The Great Gatsby

By F. Scott Fitzgerald

Jay Gatsby seemed to be a very wealthy man, living a riotous lifestyle in a mansion on New York's Long Island. His parties lasted until the morning and pretty much anyone who dropped by was welcome. With catered food, lots of booze and a live band, things were pretty lively. But when asked just who Gatsby was his guests could only supply conjecture and rumor. Where did Gatsby come from? Where did he get his money? Some said he had killed a man...
When young Nick Carraway moved into the humble house next door to Gatsby's, he didn't know that he had a connection with Gatsby. A connection that Gatsby, when he learned of it, was eager to exploit. Nick had a cousin, named Daisy that Gatsby knew before she was married. Daisy and her very wealthy husband Tom live just across the bay from the Gatsby mansion, in the old money community of East Egg. In fact, Gatsby bought his mansion because he knew it was just across the bay from Daisy.
As Nick settles in to his new home and renews his acquaintance with his cousin he finds out that Tom is cheating on Daisy with the wife of a man who owns a small, failing car repair business. Nick is invited to the love nest Tom has set up for this woman in the city and witnesses the lovers' quarrel and Tom breaks the woman's nose. But that doesn't end the affair because the woman is too fond of Tom's money and is willing to endure the abuse. Daisy is aware of the affair but seems content to live with it too.
Nick gets invited to one of Gatsby's parties and upon knowing him better agrees to set up a meeting between Gatsby and Daisy, inviting Daisy over for tea, her not knowing that Gatsby will be there too. So the two ex-lovers finally meet and their love affair is rekindled with Gatsby's ultimate goal of getting Daisy to leave Tom and come away with him. His beautiful mansion with its sparkling swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush gardens, fine furnishings and his high-flying parties were all just a lure to get his Daisy away from her wealthy husband and back into Gatsby's life.

This was a pretty good story. It doesn't have a happy ending. Gatsby's dream turns into a nightmare and his lovely Daisy turns out every bit as selfish and callous as her husband, Tom. One of the key scenes to Daisy's character is where the nanny brings Daisy's young daughter in to visit for a few brief minutes. Daisy gushes over how pretty her daughter is but shortly tires of her and she is sent off with the nanny. Gatsby must have a pretty good idea of her real character since she sent him packing because he didn't have enough money to suit her. Still he longs for her and everything he has done since she dumped him has been part of a plan to get her back. He is a man obsessed but the object of his obsession is not worthy of it.

Fahrenheit 451

By Ray Bradbury

Written in the early 1950s, this is a look at a future America, an America where all serious literature has been banned, including works of philosophy and religion. In this society where houses no longer catch fire accidentally, a new role has been created for the firemen: now instead of fighting fires they start fires, specifically, they burn books. And they burn the homes and possessions of anyone caught with banned books.
Montag is one such fireman. He claims to love his job. He claims to never think twice about what he does. And yet, he has a secret stash of books hidden in his own house. He even has a Bible and has memorized whole sections of it. His wife is totally unaware of this illegal activity of his.
But, after talking to a young neighbor who opens his eyes to the real world, he admits that he is not happy, in fact, he knows no one who is happy. Although the society they live in is designed to keep people amused and occupied, still it is all superficial and most people are quietly miserable. Including Montag's wife, Millie, who tries to kill herself by swallowing an overdose of sleeping pills. All the activity and fun of their modern lives, their escapist TV shows and trashy books and magazines, their shopping and rushing around and sports and games, basically their lives are unfulfilling and meaningless. And they know it, the proof is all around them with murders, violence, suicides and impending war.
Montag goes a little nuts and forces a couple friends of his wife to listen as he reads to them. He is desperate to wake people up, to point out the fog they are living in and he gives himself away. His fellow firemen arrive to seize and burn his books and his home. Not surprisingly, his neighbors turned him in and so did his wife. She believes she is comfortable in her familiar routine and she is against his new militancy.
Montag's boss makes him burn his own books and house. But then Montag uses his firestarter on his boss, burning him alive. He flees the city, with a mechanical blood hound on his trail.

