2011- What classic are you reading now?

Happy New Year fellow readers! A brand new year calls for a brand new thread. So, here it is!

Right now, I am re-reading The School for Scandal and Other Plays by my favourite playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. I had begun this last year. Hope to finish it by the end of this week.

Thanks, Porua! Happy New Year, my friend! Still reading CAKES AND ALE by Somerset Maugham. Great book, great writer.

# 2 You’re welcome, sholofsky! :-)

I've finally returned to The Count of Monte Cristo, re-opening where I left off around 400 pages in. I do not know why it took so long; I'm completely enthralled by the story.

This has come at the expense of Hard Times, which may or may not wait until I'm finished with Dumas and Nietzsche's Human, All Too Human.

Just finished reading the beautiful LEC version of The Golden Ass.

I'm reading a collection of Henrik Ibsen's plays. I've made it through Hedda Gabler and Ghosts so far. Ibsen wrote about some controversial topics, especially for the time. Ghosts, especially, was pretty shocking.

I've just started The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence. So far, so good.

I've decided that for the next few years, my first full-length book each year will be a re-reading of one of Joseph Conrad's major novels. I started 2010 with Heart of Darkness. This year I'm re-reading Lord Jim. Once again, as always, I find myself enthralled by Conrad's descriptive power.

Thirty-eight pages into Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann.

Finished Hamlet. Bleak House here I come!

Finished A Study in Scarlet recently. Now I'm onto The Sign of the Four!

Bleak House is really good! I'm reading my first Trollope - The Way We Live Now

It (Bleak House) is! I'm just sorry I waited so long to read it.

Bleak House is one of my favorite of Dickens' works. I heard someone say it's probably the most Austenian too — an interesting comparison, but a good one.

The BBC miniseries is also excellent!

Bleak House is terrific! I read it a couple years ago and have been thinking it's time for a reread. Hope you enjoy it!

I am enjoying it. wisewoman, as I've been reading (I'm only about 10% through) I've thought of your comment re Austenian, and I can see how that might be, with some of these early scenes in Bleak House from Esther's pov, so we'll see how it develops.

I finished Little Dorrit, very excited about that. The characters are stellar, but the plot falls a little towards being lackluster.

I also love Bleak House. John Jarndyce is an exceptional character, one of those types that you wished was an uncle of yours so he could come and rescue you from some sort of shenanigan you've gotten yourself into.

Finished my rereading of Lord Jim tonight. Still as powerful for me as when I first read it 25 years ago.

I'm reading The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins, and I am totally surprised and delighted at how funny it is!

I recently finished a reread of The Woman in White. I think it would be one of the first titles I'd recommend to someone new to the classics :)

Ah, Count Fosco...Uncle Fairlie...great characters

I'm not reading a classic, rather a mere derivation. Still it is very entertaining. I'm enjoying The Preservationist, a rip-off of Genesis. Of course, that was in turn, a rip-off of Gilgamesh.

I've finished my reread of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and have started Charles Dickens' Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby as my next classic read. Nicholas is traveling by coach in the company of Mr. Squeers and some new boys to take up a teaching position at Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire. The plot thickens.

Mm, Nicholas Nickleby was such a fun read. The recent movie isn't bad either (though dreadfully compressed). Christopher Plummer as Ralph Nickleby is fantastic.

I'll have to see that one. I remember a long time ago seeing a production of Nicholas Nickleby on PBS starring Roger Rees as Nicholas which I greatly enjoyed.

#25 Ditto. That PBS production from the 80's was legendary. If you'll recall, it was based on the hit Broadway production of NICKLEBY, which ran eight hours with a dinner break, a Broadway first. Dickens has to be one of the few Victorian writers who could command an audience for that long.

It would have been wonderful to see an entire day of Dickens on Broadway.

For my classics habit, I'm reading Cicero's Three Books of Offices.

I have just started Bleak House. It's the February group read for the 11 in 11 challenge group and I know I should have waited to February 1 but I just couldn't.

Oh, I didn't know there was a group read. Since I'm already doing it, maybe I can join in too.

Everyone is welcome to join in - the more the merrier.

Reviewed one of my most favourite books of all time, The School for Scandal and Other Plays by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 –1816). My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/64032261

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread 2011,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

Last week I finally finished War and Peace. Enjoyed the story but felt impatient with the historical bits and that epilogue nearly killed me. Going for something lighter --- Gaskell's The Cranford Chronicles(Vintage's edition with the novel Cranford and then two novellas Dr Harrison's Confession and My Lady Ludlow; touchstone doesn't seem to be loading). So far so good.

33> You have hit my feelings on War and Peace precisely. For that reason, I think Anna Karenina is Tolstoy's best novel.

Does Dark Night of the Soul by St. John of the Cross count as a classic? I'm reading it at the moment. Parts are wonderful and other parts not so much.

Just starting Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. It's too soon to know what to think of it, but it does seem a dense read...in a good way. Much more dense than most the 19th Century British classics I'm used to.

Like I said, though, the density is not a bad thing at all. I have a feeling it's going to be a very rich read.

ETA: I'm a little farther into it, now, and am finding that this is one of those books that make me fall in love with reading all over again!

