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Dracula is an acclaimed 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula.
Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of diary entries and letters. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and repressed sexuality, immigration, colonialism, postcolonialism and folklore. Although Stoker did not invent the vampire, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has been singularly responsible for many theatrical and film interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
He supplemented his income by writing a large number of novels, his most famous being the vampire tale Dracula which he published in 1897. Before writing Dracula, Stoker spent eight years researching European folklore and stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, written as collection of diary entries, telegrams, and letters from the characters, as well as fictional clippings from the Whitby and London newspapers. Stoker's inspiration for the story was a visit to Slains Castle near Aberdeen. The bleak spot provided an excellent backdrop for his creation.
Dracula in Romania
After the death of Nicolae Ceauşescu, a tourist industry sprang up in Transylvania and, to a lesser extent, in Wallachia. However, Romanians have mixed feelings about linking one of their national heroes to the vampire monster.
Historical places connected to Vlad Ţepeş are publicised under a Dracula theme catering largely, but not entirely, to foreign markets. Bran Castle, which has only a very tangential connection with the historical Vlad Ţepeş, now exaggerates that connection and promotes itself as "Dracula's Castle". [4] A dungeon-themed disco, catering to a mostly Romanian crowd and located in the basement of a former inn immediately adjacent to the Curtea Veche ("Old Court") — onetime site of Vlad Ţepeş's castle in Bucharest — calls itself by the English-language name "Impaler". The well-preserved medieval town of Sighişoara, Vlad Ţepeş's birthplace, seriously considered building a Dracula theme park on the edge of town, but in the end it was decided that such a site would cheapen the beauty and history of the medieval city, and the plan was blocked. The park was then to have been built close to Bucharest (the capital, which is nowhere near Transylvania), but plans have subsequently been scrapped.
Romanian novelist, poet, diplomat and priest exiled in Paris.
Constantin Virgil Gheorghiu (September 15, 1916 – June 22, 1992, Paris, France) studied philosophy and theology at the University of Bucharest and at the Heidelberg University. He was a Romanian writer, best known for his 1949 novel, “The 25th Hour”. The book was published in French translation in 1949 and was not published in Romania until 2004.
In 1967, Carlo Ponti produced a film based on Gheorghiu’s book. The movie was directed by Henri Verneuil, with Anthony Quinn as Johann, Virna Lisi as Suzanna, and Serge Reggiani as Traian.
Virgil Gheorghiu was ordained an Orthodox priest in 1963 and became the Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church in France in 1971.
He continued to write, publishing “Christ in Lebanon” in 1979 and “God in Paris” the next year. He was a prolific novelist with over 26 titles published in French between1949 and 1986 and scores of other genres.
After his demise his widow made a gift of all his archives to the Romanian Academy in Bucharest.
- CLICK at: aka_misha link below
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are books that I have read or will read at some point. The books are non fiction, history,biographies and autobiography’s of people and historical events I found to be interesting.
On the Trail of the Assassins
by Jim Garrison
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are books that I have read or will read at some point. The books are non fiction, history,biographies and autobiography’s of people and historical events I found to be interesting.
www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html
The Romanian blouse was a recurrent theme in the oeuvre of Henri Matisse and in this particular series there are at leats a dozen versions. However, similar motifs appear in dozens of other paintings of Matisse found in museum collections in france, USA and elsewhere.
This iconic canvas is part of the permanent collection of the modern Art museum in Paris.
Mrs Michelline Redgrave, the mother of Sir Roy Redgrave was born in Romania and her maiden name was Capsa. This was a prominent family whose fortune was made since mid 19th century in confectionery and later in the restaurant business in Bucharest,
The Capsa family were of Vlach stock, from the Balkans - refugees from Moscopolis the Macedonian city which came under siege and was destroyed by the Ottomans in 1788. This caused the Capsa to seek shelter North of the Danube in Wallachia and they never looked back. They started from scratch and worked hard, improving their reputation as confectioners opening a cafe in the main avenue of Bucharest - the Calea Victoriei. This position became unassailable after Grigore Capsa went to school in Paris under the most famous confectioner Boissier. Grigore was so talented, that he became the only foreigner to be allowed to join Boissier at the Paris Exhibition. Here Capsa, presented Empress Eugenie, the spouse of Napoleon III, some of his confiseries and his reputation was made. Although he was offered to become the purveyor of the French Imperial Household Capsa returned to his family business in Bucharest. Within two generations of settling in Romania the Capsa, were appointed purveyors to the Royal family and with it they were patronised by aristocratic and professional classes.
