Poetry Please

My book group always has discussion points separate to the discussion of the book in question (favourite hero in literature; books which evoke place; most overrated books - those sort of things) and yesterday we had the simple topic 'favourite poetry'.

And I always hit a bit of an obstacle.

There are some poems I love - a while ago I compiled a favourite eight for my friend Barbara, which I'll share sometime if I can remember - but, aside from a small selection, poetry usually leaves me cold. Perhaps because I read quite fast, and have to really slow myself down for poetry? Perhaps because I nearly went mad trying to read The Faerie Queene? I don't know. But I'd be happy to hear about your favourite poetry, and maybe put me back on the straight and narrow.

But I will also take a leaf out of Becca's book, and give a poem of the day - this battles out with some AA Milne, Psalm 51 and a sonnet or two of Shakespeare's, for my favourite poem. So atmospheric, so chilling.
(the image from this link, was a flickr image intended for the poem)

THE LISTENERS

by: Walter de la Mare

'IS there anybody there?' said the Traveller,

Knocking on the moonlit door;

And his horse in the silence champ'd the grasses

Of the forest's ferny floor:

And a bird flew up out of the turret,

Above the Traveller's head:

And he smote upon the door again a second time;

'Is there anybody there?' he said.

But no one descended to the Traveller;

No head from the leaf-fringed sill

Lean'd over and look'd into his grey eyes,

Where he stood perplex'd and still.

But only a host of phantom listeners

That dwelt in the lone house then

Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight

To that voice from the world of men:

Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,

That goes down to the empty hall,

Hearkening in an air stirr'd and shaken

By the lonely Traveller's call.

And he felt in his heart their strangeness,

Their stillness answering his cry,

While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,

'Neath the starr'd and leafy sky;

For he suddenly smote on the door, even

Louder, and lifted his head:--

'Tell them I came, and no one answer'd,

That I kept my word,' he said.

Never the least stir made the listeners,

Though every word he spake

Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house

From the one man left awake:

Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,

And the sound of iron on stone,

And how the silence surged softly backward,

When the plunging hoofs were gone.

Commenting...

More housekeeping - have slightly changed the way in which comments are added to the blog. If this doesn't work then... erm... I guess you'll have to email me (simondavidthomas@yahoo.co.uk) because clearly you can't comment to say the comments don't work!

Tove Jansson and other bits and pieces

I stumbled across some exciting book news yesterday.
As you might know, I love the works of Tove Jansson - and I've reviewed The Summer Book, A Winter Book, and Fair Play in various places on Stuck-in-a-Book. And now I find that, in October, they'll be publishing another Jansson novel - The True Deceiver. Sounds a little different from the others - this from the Amazon website:

In the deep winter snows of a Swedish hamlet, a strange young woman fakes a break-in at the house of an elderly artist in order to persuade her that she needs companionship. But what does she hope to gain by doing this? And who ultimately is deceiving whom? In this portrayal of two women grappling with truth and lies, nothing can be taken for granted. By the time the snow thaws, both their lives will have changed irrevocably.

Can't wait! The Sort Of Books publications are always such beautiful objects, and I'm delighted that Thomas Teal is translating more and more Jansson books. If you've not read any before, start with either the Summer or Winter books, not Fair Play - that's more of an acquired taste, I think.

Other bits and pieces which I've seen or had emailed to me lately...

Colin (aka The Carbon Copy) has written a witty and, to my mind, entirely accurate review of The Catcher in the Rye. Read it here, if you scroll down to the March 15th entry, especially if - like me - you've never understood why people like Holden. I quote Col's review: 'whiny, hypocritical, deadbeat loser'.

Natasha Mostert won 'The Book to Talk About 2009' from Spread the Word - more info here. This is the award Stuck-in-a-Book favourite Speaking of Love (by Angela Young) was shortlisted for last year.

Soizick Meister emailed me about her website showing her humorous, surreal and generally beautiful paintings, with some nice book influences (see pic) - do go and have a look. I'm always interested to hear about artists websites, either from the artist themselves or just a fan, so keep 'em coming!

www.lowlylizards.com - Peter Pnin emailed me about this innovative and unique poetry website

Russian Here, Russian There

I love the Alice illustrations so much that I'm a bit reluctant to move on from them... but I suppose they're still there for me and anyone else to look at. And if my copy of the Alice books weren't in Somerset, I'd have definitely re-read it by now... as it is, I have instead finished a book I've been dipping in and out of for quite a while now. One of those books to read at bedtime - it's EM Delafield's Straw Without Bricks: I Visit Soviet Russia.

The astute among you will notice that this isn't the title in the little picture accompanying this post... blame latterday publishers. Straw Without Bricks is an account of EM Delafield's experience after her American publishers asked her to visit Russia and 'write a funny book about it'. She does so as herself and, though her voice is often quite similar to that of the Provincial Lady's in other books, there is no suggestion that this is one of the Provincial Lady series... in fact, it's not even written as a diary. The Provincial Lady tag was just added in reprints to sell more copies. Tsk.

