Postări

Wailing Well by M.R. James, or you could choose Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/08/ghosts-by-henrik-ibsen.html - 8 out of 10

  Wailing Well by M.R. James, or you could choose Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/08/ghosts-by-henrik-ibsen.html   8 out of 10   Ghosts are not my thing, though I do not think I have ever seen one, so they have not done anything to me, if they exist -sounds like that Pascal wager, somehow in reverse – if they do not exist, there is no problem…   If they do, but decided to avoid me, then there is the same happy circumstance -Pascal said something like ‘you should believe in God, if He is not extant, you lose nothing, and if He is waiting up there, you are safe’ For the ghosts, there is little to find similar, and as for Pascal’s wager, surely the Almighty, omniscient Man with the white beard upstairs would be aware of the trick and refuse accession on the basis on that scheme   Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis called Him ‘the great sculptor and colorist’ https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/12/memoirs-by-kingsley-amis-author-of-take.html at one point,
Trimiteți un comentariu
Citiți mai multe

The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West – author of The Return of The Soldier https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-return-of-soldier-based-on-novel-by.html Both books among The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read 9 out of 10

  The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West – author of The Return of The Soldier https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-return-of-soldier-based-on-novel-by.html Both books among The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read   9 out of 10   This wonderful opus has reminded me of the glorious I Capture The Castle https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/02/i-capture-castle-by-dodie-smith-one-of.html by Dodie Smith, wherein we have another family that has to suffer through poverty, one of the daughters is supposed to marry a rich man   Ands there is more than this superficial aspect, looking above, that is the situation with so many – it might be what has happened to me, the spouse, who is really dissatisfied with my habits, lack of diligence, well, everything, might have taken the step just to escape a less favorable status – we have marvelous personages in both Rose Aubrey is the narrator in The Fountain Overflows, and a stupendous figure – she fits perfectly the profile describe
Trimiteți un comentariu
Citiți mai multe

More Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin – author of Tales of the City https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/tales-of-city-by-amistead-maupin-85-out.html and more books in the same series - 7 out of 10

  More Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin – author of Tales of the City https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/05/tales-of-city-by-amistead-maupin-85-out.html and more books in the same series   7 out of 10   Tales of The City is included on the list of 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read, in the Comedy Section, albeit I do not really see why – it is a feeble attempt at a joke and a warning for any potential reader, this is a biased not, I am not crazy about Maupin, on the contrary, and it might just be a case of the fox and the   sour grapes https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/aesops-fables-by-aesop-author-of.html that Aesop wrote about   I do not get it, so I am just taking shots at it, say the book is iffy – just like that fox, who could not reach the grapes and therefore concluded that they are sour, or pretended, I am not sure – furthermore, this may be a failed litmus test – though why on earth am I putting myself in the firing line, this is not clear, and surely i
Trimiteți un comentariu
Citiți mai multe

The Verger by Somerset Maugham - another look at this great story is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-verger-by-somerset-maugham.html - 10 out of 10

  The Verger by Somerset Maugham - another look at this great story is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-verger-by-somerset-maugham.html   10 out of 10   There are only six pages in this tale, and I wonder if this would be classified as a ‘flash story’, or that is just a few lines long – notwithstanding the classification, this is more than worth reading and so easy to get to the end   Albert Edward Foreman is the hero of the narrative, he is The Verger, he had occupied that position for sixteen years, devoted to it, he keeps all the paraphernalia, the gowns used in the official capacity, even after they have been decommissioned In the first few lines, the man is asked to see the vicar that had been recently appointed – the main character does not like this fellow, who is clearly not a man of God – not in my reading, with his intolerance   The vicar had found that the verger does not know how to read and write, finds this outrageous, in his arrogance, despit
Trimiteți un comentariu
Citiți mai multe

Aunt Hetty on Matrimony by Fanny Fern aka Sara Payson Willis - 9 out of 10

  Aunt Hetty on Matrimony by Fanny Fern aka Sara Payson Willis   9 out of 10   This is a very short, we could maybe call it flash story, which gives readers a humorous perspective on marriage, as it was in the nineteenth century, women do not have nine children any more, the opposite is true   Many countries are facing a demographic problem, because as progress is made, families are smaller, there are many more old people, and not enough young ones to pay for social security, the pension system… ‘Now, girls,’ said Aunt Hetty, ‘put down your embroidery and worsted work; do something sensible, and stop building air-castles, and talking of lovers and honey-moons…’ so we do not have women doing embroidery…   Nevertheless, some of the points made by Fanny Fern are valid ‘husbands are domestic Napoleons, Neroes, Alexanders, —sighing for other hearts to conquer, after they are sure of yours’ that appears to be eternal Not all would do that – I am thinking of a movie aired
Trimiteți un comentariu
Citiți mai multe

Mrs. Badgery by Wilkie Collins - 9 out of 10

  Mrs. Badgery by Wilkie Collins   9 out of 10   This short story is so good that I am even more encouraged to start reading The Woman in White and Moonstone, both novels by Wilkie Collins, which are included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list   The narrator is the owner of this house, in the tale, in which he finds a stranger, Mrs. Badgery, we get to know her name quickly, after all, this story only takes about twenty-two minutes to read, it could be on LibriVox The woman is a widow and we – the readers – will be assassinated by the insistence with which she speaks of the deceased husband, his preference for a painting, a chair and so many other things, irrelevant mostly   Indeed, her haunting the building is amusing, when it is not creepy, she takes advantage of the movers – spoiler alert, I will write here everything I remember from reading the pages, that is hearing to the audio version ‘Is there any law in England which will protect me from Mrs. Badger
Trimiteți un comentariu
Citiți mai multe

Flotsam and Jetsam by Somerset Maugham – you can read this mesmerizing, if tragic short story and other wonderful tales at https://gutenbergcanada.ca/ebooks/maughamws-completeshortstories01/maughamws-completeshortstories01-00-h.html#flotsamandjetsam - 10 out of 10

  Flotsam and Jetsam by Somerset Maugham – you can read this mesmerizing, if tragic short story and other wonderful tales at https://gutenbergcanada.ca/ebooks/maughamws-completeshortstories01/maughamws-completeshortstories01-00-h.html#flotsamandjetsam   10 out of 10   Flotsam and Jetsam meaning is ‘what is discarded from ships’, or else debris, refuse, useless, damaged goods – we can only hope that in the age of awareness of Climate Change, pain inflicted on sea creatures that get entangled in what humas throw away, this kind of thing does not happen so much anymore, even if we see islands of garbage   Flotsam and Jetsam in this narrative could be Norman Grange, his wife, or maybe both, Skelton seems to be dying at the start, but his malaria gives way, and he could not be the equivalent of human zombies, the undead, vampires or what have you, he recuperates and has a life to look forward to, once he returns to ‘civilization’ Spoiler alert – this is going to offer unwanted
Trimiteți un comentariu
Citiți mai multe