Books.

Think i may order one as well.

Am re-reading Wuthering Heights. I was shocked when I first read this novel by the strong character and literary skills of the Author, Emily Bronte. I didnt know that Ladies from the 1840`s could write such profound, moving and creative literature. The first edition was writen under the pseudonym of `Ellis Bell`, however after Emily died aged 30 years her sister Charlotte posthumously had the second edition republished in 1850 IIRC and under her real name. Incidentally Emily Bronte and Kate Bush share the same birthday which is the 30th July IIRC.
The part where Lockwood sleeps in Cathies old room and dreams that shes knocking on the window is very powerful. It is Gothic in parts.

For a complete change of pace I recommend Bean Counters by Richard Brooks (the Private Eye investigative journalist). It is a devastating expose of the accountancy profession and its role in many financial scandals. Sounds boring I know but it is very well written and entertaining.

boltonbonce wrote:

DEANO82 wrote:

boltonbonce wrote:

Norpig wrote:There's a Nat Lofthouse biography coming out next month which should interest Boncey and the rest of us

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lofty-Lofthouse-Englands-Lion-Vienna/dp/0750988894/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3VPMU8MSGYOEF&keywords=nat+lofthouse+biography&qid=1561459155&s=gateway&sprefix=nat+loft%2Caps%2C134&sr=8-1

I pre ordered mine. Flagged it in post 186, but no one listens to me. It's a disgrace. 

It was post 188. In 186 you pre-ordered what looks like the scientific formula for exploding custard.

I'm an old man.

I wouldn't mind knowing the formula for exploding custard.

Think it is

Bonce + Custard + Time = Explosion

Thanks. I'll stick to instant.

Nat Lofthouse biography was due out today. I ordered mine months in advance.

Had an email from amazon today saying it's temporarily out of stock, and would I like to cancel my order!

Bastards. They'd better sort this out if they don't want a slippering.

Lofty due for delivery today. Can't wait.

Just finished this. Good Christmas stocking filler for the serious footy fans in the family.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Englands-Greatest-Defender-Untold-Franklin/dp/191045379X/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=neil+franklin&qid=1573732015&s=books&sr=1-1

Anyone read this? Will probably get it anyway.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/Relegation-Form-Marc-Torkington/dp/1549673246/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=relegation+form&qid=1573743758&s=books&sr=1-1

Got to say books are increasingly looking like a thing of the past for me. When me and the missus moved into a smaller house, there was no room for the acres of book shelves so we decided to go green and get Kindles. Took me a while to get into it but now I much prefer it. Cheaper, more environmentally friendly, easy to use and some classic books are free.

I'm just in the middle of a free trial of Kindle Unlimited on Amazon which I have to say is pretty good. Just downloaded the book Boncey was asking about (Relegation Form) for free.

I was given a couple of books yesterday: "Ah'm tellin' thee" - a Tommy Banks biography and "Walking down the Manny Road" by Doug Mitchell.

Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

sunlight wrote:Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I know it's generally characterised as being primarily about a young woman feeling trapped and becoming adulterous - which caused a scandal at the time - but underpinning the story is a hefty dose of French realism, itself a departure from the (unrealistic) romanticism that preceded it, so if that floats your boat you might be interested in Balzac and Proust who were Flaubert's main influences. Balzac in particular is a great storyteller in the Dickensian style.
Also, a hundred and twenty years before MB, L'Abbe Prevost wrote Manon Lescaut which has a lot of the same elements as MB and IMO is a better rendition despite L'Abbe having to rewrite and tone down the scandalous bits in the second edition. Check them out.

wanderlust wrote:

sunlight wrote:Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I know it's generally characterised as being primarily about a young woman feeling trapped and becoming adulterous - which caused a scandal at the time - but underpinning the story is a hefty dose of French realism, itself a departure from the (unrealistic) romanticism that preceded it, so if that floats your boat you might be interested in Balzac and Proust who were Flaubert's main influences. Balzac in particular is a great storyteller in the Dickensian style.
Also, a hundred and twenty years before MB, L'Abbe Prevost wrote Manon Lescaut which has a lot of the same elements as MB and IMO is a better rendition despite L'Abbe having to rewrite and tone down the scandalous bits in the second edition. Check them out.

