My Summer of Henry James--

As you may have noticed from a number of my recent postings, I have been reading a lot of Henry James this summer.  Typically, every couple of years or so I pick an author and read as much of their oeuvre--in the order written--as I can.  This is an immensely rewarding experience, and each author that I have done this with has ended up becoming a 'favorite' author.  To date, I have done this Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, and Edith Wharton.  This summer I decided to tackle the novels and some of the shorter fiction of Henry James.

I had read some of Henry James's novels when I was a much younger man and in the U.S. Coast Guard in the early 1970s.  And I must confess that I struggled mightily and ultimately gave him up.  Looking back now, I realize that I simply wasn't ready for the writing of the like of Henry James, George Eliot or even Edith Wharton.  I am a much more thoughtful and close reader and now love immersing myself in not only enjoying the novel that I happen to be reading, but endeavoring to understand authorial intent, and how the author and his/her works fit within the literary movements of the day.  I now also read a significant amount of literary biographies and criticism.  All of this enhances and enriches my overall reading experience, makes me better able to recognize and interpret shifts in writing styles, and has made me a much more mature and critical reader overall.

Here is the reading list that I'm working from--

Roderick Hudson (1875)*
The American (1877)*
The Europeans (1878)*
Daisy Miller (1878)
Washington Square (1880)*
The Portrait of a Lady (1881)*
The Bostonians (1886)*
The Princess Casamassima (1886)
The Aspern Papers (1888)*
What Maisie Knew (1897)
The Turn of the Screw (1898)
The Awkward Age (1899)
The Wings of the Dove (1902)
The Ambassadors (1903)
The Golden Bowl (1904)

Those titles followed by an asterisk (*) are novels/novellas that I have read so far this summer, and many of them have been reviewed in recent postings below.  Also, I have acquired most of these novels in hardcover editions as I know that will be revisiting them for the rest of my life.  It was fiendishly difficult to find hardcover editions of some of them, e.g., The Ambassadors, but by diligently browsing on-line I have managed to fill out my library quite nicely.

Additionally, in an effort to complement my summer of all things Jamesian, I have picked up the following two books--


The Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece, by Michael Gorra (Liveright, 2012, 416 pp.).  Gorra's book focuses on James and his writing of The Portrait of a Lady.  This book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography in 2013, and comes very highly touted.


 


The Master, by Colm Toibin (Scribners, 2004, 338 pp.).  Toibin's book is a fictional account of James in Europe at the very height of his creative powers, and also comes highly recommended.

I invite you to stay tuned as I share my reading experiences, and thoughts and observations associated with the novels, novellas and short stories of Henry James.  Perhaps some of my postings will inspire you to read a James novel in the near future, or maybe you'll start a summer reading project with an author that you'd like to get to know better.  So, what are you reading this summer?

Review: "Our Mutual Friend" By Charles Dickens

I recently realized that I have, on several occasions,  referred to the "greatness," in my opinion, of Charles Dickens's last completed novel, Our Mutual Friend, but that I have never explained why I believe this to be so.  Therefore, without further ado, my review of what I consider to be Dickens's magnum opus.

In completing Our Mutual Friend, I believe that I may well have read one of the finest books written in the English language.  One could perhaps argue that Austen's prose in her novel Emma is more perfect; but Dickens's plotting and character-development in Our Mutual Friend is bordering on exquisite.  Our Mutual Friend rivals Tolstoy’s War and Peace in breadth, scope, scale, and number of characters; but while War and Peace proceeds forward majestically in a somewhat linear fashion; Our Mutual Friend, like Dickens's “Circumlocution Office” (Little Dorrit) proceeds circuitously, bobbing and weaving, exposing its mysteries and delights, one-by-one, like peeling back the layers of an onion.

