I think this is one of the best speeches ever written. On anything. Alexander Solzhenitsyn turns his keen powers of observation and understanding, sharpened by long years of oppression under a totalitarian regime, on the West and diagnoses the cause of its ills: a decline in moral courage. Despite having been written 40 years ago, it's even more relevant now than it was then.
Even better than reading this is hearing the man himself deliver it at Harvard in 1978-- the video of the complete speech, with a simultaneous translator translating it into English is available on Youtube. Awesome stuff.
And if you can, listen also to Dr. Peter Kreeft's excellent commentary on it and the impression it made on him as a member of that audience in 1978--also available on Youtube.
Friday, August 11, 2017
The Guns of August, by Barbara Tuchman
Back in 2014, the first of the World War I centenary years, I decided to get informed about World War I since I knew so little about it and it is frequently cited as the cause of various negative developments in the modern world (not the least of which was World War II). But I'm a procrastinator so it took three years to get my rear in gear.
This book served as a great start. It's a military history covering the first month of the war on the Western front, including the frantic diplomacy and negotiation on the few days before the outbreak of the war, particularly in Belgium. It ends on the eve of the battle of the Marne. Tuchman only dedicates two chapters on Eastern front battles (Gumbinnen and Tannenberg), and one on the pursuit of the German light cruiser Goeben in the Mediterranean which resulted in the Turkish alliance with Germany, so if you're looking for a history of the Eastern front and an account of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife this is not it.
Tuchman is a skilled storyteller and includes just enough maps and technical information about military strategy and the technology of that time so a layman can understand the ramifications of the decisions made by the many generals, diplomats, monarchs, and politicians to whom he will be introduced. I had no problem following the progress of the war and learned a lot about the military thinking of the time. She also includes enough detail about the situations and people to draw the reader into the world of 1914. No mean feat.
This book served as a great start. It's a military history covering the first month of the war on the Western front, including the frantic diplomacy and negotiation on the few days before the outbreak of the war, particularly in Belgium. It ends on the eve of the battle of the Marne. Tuchman only dedicates two chapters on Eastern front battles (Gumbinnen and Tannenberg), and one on the pursuit of the German light cruiser Goeben in the Mediterranean which resulted in the Turkish alliance with Germany, so if you're looking for a history of the Eastern front and an account of the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife this is not it.
Tuchman is a skilled storyteller and includes just enough maps and technical information about military strategy and the technology of that time so a layman can understand the ramifications of the decisions made by the many generals, diplomats, monarchs, and politicians to whom he will be introduced. I had no problem following the progress of the war and learned a lot about the military thinking of the time. She also includes enough detail about the situations and people to draw the reader into the world of 1914. No mean feat.
Friday, August 4, 2017
The Professor's House, by Willa Cather
Willa Cather displays her talent for storytelling, and creating believable characters and situations in this novel. It is set up a bit differently from other books of hers I have read, as we have the main story line about the professor, his family, and his impending retirement, and a second one told in flashback about Tom Outland, his most celebrated student (and his daughter's fiance)--an inventor and adventurer whose promising life was cut short in World War I.
The two storylines invite comparison, as the first one features the professor's quiet, comfortable everyday life, preoccupied with moving into a new house, and the second one is prompted by the professor's coming across Tom's diary among the things in his study while preparing for the move, and reading through it.
Tom's life before coming to the university was everything the professor's isn't--chaotic, impoverished, adventurous, with lots of time spent exploring the ruins of the pueblo Indians' cave dwellings in New Mexico. The professor, having completed and been recognized for his masterwork on Spanish history, feels that there is nothing left in life to look forward to. His daughters are both married and on their own; they don't seem to need him as much as they used to. The elder especially, who has inherited Tom's estate, is developing some personality traits he doesn't care for. The new house is more his wife's project than his. There is no place in it comparable to his old attic study, where so much of his work was done and which holds many memories. He stays in it long after the rest of the house has been vacated, to the point of renting the old house for some extra months.
