classics digests, reflections and reviews
The last major novel by Tolstoy. According to Wikipedia, Vladimir Nabakov heaped superlatives upon “Anna Karenina”, but questioned the reputation of “War and Peace”, and sharply criticized “Resurrection” and “The Kreutzer Sonata”. My opinion is the exact opposite. To me, this is a more mature and riveting work than “Anna Karenina”, because it contains deeper spiritual and social insights, the upshot of the author’s personal struggles and growth in the […]
Read moreA sequel to “From the Earth to the Moon”, a wonderful and exciting imaginary tale of space travel. The three salient features of Verne’s science fictions, namely, scientific vision, industrial knowledge and humorous imagination, personified in the book by three space travellers, make it a worthy read, though I could do with a little less of the hypothesized selenographic details.
Read moreA Fascinating and Unique Autobiography Jung explores many fields that are both familiar and strange, such as astrology, alchemy, philosophy, psychology and religion. For someone with limited knowledge and experience, Jung is quite understandable, as he conveys his ideas and feelings very well despite the broad scope and complexities of the subjects. He has a truly synthesizing mind. It’s a unique autobiography, because, instead of a record of events in […]
Read moreA speculative, apocalyptic tale in which Martians landed on earth and almost wiped out the entire local population. According to the nebular hypothesis, Mars was more advanced in the life cycle of the planet than Earth, and therefore the Martians were evolutionarily more advanced than humans, having a superior intelligence and no sex or digestive organs. When their planet was no longer habitable, and they were facing extinction, they invaded the […]
Read moreA compilation of nine fairy tales from “The Happy Prince and Other Tales” The Happy Prince The Nightingale and the Rose The Selfish Giant The Devoted Friend The Remarkable Rocket and “A House of Pomegranates” The Young King The Birthday of the Infanta The Fisherman and His Soul The Star-Child I remember reading “The Happy Prince”and “The Selfish Giant” when I was a child. Sad but beautiful stories about miseries […]
Read more“I shall never forget how I was roused one night by the groans of a fellow prisoner, who threw himself about in his sleep, obviously having a horrible nightmare. … I wanted to wake the poor man. Suddenly I drew back the hand which was ready to shake him, … At that moment, I became intensely conscious of the fact that no dream, no matter how horrible, could be as […]
Read moreMedicine Watcher Dr. Thomas gives a fascinating personal account of the development of medicine in the last three-quarters of a century. He grew up watching his parents practice medicine (his father was a physician, and his mother a nurse), became a physician himself, also a professor and dean of the medical school of NYU, served on the New York Board of Health overseeing public health policy and later headed a […]
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