what's on my reading table

Monday, June 29, 2026

Anonymous; Sayers trans, The Song of Roland (11thC or 12thC; 1957)

Anonymous.
The Song of Roland.
Translated by Dorothy L. Sayers.
Book Series: Penguin Classics.
London: Penguin Books, 1957.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Translator Information : Dorothy L. Sayers

Dorothy L. Sayers, sayers.org.uk, The Dorothy L Sayers Society.
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893 – 1957), Wikipedia.
Dorothy L. Sayers, GoodReads.com.
Lindsey Scholl, "The Remarkable Dorothy L. Sayers", C.S. Lewis Institute, 07 June 2018.

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Wikipedia Articles : The Song of Roland; French Literature; History of France; History of Spain

Song of Roland (c.1040 to c.1115).
Chanson de geste, "Old French for 'song of heroic deeds' ... a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem".
Twelve Peers (Paladins).
Matter of France.
Roland (d. 778).
Battle of Roncevaux Pass, 778.
French literature.
Medieval French literature.
History of France.
History of France: Frankish kingdoms (486–987).
Carolingian dynasty.
Carolingian Empire, 800–887.
Charlemagne, reign 768 – 814.
Battle of Roncevaux Pass, 778.
Muslim presence in medieval France.
France in the Middle Ages.
Renaissance of the 12th century.
History of Spain.
History of Spain: Islamic al-Andalus and the Christian Reconquest (8th–15th centuries).
Saracen(s).
Al-Andalus, "the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula".

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Some Other English Translations of The Song of Roland :

Anonymous. The Song of Roland. Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff. London: Chapman & Hall, 1919.
[Archive.org.]
Anonymous. The Song of Roland and Other Poems of Charlemagne. Translated by Simon Gaunt and Karen Pratt. Book Series: Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
[Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
Anonymous. The Song of Roland. Translated by Glyn S. Burgess. Book Series: Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Books, 1990.
[Publisher; Google Books; Google Books, ebook, different part viewable; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
Anonymous. The Song of Roland. Translated by W. S. Merwin. New York: The Modern Library (Penguin Random House), 1963, 2001.
[Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
Anonymous. The Song of Roland. Translated by Robert Harrison. New York: Signet Classics (Penguin Random House), 19##, 2012.
[Publisher; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]

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Notes:

I recently started reading Don Quixote and following the assigned reading in Roberto González Echevarría's lecture course Cervantes' Don Quixote. The character Alonso Quijano has become obsessed with the literature of Chivalric romance. In his early lectures González Echevarría discusses the literary predecessors of Don Quixote; there is a large body literature from the preceding 500 years before Don Quixote that influenced it and with which I was (and remain) unfamiliar. To satisfy my own obsessive inclinations I wanted to clarify the sequencing, relationships, and characteristics of these literary predecessors. Here is my general outline, with some of the more prominent examples, sometimes with the details of a recently published edition (there are sometimes/often more than one recent edition to choose from). Disclaimer: This is a rough draft; I haven't read this literature.

General Background Topics
- Medieval literature.
- Matter of Britain.
- Matter of France.
- Matter of Rome.
- Holy Grail.
- Early Middle Ages, late 5th to the 10th century.
- High Middle Ages, c.1000 – c.1300.
- Renaissance of the 12th century.
- Late Middle Ages, ended c.1500.
- Renaissance, broadly 14th century to 17th century.
Chanson de geste [Song of Heroic Deeds].
A genre of epic poems celebrating martial valor reflecting the warfare-ridden societies of the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries), which were later written down (composed?) during the High Middle Ages (c.1000 – c.1300) perhaps associated with Renaissance of the 12th century.
- Anonymous, Song of Roland (c.1040 to c.1115).
- Cantar de gesta, "a genre of medieval Spanish poetry, analogous to the chanson de geste in Old French".
- Anonymous, Cantar de mio Cid (12th century).
  The Song of the Cid. Translated by Burton Raffel. Book Series: Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 2009.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Wace (c.1110 – after 1174), Roman de Brut (completed 1155).
  Wace. Roman de Brut. Translated by Glyn S. Burgess. Book Series: Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2024.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
Chivalric romance.
The societies of the High Middle Ages (c.1000 – c.1300) developed significantly since the Early Middle Ages. The Chivalric Romance evolved from the Chanson de Geste with a wider range of themes and reflecting the now more stable societies. This literary genre declined towards the end of the Late Middle Ages (ended c.1500).
Dorothy L. Sayers discusses this in her Introduction to The Song of Roland.

