Lunchtime read: Selected Tales

There is a writing style that makes it sometimes difficult to follow the stories but now and again there are a few pages of clarity that give a clear indication of the power of Poe’s gothic imagination. One of the stories read today is particularly dark and back in the days when I walked around in a pair of winkle pickers dressed all in black it would have appealed in a quite different way.

Highlights from The Assignation
An observer is drifting along in a gondola in Venice when he hears a scream and understands that a beautiful woman has dropped her baby out of the window into the water. People are diving in trying to help her but she is fixed on staring at the other side of the lake and a stranger dressed in black and retrieves her daughter from the depths and then makes as assignation with her. He also asks to meet the stranger who visits him in a luxurious house that is topped off with a full length portrait of the woman that was seen the night before. The stranger clearly loves the woman and then drinks deeply on a goblet and throws himself down on an ottoman. At that moment the door bursts open and a messenger shouts out that the beautiful woman is poisoned and checking on the stranger he turns out to have taken his own life as well.

A lovers pact to meet and be together in the hereafter?

Highlights from Ligeia
Talking of a pact to be together a man who has to watch as his wife Ligeia dies is heartbroken but carries on his life and marries again. His second wife starts to become ill and is convinced in the later stages of her illness that someone else is in the room and even her husband notices it. When she finally dies the corpse keeps returning to life every hour or so each time trying to get off the bed and finally it does and as the man looks for signs of recovery he sees that his first wife has returned.

A dark gothic tale of a spirit returning to take possession of the body of the woman who is married to her husband. You sense that the husband knows what is happening all along and welcomes the return of Ligeia.

More tomorrow…

Holiday read: Imposture - post V

Despite the mounting risk of being unmasked as a pretender Polidori cannot avoid the temptation to pretend to be Byron not just to Eliza but also her father. You just know that this is going to end with one of those scenes where the words “betrayed trust” is used at least more than once.

There is a bit where the last days of Polidori's employment with Byron are covered and it's hard not to side with the poet and agree that this over sensitive rather self obsessed failed doctor has served his purpose. This book is more about the off stage characters and those in the shadows of the famous and while that is great you do rather long for some more Byron.

Highlights from chapters eleven to fifteen

* Polidori goes out to meet Eliza and her father and pretends to be Byron for the afternoon chatting away to the romantic novelist and impressing his daughter who rewards him at the end with a kiss

* He then heads for home where his sister has arrived back from Milan with her son William, a dead ringer for Byron, and although the details are not made cleared enough is sketched out to imply that she was seduced by the poet and produced his child damaging her marriage beyond repair

* Upset and angry about the way his family has been damaged by Byron, who he continued to be in awe of even after he had been sacked, he heads for the publisher’s with the idea of telling the story of how a brother’s and sister’s relationship was destroyed

* At the publisher’s club he starts to sound out the idea of the book but then gets involved with gambling and before he knows it he is in the grip of the game and borrowing money from Colburn to play and loses everything

* Meanwhile following his meeting with 'Byron' Eliza's father can't resist telling his other daughter who recognises that this is an impostor and tries to get her sister away from her but that only makes Eliza more determined

More tomorrow…

Lunchtime read: Selected Tales

One of the things I signed up for before heading off on holiday was to take part in the blogging book reviews that Penguin is running on its classics site. Once you register you get send a book at random and then have six weeks to get through it and post a review – well at least that was my understanding of it. Just before heading off for Switzerland The Selected Tales of Edgar Allan Poe turned up and so for probably the next fortnight will be providing reading over the lunch break.

Highlights from The Duc L’Omelette
The book starts with a story that throws you a little bit because it uses French just in the places that appear to be quite critical so you have a rough idea of what is happening but not a crystal clear one. It seems that a French duke has been taken from his coffin and dragged into hell where he has to accept his vices and then gamble on his future with the king.

