Contents:
- [9/5/13] - Royall Tyler's Tale of the Heike (2012)
- [9/2/13] - Craig Thompson's Habibi (2011)
- [1/11/12] - Chandler's Complete Novels (1989)
- [18/10/12] - Sebald's Selected Poems (2011)
- [23/9/12] - A True & Strange Story (2009)
- [17/9/12] - Dante's Divine Comedy (2003-05)
- [4/9/12] - The Civil War Reader (1957-58)
- [23/8/12] - Shakespeare's Plays in Quarto (1981)
- [20/8/12] - A Song of Ice and Fire (1996-2011)
[Note behind counter of local secondhand bookshop]
photograph: Michael Steven (2012)
[Acquired: Thursday, May 9, 2013]:
The Tale of the Heike. Trans. Royall Tyler. Viking Penguin. London: Penguin, 2012.
Tyler, Royall, trans. Before Heike and After: Hōgen, Heiji, Jōkyūki. 2012. Lexington, KY: An Arthur Nettleton Book, 2013.
I can't count how many times I've picked it up and tried to read it, always in vain. For someone who's a rabid fan of the
Tale of Genji and who's therefore read more than his fair share of medieval Japanese literature in translation, the
Heike Monogatari looks like a dead cert. But it always seemed so dead on the page: so lacking in visual as well as narrative appeal - in the earlier translations I tried, at any rate:
The second of the two pictured above is actually an extremely accurate rendition of the original - or so Royall Tyler told me. I met him, you see. It was at a translation conference in Melbourne in July 2011, while he was putting the finishing touches on this book.
He gave a fascinating paper on the performance tradition associated with the
Heike, which is still - just - continuing in modern Japan. I couldn't resist complimenting him on it afterwards, and taking the opportunity to ask him a few things about his earlier translation of the
Tale of Genji.
When I mentioned that I had two copies of his version - one (hardback) at home, the other (paperback) in the office for quick reference - I think he realised that he was dealing with a
bona fide fan (or do I mean monomaniac?). The colleague he was with, Meredith McKinney, herself the author of a lovely version of Sei Shōnagon's classic
Pillow Book, was even more impressed when she heard that I'd tracked down a copy of Ivan Morris's complete, two-volume translation of Sei Shōnagon, rather than being content with the abridged Penguin edition.
It was quite a weird encounter, actually. I don't think they could understand somebody who was so evidently enthusiastic about Japanese literature, and yet had not felt inspired to plunge into immediate study of the language itself. I can see their point. It doesn't really make sense to me either. The fact remains, though, that just as in the case of the classic Chinese novels, these English translations exist, and continue to proliferate, and I get so much pleasure from reading and comparing them and imagining what their distant originals must be like ...
Anyway, whether that makes sense or not, that's the way it is, and the main thing I got from our talk was a strong disposition to check out Tyler's "opera libretto" arrangement of the
Heike text as soon as it became available, in the hopes of finally getting to the end of it.
As an added bonus, though, it's nice to see that he's also issued a companion volume of translations of the various chronicles which supplement and complete the
Heike story:
- category - Japanese Literature: Prose: Classical
- location - Bookcase V: Shelf 5: Foreign Language Literature
[Acquired: Saturday, February 9, 2013]:
Thompson, Craig. Habibi. Pantheon Books. New York: Random House, Inc., 2011.
Bronwyn and I went into town yesterday to go to Renee Bevan's artist talk for her new show "
Stream of Thoughts" at the Gus Fisher Gallery. I thoroughly recommend it - contemporary jewellery as conceptual art. For me (at least) a real revelation:
After a nice chat with Renee and curator Karl Chitham, we wandered off afterwards to check out Real Groovy Records, which I hadn't visited for years. It still seems to be going strong: lots of hipsters, vinyl, but also an immensely quirky selection of books and DVDs.
There I saw this book:
Habibi, by Craig Thompson, author of
Blankets (2004). Now, I know that a lot of comics-fans thought that
Blankets was overpraised, but I really enjoyed it myself. Perhaps it's being brought up a fundamentalist Christian that makes me feel a certain kinship with Thompson and his bitter-sweet account of childhood and first love. For me it reads as an intensely emotional story rather than a sentimental one, but I accept that there's a thin line between the two. Perhaps the distinction will always be a subjective one.
I was very pleased to hear that he was moving into Islamic themes with his next major book. Thompson has caught the intoxication of Arabic script, and the beauty of some of his line drawings beggars belief. As a life-long
Arabian Nights obsessive, too, his choice of a Scheherazade-like narrator for a long intertwined tale of love and violence was never going to be a hard sell for me (although I see it has been critiqued by some for exhibiting "self-conscious Orientalism"; possibly so - but I think it's important to respect the author's genre intentions here. After all, the same could easily be said of various of Salman Rushdie's novels and - especially - his two children's books).
