Robertson Davies

[Febnyc]

I've been revisiting books I haven't read in many years.

Got through all the Dickens novels once again, and lots of Trollope and Hardy.

Now I have turned to the wonderful Canadian author, Robertson Davies.

In his Salterton Trilogy (1950s) - a marvelous triptych of serious, but often hilarious, fiction, there is a story (the last of the three) called "A Mixture of Frailties." The focus, essentially, is on classical music (although there's more than just music), as experienced through by a budding young singer, a composer and a maestro.

[Belle]

That's quite an achievement with the Dickens. I loved "Dombey & Son" ... 'the sun and the moon and the stars were for their enterprises, or against them" (paraphrasing). The last novels of Dickens are torture!!

What do you think of Thomas Hardy? I've always found his novels (and I certainly haven't read all of them) somewhat melodramatic. Hardy plenty of beautiful poetry, though.

Of all the novels I've read, I enjoyed the most "Middlemarch" and "Anna Karenina", the latter superior. An interesting and complex essay in psychoanalysis!!

The very worst novels I've ever read were "Our Mutual Friend" (Dickens), "The Bone People" (NZ writer, Kerri Hulme); it was the worst - I had to read it for teaching. "To the Islands" and "Visitants", by Australian novels by Randolph Stow and Conrad's "Nostromo".

[Febnyc]

Belle:

I like Hardy's novels. They have a certain "brawn" to them, amidst the poetry that you mention.

I've enjoyed every one of Dickens' books. These were read chronologically during my working days, when I had a two-hour commute to and from the office. Anyway, I really don't have a favorite, although "Martin Chuzzlewit" is near the top of the list. I liked "Our Mutual Friend," as I did "Bleak House" - with their legal twists and turns - in and out of Courts of Chancery - so Victorian!

And I've found with the Russians that the translation is so important. The "feel" of the story changes drastically depending on how it was brought into English. (I wish I could read the originals!) I am right now reading "Doctor Zhivago" and I love Pasternak's description of nature and the landscapes in which the action is taking place. Beautiful.

Have not read any of Conrad.