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Showing posts with the label Èmile Zola

Blogging Anniversary - 10 years

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A while ago I checked when I did my first blog post, in order to celebrate with an anniversary post. Well, that day came and went without any reaction from me. Better late than never, so here a reminder of my very first blog post from 24 October 2012.  The book was New Finnish Grammar  by Diego Marani. Marani is an Italian novelist, translator and newspaper columnist. While working as a translator for the European Union he invented a language ‘Europanto’ which is a mixture of languages and based on the common practice of word-borrowing usage of many EU languages. It was a suitable book to start with, being a book about letters, languages and memories. With a beautiful prose, the novel went directly to my heart.  "One night at Trieste in September 1943 a seriously wounded soldier is found on the quay. The doctor, of a newly arrived German hospital ship, Pietri Friari gives the unconscious soldier medical assistance. His new patient has no documents or anything that can ide...
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Paris in July 2018 - Nana by Èmile Zola

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I have had a visitor all the way from Australia, so I have been quite busy the last week. Therefor not too much blogging about Paris in July lately. However, I wanted to share with you, my experience of reading Nana . The title might be a little bit misguiding, because it reads like I have actually read the book. Well, I have not. I tried to read it for last years' Paris in July and once again this year. I just can't get through it. I remember part of the plot, since I saw it as a tv-series when I was a teenager. It somehow stayed with me, especially the part (SPOILER ALERT) in the end where Nana gets smallpox and her career is over. I have recently read Thérèse Raquin  by Zola and I liked it very much, but I just don't seem to be able to get through Nana. A few thoughts about why I am not able to get through it. Zola was much into realism. In György Lukács' essay Realism in the Balance  he speaks about the objects that only live "in connection with human ...
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Paris in July 2018 - Zola and food

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Paris in July for 2018 is upon us. It will be a wonderful month with exchanging anything French with fellow bloggers. Some of you have already started. The pressure (although pleasant) is on and here is my first post. The inspiration comes from Zola. I am reading his Nana and a non fiction book about him, The Disappearance of Émile Zola, Love Literature and the Dreyfus Case.  The theme? Food. After his J'Accuse  article he was brought to trial for criminal libel, and rather than going to prison he left for England where he stayed for a year, before he was allowed back to France. Being a writer he kept a diary and his comments about everything English is fascinating. One thing he does not love though is the food. The following quote comes from a dinner that Nana is hosting. "Thick asparagus soup a la comtesse, clear soup a la Deslignac," muttered the waiters, carrying about platefuls in rear of the guests. ... The waiters took away the soup plates and circulat...
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