Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (translated by Simon Armitage)

Maybe this is odd but I’m not crazy about adventure stories. Characters are stereotypes, the adventures they must go through are stereotypes, and all ends up well in the end. I guess I just hope for a little depth or humor or ambiguity when I read.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was, in many senses, a knight’s adventure story as I’d stereotype them, with the addition that in the end (mini-spoiler!) he learns a lesson about Christian goodness that was necessary and appropriate for the 1400s, when this story was captured. What made reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight a delight for me, then, was not the story, or the characters, or the lessons learned. I enjoyed reading Sir Gawain for the language. Continue reading »

The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon

I first encountered Sei Shonagon in a college course about the personal essay. We talked about her tone in the essay “Hateful Things,” and I wrote about the credibility of her critique.

“Hateful Things” is an interesting piece when considered as an essay because it doesn’t read like any other essay I read for that class. Like the rest of her The Pillow Book, it is partly a list, partly a personal journal entry, and mostly a personal ramble. Yet, Shonagon writes beautifully. It has an interesting organization to it, and from the beginning until the end, “Hateful Things” progresses from generic to personal in a beautiful way. Much of The Pillow Book is similarly personal, and the vibrant personality of the woman who wrote it makes The Pillow Book a delightful, fascinating, and important book to read. Continue reading »

Medea by Euripides

Medea is another ancient Greek play by Euripides, and yet, it is completely different from the other play I read last year. I read the Rex Warner translation in The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces (seventh edition). As I haven’t read any other translations, all I can say is that this one was refreshingly easy to read. I loved it!

Part of what I loved was the character of Medea. She was a wronged woman, but ultimately a strong one. Medea had left her home to come to a foreign land, and now she was being cast aside.  Her husband Jason had not only cheated on her but had cast her away and married another, younger woman.

Medea’s reaction to the situation and her subsequent actions are extreme. Like Lady Macbeth, she casts aside her instincts of kindness and, particularly, her motherly love. She murders her own children. But unlike when I read about Lady Macbeth, I felt Medea was in the right. She is acting out of revenge, while Lady Macbeth had acted out of selfish desire for power. I was cheering for Medea as I read her story. Continue reading »

Aucassin and Nicolette by an Out-of-the-Box Medieval Author

Aucassin et Nicolete was written in medieval France, but it’s not your typical roman d’amour.

I haven’t actually read any other medieval romances. My expectations of “typical” are all formed on stereotype. In many ways, Aucassin and Nicolette meets those fairy tale stereotypes. On the other hand, something goes quite “wrong” in this love story, for Aucassin seems to be a selfish weakling, a man frozen into inaction when things don’t go as he expected, and Nicolette is constantly called on to be the true heroine of the story.

I first read Aucassin and Nicolette during my first or second year of college for a history class. I loved it! I found it again this week for the Really Old Classics Challenge, and I still love it. Because I think Nicolette is such an awesome heroine, going beyond the stereotypes of Medieval France, I’ve decided to also count Aucassin and Nicolette as my first work for the Women Unbound Challenge.

Continue reading »

Really Old Classics Challenge

Heather and I are hosting the Really Old Classics Challenge from November 2009 to the end of February 2010. I am so excited about it. I’ve enjoyed every really old classic I’ve read thus far, and I’m looking forward to a little motivation to read some more!

It’s a fairly simple challenge. To finish, you need to read one work written before 1600 A.D. That’s it. Read one thing and you’ve finished! To make it fun, though, we have an “extra credit” option (read a retelling) and a “Classicist” certification (read four works).

I’m so excited about this! I decided to share some of my favorite classics as well as those that I hope to read some day. I probably won’t get more than four read during the next four months, but at least I can dream about reading them over the course of the rest of my life! Continue reading »

35th Bookworms Carnival: Really Old Classics

Welcome to the 35^th Edition of the Bookworms Carnival.

Today we celebrate really old classics. I hope this carnival is fun, whether you already have developed a love for really old classics or are among those who haven’t read them lately (or ever!). Maybe this will give you some ideas for your next classic read.

I organized most of the carnival by subject, with a brief overview to the posts I’ve linked to. Make sure you visit the blogs and leave your thoughts on their reviews there. Carnivals are a great opportunity to help you choose what to read next. They are also a great opportunity to find bloggers with your reading tastes, or maybe those bloggers who read things out of your comfort zone that you’d like to try reading some day.

If you haven’t read any really old classics, maybe this will be a springboard for you to do so.

Enjoy! Continue reading »

The Arabian Nights, translated by Husain Haddawy

It’s bawdy. It’s erotic. It may be inappropriate for young minds. It’s irreverent, especially considering a strict Islamic world such as the 1500s when they were written. And yet, The Arabian Nights has historically been an immensely popular collection of stories.

As The New Lifetime Reading Plan reminds me, these were one of the first “best-sellers,” the popular fiction of centuries past. I read the tales to gain a better understanding of a traditional literature.

It’s easy to see the appeal.  The stories remind me of the Grimm brothers’ tales in that magical things take extreme directions. But while Grimms’ tales had morals and were told in the guise of children’s tales, The Arabian Nights tell plain crude stories that cater to the basest of instincts: sex, betrayal, alcohol, and thievery to name just a few. But beyond the magical elements and the crudity, the tales themselves claim a higher place as they emphasize the import of story-telling in general. Continue reading »

Utopia by Thomas More

It was diverting to read, but Utopia by Thomas More was not a delightful, engaging read. It has essentially no plot: a world-traveler tells a man named Thomas More about a land called Utopia as they discuss various social problems.

And yet, Utopia was interesting to me as a commentary on “utopias” and “dystopias” in general. Although dystopia has come to mean “an imaginary place where people lead dehumanized and often fearful lives” (M-W.com), I would suggest that the original inspiration for the positive term (utopia) wasn’t so great either. If the land of Utopia in More’s novel is truly “a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions” (M-W.com), I don’t want anything to do with perfection. Continue reading »

The Odyssey by Homer, trans. Robert Fagles

I thought that The Odyssey by Homer (trans. by Robert Fagles) was much more readable than The Iliad (also trans. by Fagles) was. It was driven by far more action, and the ending was happy.  I found it a delight to read, as I did The Iliad. And yet, I was surprised by how much I didn’t love The Odyssey.  I liked it, but since I loved The Iliad, I was expecting The Odyssey to be similar for me.

I found myself comparing the two ancient epics as I read, and so this review will compare them throughout. I loved The Iliad so much I wrote three posts about it here (the story), here (what I loved), and here (thoughts on Fagles). There may be spoilers below, but I highly encourage you to read the epic poem anyway; I doubt “spoilers” would spoil it for you. Continue reading »

The Odyssey by Homer: The Story

I read The Odyssey when I was in high school, but I didn’t recall much about it. If you aren’t familiar with it, here are some basic facts of the story. Please note that I’m not an expert, and these are only preliminary thoughts after having read the poem twice in the course of my life.

Tomorrow morning, I will share my thoughts on reading the Robert Fagles translation of The Odyssey. Continue reading »