Category Archives: The Classics Club

Feb 2 2013

1001 Books/The Classics Club Book Review – Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Mrs DallowaySynopsis: This brilliant novel explores the hidden springs of thought and action in one day of a woman?s life. Direct and vivid in her account of the details of Clarissa Dalloway?s preparations for a party she is to give that evening, Woolf ultimately managed to reveal much more. For it is the feeling behind these daily events that gives Mrs. Dalloway its texture and richness and makes it so memorable.

Reading Mrs. Dalloway was a bipolar experience. I hated it. I loved it. It confused me. Its brilliant prose brought moments of clarity. It bored me. It riveted me. It challenged my mind. My mind wandered. I wanted to abandon it. I couldn’t stop reading.

Did I like it? Yes and no.  Will I ever read it again. Definitely not. Unless I find a version with one page the text and the page opposite an explanation of what is going on, what Woolf is alluding to, and What It All Means. Would I recommend it? No.

And, yes.

About these ads
book_pages_400-300x225
Jan 31 2013

1001 Books/The Classics Club Book Review – Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Synopsis:Tragic story of wasted lives, set against a bleak New England background. A poverty-stricken New England farmer, his ailing wife and a youthful housekeeper are drawn relentlessly into a deep-rooted domestic struggle in this hauntingly grim tale of thwarted love. Considered by many to be Wharton’s masterpiece.

Hmm. Wharton’s masterpiece? I didn’t see it. Granted, I’ve only ever read one other novel of Wharton’s (The House of Mirth) and that was years ago, but I absolutely loved it. So much so, I’ve included it in my Classics Club challenge to re-read. Ethan Frome, on the other hand, is a very slight book that took me at least two years, if not more, to read. I started it, put it aside because either it was dull or I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind for a bleak New England winter setting. The only reason I picked it up again is because it was short. That is my pre-requisite, these days. It’s amazing how many classic novels, especially early 20th century, fit the requirements. Yea!

Since the description calls the novel a ‘tragic story’ it isn’t much of a spoiler to say things don’t end well for Ethan Frome. I understand the literary merit of tragedies, and who doesn’t like a good cry after investing yourself in characters for hundreds of pages? But for me to feel anything I need to care about the characters or, even better, like at least one of them. I didn’t care for anyone in this novel so their pathetic lives elicited barely a shrug when I finished. Whereas, Lily Bart’s fate in The House of Mirth haunted me.

I might not have enjoyed the book, but I do think Ethan Frome has inspired some pretty cool book covers.  I love to look at bleak winter landscapes but apparently don’t enjoy reading about them. Huh.

Love the shadows.
This is the cover of my book. Not my favorite, but I do like the inclusion of the buggy since that plays a part in the story.
this is probably the best representation of the setting, as I imagined it. Grey, forbidding.
Penguin always scores on covers. Love how the snow takes up the majority of the picture. Nice inclusion of sledding.
I just love these covers, as boring as they are.
remains
Jan 26 2013

If you like Mrs. Hughes and Carson on Downton Abbey, you probably won’t like Remains of the Day. But, that shouldn’t keep you from reading it.

remainsSynopsis: The Remains of the Day is a profoundly compelling portrait of the perfect English butler and of his fading, insular world postwar England. At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving “a great gentleman.” But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s “greatness” and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he served.

Texting with friends after the most recent episode of Downton Abbey, we all agreed the best part of the lackluster installment was Mrs. Hughes, Carson and the toaster. In fact, of the story lines in season three, the only one with real stakes – literal and emotional – is Mrs. Hughes’s cancer scare. For me, it is difficult to care overly much about a rich family having to live in a smaller manor house, a rich man having the option to refuse a legacy and problems with the mail for an inmate. The real stakes, the ones the three of us care about, are whether or not Carson and Mrs Hughes will relieve all their UST.

C: When is the sexual tension with them going to end?

CH: I know it’s like he’s the pope. Kiss already.

Me:  Never. They’re like Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins in Remains of the Day.

