Month: November 2010

The hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

~ winstonsdad ~ 8 Comments

Well Halloween was wondering what to read and though oh I ll reread the Hound of the Baskervilles it is a short book and can be easily read in a day ,Now this was my first reread since my early twenties of this book ,I first read under the covers as a ten-year old ,this time I was struck by a number of things ,the cleverness of the writing using diary ,and telegrams as different chapters .The way Doyle built up the moor as a character in itself ,dark sorrowful and full of mystery .The other thing I had in my head was a spinning wheel of the versions of this book I ve seen on dvd and film from Basil Rathbone ,Peter Cushing ,Jeremy Brett and their sidekicks ,at different points in the book I had a different Holmes in my mind’s eye .one my favourite lines is .

why should a man walk on tiptoe down the alley ?

he was running ,watson -running desperately ,running for his life ,running until his heart burst and fell dead upon his face .

running from what ?

there lies our problem .there are indications that the man was crazed with fear before ever he began to run

how can you say that ?

I m not going to mention much on the story I think most people know the story SIR Charles Baskerville ,dies under strange circumstances ,his nephew comes to england ,there is a myth of an evil curse of a demon hound on the Baskerville family ,Watson goes the Baskerville seat in devon on the dark moors ,e

he meets the locals reports to Holmes ,then Holmes comes into the picture again and there is a shocking climax ! .Watson is the main character in most of this book ,he comes across as an able doctor ,a fairly observant man and a prefect sounding board for Holmes ,Watson’S view is very black and white he is the parts that Holmes character doesn’t have ,compassion ,able to interact with people more openly .well as ever I loved this book it is a true classic in crime lit and the best of the Holmes novels .Now as I said I imagined the different film versions ,I think the best of them is Jeremy BNretts it is in many ways nearest the novel ,but can recommend the Ian Richardson version as it has Brian Blessed ,doing what he does best shouting .

HAVE YOU READ THIS ?

DO YOU LIKE ANY OF THE FILM VERSIONS ?

Is there ageism in literature ?

~ winstonsdad ~ 15 Comments

Over weekend reading the various reviews of Gunter Grass new novel/autobiography .I was struck by how often Grass age was mentioned and the fact the work was weak due to age ,over the years I ve seen this time and time again ,Jackie at farm lane books did a post about relating to writers age earlier this year .Know on whole I don’t look at  writers age ,although have notice some books by younger writers appeal to me less than they would have done ten years ago .so if your a writer in your 80’s does it mean your book is not going to be good as the book you wrote in your forties ? If you believe the reviewers then it is not going to be ,last year I read a great debut by the writer of Mr Magoo ,his debut novel Bowl of cherries by Millard Kaufman when he was 86 a wonderfully wacky and funny novel .so does age matter ?


CITY PICKS -AMSTERDAM

~ winstonsdad ~ 12 Comments

SOURCE -REVIEW COPY

City picks/lit is a series of books ,all about different cities ,using extracts ,short pieces and journalistic pieces about the cities ,This one is all about the Dutch Capital Amsterdam and was part funded by thee Dutch foundation for translation of Dutch literature .The collection was compiled by Heather Reyes The editor of the whole series and Victor Schiferli A dutch graduate ,he worked for the Dutch translation foundation and as an editor for Penguin .It is published by Oxygen books

The book is divide into a number of sections ,each reflecting Amsterdam in a different way ,I love Amsterdam the first is a general introduction why people love the city Alain De describing arriving at Schipol airport and the trip to the centre of Amsterdam from his art of travel .Then we read piece about the canals of Amsterdam ,Cees Nooteboom talks about the sea and the land a wonderfully poetic piece from Hollands best known writer .

First of all the land .The North sea beats against a row of dunes that resist it and rolls ,green grey ,brown grey to the place where it finds passage .From there it whips around the land ,between the walls of islands and becomes the Wadden sea ,the Zuider Zee .

from the philosopher without eyes by Cees Nooteboom .

Then we Gather Peoples thought on the must see places Geert Mak from his books about the City picks Vondel park as one of the Places ,of course Anne Franks house here described by Indian writer Salil Triparthi  ,then we here writers describe the art ,the wonderful collection of dutch masters Van Gogh is described by the spanish writer Cesar Antonio Molina .

Van Gogh was always obsessed with being recognized and success but if it had worked out like that would he have painted the way he did ?

Molina on Van Gogh

Then we see how Amsterdam is a nation with in a nation ,very different in some ways than the rest of the Netherlands .John Ezards obituary too The Franks lifeline Miep Gies is very Touching this wonderful women ,deserves to be remembered  ,the tolerant Amsterdam is discussed with their liberal drugs and infamous red light district .the Croatian writer Dubravka Ugresic tells us the cost of the red light district in human traffic from Eastern Europe .then the Historic Amsterdam our own Simon Schmama talks about the city through Rembrandt’s eyes .the section on the second world war includes an extract of  Anne Franks diary ,a wonderful piece on a childs eye view of the war ,and the last section is about the future of the city ,

Well that was a quick flick through the book the sections and some pieces I enjoyed ,Cities are like a Living breathing creatures and this book is like a paint of this creature ,AMSTERDAM ,i ve been only a couple of times for the day to this city and loved it this book remind me of the bits I liked the people the canals its wonderful artistic legacy ,this book is great if you want to go there have been there or just want to know about the city as an armchair traveller .Now there are a lot of different writers mainly Dutch but also from around the world ,the translators seem to have done great jobs .

I ll leave you with another person on this great city .