Reviewed the classic comic novel, The Diary of a Nobody. It is better than I had anticipated. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/68587321

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

Reviewed Sarah Orne Jewett’s classic, The Country of the Pointed Firs. Such a gentle, little book!

My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/68679670

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread 2011,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

Just finished Silas Marner. Wonderful, heartbreaking short novel by George Eliot.

Now I'm reading The Last of the Mohicans and so far I'm enjoying the adventure.

# 36 - Ohh...Anna Karenina. Tolstoj is so good at the details, dissecting each persons behaviour, feelings, actions. Seldom has I been gripped by the fate of the characters in a novel as I was with Anna Karenina.

I knew you would enjoy it :)

> 40: You nailed Tolstoy exactly!

I read Sybil by Benjamin Disraeli earlier this month and adored it. But I'm easy to please - give me Victorian England, working class issues, and a love story, and I'm happy.

I've also read Two Histories of England by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, which were both fairly amusing.

Finished Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight for British Lit. Reading All Quiet for the Western Front for English IV.

> 39: So glad you enjoyed Silas Marner! It's one of my favorites, and for some reason it doesn't get much love. (A fate it shares with many other books on high school reading lists ... coincidence? I think not.) I've heard it called sappy, sentimental, and painfully simple on various boards. I think it's a wonderfully moving story full of archetypal imagery.

I'm almost finished The Awakening, by Kate Chopin. Tomorrow is Feb 1 and I'm starting Nicholas Nickleby, by Dickens.

Reading Mrs. Dalloway, Emma, The Horla, and Alice in Wonderland.

#45 Hope you enjoy Nicholas Nickleby, Nickelini. I'm on Chapter 22 and finding it a very good read.

#46 Same for you with Emma, jenorozco79. It is one of my favorites of Jane Austen.

# 44 - I agree. Actually I saw that it got mixed reviews, but it didn't take long before I was totally engaged in this dear man's life and fate. Eliot's prose is so sophisticated and detailed and precise that I had to stop and read sentences several time just to ponder and reflect. I know this will not be my last read.

Try Middlemarch next, then.

#36, loved Anna Karenina!

# 50, Anna Karenina is now my favorite book ever!

Now I've just started The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner. I's too soon to tell how it will go, but I find that I'm already liking Lyndall, the main character, who is coming of age on a South African farm. She seems smart, independent, and strong-minded.

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. Just the thing for a 60's something.

I'm sure that I mentioned late last year that I was reading that bawdy doorstop, Gargantua and Pantagruel. 'Still am.

I've learned enough words to embarrass a longshoreman. Ok, maybe an early 16th century longshoreman.

I love Gargantua and Pantagruel! Years ago, I taught the first few chapters to some undergraduates. Funny how kids who thought they were so liberated were embarrassed about discussing how Gargantua could best wipe his rear.

Lolita, much better than the movie!

#55 Which version? The latest version with Jeremy Irons was certainly horrendous; the first version with James Mason and Peter Sellers--and scripted by Nabokov--I thought quite good. In either case, you're right, nothing could compare with the book.

I struggled with lolita, I have a very love/hate relationship with it.

There's a lot to love and a lot that's very clever, but I feel a lot seemed drawn out and by the end of it it seemed too long (and for a not very long book that's abad sign). I feel it sort of lost it's way in the middle but the beginning and end make it a more than worthy read.

On a slightly lighter note I'm currently finishing The Wind in the Willows. Will probably start A clockwork orange next (which links back to Lolita through Kubrick directed movies!).

Jeremy Irons and horrendous? Are those two things compatible?

*cough* back on topic ...

#58 Now you know how bad it was. Irons was definitely not the problem--he was the reason my wife and I wanted to see it. Alas...films need directors and writers, too.

Lolita: The only novel I ever read and hated from beginning to end. Maybe I'm being narrow-minded but its a story about a pedophile written by an "egotistical stylist".

#60 "Egotistical stylist": you'd be surprised how many writers that applied to. Now we know how to punish you, s4 :=)

Add me to the list of people creeped out by Lolita. I absolutely loathed it.

I'm slogging through Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Creeped out by Lolita? Isn't that more or less the point of the book, though? It's a journey inside the mind of a very disturbed person. If it weren't creepy, it would be a bit flat. Of course, you have to want to spend time with such a problematic character to appreciate the book.

>54 wrmjr66:

muliebrine, amorabonds, qudrines, monorchids, friggling, bepiddling, tittuppy-tattuppy, mossblow, postpriandial, cunticudgelling, prickety-split, horny joy dingus, hothpots, pissdogs, electuary, shibboleth, sulkeris, ambiguegramble, penetrail, extravastate, turdous, poppinjay, mountelbank, quiddative, varlet, unguents, monkeries, iniquitous, brabblers, scrotulous, tarradiddled, hugger-mugger-bugger, gerundive, tatterdemalion, marchioness, sententious

...a 16th century longshoreman with Tourrette's Syndrome.

Starting...to...trudge...through...Book IV...

sholofsky,
See Max Beerbohm's evocative essay in And Even Now titled: The Crime. (It's just me and "Lolita")!

www.readbookonline.net/readOnline/2345/

Enjoy.

