Man and Superman - George Bernard Shaw

One of the weirder tangents my thesis has taken me on is the depiction of Satan in 20th-century literature... not a topic I feel entirely at ease with, but needs must, and it has led me in the direction of some intriguing texts.  Most entertaining was George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman (1903) - which helpfully ticks off one of the tricky years at the beginning of A Century of Books.Although I've read a few Shaw plays, I don't think I've ever seen one performed.  This one would be great fun to watch, although it is apparently rarely performed...

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A Gallico Giveaway!

The lovely people at Bloomsbury have got in touch with me: they have eights sets of Mrs. Harris MP and Mrs. Harris Goes To Moscow to give away, and decided that the wonderful readers of Stuck-in-a-Book were the right types to receive them!  Trâm-Anh knew that I loved Gallico's novels Coronation and Love of Seven Dolls, and though somehow I've only just started Mrs. Harris series (halfway through Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris and loving it), it was always more in the way of saving-something-brilliant than uncertain-I'll-enjoy.So, if you live...

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Dusty Answer - Rosamond Lehmann

Despite packing and moving and all sorts, I have managed (just in time) to finish Dusty Answer by Rosamond Lehmann, and thus I am participating in Florence's Rosamond Lehmann Reading Week!  I also realise I've been spelling it 'Rosamund' up until now.  Sorry, Ros.I bought Dusty Answer (1927) eight years ago, and it's been on holiday with me a couple of times, and yet I hadn't read it (or any Rosamond Lehmann novels) until this week.  I had intended to read a different Lehmann novel, but then decided to start at the beginning, with...

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A Favourite of the Gods - Sybille Bedford

Let's take a moment, before I begin, to praise how beautiful this book is - the book-as-object, I mean.  Well, you can only see the picture - sadly, you can't feel it.  It is beautiful to read.  The cover flips closed with a beautiful soft clunk; the pages slip beautifully together.  It is a little soft to the touch.  It's delightful.  This is why I love books, not just reading.  This is why I won't get an e-reader.But, thankfully, it didn't end there.  A Favourite of the Gods (1963) is also a really good...

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Here we go again...

Moving house today...  I have a post automated to come out tomorrow, but no guarantees after that!  See you on the other side...

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A Card From Angela Carter - Susannah Clapp

When I was given A Card From Angela Carter at a Bloomsbury party a while ago, I was excited to read it - but, at the same time, I worried that it might be a bit barrel-scrapey.  The barrel that, as far as I know, has in fact scarcely been investigated.  The publication of some of Carter's postcards seems as though it would be the afterthought to a long series of edited diaries and letters - none of which have been published (or have they?)But I needn't have worried.  The selection of postcards Angela Carter had sent to Susannah Clapp...

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Wise Children - Angela Carter

Twins. Theatre. Shakespeare. Eccentrics.  There was never really any chance that I wouldn't like Wise Children (1991) by Angela Carter, was there?Everything kicks off with 75 year old twins Dora and Nora Chance (with Dora as our narrator) getting an invitation to their father's 100th birthday party.  Only he (Melchior) has always denied his parentage, instead claiming that his twin brother Peregrine is their father.  They're understandably a bit miffed by this, but nothing keeps them down for long.  They really are eternal optimists...

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Song for a Sunday

A lovely lady called Diana got in touch with me a while ago to recommend Christian artist Sara Groves as a Sunday Song singer.  Well, I know and love Groves' album The Other Side of Something, but Diana sent a few links to more recent songs, and I liked them.  I picked 'Childhood Summer' more or less at random, because it seemed appropriate for the last-ditch effort at summer we've been having this weekend.  Thanks, Dia...

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Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

My weekend is looking pretty busy - a wedding later today, and then packing, packing, packing.  For I am moving house - to Headington, just east of Oxford.  If anyone would like to update their address books, email me and I'll let you know my new address...  My actual move date is next Wednesday, so I may go a bit quiet, depending on how internet goes in the new place, and whether or not I manage to prepare some blog posts in advance. 1.) The book - nearly two years ago, I was surprised by how much I liked Ned Beauman's Boxer, Beetle, and...