The Capsa Cafe is Bucharest was modeled after Cafe de Flore in Paris and like its Parisian counterpart it became the meeting place for the intellectual elite of the country until WWII. This was a magnet for writers, actors and poets who made their reputation here at what used to be nicknamed the "Academy"
This was the time of the Belle Epoque when Bucharest was visited by trainloads of tourists from Western Europe coming on the Orient Express on the way to Istanbul, The capital of Romania became known as "Le Petit Paris". The french writer and diplomat Paul Morand used to come by private plane just to buy caviar and confectionery from Capsa, which by now was exported to Vienna Berlin and Paris. The whole atmosphere of joie de vivre was captured in the books of Gregor von Rezzori, Paul Morand, Marie of Edinburgh, Satcheverell Sitwell, Patrick Leigh-Fermor or Olivia Manning. This was a world which was soon going to be destroyed once the Soviet armies occupied the country to impose a communist dictatorship.
In this period picture you have a glimpse at the 'civilised face of Romania' which was soon going to disappear either in exile or, for those who were left behind, ended up in prison; this marked the demise of the Capsa family in Romania and with it the destruction of the Romanian elite.
Mrs Capsa, seen here in the centre of the photo was lucky enough to escape the Communist quagmire as her English husband allowed her family to resettle in Britain Here her son Roy Redgrave had a brilliant career in the Army, but all the Romanian properties in the Carpathians and in Bucharest were confiscated and destroyed.
In the 21st century the Capsa Hotel and Cafe were restored by their new owners but its patrons and atmosphere changed for ever: the new money grates!
My Library 📕 📚
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Book review:
"Along the Enchanted Way - a Romanian Story" by William O'Neill BLACKER (2009)
It takes an Irishman to write the best book on Romania since the WWII - the one before the war was yet another Irish - Patrick Leigh-Fermor, although there were other notable accounts in French by Paul Morand and Princess Marthe Bibesco (Isvor), by Satcheverell Sitwell, Queen Marie of Romania (My Country) and a small number of erudite and sensitive Englishmen receptive to the culture of what was still perceived then as "a faraway country".
William Blacker lived in Romania for over eight years in the early 1990s and went native, not just skin deep, but truly and convincingly: he learned the language, the customs, dressed as the other villagers of Maramures, learned their skills and traditions and listened to their stories steeped in ancient history: he was accepted as one of them surrounded with great affection and respect. he also went to one of the fortified Saxon villages, in Central Transylvania where he was 'bewitched" by a beautiful gypsy girl with whom he lived for three years and by whom he had a natural son - Constantin. William does not live his life looking with the cold eye of a professional ethnologist collecting his subjects for his cabinet of curiosities - he tries to understand them, to part-take in their daily chores, he proceeds to restore old houses abandoned by the wave of emigration of old Saxon families. he repairs the structures of ancient churches and does not shrink from standing his ground in the face of abuse of a corrupt local priest or policeman.
The Enchanted way is more than an Anglo-Saxon's journey through Fairyland (a land which is changing rapidly under the assault of post-communist modernization) it is essentially the enchanted journey of a reader taken as a privileged witness on a journey of the unexpected.
Libary of Intentions
Books I read & Books I consult
Texts I translate
Reference books
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MUJER DESNUDA
Rafael MORALES (b. 1919 Toledo region – d. 2005)
"Hermoso cuerpo de mujer desnuda,
territorio frutal,
país de las calandrias aurorales,
tierno fluir del alba sobre un agua dormida.
El día está naciendo de tu nácar temprano,
de las cálidas rosas que emergen de tu sangre,
el día está naciendo del cerezal cautivo de tu boca.
Sobre tus pechos brota la luz de los neveros,
y por tus brazos llega fluvial y perezosa la mañana,
mientras cantan las aves
* * * *
NUD DE FEMEIE
Rafael Morales
(n. 1919, Toledo – d. 2005)
Nud de femeie, corp minunat,
Ţinut plin de fruct,
Zori cântate de ciocârlii,
Curs liniştit al serii în ape adormite.
În fildeşul tău pur mijesc zorii,
Trandafiri fierbinţi se nasc în sângele tău,
Ziua surâde în cireşul captiv al buzelor tale.
Lumina crestelor de zăpadă sclipeşte în sânii tăi
Dimineaţa vine curgând domol în braţele tale,
Iar păsărelele ciripesc
În şuvoiul de aur al pletelor tale.
Versiune în limba Română
de Constantin Roman
Londra, 29 August 2011,
© 2012, Copyright Constantin Roman
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:
Rafael Morales is one of the most lyrical and humanistic poets of the post-civil-war era in Spain. Whether describing a solitary lover, a fighting bull, or an old jacket, he evokes the lyricism he perceives in all things. Among contemporary Spanish poets he has been admired for his innocence and the childlike love of all people that serves as a base for his poetic explorations.
He has also published literary criticism and children’s stories.
Born on 31 July 1919, a native of Talavera de la Reina, near Toledo, Morales grew up during the turbulent yearss of King Alfonso XIII’s reign, of the short-lived Republic, and of the civil war. During this period. Morales remained in his hometown to complete his baccalaureate, but moved to Madrid to graduate in Romance philology, at the University of Madrid. During World War II he received a scholarship to study in the Facultad de Letras de Coimbra, in Portugal and after the war he was elected Professor of Spanish literature at the Complutense University in Madrid.
