Book Review: The Steel Flea — Welcome to The Stumped™

For the Brothers Book Club Podcast, a BOOK REVIEW entry is an overview and assessment of the book. Expect summaries without (major) spoilers, rhetorical analysis, and general likes and dislikes.

This review is on “The Steel Flea,” a comedic short story by Nikolay Leskov. From the cover: “An uproarious romp of one-upsmanship and drunkenness from the nineteenth-century Russian comic genius.”

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"If nothing comes of Mannheim, you still have your plan to go to Mainz, Frankfurt, Weilburg, Koblenz, etc.; one should always look for places as close to each other as possible so that, if you can, the journeys should be kept short and you can soon get to a place where you'll find a source of income." - We almost timed this one perfectly, but Mozart's father's advice above will have to be a post-Father's Day treat for us all. This week on the podcast, we review some letter correspondence between Mozart and his father. Fittingly, two parents, Ryan AND Amanda, were able to join me for this one. It's our first triple threat podcast, and - if I could dare to brag a bit - I think it went fantastically well. Join us on The Brothers Book Club Podcast for a brief look at an intimate, insightful collection of letters. - P.S. Musicians, please don't close read my notes - I don't wish to offend you, hah...I may have taken artistic liberties with Mozart's originals. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance #art

"Under his helmet, up against his pack, / After so many days of work and waking, / Sleep took him by the brow and laid him back. There, in the happy no-time of his sleeping, / Death took him by the heart. There heaved a quaking / Of the aborted life within him leaping, / Then chest and sleepy arms once more fell slack... / Who knows? Who hopes? Who troubles? Let it pass! / He sleeps. He sleeps less tremulous, less cold, / Than we who wake, and waking say Alas!" - If you believe bleak times call for bleak reads, then Ryan and I have a heck of a recommendation for you this week. We reviewed "Anthem for Doomed Youth," a collection of World War 1 poetry. It's as brutal and startling as the war demands, we agreed. Also, if you didn't happen to catch that subtle reference before, allow me to sound the alarm: Ryan is BACK this week! Spread the news far and wide, friends! The brothers have returned to The Brothers Book Club Podcast. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #reading #bookstagram #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance #art

We, like many of you, have spent the past two weeks in various states of mind: panic, frustration, rage, sorrow - the list feels endless. Yet we've been heartened and bolstered by the Black Lives Matter protests taking place across the country. As a small and humble podcast, we wanted to find a way to contribute to the current movement without simply reacting to the news, reiterating policy proposals, or directing your donations - all of which are essential actions at this time. Instead, we decided to record a Book Club episode (an analytical deep dive) on Ta-Nehisi Coates's "Betwen the World and Me," a personal narrative about his experience growing up in America as a Black man. We felt it best to stick to our original goals - to read, think, and talk - but through the lens of a powerful, moving portrait of African American experience. If you're looking for a relevant reading recommendation, this is an excellent pick (and we give more around the 1 hour mark). We hope you find some time to join The Brothers Book Club Podcast on this brief literary journey; Ryan and I will also be back later this week with a Part 2 to this Book Club. We hope that you're staying safe, informed, and active. - Also, I wasn't able to finish a drawing for today's episode, but you can expect one later this week. - #BLM #BlackLivesMatter #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub

"In a dog-cart he perched his companion for a rattle over Devonshire hills, on one of the likeliest of which he brought his horse, who, it was true, had bolted, down with such violence that the occupants of the cart were hurled forward and that he fell horribly on his head." - This week, we can only offer you as much as we ever have: a touch of literary escapism (and art). We cover Henry James's "The Figure in the Carpet." It's a literary oddity; it has strange characters and rhetorical mysteries; it is weirdly modern. If none of that matters to you right now, we completely understand. But if you'd like to just be elsewhere at the moment, we can think of no better place to go than to the depths of a story. - Also, a quick announcement: we are postponing next week's review episode and have instead chosen to do a book club episode on Ta-Nehisi Coates's "Between the World and Me." There are lots of quality reading recommendations flying around on the internet right now related to black American history and experience - we implore you to pick something and expand your knowledge. If you'd like to join us for that episode, we will likely post it on Monday or Tuesday. Until then, stay safe, knowledgable, and engaged. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance #art

