Reading Journal: Monday 8th February 2010
February 9, 2010 by Rob
Filed under Reading Journal
Oh dear what a day I had yesterday. I decided rather spontaneously that I was finally going to get around to upgrading my computer systems to OSX Leopard. Everything went fine (fingers crossed) but all of my time was just eaten up. That said I did manage to get my scheduled Maupassant shorts ticked off so the day wasn’t a complete washout reading-wise. Let’s have a run through.
To recap I’m currently taking my Maupassant fix from the Oxford University Press collection, A Day in the Country and Other Stories, and I’m following the stories as presented. So the first story up for me yesterday was A Farm Girl’s Story (also known as The Story of a Farm Girl), a tale which follows the rather sad and pitiful life of Rose, a serving girl on a nondescript farm in the middle of the French countryside, who falls pregnant to a farmhand called Jacques. At first he promises to marry her but then he does a moonlit flit (no real spoilers there folks, because this all happen in the first few pages). All in all a rather lengthy tale, but I did enjoy it.
For me A Farm Girl’s Story stands as one of the stories that probably best illustrates Maupassant’s incredible ability to paint a scene. His opening description of the farm is sublime, and he even manages to capture perfectly, that vacant and quiet time that descends on a farm when all have left to work on the fields. When I first lived in Cornwall I spent a few weeks on a relative’s farm. I was only about 5 or 6 years old, but I can still recall the calm serenity when nobody is around the farmyard. Maupassant nails it perfectly and he brought all of that ‘farm feeling’ back to me.
The second story I read, A Day in the Country (also known as A Country Excursion) was absolutely superb; Maupassant at him comedic best! It concerns the Dufour family and one of their rare trips out to the country, in celebration of Madame Dufour’s birthday. Madame Dufour is rotund but well-shaped; Monsieur Dufour a bit old and grumpy. They head to the country in a borrowed milk wagon with their daughter, son and mother all in tow. Stopping at a suitable inn on the banks of the Seine, the hapless family settle down for lunch. But a discovery of something in a wooden shed changes the plan for the day completely.
As I said this is real comedy from Maupassant, from start to finish. It reminds me of an old slapstick Hal Roach movie, it’s that kind of story. And subtle yet constant references to the Madame’s ample form, and the Monsieur’s inadequacies only add to the hilarity. If humour isn’t enough, Maupassant even manages to squeeze in a bit of tenderness…..awww.
Official afterthoughts on both Maupassant tales just as soon as I can get to them.
::Tuesday’s reading plans::
- It’s Chekhov Tuesday so I’ve two tales from the Russian storyteller lined up. I’m reading the spookily entitled The Witch, and the rather ominously named A Story Without an End (I hope not
). - My journey into Chinua Achebe’s The Education of a British-Protected Child (Allen Lane) should have started yesterday, so I’m definitely setting off with it today and a read of the titular essay, The Education of a British-Protected Child.
- Will today be the day I make a start on Neel Mukherjee’s debut novel A Life Apart (Constable & Robinson)? I certainly hope so, no matter how tentative.
‘Reading Journal’ provides an unedited, on-the-fly record of the bookish highlights in Rob’s reading day.
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Rob, a self-confessed bibliophile, is without any hope of rehabilitation. He gets unnaturally excited over anything book-shaped, and if book sniffing were a crime then he would have been locked up years ago (which wouldn't bother him in the slightest provided his cell were lined with books)
