Book Hauls!

[dask]

Um, should we even be posting Gallardo covers?

 

[j d worthington]

Um, should we even be posting Gallardo covers?

That is a question which has arisen before, and no definite answer seems to be forthcoming. On the one hand, there seems to be no problem with posting such when discussing examples of the artist's work for a certain publisher, etc., yet at the same time, I'm not sure how the copyright restrictions apply, as I've heard conflicting input from people involved in that very field....

However, as far as Extollager's question... Pepper might have been able to do something quite fitting as well; certainly some of his work is well suited to such things. I personally don't care for his art as much as Gallardo's, but that is more a matter of personal preference rather than abstract artistic judgment, I think....

 

[thatollie]

I went a little insane yesterday . . .

She - H. Rider Haggard
The Variable Man - Philip K. Dick
The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
The Mind Spider and Other Stories - Fritz Leiber
Night Monsters - Fritz Leiber
The Silver Eggheads - Fritz Leiber
The Dragon Masters - Jack Vance
The Seeds of Time - John Wyndham
Jizzle - John Wyndham
The Day of Forever - J. G. Ballard
The Inner Landscape - Peake/Ballard/Aldiss
The Naked Sun - Isaac Asimov
The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
A Private Cosmos - Philip Jose Farmer
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke
Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Time for the Stars - Robert Heinlein
Rocketship Galileo - Robert Heinlein
Space Cadet - Robert Heinlein
Orphans of the Sky - Robert Heinlein
The Worlds of Robert Heinlein
The Puppets Maters - Robert Heinlein
Beyond this Horizon - Robert Heinlein
The Worlds of Frank Herbert

 

[Abernovo]

I went a little insane yesterday . . .

She - H. Rider Haggard
The Variable Man - Philip K. Dick
The Illustrated Man - Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury
Dandelion Wine - Ray Bradbury
The Mind Spider and Other Stories - Fritz Leiber
Night Monsters - Fritz Leiber
The Silver Eggheads - Fritz Leiber
The Dragon Masters - Jack Vance
The Seeds of Time - John Wyndham
Jizzle - John Wyndham
The Day of Forever - J. G. Ballard
The Inner Landscape - Peake/Ballard/Aldiss
The Naked Sun - Isaac Asimov
The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov
The Gods Themselves - Isaac Asimov
A Private Cosmos - Philip Jose Farmer
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke
A Fall of Moondust - Arthur C. Clarke
Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Time for the Stars - Robert Heinlein
Rocketship Galileo - Robert Heinlein
Space Cadet - Robert Heinlein
Orphans of the Sky - Robert Heinlein
The Worlds of Robert Heinlein
The Puppets Maters - Robert Heinlein
Beyond this Horizon - Robert Heinlein
The Worlds of Frank Herbert

Maybe a little insane, but what a wonderful selection of classics. I'm envious. Enjoy your reading.

 

[GOLLUM]

@Extollager: I think that's really great the way in which you are able to encourage students to read works that they may otherwise not be aware of but which are of importance for anyone wishing to understand the historical development of a given Genre. I have done a similar thing here both with people I know and some former pupils I tutored in English. I also try and send some items to people here on the forums that I correspond with on a semi-regular basis. I have not read any of MacDonald's 'realistic novels' . Can you perhaps recommend the best known of these works?

Today....

Eugene Onegin - Alexander Pushkin. *Despite the fame of this Russian classic I've never read it before, so coming across an affordable Penguin Black Classic edn. I was most keen to acquire a copy. Blurb: Tired of the glitter and glamour of St Petersberg society, aristocratic dandy Eugene Onegin retreats to the country estate he has recently inherited. With the arrival of the idealistic young poet Vladimir Lendsky he begins an unlikely friendship, while the poet welcomes this urbane addition to his small social circle – and is happy to introduce Onegin to his fiancée Olga and her family. But when Olga's sister Tatiana becomes infatuated with Onegin, his cold rejection of her love brings about a tragedy that engulfs them all. Unfolding with dream-like inevitability and dazzling energy, Pushkin's tragic poem is one of the great works of Russian literature.