In Our Mutual Friend, Dickens plumbs the deep and dark depths of humanity’s soul with the creation and actions of some of fiction’s most horrifying villains.  At the same time Dickens balances the novel’s darkness and depravity as we meet, and fall in love with, some of the kindest, noblest, and most good-natured saints and souls that ever graced the pages of any his novels.  One cannot but be completely taken with little Jenny Wren (“my back is bad, and my legs are queer”), and the beautiful Bella Wilfur and Lizzie Hexam, and kindly Betty Higdon.  One must admire and respect the steadfastness and resolute nature of John Rokesmith, Eugene Wrayburn, and Mortimer Lightwood.  One cannot help but laugh and smile at the comical goodness of Our Mutual Friend’s 'saints':  the Boffins, Mr. Twemlow, “Rumty” Wilfur, and Mr. Riah.  Then there are the multitude in the gray ambiguity between light and dark; the Veneerings, and those of “Podsnappery” like the Lammles.  But it is the grotesque evil of the novel’s villains that makes the good characters shine so bright.  There’s “Weggery”, an awful tasting dose of “Fascination” Fledgeby, all horrifyingly blended with “Rogue” Riderhood and the Dark Prince himself – Bradley Headstone.

From Dickens's pen, Our Mutual Friend falls forth onto the printed pages like the brush strokes on the canvas of the grandest painting of an old master.  Our Mutual Friend depicts the freshness and rawness of human emotions in all of its attendant forms, including: joy and happiness, pain and sorrow, anger and hatred, and love and tenderness.  Like looking too closely at a painting of Hieronymous Bosch, we have an almost macabre fascination as we follow the novel’s characters through life’s stages – life, death, rebirth, and even resurrection.  Primary roles and responsibilities are switched too; with children 'raising' parents, the disadvantaged aiding the advantaged, and the poor enriching the well-off.


In Our Mutual Friend things are never as they appear or ought to be.  On some levels, Our Mutual Friend is the quintessential detective novel or mystery; but it is really more a series of mysteries nested inside a larger mystery.  The reader must pay close attention to the seemingly slightest detail, for all does truly come together in the march to the grand, and most satisfying, conclusion.  Through it all, however, there is one overarching and unifying theme, one thread that connects all–The River Thames.  The Thames is the source of life, of death, of rebirth, and even resurrection; it infects and purifies; it is the source of depravity, horror, hope, and even prosperity.  The river is always there, relentlessly rushing onward, carrying the flotsam and jetsam, and the hopes and desires, of the novel’s characters, and even those of the reader.  All I can say, upon turning the last page with a 'sigh', is that this is a novel for the ages; and one that I shall visit and revisit; setting forth again in my little boat upon the river of Our Mutual Friend.

I awarded this five of five stars, and highly recommend it.  This novel has become a personal favorite of mine, and is right up there with Bleak House and Little Dorrit.  Also, if you enjoy the period drama film adaptations prepared by the BBC, go find yourself the six-hour miniseries done in 1998.  It is very well done!  The photograph I've included is of some of the cast members from this adaptation.

Review: "A Pair of Blue Eyes" By Thomas Hardy

This was a fast read, and I very much enjoyed it!  If you are already a Hardy fan, I heartily recommend reading A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873); if you aren't, this just might make you one.  A Pair of Blues Eyes was the third novel published by Hardy, and the first published under his own name.  In his later years, Hardy created three categories in which he placed all of his fiction.  The largest category, "Novels of Character and Environment," includes the well known core of his oeuvre also known as the Wessex Novels; this novel falls in Hardy's second category, the novels of "Romance and Fantasies; with the third category, "Novels of Ingenuity," containing just three relatively minor works.

A Pair of Blue Eyes is set in Hardy's fictional 'Wessex' of southwestern England; and, in fact, this novel is largely played out in 'Lower' and 'Off Wessex,' in reality that part of England referred to as Cornwall with its rural countryside and majestic sea-cliffs.  As is typical of Hardy's prose, the novel does a wonderful job of connecting the reader with the characters and the character's place in the natural environment.  Every time I read a Hardy novel, or short story, I have this over-whelming feel that I am experiencing the sights, sounds, smells and emotions of the characters that he is writing about.  The reader can't help but fall in love with his pastoral scenes; feeling the breezes at it ruffles the leaves on the trees, and watching the hay-grasses waving back and forth in the fields and meadows.  Hardy involves his reader, time and again, in the simple things like watching the sun set in all of its orange, red, and purple glory, or the glimmer of the stars and planets as they brighten in the darkening night sky.  I think it is this deep connection with environment and the passage of time that seems to make the human elements and aspects of Hardy's stories resonate even more strongly with me.

