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It's hard to disagree when he's on form like he is in Great Expects - i recently taught a few passages from it to Y9s and i was once more in awe of teh way he works not just at a plot level but at a sentence and paragraph level.

This gives you a flavour of the issues of each individual translations. https://www.patrikbergman.com/2017/07/23/choosing-best-karamazov-translation/ I remember a really good article by Julian Barnes in the LRB on some of the problems of finding a decent translation of Flaubert' Madame Bovary -...

i read it in the P&V before i had read the criticisms of their translation. People i trust still rate the Garnett. I recently re-read her versions of Notes and The Double and felt they were pretty readable and didnt feel stilted or awkward - i'm thinking of doing a major re-read of him this year

Eric Clapton too

I think Facing North is one of my favourites of hers - I got into her via Laurie Andersen - that voice/performance thing.

I’ve just been given a copy of this. https://fitzcarraldoeditions.com/books/the-ways-of-paradise/ I am a sucker for these kind of things - loose collections of ideas, sources, arcane knowledge etc like notes towards something.

He’s one of my favourites- I think he’ll be another Fitzcarraldo Nobels. Zone is a remarkable piece of fiction. I don’t think there is anyone else around with his strength and breadth- and then throws in Banquet last year which is sui generis Read everything Fitz have translated by him. Think...

Never been a problem. They’re all quite different and suit different situations like train travel v lolling on a bed or waiting in a cafe for a friend.

Just off for a night away - didn’t know what to pack for reading so grabbed these 4 from my tbr pile. Started them all and all are very good if very different.

I’ve been reading some of the non fiction. The thing on his dad’s death is very good. Moving.

As the classicists say “even Homer nods.”

I think that’s what matters to him. Occasionally modern productions do a kind of double take as if to say ‘I dunno why he put this bit in’ to the audience but I think his original audience enjoyed the bawdy and seemingly confusing bits for what they were - entertainment.

I really like CoE - I know I bang on about this but they are texts to be performed and CoE really delivers on stage - snappy dialogue, some great sight gags and pacy - usually over in 90 minutes. LLL really relies on a good cast - I saw a really beauty RSC production with the same cast as Much...

Lear is the eye. Titus, well, I’ll leave Benny to find that out.

+1 for Mao II

I read a bit - it’s not good.

Does nobody put the reading in these days? One short story and The Old Man and the Sea - an old gcse set text? I’ll save you the bother, he’s a phenomenal writer. Fiesta, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, the early short stories, Farewell to Arms. You won’t u stay and 20th C American Lit without him...

Melville was the same - big chunks of Moby Dick are in blank verse. The suggestion is the influence of King Lear which made Herman go back and totally rewrite the novel. I don’t know how much proof there is for that but it’s suggestive to say the least.

Went to The Years last week. People keeping on fainting and the show stopped. The discussion in the press is whether the trigger warning are actually creating this atmosphere. I think it was in the Netherlands that the play was performed without warnings and no one keeled over. It’s a...

I showed my Y10s a Harold Lloyd the other day -Safety Last- as I was explaining the idea of silent movies to them. They’re not an academic lot but they actually enjoyed - laughed at the slapstick and were genuinely shocked at the stunts and ‘mild peril’ as it gets called now.