Two Loves

Anne Elliot and Lucy Manette

It may seem an unlikely pairing, but I would like to make some comments on and comparisons between two seemingly disparate literary heroines, Anne Elliot and Lucy Manette. In Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, the beautiful Lucy Manette marries Charles Darnay, the descendant of an aristocratic French family denounced by the revolutionaries, among whom are the memorably evil fanatic Mme. Defarge. While in Jane Austen's last novel, Persuasion, which was not published until after her death, Austen created a strong, mature, and independent heroine, Anne Elliot. Having foolishly broken off an engagement eight years earlier to Frederick Wentworth, a penniless naval officer, Anne at the age of 27 has remained unmarried--and secretly devoted to Wentworth. While written decades apart and depicting two different women, one of whom is substantially more "mature" than the other, I believe these characters share some of the same core values, the foremost of which is an enduring love for a man in whom each believes strongly. Lucy, as wife to Charles, is able to withstand the separation from him while he is imprisoned awaiting apparent doom buoyed by her love for him. Anne, after being "persuaded" to break off her engagement to Frederick when she was all of nineteen years old, did not abandon her inner feelings for him and found that in nurturing this enduring love she could attain the reward that she may not have imagined possible when he went off to sea. In addition to and complementing their love each woman demonstrates an extraordinary loyalty to her friends and family. We see this demonstrated in Anne's relationship with Mrs. Smith just as Lucy demonstrates a loyalty to her Father during moments when she cannot be sure that he recognizes her.

My comparison would not be complete if I did not also note some of the contrasts between the heroines and their respective novelistic worlds. There could not be a greater distance between the settings of the novels than these two with one focused primarily on two houses within miles of each other in England while the other is focused, as the title makes clear, on two urban centers in two different countries separated by the English Channel. One is focused on the internal workings of families seemingly immune to the world outside them while the other finds the characters and families buffeted by the winds of revolution and the politics of their respective countries. Fate and death intervene in the world created by Dickens with the express intent to mirror history; while fate is also present for Austen, and the threat of death is not absent, it is not nearly so overwhelmingly displayed. While the two heroines seem to share a certain reserve, it is in Austen's novel with its' narrower focus on family and marriage that we learn more about the details of the heroine's life. In many respects Lucy remains a cypher, not unlike some of Dicken's other fictional women, perhaps in part because, unlike Esther Summerson in Bleak House, we never are allowed to share her thoughts. In spite of the differences I believe that the fundamental character of each of these women has much in common. From my recent reading of these two novels they will remain among my fondest memories.


A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Penguin Books, London. 2003 (1859)
Persuasion by Jane Austen. The Modern Library, New York. 2002 (1818)

Russian Easter Overture


Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov composed the Russian Easter Overture in 1888 and conducted the first performance in December of that year. Last night I attended a performance by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra led by guest conductor Charles Dutoit. I was surprised to discover, upon reading the program notes, that it had not been performed on a subscription concert since 1951. This is among Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular works and its absence from Orchestra hall for more than a half century is inexplicable. Fortunately it has returned and the audience was treated to the stunning orchestration of Rimsky-Korsakov who was at the height of his powers when he wrote this piece, following Capriccio Espagnole and Sheherazade which had premiered earlier in the same year. Under Dutoit's baton each section of the orchestra displayed the virtuosity that is the hallmark of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
The concert also included the Symphony in C of Igor Stravinsky, a twentieth century neoclassical icon completed in 1940 specifically for the fiftieth anniversary of the orchestra, and the Brahm's First Piano Concerto performed by the virtuoso Russian pianist Yevgeny Kissin. Each work was performed brilliantly by the orchestra while Kissin's mastery of the difficult Brahms concerto was the high point of the evening. This was certainly one of the best concerts that I have had the pleasure to attend this season.

