Curiosity and Genius Personified What more can I say that hasn’t already been said far more eloquently and insightfully by others over the centuries. LCuriosity and Genius Personified What more can I say that hasn’t already been said far more eloquently and insightfully by others over the centuries. Leonardo was a one-of-a-kind genius in so many fields that he defied all categories, and his personal character was just as complicated and fascinating. The best way to approach him was by listening to this excellent biography on audiobook, and watching Leonardo (2021), and 8-part Italian production in English starring Aidan Turner. He really captures to complex and insatiably curious character of Leonardo, and the storyline and period mesh very well with The Medici to give you a bigger picture.
My interest was initially piqued when I got drawn into the history of the Roman Republic and Empire, it was a natural progression to want to understand the later history of the Italian Renaissance, along with all the warring city-states and complicated power struggles of them with the Papal States, European Powers, and Eastern Orthodox Church. It’s just such a convoluted and fascinating mess, and yet despite all the power struggles and brutality and violence, it also gave birth to this incredible flowering of intellectual creativity that eschewed the narrow and dogmatic Medieval Christian mentality, and produced such artistic geniuses as Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and the stunning architecture, much inspired by classical Greek and Roman culture. ...more
Meticulously Detailed by Deeply Biased Revisionist Biography How can anyone properly and fairly review a massive history of Isabella & Ferdinand of CasMeticulously Detailed by Deeply Biased Revisionist Biography How can anyone properly and fairly review a massive history of Isabella & Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon of Spain, an avalanche of details on the dynastic and political scheming of the Spanish, Papal, English, French, Portuguese, Ottoman, and Italian powers; the origins of the Spanish Inquisition; Isabella’s sponsorship of Christopher Columbus’ exploration and conquest of the New World; the war and expulsion of the Moorish kingdom of Granada after 700-800 years of Muslim rule; the forced conversions and expulsion of the Jews of Spain?
Just reading through the polarized reviews of this book, it is either an excellent, well-researched, and accessible alternate take on the rare women in power in Medieval Europe, or a wildly biased apologia of Isabella’s role in the Inquisition and New World conquest, a devout and dedicated Catholic fighting valiantly against the encroaching and evil Ottoman Turkish Empire.
Well, like all things in life, the truth (if there can ever be such a thing, especially when talking about historical figures in a tumultuous and incredibly complex period of history) lurks in all these views, and is defined through the lens of each readers’ perspective, biases, knowledge, background, and beliefs.
There’s no question Isabella was a remarkable ruler and woman in a time and society where power was almost entirely held by male hierarchies. It’s also undeniable that Kirstin Downey is a huge proponent of Isabella and wants to present her in the best light possible, and provide more justification for why her role in the Inquisition and New World conquest has been distorted by historians due to their bias against powerful women. There is an obvious agenda at play like any revisionist view of history that fits into the cultural trend toward female empowerment that extends to our view of history that has been shaped by men all these centuries. So it’s a valid exercise to undertake, but in this case the level of bias to defend Isabella’s less-palatable actions and intolerant Catholic views does cross the line from historical research into conjecture and personal opinion, as Downey is a journalist and not historian by profession.
Suffice to say Queen Isabella remains a very divisive figure, and while I learned a wealth of information about her from this very engaging and detailed book, I really am not sure how much of it I can trust as fairly depicted facts and events, and how much was overwhelmed by the author’s personal views. You could say that about any historical author really, but this book seemed to be more overtly biased than many other histories I’ve read. The only way to balance that would be to read another 5-6 books covering the same territory, but there’s a limit to what you can absorb in a single lifetime. That’s what makes history so fascinating and frustrating at the same time. ...more
The Most Famous Victorian Author, Then and Now After listening to 10 of Dicken’s best-known novels in abridged BBC Radio full-cast dramatizations, I fiThe Most Famous Victorian Author, Then and Now After listening to 10 of Dicken’s best-known novels in abridged BBC Radio full-cast dramatizations, I figured I was well prepared to enjoy a biography of his life, which is always a fascinating reveal of just how much author’s intertwine their own life experiences and personalities in various characters, along with the people they knew.
As Dickens has always been a famously keen observer of the humanity and Victorian society in particular, this was a perfect book to learn just how his own early experiences of child poverty in the workhouses where his father was thrown into the Marhsalsea Debtor’s Prison in Southwark when he was just a young boy. It colored his entire outlook on the hardships and cruelties of class society in Victorian England, and engendered a lifelong sympathy with the working and poor classes that he would champion throughout his life, even as he achieved success far beyond his humble beginnings and mingled increasingly with the upper classes.
