Philippe claudel biography of william shakespeare

The liturgical rearrangement—or in Peter Kwasniewski’s somewhat more colorful description, the liturgical bloodbath—that recently occurred in Tyler, Texas, has affected me on multiple levels. It affected me personally, because I have a family connection there. It affected me as a member of my local church, because I also live in a place where the Latin Mass seems to be rather unpopular among the diocesan leadership. It affected me as a member of the universal Church, because I love sacred Tradition and have for many years been devoted to the ancient eucharistic rite of western Christendom, which so fully and so poetically reifies that Tradition.

And there is yet another level, one which is not so widely shared as the first three I mentioned, and which perhaps has sent the emotional weight most directly into my heart. It has affected me—has wounded me—as someone who studies and teaches and writes about the dramatic literature of the English Renaissance. It has wounded me as someone who recently stood in front of a classroom full of college students, English majors among them, and spoke at length about Othello. This is a play in which the relentless manipulation of reality leads to appalling destruction. It is a play in which cunning words b

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French novelist follows inspirations wherever they lead

Acclaimed French novelist Philippe Claudel says that he "hates" Paris. "The people there are very strange."

He says he is much more comfortable living in a suburb of Nancy in northeast France, where there are only 10,000 people.

As for his writing, inspiration comes "from a picture, a word, a sound or some music," Claudel said by phone from Knopf Publishing headquarters in New York City. Then he tries "to follow those first impressions."

In the case of his prize-winning novel "By a Slow River," Claudel said he was thinking of John Everett Millais' famed painting "Ophelia," of a young woman floating in the river. "It is strange, because we have the impression from the painting that she is asleep."

Based on a character in Shakespeare's "Hamlet," the woman in the painting is alleged to be singing while floating — just before she drowns. Millais did his work along the banks of the Hogsmill River in Greater London. Elizabeth Siddall, the model, almost died from a fever when the painter became so engrossed by his work that he forgot to replace the candles that were keeping the water warm.

Claudel's "By a Slow River" was o