books and such
Jun. 11th, 2006 11:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ricardienneI wanted to listen to Marriage of Figaro tonight -- but NAXOS seems to suddenly only have either a)exerpts, b)"Opera Explained" or c)a really cool looking 1930's historic recording that I can't access because of "copyright reasons." What happened to the version that I listened to all year? So I am listening to Purcell Dido and Aeneas, instead. It's very pretty -- maybe they'll do it in Opera Class next semester and I will get to play pit: that would be awesome. Naxos keeps pausing in the middle of tracks, and I guessed the last word + pitch + rhythm of one of Belinda's arias on my own. Oh, I am so talented. Or Purcell is sometimes predictable.
I finally got Grand Tour from the library. I still don't think these Wrede/Stevernmer ones are as good as Mairelon the Magician and Magician's Ward. I also think that Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a better Napoleonic England w/wizards novel. But I liked this one, two.
As soon as the bit about the chrism came in, I started to get afraid that this would turn into a Regency da Vinci code, but it didn't -- I think there might be a bit of spoof of that going on, however, what with the Leonardo bits and the hunt for Special Objects and the One True Heir to the European Empire and all that. (And I definitely guess what was going on with that before it was revealed: go me!) I also couldn't help but think if Mme Defarge with the knitting and all. ALTHOUGH, knitting was not really an upper-class English Regency pastime: it wasn't really even a Victorian English one: knitting was more of a continental thing, at least for the rich. If I were going to be weird, I would cite the knitting women in Heart of Darkness, but I won't.
What else? I have to say that I had to keep flipping back to remember which girl's account I was reading, as they have about the same tone. I also wish they weren't so frivolous. Elizabeth Bennet was clever, and Jane Eyre was very well educated and intellectually curious. It's only modern heroines who have to be brainless. Hmph.
But I enjoyed it; I really did.
I finally got Grand Tour from the library. I still don't think these Wrede/Stevernmer ones are as good as Mairelon the Magician and Magician's Ward. I also think that Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is a better Napoleonic England w/wizards novel. But I liked this one, two.
As soon as the bit about the chrism came in, I started to get afraid that this would turn into a Regency da Vinci code, but it didn't -- I think there might be a bit of spoof of that going on, however, what with the Leonardo bits and the hunt for Special Objects and the One True Heir to the European Empire and all that. (And I definitely guess what was going on with that before it was revealed: go me!) I also couldn't help but think if Mme Defarge with the knitting and all. ALTHOUGH, knitting was not really an upper-class English Regency pastime: it wasn't really even a Victorian English one: knitting was more of a continental thing, at least for the rich. If I were going to be weird, I would cite the knitting women in Heart of Darkness, but I won't.
What else? I have to say that I had to keep flipping back to remember which girl's account I was reading, as they have about the same tone. I also wish they weren't so frivolous. Elizabeth Bennet was clever, and Jane Eyre was very well educated and intellectually curious. It's only modern heroines who have to be brainless. Hmph.
But I enjoyed it; I really did.