Through Hardy's fiction, I find another example of my own understanding that the individual human experience and existence is nothing more than a infinitesimally tiny blip when compared to the history and time-line of the Cosmos; but that it also makes my understanding of those brief experiences we have with one another, and the emotions that we feel, so much more important and interesting.

In A Pair of Blue Eyes, Hardy addresses the well-trod literary ground associated with class-consciousness and its effects on courtship and Love.  The novel's primary protagonist, Elfride Swancourt, the beautiful daughter of the local parson, struggles with becoming a woman and experiencing romantic feelings for the first time when she meets the young architect, Stephen Smith, upon his visit to 'Endelstowe' to begin restoring the old parish church.  It is generally considered that much of the courtship between Stephen Smith and Elfride Swancourt is based upon Hardy's own courtship of Miss Emma Gifford, whom he later married in 1874.  Like his character, Stephen Smith, Hardy was also trained as an architect, and undertook a trip to Cornwall to help restore the parish church of St. Juliot in Cornwall (see photograph, at left).

[In the spirit of full-disclosure, I am inserting a Mild Spoiler Alert here.  If you are one who wants no hint of plot direction or details, I suggest that you scroll past the next paragraph and two block-quote sections]

Suffice it to say that the novel is not just a simple little tale of young blossoming love set in the quiet bucolic countryside.  There is plenty of drama, passion, and intrigue involving various characters of all class levels of English life in the mid-Victorian period in Hardy's telling of Elfride's tale.  During the initial serialization of the novel, the term "cliff-hanger" was coined, referring to one of the more exciting events that occurs on the precipice of the 'Cliff without a Name.'  One of the characters is literally hanging by his fingertips on the edge of the cliff, with the rocks and thundering sea one-hundred feet below him.  While the personal terror described by Hardy is palpable, as a geologist myself I just had to marvel as I read the following--

"By one of those familiar conjunctions of things wherewith the inanimate world baits the mind of man when he pauses in moments of suspense, opposite Knight's eyes was an imbedded fossil, standing forth in low relief from the rock.  It was a creature with eyes.  The eyes, dead and turned to stone, were even now regarding him.  It was one of the early crustaceans called Trilobites.  Separated by millions of years in their lives, Knight and this underling seemed to have met in their death.  It was the single instance within reach of his vision of anything that had ever been alive and had had a body to save, as he himself had now."

and

"Knight was a geologist; and such is the supremacy of habit over occasion, as a pioneer of the thoughts of men, that at this dreadful juncture his mind found time to take in, by a momentary sweep, the varied scenes that had had their day between the creature's epoch and his own.  There is no place like a cleft landscape for bringing home such imaginings as these."

Now that I have your attention, I urge you to read the novel!  You'll enjoy it!  I think that this is an important novel, and is one of his works that Hardy was known to be personally quite fond of.  Typical of Hardy's fiction, Fate and Chance play a prominent role in this novel too.  Also, the character of Elfride Swancourt, as a heroine, is interesting to consider in the evolutionary continuum from 'Fancy Day' (Under the Greenwood Tree), 'Bathsheba Everdene' (Far From the Madding Crowd), 'Eustacia Vye' (The Return of the Native), 'Tess Durbeyfield' (Tess of the d'Urbervilles), and that culminates with 'Sue Bridehead' (Jude the Obscure).

I hope you enjoy A Pair of Blue Eyes as much as I did.  As for me; well, I am taking Far From the Madding Crowd off of the shelf now for a re-read over the next few days.  It is time to spend some more time with 'Gabriel Oak' and 'Bathsheba Everdene.'

