Ataraxia

  Anglo Saxon Attitudes by Angus Wilson is one of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, but it is ranked only 1921 st on The Greatest Books of All Time site – after I had read this the first time, I have included in in my Top 200, but after the second encounter, I am not sure about the personal Top 1,000…nonetheless, you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the aforementioned and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel, where my macaws take center stage   8 out of 10   I have been ecstatic https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/anglo-saxon-attitudes-by-angus-wilson.html when I have read Anglo Saxon Attitudes, so much so that I have read it again, only to be mildly disassociated, not that it is a bad book, but it was a question of having too high expectations, and having changed   One clear objection would be size, at about 350 pages, it is not long, notwithstandi...

   Lost in Translation written and directed by Sofia Coppola was The 2004 Winner of The Oscar for Best Coppola becomes the first woman to be nominated for writing, directing and producing in the same year…you find thousands of notes on films from The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channelWriting, Original Screenplay, it was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role -Sofia   10 out of 10   Sofia Coppola https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/01/elvis-and-me-true-story-of-love-between.html is one of the best directors, writers and producers, and Lost in Translation is one of my favorite motion pictures, indeed, I was thinking that it is probably among the Top 200, although that could change with time   I have seen this delightful oeuvre again last night, and found the combination of sadness, tedium vitae ...

  Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is 59 th on The Greatest Books of All Time site, part of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list – you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the aforementioned and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel   8 out of 10 because this regards a theater adaptation   I have enjoyed Rebecca https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/10/rebecca-by-daphne-du-maurier-what.html both in the original, and as a film adaptation with Laurence Olivier in the leading role, furthermore, I think I have even seen (maybe just part of, I could not remember) a more recent motion picture, based on it   This note refers to an adaption for the National Radio, and a clumsy attempt it was, it was an unsuccessful perspective for a few reasons: technical problems, missing scenes, not just what had to be edited, but simple errors, finally, the thespians were not doing s...

  An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde One of his best plays, hence 9 out of 10   If you want to know about An Ideal Husband, I’d say that this play is not so enlightening, not in the sense of how he should me. At least I did not get that much on what I should or ought not to do. The Seven Principles of Making Marriage Work, a classic psychology book by the amazing John Gottman would be of much more help. But then, I guess the main message of Oscar Wilde’s play is exactly that there is no ideal husband and we all make (sometimes huge) mistakes. Sir Robert Chiltern is supposed to be the prototype of An Ideal Husband, with his high standing and important position in society. He is a Member of Parliament with a lot of influence, much admired speeches and an excellent family life. Until a woman comes along. I have read about the play and learned that even if it is one of Wilde’s most popular and appreciated, it had its share of criticism. For being sexist, for instance since women do n...

  The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles is one of The Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels, it is also part of The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read compilation, and it is ranked 619 th on The Greatest Books of All Time site – you find thousands of reviews of magnum opera from the aforementioned and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html and YouTube channel, where I have to recommend my macaws   9 out of 10   I have already been impressed by The Sheltering Sky https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/08/sheltering-sky.html and now I have just finished it for the second time, this time it was read by wonderful Oscar Winner Jennifer Connelly, she won it for her role in A Beautiful Mind   It is an interesting experience, taking a chef d’oeuvre up for a second time (why not, for many more times) because I could not remember – for some masterpieces, I have scenes that are still vivid, say the door closing when...

  MRS SALAD came each year to get her present from Gerald before luncheon on Christmas Eve. It was always the same present - a five-pound note and a large pink cyclamen in a gilded basket tied with pink ribbon. This year, Gerald had attempted a variation by presenting her with a scarlet poinsettia, but he knew at once that he was wrong. 'Oh, it's a lovely foreign thing. Bright as blood,' Mrs Salad said in her old, croaking tremolo, and she peered at it through the haze of mascara'd moisture that always clung to her eyelashes and stuck in little beads on her black net eye-veil. 'I dare say it'll draw the flies. But lovely for them that likes bright colours. Just like the stuff the girls put on their finger-nails now. Like a lot of old birds giving the glad in the Circus, or the York Road, Waterloo, more likely. Trollopy lot.' And Mrs Salad's black-dyed curls and fur toque with eye-veil shook in disgust, though whether against the painted nails of the ...