"How lovely the view was that day! The blue sky with its round clouds shed a brightness over everything; the ailanthus had put on a tinge of yellow-green, the hyacinths were budding, the magnolia flowers looked more than ever like rosettes carved in alabaster. Soon the wisteria would bloom, but not for her. Between her eyes and them a barrier of brick and mortar would swiftly rise...all her radiant world would be blotted out." - We return to the wide world of fiction this week with "The Reckoning," a short story collection by Edith Wharton. In their dense and generous characterizations, these stories gave us plenty to discuss. And there's a lot more than observations of minute mannerisms and social decorum - we've got arson and polygamy in this collection! Join us on The Brothers Book Club Podcast for a reading recommendation this week. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance #artistsoninstagram #art

"After dinner to Mr. Evelings; he being abroad, we walked in his garden, and a lovely noble ground he hath endeed. And among other rarities, a hive of Bees; so, as being hived in glass, you may see the Bees making their honey and Combs mighty pleasantly." - Speaking of mighty pleasant experiences, Amanda and I traveled back to 1666 for some crisis empathy in "The Great Fire of London," a diary / chronicle by Samuel Pepys. Considering, you know, the times, it was a pleasant bit of time traveling. And to encounter such semi kinship with a person who had no word for "aquarium" was, to me, an odd relief. We've come far, folks. Please join us on The Brothers Book Club Podcast for this week's review. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance

"Kovalyov felt so distraught that he was in no condition for praying, and his eyes searched every nook and cranny for the nose in uniform...The nose's face was completely hidden by the collar and it was praying with an expression of profound piety." - Your guess is as good as mine as to how a nose can have an expression of "profound piety." That's just one of many rhetorical and visual wonders (small "W") contained within the satire "The Nose," which Amanda and I reviewed this week. For a premise as odd a walking, talking nose, this story isn't perhaps as zany as we'd hoped. Find our latest on The Brothers Book Club Podcast. P.S. If you want a truly maddening drawing task that you can quickly abandon, search the phrase "inside of Roman Catholic church." It gets decadent in there! Forgive my comparatively barren version. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance #literaturelover

"So we made a skirting voyage, turned the point of the cape which was close by, ran up one side of the triangle at our best speed, crossed over the base where it left the higher mountains, and so back to our lake by moonlight...Of course we had looked at the land itself - eagerly, but we were too high and going too fast to see much. It appeared to be well forested about the edges, but in the interior there were wide plains, and everywhere parklike meadows and open places." - Amanda and I fulfilled our promise and followed up on a podcast favorite, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, with a Book Club (deep dive!) on her feminist utopian novel, Herland. It made for fascinating - and pretty brief - reading. Our episode is now posted; please listen in and enjoy our spoiler-filled podcast. Or, better yet, dig up a copy online for free and join us sometime soon after reading. It remains a rich and relevant text...and isn't without its oddities and controversies. Find us on The Brothers Book Club Podcast. Enjoy your weekend; we hope you find something enticing to read. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance

For this week's first episode (special bonus book club coming Friday!), I posted a reimagination of our best of / highlights episode format. Instead of pulling old clips, I revisited volumes 21-40 of our Little Black Classics reviews. I dedicate about 2 minutes to each in an attempt to (re)explore what makes each book worthwhile. Join for me about an hour, and I assure you that you'll leave with at least 1-2 reading ideas. From literary titans like Dante and Jane Austen to relative unknowns (at least to me) such as Kingsley and Leskov, this highlights episode contains the type of literary diversity that can entertain - and perplex! - during quarantine. - Also, the drawing is a reimagining of the logo my brother made for The Stumped (the website we post to). We're still here, just hanging on the stump. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance

"The bull had driven Felicite up against a gate and was blowing dust into her face. A second later and it would have gored her. In the nick of time she managed to squeeze herself between two bars in the gate. The huge animal was taken completely by surprise and stopped in its tracks. People in Pont-l'Eveque talked about this adventure for years afterwards. But Felicite never boasted about it and hardly seemed to realize that she had done anything heroic." - If you're looking for thrills and action, I'm afraid I've just pulled the most intense passage from all of "A Simple Heart," the short story we reviewed this week on the podcast. Nevertheless, there is - at times - an intimate and compelling character study here. And as the back cover makes sure to point out, there's also a pet parrot. Join us as we kinda sorta take on a Literary Titan in our review on The Brothers Book Club Podcast. - P.S. As I was typing this post, I only now noticed that I drew her pose on the fence 100% incorrectly. How fun! Let's call it artistic license, friends. - #podcasts #podcasting #bookclub #drawing #penandinkdrawing #penandink #sketching #inkdrawing #inkdrawings #drawings #penandinkalliance

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