?)...

What a journey. Knowing next to nothing about the Brontes before reading this, I found this book extremely informative and interesting. It does go into very much detail. In fact, it took until page 99 for all three sisters to even be born. This book will also likely make you very mad at Mrs. Gaskell (who wrote Charlotte Bronte's first biography), since it points out all the biases and mistakes she included, and the reasons why.

I love how much detail we have of certain parts of their lives, obviously thanks to all the letters that have remained, and the author's (and others') patience in sorting them out and going through them all (apparently the author was curator and librarian of the Bronte museum, and it shows).

I loved reading about how Haworth parish refused to accept the deacon that was thrust upon them, and insisted on choosing their own.

The description of Charlotte by a classmate is interesting, especially how she had an Irish accent, despite never having set foot in Ireland (obviously she got it from her father).

It is truly fascinating to see how Charlotte and her brother took turns writing about their make-believe land and characters, and continued one set story over the years. Anne and Emily did the same, but unfortunately we don't have those writings anymore. Regardless, I had no idea.

Emily's defense of cats is excellent (coming from someone who tends to avoid cats whenever possible) (p.455)

"According to Charlotte, the distinctive quality of mediocrity is moderation, which is the antithesis of genius" (p. 489)

Charlotte's visit to a confessional (and subsequent confession) in Bruxelles is very interesting as well.

"George Smith had refused to accept any thanks for the pictures, so Charlotte had signed her letter, 'I am yours very thanklessly'" (p.766)

Also, seriously, the woman Branwell had an affair with (and drank himself to death over) was married and her name was Mrs. Robinson.

View all my reviews

Review: The Life and Times of Chaucer

The Life and Times of Chaucer by John Gardner
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Older girls played ring-dance with boys, especially parish clerks (or so we're told in popular poetry), and had a way of dropping gloves or scarves, which had to be returned late at night through a bedroom window, much to the increase of the population."

I found this for $1.98 at the Book Rack (a local bookstore), and it sat on my shelf of a few months before I finally decided I should give it a go.

The reason I was delaying was that I know very little about Chaucer, and thought I should read some of his works before diving into his biography.

Well, it turns out there wasn't any need. The author's writing is excellent, and it seems like just as much time is spent on the general background, culture, and other people surrounding Chaucer as is spent on his life, interspersed with his verses throughout, so you can get a clear picture as to what was happening and why.

This book actually makes me very curious about the author's fiction, which I'm seeing here on Goodreads. I'll have to check it out.


4.5 Stars

Also, a line about legally-sanctioned wife-beating:
"it was legal to beat a wife into unconsciousness, but not acceptable to beat her until her inert body farted, a sign that she was in shock and might possibly be dying"

View all my reviews

Review: Translating Culture - Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese

Translating Culture - Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese by Isaac Yue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, this was probably beyond my pay grade. The subject seemed a tad esoteric, and I guess it is, but it's pretty fascinating regardless. It reminded me of Tim Parks' "Translating Style", although that was for IT-EN, which is my language combination. This one dealt with late Victorian literature and the translations of some select works into Chinese. As with Tim Parks' book, I think that even someone with little or no knowledge of Chinese will get quite a bit out of this, since it is a very thorough analysis of what was going on in Late Victorian literature, and how it affected the authors. I especially enjoyed "New Women Novels and their Translations" and "Dandyism and Witticism: The importance of being Oscar Wilde in the Context of Translation".



View all my reviews