The Yacoubian Building

Reading literature about a particular city gives you insight into the mores and character of that community. This is true of Alaa Al Aswany's novel from 2002, The Yacoubian Building (ImaratYa'qubyan). I found the novel both well written and structured. Using the title building as his center Aswany portrays a diverse group of contemporary Cairenes to demonstrate the experience of living in the world of Egypt today. The author presents the issues of political corruption, class conflict and the "science" of love in a believable narrative; however, I found his portrayal of homosexuality less effective: sensitive at times but ultimately concluding with a stereotypically brutal end for the spurned lover. The difficulties of living in this society are highlighted as the novel moves smoothly from episode to episode building toward a climax that, while somewhat melodramatic, brings the story to an effective conclusion. Overall the complex narrative and view of the city of Cairo made this an engaging and satisfying read.


The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al Aswany. Harper Perennial, New York. 2006 (2002).

The Cairo Trilogy III
The novel Sugar Street ends Naguib Mahfouz's masterpiece bringing the story of Al-Sayyid Ahmad's family to a close. With the death of Al-Sayyid his wife Amina is all alone. In a moving chapter we hear her voice and see the world through her eyes as she feels more alone than ever before. The house and the coffee hour are no longer the same. But the focus has turned to the grandchildren, particularly Ahmad and al-Muni'm, sons of Khadija. Each is seeking new directions, mirroring the political and cultural changes in Egypt as World War II approaches. Kamal continues to pine for his ideal love, Aida, and almost finds it in her younger sister, Budur. His own indecision prevents him from making a commitment to her, turning away when she makes the slightest advance. Superficially his life resembles that of his nephew Ridwan, the beautiful son of his brother Yasin. Kamal meets his old friend Husayn Shaddad one final time, learning of the fate of Aida and the Shaddad family, but not with any sense of encouragement or satisfaction. As the novel ends family change occurs once again with the passing of Amina and the birth of Yasin's first grandchild. There is a hopeful sign as Yasin goes out with Kamal to buy clothes for the new baby.

Mahfouz's trilogy has epic sweep in its depiction of the changes to Cairo over the first half of the twentieth century mirrored in the growth and change of the Ahmad family. He presents ideas and demonstrates them with the actions and interactions of the characters as they love and learn and die. The outside world, first seen in the occupation of the British, grows throughout and looms ever larger as the final novel in the trilogy ends. Twentieth century ideologies are beginning to affect Egypt with the power seen elsewhere in the world and the portent is ominous. Yet with that Mahfouz leaves the reader with the possibility of hope and the encouragement that can only be found in a great literary achievement.


The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz. Everyman's Library, New York. 2001 (1957)

The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit


Lucette Lagnado's moving memoir is subtitled My Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World. It is a story of a remarkable father and his family movingly told with the feel of a novel as you share the experiences of this family who traveled half way around the world to settle in America. Lucette Lagnado, who is a senior special writer and investigative reporter for The Wall Street Journal, demonstrates both her skill as a writer and an investigator.

The story begins with the marriage of her parents, Leon and Edith, in wartime Cairo. As the family establishes itself after the war, the position of the Jewish community gradually deteriorates until, in the early sixties they flee to Paris en route to their eventual destination. The strength of both parents and the details of the family's difficult journey is a story that this reader found intensely moving. The thought of being "stateless", as they were once they left Egypt, is hard to imagine. That they overcame this and survived is a tribute to their courage. This is a memoir that I will not soon forget.


The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado. The Ecco Press, New York. 2007.

The Cairo Trilogy, II

The second novel of Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy is titled Palace of Desire. The family of Ahmad al-Jawad has expanded as the married daughters and son have children. Particularly touching and revelatory is a scene where Ahmad becomes the doting grandfather demonstrating a side of his character that we did not see in the first novel of the trilogy. We also see the permutations of love and desire on display as the family evolves through the maturation of the second generation. There is a particular focus on the development of Kamal, the youngest of the children, who has seen success in school and slowly leaves behind his youthful innocence as he develops into a thinker, a writer, and an admirer of the perfection of beauty as embodied in the young Aida Shaddad. His view of love is doomed to an unsuccessful search for perfection when the one he adores, Aida, rejects him and leaves Egypt with another. Kamal will eventually satisfy his bodily needs with girls from the brothel district while he lives an ascetic life of the philosophic writer and teacher. He also highlights one other theme of the novel with his popularization of western philosophy as Egyptian nationalism grows and the culture of Ahmad's family is buffeted by the new ideas. Perhaps the eldest son, Yasin, best represents the view of love as mere desire. Even in the first novel Yasin had demonstrated his inability to control his natural desire for women and this lack of control continues to complicate his life. Unlike his father, who could discreetly maintain his life with the singers of the night separately from his home life, Yasin blunders about, endangering both his home life and his career. Desire permeates this story even as the world of Ahmad, the father, slowly begins to lose the control that seemed to be his main characteristic as the trilogy began.

