What I’ve Been Reading
(Other than Henry James)
One reason it took me a while to get started on my Reading Henry James project was that I got a bit tied up in another reading “binge”. I live in France, and there was a lot of to-do about the 50th anniversary of Albert Camus’ death, which was on January 4th. Camus was a huge influence on me when I was in my early twenties, and I read most of his major works in English (I lived in New York City at the time). So the event prompted me to look at Camus again, getting his complete works in French as a Christmas present, and reading two biographies of Camus, as well as several other books about him.
I’ve read about half of the first volume so far, and I very much like what Camus wrote. I like his thinking, and his style. Interestingly, he was said to have appreciated Henry James, along with Proust, Melville, and several other authors I like. He also, for a short time, had a dog named Kirk.
Back with Henry now, I’ll be continuing my reading of Camus over the coming months, interspersing the two (and, of course, other books as well, such as Robert B. Parker’s wonderful Spenser mysteries, which I’ve been reading lately). While James and Camus are quite different, there are actually some interesting similarities in the way they both worked with characters. Camus’ writing is more philosophically based, even if he never considered himself a philosopher, and it’s essential reading, in my opinion. If you haven’t read Camus, check out one of his books from your local library.
I am not at all familiar with Camus, but we do share one current reading activity – I have started reading Parker’s Spenser series, and am now on book 7, “Early Autumn.” The passing of Robert B Parker was what led to this activity, which has rapidly developed into a sort of consuming passion. I had listened to a couple of Spenser audiotapes, out of order, but once I started reading “The Godwulf Manuscript”, I was so taken with Spenser, that I could think of nothing I would rather do than spend time with him. However, my James stories have just arrived, so I’m prepared to give ample time to Henry also! And the next time I’m at the library, I’ll check out a Camus book too, an English translation! Very limited French, I give thanks for the notes at the end of the LOA James book.
Yes, it was his passing the led me to (re-) read them as well. I had read about 20 of them, and decided to start over at the beginning. I’ve re-read about a dozen so far.
I’ve been neglecting my James reading lately, having also decided to re-read Ulysses (and the books that talk about Ulysses). I should get back to the James and post a few more story summaries. I’ll try and do one or two this weekend.
Hi Kirk,
Looking forward to reading some more of your posts about our beloved Maître. It might interest you to know that a series of James’ stories have just been translated into German by Ingrid Rein (who also translated Wuthering Heights), grouped together under the title of Benvolio.
I went along to a reading of them and I have to say, I was most unimpressed: despite the beautiful quality of the translation and reading, James’ nuances were largely lost in German. The story in question (‘A Landscape Painter’) sounded, in a word, camp, particularly as a lot of this what a friend calls ‘tea-party’ English was left untranslated (‘Milord’, ‘Milady’ – I think that’s the case in French too).
All of which might go some way toward explaining why James is so little read and praised in Germany and in German – his success is bound up with that carefully modulated, ironic but not facetious, nigh on impossible to translate, style.
A good weekend!
James