The Rud

Before reading Kim, I always imagined the protagonist as being Oliver Twist saddled with the White Man's Burden. How wrong, yet again, I have been proved to be.That said, I have enjoyed the novel immensely.

I have also made serious progress into History of Histories by John Burrow. This samizdat selection has fostered an earnest interest in Xenephon, though again, my imagining of him as a Turgenev is likely not a sound estimation. Edmund Wilson noted T's ancestors and their penchant for animal cruelty to serfs, still Ivan Turgenev didn't have to lead a mission back from the spas at Belsen.

My birthday trove has been arriving and I am a rich man in friends and conceptual pursuits.