The Cairo Trilogy, I

As I near the end of the third and final novel of Naguib Mahfouz's masterpiece I thought I would summarize a few impressions of my experience reading this magnificent work. The first novel, Palace Walk, introduces the family of Ahmad Abd al-Jawad: his wife Amina, sons Yasin, Fahmy and Kamal, and daughters Khadija and Aisha. This family will be the center of all three novels as Mahfouz chronicles their experiences living within a Cairo neighborhood identified by the street, Palace Walk, home to the family. Prominent among the themes of the first novel is the freedom of the family (or lack of freedom) under the authoritarian rule of the father. Mahfouz slowly develops the relationships within the family and the novel builds upon events that epitomize the growth of each family member. Just as the middle son Fahmy excels in school he begins to seek freedom in the growth of nationalist fervor during the era of the Great War. Amina, who is present on the first page has the temerity to defy her husband and pays a price, yet demonstrates growth in stature within the family. Amina's life and personality is the lifeblood of the homelife of the family, bracketed by the scenes of the coffee hour and Amina on the roof overlooking the city. As the first novel ends we find the family's peace and structure threatened portending more change in the novels that follow.

The Meaning of Life

I am reading a book by Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life, that poses a lot of questions about that very issue. What is the meaning of life? Is it meaningful to even discuss this question? The book raises these and other questions and seems to alternate between challenging issues that encourage thoughtful responses, and a somewhat prosaic litany of differing responses to the questions, some of which do not deserve much thought or attention. What makes the book interesting and worth persevering are the former, the issues that challenge personal beliefs and encourage thoughtful meditation on the meaning of meaning, if not life itself. I was reminded of a somewhat tongue in cheek but lyrical meditation on the issue of meaning I wrote some years ago.

The Source

...alone with an inscrutable society.

- Virginia Woolf

Where does one look for the meaning of being
Apart from the life of the crowd?
The crowd with its shuffle
And bustle and people, whose trivial talking
Explains not one iota of what you need to know.

How does one know what is really important,
When cascading cacophonies of high-minded
Poseurs prevent you from sifting through cant
And through rhetoric; thus leaving you no way to grow?

Will growing and knowing enable the process
Of discovering all that is hidden beneath each and every
Accident comprising our world?
For there is the source, the location of meaning,
And with it the being that makes this world go.


Literary Poems, January 1992

Play Reading

Weekend

by Gore Vidal

This play, written by Gore Vidal in 1968, is a witty and very humorous look at the nature of politics. "Ripped from the headlines," as they say, it was almost dead on arrival on Broadway in early 1968. However it stands up as a comic vision of a certain time in political history with somewhat prescient moments, including a sly reference to a break in at Democratic Party national headquarters that would actually occur four years later. What made the play interesting to the current audience was its' brilliant dialogue and the complexity of the theme of politics which was addressed at several levels. The machinations within the MacGruder family were just as convoluted as those at the national level of politics. The twists and turns made for an interesting and sometimes surprising evening of theater. TimeLine Theatre Company produced this rare gem as part of their new play reading series. The production was excellent. The readings of Terry Hamilton, Erik Hellman and Penny Slusher as Senator MacGruder, his son Beany and wife Louise, respectively, were outstanding. If this series continues with such excellent fare it will be a welcome addition to TimeLine's fine record of dramatic productions.