Dickens also shows what a driven and workaholic personality he had, writing constantly and late into the night, sometimes when the muse was upon him, and other times out of financial necessity and the unforgiving deadlines of his weekly installments for the literary journals he contributed to and later ran himself. He also continued to father children with his wife year after year, meaning more mouths to feed and then find places for in society as they grew up.
As he got older, he also fell in love with a much younger actress and split with his wife, further complicating his life. He also discovered that his long-standing talent and passion for impersonations and reading his work was a commercial gold mine, and became one of the first media darlings of the era by doing dramatic readings from his works, including all the various accents and characters, to large and enthusiastic audiences.
Even as his health started to fail from the relentless pace of his readings and writing, he refused to give up or slow down, just another sign of his driven personality. He was a singular and towering figure in the Victorian literary canon, and also a hugely-influential public figure championing for social reforms for the poor and disadvantaged in a age of glaring gaps between rich and poor....more
One of the most complex and conflicted writers of SF, a moving and insightful portrait Definitely one of the best SF author biographies I've read, alonOne of the most complex and conflicted writers of SF, a moving and insightful portrait Definitely one of the best SF author biographies I've read, along with "Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick". There's no question that Alice B. Sheldon had a unique upbringing, a searingly bright but restless and troubled artistic passion and intellect, and an incredibly varied and fascinating life. It holds the weight of tragedy, but much artistic integrity and struggle as well. If you have read her stories and then read this, you will both gain great insight and immediately want to revisit them for a more enriching second reading. ...more
A Real Taste of Poverty and Desperation in the late 1920s: Orwell Writes with Clarity, Sympathy, Wry Humour, and a Sense of Injustice I took a punt on A Real Taste of Poverty and Desperation in the late 1920s: Orwell Writes with Clarity, Sympathy, Wry Humour, and a Sense of Injustice I took a punt on the audiobook as it was on sale for just two quid, and it was well worth the listen. Orwell decides to experience (or falls into) a life of extreme poverty in Paris in the 1930s, living in the poorest quarters, struggling to find any kind of work, close to starvation at many points, and doing literally anything (bar actual crime) to survive. He is surrounded with a veritable gallery of quirky and strange characters living at the very fringes of society, at the level of dogs and cockroaches from the viewpoint of the wealthy classes, scrabbling for scraps of food and fighting to avoid being robbed. It's a dire existence that drains any willpower to think past the next meal or place to sleep, and goes far to explaining why 1) it's not easy to fight your way out of extreme poverty, and 2) why you just don't understand if you haven't been there.
The first half of the book is far more interesting, mainly because of the truly strange and larger-than-life people that Orwell encounters, especially his former Russian officers now facing hard times, aspiring to be a waiter, but a leg injury and limp forces him to settle for kitchen help in Hotel X, a surreal portrait in extremes of luxury and squalor, depending on whether you are a customer or employee (little different from wage-slave). But there are so many moments of humor these people can find in lives that would crush most of us in despair. Orwell has great empathy for their plights, and clearly felt a keen sense of injustice at the inequalities of capitalism. While it's very likely he was deliberately slumming in order to have a taste of desperation, he took it deadly seriously and was at the brink of starving on many a day. The hardships he suffers makes you wonder if this contributed to his early death at age 46, having just written his masterpiece 1984 while suffering from tuberculosis, mostly written on the tiny island of Jura in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. ...more
The Most Complex, Adventurous, Iconoclastic, and Daring Victorian of the Era Sir Richard Francis Burton is probably one of the most (in)famous and compThe Most Complex, Adventurous, Iconoclastic, and Daring Victorian of the Era Sir Richard Francis Burton is probably one of the most (in)famous and complex of all the Victorian-era English adventurers, a polymath and obsessive traveller and researcher of exotic foreign cultures and languages. According to the book blurb, “He made significant contributions in the fields of literature and geography, and was also a poet, traveler, soldier, diplomat, inventor, explorer, archaeologist, student of religion and more.”
I can’t argue with that, he truly wanted to do it all, and did it with a stubborn and relentless intensity that more genteel Victorian society, with its tedious propriety and rigid hierarchy, didn’t have room to accommodate. He was an inveterate iconoclast of Christianty and the British government, and yet was dependent on it to feed his insatiable desire to travel and explore by becoming a diplomat, though based on this book he was probably one of the most unmotivated and irresponsible ever to hold such posts, using every excuse to get out and explore for weeks and months, abandoning and shirking his official duties in favor of exciting adventures among the locals.
