Explore About > Recent Status Updates

What it says on the tin. Funny, opinionated (not always my own opinions; it is very harsh on Eleanor of Aquitaine, without giving any reason other than to call her a bad woman), full of fairy stories as well as historical yarns, and very readable.

This is Bryant’s translation in blank verse, and I am loving it so far. I don’t remember which translation I read years ago but also loved, and it may be this one. The blank verse gives it rhythm and formality and the language itself seems intimate and welcoming. I guess I won’t know for certain until I get far enough to see whether and how it raves about the mighty thews of Odysseus.

My favorite of the Brontë sisters’ novels so far. I am partway through Helen’s journal describing her experiences, and they are rotten to be sure, but also distressingly normal, I would guess. I await learning how she achieved independence and the beginnings of friendship, and how everyone ends the narrative.

Only just started and not remotely what I was expecting! Keenly observed and humane about everyone so far. Perhaps my opinion will drop when I reach the explicit content for which this is famous, but at the moment I am wondering why I haven’t been urged to read this by everyone. As wry and ironical as Edith Wharton but rather kinder to the characters so far…