Black Snow, A Theatrical Novel, by Mikhail Bulgakov

You can see that I become a big fan of Mikhail Bulgakov. I like his wits and irony. I wish his complete works would be published in a beautiful collection edition one day.

This story is about how he wrote a play based on his first novel, and what happened in that pathetic theatrical world. Several times I can't help laughing out -- Oh, Bulgakov, you are so mean, but I love you.

The book was published by Simon And Schuster in 1967, with excellent translation rendered by Michael Glenny.

Odyssey, by Homer

Hard to believe that it was written nearly 3000 years ago. Together with Iliad, this is one of the greatest works in the history.

Iliad gives me a feeling of grandness and lets me appreciate Homer's world of glory. However, its battle scenes have too many repetitions. Odyssey is more readable and entertaining, but it lacks Iliad's grandness. The messages of the mighty of the gods and the pains of Odysseus (and earthy human beings) seem to be shadowed by the plots.

The book, from my personal collection, was published by Viking in 1996, ISBN-10 0670821624, ISBN-13 978-0670821624. The blank verse translation from Robert Fagles is very good, and even beautiful. However, I suspect that it is exactly his briskly and swift style that loses the grandness of this work (if it is there). I plan to read E. V. Rieu's prose translation (ISBN-10 0140449116 ISBN-13 978-0140449112) next time.

My Favorite Readings

Chinese

1. 曹雪芹、高鹗：红楼梦
2. 老舍：抬头见喜（散文集）
3. 沈从文：散文精编
4. 林海音：城南旧事
5. 张爱玲：传奇
6. 白先勇：文集
7. 萧红：呼兰河传
8.  叶嘉莹：唐宋名家词赏析
9.  汪曾祺：

Others

1. Jude the Obscure, by Thomas Hardy
2. Tess of the D'rbervilles, by Thomas Hardy
3. The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
4. White Guard, by Mikhail Bulgakov
5. The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, by Carson McCullers
6. The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
7. Complete Fairy Tales of OSCAR WILDE
8. The Lover, by Marguerite Duras
9. 1984, by George Orwell
10. Harry Potter series, by J.K. Rowling
11. Out of Africa, by Isak Dinesen
12. His Dark Materials Trilogy, by Philip Pullman
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
14. The Iliad, by Homer (translated by E.V. Rieu)
15. The Odyssey, by Homer
16. One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
17. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë
18. The Thorn Birds, by Colleen McCullough
19. Quiet Flows the Don, by Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov
20. The Once and Future King, by T. H. White
21. The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
22. The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett
23. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain
24. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
25. Spring Snow, by Yukio Mishima (Translated by Michael Gallagher)
26. My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle, by Marcel Pagnol
27. The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck 

C.G. Jung reading
   Appetizer

• The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck 

   Elementary

•  C.G. Jung Word and Image 
• A Primer of Jungian Psychology, by Calvin S. Hall and Vernoon J. Nordby  

    Introduction

• Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice, by C.G Jung
• Man and his Symbols, edited by C.G. Jung (not very good)
• Private Myths, by Anthony Stevens 

    Immediate

• Ego and Archetype, by Edward F. Edinger 

    Standard

• Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, by C.G. Jung 
• The Archetypes and the Collective Unconsicous (V 9-1), by C.G Jung

Religion

• The Sacred and The Profane, by Mircea Eliade 
• 佛教常识问答 赵朴初
• Buddhism: Its essence and development, by Edward ConzeEdward Conze

Myths

• Eternal Drama, by Edward F. Edinger
  
   
   

Notes On the Cuff & Other Stories, by Mikhail Bulgakov

Half good stuff, half hard to understand. Worth reading.

It is a hardcover published by Ardis, 1991. ISBN 0875010571. Translated by Alison Rice.

The Heart of a Dog, by Mikhail Bulgakov

This is a very entertaining reading, but I do not agree with Bulgakov's view on the revolution, which is what he tries to deliver beneath the story. People are mistreated as dogs, and the revolution makes them live more like a human being, although it is a long way for them to become decent, cultivated. It damages the comfortable life of the previous middle-class, but this doesn't support the claim that people just deserve the fate of miserable dogs. Everyone, human being, animal, every thing, deserves equal right -- sadly, this claim fundamentally contradicts the law of this nature.

The book I read is a Helen and Kurt Wolff Book, published by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. in 1968. No ISBN. I am so lucky that the particular copy I recalled from the Country of Los Angeles Public Library is Michael Glenny's translation. I searched in amazon.com and found out that the one with ISBN-13 978-1441480316 (ISBN-10 1441480315) is also Glenny's translation with slight modification, although the publisher is fishy. In amazon.co.uk, Glenny's translation is included in Vintage Classics, ISBN-13 978-0099529941 (ISBN-10 0099529947).