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Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
I just finished reading Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) by Thomas Hardy. It was his second published novel, and the first one set in his fictional Wessex County. In it, Hardy unfolds a love story set amid the rural, rustic farmland and villages of 1850s England. There is a simplicity and warmth about the story…
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The Spoken Word
For awhile I’ve been enjoying listening to old Transformers books-on-tape while lying down. I recently decided to look at a list of titles with publication dates, so that I could try listening to them in order (not that it really matters much…they’re stand-alone stories with little to no continuity between books). Anyway, I’m really having…
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Turgenev by Henri Troyat
I just finished reading Turgenev by Henri Troyat, a biography of Ivan Turgenev published in 1985 and translated by Nancy Amphoux. This was a beautiful biography of one of my favorite writers, so it’s no surprise that I greatly enjoyed it. The book, perhaps like Turgenev’s life, is tinged with sadness, dignity, and a gentle…
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Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock (fifth in the Elric of Melniboné saga)
I finished reading Bane of the Black Sword by Michael Moorcock. This is the fifth book in the Elric saga and was first published in this form in 1977, though some of the work had previously been published in other formats. It consists of four stories (The Stealer of Souls, Kings in Darkness, The Flamebringers,…