#65 Thanks, s4, but please, before you burn your copy of LOLITA, send it to me or Rocketjk. At least, it will find a more merciful home: I wouldn't mind a second copy and I'm sure Rocket could use an extra in his store.

#66 Oh, Shol, if only I'd known you could have had mine too. I freely acknowledge that the writing is great but the desire to jump into a very hot bath and stay there for weeks after reading it was just too much to bear.

I'm currently slogging through Coriolanus. I'm always divided on the subject of Shakey - there are some plays I adore and some I just hate and rarely do the twain ever meet. This was one of very few that I hadn't read before and I have to say that, right now, it's falling heavily on the 'hate' side. Maybe things will improve.

I've just finished King Lear for British Lit. Somehow I can appreciate plays more when someone's standing over me and forcing me to analyze it...it's actually kind of enjoyable.

#67 Analyzing my avoidance of your problems with LOLITA, B, I can offer two solutions, one of which will be of no use to you at all, and one which may help. The first is, I read LOLITA while still an adolescent, so Humbert's fascination with adolescent girls didn't seem quite so weird as it would today because everyday I went to school fascinated with them myself. Second, for some reason, during this period of my life, I had gotten into the habit of taking baths and reading in the tub, which is where much of LOLITA got devoured--hence, instantaneous cleansing of any pedophilia-disgust run-off. Try the LOLITA in the bath-tub gambit, B., your conscience won't feel a thing :+)

Ah, but I'm a shower person, so neither will be of any help, I'm afraid. As for the notion of a testosterone-filled adolescent reading Lolita in the bath - that brings images to my mind that I'd rather not have at my tender age. ;-)

The Count of Monte Cristo - nearly done with volume 1

#70 Don't worry, my dear, reading was the only thing on the menu (boy, we're really tarting up this thread, aren't we?--hope they don't kick us out):-)

Finished the LEC MORIAE ENCOMIUM (amazingly topical) and I'm almost finished with the LEC Erewhon.

>71 bumblesby:
Good luck, it;s my favourite book! A litle daunting in size though.

I just finished The Prisoner of Zenda which was an extremely good time after reading a few too many over-serious books this year. Well written but full of clichés and not very thought-provoking... but a great adventure story all the same.

One of my new favourites I think.

Hi!
I've just joined the group, and wondered if Hotel Berlin, which I'm currently reading, could be called a classic? Or a 'popular classic', a bit like Prisoner of Zenda (though not very much like it!). It was published 1946, which might make it a bit recent, apart from other reasons...

I'm reading The Man Who Would be King.

Re-read the classic spy thriller, The Thirty-Nine Steps. Enjoyed it once again. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/63886806

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

Just finished reading Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I never read this in school so I figured I'd read it now. Exactly what I expected but still fun to read.

I've finished Nicholas Nickleby and I'm now reading the baseball classic Ball Four and
a Pulitzer Prize winner by James Michener, Tales of the South Pacific, on which the musical South Pacific was based.

I finished Les Miserables yesterday. There's a good story in there but *sigh* it's a long book. Was a history of the Parisian sewer system REALLY necessary toward the end? I'm off the soothe myself with some PG Wodehouse.

Mm, I love the sewer chapters and Hugo's digressions. The first time I read the book his long rambles into other subjects were very welcome to me, as a break from the emotional intensity of the main story.

I'm listening to Persuasion read by Juliet Stevenson. It's wonderful!

Onto The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene, pretty interesting so far and on a subject I knew little to nothing about (the persecution of catholics in Mexico in the 1930s).

#83 Yes, the situation does deserve more research. I was surprised to hear about it myself in such a Catholic country when I read the Greene novel a few decades ago.

Finished one of Charles Dickens’ Christmas stories Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings. Nice and enjoyable book. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/70122174

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

Now on to its sequel Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy.

East of Eden and The House of Seven Gables
Can't go wrong with a classic. :)

83

Me too! I'm on part II of The Power and the Glory is turning into a fascinating Lieutenant (cat) and whiskey priest (mouse) game.

I've finished another baseball classic, The Natural by Bernard Malamud and am back to Dickens with Charles Dickens' Best Stories edited by Morton Dauwen Zabel, a collection of some of Dickens' shorter works. Note to Porua: This collection includes Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings, which I'm looking forward to reading even more after your review.

# 88 Charles Dickens' Best Stories sounds great! Wish I could read it too.

Just finished reading The Great Gatsby. Thought it would be better.

After attending Barry Moser's lecture at the opening of the exhibit of his works at the Brandywine River Museum I am re-reading my copies of books he has designed and illustrated. The Red Badge of Courage now, to followed by The Scarlet Letter.

Finished Mrs. Lirriper's Legacy by Charles Dickens, the sequel to Mrs Lirriper's Lodgings. Wish there were more Mrs. Lirriper stories. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/70122446

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

I enjoyed reading these two Dickens Christmas stories. Now I’m going to look for more of them.

Reading A Passage to India and I'm so impressed with the writing: the subtle metaphor, the dialogue. My first Forster novel, will consider Howard's End in future.

