Mr. Skeffington

Three years ago, in December of 2016, I discovered the work of Elizabeth von Arnim. I had been reading E. Phillips Oppenheim's memoir, The Pool of Memory,- in it, he drops the name of a writer, Countess Elizabeth Russell, a number of times. An internet search told me that this was the name used by Elizabeth von Arnim after her second marriage. Finding copies of her novels was easy enough once I had the proper name.

Von Arnim's 1921 novel, Vera, was the last novel I read in 2016. Her first novel, Elizabeth and Her German Garden was the first thing I read in 2017. I would go on to read 12 of Von Arnim's novels . At the time, there was only one other available for download at Project Gutenberg - The April Baby's Book of Tunes. I had decided to skip that one as it had been described as a children's book.

I've recently learned that Von Arnim's novel, Mr. Skeffington is available at Project Gutenberg Australia. Having been written in 1940, the book is still under copyright in certain areas but the novel is in the public domain in Australia.

I'm currently reading Mr. Skeffington and it will be the first book I'll have read in 2020. I've also given The April Baby's Book of Tunes another look and will be reading it soon.

In 1944, Mr. Skeffington was made into a film, starring Bette Davis and Claude Rains. I'll be watching it at ok.ru, when I've finished reading the novel.

Three Men In a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

As I sit here, typing away, I've just finished reading the last novel I will manage to read in 2019 - Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome. With only one day remaining in this year, it is unlikely that I can finish reading another before January 1st.

I discovered this gem recently while going over an online list of what someone believes to be the 100 best novels written in English. I was looking for something to read when I came upon the list. There, at number 25 was this wonderful little book.

Naturally, I didn't expect that I would have read every novel on the list, but I thought that I would have heard of either every novel, or at least the author. In this case, I was surprised that a novel I had never heard of, by a writer I didn't know, would be at number 25 on the list.

After reading a positive review and the wikipedia article on the book, I found an ebook copy and set it aside to read at first opportunity.

The novel is surprisingly funny for something written in 1889, and I'm hardly the first to say "how undated it appears to modern readers – the jokes have been praised as fresh and witty".

Although I loved the book, I don't know if I'd put it on a list of the 100 best novels written in English. The Maltese Falcon - which I also enjoyed, made the list as well. It's another book which, while I enjoyed reading it, I feel doesn't belong on such a list.

Obviously, someone else does, so what do I know?

Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf

Two weeks ago, I recommended George W. M. Reynolds' novel Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf. I stand by my recommendation albeit with a word of warning to the 21st century reader.

The novel was first published, in installments, almost 175 years ago. As reading was, in most cases, the only distraction available to the average person during the19th century, novels of that period tended to have more elaborate plots than novels written today. The stories just seemed to go on and on. That's certainly the case with Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf. Characters aren't just mentioned in passing; it seems every character in the novel has a detailed story that needs to be told.

I actually wonder why the novel was named after the Wehr-Wolf. If we calculate the space given to each character, I doubt Wagner would be number one. That honor might very well go to Nisida—the deaf and dumb daughter of Count of Riverola.

I don't know of Reynold's religious affiliation, but I suspect that like most of his English contemporaries, Reynolds may have been a Protestant. He doesn't appear to have much love for the Catholics in the novel - he's more tolerant of the Jewish and Moslem characters.

The most surprising turn in the novel, from my perspective, was the appearance of the founder of the Rosicrucian Order, Christian Rosenkreuz (spelled Christian Rosencrux in the novel).

I'm not about to give spoilers, but note that should you be inclined to read this novel, be prepared for a long read.

Some Old Films are OK By Me.

In two posts, written in March of 2018 [The Maltese Falcon (Novel) and Calling a Spade a Spade ] I wrote of my fondness for the classic 1941 film starring Humphrey Bogart, The Maltese Falcon and how the movie had lead me to hunt up the novel, which I located at a Canadian website - fadedpage.com.

When I wrote those two posts, I was able to get my old movie fix from watching TCM on my television. Sadly, my cable company has ceased having TCM in their programing. Fortunately. I have since discovered a website which has a gazillion old movies from the 1930's and 1940's for viewing - ok.ru.

To watch movies on the website, you have to go about it in a slightly indirect way. I discovered the website serendipitously while searching for an old movie. I soon discovered that going to the ok.ru home page was not for me. It's in Russian and I can't make heads or tails of it. However, it didn't take me long to figure out that if you wanted to locate a particular old movie (Duck Soup, for example) you simply go to Google and type in duck soup ok ru and if the movie is on the site you'll find a link to it in the search results.

