The Thirteenth Tale
Length Of Time In Possession : 1 month
In The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield mousy bookshop assistant Margaret Lea works for her father and writes the occasional biography. She attracts the attention of renowned writer Vida Winter who summons her north to act as her biographer.
Vida Winter is a mysterious figure in the literary world, a writer of many massively popular novels she is also known for giving multiple fictional accounts of her own past in every interview she has ever given. Now dying, she has decided to tell the truth about her unusual past.
I really, really liked the Thirteenth Tale, the story of Vida's ancestry and childhood had enough intrigue and mystery to keep me engrossed throughout and I read it in two sittings.
I really loved its remarks about reading, readers, and the importance of books many of which I identified with.
Yet, I read this book for my book club, and it came in for heavy criticism from many of my fellow readers, and I had to concede that many of these criticisms were unfortunately legitimate.
The central conceit itself lacks much real world plausibility. It is unlikely that a life could be that concealed.
There is perhaps a too heavy push to draw comparison with and to emulate the classic novels, particularly Jane Eyre and on occasion this feels forced.
The sub plot around the character Aurelius is quite stuff and nonsense really, particularly Margaret's apparent luck in happening to encounter him as well as his back story.
One of the men in book club called it 'a girls book' - and I think I have to ruefully accept there may be truth to that.
My personal feeling about the book however is that it is 'a ripping good yarn' and I've already recommended it to two people. If you like 19th Century novels, it is likely you'll enjoy the Thirteenth Tale, despite its flaws I definitely did and as a reading experience I would probably still give it top marks.
Verdict : 10/10
Destination : ebook storage
Showing posts with label Classic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classic. Show all posts
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Thursday, 13 June 2013
Book #36 The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie
Length Of Time In Possession : 6 years
What an odd thing this book is. It is the story of one Jean Brodie who teaches 10 year old girls, she elects to turn a group of 6 of them : Sandy, Jenny, Rose, Mary, Monica and Eunice into her "set" a group of petted favourites to whom she extends her influence, and becomes involved with on a personal level turning them into friends and confidantes at an impressionable age, winning both their minds and their hearts. As they age into the Senior School, the headmistress, wary of Brodie attempts to break the girls bond and uncover a reason to dismiss the eccentric schoolteacher.
Certain stylistic approaches irritate, we are repetitively told that Jean Brodie was in her prime or at least considered herself to be, we are repetitively told that Rose became "famous for sex" etc, and in what is quite a short book it proves annoying.
As far as the plot itself goes I found Jean Brodie to be an alarming even sociopathic character : I was thoroughly unsurprised that the Headmistress wanted to oust her. Whilst every parent hopes that their child will find a inspirational teacher who is willing to light up their child's mind and deviate from the "rules"; Brodie is more like a spider to whom the girls are flies, that she manipulates, controls, and puppeteers at her own whim. Mary, as an example, seems to have only been included in the "set" to serve as its whipping boy, an example for Brodie to criticise for the benefit of the other girls.
As the girls age, Brodie manipulates their burgeoning sexual blooming to her own ends and in one instance is indirectly responsible for a child's death. Finally seeing through her, one of her own set betrays her, but which one, and why?
This is a really strong if very strange book about the alarming power to influence children adults hold because even in old age the girl who finally turned on her cites her as her greatest influence. Interesting and thought provoking if not always excellently written.
Verdict : 7.5/10
Destination : Charity Shop
Length Of Time In Possession : 6 years
What an odd thing this book is. It is the story of one Jean Brodie who teaches 10 year old girls, she elects to turn a group of 6 of them : Sandy, Jenny, Rose, Mary, Monica and Eunice into her "set" a group of petted favourites to whom she extends her influence, and becomes involved with on a personal level turning them into friends and confidantes at an impressionable age, winning both their minds and their hearts. As they age into the Senior School, the headmistress, wary of Brodie attempts to break the girls bond and uncover a reason to dismiss the eccentric schoolteacher.
Certain stylistic approaches irritate, we are repetitively told that Jean Brodie was in her prime or at least considered herself to be, we are repetitively told that Rose became "famous for sex" etc, and in what is quite a short book it proves annoying.
As far as the plot itself goes I found Jean Brodie to be an alarming even sociopathic character : I was thoroughly unsurprised that the Headmistress wanted to oust her. Whilst every parent hopes that their child will find a inspirational teacher who is willing to light up their child's mind and deviate from the "rules"; Brodie is more like a spider to whom the girls are flies, that she manipulates, controls, and puppeteers at her own whim. Mary, as an example, seems to have only been included in the "set" to serve as its whipping boy, an example for Brodie to criticise for the benefit of the other girls.
As the girls age, Brodie manipulates their burgeoning sexual blooming to her own ends and in one instance is indirectly responsible for a child's death. Finally seeing through her, one of her own set betrays her, but which one, and why?
This is a really strong if very strange book about the alarming power to influence children adults hold because even in old age the girl who finally turned on her cites her as her greatest influence. Interesting and thought provoking if not always excellently written.
Verdict : 7.5/10
Destination : Charity Shop
Monday, 17 September 2012
Book #78 Anne Of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
Anne Of Green Gables
I tried to read Anne Of Green Gables at the age of about 7, didn't "get it" and had to admit despite my precociousness that I was "probably a bit too young".
Anne Of Green Gables then remained unread and misremembered as tedious until I had a dream in which I was held hostage by terrorists in a bookshop whilst trying to buy a copy! After a dream like that - well I had to read it then, so I downloaded it for humour value.
It was not at all as I remembered it. I fell in love with it from the off. Unmarried brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert getting on in years decide they will take in a young boy from an orphanage to help on their farm, in the days before emails and phones and general legal enquiry, their message goes awry, and Matthew is met by a red haired eleven year old Anne Shirley.
Anne Shirley is no ordinary girl. With a flair for imagination, the dramatic and romantic notions about the world, she talks non stop and takes interest in everything around her.
Anne makes the book what it is, she is actually hilarious, over the top, and theatrical, her long speeches made me smile so much. She reminded me of a young me, and I hope that if I ever get to have a daughter she is a total Anne. Anne's funniest moments often come when by some unintentional mishap she gets into trouble, which like any teenager usually leads to her behaving as if the world had ended and refusing to leave her room.
Secondary characters are fun as well, Anne's touching relationship with Marilla that develops over time, and her understated secret love hidden beneath animosity for academic rival Gilbert Blythe.
Anne Of Green Gables was an utter joy to read, and there are several sequels yet to be read, though I doubt any of them will quite live up to this, I tore through this book, smiling constantly. From a book I once dismissed as being complicated and dull I'm now a massive, massive fan. 10/10
I tried to read Anne Of Green Gables at the age of about 7, didn't "get it" and had to admit despite my precociousness that I was "probably a bit too young".
Anne Of Green Gables then remained unread and misremembered as tedious until I had a dream in which I was held hostage by terrorists in a bookshop whilst trying to buy a copy! After a dream like that - well I had to read it then, so I downloaded it for humour value.
It was not at all as I remembered it. I fell in love with it from the off. Unmarried brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert getting on in years decide they will take in a young boy from an orphanage to help on their farm, in the days before emails and phones and general legal enquiry, their message goes awry, and Matthew is met by a red haired eleven year old Anne Shirley.
Anne Shirley is no ordinary girl. With a flair for imagination, the dramatic and romantic notions about the world, she talks non stop and takes interest in everything around her.
Anne makes the book what it is, she is actually hilarious, over the top, and theatrical, her long speeches made me smile so much. She reminded me of a young me, and I hope that if I ever get to have a daughter she is a total Anne. Anne's funniest moments often come when by some unintentional mishap she gets into trouble, which like any teenager usually leads to her behaving as if the world had ended and refusing to leave her room.
Secondary characters are fun as well, Anne's touching relationship with Marilla that develops over time, and her understated secret love hidden beneath animosity for academic rival Gilbert Blythe.
Anne Of Green Gables was an utter joy to read, and there are several sequels yet to be read, though I doubt any of them will quite live up to this, I tore through this book, smiling constantly. From a book I once dismissed as being complicated and dull I'm now a massive, massive fan. 10/10
Monday, 25 April 2011
Book #26 - Lady Chatterley's Lover by DH Lawrence
Lady Chatterley's Lover
A book more infamous than it is famous 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' is one of those books that you feel 'you must get around to some day'. Published to great scandal in 1929 it remained banned in Britain for salacious content for 31 years and during that time became notorious though few had actually read it. Upon its release in 1960, people queued up at bookshops for it desperate to judge for themselves, it's publication became one of the first major literary events.
The book held a number of surprises for me, I expected to find that in the 82 year time lapse between the book being written and my reading it in the present day, what passed as 'racy' then, would be tame and timid now perhaps even cringeworthy and embarrassing. It is not so. The sex scenes in the book, and there are many are incredibly graphically written, not in a way that feels obscene, to me, anyway but in a way that feels right. They are frankly written, realistic and actually quite tasteful and romantic.
The phrase 'ahead of his time' is of course a cliche now, but it genuinely applies in this case, were this book written by a modern author in 2011 about a romance between an aristocratic lady and her gamekeeper in 1929, it would probably be equally admired as a modern classic but cause very little in the way of moral outrage now with the potential exception of the Daily Mail.
As a modern reader of literature I find that it has had a real impact on my opinion of society of that time, it was an era perhaps when out of politeness things were left unsaid but not necessarily undone, and that the women and men of the 1920's are not perhaps as different from us as we tend to believe. The free use of the more frowned upon swearwords and modern slang in the dialogue indicates this too; like the paragraph in which Mellors admires Connie's derriere and actually uses the word arse. Obviously there are better examples but I think I'll keep them out of the blog, but it's not really what you "expect" from the "classic writers"
To sum up the plot Connie marries a man who is crippled in the War, he can no longer have children, and he encourages her to have an affair in order to concieve which she then embarks on with the gamekeeper Mellors. (My own frustration with this was the inaccuracy that a paralysed man cannot have sex/children which of course they can, but I sort of have to let that quibble go as this was not widely understood in 1929, and also it's a plot device)
This is where you realise there is more to this story, a man has given his wife licence to have affair, as a means to an end, what does this say about him and about her....?
I read Women In Love at university, and read it rather too quickly in order to have it read on time. I didn't particularly enjoy it or find it remarkable in any way. Last year I read Sons And Lovers which was a really bizarre experience because I really enjoyed the book, and I still think of it occasionally but I absolutely detested the main character and several of the supporting ones. Lady Chatterley's Lover was a different experience again and what I found myself thinking most was what a terrible shame it is that mere mention of the title is inextricably linked to the scandal surrounding it and the idea that it is smutty. There is so much more to Lady Chatterley than sex, although the sex IS well written.
During the course of the novel such diverse subjects are dealt with: the condition of Post World War I Britain, class struggle, class snobbery, intellectual snobbery, society, the roles of men and women, human nature, human frailty the emotional dynamics of a sexual relationship, love, marriage and the disintegration of those things and even existentialism.
I find it such a shame that if you say 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' to someone, perhaps as recommendation they will automatically assume because of its infamy that you like "dirty books" or something. It's the main association everyone has with it, that it was banned because it was dirty.
And it's not just that! It's so INTERESTING, engrossing, well written and thought provoking that all the sex is just an integral part of the story not the sum of its charms. This book is excellent. Read it. 10/10
A book more infamous than it is famous 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' is one of those books that you feel 'you must get around to some day'. Published to great scandal in 1929 it remained banned in Britain for salacious content for 31 years and during that time became notorious though few had actually read it. Upon its release in 1960, people queued up at bookshops for it desperate to judge for themselves, it's publication became one of the first major literary events.
The book held a number of surprises for me, I expected to find that in the 82 year time lapse between the book being written and my reading it in the present day, what passed as 'racy' then, would be tame and timid now perhaps even cringeworthy and embarrassing. It is not so. The sex scenes in the book, and there are many are incredibly graphically written, not in a way that feels obscene, to me, anyway but in a way that feels right. They are frankly written, realistic and actually quite tasteful and romantic.
The phrase 'ahead of his time' is of course a cliche now, but it genuinely applies in this case, were this book written by a modern author in 2011 about a romance between an aristocratic lady and her gamekeeper in 1929, it would probably be equally admired as a modern classic but cause very little in the way of moral outrage now with the potential exception of the Daily Mail.
As a modern reader of literature I find that it has had a real impact on my opinion of society of that time, it was an era perhaps when out of politeness things were left unsaid but not necessarily undone, and that the women and men of the 1920's are not perhaps as different from us as we tend to believe. The free use of the more frowned upon swearwords and modern slang in the dialogue indicates this too; like the paragraph in which Mellors admires Connie's derriere and actually uses the word arse. Obviously there are better examples but I think I'll keep them out of the blog, but it's not really what you "expect" from the "classic writers"
To sum up the plot Connie marries a man who is crippled in the War, he can no longer have children, and he encourages her to have an affair in order to concieve which she then embarks on with the gamekeeper Mellors. (My own frustration with this was the inaccuracy that a paralysed man cannot have sex/children which of course they can, but I sort of have to let that quibble go as this was not widely understood in 1929, and also it's a plot device)
This is where you realise there is more to this story, a man has given his wife licence to have affair, as a means to an end, what does this say about him and about her....?
I read Women In Love at university, and read it rather too quickly in order to have it read on time. I didn't particularly enjoy it or find it remarkable in any way. Last year I read Sons And Lovers which was a really bizarre experience because I really enjoyed the book, and I still think of it occasionally but I absolutely detested the main character and several of the supporting ones. Lady Chatterley's Lover was a different experience again and what I found myself thinking most was what a terrible shame it is that mere mention of the title is inextricably linked to the scandal surrounding it and the idea that it is smutty. There is so much more to Lady Chatterley than sex, although the sex IS well written.
During the course of the novel such diverse subjects are dealt with: the condition of Post World War I Britain, class struggle, class snobbery, intellectual snobbery, society, the roles of men and women, human nature, human frailty the emotional dynamics of a sexual relationship, love, marriage and the disintegration of those things and even existentialism.
I find it such a shame that if you say 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' to someone, perhaps as recommendation they will automatically assume because of its infamy that you like "dirty books" or something. It's the main association everyone has with it, that it was banned because it was dirty.
And it's not just that! It's so INTERESTING, engrossing, well written and thought provoking that all the sex is just an integral part of the story not the sum of its charms. This book is excellent. Read it. 10/10
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Book #6 Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, or rather Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred And Profane Memories Of Captain Charles Ryder to give it is proper title is a known "classic". Though it was mentioned by Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen on 'My Life In Books' I'm not someone eager to take reading recommendations from the foppish one off of Changing Rooms as snobby as that may sound. I think it was him anyway it could have been the Mitford sister. What I did think was 'Oh yes, Waugh, I keep meaning to read Waugh and never have' and so I downloaded Brideshead Revisited.
Captain Charles Ryder and his company come across a stately home whilst on exercise, encouraged to see it by one of his men he replies 'I've seen it before' and the rest of the story takes place as a flashback.
Early in his university career Ryder befriends Sebastian Flyte the second son of Lord Marchmain, a man living in exile in Italy, having left his staunchly Catholic wife. Flyte brings him to visit their home and from there Charles visits become regular and he becomes intricately linked to their family.
Brideshead Revisited is of course now forever associated with the Eighties TV adaptation starring Jeremy Irons & I have to say without knowledge of it I would have been hard pressed to know what causes Sebastian's decline, Waugh of course could not have made the reasons explicit in the era in which he wrote, and a small, subtle clue is only given by Ryder towards the end of the novel when he is involved in a relationship with Sebastian's sister.
Although I love the drawing room society culture of Nineteenth Century literature, like Austen say, there was something about Brideshead that I thought was elitist and off putting, I didn't really care about them and I found them rather shallow. At the conclusion of the book, after the final event that Ryder shares with the family, I closed the book and I said : "The lesson apparently in this novel is : Catholicism ruins lives!!!" which is a strange conclusion to make because Waugh was a committed Catholic and i'm not sure that's the moral of the tale he would have wished readers to take.
I think its "worthy" as in worth reading but again, I was disappointed as I'd heard it and Waugh mentioned so often over the years that I'd hoped to sink into a book which would forever stay with me and become a book that I wouldn't want to end and that experience didn't happen for me. I feel like maybe I "missed something" as you often do when you don't love a classic. Shame, really. 6/10
Brideshead Revisited, or rather Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred And Profane Memories Of Captain Charles Ryder to give it is proper title is a known "classic". Though it was mentioned by Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen on 'My Life In Books' I'm not someone eager to take reading recommendations from the foppish one off of Changing Rooms as snobby as that may sound. I think it was him anyway it could have been the Mitford sister. What I did think was 'Oh yes, Waugh, I keep meaning to read Waugh and never have' and so I downloaded Brideshead Revisited.
Captain Charles Ryder and his company come across a stately home whilst on exercise, encouraged to see it by one of his men he replies 'I've seen it before' and the rest of the story takes place as a flashback.
Early in his university career Ryder befriends Sebastian Flyte the second son of Lord Marchmain, a man living in exile in Italy, having left his staunchly Catholic wife. Flyte brings him to visit their home and from there Charles visits become regular and he becomes intricately linked to their family.
Brideshead Revisited is of course now forever associated with the Eighties TV adaptation starring Jeremy Irons & I have to say without knowledge of it I would have been hard pressed to know what causes Sebastian's decline, Waugh of course could not have made the reasons explicit in the era in which he wrote, and a small, subtle clue is only given by Ryder towards the end of the novel when he is involved in a relationship with Sebastian's sister.
Although I love the drawing room society culture of Nineteenth Century literature, like Austen say, there was something about Brideshead that I thought was elitist and off putting, I didn't really care about them and I found them rather shallow. At the conclusion of the book, after the final event that Ryder shares with the family, I closed the book and I said : "The lesson apparently in this novel is : Catholicism ruins lives!!!" which is a strange conclusion to make because Waugh was a committed Catholic and i'm not sure that's the moral of the tale he would have wished readers to take.
I think its "worthy" as in worth reading but again, I was disappointed as I'd heard it and Waugh mentioned so often over the years that I'd hoped to sink into a book which would forever stay with me and become a book that I wouldn't want to end and that experience didn't happen for me. I feel like maybe I "missed something" as you often do when you don't love a classic. Shame, really. 6/10
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