I'm just starting Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. I love Hardy's writing style, and compassion for women. His books are indeed generally depressing, but they addressed issues that were critical to women at the time. I feel he was so hard on them in his books in order to bring the oppressive, and often violent treatment of women to light.

bookwoman247 - Jude the Obscure is my favorite Hardy novel, depressing, but a very good read. Glad you're enjoying it.

Cecrow - If you like A Passage to India, I think you'll like Howard's End too. I enjoyed both of them.

> 96: I really am enjoying it! It may turn out to be my favorite as well, although it is much too soon to tell. Jude, as a boy, has already endeared himself to me! I think he may turn out to be one of my favorite characters in literature, besides Atticus Finch, but I reserve the right to change my mind, since he may develope to be an entirely different character later on.

#93-96 Oh boy - Passage to India and Jude! Is this heaven?

# 93 I read A Passage to India in 2009. It was one of my top reads that year. Loved Forster's complex yet beautiful writing.

I'm half way through Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, overall I'm enjoy it. I love her writing style, and the story it's self is interesting.

I am still reading Bleak House and have started Pride and Prejudice, which I haven't read since high school, when I read it in a night.

99: Have you read other JA's?

>100 citygirl:, Citygirl: Bleak House Does take as long to read as Jarndyce V. Jarndyce takes to get resolved, but it is well worth the effort! It took me two attempts to finish it, and I was very glad I did.

Pride and Prejudice is the perfect break from Bleak House, or from any long or difficult novel.

# 99, 100 & 101 Dickens and Austen are two of my favourite authors. I'm planning to read Bleak House in the near future. I can see that it's pretty long but I've read Dickens' The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield, both almost equally long. I'm hoping it wouldn't be too tough for me. :-)

I finished Pride and Prejudice in a night too! I've read it at least five more times since then. Pride and Prejudice, Persuasion and Northanger Abbey are my top three favourites among all of the Austen novels.

Just started Kidnapped by Robert Lewis Stevenson.

A Sentimental Journey by Laurence Sterne. Not quite as side-cracking as Tristram Shandy but lots of fun none the less!

>102 Porua: Those are my three favorite Austen novels, too, Porua, and in that order. I sometimes feel Persuasion and Northanger Abbey aren't as popular as they should be. Pride and Prejudice doesn't seem to have that problem. :-)

Is To Serve Them All My Days a classic? I'm certainly enjoying it.

# 105 You are right. Persuasion and Northanger Abbey are not as popular as they should be. Maybe because many people do not realize that Northanger Abbey is a parody of the Gothic genre that was so popular in Austen's time. Maybe people don't enjoy the seriousness and subtlety of Anne and Captain Wentworth's romance in Persuasion.

*Possible Spoiler* Or maybe the fact that Anne’s romance is more of a rejuvenation of a prior romance rather than the budding of a new romance, à la Pride and Prejudice. *End of Possible Spoiler*

Actually, when Austen fans are polled, Persuasion generally ends up as the second-place favorite, right after P&P. Of course, that's Austen fans, not the general public.

That's good to hear about Persuasion, i.e. the poll results. When I first read Northanger Abbey, I didn't know what you describe, Porua. I unexpectedly found myself laughing out loud and saying, this is really funny! That completely caught me by surprise.

#108 I'll always have a soft spot for Northanger Abbey too. Not only was it my first Jane Austen in adulthood (read P&P at about 12 years of age and thought it was soppy) but it is so funny and doesn't take itself at all seriously while also being the perfect 'gateway' book to all those yummy gothics. I can accept that others are 'better' books but it will always have a special place in my heart.

# 108 I knew about the whole satire thing when I first read Northanger Abbey. Being precocious, I had read a critical essay on all of Austen's novels at the tender age of 12. That might have helped me understand Austen's novels better and appreciate them more. :-)

Sounds good, Porua. I was precocious at a much later age (way after college and well into my career) - can one be subcocious? I was late to the dance and unschooled on JA, that's for sure. I've studied critical material on her since and re-read them, with an even greater appreciation. Like Booksloth, I'll always have a soft spot for Northanger Abbey because it was so unexpectedly funny.

# 111

postcocious? I like how your mind works!

"Postcocious" - that's it, thanks, bertilak!

Late to the dance can be fashionably late, don't forget :)

Read the engaging Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/68451726

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

I've read the Mrs. Miniver book and seen the movie, and I have to admit that this is a case where I liked the movie better. Definitely worth seeing.

I'm not reading a classic at the moment, but the biography that I'm reading, Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury by Alison Light is making me want to read more Woolf. I have one more library book I need to read, then I may choose either Jacob's Room or Night and Day, both by Virginia Woolf.

In fact, if anyone can recommend one book over the other, I'd appreciate it!

I should read Mrs. Miniver. I do love the Greer Garson movie. It's wonderful.

Love in the Time of Cholera. About half way through, and it's very good so far.

The Massacre at Paris by Christopher Marlowe

I am reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Not much of a horror fan, but my son is reading it for HS English, so I thought I would try it as well.

Bill Masom

Just finished P&P and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which is so subversively delicious. Strongly recommended. That P&P is also is a given.

