Arbie's Unoriginally Titled Book Blog
It's a blog! Mainly of book reviews.
Currently reading
Reading progress update: I've read 86 out of 192 pages.
"Country house portraits" is a genre I've never come to appreciate but apparently a couple of Dutch Old Masters in England specialised in it. Like the later family portraits they seem to be vanity projects with little interest - but the painters had to make a living from the upper class or give up the profession.
2
Reading progress update: I've read 246 out of 615 pages.
Alexander the Great's empire collapsed only two years after his death but the Greek language remained in a large swathe of Asia for centuries after.
2
Reading progress update: I've read 169 out of 2016 pages.
Father Hubburd's Tales (printed): The opening poem is radically re-written and expanded from the manuscript version, but the story gist is the same.
5
Reading progress update: I've read 82 out of 192 pages.
This painting by Cuyp is easily the most impressive so far, gets a double page reproduction:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Aelbert_Cuyp_View_of_Dordrecht.jpg
5
Reading progress update: I've read 243 out of 615 pages.
Greek colonies along the Meditereanian coast brought literacy to the Gauls, who used the Greek alphabet but their own language.
2
Reading progress update: I've read 404 out of 1327 pages.
Boethius (Boece in Middle English) was, by his own account a victim of political persecution.
Reading progress update: I've read 67 out of 192 pages.
Shout out to Gersina ter Borch, who was "herself a gifted artist."
6
Reading progress update: I've read 166 out of 2016 pages.
Father Hubburd's Tales (printed version): The dedication is again to a satirical figure that is a cheapskate patron.
6
Reading progress update: I've read 164 out of 2016 pages.
The Ante and the Nightingale (manuscript): It seems that war veterens were treated very badly then as now.
5
Reading progress update: I've read 162 out of 2016 pages.
The Ante and the Nightingale (manuscript): After the ploughman disaster, the ant tried being a soldier.
5
Reading progress update: I've read 311 out of 438 pages.
If there were no Benny Cemoli: How to evade a war-crimes trial...
5
Reading progress update: I've read 397 out of 1327 pages.
Boece: Chaucer's translation of Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy from the original Latin.
6
Reading progress update: I've read 160 out of 2016 pages.
Wowzas, Middleton really did not like lawyers.
Reading progress update: I've read 158 out of 2016 pages.
The Nightingale and the Ante (manuscript): The ant starts its tale of his life as a ploughman. No explanation of how it can turn itself into a human, though.