In 1881, America was a relatively young country while Europe was associated with grandeur, heritage and an aristocratic culture shaped by centuries of history. The psychological complexity of America’s engagement with this was the heart of Henry James’ fiction. He was the brother of the equally famous psychologist William James and the two of them … Continue reading Isabel Archer in ‘The Portrait of a Lady’
I thought that the 250th anniversary celebrations may be a good time to read up on the Revolution and get a better handle on the event. Gordon S. Wood’s ‘The American Revolution: A History’ and the great Ken Burns’ 12 hour, six-episode documentary which came out last year were two excellent points to start. Despite … Continue reading The American Revolution
Juliet was 14 and Romeo probably just a few years older! Little wonder that both of them ended up dead by the end of the play. The political violence of Verona – the feuding clans, a weak ruler and the rivalry spilling on to the streets, is too hard to miss. Both the adaptations that … Continue reading Romeo and Juliet
Emily Wilson’s translation of Homers ‘Odyssey’ is excellent and I was engrossed in the epic over the last few days. Around a decade back, I had read the Robert Fagles translation and even after this reading my opinion of the epic hasn’t changed much. The Odyssey is overrated. I also understand that a lot of … Continue reading Some thoughts on ‘The Odyssey’
In popular imagination, the Allied invasion of continental Europe is dominated by the Normandy Landings. The opening amphibious landing scene in Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and the Cold War narrative of the joint Anglo-American thrust to free Europe and clear the road to Berlin have both contributed to this narrative. The truth was that months … Continue reading The Forgotten ‘Battle for Italy’ and Naples in 1944
After “A Room with a View’, I felt I had to read Forster’s other famed work – “A Passage to India’. Though I’m late to the party, I’m convinced that this book would rank as one of the best works of fiction written by a foreigner about India. The closest rival to this claim would … Continue reading Forster’s ‘A Passage to India’
Military life inflamed their ironic sensibilities and their skepticism. A single crude acronym that captured the soldier's lowered expectations-SNAFU, for "situation normal, all fucked up"-had expanded into a vocabulary of GI cynicism: SUSFU (situation unchanged, still fucked up); SAFU (self-adjusting fuck-up); TARFU (things are really fucked up); FUMTU (fucked up more than usual); JANFU (joint … Continue reading GI Slang
E. M. Forster’s A Room with a View, beyond its exploration of class in Victorian Britain, also captures the tourism mania that gripped the country at the turn of the century. With the British Empire at its zenith, the continent and far-flung regions such as India, Egypt, and South Africa became accessible, exerting a powerful … Continue reading Forster’s ‘A Room with a View’
The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris was a sensation when it appeared in the 1960s. It arrived at a moment defined by free love, the Vietnam War protests, the hippie movement, rising race consciousness, and a broader rethinking of gender. Into this atmosphere, Morris dropped the provocative idea that humans are no different from apes … Continue reading Desmond Morris’ ‘The Naked Ape’
Jane Eyre was written in 1847, when India was on track to becoming the crown jewel of the Raj. So the references to India in Bronte’s novel, though a surprise to me, were very much with keeping up with the world she inhabited. Towards the end of the novel, Eyre is proposed by the clergyman … Continue reading ‘India’ in ‘Jane Eyre’
