Ataraxia

  The Treasure by Somerset Maugham – one of my favorite writers, author of Human Bondage https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/of-human-bondage-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera   10 out of 10   ‘Richard Harenger was a happy man’ – this is the introduction to this short story, in which we get the recipe for happiness, as proposed by Seneca https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/despre-viata-fericita-aka-on-happy-life.html and other Stoics, and tested by Maugham, since ‘wish for what you already have’   appears to be the winning formula   ‘The golden mean which the ancients proposed is out of fashion’ – this is what we get in the second phrase, and it might well be true for the period of the narrative, and indeed, for the age of the author, but although excess is common, what Aristotle said is paramount https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html If you ask me, his analysis (Aristotle’s) is spot on, for...

  Lost Hearts by MR James   8 out of 10     Lost Hearts is part of a collection of short stories, some of which are enticing, wonderful, but this one is not overwhelming   Not for me anyway, and this has to do with the fact that I do not like ghost stories, or maybe I have had too much of that From here on, this is not about Lost Hearts, my opinion is clear and expressed in the first line, I do not like it   But, since there is all this space here, why not rant on things of the past, Remembrance of Things Past https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/un-amour-de-swan-by-marcel-proust.html being my absolute favorite chef d’oeuvre I chose geology, then geophysics as subject study, and graduated in 1990, after the Revolution that has taken down Ceausescu   With pride I must say that I took part in the overthrow off that heinous dictator, and the link is at the end of this note However, while studying in University, I took on guidi...

The Alien Corn by Somerset Maugham – one of my two favorite writers, author of A Casual Affair https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-casual-affair-by-somerset-maugham-one.html and other marvelous works   10 out of 10   The Alien Corn is not just a wonderful short story, it is also poignant, and can help us understand some of what is happening today, what with all the Gaza war, the horrendous attacks of October 7 2023, and the response from the Israeli army, a war that is still going on right now, with reverberations around the world…   Trying to summarize, we have a Jewish man, George Bland, at the center of the narrative, a determined, impressive young artist, who wants to become a first-rate pianist, and for that he is willing to sacrifice everything, he was born very wealthy, and destined to manage the business of his father, or be a parliamentarian He refuses that privilege – maybe a spoiler alert would be needed here, I hesitate because it o...

  Home by Somerset Maugham – one of my favorite writers, author of A Casual Affair https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/a-casual-affair-by-somerset-maugham-one.html and other mesmerizing works   10 out of 10     Home is just twelve minutes long, in audio book format, but like all the other Far Eastern Tales, the Ten collection and the magnum opera of Somerset Maugham in general https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/jane-by-somerset-maugham-author-of.html it is a wonderful story   George Meadows is one of the characters, who has this Home, from the title, a farm, where he is not the ‘boss’ nevertheless, it is his mother, Mrs. Meadows who calls the shots, George’s wife is called ‘Mrs. George’, presumably she cannot get the aristocratic title yet, as long as her mother-in-law is alive, maybe forever… They are not nobles, but they are ‘outstanding’, with a patriarchal life, happy, the mother is ‘twice the man her son was’, he is fifty, a...

  The Recruit by Honore de Balzac – the glorious author of Pere Goriot https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/10/one-of-uncontroversial-masterpieces.html one of the Top 100 Books of All Time   9 out of 10   I have two macaws, which you can see on my Facebook page, the blog – the link is up there, though that one is for a written note, and the boys are visible in the videos that can be found on the same spot, if anybody is interested – and one of them is called…Balzac, while the other was named Puccini, with the hope that they will talk and sing   However, I call and shout at Balzac every day, and that is because of the admiration for the fabulous author – his La Comedie Humaine https://realini.blogspot.com/2019/04/eugenie-grandet-by-honore-de-balzac-97.html is a massive chef d’oeuvre, with thousands of pages to delight, enchant the readers, for months Alas, it is not always with respect that I say Balzac, but this is because my bird is mischievous, to say ...

  The Dream of Reason – A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance by Anthony Gottlieb – the author has been a senior editor of The Economist, and that recommends him as a brilliant luminary, and once you read this marvel, you have the confirmation   10 out of 10   This is a fabulous book, fundamental, and potentially life changing, for someone who decides to take this as an introduction to philosophy, and for anybody else in fact, because the outstanding author has achieved a magic combination of humor, anecdote, synthesis of the thinking of various great minds, in an exciting volume   We have the chance to learn form the ancient classics, from Aristotle https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html to Socrates, Plato and others, the essence is there to be found and used – philosophy helps us find the meaning of life, how to live There are important lessons to get from the stoics, epicureans, we have to ...

  The Cook’s Wedding by Anton Chekhov – author of The Shooting Party https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-shooting-party-by-anton-chekhov-we.html and other magnum opera   9 out of 10   You can read this flash story at https://involarium.org/story/the-cooks-wedding/ Anton Chekhov masterpieces are in the public domain, since they have passed the seventy years limit that is generally imposed – albeit who knows what the law is in Russia, and how they enforce it there, wait, we do know about that   Anton Chekhov is one of those magnificent Russians that make us pause and say we must not be nationalistic, and stay away from lumping together whole populations, if Putin is committing massacres, it does not mean that everybody in that land is behind this butcher – however, we must say that a majority appears to like him They feel that Crimea, annexed some years ago, when the West thought the tyrant will stop, if only they let him get away with that invasio...

  Aesop’s Fables by Aesop - author of The Tortoise and The Hare https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-tortoise-and-hare-is-near-perfect.html and other famous fables   9 out of 10   There may be two ways at looking at these fables – maybe it is the same for everything else, unless we have a multitude of angles, in which case there is a myriad of ways to look at the same thing – to be a merit finder, or a fault finder, guess what Positive Psychology suggests, we need to be sartisfizers, not maximizers   The latter instruction comes out of the pages of a classic of Psychology, The Paradox of Choice https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-paradox-of-choice-by-barry-schartz.html by Barry Schwartz, who explains how we are overwhelmed by too many offers, they have studied this in shops and elsewhere… There are two kinds of people, those who are satisfied with very good options, and they are called Satisfizers, and the others, who always want perfection, ...

  A Casual Affair by Somerset Maugham - one of my favorite writers, author of Jane https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/jane-by-somerset-maugham-author-of.html and other great works   10 out of 10   I take exquisite pleasure in reading Somerset Maugham again, after so many years – he has soothed me while I was in hospital, for an ulcer, during the days of the Ceausescu regime, which I have helped to bring down, in December 1989 – at the end of this, and any other note of mine, there is a link to that heroic adventure   The narrator of A Casual Affair is traveling to Borneo – incidentally, I have just finished and noted on Far Eastern Tales https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-force-of-circumstance-by-somerset.html - where he has an agreeable host, Arthur Low, but they have met before at a party given by Lady Kastellan, perhaps the most important presence here Or maybe it would be Jack Almond, in any case the two have The Casual Affair,...

  The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith – retold – another look at this marvel is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-talented-mr-ripley-by-patricia.html   9 out of 10   This is such a phenomenal story that it has just been adapted again, after the classic directed by the wonderful Anthony Minghella https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-talented-mr-ripley-screenplay-by.html with Mat Damon in the leading role, and a spectacular cast, including Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and others   In the new, Netflix version, Tom Ripley is played by Andrew Scott, and the perspective is much more somber, the eight episodes are filmed in Black and White, and what was glamorous in the Minghella classic, here we see transforming into a horror rendition, and there are different views on the success of the mini series For The Guardian, the newest adaptation is a success (and I agree, however skeptical I was of Andrew Scott, the thespian I have seen in a g...