Prolific Living

classic

“The Last Station”: One year in the life of world’s beloved novelist – Leo Tolstoy

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Leo Tolstoy Quote | Everything I love

Reading Anna Karenina has been so overwhelming and gratifying that I chose to walk away from it for a short while. I decided to take time to digest the scope, the breadth, the depth in this masterpiece of a novel. It is of course an overly ambitious task to ever digest it all. This is only my first reading by the Russian novelist, Leo Tolstoy, but most definitely not my last. So it was especially fortuitous when we chose to watch “The Last Station” about his life on a girls’ night out celebrating Russia’s International Women Day on Monday, March the 8th. [Read more…] about “The Last Station”: One year in the life of world’s beloved novelist – Leo Tolstoy

Why to Read the Classics: Celebrating our Literary Heritage

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Aside from a handful of reading assignments in high school and a few beloved thick classics which slipped through, I turned my back to literature and the classics for the sake of science, engineering, and a career in technology.

“How on earth would English Literature or any other classic help me toward excelling in grad school or getting the next promotion?”, I thought, tossing aside even the remote possibility of engaging in such an activity. Quite rightly, it probably would not have helped me. Jane Austen or Emily Brontë would have never been instrumental in writing my thesis on “Effects of pulse shape on performance of Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum Multiple Access communication systems“! Or in getting that next promotion, for that matter. [Read more…] about Why to Read the Classics: Celebrating our Literary Heritage

Gustave Flaubert: “Madame Bovary”

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I finally know the timeless story of Madame Bovary.

Reading Gustave Flaubert's Madame BovaryWhat a remarkable journey to delve into the timeless classics whose names I first heard uttered in adult conversations in my childhood in Iran. The Godfather is such an example. Victor Hugo’s Les Les Misérables another. Madame Bovary yet another.

I read Gustave Flaubert‘s masterpiece in English, translated not by Penguin Classics which seems to be the most well-known version but by Wordsworth Classics, which I picked up in a small bookstore in London. Despite the extremely smooth translation with countless awe-inspiring passages, I have no doubt much was lost in translation from the prose and poetic style associated with the original French version. [Read more…] about Gustave Flaubert: “Madame Bovary”

From One Unforgettable Tenor to 3 Sublime Operas

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Our experiences are not only made up of what we have lived through. Sometimes, experience stems from that which we did not do.

Pavarotti wax statue at Madame Tussaud

I never had the chance to watch Luciano Pavarottiperform live. I regret that bitterly. The immaculate voice of this opera tenor was a gift to this world and who knows when, if ever, another one like him will raise our spirits and touch our senses as deeply, as easily, and as unforgettably as the phenomenal Pavarotti. It is through this regret, this missed opportunity for not knowing how much time I had with to see the unforgettable tenor live someday, that my appreciation and curiosity for the opera has stemmed. [Read more…] about From One Unforgettable Tenor to 3 Sublime Operas

Baroness Emmuska Orczy: “The Scarlet Pimpernel”

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Reading A Scarlet Pimpernel at breakfast in Argentina's Park Hyatt

If I had to do it all over again, I would….?

When you ask yourself that question casually, what is the answer? In some situations, we cannot change the past and the opportunity has passed. In others however, we may be able to set a new course. A few years ago I realized one of my many answers. That I would have loved to read far more classics over the years. Heaps of engineering textbooks, technical jargon and business buzzwords prepared and educated me well for my career but left me with a strong desire for voraciously consuming the classics, literature, poetry, art and history – hence my reading mania since 2006! There is usually a very good reason a book is considered a classic and besides, exploring the genre has hardly resulted in a regret for anyone that I have ever met. [Read more…] about Baroness Emmuska Orczy: “The Scarlet Pimpernel”

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