My
first quarter update is running a month behind, which is not unusual. I was waiting to complete the major read of
this quarter, Dante Alighieri’s Paradiso,
the third canticle from his epic Divine
Comedy before I posted this. I just finished it. You can probably see I’m still posting my
summaries and comments. I’m spreading
them out, so they’ll be coming out for the next few weeks. I’ve actually read Paradiso twice in that I’m reading two translations in parallel, which
has been my method for the other canticles.
I’ve been reading the outstanding Hollander and Hollander translation
and the equally good Anthony Esolen translation. The way I would compare the translations is
in this way: the Hollander and Hollander has outstanding commentary and bibliography,
so that’s more geared for graduate students. The Esolen is just a fine, clean translation
with less commentary, so that’s more geared for undergraduate students.
I’ve
also read seven short stories and two essays.
“Mother” by Sherwood Anderson is an excellent story and well worth
reading. You can find it for free on the
internet. “The Background” (Saki) and “Poldi”
(McCullers), “A Sin Confessed” (Guareschi), and "Why Bugsy Siegel Was a
Friend of Mine” (Burke) were good stories, and I’d recommend them. The others were not worth it. The two essays, one on how to mark up a book
you are reading by the great academic, Mortimer J. Adler, and the other by
Joshua Wren (published in Dappled Things,
Vol 13, Issue 4) on the French Catholic writer Léon Bloy and his contribution
to the Catholic literary tradition are both excellent reads. The Adler essay you can find for free
on-line.
I’m
also reading the Old Testament’s Book of
Jeremiah. I finished the modern
English translation and about half way through the King James Version.
I
have to say I am reader who juggles many books at the same time. For our parish Bible class, we are reading
Mike Aquilina’s
The Fathers of the Church, and we’re
about thirty pages from the end. I’m
about forty pages from the end of The
Life of Saint Dominic. I’m reading
the Narnia series with my son, and we
are a third of the way into The Horse and
His Boy, which I think is excellent.
And our Catholic Thought Book Club at Goodreads has just started reading Thomas à Kempis’ The
Imitation of Christ. We just started
the first week of a planned five week read.
You can still join us, and you can find the work for free on-line. Here’s one site.
So
here’s a listing of the first quarter activity.
Completed
First Quarter:
“The
Background,” a short story by Saki (H. H. Munro).
“How
to Mark a Book,” an essay by Mortimer J. Adler.
“In
the Snow,” a short story by Stefan Zweig, translated by Anathea Bell.
“Poldi,”
a short story by Carson McCullers.
“Mother,”
a short story by Sherwood Anderson.
“A
Sin Confessed,” a short story by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Adam Elgar.
“A
Fire-Stained Cathedral Gargoyle: Léon Bloy and the Catholic Literary Tradition,”
an essay by Joshua Wren.
“Gibberish,”
a short story by Thomas Berger.
Book
of Jeremiah, a book of the Old Testament, NIV
Translation.
"Why
Bugsy Siegel Was a Friend of Mine," a short story by James Lee Burke.
Paradisio,
3rd part of the epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated and
annotated by Robert and Jean Hollander.
Paradisio,
3rd part of the epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, translated and
annotated by Anthony Esolen.
Currently Reading:
The Fathers of the Church: An
Introduction to the First Christian Teachers,
3rd Edition, a non-fiction work by Mike Aquilina.
The Life of Saint Dominic, a biography by Augusta Theodosia Drane.
Book
of Jeremiah, a book of the Old Testament, KJV
Translation.
The Horse and His Boy, a novel from the The Chronicles of Narnia series by
C. S. Lewis.
The
Imitation of Christ, a non-fiction devotional by Thomas à
Kempis.
Upcoming Plans:
“The
Light of the World,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“God
Rest You Merry Gentleman,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“The
Sea Change,” a short story by Ernest Hemingway.
“A
Matter of Chance,” a short story by Vladimir Nabokov.
“The Manager of ‘The Kremlin,’” a short story
by Evelyn Waugh.
I
has been a very busy quarter.
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