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

• The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter

  I finished reading The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter (edited and with an introduction by Marc Raeff). This was an amazing read. The author was a German stonemason who was conscripted into Napoleon’s Grande Armée and served in multiple campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars, including the ill-fated 1812 Russian campaign.

  At some point after his military service, Walter hand-wrote his memoir, stitched the pages together, and eventually passed it on to one of his sons in 1856 (the edition I read was published in 1991). He wrote with great facility, producing a work that is descriptive, moving, and often terrifying. Although some works written by educated officers exist, Walter’s book seems to be the only example of a memoir detailing the disastrous retreat from Moscow penned by a common soldier.

  In the face of slaughter, starvation, and extreme cold, the will to survive felt and acted out by ordinary people is profoundly illustrated. This was a most memorable read and several of the haunting scenes will stay long in my memory.

  

• Took a Walk in the Dirty Rain

  

  

• The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper

  I just finished reading The Pioneers (1823) by James Fenimore Cooper. Although the fourth and penultimate volume in the narrative chronology of The Leatherstocking Tales, it was the first published.

  I had a wonderful time reading this chapter of the life of Natty Bumppo. The reader feels as if they are adventuring along with him and Chingachgook in the woods and mountains, always assured of Hawkeye’s simple good nature and deep friendship.

  Like the other novels in this series, the reader is introduced to and gets to know a number of characters, as well as the landscape in which the plot unfolds. The tension between the old ways and the new (in the form of European settlement) is a strong undercurrent running throughout the narrative. There is much humor, often at the expense of a few of the characters, as well as pathos, sadness, and a certain steadfastness. The ending is moving, especially having read the previous books; the last scene is just as it should be.

  “The meanest of God’s creatures be made for some use, and I’m formed for the wilderness. If ye love me, let me go where my soul craves to be agin!”

  

• La Princesse Lointaine (The Princess Far-Away) by Edmond Rostand

  I just finished reading La Princesse Lointaine (The Princess Far-Away) by Edmond Rostand (translated by Charles Renauld), first published in 1895, and I loved it. I stumbled across this play and went into it knowing practically nothing about the play or the author. It’s superbly crafted and I was drawn into it almost immediately.

  Rostand perfectly blends romanticism with a sense of realism to create a deeply affecting story. The language is beautiful, the characters sharply drawn and memorable. One quickly sees a representation of the romantic ideal, but I also read it as something akin to Viktor Frankl’s existential diagnosis of life and the need to find or create a source of meaning.

  “I love grand hopes and dreams with limit none; 
  I envy too the fate of Icarus, 
  Who sought above the purer breath of life! 
  And, if I fall to-day as fall did he, 
  I love no less the cause for which I die.”

  

• West of Eden by Harry Harrison

  I just finished reading the science-fiction novel West of Eden by Harry Harrison, published in 1984. I first picked up this book way back in high school; I remember reading it while working at a gas station in my teens. I only got about a quarter of the way through it back then but have always remembered the story up to that point and wanted to return to it someday, and am happy I finally began reading it again.

  Without spoilers, the setting of the novel is an earth that never experienced a cataclysmic extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period and, instead, witnessed the evolution of reptiles into bipedal, self-aware creatures. At the same time, mammalian life evolved in certain parts of the Earth into humans living in a paleolithic, hunter-gatherer world. 

  It was a great reading experience…the plot, characters, and setting pulled me in and made me want to keep reading in a way I haven’t experienced in a while. I grew to care about the characters and their fates. I found the world, the flora and fauna in it, and the cultures described believable and fleshed out, with the reader developing an understanding of the world without a lot of obvious exposition. 

  Beautiful line drawings by Bill Sanderson adorn the beginning of each chapter, and imbue the book with a certain otherworldly feel that I find excellently complements the story.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  This book is the initial part of a trilogy of novels but can certainly be read as a stand-alone story. At some point I may check out the next book, Winter in Eden, since I so thoroughly enjoyed this first volume.

  

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