Simplicissimus
For Alice C
The binding, in natural-colour half-linen imported from the Netherlands, is stamped in dark brown on the shelfback and blind-stamped on the front cover.
Small, monster-like, curly-tailed creatures also adorn the cover!The end-leaves are a rust laid stock from Strathmore,
echoing the colour used within the book.
First published in 1669, this is "the earliest work in German literature
to deal with contemporary events in everyday language."
Simplicissimus would have loved blogging.
This would have been his avatar in your comment box:
His comments would have been quite cynical and world-weary.But written with great wit and humour.
He travelled quite a bit, and met such interesting peoplefrom all over
and under
the world.
He would have adored your beautiful photographsof food and housewares.
He led a simple life,fictional,
but based in fact.
Much like all good bloggers do.
___________________
So, dear Alice, I hope you enjoyed Simplicissimus.
It is certainly a huge book,
and I am quite certain that I will never actually read it from cover to cover,
but that is of no consequence.
For Simplicissimus will now always remind me of a dear blogging friend
from England
who knocked on the door of my library,
and spent some time with me.
______________________
Alice is the last borrower of the day.
I hope to be able to share many more of my bookshelves with you in the near future. Until then, I am toying with the idea of starting another short story in installments.
Oh, yes, I should also mention that another Jewish festival is coming up -this Thursday is the most solemn day of the year, Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). No, this is not the cheesecake holiday, but rather a day of fasting.
Wishing you all a wonderful week! Your book choices have been inspiring, and your comments have been so very interesting!
Eleanor xxxx
8 comments:
In response to your hidden jibe at my expense--'he led a simple life, fictional, but based in fact...'
Eleanor--For a moment there, I was really worried you were about to let my little secret out.
While sweating profusely, my left eye began twitching. Then I started getting nervous.
Here's the thing, Eleanor.
Just because I'm a 52 year old, unemployed, overweight, lonely man from Trenton, New Jersey--who happens to live at home with his elderly mother and happens to spend his time collecting tiny angel figurines--doesn't mean I can't hang with the big gals o' blogging.
My blog may be "fictional," if that's the term you choose to describe it.
Is it "fiction" to tell people I live in Germany, when I've never stepped foot outside my own neighborhood, and haven't left the house in three years? Maybe.
Is it "fiction," to tell everyone I'm a 36 year old woman with a family, who goes on lots of walks with her dog, occasionally sews and is obsessed with pastries? Again, maybe.
I may not be a "woman." I may not be "36." I may not have "a family." But I DO have a loving rat named Edward, who is free to roam around my room in the basement. He eats the leftovers, off half-eaten plates of food lying scattered around. He sleeps in my bed.
He is family to me.
While I've never "sewed," I have "made" tiny angels out of tin foil and tissue.
I may never have tried a "German pastry." But I've eaten three boxes of cinnamon-powdered doughnuts every day for the last seventeen years.
The line between "fact" and "fiction" is always a bit blurry, Eleanor.
That's why it's called "entertainment."
PS-I would've read Simplicissimus' blog. But his avatar would've scared me pants off.
Eurolush has been at the cooking sherry again.
Or she has been spending too much time at Trafo!
So you go from the joy of the New Year to the solemnity of Yom Kippur so quickly. I had not realised that.
I have never met a more "tillmötesgående" librarian in my life. You look that up, I'm at work without the necessary utensils. Love.
You are the perfect recipient of that library.
Silly Eleanor--everyone knows the cheesecake holiday is LB's birthday!
Hello Eleanor!
Thank you for visiting me!
So wonderful, beautiful books you show today and also other days...
How wonderful to arrive at the library and find a book laid out specially for me.
It seems as though I chose a book which was just right for me - albeit for the most frivolous of reasons.
I love the binding and the illustrations and there is a little lesson waiting for me inside. Every time I am tempted to lecture I shall remember his claim 'Extremely diverting and uplifting to read' and be humbled... and every time I am tempted to ostentatious displays of housewares I shall remember that Melchior got there first.
Thank you Eleanor - what a lovely treat.
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