Of course, that spurred me to read the novel, something I’ve been meaning to do for years now. Though I haven’t seen the movie in years, it is the type of movie that stays with you and, reading the novel, I was struck with how it was probably the easiest screenplay to write in the history of movies. Scenes and conversations were lifted from it word for word, action for action. As it should have. Ishiguro’s novel is a masterpiece of showing instead of telling. Of how to write subtext. Of character development. Of putting the most emotion, information and action in the fewest words. (A lesson I sorely need to learn.) Like all good love stories (and I believe love is the heart of the book) the ending is bittersweet. Any other ending would have rang false.

At the beginning, Stevens does go on a little too long about the role of a butler and “dignity.” While it might come across as dry, stilted and boring, it is an important piece of establishing Stevens as a character who is, unsurprisingly, dry, stilted, boring and confined by the very characteristic (dignity) he tries so hard to define. Once Stevens starts reminiscing, though, the story takes off and the pages fly by.

If you read The Remains of the Day as a fan of Downton Abbey you will think, “Carson and Mrs. Hughes are nothing like Stevens and Miss Kenton.” You are right. Carson is more personable and Mrs. Hughes is more proper (she would never invade Carson’s personal space to pry a book out of his hand) and they are both more aware of and open with their affection for the other.  But, their openness is still highly restrained, so much so it is only evident to the viewer (and Mrs. Patmore, I suppose), which is the key. I’m a sucker for romance so a part of me wants them to fall in love and be happy! But, I believe they are both happy with the relationship they have now. That for it to become anything else would be improper and would, quite possibly, affect their duties to the family and to Downton. This would be an anathema to professionals like Carson and Mrs. Hughes, especially Carson who values the family above all else. Which is why they bring The Remains of the Day to mind. Carson and Mrs. Hughes may have a deep affection for each other, but it will never overshadow their professionalism.

Of course, I would love to be wrong.

 

book_pages_400-300x225
Jan 3 2013

Booking Through Thursday Meme – Reading Resolutions for 2013 and 2012 Review

From Booking Through Thursday:

Any reading resolutions for the new year? Reading more? (Reading less?) Reading better books? Bigger books? More series? More relaxing books?

I am more than a little irritated with WordPress right now. I just spent an hour on this post – the first version – and lost it all for no reason. So, the second version will be much briefer because I have less time.

In 2012, I read 44 books. Nine for The Classics Club and four for the Non-Fiction. Considering I started those challenges in March, I am on an excellent pace to reach 50 in five years for the former but am sadly slacking in the latter. Forty-four books is not as good as I hoped but better than I expected, especially when you consider all of the books I’ve abandoned in 2012 (at least 10) and that my reading pace in November and December was slow as molassas.

I have modest goals for 2013. Continue with The Classics Club and Non-Fiction Challenges. Stop abandoning my non-fiction books. Celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Pride and Prejudice in some way. Read more American authors, especially early/mid 20th century authors. Do not read epics. Sorry Vanity Fair, Le Miserables, The Woman in White, The Count of Monte Cristo and Charles Dickens. Read every book club book, even if I’m not interested in it. Write a review for every book I read. Update Goodreads regularly.

Favorite Book of 2012

Best Book of 2012

Favorite Classic of 2012

tenant

Most Disappointing Book of 2012

secret keeper

Biggest Reading Accomplishment

It is a very pretty cover.

It is a very pretty cover.

There you have it. What are your reading goals for 2013? Sound off in the comments or link to your blog.

classicsclub
Dec 6 2012

1001 Books/The Classics Club – The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler

The first of Chandler’s Phillip Marlowe novels, The Big Sleep was included such end of century lists as Le Monde’s 100 Books of the Century and Time’s list of 100 Best Novels. (A sad realization: I won’t be around for the best of 21st century lists.) Chandler is credited with being a founder of the hard-boiled detective story, along with Dashiel Hammet, James M Cain and others. In 1932, he published his first detective short story; in 1939 The Big Sleep was published, his first of seven full length novels. In 1946, it was made into a movie starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall that is famous for its non-sensical plot.

I did not like The Big Sleep (★★), no big surprise when you know it took me two weeks to read it, a 230 page novel. The characters were shallow and the mystery was overly complex and impossible to solve without Marlowe’s soliloquy at the end.  Sometimes, the dialogue made no sense and when Marlowe shows interest in a woman (one of four possible femme fatale) it is over as soon as it happens, though he makes a puzzling reference to her in the last line of the novel, implying there was a connection between the two that did not make it on the page. Chandler’s strength was description and mood, though how much of the mood did he set and how much of it did I project on what I read from the 30s and 40s classic detective movies I have seen? It’s hard to say.