Red Shift - Alan Garner *NYRB release of this classic work by Alan Garner, author of Weird Stone of Brissingamen. Blurb: In second-century Britain, Macey and a gang of fellow deserters from the Roman army hunt and are hunted by deadly local tribes. Fifteen centuries later, during the English Civil War, Thomas Rowley hides from the ruthless troops who have encircled his village. And in contemporary Britain, Tom, a precocious, love-struck, mentally unstable teenager, struggles to cope with the imminent departure for London of his girlfriend, Jan. Three separate stories, three utterly different lives, distant in time and yet strangely linked to a single place, the mysterious, looming outcrop known as Mow Cop, and a single object, the blunt head of a stone axe: all these come together in Alan Garner’s extraordinary Red Shift, a pyrotechnical and deeply moving elaboration on themes of chance and fate, time and eternity, visionary awakening and destructive madness.

A Vindication of the Rights of Women - Mary Wollstonecraft *Penguin Black Classic edn. The third feminist text I alluded to previously. Blurb: Writing in an age when the call for the rights of man had brought revolution to America and France, Mary Wollstonecraft produced her own declaration of female independence in 1792. Passionate and forthright, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman attacked the prevailing view of docile, decorative femininity, and instead laid out the principles of emancipation: an equal education for girls and boys, an end to prejudice, and for women to become defined by their profession, not their partner. Mary Wollstonecraft's work was received with a mixture of admiration and outrage – Walpole called her 'a hyena in petticoats' – yet it established her as the mother of modern feminism.

The Elder Edda: A Book Of Viking Lore. *Penguin Black Classic edn. An important literary work and the single greatest repository of Viking Lore, whose influence has impacted upon writers from Tennyson to Tolkien. Blurb: Compiled by an unknown scribe in Iceland around 1270, and based on sources dating back centuries earlier, the single main manuscript of the Poetic Edda is one of the literary wonders of the medieval world and the greatest source of knowledge of Viking lore in existence. These mythological and heroic poems tell of gods and mortals from an ancient era: the giant-slaying Thor, the doomed Völsung family, the Hel-ride of Brynhild and the cruelty of Atli the Hun. Eclectic, incomplete and fragmented, these verses nevertheless retain their stark beauty and their power to enthrall, opening a window on to the thoughts, beliefs and hopes of the Vikings and their world.

Three Penguin Black Classic texts covering three of the main religions of China and beyond...

Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu *Key text of Taoism. Blurb: Whether or not Lao-Tzu was a historical figure is uncertain, but the wisdom gathered under his name in the 4th century BC is central to the understanding and practice of Taoism. One of the three great religions of China, Taoism is based upon a concept of the Tao, or Way, as the universal power through which all life flows. The "Tao Te Ching" offers a practical model by which both the individual and society can embody this belief, encouraging modesty and self-restraint as the true path to a harmonious and balanced existence.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead - First Complete Translation. *Key text of Buddhism. Blurb: The Tibetan Book of the Dead is overwhelmingly the most influential of all Tibetan Buddhist texts in the West and one of the greatest works created by any culture. Offering one of the most detailed and compelling portrayals of the after-death state in world literature, it contains comprehensive guidance and practices related to transforming our daily lives, on preparing to use death as a means of liberation, on recognizing death when it comes and on how to help those who are dying or bereaved.

The Analects - Confucius *Although Confucianism had arguably been displaced by Daoism in modern China, this still remains a highly influential movement and text. Blurb: The Analects express a philosophy, or a moral code, by which Confucius, one of the most humane thinkers of all time, believed everyone should live. Upholding the ideals of wisdom, self-knowledge, courage and love of one's fellow man, he argued that the pursuit of virtue should be every individual's supreme goal. And, while following the Way, or the truth, might not result in immediate or material gain, Confucius showed that it could nevertheless bring its own powerful and lasting spiritual rewards

 

[Extollager]

@Extollager: I have not read any of MacDonald's 'realistic novels' . Can you perhaps recommend the best known of these works?