Violet Powell's so-so biography of EMD makes little mention of this book, except to say that it wasn't very successful, and generally judged to have been a bad idea (and EMD may have shared this opinion). I imagine that was largely because at the time of publication, 1937, the world wasn't quite ready for an honest appraisal of life as a tourist in Soviet Russia. For readers of 2009, it is a fascinating book - EMD does write in quite a light style, but this is certainly not the 'funny book' that her publisher was hoping for. Delafield's own political leanings were to the left, though not as far as Communism, and she treats the country and its inhabitants seriously. Much of this is with a subdued horror - at the indoctrination, the lack of freedom, the systematic removal of beauty and individualism - but she never makes Communism's adherents appear ridiculous. The humour is often directed towards her fellow tourists, or such quintessentially British anxieties as having to wait around for something to happen, or wondering how to pass someone one is keen not to engage in trivial conversation.

Her accounts of visiting factories, maternity wards, farms are all deeply interesting - a very true version (one assumes) of a little-accessed situation, without being dry or documentary-style. In the end, it is the absence of a moderate reaction to Soviet Russia which frustrates and baffles EMD:

'My fellow travellers all have opinions of their own which they regard, rightly or wrongly, as being of more value than mine. Most of them are pessimistic, and declare that they don't ever want to come back again, and that the Crimea was lovely but the plugs in the hotels wouldn't pull, and Moscow was interesting but very depressing.

Some, on the other hand - like Mrs. Pansy Baker - are wholly enthusiastic. (There is no juste milieu where the Soviet is concerned.) How splendid it all is, they cry, and how fine to see everybody busy, happy and cared-for. As for the institutions - the creches, the schools, the public parks and the prisons - all, without any qualification whatsoever, are perfect. Russia has nothing left to learn.'

As I said, Straw Without Bricks isn't written in a diary format - in fact, the format confuses me a little. I don't know the publication history (perhaps, like the PL books, this appeared in Time and Tide?), but most the book seems to be organised in separate but linked articles - sketches or anecdotes centred around certain events or people which vaguely follow on from each other, but could be read individually. The first eighty pages, though, are all about a Soviet Commune EMD lived in - a section followed, anachronistically, by an essay about sailing out to Russia. Odd. But easy enough to cope with, so long as temporal logic isn't sought to join these sections!

This book isn't as good as the Provincial Lady books proper, or rather it's different. Those are some of the warmest, funniest, truest books I've ever read, and I will read and re-read them for the rest of my life - Straw Without Bricks performs a wholly different task, and is in its own right an important, touching, sensible and informative book with many sparks of humour which is recognisably EMD. Occasionally I found myself wishing she'd simply written the 'funny book' her publisher asked for; in the end I realised how much more sensitively she'd approached the task, and the result is much more appropriate, even if somewhat less immortal.

Visions of Wonderland

The incredibly keen-eyed among you may have noticed that I've recently been building up a Places of Beauty section in my link list way down in the left column (yes, for IE users that will be somewhere riiiiiight down the bottom, touching the carpet). It started because I wanted to include Persephone Books website, but has morphed into a nebulous collection of websites which I think are beautiful, or are about beautiful places. That includes the artist I blogged about recently, Nicholas Hely Hutchinson (5 of his cards on the way to me, from this online shop), a wonderful illustrator called Alice Tait, the beautiful Arts & Craft house Blackwell in the Lake District and my own dear Magdalen. Any suggestions, especially for artists' and illustrators' websites, are welcome.


Today, however, I wanted to draw your attention to Lauren Harman's website of Alice's Adventure in Wonderland illustrations. Harman is a talented artist herself, but the website is a collection of all the illustrations she could find of the Alice books, from first publication to one which isn't even published yet. Think Alice illustrations begin and end with Tenniel and Rackham? Think again!


Now, I think Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Throught The Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There are works of genius, and I don't use the term lightly. In fact, I'd only (in my very humble opinion) unhesitatingly use the attribute of Shakespeare, Woolf and Lewis Carroll. (Please, no sidetracks into whether or not Carroll's motives were suspect...) BUT, even if - like Our Vicar's Wife - you don't like the Alice books, this assortment of illustrations is a truly wonderful resource artistically, or just to see how differently artists have interpreted the books.


And there are some surprising names - Lewis Carroll himself, even Salvador Dali (see immediately below). Stuck-in-a-Book favourite Tove Jansson isn't mentioned on Lauren's website, but her Alice illustrations can be seen elsewhere, here. (By the way, for each picture in this blog post, click on it to be taken to the corresponding page on Lauren's site, for a bit of artist information etc.)




Do go and have a look at the Alice illustrations, a few of which I've put in this post - I tried to contact Lauren, but if she'd like me to remove them, I will do so. From the simple designs of Roberta Paflin to the sweet depiction from Bessie Pease Gutmann, I also recommend AA Nash, Mabel Lucie Attwell, Anthony Brown and Henry Morrin. A wonderful resource, and making me want to go and read the Alice books all over again.


