Just downloaded the PDF of history of poverty. Very interesting reading. A far cry from the snowflake, gender fluid, twitter world we live in now.wanderlust wrote:Here you go...a one page history of poverty in England since the Middle Ages.sunlight wrote:wanderlust wrote:French Literature A level donkey's years ago TBH.sunlight wrote:wanderlust wrote: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.sunlight wrote:Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
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.
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.
Worth a quick look as it provides context - and highlights the distorted/romanticised view of our history.
Books.
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26 posters
221 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 16:25
Cajunboy
Frank Worthington
222 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 18:40
boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
Have you read 'The Classic Slum:Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century'?
It's a brilliant read. Written by Robert Roberts, it's straight from the horses mouth.
It's a brilliant read. Written by Robert Roberts, it's straight from the horses mouth.
223 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 18:49
Cajunboy
Frank Worthington
Thanks.
Just bought it on ebay for £2.45 ( includes postage)
Just bought it on ebay for £2.45 ( includes postage)
224 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 21:22
sunlight
Andy Walker
boltonbonce wrote:Have you read 'The Classic Slum:Salford Life in the First Quarter of the Century'?
It's a brilliant read. Written by Robert Roberts, it's straight from the horses mouth.
No doubt it would act as a memory of all those people in the UK that have lost their lives in Wetherspoons, so that it may never be repeated.
225 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 21:35
sunlight
Andy Walker
okocha wrote: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!!
I often read Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire. My favourite is `Le Soleil` with the line, in one of the variations " the Sun beat down mercilessly upon the rooves", or Quand le soleil cruel frappe à traits redoublés
Sur la ville et les champs, sur les toits et les blés ( when the cruel Sun strikes with increased blows the City the country the roofs and the wheatfields ). That line puts you there in so few words, you are there with him experiencing that moment. In the fierce rays of noon, which mercilessly beat On town and country, on the roofs and on the wheat. Several variations.
226 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 21:47
wanderlust
Nat Lofthouse
It can happen. My French has far too many "forsooths" in it apparently. The plummiest English I ever heard came out of a Gujerati warehouse manager in Qatar - who insisted on wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella in the desert. He wasn't daft mind.boltonbonce wrote: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.
227 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 21:50
sunlight
Andy Walker
wanderlust wrote:It can happen. My French has far too many "forsooths" in it apparently. The plummiest English I ever heard came out of a Gujerati warehouse manager in Qatar - who insisted on wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella in the desert. He wasn't daft mind.boltonbonce wrote: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.
People were better then. Thats all been lost now and it made us special.
228 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 21:54
wanderlust
Nat Lofthouse
You are definitely bonkers, albeit in a nice way.sunlight wrote:wanderlust wrote:It can happen. My French has far too many "forsooths" in it apparently. The plummiest English I ever heard came out of a Gujerati warehouse manager in Qatar - who insisted on wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella in the desert. He wasn't daft mind.boltonbonce wrote: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.
People were better then. Thats all been lost now and it made us special.
229 Re: Books. Sun Nov 24 2019, 22:33
sunlight
Andy Walker
I dont mean the bowler hat and umbrella. I mean the way that English people spoke. I much prefer it like we spoke in those old black and white films. But not the cockney thing, not the " Oh there was a right old Bull and Cow going on ", I mean proper English. Shakespeare was the best language of all.
230 Re: Books. Mon Nov 25 2019, 16:53
Cajunboy
Frank Worthington
What, like Danny Dyer?sunlight wrote:I dont mean the bowler hat and umbrella. I mean the way that English people spoke. I much prefer it like we spoke in those old black and white films. But not the cockney thing, not the " Oh there was a right old Bull and Cow going on ", I mean proper English. Shakespeare was the best language of all.
232 Re: Books. Tue Nov 26 2019, 02:17
wanderlust
Nat Lofthouse
You're not missing anything.sunlight wrote:I dont know who Danny Dyer is.
233 Re: Books. Sat Nov 30 2019, 10:42
sunlight
Andy Walker
boltonbonce wrote: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.
If they come over here for work they will do a good phone interview.
234 Re: Books. Sat Nov 30 2019, 15:15
wanderlust
Nat Lofthouse
Just been loading up my Kindle with free books for my holiday - a mixture of historical stuff, classics and thrillers but I spotted an academic book that's a bargain if you don't mind a heavy going read: Globalisation and Capitalist Geopolitics: Sovereignty and State Power in a Multipolar World.
Saw this when it came out but was originally priced at £90 so I passed - but now it's free on Kindle!
I'll let you know if I managed to plough through it when I get back next month. Preface:
"Globalization and Capitalist Geopolitics is concerned with the nature of corporate power against the backdrop of the decline of the West and the struggle by non-western states to challenge and overcome domination of the rest of the world by the West."
Should be interesting.
Saw this when it came out but was originally priced at £90 so I passed - but now it's free on Kindle!
I'll let you know if I managed to plough through it when I get back next month. Preface:
"Globalization and Capitalist Geopolitics is concerned with the nature of corporate power against the backdrop of the decline of the West and the struggle by non-western states to challenge and overcome domination of the rest of the world by the West."
Should be interesting.
235 Re: Books. Sat Feb 01 2020, 12:51
boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
The Boy From Tomorrow by Camille Deangelis.
Aimed at the younger market, but a great read.
Aimed at the younger market, but a great read.
236 Re: Books. Sun Feb 02 2020, 14:09
sunlight
Andy Walker
Not about a book, but a comparison of Greggs Pasties with Bruegels painting of the medieval land of Gluttony and Sloth. It is a land where food presents itself for eating. Eggs have legs and they walk up to people offering themselves to be eaten. Chickens and Turkeys walk up and lay themselves down on plates. Roasted and dinner ready Pigs run around with knives already in them. The roofs of the houses are made from pies and pastry that is open and ready for roasted pigeons to fly themselves into them. Its a sixteenth century painting from a Dutch Painter. Art and Literature is a wonderful world.
237 Re: Books. Thu Mar 05 2020, 10:33
boltonbonce
Nat Lofthouse
World Book Day today. Don't you dare Bob. I'm warning you.
239 Re: Books. Thu Mar 05 2020, 15:27
Norpig
Nat Lofthouse
If that book doesn't cure insomnia then nothing will
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