MOLESKINE ® LITERARIO

Hoy en el diario El País levantan una noticia publicada previamente en The Guardian: La Biblioteca Británica cifra en 9.000 el número de libros extraviados y robados de sus anaqueles. Según la información, la mayoría podrían haberse extraviado en sus 650 kilómetros de estanterías. Aquí la lista de las principales joyas perdidas:

Wolfgang Musculus, Of the Lawful and Unlawful Usurie Amongest Christians, 1556. Missing since 2007. British Library valuation £20,000.

Moses Ben Maimon, Letter on Astrology, 1555. By 12th-century Jewish philosopher and Torah scholar. Missing since 1977. Nothing comparable on market.

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891. First edition missing since January 1961. Valued by Bookride at over £1,300.

Ezra Pound, Canzoni, 1911. First edition of poetry collection, described as "balderdash" by contemporary reviewer, missing since 1999. Copy on Amazon at £425.

Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1876 illustrated edition. Missing since 1976. Valued at £350 by Abe Books.

Etiquetas: inglaterra, lewis carroll, NOTICIA, oscar wilde

Cuando uno piensa en un escritor dandy, no piensa necesariamente en Tom Wolfe, que con su trajecito blanco parece más una versión caricaturesca de un amo sureño a destiempo, ni tampoco en Oscar Wilde, cuya imagen refinada está unida para siempre con la de su dolor y el de profundis, sino en Ian Flemming. El autor policial, piensa uno, ha hecho de su personaje James Bond una réplica de sí mismo. Y no puede evitar pensar en un terno y un martini para acompañar la foto de solapa. Pero Charles Cumming, en un blog de The Guardian, ha decidido en medio del centenario del autor poner en duda esa imagen.

On the face of it, 007's creator was an impossibly glamorous figure, a womaniser and bon viveur, cigarette holder in one hand, Ursula Andress´s telephone number in the other. His books sold by the million. John F Kennedy revealed From Russia With Love to have been one of his favourite books. No novelist ever had it so easy, or so good. The reality, of course, was somewhat different. Fleming was insecure about his reputation; in common with most commercially-successful novelists, he wanted to be taken seriously by the literati. At times, he found the demands of writing the Bond novels overwhelming. In 1964, for example, as he was about to embark on The Man with the Golden Gun, Fleming wrote a letter to Sir John Betjeman. "I must warn you that I am seriously running out of puff," he complained. "My inventive streak is very nearly worked out." Later that year, at the tender age of 56, Fleming died. He lived to see just two of the Bond films, Dr No and From Russia with Love, and never fully enjoyed the fruits of his success.

Además, advierte contra la imposibilidad de ser actuamente un escritor de espionaje glamouroso como pretendemos que sea Flemming:

The market is now saturated in Fleming wannabes churning out thrillers at the rate of one a year. You can see them at book conventions, bestselling men in late middle-age with exhausted eyes and skin that would shame a snooker player. Who cares that their last book sold 250,000 copies in hardback? They've got to be getting on with the next one. The modern-day Fleming doesn't have time for cocktails and snorkelling: when he's not hammering out 2000 words a day in pursuit of a killer deadline, he's chasing readers on MySpace and Facebook, or picking a fight with his agent, demanding to know why he hasn't made enough money to buy his own little Goldeneye on Corsica or Ibiza.

Etiquetas: ian flemming, inglaterra, NOTICIA, oscar wilde, tom wolfe

¿Alguno de uds. va a Londres dentro de poco? Pues si va, no puede perderse esta brevísima pero interesante guía publicada por una página web canadiense: 48 horas visitando el Londres Literario. Va desde Shakespeare hasta Rowling, pasando por Dickens, Stevenson y Oscar Wilde. Les dejo aquí mis tres sugerencias favoritas:

"Saturday 9 p.m. - If your visit is outside of these months, head back into central London for dinner at the world famous Café Royal on Park Lane. A favorite haunt of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, where they and their literary chums enjoyed conversational jousting in the opulent dining rooms of frescoed ceilings and gilt-edged mirrors.

Sunday.- 2.30 p.m. - Coming out of the tube make your way to one of London's most famous addresses 221b Baker Street, where Arthur Conan Doyle's fictional creations Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson lived in the late 19th century. In the Sherlock Holmes Museum you can sit in the super sleuth's armchair by the fire in the study overlooking Baker Street. The deerstalker cap, magnifying glass, Persian slippers and disguises are all on display. But if you'd like a photo taken in character you'll have to bring your own pipe - "Elementary!"

Sunday.- 4 p.m. - Time for a quintessentially English Afternoon Tea at a hotel favored by mystery writer Agatha Christie and colonial traveler Rudyard Kipling. Make your way to the 170-year-old Browns Hotel in Mayfair. It boasts that Kipling wrote "Jungle Book" here and that Christie broke off from writing "At Bertram's Hotel" here to enjoy the dainty sandwiches, scones, clotted cream served at tea time.

Etiquetas: conan doyle, inglaterra, kipling, NOTICIA, oscar wilde, shaw

Oscar Wilde fue elegido como "el británico más ingenioso" de todos los tiempos. Así que es un buen momento para comentar, como lo hace el ADN.es, el libro del mexicano Roberto Frías dedicado al escritor irlandés: Oscar Wilde: el arte de conversar, editado por Atalanta.

Dice la nota: "El libro se divide en dos grandes secciones. La primera abarca algunas de esas conversaciones con las que Wilde deleitaba en cenas o reuniones. La segunda, se centra en los aforismos con los que salpicó obras y artículos. Y ambas persiguen una misma intención: "Dar a conocer la imagen que Wilde tenía del mundo", tal y como afirma Frías. "Hay aspectos de Wilde que están muy descuidados en España. Es un clásico y como tal se dan por sentado muchas cosas", explica este traductor, que hasta la fecha tenía entre sus tareas pendientes la de llevar al castellano una obra de Wilde. "Está considerado como un dramaturgo de comedias, muy buen crítico literario y un excelente contador de cuentos; pero se ha olvidado su escritura sobre arte, sobre política, sobre mujeres", recuerda Frías.

Etiquetas: atalanta, españa, frias, inglatera, mexico, NOTICIA, oscar wilde