The Classics Club Spin #13

The Classics Club is doing another Classics Club Spin. This is the fourth time that I'm participating and I couldn't be happier! In this event, all the Classics Club members are called to read a classic book within a certain amount of time. But it's not that simple. Each one who wants to participate makes a Spin list, then the Club announces a certain number and the book that it's in that list's number is the one that you have to read.

So, here is my list for list #13:

1. Pygmalion, by George Bernard Shaw
2. A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne
3. The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
4. The Painted Veil, by W. Somerset Maugham
5. The Rainbow, by D.H. Lawrence
6. The Atom Station, by Halldor Laxness
7. The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov
8. The Good Woman of Setzuan, by Bertolt Brecht
9. The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
10. Flatland, by Edwin A. Abbott
11. Beauty and Sadness, by Yasunari Kawabata
12. A Sport and a Pastime, by James Salter
13. Brave New World, by Aldous Haxley
14. The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
15. Utopia, by Thomas More
16. Gothic Tales, by Elizabeth Gaskell
17. The Fairy Tales of Herman Hesse
18. A Princess of Mars, by Edgar Rice Burroughs
19. Nemesis, by Isaac Asimov
20. Confessions of a Mask, by Yukio Mishima

This is it! From these books I'm more eager to read Nemesis, Gothic Tales, and The Big Sleep. Moreover, Beauty and Sadness and Confessions of a Mask would be very welcome, as I'm fond of Japanese literature. I dread to read The Gambler, Utopia, and The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt. On Monday, we'll know which will be the lucky book I'll have to read until August 1, 2016.

The Classics Club Spin #12

The Classics Club is doing another Classics Club Spin. In this event, all the Classics Club members are called to read a classic book within a certain amount of time. But it's not that simple. Each one who wants to participate makes a Spin list, then the Club announces a certain number and the book that it's in that list's number is the one that you have to read.

So, here is my list for spin #12:

1. Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott
2. A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
3. The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence
4. The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
5. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
6. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
7. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
8. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
9. The Vampyre; a Tale by John William Polidori
10. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
11. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
12. A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne
13. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
14. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
15. Utopia  by Thomas More
16. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
17. The Atom Station by Halldor Laxness
18. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
19. The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
20. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I can't wait to find out, which book I'll have to read until May 2, 2016.

The Classics Club Spin #10

The Classics Club is doing another Classics Club Spin. In this event, all the Classics Club members are called to read a classic book within a certain amount of time. But it's not that simple. Each one who wants to participate makes a Spin list, then the Club announces a certain number and the book that it's in that list's number is the one that you have to read. In the last spin, I read Dracula by Bram Stoker. I can't wait to find out which classic I'll have to read for this one!

So, here is my list:

1. Turn of the Screw by Henry James
2. Nana by Emile Zola
3. Flatland by Edwin A. Abbot
4. Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence
5. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
6. Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
7. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
8. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
9. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
10. Howards End by E.M.Forster
11. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
12. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
13. La Dame aux Camelias by Alexander Dumas-fis
14. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
15. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
17. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
18. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
19. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
20. Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore

From these books I'm eager to read Wives and Daughters, Sons and Lovers, Parade's End and Howards End.  The ones I am afraid of are Nana, Lorna Doone, Flatland and La Dame aux Camelias. Anyway, on Monday we'll learn the lucky number.

Mini Reviews: Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, Il Duro and Woman Much Missed

The Little Black Classics have turned out to be some excellent and quick reads. Moreover, they are great because they offer a chance to read some lesser-known works of these authors. Indeed, I wasn't familiar with none of these three works, although I admire all three of them. There is at least one novel by Oscar Wilde, D.H. Lawrence and Thomas Hardy in my all-time favourite books list. So, I was eager to read Little Black Classics #59, #71 and #14.

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar Wilde

This is a funny, but also a quite dark short story. Lord Arthur Savile has his fortune told at a social gathering. The palm reader informs him that in his future he will murder someone. But Lord Arthur is due to get married and in order to save his wife-to-be from the future distress, he starts planning a murder right away.

Oscar Wilde can write a comedy like no-one else. I first observed this in The Importance of Being Earnest, then in Lady Windemere's Fan and now in this short story. As usual, Wilde's writing style is brilliant. It's witty, fast-paced and full of irony. Lord Arthur is touched by what is written on his palm, but he doesn't do anything to prevent it. He just accepts that this is a fact and so he wants to get on with it, so he can continue his life. In fact, there wasn't a single moment in the short story when Arthur didn't have a choice. The ultimate question is whether our destiny is predetermined or we create it.