Slowly going through The Castle of Otranto don't know how I feel about it yet.

#121
I'm not a horror fan either but I really liked Frankenstein and Stoker's Dracula.

# 124 I love Dracula! One of my all time favourites.

For horror, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Phantom of the Opera, and The Turn of the Screw are more my cuppa.

I liked Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, as well. I've seen The Phantom of the Opera on film which I enjoyed but have never read the book. And Turn of the Screw is on my shelf but has not been read...I may look into that one.

Turn of the Screw is rather odd, and originally its vagueness annoyed me, but it's one of the few books I've read that has both pleased and terrified me. The 60s movie with Deborah Kerr (titled The Innocents) is excellent too. And I personally think The Phantom of the Opera is superior to any of its stage or film adaptations, although several eclipse it in popularity. To those who choose to read it, though, beware of which translation you get: the traditional English version, by Alexander Teixeira de Mattos, is abridged.

I just finished "reading" (this time on audiobook) Jane Eyre for the second time in my life. I loved it. Certainly a huge improvement upon my first experience with it, when I was a teenager. This is a book I can see myself reading again and again as I mature.

I recently read Phantom of the Opera and thought it was fairly terrible. Well not terrible, but not the masterpiece that some think it is and not worthy of the status it has thanks to the musical etc.

The name of the translator was not present in my version though, which leads me to believe it probably was the inferior old abridged translation.

I just read The Catle of Otranto similar to >123 bakabaka84: and find this another gothic novel a little too saturated in hyperdrama.

Reading the introduction before starting The Metamorphosis, and something tells me I'm not quite going to know how I feel about this one afterwards.

The novel Phantom of the Opera is so different from the movie. The movie changes all of the characters' personalities around, with the result that none of them are the way they are in the book.

>131 SusieBookworm:

None of the personalities are likable in the book though. And though the romance aspect isn't exactly fleshed out in the musical (I haven't seen the movie version, just several stage versions) the romance is just flat out stilted and unbelievable in the book.

I couldn't believe how different they were though, it's only very loosely the same story. The musical is almost more like The Hunchback of Notre Dame than this book.

WHAT romance? Raoul/Christine, I hope? The thing that annoys me about the musical is that they tried to make Christine have feelings for Eric.

*chants to self* Will not get in a Phantom argument. Will not get in a Phantom argument.

Yes I meant Raoul/Christine, thoguh I had forgotten their names!

In the book the character of Raoul is no more likable than the Phantom anyway. What a stroppy, moody, spineless **** he comes across. Christine comes acorss just as spoilt and whiney. The one main thing I dislike about gothic novels is that often they have ridiculously heightened melodrama so they feel more like plays than novels and that their characters are so frequently uber-whiney (I'm not sure Phantom is true gothic but it does have this same problem).

In another group someone was moaning that the 'gothic greats' are now replaced by Twilight etc, but I don't see a huge difference really. Both seem for the 'emo' attitudes of their times and to satisfy the same kind of audience (relative to time period).

Raoul and Christine are annoying initially, surely, but I've always thought that they develop nicely. All three leads let go of some of their selfishness near the end, actually.

I really have got to get back to my bucket list, The New Lifetime Reading Plan. I'm going to plow through some Euripides, starting with Medea.

Reading Walden right now. I really enjoy the depth of it but wish it was a bit more structured.

I'm currently rereading more Shakespeare. I've just finished Much Ado About Nothing and also watched the Kenneth Branagh Much Ado... from a few years ago and a Sam Waterston Much Ado... which appeared on TV in the 1970s. Enjoyed the reading and watching very much. I'm on to Romeo and Juliet next and hope to pair that reading with a watching of the Franco Zeffirelli movie version, which I've seen many times before and is one of my favorites.

I love that movie, too. Especially the music. I'm thinking about watching the Branagh Hamlet.

Shakespeare films always seem to have the best music for some reason, don't they?

I don't recommend Branagh's Hamlet. Ridiculously overrated and over-the-top. Try his Henry V instead.

Henry V's soundtrack is one of my favorites. Patrick Doyle for the win!

138, 139, 140 I've just taken Branagh's Henry V out of the library and hope to watch his Hamlet sometime soon, too. I think I'll make Henry V my next Shakespeare reread as I reread Hamlet late last year. Thank you for the idea.

Thumbs up here for his Henry V.

After a few false starts, I am deeply into Of Human Bondage and so happy that I pushed forward. I did so only because so many people urged me to. This is my first Maugham novel, and I can't wait to go through the others.

Finished Thucydides and have moved onto the Landmark edition of Xenophon's Hellenika.

I'm listening to The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexander Dumas. It's tricky because of all the french names that sound very similar to my untrained ear.

Just finished On the Nature of the Universe. this was the Penguin (R E Latham) translation.

I'm currently seeking out The Landmark Thucydides. Until I find a copy, I thought I'd read another Penguin Classic, The Golden Ass.

The Landmark Thucydides is a good one - I'm reading it right now. Lots of notes and explanations and appendices and maps.

I just finished Passenger to Teheran by Vita Sackville-West, a great vintage travel book, and somewhat of a modern classic, IMO.