This is a story about a society that in some ways resembles our own. Montag is a guy who has just been going through the motions and experiences a crisis when he begins to question and struggle against the established way of thinking, or not thinking, as in his world thinking is very much not approved of or encouraged in any way. In his world, critical thinking is no longer taught in schools and is actively discouraged. Education has become less about knowledge and more about lots of activities, keeping the kiddies busy and amused and when they are grown, more of the same, resulting in a population that is rudderless and drifting and depressed without understanding why. It's an interesting look at a world gone terribly wrong, manifested by the book-burning firemen and their callous destruction of the accumulated wisdom of the centuries.

Ashenden or the British Agent

By W. Somerset Maugham

A fictionalized account of Maugham's experience in the British Intelligence Department during World War One. Ashenden, a writer by profession, is recruited as an agent. He is sent overseas. This is no guns blazing, explosions bursting, high-speed chase type of agent. Ashenden is sort of a middle management agent, getting reports from spies in the field, arranging for the spies to be paid and sending the info on to his bosses higher up. Most of the spies he deals with are like himself, ordinary people recruited because of their access to information and their willingness, in some cases, to betray their native land. Of course, if any of them, including Ashenden, are found out, it will mean death. Indeed, two of the stories are about people being tracked down with the ultimate goal their execution, although one of these people is not a spy but a terrorist.
So Ashenden doesn't pack a gun and doesn't know how to disarm a bomb and relies on public transportation to get around. But nevertheless, he is a heartless, cold and ruthless character and I can only hope that that part is fiction, otherwise I would have to conclude that Maugham was a son of a bitch. For instance, Ashenden uses a woman's self-interest against her, making her chose between her own imprisonment for ten years and her lover, the terrorist's, life. She begs and pleads and weeps and he just looks at her and forces her over and over to write deceiving letters luring her lover to his entrapment and death. In another story, dealing with a British citizen who is spying for the enemy, Ashenden tricks the traitor into going back to Britain and into the waiting hands of the authorities, knowing he will never return, leaving behind his wife who loves him desperately and who Ashenden knows will be emotionally destroyed by the loss of her husband. I guess his boss knew he was picking the right man for the job when he recruited Ashenden.

This was a pretty interesting look at what being a spy was really like during WWI. It wasn't glamorous and it wasn't dashing about being all suave and sophisticated.
As Maugham points out, "The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole extremely monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless." Mostly it required sitting about in hotels and waiting for the info to arrive and then sending it on to HQ. Most of the spying was actually done by locals who were willing to gather data mainly for the money they were paid. Ashenden worked out of neutral countries which allowed him to freedom to move around, under his guise of being a writer. It was risky but it certainly wasn't as risky as being on the frontlines getting shot at. A nice dose of reality in a world were James Bond, Jason Bourne and the Tom Cruise character of Mission Impossible are presented as the typical kind of spy.

The Razor's Edge

By W. Somerset Maugham

Set in the decades after World War I, this is the story of a man and a woman and some of the people in their lives. The main focus is Larry, a young American who was a pilot in the war. He saw a good friend die saving Larry and it changed him, it unbalanced him. Just a boy, really, he was forced to confront issues of mortality and the meaning and purpose of life. Coming back from the war, he was foundering and lost and the principles he had been raised on seemed inadequate to address his questions. Having a small fortune to finance his studies, Larry embarks on a search for enlightenment, a search that will take decades.
Before heading off to war Larry had a girl friend, Isabel, daughter of a wealthy broker and after he comes home they decide to marry. But first Larry wants to spend a few years finding himself and Isabel graciously agrees to let him go off to Paris by himself. After awhile, hoping he has gotten it out of his system, she comes looking for him. Once there, Larry asks her to give up her wealthy lifestyle and join him with his modest income on his search for meaning. But Isabel feels it is Larry's duty as a manly man to quit goofing around and get a job. They part amicably, mainly because Isabel is positive that Larry will miss her and cave in to her wishes. But he doesn't cave. He just disappears, hitting the road and later finding a job working in a coal mine. Manual labor clears his mind, he claims.
So Isabel gives up and marries a worthy boy from back home who loves her dearly and they have a good marriage and children and all is swell except that Isabel is still carrying a torch for Larry.
Isabel is leading the life she wanted until the stock market crash of 1929 ruins her and her husband, who had invested heavily in stock margins. Now she and her family are in Paris living by virtue of her wealthy uncle's charity. (He was smart enough to pull his funds out of the market months before the crash.)
Meanwhile Larry is drifting, searching for the meaning of life. He turns up back in Paris for a short while and meets and old friend from back home, Sophie. Sophie has had an unhappy life and taken to drink and drugs for comfort. Her husband and baby were killed by a drunk driver. Suddenly Larry has a mission - to save Sophie from herself. He talks her into marrying him.
When Isabel finds out about the impending marriage she is pissed. She has this ridiculous fantasy that Larry is a virgin and has never been with any other woman. She wants Larry to remain single so she sabotages Sophie's new-found sobriety and Sophie goes off on a bender and disappears and then Larry disappears once again ending up in India where he finally finds the answers he has been seeking at the feet of a guru.
In contrast with the saintly Larry, we have Isabel's rich uncle, Elliott. Elliott lives for society, to see and be seen with the best people. A man of impeccable taste and manners, Elliott has ingratiated himself into high society. He loves hobnobbing with the upper classes. This is the main goal and focus of Elliott's life. This is his reason for living and he has succeeded. He knows everyone and is invited everywhere and his cup runneth over. His life is offered as a counterpoint to Larry's. Larry's search is presented as worthy and inspiring and dignified and Elliott's life is presented as vain and pointless.

