The Secret Adversary

Even though my final verdict on Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope was a positive one, I thought that, rather than proceed immediately to book five in Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, I would go off in a different direction in my reading.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog post, I thought something by Agatha Christie might be a good fit.

I had always been a fan of Ms. Christie's work, although it was in the form of movies and television series that I loved. I had particularly enjoyed the Miss Marple and Poirot series that were produced in Britain and later released on PBS in the U.S.. It was not, however, until 2014 that I came to read my first Agatha Christie novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. It had become my habit, at that time, to read novels that were available as e-books - preferably free e-books. At the time that I had downloaded The Mysterious Affair at Styles from Project Gutenberg, it was the only Agatha Christie novel in the public domain and available as an e-book.

Since then, five additional books have become available at Project Gutenberg.

Having already read her first novel, I went on to her second - The Secret Adversary.

Of course, we don't expect a writer's second novel to be on the same level as her 50th (or even her 10th). The novel was published in 1922, and not being familiar with Christie's bio, I immediately assumed that the writing was that of someone in her mid 20's. It turns out that Christie was 32 at the time of the publication of The Secret Adversary.

Unfortunately, the novel does suffer slightly because of the large number of coincidences in the story. There are flaws in the writing, but it was still able to hold my interest until the end. The wikipedia article on the novels says  

"Reviews were generally positive on this adventure, which manages to keep the identity of the arch-criminal secret to the very end". 

I must confess, she managed to keep the identity of the arch-criminal a secret from me......I had totally picked the wrong person as the bad guy. It is for that reason that I give the novel a higher rating than I had expected to earlier on.

Now, On to Something Different

In my post of two days ago, I wrote of my disappointment in the 4th novel of Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, Framley Parsonage . At the time of that writing, I was half way thru the novel and it seemed to me that I would abandon the novel unfinished.

I also wrote in that blog post that I would give the novel one more chance before going on to something different. I'm inclined to see that as a proper decision now.

Not long after taking it up again, I came upon this sentence spoken by Mrs. Harold Smith in a conversation with Miss Dunstable:
We are so used to a leaven of falsehood in all we hear and say, now-a-days, that nothing is more likely to deceive us than the absolute truth.

The wisdom of that remark struck me.

The sentence is as powerful (and true) today as it had been in 1860. Having come upon that piece of wisdom, I wanted to continue where I had left off and finish reading the novel.

As I stated previously, many of the characters in Framley Parsonage had been introduced to us in earlier novels in the series. Honestly, I wanted to know how the lives of these characters had gotten on. I was no longer disappointed.

True enough, the novel drags on in spots, but I'm happy that I was able to persevere until the end. Of course, as with all the Trollope novels I'm familiar with, this one ends happily. Never the less, I feel as if I should go on to another writer before reading the two final books in the series - The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset. There was a span of two years between the publication of books four and five. I don't intend on going that long, by any means - but a small break won't hurt.

I've managed to download five Agatha Christie novels which are now in the public domain. I suppose I'll go in that direction presently.

A Disappointing Novel

I really don't like the idea of my giving up on reading a particular novel once I've started, but I may make an exception with the 4th novel in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, Framley Parsonage. It feels like I'm been struggling with it for ages, although I'm only 49% in.

Many of the characters appearing in Framley Parsonage are familiar, having been introduced in earlier novels. Unfortunately, those making a reappearance seem less developed than they had been in the earlier works.

Trollope seems to have run out of ideas for plots by this point as well. There are differences, of course, but in Framley Parsonage we are given a rehash with a main character being deeply in debt, and an unrequited love between two characters who are in different social classes.

I'll give the novel one more chance today. If it can't hold my interest much longer, I'll switch to another novel.

A New Route

 

It's been a little over two months since I purchased a bicycle. On average, I've managed to ride the bicycle four or five days a week - usually about 6:00 AM. I've done my riding on the Diversion road in Sibulan, which is pretty much deserted at that time of morning. It's been slow going.

