Category Archives: Literature

Shedding a Light

Posted on July 21, 2025 by Lee

In the third part of Les Misérables, Victor Hugo describes the street-urchin of 19th century Paris in a sweeping, comic-philosophical style that Henry Miller must have admired, leaping from one pithy aphorism to the next to give us a portrait … Continue reading →

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Victor Hugo Takes His Time

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Lee

I’m reading Les Misérables for the first time and I really enjoy the way Victor Hugo takes his time telling a story. The battle of Waterloo is discussed at length, and many details of it described, just so that a … Continue reading →

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Rules for Writing

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Lee

I’m trying to write something for my Substack, which I haven’t updated in months, and it’s got me realising how much I still have to learn about the business of writing. I’m reading Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and thinking … Continue reading →

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Rushing Ahead

Posted on August 28, 2024 by Lee

A paradox: standing around waiting is a kind of rushing ahead. Though the queue barely crawls forward, your mind is rushing ahead to the future, consuming every present moment greedily as if to move more quickly towards the anticipated event. … Continue reading →

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Time to Think Things Over

Posted on August 21, 2024 by Lee

Now that Hans himself has fallen ill, time moves differently. Every day is the same and it’s as if a single day has stretched out to become one impossibly long day. There’s not much difference between day and night when … Continue reading →

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Magic and Reason on the Mountain

Posted on August 14, 2024 by Lee

Here on the magic mountain, the seasons get all mixed up. Hans can’t believe that on the third day of his visit, after days of hot sun, suddenly there is cold and snow. Joachim explains to him: yes the seasons … Continue reading →

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A Cigar is Just a Cigar

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Lee

On the “magic mountain,” what once seemed serious to you will become trivial. Death, for example: Joachim thinks that illness and death might “just be a sort of loafing about” and nothing really to worry about. We’re born, we live … Continue reading →

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Return to the Magic Mountain

Posted on July 30, 2024 by Lee

I’m reading Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain again (the translation by H.T. Lowe-Porter). It’s over 700 pages long and I’ll blog about it as I progress slowly through it. Thomas Mann justifies the length of his work by saying: “When … Continue reading →

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Good Intentions

Posted on July 10, 2024 by Lee

Like when I say to myself: “I’ll post to my blog at least once a month.” Today I started reading The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio. It’s a collection of 100 short stories, woven into a tale about a group of … Continue reading →

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A Modern Hero

Posted on May 6, 2024 by Lee

In Arthur Machen’s The Hill of Dreams, Lucian writes a book, submits it to a publisher and, after an agonising wait, receives a rejection. Some time later his book is published – under the name of another author. Lucian’s work … Continue reading →

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