The Text, The Whole Text, and Nothing But The Text
Saturday 30 October 2021 No. 261 Free
Most of the Classic Novels were first presented to the reader either in three volumes
or in weekly instalments, so the reader was used to the idea of reading the
book in parts. We have borrowed this presentation so that you, dear
reader, can try the experience. It may be particularly salutary for those
who are a little awestruck by some of the longer novels...
We
are currently leaning towards amusing books, together with a spot of
melodrama, to help us to burrow our way to the end of the pandemic.
CONTENTS
A. G. Macdonell: England, Their England
Oscar Wilde: The Importance of Being Earnest
William Cowper: The Diverting History of John Gilpin
Tobias Smollett: The Expedition of Humphry Clinker
NEXT WEEK
Next week we begin the Mapp and Lucia novels (six of them), which bring a whole new meaning to the term ‘Neighbourhood Watch’, and prove Mr Bennet’s profoundly philosophical comment in Pride and Prejudice: ‘For what do we live, but to make sport for our neighbours, and laugh at them in our turn?.
We also begin Voltaire’s Candide where the hero travels the world seeking his beloved, Cunégonde, believing that "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds", and finally deciding ... well, read the book.
And our final new offering is Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, where the hero skips philosophy and goes straight to a firmly practical and intriguing way of getting release from the London Debtor’s prison where he has been sent because of an unlikely breach of promise suit brought against him by his landlady.
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Previously serialised books are also to be found via the Archive page
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http://goodinparts44.blogspot.co.uk
Philomathes your Editor
Philomathes44 at gmx.com (substitute the @ mark for 'at')