George MacDonald wrote around 30 novels. There's a Victorian artist's imagined group portrait in which MacDonald is a peer of Dickens, Thackeray, Trollope, Wilkie Collins, Carlyle, Macaulay, J. A. Froude, and Bulwer Lytton. (Note my bathetic arrangement of the names!)

I think his contemporary reputation was more for his novels than for his fantasies. But, alas, this doesn't mean -- from what I have read -- that his novels are worthy of rediscovery as classics. If, like me, you read a lot of the great Victorian novels, one of the values of the MacDonald novels is that they give a sense of what the non-great Victorian novels were like. (They are, I assume, better than the truly "average" Victorian novels, great quantities of which presumably have been annihilated in paper drives etc.!)

MacDonald's novels are typically classed as "English" and "Scottish," with the consensus being that the latter are better. However, they feature a lot of dialect. (One of the most striking differences between our time and much of the 19th century is the enjoyment the 19th century took in dialect. I suppose that, in the early 1800s, Walter Scott perceived that there already was enjoyment of this, and then really developed it. Scott was very influential -- something that tends to be forgotten today because he is so neglected.) I have just begun rereading one of these, Sir Gibbie. This might be his best novel. Alec Forbes of Howglen was considered to be MacDonald's best novel by Richard Reis, whose study of MacDonald around 1972 was a key book in the revival of interest in GM. I read it years ago and liked it.

Of the English novels, Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood seems to be something of a favorite. This was the first GM novel that I read and, indeed, one of the first Victorian novels that I ever read. The title is pretty indicative.

MacDonald seems deliberately to have eschewed commentary -- well, let's be forthright and say "preaching" -- in his fantasy.* He said that, in a fairy tale, every reader finds his own meaning. But all of the novels contain some preaching. I would say offhand that MacDonald's two chief themes are (1) to afflict the comfortable, and (2) to comfort the afflicted with the thought of God as the loving Father. With regard to (1), he really can be a disturber of complacent, drowsy consciences, e.g. in his exposure of the hypocrisy of philanthropists whose charity enables them to carry on with self-indulgent lives. He also despises the popular Calvinism that he grew up with. (He was a pastor early in his career and basically was fired.) With regard to (2), I would say that MacDonald's affinity is with the "Broad Church" in the contemporary Church of England, the most liberal element, as opposed to the "High Church" (or Anglo-Catholic element) and the "Low Church" (the evangelical and missions-oriented element). My impression, by the way, is that the Broad Church appealed to the intellectuals, but it was the High Church and the Low Church that really got in there on the ground and ministered the most to people in the horrible Victorian slums, etc. In their somewhat different ways, the High Church and the Low Church were strongly Christ-centered. MacDonald's emphasis on the fatherhood of God is probably largely meant not as competition against them but as a corrective.

To wrap up a long answer to a short question: If you have read the great fantasies (the two Curdie books, the fairy tales, Phantastes, Lilith), the next thing you might try is At the Back of the North Wind,

which partakes of both the fantasy-world and the novel-world forms of GM's writing and is really good. Then go on to Sir Gibbie or Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood.

Other GM novels that I have liked include St. George and St. Michael (an historical novel), A Rough Shaking (a short novel with an earthquake), Malcolm and its sequel The Marquis of Lossie, etc.

I recommend the Johannesen editions. These are attractive little hardback books that were hand-made by a family in the small California town of Whitethorn. They simply reproduced the text of old one-volume editions by offset (so sometimes the print isn't quite as crisp as desirable). They are well-bound and feel good in the hand and at least used to be available at nice prices. There is also a Sunrise Centenary Edition of the novels. They're nice too. But watch out for abridgments. I think those usually have different titles as compared to the originals.