NOTE: The word "romance" has been used to describe several different literary forms, themes, and genres in the Western literature of the last thousand years, which may cause confusion. Consult the article Romance (prose fiction) for some clarification on this topic.
- Knight-errant, "a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature ... the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric virtues, either in knightly duels (pas d'armes) or in some other pursuit of courtly love."
- Chrétien de Troyes (c.1160 – 1191), author of several chivalric romances.
  Chrétien de Troyes. Arthurian Romances. Translated by William W. Kibler and Carleton W. Carroll. Book Series: Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1991, 2004.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Marie de France (fl. 1160–1215), Lais of Marie de France (late 12th century), important influence on the development of chivalric romance.
  Marie de France. The Lais of Marie de France. Translated by Glyn S. Burgess and Keith Busby. Book Series: Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1986, 1999.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Wolfram von Eschenbach (c.1160/80 – c.1220), Parzival (early 13th century).
  Wolfram von Eschenbach. Parzival and Titurel. Translated by Cyril Edwards. Book Series: Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Anonymous, The Quest of the Holy Grail [Queste del Sante Graal] (early 13th century France).
  Lancelot-Grail Cycle, Wikipedia.
  The Quest of the Holy Grail. Translated by Pauline M. Matarasso. Book Series: Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1969.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
  (A fusion of Arthurian legend and Christian symbolism.)
- Guillaume de Lorris (c.1200 – c.1240), Roman de la Rose (part 1 c.1230; part 2 c.1275).
  Guillaume de Lorris. The Romance of the Rose. Translated by Frances Horgan. Book Series: Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 2008.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Anonymous, Amadis de Gaula (14th century).
  Earliest surviving printed edition 1508, compiled by Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo (c.1450 – 1505).
  ** Significant influence on Don Quixote.
- Anonymous (Gawain Poet), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (late 14th century).
  Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Translated by Keith Harrison. Book Series: Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983, 1998, 2008. [How does this compare to Tolkien's translation?]
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Thomas Malory (c.1393 or 1425 to c.1470), Le Morte d'Arthur (completed c.1470, printed 1485).
  Thomas Malory. Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume 1 of 2. Edited by Janet Cowen. Book Series: Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1969, 1986, 2004.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Matteo Maria Boiardo (1440 – 1494), Orlando innamorato (1495).
- Ludovico Ariosto (1474 – 1533), Orlando Furioso (early version 1516, final version 1532) [Orlando = Roland].
  Ludovico Ariosto. Orlando Furioso. Translated by Guido Waldman. Book Series: Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974, 1983, 1998, 2008. [This is a prose translation; there is also a poetry translation in Penguin Classics.]
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Torquato Tasso (1544 – 1595), Jerusalem Delivered (1581).
  Torquato Tasso. The Liberation of Jerusalem. Translated by Max Wickert. Book Series: Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
Spanish Literature before Don Quixote
- Medieval Spanish literature, beginning of the 13th to the end of the 15th century.
- Spanish Renaissance literature, 15th and 16th centuries.
- Anonymous, Cantar de mio Cid (12th century).
  The Song of the Cid. Translated by Burton Raffel. Book Series: Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 2009.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Fernando de Rojas (c.1465/73 – 1541), La Celestina (1499).
  ** Significant influence on Don Quixote.
  Fernando de Rojas. Celestina. Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden. Book Series: Margellos World Republic of Letters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009, 2012.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Picaresque novel.
- Anonymous, Lazarillo de Tormes (earliest published edition 1554).
  ** Significant influence on Don Quixote.
  'Lazarillo de Tormes' and 'The Swindler': Two Spanish Picaresque Novels. Translated by Michael Alpert. Book Series: Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1969, 2003.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Teresa of Avila (1515 – 1582), The Way of Perfection (1566); Interior Castle (written 1577, published 1588).
- St John of the Cross (1542 – 1591), Dark Night of the Soul (written in the late 1570s?).
- Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616), Novelas ejemplares (written 1590-1612, published 1613).
  Miguel de Cervantes. Exemplary Novels. Translated by Edith Grossman. Edited by Roberto González Echevarría. Book Series: Margellos World Republic of Letters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016, 2018.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616). Don Quixote (1605, 1615). Translated by Edith Grossman. New York: Ecco / HarperCollins Publishers, 2003.
[Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]

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Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Wood, Seascraper (2025)

Benjamin Wood.
Seascraper.
London: Viking (Penguin Random House UK), 2025.
New York: Scribner (Simon & Schuster), 2025.

Book Information : Publisher UK; Publisher USA; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com, UK ed; Amazon.com, USA ed.

