Patrick Stuart’s Reviews > From Dawn to Decadence > Status Update

Bit of parallax atm as with a later theme of the book being Western Civ losing its fucking mind partly under the deep weight of its own well-recorded history, which is both gift and terrible burden; this book is also that gift and the burden and I feel both pretty strongly.

"The musician, far from dealing in pure forms, molds tonnes of air."

A book that makes you want to read other books, but you do not have the time, for this one is massive.

"He is learned but practical, unmistakably of his time but naively religious, conservative but unconventional. His genius lies in common sense, not common-places_ like those of Franklin's Poor Richard, but unusual judgements made by clear-eyes observation and couched in lapidary words." - on Boswell on Johnson, but also a self description I think?

The essay on prose in the chapter on the Baroque is really good

'The Luciads'! Why didn't I know about this before?

This is more of an adventure than an argument. I ain't complaining tho.

He writes beautifully, thinks beautifully, loves history but seems vaguely angry that it has happened. A patina of loss shimmers lightly over all.

The prose & writing in this is really good.