Enjoy your July 4th holiday weekend too!

[My review is based upon the Wordsworth Classics softcover edition of A Pair of Blue Eyes, published in 1995, 305 pp.; the photograph of St. Juliot Church is included courtesy of Mr. Steve Wheeler, 2003, and was posted on Wikipedia]

Reviews: Jean M. Auel's "Earth's Children" Series

If you are looking for something a little different in the way of historical fiction this summer, I have a suggestion. Check out Ms. Jean M. Auel's "Earth's Children" series of books. There are currently five volumes, with a sixth on the way (and potentially a seventh). These books are the bildungsroman of a young Cro-Magnon woman, named Ayla, who lives and travels across much of what is now eastern and western Europe some 30,000 years ago during the Ice Age.

In order, the series includes the following: The Clan of the Cave Bear, The Valley of the Horses, The Mammoth Hunters, The Plains of Passage, and The Shelters of Stone. Collectively, it is an enthralling tale that causes you, more than once, to lean back and spend some time reflecting on our own human origins. While this probably can't be considered great literature, Ms. Auel's books all have well thought out plots and are well written. I just finished reading the entire series for the second time; and I enjoyed it even more this time around.

The first novel, The Clan of the Cave Bear, is particularly fascinating as this tells the story of how the little four- or five-year old Ayla, an orphaned anatomically modern human, is found by a clan of Neandertals in what is now the Crimean Peninsula. She spends the next six or seven years with the clan and becomes one of the clan's medicine women. Ms. Auel does an excellent job of portraying the type of life these archaic humans may have; and it was a harsh one. Ms. Auel is known for meticulously reviewing the latest anthropological and archaeological data as she writes her novels, and this attention to detail is clearly evident. She has carefully crafted a very plausible account of what life may have been like for a group of Neandertals living in a cave on the Crimean Peninsula near the Black Sea. Not only in this first volume, but in all of them, Ms. Auel spends a great deal of time carefully, and quite accurately, describing the ecology and environment of the regions where her characters are living or passing through. There is loads of really interesting information about Ice Age flora and fauna.

The next book is The Valley of Horses, and this is really two novels in one. On the one hand, it documents Ayla's trip north into the frozen Ukrainian Ice Age steppe country as she leaves the clan and sets out to find others like her. The other story told in the novel is the description of the journey of two young men, Jondalar, and his brother, Thonolan, as they travel from what is now western France across Ice Age Europe and ultimately ending up in Ayla's little valley. Ms. Auel has the young men meeting, and interacting with other small groups of humans and Neandertals during the course of their long journey. In the meantime, young Ayla is making some extraordinary discoveries on her own. As you might well imagine, there is a convergence of the two plot lines in the novel with interesting results.



The Mammoth Hunters is the third book in the "Earth's Children" series. This book is largely the tale of Ayla's and Jondalar's time with the 'Mamutoi' peoples (Mammoth hunters) of the Upper Paleolithic Ice-Age steppes of the Ukraine. While the plotting of this novel, in my opinion, did bog down a bit with the amount of time spent on the romantic triangle between Ayla, Jondalar, and Ranec, the dark-skinned Mamutoi ivory carver; I was at the same time amazed at the amount of anthropological and archaeological detail that Ms. Auel interpreted and utilized throughout.

There have been significant archaeological discoveries and research carried on associated with several very important Upper Paleolithic sites over the past thirty-years in this region of the Ukraine. Major early human ice-age settlements have been discovered and excavated at Sungir, Mezhirich, Mezin, and Kostenki. All of which indicate the presence of sophisticated peoples that lived in multi-family dwellings and actively hunted the large animals that occupied this incredibly harsh environment. Ms. Auel's novel really does provide a wonderful window into a time period so long past (approximately 30,000 years ago). Her careful attention to detail and historical accuracy is evident and impressive as one reads about how these peoples may have constructed their dwellings, hunted the large animals for meat, gathered plants for food and medicines, and exchanged goods and new ideas with other bands of humans. This novel gives us some valuable insights into a part of that vast rich human heritage during a period of time, so long ago, during the Ice Age in eastern Europe and western Russia.

