The IBIC Guide to Books By Ludwig Bemelmans
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August 30, 1994
TELL THEM IT WAS WONDERFUL by Ludwig Bemelmans wasn't so wonderful. This
collection of autobiographical fragments does not have the enormous
charm of Bemelmans' MADELINE series, which has now become our daughter's
favorite, even over Babar. I didn't get much of a sense of the
author's personality--this book is one of those interesting cases where
autobiography hides, rather than reveals, the essence of a man.
Another such case would be P.G. Wodehouse, whose autobiography,
PERFORMING FLEA, which I read many years ago, is fun, but doesn't have
anywhere near the magic of a book like THANK YOU, JEEVES, which I reread
this week. Thank you, P.G. Wodehouse, for a great book, beautifully
constructed and marvellously witty; but after a youth spent largely in
sipping tea and reading all of the 85 P.G. Wodehouse titles at the
University of Michigan Graduate library, I'm still too familiar with
Wodehouse to really enjoy him. I'm going to have to let my memory fade
for another 5 or 10 years before I return to old Plum.
I'm not ready to give up on Bemelmans, though. It's off to the library
to find a couple of his old novels and to see if anyone wrote a
biography of the man.
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Editor's Recommendations, Summer 1996
In this inaugural edition of IBIC's Featured Books, I'd like to
draw your attention to several titles which have helped to shape my life
and thinking.
- When I was around fifteen, I came across Larry Niven and
Jerry Pournelle's science fiction novel, INFERNO. This '70s remake of Dante's
classic describes science fiction writer Allen Carpentier's
descent into Hell. It's still a very fresh, accessible take on
the classic. What a great movie it would make!
- The Niven/Pournelle INFERNO
immediately inspired me to read the original Divine Comedy.
I've read a number of translations over the years, but my
favorite is the one by Dorothy Sayers (INFERNO;
PURGATORY;
PARADISE). The notes
are excellent, and Sayers had such a knowledgeable and witty mind that reading
her prose is a pleasure in itself. (For those interested in a more contemporary translation, I should mention that Robert Pinsky received excellent notices for his 1995 THE
INFERNO OF DANTE : A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION; it's a very handsome book.)
- I also want to tell you about the late Henry Fairlie's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS TODAY,
which probably did more than any other single book to galvanize me into a lifetime interest
in Christianity that led me, eventually, to faith. Ironic, because Fairlie was a self-proclaimed agnostic socialist! But
reading between the lines of this insightful and deeply feeling book, one realizes
that the love of God cannot have been far from Fairlie's heart.
- Finally, I should draw to your attention a more recent
acquisition, the very handsome NIV
STUDY BIBLE (10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) from Zondervan, indexed and bonded in leather in
IBIC's theme color, burgundy (black
and brown
are also available). The notes to this Bible are amazing. They
appear to provide you with a very substantial portion of what you need to
know to have an intelligent layman's appreciation of the
linguistic and historical issues involved in understanding
Scripture.
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