For a few weeks, my goal was to make it to the Kansi Native Chicken Restaurant, a little over a km from our house. At first it was a struggle getting to the restaurant without stopping for a breather along the way. There is a slight grade going there and returning home has always been a bit easier.

Once I managed to make to and from the restaurant without a rest stop, I made it my goal to make it to the end of the Diversion road in Camanjac, a distance of about 2 1/2 miles, round trip. Again, with the slight grade, I can't make it to the end of the road without a rest - even in an easy gear - but the return ride is done non-stop using a harder gear.

This morning, I wanted to take a different route. Rather than ride along the Diversion road, I went instead to the Tubtubon Barangay hall. The distance there and back is a little shorter than to the end of Diversion road - 2 miles, versus 2 1/2 miles. However, I was able to go the entire 2 miles without a rest stop. So, there's some gain.

 

The Country Side of Harmonica Sam

 

Facebook often gets a negative rap but, occasionally I'll be pleasantly surprised by something that makes it's way onto my newsfeed. Such was the case this morning when I discovered a video of a group called The Country Side of Harmonica Sam. The song is called "If That’s the Way It’s Gotta Be" and I found myself sharing the video on my FB page and listening to the song two or three times.

The band has the look and feel of a country/western band from the late 1950s - early 1960s.

Looking further, I found the group has three albums on Spotify - Open Letter to the Blues - A Drink After Midnight - and  Broken Bottle, Broken Heart .

If one is a fan of traditional country/western music, you can't do much better than this group. The lead singer - Harmonica Sam - has the sound down pat. He's an excellant country singer. The band consists of top notch musicians with the pedal steel player being one of the best I've heard.

Going to the band's website - thecountrysideofharmonicasam.com, I learned a bit more. Seeing photos of the group, I suspected they were probably from Scandinavia. Those guys are the whitest people I've ever seen. Their names had a Scandinavian feel as well - Johan Bandling Melin..Lead Guitar & Backup Vocals - Peter Andersson..Steel Guitar - Ulrik Jansson..Upright Bass - Patrik Malmros..Drums.

Sure enough, the band comes from Sweden - from in and around the city of Malmö.

Listening to their music and watching their Youtube videos, you get the feeling of going back thru time to the days of Faron Young, Hank Williams and Hank Thompson.

I've listened to two of their albums so far, and I don't recognize any familiar songs - I have no idea which are covers and which, if any, are originals. The songs may not be #1 country standards, but the singing and musicianship are absolutely amazing. I recommend giving the group a listen.

Wonderwall

 

In 1968, George Harrison released his debut solo album, Wonderwall Music  - the soundtrack to the film, Wonderwall.

This particular album was both the first solo musical project by any of the Beatles, and the first LP released by Apple Records.

Being a 16 year old George Harrison fan, I purchased a copy of the album. I dare say that I know of no one else among my friends or acquaintances who did likewise, and even though I was the ultimate Harrison fan, I found the LP a bit bizarre. That's saying quite a lot coming from someone who was also a big fan of the Mothers of Invention.

There were parts of the album that the then 16 year old could appreciate. I truly wanted to see the film.....thinking it may help me further appreciate the work. Unfortunately, I was living in a small town in Georgia - north of Atlanta and just south of Chattanooga TN - so obviously I was never going to have an opportunity to see the film.

I was thinking of the film and soundtrack yesterday and decided to see if the film was available online. I found the film at the ok.ru website and watched it for the first time last night.

Needless to say, the film simply drips of 60's psychedelia.

I'm going to have to give the film a very positive rating. The music - while bizarre and disconnected as an LP - suits the film perfectly. The film and the soundtrack belong together as a complete unit. One part cannot be fully appreciated without the other. Anyone interested in the culture of the late 1960's should give the film the once over.