This was not the book for me. When they trot out the mystical mumbo-jumbo, I just got to say, no thanks! I didn't like the Larry character, I thought his behavior was not selfless but selfish. I agreed with Isabel that it was unreasonable of him to ask her to give up wealth and privilege to follow him on his poverty-stricken search for the meaning of life. More than once Larry gives away most of his stuff and then remarks on how "free" it made him feel. I don't understand how a couple of books and some shirts and pants could make him feel tied down. Supposedly the Larry character is based on a real person and if that's the case he must have been something else. Loon is the word that comes to mind.
Anyway, the story was pretty good, reading about the lives of the privileged classes, about Isabel, Elliot and Sophie. The appearance of Sophie into the story was a breath of fresh air with her foul mouth and frank sexuality. Back then Sophie was foul and vulgar but now her dialog reads like most people today talk. But when the author goes on and on about Larry's experiences in India, he lost me. All that metaphysical shite, yuck!

The Graduate

By Charles Webb

Benjamin Braddock has graduated from college and he couldn't care less. A child of privilege, his life suddenly seems to him to be a huge waste. His plans to attend graduate school are up in smoke.
But his proud parents are clueless and throw a graduation party were they invite all their friends. Ben attends unwillingly. And just as unwillingly drives one of the guests home in the brand new sports car that his parents bought him for graduation. When he drops the guest off at her house, she talks him in to coming inside for a drink and then she attempts to seduce him, unsuccessfully. As he makes his escape she makes it clear that any time he wants to the woman, Mrs. Robinson, is up for it.
Later, after spending days lazing around the house getting drunk and floating in the backyard swimming pool, Ben calls Mrs. Robinson and they arrange to meet at a hotel. Once in the room, he tries to back out but then Mrs. Robinson talks him into and thus begins their affair which lasts all summer and into the fall. Meanwhile, Benjamin is still sour on life and still freeloading off his very tolerant parents, getting drunk, watching TV and screwing Mrs. Robinson, whose husband is Benjamin's father's business partner.
Mr. Robinson really likes Benjamin and he and Ben's parents pressure Ben into making a date with Mr. Robinson's daughter, Elaine. At first, Ben is churlish and rude and takes Elaine to a strip club for their date. She is hugely embarrassed and starts to weep when the stripper twirls her tassels in Elaine's face. Ben immediately regrets his bad mood and makes amends to Elaine.
Mrs. Robinson get ugly about Ben dating her daughter and threatens to cause him problems if he continues. But Ben has decided that Elaine is to be his bride and he won't take no for an answer, even after Mrs. Robinson tells Elaine that Ben got her drunk and raped her. He pursues Elaine over the objections of the Robinsons, over the objections of his parents, who want to put him in a mental health clinic, and over the objections of Elaine herself, chasing her even as she walks up the aisle to wed another man.

