Reading for the Apocalypse

In trying times, for me there's nothing quite like sinking into Jane Austen's calm, rational world where the greatest worry is whether the heroine will marry the right man (spoiler: she will.) So, to counteract the political uncertainty ahead. I've been listening as I paint--doubly soothing. 

I've read and reread Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma multiple times. Now I'm delving into the rest of her works--read long ago and mostly forgotten. Mansefield Park was enjoyable, but Northanger Abbey is exceeding my expectations as Jane's sly humor is at its best here. It's a witty spoof of the popular Gothic novels of the time. I'm very much enjoying this audio version from Audible.

Sapiens, on the other hand, is not soothing at all. But it's an important read, and relevant to the times we find ourselves in. 

For example, in the chapter about money, its usefulness in commerce and cooperation between strangers, the author warns of its dark side.

Quoting "Human communities and families have always been based on belief in 'priceless' things, such as honour, loyalty, morality, and love. These things lie outside the domain of the market and shouldn't be bought or sold for money. . . . Parents mustn't sell their children into slavery; a devout Christian must not commit a mortal sin; a loyal knight must never betray his lord; and ancestral tribal land shall never be sold to foreigners.

"Money has always tried to break through these barriers, like water seeping through cracks in a dam. Parents have been reduced to selling some of their children into slavery in order to buy food for the others. Devout Christians have murdered, stolen, and cheated--and later used their spoils to buy forgiveness from the church. Ambitious knights auctioned their allegiance to the highest bidder, while securing the loyalty of their own followers by cash payments. Tribal lands were sold to foreigners from the other side of the world in order to purchase an entry ticket into the global economy."

And here we are. Our presidency bought by billionaires and our democracy devolving into an oligarchy. Hard times ahead, except for the 1%.

"As money brings down the dams of community, religion, and state, the world is in danger of becoming one big and rather heartless marketplace."

And then, as the Orange Felon eyes Greenland and the Panama Canal, I turn to the next chapter on the building of empires . . .

Back, I think, to Jane.

 

A Trip to Russka

                                                                              

This has been on our shelf, next to LONDON and SARUM, both of which I'd read and enjoyed, being an Anglophile of long standing. But RUSSKA. . .well, having struggled in the past through Russian novels that required me to keep a running list of the various names, nicknames, and patronymics, somehow, I just continued to ignore this doorstopper (almost a thousand pages) of a book.

Until I didn't. And I really enjoyed it and learned so much about Russian history, from the earliest beginnings to the era of Stalin and a bit beyond. My favorite way to learn history.

Rutherfurd traces two families-one landowners, the other serfs--down through the years, (complete with a handy chart of family tree) showing the ups and downs of each while giving an overview of Russian politics, sociology, religion, and economics. This vast, sprawling country couldn't be contained in a smaller book.

I took it fairly slow and interspersed it with a bit of lighter reading, actually, re-reading--Sharyn McCrumb's earlier Elizabeth MacPherson novels. At the same time, I was toggling between two audiobooks--SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (nowhere near as good as PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, though it has its moments) and a continuing re-listen to O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin wonderful series, read by the perfect reader, Parick Tull.

What a delight to leap from a Russian village on the edge of the steppes to a tourist's eye view of modern Scotland to prim and proper Regency England to battles at sea and intrigue in Malta during the Napoleonic era and back to aristocratic life in old St Petersburg! 

Books are such a great way to travel.

Patrick O'Brian Again

We watched the film "Master and Commander" again last night and once again I was seduced by the accuracy of detail, the wonderful acting, the beautiful score, and the faithfulness to the sense of the original books, if not to the plot line. 

I've mentioned before my fondness for O'Brian's 20 book Aubrey/Maturin series. I've read the books multiple time and listened to them  on CD read by the amazing Patrick Tull more times than you would believe. An O'Brian book is my default listening in the car at any time.

But don't take my word for it. In a cover-story in The New York Times Book Review published on January 6, 1991, Richard Snow called the Aubrey-Maturin books "the best historical novels ever written. On every page Mr. O'Brian reminds us with subtle artistry of the most important of all historical lessons: that times change but people don't, that the griefs and follies and victories of the men and women who were here before us are in fact the maps of our own lives."

And in a Washington Post article published August 2, 1992, Ken Ringle wrote, "The Aubrey/Maturin series far beyond any episodic chronicle, ebbs and flows with the timeless tide of character and the human heart."

It's as if the close observation of human nature, the dry wit, and the elegant prose of Jane Austen  had gone to sea during the Napoleonic Wars and I find something  new to admire with every re-reading/listening/watching.

Need I add,  highly recommended?

(Book cover illustration and sea battle painting by the renowned marine artist Geoff Hunt)