Now I'm just barely starting Poor Miss Finch by Wilkie Collins. I'm not at all far in, but feel like I'm already settling in. I am enjoyng the humor of the narrator, Madame Pratolungo.

A childhood favourite: Dr. dolittle in the moon! It's an old Dutch translation I picked up in a library sale. Also, The Family Mashber, a Jewish-Russian classic somewhat in the style of Thomas Mann and Dostoevsky; I'm enjoying it very much!

I'm reading Death Comes for the Archbishop. Wonderful descriptions of the Southwestern landscape, interesting cast of characters. Re Poor Miss Finch, Mme Pratolungo is one of the best things about the novel.

I read Lord of the Flies last week. Meh. Maybe you have to be 13? Or maybe it's the talk around it, that it's so disturbing, that I was expecting something that didn't quite happen. Maybe just cynical.

>152 citygirl:

I think alot of people feel that way about that book. The LT reviews especiallya re full of 3 star 'meh' reviews. It's a good one for school study as there are a lot of themes for students to pick up on and discuss.

I'm currently reading No Country for Old Men. Not sure whether everyone would consider this a classic, personally I can't quite get stuck into Cormac McCarthy, maybe because I'm not American? I can appreciate some of the use of language though.

I loved Lord of the Flies! (And I was 16 when I read it, not 13.)

I'm reading Island by Aldous Huxley right now. It's really good, though not terribly exciting; it's mostly dialogue.

The Count of Monte Cristo- I'm not even sure how many times I've read it, it has been that many. Every time I find a new translation* I give it a re-read. It makes it new and fresh for me to see how different translators tell the story, and what they choose to leave out or change.

*note here: Except of course for that romance novel version of it, I think called Master? I won't go near it. I do remember getting a kick out of the amazon reviews though. One woman was enamored of the author and her research/"doing her homework" because, as the reviewer stated, the author gone back to/used original texts such as diaries and letters of Mercedes and Dantes (as if these were real things from real people). I still can't tell if she was being facetious or not, but it makes me chuckle either way.

>155 Sourire:

My favourite book too :) Though I've only got all the way through it once, too much else to read!

I had no idea that 'erotic novel' version existed, but wow has it given me some entertainment this morning!

I've picked up The Turn of the Screw - Tighter by Adele Griffin is next on my TBR list, and apparently it's based on James' story.

#157 I'll be curiious to know what you think of The Turn of the Screw - Tighter.

#158: I found The Turn of the Screw to be disappointing and a bit confusing, though still good. Tighter appeared to be a direct retelling of it at first, but it's very much a YA book and by the end separates into a different story. Still a very enjoyable read, though.

I'll never forget sitting up late at night one Friday, scaring myself silly while reading The Turn of the Screw. One guy who was looking for my roommate actually burst through the door at one point, causing me to scream and toss the book into the air. It's not really a favorite of mine, but it's certainly left memories!

P. S. The most famous film adaptation of the story, starring Deborah Kerr and titled The Innocents, is also excellent ... and induced more late-night terror.

I don't know if it's a classic, I think it's considered one in Eastern Europe, but I just started Embers by Sandor Marai. I've heard nothing but good things about it and I finally got around to reading something from my wishlist.

I've never even heard of that!

#161 I wasn't a fan but I think it's well-known enough (in the UK, at least) to count as being on the way to a modern classic. It has a huge following - I'm just not one of them.

Still slogging through Gone with the Wind. Am I the only person around who doesn't like it? Still have about 200 pages left. Maybe it will redeem itself in the end?

Finished the immensely enjoyable Very Good, Jeeves, a collection of eleven short stories featuring Jeeves by P. G. Wodehouse.

My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/72910267

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/106099

You can never go wrong with Jeeves & Wooster!

In the fall, I'll be attending a class at the local community college, where we will be discussing Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, Kate Chopin's The Awakening and Flaubert's Madame Bovary. Because of the length, I'll spend this summer rereading Anna Karenina, which I originally read two summers ago. Looking forward to it.

I recently read and reviewed Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It was pretty much meh.

#167 Sounds like a great class and some great books - let me guess, something about women as victims in literature who have to be 'punished' for their transgressions, (with The Awakening as contrast? I hope you enjoy it - do let us know how it goes. If I'm right about the course, I once had to compile a huge list of these books in which the woman is made to pay for making her own choices and I'm pretty sure I can still find it if it's any help.

#168 Frankenstein meh? :(

#169 Yes, something like that. I'll definitely let you know how it goes and I'd love to see your list. Thanks.

I remember Frankenstein was "meh" too when I was assigned it in high school. I've kept my copy just because I think I ought to try it once more as an adult, but I'm not in any rush to pick it up again....