Benjamin Braddock is a creep. Screwing the mom, then chasing after the daughter, abusing his parents' hospitality. When the truth comes out, Mr. Robinson dissolves the business partnership with Mr. Braddock. But what does Benjamin care! He has to do what he has to do and to hell with the consequences. The guy is the epitome of selfishness. He is a single-minded fellow with no thought for how is actions affect the lives of others. Yeah, he gets the girl in the end, but you got to feel sorry for the girl, getting stuck with that jerk. The book has its lighter moments and it's a pretty good story but mainly, with such a repulsive hero, it's hard to care about what happens to him.

Hiroshima

by John Hersey

Hersey interviewed survivors of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. In this book, he describes the lives of six of these survivors and the hell that they experienced from this devastating attack on their community.

While it can't really be called a "good" read, it is more of a grim read, but it is an important book and brings home in detail the human suffering of the victims of war. It is tough going, reading about the horror of these people's lives but it needs to be read.

New Word

Diathermy: Production of heat in a body tissue by a high frequency electrical current. 'He did, however, have all sorts of modern equipment: an x-ray machine, diathermy apparatus, and a fine tiled laboratory.'

The Crucible

By Arthur Miller

Set in the Salem of 1692, this play takes a look at those infamous witch trials that, based on the testimony of a bunch of hysterical children and duplicitous adults, resulted in the deaths of many innocent citizens.
As portrayed by the author, the main impetus behind the accusations was one girl's desire to destroy her lover's wife, backed up by others who had motives of greed, envy and jealousy. This is just dramatization, since the real girl was only 11 at the time, a tad young to have taken a lover, much less plot her rival's death by false accusation. Still, the argument behind the drama is true today, that hysteria and accusation must not be an excuse to behave in gross and uncivilized manner, condemning people without any solid evidence, pressuring people to confess to crimes and deeds they did not commit.
The odd thing about the witch trials is that those accused who confessed to witchcraft were not put to death, it was only those people who refused to confess who were executed. I would think that would be a pretty strong argument for one's innocence, that they would rather die than confess to deeds they did not commit. But apparently the authorities thought otherwise back then.
Anyway, I have read that the impetus behind Miller's play was to strike out against the "witch hunt" of his day, the Communist hysteria that took hold of the United States soon after the end of World War II and lead to the formation of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA) and the interrogation and blacklisting of many artists and show biz people in the 1950s.

As to the play, it is interesting if a bit inaccurate, and is clearly written to get Miller's point across about hysteria and rushing to judgment. But still it is a pretty good read and the most interesting and true thing about it, I think, is the way the authorities went along with the hysteria and stupidity and how they threw common sense out the window in their fear of the devil and witches. Lives were blighted for the lack of a little common sense.

Vile Bodies

By Evelyn Waugh

Adam is an aspiring young writer hoping to marry Nina but since he has no money and Nina is not the kind of gal who can live without money, the engagement is on hold until Adam can generate some cash. He then becomes a gossip columnist, reporting on the doings of the "Bright Young Things" of London in Britain between the wars. Since Adam is a member of this set he has the inside track on all the hot news on their antics since he knows all the kids and goes to all the parties. In fact, he has to go to so many different parties that he becomes totally sick of it. Eventually he resorts to just making up stuff to fill his column which results in losing that job. His and Nina's marriage is looking less and less likely unless Adam can track down the drunken Major who placed £1000 of Adam's money on a long shot at the race track that actually came through. So this drunken Major owes Adam £35,000, which, if he can ever find him, will give Nina and Adam the funds they need to finally get married.
Complications ensue, parties occur, people get wasted, cars get wrecked, people die and still Adam can't get the money owed him. Nina's patience is running short and she finally marries another fellow, although this does not mean she is through with Adam, not at all. Freshly married and back from her honeymoon, Nina takes Adam home and introduces him to her senile father as her husband. Well, it's a lark but of course it can't last and Adam ends up alone on a battlefield when another war breaks out.

This novel has its moments of inspired lunacy, but it has another side that is not so amusing and jolly, as people die or kill themselves. The characters don't seem to take anything too seriously, not themselves, not society, not morality, nor responsibility. Actually, if you want to read a funny novel of the 1920s, read almost anything by P.G. Wodehouse. His novels are always lighthearted and a lot of fun and tragedy free and just a joy to read. Vile Bodies may be an accurate portrait of a particular time and place but its gloomy side is a bit of a downer.

For another review see Illiterarty.