The Plains of Passage is the fourth novel in the series, and is one of my favorites. This novel picks up with Ayla and Jondalar, Whinney, Racer, and Wolf all leaving the summer camp of the Mamutoi peoples and beginning the long journey back across the Ice Age steppes of the Ukraine to the delta of the 'Great Mother River' (Donau/Duna/Danube River), and thence across eastern Europe all the way back to Jondalar's Zelandonii peoples in what is now southwestern France. Along the way the travelers have all kinds of interesting adventures, with Ms. Auel doing a superb job of describing just how difficult a trip of this magnitude might have been some 30,000 years ago for two human beings.

As she always does, Ms. Auel brings significant archaeological and paleo-anthropological information into her narrative. For example, she has Jondalar being captured and held by a band of peoples known as the "S'Armunai." The fictional S'Armunai camp is actually based upon the Upper Paleolithic site, Dolni Vestonice, in what is now the Czech Republic. While a prisoner of the S'Armunai, Jondalar witnesses a bizarre and enigmatic burial of three young people in a single grave. This strange burial was actually excavated at Dolni Vestonice and archaeologists are still trying determine what the backstory might be. Ms. Auel offers a very plausible hypothesis. If you're interested, 'Google' "Dolni Vestonice triple burial," and you'll find lots of really fascinating information.

Along the trip Ayla and Jondalar have the opportunity to meet numerous bands of other Cro-Magnons, or anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) and also have several encounters with small bands of Neandertals (Homo sapiens neandertalensis). Ms. Auel uses these encounters to shed more light on the differences and similarities among these Ice Age inhabitants and their ways of life in different parts of prehistoric Europe and how they used the different natural resources in their regions. Interspersed throughout the novel is a very interesting portrayal of the mythologies and spiritual practices that may have been important to these peoples; at the apex of which is the notion that all life are considered to be the children of the "Earth Mother."

In some respects, this novel really reflects and represents the great journey of the human race 30,000 years ago during a period of profoundly difficult adversity because of the environmental conditions. Additionally, and somewhat sadly, it reflects the beginning of the end for the very long-lived archaic human species -- Neandertal -- as this amazing closely-related cousin of ours was destined to be completely extinct within the 5,000 years or so, after living on the planet for several hundred thousand years. It is worth reiterating that each of Ms. Auel's novels in the "Earth's Children" series are thought-provoking from the perspective of better understanding our own human origins; as well as just being wonderfully dramatic and entertaining historical fiction; and The Plains of Passage is no exception.


Well, we have now come up to the last book in the series, so far. The Shelters of Stone is entirely set in what is now southwestern France and the region occupied by Jondalar's peoples, the Zelandonii. Ayla and Jondalar have finally reached the end of their long journey, and can now become mated and finally settle down. In usual Jean Auel style, she has incorporated much of the state-of-the-art anthropological and archaeological data and evidence from the great cave dwellings that have been found in that area -- including the great Caves of Lasceaux, with the amazing art painted on the limestone walls inside the caverns. This book also goes into much greater detail about the potential social and cultural interactions that may have existed among the great number of human occupants of these huge cave dwellings. Just as it is today, it is difficult providing adequate food, water, and other necessities of life for a large number of people concentrated in a relatively small area. I really found her fictional depiction of spiritual awareness among these upper paleolithic peoples to be interesting. I can certainly see how Ice Age shamanism and spiritualism could have naturally evolved into the more organized religions that we see around us today. Frankly, I am not sure that there is a difference at all.

I think this series of books -- The Earth's Children series -- are important. This series has enabled all of us to enjoy a fictional, but fairly accurate, account of a small portion of the rich human heritage that we all share. Reading these books one cannot help but to stop and think about just what it was that allowed the human species to succeed and expand around the planet; whilst all of the other species in the genus Homo are now long extinct. Reading these books makes one ask the questions -- What is it that makes us uniquely human? When, why, and how were animals first domesticated? What role did modern humans play in the extinction of the Neandertals?

