Saturday, November 11, 2006

I think I am both ...

... old and odd, that is: Old Books - Odd Books.

Of course, I am not a book - though my wife probably thinks she can read my like one (only, to borrow what D.H. Lawrence said of himself, mine comes in several volumes).

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:43 PM

    Best old book I know: _The Cloister and the Hearth_, by Charles Reade (1861, I think -- a classic for a century but now, I believe, out of print). Reade was an Oxford don (of medieval studies) in the 19th century; he also owned and managed a London theatre (wrote several popular plays and adapted some of his novels for theatre); and was an early feminist.

    _Cloister_ is about the life of Gerard, the monk who supposedly fathered Erasmus, but it has some great scenes in it about a woman doctor who has more brains than all the men around her, but is put down by them simply because she's female.

    Reade knew something about female oppression: His longtime love and mistress was an actress and they (actresses)were also vilified in the 19th century as lying and immoral women.

    It's a wonderful picaresque novel and Reade himself a strange and colorful character.

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