You are currently browsing the monthly archive for October, 2008.
Volume One: Bartholomew Wolfe Bandy abandons medical school for the Victorian Light Infantry. He survives the trenches only to be transferred to the Royal Flying Corps after capturing his own colonel in a daring raid on his own lines. He meets his future wife, Katherine Lewis, by crashing in her field, and despite his best efforts becomes an ace. He also lands an aeroplane on the colonel.
Beginning with Bandy’s life in Beamington Ontario shortly before leaving for Europe and the First World War, the “memoirs” follow his adventures through the war and into the 20’s and 30’s, with the last books carrying him into World War Two.
When not busy avoiding death, winning medals, or oscillating through ranks like a yo-yo, Bandy spends his time driving his superior officers into apoplectic fits.
Anthony Powell’s universally acclaimed epic encompasses a four-volume panorama of twentieth century London. Hailed by Time as “brilliant literary comedy as well as a brilliant sketch of the times,” A Dance to the Music of Time opens just after World War I. Amid the fever of the 1920s and the first chill of the 1930s, Nick Jenkins and his friends confront sex, society, business, and art. In the second volume they move to London in a whirl of marriage and adulteries, fashions and frivolities, personal triumphs and failures. These books “provide an unsurpassed picture, at once gay and melancholy, of social and artistic life in Britain between the wars” (Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.). The third volume follows Nick into army life and evokes London during the blitz. In the climactic final volume, England has won the war and must now count the losses.
“There is always much interest, much debate and much speculation, over who Anthony Powell used as the models for the characters in A Dance to the Music of Time. The author has explicitly stated that this ‘novel-in-twelve-volumes’ is not a roman-á-clef. Nonetheless at least a couple of dozen of the 400 characters are clearly based upon real persons known to the author, and have been identified with varying degrees of authority. In a number of instances these identifications have been confirmed by AP, or admitted as sources in his Journals.
Powell has explained that fictional characters are always mixtures; no-one ‘is’ anybody. Friends of his such as Evelyn Waugh and Malcolm Muggeridge were too complete to be turned into fiction; he has said, “It is much more likely to be one’s bank manager or dentist”. Indeed questions about models for characters have become the bane of Powell’s life: “People won’t believe that you are capable of inventing characters,” he protests. “All right a couple of people might occur to you but to make it work you have to invent a ‘third person’ to pull it all together”. [Sunday Telegraph Magazine, 25 Sept 1997] And consequently he had little time for people who do what we have done here: analyse the character models…”
Anthony Powell Dance Character Models
An erudite companion to Anthony Powell’s 12-volume masterwork, A Dance to the Music of Time, which The NewYorker hailed as “one of the most important works of fiction since the Second World War.”A Dance to the Music of Time is a landmark of 20th-century literature—but as the reader cavorts through the 12-volume novel alongside the narrator Nicholas Jenkins, it soon becomes apparent that he, too, confuses dates and events. Here, Hilary Spurling places every detail in its proper place. A magnificent database of Powell’s imagination and England’s cultural landscape, Invitation to the Dance encompasses more than 400 characters and one million words of Powell’s lively epic.
Conundrums for the Long Week-End by Robert McGregor and Ethan Lewis
Lord Peter Wimsey-amateur detective, man of fashion, talented musician, and wealthy intellectual-is known to legions of readers. His enduring presence and popularity is a tribute to his creator, Dorothy L. Sayers, who brought Lord Peter to life during “the long week-end” between the First and Second World Wars, as British aristocracy began to change, making way for a modern world.
In Conundrums for the Long Week-End, Robert McGregor and Ethan Lewis explore how Sayers used her fictional hero to comment on, and come to terms with, the social upheaval of the time: world wars, the crumbling of the privileged aristocracy, the rise of democracy, and the expanding struggle of women for equality.
Evelyn Waugh’s neglected masterpiece…
“…What makes the novel so powerful is its aptness to time and place. Waugh evokes the opening stages of the ‘Bore War’ perfectly. It was ‘that strangely cosy interlude between peace and war, when there was leave every week-end and plenty to eat and drink and plenty to smoke, when France stood firm on the Maginot Line and the Finns stood firm in Finland’. Into this world Waugh reintroduces Basil Seal, the charming rogue who last appeared in Black Mischief unknowingly dining on his fiance with a bunch of cannibals. Seal has been drifting from job to job trying to find a place for himself and failing. He ‘had been a leader writer on the Daily Beast, he had served in the personal entourage of Lord Monomark, he has sold champagne on commission, composed dialogue for the cinema and given the first of what was intended to be a series of talks for the BBC. Sinking lower in the social scale he had been press agent for a female contortionist and had once conducted a party of tourists to the Italian lakes’. ‘Sinking lower ‘ is a perfect Waugh touch.