With recent advances in anthropology and genetics we are slowly beginning to answer some of these questions. For example, it is fairly certain that anatomically modern humans and Neandertals probably interacted. In fact, it was recently announced, upon the completion of the sequencing of the Neandertal genome, that humans from Europe and some parts of Asia have DNA of which 4-5% is unique to the DNA of the Neandertal genome. In other words, Neandertals still lives inside some of us today! So, it is quite likely that we did more than just sit around the fire and toast marshmallows. Geneticists are also looking at the mitochondrial DNA of dogs in an effort to determine approximately how long ago we began to domesticate them. Ms. Auel's books track right along with much of this research. Throughout the series, she has many Human-Neandertal encounters and interactions; she gives us some pretty reasonable hypotheses for how horses and dogs may have been domesticated and put to work; and she also does a wonderful job of developing scenarios associated with advances in tool-making and use, finding medicines and treating the sick or injured.

Read these books! First, they are fun. Second, I guarantee you'll learn a lot about yourself, your species, your planet, and the species that have lived before us. Finally, I think there are some important lessons for the future in here too. It is not entirely clear what the long-term ramifications of climate-change and global warming will be yet; but I am convinced that it may become a more difficult planet for humans to occupy and survive upon.

In closing, if this series is something you are interested in and you read, you might also be interested in two quite fascinating, and well-written non-fiction books.

Desolate Landscapes: Ice-Age Settlement in Eastern Europe, by John Hoffecker, February 2002, The Rutgers Series in Human Evolution.

The Early Upper Paleolithic Beyond Western Europe, Edited by Kris Kerry, June 2004, University of California Press.

Reads & Reviews: September & October 2009

I am finally settled back in a groove back here in southern California after my long 3,000 mile photography road-trip in mid- to late-September. I realized that it is time to update the blog with all of the books I've read, I'm reading, and those in the queue. I found some great new stuff too.

1. Freedom & Necessity, by Emma Bull and Stephen Brust - This was a fabulous book; and I have no qualms recommending this at all. I really have to give it up to Emma Bull and Stephen Brust on this one. The epistolary style; comprised of correspondence, journal entries, and newspaper articles; works perfectly with the plot.

This is an exciting historical mystery set in 1849 in Victorian England. It is loaded with political intrigue, budding romances, murder and mayhem, and a healthy dose of Hegelian philosophy. In and amongst the very engaging fictional characters, Emma Bull and Stephen Brust have realistically inserted some well-known historical figures. The novel does an excellent job of educating the reader on the Chartist's movement that caused significant angst among members of Her Majesty's government, as well as in other European monarchies. One can tell that Bull and Brust did their homework in developing the plot; it just feels right and seems completely plausible. Finally, Susan Voight is one of the most likable, brilliant, and witty heroines I've encountered in a novel in a long, long time. She is a giant in this novel! I will definitely read this book again!

2. Beowulf, translation by Seamus Heaney - This was incredible! First of all, the story was told in the spare, sparse, and gritty language of Seamus Heaney's bilingual translation of the Anglo-Saxon original. Second, the plot of this elegiac poem was absolutely epic. The horror of Grendel and his Dam was palpable; and the heroism of Beowulf and his spear-fellows timeless. Finally, the ability to carefully study Heaney's translation, alliteration, and interpretation and then compare it to the Anglo-Saxon was almost surrealistic. It was an amazing experience to have the ability to look at and study the root language of modern English.

My younger brother recommended the Heaney translation to me, and now I know why. This has become a poem I intend to visit, and revisit, many, many times in the years to come. From the perspective of my personal enjoyment of poetry, reading Beowulf has been transformative. Reading Beowulf has led me to go back and reinvestigate the ancient Icelandic poetry of the Poetic Edda (or "Elder Edda"), including the Volsungasaga. From epics like Beowulf and the Poetic Edda, it is abundantly clear what a profound influence these early writings have had on the literature of the English language.

