Victober 2022

[Madeleine]

I finished "The Doll Factory" last night, so onto the next Frey and McGray book tonight!  Looking forward to this one.

[KEV67]

I Am by John Clare, one of my favourite poems. There are a lot of variations of this poem. I think John Clare must have tweaked it quite a bit and there is no settled version. Most the readings on YouTube are different to the version in my book. I don't suppose that is any bad thing, but it is unusual. Having said that, I do not read much poetry, so maybe it is quite common for poets to tweak their best poems. There are quite a few readings on YouTube. I do not entirely like any of them but this is the one I liked the best so far.

 

[lunababymoonchild]

57 minutes ago, KEV67 said:

I Am by John Clare, one of my favourite poems. There are a lot of variations of this poem. I think John Clare must have tweaked it quite a bit and there is no settled version. Most the readings on YouTube are different to the version in my book. I don't suppose that is any bad thing, but it is unusual. Having said that, I do not read much poetry, so maybe it is quite common for poets to tweak their best poems. There are quite a few readings on YouTube. I do not entirely like any of them but this is the one I liked the best so far.

 

Thanks for that, it's beautiful.

[Hayley]

8 hours ago, Madeleine said:

I finished "The Doll Factory" last night, so onto the next Frey and McGray book tonight!  Looking forward to this one.

What did you think of The Doll Factory!? I’m very tempted by it. 

[lunababymoonchild]

Yes, do tell, Madeleine. I'm interested too

Edited October 17, 2022 by lunababymoonchild

[Madeleine]

I'll be doing a review shortly of "The Doll Factory", I have mixed feelings about it - basically I thought it was well-written, with some characters I cared about, and others who were so vile that I can't honestly say I enjoyed it overall, and I thought there were too many loose ends, meaning that it ended rather abruptly.  There were a few lighter moments, and the era - 1850s - is well evoked, and is very vivid (sometimes a bit too vivid, it's not for the squeamish at times).

 

My review is now in the book blog section, goes into a bit more detail though I don't think there are any spoilers, nothing that isn't given away in the blurb on the back of the book anyway.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Madeleine

[lunababymoonchild]

On 10/17/2022 at 11:54 AM, Madeleine said:

I'll be doing a review shortly of "The Doll Factory", I have mixed feelings about it - basically I thought it was well-written, with some characters I cared about, and others who were so vile that I can't honestly say I enjoyed it overall, and I thought there were too many loose ends, meaning that it ended rather abruptly.  There were a few lighter moments, and the era - 1850s - is well evoked, and is very vivid (sometimes a bit too vivid, it's not for the squeamish at times).

 

My review is now in the book blog section, goes into a bit more detail though I don't think there are any spoilers, nothing that isn't given away in the blurb on the back of the book anyway.

Thanks for that @Madeleine. I'm still in two minds.  Only one way to sort that out!

 

I'm still reading Hiawatha........

[lunababymoonchild]

I'm on page 106 out of 267 of Hiawatha by Longfellow. It's absolutely epic but also absolutely marvellous!

[KEV67]

I have given up on In a Glass Darkly. I have taken it to the Oxfam shop. I am still enjoying The Way of all Flesh. It is wickedly sardonic. I have run out of Victorian poets I really want to read. I have gone off Kipling a bit. In part because of the cod Cockney accents and the militarism. 

[Madeleine]

The John Clare reading is lovely, do you know who the reader is?  Interesting that it said it was written whilst he was in the Northamptonshire Asylum, he also spent time in the asylum at High Beach near Epping in Essex.  

[KEV67]

59 minutes ago, Madeleine said:

The John Clare reading is lovely, do you know who the reader is?  Interesting that it said it was written whilst he was in the Northamptonshire Asylum, he also spent time in the asylum at High Beach near Epping in Essex.  

Tom O'Bedlam. He has read about 1000 poems on PoetrySpoken, so I am told.

[Madeleine]

thanks, he has a great voice.

[Hayley]

I finished The Old Curiosity Shop 
 

[lunababymoonchild]

12 hours ago, Hayley said:

I finished The Old Curiosity Shop 
 

Well done. Have you survived?

[KEV67]

I have not read The Old Curiosity Shop. I take it that it's sad.

