Of Mice And Men, by John Steinbeck

It is the first time I read Steinbeck's work. Surely, this short novel is a very decent writing; however, it lacks something unique, something touching your soul. I hope to get more from his longer novels next time.

The book was published by Penguin Books in 2002, ISBN 0142000671.

One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn

This is what happened to Ivan Denisovich, a prisoner in a Stalinist work camp in Siberia, through a cold January day. The writing is simple, straightforward, and not sentimental. However, from the first page, you will forget the presentation of words. You are Ivan Denisovich, in coldness, hunger, calculating the "best" way to get through one of those thousands of days. The reading experience is indescribable.

Where does such cruelty comes from? We know the bloodiness in Nature when lives compete with and pray on each other. However, it is human beings that exercise cruelty far beyond that, and promotes it as a pure pleasure.

This is a handsome book from Everyman's library, published in 1995, ISBN 0679444645. Translated by H.T. Willetts.

The Fatal Eggs And Other Soviet Satire

Checked out this book because it contains Mikhail Bulgakov's The Fatal Eggs. This short novel is not his best, too plain and straight. I ended reading the entire book, and it was entertaining. I couldn't help smiling because many of those happened in Soviet Union looked so familiar.

The book was published by The Macmillan Company in 1965. Translated by Mirra Ginsburg.

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss

I decided to read some novels of current authors, so I picked up this from Editor Eric's list. It turns out to be a delightful reading; Nicole Krauss is a gifted writer.

Unquestionably, this is a love story. However, "love" might not be the real theme that Krauss delivers. Behind the story, it is about true and false, real and illusion, the absolute loneliness and the denying of the existence. Overall, this is a quite successful work. However, I feel that the story is over-plotted, and writing elements are over-used.

The book I read was the first edition published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2005. ISBN 0393060349. Hardcover.

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).

The White Guard, by Mikhail Bulgakov

Another great work from master Bulgakov, with super translation rendered by Michael Glenny.

It is about what happened to the Turbin family in Kiev, 1918, a time of revolution, turmoil and civil war. Although in a very different style from Master and Margarita, this novel also demonstrates Bulgakov's genies. The writing is modern, dense, but the magic of Bulgakov (and Glenny) is as before.

This novel seems to be an extension of the play The Days of the Turbins*, and I can clearly see the stage elements from the events happened inside the Turbin's home. However, this does not harm the novel. In fact, after back from the uncertain, panic city, and the bloody, cruel battlefield, the stage-like home gives me a particular feeling of warmness -- like the last harbor in the world -- although not physically safe, it is the bond between family members and friendship among friends that makes it unconquerable.
[*In his introduction to The Heart of a Dog, Michael Glenny said that the novel was published first, and then Pavel Markov suggested and helped Bulgakov to turn the story into a play. 9/5/2009]

From 1926 to 1941, "the play ran for 987 performances", with total audience of at least 1 million. And among them was Stalin, who saw it no less than 15 times. I can understand what brings people to it again and again. It touches something essential about family, friends, human to human, warm and also sad. The theme is touched in such a way that your deep heart feels it, but you can't catch it, say it -- it is not revealed directly. This is also one of the great charms in Master and Margarita.

Bulgakov also did a great job in describing the panic and chaos of the city, and bloody battle scenes. I am not a particular fan of the war novel, but I am very impressed by Bulgakov's battle scenes, which is Superior than Quiet Flows the Don (vol 1) and Gone with the wind.

The book I read is a paperback published by Academy Chicago Publishers, ISBN 0897332466. Thanks for the publisher to keep Michael Glenny's translation in print. I read several paragraphs of the new translation by Marian Schwartz, published by Yale University Press, ISBN-13 978-0300151459 (ISBN-10 0300151454). Although new translations are always welcome for such a masterpiece, Schwartz's translation lacks the beauty and charm of Glenny.

The cover art is also worth mentioning. White and sketched man, dark horse, and blood ground. It looks like the weight of these elements is not rightly set up, but it indeed fits the mood of the book very well.

风声鹤唳，林语堂

故事续《京华烟云》，以木兰的侄子伯牙，恋人媚玲、友人彭先生为主线，以抗日抗争为背景。单从文学作品的角度来说，该书一般。林语堂叙述手法老套，生硬的大段大段的人物性格剖析。故事结尾媚玲爱情的转变显得突兀，不可信。伯牙自杀式地袭击日本兵更是莫名其妙。

这个作品的意义并不在于其文学价值。抗日抗争时期中国人民深受的苦难，林语堂的描写触目惊心。结尾时五十多岁的“老”妈妈托付了小女儿，因为不愿拖累儿子夜 里坠水。苦难，亿万人民的苦难，这句话又是多么的沉重啊！没有经历的人，又有多少能体会这句话里包含着的血和泪，和那些无法描述的痛苦。

日本人，“禽兽不如”一词也无法形容其行为。日本民族，对你们的千年的诅咒。刺刀上的婴儿，活埋的百人坑，被奸辱的妇女，残断的肢体，用他们的血和魂凝结成千年的诅咒，封印日本民族的世世代代。

And Quiet Flows the Don (Vol. 1), by Mikhail Sholokhov

This is the story of last Cossacks in the Don Region. It is about their daily life in the steppe, with love, hate, betrayal, passion, despair. Each one faithfully fulfills his/her life; this is true when Grigory's wife tries to kill herself in despair. With little thinking and reasoning, it is the heart that leads one, regardless to where. Maybe someone, educated one, feels pity for such an "aimless" life, but experiencing it (without resistance) is the essential meaning of life, right? However, yielding to one's instincts makes one lose himself. On the other hand, with reigned mind, reviewing the past, predicting the future, and calculating the consequence, it looks like we are making "sensible" steps, but what is missed?

This is a masterpiece, and I enjoyed it tremendously. The recurrence of the descriptions of the Don river is touching. The Cossack folk songs included in the book are gems.

Unfortunately, the translation in print is not satisfying, probably because the novel is not fashionable in this modern world. The first translation of the Quiet Don series was performed by Stephen Garry' (pen name of Harry C. Stephens), published in two volumes as And Quiet Flows the Don and The Don Flows Home to the Sea by Alfred A. Knopf in U.S. in 1930's. This translation lacks about 25 percent of the original text. Later Robert Daglish revised and completed Carry's translation. The first revision was done before 1984 (I saw a 4-volume edition translated by Daglish from Moscow Progress Publishing in 1978 on Ebay). The second revision, conducted in 1984, was more successful. In 1996, Brian Murphy from the University of Ulster revised and edited Robert Daglish's 1984 edition, producing "the first complete and uncensored edition". It was published by Carroll & Graf Pub, ISBN 0786703609 (978-0786703609), but already out of print.

The book I read is published by Fredonia Books. ISBN 1589633121. It is said to be "Reprinted from the original edition". From its printing style, I guess it is Daglish's pre-1984 translation.