His poems are resonant of a Rilkean interest in objects, animals and humans.
Rafael Morales volume Poemas del Toro remain a classic of the genre.
LINK:
www.romanianstudies.org/content/2012/08/poetry-in-transla...
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are books / magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly non fiction, history,biographies , autobiography’s and historical events I found to be interesting.
I only recently got my non-deluxe Deathly Hallows copy from my sister in order to finally take this photo. I have books 1-7 in both the U.S. version and the U.K. children's version. I need only the paperback copy of Deathly Hallows to be released in order to complete the U.S. series and I'll order the U.K. children's paperbacks as a complete set.
My Library 📕 📚
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Remembering Jack: Intimate and Unseen Photographs of the Kennedys
by Jacques Lowe,
Hugh Sidey,
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Foreword)
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books / #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Leonardo da Vinci
Book by Walter Isaacson
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Crazy Horse,
Lakota leader who militarily resisted the encroachment of whites in the Black Hills
and joined Sitting Bull in the defeat of Gen. George A. Custer at Little Bighorn (1876).
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are books that I have read or will read at some point. The books are non fiction, history,biographies and autobiography’s of people and historical events I found to be interesting.
Leonardo da Vinci: The Graphic Work
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are books / #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly non #fiction, #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting
The Washington Post has an article about the canceling of “The Jewel of Medina” by Sherry Jones.
“A Book Too Hot Off The Presses: Random House Feared Radical Muslim Backlash.” By Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 21, 2008; Page C01.
The article says: Once upon a time, Sherry Jones was a Montana newspaper reporter who dreamed she could contribute to world peace with a novel about the prophet Muhammad and his feminist leanings. Then she wrote it. Today? She’s the target of a Serbian mufti and a Middle Eastern studies professor with a lawyer.
Life has been a roller coaster lately for Jones, 46, who went from being a Book-of-the-Month Club pick to seeing her novel dropped by Random House, which said in a statement it had received “cautionary advice” that the fictionalized story of one of Muhammad’s wives might “incite acts of violence by a small, radical segment.”
A Random House spokeswoman said she could not think of any other time the company had canceled a book because of such fears.
Jones and her novel, “The Jewel of Medina,” are subjects of debate from Egypt to Italy to Serbia, where 1,000 Serbian-language copies were printed before the local publisher backed out, too.
Finger-pointing abounds. Feminist Muslims are blaming censorship; Jones and her agent are blaming the Middle Eastern studies professor; and Random House is saying that Jones — who says she doesn’t fear Islamic retaliation — should honor a non-disclosure agreement and stop talking about their dispute.
---------------------------
Sherry Jones choquée par le sort de son livre, Jewel of Medina
La censure ne l'emporte jamais bien loin.
Les obstacles ont été nombreux depuis l'annonce fulgurante de la maison Random House, qui finalement refusa de publier le livre de Sherry Jones redoutant une pression islamiste autour de l'histoire d'Aisha, l'épouse du prophète Moahmed. Ce dernier considérait même que cette parution pourrait provoquer des émeutes dans le monde musulman.
C'est le 11 septembre qui a motivé la rédaction du livre explique-t-elle, et après une longue période de documentation, elle s'est mise à écrire. « Je suis devenue obsédée par les pensées d'Aisha. » Et de présenter son livre comme un pont entre les cultures, elle qui se décrit comme n'appartenant à aucune religion organisée. Et elle n'espérait pas beaucoup plus qu'un éditeur indépendant pour son roman. Quand RH lui offrit une avance de 100.000 $, « c'est un rêve qui est devenu réalité », pensa-t-elle, après cinq années passées sur ce livre.
Et sans naïveté, elle s'attendait à une polémique, mais pour elle, la simple lecture prouverait ses bonnes intentions. Sauf qu'entre temps, Denis Spielberg, l'universitaire qui a conseillé à RH de ne pas le publier, l'a qualifié de « déclaration de guerre » et de « soft-pornographie ». Là, Jones fut choquée et furieuse. Cette rhétorique enflammée déployée pour détruire le livre l'a complètement vidée. Cette annulation du livre était tout simplement un exercice de censure, un retour aux âges primitifs, considère-t-elle.
Puis, le soutien de Salman Rushdie, qui a violemment critiqué l'éditeur (RH avait fait paraître les Versets sataniques), eut l'effet d'un baume. Et les réactions, nationales et internationales n'ont pas tardé. Éditeurs, auteurs et presse se sont engagés contre RH, faisant de Jones une sorte de star aujourd'hui. Mais elle reste lucide : « Les gens voient ce qu'ils veulent voir. » Aujourd'hui que tout le monde s'arrache la publication de Jewel of Medina, elle peut respirer... et Random House s'inquiéter.
