Bookshelf Tour ♾️: Caroline to 1899

[@TheBookedEscapePlan]

I have long wanted to read Gil Blas! I have, however, read Tom Jones. I read it while reading Dickens as a teenager and fell down one of those reading rabbits holes; this one was the picaresque novel, which I discovered after reading Nicolas Nickleby during my ambition to read Charles Dickens in publication order because I had loved what had introduced me to him so much. And I loved Nicolas Nickleby, and wanted to know what made it so singular for me on that journey, and learned of Dickens's fondness for the picaresque. Anyway, several different connections were made, and I picked up a chunky paperback of Tom Jones (which I still own and cherish) and it is one of the books I have most wanted to read again in my whole life, but have only read once. I loved it. And I still to this day remember so much from it. But having read so much more since then, I would love to experience the work in a more exposed literary mindset. (This is why keeping notes when you read is so important, by the way: I know that when I do finally read Tom Jones again, whatever experience awaits me my thoughts, perceptions and receptions will be very different from my first reading a decade ago. And I will have my past self, in a notebook, to make contact with. That's a beautiful fortune which awaits me in the near-future.) I've never read Quaker City. As a matter of fact, your video is only the second time I have ever come across Quaker City; the first time I think I came across it was in Beneath the American Renaissance, by David S. Reynolds, a work of literary scholarship in dialogue with the seminal book, American Renaissance, by F.O. Matthiessen. I have more thoughts, but whenever I leave to think, I come back and what I have typed to send to you has been erased by some unspecified force. It's like, if you take more than a day to compose a remark, or send a thought or set of observations, that's too much: one simple route on the earth's axis is too much time for the unseen forces deleting my thoughts and remarks mid-composition. There is no saving of a draft for a "comment".

[@twostepClutch]

I read the Dead Souls translation by B.G. Guerney last year and quite enjoyed it. The humour really comes through.

[@sunnymorning8240]

You really have the most interesting library :) I'm learning (classical) Arabic too but not in a very structured way. It's also a bit astonishing to see s.o outside of G. Interested in Hölderlin!

[@Orpheuslament]

Arabic is a beautiful language. I hope your learning goes well

[@clayton7463]

I need to get to Sidney Lanier's work. I grew up in Georgia close to a lake I always heard was "named after some poet" but never thought to read the man's work once I got into literature.

[@Orpheuslament]

Tiger-lilies is truly an insane novel for the time.

[@rishabhaniket1952]

Man I badly need to get my hands on Zibaldone. It used to be available in India and I kept it in my 'buy later' list but since the past year or so it has completely disappeared from the shelves both online and in bookstores.

[@Orpheuslament]

A fear of this exact situation has led me to make many impulsive purchases.