BOTM: M.Baffy, They were found wanting
M. Banffy, They were divided
A. Christie, Death in the Clouds
M. Druon, Le poisons de la couronne
B. Ehrmann, The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture
M. Gogol, Diary of a madman and other stories
G. Greer, The female Eunuch
J. Kelman, How Late it was, how late
I. Murdoch, The nice and the good
L. Sterne, A sentimental JourneyK. Williams, The Kenneth Williams Diaries
Remaining - 41
In exciting news, I've found my commonplace book again. I've not written in it for a year or so. This went in though:
'But Mannestreue, that old German tradition that a man must be as good as his word, did not only apply to the glamour and chivalry of medieval knights: heroism and self-sacrifice could be just as noble in the grey obscurity of ordinary people in a little country town.' (Banffy, They were found wanting, 398)They've been great, the Banffy triptych; I don't know why I failed to finish them when I read the first book some years ago. Still, a wrong has been rectified - another triumph for the project. Their wonderfully evocative of a very appealing and fascinating time at the turn of the century when the Habsburg Empire was essentially doomed by forces within it that would themselves be doomed by the outcome. Hungary is the most obvious, but I imagine the Croatian nobility and the Bohemians were pretty surprised how it all panned out as well. The melancholy of the age is echoed by the plot, which, in it's final denouement, just stays on the right side of genuine sadness rather than melodrama. Obviously autobiographical, and none the worse for that, while also well drawn and most moving. I think this middle book the best of the three; and I just need to persuade A that we need a trip to Transylvania now.
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