1. Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!

Off Topic Art & Literature

Discussion in 'Southampton' started by Beddy, Nov 26, 2019.

  1. ChilcoSaint

    ChilcoSaint What a disgrace
    Forum Moderator

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2011
    Messages:
    37,242
    Likes Received:
    35,094
    John Le Carre actually said after the BBC series that he should have written the Olivia Coleman character as a woman, and that having her pregnant was a master stroke.
     
    #401
  2. Ian Thumwood

    Ian Thumwood Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2011
    Messages:
    3,021
    Likes Received:
    2,887
    I find Le Carre a bit wordy. I read "A perfect spy" and enjoyed that about 30 years ago but I just felt that the "Night manager" was far more satisfying on TV. The end was terrific whereas the book just peters out.
     
    #402
  3. Beddy

    Beddy Plays the percentage

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    9,567
    Likes Received:
    2,694
    What about Dan Brown books? I haven’t read any of his for a while...........Any one read a decent one of his lately?
     
    #403
  4. Number 1 Jasper

    Number 1 Jasper Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2011
    Messages:
    24,143
    Likes Received:
    14,856
    Stephen Donaldson .

    Mordant's need ( Mirror of her dreams + a man rides Through ) .

    Love it .

    Read it several times.
     
    #404
    Schrodinger's Cat likes this.
  5. Che’s Godlike Thighs

    Che’s Godlike Thighs Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    12,399
    Likes Received:
    19,947
    I've read both Angels & Demons and Inferno. Both decent reads and as per usual with Dan Brown, very much page-turners. If you've been to Florence, you will enjoy Inferno in particular, as it is set there and the city plays a big part in the plot.
     
    #405
  6. Che’s Godlike Thighs

    Che’s Godlike Thighs Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    12,399
    Likes Received:
    19,947
    Just finished A Christmas Carol. Must be the book with the most adaptations ever. The original is great. Obviously the plot is familiar, but Dickens goes all out on the figurative language. Really seems like he enjoyed writing this book, and just decided to have a laugh with it.

    Read both Great Expectations and Oliver a while back. Absolutely loved GE, but wasn't too fussed by Oliver.

    Any other Dickens recommends?
     
    #406
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2020
  7. TheSecondStain

    TheSecondStain Needs an early night

    Joined:
    Jul 23, 2011
    Messages:
    39,383
    Likes Received:
    8,819
    Blimey, you just started with Dickens? well let me recommend The Pickwick Papers as fun adventures, and if you live in N.Kent you can visit the same Leather Bottle inn where Bill Stumps His Mark at Cobham in Kent.

    Our Mutual Friend is excellent stuff from the River Thames and tributaries, by turns sinister, tragic and funny. Martin Chuzzlewit is the same, based in Salisbury, but covers London and the USA [Martin is THAT desparate that he goes to America]. Nicholas Nickleby is another. Bleak House is brilliant. Dombey & Son is overlooked, I think, but both tragic and comedic in true Dickens style.
    Dickens was the Victorian Bard. He invented almost as many words as Shakespeare, and like the Stratford Bard he never had a problem with starting a sentence with "And." As do not I.
    Bollocks to primary school English teachers. :emoticon-0110-tongu

    Oh, and don't forget the short stories, like The Signalman.
     
    #407
    Last edited: Feb 9, 2020
  8. Che’s Godlike Thighs

    Che’s Godlike Thighs Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    12,399
    Likes Received:
    19,947
    Cheers, TSS. Actually I read GE and Oliver a long time ago, but just never got round to any more of his.

    But yeah, definitely gonna go for more soon.
     
    #408
  9. saintrichie123

    saintrichie123 Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2011
    Messages:
    29,798
    Likes Received:
    34,476
    The lost symbol was a good read.
     
    #409
    Beddy likes this.
  10. Beddy

    Beddy Plays the percentage

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    9,567
    Likes Received:
    2,694
    Ok guys thanks........
     
