It is presumptuous to set out to “review” something such as Dante’s Inferno. Even at best, what one reviews is not so much the poem itself, but one’s reactions to the poem. Entire books can be written – indeed, have been written – about how this poem, or the larger poem of which this is but [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Flaubert’
22 Nov
“Great Expectations” and “L’Education Sentimentale”
Authors are often drawn to the story of growing up, and its not hard to see why. For one thing, this is one area where everyone may write from their own experience; and this naturally attracts lesser writers who lack imagination to enter the minds of those very unlike themselves. But many writers of quality [...]
4 Nov
“Mansfield Park”: a grudging appreciation
First of all, let me apologise in advance to all fans of Austen out there: I really do not intend to indulge in Austen-bashing – that is not the purpose of this post. It seems pointless and childish to be arguing along the lines of “My taste is better than yours”: it’s far more interesting [...]
16 Oct
The joys of being miserable
How is it that we can witness some three hours of so of the utmost human misery that is King Lear, and still come out of the experience feeling exhilarated? Perhaps Orwell was right: in tragedy, we see human beings destroyed, but nonetheless feel that humanity is nobler than the forces that have defeated it. [...]
25 Aug
Flaubert: a miserable old git
Gustave Flaubert is known, with reason, as a misanthropic old cynic. And yet, he could be oddly moving. Just consider this beautiful line from L’Education Sentimentale: Il y a un moment, dans les séparations, où la personne aimée n’est déjà plus avec nous. In the translation by Robert Baldick & Geoffrey Wall, this becomes: In every parting [...]