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Author Information :

Benjamin Wood, benjaminwood.info, author's website.
Seascraper at benjaminwood.info.
"Seascraper" song by Thomas Flett at benjaminwood.info.
Benjamin Wood (b. 1981), Wikipedia.
Seascraper (2025), Wikipedia.
2025 Booker Prize, Wikipedia.
(Seascraper was Nominated (long list) for the 2025 Booker Prize.)
Walter Scott Prize.
(Seascraper was Nominated for the 2026 Walter Scott Prize.)
Benjamin Wood, GoodReads.com.

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Wikipedia Articles :

British literature: 21st-century literature.

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Saturday, May 09, 2026

Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1994)

William Shakespeare.
Twelfth Night, or What You Will.
Edited by Roger Warren and Stanley Wells.
Book Series: The Oxford Shakespeare; Oxford World's Classics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 2008.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Editors: Roger Warren and Stanley Wells

Roger Warren was a Senior Lecturer of English, University of Leicester.
Roger Warren edited four additional individual plays in The Oxford Shakespeare series: Cymbeline; Henry VI, Part Two; Pericles; The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Warren, Roger, 1943-, The Library of Congress, LC Name Authority File (LCNAF).
Stanley Wells, his website.
Stanley Wells (b. 1930), Wikipedia.
Stanley Wells has written and edited many, many books related to Shakespeare. Some of them are described in the Books section of the Stanley Wells website.
Stanley Wells, OCLC WorldCat Entities.
Wells, Stanley, 1930-, The Library of Congress, LC Name Authority File (LCNAF).

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Wikipedia Articles :

Shakespeare :

William Shakespeare (1564–1616).
Twelfth Night, probably written in 1601; first documented performance 02 February 1602; first printed in 1623 (First Folio).
Chronology of Shakespeare's plays: Twelfth Night (1601).
Shakespearean comedy.
Shakespeare's influence.
List of idioms attributed to Shakespeare.

English Renaissance Literature, Drama :

English Renaissance, 16th - 17th Centuries.
English literature: English Renaissance (1500–1660).
Elizabethan literature.
English literature: Jacobean period (1603–1625).
English Renaissance theatre.

England during Shakespeare's Time :

Tudor period, 1485–1603.
Elizabeth I (1533–1603); Queen of England and Ireland 1558–1603.
Elizabethan era, 1558–1603.
Elizabethan government.
Elizabethan [religious] settlement, "implemented from 1559 to 1563".
English society: Tudor society.
Elizabeth I: Later years.
James VI and I (1566–1625); King of Scotland as James VI 1567–1625; King of England and Ireland as James I 1603–1625.
Jacobean era, 1603–1625.
Stuart period, 1603–1714.
Early modern Britain, 16th – 18th Centuries.

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Discussions of Shakespeare and Twelfth Night :

