Two Artists

Peacock & Vine: 

On William Morris 

and Mariano Fortuny 

by A.S. Byatt

“If Morris and his contemporaries were possessed by the medieval Christian imagination and the ancient sagas, the moderns looked further back to the ancient world, and rewrote the Greek myths and legends to suit their own ideas about society and history.”   ― A.S. Byatt, Peacock & Vine: On William Morris and Mariano Fortuny

It would be wonderful to be an artist whose life and work flowed together seamlessly, like water in a river, because your existence would be so complete. Peacock and Vine is a brief but frequently engrossing meditation on the lives of William Morris (1834–1896) and Mariano Fortuny (1871–1949), two people who succeeded in achieving this goal.

I'm still waiting for my invitation to visit Venice, but in the meantime, I can luxuriate in the prose and illustrations of Ms. Byatt's fine art biography. With a mix of criticism and history, she takes the familiar, William Morris, and the less familiar, Mariano Fortuny, and highlights their lives and work with the interpolation of beautiful illustrations. This was a pleasingly informative short excursion into the world of art. The quotes from Ruskin and Proust were an added delight.

Lost in Africa

Scoop 

by Evelyn Waugh

“News is what a chap who doesn't care much about anything wants to read.”   ― Evelyn Waugh, Scoop








Scoop (London, 1938) by Evelyn Waugh is a satire on journalism. It is based on Waugh's 1935 assignment to cover the conflict between Abyssinia and Italy while working as a war correspondent for the London Daily Mail in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). Waugh acknowledged that he was not very good at covering wars, but he did keep a close eye on what his fellow reporters were doing. The outcome was a comedic and satirical novel that mocks the newspaper industry and the journalism profession with a playful yet decidedly deadly tone.

The story centers upon a few humorous turns of events. Lord Copper, the conceited and uneducated proprietor of the Daily Beast, inadvertently dispatches William Boot, a naive nature columnist, to cover the conflict in the made-up nation of Ishmaelia in East Africa. At least geographically speaking, Ishmaelia and Abyssinia are identical. William learns a few fast lessons on the crafty methods used by journalists, who are constantly attempting to outsmart their peers and break a story. William returns to London as a well-known reporter after receiving many significant scoops on his own thanks to a string of fortunate events. However, all of it is meaningless to him, and he is glad to be going back to his remote and run-down country house, Boot Magna Hall, where his numerous eccentric relatives reside. Overall this is still an entertaining comedic read.