He also didn’t hesitate to tell off his superiors back home, which of course damaged his career prospects time and again, and it was only the dogged efforts of his dutiful and almost slavishly-loyal wife Isabel to get him reinstated after various fallings-out and acrimonious exchanges. He almost seemed to revel in conflict and bating what he considered his inferiors, pompous stuffed shirts unworthy of respect. But when such men are your employers, most people will toe the line and play the social game. Not Burton though, he was both proud and irascible, and never forgot a slight or grudge.
He was profoundly interested in Arabian and Indian culture, and had an incredible talent to acquire languages with his powerful memory and self-developed learning techniques, a self-taught linguist. He delved deep into the cultures, literary works, religions, politics, and even sexual practices of these cultures, and learned first hand through whatever means suited his interests and circumstances. He was so convincing that he managed to pretend to be a devout Muslim and make the holy pilgrimage, the hajj, to Medica and Medina, and touch the Black Stone of the Kaaba there, having memorized the dozens of specific prayers, worship practices, and speech inflections. Any slip up and he would have been killed immediately.
He also was a prodigious writer of his explorations and adventures, taking detailed notes on everything he observed and thought, producing dense books packed with annotated notes, that were apparently not the most readable. His masterworks were his translations of the 1001 Arabian Nights, the Kama Sutra, and The Perfumed Garden, all delving deeply into taboo and exotic Middle Eastern and South Indian sexual lore, and we can surmise that he was intent on doing first-hand research in all of it. I am amazed he did not contract any serious venereal diseases given all his sexual escapades, if the book is accurate.
Finally, like most Victorians, he was a virulently racist (by our moderns standards), believing firmly in the innate superiority of the white British race, and that it was the duty of said race to rule over the lower races. His quotes and comments on Africans in particular would raise the hackles of any modern reader, woke or otherwise, with their biting contempt for darker peoples, in many cases depicting them as less than full human, closer to the apes. While these attitudes were prevalent in the British Empire and the Victorians, it’s still hard to stomach them when you read them straight from his comments. But that was the reality of those times.
There is so much more to this complex and difficult person that cannot be fit into a simple book review. This biography is a good entry point, and I choose it mainly because there was an audiobook version, but have two other hardcopy biographies of him that I may someday read, Edward Rice’s “Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton : The Secret Agent Who Made the Pilgrimage to Mecca, Discovered the Kama Sutra, and Brought the Arabian Nights to the West”, and Mary Lovell’s “A Rage To Live: A Biography of Richard and Isabel Burton”. ...more
Incredible true story of a young British diplomat embroiled in the October revolution in Russia Ironically, I only found out about this book after readIncredible true story of a young British diplomat embroiled in the October revolution in Russia Ironically, I only found out about this book after reading his excellent book on single malt Scotch whisky (written in 1951, but still totally relevant), and reading a brief biography blurb on him on Amazon:
"Robert Bruce Lockhart (1887-1970) had an extraordinarily varied life and is widely believed to be the inspiration for James Bond. Primarily a diplomat, he held posts in the Foreign Office serving in Russia during WW1 where he was accused of plotting to assassinate Lenin and imprisoned in the Kremlin until exchanged for Litvinov. He then served in Czechoslovakia and worked in the late 20s for Beaverbrook Newspapers until he took up writing full time. He returned to the FO in WW2 were he was Director-General of Political Warfare. He returned successfully to writing after the war and had a prolific output until he died in 1970."
Having read that, who could possibly resist finding out more about this larger-than-life character. His story of growing up a privileged child of the monied class in Scotland, spending his childhood at Balmenach Distillery which was founded by his grandfather, and then being sent off to Malaya to make his fortune in the booming rubber business, learning the language and culture there, playing football, and getting into a steamy and scandalous love affair with a local girl of aristocratic birth. This would establish his M.O. of immersion in foreign culture and languages, building political relationships with powerful people, and getting into romantic affairs with exotic women.
After a nasty and nearly fatal bout with malaria, which ends his Malaya adventure, he returns to Scotland and finds himself at a loss what to do next, but due to some pressure from his father and matriarchal grandmother, he decided to sit the exam for the foreign service despite being a lot older than the other candidates and not nearly as prepared academically. Some of his adventures during the oral exams actually provide some of the most entertaining episodes of the whole book - this man was ingenious in getting out of situations with a quick wit and instinct for charming others. No wonder he may have inspired the debonair British super spy and playboy James Bond.
