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tuyop posted:I was thinking Voltaire's Candide but I was wrong, Rousseau didn't do a similar thing. I am revealed as an uneducated bore! I had only vaguely heard of Candide, and didn't know it was fiction! That said, I'm not up for reading a satire currently.
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# ? Apr 19, 2020 20:58 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 06:28 |
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StrixNebulosa posted:Oooh, this sounds fantastic. Are there any translations I should look for, or will the gutenberg edition do me fine? I was happy with the Gutenberg edition
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# ? Apr 19, 2020 21:04 |
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Seconding Zola. Read Germinal. Or maybe The Ladies’ Paradise for an easier starting point, but it’s not as good as Germinal
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# ? Apr 19, 2020 21:09 |
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Prism Mirror Lens posted:Seconding Zola. Read Germinal. Or maybe The Ladies’ Paradise for an easier starting point, but it’s not as good as Germinal Same question: any specific translations I should look out for? (drat if I don't miss my library system, as then I could just slam order everything being recced here, but nope, I have to do careful research and consider buying things)
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# ? Apr 19, 2020 21:14 |
What about that Dickens novel?
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# ? Apr 19, 2020 21:38 |
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anilEhilated posted:This is a bit of a longshot, but anyone know anything good on the history of stage magic, especially with regards to the process of it transforming from ritual to con to entertainment? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Tack_Sam
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# ? Apr 19, 2020 21:45 |
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StrixNebulosa posted:Same question: any specific translations I should look out for? I don’t speak a word of French so I can’t recommend one translation over another for any good reason. The Gutenberg translations are fine and I read Germinal on there first, but my personal preferences were Penguin for Germinal and Oxford for Ladies’ Paradise.
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# ? Apr 19, 2020 21:51 |
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I would not trust Gutenberg for any French novel. Most Victorian French translations are bowdlerized/abridged at best and incompetent at worst. For Hugo, I would (broadly, and as a layman) recommend the Modern Library Classics editions; for Zola, Oxford World's Classics. Both of those imprints are also safe bets for Russian literature, with which I have more experience. Sham bam bamina! fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Apr 19, 2020 |
# ? Apr 19, 2020 22:18 |
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Dunno if it qualifies as historical fiction or not, but Journey to the End of the Night should be at the very top of anyone's French novel reading list.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 02:54 |
xcheopis posted:The Magical Life of Long Tak Sam, a graphic novel, which is just a small slice of that history.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 08:49 |
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Sham bam bamina! posted:I would not trust Gutenberg for any French novel. Most Victorian French translations are bowdlerized/abridged at best and incompetent at worst. Yes - I once ended up with an old out of copyright translation of Nana, and it was practically unreadable, and Zola is certainly not an author of who you want a bowdlerized experience. Oxford has reissued almost all of the Rougon-Macquarts with new translations or edits of good existing ones. The Penguins are probably fine too but they've only published half a dozen or so of them Selachian posted:I would recommend The Red and the Black, but if you don't like Les Mis, it might not be your thing either. I'm not sure what "historical novel" entails, but from my pov The Red and the Black isn't one, but The Charterhouse of Parma certainly is
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 09:01 |
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Yeah I almost edited my last post to say “except Nana.” There is an old/free translation out there which is probably what Gutenberg has. Unreadable is the word for it.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 09:38 |
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StrixNebulosa posted:Are there any good french historical novels? I mean I assume so, but like, I have no idea where to start. Marguerite Yourcenar's Memoirs of Hadrian and The Abyss. Zoé Oldenbourg's Destiny of Fire. Anatole France's The Gods Are Athirst. Also seconding Salammbô, which is very atypical of Flaubert but unbelievably lurid and well-written. e: For more pulpy stuff, I wanted to recommend Paul Féval's The Hunchback, which is kind of the quintessential French swashbuckling novel alongside The Three Musketeers, but it doesn't seem to have been translated... Féval's The White Wolf does have an "adaptation" in English, but I wouldn't necessarily trust it, considering the cover (the book takes place in 18th-century France). lost in postation fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Apr 20, 2020 |
# ? Apr 20, 2020 11:32 |
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Hi I need some travel related literature because I'm very [there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] due to having to stay at home all the time. I just reread Kerouacs On the road and The Dharma Bums and those scratched the itch pretty well but I need more. I don't think I like "travel writers" though, judging from the one Paul Theroux book I read.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 13:31 |
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cebrail posted:Hi I need some travel related literature because I'm very [there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] due to having to stay at home all the time. I just reread Kerouacs On the road and The Dharma Bums and those scratched the itch pretty well but I need more. I don't think I like "travel writers" though, judging from the one Paul Theroux book I read. Steinbeck's Travels With Charley
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 13:46 |
Franchescanado posted:Steinbeck's Travels With Charley This, also Three Men in a Boat I think Graham Greene wrote some good travelogues too, can't remember titles
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 14:24 |
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I've been getting into essays recently and I especially love the experiential essays of Joan Didion and David Foster Wallace. Can anyone recommend me specific authors I should check out or perhaps a collection with multiple authors?
