“It was on the fifteenth of June, 1767, that Cosimo Piovasco di Rondò, my brother, sat among us for the last time. And it might have been today, I remember it so clearly. We were in the dining room of our house at Ombrosa, the windows framing the thick branches of the great holm oak in the park. It was midday, the old traditional dinner hour followed by our family, though by then most nobles had taken to the fashion set by the sluggard Court of France, of dining halfway through the afternoon. A breeze was blowing from the sea, I remember, rustling the leaves. Cosimo said: "I told you I don't want any, and I don't!" and pushed away his plateful of snails. Never had we seen such disobedience.”
― The Baron in the Trees
― The Baron in the Trees
“And whether a man dispassionately
Sees to the core of life
Or passionately
Sees the surface
They are essentially the same”
―
Sees to the core of life
Or passionately
Sees the surface
They are essentially the same”
―
“I'd rather sing one wild song and burst my heart with it, than live a thousand years watching my digestion and being afraid of the wet.”
― The Turtles of Tasman
― The Turtles of Tasman
“At this period, too, Leningraders resorted to their most desperate food substitutes, scraping dried glue from the underside of wallpaper and boiling up shoes and belts. (Tannery processes had changed, they discovered, since the days of Amundsen and Nansen, and the leather remained tough and inedible.)”
― Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944
― Leningrad: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-1944
Loosed in Translation
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Are you interested in world literature, and works in translation? Come here for recommendations, resources, links, advice on who the best translator o ...more
Classics and the Western Canon
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This is a group to read and discuss those books generally referred to as “the classics” or “the Western canon.” Books which have shaped Western though ...more
Anna’s 2025 Year in Books
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