‘The incurable simplicity of the corrupt’: Edith Wharton (1862-1937), The Children Edith Wharton’s nineteenth novel The Children, published in 1928, is less impressive than the others by her that I’ve posted about here recently: The House of Mirth and The … Continue reading →| Tredynas Days
Mary S. Lovell, The Mitford Girls: the biography of an extraordinary family. Abacus pb. 2002; first published 2001. 611 pp.| Tredynas Days
Mary S. Lovell, The Mitford Girls: the biography of an extraordinary family. Abacus pb. 2002; first published 2001. 611 pp. Why are the Mitford sisters, subject of this biography by Mary S. Lovell, so famous (and notorious)? In many ways … Continue reading → The post Charming cruelty: The Mitford Girls, by Mary S. Lovell appeared first on Tredynas Days.| Tredynas Days
Elif Shafak, There Are Rivers in the Sky. Penguin pb, 2025; first published 2024; 483 pp. I’m wary of novels with multiple story strands involving disparate characters and set in different periods. Turkish-British author Elif Shafak just about pulls off … Continue reading → The post Rivers in the Sky appeared first on Tredynas Days.| Tredynas Days
Five excellent stories from the late 1880s-early 1890s by the master of fiction, Henry James. Romance, useless parents, and a ghost feature.| Tredynas Days
I’ve been reflecting on my previous post on JD Vance’s powerful memoir Hillbilly Elegy, and have since been looking back through the book (even had to renew it at my local library, as it had reached its due back date). … Continue reading → The post JD Vance, Hillbilly Elegy postscript appeared first on Tredynas Days.| Tredynas Days
A remarkable memoir of a young man who escaped a life of grinding poverty and dysfunctional families to become a Yale law school graduate.| Tredynas Days
Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything. Penguin, 2024. First published 2024.| Tredynas Days
Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything. Penguin, 2024. First published 2024. Those who haven’t read the numerous previous novels by Elizabeth Strout in which the central characters in Tell Me Everything also appear will probably miss some of the nuances in … Continue reading → The post Elizabeth Strout, Tell Me Everything appeared first on Tredynas Days.| Tredynas Days
Ernest Hemingway, Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises. Vintage, 2000; first published as The Sun Also Rises in 1926 (in the US); 1927 in Britain with the title Fiesta The central character in Fiesta, Hemingway’s first full novel, is the American … Continue reading → The post Ernest Hemingway, Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises appeared first on Tredynas Days.| Tredynas Days
Virginia Woolf's impressionistic account in dense but beautiful modernist style of a young man as seen by others| Tredynas Days
Isaac Babel (1894-1940), The Essential Fictions. Edited and translated from the Russian by Val Vinokur. Northewestern University Press, 2018 This collection contains the following: Openings: 11 stories (published or dated from 1916) The Story of My Dovecot (Childhood Cycle): 6 … Continue reading →| Tredynas Days
Giorgio Bassani, Behind the Door (first published 1964). The Novel of Ferrara, part 4. Translated from the Italian by Jamie McKendrick (Norton, 2018)| Tredynas Days
Giorgio Bassani, Behind the Door (first published 1964). The Novel of Ferrara, part 4. Translated from the Italian by Jamie McKendrick (Norton, 2018) As in the previous sections of Bassani’s collection of stories and novels set in and around the … Continue reading → The post Giorgio Bassani, Behind the Door appeared first on Tredynas Days.| Tredynas Days
A young Jewish man's love for a beautiful woman doesn't run smooth; then the 1938 anti-Semitic racial laws transform their lives.| Tredynas Days
Feb-Mar reading| Tredynas Days
Trollope's novel about corruption and sleaze in high places foreshadows today's events, plus four very different novels by women writers| Tredynas Days
The superb prose of a master, writing about six writers and artists dear to Sebald's heart.| Tredynas Days