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 14:24 |
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cebrail posted:Hi I need some travel related literature because I'm very [there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] due to having to stay at home all the time. I just reread Kerouacs On the road and The Dharma Bums and those scratched the itch pretty well but I need more. I don't think I like "travel writers" though, judging from the one Paul Theroux book I read. Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon - a man drives all around the continental US chatting with people.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 14:27 |
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cebrail posted:Hi I need some travel related literature because I'm very [there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] due to having to stay at home all the time. I just reread Kerouacs On the road and The Dharma Bums and those scratched the itch pretty well but I need more. I don't think I like "travel writers" though, judging from the one Paul Theroux book I read. Ian Frazier's Travels in Siberia is really, really good. Non-fiction, but dude is a great storyteller and there's way more to it than just "hey, i went here." Further afield, Simon Winchester's Atlantic is kind of a biography of the ocean and talks a lot about travel, naturally.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 14:41 |
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krampster2 posted:I've been getting into essays recently and I especially love the experiential essays of Joan Didion and David Foster Wallace. Can anyone recommend me specific authors I should check out or perhaps a collection with multiple authors? George Orwell.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 14:55 |
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krampster2 posted:I've been getting into essays recently and I especially love the experiential essays of Joan Didion and David Foster Wallace. Can anyone recommend me specific authors I should check out or perhaps a collection with multiple authors? Stating the obvious: Borges and Eco.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 15:00 |
cebrail posted:Hi I need some travel related literature because I'm very [there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] due to having to stay at home all the time. I just reread Kerouacs On the road and The Dharma Bums and those scratched the itch pretty well but I need more. I don't think I like "travel writers" though, judging from the one Paul Theroux book I read. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Apr 20, 2020 |
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 15:38 |
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anilEhilated posted:Richard Halliburton. He was very much a travel writer there's a lot of heart and sense of wonder in his stories. Historical trip too, since it's travel reports from almost a hundred years ago. Extremely good at sharing his feeling of wanderlust with the reader. I agree that Halliburton is a lot of fun. Another travel book I enjoyed was Nick Danziger's Danziger's Travels, which is about the author's trip along the old Silk Road from Istanbul to Beijing -- illegally crossing several borders, including the Pakistan-China border, along the way. I could also recommend Joe McGinniss's The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, where he goes to a small Italian town and spends a season writing about their minor-league soccer team.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 16:01 |
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cebrail posted:Hi I need some travel related literature because I'm very [there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] due to having to stay at home all the time. I just reread Kerouacs On the road and The Dharma Bums and those scratched the itch pretty well but I need more. I don't think I like "travel writers" though, judging from the one Paul Theroux book I read. The Royal Road to Romance by Richard Halliburton made me want to just say gently caress it all and start traveling. Basically, it's a college student around 1920 who says gently caress college, I want to have adventures and just starts traveling. It's a fun, fast read E: I was so eager to reply that I didn't see this was already recommended haha. Take it as a solid vouch, then.
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# ? Apr 20, 2020 18:41 |
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cebrail posted:[there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?]
