Bedside Books - Now We Are Nine

Yes, down to nine although this is not because I have read two of them. One of them has gone back to the shelves unread. A few months ago when I was reading The Silence of the Girls, by Pat Barker, and A Thousand Ships and everything else  Natalie Haynes has ever written I thought I would enjoy going back to the source material and reading The Iliad, which I've never done cover to cover. The urge has passed though, so when I rediscovered it skulking in one of the bedside book piles I took the decision to put it away, unlooked at. 

I have read one of the others though, and it was this, a Christmas present from my brother-in-law. 

It's a book about the place and  meaning of twenty famous literary houses. It's hardly heavy lit crit, but it was interesting, some bits more interesting than others, naturally. Lots of lovely pictures of places and first edition covers and authors. The places considered range from Manderley, to Gormenghast, from Mansfield Park to Bag End and lots of others in between. I enjoyed it, learned a few things, which is always good, and got some ideas for more reading, which is also always good. 

I mention Gormenghast, which I freely admit I have neve managed, despite several tries, to wade my way through, and honestly from the brief synopsis given of all three books of the trilogy I really can't see any point at all in giving it another go. No spoilers, but it seems the ending of Book 3 would leave me with the most frustrating of 'What?' moments. I am however haunted by the biographical details given about its author Mervyn Peake. I knew nothing about him except that he had been an artist as well as an author. Reading about his life I was put in mind of that quotation from Blake, that 'some are born to sweet delight and some are born to endless night.'  If anyone was ever born to endless night,  it was Peake.