Anyway, when he is assigned to Moscow in 1912 in the closing days of the dysfunctional Tsarist regime and its decadent aristocrats, the story enters its most interesting phase, as he again immerses himself in the turbulent world of western diplomatists and Russian political groups, a treacherous sea of conflicting factions, mainly the Bolsheviks, Russian Liberals, Left Social-Revolutionaries, counter-revolutionaries, Communists, etc. He navigates these waters with remarkable skill, managing to makes deep relationships with a huge number of Russians and other foreign diplomats, politicians, aristocrats, and so forth. He seems able to schmooze and drink till the early hours, charm various ladies, and not lose his head at the same time.
Once the October Revolution happens, led by Lenin and Trotsky, his position becomes more precarious as he has formed strong relationships with many Bolsheviks, but the British and other Allied governments are very wary of this socialist revolution, and are obsessed with keeping Russia fighting on the Eastern front to divert German troops from the all-important Western front. So an intricate game of diplomatic chess emerges as Lockhart is used by the British as the "unofficial" negotiator with the Bolsheviks, separate from their office diplomats as they are still unsure whether to recognize the Bolsheviks or hope to overthrow them through intervention. This make it almost impossible for Lockhart to keep a consistent approach when different branches of his own govt are at odds on how to deal with the Russia issue.
Events get more intense as different Russian factions start to fight internally, with assassinations of various figures on both sides, culminating on the near-assassination of Lenin himself, and Lockhart being implicated in the plot. It's an amazing sequence of things to happen to one young man as he is caught up in powerful historical forces and lives through incredible moments of history in the making, but still maintains a strong sense of justice, diplomatic savvy, and sense of adventure. Larger than life, it's an incredible story told exceedingly well, and exposes us to the attitudes of a British "agent" a century ago in a turbulent period of European history....more
A very enjoyable picture of growing up in the 1950s in Middle America, from the perspective of a kid. With his characteristic humour, Bryson tackles aA very enjoyable picture of growing up in the 1950s in Middle America, from the perspective of a kid. With his characteristic humour, Bryson tackles all the incredible optimism and confidence of America at its zenith, before the world got a lot more complicated in the 60s and 70s, and depicts with charm the far more innocent days of growing up on Des Moines, Iowa, in the golden era, without surrendering completely to nostalgia....more
Used this to prepare for making the Toast to the Lassies - enjoyable readings and good insight into the background of Rabbie’s numerous romantic trystUsed this to prepare for making the Toast to the Lassies - enjoyable readings and good insight into the background of Rabbie’s numerous romantic trysts and yearnings....more
Heavy with Details on Rabbie's Life and Work After doing a Burn's Night Celebration with my whisky club last year, including memorizing and performing Heavy with Details on Rabbie's Life and Work After doing a Burn's Night Celebration with my whisky club last year, including memorizing and performing a lesser-known poem of his called "A Lass with a Tocher", I felt like I needed to know more about the life of Scotland's National Bard. We even took a tour down to Ayrshire and saw Alloway Kirk and his cottage and the Burns Museum.
However, as an introduction this may not be the ideal book for beginners to Rabbie's life. As noted in other reviews, it's loaded with biographical details, endless references to different poems, friends, acquaintances, lovers, sponsors, and prominent people in his life, but the sheer amount of detail makes it read more like a dissertation than a biography.
So I had to just chip away at it over 4 months in little drips and drabs. I certainly learned a lot about this very complex, troubled, and yet often brilliant poet, full of passion, conflicted feelings about political equality and class, great national pride in Scotland's traditional songs and music, and a strong streak of manic depressive episodes.
In addition he was almost uncontrollably besotted by every woman he encountered, from sophisticated upper class women (who he courted heatedly with florid letters and poems) to maidservants (who he bedded as a substitute), and his long-suffering wife Jean Armour, who bore him 9 children, only three of whom survived to adulthood. He was frequently courting all these other women and professing his undying love while his wife was pregnant and stuck at home. He was devoted to supporting his family even to the point of accepting a job as an Exciseman of the British Crown, seeking illegal bothies and collecting taxes to feed him family.
The more you know of him, the more you realize just how complex and messy his life was, but as is often the case with artists and poets, much of this must have inspired his incredible range of work. And his lifelong work in collecting songs and setting his poetry to it in the Scots vernacular was an invaluable service in preserving Scottish oral culture for future generations.
He even dabbled in political egalitarianism, promoting Scottish heroes of independence like William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in order to disguise his support for democratic and republican movements for independence like the French and American Revolutions. This was quite dangerous to balance with his position as an Exciseman, but he was very clever in publicly voicing his support for the Crown while hiding various sentiments in poetry and comments to others.
In the end, this was well worth reading though it takes some concerted effort....more
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