Lord Arthur Savile's Crime is a quirky and enjoyable read. I recommend it to everybody!

Il Duro by D.H. Lawrence

This little book contains four short narratives about Lawrence's travels in Italy. In these narratives, the author describes mostly the people he met, their conversations and his thoughts. I liked it that it wasn't a typical description of the scenery.

From the four of them, I liked best the first one, The Spinner and the Monks. In this one, I could find the Lawrence I learnt to love from his novel.  Her world was clear and absolute, without consciousness of self. She was not self-conscious because she was not aware that there was anything in the universe except her universe. In her universe, I was a stranger, a foreign signore. But, the main problem for me was the lack of a story. These weren't short stories, a creation of the imagination of the author, but the stories of the people he met and those weren't that interesting. 

All in all, this is not D.H. Lawrence's best work. That's why I would recommend it only to those who are familiar with his other works.

Woman Much Missed by Thomas Hardy

This Little Black Classic was a surprise to me. I've read Far for the Madding Crowd and Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but I wasn't familiar with Thomas Hardy's poetry. Now I realise what I was losing all this time!

This selection of poems includes among others the Poems 1912-1913, which were inspired by the loss of Hardy's wife. They were all heartfelt and very moving. The pain and loss of the poet are apparent.        

The poems I liked the best were The Voice, We Sat at the Window, He Prefers Her Earthly, She Did Not Turn, If You Had Known and Days to Recollect.

If you are in the mood for some poetry, this is a book for you. It's highly recommended!

Mini Reviews: The Beautiful Cassandra, The Old Nurse's Story and The Eve of St Agnes

Recently I've come across to the Little Black Classics by Penguin. Among the available titles are some written by my favourite authors, like Jane Austen and D.H. Lawrence. When I first saw them I knew I had to read them, so here is what I thought on three of those books.

The Beautiful Cassandra by Jane Austen

The Little Black Classic #33 was the first of the titles in the series that I had to find, no matter what. As you already know, I am a big Jane Austen fan and the prospect of reading some of her earlier works was appealing to me. In this edition, six of her juvenile short stories are included, all selected from Love and Friendship and Other Youthful Writings. 

It was exciting to read these stories because they are pure joy. They were written by young Jane for the sole purpose to entertain herself and her family. Indeed, they were all joyful and pleasant. To those familiar with Austen's novels, her wit and her humour will be apparent. The quality of the writing is not the same as in her later works, but one can clearly distinguish the potential she had and the evolution she went throughout the years. For this reason, The Beautiful Cassandra is a must-read, especially for the fans of the celebrated author.

The stories I liked the best were Jack and Alice and Henry and Eliza.

The Old Nurse's Story by Elizabeth Gaskell

Another Little Black Classic I was eager to read was #39. Elizabeth Gaskell, with novels such as North and South and Cranford, became quickly one of my favourite authors of all time. But, until now, I hadn't read any of her gothic tales before. This edition includes two of them, The Old Nurse's Story and Curious, if True. The first was published in Charles Dickens' magazine, Household Worlds, in 1852 and the second one was published in William Thackeray's Cornhill Magazine in 1860.

In both of those stories, Gaskell proves of how nicely she can write. The Old Nurse's Story is a ghost tale. The atmosphere it builds is magnificent. You come to care about little Miss Rosamond and until the end you are anxious to find out if the nurse was able to protect her from the ghostly child. Curious, if True is an equally eerie story. A man comes upon a strange party while lost in the woods, where fairy tale characters have gathered. But this isn't obvious from the beginning and as the hints become more frequent, the amazement is great. I would say that it did have an Alice's Adventures in Wonderland feel to it.

The Eve of St Agnes by John Keats

The Little Black Classic #13 is a title full of poetry. In this book, five poems by John Keats are to found. The two larger poems are The Eve of St Agnes and Lamia while the three short ones are La Belle Dame san Merci, Ode to Psyche and Ode to a Grecian Urn. Keats' poetry is more visual and narrative and these poems are great examples of this.

The Eve of St Agnes is based on the superstition that a virgin will see in her dream her future husband if she follows some ritual that specific night. La Belle Dame sans Merci is a ballad that talks about love and death. Lamia is a narrative poem, that has its roots to some ancient Greek myths. The two odes that close this edition are Keats' experimentation in the ode genre. The first ode deals with Psyche's and Cupid's myth while the second one has as a theme the art and the art audience. 

