2010- What classic are you reading now Part – II

Since the last thread had reached 250 posts, I thought I would start a new one. So, here it is!

To start things off, at last I managed to finish Shirley by Charlotte Brontë! What colossal waste of time this was! My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/65134066

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

I'm STILL reading Gargantua Pantagruel. I'll read a chapter, then start and finish an entirely different book, read another chapter, then start and finish another...

Need...to...persist.

I have just finished Tom Jones by Henry Fielding.

It's far too long a tale. Where is the editor when you need him? To tell Mr. Fielding "Well, my good man, you just can't comment on your own story and all the characters all the time! Look here. Just tell the story.

It reads more like a farce or satire and one does not really get emotionally involved in the characters fate. I will definitely not read it again.

#1 - I know the feeling you describe in your review - the sometimes unfortunate habit of wanting to read the novel to the end. I should just have stopped Fieldings ramblings after book 5 or 6. Just not my kind of story.

I've Tom Jones on my TBR pile, still looking forward to it. I've already been forewarned about the authorial impositions, via The Rhetoric of Fiction which sings Mr. Fielding's praises (and contrasts him with the copycats who followed).

Presently more than halfway through Madame Bovary, which is living up to all my expectations.

Cecrow - for what it's worth, I loved Tom Jones. The authorial impositions are a feature, not a bug, in my opinion. So enjoy! It is a really fun book.

I'm still reading The Eustace Diamonds, which is wonderful and filled with all sorts of scheming, nasty characters. (Trollope is also big on imposing himself into the narrative, come to think of it).

>2 Sandydog1:
Thank you for confessing that! I tend to do that too with some books. I am not alone!

Just finished reading L'Homme qui Rit (The Man who Laughs) by Victor Hugo. Really enjoyed it. Good commentary on aristocracy.

Read the short story collection The Lady of the Barge and Other Stories by W. W. Jacobs. An overall enjoyable collection. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/65530983

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

I'm halfway through King Solomon's Mines.

Finished Dracula. One of my all time favourites, it holds up even after four re-reads.

My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/58554366

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread 2010,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

I've just finished the Canadian classic Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Refreshing and charming.

>11 Cecilturtle: Definitely refreshing and charming

I'm almost halfway though my re-read of War and Peace. I first read it 10 years ago, and plan to read it every decade. Knowing what will happen doesn't distract from the experience, as I tend to focus more on the storytelling this time. Which isn't what I had expected: I thought I would be more interested in the historical-philosophical aspects that Tolstoy is trying to convey. Maybe next decade?

>13 Steven_VI:: Steven_VI,

I thought I would be more interested in the historical-philosophical aspects that Tolstoy is trying to convey

For Tolstoy's perspective on history / philosophy, you could go straight to the Epilogue. :)

14: true, but I thought it would be more obvious in the story proper when I knew about these things. Or that I would find it more obvious. In some ways it is; but it doesn't seem so obvious. Of course, 'obvious' and Tolstoy don't really correlate...

>15 Steven_VI:: Steven_VI,

Many people complain that he was too obvious and preachy in his later religious writings.

Currently been reading Bleak House for the last few weeks on my Kobo. I'd have normally finished in a week or so, but Minecraft happened (good lord it's an addictive game).

I'm doing exactly what Sandydog1 describes in #2. Not a very absorbing work so far.

Having finished Call of the Wild, I'm now reading Vanity Fair.

# 19 I've got Vanity Fair on my TBR list. How do you like it so far?

I absolutely loved Vanity Fair when I read it three or four years ago.

I'm currently reading Barchester Towers. It's too early to decide if I like it or not.

#20 - I'm only four chapters in (my work is interfering far too much with my reading), but I'm really enjoying it so far, it's very readable. I'm just hoping I get some more time to read, or I'll still be reading it 2040!

# 22 Readable, that's all I wanted to hear. I don't need another gigantic book to trudge through. Thanks!

Dipping into Burton's ARABIAN NIGHTS between more modern works (currently the excellent ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY). The inventiveness of the storytelling in NIGHTS never ceases to amaze me--complete translations came late into western hands and European writers (Shakespeare, etc.) never had a chance to "borrow" from and corrupt the material. Result: medieval and renaissance writing that seems fresh as a daisy.