It's the perfect picture of a man who is reluctant to move on to a new phase of life (which looks drab and uninteresting from his present point of view), and tries to hang on to the old life for as long as possible.
The two storylines invite comparison, as the first one features the professor's quiet, comfortable everyday life, preoccupied with moving into a new house, and the second one is prompted by the professor's coming across Tom's diary among the things in his study while preparing for the move, and reading through it.
Tom's life before coming to the university was everything the professor's isn't--chaotic, impoverished, adventurous, with lots of time spent exploring the ruins of the pueblo Indians' cave dwellings in New Mexico. The professor, having completed and been recognized for his masterwork on Spanish history, feels that there is nothing left in life to look forward to. His daughters are both married and on their own; they don't seem to need him as much as they used to. The elder especially, who has inherited Tom's estate, is developing some personality traits he doesn't care for. The new house is more his wife's project than his. There is no place in it comparable to his old attic study, where so much of his work was done and which holds many memories. He stays in it long after the rest of the house has been vacated, to the point of renting the old house for some extra months.
It's the perfect picture of a man who is reluctant to move on to a new phase of life (which looks drab and uninteresting from his present point of view), and tries to hang on to the old life for as long as possible.
Nos pluralistes, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Alexander Solzhenitsyn criticizes the moral emptiness of pluralism and its impotence when faced with the evils of socialism. He also criticizes the work of some of his fellow Soviet exiles, who blame the failures of socialism on the defects of the Russian people and their culture, rather than on the nature of socialism itself.
This book is an excerpt from a longer work, The Oak and the Calf, and I did find parts of it difficult to follow because I am not familiar with the work of the people Solzhenitsyn cites, but it was a worthwhile read nonetheless. Maybe reading it as part of The Oak and the Calf would provide more context.
This book is an excerpt from a longer work, The Oak and the Calf, and I did find parts of it difficult to follow because I am not familiar with the work of the people Solzhenitsyn cites, but it was a worthwhile read nonetheless. Maybe reading it as part of The Oak and the Calf would provide more context.
Moscou sans voiles, by Joseph Douillet
The author, Joseph Douillet, is a Belgian citizen who spent thirty five years living in Russia—first as Belgian consul when the tsar was still in power, then with humanitarian organizations that set up in the USSR to help alleviate the effects of the economic problems and famine caused by increasing nationalization of the factories and farms after the October Revolution. The timing of his career, the positions he held, his fluency and familiarity with the Russian language and culture put him in a perfect position to observe the transition from tsarist to Soviet Russia and to draw comparisons between the two. If there was any historical event that proved that not all change is for the better (to put it mildly), this is it.
It is a very well organized book that details the effects Communism had on different aspects of life. He starts off with how the USSR presents itself to foreigners, which is like a type of theater. Then he moves on to discussing Communism’s effects on the working and living conditions of peasants and factory workers: the level of their earnings, prices and availability of necessities, use of taxes to disadvantage disfavored groups, the educational system, the disintegration of marriage and family, illegitimacy, crime rates, treatment of people at the beginning and at the end of life, treatment of religious people, confiscation of church property, and the omnipresent surveillance of the secret police, whose power surpassed even that of the Politburo. He even spent 9 months in KGB custody at the Loubianka prison in Moscow prior to being deported to Latvia in 1925, so the later chapters are about his experiences in that jail, the effects of torture and interrogations on fellow inmates, their various fates--often deportation to gulags in Siberia or Solovetzky Island, or execution in the prison compound itself. The last chapter is about the Comintern, the Party’s foreign outreach and propaganda arm, whose aim was to spread the movement in Europe.
My edition is dated 1928, so this was written soon after being expelled from the USSR. There does not seem to be an English translation, so this book is only accessible to French speakers. Great read for those interested in Russian and Cold War history. I’m surprised at how early this book appeared (just 11 years after the October Revolution), as I had the impression that information about the real conditions inside the USSR took longer to become known in the West.