---------------
Three suspected Muslim terrorists were busted yesterday after they firebombed the London home of the publisher of a novel about the Prophet Muhammad, reports the Times of London. The three men were nabbed after a petrol bomb was pushed through the door of the Dutch publisher’s $5.6 million home and office yesterday morning, according to law enforcement authorities.
Flames from the bomb were quickly extinguished and no one was injured. Police warned the Gibson Square publisher the night before the attack that he was being targeted by fanatics and told him to leave his home. Random House executives, fearing violence, last month withdrew the book from US publication.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The story of a great fighter
By Patricia Lanca
[A review of Infidel, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Free Press, New York, 2007]
source:
www.rogersandall.com/Notes_Ayaan-Hirsi-Ali.php
"Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s autobiography is a case study in the sociology and psychology of a whole generation of young Moslems confronted with the contradiction between two worlds: the world of freedom and the world of servitude. The author is a true heroine of our times. Her story should be read by all adolescents perplexed by the modern world and by all adults confused by the commonplaces of multiculturalism".
* * *
Patricia Lanca writes from Portugal about social and political issues. A former member of the Portuguese parliament, her website is
portolanibooks.vol1.googlepages.com/home
Latest News: (in French)
www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2008/02/11/menacee-pour-ses...
How #LarryEllison and a #CarMechanic Teamed Up to Win Sailing’s #GreatestRace, #AmericasCup , #Twice
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are books / magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly non fiction, history,biographies , autobiography’s and historical events I found to be interesting.
The Tale of Genji
by Murasaki Shikibu, ( 紫式部 )
Translated by Royall Tyler
1182 pages
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Radu Portocala:
"L'execution des Ceausescu - La verite sur une revolution en trompe-l'oeil"
Editions Larousse, Paris 2009
ISBN: 978-2-03-584830-7
153 pages, 11,40 Euro
--------------------------------------------
"The execution of the Ceausescus - the truth about a faked revolution"
"Executia sotilor Ceausescu - advearul despre o revolutie trucata"
---------------------------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
PROLOGUE - The rise of a Satrap
Ch. 1 - An End foretold
Ch. 2 - Game of Mirrors
Ch. 3 - Timisoara the Genuine Dead
Ch. 4 - Timisoara the Fake Massacre
Ch. 5 - Dictator without Power
Ch. 6 - Renaissance in a Blood Bath
Ch. 7 - The Double Death of Ceausescu
EPILOGUE - The Silence of History
NOTES
---------------------------------------------
TABLA DE MATERII
PROLOG - Drumul spre putere al unui satrap
Cap.. 1 - Un sfarsit anuntat cu anticipatie
Cap. 2 - Joc de oglinzi
Cap. 3 - Timisoara - adevaratii morti
Cap. 4 - Timisoara - simulacrul masacrului
Cap. 5 - Dictator neputincios
Cap. 6 - Renastere in baie de sange
Cap. 7 - Dubla executie alui Ceausescu
EPILOG - Tacerea istoriei
NOTE
www.romanianstudies.org/content/2010/03/radu-portocala-ex...
Remembering Jack: Intimate and Unseen Photographs of the Kennedys
by Jacques Lowe,
Hugh Sidey,
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Foreword)
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books / #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Mircea ELIADE - memoirs "Les promesses de l'equinoxe"
Analyse de Marc Lefrançois Marc (Angers France):
Comme cette période de l'année où le jour se partage en une durée égale avec la nuit, Les promesses de l'équinoxe de Mircea Eliade portent en elle la même somme d'admiration étonnée et d'accablement résigné que ne peut manquer de ressentir le lecteur fasciné.
Mémoires autobiographiques de ce que furent les trente premières années du génial écrivain roumain, jamais livre n'a donné une image aussi saisissante, aussi frappante, de ce qu'ont pu être les années de formation du jeune Mircea Eliade. Dans la lignée d'un Demian, d'un Wilhelm Meister, ou d'un Martin Eden, on découvre les années d'apprentissage d'un jeune philosophe partagé entre son amour pour l'Inde, son travail universitaire et la rédaction de ses premières œuvres romanesques. En outre, constamment obsédé par ce désir qu'il porte en lui de réaliser toutes ses ambitions et ses nombreux projets, de s'épanouir spirituellement et intellectuellement, il sera en proie aux troubles puissants des premiers émois amoureux. Alors, comme le raconte merveilleusement bien Mircea Eliade, il n'aura de cesse, par l'exercice constant de la volonté et la pratique incessante d'exercices spirituels, de concilier les nécessités professionnelles d'une vie universitaire et littéraire déjà renommées avec ses aspirations personnelles et profondes, et d'harmoniser ses émotions amoureuses parfois tourmentées avec son désir absolu d'épanouissement spirituel.