#170 I just had a quick search in the back of all my old text books where I thought the list was, but with no luck. It was women in fiction who discovered their sexuality and had to be punished for doing so - usually either by death or mental destruction. Off the top of my head it would have included:
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Anna Karenina
Madame Bovary
Bertha Rochester - Jane Eyre
Catherine Earneshaw - Wuthering Heights
Florence Dowell - The Good Soldier
Mme de Merteuil, Cecile Volange and Madame de Tourvel (a clean sweep in this one!) - Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Eve, Jezabel, Salome (I could go on) - The Bible
Daisy Buchanan - The Great Gatsby
Esmeralda - Notre Dame de Paris
Cosette - Les Miserables
Rebecca
Kucy Westenra - Dracula
Moll Flanders
Hester Prynne - The Scarlet Letter
Sue Bridehead - Jude the Obscure
Nancy - Oliver Twist
Sibyl Vane - The Picture of Dorian Gray
Curly's Wife (as if it wasn't bad enough being referred to as 'Curly's wife' right the way through) - Of Mice and Men

There are about a zillion more but this should be enough to let you see what you're up against. And there are some of my all-time favourite books in that list - it should be a lot of fun!

there is also of course Lady Chatterley's Lover and a host of books. Would any of you know a great classic which would be the reverse? A classic book with a woman who is both happy and sexually active?
This makes me think of the John Wayne's movies: the woman working in a bar had a big heart but always had to die in the end....until 1960, North to Alaska was I think, the first good movie where the not-too-good-woman survived.

#172 Thanks for your list, Booksloth. It includes some of my favorites as well.

#173 Thanks for your input too, claude_lambert. Your question's very interesting. Nothing is springing to mind, but I'm going to keep thinking about it.

#173 Becky Sharpe (Vanity Fair) breaks the mould.

ETA - If anyone was quick enough to catch that message before I edited it - yes, it did say 'Vanity Fart' and no, it wasn't deliberate.

Thank you, Booksloth. How could I forget Vanity Fair, another one I really liked.

Regarding your typo, a High School report of mine once had Huckleberry Finn and Jim riding down the Mississippi on a f_ _ t (innocent, not deliberate typo for "raft"). The poor teacher graded the paper and put "spelling ?". I'm sure he had quite a laugh, but I remember being mortified at the time.

I'm about to start Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty. What a long title.

I'm a ways into Death Comes for the Archbishop and enjoying this story set in the southwest U.S.

#178 jnwelch Death Comes for the Archbishop is next in line for me, I'll probably start it over the weekend. Look forward to hearing what you think of it.

I've started Wilkie Collin's No Name and I'm also giving The Scarlett Letter a reread, since I hadn't read it since high school. I'm sure I didn't read that introductory The Custom House last time! That was very long and I admit I was bored.

.179 socialpages Death Comes for the Archbishop was terrific. I think you'll enjoy it. What a writer she is.

Rebeccareid: it is my VERY strong opinion that The Scarlett Letter should be mandatory re-reading when one is thirty or older. I read it again when I was thirtyish - a MASTERPIECE. Let me know what you think.

...and Thackeray - gracious. My latest favorite is - well, pretty much anything by Sir Walter Scott - hilarious.

I'm about halfway through Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship now. All that Hamlet talk in the story, and in Hamlet, Revenge! which I finished just prior to starting Wilhelm Meister (not sure if it counts as a classic, but I loved it), is making me want to re-read Hamlet.

Read a rather disappointing collection of Victorian horror by Amelia B. Edwards called The Phantom Coach and Other Stories. Hope my next read is better than this one.

Slogging my way through Paradise Lost. Can't say I'm having fun exactly.

I loved Paradise Lost! What aren't you enjoying about it, Booksloth?

>186 Booksloth: I just finished doing that with The Iliad and The Odyssey. I just couldn't get into them, which I know is practically blasphemous to say.

I'm now reading Anna Karenina and loving it. It's taking me a long time though because it's one of the few books that I've loved that I haven't wanted to read morning, noon and night. I kind of like spending an hour with it at night and letting the rich characters run through my mind all day afterward.

#187 Pretty much everything really. It's just not my idea of a light, fun read which I could do with right now. To be honest, I'm just not that big a fan of poetry. That's not to say I don't like poetry in general - I have lots of personal favourites - but it just seems to take me a very long time to figure out what is being said and having to struggle through the 17C language as well doesn't help. I'd like it lot more if it was 30 pages long instead of 300 but I'm sure it'll grow on me as I keep going. I've read a lot worse on this course to be fair.

As Samuel Johnson allegedly said of it; "None ever wished it longer than it is"

I've never made it the whole way through myself, but love my copy thanks to the fine Doré illustrations.

Booksloth: I had to read Paradise Lost for an English class and for once I was glad that it was selections from it, not the whole thing. Milton's too long-winded for me, especially since, like you, I'm not a big poetry fan. I'd blank out for a page or two, come back in, and he'd still be on the same topic.

#191 This 'blanking out' is a real problem - I actually keep falling asleep and no amount of coffee will help. Any (preferably legal) suggestions?

Give up. Why fight it? And maybe come back to it in a few years.

#192 But if I give up I fail the course. Not an option after some of the hideous stuff I've struggled through already (not to mention the cost).

Oh, I didn't realize it was for a course! That's too bad.

Ugh, you have to make it through the whole thing? For parts of my assignment, I just had to read synopses of some of the books. :D The only thing I know to suggest is read a little at a time, but in a course with deadlines, that might be hard.

I'm currently reading Madame Bovary so I can compare Madame Bovary's Daughter to it when I review the latter.

