Travel and science book author writes about ... Shakespeare

To me, as to many, this book came as a surprise. Bill Bryson, famous for his travel ("Neither here Nor There") and popular science ("A Short History of Nearly Everything") books, wrote a book that is completely different from his other books. "Shakespeare. The Illustrated Edition" is an untypical biography of William Shakespeare. Bryson tries to find, in Shakespeare life, the reason why "For somebody who has been dead for nearly four hundred years, he remains awfully active". The book starts with the modern, 2006 discovery of so called Cobbe portrait, which according to most of scholars IS the authentic Shakespeare portrait (notwithstanding numerous and notable oppositions to that claim).

Bryson, the biographer, divides Shakespeare's life into: early years (1564-1585), the so-called "lost years" (1585-1592) of which we do not have any records, his London's primary years (1592-1596), years of his fame under Queen Elizabeth I (1596-1603) and his royal patent during the reign of King James (1603-1616) - until his death on April, 23, 1616. Shakespeare life is portrait on the interesting patchwork of the history of England, the history of London and the hist of Globe - The Theatre. Reading it, we have a rare chance to imagine how strange and dirty, in all senses of this word, London was at that times.

Bryson biography dares to debunk a bit traditional Shakespeare picture. See this:

"Shakespeare may be the English language's presiding genius, but that isn't to say he was without flaws". A certain messy exuberance marked much of what he did. Sometimes it is just not possible to know quite what he meant"

Such claims are of course seriously substantiated by specific parts of his plays. He also compares young Shakespeare to prematurely passing Christophere Marlowe, showing that when Shakespeare was still writing trifles, Marlow already wrote ambitious and appreciable dramas.

When the biographer comes to years of the first decade of XVII century, i.e. to the times of publication of sonnets, he shocks the readers with:

"The extraordinary fact is that Shakespeare, creator of the tenderest and most moving scenes of heterosexual affection in play after play, become with the sonnets English literature history's sublimest gay poet"

Yet in the concluding parts of the book, Bryson rejects firmly all these "conspiracy theories" according to which, Shakespeare did not exist, and what we have under his name, is in fact from the quills of Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere or others.

"Only one man had the circumstances and gifts to give us such incomparable works, and William Shakespeare of Stratford was unquestionably that man - whoever he was"

Few words need to be said about the book physical form. "Illustrated Edition" is full of XVI/XVII century drawings and portraits and scripts facsimiles, that help in perception of Shakespeare lifework and the framework of history and culture he lived on.

Great book - something that is yet another proof of physical books superiority....

TENDERNESS

Tenderness - is like a cry full of war;
And like the current of whispering springs,
And like a funeral march...

*

And like a long plait of golden hair
On which a widower wears
A silver watch - - -

(A riddle: who wrote these strophes ?)

Book Thief - second helping

As I wrote before, as soon as I finished the book, I started to read it again from the very beginning...
Like Liesel (the main character), who read some of her books several times, I started The Book again and it is even more powerful experience...

See:

"For now, Rudy and Liesel made their way onto Himmel Street in the rain. He was the crazy one who had painted himself black and defeated the world. She was the book thief without the words. Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like the rain. "

or:

"Despite the forced labor of breath, she fed the words through the gap in the doorway--between the mayor and the frame - to the woman. Such was her effort to breathe that the words escaped only a few at a time. "

and so on ...

Who is that Zusak ? Shakespeare of prose ?
Maybe.....

We will see in his second book I just start: "I Am The Messenger"....

"There were wooden teardrops and an oaky smile"

Without an exageration I can say that it was one of the best books I ever read...

I finished the reading (i.e. listening) in cold Paris, March 2009 walking on the dark streets of this city. And the first thing I did after I finished was to go back to the beginning and to start it again....

"First the colors. Then the humans" - this is how it starts, the story told from the perspective of ... death personified. The narration brings some far but strong recollections of that used by Norman Mailer in his "The Castle in the Forest", but don't take it as criticism - in fact it is a praise....

