I'm on a reading 'splurge' as I have a huge 'to be read' pile. Some of the books are real paper, but the majority are on kindle. That way I can be thankful I don't have a tottering tower of books using up space.
Yesterday I finished 'The Photographer's Wife' by Nick Alexander. It's one of those 'delving into the past will reveal all kinds of family secrets' type of books. The tineline jumps between the Blitz in London (when the Wife was a small child) and 2012 when the Daughter starts digging into the past. I will almost certainly re-read it sometime.
Today I finished reading Emminent Victorians (Book Club choice), the infamous hatchet job that Lytton Strachey performed on Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr Arnold and General Gordon... in the end I had to skip over to Wikipedia for a different point of view. At first sight it seems to be helo-bent on delivering spite and destruction of the reputations of these four heroes. He wrote it at the end of the First World War, and I think by then the general unthinking respect given to 'our keaders and betters' was definitely in Dec. Previous biographies of heroic figures were flattering and presented their subjects in tones of awe and admiration. They tended to gloss over such failings as naked ambition, politcal machinations and dodgy personal lives (such as a tendency to drink, religious obsession and a rather suspect freindliness towards young boys.)
Lytton Strachey was writing in a new style, revealing the less admirable side of his Emminent Victorians.
I'm not sure how the other members of the book club will have got on with with it. I was fascinated to explore areas of history and read about people that I'd previously known very little of. But probably not a book I'll read again.
I promised myself I wouldn't START another book until I had FINISHED two! Now, what shall I read next...
I had already started 'What you want is in the libary'. I'd read the sample on kindle after it was reccomended and found it so gently charming that I downloaded it at once. I managed tear myself away after chapter 1 to make sure I did finish two books before I got stuck in. So I think that's going to be next.
I might suggest “What you are looking for …” for my book group. Every November we all put forward three suggestions for our leader to winnow down into a list of 11 books and my other two are “Orbital” by Samantha Harvey (Booker prize winner) and “Our Evenings” by Alan Hollinghurst. Thank you Kirsten. I went to the new Pallant House exhibition on Friday evening on the work of Dora Carrington and one of the exhibits is a film from 1929 of Dora and friends (including Lytton Strachey with whom she was unrequitedly and passionately in love - it takes all sorts!) cavorting on horseback and swimming in a lake. I read Eminent Victorians about 50 years ago - I used to be slightly obsessed with the Victorian Age - and thought even then he must have had a certain he je ne sais quoi to get away with it. Btw everyone in the 1929 film had crooked rotten teeth - very noticeable as they laughed their heads off. Sadly Dora shot herself in 1932 aged 38. Sarah in Sussex
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure how 'literary' your book club is; I fear some members of mine would find 'what you are looking for' a bit lightweight! Personally I prefer lightweight to harrowing and gut wrenching etc.
DeleteI don't know if any of the Bloomsbury set, at least the women, reached a happy and contented old age.