Friday Fixin’s

I can dream, can’t I? Photo from Google Images:

Born to nobility, Alexander Pushkin, 1799–1837, is considered Russia’s greatest poet and, by many, its greatest literary figure. Because of the nature of his early work, he was under constant surveillance by agents of the Tsar. A father of four in debt, he was killed at 37 in a duel with a man he believed had designs on his beautiful wife. I’ve never been a fan of poetry other than that of song, reading only what was assigned in lit courses. I’d assumed Pushkin wrote nothing but poetry, so I’d never pursued any of his work. His Wiki profile lists his entire canon, half of which is prose. Duh! Recently a Penguin paperback of four of his works came my way, The Queen of Spades and Other Stories. I really enjoyed it, although the first two, The Negro of Peter the Great and Dubrovsky are incomplete novels. The title story is solid, although familiar, reading like a Hitchcockian tale. The Captain’s Daughter is a nearly complete novel, an entertaining story of adventure. Although Rosemary Edmonds’ translation is solid, it cannot capture the writing for which Pushkin is revered and envied. As usual, I found the tongue-twisting names maddening and wished Edmonds had taken liberties, using shortened versions most of the time. Still, I’m glad I had the opportunity to sample a literary icon’s work. Decades after his death, an additional chapter of The Captain’s Daughter was discovered. It closes with this interesting line that has proved half right: “Those who plan impossible revolutions in Russia are either youngsters who do not know our people or positively heartless men who set little value on their own skins and less still on those of others.” Photo from GI:

Rosemary Edmonds passed away at 92 in 1998. She also translated Turgenev and, her specialty, Tolstoy. During WWII she was translator to General de Gaulle at Fighting France Headquarters in London, and after Liberation, in Paris.

Headline out of Long Island from nypost.com: “Twin brothers earn valedictorian and salutatorian honors with GPAs separated by just six-thousandths of a point.” Meet Devon & Dylan Lee. Kudos, Kiddos. Photo from GI:

Vote-buying 101, headline from foxnews.com: “Biden delivers $5,000,000,000 handout for student loan holders.” To those who paid their debts, take a hike.

Snow and cold again put the kibosh on the floating book shop, but one positive occurred. The alternate side regulation was cancelled, so I didn’t have to move the car out of the prime business location. I’m good until closing time Thursday. Meanwhile, I completed the second handwritten draft of the short story I’m working on — minus excerpts I copied and pasted into a notepad. I will begin joining the two parts tomorrow.

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