Erik McCarthy, Introduction to William Shakespeare, YouTube, 21 January 2025.
(The literary, social, and political context of Shakespeare; Shakespeare biography; book production; printing the plays. A very good survey.)
Erik McCarthy, William Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, YouTube, 15 February 2025.
David Kern, Angelina Stanford, and Tim McIntosh, Twelfth Night, "Close Reads Podcast" at SubStack, "The Play's The Thing" at Apple Podcasts, 2017.
Note: This podcast series on Twelfth Night was published on two different platforms under two different podcast names: Close Reads Podcast at SubStack and The Play's The Thing at Apple Podcasts. (The Apple Podcasts episodes may have advertisements.)
1. Twelfth Night: Act I, Substack link, Apple Podcasts link, 24 November 2017.
  Angelina recommends :
  - E. M. W. Tillyard. The Elizabethan World Picture. London: Chatto & Windus, 1943; New York: Vintage Books, 1959.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  - Harold C. Goddard. The Meaning of Shakespeare, Volume 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  - Harold C. Goddard. The Meaning of Shakespeare, Volume 2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1951.
    [Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
  See also:
  - Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks, The Literary Life Podcast. Episodes also at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
2. Twelfth Night: Act II, Substack link, Apple Podcasts link, 01 December 2017.
3. Twelfth Night: Act III, Substack link, Apple Podcasts link, 08 December 2017.
  (The restraints on Angelina's and Tim's religious enthusiasm are released for a moment in this episode. An interesting digression.)
4. Twelfth Night: Act IV, Substack link, Apple Podcasts link, 15 December 2017.
5. Twelfth Night: Act V, Substack link, Apple Podcasts link, 22 December 2017.
6. Twelfth Night: Q&A, Substack link, Apple Podcasts link, 29 December 2017.
  (While the Close Reads Podcast folk are puzzled by the animus towards Malvolio, Paul Cantor's lectures present a very clear explanation of the political, social, and religious differences between the followers of the Church of England and the radical separatist Puritan sect (Brownists). Cantor also cites plays by Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (1610) and Bartholomew Fair (1614), which also feature the ridicule of Puritan characters. Cantor addresses the Malvolio and Puritanism topic(s) in both of his lectures.)
  See also History of the Puritans under Elizabeth I.
Paul Cantor, "Twelfth Night", Shakespeare and Politics, recorded Spring 2015, posted to YouTube 01 March 2017.
1. Twelfth Night (Lecture 1 of 2).
  (The first 15 minutes of this lecture finishes the discussion of a previous lecture on As You Like It and the All the world's a stage / seven ages of man speech.)
2. Twelfth Night (Lecture 2 of 2).
Paul Cantor information:
- Paul Cantor (1945–2022), Wikipedia.
- In Memoriam: Wide-Ranging Literary and Pop Culture Critic Paul Cantor, College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Virginia, 08 March 2022.
- In Memoriam, Virginia Magazine, Summer/Fall 2022.
Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare's Lover's, Third Lecture in the Series Classic Shakespeare, Gresham College, 23 January 2018, YouTube 29 January 2018.
Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare's Politics, Fourth Lecture in the Series Classic Shakespeare, Gresham College, 27 February 2018, YouTube 02 March 2018.
(Not about Twelfth Night but provides some political context of Shakespeare, which may be of interest in light of Paul Cantor's lecture series Shakespeare and Politics.
Bate's lecture mainly refers to Shakespeare's Roman history plays and doesn't directly say much about the politics of the Elizabethan era.)
Jonathan Bate, Shakespeare's Fame, Sixth and Final Lecture in the Series Classic Shakespeare, Gresham College, 08 May 2018, YouTube 10 May 2018.
Melvyn Bragg, Pascale Aebischer, Michael Dobson, Emma Smith, "Twelfth Night, or What You Will," In Our Time, BBC Radio 4, 28 December 2023.
(Reading List, References in Episode Notes.
Unfortunately, these once free programs now require a subscription.)

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Some Other Recent Editions of Twelfth Night :

William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night, or What You Will. Edited by Keir Elam. The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series. London: Bloomsbury Press, 2008.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
William Shakespeare. Twelfth Night: or What You Will, Third Edition. Edited by Elizabeth Story Donno. The New Cambridge Shakespeare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Essays about Twelfth Night :

Harold Jenkins, "Shakespeare's Twelfth Night," pages 72-87 in Shakespeare: The Comedies: A Collection of Critical Essays, Edited by Kenneth Muir, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1965.
[Archive.org; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
(Roger Warren's and Stanley Wells' Introduction to The Oxford Shakespeare edition of Twelfth Night refers to this essay several times.)
Laurence Lerner, editor. Shakespeare's Comedies: An Anthology of Modern Criticism. Penguin Shakespeare Library. Harmondsworth, UK: Penguin Books, 1967.
[Archive.org; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
(The section on Twelfth Night, pages 265-283, contains four brief essays and suggestions for further reading.)
Stanley Wells, editor. Twelfth Night: Critical Essays. New York: Garland Publishing, 1986; Routledge, 2015.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Note :
I previously read Twelfth Night in 2024. My 2024 blog post is here.

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Saturday, May 02, 2026

Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722; 2011)

Daniel Defoe.
Moll Flanders.
Text Edited by G. A. Starr and Linda Bree.
Introduction and Notes by Linda Bree.
Book Series: Oxford World's Classics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Editors: G. A. Starr and Linda Bree

Professor George Starr Remembered, Department of English, University of California at Berkeley, 19 August 2024.
In Memoriam, George A. Starr, 1934–2024, Academic Senate, University of California.
G. A. Starr, GoodReads.com.
G. A. Starr, OCLC WorldCat Entities.
Starr, G. A. (George A.), LC Name Authority File (LCNAF), The Library of Congress.
Linda Bree, @LindaBree1, Twitter / X.
Linda Bree, GoodReads.com.
Interview with Linda Bree, Cambridge University Press, YouTube, 17 December 2013.
Linda Bree, OCLC WorldCat Entities.
Bree, Linda, LC Name Authority File (LCNAF), The Library of Congress.

