The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett – included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List http://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html - 7 out of 10

 

The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom by Tobias Smollett – included on The 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read List http://poemeglume.blogspot.com/2023/04/1000-novels-everyone-must-read.html

7 out of 10

 

 

The Adventures of Ferdinand, Count Fathom was first published in 1753, which might mean that it is not for the tastes of readers from our times, not even middle aged ones, like yours truly (who is actually sixty in a couple of months, but like to adopt the ‘the sixties are the new forties’ slogan) who has abandoned this

 

Hence, the spoiler alert, warning, disclaimer to avoid being (again) censored for spam – though I did not get the inclusion in that category, a reading of the definition could help, but this being my note, until it is obliterated by the Goodreads staff, and then it will still be available at the new blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/ I say that spam is used for the unrequested messages we receive, meant to make us buy things

In this situation, they eliminated my ‘review’ of Cleo from 5 to 7 http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/cleo-from-5-to-7-aka-cleo-de-5-7-by.html  one that I clearly, obstinately promote since they dared confront me, while they keep at number 1 for Romania, a fellow that has Nothing But Spam

 

Socrate does not bring Anything to those curious that belongs to him, he posts hundreds of ‘reviews’ per day, because he just uses ‘copy and paste’, so if you want to know the opinion of a reader, which is what Goodreads was meant to be about, then you do not have that chance, when they allow such a fraud.

Admittedly, these lines do not bring information, succor, mirth, well, anything, but at the very least, somebody takes the trouble to put some thoughts into it (lamentable, ludicrous, off subject as they are, but hey, the warning is up there) while the laureate only copies from others and passes it as his own…

 

Which brings me to Ferdinand, who is a crook that lived centuries ago, in the imagination of his creator Tobias Smollett, and has a good number of descendants, one is up there on Goodreads, as I have repeatedly written above (that is because they have infuriated me, penalizing the smaller evil, and allowing Satan to rule the realm)

Umberto Eco, the late spectacular ecrivain, has said that ‘The person who doesn't read lives only one life…The reader lives 5000…Reading is immortality backwards’ – the problem with Ferdinand, Count Fathom, would be that his life is not all that enticing, or for me, it was acceptable, mirthful for the first chapters

 

Looking at the more than ten hours left in the company of this crook, it felt that the jocular tone would not be compensated by something that is too familiar, Umberto Eco is right in speaking of those five thousand lives, but is they are different from what you see daily, which is what we have now

The Era of the Confidence Man http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/confidence-man-making-of-donald-trump.html Trump reigns supreme, he is the Quintessential Scoundrel, and he has a multitude of replicas, smaller mostly, not every ruffian can come close to ruling, coming on top of the Western World

 

You have Xi, Putin, Maduro, MBS, Kim of North Korea, the king of Thailand, the list of idiots, tyrants, mad or all at the same time is long, and let me refer to a passage from a longer quote, which is listed at the bottom of this ‘Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound’ written by Malcolm Bradbury http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/09/to-hermitage-by-malcolm-bradbury-author.html in his masterpiece...

To The Hermitage – this is a glorious revelation, an epiphany really – read and then you have access to five thousand lives (Eco) and subscription to the world which is more illuminated, with Clever people (Bradbury) – furthermore, you have a sort of test to apply to the books you want to read, even the acclaimed ones

 

Is the world of this book mirthful, inspiring, awesome, better than what you see outside, what about the characters, especially the main one, does he pass the test, and in this particular instance, Ferdinand has cunning, he can be amusing, but there is little sympathy there – it may come from the genes, Smollett himself comments that "Fathom justifies the proverb, 'What's bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh"

Reading Constantin Noica https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2023/11/epistolary-edited-by-gabriel-liiceanu.html I found that proverbs are not what they are acclaimed to be, infinite wisdom of the masses, hoi polloi, take ‘all is fair in love and war, or appearances deceive’, what you see is most often the truth

 

Ferdinand’s mother was robbing dead people, she dies in the act of trying to steal from a moribund, and the son is following in the footsteps, the debate nature versus nature is solved by admitting that we have a combination of the two, for Count Fathom however, his nature is that of a villain, seducing, stealing…

He is also in danger of losing, even his life, in one instance, he is nearly knifed to death by brigands, indeed, they think they have murdered him, because he has the cunning to put a corpse in the bed, in his place…in conclusion, this is not the best comedy I have read, I strongly recommend Kingsley Amis http://realini.blogspot.com/2023/03/lucky-jim-by-kingsley-amis-author-of.html instead of Tobias Smollett

 

 

Now for a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world  – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

Some favorite quotes from To The Heritage and other works

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

‚parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”