[Not a Number]

Ian Fleming's "The Spy Who Loved Me" - literary style departure here as it is written the the first person viewpoint of a character other than Bond.

[hadi]

Yeah, Dickens was definitely Victorian, pre-modernist. I could never get into him, his style is just not that enjoyable to me. It's not a reading comprehension level, I'm currently reading Plutarch (though in English). Hahah. But for Victorian authors A. Conan Doyle is my favorite by far, the Sherlock Holmes books are perennial favorites, and many of his other novels, like The White Company and The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, not to mention his The Lost World books, are fantastic. The Victorian era was the high point of adventure fiction for sure.

Modernist authors were part of a general movement into what I would call a perfecting of mechanics, they were very self-aware when it came to the way they wrote, they were often disillusioned with some of the happenings of the world and shedding "old ways" and scrutinizing Humanism in a more rational way. Some find it tiresome or bleak, and sometimes a bit self-obsessed. I can find it that way some of the time, and can't read modernist literature nonstop without a break for something more agreeable. Hemingway needs to be appreciated almost like poetry, his "simple" style is a study in turning brevity into its own art form.

This is really eloquently put, and i agree with this 98%.

let me clarify, though, like you, and most, i did enjoy Sherlock Holmes series, one thing that irritated me, is the same issue i have with most short stories: I want character development. A short story (like short movies) leaves so much potential for character development, that by the time the story is done, we dont feel much for the main characters, other than the adventure they had.

For example, with Holmes, it was written from Watson's perspective. When describing the mannerisms of Sherlock Holmes, more often than not, he was described as doing x, y, z, in a very peculiar fashion.

paraphrasing, but example:
"here is Mr. Holmes, drinking tea, in a peculiar fashion" end story a few sentences later.
"here is Mr. Holmes smelling the rug on the ground, very peculiar this fellow is" end of story a few sentences later.
"ahh, yes, Mr. Holmes is reading a book upside down on a chair, as usual to his peculiar self" end story a few sentences later.

yes, we can see Mr. Holmes is a peculiar individual. What of it? Why is he like that? What more can you tell us about his peculiarities besides him being weird and ending the story. Or why does Mr. Watson find all these things peculiar? Maybe that is perfectly normal, and he is the peculiar one for judging?


I wanted to dig deeper into the character, rather than the crimes he was solving. But then again, I am of the rare minorities that cared more of the characters. Though the and stories were fascinating, and the excruciating details that were described were beautiful, the mind behind those discoveries is what I was after.

[AgentL]

This is really eloquently put, and i agree with this 98%.

let me clarify, though, like you, and most, i did enjoy Sherlock Holmes series, one thing that irritated me, is the same issue i have with most short stories: I want character development. A short story (like short movies) leaves so much potential for character development, that by the time the story is done, we dont feel much for the main characters, other than the adventure they had.

For example, with Holmes, it was written from Watson's perspective. When describing the mannerisms of Sherlock Holmes, more often than not, he was described as doing x, y, z, in a very peculiar fashion.

paraphrasing, but example:
"here is Mr. Holmes, drinking tea, in a peculiar fashion" end story a few sentences later.
"here is Mr. Holmes smelling the rug on the ground, very peculiar this fellow is" end of story a few sentences later.
"ahh, yes, Mr. Holmes is reading a book upside down on a chair, as usual to his peculiar self" end story a few sentences later.

yes, we can see Mr. Holmes is a peculiar individual. What of it? Why is he like that? What more can you tell us about his peculiarities besides him being weird and ending the story. Or why does Mr. Watson find all these things peculiar? Maybe that is perfectly normal, and he is the peculiar one for judging?


I wanted to dig deeper into the character, rather than the crimes he was solving. But then again, I am of the rare minorities that cared more of the characters. Though the and stories were fascinating, and the excruciating details that were described were beautiful, the mind behind those discoveries is what I was after.

I don't think you're in the minority on liking the characters first in the SH books. Holmes and Watson, their quirks and their relationship, are what makes the stories so good. The detective work is fun (especially Holmes's disguises and the pliability he had with different classes of people, and his capricious ways of dealing with his suspects) but the character is obviously the star of the show. Doyle definitely sort of set the characters from the beginning, so the idea of character development is hard, especially with Holmes. But when I think about quirky detective characters in fiction, there usually isn't much character development. The authors feel the need to follow the recipe that works, and you can't change much about the pivotal personality. With Watson, I feel like Doyle did in fact create some character development, intending to end the series, but when he buckled to the pressure to pick the stories back up and put out more books, Watson's character kind of got subsumed to the needs of the story writing.

I think most of us just want more... I've read the stories enough times that I just wish there were more, with differnet insights into the characters's lives.

[ChrisPlatt]

I just ordered two books from AbeBooks about the New York Ontario & Western Railroad
- aka "The Old & Weary" aka "The Old Woman" - which was abandoned in its entirety in 1957.

Chris

[RobA_Oz]

I’ve recently been reading the late Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther crime novels, set mostly in Berlin and covering the Weimar, Nazi and post-war eras. In order of publication, the first series, ‘March Violets’, ‘Pale Criminal’ and ‘A German Requiem’ are set in the latter two eras. Kerr’s last novel ‘Metropolis’, published after his death, is set in the Weimar Republic.