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Wikipedia Articles: Author, Book; English Literature; England during Defoe's times; William Hogarth

Daniel Defoe (c.1660 – 1731).
Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders (1722).
Spiritual autobiography.
Picaresque novel.
Literary realism.
Unreliable narrator.
(Despite Moll Flanders' seemingly candid and unrestrained telling of her story, on several occasions she describes instances where she deceived others, or at least withheld important details in order to manipulate others' perception of herself. I think we should expect that the reader is receiving a similar treatment from the narrator.)
Rogue literature.
(Disappointingly short article.)
English literature: Stuart Restoration (1660–1714).
Restoration literature.
English literature: Georgian era (1714–1837).
English literature: Augustan literature (1714–1745).
Augustan literature.
(A good survey; provides context of Daniel Defoe.)
Augustan prose.
English novel: Early novels in English.
1722 in Great Britain.
English society: 17th century.
English society: Georgian society: 1714–1837.
Kingdom of England: Early modern history, 1603–1707.
Kingdom of Great Britain, 1707–1800.
History of England: 17th century.
Early modern Britain: Early Stuart era: 1603–1660.
Early modern Britain: Later Stuart era: 1660–1714.
Stuart Restoration, 1660–1688.
Glorious Revolution, 1688.
Nine Years' War, 1688–1697.
War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714.
Early modern Britain: 18th century.
Georgian era, 1714 to c.1830–1837.
Economic history of the United Kingdom: 16th–17th centuries.
Economic history of the United Kingdom: 18th century.
English overseas possessions.
British Empire: English overseas possessions (1583–1707).
British colonization of the Americas.
British America.
Colony of Virginia, 1606–1776.
(Moll Flanders' third husband owns a plantation in Virginia; she lives there for several years.)
Province of Maryland, 1632–1776.
(Moll Flanders is sentenced to Transportation, arriving in Virginia, she and her husband settle in Maryland.)

William Hogarth (1697 – 1764).
List of works by William Hogarth.

William Hogarth, A Harlot's Progress (1732).
(Plate Three in this collection was used for the cover art of the 2011 Oxford World's Classics edition of Moll Flanders.)
William Hogarth, A Rake's Progress (1735).
William Hogarth, Marriage A-la-Mode (1743-1745).
William Hogarth, Industry and Idleness (1747).
(Plate One in this collection shows a broadside version of Moll Flanders; the story was widely known.)
William Hogarth, Beer Street and Gin Lane (1751).
William Hogarth, The Four Stages of Cruelty (1751).

William Hogarth at Archive.org.

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Some other editions of Moll Flanders :

Daniel Defoe. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders. Edited by David Blewett. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 1989.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Daniel Defoe. Moll Flanders. Edited by Edward Kelly. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1973.
[Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Daniel Defoe. Moll Flanders. Edited by Albert J. Rivero. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.
[Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Daniel Defoe. Moll Flanders, Second Edition. Edited by Albert J. Rivero. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2024.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Miscellaneous Discussions of Daniel Defoe and/or Moll Flanders :

John Mullan, Convincing Fiction: Daniel Defoe to Ishiguro and Knausgaard, First Lecture in the Series The Powers of the Novel, Gresham College, 28 October 2020, YouTube 11 November 2020.
(Discusses Robinson Crusoe.)
John Mullan, Crime in Fiction: Defoe and Dickens to Spark, Highsmith and McEwan, Second Lecture in the Series The Powers of the Novel, Gresham College, 24 February 2021, YouTube 02 March 2021.
(Discusses Moll Flanders.)
Erik McCarthy, Daniel Defoe and the Novel, YouTube, 27 March 2023.
(Good introductory survey of Daniel Defoe, the novel, and Moll Flanders.)
Timothy H. Wilson, Eighteenth-Century Literature: An Introduction, The Literature Channel, YouTube, 24 November 2024.
(A very good survey.)
Timothy H. Wilson, Robinson Crusoe: An Introduction, The Literature Channel, YouTube, 24 November 2024.
(A very good lecture on Robinson Crusoe; much of the general analysis also applies to Moll Flanders.)
Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks, Episode 325: Introduction to Alexander Pope and the Neo-Classical Poets, The Literary Life Podcast, 21 April 2026.
(Loosely discusses the Eighteenth Century period when and after Defoe was writing. For more on this period of English literature see the article on Augustan literature.)

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Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Mori, The Wild Geese (1911–1913; 1959)

Mori Ōgai.
The Wild Geese.
Translated by Kingo Ochiai and Sanford Goldstein.
Tokyo; Vermont; Singapore: Tuttle Publishing, 1959.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

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Author Information :

Mori Ōgai (1862–1922), Wikipedia English.
森鷗外 (1862–1922), Wikipedia Japan.
The Wild Geese (1911–1913), Wikipedia English.
雁 (1911–1913, 1915), Wikipedia Japan.