While trying to find a synopsis of the novel, I came across this bit of information. It explains a lot.

From Wikipedia:

The Big Sleep, like most of Chandler’s novels, was written by what he called cannibalizing previously written short stories.[2] Chandler would take stories he had already published in the pulp magazine Black Mask and rework them so that they fit together in one coherent story. In the case of The Big Sleep, the two main stories that formed the core of the novel were “Killer in the Rain” (published in 1935) and “The Curtain” (published in 1936). Although the stories were completely independent and shared no common characters, they had some similarities that made it logical to combine them. In both stories there is a powerful father who is distressed by his wild daughter. Chandler merged the two fathers into a new character and did the same for the two daughters, resulting in General Sternwood and his wild daughter Carmen. Chandler also borrowed small parts of two other stories: “Finger Man” and “Mandarin’s Jade”.[3]

As might be expected, all this cannibalizing—especially in a time when cutting and pasting was done by literally cutting and pasting paper—sometimes resulted in a plot that had a few loose ends; in the case of “The Big Sleep”, there is the famous question of who killed the chauffeur. When Howard Hawks made his film of the novel, the writing team were perplexed as to the answer. Hawks contacted Chandler to inquire and Chandler replied he had no idea.[4] This exemplifies a difference between Chander’s style of crime fiction and previous authors. For Chandler the plot was almost secondary; what really mattered was the atmosphere and the characters. An ending that answered all the questions and neatly wrapped every plot thread up was less important to Chandler than having interesting characters who behave in believable ways. When Chandler merged his stories into a novel, he spent more effort on expanding descriptions of people, places, and Marlowe’s thought processes than getting every detail of the plot perfectly consistent.

Despite not being impressed with The Big Sleep, I will most likely read The Long Goodbye and Farewell, My Lovely, if only to mark two more novels from my 1001 Books List.

 

classicsclub
Nov 26 2012

1001 Books/The Classics Club – The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

After my meltdown a couple of weeks ago, I buckled down and kept reading The Sound and the Fury. It wasn’t entirely to prove to myself I could read a challenging book, though that did play a small part. I kept reading because as I progressed through the novel, it became easier to understand. Did I understand all of it? No. But, I understood enough to be glad I finished it. Will I read more Faulkner? Maybe. This time, however, I will know what I’m getting into.

As far as a review goes, there isn’t much to say and I am sure whatever I say will be wrong or shallow or ignorant. The Sound and the Fury (★★★) is about the dissolution of a Southern aristocratic family, told in stream of consciousness from multiple points of view. The characters are equal parts fascinating and frustrating. I would love to see it filmed. It would be difficult but if handled correctly could be a great film, or a great mini-series on HBO or AMC.

It is a very pretty cover.
Nov 9 2012

The Sound and the Fury, probably not the best choice to jolt me out of my reading slump.

It is a very pretty cover.

The other day my husband said, “You never read anymore.”

He’s right. The last few weeks I have not been reading. I suppose it’s a combination of being busy, too tired at night and just not that engaged with what I’m reading. The latter being surprising. I have been re-reading The Distant Hours by Kate Morton, one of my favorite books and my favorite of the ones she’s written (I have not read The Secret Keeper, yet). It is not holding up well under the re-read, though. I felt the familiar impatient pull to move on to something else, a book from The Classics Club, perhaps a little early 20th century American literature.

Yesterday, when selling books at Half-Priced Books (step one, which I am doomed to repeat over and over in my never-ending struggle to organize the home office) I picked up Scoop by Evelyn Waugh (not American lit), Loving Frank (for book club) and The Sound and the Fury by Faulkner. If I read Faulkner in High School I have forgotten it so decided it was time to read one of the most celebrated and influential Southern writers. Plus, I liked the cover.

If you’ve ever read The Sound and the Fury I will pause in this blog post while you recover from falling on the floor laughing. For those that haven’t read it, mosey over to this Wikipedia page to see why the others are laughing their asses off.

Everyone back?