*There's one notable exception. About it I have to differ with many MacDonald fans. It's "The Wise Woman" aka "The Lost Princess." It has some real imagination but MacDonald, to me, comes across as rather irritable and preachy in this one of his fantasies. To me it's the odd one of a very fine canon of fantasies that includes "The Golden Key," "Photogen and Nycteris" (The Day Boy and the Night Girl), "The Light Princess," and some lesser but still fine tales such as "The Carasoyn," etc. Lin Carter snapped up all of the major fantasies (except the Curdie books) for three all-MacDonald volumes of his Ballantine fantasy series, Phantastes, Lilith, Evenor (with three tales); New Worlds for Old (an anthology of stories by many authors) has a MacDonald entry, the wonderful "Photogen and Nycteris"). "The Woman in the Mirror" in one of Carter's anthologies is, I understand, taken from Phantastes. I refer to The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie because that seems to be the way British writers refer to them, rather than as the "Princess books," and because somehow "Princess books" doesn't sound like something I would like, etc.

 

[Extollager]

I should clarify -- MacDonald was never a Church of England clergyman. I believe that he became a communicant of that church as an adult. As a young man he was a Congregational (I think) pastor at a couple of places, briefly.

 

[GOLLUM]

Thank you Extollager for that detailed reply on MacDonald. Whilst I'm pretty familiar with his 'fantasy' works including (I agree) the less well known but meritorious At the Back of the North Wind, you have provided me with much to consider as regards his non-fantasy fiction, which I know very little about. I will now be looking to purchase one of these works in 2012 to add to my reading experience.

 

[Extollager]

Thank you Extollager for that detailed reply on MacDonald. Whilst I'm pretty familiar with his 'fantasy' works including (I agree) the less well known but meritorious At the Back of the North Wind, you have provided me with much to consider as regards his non-fantasy fiction, which I know very little about. I will now be looking to purchase one of these works in 2012 to add to my reading experience.

If you've read At the Back of the North Wind and are interested in his novels, another good bet might be Wilfrid Cumbermede. It is now about a quarter century since I read it -- but I remember it as having, at the least, a wonderful opening; and that it is perhaps the one of his works of fiction with the strongest imprint of his devotion to Wordsworth. If you are interested in Wordsworth, then don't miss this novel for a sense of how the poet could seem like a true prophet to the Victorians.

Here are a couple of paragraphs from the first chapter:

I have often tried how far back my memory could go. I suspect there are awfully ancient shadows mingling with our memories; but, as far as I can judge, the earliest definite memory I have is the discovery of how the wind is made; for I saw the process going on before my very eyes, and there could be, and there was, no doubt of the relation of cause and effect in the matter. There were the trees swaying themselves about after the wildest fashion, and there was the wind in consequence visiting my person somewhat too roughly. The trees were blowing in my face. They made the wind, and threw it at me. I used my natural senses, and this was what they told me. The discovery impressed me so deeply that even now I cannot look upon trees without a certain indescribable and, but for this remembrance, unaccountable awe. A grove was to me for many years a fountain of winds, and, in the stillest day, to look into a depth of gathered stems filled me with dismay; for the whole awful assembly might, writhing together in earnest and effectual contortion, at any moment begin their fearful task of churning the wind. ....

One day when my aunt took me with her into the lumber-room, I found there, in a corner, a piece of strange mechanism. It had a kind of pendulum; but I cannot describe it because I had lost sight of it long before I was capable of discovering its use, and my recollection of it is therefore very vague—far too vague to admit of even a conjecture now as to what it could have been intended for. But I remember well enough my fancy concerning it, though when or how that fancy awoke I cannot tell either. It seems to me as old as the finding of the instrument. The fancy was that if I could keep that pendulum wagging long enough, it would set all those trees going too; and if I still kept it swinging, we should have such a storm of wind as no living man had ever felt or heard of. That I more than half believed it, will be evident from the fact that, although I frequently carried the pendulum, as I shall call it, to the window sill, and set it in motion by way of experiment, I had not, up to the time of a certain incident which I shall very soon have to relate, had the courage to keep up the oscillation beyond ten or a dozen strokes; partly from fear of the trees, partly from a dim dread of exercising power whose source and extent were not within my knowledge. I kept the pendulum in the closet I have mentioned, and never spoke to any one of it.