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Japanese Literature :

Japanese literature: Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa-period literature (1868–1945), Wikipedia English.
日本の近現代文学史#明治時代の文学 [History of modern Japanese literature: Literature of the Meiji Era], Wikipedia Japan.
日本の近現代文学史#大正時代の文学 [History of modern Japanese literature: Literature of the Taisho Period], Wikipedia Japan.

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Some other English translations of The Wild Geese :

Mori Ōgai. The Wild Goose. Translated by Burton Watson. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1995.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Mori Ōgai. Gan [Geese]. Translated by Glenn Anderson. Long Island City, New York: One Peace Books, 2014.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Some other works in English translation by Mori Ōgai :

Mori Ōgai. Vita Sexualis. Translated by Sanford Goldstein. Tuttle Publishing, 1972, 2011.
[Wikipedia English; Wikipedia Japan; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Mori Ōgai. Youth and Other Stories. Edited by J. Thomas Rimer. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Mori Ōgai. The Historical Fiction of Mori Ogai. Edited by David A. Dilworth and J. Thomas Rimer. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Mori Ōgai. Not a Song Like Any Other: An Anthology of Writings by Mori Ogai. Edited by J. Thomas Rimer. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Thursday, April 02, 2026

Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719; 2007)

Daniel Defoe.
Robinson Crusoe.
Edited with an Introduction by Thomas Keymer.
Notes by Thomas Keymer and James Kelly.
Book Series: Oxford World's Classics.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, 2008.

Book Information : Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

Book Series: Oxford World's Classics.

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Editor: Thomas Keymer

Thomas Keymer, his website.
Thomas Keymer, Department of English, University of Toronto.
Professor Thomas Keymer FBA, The British Academy.
Thomas Keymer, GoodReads.com.
Thomas Keymer, OCLC WorldCat Entities.
Keymer, Thomas, 1962-, LC Name Authority File (LCNAF), The Library of Congress.

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Wikipedia Articles: Author, Book, English Literature, British History

Daniel Defoe (c.1660 – 1731).
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe (1719).
Robinsonade, "a literary genre of fiction wherein a person or a group of persons is suddenly separated from civilization".
Allegory.
Bildungsroman.
Daniel Defoe, The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719).
Daniel Defoe, Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe (1720).
English literature: Stuart Restoration (1660–1714).
Restoration literature.
English literature: Georgian era (1714–1837).
English literature: Augustan literature (1714–1745).
Augustan literature.
(A good survey; provides context of Daniel Defoe.)
English novel: Early novels in English.
(Robinson Crusoe is recognized as one of the earliest English novels.)
1719 in Great Britain: Publications.
English society: 17th century.
English society: Georgian society: 1714–1837.
Kingdom of England: Early modern history, 1603–1707.
Kingdom of Great Britain, 1707–1800.
History of England: 17th century.
Early modern Britain: Early Stuart era: 1603–1660.
Early modern Britain: Later Stuart era: 1660–1714.
Stuart Restoration, 1660–1688.
Glorious Revolution, 1688.
Nine Years' War, 1688–1697.
War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–1714.
Early modern Britain: 18th century.
Georgian era, 1714 to c.1830–1837.
Maritime history of England: Seventeenth century.
Barbary corsairs.
(Early into the character Robinson Crusoe's career as a sailor the ship he is on is captured by Barbary pirates; he becomes a slave and lives for two years at Salé, in present day Morocco.)
Economic history of the United Kingdom: 16th–17th centuries.
Economic history of the United Kingdom: 18th century.
British Empire: English overseas possessions (1583–1707).
British Empire in fiction: Period fiction.
History of Brazil: Early Brazil.
(After Robinson Crusoe escapes from couple years as a slave to a Barbary pirate he is picked up by a passing Portuguese trading vessel on its way to Brazil and Crusoe then spends a few years in Brazil establishing a plantation.)
History of the Caribbean: Early colonial history.
(After becoming established as a plantation owner in Brazil, Robinson Crusoe and some other Brazilian planters and merchants mount an expedition to bring a shipload of slaves to Brazil. Early into the outbound voyage a storm wrecks the ship and Crusoe is stranded on an island in the Caribbean Sea perhaps near the northern coast of South America in the area of present day Venezuela.)
Historiography of the British Empire.

