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Archive for the ‘The List’ Category

The appearance of Joyce’s novels in the literary canon has ensured his novels remain relatively inaccessible to the ordinary reader and raises serious doubts upon his continued deification within the dominant landscape of the Literati.  The fundamental error of regarding “Ulysses” (1922) as a functional notion to categorise his work is not quite equivalent to […]

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Le rouge et le noir by Stendhal

Stendhal was forty-seven when his first major novel, Le rouge et le noir, was published in 1830 (although a little known and unremarkable book called Armance did precede The Red and The Black).   This tale of the young Julien Sorel, takes some dedication to finish and is best devoured in the original French.   Often cited […]

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Le Rivage des Syrtes by Julien Gracq

A novel set in an imaginary land where a frozen conflict has lasted over the past three centuries.  Published in English as the Opposing Shore, this is a tale of a young man Aldo who is sent to a coastal town over-looking the sea and the world of his enemies.  There he waits for his […]

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The cursed novel adaptation – Eucalyptus by Murray Bail

Eucalyptus is a simple novel.  The story of a widower who plants hundreds of eucalyptuses as a memorial to his wife. Living with him in this man-made forest, hidden away from prying eyes, is the young daughter (due to be portrayed by Nicole Kidman in a never completed movie).  Over the years, men have tried […]

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Spam hell has forced the end of comments

We have turned off the comments feature -  suffering from a great bombardment of spam, You can send me a comment on FB. Nathaniel.  

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The English Urban Peasant Revolt of 2011

I was not intending to write about the recent events in London and other major English cities during August 2011 on this blog, since I was on the other side of the world at the time, and not a first hand witness. However, an anecdote caught my attention in terms of the targets of the […]

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Review of The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

A romp through the late 1700’s which takes in a young Irish rogue who ends up in the British Army in Germany for the Seven Years War and then in the pay of the Prussians. He’s adventures keep him away from the UK for eleven years until he finally returns to win the heart of […]

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Review of La Jument Verte by Marcel Aymé

Country France in the 19th Century is a world of intrigue where the lives of women and girls are cheap, and paintings of green horses have the ability to make social observations and commentaries. A fine yarn by the pen-master Aymé of the life in the village of Claquebue from the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 […]

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Vote result for a great week end read

It is clear that the novel with the most votes with six votes in total from this web-site and from our Facebook presence is  Donna Tartt’s – The Secret History. A good result if you consider the tough competition from the other novels: Marina Lewycka – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian received four […]

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A good read for the week-end

Over 100 Face Book users recommended the following books to read over the week end of 21 to 22 May 2011.  I’ve selected all the Novels which were: 1) Not already on the list, 2) Attracted at least one “like” recommendation from other Face Book users. The result is the poll below which you can […]

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