Highlights from MS. Found in a Bottle
A man who ends up being tossed around in the storm finally ends up on some doomed ship that is destined to spend its days being tossed around the icy seas of the pole. He writes about his adventures and the other members of the crew, who are all old and don’t take any notice of him, and puts it in a bottle. He seems to be fighting the obvious that he will join the crew and be stranded with them forever.

More tomorrow…

bookmark of the week

Well after a five and a half hour drive from near Verdun (scene of French heroics in the first world war) to darkest south east London just in time to do a bookmark of the week. The next three weeks will be happy holiday reminders with the bookmarks I picked up in Switzerland, where the emphasis is on fabric rather than leather and keeping it natural. As you can see with this bookmark there is also a great deal of pride in the Swiss over their country. Rightly so based on the Bernese Oberland...

Lost somewhere in the bags

There will not be any post today about The Imposture because until we arrive back in London tomorrow night there is little chance of finding the book. It is packed and as a result lost in one of the many bags now stuffed into the car. To mention the fact I might need to rearrange the precarious system in the car, at this late/early hour of 1am Swiss time, might earn me an earful that neither me or the rest of the campsite want to hear at this time of the morning. So until tomorrow - after eleven hours worth of tarmac has been covered - this is all for now...

Holiday read - The Imposture post IV

Well the wheels have finally come off and it has not been possible to read more than a chapter and a bit today because it is our last full day of holiday as we get ready to head back on a drive that will be split with an overnight stop in France somewhere yet to be decided. All that could be managed before we headed back for one last look down on the Grindelwald valley is chapter ten.

Highlights of chapter ten and the first bit of eleven

* Polidori starts to write his travel journal putting Byron at the centre but there is a problem because although he is clearly in awe of the poet his awe has turned to jealously and he gets easily annoyed and slighted by Byron and the Shelley's who they meet up with

* On a rainy week in Switzerland they set themselves the task of writing ghost stories - the famous episode that gave birth to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - and Polidori is blank for ideas until Byron hands him a story to start with about a Vampire

* But throughout the period Polidori cannot help to be both angry then desperate for affirmation from the poet and at one point is even considering suicide until Byron comes into his room and apologies to him

Maybe more tomorrow but it might be difficult...

A novel idea for book seekers

Now and again you come across a great idea for the way books are sold or made easy to get hold of. Even in the German-Swiss speaking village of Lauterbrunnen, where I am currently holidaying with my family, there is a bookshop that allows you to take a book away for free as long as you leave two behind. Leave one and you just have to pay half price or the full asking price, which bearing in mind is not too much. It is a great way of getting people who have finished with their 3 for 2 choices to leave them behind for others to enjoy.

I am struggling to wade through the books I did bring but like many presumably who don't get the chance to pack any this is a great idea and a real find in an area of Switzerland that is German speaking.

Holiday read - Imposture - post III

Encouraged by the publisher to write a travel memoir that is actually about someone that everyone will want to know about - Lord Byron - Polidori manages to rustle up some reflections that start to give an idea of the personality that seems to have over shadowed his own.

Bullet points between chapters seven to nine

* Eliza decides to tell her sister about her date at the theatre as she gets dressed but in her own determined way refuses to give details and ends up going in a dress that does little to flatter her but sets off in a flutter hoping she will see the man she has determined to love

* Meanwhile Polidori has been told by the publisher that is he goes off an writes a memoir about Byron's travels then he will be paid handsomely for his efforts but in the meantime there is the theatre to get through and after being pushed through protesters moaning about ticket prices Polidori, ever emotional sits in the box

* He sees Eliza and there seems to be a connection across the theatre but when the publisher mentions going over and introducing him he resists because of course his cover will be blown and then in the second act watching a powerful acting performance he faints and misses the end of the play so avoids Eliza all together

* Following the performance Eliza manages to get the courage the day after to visit Polidori, who she still thinks is Byron, in his rooms and profess undying love asking the poet to do with her what he will and she leaves happier than ever before with Polidori himself starting to understand the power that Byron has enjoyed over women

More tomorrow...

