This novel from 1901 is surprisingly easy to whip through, considering it was co-written by two heavyweights of English literature, Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Ford (in his earlier guise as Hueffer). Their writing style does not usually allow a fast and snappy read. They were both masters of the elliptical and the oblique, circumlocuting their subject … Continue reading Do you believe what the newspapers say? The Inheritors, by Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Hueffer
Rereading Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent in the weeks after the Paris terrorist murders was sobering. Rereading it while living in Brussels during the ‘lockdown’ while the Belgian police searched for terrorist cells before they blew anyone else up (apparently five potential attacks were prevented) was too close to say 'I enjoyed it', but it is an excellent … Continue reading Fear and loathing of terrorism: Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent
I needed to read Karel Čapek’s RUR, his 1920 play in which he invents the robot, so I bought it in the SF Masterworks edition. The other half of this edition is an extraordinary novel called War With the Newts, which was an unexpected pleasure. It was almost the last thing Čapek published, in 1936, … Continue reading Karel Čapek’s War With the Newts
