Tag Archives: RKS literature

The Return of the Penniless Pensioner: Can I Save Canada? Chapter Three: I Am Not the Man I Used To Be

If you have read my book “The Penniless Pensioner: Misaligned, Maligned but Marvellous” you might be tempted to say I morphed in light speed from a spoiled Indo-Welsh brat into a man of intrigue. Am I happy? How can you ask that after my sweet Calabrian plum Ginevra and our unborn child were killed inContinue reading “The Return of the Penniless Pensioner: Can I Save Canada? Chapter Three: I Am Not the Man I Used To Be”

RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Prison Sentences in Stalinist Soviet Union

“Shukov stared at the ceiling and said nothing. He no longer knew whether he wanted to be free or not. To begin with, he’d wanted it very much and counted up every evening how many days he still had to serve. Then he’d gotten fed up with it. And still later it had gradually dawnedContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Prison Sentences in Stalinist Soviet Union”

RKS Literature: The Perpetual Sentence in the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)

“Another thing the searchers looked for in the morning: men wearing civilian dress under prison clothes. Never mind that everybody had been stripped of his civilian belongings long ago and told that he’d get them back the day his sentence ended (a day nobody in the camp had yet seen).” “One Day in the LifeContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Perpetual Sentence in the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)”

RKS Literature: Everyone Taking Their Cut of Bread at the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)

“Shukov had drawn a few thousand bread rations in jails and prison camps, and though he’d never had the chance to weigh his portion on the scales, and anyway was too timid to kick up a fuss and demand his rights, he knew better than most prisoners, that a bread cutter who gave full measureContinue reading “RKS Literature: Everyone Taking Their Cut of Bread at the Gulag (Solzhenitsyn)”

RKS Literature: France: Love, Slander and Nonsense

“Have you ever been to France Monsieur Martin?”  Candide asked. “Yes”, Martin replied, “I have been through several provinces. In some, half the people are mad, in others the people are too cunning; there are some in which they are gentle and foolish, and others where everyone is witty. And in all these provinces theContinue reading “RKS Literature: France: Love, Slander and Nonsense”

RKS Literature: The Rabble of Paris (Voltaire)

“Yes, I have seen Paris. It has all those types of people. What chaos! A swarm of people where everyone is seeking pleasure but hardly anyone finds it; at least that is how it seemed to me. I did not stay long. When I arrived, pick-pockets at the Saint Germain robbed me of everything IContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Rabble of Paris (Voltaire)”

RKS Literature: The Regimented Assassins of Europe (Voltaire)

“I have hardly ever come across a town that does not desire the ruin of its neighbouring town, a family that does not destroy another family. Everywhere the weak despise the strong at whose feet they grovel, and the strong treat them like sheep whose wool and flesh can be sold. A million regimented assassins,Continue reading “RKS Literature: The Regimented Assassins of Europe (Voltaire)”

RKS Literature: The Timeless Excellence of Wine from Samos, Greece (Voltaire)

“He immediately approached them, greeted them, and invited them to come eat at his inn to eat some macaroni, Lombardy partridges, and caviar, and to drink some wine from Montepulciano, from Cyprus and Samos and some Lacrimae Christi.” Voltaire, “Candide or Optimism”, 1759.

RKS Literature: Opera as a Revolting Monster (Voltaire)

“I would perhaps prefer opera, had they not discovered the secret of turning it into a monster that revolts me. I do not mind if people want to see bad tragedies set to music, the scenes serving only to introduce (and quite badly) one or two ridiculous songs intended to exhibit the actresses’ gullet. GoodContinue reading “RKS Literature: Opera as a Revolting Monster (Voltaire)”