It is a very well organized book that details the effects Communism had on different aspects of life. He starts off with how the USSR presents itself to foreigners, which is like a type of theater. Then he moves on to discussing Communism’s effects on the working and living conditions of peasants and factory workers: the level of their earnings, prices and availability of necessities, use of taxes to disadvantage disfavored groups, the educational system, the disintegration of marriage and family, illegitimacy, crime rates, treatment of people at the beginning and at the end of life, treatment of religious people, confiscation of church property, and the omnipresent surveillance of the secret police, whose power surpassed even that of the Politburo. He even spent 9 months in KGB custody at the Loubianka prison in Moscow prior to being deported to Latvia in 1925, so the later chapters are about his experiences in that jail, the effects of torture and interrogations on fellow inmates, their various fates--often deportation to gulags in Siberia or Solovetzky Island, or execution in the prison compound itself. The last chapter is about the Comintern, the Party’s foreign outreach and propaganda arm, whose aim was to spread the movement in Europe.
My edition is dated 1928, so this was written soon after being expelled from the USSR. There does not seem to be an English translation, so this book is only accessible to French speakers. Great read for those interested in Russian and Cold War history. I’m surprised at how early this book appeared (just 11 years after the October Revolution), as I had the impression that information about the real conditions inside the USSR took longer to become known in the West.
Thérèse Raquin, by Honoré de Balzac
This book reminds me of why I decided to avoid Zola years ago, after reading Germinal. Basically, his characters are born…and their lives go downhill from there. There are some similarities to Thomas Hardy, but at least Hardy’s characters have a more hopeful outlook in the early part of the story and strong redeeming qualities even if fate does get them in the end.
**spoiler alert!**
Therese Raquin is the story of a sordid love triangle in a depressing working class neighborhood. Therese was adopted permanently by her aunt after her parents died, and she married her cousin Camille, a sickly boy with whom she was raised, and whom she married only because she was expected to and for lack of other prospects. After they move to Paris, Therese starts an affair with Camille’s best friend Laurent (big healthy meathead type), and together they plot to kill Camille so that they can marry and inherit her elderly aunt’s property after her death. Their consciences, however, prove impossible to appease after the murder, and they become subject to Macbeth-like psychotic delusions, seeing their victim around or sensing his presence, especially when they are alone together. Everything comes to a tragic end.
There was only one character in this book that I liked, and that was the Raquins’ tabby cat Francois. Even he was very cruelly murdered.
Don’t pick up this book unless you are in the mood for a major downer.
**spoiler alert!**
Therese Raquin is the story of a sordid love triangle in a depressing working class neighborhood. Therese was adopted permanently by her aunt after her parents died, and she married her cousin Camille, a sickly boy with whom she was raised, and whom she married only because she was expected to and for lack of other prospects. After they move to Paris, Therese starts an affair with Camille’s best friend Laurent (big healthy meathead type), and together they plot to kill Camille so that they can marry and inherit her elderly aunt’s property after her death. Their consciences, however, prove impossible to appease after the murder, and they become subject to Macbeth-like psychotic delusions, seeing their victim around or sensing his presence, especially when they are alone together. Everything comes to a tragic end.
There was only one character in this book that I liked, and that was the Raquins’ tabby cat Francois. Even he was very cruelly murdered.
Don’t pick up this book unless you are in the mood for a major downer.
Esther's Inheritance, by Sandor Marai
This was an interesting story, albeit not as good as Embers, as far as characters and storyline go. Like Embers, it is a story told through the memories of people who lived through the events long ago. In this case, the protagonist is Esther, a woman in her forties, who was betrayed twenty years ago by Lajos, the man she loved, and her sister Vilma. Lajos is basically a charlatan who is used to getting his way by telling people what they want to hear and talking them out of their money and property while pretending to care nothing about material things at all. And after twenty years, two children, Vilma’s death, and having to skip town because he talked his father in law into losing most of his assets in fraudulent investments, Lajos is coming back—to take from Esther what little property she has left (the family house and land), which is all she has to live on.