Holiday read - Imposture - post II

The story is developing on two converging lines with both Polidori and Eliza pretending to be people they aren't and fooling each other. The shadow that hangs over the developing story is Byron and it is a shame that six chapters in and all you get is a glimpse of him.

Bullet points from chapters four to six

* Eliza dreams of meeting Byron (Polidori again) and her life as a governess in a rich household is sketched out with her life by all accounts a pretty mundane and miserable one except for the moments she can escape into herself and her thoughts inspired by literature

* Meanwhile Polidori meets the publisher of The Vampyre and makes his claim for authorship and is paid off with a meal, some champagne and then £30 of which he loses half on his weakness of gambling cards - it helps pay off some debts but fails to set him up in the legal career he now desires after turning his back on medicine

* Part of the reason for turning away from medicine is that all the patients he has ever had died and even Byron pointed out how with his track record he was unsuitable for the medical profession so he sits in his rooms and believes that the only option is now to turn to writing

* He sends his memoirs of travelling with Byron to the publisher of The Vampyre and awaits his reply but after a week cannot contain himself and decides to go and visit him but on his way notices a letter from Eliza mentioning that she is going to be at the theatre that evening

* She is going because her sister is ill and believes this is her chance to take the next step with Polidori who is still a novice with women after recounting his experience with a maid who mistook him for Byron and was in the middle of foreplay before the Italian, who has a sister/brother sexual fantasy, managed to end the fun prematurely

More tomorrow...

Holiday read - Imposture - post I

You always wonder how someone is going to start a book and Markovits uses a prologue as a springboard to establish that the story that follows has been written by a mysterious English teacher that he once worked with. The teacher was an impostor using a name based on several literary characters but he was also a Byron fan and dies leaving the papers that go to make up the story that follows.


Bullet points from chapters one to three

* Things start with the publication of an anonymous story - The Vampyre - that was believed to have been written by Byron and published in a London magazine. The copies sell fast and the offices are crowded with people hoping to catch a glimpse of the great poet

* But the character that does turn up to pound on the door when the shop has closed, and is mistaken for Byron, is a doctor who travelled on the continent with the literary star and you are led to believe, from what he mutters to himself in the rain, the real author of the story

* Polidori (known as Polly because of his position in a house full of sisters) starts his story going over the original offer he had to travel with Byron and the resistance that came to the idea from his father, who thought it would only lead to trouble and disappointment

* But the young man, who seems to have no other prospects, is determined to take the position as Byron's travelling physican and so goes against his father's wishes and agrees to go and in the end he is alongside Byron as he bids farewell to his sister and sets off for Europe

* As he stands outside the publication house a young woman, Eliza, comes up and introduces herself mistaking the doctor for Byron and says that she met him at a ball and gets out of Pilodori the details of where he is staying in London before leaving him

* Eliza is then fleshed out in more detail with the truth being that she didn't go to the ball her sister did but she is full of romantic stories written in books by the likes of Byron and longs to exchange her fictional knowledge of men and love for the real thing

More tomorrow...

book of books - Koba the Dread

This is an angry book by a very well read Martin Amis who uses his knowledge to challenge communist supporters both living and dead. It starts by questioning why his own father has communist sympathies wen there was easily enough information around to reveal the true monstrous nature of Stalin's regime. As a result it keeps a memoir type feel but there is also a history lesson being given here by a teacher that is positive he is right and that intends drilling the facts into you until you nod in agreement.