New Words:

Tapette: homosexual [I think]. '"My dear, he looks terribly tapette."'

Cachet Faivre: a pain medication containing caffeine and quinine. '"Half the young fellows as come here now don't have anything except a cachet Faivre and some orange juice."'

Toper: a drunk. 'In a paragraph headed "Montparnasse in Belgravia," he announced that the buffet at Sloane Square tube station had become the haunt of the most modern artistic coterie (Mr. Benfleet hurried there on his first free evening, but saw no one but Mrs. Hoop and Lord Vanburgh and a plebian toper with a celluloid collar).'

Fillet: a narrow headband or strip of ribbon worn as a headband. 'Neither powder, rouge nor lipstick had played any part in her toilet and her colourless hair was worn long and bound across her forehead in a broad fillet.'

Flageolet: a small flute. '"Mr. 'Ginger' Littlejohn has the similar foible that he can only fish to the sound of the flageolet."'

Lolita

By Vladimir Nabokov; annotated by Alfred Appel, Jr.

Humbert Humbert is a pedophile from Europe. He lusts after young girls which he calls nymphets, claiming these youngsters have a come-hither and alluring appearance. Possessed of independent means, Humbert leaves Europe and heads to America, looking to prey on some child there. He finds a home with Charlotte Haze who has a daughter, Dolores, who is twelve and of whom Humbert becomes obsessed at first sight. Figuring that being married to Charlotte will give him better access to Dolores, with whom Humbert has only had limited contact so far (one particularly nasty session occurs when the girl innocently lays her legs in his lap and Humbert rubs himself to climax against her legs while singing a loud, silly song to cover what he is doing), Humbert marries the eager Charlotte. The jig is up, though, when Charlotte finds his journal in which he details his lust for her daughter and his scorn for herself. In her agitation and distress, Charlotte rushes out of her house and is struck and killed by a car, leaving Humbert as the sole guardian of Dolores.
Humbert hits the road with Dolores after taking her out of summer camp and without telling her of her mother's death. He has his cruel way with the girl then spends the next year traveling the country with his captive. Eventually he wearies of the constant travel and they settle down in a town where Dolores attends school. Humbert keeps Dolores in his control with threats and lies, leaving her to believe that she will be in as much trouble with the law as he if she turns him in and being a naive kid she believes him. Still she resents and despises Humbert and she becomes involved with another man behind Humbert's back. Humbert suspects this but can't prove it so he pulls Dolores out of school and they start traveling around again. Dolores maintains contact with her lover behind Humbert's back and eventually gives Humbert the slip and runs off with the other man, a fellow called Clare Quilty, who is as twisted and as sick a bastard as Humbert himself.
The last part of the novel is mostly about Humbert's desire to hunt down Dolores and to kill Quilty for stealing her from him. As he progresses he finally admits to himself just exactly how much damage he did to an innocent child and how much she has lost because of him.

This book was a giant pain to read. Going into it, with some preconceptions, it turned out not to be so much erotic as it was difficult. It is stuffed full of French phrases, hard and obscure words, and literary allusions up the wazoo. Frankly, if I didn't have the annotated version I doubt I would have read it past the first few chapters. Even with the annotated version the literary references were just too much. This book is not light reading! The Annotated Lolita was put together by Alfred Appel, Jr., and it was super helpful.
Despite its intellectual slant, the subject matter is sad and depressing and upsetting. Humbert was scum and reading about his abuse of Dolores was not fun. Humbert and Quilty get theirs in the end but Humbert's regrets and capture and Quilty's murder are not enough to make up for having to wallow in their filth. I didn't like the book but apparently it does have its fans. For another review see The Atlantic.

New Words
Usually, when I put a word on the new word list I include the sentence from the book that contained the word. However this book had so many new words that I am not going to include the pertinent sentence, it would just make the list much too long.

