The free ebook for today is Giacomo Casanova’s  ”Story of My Life”. Recently, France’s National Library purchased the original manuscript for 7 million euros.

The manuscript is written in French and,  at 3,700 pages,  is quite a long read. Most hardbacks are abridged versions.

The problem I have is finding a translation that I enjoy reading. Below are a few samples by different translators.

The free ebook epub at Gutenberg translated by Arthur Machen in 1902:

I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent.

The translation by Sophia Hawkes in 2000:

I begin by informing my reader that for everything good or bad that I have done throughout my life, I am certain I have always earned due approbation or reproof, and must therefore consider myself a free man.

My favorite translation by William R. Trask in 1966:

I begin by declaring to my reader that, by everything good or bad, that I have done throughout my life, I am sure that I have earned merit or incurred guilt and that hence I must consider myself  free agent.

Arthur Machen is a little loose in his translation. The most recent translation by  Sophie Hawks is denser. The translation by William Trask is the most readable and true to the French.

It really comes done to a matter of taste. The Arthur Machen translation is free so maybe you prefer free regardless. Which translation do you prefer?

The free ebook for today is a collection of very famous Japanese ghost stories translated by Lafcadio Hearn. The book , Kwaidan,  inspired a 1964 Oscar-nominated film by the same name.  Once one of Cincinnati’s well-known writers, Lafcadio Hearn was a sensationalistic journalist who wrote colorful accounts of grisly crimes.  Cincinnati Magazine published a terrific article by Bob McKay,  What A Wicked Reporter Saw, about Hearn’s life in Cincinnati and his coverage of  Cincinnati’s down-n-outs.

Currently working my way through George Orwell’s fifty essays.  Orwell should be better known as an essayist.  I especially liked the essay Bookshop Memories.

Copy the plain text at Gutenberg Australia where Orwell is out of copyright. Convert the text to epub in Calibre and read it on your IPhone.

Read it!

” To say somebody is a PP is to make a perfectly respectable medical diagnosis, like saying he or she has appendicitis or athlete’s foot. The classic medical text on PPs is The Mask of Sanity by Dr. Hervey Cleckley. Read it! PPs are presentable, they know full well the suffering their actions may cause others, but they do not care. They cannot care because they are nuts. They have a screw loose! “

- Kurt Vonnegut

Link to Mask of Sanity pdf

I used Calibre to convert the pdf to an ePub to view on Stanza.

Vice Magazine has a couple of great interviews with some of my favorite authors.

Here goes..

Harry Crews

Martin Amis

Frederik Pohl

Harold Bloom

Click on the image to jump to Martin Amis’s  article about the streets of Columbia.