I was in two minds about simply going home and ordering it online, but there it was, in the flesh, in the shop, and Bronwyn reminded me that our beautiful local bookshops will simply cease to exist if we don't buy from them. So I did. and here it is.
It reminds me a little of walking through the streets of Kochi, in India, and hearing the muezzin from a local mosque, and feeling a sensation of pure joy at the beauty of the sound: the profound aesthetic harmony of architecture, music, and the moment, all together at once ...
[Acquired: Thursday, November 1, 2012]:
Chandler, Raymond. The Big Sleep. 1939. Introduction by Frank MacShane. The Complete Novels, 1. London: The Folio Society, 1989.
Chandler, Raymond. Farewell My Lovely. 1939. The Complete Novels, 2. London: The Folio Society, 1989.
Chandler, Raymond. The High Window. 1943. The Complete Novels, 3. London: The Folio Society, 1989.
Chandler, Raymond. The Lady in the Lake. 1944. The Complete Novels, 4. London: The Folio Society, 1989.
Chandler, Raymond. The Little Sister. 1949. The Complete Novels, 5. London: The Folio Society, 1989.
Chandler, Raymond. The Long Goodbye. 1953. The Complete Novels, 6. London: The Folio Society, 1989.
Chandler, Raymond. Playback. 1958. The Complete Novels, 6. London: The Folio Society, 1989.
The Unicorn Bookshop in Warkworth has a long shelf of Folio Society editions of various classic books, and this one caught my eye when I was in there with David Howard a few weeks ago. This time I couldn't resist it. I love Chandler's stylised and mannered prose, and admire - above all - his ability to constantly reinvent himself.
There's no mention of an illustrator for the various prints and embellishments in this set, which seems a bit careless. It's certainly very styly, though. I see that there's an accompanying volume of short stories, but I already have those in other forms.
- category - North American Literature: Fiction
- location - Bookcase Q: Shelf 1
[Acquired: Thursday, October 18, 2012]:
Sebald, W. G. Across the Land and the Water: Selected Poems, 1964-2001. 2008. Trans. Iain Galbraith. Hamish Hamilton. London: Penguin, 2011.
Maud Cahill of
Jason Books in central Auckland sends out regular bulletins on what she has in stock. I was therefore able to get down on this new Sebald book before someone else snapped it up. I've read almost all of his work that has so far appeared in translation, I think: the four major prose works, the two posthumous books of essays, the long poem
After Nature (1988), so it's great to have this one as well.
He was such a gloomy, introspective character that I must confess I've always feared that his death was not altogether an accident. I'm glad to hear that this is quite erroneous, though. This is what
Wikipedia has to say on the subject:
Sebald died in a car crash near Norwich in December [14] 2001. The coroner's report, released some six months later, stated that Sebald had suffered an aneurysm and had died of this condition before his car swerved across the road and collided with an on-coming lorry. He was driving with his daughter Anna, who survived the crash.
Quotes:
'To perceive the aura of an object we look at,' wrote Walter Benjamin, referring more to works of art than to landscapes, 'means to invest it with the ability to look at us in return.' [Iain Galbraith, 'Introduction,' pp.xi-xxiii {p.xxii}. - referencing the essay "Some Motifs in Baudelaire" (1939)]
- category - Germanic Literature: Prose
- location - Bookcase V: Shelf 6
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[Audie M. Pennefather: A True & Strange Story]
[Acquired: Sunday, September 23, 2012]:
Pennefather, Audie M. A True and Strange Story: The Life of Teuane Ann Tibbo - Artist, 1895-1984. Vermont South, Victoria, Australia, 2009.
Bronwyn gave a
talk on Teuane Tibbo last Sunday, at the
Home AKL show which is currently up in the Auckland Art Gallery:
Writer, curator, and tutor at the School of English and Media Studies, Massey University (Albany), Dr Bronwyn Lloyd discusses the art of self-taught Samoan artist Teuane Tibbo (1895 - 1984).
Tibbo, who only began painting at the age of 71, had a brief but influential career, exhibiting with a number of mainstream established artists such as Colin McCahon, Michael Illingworth, Pat Hanly, and Tony Fomison.
Bronwyn organised an exhibition of Tibbo's works at Lopdell House Gallery in 2002, which played a considerable role in bringing her back to everyone's attention. I couldn't resist buying a copy of this rather eccentric, self-published biography of Tibbo by her daughter.
