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Showing posts with the label George Gissing

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...

Advent Calendar, box no. 19 - The Odd Women by George Gissing

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So, how are you doing with your Christmas preparations? I am lucky to say that we are ready to go, and take it quite easy this week. It is rather grey, but cold here in the south of Sweden. Lacking snow though. At least I like a typical Disney winter land. Recently, in the Brontë Reading Group we read an author, new to me,  George Gissing. I missed out when we read his New Grub Street,  which everybody seemed to like. This time we read and talked about The Odd Women. The 'odd' for the women refers to women who were not married and had to support themselves by working (we are talking 19th century here). The novel seems very modern in its way of thinking as regards the independency of women. We meet a set of different women. Some who traditionally marries, some who help young women to educate themselves for a job (other than being a governess), and one who even considers living together with the man she loves. It is a set of very different people and through their re...