The Roads to Modernity: The British, French, and American Enlightenments, by Gertrude Himmelfarb
This book does a great job comparing and contrasting the differences of the Enlightenment as experienced in Britain, the U.S., and France. It's like an introductory, comparative survey course of the various Enlightenment thinkers in the three countries, so do not expect in-depth or detailed analysis on any particular person. This book is more to give you a general picture of the intellectual climate of those times. The treatment of the American Enlightenment is the briefest of the three, which was fine with me because I am more familiar with the American founding fathers and the thinkers that influenced them than I am with French or British Enlightenment figures.
Caution: Your to-read list will grow as a result of reading this book.
Caution: Your to-read list will grow as a result of reading this book.
Chess Story, by Stefan Zweig
This is now one of my favorite of Stefan Zweig's stories. It's set on a transatlantic ocean liner. A couple of passengers, the narrator and a competitive Scottish businessman (who is also a chess aficionado), while away the time with a game of chess. After the narrator loses, he good naturedly tells the businessman that Czentovic, the top chess grand master is on board ship. Unable to resist a good game, the businessman organizes a match between Czentovic and all the other passengers. A mysterious stranger shows up who seems to be a chess genius, giving the passengers' side a realistic chance of winning. We learn Czentovic's life story, as well as that of the mysterious stranger, who are just about as opposite to one another as it is possible to be, and the chess game becomes something of a duel between the two men and all each stands for.
This was one of Zweig's last stories, and it was published posthumously, after he and his wife committed suicide in Brazil. One can't help but regret how deep his despair must have been, and how much additional good work he could have done if he hadn't succumbed to it.
This was one of Zweig's last stories, and it was published posthumously, after he and his wife committed suicide in Brazil. One can't help but regret how deep his despair must have been, and how much additional good work he could have done if he hadn't succumbed to it.
Thomas Aquinas in 50 Pages: The Layman's Quick Guide to Thomism, by Dr. Taylor Marshall
| If you are looking for a clear, concise introduction to the life and work of St. Thomas Aquinas, and you have little to no background in philosophy or theology, this book does the job well. Dr. Marshall sketches out St. Thomas's life story, and explains the fundamental ideas of Thomist philosophy and the intellectual climate of St. Thomas's time in a simple, straightforward way. |
Karl Marx As a Religious Type: His Relation to the Religion of Anthropotheism of L. Feuerbach, by Sergei Bulgakov
Since this is the centenary year of the Russian Revolution, I've been trying to read more about the history of that time and the people who were involved or contributed to it in some way. Karl Marx, as the originator of Marxism, was definitely an intellectual contributor to it.
In this short book, Russian Orthodox priest and philosopher Sergei Bulgakov analyzes the personality and background of Karl Marx based on his writings and the writings of Marx's contemporaries, and Marx's impact on the socialist movement. Bulgakov was a contemporary of Lenin rather than Marx; he was himself a Marxist in his youth and later returned to and was ordained in his faith. Bulgakov points out how important atheism, the materialist worldview, and the elimination of religion were to Marx (i.e. it was the main feature, not a side show). Marx saw socialism as a means to eliminate religion, rather than elimination of religion being a side effect of socialism eliminating poverty. Among other topics, Bulgakov also cites evidence of Marx's dictatorial and vindictive personality as observed by writings of his contemporaries and his treatment of them, his greater affinity for the ideas of Feuerbach rather than Hegel, and his attitude towards his own ancestral people, the Jews.
This book is available online here.
In this short book, Russian Orthodox priest and philosopher Sergei Bulgakov analyzes the personality and background of Karl Marx based on his writings and the writings of Marx's contemporaries, and Marx's impact on the socialist movement. Bulgakov was a contemporary of Lenin rather than Marx; he was himself a Marxist in his youth and later returned to and was ordained in his faith. Bulgakov points out how important atheism, the materialist worldview, and the elimination of religion were to Marx (i.e. it was the main feature, not a side show). Marx saw socialism as a means to eliminate religion, rather than elimination of religion being a side effect of socialism eliminating poverty. Among other topics, Bulgakov also cites evidence of Marx's dictatorial and vindictive personality as observed by writings of his contemporaries and his treatment of them, his greater affinity for the ideas of Feuerbach rather than Hegel, and his attitude towards his own ancestral people, the Jews.