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Miscellaneous Discussions of Defoe and Robinson Crusoe :

John Mullan, Convincing Fiction: Daniel Defoe to Ishiguro and Knausgaard, First Lecture in the Series The Powers of the Novel, Gresham College, 28 October 2020, YouTube 11 November 2020.
(Discusses Robinson Crusoe.)
John Mullan, Crime in Fiction: Defoe and Dickens to Spark, Highsmith and McEwan, Second Lecture in the Series The Powers of the Novel, Gresham College, 24 February 2021, YouTube 02 March 2021.
(Discusses Moll Flanders.)
Erik McCarthy, Daniel Defoe and the Novel, YouTube, 27 March 2023.
(A good introductory survey of Daniel Defoe; discusses Moll Flanders instead of Robinson Crusoe.)
Michael Sugrue, Great Authors - Literature of the Renaissance - Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, recorded 1990s, posted to YouTube 10 October 2020.
(A very good lecture on Robinson Crusoe.)
Michael Sugrue, Kristy Goboel, Marie Thurroid, Robinson Crusoe: Bibliotheca Webinar, YouTube, 01 April 2022.
Susan Oliver, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, University of Essex, YouTube, 13 January 2014.
(Another good lecture on Robinson Crusoe.)
Timothy H. Wilson, Eighteenth-Century Literature: An Introduction, The Literature Channel, YouTube, 24 November 2024.
(A very good survey.)
Timothy H. Wilson, Robinson Crusoe: An Introduction, The Literature Channel, YouTube, 24 November 2024.
(A very good lecture on Robinson Crusoe.)
Angelina Stanford and Thomas Banks, Episode 325: Introduction to Alexander Pope and the Neo-Classical Poets, The Literary Life Podcast, 21 April 2026.
(Loosely discusses the Eighteenth Century period when and after Defoe was writing. For more on this period of English literature see the article on Augustan literature.)

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Some other editions of Robinson Crusoe :

Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe. Edited by John Richetti. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin Books, 2001, 2003.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]
Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe, Second Edition. Edited by Michael Shinagel. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1993.
[Publisher; Google Books; Amazon.com.]

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Saturday, March 21, 2026

Dunlop, trans, A Late Chrysanthemum: Twenty-One Stories from the Japanese (1986)

A Late Chrysanthemum: Twenty-One Stories from the Japanese.
Translated by Lane Dunlop.
Etchings by Tanaka Ryohei.
San Francisco: North Point Press, 1986.

Book Information : Archive.org; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.

Another edition of this book was published by Tuttle in 1988.
[Google Books with Preview; Amazon.com.]

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Translator Information : Lane Dunlop

Lane Dunlop, American Translator, 1937–2013, The Arts of Japan.
In Remembrance: Charles Lane Dunlop ’58, died 31 August 2013, Yale Alumni Magazine.
Dunlop, Charles Lane, The New York Times, 22 September 2013.
Lane Dunlop, GoodReads.com.
Volumes of translations by Lane Dunlop of single Japanese authors (Shiga Naoya, Kawabata Yasunari, Hayashi Fumiko) are noted separately below.
The Best Japanese Short Stories: Works by 14 Modern Masters: Kawabata, Akutagawa and More. Translated by Lane Dunlop. Tuttle Publishing, 2023.
[Previously published under the title Autumn Wind and Other Stories, Tuttle Publishing, 1994, 2007.]
[Publisher Autumn Wind; Publisher The Best Japanese Short Stories; Google Books Autumn Wind; Google Books The Best Japanese Short Stories; GoodReads.com Autumn Wind; GoodReads.com The Best Japanese Short Stories; Amazon.com Autumn Wind; Amazon.com The Best Japanese Short Stories.]

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Some More Recently Published (and currently in-print) Anthologies of Japanese Short Stories:

The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Theodore W. Goossen. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997, 2010.
[Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
My post for The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories is here.
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories. Edited by Jay Rubin. Book Series: Penguin Classics. New York: Penguin Books, 2018.
[Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]

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Wikipedia Articles : Japanese Literature

Japanese literature: Meiji, Taishō, and early Shōwa-period literature (1868–1945), Wikipedia English.
Japanese literature: Postwar literature (1945–onwards), Wikipedia English.
日本の近現代文学史#大正時代の文学 [History of modern Japanese literature: Literature of the Taisho Period], Wikipedia Japan.
日本の近現代文学史#戦前昭和時代の文学 [History of modern Japanese literature: Prewar Showa period literature], Wikipedia Japan.
日本の近現代文学史#現代文学（戦後の文学） [History of modern Japanese literature: Contemporary Literature (Postwar Literature)], Wikipedia Japan.

