Hubert and Gumby are crowded round for the results:
It's number 9, which means Virginia Woolf's The Years. An excellent choice. The spin gods have a certain liking for Virginia--this is the second time they've landed on her; the first was A Room of One's Own.
Do you know this one? Do I have a treat in front of me?
Did you spin and did you get something good?
...number 2!
That's George Gissing's New Grub Street for me. I've read Charles Dickens: A Critical Study and The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft by him before and liked them both, especially Henry Ryecroft. (Wonderful and underread.) This is supposed to be his masterpiece. 'Trials and tribulations in the lives of literary hacks' says the back of the book.
Have you read it? Did you spin and did you get something good?
...which for me is Dawn Powell's A Time To Be Born. I've liked the two novels of hers I've read previously and apparently this is sometimes considered her best. Looking forward to it!
This spin's winning number was 3.
Which means for me, it's the Thebaid, Statius' Latin epic about Thebes, Odysseus, Eteocles, Polynices, Ismene, and Antigone. It's in twelve books (like the Aeneid) which is about 350 pages in my edition, translated by Jane Wilson Joyce.
I read Joyce's introduction (very good) to get started. Not much is known about Publius Papinius Statius. He was born between 40 and 50 A.D. in Naples and probably died before 96 A.D. His father was also a poet, though in Greek, and taught Greek and rhetoric. One of the father's pupils was Domitian, the future emperor. The younger Statius in addition to the Thebaid, wrote occasional poems collected as the Silvae, and had started an epic about Achilles when he died.
Statius was more read in the Middle Ages than he was in classical times (or now, I suspect,...😉). Dante was a fan, and Statius is an important character in the Purgatorio section of the Divine Comedy. Joyce's introduction was enthusiastic and I'm feeling fired up.
And so I'll be reading this by the 18th of December.
Did you spin? Did you get something fun?
Anna Seghers' The Seventh Cross
Seven escapees from a Nazi prison on the run across Germany during World War II.
The novel came out in 1942 with a German press in Mexico for exiled writers and was translated into English shortly after. There's a 1944 movie version with Spencer Tracy in the lead role. (Which I haven't yet seen.) Based on my earlier experience of Seghers' Transit, I expect it to be full of thrills, but to be thoughtful, too. I'll probably save it for August, assuming Women in Translation month is happening again. (Is it?)
Do you know it, the book or the movie?
What are you reading for the spin?
That means Konstantin Stanislavski's autobiography My Life In Art. Though not what I expected--it's gotta be a number more in the middle, doesn't it?...😉--it should be a good read.
Stanislavski (1863-1938) was an actor, director, and co-founder of the Moscow Art Theatre. He acted in and directed many (all? but I didn't look) of the premieres of Anton Chekhov's plays, such as The Seagull and Uncle Vanya. He lived through the Russian Revolution and on into the Stalin years, though his autobiography comes out in 1924 and so misses the worst part. He's also the inventor of the Method acting system.
Did you spin? What are you reading?
Last Week
Posted Chicago poet Keith Preston on 'Reading in Bed As A Fine Art'.
Blogged about Samuel Butler's The Way of All Flesh, a book from my Classics Club list.
And signed up for the latest Classics Club spin #33. The spin number is 18,
The mind's a shortchangingHuckster with a craftyWife and FiveScoundrel children.
It won't change its ways.The mind's a knot, says Kabir,Not easy to untie.
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| Chocolate Pots-de-créme, all gone now sadly... |
That means Henry James' The Wings of the Dove, probably the most challenging choice on my spin list. I have to admit I admire, but do not necessarily love, the late Henry James novels. (While early to middle Henry James is a different, happier story...) But I've had this volume on my shelf for years and clearly now's the time!
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| Hubert looks maybe just a bit daunted? |
...number 12, which, for me, is The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.
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| Charles thinks the operations of chance have been a success! |
Did you get something good?
That's Henryk Sienkiewicz' Quo Vadis for me. A good choice. I'd been half-following along the readalong earlier this year and had it in mind. Maybe I'll reread Petronius to get in the proper space. Hubert already is:
Which means R. L. Stevenson's Travels With A Donkey for me. That was probably the most fun thing that I put on my list. Woo-hoo! And it will do convenient double duty with Karen's Back To The Classics challenge.
Did you get something good?
...John Stuart Mill's Autobiography. Now I get to discover why starting Latin at age 13 was too late, too late! But I am looking forward to it.
Nowadays I probably would have just read this from Project Gutenberg, especially since this Kessinger reprint doesn't have any notes or anything, but since I have this print copy...
Time to put all those other books back on the shelf so I can find them in the future:
Did you get something good?
Just Got A Clough (or Arthur Hugh Who?)
Arthur Hugh Clough, Selected Poems, Fyfield Books.
The book arrived Fedex today;
I read the preface straight away.
I had to know just what to do
to say the name of Arthur Clough.
It didn't say--I still don't know--
how I should say Arthur Clough.
The editors at Fyfield Press
have left me in an awful mess:
enough to make me want to cough
worrying about Arthur Clough!
I know it shouldn't get to me--
so what if it's a mystery?
I'll just keep calm--no need to curse--
I will just simply read the verse:
"Thou shalt not steal; an empty feat
when 'tis so lucrative to cheat..."--
That's from The Latest Decalogue
by you know who--Arthur Clough!
Wikipedia tells me that the proper rhyme is...oh, enough!
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| I think Hubert looks just a bit excited! |
