Currently reading:

[cimorene]

1. Bennet, Arnold. The Grand Babylon Hotel. 1902. 19%. This is a thriller that was made into two different silent films, neither of which I have seen. The titular hotel was apparently based on the Savoy, and the action is about a mysterious disappearance (kidnapping?) which hasn't happened yet. It was very popular in its day, when originally published as a serial.



2. Chrétien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes. 2004. (Kibler and Carroll, trans.) (Original date of publication... lol... 1181.) 16%. The poems of Chrétien de Troyes are the first real fictional incarnation of Arthurian romance. I am a big fan of the prose style of William Morris's "Medieval romances", proto-fantasy novels which I am given to understand get their style largely from medieval romances. Having run out of them and failed to really find anything similar among his contemporaries in early fantasy writers, I decided to check out the medieval romances themselves. I intend to read Robert de Boron's Merlin, some of the Lais of Marie de France and perhaps some of the widely available excerpts of the Lancelot-Grail cycle, also known as the prose Vulgate (though my most recent research indicates that people are recommended not to read it because it's boring, and Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur is generally regarded as a good and much more exciting summary of it. I DNFed Malory as a teenager, but I suppose I might give it another try instead.) Also Perzival, if I can find a translation - I haven't yet.



3. Benson, E.F. Queen Lucia. 1920. 44%. The first of the Mapp and Lucia novels, about middle class social climbing ladies and their desire to rule over the society of their little coastal towns in 1920s England. This one is all about Lucia, and Mapp is introduced in a different novel and in a different town, before they are brought together in another book. So far, this is pretty entertaining comedy of manners, and the setting seems familiar from all the mysteries I've read over the years.



4. Wells, Martha. All Systems Red. 2017. 23%. Rereading the first Murderbot book. I haven't got that far yet. It's lovely to read.

Comments

[msilverstar]

Chevalier de la Charette was my favorite, which translation are you reading?

And Perceval: keep an eye out for the Girl of the Little Sleeves, I'm pretty sure that was the origin of the heraldic maunch.

c. 1289 in the Dering Roll

/my senior thesis

[cimorene]

lmao.

I love history. Definitely never heard of that one before.