- category - Art (NZ & International): Artists
- location - Bookcase I: Shelf 4
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[Sandow Birk: Dante's Divine Comedy]
[Acquired: Monday, September 17, 2012]:
Birk, Sandow, & Marcus Sanders, trans. Dante's Inferno. Illustrated by Sandow Birk. Preface by Doug Harvey. Introduction by Michael F. Meister. 2003. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2004.
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Birk, Sandow, & Marcus Sanders, trans. Dante's Purgatorio. Illustrated by Sandow Birk. Preface by Marcia Tanner. Introduction by Michael F. Meister. 2004. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005.
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Birk, Sandow, & Marcus Sanders, trans. Dante's Paradiso. Illustrated by Sandow Birk. Preface by Peter S. Hawkins. Foreword by Mary Campbell. Introduction by Michael F. Meister. 2005. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005.
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Birk, Sandow. Dante's Divine Comedy: The Complete Paintings. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2005.
I found this beautiful (and rather weird) boxset sitting in the Unicorn Bookshop in Warkworth. The main idea of it seems to be as a showcase for the paintings and drawings of Sandow Birk, done in direct imitation / competition with Doré's nineteenth century illutrations for the
Divine Comedy. The text has been adapted / translated by Birk and his collaborator Marcus Sanders. It's not exactly poetic, but the updating is quite interesting as well. I love this kind of eccentric project, I must say. Why
not dream big, if you're going to dream at all?
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[Richard B. Harwell: The Civil War Reader]
[Acquired: Tuesday, September 4, 2012]:
Harwell, Richard B., ed. The Civil War Reader: The Union Reader / The Confederate Reader. 1957-1958. Smithmark Civil War Library. New York: Smithmark Publishers Inc., 1994.
I found this in an Vintage Shop in Paeroa, which is now reinventing itself as the Antiques capital of the North. It's a combined reprint of two 1950s collections,
The Confederate Reader (1957) and
The Union Reader (1958). I actually prefer some of those old 1950s books about the American Civil War. I also bought a book called
The Day Lincoln Got Shot (1955) on the same occasion. Anyone who's read my blog post on the
The Literature of the Civil War knows that I'm pretty obsessive on the subject. "A lot of reading there," said the lady in the shop as she sold it to me. "That'll keep you out of mischief for a while."
"That's true," I agreed. "And I promise not to try and start any civil wars ..."
She looked a bit doubtful at that, but gave an uneasy smile, as if to concede that it must have been meant in a good-humored way.
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[Acquired: Thursday, August 23, 2012]:
Allen, Michael J. B., & Kenneth Muir, ed. Shakespeare’s Plays in Quarto: A Facsimile Edition of Copies Primarily from the Henry E. Huntingdon Library. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981.
This is a truly massive book, presumably intended as a companion volume to Charlton Hinman's 1968 facsimile edition of the First Folio. It comes in a handsome slipcase, and includes photographic reprints of all of the quartos (good, bad, and indifferent) in the list above. I've coveted it for quite some time. I was a bit surprised, though, when I first opened my copy, to find the letter reproduced below. It turns out that this copy was sent to the book designer by one of the other members of the production team. I now have it placed between Hinman and the 1987 Oxford Shakespeare: three huge tomes in a row ...
[Czeslaw Gricz: Letter to Paula Schlosser (15/7/82)]
[Acquired: Monday, August 20, 2012]:
Martin, George R. R. A Game of Thrones. A Song of Ice and Fire, 1. 1996. Harper Voyager. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.
Martin, George R. R. A Clash of Kings. A Song of Ice and Fire, 2. 1998. Harper Voyager. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.
Martin, George R. R. A Storm of Swords, 1: Steel and Snow. A Song of Ice and Fire, 3. 2000. Harper Voyager. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.
Martin, George R. R. A Storm of Swords, 2: Blood and Gold. A Song of Ice and Fire, 3. 2000. Harper Voyager. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.
Martin, George R. R. A Feast for Crows. A Song of Ice and Fire, 4. 2005. Harper Voyager. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.
Martin, George R. R. A Dance with Dragons, 1: Dreams and Dust. A Song of Ice and Fire, 5. 2011. Harper Voyager. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012.
Martin, George R. R. A Dance with Dragons, 2: After the Feast. A Song of Ice and Fire, 5. 2011. Harper Voyager. London: HarperCollins Publishers, 2012.
I'm afraid that when I saw this huge boxset sitting in the local bookshop in Mairangi Bay, it was only a matter of time before I bought it. Like most other people, I converted to these books after having watched the first season of
A Game of Thrones. Waiting for the second series was taking just too long, though, so I'm now ploughing my way through the books instead. The G. R. R. Martin / J. R. R. Tolkien rhyme is a bit too close to ignore, but I do like the fact that Martin's interest is far more in politics and statecraft, and far less in ethics and magic.
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[Assorted Fairy Tales]
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