Last summer, I reread Stendhal's The Charterhouse of Parma (Penguin), drawn deep into his picture of the political life of those old Italian city states, comical and personal, arbitrary, everything on a human scale. It was years since I'd read the novel; I had just about remembered Waterloo, the prison and the duchess in love with her young nephew in her middle age, but most of the story that wound them together had faded, so it was almost like finding it for the first time. You can't hold most of what's inside the covers of a novel in your memory for very long after you've finished reading: that isn't accidental or a weakness - it's intrinsic to the novel form and means pleasure can be renewed over and over. Last time I read Emma, I discovered that when Harriet stayed with the Martins, they had their little shepherd boy in to sing to them in the evenings; I'm sure that had never been in the book before.
--Tessa Hadley, "Summer Reading"
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A bang, not a whimper
Two months into L.'s retirement, and I'm finished with the stockpiling of books. No more book purchases! Or at least, no purcha...
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(See also Musee des Beaux Arts ) As far as mental anguish goes, the old painters were no fools. They understood how the mind, the freakiest ...
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When I finished Kevin Brockmeier's A Brief History of the Dead last spring I immediately did a search to see if the Coca-Cola Corp. had...
Aw. That last comment made me smile.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that great? I love Tessa Hadley.
ReplyDeleteBecause there are so many books I haven't read *once*, I hesitate to re-read.
ReplyDeleteThis paragraph, though, makes me want to reconsider. Especially this line:
"You can't hold most of what's inside the covers of a novel in your memory for very long after you've finished reading: that isn't accidental or a weakness - it's intrinsic to the novel form and means pleasure can be renewed over and over."
Outside a few short stories, I haven't done any rereading this year. And I miss it. For the past 15 years or so I haven't reread anything to the point of internalizing it--I keep telling myself I'm looking for the ones I'll want to read that way when I'm older. I have been fighting down an urge to reread Howards End--at least until I get through a few more library books.
ReplyDeleteYou should grant yourself permission to reread a few of your favorites, Chrissy. Just to see if the pleasure's greater the second time around.