    #410

  11. Ian Thumwood

    Ian Thumwood Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 17, 2011
    Messages:
    3,021
    Likes Received:
    2,887
    I went through a phase of reading the classics and that included Dickens. I really liked "David Copperfield" which was the first one I read but I cannot recall a lot about it. I can recall even less about "A tale of two cities" which I read next although it was about the French Revolution and I included an amusing account of the Gordon Riots. I think "Great Expectations" was probably the best because the descriptions of the Thames and that environment are so evocative. However, I picked up "Hard times" shortly afterwards and have to say this was really poor. It started off as a critique of the education system of the time but then changed direction mid-way through before dealing with the poor in an industrial town. This book was written quickly for a journal when Dickens was midway through "Nicholas Nickleby" and he quickly needed some case. It really shows as the story is unfocussed and not a patch on something like Emile Zola's "Germinal" which is far more effective in covering this territory. I came to the conclusion that Dickens could be uneven but you often find this with some classic writers. I think there is a discussion to be had as to whether Balzac should be more celebrated than Dickens although he does not have the wealth of great characters. The stories are good and in Vautrin, he created one of the great literary villains.

    In my opinion Dickens is not on a par with Shakespeare but I find 19th century literature really unappealing as a whole and think that many historians consider the writing of George Elliot to be just as good at conveying the social situation of the time as Dickens. I was made to read "Jane Eyre" and "Far from the madding crowd" at school which made be reluctant to want to explore classic English writers for a long while. I have never read any Jane Austen and the thought of her books leaves me cold even though she was a local and I have visited her house as I am curious about this period of history. I think I have read more medieval literature than 19th century writers and think that some of the more popular writers such as HG Wells that I have read do not really stand the test of time. Incidentally, Jules Verne is even worse!

    I have read more Zola than Dickens and went through a spell of reading his books until I go fed up with the depressing endings. However, I think that "The debacle", "Germinal" and "La bete humaine" are exceptional - the latter is a crime thriller about a killer on a railway train.
     
    #411
  12. hotbovril

    hotbovril Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2011
    Messages:
    2,727
    Likes Received:
    1,538
    I read his Gap Cycle last year. It is without a doubt the darkest, most brutal bit of science fiction it has ever been my pleasure to read.
     
    #412
    Number 1 Jasper likes this.
  13. Number 1 Jasper

    Number 1 Jasper Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 30, 2011
    Messages:
    24,143
    Likes Received:
    14,856

    Will give that a go thanks .
     
    #413
  14. Che’s Godlike Thighs

    Che’s Godlike Thighs Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    12,399
    Likes Received:
    19,947
    I'm on Wuthering Heights now. F*ck me, chapter 11 is mental (the argument/fight between Heathcliff-Cathy-Linton). What a pair of nutcases; Heathcliff and Cathy. <laugh>
     
    #414
    It's Only A Game likes this.
  15. Beddy

    Beddy Plays the percentage

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    9,567
    Likes Received:
    2,694
    <laugh>
     
    #415
  16. It's Only A Game

    It's Only A Game Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 5, 2017
    Messages:
    3,083
    Likes Received:
    6,143
  17. It's Only A Game

    It's Only A Game Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Aug 5, 2017
    Messages:
    3,083
    Likes Received:
    6,143
    What does a book reviewer do?
    "A book review is a guide for potential readers. In a concise manner, a review summarizes the author's qualifications and main points, often providing examples from the text. A review also provides an opinion on whether the author succeeds or not in convincing readers of his or her points."

     
    #417
    ChilcoSaint likes this.
  18. Che’s Godlike Thighs

    Che’s Godlike Thighs Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 28, 2012
    Messages:
    12,399
    Likes Received:
    19,947
    <laugh>

    I bet there aren't many lads who grew up on a council housing estate in Shirley who have read close to the amount I have though.
     
    #418
    It's Only A Game likes this.
  19. Beddy

    Beddy Plays the percentage

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    9,567
    Likes Received:
    2,694
    At the hotel we’re staying I have picked up a old Agatha Christy novel. Murder on the orient express going to read that to cheer me up. Haven’t read that for nigh on 50 years!
     
    #419
    davecg69 and Schrodinger's Cat like this.
  20. Beddy

    Beddy Plays the percentage

    Joined:
    Jan 25, 2011
    Messages:
    9,567
    Likes Received:
    2,694
    Her books are very good aren’t they? Good plots that in some ways never date! I just might go back and read a few more later. Just wandering what to read next............
     
    #420

Share This Page