[KEV67]

I was wondering which other Victorian poets I had heard of. I had heard of The Browning Version. It was a film. Browning referred to Robert Browning, and the Browning Version was a translation from Greek or Latin of some play the boy in the film either wanted to learn or did not want to learn. Ah, ok, what's his best known poem. Turns out it is The Book and the Ring, only it is 21000 lines long, and is divided into twelve books. I had never heard of it before. I am not going to post a YouTube reenactment of that.

[lunababymoonchild]

8 hours ago, KEV67 said:

I was wondering which other Victorian poets I had heard of. I had heard of The Browning Version. It was a film. Browning referred to Robert Browning, and the Browning Version was a translation from Greek or Latin of some play the boy in the film either wanted to learn or did not want to learn. Ah, ok, what's his best known poem. Turns out it is The Book and the Ring, only it is 21000 lines long, and is divided into twelve books. I had never heard of it before. I am not going to post a YouTube reenactment of that.

Well. There is William Wordsworth, John Clare (you know about him), Elizabeth Barrett Browning (wife of Robert), Alfred, Lord Tennyson (you know about), Robert Browning wrote My Last Duchess and others which were not 21000 lines long, Edward Lear, Charlotte Bronte, Emily Bronte, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, Christina G Rosetti (Dante's sister), Lewis Carroll, Thomas Hardy etc. There's a selection for you to choose from. 

 

I read My Last Duchess at school and Elizabeth Barrett Browning is best known for her Sonnets From the Portugese, which is always well worth reading.

 

I'm still reading Hiawatha and am on page 150 of 267, it's worth reading as well, but not all at once, obviously!

[KEV67]

I have nearly got to the end of The Way of All Flesh. The first section is about the protagonist's grandfather and father, both of them stern hypocrites. Then it is about the protagonist's upbringing to be a clergyman and how that all goes wrong. That was the best bit of the book. Now things are all coming good, but only because he was left a lot of money. It has a strange writing style. It is narrated by the protagonist's Godfather, but he knows everything that goes through everyone's minds. There is less dialogue than normal. It is mostly he did this, he thought that. The book is based on the author's experiences, so I will be interested to read the introduction. There was a section that reminded me of George Gissing's early adulthood. Gissing was late Victorian author of miserabilist social novels.

[lunababymoonchild]

I'm making progress on Hiawatha. Just reading a section at a time, I'm on page 172 of 267. It's brilliant!

[KEV67]

I have watched and listened to numerous reading of Invictus  by W.E. Henley. I have not liked most of them, but this one is alright. Read by The Wandering Paddy AKA Jamie. He is a pretty good reader.

 

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by KEV67
Added more info

[KEV67]

Another reading by the Wandering Paddy, whoever he is. The Wind that Shakes the Barley, written by Robert Dwyer Joyce, 1836-83. I think it's about Irish Nationalism.

 

 

[KEV67]

I finished The Way of all Flesh. I did not like Edward Pontifex, who was the hero in the book by the end of the book. He became insufferably self-regarding.

[Madeleine]

I read The Lady of Shalott last night - some of the descriptions are lovely.

 

I've almost finished my book, I may read another Victorian mystery afterwards, "Murder at the Natural History Museum" by Jim Eldridge, which also features Bram Stoker.

[lunababymoonchild]

@KEV67 these clips are astonishing! Thank you for posting.

 

I'm still reading Hiawatha, it is great though.

[Hayley]

9 hours ago, Madeleine said:

I read The Lady of Shalott last night - some of the descriptions are lovely.

I agree! I like 'long fields of barley and of rye/ that clothe the wold and meet the sky'. It also has a satisfying rhythm!

 

9 hours ago, Madeleine said:

I've almost finished my book, I may read another Victorian mystery afterwards, "Murder at the Natural History Museum" by Jim Eldridge, which also features Bram Stoker.

Ooooh haven't seen this one! Definitely going to look it up. 

 

Edit: Oh no, I looked it up and now I want to buy the whole series...

 

 

I'm enjoying In a Glass Darkly so far. It reminds me a bit of Arthur Conan Doyle's Tales of Unease. I can't imagine I'll be able to finish the whole thing in a day though, so my reading will have to go on past Victober!