The first thing I learned was I never read Faulkner in high school; I would remember it. Second, after struggling through the first 25 pages, I felt like I should turn my blogging card in, throw up my hands and give up. This is by far one of the most difficult books I have ever tried to read. I’m not sure I would be mentally up to reading it even when I’m on a roll, much less when I’m struggling to keep focus. If I stop, though, I will become more depressed about my reading failings. Even worst, is this admission of the depth of my ignorance: I believed I could finish The Sound and the Fury by Sunday then pick up my book club book, Loving Frank, and finish it by Wednesday. Lofty goals for a woman who hasn’t finished a book in a month. A month!

I’m irritated because I’m not up to reading it. I’m irritated because I didn’t know as much as I thought I did about Faulkner and his writing style. I’m irritated because I don’t know if I’m smart enough to understand The Sound and the Fury even if I’m able to stay on track and read it. Finally, I’m irritated because I will never be able to write anything half as deep and if I did try, it would be shit.

My only consolation, and it is as cold and hard as a morticians table, is I am aware of how illiterate I am. (Did you know illiteracy is a synonym of ignorance? Seems rather apt in this case.) Hopefully, my self-awareness will make me less pretentious and will lead me forward on a path of self- knowledge. Or, it might just make me bitter. It’s a toss up.

I will let you decide what I should do. Should I:

a. Put The Sound and the Fury aside until I’m mentally on task again

b. Go with your original plan, read TSatF until Sunday, then read Loving Frank, then pick TSatF up again.

 

Have you read The Sound and the Fury or any other Faulkner? What did you think?

 

classicsclub
Oct 18 2012

The Classics Club/1001 Books To Read Before I Die – Middlemarch by George Eliot

“Middlemarch, the magnificent book which with all its imperfections is one of the few English novels for grown-up people.” – Virginia Woolf

I have been reading Middlemarch, off and on,  since May. It was, when looking at the list of books I selected for The Classics Club, one of the novels I looked most forward to reading. It is considered by many to be one of the best English language novels ever written. It is set in a small country town and deals with the lives of many, varied people. I hoped to be enthralled with a classic example of what I want to achieve with the small, fictional town I am creating in my work. Instead I have been bored, frustrated, angry and, most telling, perplexed. Why in the world is this rambling narrative held in such high esteem?

I will admit straight off reading Middlemarch in piecemeal over a long period of time is not a good idea. There are so many characters it is easy to forget who is who, what they do and why I should care about them. Unfortunately, there is noting in the story, characters or writing style that engages me enough to make me want to keep reading, to put the novel in my purse and read it whenever I get a spare minute. It has become a fixture on my bedside table, used more as a coaster for my water-glass than for entertainment.

There have been times when I thought, “Here we go. It’s about to get good.” Then, the chapter ends and Eliot shifts to a boring subplot or character or spends pages navel gazing about one subject or another. The reader expects to move on to the rising action and instead Eliot returns to exposition. One step forward, two steps back. There are too many characters doing too little.

I might be able to soldier on if not for one thing: I do not like Eliot’s writing style. I understand mid-century Victorians were verbose to the extreme and why. However, if you are going to shower me with exposition, you better write it well. I want to be wowed with your insight. I want to underline those turns of phrase that succinctly define human nature. I’m investing an inordinate amount of time in your world. I want ah-ha! moments. Eliot has not delivered enough of those and the ones she did give me I’ve forgotten.

So, I’m abandoning Middlemarch.* I am well past the age of believing in my immortality, in subconsciously thinking I have all the time in the world to read everything I want to read. Life is too short to read books I don’t enjoy. I don’t want to suddenly die and have Middlemarch languishing on my bedside table under an empty wine glass.  That spot is reserved for Moby-Dick.

*I plan on watching the BBC mini-series, though, and expect to enjoy it very much. Why? They will cut out all of the navel gazing exposition.

image from danshamptons
Aug 20 2012

“If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” – Oscar Wilde

I have never read a book by Oscar Wilde but after finding that quote, I might have to. Of course, it is impossible to only read books that you would want to read over and over, there is too much chance in choosing books, but there is nothing better than finding a book that turns into a regular read. Of the three books below, two are re-reads and the other has a decent chance of being read again.