In conclusion, I cannot believe that it has taken me this long to actually sit down and read this beautiful poem. All I can say is "Bravo!" "Bravo!" to the original eighth or ninth century poet, and to Seamus Heaney for his beautiful relatively new presentation of this early treasure of the English language.

3. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun, by J.R.R. Tolkien - As soon as I found this hardbound edition in the bookstore, I snapped it up. This 350-page book contains J.R.R. Tolkien's interpretation of two of the ancient epic poems from the Poetic Edda (or "Elder Edda") of the Icelandic peoples. Tolkien's son, Christopher has compiled and edited his father's work on the "Lay of the Volsungs" and the "Lay of Gudrun." This is earthy and spare poetry; rich in story and tradition; and provides a tangible connection to our ancestors and their mythology more than a thousand years ago.

This is a book to read, re-read, and study; and, I have to say, it somehow feels canonical, as "Beowulf" is considered to be. Christopher Tolkien's notes and comments on his father's work help place these poems in their proper context. Finally, I see that some of the ideas and concepts developed in Tolkien's fiction (e.g., The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion) are the direct result of his life-long fascination and study of the Poetic Edda. I highly recommend this book; it is real a treasure!

4. Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville - This was an awesome book! First, Mieville elevates the sci-fi/steampunk genre to an entirely new plane of existence. It is almost as though Charles Dickens were writing with a view to the future. The characters in Perdido Street Station are some of the most amazing you'll encounter in fiction. The horror associated with the main plot of the novel is virtually beyond imagination, and is some of the most terrifying stuff I've ever read. I simply could not put this down once I started; even though there were times when I was absolutely scared spitless! This book may not be for everyone; but it has left an indelible mark on me. I look forward to reading the next two novels in this series of three set in the world of Bas-Lag. Somehow the energy of China Mieville's writing feels right for the time. This is some seriously good stuff!

5. Isis, by Douglas Clegg - A gripping, poignant, and truly macabre tale. The perfect read for late-October, or when you feel the need for something on the scary side. Douglas Clegg has given us a superb retelling of the Osiris and Isis myth, set in Cornwall during the Victorian Period. This is no tale for young children either; it is gritty, realistic, and terribly bittersweet, with moral lessons throughout. The scenes and plot remind me a bit of Poe, but the writing is superb and brings to mind Edith Wharton's ghost stories. This little novella is one to read aloud to family and friends while safely ensconced in a warm living room in front of the fire. The illustrations are beautiful and complement the plot exquisitely.

6. The Affinity Bridge, by George Mann - This was rollicking good fun to read! Is it great literature? No; but then it is not meant to be. It is a wonderful page-turner, with engaging characters, a superb mystery plot, and set in the interesting alternative world of a 'steampunk' Victorian London. This is the first in a series of three proposed mystery novels featuring Sir Maurice Newbury and his fetching assistant, Miss Veronica Hobbes. Fun stuff to read, and I look forward to reading the second in the series, "The Osiris Ritual."

7. The Court of the Air and The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, by Stephen Hunt - In my humble opinion, don't waste your time (or money) on these two books. Here are my thoughts on the first two books in Stephen Hunt's 'steampunk' world.

"The Court of the Air" - I liked the cast of characters in this novel (there's a lot of 'em), and the plot was, at times, intriguing. I can't quite put my finger on what it was, but the novel never really fully engaged me. I read it with an eye toward simply finishing it, and moving on to something else. I was kind of hoping for an epic experience similar to Susanna Clarke's brilliant, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. In my opinion, this is not it. If your looking for some really serious steampunk, go directly (do not pass 'Go') to China Mieville's three-volume Bas-Lag series.

"The Kingdom Beyond the Waves" - A middling effort by author Stephen Hunt. I liked this even less than his debut novel, "The Court of the Air." While some of the characters were interesting, the plot really seemed overly contrived. Not too much else to say about this book. I think I'll take a pass on reading the third volume which has yet to be released in the U.S.