Any favourites - from this selection or from the website?
And what are your thoughts on Alice?
Favourite book or all a bit too silly?

Quiz answers, and Persephone prize

Right, to wrap up Persephone 10th Birthday celebration week, I'm going to give away a Persephone book and give the answers to the quiz I posted earlier in the week. Look away now if you don't want to know the results.

First off, the Persephone celebratory prize goes to... Donnafugata! Or possible Donna Fugata, I'm not sure. If you could email me your address to simondavidthomas@yahoo.co.uk and your choice of Persephone Book, I'll get it off to you as soon as possible. You went for A Very Great Profession or The Shuttle in your comment - well, I've not read the latter, but I can heartily recommend the former.

And now the quiz. It was a little difficult, and I applaud lethe's amazing attempt. Anyone who wants to test their Persephone knowledge - skip the rest of this post and have a go! Otherwise, here are the questions and answers:

1) Dorothy Whipple is the author with the most Persephone books under her belt - who's second?
Marghanita Laski (with The Victorian Chaise-Longue, The Village and Little Boy Lost)

2) Three of Persephone's books were originally published in the 19th century. How many can you name?
Reuben Sachs - Amy Levy
The Runaway - Elizabeth Anna Hart
The Young Pretenders - Edith Henrietta Fowler

3) Which Persephone reprint has sold the most copies?
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson

4) One of the Persephone titles has been filmed as The Reckless Moment (1949) and The Deep End (2001) - which one?
The Blank Wall - Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

5) By my reckoning, 7 of the Persephone authors are male - name as many as you can!
Leonard Woolf (The Wise Virgins)
Denis Mackail (Greenery Street)
Vicomte de Mauduit (They Can't Ration These)
Nicholas Mosley (Julian Grenfell)
R.C. Sherriff (The Fortnight in September; The Hopkins Manuscript)
Ambrose Heath (Good Food on the Aga)
Duff Cooper (Operation Heartbreak)

6) Which Persephone novel features the character Alex Clare and a convent?
Consequences - EM Delafield

7) Which Persephone author's real name was Kathleen Beauchamp?
Katherine Mansfield

8) Name the longest and shortest Persephone books.
The Victorian Chaise-Longue - Marghanita Laski (shortest, 120pp)
Few Eggs and No Oranges - Vere Hodgson (longest, 624pp)

9) Fill in the place names in Persephone titles:
Good Things in --- : Florence White
Farewell --- Square : Betty Miller
The --- Stories : Katherine Mansfield
A --- Child of the 1870s : Molly Hughes
England
Leicester
Montana
London

10) And, a really difficult one to finish with, can you remember the titles of the Spring 2009 Persephones, yet to be published!
Making Conversation - Christine Longford (look out for a review soon)
Amours de Voyage - Arthur Hugh Clough
The Other Elizabeth Taylor - Nicola Beauman (can't wait for this!)

Suggest a Persephone...

Simon S (of Savidge Reads) asks which Persephone Books I'd recommend - well, there's a question!

We've all been putting our favourites in the comments of this post, so lots of good ideas there, but I'll put a few of my suggestions in this post, briefly. The little images are the endpapers for the book.

Family Roundabout by Richmal Crompton
The book that brought me to Persephone, this tale of two families with very different matriachs is told, as with all Crompton's novels, in a way that makes compulsive reading as well as presenting a large but very memorable cast of characters. Crompton isn't always a world-class prose stylist, if you take chunks in isolation, but her novels are filled with fascinating characters and addictive to read.

Hostages to Fortune by Elizabeth Cambridge
This Oxfordshire novel is all about a family quietly struggling to bring up their children and maintain the marriage they envisioned at the beginning. Beautifully and simply written, this is another novel without an overly dramatic plot, but an incredible understanding of human characer.

Tea With Mr. Rochester by Frances Towers
Persephone's range of short story collections don't always get the attention they deserve. I've not yet read the celebrated collections by Elizabeth Berridge and Mollie Panter-Downes, but can heartily recommend Frances Towers' delicate gems of stories - comparisons with Katherine Mansfield are not unjustified. I found 'The Chosen and The Rejected' especially poignant. And yes, the title does refer to the Mr. Rochester.

The Victorian Chaise-Longue by Marghanita Laski
A chilling novella in which a woman, lying on her chaise-longue in the 1950s, is transported to the 1860s. Evocative and atmospheric and memorable, this book also has a striking message and is brilliantly written. And you know how I love short books.

There Were No Windows by Norah Hoult
Based on a real author and her descent into dementia, this novel might sound cheerless but actually combines a sombre topic with a real wittiness - entirely respectful to the illness and its victims, but refusing to quash laughter at life.

So, there you are, a few of my favourites from the past few years - I love so many of them that these were just the first to spring to mind. I talked about Someone at a Distance the other day, and Dorothy Whipple is probably the best 'way in' to Persephone and the most representative, but any of these five would also work a treat.