The little white attic

1/ Amidst all the shock and horror on twitter over people never having heard of The Odyssey , arose a new quarrel about Emily Wilson’s trans...

Under my last blog post, I got a comment from Thomas Parker asking how I selected translations, so let’s jot down some thoughts.  1/ Anyone ...

1/ I have just finished reading another book of my uncle’s, a kind of memoir. Makes me sad about Vietnam, about writers in exile, about a my...

Over the past 10 days, I’ve been having a few arguments on the hell-site (still) known as Twitter. Foolish, I know. First, because a “former...

1/ I’m sure none of you are surprised to hear that the greatest novel I’ve read this year is Don Quixote , the funniest and saddest of novel...

1/ I like the sexual frankness of Tom Jones .  “… Nor was her mind more effeminate than her person. As this was tall and robust, so was that...

I’ve noted that some bloggers complain about the narrator of Tom Jones —why?—this is one of the great charms of the novel.    “The same anim...

Yesterday I watched two Czechoslovakian films: Alice and When the Cat Comes (both of which I recommend). As I was watching Alice , Jan Šva...

I originally shared my 100 list on 27/11 but made a mistake (listing two Inside No.9 episodes twice, instead of listing them once and notin...

Having now said goodbye to Arabella, I’m going to jot down some final thoughts (the blog post will be short as I’m ill and miserable).  My m...