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His Monkey Wife - John Collier

Some titles are metaphors.  Some titles seem to suggest one thing, only for the book to be about something completely different - from The Silence of the Lambs to A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.  And His Monkey Wife (1930) is also a bit false... but only because he isn't married to the monkey.  There is some question of it later.  But, as the novel kicks off, it's simply that a monkey is in love with him.  That's all.Mr. Fatigay is an English schoolmaster in the Congo whose charms (mostly of a scholarly...

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Manguel on... the Destruction of Books

For a while I've been reading Alberto Manguel's wonderful The Library at Night, given to me by my brother last year.  It's the perfect book to have next to my laptop while I'm writing my thesis - when I need a quite break, rather than browsing Facebook I read a few delightful pages of Manguel.  And, like I did with Stop What You're Doing And Read This, I'm going to be posting quite a few funny, recognisable, thought-provoking, or simply good, excerpts from The Library At Night, along with some paintings I like, preferably of readers (following...

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Five From the Archive (no.5)

I hope the Canadian bloggers among you don't mind my affectionate teasing in the sketch(!)  Although I've never been to Canada, I feel a certain affinity with that nation - we Brits (when we're not binge-drinking football fans) also radiate politeness (even when seething), and apologise when someone bumps into us.  Kate Fox's Watching the English is a brilliant read for this sort of thing, and will probably appear in a Five from the Archive at some point - but, for today...Five... Books By Canadians.1.) Too Much Happiness (2009) by Alice...

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STW on VW

Sylvia Townsend Warner (photo source)Sylvia Townsend Warner on Virginia WoolfDiaries 26thJanuary 1942‘At Boots Library the young woman put into my hands Virginia Woolf’s last book [Between The Acts].  And I received an extraordinary impression how light it was, how small, and frail.  As though it was the premature-born child, and motherless, and literally, the last light handful remaining of that tall and abundant woman.  The feeling has haunted me all da...

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Coronation - Paul Gallico

God bless the Queen!  And God bless lovely Alice at Bloomsbury, who recently sent me a copy of Paul Gallico's Coronation (1962).  I wish I'd had this in my hands over the Jubilee weekend, because it would have made perfect reading.  It still made pretty darn brilliant reading this weekend.Here's how the novel opens:The wheels of the Coronation Special from Sheffield, due at St. Pancras Station at six o'clock in the morning of Coronation Day, 2nd June 1953, sang the steady, lulling dickety-clax, dickety-clax of the British Railways.  Approaching...

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Chatsworth: the photos!

It's felt like quite a long week, and my energy levels are about up to posting a whole bunch of photos... so here are some snaps from my day at Chatsworth!  The weather wasn't great, but the company was, and the house and gardens are beautiful.  I didn't spend all that much time in the garden, but last time I went I spent more time in the garden than the house, so it evened out nicely (and this time Colin wasn't waiting in the car park!)  So... photo post ahoy!This was the carriage they used at theCoronation, I think - included a great metal...

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A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf

I love Virginia Woolf.  Whenever I'm not reading her, I have slight doubts in my mind - is she really as brilliant as I remember?  Does a little bit of me just love Woolf because I think I ought to love Woolf?  And then I re-read one of her books, and realise that she is as brilliant as I remember - I find it very hard to believe that there is a better writer in the twentieth century.  Suggestions on a postcard.Even those who wrinkle their noses at her fiction (listen up, Colin) tend to admire her non-fiction.  For my thesis...

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The Other Garden - Francis Wyndham

I had a lovely day at Chatsworth, even though all didn't go entirely to plan.  I'll fill you in on all that soon!  (WHAT a cliffhanger!)  For today, let's fill up one of those surprisingly-less-tricky-than-expected 1980s slots in A Century of Books.I picked up The Other Garden (1987) by Francis Wyndham because I thought I'd heard of the author (and because it was short, cheap, and sounded interesting) but I must have been thinking of someone else, since this seems to have been Wyndham's only novel, although he also wrote (writes?) short...

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