TimePieces Play Reading Series from TimeLine Theatre Company

Mahfouz and Updike

I was reading the wonderful story Pigeon Feathers by John Updike this morning and the thought occurred to me that young David Kern's (the protagonist of the story) situation was not that different than the young Kamal in Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy, especially in the second volume, Palace of Desire. Not surprisingly, both texts were written within in a decade of each other (Mahfouz in the early fifties and Updike at the beginning of the sixties - of the last century) and each have, in part, the theme of how a young man thinks about faith and issues of spirituality. In Updike there is a bit more emphasis on death, but the issue of faith and the loss, or moving beyond, it is central for both young men. In each the boys are well versed in their faith. Kamal has memorized much of the Qu'ran and David is attending bible lessons in Sunday School. But the knowledge of their respective beliefs seems in each to inspire a spiritual rebellion. One that is not asked for, but comes none the less. In David's case his very questions of his pastor seem to be irreverent, at least in his imagination. While we see Kamal battling within his own mind, his inner dialogues questioning the nature of the world and spirit. It is striking that in this century in cultures separated by thousands of miles, one in the heart of the United States and the other in northeastern Africa, that these two young men are portrayed as facing similar spiritual issues and each in his own way moves in the opposite direction. David, in his experience with the barn pigeons, sees his faith in the eternal strengthened while Kamal moves toward a study of philosophy that seems to lead to a rejection of his faith.

Doris Lessing

I have begun to read the novels of Doris Lessing who was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize for Literature. I have started with an unusual choice, reading Shikasta , the first volume of her series Canopus in Argos. Having read many science fiction novels over the years I was not prepared for this unique approach to the genre. Lessings' space novel is told from the point of view of the alien Canopeans who compete with their rivals from the planet Shammat for the guidance of civilization on Shikasta (Earth). A cosmic accident of some kind (not caused by Shammat) disrupts the energy flows between Shikasta and Canopus. This leads to the breakdown of the harmony of Shikastan civilization, and dominance by Shammat. As an immediate effect, the life span of living beings on Shikasta is shortened from several hundred years to the average life span of a contemporary human. All kinds of evil aspects of modern society (mostly that of political violence and abuse of power) start to arise from this energy disruption. Throughout the Canopeans have agents visiting Shikasta to report on the events and finally living as Shikastans . The novel uses many different styles including historical reports, sociological studies, memos and the diary of the sister of the protagonist, George Sherban (aka Johor). It is a fascinating display of imagination even though it is dated in some ways (the Soviet Union and Communist China are depicted as they existed thirty years ago). It is almost quaint the way Johor walks across Africa and letters from Communist China are sent but never received, while the level of technology presented does not incorporate the immense changes in computing. However, as an allegory it demonstrates an political world that is not too different from the one in which we live. Overall I enjoyed her writing style and look forward to my next Lessing work, her first novel The Grass is Singing.

Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont

I should have known when my friend Anne Marie recommended this film that it would be good, and when I found that it starred Joan Plowright that it would be very good. But seeing the film, based on the novel by British author Elizabeth Taylor (whose novels I have neglected, at my regret), I find myself in awe at the warmth and love that is displayed by this simple story of a woman, no longer young, all but abandoned by her family in a London retirement hotel. About to be overwhelmed by loneliness the woman strikes up a curious friendship with a young writer and discovers a new life in this friendship. Beautifully acted as I have come to expect from Dame Joan Plowright, this film exudes the feeling of sentiment without being sentimental. The situations depicted are both heart warming and emotionally wrenching. I enjoyed every detail in the lives of the characters and ended the film with a feeling that life is good.

Keats

John Keats was buried on this day in 1821 in Rome, beneath his famous self-written epitaph: “Here lies one whose name was writ in water.” Keats took the line from Beaumont & Fletcher’s 1610 play Philaster, or Love Lies-Ableeding, in which the unreliable King, who is considering executing his own daughter, is warned that “all your better deeds / Shall be in water writ, but this in marble.” Keats remains among my favorite poets with Endymion and the Odes among those poems to which I return with regularity.


A THING of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.


The music of Keat's words never fails to transport me to another world of "sweet dreams, and quiet breathing".

