The Vulgar Eclectic

Vulgar: of the usual, typical, or ordinary kind
Eclectic: composed of elements drawn from various sources

definitions courtesy of Merriam-Webster

recent blog posts

• Andromache by Euripides

  I still have a few back-logged book jots I want to post. Here is one from December 2021:

  I just finished reading the play Andromache by Euripides (late 5th century BC), translated by Philip Vellacott. It is one of many tales from antiquity describing the rippling effects of the Trojan War and the lives of those who survived. Andromache was the wife of Hector, a prince of Troy. She was taken captive after the Greeks took Troy, and brought back to Greece by Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles.

  This story weaves together the fates of the family of Achilles (including his father Peleus, his son Neoptolemus, and his grandson Molossus), the House of Atreus (the descendants of the infamous Tantalus, including Hermione, the daughter of Helen and Menelaus, and Orestes, son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon), and the royal family of Troy (Andromache and her son Molossus).

  Like many of Euripides’ plays, themes of war, women’s social existence, and revenge are prominent. This play was written during Athen’s protracted war with Sparta, and the brutal realities of war were more than just a fictional device for both the dramatist and his audience.

  And in the streets of Hellas many mothers
  Raised the sad music of mourning for their sons;
  Many widows left their homes behind
  And went to another husband.
  Not alone on you and yours, Andromache,
  The bitterness of sorrow has fallen;
  This plague – Hellas too has endured the plague.
  The thunder that shattered Troy
  Has passed to our pleasant fields,
  And death is with us in a rain of blood.

  

• Dream Tales and Prose Poems by Ivan Turgenev

  I finished reading Dream Tales and Prose Poems (1879-1882) by Ivan Turgenev (translated by Constance Garnett). It contains the following short stories: “Clara Militch,” “Phantoms,” “The Song of Triumphant Love,” and “The Dream,” as well as a collection of numerous vignettes, titled “Poems in Prose.”

  This was a great read! I love Turgenev’s writing and, although the topics and themes covered in the short stories often differ significantly from his novels, his writing was as beautiful as ever. The short stories collected here all have some element of the preternatural. One story even felt like a literary ancestor of H.P. Lovecraft.

  The vignettes of “Poems in Prose” are beautiful little sketches, observations, and dreams. They are all excellently written and many feel as if more is being said than the words alone convey.

  “I liked best reading, solitary walks, and dreaming, dreaming!”

  

• Spring!

  

• Laid Back

  

• Alexander the Great by Jean Racine

  I finished reading Alexander the Great, a five-act tragedy written by Jean Racine and first produced in 1655. The version I read was a translation published in 1890 by Robert Bruce Boswell. I haven’t always enjoyed translations I’ve found in the public domain, but found this one to be excellent.

  The action of the play unfolds around the backdrop of the Battle of Hydaspes (326 BC), in which Alexander’s army fought King Porus and his soldiers in a major engagement during Alexander’s push into India.

  A love triangle is at the heart of the story, and unrequited love, honor, and ambition all play consequential roles.

  

…older blog posts