Canzoniere - by Petrarch

Canzoniere, or “scattered poems”, is Petrarch’s chronicle of his love for Laura, whom he first saw on April 6, 1327 in the Church of St. Claire in Avignon. For the next 40 years Petrarch wrote about his love for Laura, continuing after her death in 1348.

This lovely Penguin Classics edition has on its cover a detail from a Ghirlandaio painting in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, from which city Petrarch’s father had been exiled. The poems are presented in their original vernacular Italian on the left-hand pages and in English translation on the right-hand pages. Prefaced by an introduction by the translator, Anthony Mortimer, the scene is set for the poems, giving the context in which Petrarch was writing, explaining the place of Canzoniere in Petrarch’s body of work.

Through the years, Laura’s influence on Petrarch evolved as he himself grew in life experience. He would have been about 24 years old when he first saw Laura; 44 when she died in 1348; and 70 at his death in 1374. Petrarch struggled throughout his adult life with a desire for literary fame and his love for Laura, leading to a spiritual crisis. This conflict of worldly desires with the spiritual permeate the Canzoniere, making this collection of poems and sonnets much more than a romantic expression of a man’s love for a woman.

Petrarch’s spiritual crisis is echoed 500 years later in a similar spiritual crisis experienced by the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.

Many of the sonnets/poems in Canzoniere can stand alone as expressions of isolated moments. Taken together as a whole, they are a powerful statement of this extraordinary man’s emotions and struggles.

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It was a little odd to be reading Christmas stories in July, but with Dickens you can't go wrong.

I've seen a number of the film adaptations of "A Christmas Carol," but had never read the text. It's a timeless, engaging story of what's really important in life: being generous with those you care about not money.

Dickens can be a bit verbose at times, but most often with well-crafted cleverness.

I enjoyed the other short stories as well, though to be honest "The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain" did start to drag.

All in all, though, a book very much worth the read!

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Three waspish studies of manipulation and jealousy, the plays collected in this volume reveal above all Williams's keen ear for clever dialogue and the depth of his human sympathy.

'Baby Doll' follows the marriage of down-at-heel cotton merchant Archie Meighan and the eponymous ingénue. At first, Baby Doll seems a witless comic foil to Meighan, but the play swiftly changes focus from his sexual frustration, emphasising instead troubling themes of revenge, jealousy and poverty.

Likewise, the collection's other two plays, originally performed together, explore the individual's desire to dominate. 'Something Unspoken' is a witty vignette with disquieting undertones, whilst 'Suddenly, Last Summer' is a darkly lyrical, haunting study of a man already dead, as he is seen by the women he left behind.

'Baby Doll' has a deservedly high reputation as a keynote Williams play and was his only script written specifically for the screen. Yet it wears its themes lightly - though featuring arson, alcoholism and adultery, it always maintains a lightness of touch without seeming crass. The other plays, too, retain this trademark refusal to judge, and, though more avowedly sinister, manage to amuse as well as dismay.

Whilst perhaps not ranking with the masterpieces of Williams's canon, this is a pitch perfect collection from a very subtle dramatist.

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