The Book Lair - all book talk ITT

[Sesto]

While I continue to trudge through Dracula and wait until I get a chance to pick up Hard-Boiled Wonderland, I started reading Antonia Fraser's biography of Marie Antoinette in honour of best Rider.

Although there have been a few times where things just go completely over my head (so many goddamn names...), I'm really loving it so far. I've never really read this in-depth of a person's life before, but honestly this is better than a lot fiction I've read. Marie is incredibly endearing. Some of the anecdotes have been both hilarious and tear-jerking.

[GundamFSN]

What's the hilarious part?

[Marmadillo]

I'm not aware of any of the critical reviews of this novel, and if there are any common interpretations, I haven't seen them. As a true first impression, I can describe the protagonist, Elizabeth, as a very reasonable person living in a comedy world full of people without common sense.

Well, the title refers to her as well because of her changing opinions on Wickham and Darcy, but she does feel like the smart, down-on-earth person of the family all things considered. You can look at the book from the feminist perspective and analyse the power relations, but personally I just love how Austin molds irony and realism into something that feels like a light-hearted but genuine look at the society. You understand the issues, but the narrative doesn't bludgeon you with them.

[aldeayeah]

Starting to read the Jeeves Omnibus stories.

They're butleriffic.

[Seika]

Snuff and Raising Steam were bad, but UA was perfectly tolerable as long as you mentally excised the parts which weren't the wizards being silly and football. (And as long as you like football).

[Frostyvale]

Snuff and Raising Steam were bad, but UA was perfectly tolerable as long as you mentally excised the parts which weren't the wizards being silly and football. (And as long as you like football).

Broadly, I can agree with this perspective.

Snuff is just Nutt's story applied to a civilization, with additional allusions to slavery and colonialism.

However, nothing can take away from me the joy of the wizards chasing after the megapode.

[Sesto]

What's the hilarious part?

Well they're just anecdotes; some of them are kinda funny.

Like there's one about how Louis XV asked his ambassador about the size of Marie's chest. The ambassador blushed and said he wasn't sure as he hadn't looked, and the King replied "Oh didn't you? That's the first thing I look at."

[Christemo]

Siriel translated from bits from the Sanson Memoirs on skype the other day and Marie sounds more and more like an anime character.

[GundamFSN]

Siriel translated from bits from the Sanson Memoirs on skype the other day and Marie sounds more and more like an anime character.

Like what for example?

[Christemo]

Rough TL obviously since he did it on the fly, but here you go (This is all from Charles-Henri and his son's personal notes)

After the death of Louis XVI, the royal captives in the prison of the Temple(?) had seemingly been forgotten. The hatred of the Parisian masses for Louix XVI had been something entirely political, more toward the king than the man; the one that the people had toward Marie-Antoinette was, on the contrary, both political and personal.The queen had found implacable enemies, not only in the innovators that sought to overthrow and change the monarchy, but also among her own courtisans and even her family members. Neither one nor the other could forgive her independent spirit, her taste for elegance, her predilection for unethical distraction; in their eyes her beauty, her grace, had become griefs. By distorting her feelings, incriminating her actions, they had managed to turn this woman into an enemy of all women; such was the fate of the queen.
The revolutionary had seen in her a will far more powerful than that of the weak Louis XVI; they understood that if there would be any resistance against their works, it would be the doing of Marie-Antoinette, and they had depicted her as the most determined enemy of freedom for which all hearts beat; they had designated her as the vampire of France and the friend of strangers.

"The more we (in the non-inclusive sense) elaborated on the crimes reproached to queen, the less evidence was found for the accusations that had been spoken so confidently."

27-08-2015 00:19:10] Siriel: She accepted the sentence stoically
[27-08-2015 00:20:06] Siriel: Forgot to bend down and whacked her face into the counter so hard it left a mark
When they asked if she was hurt after she whacked her face she replied that nothing hurt her anymore

"She walked slowly and with the majestuous solemnity of nobility; she held her head high, her contenance of remarkable dignity. Her contenance suffered no trouble nor intention to dare(?) her judges."

"Never, my father often told me, had Marie-Antoinette shown herself worthier of the supreme status. It was truly a queen, that woman who supported without fear, without looking down, the ferocious stares of the ruling people; who heard without flinching the raging cries with which she was dragged through the mud; who fell like the Roman Caesar in a single point(?) without ever bending the knee; for whom the hideous dumper was still a throne, and who finally, in the abjectness to which she had been reduced, managed by the mere strength of her soul to command the respect of hearts incapable of pity."

[27-08-2015 00:51:52] Siriel: wow
[27-08-2015 00:52:45] Siriel: She arranged with a minister for him to give her the last absolutions (which the jury had denied her) when she passed by a certain house, and she smiled when he did it.

"At the sound of the scaffold that was being adjusted, she seemed to come back to herself and prepared to come down.
My grandfather and father assisted her; at the moment when she put her feet on the ground, Chales-Henry Sanson, who bent to her, said in a low voice:
-Courage, madam.
The queen, brusquely turned and as if she had been quite surprised to find this pity in the one that would put her to death, se answered:
-Thank you, sir, thank you.
Her accent had not changed, her voice remained clear and firm.
A few steps alone separated the wagon from the scaffold; my father went to assist her, but she refused saying:
-No, I will, God willing, have the strength to make it that far.
She walked regally, with neither haste nor slowness, and went up the steps with as much majesty as if it had been the great staircase of Versailles."

[27-08-2015 00:59:48] Siriel: Oh yeah and after the execution, Charles-Henry refused to raise her head to the crowd.

[Sesto]

Shit, I'm still reading about how cute she was as a kid and her fun introduction into the French court. Being reminded of the sadness that awaits is not good.

I'm probably going to cry like a little baby by the time I get to the end.

[Marmadillo]

Remember that she wanted to crush the rebellion with the help of foreign armies.

[I3uster]

i already have my sociology master thesis lined up

historical revisionism and how it ties into moe presentation of historical fact

[Frostyvale]

All are innocent until proven moeshit.

[GundamFSN]

Rough TL obviously since he did it on the fly, but here you go (This is all from Charles-Henri and his son's personal notes)

I really am left with no words. She's quite the person indeed.

[GundamFSN]

More like revelation.

[Marmadillo]

the restoration of public order is a commendable objective for the governance

i blame america

[Lace]

Read "Meat Market" by Laurie Penny last night and it felt absolutely freeing

[Rocket Burrito]

I bought Blood Bowl, Rumble in the Jungle on impulse. I am unsure if I regret it.

[Nuclear]

Is The Buried Giant any good? I bought it for a friend's birthday, but haven't actually read it myself.