The Vulgar Eclectic

Tag: classics

  • The Birds by Aristophanes

    I just finished reading The Birds (414 BC) by Aristophanes, translated by Alan Sommerstein. I have read many of the surviving Greek tragedies, but this comedy is the first play by Aristophanes I’ve read. It is a fantastical, absurd work. I was surprised at just how different it is from the dramas written by Aeschylus,…

  • Journey of the Magi

    Here are a few lines from a wonderful poem by T. S. Eliot: At the end we preferred to travel all night,Sleeping in snatches,With the voices singing in our ears, sayingThat this was all folly. Read the full poem here: poets.org

  • Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger

    I just finished reading the Autobiography of Joseph Scaliger, translated by George W. Robinson and published in English in 1927. The subtitle gives a good idea of what makes up the book in addition to the opening autobiography: with Autobiographical Selections from his Letters, His Testament, and the Funeral Orations by Daniel Heinsius and Dominicus…

  • The Infant by Denís Fonvízin

    I finished reading The Infant by Denís Fonvízin (1782; Nèdorosl’), a play in five acts. It is translated by Joshua Cooper and is the earliest play included in a collection of Russian theater titled Four Russian Plays. This was a lot of fun to read. There was quite a bit of witty humor, social critique,…

  • Boyhood by Leo Tolstoy

    Here is an old book jot from August, 2021…still getting caught up with posting these! I just finished reading Boyhood (1854) by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Judson Rosengrant. It’s the second novel in his autobiographical trilogy. The first book, Childhood, was the first work Tolstoy published. The prose is beautiful, natural, and simple. It was…

  • Thunder by Alexander Ostrovsky

    I finished reading Thunder (also translated as The Storm; 1859), a play written by Alexander Ostrovsky. I had never read anything by Ostrovsky before, and coming across this play was like finding a hidden jewel! There is a well-developed cast of characters surrounding two young Russians: Catherine, an unhappy married woman, and Boris, the son…

  • Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

    I finished reading Kidnapped (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. This was a fantastically fun read! It’s an adventure novel that takes place in the mid 1700s in Scotland and follows the trials and tribulations of young David Balfour. Friendship is a major theme, as is integrity and honor. There were many words new to me,…

  • Echoes

    A world forsooth where wrong and right are blent,A world that teems with war, a world that reeksWith countless crime, where evermore the ploughLacks its due honour, and the hind is forcedFar from his desolate fields, and reaping-hooksAre straightened into swords. -Virgil, The Georgics (translated by Lord Burghclere)

  • Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov

    Here is an old book jot from July 2021: I just finished reading Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (1898), translated by Peter Carson. It is a four-act play and considered one of Chekhov’s major plays. Chekhov has long been one of my favorite authors, and I’ve read many of his short stories over the years.…

  • The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather

    I finished reading The Song of the Lark (1915) by Willa Cather. It’s a coming of age story and follows Thea, a young girl born and raised in a small town near the sand dunes of Colorado in the last decade of the 19th century. I loved the first half or so of the novel,…