Welcome to this week’s blog, and our roundup of your comments and photos from last week. Once more, troubles in the wider world have been occupying the minds of TLS readers. But once again, books have provided some consolation. modernista43 wrote:

In a state of post-Brexit despair, I’ve turned to some Europeans. An old favourite is Calvino’s Difficult Loves which evoke hot Italian summers of the 1950s with such clarity. Each story is titled “The adventure of a ....” and depicts a small but epiphanic event in the life of the protagonist. “The Adventure of a Wife” is one of my all time favourites, not least for the categorisation of people in a cafe in the early morning as “still” or “already” (up) by an espresso drinker desperate to be recognised as a “still”. Then for something new in a similar vein, I read Georgio Bassani’s “The Gold-Rimmed Spectacles” which reminded me of Death in Venice in some ways. I plan to continue with Bassani.

If you do have extra time on your hands this week, you may want to consider a series of important philosophical questions raised by Machenbach :

Now did you ever think to yourself: “Why the hell aren’t there more novels about the Logical Positivists?” No? Me neither. But Bruce Duffy did and, after what most have been some considerable effort, he published The World As I Found It, a well-received fictional group biography of Wittgenstein, Russell and Moore ... There are a few minor infelicities including one scene in which the action seems to revolve around a left-hand drive car (presumably neither the American author nor his editors noticed this). I don’t usually pay much attention to these things but for some reason this one stood out like a suspicious-looking object warping the meniscus of an otherwise perfectly still and clear swimming pool. Anyone here especially infuriated by errors or anachronisms? Any egregious examples to share?

Sure enough, plenty of other contributors have experienced similar scum on the pool. Interwar, for instance, wrote:

Once found myself unable to finish a book set in the middle ages because of a passing reference to the buttons on one character’s clothing. It just happened that I knew buttons were not introduced for another two centuries.

Perhaps inevitably in a thread about mistakes, jerkjackarach chipped in with the following doozy:

I hate to be that guy here, but these people weren’t logical positivists, though they may have liked to be were it plausible.

Just goes to show that none of us are perfect.

Or almost none. At least one writer does seem to have attained a state of unusual grace according to one of last week’s threads. altocontraloto wrote:

Currently reading DH Lawrence’s Women in Love - a first Lawrence for me and, if the rest of the book lives up to the standards of the first half, one of many. He portrays tremendous passion in the most wonderful way, and yet there’s also a real tender beauty to his descriptions that can be quite arresting at times. I often read for little jewel-like moments like that - little clusters of words that you just have to whisper aloud.

There followed an enthusiastic (possibly even surprisingly enthusiastic?) series of comments about Lawrence’s greatness. Samye88 made an especially strong case, declaring: “I put Lawrence on the pedestal of the untouchable Every single book is a revelation and profoundly touching.” As if that weren’t praise enough, there came more eloquent praise:

Totally agree with you that there is a tiny fraction of rarified Writers who are head and shoulders above the rest. For me, Lessing and Lawrence are the greatest forces of nature. I believe they were connected with the source of life/the collective human consciousness. They certainly didn’t write with their heads alone.

Lawrence himself couldn’t have put it more forcefully.

George Gissing was also singled out for recognition. MsCarey wrote:

I’ve been reading The Odd Women by George Gissing, published in 1893. The title refers to the ‘superfluity ‘ of women in late Victorian England (ie more women of marriageable age than there are men available to marry) and the novel explores the issues facing this group of women. Gissing actually looks only at that group of women who might be described as middle class gentlewomen although he includes both women who are financially secure and those who are living in poverty. Rarely have I come away from a book so feeling that every word has been directed at the subject at hand. I can’t remember a single line that wasn’t pertinent to the plight of women. (This is an impression only. If I were a careful reader I would have noted this as I read and if I were a conscientious reviewer I would go back and check but I’m not and I didn’t, so there you go.) It’s also a novel notable for its complete lack of humour. All of which makes it sound like a dry as dust social treatise. But it’s really not. It has great characters, great drama (not of the action-laden or melodramatic kind), intelligence and an emotional heart. It’s very good indeed and it has made me interested in Gissing as a writer.

Lovely. Judging by the size and enthusiasm of the following thread, MsCarey wasn’t the only one interested in Gissing. He might make a good subject for a future Reading Group, in fact? Let me know.

Interesting links about books and reading

• The Vatican have digitised some of the oldest surviving fragments of Virgil’s Aeneid. Marvel at these images from 400 AD.
  
• The BBC have compiled 42 Douglas Adams quotes to live by - and they’re delightful.
  
• Neil Gaiman’s American Gods has had a pulp fiction makeover.
  
• Which seems reason enough to direct you to this glorious pulp fiction covers compendium.

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