I'm reading Hamlet in English IV. We're reading the SparkNotes "No Fear Shakespeare" version, which helps with comprehension at times. High school students are really, really bad at pronouncing Elizabethan English.

I'm reading My Antonia by Willa Cather, and am really, really loving it! Why didn't I read this years ago?!

Not a classic per se, but I am reading letters written by a classic writer, in any case: Letters from Joseph Conrad 1895-1924. These are letters written to one of Conrad's early editors and lifelong friend Edward Garnett, edited by Garnett himself with a helpful introduction by him as well.

Read Hard Times by Charles Dickens. Liked it well enough notwithstanding all the not so flattering reviews. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/61232508

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread 2010,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

I'm reading Il Filostrato by Giovanni Boccaccio. I'll probably be finished tonight then I plan on reading The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry by Christine de Pizan.

I ended up taking a break from Dickens after finishing The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club and am almost finished Washington Irving's The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon. I had never read the complete book before and I'm really enjoying it, even more than I thought I would.

I've tabled Gargantua and pantagruel. I've instead, started The Ambassadors.

I'm reading Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. I'm really loving it, so far! He truly was the master of the short story! Every story feels like the literary version of an M.C. Escher painting with books, reading, or writing a fairly strong thread.

I've just started the James Morwood translation of Euripides:Medea and Other Plays.

Finished two of the Raffles books by E. W. Hornung, Raffles: The Amateur Cracksman and The Black Mask. I really disliked the Raffles stories and will not be reading any more of his adventures.

I haven't fully reviewed either of these two books but have put together some of my thoughts on them on my 75 Books Challenge thread here,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

Edited to fix typo.

Finished Hamlet, which I was reading for English.

My English class went from Shakespeare to Dickens - we're on A Christmas Carol now.
I'm re-reading Flatland for a book report, which is reminding me why on earth I liked a math book in the first place.

I am currently reading Uncle Tom's Cabin again for my Early American Literature class.

Finished Silas Marner, just in time for George Eliot's birthday! Although it was an overall satisfying experience, parts of it felt very hurried. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/63239351

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

Hello,
I just joined this group. The list of books members of this group are reading/have read is truly impressive. I am currently re-reading Madame Bovary (the first English translation by Eleanor Marx Aveling). There is a new translation out by Lydia Davis which I have not read (but intend to) but the Marx Aveling translation was the first one I ever read and I suppose I think of it as "setting the bar" for others to attempt to vault.
Look forward to being a part of this group since I am already a member of a "Classics" group which meets face-to-face monthly (we're reading Achebe Things Fall Apart, then Trollope Phineas Redux, then Maugham Ashenden plus about five others selected including Elizabeth Braddon, Mervyn Peake, William Golding, Robert Louis Stevenson, Iris Murdoch and Chesterton).
There's a second face-to-face group meeting monthly devoted to Virginia Woolf novels: Our first will be To the Lighthouse. So---I hope I can keep up with this group. Already know one of you: Hello, sholofsky. s4sando

#39 Hi, s4sando! Left you a message on the MERRY-GO-ROUND thread. Hope you'll stick with us!

sholofsky,
I stumbled on this group and it looked really interesting. Just hope I can keep up. Intend to limit myself to just two groups for the present since a friend and I plan to begin reading Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England in January.

#39 Welcome s4sando. Your face-to-face groups sound like fun.

The approach of Thanksgiving finds me rereading An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott. Definitely an oldie but a goodie. After Thanksgiving, I'll do my traditional December read, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Enjoy the upcoming holidays, everyone.

I've finished some pseudo-classics, including The Ambassadors, Cry, the Beloved Country and In Cold Blood.

I'm reading Heart of Darkness by Joseph for a Group Read. Struggling with it - the writing is so dense (difficult to concentrate with the Holidays so close)!

I was thinking of Conrad when I read The Ambassadors.

I still remember absolutely nothing about the first one-third of Nostromo.

At least Heart of Darkness, is short!

... and HG Wells described James as a hippopotamus laboriously attempting to pick up a pea that has got into a corner of its cage.

The same could be said of Conrad!

#46 LOL! Wells must have been struggling to read WINGS OF A DOVE. Conrad can be a slog but is rewarding in the end (same for much of James). Starting HONEYMOON IN SPACE by George Griffith, a lesser known competitor to Wells in the realm of Victorian sci-fi.