The poems I enjoyed the most were The Eve of St Agnes and La Belle Dame san Merci.   

Review: Dracula by Bram Stoker

Dracula was my lucky choice from the Classics Club Spin, in which I decided to take part for the very first time last April. I won't hide from you that I wanted to read Dracula for a very long time, and I had a copy just sitting on my self. For some reason, all of this time I was reluctant and this spin just gave me the right opportunity to open it and actually read it. It took me, though, an awfully long time to finish it, but I finally did it!

Jonathan Harker, a young solicitor, travels to Transylvania, in order to meet the respectable Count Dracula. The Count has decided to purchase an estate in London, so Jonathan will help him with all of his legal dealings. The trip though is turned into a nightmare for Jonathan when he discovers the true nature of the Count, and from a guest he finds himself a prisoner. When he manages to escape and at last returns to England, he finds out that Dracula is already there and there have already been observed several weird incidents. When Doctor Van Helsing reveals with certainty the identity of the creature they are dealing with, a group of men, who suffer a great loss from the vampire, decide to hunt Dracula and kill him.

What can I say about the story? It's one of the most well-known stories, that basically put the foundation on the vampire's modern image in later literature. What made this novel really difficult to get through was the narrative. The whole book is written as diary entries, memoranda, or newspaper clippings. This would be great if it helped the story go forward, but the greatest part of these entries was taken by the descriptions of the locations, or repetitions as to what has already been said. I would like to read a scene when the Count take action, to know how he lures his victims, not just the result of him feeding on them. Another problem I had while reading this book is how some things didn't really match. For example, when Mina started to get paler each day why wouldn't any of the two doctors in the house examine her throat for possible bite marks? This has already happened with Lucy and they were both witnesses to her mysterious illness, death and her becoming undead, so I believe that it would at least be prudent to examine this possibility first. The last thing that disappointed me was that in the end the story was a little anticlimactic. The group travels to Transylvania finds the Count and it doesn't take long to kill him. I felt that it was a little rushed, especially for a book that was very descriptive up to that point.

Apart from these problems the Count is a character you were afraid of. He was menacing, manipulative, and you never were sure as to what his next actions would be. He was the right image a vampire should have. Even Lucy, when she became one, her characteristics changed and it was great to actually see a difference between the living person and the undead. From the rest of the group Van Helsing was the one I liked the best. He was not afraid to acknowledge the existence of that creature that logic dictated otherwise, he didn't reveal it though very early to the others because he was aware of how they would react. Also, Renfield was a complex character, because he acted mad, although in the end he was as sane as any man could be. The rest of the group, Jonathan Harker, doctor John Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris, were likable enough characters, but I didn't really cared for them that much. Mina proved to be a key character to the story, although I believe that she was depicted much too perfect a woman to be realistic.

Dracula was a major disappointment for me because I was looking forward to reading this novel. I expected to feel the horror since it's one of the classics of this genre. I have to admit that when something actually happened it did build an atmosphere equal to my expectations, but unluckily this wasn't for long. I would recommend it only if you'd be interested in reading the classics, but it might turn out to be a slow and a quite dull read.

So, my advice is...

Sharpen your teeth and fly like a bat!          

The Classics Club Spin #9

The Classics Club is doing another Classics Club Spin. In this event, all the Classics Club members are called to read a classic book within a certain amount of time. But it's not that simple. Each one who wants to participate makes a Spin list, then the Club announces a certain number and the book that it's in that list's number is the one that you have to read. This is the first time that I am taking part in the Spin and I'm really excited about it.

So here is my Spin list:

1. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
3. Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence
4. Howards End by E. M. Forster
5. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
6. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
7. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
8. Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
9. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
10. Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
11. Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore
12. Parade's End by Ford Madox Ford
13. The Strange Case of Dr. Jackyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
14. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
15. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
16. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
17. Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne
18. Nana by Emile Zola
19. La Dame aux Camelias by Alexander Dumas-fis
20. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

This is my list of 20 books. I haven't read any of this books and I've been meaning to for quite some time. Of course, there are some titles that I'm dreading, like Nana, Lorna Doone, Little Dorrit and La Dame aux Camelias. I hope that I will be lucky in my first Classics Club Spin.