Seal’s misadventures form the heart of the novel. In the beginning he tells his sister, Barbara, that he wanted to be ‘one of those people one heard about in 1919: the hard faced men who did well out of the war’. He uses his near-incestuous relationship with her to take over her job of placing children from the bomb-threatened cities in country homes. With the Connolly children, three horrid slum urchins, Seal makes a tidy living blackmailing wealthy families into paying him to take them off his hands. The Connollys are named after the critic, Cyril Connolly, an old school mate and friend of Waugh, whom he often lampooned in his books.
Waugh also has Seal betray his former friend, the half Jewish, openly gay, poet and intellectual bellwether of his generation, Ambrose Silk. Silk finds himself adrift as the war breaks out, his whole life of frivolity and intellectual posing seems a waste. He refuses to flee to America as did his friends, the poets Parsnip and Pimpernel. Instead Seal arranges to have Silk shipped off to Ireland disguised as a priest, Fr. Flanagan, S.J. There Silk finds himself at peace and ready to resume his writing career…”
Do you know what I hate? Well, alright, I know most of you will say “everything”, and that’s fine, but I want to talk specifics for a moment. I mean I hate this more than I hate Amish Catholics, more than spam email, the smell of aniseed, faux complimentary comments written to escape the spam filter from commercial websites and even more than all forms of advertising…What I’m trying to say, is that I hate it.
What I hate is this ridiculous and juvenile behaviour that guarantees that anytime two or more people foregather on a message board, or comments section, that they will start an argument which quickly devolves into playground name calling and sophomoric “your mama” taunts. It happens everywhere, even places where you would think the clientelle a bit too sophisticated for such shenanigans. If you want to do some research on a particular topic, you plug in your search query, wade through all of the advertising for pornographic material (and I don’t care what your search topic is, pornographic pictures will be on the top of your list, every time…Which might thrill some, but annoys the hell out of me) you might find a message board discussing the very topic you are searching for. Well, you click on that and then read the first two entries…After that you must read 500 shrill argument comments where the participants are engaged in a running battle of wit where no one is armed…I hate it.
Of course we are all aware of the decline in civility and manners (a construct of the evil white male oppressor patriarchy used to control non-whites and especially women) and we all realize that the anonymity of the online world makes it that much easier to engage in rude and vulgar behavior. But really, is it actually impossible for people today to engage in any sort of civilized discussion without it creating a bar room brawl? I am not talking only of those sites populated by 14 year old boys discussing the merits, or lack thereof of the latest video games. One would expect such behaviour there. No, this also happens where there is a gathering of what one supposes are mature adults discussing adult topics, or childish topics, it doesn’t matter. And of course you get this where anyone is stupid enough to discuss politics, but I don’t care what the topic is, people will fight about it. Human nature, I suppose, but I hate it.
Of course, in a society where the individual comes before all else and everyone is taught that they personally are the center of the known universe, and that they and their ridiculous opinions matter to everyone, and that they have the right to inflict them on others regardless of whether the others want them or not, one can see how this could come about. Which is why, one supposes, that many people take an overly aggressive “I’m right about everything” attitude when posting comments. Of course you also have the blog authors who use the “don’t like it, kiss off” school of writing, so they’re obviously fishing for rude comments and probably enjoy them. But both these behaviors stem from the same premise.
You also have the academic grad student type blogs where they are so fey and pretentious that they actually deserve rude comments. As with all college students, their ideas have never been thought of by anyone before, so they become miffed if one is not suitably impressed by their quite original brilliance and obviously correct opinions. Of course, their plans to change human nature for the better are also original and perfect. “Better” meaning to get rid of all the evil white male oppressors, of course, see what I mean. Best to avoid these sites except that they are useful for brushing up on your swear word vocabulary and locating the latest in “Che” fashion wear. Smart people seem to cuss a lot and look like Che.
Thankfully here at FoN we really do not have that problem. We rarely speak of politics here (which helps), and then only to poke fun at the whole ludicrous system. I actually want to encourage intelligent and civil conversation on divers topics, no really. And of course, we also don’t have many readers or comments, but that is neither here nor there. But let’s say we did have quite a few of both…What we aim for here, where we discuss things which are classics, is a demonstration of classic manners as well. Comments are there for you to display your wit, charm, grace and sophisticated word play…We want it to be witty and humorous. This does not mean that you cannot be snide, cutting, ironic, sarcastic, etc. Not at all. Just be civil and polite whilst falling on people in your best avenging angel mode and most of all, make us laugh. If one is to venture an opinion of some sort, make sure you identify it as such and be prepared to back it up with some sort of facts and logic. Just don’t throw out some half-baked opinion without explaining why you hold such half-baked opinions in the first place. And the first rule of civility is knowing when to be silent…Abiding by this rule saves us a ton of unpleasantness. The second rule, of course, is to develop a suitably thick skin (you know, don’t dish if you can’t take, etc. You’re sainted mother told you that years ago). And if you dish, do so politely, and take with equal aplomb and panache. You may not agree with what someone says, or with their opinion on a certain subject…Fine, but there is no need to tell them so. And if you must tell them so, is it to much to ask that you do so in a polite and civil manner? I don’t think so.