Solecisms: a solecism is a mistake in grammar; an idiom.
Etiolated: etiolate means to deprive of strength; weaken.
Apotheosis: A glorified example, the apex of perfection.
Paleopedology: paleopedology is the study of geologic soils.
Aeolian harp: a harp having strings tuned in unison; they sound when wind passes over them.
Lycée: a French academic high school.
Solipsism: the philosophical theory that the self is all that you know to exist.
Plage: the beach at a seaside resort.
Beetle-browed: sullen or unfriendly in appearance.
Manqué: Unfulfilled due to some inherent flaw or an often uncertain constitutional lacking of some kind.
Uranists: a uranist is a homosexual.
Pastiches: a pastiche is a work of art that intentionally imitates other works, often to ridicule or satire.
Mympholepts: A nympholept is a person suffering from nympholepsy, which is a frenzied state of (usually erotic) emotion, especially concerning something or someone unattainable.
Fascinum: an ivory phallus used in certain ancient erotic rites.
Axillary: of or having to do with the armpit or underarm areas.
Frétillement: movement; wriggling.
Grues: a grue is a prostitute, a slut, a drab.
Pot-au-feu: a stew of meat and vegetables.
Estampe: a print or engraving.
Coruscating: glittering, sparkling.
Favonian: pertaining to the west wind; mild, gentle.
Phocine: pertaining to a seal; seal-like.
Nates: the buttocks.
Charshaf: the veil worn by Turkish women.
Pederosis: pedophilia.
Monogrammic: of, pertaining to, or resembling, a monogram.
Iliac: Iliac refers to the ilium, which are the large, wing-like bones of the pelvis.
Catullus: a Roman lyric poet remembered for his love poems to an aristocratic Roman woman (84-54 BC).
Neuralgia: severe sharp pain along the course of a nerve.
Incondite: unpolished, unrefined, referring to literary works; jumbled, long winded.
Cretonnes: Cretonne is a heavy unglazed cotton, linen, or rayon fabric, colorfully printed and used for draperies and slipcovers.
Congeneric: Congener means a member of the same kind, class, or group.
Saporous: tasty.
Acrosonic: This word was coined up by Nabokov and it meant a noise reaching to and past the sonic barrier.
Olisbos: a dildo.
Argent: the heraldic color silver or white.
Glaucous: sea-green or pale blue-green.
Tombal: like a tomb.
Lentigo: lentigo is a freckle; a small brownish spot on the skin. Plumbaceous umbrae: Latin for leaden shadows.
Mägdlein: German for little girl.
Purblind: having poor sight; slow in understanding.
Backfisch: German for an immature, adolescent girl; a teenager.
Lentor: slowness, slugishness; viscosity.
Antiphony: an antiphon is alternate, or responsive singing by a choir split into two parts; a piece sung or chanted in this manner.
Nebulous: in the form of a cloud or haze; hazy; vague or ill-defined; relating to a nebula or nebulae.
Emeritus: retired or honorably discharged from active professional duty, but retaining the title of one’s office or position.
Callypygean: also spelled callipygian, it means pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks.
Clathrate: having a lattice-like structure pierced with holes or windows.
Swooners: Nabokov coined this word and uses it to refer to some type of clothing that was worth swooning over.
Trochaic: one stressed syllable followed by unstressed syllable.
Gouache: a thick, opaque watercolour paint; a painting made with this paint.
Inutile: lacking in utility or serviceability; not useful; unprofitable.
Samaras: a samara is a dry fruit with one or two flat wings attached to a seed, as on ash trees and maples.
Teleological: of or pertaining to teleology; showing evidence of design or purpose.
Canthus: either of the corners of the eye where the upper and lower eyelids meet.
Kurort: German for health resort, spa, watering place.
Lanugo: soft down or fine hair, specifically as covering the human fetus.
Pollex: Latin for thumb.
Viatic: of or relating to traveling, a road, or a way.
Natatoriums: a natatorium is a swimming pool, especially indoors.
Pavonine: like a peacock; iridescent.
Oculate: relating to the the eye.
Raffish: cheaply or showily vulgar in appearance or nature; tawdry; low-class; disreputable; vulgar.
Leporine: of, relating to, or resembling a hare or rabbit.
Salutory: Salutary. Unpleasant, but ultimately providing a useful lesson; promoting good health; wholesome; curative.
Orchideous: like an orchid.
Habitus: Latin for moral condition, state, disposition, character.
Mythopoeic: giving rise to myths.
Dackel: a dachshund.
Remises: carriage houses.
Envoy: An envoy (or envoi) is a short stanza at the end of a poem used either to address an imagined or actual person or to comment on the preceding body of the poem.
Ballade: not to be confused with ballad, a ballade is a a poem consisting of three stanzas and an envoy.
Tesselated: marked with little checks or squares, like tiles.
Tyros: a tyro is a novice: someone new to a field or activity.
Wimbles: a wimble is any of various hand tools for boring holes.
Syncope: in phonetics, syncope is the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word; especially, the loss of an unstressed vowel. Syncope is also a brief period of fainting or collapse.
Purling: gently murmuring, as a brook.
Alembics: an alembic is a kind of flask used by alchemists for distilling.
Fatamorganas: mirages.
Erlkönig: the king of the elves, from a poem where an elf king pursues a little boy traveling with his father.
Mordant: a substance used in dyeing to fix the coloring matter.
Gitanilla: little gypsy girl.
Maquette: a small model of an intended work, such as a sculpture or piece of architecture.
Telestically: with the projection of a purpose, with a definite end in view, inwardly expressed.
Logodaedaly: the arbitrary or capricious coining of words.
Logomancy: Nabokov's coined word, logo (word) plus -mancy (divination).
Undinist: a person who derives sexual pleasure from urine and urination.
Bodkin: a dagger or stiletto.
Ancilla: accessory, aid.
Appended: Append means to hang or attach to, as by a string, so that the thing is suspended; to add, as an accessory to the principal thing; to annex; as, notes appended to a chapter.
Lithophanic: lithophane is a porcelain panel with a relief decoration that is visible when light passes through it.
Turpid: Foul; base; wicked; disgraceful.
Physiognomization: Physiognomy is the art of judging human character from facial features; divination based on facial features.
Penele: a coined word, penele means penis-like.
Selenian: of or relating to the moon.
Flavid: yellowish or tawny.
Herculanita: heroin.
Palearctic and Nearctic: one of the four world faunal regions which is subdivided into the Palearctic (Europe and Asia) and the Nearctic (North America).