What an evocation of a child's "magical consciousness"!

I'll hazard a great oversimplification and say that MacDonald was a (the?) true heir of Coleridge in his fantasies* -- but in writings elsewhere MacDonald was an heir of Wordsworth. You'll remember that the two Lake Poets set themselves to write works of a complementary sensibility: Wordsworth would write of nature transfigured by imagination and transfiguring imagination, while Coleridge would write of the supernatural. (I'm probably putting this crudely.) If you have read any of Wordsworth recently, and then go on to the opening (at least) of Wilfrid Cumbermede, I think you will see what I mean. As I recall there's a tour of the Alps in the novel, a very Romantic thing for a character to do. There's also a "nature transfigured/transfiguring" thing, I seem vaguely to recall, having to do with a beautiful woman.

(Not an illustration from the novel)

*I like to think that Coleridge would have hailed MacDonald for works such as "Photogen and Nycteris" had he had the chance to read them. I also see that story in particular as a rather "Pre-Raphaelite" work of the imagination.

 

[D_Davis]

Shane, Jack Schaefer
Singer of Souls, Adam Stemple
The Inhuman Condition and In the Flesh, Clive Barker
Blockade Billy, Stephen King
Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak

 

[Rangerton]

The Malloreon series by David Eddings

Death of kings by Bernard Cornwell

 

[GOLLUM]

I like to think that Coleridge would have hailed MacDonald for works such as "Photogen and Nycteris" had he had the chance to read them. I also see that story in particular as a rather "Pre-Raphaelite" work of the imagination.

Those are interesting parallels you draw between Coleridge and Wordsworth and the clear influence that one can see they had on MacDonald and for that matter those most closely associated with the Pre-Rapahaelite movement.

A little off-topic....If as you appear to be suggesting you are a fan of that latter fairy tale by MacDonald (not to imply that you are not generally a great admirer of MacDonald's work of course), you may be interested in the works of the contemporary writer Neil Gaiman. I don't know if you have read much of Neil's work but being a fairly big fan myself there are certainly some parallels that may be found in Neil's work (both short form and novels) with respect to the work of George MacDonald. Neil has a strong interest in the Victorian faerie tale. His novel Stardust, has drawn several comparisons to Macdonald's 'Photogen and Nycteris' in particular.

Here is a link to an article discussing Gaiman and Macdonald and in particular Photogen and Nycteris and Stardust.

I hope that you may find it of some interest.

Cheers.

http://www.english.ufl.edu/imagetext/archives/v4_1/collins/

 

[Extollager]

Those are interesting parallels you draw between Coleridge and Wordsworth and the clear influence that one can see they had on MacDonald and for that matter those most closely associated with the Pre-Rapahaelite movement.

I had forgotten that I'd revisited MacDonald's Wilfrid Cumbermede about eight years ago. It seems that, that time, I read the first 15 chapters and the last two. I don't remember details as to why I didn't reread the entire book.

Anyway, if you go on to read Wilfrid, Sir Gibbie, or Annals of a Quiet Neighbourhood -- or some other MacDonald novel -- be sure to let us know what you think. I should emphasize that while I have read a bunch of his novels with some enjoyment, I rate his faerie works higher (except that "The Wise Woman" / "The Lost Princess" seems to me a work that MacDonald spoiled by rather willfully going against his own better judgment expressed in his essay "The Fantastic Imagination" -- an essential document for anyone interested in modern fantasy; I would put it up there with Tolkien's On Fairy-Stories" and Lovecraft's "Supernatural Horror in Literature" as a seminal document for the theory of a genre).

I'm sticking right now with a second reading of Sir Gibbie. I doubt that MacDonald was acquainted with the Russian idea of the yurodivye (holy fool), but Gibbie is reminding me a little of that phenomenon. He's actually in a way akin to Stinking Lizaveta in The Brothers Karamazov!?!

 

[Extollager]

By the way... I understand that Mark Twain and MacDonald discussed collaborating on a novel. This project never got anywhere so far as I know. Gibbie has a little of Huck Finn, it seems to me. (If there was influence, it was from MacDonald to Twain, I think... I think the MacDonald novel was published first.)