But that’s just my opinion…
Waugh’s World: A Guide to the Novels of Evelyn Waugh by Iain Gale
“Waugh became renowned for his chronicle of life among the British upper classes between 1920 and 1960. Cross-referenced entries of virtually every aspects of Waugh’s fictional works are set in alphabetical order. Snippets of trivia with detailed portraits of the complex dramas and casts to form an absorbing and witty documentary of the novels”.
Wooster’s World: A Companion to the Wooster-Jeeves Cycle of P. G. Wodehouse, LL.D.
by Geoffrey Jaggard
A Pleasing Diversity of Dumbchummery…
A guide to the characters, homes, pubs, clubs and etc. from Wooster-Jeeves. Lists information such as the 53 members of the Drones Club and explains Annie’s Night Out. Indispensable and very funny in it’s own right.
Plum Sauce: A P. G. Wodehouse Companion by Richard Usborne
In Plum Sauce, Richard Usborne-long regarded as the world’s leading authority on P. G. Wodehouse-brings together the best of his much admired commentary on the great man’s words to form the perfect companion to the nearly one hundred novels of “the most consistently funny writer the English language has yet produced” (The Times).
Plum Sauce also contains snippets of Wodehouse’s most outrageously hilarious prose, organized in categories from Animals (“Beach’s bullfinch continued to chirp reflectively to itself, like a man trying to remember a tune in his bath”) to menservants (“Jeeves lugged my purple socks out of the drawer as if he were a vegetarian fishing a caterpillar out of a salad”). Usborne introduces in depth all the beloved major characters-Jeeves and Wooster, Psmith, Ukridge, Uncle Fred, Lord Emsworth, and the Blandings circle-and sketches the rest of the Wodehouse cast-from Gussie Fink-Nottle to the chorus of Aunts and Drones. Lavishly illustrated with original dust jacket artwork and sketches from the Strand Magazine, Plum Sauce is the ultimate source for both aficionados and novices just beginning to “scratch the old lemon.”
A Sherlock Holmes Handbook by Christopher Redmond
Here in one convenient book by a noted Sherlockian scholar is everything needed for the study and enjoyment of the Holmes canon: information on the stories and their publishing history; an assessment of a century of illustrators; a biography of Arthur Conan Doyle and a bibliography of his other writings; commentary on the films and plays about Sherlock Holmes; synopses of the stories and information about their characters; a survey of Victorian life and on the geography and social scene of 1895 London; and information on current Sherlockian organizations. A final section comments on the lasting appeal of Sherlock Holmes and what he means to generations of readers.
Mr. Redmond is also editor of Sherlockian.net
The Patrick O’Brian Muster Book by Anthony Gary Brown
Now in its second edition, this expanded work catalogs every person, animal, ship and cannon mentioned by name in the 21 books of Patrick O’Brian’s series on the maritime adventures of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. The novels, renowned for their “far-ranging web of wit and allusion,” teem with thousands of characters and ships, both imaginary and historical. From Master and Commander to 21: The Unfinished Voyage, this book distinguishes the fictional from the factual, making a useful series companion for the casual reader and the most ardent fans. Each of the more than 5,000 alphabetized entries provides a reference to the novels and chapters in which the topic appears. Additionally, biographical notes on the historical figures are included, with sources provided in an annotated bibliography. Colin White, a leading British naval historian and an authority on Nelson’s Navy provides a foreword.
A Guide for the Perplexed – Online guide of translations of all non-English phrases in O’Brian. Can be downloaded and printed for ease of use.
The Patrick O’Brian Compendium – An Online resource.
“Ian Fleming’s wonderfully vivid James Bond novels run counter to the old adage concerning books and covers. Whether they are the fascinatingly stylised paintings that adorn today’s Bond paperbacks, or the evocative 1950s originals, showing that generic, rugged man with his comma of dark hair, these covers actually invite us to judge the books beforehand.
They tell us that we will be guaranteed outlandish thrills and generous measures of sex and gaudy villainy. But Fleming’s creation has consistently offered more even than all that, which is why the character of 007 now looks as though he might prove as enduring as Sherlock Holmes.
Starting off with Casino Royale in 1953, Fleming, a former commander in naval intelligence, gave a fresh injection of authenticity to the spy genre, while at the same time shrewdly upping the sex and violence quotient…”