I am impressed. You know your stuff. The book I have half read, so far, over the last week and a half, when I have had the time and will, is Hard Times by Dickens. It is my first read of Dickens and it is really really grim. I enjoyed one quote, it was along the lines of " the town was built half by God and half by man, and most of Gods half had been bricked up " . I need to finish this one off, actually, before I commence the extremely interesting Madame Bovary in Hardback that I have purchased. They say that a book always lands just when you need it. I have read the introduction of it and the wiki of it. I am impressed you know lots about all of this genre.

sunlight wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

sunlight wrote:Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I know it's generally characterised as being primarily about a young woman feeling trapped and becoming adulterous - which caused a scandal at the time - but underpinning the story is a hefty dose of French realism, itself a departure from the (unrealistic) romanticism that preceded it, so if that floats your boat you might be interested in Balzac and Proust who were Flaubert's main influences. Balzac in particular is a great storyteller in the Dickensian style.
Also, a hundred and twenty years before MB, L'Abbe Prevost wrote Manon Lescaut which has a lot of the same elements as MB and IMO is a better rendition despite L'Abbe having to rewrite and tone down the scandalous bits in the second edition. Check them out.

I am impressed. You know your stuff. The book I have half read, so far, over the last week and a half, when I have had the time and will, is Hard Times by Dickens. It is my first read of Dickens and it is really really grim. I enjoyed one quote, it was along the lines of " the town was built half by God and half by man, and most of Gods half had been bricked up " . I need to finish this one off, actually, before I commence the extremely interesting Madame Bovary in Hardback that I have purchased. They say that a book always lands just when you need it. I have read the introduction of it and the wiki of it. I am impressed you know lots about all of this genre.

French Literature A level donkey's years ago TBH.
Dickens is class but you might have started off with something a bit lighter than Hard Times- the clue is in the title Mercifully, it's quite a short novel. The deal is - as with the aforementioned French writers - social realism, so they set good stories in the context of the struggle for survival that everyone bar the rich had to cope with  during the 18th and 19th centuries. Even so, most of their books tend to focus on those people lucky enough to have some form of employment, shit as it was. Given the excessive amount of glamourisation of those periods, these writers are one of the few sources of information about how life really was back then - unrelenting poverty and hunger for most and an average lifespan of half what it is today.
Back then, there wasn't much money in painting or writing about the poor so it didn't happen often.

As an aside, when I did French Literature, we did it in the original French and it never crossed my mind that I was learning to speak like a bloke from the 18th century - I do get a few laughs when I'm speaking to French folk.

wanderlust wrote:

sunlight wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

sunlight wrote:Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I know it's generally characterised as being primarily about a young woman feeling trapped and becoming adulterous - which caused a scandal at the time - but underpinning the story is a hefty dose of French realism, itself a departure from the (unrealistic) romanticism that preceded it, so if that floats your boat you might be interested in Balzac and Proust who were Flaubert's main influences. Balzac in particular is a great storyteller in the Dickensian style.
Also, a hundred and twenty years before MB, L'Abbe Prevost wrote Manon Lescaut which has a lot of the same elements as MB and IMO is a better rendition despite L'Abbe having to rewrite and tone down the scandalous bits in the second edition. Check them out.

I am impressed. You know your stuff. The book I have half read, so far, over the last week and a half, when I have had the time and will, is Hard Times by Dickens. It is my first read of Dickens and it is really really grim. I enjoyed one quote, it was along the lines of " the town was built half by God and half by man, and most of Gods half had been bricked up " . I need to finish this one off, actually, before I commence the extremely interesting Madame Bovary in Hardback that I have purchased. They say that a book always lands just when you need it. I have read the introduction of it and the wiki of it. I am impressed you know lots about all of this genre.