#47: Are you reading Honeymoon in Space as an e-book or a printed book? If it's printed, what edition?
I've been wanting to read that book for a while.

#31 I guess it's difficult to read such old books by yourself. I first read them in high school, with the aid of the teacher to put things in perspective or "translate" when historical evolution had made things unintelligible. I remember the battle of the "clos de Seuilly" when the monks "sing" (as in Gregorian music) and are terrified at the same time, which give : miii -niii- iiiiiii and so on. One has to read aloud to really appreciate such a moment !

#48 reading it on Project Gutenberg.

#45 & 46> That's really funny to me, in an "to each his/her own" way.

James is one of my most disliked authors. But Conrad is one of my very favorite. I've never really gotten much of value out of James (and I read him in grad school, so there was lots and lots of discussion and close reading). Conrad, however, for me, throws a wonderful and intense light on human nature. Heart of Darkness is sort of hard, especially the first time, but entirely worth the journey. (Nostromo, however, may be Conrad's least valuable long novel, especially the first third).

But, like I said, to each his/her own.

I'm listening to Oliver Twist (read by Nadia May) and have just started rereading The Woman in White. Good times!

After many definite non-classics, I've finally started upon the real thing: Love-Letters Between A Nobleman And His Sister by Aphra Behn.

I'm reading two related novels in tandem: Pierre, or the Ambiguities by Herman Melville and St. Elmo by Augusta J. Evans. I lucked into a parody of St. Elmo by John Paul call St. Twel'mo---a very, very lucky find.

I'm still, still, still reading Gargantua and Pantagruel, and am making another attempt at finishing The Confessions by Augustine.

I'm reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. I'm loving it, but not unreservedly, because the way some of the characters are behaving pisses me off, especially Rosamund Vincy Lydgate! What a spoiled little princess she is, and while I see that her behavior is vital to the story, and clearly comes from her privileged background, I find it annoying to no end, lol!

For some reason I'm stuck on Little Dorrit. I'm at the last few chapters of the first book and I haven't picked it up in a few weeks, until last night. I don't know why, I'm loving the plot and the characters. How can I not, it's Dickens. I've made it my goal to finish by Jan. 1.

#59 Hope it goes well. Little Dorrit is still in my future.

I highly recommend the 2007 Little Dorrit miniseries starring Claire Foy. I read the book and enjoyed it, but it wasn't a favorite. After seeing the miniseries, I appreciate the story so much more. It's beautifully done; I can't think of a thing I didn't like! Maybe the miniseries would help you feel more motivated to finish the book?

(Spoilers at the end of this clip)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIm_kL9LEC8&NR=1

I am currently reading Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver. Probably not a classic, but maybe a classic of sorts among courtroom dramas. At least it's still being read (by me, anyway) 50 years after its original publication!

My book group discussed Little Dorrit over a year ago. I read the whole thing and drew a "graphic organizer" (characters, settings and interrealtionships). It is a complex book that covers a lot of ground (both plot and setting) but when we got to the end of it, no one in the group felt that Dickens had really done much with the novel at all. Sad to say, the group began to use Little Dorrit as a watch word for "not very good" viz. "At least this book is better than Little Dorrit". Please, cbfisk, don't let my little tale of woe deter you from making the attempt. Just keep in mind that Dickens did much better work.

#62 Jerry, ANATOMY OF A MURDER was indeed a classic of its time (late 50's) and was considered the IN COLD BLOOD of the era. For whatever reason, it was overshadowed by IN COLD BLOOD nearly a decade later and it is the Capote book that is considered the classic today. Nearly as famous at the time was the Otto Preminger 1959 film version of ANATOMY (same title as the book) with James Stewart, Ben Gazzara, and Lee Remick. It broke many sexual taboos of the time. It was an excellent film and, if you haven't seen it, I recommend it highly.

# 59 Little Dorrit isn’t one of my favourite Dickens books but it wasn’t that bad either. It was better than David Copperfield, in my opinion.

# 64 Like I’ve said before, I generally avoid watching movie adaptations of books I’ve read/intend to read. Most adaptations change and add twists and turns to the original works. They get mangled beyond recognition. But I have seen plenty of adaptations without knowing that they are adaptations. Most of the time I end up wanting to read the book after I find out.

