Gladstone, Palmerston, Flaubert, Camus, Burney, Charrieres, Melbourne

Since my last post, I've read two issues of The Economist and OK Magazine, four of Eclectic Reading, and one of The National Enquirer.

As well I've read Herbert Lottman's biographies of Gustave Flaubert and Albert Camus -- English influenced by the French language; Isabelle de Charrieres by Raymond Trousson; and the six volumes of Fanny Burney's letters and journals. I didn't know Charrieres existed, so I've learned a good deal about her. About Burney, as with my reading of Woolf's diaries, I don't knwo enough to appreciate them fully, and they are not penetrating enough to hold my attention.

I've also read David Cecil's Melbourne, which was excellent, and Philip Magnus' Gladstone, also very good. Aristocrats writing about other aristocrats. I also read Denis Kay-Robinson's The First Mrs. Thomas Hardy. This was written to settle a controversy regarding Hardy that I know nothing about. I've now read a biography of Palmerston by Espley, to complete the quartet of biographies of Victorian prime ministers -- the positions Palmerston took were understandable for the period, but I found them hard to fathom. I've also read a biography of Bessie Head by Gillian Stead Allersen. This latter is written in good but slightly stilted English -- English influenced by Danish.

Ayme, Effand, Burney

So I've read all of Marcel Ayme's novels. Some of them are truly excellent, although they are not know outside France: Travelingue, a tragedy ending in murder, Uranus, an immediate post-WWII novel, La Vouivre, a novel with a fantastical character who is the only remnant of Celtic culture in French myths. I loved them all, written with economy but a great precise vocabulary, characters that are interesting, plots whose ends I cannot predict.

I also read Benedetta Craveri's book on Mme d'Effand, a pre-revolutionary French salonniere. It was mildly interesting.

Finally, I started in on the six volumes of Fanny Burney's diaries. Like Virginia Woolf's, I don't know as much about their environment to recognize the people, as I did with Goncourt, say. The letters and diaries are chronological, so that I find it more challenging. On my nighttable for today: the works of Beaumarchais, best known for Noces de Figaro, and a biography of Gustave Flaubert.

Woolf, Burney

Since my last post, I've read an issue of OK Magazine. I expect to finish reading Marcel Ayme tomorrow.

I also read the second volume of Virginia Woolf's diary, which includes some pretty sharp comments about people, particularly women. Of course, a diary is not meant to be anything but honest. It also contains some despairing comments about her own writing, about being old and out of fashion, as well as recording some mundane reasons which nonetheless prevented her from writing on this day or that. It is when I read her 'fighting off the fidgets' that I feel the most compassion.

I also read a memoir of Fanny Burney, by Dodson. Being dresser to Queen Charlotte is quite an odd occupation for a talented writer. I will be reading Burney's diaries next. Finally, I am reading a biography of Christina Rossetti, by Jan Marsh.