What makes Zusak's book such increadible experience? First and foremost - his vacabulary, his parlance, his prose poetry. Bacause of these, you loose the sense of reading the novel, and you feel like you are reading the poetry...

"I can promise you that the world is a factory. The sun stirs it, the humans rule it. And I remain. I carry them away. "

"The girl loved that-- the shivering snow"

One of my friends told me, when recommended the book couple of weeks ago: "I did not know how one could live through the words as it is in the book" ...

But there is also something else. The book has deep meaning and strong message. It is about the most dark period of human history - Nazi Germany. It's about Jewish persecution and Holocaust. But it is also about forgivness, about love, about the simple fact that not all Germans were Nazi and not all Nazis were killers. It's about life in hard times, and about difficult greatness.

Die Sonne scheidet hinter dem Gebirge

"The sun departs behind the mountains ..."

opens the last part of Gustav Mahler incredible symphony "The Song of the Earth". It is based on famous Chinese poetry of Li Tai-Po. The selection of particular poems made by Mahler reflects his message hidden in the music: the hidden farewell to life. It is quite amazing that he used Chinese poetry to express it - however - for a good reason - Chinese wisdom and its contemplation of earthly beauty along with expression of rootlessness and awareness of human fate is well known. See translations of the songs.

The music itself is almost mystical, the final movement "Der Abschied" can be listen again and again and again....

Last but not least - listening to Leonard Bernstein conducting this symphonic piece is worth waiting long into the night ....

See the song with translations. See the recording I listened to.

Mister Thaddeus - or the Last Foray in Lithuania

I must admit, I read (i.e. listened to...) Adam's Mickiewicz "Pan Tadeusz" almost accidentally. I wanted to check how http://www.audioteka.pl/ works, and I bought the poem. By and large, this is the most famous Polish epic poem. It is also one of the longest and almost the last real epic poem of the world. Composed in twelve books, it describes the events situated in Lithuanian village, than under the Russian command that happened in just few days of 1811 and one day of 1812.

I did not expect, that the reading of "Pan Tadeusz", the obligatory reading in all Polish schools, will bring so many warm feelings and tears to me...

First of all it refers to the most beautiful, yet tragically ended part of Polish history - i.e. its two hundreds of years long union with Lithuania - called Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The union, the unusual construction as for late medieval Europe, was an example of very advanced political system, having no precedence in the Europe of that times.
"Our state is a republic under the presidency of the King" or "Rex regnat et non gubernat" ("The King reigns but does not govern") were typical descriptions of its status. The country had a real parliament and in 1791 adopted the first European national constitution - with only one predecessor - that of United States....

It was also a country of amazing tolerance to people of all ethnicities, religions and political views.
Poles, Lithuanians, Jews and many other people living in peace as one nation.
"Pan Tadeusz" refers to it, telling, among others, the story of old Jew, Jankiel, who being trully religious Jew, was also a great Polish patriot...

The poem starts with words:

O Lithuania, my country,
thou Art like good health;
I never knew till now How precious,
till I lost thee.

There are English translations of it: by Marcel Weyland and Leonard Kress.

There was also the movie by Andrzej Wajda.

It's pity nations forget about their great past ...
Today, we often wittness almost total ignorance of that great past among many Poles....

A Life of Dante by Bendict Flynn

Benedict Flynn describes in his short story the life of Dante Alighieri - the Italian poet of Dark Ages. The book reveals the dark side of the life of Dante - his conflicts with Florentines, his banishment from beloved city of Florentine, his passion for Guelphs and their struggles with Ghibellins. For those who do not know - Guelphs were papacy supporters against Ghibellins - the Roman Emperors supporters. Later - the movement divided into two factions Black and White Guelphs, and Dante was unfortunate to be White, while Black were in power, the power that, among other things was used to expel Dante for life long exile in Verona and finally in Ravenna.
The short book suggests that these misfortunes in Dante life, were actually the breeding ground for Dante's "Divine Comedy".

Nice little book ...