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# ? Apr 21, 2020 05:38 |
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Thanks for the suggestions everyone, I'll be sure to check them out.
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# ? Apr 21, 2020 12:35 |
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cebrail posted:Hi I need some travel related literature because I'm very [there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] due to having to stay at home all the time. I just reread Kerouacs On the road and The Dharma Bums and those scratched the itch pretty well but I need more. I don't think I like "travel writers" though, judging from the one Paul Theroux book I read. I really like Bill Bryson's books about England and Australia Notes from a Small Island and In a Sunburned Country respectively. His new one Little Dribbling is very not good very "Old man yells at cloud" the older ones are quite funny and interesting travelogue with some light history
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# ? Apr 21, 2020 15:52 |
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LionYeti posted:I really like Bill Bryson's books about England and Australia Notes from a Small Island and In a Sunburned Country respectively. His new one Little Dribbling is very not good very "Old man yells at cloud" the older ones are quite funny and interesting travelogue with some light history yeah bryson is some good, light pop history reading. i liked The Mother Tongue too.
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# ? Apr 21, 2020 21:40 |
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That one is full of ignorant fallacies and outright lies about language, FYI. Bryson's a hack. No idea about the other books as obviously I didn't buy any more of his works after stumbling into that as the first one.
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# ? Apr 21, 2020 23:16 |
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cebrail posted:[there doesn't seem to be an english word for the opposite of homesick?] homestuck
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# ? Apr 22, 2020 00:13 |
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3D Megadoodoo posted:That one is full of ignorant fallacies and outright lies about language, FYI. Bryson's a hack. lol oh my bad i guess. i read it like 15 years ago.
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# ? Apr 22, 2020 01:47 |
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regulargonzalez posted:The Royal Road to Romance by Richard Halliburton made me want to just say gently caress it all and start traveling. Basically, it's a college student around 1920 who says gently caress college, I want to have adventures and just starts traveling. It's a fun, fast read Strong agree on Halliburton. A lot of fun. I want to recommend a book for a friend, genre agnostic. Criteria are good, fun, compelling characters, with an engaging story and some level of escapist setting. Cosy cottage mysteries, King Solomon's Mines, that kind of thing. Good (but not junk) reading for stress relief, ideally not relating to a global pandemic.
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# ? Apr 22, 2020 23:39 |
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No. 1 Lady’s Detective Agency.
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# ? Apr 23, 2020 06:43 |
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Captain Monkey posted:No. 1 Lady’s Detective Agency. This is a good one, as is Tarquin Hall's Vish Puri series.
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# ? Apr 23, 2020 12:05 |
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poisonpill posted:Strong agree on Halliburton. A lot of fun. Dunsany's Don Rodriguez.
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# ? Apr 23, 2020 13:27 |
poisonpill posted:Strong agree on Halliburton. A lot of fun. The Curse of Capistrano (first Zorro book) Three Men in a Boat The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins RIght Ho, Jeeves The King Must Die by Mary Renault A Night in the Lonesome October by Roger Zelazny Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
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# ? Apr 23, 2020 13:43 |
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xcheopis posted:Dunsany's Don Rodriguez. Don Rodriguez from the Bronx? Don Rodriguez?
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# ? Apr 23, 2020 13:44 |
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There is a unabridged version of the moonstone on audible narrated by Peter Jeffrey and it’s as close to perfection as anything is ever going to get.
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# ? Apr 23, 2020 22:12 |
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Looking for some sci fi recommendations. Currently going back through my kindle cos I cant get to my book collection during lock down. Need a nice long sci fi series to burn through or a few long stand alone books. I have read ... a lot of stuff but nothing in the last few years (I think it’s hard to keep track) so I guess anything good and modern? Grabbed Steel Frame on the sci fi thread recommendation and that was pretty good. Just need something a bit longer to pass the time.
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# ? Apr 24, 2020 00:47 |
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# ? Mar 29, 2024 06:28 |
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Thanks for the recommendations. I'll let you know if Moonstone, Dunsany, or No.1 Ladies' clicks.
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# ? Apr 24, 2020 14:05 |