Classics Considered

By LoKiLeCh [ GFDL or CC-BY-3.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons Of G. K. Chesterton 's several thousand essays, the one I stumbled across most suddenly on Project Gutenberg was Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument Against the Scientifically Organized State.   I do not go out of my way to read essays, but the topic had been on my mind recently and, of course, Chesterton's nonfic is even more renowned than his novels.  I thought this would be a good place to start. Eugenics, in short, is "the study of methods of improving the quality of the human race, esp by selective breeding" ( Collins English Dictionary ).  The most well-known example of eugenics on a large scale took place in Nazi Germany; however, a more historically obscure example was the support for and practice of eugenics by doctors in the US and Great Britain, pre-WWI--and, in the case of the US, even up through the 70s. Background is key in Chesterton's book.  I must admit I was hoping for an argument tha...

I hadn't heard of Tomas Tranströmer until last fall when he won the Nobel Prize for Literature ; I placed a library request for two or three of his books, and, for various reasons, did not actually get a copy of either of them until very recently.  Needless to say, I had certain expectations.  This particular book, The Great Enigma , is in a sense " the complete poems of ", because it holds all of his poems that were ever published "in book form"-- Baltics , The Sorrow Gondola , Secrets on the Way , etc.  It also contains a short memoir, Memories in My Eyes , in which Tranströmer describes certain scenes from his childhood, in Sweden. I hope it is fair to give this book 3 out of 5 stars .  I'm not well up on contemporary poetry, but I love any good poetry, regardless of style.   I've read several of the classics--Frost, Poe, Wordsworth, Browning, Shakespeare, etc.  And I've written a fair amount of poetry myself.  This is my rating, for what it'...

If there's one thing that ticks me off about this book, it's this: The Club of Queer Trades is a parody of Sherlock Holmes.  From the protagonist, Basil Grant--who scoffs at facts --to his younger brother Rupert--a wannabe private detective patrolling lamp-lit London-- G. K. Chesterton takes a not-so-subtle jab at the Sherlock Holmes series and the science of deduction.  Basil Grant's tools of the trade?  A touch of insanity, healthy intuition, and uproarious laughter. In fact, I can forgive Chesterton and his maniacal character just for the laughs I got reading this book. Chesterton's word choice is very quirky and witty throughout most of the six short stories and especially the first half.  If you're looking for a light read set in Victorian London, you could give this a try.  The basic plotline is this: Rupert, Basil, and Mr Swinburne (the narrator/Watson) never agree on who is a suspicious-looking character.  And if either Rupert or Basil sees a su...