Jamais, dans un style clair et érudit, on n'avait, depuis Marcel Proust, été saisi par cette furie d'échapper au temps qui passe irréductiblement et par cette pulsion morbide de féconder chaque instant par la création artistique, le travail intellectuel et l'expérience émotionnelle d'une spiritualité et d'une sensualité toujours en exercice.
Les promesses de l'équinoxe constitue le premier volume de ses mémoires dont Les moissons du solstice forment le deuxième et dernier volet dont la lecture devrait être aussi riche en enseignement sur le vie de l'écrivain le plus connu et le plus apprécié en France.
-----------------
Chicago illustrated edition (1988)
Synopsis
Eliade (1907-1986) grew up, was educated, and published many works in his native Romania between the wars. Rickett, former student, close friend and admirer (but not devotee) of the scholar of religion, and collaborator on the English translation of his autobiography, learned Romanian and traveled to Bucharest to research those early years.
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Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba spune:
Micşorarea realei aprecieri de care s-a bucurat Mircea Eliade în lumea academică occidentală a fost realizată prin anii 1984-1985 de Pleşu prin minciuni. Marin Niţescu observase că în comunism, minciuna este “deliberată, calculată, verificată şi tipizată, ca o necesitate interioară, ca un instrument indispensabil în dialectica puterii” (M. Niţescu, Sub zodia proletcultismului, Ed. Humanitas, 1995, p.353). Tactica micşorării importanţei culturale a istoricului religiilor se poate observa în toate prezentările lui Eliade făcute de Editura Humanitas. Aici sînt fără greş omise toate distincţiile academice primite de marele filosof al religiilor, iar mai nou tinerilor cumpărărori ai cărţilor lui Eliade nici nu li se mai arată cine a fost autorul. Pe volumele din 2008 şi 2009 Liiceanu, în lipsa oricărei prezentări biografice, îi trece lui Eliade două liste. Una cu “opera ştiinţifică şi filosofică”, alta cu “opera literară”, fără minima precizare că în ambele liste e vorba de o selectie de titluri (v. M.Eliade, Intoarcerea din rai, 2008; M.E., India. Biblioteca maharajahului.Santier, 2008; M.E., Huliganii, Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2009).
www.geocities.com/isabelavs/Articole/Plesu_Eliade4.htm
Isabela Vasiliu-Scraba spune:
Spre deosebire de perseverenta micşorare a lui Eliade la fosta Editură Politică, - unde Liiceanu i-a tot publicat o serie de cărţi, fără a ajunge nici în 20 de ani la tipărirea integrală a operei eliadeşti -, în bio-bibliografia din volumul lui Andrei Pleşu, Despre îngeri, (Ed. Humanitas, Bucureşti, 2003, p.2), găsim înşirată întreaga recoltă de onoruri şi premii obţinute de scriitor fie ca ministru al culturii, fie ca ministru de externe, fie ca rector la Colegiul Noua Europă care “funcţionează cu fonduri din străinătate” (apud. Pleşu, rev. “22”, nr.959), Institut privat care o are drept directoare pe fata acelui Leonte Răutu din garda veche a Anei Pauker, din care mai făceau parte Crohmălniceanu, I. Vitner şi N. Moraru. In pagina a doua a volumului Despre îngeri mai găsim prezentarea lui Pleşu ca “filosof al religiilor”, precum şi informaţia după care, prin faptul că a ţinut cursuri despre îngeri la Facultatea de Filozofie, Andrei Pleşu ar fi predat acolo “istoria religiilor”
Another title used from Abe Bks. Yellowing pages reveal the paper is common groundwood, similar to newsprint---which has a very short life span, intentionally so. Disposable after one day generally, but the paperback market lowers cost by using it as well......with more mixed into this blend than I prefer. Book collectors generally seek better editions than this.
In the classic sense of the word COLLECTOR, I am not that....I am more a LIBRARIAN at heart, with a love for owning the books I read and love. Actually I spent the first half of my life working in libraries, public and industrial. I pursue a topic down rabbit holes relentlessly, until I satisfy my desire to understand the subject matter.
"Once upon a time"
by Jessica Douglas-Home.
Michael Russell Publishers, Norwich, 2000,
hardback, 231 pages
ISBN 0 85955 259 4
Memoirs of Ceausescu's Romania of the 1980s
www.romanianstudies.org/content/2010/04/book-review-once-...
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Quotation from page 169-170;
"the Arbuthnots (British Ambassador to Romania, - LC note) second party took place that evening - a lavish buffet for twenty. As with the first one, people sat in huddles whispering on the stairs and in corners. A gaunt professor of architecture entered and for a time seemed frozen by the sight of the two tables piled high with unheard of delicacies. A waiter broke the spell by handing him a glass of wine from a silver tray whereupon he fell on the food like a starving man (LC note- Romanians had next to nothing to eat under Ceausescu in the 1980s, except chicken claws, pork knuckles and soya salami). I have a picture of Plesu and Liicianu stretching their legs out from the deep velvet sofa, arms clasped behind their necks, their eyes glinting amusedly at me, relaxed and at peace with themselves".
