GASLIGHT: LANTERN SLIDES FROM THE NINETEENTH CENTURY - Joachim Kalka


 The nineteenth century ... a boring time for civilization, right? Literature was dry and unimaginative. Entertainment was stodgy theatre or the comics in the newspapers. This is how we generally look back a little more than a century, isn't it?

Historian and essayist Joachim Kalka looks at the 19th Century through a series of essays and compares and contrasts our 21st Century interests in music, film, literature, and art with that of our ancestors in the 19th Century. Our interests are not so different and the way in which we manage to enjoy these interests is not really as different as we might think.

Kalka has a clear interest in this subject and digs into the past with professorial vigor. Our interests and the manner in which we seek to entertain ourselves are not so different. Only the means by which our entertainment is produced has truly changed, is what these essays boil down to. But rather than say so, directly, Kalka expounds with what is too often an essayists flair.  Why be direct when you can be colorful?

I was intrigued early on and found Kalka's insight clever and meaningful.  But as the book wore on I didn't feel I was getting anything new, just different points of examination. And the writing itself seemed to be getting drier ... or was it just that I was tired of reading it?

I also can't say that I felt we were talking about 19th century 'Anyman.' These people were typically the better educated, higher class of people with more resources and more time on their hands.  How many farmers or field worker sat around and read Balzac or Proust in the evenings?

Looking for a good book? Gaslight, by Joachim Kalka, is definitely not a book for everyone but if any part of the description or this (or any other review) sounds appealing, then you are the target audience and you may want to check it out.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

3 stars

* * * * * *

Gaslight: Lantern Slides from the Nineteenth Century

author: Joachim Kalka

translator: Isabel Fargo Cole

publisher: New York Review of Books

ISBN: 9781681371184

paperback, 172 pages

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

VINYL RESTING PLACE - Olivia Blacke

Image
 Juni Jessup and her two sister, Tansy and Maggie, have gone into business together in their hometown of Cedar River, Texas, opening a combination record store and coffee shop. Vinyl LPs are making a comeback after all, despite critics thinking the medium was dead.  But speaking of 'dead' ... finding a dead body in the supply closet just as they are looking to have a grand opening is not part of the plan.  Juni's life gets more complicated when their uncle, Calvin, already a suspect in the murder, disappears. And the police officer leading the investigation is Juni's EX-boyfriend (who passive-aggressively keeps putting himself back into her life). Convinced that her uncle would never murder anyone, Juni sets out to prove his innocence - which isn't easy since he's making himself look guilty - because Calvin is family and family is EVERYthing to Juni. As readers of my blog know, I'm not a big fan of most cozy mysteries, but the setting caught my eye and my in...
Read more

THE WALLED CITY - Ryan Graudin

Image
  Jin and her sister, Mei Yee, were taken and sold and then sent to the lawless Walled City to serve as prostitutes or slaves to anyone willing to pay. Jin managed to escape her captivity, but not the Walled City and she now lurks about, disguised as a boy and is trying to track down the brothel where her sister is still captive. Jin will work odd delivery jobs to earn a small bit of money and hopefully have a legitimate means of coming in contact with her sister's captors.  This is how she meets up with Dai, a mysterious boy who has somehow managed to avoid running with any of the gangs in the city but he seems to have his own unusual connections, which Jon could desperately use if she has any hope of finding Mei Yee. But Dai has his own desperate needs.  The story is told from the different perspectives of each character and we do bounce around quite a bit as the chapters are generally short. This never bothered me, which is slightly unusual as often I find this techni...
Read more

THE RAVEN THIEF - Gigi Pandian

Image
 With Tempest Raj now a member of the company, Secret Staircase Construction (a company who, as their title suggests, builds mystery-themed, secret rooms inside homes) has finished their first job. Their client now wants to celebrate to kick off her new beginning - new home and new life now that she's divorced from her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property, led by Tempest's friend, Sanjay.   But during that séance, while all those gathered sat in a dark room holding hands, Corbin's dead body crashes the party, falling across the table in front of everyone. There were eight people in the room, and they were all holding hands, but all the evidence points to one of them being the murderer.  Suspicions point to Ash, Tempest's grandfather, because he was the only one with Corbin's blood on him. Of course, as a doctor, he was also the only one who checked on the body - ...
Read more