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| ...a SMALL sampling... |
I don't, of course — we (VERY POINTEDLY) do not have the shelf space. My parameters of purchase are: was I previously aware and desirous of this particular author/book? Do I enjoy the work of the person selected for the introduction? There are more than a few NYRB editions that I've bought solely for the intro. Sometimes that is as far as I read.
Until this morning, I was not at all aware of Józef Czapski — but with this excellent introduction and this celebration, I have now put Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp and Inhuman Land: Searching For The Truth In Soviet Russia, 1941-1942 on my list of purchases for my next visit to BMV's flagship store in Toronto's Annex.
Just getting to that LARB article today. Well worth (so far) the read — thanks!
ReplyDelete‘Merezhkovsky told Czapski that the path to heaven was muddy, that God most valued those who besmirched themselves while trying to do right.’ Damn poets!
Should add that I was halfway through it before bothering to look at writer’s name. If I’d paused a second further to think about it, could probably have guessed at that point. Grateful for the connections he draws.
ReplyDelete(Partly an admission that I barely looked at what specifically I was clicking on in your post, of course, and of some failure in general to be all that observant a reader.)
ReplyDeleteI'd be a poor one to judge anyone else for paying closer attention upon a second read. ;)
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