COMPLETE: Glimpses of Italian society in the eighteenth century by Hester Lynch Piozzi -jo

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » May 21st, 2019, 4:41 am

barbara2 wrote: ↑May 21st, 2019, 4:32 am Pam, Section 15, Naples part 3:

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_15_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
20:00

Goethe was in Italy in for 2 years from 1786. His “Italian Journey" is currently being recorded in German for Librivox. I just discovered that W. H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer translated it (so I ordered it). “Naples is a paradise" wrote Goethe "in it every one lives in a sort of intoxicated self-forgetfulness. It is even so with me: I scarcely know myself; I seem to myself quite an altered man. Yesterday I said to myself, ‘Either you have always been mad, or you are so now.’ ’’

Best,

Barbara

pnagami · Post by **pnagami** » May 21st, 2019, 6:46 am

Hi Barbara,

Too bad you can't record it in English, as the translation sounds too recent. I have always been interested in Goethe's Italienische Reise.

Section 15 is PL OK.

My best,

Pam

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » June 22nd, 2019, 1:25 am

pnagami wrote: ↑May 21st, 2019, 6:46 am Hi Barbara,

Too bad you can't record it in English, as the translation sounds too recent. I have always been interested in Goethe's Italienische Reise.

Section 15 is PL OK.

My best,

Pam

Hi Pam, I'm up to p. 159. It's January 1787, Goethe is 5? years younger than Hester, but I don't think my authors' paths will cross. It seems to me so far that a person who, in Auden's words, "is one of the triumvirate who occupy the thrones of European Literature" is ...the word I am trying to avoid using is "humble". He is a few years younger than Hester and is trying to travel incognito - flatting modestly in Rome with some artists (one of whom is currently designing the famous portrait) and, while keeping his critical faculties, is open to all experiences now that he is "At last in the First City of the World!"

I hope I can keep reading him in tandem with Hester.

Best,

Barbara

pnagami · Post by **pnagami** » June 22nd, 2019, 6:18 am

Hi Barbara,

I took a German class in college called "Goethe and Schiller," but I have to confess I never actually read it. Always meant to. I'll look up this translation. My professor friend recommends Thomas Mann's "Lotte in Weimar" about Goethe's literary lion days.

Reading these two travelogs in tandem-- sublime. And on the eve of the French Revolution, nothing could be better!

Ironically yours,

Pam

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » June 22nd, 2019, 7:45 pm

pnagami wrote: ↑June 22nd, 2019, 6:18 am
My professor friend recommends Thomas Mann's "Lotte in Weimar" about Goethe's literary lion days.

Pam

I started that quite recently but didn't know enough to appreciate the satire(?). I am very familiar with much of Goethe's poetry because - Lieder!!

Tra la,

Barbara

pnagami · Post by **pnagami** » June 23rd, 2019, 7:11 am

My friend explained that in the novel Lotte comes to Weimar many years after a cherished acquaintanceship with Goethe, but the literary lion barely remembers her.

Pam

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » July 1st, 2019, 5:19 pm

Hi Pam,

Section 16 - Naples Pt. 4
https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_16_piozzi_128.mp3
16:28

Goethe shares Hester's enthusiasm for Naples. Vesuvius is a good deal quieter and he has climbed to the crater's very rim.

Best,

Barbara

pnagami · Post by **pnagami** » July 2nd, 2019, 9:04 am

Hi Barbara,

Section 16 is PL OK.

That Hester had such great adventures by defying convention and marrying an Italian.

And thank God she wrote them down!

Pam

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » July 2nd, 2019, 11:19 pm

pnagami wrote: ↑July 2nd, 2019, 9:04 am Hi Barbara,

Section 16 is PL OK.

That Hester had such great adventures by defying convention and marrying an Italian.

And thank God she wrote them down!

Pam

Thanks, Pam, for the PL. Hester availed herself of all the opportunities that Piozzi's connections gave - if I remember Goethe correctly, a lot of the rich travellers were incurious and didn't venture enough out of their own circles.

Best,

Barbara

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » July 21st, 2019, 6:18 am

At last, Section 17 - Rome Revisited

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_17_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
32:37

17th April 1786 and the Piozzis are heading home.

Best,

Barbara

pnagami · Post by **pnagami** » July 21st, 2019, 7:25 am

Hi Barbara,

Section 17 is PL OK.

A pleasure to hear, as usual!

Pam

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » August 15th, 2019, 10:50 pm

Section 18, Return to Milan (part 1):

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_18_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
17:50

Hester gets philosophical...

Best,

Barbara

pnagami · Post by **pnagami** » August 16th, 2019, 4:23 am

Hi Barbara,

I am looking forward to this!

Going to Boston today, so will listen when I get WiFi.

My best,

Pam

pnagami · Post by **pnagami** » August 17th, 2019, 4:25 am

Hi Barbara,

Section 18 is PL OK.

Ever interesting!

Pam

barbara2 · Post by **barbara2** » August 21st, 2019, 4:57 pm

Section 19, Pam, Return to Milan Part 2

https://librivox.org/uploads/knotyouraveragejo/italiansociety_19_piozzi_128.mp3
M:S
19:21

Hester remains reflective.

And you might be entertained by reading about the horror that is clear starching:

http://18thcenturylife.com/2016/research/the-laundrymaid-clear-starching/

Best,

Barbara