Tuesday, April 27

Art

Quicksilver

One has to be in a certain mood to enjoy a book like this - or at least, I have to be - not unlike the mood where I'm prepared to enjoy Cervantes or Sir Walter Scott. But since I am in such a mood right now, I am enjoying it very much.

It's certainly a rambling tale, but it rambles it's way past and through many points of interest, so I have few complaints. I was under the impression that the Old London Bridge had been destroyed by the time the novel is set (the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries), but it turns out that this is not the case - although the bridge was burned down in 1014, destroyed by a storm in 1091, burned down again in 1136, and the site of catastrophic fires in 1212 and 1633. It was replaced in 1831 by a less combustible stone structure, which was widened in 1904 whereupon it sank into the swamp. Well, it sank slowly, but still...

That sort of history boggles me just a little, as Sydney's famous Harbour Bridge is only seventy years old and has so far not been destroyed even once. To paraphrase someone: In England, a hundred miles is a long distance; in Australia, a hundred years is a long time.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 09:03 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment | Trackbacks (Suck)
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1 That one burned down, fell over and then sank into the swamp ... but the next one stayed UP! And that's what you're going to get lad, the strongest bridge in London Town. Pity it's a bit dull though.

Posted by: Rob at Tuesday, April 27 2004 11:10 AM (kXZI6)

2 LOL! Rob stole my comment!!! So I guess that I'll have to say that the time/distance thing is true of the U.S. too--Chicago's only 200 miles away, we can be there by lunch!

Posted by: Susie at Tuesday, April 27 2004 12:53 PM (5H/6B)

3 Yay pre-emptive comment theft ... It had to be done though. Here in Jersey we suffer from an inversion of the time distance thing. Going 2 miles to the next parish seems like a long way. Ah well, I guess that's what you get for living on an island that's only 9 miles x 6

Posted by: Rob at Wednesday, April 28 2004 05:12 AM (kXZI6)

4 great minds... Rob, we'll be sure to send Stitch your way. Pixy, your comments don't remember me.

Posted by: Ted at Wednesday, April 28 2004 09:43 AM (blNMI)

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