I have seen the 1959 version of Anatomy of a Murder before I knew that it was a book and I liked it. Now the book is on my wish list. Is the book like the movie?

#65 Porua, I can't answer your question with 100% accuracy concerning the film's fidelity to the book, only having seen the film myself. However, the American Bar Association voted it one of the best twelve trial proceeding films ever made (I would assume Agatha Christie's great WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION is also on the list). Wikipedia says the book focused more on aspects of the insanity defense, among the few alterations for the film.

#64> sholofsky, It's no surprise to me that In Cold Blood overshadowed Anatomy of a Murder. The former is, to me, much more gripping. Also, while Anatomy of a Murder is based on an actual murder, it is wholly a novel, enjoyable as a good courtroom drama. In Cold Blood, on the other hand, is, even allowing wiggle room for Capote's dramatic imagination, a "true crime" story, with people and events much darker than those described in Traver's book. All in all a more compelling work, to me.

The movie version of Anatomy of a Murder I recall as being quite good, but I saw it too long ago to be able to remember how close it sticks to the plot and characterizations in the book, to answer Porua's question.

# 66 Thanks, sholofsky!

I finished reading Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. It is not as funny as I thought it would be. I had hoped to like it better. But it’s still pretty good.

My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/64019525

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

I finished The Confessions. Had I been an expert in 5th century rhetoric, early Catholiism, neo-Platonism, Latin translation nuances, etc., I may have gotten a bit more out of this one!

Yes, that's probably true but the sentences are so well balanced it is a pleasure to read it nevertheless.

I'm reading The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope. It is really good so far - lots of Plantagenet and Lady Glencora, who are far and away my favorite characters in this series.

jfetting,
Have you read the other novels in the Palliser series? One of my book groups has worked our way through Can you Forgive Her, Phineas Finn The Eustace Diamonds, and currently Phineas Redux. Trollope is so easy to read---and so addictive! His characters seem so modern to me. It sounds like you are enjoying the Trollope experience as well.

I'm making my way through the Pallisers, slowly. I've read the four you mentioned this year, too. He is addictive (and I'm so jealous that you have a Trollope book group!) and I agree that in general his characters are really modern.

Phineas Redux may have been my favorite of the series so far - have you reached the exciting Book 2 yet? There's a murder!

jfetting
Haven't reached Part II of Phineas Redux yet. Our group will discuss the whole book in January. Actually we are a classic fiction group, read a variety of authors but seem to gravitate to Trollope with some frequency.

I've finished A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens and am working my way through The Chimes and The Haunted Man which also appear in my edition of this story. Out of the three, I still like A Christmas Carol best. After I'm done with this, I will be rereading Hamlet by Shakespeare and hope to combine it with a viewing of the Royal Shakespeare Company's most recent Hamlet, which I own on DVD.

#61 Thank you for the recommendation. Actually it's because of the miniseries that I wanted to read the book. I loved it so much I even bought the DVD. Once I finish the book I'm going to have a Little Dorrit marathon. And can I just say the actors that play Mr. Pancks and John Chivery nailed their roles, they match perfectly.

Thanks for the youtube clip. The soundtrack is beautiful. Too bad it hasn't been released as an album.

You are so welcome! I think the miniseries brought the book to life for me. I enjoyed it when I read it, but it wasn't until we watched the miniseries that I really fell in love.

cbfiske, I am also reading Hamlet and plan to read A Christmas Carol this week. I haven't read either (altho it feels as if I have, with A Christmas Carol).

Enjoy! They're both great rereads for me.

I've finished Act I of Hamlet and I'm struck by how many quotes I'm familiar with even from this beginning section. There is more Shakespeare in your brain than you realize.

In honor of my AP Euro History class' homework on the Luddites, I'm reading Shirley.

I am currently reading "The Sorrows of Young Werther" by Goethe. It is such a sad story. Apparently when it was first published, young men actually committed suicide after reading the story.

cbfiske 81. I am having the same experience. "Neither a lender nor a borrower be." (or something like that). I am also a bit surprised by how much I am enjoying reading this play. Deep, deep enjoyment. It's not easy, but it is just such a pleasure. I see myself reading a lot more Shakespeare in the future.