Les Invasions Barbares

The Barbarian Invasions is a masterful and moving film written and directed by Denys Arcand. I am sorry that I missed the film when it was released and won the Oscar for best foreign film in 2004. Fortunately a friend recommended it to me and like most films, both good and bad, it is available on DVD and it is eminently worth renting and watching. I was impressed by the craft of the director as well as the acting, particularly of the central son and father, Sebastien and Remy, played respectively by Stephane Rousseau and Remy Girard. Girard, like several of the other actors had participated in Arcand's earlier film, The Decline of the American Empire, which touched on some of the same themes although not as deeply or with such perspicacity.

Barbarians impressed me with its demonstration of ideas more than its discussion of them, which was somewhat superficial. The ability of the son who was the ultimate capitalist and polar opposite of his father, a trenchant socialist intellectual, to put aside years of estrangement was the core of the film for me. His sensitivity to his father's needs and ability to get things done eventually broke down the barriers between them and led to some of the most emotionally powerful scenes in the movie. Yet the film presented complex issues like sex and love and drug addiction in an objective realistic fashion that transcended the normal stereotypes. This film is one that I will return to and think about for a long time.

Fresh Woods and Pastures

Sometimes, having had a surfeit of human society and gossip, and worn out all my village friends, I rambled still farther westward than I habitually dwell, into yet more unfrequented parts of the town, "to fresh woods and pastures new," or, while the sun was setting, made my supper of huckleberries and blueberries on Fair Haven Hill, and laid up a store for several days. - Thoreau, Walden



To fresh woods and pastures new my mind wanders as I contemplate the view
from my window. This window, this room, a life that is no longer new
as it was many years ago when I first moved to this place.

What vistas are there, in and beyond the woods and pastures I conjure
with my mind? Conjuring, thinking, viewing inward I seem inured
to the quotidian events of daily life.

The images of these scenes become the source of sustenance
for the future of my dwelling in this life. They enhance
the day even as the sun sets on my existence.


(New Poems, 2008)


Here it stands: A poem, poetic thought, rambling draft for a future poem.

The Middle of the Journey

Lionel Trilling

The Middle of the Journey is a novel of ideology and ideas. Written in 1947 and set in the years just preceding, it details the lives of several characters, including a protagonist, John Laskell, who is conflicted about his life, his friends and the ideology that influences them. His friend Gifford Maxim has left the Communist Party and the book contains dialogues among the characters and him about this, and other seemingly more mundane matters, which take up most of the story. Exceptionally well-written, with literary references, symbolism (undoubtedly much of which I did not grasp) and slowly-built suspense, this singular novel by the noted essayist, educator and critic Lionel Trilling, is a challenging and interesting book to read. While Trilling, according to the introduction to the NYRB edition, was impressed by the work of Faulkner and Hemingway among American writers, I found his style reminded me more of the early Henry James.

The Middle of the Journey by Lionel Trilling. New York Review Books, New York. 2002 (1947)

The Brothers Karamazov


My slow group reading and discussion of Dostoevsky's great novel is continuing as we enter the last quarter of the novel. Yesterday our discussion focused on Book Ten entitled simply "Boys". The most important and interesting boy is Kolya Krasotkin who dominates the section with his actions and his feelings for Alyosha. Among the various themes the notion of the nature of spirituality and rationality comes to the fore in this section. The nature of rationality, while connected with science and an atheistic viewpoint (cf. Ivan) is really quite complex. Interestingly we see the arguments of Alyosha and Kolya mirroring those of Ivan and Zossima from earlier in the story. Perhaps most importantly we find, in the depiction of Kolya's response to the sick boy, Ilyusha, an image of the human condition and some idea of Dostoevsky's view of human character. We are left with an image of growth in the characters both of Kolya and Alyosha and look forward to the coming confrontations Alyosha is sure to have with Ivan and his other brothers.


The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. Richard Pevear & Laura Volokhonsky, trans. North Point Press, San Francisco. 1990 (1881).

