Three Courtesans

By one of those strange co-incidences in the course of six days we saw three very different productions, in three different art forms (theatre, cinema and opera), in all of which courtesans were the central characters. This was certainly completely unplanned, but provides the chance for a blog which includes some reflections on the whole issue, which has been given contemporary relevance in the UK by the revelation of the identity of Belle de Jour.

On The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp

Powell and Pressburger’s Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, with which I have opened my PandP retrospective, is my favourite film. I do not make this claim lightly or easily. and recognise that there are times when I would advance the claims of other contenders for this title. It is, however, the only contender which is also, quite indubitably, a great film.

Scott’s Tales of a Scottish Grandfather

Walter Scott’s Tales of a Scottish Grandfather takes as a paratext the idea that he is explaining Scottish history to his grandson. In fact the degree to which Scott remembers this varies – he certainly slips in the odd reference to ‘your grandfather’ or ‘your grandfather’s grandfather’, but for the majority of the time it is clear that he is pursuing much larger ideological and political (and commercial, for we must never forget that where Scott is concerned - and these books, now almost forgotten even among the works of this most neglected of writers, were another big commercial success) goals.

A Brief Introduction to Alexander Herzen

I have been reading over the past few months Alexander Herzen’s My Past and Thoughts – or, more accurately, an abridgement of My Past and Thoughts. It is a book about which I could,  and probably will, write at inordinate length. Herzen is a companion for life. But I wanted to start by attempting to explain why I like him so much, and then make some remarks about his life and the book.

Crabbe – Tale 10: The Lover’s Journey

The Lover’s Journey, in contrast to the three Tales which preceded it, is most definitely not part of any group in terms of its subject or theme. It is a poem which could very easily be taken out of the context of The Tales. It is also in many ways a sunny, happy poem and thus provides a rebuttal to those who would claim that Crabbe is always gloomy.

October Miscellany

Continuing with Caryl Churchill I reached Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1977). I thought from the title that this was likely to be among  my favourite of Churchill’s plays and so it proved. Using her ensemble techniques she covers the radicalization, and then the confrontation with and suppression of the radicals, which occurred during the course of the English Revolution.

Berlin on Turgenev

In 1970 Isaiah Berlin delivered the Romanes Lecture in Oxford under the title ‘Fathers and Children – Turgenev and the Liberal Predicament’ ; the text is contained in the 1975 Penguin edition of Fathers and Sons. It is deeply fascinating not only for the insights which it gives into Turgenev, a man whom Berlin found deeply sympathetic, but because it states as clearly as possible (and things are rarely clear with Berlin!) his own political position at that particular point in time.

October Movies

Continuing my Godard viewing I come to his second film Le Petit Soldat (1960 but not released until 1963) starring Michel Subor and Anna Karina. The reason for the three-year delay between the making and release of the film was due to the fact that the French Government banned it because of its sensitive political content.

Trollope – Short Stories – City and Country

On the renamed Trollope 19thC Studies list (see right for link) we have embarked on a year long project of reading the complete Short Stories. We have read some 13 stories so far and the main – and very obvious – conclusions I would draw are…

September Miscellany

There is not that much for me to write about this month as much of it was spent in the grip of Depression (although I manage to find a topic!) ; this does however give a chance for a brief discussion of some topics which rarely get aired, first among them video games, my favourite coping mechanism.