The Good Earth

By Pearl S. Buck

Pulitzer Prize winning novel, 1932.

Pearl S. Buck can sure tell a good story.  It is the story of a farmer, Wang Lung, and his family. The setting is pre-World War I China. Wang Lung is a poor farmer who lives with his father and an ox. Wang Lung is a young man and tells his dad that it is time for him to be married. So the father goes and buys a female slave from the house of a wealthy family. The woman, O-Lan, it strong and plain and silent. But when she does speak, it pays to listen. She is a fount of quiet strength and wisdom. She bears her children silently and alone and after giving birth she is soon back out working the fields with her husband. Things start off well for them. Wang Lung is a shrewd farmer, storing his crop and waiting to sell until the market is favorable and O-Lan is a thrify and careful homemaker and unpaid field hand. Unfortunately, they live in a land of feast or famine. It is pretty much a sure bet that some years will be droughty and some will be soaked and the land flooded. A drought strikes and despite Wang Lung's care and forethought the family has to flee the area and find work in a southern city. Life is very hard there. Wang Lung works till he drops and yet he can't afford to buy his family food or a place to live. They live in a lean-to and if it weren't for the soup kitchen, they would starve. But desperate times mean desperate people and the people rise up and loot and pillage. Wang Lung follows the looters and gets his hands on enough silver to get his family back home and to buy seed to plant. Due to his wise management, his farm prospers and his wealth grows and he becomes a big man in his community, O-Lan at his side, silently doing her best for him and their kids. Wang Lung starts going to a tea house, a place he would have never frequented before. He falls for one of the women who work as prostitutes in the tea house. He decides he must have this woman, Lotus; he becomes obsessed. He even makes O-Lan give him the two pearls she has cherished in a little bag hung around her neck. It breaks her heart that he demands these jewels from her and it is even worse when she realizes he wanted the pearls for the whore. After this, she just fades away and eventually dies.
I kind of lost interest in the story after the death of O-Lan. It was her story that I cared about, not Wang Lung's. Wang Lung was a bit of a jerk, although probably pretty representative of the male attitude of his time and place. After she died, I didn't really care what happened to the rest of the brood. Wang Lung marries his whore and he moves his family into the big house in town where his father purchased O-Lan. But he never loses his connection to the land that nurtured him and provided him with the good life.

Review from Reading the Pulitzer Prize Winners for Fiction.