15 July, 2008

Penguins, Dante, and Pretentions

Okay, so i am slightly obsessed with Penguin Classics. I love the introductions, and the endnotes, and the commentaries, and everything. I also think they smell better than most any other brand. And so i saw Dante's Paradiso - Penguin edition - in the miserable little excuse for a bookstore they have here. (I also saw The Three Musketeers, but it turns out that was a Puffin, and abridged. Disgusting.) I bought it, since in spite of my medieval minor i have never read more than a few excerpts of the Commedia, which is really rather pathetic, i think. And since i read everything else backwards, i might as well read this backwards also. Have i mentioned how much i love Penguin? They have the Italian right across from an English translation, and although my Latin is extremely poor i still find it helpful. And it just sounds better in Italian. Anyway, so here i am, reading the ultimate Romance (or one of them, anyway, though i can't say i'm hugely fond of Milton). My roommate, who prefers to read the Romance novels that are actually in the Romance section (and i mean no slight to her intelligence, though i find her taste lacking), sees this with as much disgust as i view her romance novels. She practically sneered. It was highly entertaining, and i'm ashamed to say rather startling. Isn't that just...odd? To sneer at Dante? Of course, i suppose it is just as odd to sneer at romance novels. If i ever own a bookstore, i will reclaim the word "Romance." Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Elizabeth Gaskell, John Milton, Connie Willis, John Donne, Kazuo Ishiguro, Dante Alighieri, C.S. Lewis, Mark Twain, Peter Abelard...
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10 comments:

  1. Anonymous15 July, 2008 18:05

    I am a Penguin addict, too! You are right they smell different!
    Nice to meet you, I mean, your blog.

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  2. mkbrangan15 July, 2008 21:36

    i'd say my penguin book smells decent.

    please open up a book store. that way i can borrow books from it like a library, and mooch off of you for literature.

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  3. marshymallow16 July, 2008 08:49

    R - Thanks! It's great to meet a fellow Penguin lover :o)

    B - Decent!?! Is that all you can say? Regarding the bookstore, i'm kinda lacking capital at the moment, and what makes you think i would let you mooch?

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  4. Mary Witzl16 July, 2008 17:59

    I love Penguin classics too -- there's just something about them, the way they're bound, perhaps, that speaks of integrity. Now I've got to go and smell some Penguin classics to see if it's true that they smell better! How could I have missed this? I LOVE the smell of books!

    And you've mentioned four of my favorite writers: Jane Austen, Elizabeth Gaskell, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Mark Twain. I know people like your roommate -- who would sneer at great books while proudly reading what strikes me as dross. I've read dross myself, but God forbid I should sneer at classics.

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  5. marshymallow17 July, 2008 07:21

    I love Kazuo Ishiguro! And you're the first person i've met who's even heard of him!

    I've nothing against dross, really - it can be quite comforting at times. But to limit one's diet to only dross is like eating only cotton candy. A little bit of disgusting goes a long way.

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  6. Mary Witzl24 July, 2008 15:54

    No! Please tell me that you were exaggerating just now! I even wrote a post about Kazuo Ishiguro, after a woman I met here claimed she'd never heard of him and didn't like to read --foreigners'-- books anyway. I swear to God she said that -- and in the next breath went on to say how much she loved Danielle Steele and Sidney Sheldon, arguably more foreign to her than Kazuo Ishiguro, with whom she shares a nationality. She didn't appreciate my mentioning this.

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  7. Anonymous27 July, 2008 07:12

    You're the first person she's met outside her family who has heard of him. Dear ol' dad is the one who put her on to Ishiguro in the first place after seeing bits of the movie REMAINS OF THE DAY and getting the book.

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  8. marshymallow28 July, 2008 08:09

    I'm not exaggerating (D.O.D. hadn't read the book - he suggested the movie, and when i read the book i told him he had to read it).

    Why would anyone ever take Danielle Steele over Ishiguro? Why?

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  9. Anonymous28 July, 2008 13:18

    Our memories are different - but as yours is younger, I'd go with that. :-)

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  10. marshymallow28 July, 2008 13:36

    nyah, nyah :P

    ReplyDelete

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