Last night, I thought I might want to watch The Maltese Falcon again. It was there, of course, but I changed my mind. I was aware of two earlier film versions and I went in search of those two.

The earliest version was made in 1931 - two years after the novel was published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. I located it by searching for The Maltese Falcon 1931 ok ru.

Like the later Bogart film, this one sticks fairly close to the novel. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two films is that in the 1931 version, Kasper Gutman is killed by his flunky Wilmer Cook. I especially liked seeing Thelma Todd as Iva Archer and Dwight Frye as Wilmer Cook.

In 1936, Warner Bros. remade the film as Satan Met a Lady . The studio still owned the rights and thought they could make a few bucks by changing the story a bit.

They shouldn't have.

This version is absolutely dreadful. Bette Davis thought the rewrite to be "junk" and refused to show up on the set. She was suspended by Warner Bros. but returned to work in order to cover living expenses for her mother and medical care for her sister.

For some reason, Warren William, who I had previously seen in The Gracie Allen Murder Case, wears the most ridiculously God-awful hat throughout the film.

I'd only recommend Satan Met a Lady for the curiosity seekers, and not those in search of a great film.

Mango Shake from the Octagon Sports Bar.

Today being Thursday, I met with a group of Americans for a brunch of sorts. Me being the cheap bastard that I am, I always eat at home before going to these get-togethers. Not only is it a lot cheaper, but I can cook as good, or better than the folks here.

Today we met at the Octagon Sports bar in Bacong. In keeping with my usual habit, I decided on a mango shake. It's been quite some time since I've last reviewed a shake from a local eatery.

As can be seen in these photos, the shake was thick and creamy. This one was actually made with mango - you can't say that about all the mango shakes in Dumaguete. This tastes as good as it looks. It's price was only slightly above average. 80 pesos. It was certainly better than some I've had costing 90 and above. I'd recommend the mango shake although the restaurant is really too far from my place to go just for the shake.

Recommendation - Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf

As I mentioned in in an earlier post, I had taken to my Kindle to catch up on my reading while my PC was out of sorts. One of the novels I read during that time was The Benson Murder Case , the first of the Philio Vance series by S. S. Van Dine.

In the novel, when the murdered Benson was discovered, he was found with a book in his hand. Just prior to being shot, the dead man had been reading a book of short stories by O. Henry - namely Strictly Business- the dead man had his fingers marking the story - 
A Municipal Report.

In 2015 two of O. Henry's books of short stories made my list of books read that year, but Strictly Business wasn't on the list. Naturally, I downloaded the book from Project Gutenberg and uploaded to my Kindle.

In different stories, O. Henry mentions 2 writers - George W. M. Reynolds and William Clark Russell. I'm currently reading Reynolds' Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf.

An interesting read.

The Trial - Redux

After yesterday's post, I thought I'd republish a post from January 2016. It follows below.


I'm nearly at the end of rereading Franz Kafka's The Trial. This particular version is not the translation by Willa and Edwin Muir published in 1937, but a copyrighted Project Gutenberg eBook translated by David Wyllie.

It was the translation by Willa and Edwin Muir that I read (or attempted) to read in high school - having been turned on to Kafka by way of one of his short stories being mentioned on a Frank Zappa LP.

Not having the 1937 translation available, I cannot compare it to the Wyllie translation. I don't know if it is because I am much older now than when I first came across the novel, or if Wyllie's translation is superior, but I find the novel easier for me to get through now.

In the wikipedia article covering the work, it's mentioned that The Trial was heavily influenced by Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. I don't see it. Those particular novels are two of my favorites, and I can understand Kafka's being influenced by them, but he does not reach the level of Dostoyevsky. Of course, I read neither Russian nor German - I've only read translations of these great novels - perhaps if I read German, I could see a closer relationship between the two writers.

On the Project Gutenberg web page where the book is made available, it gives the option of having a version with or without images. Unfortunately, although it says that there are images available, it is not the case. There are no illustrations for this translation. I remember being very impressed by the illustrations used in the original Willa and Edwin Muir translations. I'm a little disappointed that there aren't any for Wyllie's work, but otherwise, I've no complaint with this new translation.

Flannery O'Kafka

During the week that my pc was out of commission, I was able to catch up on my reading using my Kindle, particularly the two novels by Flannery O'Connor that I had been meaning to read for quite some time - Wise Blood and The Violent Bear It Away.

The Wikipedia article on O'Conner states something that I had often read about her and her writing - "Her writing reflected her Roman Catholic religion and frequently examined questions of morality and ethics."

