Books that have shone out during my recent long run of duds as being really splendid reads, giving me faith that good books are out there if you keep at it long enough. Gossamer Years This is the revised translation by Edward Seidensticker from 1960 of a nameless 10th-century Japanese noblewoman’s complaints about her very … Continue reading More good books
Category: Henry James
Reading Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage
This conversation began when Brad Bigelow of The Neglected Books page noticed that I'd reviewed Pointed Roofs, the first volume of Pilgrimage. We began to chat about our respective experiences of reading the books, since he was only five volumes ahead of me, as I posted about Backwater and Honeycomb, and The Tunnel and Interim. … Continue reading Reading Dorothy Richardson’s Pilgrimage
In praise of H P Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward
Has the time come for an Edith Wharton-H P Lovecraft mashup? If it weren’t for casual remarks about cars, trucks and a jazz club, The Case of Charles Dexter Ward could be read alongside any of Wharton’s short novels, or even a Henry James. His prose is elegant, and involved, requiring close attention to read the meaning … Continue reading In praise of H P Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward