Tag: English literature
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The Warden
Review: What a nice surprise! I thought this was going to be either too dry or too smarmily satirical. Like old people that try to be witty at the opera intermission. While not as shocking as the book or movie of Deliverance, the two share one thing. The “what would you do?” thing. Best line… Read more
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Wuthering Heights
Review: Wow was this ever dark. Like midnight on the moor with no moon dark, as represented throughout the novel. This was also excellent, extremely well composed and thoroughly engrossing. Despite its age, this one has stood up very well to modern readings. A classic worthy of the name. This book made me want to:… Read more
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No More Parades
Review: The second book in what they call the tetralogy of Parade’s End. Here we find the admirable protagonist Tietjens as an officer at a starting off camp in the Great War. It’s not an easy book to read or to understand. It’s literature for certain and woth the effort to read it. But I… Read more
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Parade’s End Book 1: Some Do Not
Review: This was excellent. True literature in every sense. That being said, it was difficult to follow in parts, long parts often and the language was erudite but often convoluted. From a 21st century perspective the way that men and women viewed sexuality seems so dated and stilted. Interesting to see how the pre-war generation… Read more
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A Tale of Two Cities
Review: This was amazing. This was grim. All Dickens is grim. But amongst all the grimness of the Dickens, this rises above the rest. So it was amazingly grim. That works. A few parts took suspension of disbelief too far so I’ll take off a star, but this is truly a great novel. This book… Read more
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The Blue Pavilions
Review: A hidden gem. I had no idea that Quiller-Couch wrote anything. I knew him as the legendary editor of the Oxford Book of English Verse. The prose is wonderful. It is never strained or overly wordy, and it blends humour with drama and even well researched details of the life aboard sailing ships in… Read more
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The Pickwick Papers
Review: Originally published serially, this explains the extraordinary length and often disjointed narrative. An excellent book, you get plenty of humour, plus a lot of pathos, and you can see the start of the Dickensian commentary on the social conditions of the 19th century. Learned a lot, laughed a lot. This book made me want… Read more
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Letters on England
Review: Surprisingly readable despite its age and translated French prose. Sort of a collection of a French Man (of Letters) writing this thoughts on England and the English approach to life, science, education, etc. Not too short, not too long-winded. Learned a lot about the Quakers and how they came to America. This book made… Read more
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Confessions of an English Opium Eater
Review: Well worth reading, a unique glimpse into 19th century life and drug use. Starts out well, gets rapidly pretentious, and then rambles on quite oddly for the last bit. Reminded me of ESVM and her copious amounts of drugs consumed. The story is told with personal conviction, but never descends into vulgarity, and is… Read more
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Cranford
Review: Charming little portrait of a little English village and circle of ladies, old, widowed or spinsters that live a quiet, polite, genteel existence. Little adventures, little tragedies, little triumphs all play out around the quiet streets and homely firesides of pastoral Cranford village. It’s beautifully written, and it could easily be read in one… Read more