***

Here's what it is in the queue to be read in the very near future:

1. Christina Rossetti: A Literary Biography, by Jan Marsh - The author of several books on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood has written what is acknowledged to be the seminal biography of Christina Rossetti, one of my all-time favorite poets. I have been carefully reading and studying Christina's poetry contained within my copy of the Penguin Classics edition, Christina Rossetti: The Complete Poems. So, I am very much looking forward to reading this biography and going back through her beautiful poetry. If you're interested, I have several earlier blog posts here discussing Rossetti's poetry.

2. The Children's Book, by A.S. Byatt - This is the latest novel written by A.S. Byatt, one of my favorite modern authors. Byatt is the author of the Booker-award winning Possession. The Children's Book was also shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Award (won by Hilary Mantel for her novel, Wolf Hall, about Thomas Cromwell in the Tudor Court). Apparently, Byatt's novel spans a period of time from the late-Victorian period, through the Edwardian, and through the First World War; and follows several generations in two families in England. I am very much looking forward to reading this novel.

3. The Poetic Edda - The Poetic Edda or Elder Edda is the collection of ancient Icelandic alliterative poetry containing much of the mythology of the early Norse peoples. It is generally thought that this poetry was written late in the first millennium, and existed as an oral tradition. It is from these beautiful poems that J.R.R. Tolkien received much of his inspiration for many of the primary elements in his tales of Middle Earth. Additionally, the Poetic Edda was the source of inspiration and material for Richard Wagner's operas in the Ring Cycle. Having read Beowulf, I am very much looking forward to reading this collection of ancient Norse poetry.

4. Ice Land, by Betsy Tobin - In the same vein, this recent fantasy novel by Tobin incorporates a lot of the mythology from the Poetic Edda, described above. I have heard that this is a fun book that describes life in Iceland in the 700-800 A.D. time frame and involves the eruption of the great Icelandic volcano, Hekla.

5. The Faerie Queene, by Edmund Spenser - I have been derelict for most of my adult life for not having read this ageless epic poem. Harold Bloom said, "One is tempted to maintain that a reader who cannot apprehend Spenser's voice as being, at its best, the voice of poetry itself is not capable of reading adequately any poetry whatsoever." About the knights and ladies in The Faerie Queene, the great Irish poet, William Butler Yeats, felt that they were fastened "with allegorical nails to a big barn door of common sense, of merely practical virtue." Suffice it to say, that Spenser's The Faerie Queene is high on my teetering To-Be-Read pile.

6. The Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova - I have heard nothing but wondrous things about the poetry of Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966), is one of the best known Russian poets of the 20th century. She was also known as "The Queen of the Neva," and was a member of the "Acmeists" or "Guild of Poets." The Acmeists were a confederation of Russian poets that met in The Stray Dog Cafe in St. Petersburg in the early 1900s before the Russian Revolution. Akhmatova's poems range from short lyrical poetry to her long epic, Requiem, about the Stalinist purges. I have a feeling that I am going to enjoy her poetry immensely.

7. The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte - I have read several of Emily Bronte's beautiful poems; and I am now ready to embark on a wholesale reading and analysis of all of her poems. I read her single novel, Wuthering Heights; which I recognize for its Byronic and Gothic passion and intensity, but have always been profoundly unsettled by the horrifying dysfunction in the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. Whilst Charlotte and Anne Bronte also wrote poetry, it is my opinion that Emily was, far and away, the better poet of the three sisters. Stay tuned, I'll let you know in a month or two.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you enjoyed this quick tour through the novels and poetry that I have sampled over the past six weeks or so. I'd also like to acknowledge and cite the use of biographical material from the on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia and from Dr. Harold Bloom's recent poetry anthology The Best Poems of the English Language: From Chaucer through Robert Frost.

Finally, the photograph I have attached to this blog entry is entitled, "Golden Grasses" and is a photograph that I took in late fall 2008 on the flanks of Bear Mountain in the southern end of the Sierras here in California. Fall around here, while it can still be warm, is incredibly beautiful; especially in the Sierra foothills. Please feel free to click on the photograph for a much larger view.

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