COMMENTS:
* it speaks volumes for the bad manners of Plesu and Liiceanu to "stretch their legs out of the deep sofa", "with their arms behind their necks" - at best a posture of ill-bred rugger muffins, completely out of place for the occasion, although acceptable at Communist Party rallies
* "looking amusedly" and "completely relaxed with themselves' as opposed to the rest of the guests who were "whispering on the stairs and in corners", "huddled together" ... this is a body language which again speaks volumes about the two "philosophers", who after 1989 were going to enhance their privileged position. But what cries out loud is HOW WAS IT POSSIBLE for Plesu and Liiceanu to frequent the British Embassy during the harshest period of communist terrorism in Romania AND feel so relaxed???
clearly they knew what they were doing! Well done Comrades!
Edited by Peter Davison, Publ: Harvil Secker
ISBN 9781846553295
1931- 1949 (sourced from ten original diary notebooks)
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I bought Orwell's Diaries thinking that I could glean more information about his philosophical conversion from Spanish Republicanism to what had become later a lucid critic of left-wing dictatorship. It appears, sadly that two notebooks of diaries covering the Spanish Civil War have made their way into the archives of the NKVD (The Soviet Secret police) and are under lock and key to this day.
Clearly even after his demise Orwell's writings are considered by some still seditious.
I came across the works of Orwell, oddly enough behind the Iron Curtain in Romania, as a teenager enduring the harsh neo-Stalinist dictatorship of Gheorghiu-Dej, the national-communist predecessor of Nicolae Ceausescu.
This was no mean feat and a curious one at that: The classic '1984" Novel was translated in French and serialised in the popular French weekly "Paris Match" which was embargoed in Romania, under severe censorship restrictions. However, by a miracle, my private French teacher in Bucharest had a former servant who was a cleaner.maid at the French Embassy in Bucharest and without doubt a secret service agent. This woman who was barely literate spoke no french and brought home these magazines merely because she found the illustrations attractive. My French teacher, a cultivated lady from the former Romanian aristocracy, who was educated in Switzerland and fell on hard times after being expropriated, borrowed these magazines and transcribed by hand the whole of Orwell's 1984 novel. I had the privilege of being lent these notebooks and found the reading fascinating, more so as I identified myself perfectly with the character in this book and the whole atmosphere described by the author as one which we were experiencing in Romania under a communist dictatorship.
My father upon discovering my illicit reading begged of me to return the manuscript forthwith because if we were denounced and found out, or if for any reason our house was searched we would be put in prison for reading Orwell.
In retrospect I still think that hardly any Western author and more so after the WWII had had the clear vision comparable to that of George Orwell, especially when one would think of those fellow-travelers and assorted "useful idiots" who were eulogising the Soviet dictatorship, in spite of irrefutable evidence to the contrary.
This edition of the diaries shed a fresh light on George Orwell , on his private life as much as on his national and international political observations. They are replete with
useful details for the historian, political analyst or academic, but not only - as it offers a fresh angle on the troubled history of Europe for nearly two decades of the 1930s and 1940s. There are nuggets of information which explain better the rationale behind our fathers and grandfathers political options, than what we were conditioned to believe from school books or politically correct textbooks.
All in all a riveting read which I recommend.
DSC00074
Traditional Transylvanian jugs (18th to 20th centuries) are seen on the top shelves (left and centre). Among these I sneaked in a Spanish jug (the smallest) whose shape and decoration are strikingly similar to the Romanian ceramics, except that the quality of the glaze and pigments which sets it apart.
The masks are Venitian.
The red geese carved in wood are from Indonesia.
Gabriel BADEA-PÄUN est docteur en histoire de l’art à Paris IV Sorbonne (2005).
Il a publié plusieurs livres, dont Portraits de Société XIX-XXe siècle, préfacé par Richard Ormond, publié en 2007 en version française par Citadelles et Mazenod, (Paris) et en version anglaise sous le titre The Society Portrait from David to Warhol, par Thames & Hudson, (Londres) et Vendome Press, (New York), a été couronné par le Prix du Cercle Montherlant-Académie des Beaux-Arts (2008) ; Le Style Second Empire, Architecture, décors et art de vivre, Citadelles et Mazenod (2009) Prix Second Empire de la Fondation Napoléon (2010) ; Mecena si Comanditari. Arta si mesaj politic, Bucarest, Noi Media Print (2009), Prix Alexandru Tzigara-Samurcas-Fundatia Magazin Istoric (2010), ouvrage pour lequel Sa Majesté le Roi Michel l’a décoré avec le Médaille pour la Loyauté – Roi Michel Ier le 31 mai 2010.
