Grand unified books thread

[Jacob]

I read that the show trial part at the beginning of the English translation is buried in the middle of the Chinese version as a flashback

Interesting. I wouldn't normally expect a translation to restructure the book.

[Admiral Yi]

A couple fun factoids from Beevor's D-Day.  More French people were killed by the Allies than Brits were killed by German bombing.  The infamous Colonel Massu was a junior officer in the famous 2eme division blindee.

[crazy canuck]

Well ya, not many German bombers over Normandy on D-Day. 

[Savonarola]

I finished reading The Viking Book of Poetry of the English Speaking World, first edition from 1941, revised in 1958.  It's comprehensive, so it's interesting to see what was thought of as "Canonical" in those days.  Elizabeth Barrett Browning only had a couple works in; I expected that since she was re-evaluated with the waves of feminist scholarship beginning in the 1970s.  My 1990s edition of the Norton Anthology of British Literature has her complete verse novel "Aurora Leigh" in it (which I don't think is very good.  In my opinion it's just not an idea that worked; and since no other major poet tried to write a verse novel I don't think that's a fringe opinion.)  Anne Bradstreet was also missing; I had assumed that she was always "One for Team America," but now I think maybe she was also rediscovered with the women's movement.

The poets are listed by the year they were born.  That surprised me in some places; I didn't ever think of Stephen Crane and William Butler Yeats as contemporaries or John Keats and Ralph Waldo Emerson.  Of course Keats and Crane died young and Yeats and Emerson were best appreciated in their old age.

I learned that some of the earliest middle English poems are Christmas carols; which is why "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" or "Tidings of Comfort and Joy" have archaic language in them.

Most of the poets at the end of the book were born at the final years of the 19th century; and while going through that period I kept thinking of the Blackadder line about the man who was "Sick of the war, the blood, the noise, the endless poetry."  Though I did discover this one by GK Chesterton that I liked:

Elegy in a Country Churchyard

The men that worked for England
They have their graves at home:
And birds and bees of England
About the cross can roam.
 
But they that fought for England,
Following a falling star,
Alas, alas for England
They have their graves afar.
 
And they that rule in England,
In stately conclave met,
Alas, alas for England
They have no graves as yet.

[Jacob]

It seems disaffection with the governing classes existed even back in 1900s...

[Sheilbh]

Little John Carey summary which gives some context:

GK Chesterton was not very fond of politicians. "It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged," he once remarked. The obstinacy and intransigence of politicians had, he believed, brought about the First World War, in which his younger brother, Cecil, had died. Cecil had joined the Highland Light Infantry as a private soldier, and was wounded three times, returning to action each time. He was buried in the Terlincthun British Cemetery, Wimille.

Chesterton's elegy takes its title from Thomas Gray's more famous elegy, which condemns great historical conquerors who:

...wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.

Chesterton's poem is more limited in scope, and prompted by a particular personal loss. But it voices something permanent about the feelings of the ruled towards their rulers.

And on that and the "endless poetry" it makes me think of Alan Hollinghurst's The Stranger's Child, which isn't his best novel but I enjoyed it. It starts with an upper class minor poet, Cecil Valance, visiting the middle class home of his (intimate) university friend in the summer of 1913, then moves through the twentieth century in the lives of gay men in the twentieth century in some way shaped by that minor poet and his connections - the school in later set up in his family home, the literary biographer, the family etc.

[Syt]

Roger Crowley, who you might remember from his previous titles "Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World", "City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas", or "Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire" has a new book out:

"Spice: The 16th-Century Contest that Shaped the Modern World"

The story of the sixteenth-century's epic contest for the spice trade, which propelled European maritime exploration and conquest across Asia and the Pacific
 
Spices drove the early modern world economy, and for Europeans they represented riches on an unprecedented scale. Cloves and nutmeg could reach Europe only via a complex web of trade routes, and for decades Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find their elusive source. But when the Portuguese finally reached the spice islands of the Moluccas in 1511, they set in motion a fierce competition for control.
 
Roger Crowley shows how this struggle shaped the modern world. From 1511 to 1571, European powers linked up the oceans, established vast maritime empires, and gave birth to global trade, all in the attempt to control the supply of spices.
 
Taking us on voyages from the dockyards of Seville to the vastness of the Pacific, the volcanic Spice Islands of Indonesia, the Arctic Circle, and the coasts of China, this is a narrative history rich in vivid eyewitness accounts of the adventures, shipwrecks, and sieges that formed the first colonial encounters—and remade the world economy for centuries to follow.

As pop history goes, Crowley is always quite entertaining to read while covering some of the topics that will be niche to a general audience, but are probably well in line with the interests of people who played Europea Universalis a lot in the past 20 years.

[Norgy]

I will definitely pick it up.


Antonio Scurati's "M - Son Of The Century" is possibly one of the most illuminating novels I have read.
I hear there is more in the making, and even a TV serial.

[Sheilbh]

That's on my shelf and need to read it - so thanks for the useful prompt.

Although probably one I won't read on public transport...

[Jacob]

What's it about?

[Sheilbh]

Mussolini. It's a big book and my edition has a massive red M imposed over Mussolini's face which feels not great on the train

Blurb:

A startling look into the fascist mindset, a portrait of unrelenting determination, and an impeccable work of historical fiction.

M tells the story of the rise of fascism from within the mind of its founder. A gripping and masterful exposé, it explores Benito Mussolini's rise to power and a movement that, amidst a failing democracy, came to shape the world.

I think it's all basically a historic novel but everything in it is documented. Also been hugely well-reviewed everywhere.

I haven't read it yet but the idea slightly reminds me of HHhH which I thought was an incredible novel. Half a historic novel about the killing of Heydrich in Prague and its aftermath, half a novel about writing the novel and the ethics of how you write historic fiction about an evil man and regime.

[Norgy]

What's it about?

It's a novel(isation) of the early life of Mussolini, the start of fascism. It follows several of the characters instrumental to the rise of fascism.
I think Scurati has done his research (and not by watching some YouTube video).

The rivalry with d'Annunzio is a driving force, and the rise of the lesser known, but I think most vile of the fascists Italo Balbo is well-covered. Mussolini's many mistresses have a voice.

After reading it, I spent some time in the old newspaper archives to see how Mussolini and his gang were portrayed. And man, except the socialist/Labour newspapers, they all loved the man. Journalist and author Svein Elvestad (who wrote crime novels under the pseudonym Stein Riverton) declared "I am proud to be a fascist".

It is, I suppose, fitting that "M" was published about the same time that the Meloni government was formed.

[Threviel]

Started reading Spike Milligans memoir "Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall".

Has me lying in bed laughing so that the wifey looks at me strangely. But with depth and weirdly huge credibility.

Makes me wonder if lieutenant Sebag-Montefiori is a relation to the famous author.

[Gups]

Spike was a genius. No Python without him and Peter Sellers.

[Sheilbh]

Most of the way through 2023 Booker list - bit of a mixed bag to be honest.

But loads of books I was already interested in in 2024. I suspect it'll be a procession for Percival Everett - James sounds extraordinary (and I've loved Everett's other book), though I feel like I should read Huck Finn (or, indeed, any Twain) first.

But generally 2024 list looks a little bit to my tastes.