![]() ![]() Nearly a decade after I first featured Clarke’s black-and-white illustrations from an earlier edition, I walked out of the New York Antiquarian Book Fair victorious with a rare surviving copy of the 1933 edition, featuring 33 plates. “I would call aloud upon her name.” (Available as a print.) “The boat appeared to be hanging, as if by magic,… upon the interior surface of a funnel.” (Available as a print.) “I saw them fashion the syllables of my name.” (Available as a print.) ![]() Old fine-lined illustrations and classic tales that outgrim the newspapers’ front pages, twisting the grisly into the sublime, come together in a rare 1933 edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination ( public library), with illustrations by the Irish stained-glass and book artist Harry Clarke (March 17, 1889–January 6, 1931), whose visionary work influenced the Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and French Symbolism movements. ![]() “I prefer the old fine-lined illustrations… I prefer Grimms’ fairy tales to the newspapers’ front pages,” the Nobel-winning Polish poet Wisława Szymborska wrote in her poignant poem “Possibilities.” ![]()
0 Comments
![]() ![]() Neither an assault charge (which later becomes a murder charge when the man dies) nor the self-inflicted death of one of his friends is enough to turn Chase away from the drugs he craves. ![]() ![]() Gordie's home is fast becoming a living hell that is known to any family living with an addict who will lie, cheat, or steal to get their next fix. Told from Gordie's point of view, the story vibrates with the rawness of the recently burned. Still, it's hard to imagine the nightmare that lurks in the Jessup family's future. Holubrintsky hints that all will not be well when the oldest pushes the limit and clears a whole section of the forest. ![]() Gordie and his older brother Chase are every kid, building forts in the ravine. Holubitsky wisely gives us a glimpse of normality before thrusting us headlong into hell. It wasn't easy, but it was incredibly insightful. She had warned me that Tweaked, by Katherine Holubitsky, was not an easy read and she was right. So, yesterday on my way back to Victoria after a long weekend in Vanouver, I finished another of the young adult books my publisher sales rep. After all, it frequently allows me a few hours of assured reading, especially while I wait for hours in ferry line-ups. I suppose I should be thankful that BC Ferries takes so much of my hard-earned money. ![]() ![]() ![]() The book uncovers thousands of years of history and also manages to link it to the dramatic and quite sudden changes taking place in the country. “Land of the Seven Rivers” by Sanjeev Sanyal is a fantastic attempt to talk to us simply about our heritage (well so to say) and of the times gone by. I had to let the history and geography of our land sink in and that helped me savour the book – page by page. However, this did not happen while I was reading this book, maybe also because I took my time with this one. It is very easy to lose interest in a book based on facts and numbers. There is a danger when you want to read a non-fiction title. Till I heard of “Land of the Seven Rivers” by Sanjeev Sanyal and decided to give it a shot. The thought would be there and I wanted to read more on it, till something else caught my attention and this thought would then be on the back burner. I have always been intrigued by our country’s cultural subtext and how we came to be as a nation. More so when the country in question is India, with its diversity and centuries of culture and history, which can still be seen in most places, if only you would look at it closely enough. What is most difficult is when the two get combined in a book. ![]() ![]() It is not easy to write a book which is solely based on geography or for that matter history. Title: Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India’s Geography ![]() |