French Literature A level donkey's years ago TBH.
Dickens is class but you might have started off with something a bit lighter than Hard Times- the clue is in the title Mercifully, it's quite a short novel. The deal is - as with the aforementioned French writers - social realism, so they set good stories in the context of the struggle for survival that everyone bar the rich had to cope with  during the 18th and 19th centuries. Even so, most of their books tend to focus on those people lucky enough to have some form of employment, shit as it was. Given the excessive amount of glamourisation of those periods, these writers are one of the few sources of information about how life really was back then - unrelenting poverty and hunger for most and an average lifespan of half what it is today.
Back then, there wasn't much money in painting or writing about the poor so it didn't happen often.

As an aside, when I did French Literature, we did it in the original French and it never crossed my mind that I was learning to speak like a bloke from the 18th century - I do get a few laughs when I'm speaking to French folk.

It has cheered me up that not all Dickens books are as grim as this one as I wish to read his classic ones and they are really long. I did French language at school for five years but only English books in Literature lessons. It is amusing about you saying you spoke like a nineteenth Century French person. What you are saying about the poor never being written about in that period has enlightened myself about the idea of Victorians in England always being portrayed in a certain way, the middle and upper classes. An interesting reply and I thank you for it.

sunlight wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

sunlight wrote:

wanderlust wrote:

sunlight wrote:Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I know it's generally characterised as being primarily about a young woman feeling trapped and becoming adulterous - which caused a scandal at the time - but underpinning the story is a hefty dose of French realism, itself a departure from the (unrealistic) romanticism that preceded it, so if that floats your boat you might be interested in Balzac and Proust who were Flaubert's main influences. Balzac in particular is a great storyteller in the Dickensian style.
Also, a hundred and twenty years before MB, L'Abbe Prevost wrote Manon Lescaut which has a lot of the same elements as MB and IMO is a better rendition despite L'Abbe having to rewrite and tone down the scandalous bits in the second edition. Check them out.

I am impressed. You know your stuff. The book I have half read, so far, over the last week and a half, when I have had the time and will, is Hard Times by Dickens. It is my first read of Dickens and it is really really grim. I enjoyed one quote, it was along the lines of " the town was built half by God and half by man, and most of Gods half had been bricked up " . I need to finish this one off, actually, before I commence the extremely interesting Madame Bovary in Hardback that I have purchased. They say that a book always lands just when you need it. I have read the introduction of it and the wiki of it. I am impressed you know lots about all of this genre.

French Literature A level donkey's years ago TBH.
Dickens is class but you might have started off with something a bit lighter than Hard Times- the clue is in the title Mercifully, it's quite a short novel. The deal is - as with the aforementioned French writers - social realism, so they set good stories in the context of the struggle for survival that everyone bar the rich had to cope with  during the 18th and 19th centuries. Even so, most of their books tend to focus on those people lucky enough to have some form of employment, shit as it was. Given the excessive amount of glamourisation of those periods, these writers are one of the few sources of information about how life really was back then - unrelenting poverty and hunger for most and an average lifespan of half what it is today.
Back then, there wasn't much money in painting or writing about the poor so it didn't happen often.

As an aside, when I did French Literature, we did it in the original French and it never crossed my mind that I was learning to speak like a bloke from the 18th century - I do get a few laughs when I'm speaking to French folk.

It has cheered me up that not all Dickens books are as grim as this one as I wish to read his classic ones and they are really long. I did French language at school for five years but only English books in Literature lessons. It is amusing about you saying you spoke like a nineteenth Century French person. What you are saying about the poor never being written about in that period has enlightened myself about the idea of Victorians in England always being portrayed in a certain way, the middle and upper classes. An interesting reply and I thank you for it.

Here you go...a one page history of poverty in England since the Middle Ages.
Worth a quick look as it provides context - and highlights the distorted/romanticised view of our history.

A Chinese friend of mine told me that a few of his relatives back home learned English with the help of BBC radio. 
They used to listen to the old panel show 'Just A Minute'. When they finally visited him over here, most of them sounded like Kenneth Williams.

Balzac's Le Pere Goriot is awesome! Don't want to spoil it for you if you haven't read it, but there's a vividly detailed description of a revenge castration in there.....not right at the end and not gratuitous....so enjoy!!