May's Manic Meanderings Into Marvellously Mystical Manuscripts

Extollager said:
It would be particularly expensive for me in that I have so much of it already in other translations:

Cathedral Folk (tr. Isabel Hapgood; a Hyperion reprint of Leskov's best-known novel -- this was the company that reprinted a bunch of early sf books around 1980, by the way)

On the Edge of the World (tr. Michael Prokurat; about an Orthodox bishop's missionary journey in eastern Siberia; published by the St. Vladimir's Seminary Press)

Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Penguin Classic; stories, tr. David McDuff)

Satirical Stories (tr. Wm. Edgerton; Pegasus is publisher)

The Enchanted Wanderer (Farrar Straus Giroux, stories tr. by David Magarshack)

I would have to compare the contents of the three story collections here with those of the P-V book.
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The table of contents for the collection is:
*Having a look at the contents the Satirical Stories collection the stories featured here seem to be different and therefore aside from Enchanted Wanderer and Lady Macbeth, possibly new additions to your collection?

The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
The Sealed Angel
The Enchanted Wanderer
Singlemind
The Devil-Chase
Deathless Golovan
The White Eagle
A Flaming Patriot
Lefty
The Spirit of Madame de Genlis
The Toupee Artist
The Voice of Nature
A Little Mistake
The Pearl Necklace
The Spook
The Man on Watch
A Robbery
 
HareBrain said:
Now about 200 pages (20%) into John Cowper Powys's A Glastonbury Romance, and after a bit of a struggle getting into it, I think it's even better than Wolf Solent. Partly this is because Powys uses more than one viewpoint character; indeed he flings himself between them with wild abandon, which suits his style. The characters are superbly drawn, colourful but real, and the whole thing is glorious, mad, deeply felt, and somehow manages to be sprawling and tightly knit at the same time. What especially interests me is that in places the fantastical imagery, applied to real-world people and places, is so rich that it out-fantasies much fantasy fiction. It almost makes fantasy fiction redundant.

I can't think of anyone (that I've read) writing these days with such a rich, omniscient-narrative voice. I know the mode is out of fashion at the moment, which I'm starting to think is a real shame.
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Thanks for those comments. I don't think I'll be able to commit to Glastonbury Romance (having not even read Wolf Solent yet) but reading your observations will at least provide me with a glimpse into this novel.
 
GOLLUM said:
The table of contents for the collection is:
*Having a look at the contents the Satirical Stories collection the stories featured here seem to be different and therefore aside from Enchanted Wanderer and Lady Macbeth, possibly new additions to your collection?

The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk
The Sealed Angel
The Enchanted Wanderer
Singlemind
The Devil-Chase
Deathless Golovan
The White Eagle
A Flaming Patriot
Lefty
The Spirit of Madame de Genlis
The Toupee Artist
The Voice of Nature
A Little Mistake
The Pearl Necklace
The Spook
The Man on Watch
A Robbery
Click to expand...

"Lefty" and "The Steel Flea" are the same story, I have "White Eagle" in one of my other books -- but yes, many of those titles don't look familiar. Thanks.
 
About halfway through IN SEARCH OF LAKE MONSTERS by Peter Costello and I'm setting it aside for the time being. Interesting at first, it's now little more than the second hour on a merry-go-round. Costello does an admirable job sifting through and organizing a substantial amount of information about these elusive lake creatures but it's reached a point where repetition has taken the joy out of reading: it's the same story of one creditable sighting after another and it's hard to believe these guys are lying. Some were fortunate enough to snap a picture but the photographs are all low grade and inconclusive, and when a witness does have an opportunity for a great shot, they either don't have a camera at hand or the creature disappears just as the camera is primed. Supposedly there's a good quality film of the Loch Ness Monster but, you guessed it, the owner of the footage won't release it! I no longer look forward to reading this book I had such high hopes for and that's a sure sign someone or something is telling me to stop and read something else. Ever ready to learn from any quarter, I've started James Fenimore Cooper's THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS and I'm not just relieved but pumped to inform whoever cares the joy of reading has returned. In a big way. Maybe a dozen or so pages into this early American adventure but already I can't wait to get back to it.
 
Extollager said:
"Lefty" and "The Steel Flea" are the same story, I have "White Eagle" in one of my other books -- but yes, many of those titles don't look familiar. Thanks.
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Of course it's possible that more of those works have been published under multiple titles...you may even posses more than you think...:) Hope you can source a copy as it's received a lot of accolades already as a collection.
 
I'm about 80% of the way through Balzac's "Cousin Bette". I really enjoyed Old Goriot, and I could see from that why Balzac has been called the french Dickens. However, although it's getting quite interesting toward the conclusion, too much of Cousin Bette reads like hackneyed 'french farce'. Of course, it is french, and it predates that dramatic stereotype, but I don't find the tangled relationship web Balzac weaves particularly realistic. I liked Old Goriot much more. Cousin Bette is a late novel of Balzac's, written about 10 years after Old Goriot which may explain the differences in style and my enjoyment.

I've also just started David Weber's "On Basilisk Station", which I'm enjoying so far. I was slightly nervous of starting another long SF series, given I dipped into Bujold's Vorkosigan saga a week or two ago and didn't like her writing at all. Weber seems better.
 
I hit the local library stacks. Just finished Catching Fire. Now I'm on Forever War.
 
Finished Abraham's Tyrant's Law last night. It was a light, fun read like the others, though this one didn't have much of a finale. This is a series I'll have forgotten I've read a couple years after the last book comes out. It's mildly entertaining, but not much more. I'll definitely keep buying the books as they come out, but it's hard to get excited about it.

It's been a while since I read a Miles book, so I started the Bujold omnibus Miles Errant. It opened with the novella Borders of Infinity. I like the Miles novellas, they can be read in a single sitting, and are well encapsulated and clever. This one was darker than most, and told in a different form than anything else I've read from Bujold - the reader was fed clues, but generally kept in the dark throughout. It worked out well. Today I'll start the first novel in the book, Brothers In Arms.
 
Finished Brandon Sandersons YA novel The Rithmatist. It was pretty good, a light, easy read as was to be expected. A couple really cool ideas in it.

Off to the last Feist one, Magician's End. Hope to take a good bite out of it this weekend.
 
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