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Title: The Assassin's Cloak: An Anthology of the World's Greatest Diarists by Alan Taylor, Irene Taylor ISBN: 0-86241-920-4 Publisher: Canongate Books Pub. Date: 07 October, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A treasure
Comment: January 1, 2003: Bought this collection of diary and journal entries based on a review that said it would be a great book to leave in the guest bedroom for visitors. Have resolved to read a day's worth of entries each morning, and finish the book in one year.
February 16, 2003: Have discovered that this book is much more conveniently placed in the bathroom, where I am sure to spend five minutes each morning, rather than the guest bedroom.
April 13, 2003: What a remarkable collection of fascinating historical figures! The featured diarists are carefully chosen, as are the selected entries. Together they span four centuries and at least as many continents.
June 1, 2003: Have started to develop personal favorites among the many diarists. Pepys, for his unrepentant lasciviousness. Chips Channon, for his loveable pretentiousness. Kafka, for being Kafka. Warhol, for being Warhol. Coppola, for her intriguing insights into the life of her film-making husband. Woolf, for her introspective moodiness. Gide, for his sarcasm and arrogance.
July 5, 2003: Have become utterly addicted to my morning routine with this book, and have now started reading ahead.
July 29, 2003: Have only two minor complaints so far. One is that the diarists are predominantly British - perhaps a more diverse selection would have been better. The second is that there is a disproportionate number of entries during the WWII time period. Without doubt a fascinating and important time, historically, so I guess this is understandable.
August 7, 2003: Finished the collection, almost five months early. Will now return this book to my guest room, where friends and family will be sure to enjoy it for years to come.
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent anthology
Comment: Reading diaries from the dead, has always made me feel like a voyeur, looking into half open windows, the curtains partially drawn, and seeing what shouldn't be seen. Granted, some diarists write to be read, while most, in my opinion, do not. But there is a kind of sweet pleasure in committing a misdemeanour and getting away with it - which is the sensation one feels when reading this anthology.
There are some 170 diarists in this anthology, some well known and others not so, and well over 1800 entries, containing profound thoughts of the time from a few great historical figures to the routine-filled humdrum of the day-to-day. The humdrum day-to-day, in most cases, was a lot more interesting because it is usually what people do everyday that provides insight into their character and the times in which they lived.
On the front flap of the cover is a single line that really defines a great diarist - "The best diarists are those who write without looking over their shoulders." That total lack of self-consciousness, that pure honesty that comes with writing about self and others, is certainly a pleasure for the reader. For example, a simple line, almost an after thought, written by the French novelist, Andre Gide - "It requires a great effort to convince myself that I am as old as those who seemed to me old when I was young."
Because this anthology includes both famous diarists and those not so famous, many unknown individuals in some cases, there is a biography section at the back which gives a brief history for each contributor, that for me, managed to provide enough background information for the entries to be much more meaningful.
As with most anthologies, one does not necessarily need to read them chronologically, but can dip, skip and choose ar random as the particular mood dictates. This is the perfect book to have by your bed to read a few short or long entries before falling to sleep. One can sample a taste of the 16th century with one of the most famous diarists, Samuel Pepys, and jump a few pages ahead to read Andy Warhol and his unusual observations about some famous people and New York's art world of the sixties.
Great stuff.
Rating: 5
Summary: Why Isn't This Book Better Known?
Comment: I don't recall hearing any press buzz when this book came out, and I can't understand why. This is a brilliantly edited collection of excerpts from diarists both famous and obscure. Some of the most interesting entries were written by total unknowns, including people of whom one would not even suspect literacy. One-paragraph biographies of all diarists appear at the end of the book, for reference.
The genius of the editors, which sounds like a gimmick but isn't, is their arrangment of the excerpts by the month and day that the entries were written. Within each day, the entries jump magnificently from century to century, and from author to author, so that the voices that the reader hears, and the perspectives on history and society that the reader gains, are constantly shifting. For example, entries of European Jews in the midst of the Holocaust are juxtaposed with British entries from the same era--and German entries from twenty years earlier.
The format makes for more richness of texture than any one diarist could. This book calls to mind Thomas Mallon's _A Book of One's Own_. Mallon's book groups diarists by type, however, not entries by day, and Mallon provides a great deal more commentary than the editors of _The Assassin's Cloak_ do. The Taylors let their own quirky choices of entries provide implied commentary.
Warning: this book is 600 pages long, and highly addictive. A must read for anyone interested in diaries and journals.
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Title: The Outermost Dream: Essays and Reviews (Graywolf Rediscovery Series) by William Maxwell ISBN: 1555972640 Publisher: Graywolf Press Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: So Many Books, So Little Time: A Year of Passionate Reading by Sara Nelson ISBN: 0399150838 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 09 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland by Michael Dirda ISBN: 0393057569 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: A Brief History of the Human Race by Michael Cook ISBN: 0393052311 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
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Title: Frankie's Place: A Love Story by Jim Sterba ISBN: 0802117473 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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