Diderot, Zweig

Since my last post, I've finished reading the complete works of Diderot, ending with a work on how to play the harpsichord late last night. Yes, I was having trouble sleeping. I also read Stefan Zweig's essay on Erasmus. It was supposed to be a biography, but it was not - not enough material in the time he had, I guess.

Diderot was impressive for a number of reasons. First and foremost, his range is amazing: he wrote a plan for a university for Catherine the Great, a book of mathematics, a book on playing the harpsichord, several books of criticism, several plays, an enormously anti-clerical novel called La religieuse, and some political essays, so say nothing of his Encyclopedie. His books of criticism were hard to read as they attacked other works line by line, but their tone reminded me of my intellectual mentor of some years back.

SO next, I'm going to read more Zweig, and some odds and ends from other lists that I have to pick up from the library.

I have now read 115 complete works, and my new goal is to reach 125 complete works by the end of the summer. I have Zweig on order, and there is Sainte-Beuve in the library, and Benjamin Constant, but I don't know who else? Maurois? Gide? That's still only 5, I need 5 more...I should target single book wonders!!!!!!!!!!!