The style is somewhat reminiscent of the Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett novels, although Kerr’s research into the geography and history of the settings is said to be more detailed than the others’. The central character is a Berlin policeman who turns private investigator, and is something of an anti-hero. Having read most of my father’s old detective fiction when I was young, and many, like the works of Henning Mankel and Michael Dibden since, I’d say Kerr’s work stands up very well in comparison.

[AgentL]

I’ve recently been reading the late Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther crime novels, set mostly in Berlin and covering the Weimar, Nazi and post-war eras. In order of publication, the first series, ‘March Violets’, ‘Pale Criminal’ and ‘A German Requiem’ are set in the latter two eras. Kerr’s last novel ‘Metropolis’, published after his death, is set in the Weimar Republic.

The style is somewhat reminiscent of the Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett novels, although Kerr’s research into the geography and history of the settings is said to be more detailed than the others’. The central character is a Berlin policeman who turns private investigator, and is something of an anti-hero. Having read most of my father’s old detective fiction when I was young, and many, like the works of Henning Mankel and Michael Dibden since, I’d say Kerr’s work stands up very well in comparison.

These sound like something I need to check out!

[timb64]

I’ve recently been reading the late Philip Kerr’s Bernie Gunther crime novels, set mostly in Berlin and covering the Weimar, Nazi and post-war eras. In order of publication, the first series, ‘March Violets’, ‘Pale Criminal’ and ‘A German Requiem’ are set in the latter two eras. Kerr’s last novel ‘Metropolis’, published after his death, is set in the Weimar Republic.

The style is somewhat reminiscent of the Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett novels, although Kerr’s research into the geography and history of the settings is said to be more detailed than the others’. The central character is a Berlin policeman who turns private investigator, and is something of an anti-hero. Having read most of my father’s old detective fiction when I was young, and many, like the works of Henning Mankel and Michael Dibden since, I’d say Kerr’s work stands up very well in comparison.

I really enjoyed that series too.If you haven't read it I can also recommend 'Hitler's Peace', a wartime detective novel set around the meeting between Stalin,Roosevelt and Churchill at the Tehran Conference in 1943.Also high up on my 'to read' list is 'The Shot' based on the assassination of JFK.

[Not a Number]

Shirley Jackson "The Haunting of Hill House"

[Nakedgun]

Just completed: "Return of the God Hypothesis, Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal The Mind Behind The Universe" by Stephen C. Meyer, 2021, 450 pages, extensively footnoted.

Well done. Recommended.

.

[paulh]

Just finished my latest guilty pleasure read, Tripwire, by Lee Child - a Jack Reacher novel.

[clackers]

"However, the word of Wooster is his bond and all that sort of rot, so at one-thirty the next day I tottered up the steps of Number 16, Pounceby Gardens, and punched the bell. And half a minute later, I was up in the drawing room, shaking hands with the fattest man I'd seen in my life.

The motto of the Little family was evidently 'variety'. Young Bingo is long and thin and hasn't had a superfluous ounce on him since we first met; but the uncle restored the average and a bit over. The hand which grasped mine wrapped it round and enfolded it until I began to wonder if I'd ever get it out without excavating machinery."


'The Inimitable Jeeves' is a pretty good collection of some of PG Wodehouse's stories. The prose is tight, the banter witty, and there are always scammers/schemers trying to take advantage of Bertie and his amiable but dim-witted upper class friends and family. Luckily, the inscrutable Jeeves is always there to save the day.

It ended badly for this English comic literary genius who influenced everyone from Monty Python to Douglas Adams to Martin Amis to Terry Pratchett. Living in France when it was occupied by the Germans, he was perceived as a collaborator after giving interviews on Nazi propaganda radio broadcasts.

[timb64]

Serenade to the Big Bird by Bert Stiles

A moving and very thoughtful account of the experiences of US bomber crews over Europe in WW2.Had he lived longer there are signs Bert Stiles would have become a great writer,another sad loss to the futility of war.

[clackers]

Ah, Bertie and Jeeves were so good. I am a shameless proselytizer of all things Wodehouse....hilarious yet spot-on observations and metaphors on nearly every page.

Sparkling, isn't it? Lots of great plot twists, too.

He had to live in America after the war because of his unfortunate decision to cooperate with the Nazis. There was sympathy from a detective who thought he was a bit Bertie Wooster himself, naively unable to see the consequences.

[clackers]

Perhaps its my love of his writing slanting my interpretation but Ive always viewed that part of his story the same: a naive Bertie-type. But he didnt have a Jeeves to straighten the whole situation out, sadly

Yeah, he was never charged with anything, AFAIK. William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) was hanged for his involvement with German propaganda. But the odour surrounding Wodehouse never left.

[lesmore49]

Sparkling, isn't it? Lots of great plot twists, too.

He had to live in America after the war because of his unfortunate decision to cooperate with the Nazis. There was sympathy from a detective who thought he was a bit Bertie Wooster himself, naively unable to see the consequences.

A favourite author, I recall taking out his Jeeves/Wooster books from the library a number of times. I finally broke down and bought myself P.G. Wodehouse's The World of Jeeves.

Also enjoyed the English TV series... it was called Jeeves and Wooster.

My rating on this TV show has to be....'Well done, old boy...well done. '

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8...Z3a4zOUptnPfQO