The Red and The Black


This is the story of Julien Sorel, a young man from the provinces of France who is inflamed with the passion of youth, a passion for the ideals of the Napoleonic age, but whose greatest passion is his ambition which takes him to the heights and sets in motion his tragic fall. Stendhal is able to present his narrative with unmatched, for his time, psychological depth and realism. The love affairs of Julien and the political intrigues in which he participates are spellbinding for the reader even today. This novel truly presents a "mirror" of reality and provides a challenge for the reader. The story presents a protagonist torn between his passion for the ideal of Napoleon represented by the red of the cavalry dragoons and the black of the bishops of the church. Ultimately he finds hypocrisy on all sides and turns upon one of his loves while rejecting his only true friend. This is still an exciting, even exhilarating read and truly a great book for all time.



The Red and The Black by Stendhal. Trans. by Burton Raffel. Modern Library, New York. 2003 (1830)

Gem of a Play

Dolly West's Kitchen

by Frank McGuinness

TimeLine Theatre Company has produced a gem of a play from the pen of the Irish playwright Frank McGuinness. His play presents questions of national, sexual and personal identity within the framework of Irish Catholic traditions. Set during the second world war, the joy and sadness of Dolly, her family and friends who join her from over the seas permeate her kitchen centered in a neutral Ireland. There is nothing neutral about the feelings of the family from the mother toward her daughters and son to the tangled desires that are unveiled during the course of the evening. These form the center of this dramatic comedy which depicts with sensitive humanity a sense of humor, life and death. Both Kat McDonnell (Dolly) and Kathleen Ruhl (her mother Rima) stand out among an excellent cast. The direction was taut and effective; while I particularly enjoyed the music, both during the play and the interludes. You do not need a bit of Irish blood to respond to this moving play.

Boulez: Stravinsky & Berlioz


The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Pierre Boulez, performed Petrushka by Igor Stravinsky last Saturday evening. Before the intermission mezzo-soprano Susan Graham sang Les nuits d'ete, op. 7 of Hector Berlioz. Both works were performed with artistic excellence and controlled power. The Stravinsky piece, premiered in 1911, was written just two years before his revolutionary Le Sacre du Printemps. There were moments that foreshadowed the music that was to come as the orchestra brought out the many voices of the shrovetide fair that provided the setting for the story line of Petrushka. Stravinsky's subtle blend of folk song motifs with not so subtle, jarringly modern harmonies still sounds modern to my ears. But it has become a familiar sound, part of the cultural milieu of the twentieth century just as the music of Berlioz, once revolutionary as well, had become an integral part of nineteenth century culture. The Chicago Symphony was in fine form once more with these great musical achievements.

Loss of Innocence

Journey's End

by R. C. Sherriff

Last night I viewed a performance of Journey's End, the classic play set during the Great War, at the Theater Building in Lakeview. The Griffin Theatre Company production is both powerful and moving. All of the actors provide focused performances making their characters come alive on the stage as the drama unfolds. I was impressed with the contrast between the the avuncular Lieutenant Osborne (Nigel Patterson, who I have seen previously in Timeline Theater's The General from America) and the broken Captain Stanhope (Hans Fleishman) who embodies the bitterness and destruction of War in his every moment on stage. The other key role is the young 2nd Lieutenant Raliegh (John Dixson), whose innocence and hero worship of Stanhope (whom he knew as a student before the War) is destroyed by the reality of the battle. The power of this play is ever present and the actors demonstrate throughout the real emotion that must have been omni-present on the battlefield. Whether in moments of forced laughter or the brief but important interjections of silence on the stage, the drama of Journey's End is brought home in excellent fashion by this production.

Franz Schubert

Today is the anniversary of the birth of Franz Schubert in 1797. His short life was filled with music and his legacy to us is a wealth of melody and exceptional music spanning most of the forms of classical music. While his symphonies, piano and chamber music are appealing, the form he made his greatest contribution was the song. Within his hundreds of lieder are some of the best ever written. In the last year of his life, 1828, he wrote the fourteen lieder subsequently known as the Schwanengesang in addition to five others. Listening to these songs one wonders what was lost in Schubert's passing, but we can take joy in the songs and all the other fine music he bequeathed to us.