Category: Literary Canon & Reading Notes

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. 19-22 April 2015.Due to a glitch of the local internet that lasted for three days, I was confined to the books that I already downloaded. So after a small excursion to the early Indian literary space time continuum, I had to contend myself to be warped back into the 19th … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature April 19 – 22.

The Ramayana Volume six; The Book of War.The Monkey army under command of Sugriva and Rama marched up to the shores of the Southern Sea where they find Vibishana, the brother of Ravana. When they brought him as a prisoner to Rama he explained that he got exiled because he spoke in favor of a … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature April 16 – 18

The Ramayana by Valmiki. The title can be translated as the Journey of Rama (who was an avatar of Vishnu) and consisted of 24,000 verses in seven books (kāṇḍas) and 500 cantos (sargas) all good for more than 50.000 lines of scripture. It is the second pillar of Indian literature and luckily, just like with … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature April 14 – 15

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoi 10 April 2015Volume 3..Natasha started slowly to recover from her disastrous liaison with Anatole and its calumnious fall out thanks to her loving family, her cousin Sonya and some newly found religious believes. At the same time the whole country was gearing up for an imminent confrontation with the … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature April 10 – 11

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. April 7, 2015.Volume 1;The book started with a party given by Anna Pavlovna Scherer (the best friend of the Empress Dowager who was the most powerful woman at the court of her son, Tsar Alexander) in St. Petersburg in 1805 and introduced Pierre Bezukhov and his good friend Prince … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature April 7 – 9

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. We’re halfway Semana Santa and our little rock is invaded by herds of drunk and pot smoking tourists. The part of the population that isn’t working into the tourism industry is either gleefully participating or went into lockdown with enough food and drink to survive for … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature April 4 – 6

Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann April 1, 2015.Part six.Tony decided to marry Alois Permeneder. Upon the moment he received his wife’s dowry, he retired with the intention to splash the money. She left him when he tried to rape a servant after an evening of drinking. Christian embarrassed Thomas by saying that businessmen are swindlers but … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature April 1 –

Season of Migration to the North by Tayeb SalihMarch 23, 2015.IntroductionThis Sudanese, Arab written novel was published for the first time in 1966 and plays during the early years of independence from British rule (1955 till early sixties). SummaryThe story is told by an unnamed narrator, who just came back from studying seven years poetry … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature March 23 till 25.

17 March 2015; finally finished the first volume of Tristam Shandi.We got also introduced to his father’s brother, uncle Toby, a battle maimed army officer and his man-servant, also a crippled veteran, corporal Trim. Further it seems that the author is giving away a lot of storylines; his nose being broken by dr. Slop’s forceps … Continue reading Reading the canon of the world literature Mar 17 till 19.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne.This humorous book has been publicized in nine volumes between December 1759 (vol. 1, 2) and January 1767 (vol. 9). The author was an Anglican clergyman who’s first book “The History of a Good Warm Watch-Coat”, describing the little squabbles and intrigues of church dignitaries, … Continue reading Reading the canon of the World literature Mar 13

The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu.March 11, 2015 This novel is written around the beginning of the 11th century in Japan and is probably the oldest novel ever. The most recent English translation runs over more than 1200 pages. Although its volume is the double of what I did limit myself, the book appealed … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World literature March 11 till 12

March 08, 2015.Already since a couple of days I’ve done not much about this project, mainly because of life that got into the way. At yesterday’s party, thrown by my proofreader who writes children books, I had to refrain my other proofreader to declare me the smartest man on the Island. Because that would have … Continue reading Reading the canon of the world literature March 8 till 10

Chapter 8; The Mahabharata.March 5, 2015The title of this book can be translated as "the great tale of the Bhārata dynasty“. It is assumed that the origins of the epic probably fall between the 8th and 9th centuries BCE and that the text probably reached its final form by the early Gupta period (c. 4th … Continue reading Reading the canon of the world literature March 5 till 7

6; Metamorphoses by Ovid February, 28th 2015To make a symbolic gesture, I choose at this point to continue my readings with a book whose title, translated into English means “The books of changes”.Book I; The four Ages of HumankindA long time ago, humankind lived into conditions that were comparable with what the Bible describes as … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature Feb 28 till Mar 3.

2. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust.The original title of this series of books was “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” and contains the following volumes;1 Volume One: Swann's Way, 2 Volume Two: In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower3 Volume Three: The Guermantes Way4 Volume Four: Sodom and Gomorrah5 Volume Five: … Continue reading Reading the Canon of the World Literature Jan 15 till Feb 22.