This book is available online here.
Embers, by Sandor Marai
Love triangles have got to be among the oldest storylines out there, but this one is very beautifully told. An old aristocratic General living in a remote Hungarian forest receives a visit from a long lost friend, and they reminisce about their childhood, their days at military school and military service... and about the General's long dead wife. The setting and time of the story (interwar Europe) give it a dramatic, almost otherworldly atmosphere, and the story is told obliquely. Situations and emotions are revealed through small details, observations, and remarks in conversation rather than straightforward narrative, which makes it very realistic.
A Tangled Web, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
| I enjoyed this novel, which consists of the various stories about the members of a large extended clan, all of whom are anxious to see who will inherit a prized family heirloom jug from the matriarch of the family. As with her Anne of Green Gables series, L. M. Montgomery shows her knack for storytelling, finding humor in everyday situations, some common, others not so common, and the joys and sorrows of life in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Good entertaining read. |
The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
This is a sweet little story that reminded me of the Bette Davis movieNow, Voyager. It's about a timid, quiet woman who is endlessly twitted about her plain looks and unmarried state by her insensitive relatives, all of whom take her for granted and generally see her as a nonentity. When a doctor diagnoses her with a serious illness and tells her she only has a year to live, she decides to go out and make the most of the time she has left, learning to be independent from her family, mastering her fears, and finding love.
If you are looking for great literature with deep characters and psychological insight, this is not for you. It's a fun quick read with a heartwarming message.
If you are looking for great literature with deep characters and psychological insight, this is not for you. It's a fun quick read with a heartwarming message.
Réflexions sur la révolution de Février, par Alexander Solzhenitsyn
In this book, Solzhenitsyn analyzes the toxic mix of conditions that brought about the events and consequences of three fateful days in St. Petersburg, from February 28-March 2, 1917 by the Julian calendar, or March 13-15, 2017 by the Gregorian. Because of an insurrection in St. Petersburg, Czar Nicholas II abdicated the throne in favor of his brother Grand Duke Michael, who was equally disinclined to fulfill the obligations emperor. Solzhenitsyn discusses how conditions, which only affected a small number of people, combined to destroy an enormous country, the majority of whose population were still attached to their traditions, their religion, and their way of life. These include a lack of responsibility and sense of duty on the part of the royal family and government officials, the intelligentsia’s embrace of radical politics and revolutionary ideas, bad management of the military (which led to large numbers of inexperienced new recruits sitting idle in St. Petersburg), and the incompetence of the Kerensky government that replaced the monarchy. Thus the Russian empire fell, not because of tyranny or high-handedness on the part of the Czar, but from weakness and lack of leadership.
Beware of Pity, by Stefan Zweig
| This was a very detailed psychological novel about Lieutenant Hofmiller, a soldier who upsets Edith, a young lame girl by asking her to dance at a ball, as he was unaware of her disability. Unwilling to hurt anyone and wishing to do good, he befriends the family, becomes a regular visitor at their house, and allows them to depend more and more on him until he feels obligated to fulfill their expectations. On the other hand, Edith, used to being the center of attention as the only child of wealthy parents, is unable to accept reality full-time. She swings between elation from living in a fantasy world where her condition is curable and where she can look forward to living life as an able bodied woman, and severe depression when she faces reality and can't accept it. The whole household (and soon, Hofmiller too) has made it their primary concern to keep her as much as possible in her fantasy world. There are two other similar couples in the story with which we can contrast the main couple, both of whom married at least in part due to pity on the part of the husband toward the wife: Edith's parents (her father is a self-made millionaire who made his fortune by taking financial advantage of her mother, whom he then felt obligated to marry) and her doctor and his blind wife. Both made successes of their marriages, as compared to Edith and Hofmiller, whose engagement ends in tragedy on the eve of World War I. |
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