| year the English make banging noises all night. With fireworks. A strange thing to celebrate, I think,
showing a typical British love of the underdog, even if that underdog is a murderous traitor. It is lucky
that Guy Fawkes didn't try to kill the king in some other way. Like setting loose twenty ravenous coyotes
or feeding him excessive quantities of red cabbage. Coyote Evening and Red Cabbage Dusk really
don't have the same ring as Fireworks Night. Those of you who enjoyed that little historical excursion will be pleased to hear that the 6th November 1479 saw the birth of Juana the Mad, Queen of Castile and Leon. Juana the Mad was married, improbably, to Philip I the Handsome. Juana is mainly known now for the fact that she kept her husband's corpse by her bed for 19 years believing that he would return on his anniversary.. That is an extremely unhygienic kind of affection and is not recommended - particularly to my wife, Kuala the Insane. So we reach the end of another fascinating week in the world of literature as filtered by Bibliomania. Just a final mention remains for that king of the existential and professional footballer Albert Camus who was born on November 7th 1913. He once said that the most existentially absurd thing that could happen to a person was to die in a car crash and quite improbably went and died in a car crash in 1960 at the age of 47. Not only do we have a new study guide to his seminal novel The Outsider, but we are also going to be giving you The Plague in the very near future (we hope you're resistant). See our November competitions for more on Camus and friends. There is just time, before I go to give you one last quotation from Camus himself: "You know what charm is: a way of getting the answer yes without having asked any clear question" (La Chute (1956)) Yes, precisely. I'm off back to the bibliomania vaults to stew in classic literature for another week so until then send your finest thoughts, anniversaries you want celebrated, and quotations from the stars to comments@bibliomania.com. |
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