Chronicles of Barsetshire - Continued

When I last wrote about my reading Chronicles of Barsetshire, I had finished reading the first two novels in the series (The Warden and Barchester Towers ) and I had read about 25% of the third novel in the series, Doctor Thorne . At the time of that writing, I had a good impression of the third novel, although now, having read it entirely, my opinion of the novel isn't quite as high.

At about the half-way point in the novel, the ending became obvious and trying to get to the end, while pretty much knowing how it would all end became a bit tedious. It was obvious that Mary Thorne would inherit a fortune and all would be well.

Many of the characters who were supposed to be "heros" in the novel began to rub me the wrong way. Most accepted that Mary Thorne was less than an acceptable person due to her questionable birth and her poverty. Mary even accepted that opinion herself. The only person who was not of that opinion was the squire's son Frank Gresham.

In many ways, Frank is the most likeable character in the novel - at least up to the point of his treatment Mr Moffit. Frank and his friend track down Mr. Moffit and whip him within an inch of his life. I could not agree with Frank's motive for beating Moffit, although most of the characters in the novel seemed ok with it - I presume that when writing the novel, Trollope was fine with it as well.

The novel is over 375 pages long, much of which Trollope would have done well to edit out.

I've moved on to book four, Framley Parsonage and we're back to seeing the lives of clergymen in the Church of England. So far, no problems.

Chronicles of Barsetshire

As regular readers of this blog are aware, my reading list for this past April consisted entirely of novels dealing with a dystopian theme. Those same readers should also know that the final novel on that list was The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope. Prior to this, I had never heard of this English novelist of the Victorian era. However, I was so impressed with The Fixed Period, I wanted to learn more about Mr. Trollope.

His best known work is a series of novels collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. I immediately downloaded all six novels in the series from Project Gutenberg and began reading the first in the series, The Warden , on the first day of this month. As I write this, I've finished the first and second (Barchester Towers ) and about 25% of the third novel in the series, Doctor Thorne .

The first two in the series deal with of the coming and goings of a small group of Church of England clergymen in the fictional city of Barchester - particularly Mr Septimus Harding (the Warden of Hiram's Hospital in book one) and his sons -in-law.

Several characters appear in both novels, although two characters from book one are killed off by Trollope, with a few new characters appearing in the second novel.

As much as I enjoyed the first two novels in the series, I didn't think Trollope could pull off writing six novels on these same characters. Fortunately, the series takes a turn with the third novel dealing with a local physician, Doctor Thomas Thorne.

So far, the only negative thing I can say about the series is the concentration on English social class structure in the Victorian era. At this point, I can't tell if Trollope is for it, or against it.

Never the less, I'm enjoying my stroll around Barsetshire and I'm looking forward to the next three in the series.

The April Book List

 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I wanted to read strictly dystopian novels in the month of April. I managed to read 15 novels this month that fit into that category. Four of these are books I had read previously, with 11 of the novels being new to me.

Being in a small city in Philippines, I'm limited as to the number of printed books available. I suppose, in theory, some can be ordered from Amazon, but this is "iffy", even in the best of times - with covid, these are certainly not the best of times. I'm restricted, therefore, to ebooks which are available online. Again, this is difficult with Amazon as I'm having problems logging into my account. Most of the books on this list are from Project Gutenberg, which explains the age of the novels; no new ebooks available at present.

So, without further ado, the list of dystopian novels read in April, 2021.

Memoirs Found in a Bathtub by Stanislaw Lem
Lord of the World by Robert Hugh Benson
The Republic of the Future; or, Socialism a Reality by Anna Bowman Dodd
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
1984 by George Orwell
We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Iron Heel by Jack London
Pictures of the Socialistic Future by Eugen Richter
The Land of the Changing Sun by William N. Harben
The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel
The Sleeper Awakes by H. G. Wells
The Scarlet Empire by David MacLean Parry
Erewhon by Samuel Butler
The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope