Archipelago Books

If you are thinking of joining the Read-a-Book Challenge but are wondering what to tackle, here's an idea. I wandered over to campus this morning--during the one-hour-a-day window when the post office is currently open--in order to pick up my mail, which I hadn't done in a week.

And what should I find but the latest shipment from Archipelago Books, a wonderful independent press that I discovered by accident about a year ago. They print lovely editions of foreign works in English translation. For $15/month you can become a member, which not only supports the work of this independent publisher but also means that they will send you a copy of each new title as it appears, about 10-12 times per year.

This time I actually received two new titles, the ones pictured above:

Jean Giono, Occupation Journal, from the French by Jody Gladding
José Eduardo Agualusa, The Society of Reluctant Dreamers (what a great title), from the Portuguese by Daniel Hahn

These both look wonderful. I unfortunately have a rather long list of things to read, so we'll see when I actually get to them. But they look great here on the desk in front of me!

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A Warning Against Drink

I have gotten several things read over the last few days, but I keep forgetting to post any of it. Some more Gotthelf, but also a couple of other things. I'll try to break them up in order to get a few more posts out of them! Last Friday I finished another Gotthelf novella, Wie fünf Mädchen im Branntwein jämmerlich umkommen . That title does not translate very well into English, or at least I don't think so. Something like, How Five Young Women Perish Miserably Due to Brandy (or literally "in brandy"). It is an early work of Gotthelf's and a piece of social criticism. When Gotthelf was writing (1838), the canton of Bern had recently liberalized its system for granting licenses to operate a pub. At the same time, new methods of producing cheap brandy from different sources, including even the ubiquitous potato, were developed. As a consequence, inns and pubs sprang up throughout the countryside, creating a new temptation for poor...

Dursli

Back to Gotthelf! I have already mentioned that I re-read Gotthelf's novella about the five young women who were ruined by drink. Last week I also re-read the second of his two early novellas tackling the problem of rural alcoholism, Dursli, der Brannteweinsäufer, oder Das heilige Weihnachtsabend ( Dursli the Brandy Drinker, or The Holy Christmas Eve ). This story also warns against the pubs springing up all over the Emmentaler countryside and their consequences for the rural poor. But it is also--even more than I had remembered, in fact--set in the broader political context of the times. Gotthelf begins the novella, in fact, before he ever even introduces the main characters, with about a 10-page discourse on the problematic reception in Switzerland of the ideas of the French Revolution. Its call for equality and freedom, he says, is naturally interpreted by the poorer classes not in terms of true Christian equality and freedom, but rather as a ...

"Plague Time" Essay Contest

If you are a major or minor in History, Political Science, Augmented History, Humanities, or German Studies, you are eligible to enter a brand-new essay contest being sponsored by the Department of History and Political Science. Details available here . And if you aren't a major or minor in one of those areas... it is not too late to become one now !

Plague Time

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