Spooks

So last night i watched four episodes of Spooks Series One on DVD.  This is about MI 5 and not ghostly apparitions. Although you could argue there is a similarity as they lie between binary opposites being of a spectral nature, that is there / not-there or   dead / alive , much like a zombie. Just to say that it was a great BBC drama.

This DVD set was one of those found on my last charity shop visits, actually in Tenderden.

A Softly Morning

So , as i was listening to some jazz compilations, this track was one of them, by Sonny Clark, a lovely piano led groove on Softly As In A Morning Sunrise. Enjoy.

Poem Of The Week

Sold a few books today in Faversham. Morning started cool but it did warm up by midday, with some slight precipitation mid afternoon. It felt a bit thundery, but so far we have had none.

I found a collection of poems in a charity shop for fifty pence, and skimming through it found this one.

Here is a poem by Alexander Pope called Summer.


See what delights in sylvan scenes appear!
Descending Gods have found Elysium here.
In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray'd,
And chaste Diana haunts the forest shade.
Come lovely nymph, and bless the silent hours,
When swains from shearing seek their nightly bow'rs;
When weary reapers quit the sultry field,
And crown'd with corn, their thanks to Ceres yield.
This harmless grove no lurking viper hides,
But in my breast the serpent Love abides.
Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew,
But your Alexis knows no sweets but you.
Oh deign to visit our forsaken seats,
The mossy fountains, and the green retreats!
Where-e'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade,
Where-e'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.
Oh! How I long with you to pass my days,
Invoke the muses, and resound your praise;
Your praise the birds shall chant in ev'ry grove,
And winds shall waft it to the pow'rs above.
But wou'd you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain,
The wond'ring forests soon shou'd dance again,
The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call,
And headlong streams hang list'ning in their fall!
But see, the shepherds shun the noon-day heat,
The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat,
To closer shades the panting flocks remove,
Ye Gods! And is there no relief for Love?
But soon the sun with milder rays descends
To the cool ocean, where his journey ends;
On me Love's fiercer flames for ever prey,
By night he scorches, as he burns by day

Book 45 - Emile Zola "Therese Raquin"

Emile Zola "Therese Raquin" (Oxford World Classics))





Therese Raquin is a harrowing story of lust, murder, terror, and madness.

A French officer brings his black-haired love child, the daughter of his North African mistress, to his sister in France, a Mme Raquin. He returns to Africa where he is soon reported killed. Mme Raquin, a widow, is only too happy to raise her orphaned niece as a companion to her sickly son Camille. Young Thérèse, full of healthful vitality, is forced to endure the claustrophobic life of her sick cousin. Seeing nothing of the world, she becomes a silent introvert, suppressing her natural desires. When she reaches adulthood, Thérèse apathetically complies when Mme Raquin insists that she marry Camille so she can continue to be his caretaker.

Thérèse gradually comes to loathe her banal, sickly husband, but continues to repress her feelings and desires. This comes to an end when she meets Laurent, Camille's virile, self-indulgent friend. The two begin a passionate affair behind the backs of the unsuspecting mother and husband. When circumstances make it impossible for them to continue their clandestine meetings, sexual frustration drives them to plot to murder Camille so they can eventually marry. The plot is successful, but each is tormented by the fear of detection, and instead of the bliss they expected, their lives become a living hell.

The novel created a sensation when it was first published in 1867, for its violence, its sexual candor, and most of all for its amorality. This is a tale devoid of religious content or social message. Zola's defended his novel, saying his purpose was "to study temperament, not character." He contrasts the sanguine nature of Laurent with the nervous constitution of Thérèse, and treats their romance and its tragic end as something as inevitable as a chemical reaction. Zola's psychological analysis may seem primitive and simplistic, but it was a bold venture for its time. The characters and their mental states are always believable even though modern psychologists would explain them in more sophisticated terms.

Zola's preface describes the book in quasi-scientific terms, as a scientific observation that takes an inevitable course that he did not decide. He places himself at odds with the romantics, but the novel itself shares many of the same dramas and conventions , and is thus considerably more interesting than the naturalistic description it claims to be.

Therese Raquin has none of the social criticism for which his later novels were famous for but it convey a sense of the lives, institutions, and surroundings of mid-19th century Paris. It is an intense and memorable novel, highly recommended.

Hack It

I was watching Warehouse 13  (series 5) on the SyFy channel and i thought to myself i cannot hack this anymore. I am beginning to wish that Haven was back on. So midway through it i turned the telly off, and i am going to watch some episodes of Numbers on a DVD set of series four.

I shall come back to blog tomorrow. Oh and i have some visits in Deal and three in Medway (Rochester, Chatham and Gillingham). Good night,