Plot summary
Given the popularity of Stalin's regime amongst the liberal left in the 1930s, when the Gulag was well into its terrible stride and the show trials and red army purges had been publicised in the West Amis has to ask how anyone could sympathise with the Russian regime. He recalls how his father had a communist soft spot for around 12 years and how he used to have interesting conversations with anti communists including friends who were historians. Martin Amis was to mimic those debates with his own generation, particularly Christopher Hitchens. But the real story here is the constant drumming in of the facts about the show trials, horrors of the Gulag and the scant regard for human life not just felt by Stalin but also by Lenin, who some of the liberals also held up as a great role model. It ends with the argument having been proved by the details that have come out since the death of Stalin and the breaking down of communism but there still continues to be a lingering determination by some to use the phrase comrade and glorify the past.

Is it well written?
Most history books are dry, fail to get off the fence until the conclusion and rarely if ever make it personal. This book does all three and shows that it can be done. At the time of its publication I recall seeing Amis interviewed by people quite happy to take a pop at the way this book had been written along with the content. But you have to doff your cap to him he has done his research, throws quotes galore at you and is quite capable of defending his corner. It is a horrifying read because of the facts and figures but the possibility of ending by recalling his own sisters death and talking about his daughter shows just how well the memoir and the historical have been combined.

Should it be read?
As an example of how wider history can weave into family histories this is a great example that deserves to be consumed. As a book showing just how history can rouse anger this is one of the most enjoyable I have ever come across. But the problem is that is comes with the name Amis on the cover and like all major brands people either like him or loathe him. If you can remain indifferent, if that is possible, and put to one side the occasional arrogance and name dropping, then this is a solid attack on Russian sympathisers for a regime that consigned millions to their deaths.

Summary
Whether it's twenty million or more there can be no doubt that Stalin was a monster.

Holiday read: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

And so we come to the end and you can sense the upset that original readers must have felt when they realised Holmes had gone forever. The end is left to Watson to deduce and describe with the footprints and scuffle in the mud on the edge of the waterfall all that remains to indicate what happened between Holmes and Moriarty. But before then there are a couple of stories to enjoy.

Highlights from The Greek Interpreter
A Greek specialising in helping the courts and businesses translate Greek is taken by cab to translate for a man whose face is covered in plasters. By asking some additional questions the translator discovers that the man is being held against his will and is being starved until he signs some papers agreeing to handing over his sister's estate to a man who has had a whirlwind romance with her. He refuses to sign and the translator makes the mistake of telling the police and Holmes, who is introduced to the case by his brother Mycroft, and the criminals take him hostage. Holmes tracks them down and manages to find him in a room with the man with a plaster covered face but it is too late for him and the interpreter only just manages to survive. Months later in the paper there is a report of two Englishmen killed while in the Balkans and Holmes surmises that the woman finally got her revenge.

Highlights from The Naval Treaty
A Home Office official given the responsibility of copying a very contentious document finds it stolen as he leaves his room to get some coffee and falls into a brain fever for ten weeks. Holmes is his final resource to try and clear his name but as he waits for the great detective seems to make the waters murkier. The diplomat is attacked at his fiance's house and Holmes gets him away to London while he waits for the attacker to make his next move. It turns out to be the diplomatist's future brother-in-law who has some debts who has taken the treaty and hidden it in the floorboards of his room, which was used for all the weeks by the sick man who needed a place to recover.

Highlights from The Final Problem
Watson starts the story by explaining that following some letters published by Moriarty's brother he wants to set the record straight. He tells the story of how Holmes had realised that most criminal activity in London was being masterminded by Professor Moriarty, a former maths teacher, who he had now tracked down and got into a position where he could smash the ring. The only problem was that he needed more time and so was being chased by his arch enemy, who intended to kill him. He goes away with Watson to the continent and while he is away the news comes through the Moriarty's criminal ring has been smashed but the leader has escaped and is pursuing Holmes.

The end comes in Meiringen (which I managed to visit a couple of days ago) by the Reichenbach falls. Watson is called back to the hotel on some medical emergency but no sooner has he got there than he discovers it is a ruse and rushes back up the mountain to find footprints leading to the edge of the abyss and a note from Holmes explaining that his career will end on a high by removing Moriarty. No sign of the bodies are ever found and Watson ends by declaring that he has written his account to clear the name of the man "I shall regard as the best and the wisest man I have ever known".