 

[FireDragon-16]

The Malloreon series by David Eddings

I loved that series! The Belgariad was a great series too, did you read that first?

 

[GOLLUM]

By the way... I understand that Mark Twain and MacDonald discussed collaborating on a novel. This project never got anywhere so far as I know. Gibbie has a little of Huck Finn, it seems to me. (If there was influence, it was from MacDonald to Twain, I think... I think the MacDonald novel was published first.)

HMM...a colaborative work between Twain and MaDonald. Now that is something I would love to have seen the results of!

To avoid derailing the Book Hauls thread I plan on reviving some of the earlier Macdonald reading threads we have on the forum and possibly more generally on the Victorian Faerie tale. The first half of 2012 anyway. It occurs to me that themed threads on the Victorian novel (tie-in to our planned discussion on the novels of Mr. Dickens), Victorian Faerie Tale (MacDonald & co) and possibly even Victorian Short Story (Dickens, Elliott, Conrad, Kipling, Wells etc. ) could be an interesting thnig to pursue further BUT if you could leave that to me to organise, we can have further dicussions on this in the coming months, OK?

Finally, I have not read the MacDonald essay 'The Fantastic Imagination' but if as you say it ranks alongside those other key essays by Tolkien and Lovecraft I'll defintely make a point of reading it during 2012. Thank you.

Cheers.

 

[Extollager]

It occurs to me that themed threads on the Victorian novel (tie-in to our planned discussion on the novels of Mr. Dickens), Victorian Faerie Tale (MacDonald & co) and possibly even Victorian Short Story (Dickens, Elliott, Conrad, Kipling, Wells etc. ) could be an interesting thnig to pursue further BUT if you could leave that to me to organise, we can have further dicussions on this in the coming months, OK?

Very OK!

 

[Rangerton]

I loved that series! The Belgariad was a great series too, did you read that first?

Yes I have started with the Belgariad series, almost finished Enchanter's end game. I've really enjoyed it and look forward to the Malloroen series.

Being a bit late getting into fantasy, I seen (on chrons ) that David Eddings was a good place to start. Who knows where my journey will end!

 

[Extollager]

Finally, I have not read the MacDonald essay 'The Fantastic Imagination' but if as you say it ranks alongside those other key essays by Tolkien and Lovecraft I'll defintely make a point of reading it during 2012.

I don't want to create excessive expectations. MacDonald's essay can be read in a few minutes. It is not a bibliographic survey like Lovecraft's and doesn't contain numerous references and allusions to various stories in the way that Tolkien's does -- offhand the only story I remember MacDonald mentioning is Undine, which was mentioned here at Chrons within the past few weeks. But it seems to me an outstanding presentation of a "Romantic" view of literary fairy tales.* He does have children in mind as audience, if not exclusively children.

In all I'm saying about GM's essay I'm going by memory, since it's a matter of years since I last read it!

Btw, C. S. Lewis wrote some good papers about science fiction and fantasy, which deserve to be better known by readers of the same. A book called On Stories was a good source for them. He has valuable observations also in his late and very fine short book An Experiment in Criticism.

*MacDonald doesn't get into speculations about folktales that have sometimes been served to children as fairy tales.

 

[GOLLUM]

I don't want to create excessive expectations. MacDonald's essay can be read in a few minutes. It is not a bibliographic survey like Lovecraft's and doesn't contain numerous references and allusions to various stories in the way that Tolkien's does -- offhand the only story I remember MacDonald mentioning is Undine, which was mentioned here at Chrons within the past few weeks. But it seems to me an outstanding presentation of a "Romantic" view of literary fairy tales.* He does have children in mind as audience, if not exclusively children.

Understood...

I actually sourced an online version of MacDonlad's essay. I'm going to PM you on it along with what looks to be an excellent essay antholgoy I plan to purchase to further facilitate discussions on Fantastic Literature (it will also assist me when I set up my literary blog this year).

Cheers.