Beers & Books (439) – Werfel: Star of the Unborn

Star of the Unborn
(1945/46), science-fiction novel

 
Franz Werfel (10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945)

Happy 250th, Jane!

Emma

Jane Austen (16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817)

Happy 95th, Dame Edna!

Wish she could celebrate her 95th birthday, today.
I do.

 

Edna O'Brien (15 December 1930 – 27 July 2024)

 “History is said to be written by the victors. Fiction, by contrast, is largely the work of injured bystanders.” 

Books everywhere. On the shelves and on the small space above the rows of books and all along the floor and under chairs, books that I have read, books that I have not read.

What matters is the imaginative truth.

Ordinary life bypassed me, but I also bypassed it. It couldn't have been any other way. Conventional life and conventional people are not for me.

Love . . . is like nature, but in reverse; first it fruits, then it flowers, then it seems to wither, then it goes deep, deep down into its burrow, where no one sees it, where it is lost from sight, and ultimately people die with that secret buried inside their souls.

We hide the truer part of ourselves when we love.

I always want to be in love, always. It’s like being a tuning fork.

The fundamental evil

Ich erkläre das grundlegende Übel der Welt damit, 
dass der liebe Gott zu wenig Geld geschaffen hat.
                                      * * *
The fundamental evil of the world arose from the fact
that the good Lord has not created money enough. 

 Heinrich Heine (13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856)

Beers & Books (437) – Juan Rulfo: Pedro Páramo

Pedro Páramo

Juan Rulfo (16 May 1917 – 7 January 1986)

Beers & Books (435) – The 40 Days of Musa Dagh

The Fourty Days of Musa Dagh

Franz Werfel (10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) 

Beers&Books (434) – Franz Werfel: Masterful Tales

Franz Werfel (10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945)

Sláinte, John!

"I think technique can be taught  
but I think the only way to learn to write is to read, 
and I see writing and reading as completely related. 
One almost couldn't exist without the other."

[John McGahern, who would today celebrate his 91. birthday.]

Sláinte, John!

Joan Maragall: The blinded cow

As so often happens,
I spontaneously opened this new book
to 'a random' page and... read this poem several times.
Pages 36/37: La vaca sega / Die erblindete Kuh.

Beers & Books (433) – Joan Maragall: Poems

Another bilingual treasure.

Joan Maragall (10 October 1860 – 20 December 1911)

Beers & Books (432) – Book of Absences

Buch der Abwesenheiten
& Die schönen Wege
*
Llibre d'absències
& Els bells camins

Miquel Martí i Pol (19 March 1929 – 11 November 2003)

Beers & Books (431) – Llamazares: The yellow rain

The yellow rain
*
La lluvia amarilla

 

 Julio Llamazares *28 March 1955

Beers&Books (430) – Jaume Cabré: Jo confesso

Das Schweigen des Sammlers = The Collector's Silence*
*
Jo confesso (2011)
*
Confessions

 

 Jaume Cabré * 30 April 1947

*Apparently, the original title was not considered conducive to sales.

Happy 114th, Flanny!

It's all a matter of Omnium, eh? ;-)
*
[...] people who spend most of their natural lives riding iron bicycles [...] 
get their personalities mixed up with the personalities of their bicycle
as a result of the interchanging of the atoms of each of them 
and you would be surprised at the number of people [...]
who are nearly half people and half bicycles...
(from "The Third Policeman")

Flann O'Brien *5 October 1911

Before anyone erroneously claims he is dead: Those few people still taking for granted Flann O'Brien died 1 April 1966: Flann fooled you all.

Beers & Book (428) – Italian narrators

Italian storytellers, 13th til 18th century

Beers & Books (427) – Spanish narrators

Spanish storytellers, 14th til 20th century.

Beers & Books (426) – Catalan narrators

Catalan storytellers
*
Recently purchased second-hand: 19 stories by 
Jacint Verdaguer, Carles Bosch de la Trinxeria, Narcís Oller,
Joaquim Ruyra, Victor Català, Ernesto Martínez Ferrando,
Miquel Llor,  Lorenç Villalonga, Mercè Rodoreda, Pere Calders,
Salvador Espriu (2), Maria Aurèlia Capmany, Manuel de Pedrolo,
Jordi Sarsanedas (2), Joaquim Carbó, Terenci Moix, Josep Albanell.

Beers & Books (425) – Victor Català: Solitud

I consider myself lucky.
Victor Català's ‘Solitud’, published in German in 2007, 
has ‘found its way’ into my library –
antiquarian, at a good price and remarkably well preserved. 
What a book!!

Victor Català (11 September 1869 – 27 January 1966)

Beers & Books (424) – Mercè Rodoreda

Aloma (1938), La Placa del Diamant (1962), La meva Cristina i altres contes (1967)
Mirall trencat (1974), Jardí vora el mar (1967), Quanta, quanta, guerra (1980)

 

Mercè Rodoreda (10 October 1908 – 13 April 1983)

Beers & Books (423) – Mercè Rodoreda: Short stories

La meva Cristina i altres contes
*
My Christina & Other Stories 

 

Mercè Rodoreda (10 October 1908 – 13 April 1983)