Fantastic stuff and a review will follow probably early next week when my holiday is over...

book review - Around the World in Eighty Days

This is a great book and comes from a writer with a solid canon of pacey adventure stories. But what you miss in the film and cartoon versions is the sheer scale of the effort of Jules Verne’s vision. He must have sat there with maps, guide books and numerous steamer and train timetables to be able not only to map the journey round the world but also factor in the numerous diversions that Phileas Fogg and company have to take.

Add to that the descriptions of the places they visit, which all sound as if Verne has had personal experience of them and you are left admiring not just the story but the ambition of it.

Plot summary
On paper the story sounds so simple with Phileas Fogg, a rich gentleman that lives by a very strict regime suddenly decides that following the suggestion in he paper that it is now possible to go around the world in 80 days he will do it. He makes the decision in front of four club members at The Reform Club in London and then almost immediately departs for the continent. He takes with him his newly appointed servant Passepartout and on his journey picks up an Indian princess and is dogged by Fix the detective who is convinced that Fogg is a bank robber on the run. By throwing money around and riding his luck Fogg manages to do it before failing at the final hurdle. But thanks to Passepartout going out to find a priest to help Fogg marry his princess they realise they have made the trip in 79 days and have time to make the bet. The conclusion is that it was worth going round the world not for the money, although that helps, but for love.

Is it well written?
The level of research is staggering and it is totally believable not only in terms of the locations but also the timing because Fogg shares it with the reader all the way through. It is one of those books that most people claim to have read because they can bluff the story based on knowing the ending from the various film versions. But you miss the pace, the sense of determination, coldness and detached behaviour of Fogg, who almost defines an Empire generation, which presumably Verne was trying to do. You are never bored reading it, never fully confident that you can predict the outcome and right until the end the central character remains an enigma to everyone around him including the reader,

Should it be read?
There is no excuse for not going out and picking this up for a couple of pounds or second hand. I might seem to be a bit school syllabus type stuff but it is a classic adventure story that has stood the test of time.Verne uses great locations and has the pace of the time as his aid but what makes this a memorable read is that you are unlikely to read a book with such an odd array of main characters than this one.

Summary
Around the world in 79 days to find love

Version read -Penguin popular classics

Holiday read: The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

There are not that many stories left in the collection before the Final Problem but these stories put down on paper by Watson recalling the genius of his friend who is able to observe and deduce almost anything are full of mystery and murder.

Highlights from The Crooked Man
Holmes is called into help with the case of a death of a corporal who was arguing with his wife in a room locked on the inside. The natural suspect is the wife but she loses it after the death and is incoherent. Holmes manages to use his roving eye to establish that someone else entered the room, along with some sort of animal. After questioning a friend of the wife Holmes discovers she met a haggard old crooked man before heading home. Holmes and Watson meet the man and discover that he was cheated out of the woman's hand by the corporal and that he ran to help when voices were raised and the corporal seeing his betrayed ex rival had a heart attack, hit his head and died.

Highlights from The Resident Patient
A doctor comes to visit Holmes asking for his help on behalf of his benefactor who is frightened about being robbed. Holmes hears that the doctor was set up by this patient who lives above the surgery and has made him a rich man with his successful practice but of late he has become obsessed with security. Keeping all of his money ion his bedroom he is convinced that someone is after it and seems vindicated when footprints are discovered on his carpet. The footprints belong to a mysterious Russian who comes to visit the doctor on a couple of occasions. Holmes is called and they discover the patient hanging in his room and his real identity as a bank robber who confessed to save himself is revealed with the other members of the gang imposing summary justice on him.

More tomorrow...

bookmark of the week

Sadly this is one case that Sherlock Holmes never got to solve and it continues to spur debate to this day.