Tuesday 14 September 2010

Book report

It appears I'm back to university... I am extremely busy, the very few breaks I have I mainly use for sustaining purposes such as eating and sleeping, but I am happy. The 'book report' section of this blog will benefit from my return, having to read two or three novels every week.

Books recently read:

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-Simone de Beauvoir's Les Mandarins (first volume)

I finished it the day before starting school, and was quite sad I won't get to read the second volume until Christmas holidays, being so busy. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning about the intellectual response to the after-war already having a certain knowlege of the situation. It is intended to be an 'evocation', and I got more caught up in it after doing more research about the author; it adds another dimension to the novel.

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-Henry James's Washington Square*

Beautifully written, James has a surprisingly true view of a young woman's intimate life, although not a book I would have chosen to read by myself.

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-George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion*

The play on which My Fair Lady is based but with a different (and more interesting, I think) ending. I would be very happy to see it performed, with all the characters' different accents as language and pronouciation have a great importance in it. It is also very interesting to read as Shaw wrote sections for the reader that would otherwise be missed as they do not include any dialogue.

*Readings required by school

2 comments:

  1. I have had The Mandarins on my shelf for years. I've tried to read it about 5 times, but despite loving S de B I just can't get through it. I think maybe because it assumes the reader does know everything about that situation. Maybe I should read up, then re-read!

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  2. Yes, that really helped me to go through it! Also, watching the movie Les amants du Flore (it's available on youtube with subtitles, if it interests you) gave me a new perpective on some of the characters I didn't know were based on real people. I had been trying to read it since last Christmas, and after a little research, read the remaining half of it in a few days.

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