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Wednesday Reading Meme
Feb. 28th, 2024 05:14 pmWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
William Dean Howells’ Tuscan Cities: Travels through the Heart of Old Italy, a collection of Howells’ travel writings about a trip he took through Tuscany in 1883. I approached this with trepidation because I found his earlier travel book, about his time as consul to Venice during the Civil War, rather dull. But either my tastes have changed or Howells hit his stride as a travel writer in the intervening twenty years, because I really enjoyed this one—maybe it helped that I’ve visited many of the cities he’s discussing? I particularly enjoyed his description of walking the walls of Lucca and peeping into the gardens below, because I did the exact same thing.
He’s also uncompromisingly anti-Medici, which is refreshing. Sure, the Medici were generous patrons of the arts, but Howells is not going to let that blind him to the fact that they toppled the Florentine republic and tyrranized over its people! (Next installment of “How to Be a Better Dictator”: suborn the artists! People will be eager to whitewash your reign if only it produces a few sublime paintings or maybe a nice concerto.)
I also just finished Doris Gates’s Lord of the Sky, Zeus, which retells a smattering of the more famous Zeus-related legends. (Also some legends that Gates just felt like retelling, I think. Zeus doesn’t play a big role in the story of Daedalus, but here it is regardless.)
As I’ve been looking into the library holdings of these various mid-century authors, I’ve discovered that an astonishing number of them wrote mythology retellings and biographies. (I suspect that writing biographies in the mid twentieth century was way more fun than writing a biography now, as there was no need to bother one's head about footnotes.)
What I’m Reading Now
There have been GRAND REVERSALS in Sir Isumbras at the Ford. ( Spoilers )
What I Plan to Read Next
Hard to say! I am planning a trip to France, so perhaps it is time to start rounding up France-related books to enrich my journey.
William Dean Howells’ Tuscan Cities: Travels through the Heart of Old Italy, a collection of Howells’ travel writings about a trip he took through Tuscany in 1883. I approached this with trepidation because I found his earlier travel book, about his time as consul to Venice during the Civil War, rather dull. But either my tastes have changed or Howells hit his stride as a travel writer in the intervening twenty years, because I really enjoyed this one—maybe it helped that I’ve visited many of the cities he’s discussing? I particularly enjoyed his description of walking the walls of Lucca and peeping into the gardens below, because I did the exact same thing.
He’s also uncompromisingly anti-Medici, which is refreshing. Sure, the Medici were generous patrons of the arts, but Howells is not going to let that blind him to the fact that they toppled the Florentine republic and tyrranized over its people! (Next installment of “How to Be a Better Dictator”: suborn the artists! People will be eager to whitewash your reign if only it produces a few sublime paintings or maybe a nice concerto.)
I also just finished Doris Gates’s Lord of the Sky, Zeus, which retells a smattering of the more famous Zeus-related legends. (Also some legends that Gates just felt like retelling, I think. Zeus doesn’t play a big role in the story of Daedalus, but here it is regardless.)
As I’ve been looking into the library holdings of these various mid-century authors, I’ve discovered that an astonishing number of them wrote mythology retellings and biographies. (I suspect that writing biographies in the mid twentieth century was way more fun than writing a biography now, as there was no need to bother one's head about footnotes.)
What I’m Reading Now
There have been GRAND REVERSALS in Sir Isumbras at the Ford. ( Spoilers )
What I Plan to Read Next
Hard to say! I am planning a trip to France, so perhaps it is time to start rounding up France-related books to enrich my journey.