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Contents of A Late Chrysanthemum: Twenty-One Stories from the Japanese:

Shiga Naoya, 志賀直哉 (1883–1971).
1. Infatuation.
2. A Gray Moon [灰色の月 (1946)].
3. At Kinosaki [城の崎にて (1917)].
4. The Razor [Kamisori (1910)].
~~~~~ Shiga Naoya, short story collections and other works in English ~~~~~
- Shiga Naoya. The Paper Door and Other Stories. Translated by Lane Dunlop. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987; New York: Columbia University Press, 2001.
  [Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon, 1987; Amazon, 2001.]
- The short story "Night Fires" (aka "Bonfire") (1920) appears in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (1997, 2010).
- Shiga Naoya. Reconciliation [和解 (1917)]. Translated by Ted Goossen. Edinburgh: Canongate Books, 2020.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; GoodReads.com second entry for same book; Amazon.com.]
- Shiga Naoya. A Dark Night's Passing [暗夜行路 (1921-1937)]. Translated by Edwin McClellan. Kodansha, 1976, 1993.
  [Google Books; Wikipedia Japan; Wikipedia English; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com 1976; Amazon.com 1993.]
Ozaki Shiro, 尾崎士郎 (1898–1964).
1. The Wagtail's Nest.
2. River Deer.
Kawabata Yasunari, 川端康成 (1899–1972).
1. The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket (1924); also appears in Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (2006).
2. The Silverberry Thief (1925); also appears in Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (2006).
3. The Young Lady of Suruga (1927); also appears in Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (2006).
~~~~~ Kawabata Yasunari, short story collections in English ~~~~~
- Kawabata Yasunari. Palm-of-the-Hand Stories. Translated by Lane Dunlop and J. Martin Holman. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1988; New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Macmillan), 2006.
  [Publisher; Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Kawabata Yasunari. The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories. Translated by J. Martin Holman. Berkeley, California: Counterpoint Press, 1997.
  [Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- The short story "The Dancing Girl of Izu" [伊豆の踊子 (1926)] appears in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (1997, 2010) as "The Izu Dancer".
- The short story "The Silver Fifty-Sen Pieces" (1946) appears in The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories (2018) and Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (2006).
Shimaki Kensaku, 島木健作 (1903–1945).
1. The Red Frog (1946).
2. The Centipede.
3. The Black Cat (1945).
4. The Wasps.
Hayashi Fumiko, 林芙美子 (1903–1951).
1. A Late Chrysanthemum [晩菊 (1948)].
~~~~~ Hayashi Fumiko, other works in English ~~~~~
- The short story "The Accordion and the Fish Town" [風琴と魚の町 (1931)] appears in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (1997, 2010).
- Hayashi Fumiko. "I Saw A Pale Horse" and Selected Poems from "Diary of a Vagabond". Translated by Janice Brown. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997, 2010, 2011.
  [Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Hayashi Fumiko. Floating Clouds [浮雲 (1951)]. Translated by Lane Dunlop. New York: Columbia University Press, 2006.
  [Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Series of translations by J. D. Wisgo:
  1. Hayashi Fumiko. Downfall and Other Stories (Hayashi Fumiko Book 1). Translated by J. D. Wisgo. Arigatai Books, 2020.
    [Publisher; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
  2. Hayashi Fumiko. Days and Nights (Hayashi Fumiko Book 2). Translated by J. D. Wisgo. Arigatai Books, 2021.
    [Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
  3. Hayashi Fumiko. The Accordion and the Fish Town (Hayashi Fumiko Book 3). Translated by J. D. Wisgo. Arigatai Books, 2024.
    [Publisher; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
Dazai Osamu, 太宰治 (1909–1948).
1. Memories (1940).
2. A Golden Picture.
3. The Garden Lantern.
4. Chiyojo [千代女 (1941)]; also in No One Knows (2025).
~~~~~ Dazai Osamu, some recent short story collections in English ~~~~~
- Dazai Osamu. Early Light. Translated by Donald Keene and Ralph McCarthy. New York: New Directions, 2022.
  [Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Dazai Osamu. Self-Portraits: Stories. Translated by Ralph McCarthy. Kodansha, 1991; New York: New Directions, 2024.
  [Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- Dazai Osamu. No One Knows. Translated by Ralph McCarthy. New York: New Directions, 2025.
  [Publisher; Google Books; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]
- The short story "Merry Christmas" [メリイクリスマス (1947)] appears in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (1997, 2010) and also Self-Portraits: Stories (2024).
Abe Kōbō, 安部公房 (1924–1993).
1. The Red Cocoon [赤い繭 (1951)].
2. The Flood [洪水 (1951)].
3. The Stick [棒 (1955)].
~~~~~ Abe Kōbō, short story collections in English ~~~~~
- The short story "The Bet" (1960) appears in The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories (1997, 2010).
- Abe Kōbō. Beyond the Curve. Translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter. Kodansha International, 1991.
  [Google Books; Wikipedia; GoodReads.com; Amazon.com.]

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