I have been going a lot to movies lately
and I even have a backlog in writing about the ones that I have seen and that made
an impression on me. I would like to sort out my thinking by writing about the
films. Writing brings clarity to my, at times, convoluted thoughts.
In addition to liking movies I love
reading. I started the year with one of the books on lists of the greatest
books ever. My pick was The Personal History of David
Copperfield. It was rather a strange choice as I had never been attracted to
Dickens even if I know most of the stories but mainly from films. In Poland
Dickens was not mandatory as school reading, so I missed it in my young years. Maybe
I read Great Expectations early on, I do not quite remember. Obviously it did
not make a memorable impression. So, I thought that it is time to catch up with
English classics. There was a need to get a copy of the book and luckily I
found a second hand shop run by a lovely lady and a little King Charles
spaniel, Hugo. The shop is called Love Vintage Books and specializes in
children literature. I just found that the shop has its Face Book presence https://www.facebook.com/LoveVintageBooks/.
It looks that there are many interesting things going on in the shop. I will
follow the shop in the future.
The book I bought was published by
Oxford University Press and is lovely. The whole book s in one small volume,
printed on over 800 very thin pages in a small print, almost too small to read comfortably.
I love it! It has been my companion this month and I will be sad to part with
it. This will happen today as I have only twenty or so pages to finish. After being
lately exposed to so much violence and cruelty in films, the book has been a positive
element bringing gentleness and high moral values to my days.
When I told my Polish friend, who
happens to teach literature in a school near Warsaw, that I am reading David
Copperfield he laughed and said – Oh, probity will mark now your life big way. And
this is true, I love the feeling that all good people will at the end get their
rewards and all bad ones will be punished for their wicked deeds. I realized that
even if I did not read David Copperfield in my childhood, I read books with
similar messages and I grew up believing in the world being good and honest. That
made me perhaps a bit idealistic, or a lot?
I am very impressed by the book,
it kept my attention on the story and I read all descriptions of landscapes,
weather and divagations of Mr.Micawber with interest and without skipping a
line.
In spite of the story happening in
the XIXth century it is current in
psychological sense and life lessons still apply. It is a wise book. One pronouncement
of an older wise person saying “There can not be disparity in marriage, like
unsuitability of mind and purpose” made me stop and think for a while and it put
new light on some events I observed and experienced. Poor Dora had to die for
David’s “first mistaken impulse of and undisciplined heart” for the story to
maintain integrity of David and happy end of the book. There was a great disparity
of mind and purpose between the two lovers. Their hearts were still
undisciplined.
So what do I like best about the
book? Of course, the integrity of the message, clarity of what is good and what
is bad in human actions and motives, the story itself, the beautiful language,
psychology of describing characters, their actions and motivation. Everything
really.
I intend to continue with
recommendations of the lists of the best books ever but may take a break for
something more contemporary like Knausgaard or Donna Tartt. Then it will be
Stendhal - The Red and the Black. But
first I will re-read Missing Out by Adam Phillips, the book recommended by
Ramana whose comments motivate me to write my posts. This is not a book to read
on a bus or in short bursts. I need to give it my full attention and quiet
uninterrupted time.
My comment? Good Lord! But on reflection, may be it will be a good idea to revisit the old classic again after some fifty and odd years!
ReplyDeleteI was surprised myself that I read it with such interest, but it looks that I will re-read some classics in the future. Maybe I will take it easy on Dostoevsky, too depressing for me. I think that I have a different perspective now than in the past so books make new, fresh impression on me.
DeleteGood old books.
ReplyDeleteI have to confess, that I have a great respect for Charles Dickens, but of his famous books I read thoroughly only Pickwick papers - few times.
I think, that literature is a ruthless conqueror. It moves on bringing new great books while our capacity to read is quite limited.
Result is, that all books, which are so dear and important to me, mean very little or nothing to younger people.
I think classical music is in much better situation although the reason is a bit awkward - human capacity of enjoying music has some limits and it seems, that some 50 years ago these limits have been exhausted.
But returning to literature. I am seriously worried with children literature. Children books usually show some young heroes fighting bad powers and circumstances, finally winning and being rewarded. This did not change.
What worries me is, that in old times the action was set up in reality and on one hand allowed to smuggle into the young mind lots of information about geography, history, etc. It very nicely complimented the school program.
On the other hand heroes of such books had to use their mind and various human abilities to cope with problems.
In modern books for children, readers receive detailed knowledge about dragons, elves, gnomes etc and learn, that the only way to solve problems is magic.
Great start to life in the world, which claims to be based on reason and science.
You must have been very impressed by The Pickwick Papers reading it few times. I would also like to read it, as I only listened to the Polish version of the talking book, but as you say my capacity to read is limited. Maybe if I live very long...
DeleteI agree that the life does not always change for the better and that the old ways have sometimes special attraction. Reading or decrease of it is inevitable and this is very sad.
In recent years I read some fantasy books and it was fun, but after a while I lost interest and realised that I was just killing time without any learning or reflection. Your thought on solving problems through magic is a scary one. If one is brought up on such literature, how one can solve life problems? In life magic happens seldom but sh.. often.
P.S. Do you know that a new Polish translation of In Search of Lost Time will be soon available? I still have one volume unread , looks that if I get the new translation I will start from the beginning.
DeleteImpressed by Pickwick Papers? Yes. Reading few times? I reckon , if book is not to be read many times then it is not worth reading for the first time. Of course this is very difficult to achieve without reading the book.
DeleteNew Polish translation of In Search of Lost Time. Amazing. Firstly I wonder why someone would like to do it? Does he/she consider existing translation to be so poor? Or, maybe she/he has a special connection to the book and cannot rest until it is resolved. Another issue is simply commercial - why a publisher would like to go into it? This is particularly interesting in the case of such a voluminous book. Is there such big demand for it?
I remember one or two cases of reading a book in two translations. I did not like the second one. This is easy to explain, first reading created certain bond between me and a book so I wanted to read it again to repeat previous experience. New translation did not bring familiar emotions.
After your comment I started to wonder if I got it right re In Search of Time Lost. I have checked and it only parts 6 and 7 have been translated again and it was already in 2001. The previous parts were translated by Boy-Zelenski, so this is perhaps as good as it gets. Sorry for the confusion.
Delete