#84 Nice to hear that you're enjoying Hamlet too. Next on my list is Julius Caesar. I read it first in High School and loved it. Now that my daughter's High School class is covering it, I have an urge to continue my Shakespeare reading with that one.

How funny! I was thinking the same thing!

A few years ago I read The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George (highly recommended), and since I prefer to get my history from fiction, I'm interested in what Shakespeare has to say about ol' Caesar.

And now I'll put The Memoirs of Cleopatra on my 2011 To Read list as well. I've never read that one.

In Dickensland reading David Copperfield. One of my favorites, in my umble opinion.

86 & 87: I read The Memoirs of Cleopatra a few years ago, and enjoyed it. It was the catalyst to getting me into both Ancient Egyptian and Roman history.

>81 cbfiske:

There's a joke about this:

A guys walks out of the theater after seeing Hamlet for the first time. “I don’t know why everybody thinks Hamlet is such a well-written play,” he says. “It is full of clichés.”

or

An old English woman who had never seen or read "Hamlet" said, in response to a question raised to her after seeing it, about how she liked the show, "Oh, the play is full of quotations"

HAMLET fans: great cartoon a while back: the Hamlet highrise--has one apartment listed "2b", one next to it "Not 2b."

#89 and #90 Loved your Hamlet comments!

I'm not reading a classic, but rather a book about books, many of which are classics,

I'm reading Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life by Stephanie Staal. It makes me want to re-read some favorites, like A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf and The Awakening by Kate Chopin; and to read others I've not yet read, like A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft.

I'm currently reading through The Annotated Milton along with the Norton edition of Paradise Lost. Also a friend got me started on Sir Thomas Browne's Religio Medici—I'm now planning to continue reading through The Major Works.

Next up will be Geoffrey Chaucer and I'm planning to make use of David Wright's translation—The Canterbury Tales (Oxford World's Classics)—alongside the original English. In preparation for it, I'm enjoying G. K. Chesterton's Chaucer.

>93 Tuirgin:

I love Sir Thomas Browne, he had a tremendous influence on Melville, whom I also deeply admire.

>94 DanMat:

He seems to have been important to a lot of people. Two others that come to mind right away -- Virginia Woolf wrote about him, and there's a very interesting letter Coleridge wrote about him. Oh, and Borges, too. It's my first reading through him and it's an unusual experience. His facility with language is terrific, his ideas are an interesting combination of liberality and a sort of Christian Hermeticism.

Finished my re-read of Great Expectations. I liked it better this time around. An overall good read with a few bad patches. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/58533051

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

I just finished the modern somewhat classic Invisible Man. A symbolic symbol of symbolism.

I consider this book to be a modern classic. Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton. I loved it. My very inadequate review here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/67653447

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/98949

Very much agree with you about Goodbye, Mr. Chips. It is one of my favorites.

# 100 Thanks! Goodbye, Mr. Chips is probably my best read of the year.

I'm still reading Little Dorrit, a couple of chapters a day, but I'm also starting to read Flannery O'Connor's The Complete Stories. I've owned it for years and I've read a few stories from it and now I plan to read them all.

I love Flannery O'Connor's work, I've never been disappointed. I'll never forget the first story I read in middle school was "Good Country People," I had to write a report on it. I should have known after the first few paragraphs that Manley Pointer was going to turn out to be anything but a Bible salesman.

>101 dharmalita:
I read portions of Flannery : a life of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch, it seemed quite good. I'll have to go back and give it an honest cover to cover at some point.

I just finished Shirley by Charlotte Brontë. Waht a fantastic way to close out the old year! I loved it! It was interesting on so many levels. The background reminded me of North and South by Brontë's friend, Elizabeth Gaskell. It was so different from Jane Eyre, but there were a lot of similarities, too. I really noticed the same feeling of a tight lid being kept on strong passions and emotions. I also noticed pieces from her own life in each book.

>104 bookwoman247:: Shirley was the last read of the year for me, too! I found it different from any of Charlotte's other novels, not just Jane Eyre. I was a bit surprised about how little was said about the Luddites, though, because I was reading it as a supplement for a European History course; I expected the whole book to center around the uprisings, not Shirley and Caroline.
Now I'm starting Chartism by Thomas Carlyle, also for that class.

Here’s the link to the new thread for 2011,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106086