Sa biographie de Carmen Sylva, Reine Elisabeth de Roumanie est paru en roumain à Bucarest, Humanitas, 2003 ; seconde édition 2007 ; troisième édition en 2008 et a été lancée à l’Institut Français de Bucarest en présence de LL. MM. le Roi Michel et la Reine Anne. Le livre a connu cette année une version française sous le titre, Carmen Sylva, reine Elisabeth de Roumanie (1843-1916), Versailles, Via Romana et allemande sous le titre Carmen Sylva. Königin Elisabeth von Rumänien-eine rheinische Prinzessin auf Rumäniens Thron ; avec une préface de S.A.S. le Prince Carl zu Wied, traduit en allemand et avec une postface de Silvia Irina Zimmermann, Stuttgart, Ibidem Verlag, 2011.
An Unfinished Life:
John F. Kennedy, 1917-1963
By Robert Dallek
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
Bruce Benderson - an American Author's impressions on Romania during the first decade after the fall of Ceausescu.
Benderson is a winner of the prestigious French literary Prize "Le Prix de Flore", whose name is given after the famous Literary Cafe on Boulevard St Germain, Paris 6e. He is a fifty-something New Yorker, known in France for his English translations of French literature.
This book, as suggested by the title is about a particular young Romanian whom the author meets accidentally in the streets of Budapest (Hungary) and with whom he strikes a close friendship. They travel together to Transylvania (Sibiu, Maramures), Bucharest and Constanta. This allows the reader a glimpse of Romanian society and mentality during the first decade of the 21st century.
The narrative is interspersed with historical and literary references of interwar Romania of King Carol and Madame Lupescu but also of characters in the books of Panait Istrati,and also with the occasional domestic family life in New York.
Not all Romanian readers will enjoy this book which grates by its candid and often opinionated outsider's perspective, but it is certainly an eye-opener on recent history of a society in turmoil which finds it hard to adapt after 40 years of communist dictatorship: who would not?
There are also the occasional hilarious interludes such as the one at the Romanian Cultural Centre in New York, whose Director, Carmen Firan, a protege of ex-President Ion Iliescu, is described as "an intellectual" and also about her choice guest an ex-communist sycophant redefined as a "dissident' a certain Nina Cassian. Madame Cassian, (or shall one call her "Comrade Cassian"?) was a poet who enjoyed the spoils of the dictatorship, during which time she published all her forty volumes of poetry, singing the praise of the Dictator. Still, after she had it so good under Communism, in the mid 1980s she absconded to NY (being given a Romanian passport and an American grant), only to be hailed now as a linchpin of Romanian culture.... quite incredible but revealing about the hidden agenda of the Institutul Cultural Roman
A literary critic of "Le Monde" who is quoted on the front cover of the books states that: "what astonishes and intrigues is Benderson's way of recounting in the swetest possible voice, things which are considered shocking"... well, if the French are shocked, the Romanians would certainly be outraged, not by the lack of prudery as by the picture of the Romanian society of pimps, hustlers, prostitutes, bureaucrats, hangers-on, dogs, underdogs, desperate people and the whole gamut of poor destitute of all ages and ethnic origin, who in the end do not come out so well: tough!
Mi biblioteca es mi ventana a otros mundos. Me encanta!
My library is my window to other worlds. I love it!
My Library of Intentions:
Books I read,
Books I half-read
Books I will read (when time comes)
Books I read and translated
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Poetry in Translation (CXV): Andalusia – Poezie Arabă medievală – Ibn Shuhayd (992 – 1034), Cordoba
After the Revels/después de la orgia
După Orgie
După ce vinul care l-a băut
l-a adormit, iar ochii
paznicilor au aţipit
m-am furişat sfios în preajmă-i
Ca unul ce vrea să vină lângă el
Tiptil şi nevăzut.
M-am apropiat de el pe furiş
ca un vis, aşezându-mă alâturi
de el, uşor ca o suflare.
I-am sărutat grumazul – o podoabă albă
sorbind vinul roşu al gurii sale,
si aşa am petrecut noaptea delicios
impreună, pană când intunericul a zâmbit,
descoperind surâsul alb al zărilor.
Versiune în limba Română
Constantin ROMAN
Londra 2 August 2012
Copyright Constantin ROMAN 2012
Después de la orgia
(Ben Suhayd de Córdoba)
“Cuando, llena de su embriaguez, se durmió, y se
durmieron los ojos de la ronda,
me acerqué a ella
tímidamente, como el amigo que busca el contacto
furtivo con disimulo.
Me arrastré hacia ella insensiblemente como el sueño;
me elevé hacia ella dulcemente como el aliento.
Besé el blanco brillante de su cuello; apuré el rojo vivo de su boca.
Y pasé con ella mi noche deliciosamente, hasta que
sonrieron las tinieblas, mostrando los blancos dientes de la aurora”.
www.romanianstudies.org/content/2012/08/poetry-in-transla...