I don't mean this as a criticism of O'Conner, but I found little (or no) evidence of Catholic thought in her two novels. Don't get me wrong; I found her novels to be genuine masterpieces, but I never would have known O'Conner's religious leanings simply by reading her novels. There is an element of an anti-Pentecostal viewpoint, but that isn't necessarily Roman Catholic.

Yes, O'Conner's novel are masterpieces, but they are a bit bizarre and grotesque as well.

To bring my thoughts back to normal, so to speak, I needed to begin reading something less grotesque. I choose Franz Kafka's novel, The Trial.

The jpeg at the beginning of this post contains randomly chosen photos of Kafka and O'Conner. After putting the two photos together, I noticed a slight physical resemblance between the two writers. If I were inclined to follow Yukio Mishima's train of thought as shown in his tetralogy, The Sea of Fertility, I'd suspect O'Conner of being Kafka's reincarnation.

She was born nine months after Kafka's death.

A Tale of Two Barangay

In Philippines, cities and municipalities are subdivided into areas called barangays. For example, our house is located in the town of Sibulan - in Brgy. Magatas.

According to Wikipedia, there are 42,045 barangays in the country. As far as I know, each Barangay has a barangay Hall.

I would have thought that the barangay hall would actually be located within the particular barangay it represents. I know of at least one case where that isn't so.

As can be seen in these photos, the barangay halls for Brgy. Taclobo and Brgy.Poblacion 7 in Dumaguete are next door to one another. According to Google Maps, both are located within Brgy.Poblacion 7.

My Return

One week after the death of my PC the computer is back from the shop and I'm ready to blog again.

The PC wasn't in the shop the entire week - I didn't bring it in to Algorithm Computer Services until Wednesday afternoon. The problem involved the power supply. I suppose the frequent lose of power, due to brown-outs while the PC was running, was finally too much. The power supply was replaced. Total cost - including labor - was 1,170 pesos (about $22 at today's exchange rate).

The tech at Algorithm managed to save my files - documents and photos etc. However, I lost the saved passwords on my web browser. Fortunately, I had most of the passwords saved elsewhere. There's a minor glitch with the Kindle for PC, but I can live with it. The worst part of the whole thing is that I've lost the Spotify app I had on my PC. I can't download another onto my PC because my operating system is prehistoric. I can listen to Spotify on my phone but it is inferior to the old PC app I once had. I could improve my Spotify experience on my phone if I were willing to go "premium", which I'm not at this point.

While I was without my computer, I made use of my Kindle. A week or so ago, I came across "The Gracie Allen Murder Case" online and I enjoyed the film so much that I looked into the entire Philo Vance series. The 12 crime novels in the series are in the public domain in Canada and are available for download at Fadedpage.com. I had uploaded the first in the series, The Benson Murder Case to my Kindle with plans to put the other eleven in as well. After reading the first novel, I decided to wait before reading any more. I just wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be.

When I had finished reading The Benson Murder Case, I started on two others I had also downloaded from Fadedpage - Wise Blood and The Violent Bear it Away both by Flannery O'Connor.

I'll speak more about those two novels in another blog post.

Dead PC

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I was ever reluctant to see the death of blogging and as it turned out, I began to get back into the swing of things and actually started to post more frequently than I had been.

Just as the number of posts began to pick up for November, I was hit with something that looked as if it might push my blogging further toward it's demise. This past Saturday, after having watched "A Night at the Opera" on my PC, I left my computer turned on while I finished reading a novel I had uploaded to my Kindle. While reading, we experienced another of the never ending electrical brown-outs plaguing our area.

The electricity wasn't off long. I immediately restarted my PC. This was a mistake. It hadn't been on very long when we experienced a 2nd brown-out. This time my PC did something bizarre.

My desktop had completely changed. There was no desktop photo and most of the items I had on the desktop had vanished. I was able to get online, but it was as if my system had returned to day one. I had no documents - no photos.  Kindle for PC was gone as was Spotify. My browser had lost all my saved passwords.

Not everything disappeared. I still had my anti virus software installed and my GIMP photo editor was there. It looked as if all our photos from over the years were lost.

I was unable to download either a new Kindle For PC or Spotify app as my operating system was too out of date. I guess the ones I had before the crash were "grandfathered" in. The wisest thing for me to do, it seemed, was to try to restore the PC to an earlier point in time.

Now, after going to a restore point, my PC is denying me access. Strangely enough though, I can enter my PC in "safe mode" where I've located all my lost photos and documents which I've managed to transfer to a USB flash drive. With these photos saved, I feel much better about taking my PC in for repair. If it turns how that a new hard drive and OS is called for, I have the photos saved.

I'm writing this post on my son's laptop - which I hate using. Hopefully I can be back to normal in a few days.