The Prisoner of Zenda (★★★) - My addiction to buying books strikes again. I picked up The Prisoner of Zenda largely because I love the 1937 movie starring Ronald Coleman and Madeline Carroll. The novel does not disappoint. Equal parts adventure novel and romance, Anthony Hope shows great skill in writing both. Unlike other turn of the century adventure novels such as Riddle of the Sands by Erksine Childers and The 39 Steps by John Buchan, Anthony Hope deftly weaves the swashbuckling story with a realistic romance sub-plot, making the novel appealing to men and women alike. The Prisoner of Zenda was so popular when it was published in 1890 Hope wrote a sequel, Rupert of Hentzau, which is also included in the volume I bought and will be read soon.

Pride and Prejudice (★★★★★) – One of my favorite books of all time, I believe this is my fifth or sixth reading of Elizabeth and Darcy’s love story. It always leaves me happy and I always get something new out of it. This time, I realized I named my novel’s heroine after Elizabeth’s sister, Kitty. Fortunately, she is only called Catherine Bennet once in P&P and I have added a ‘t’ to my heroine’s name. It was a completely unintentional coincidence.

 

 

Rose (★★★★★) – The first time I read this I loved this novel for the setting, characters and the twist I did not see coming but realized on hindsight it was pretty well telegraphed. No matter, I can admit when an author bests me and the “No way!” feeling on the revelation is one of my favorite aspects of reading. The second time, I loved Rose for all of those reasons as well as for Cruz Smith’s ability explain a subject that few have any interest in. He is brilliant in showing instead of telling.  Now, each time I read it I sit back and enjoy a wonderfully plotted mystery, flawed but sympathetic characters, great dialog and a tummy flipping romance. I would love to see Rose made into a movie but I don’t think it is possible. What I would love more than that, though, is for Cruz Smith to write a sequel.

classicsclub
Jul 25 2012

1001 Books/The Classics Club Book Review – Ragtime by EL Doctorow

Synopsis: The story opens in 1906 in New Rochelle, New York, at the home of an affluent American family. One lazy Sunday afternoon, the famous escape artist Harry Houdini swerves his car into a telephone pole outside their house. And almost magically, the line between fantasy and historical fact, between real and imaginary characters, disappears. Henry Ford, Emma Goldman, J. P. Morgan, Evelyn Nesbit, Sigmund Freud, and Emiliano Zapata slip in and out of the tale, crossing paths with Doctorow’s imagined family and other fictional characters, including an immigrant peddler and a ragtime musician from Harlem whose insistence on a point of justice drives him to revolutionary violence.

Ragtime was nothing like I expected. I suppose I did not read the jacket blurb, which clearly states the book is set before World War I, but I thought ragtime somehow referenced the Roaring 20s. It was not long until I realized my mistake and was slowly drawn into the strangest historical fiction novel I’ve ever read.

Through a mix of real and fictional people, Doctorow paints a picture of a time of great change, change that won’t break through the bonds of Victorian sensibilities until after the war. There doesn’t seem to be a hot button that he misses – strikes, anarchists, murder, sex scandal, racial tensions, the discovery of the North Pole, magic and spiritualism, the invention of the assembly line, the growth of the movie business and even Pancho Villa. It is a testament of Doctorow’s skill as a writer that he can shove so much action and so many characters into a little over 300 pages.

Somehow, Doctorow does it with a unique writing style that consists of long, rambling, almost stream of conscious paragraphs and a complete lack of traditional dialogue. This is the only Doctorow novel I have read so I do not know if this is his typical writing style. If so, I must confess to not looking forward to Billy Bathgate, the other Doctorow novel on my Classics Club reading list. His style reminded me a bit of Hemingway.  Paragraphs wandered from subject to subject but his descriptions were achieved with an economy of words. His style was enjoyable and off-putting at the same time. Once I was comfortable with the flow, I enjoyed the story and I have an amazing amount of admiration for how he wove all of the disparate subjects he covered at the beginning of the novel together in the end.

I do not give half star ratings but if ever a book deserved on, Ragtime is it. I give Doctorow four stars for his ability to whittle down what would have been an epic story in the hands of other authors into 320 pages. But, his writing style and the seeming disjointed narrative at the beginning lessened my overall enjoyment of the book. In short, I am glad I read it but will not read it again.

  • Ragtime (★★★) by EL Doctorow
  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (May 8, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0812978188
  • ISBN-13: 978-0812978186