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
My Library 📕 📚
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Kipling poetry in translation
Mother o’ Mine
Rudyard KIPLING (1865-1936)
If I were hanged on the highest hill,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose love would follow me still,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were drowned in the deepest sea,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
I know whose tears would come down to me,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
If I were damned of body and soul,
I know whose prayers would make me whole,
Mother o’ mine, O mother o’ mine!
* * * * * * *
O, mamă, dulce mamă!
Rudyard KIPLING (1865-1936)
De aş fi spânzurat la răscruce de drum,
O, mamă, dulce mamă!
Eu ştiu c-al tău dor, m-ar urma ori şi cum,
O, mamă, dulce mamă!
De aş fi înecat, în adanc de ocean,
O, mamă, dulce mamă!
Ştiu că lacrima ta nu ar curge în van,
O, mamă, dulce mamă!
Dac-al meu trup şi suflet în gheenă ar fi,
Numai ruga ta, mamă, m-ar putea mântui.
O, mamă, dulce mamă!
Rendered in Romanian by Constantin ROMAN, London
© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London
www(dot)romanianstudies(dot)org/content/2015/02/poetry-in-translation-cccxix-rudyard-kipling-1865-1936-england-mother-o-mine-o-mama-dulce-mama/
Library of Intentions
Books I read & Books I consult
Texts I translate
Reference books
----------------------
Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990)
Cuban revolutionary poet & author,
exiled in NYC under Castro
My Lover the Sea
I am that child with the round, dirty face
who on every corner bothers you with his
"can you spare a quarter?"
I am that child with the dirty face
no doubt unwanted
that from far away contemplates coaches
where other children
emit laughter and jump up and down considerably
I am that unlikeable child
definitely unwanted
with the round dirty face
who before the giant street lights or
under the grandames also illuminated
or in front of the little girls that seem to levitate
projects the insult of his dirty face
I am that angry and lonely child of always,
that throws you the insult of that angry child of always
and warns you:
if hypocritically you pat me on the head
I would take that opportunity to steal your wallet.
I am that child of always
before the panorama of imminent terror,
imminent leprosy, imminent fleas,
of offenses and the imminent crime.
I am that repulsive child that improvises a bed
out of an old cardboard box and waits,
certain that you will accompany me.
www.romanianstudies.org/content/2012/09/poetry-in-transla...
Five Days in November
by Clint Hill ,
with Lisa McCubbin
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Rage
by Bob Woodward
I put together a set titled , #Mybooks.
These are #books , #magazines that I have read or will read at some point.
The books are mainly #nonFiction , #history, #biographies , #autobiographys and #historicalevents I found to be #interesting.
This is #myLibrary
Thomas Gray famous for his Elegy was a student here before he departed for the less riotous pembroke college opposite;
Thomas Gray (1716-1771)
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
www.constantinroman/continentaldrift
This is the cover of the first bilingual French-Englilsh illustrated guidebook of Peterhouse Cambridge.
Peterhouse was founded in 1281 by Hugh de Balsam, Bishop of Ely. This picture shows the 17th c chapel which has a mixture of Gothic, Dutch and "Jacobethan" architecture. The formal gardens seen here are replaced now by an impecable lawn
The text in French (translated in English) was written by a postgraduate scholar in Geophysics (Constantin Roman) and the photos were taken by an undergraduate student in Chemistry (Timothy Horne)
www.constantinroman/continentaldrift
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La Vingt-cinquième Heure (The 25th Hour) is a 1967 war drama film, starring Anthony Quinn and Virna Lisi. It was produced by italian producer Carlo Ponti and directed by french director Henri Verneuil.
The film is based on a novel by C. Virgil Gheorghiu (1916-1992). It follows a married couple, Anthony Quinn and Virna Lisi, and their children who live in a Romanian village.
In a nutshell the plot starts with a constable framing Quinn as being Jewish. As a result he is sent to concentration camp, as punishment. Eventually he is recognized being of Aryan stock and is allowed to enlist as an SS soldier.
The picture is based on real events. It includes Hungary's government in collaboration with the Nazis, the invasion of Romania by Stalin's troops, and the whole gamut of persecution, hardhips and uncertainty.
------------------------
Virgil Gheorghiu, a young Romanian diplomat was left stranded in the West, during WWII, as the Communists took over Romania. He took refuge in France where he was ordained an Orthodox priest at the Church serving the Romanian community in Paris. Here he became a successful writer, and novelist. He is best remembered for "The 25th Hour", which was made into a movie.
The Romanian Secret Services, used the French communist agents to discredit Gheorghiu through a left-wing media smear campaign, a well-rehearsed and effective weapon against Romanian anti-communist exiles.
Gheorghiu's books were censored in Romania and could not be published before 1990. Too little, too late, as the writer died in 1992.