>196 SusieBookworm:, What are you thinking of Madame Bovary? I just finished that one recently and had mixed feelings. Loved Flaubert's writing, but just had such an urge to slap Emma every single page.

>194 Booksloth: Ah, I know the feeling. Like 196, reading in very short intervals helps me when I am really really dragging through a book. Even if you just take a short break in between, I think you'll have less of the droopy-eyed, zoning-out effect. And it helped me to read things like shmoop (new fave), sparknotes and cliffnotes right after. Not in lieu of reading of course, but to reinforce what I'd read. It helped it stick, and sometimes I've found their insights are things I never would have thought of, and can make it more interesting.

Also, I'm curious- what other "hideous" stuff have you had to struggle through for this course?

I think I liked Paradise Lost from the first time I read it, probably as a sophomore or junior 45 or so years ago. I found, however, that I enjoy it more on each rereading. I also found that my best pattern was one section (book) at a time. That is long enough that I can get into the swing of the language and not so long that it becomes manual labor. I also have found that copious annotation, as in the Norton Critical Editions and probably other student editions, keep me from becoming hopeless in my understanding.

My attention happened, first, to fall on the figure of Satan. When I saw the grandeur of his lying in Hell and his construction of his lot I had a story within the story to pursue.

Good luck with it.

Robert

#195-198 Thanks all for the sympathy - that really does help. Don't get me wrong here, not everything in the course is loathsome but the worst so far have been Robinson Crusoe and Specimens of Bushman Folklore

I'm trying to take PL one book at a time and if I really work on it I can just about stay awake for that long. I'm only a couple of books in (still) and I do think Satan and I are going to get on well (though that didn't really come as much of a surprise).

I grumbled to a friend the other day who said she quite enjoyed PL but hadn't realised it was a poem. I'm still not entirely sure how that is possible but I do wonder if it might help to try and think of it more as prose than poetry - maybe worth a try.

SusieBookWorm - I love Madame Bovary. I know Emma isn't the most sympathetic character in the world but I still love Flaubert's writing and after a lot of 19th century stuff that was typically 'pure' (lots of Jane Austen for example - not a criticism, I love her too) it was quite a delight to come up against a heroine who is up for a good seeing to every now and again

I'm re-reading Emma by Jane Austen. It is one of my favorites.

I'm reading Dumas's Marguerite de Valois. It's exciting and quite intriguing, despite my distaste for politics and the story's villainification of Catherine de' Medici, but I'd prefer a more philosophical or thought-provoking read.

Booksloth - I had to read Paradise Lost for school about five years ago, and at first I thought everything that you've said here. But then someone told me that it was really lots of fun, and so I decided it was going to be fun, or else! I chucked my school copy and got an annotated version and I also got a copy of Gustav Dore's illustrations. And I pulled out my Bible for comparison, because there's a lot more detail in the Milton version than the one I learned back at Sunday school. I think I actually read it with a ruler (line by line), and spent a lot of time stopping and thinking about what I'd just read. And, as someone else suggested, I did it a book at a time.

It didn't take long before I was enjoying it. Really! And now I have very good memories of studying Paradise Lost. After all, Satan and his friends are some of the best villains in all of literature.

Anyway, I was just stopping by to say that I'm reading Daisy Miller-- a much easier and shorter classic.

I guess I'm feeling a bit collegiate myself. I'm reading some of Euripides I and II, and III, and IV, and V...

#202 Thank you for the encouraging words! I don't know why it should be but I've also found that ruler (or in my case, straight edged bookmark) trick often works with books I'm finding 'difficult'. The first three chapters of Genesis are also a part of the course (never thought I'd thank the Bible for being succinct) as are the illustrations (by far my favourite part of this block) so it's good to know others have conquered the poem. I've got a mere 270 pages left to go; maybe I'm over the worst bit?

Madame Bovary is going to be a slow read; I don't want to take my copy of the book with me any place I go because it's over 100 years old, and the layout of the pages is such that it takes me five times as long to read a page as it normally should. I'm at page 20 and enjoying the novel so far...

I recently started Journey to the End of the Night by Celine. It's my first read from Celine, and so far I'm enjoying it. Even in translation, I can see why he is known for his prose style.

>202 Nickelini:,204
My technique for things like PL was more or less the opposite: I would read a chunk of a hundred lines or so through fairly fast (probably speaking it to myself) to get a feel for the sound of it and where it was going, and only then come back and look at the notes. I try to resist the temptation to spend too much time on the notes at a first reading - you will always have to come back to them when you write the essay anyway. In my copy of PL the notes are longer than the text, and they seriously derail any attempt to keep the general shape of the poem in your mind as you read it.

3202--Nickeini, I read Daisy Miller recently and was surprised at how much I liked it. I've tried Henry James two or three times before and have never been able to finish the book, but this one, being blessed short, wasn't so convoluted. Do you think Daisy was murdered (i. e., neglient homicide) by her Italian gigolo? I just finished Tommy and Grizel by J. M. Barrie, which I had great difficuty getting through. I found it easier when I realized that Tommy and Grizel are simply a re-cast Peter Pan and Wendy. Maybe boys who don't grow up was a lifelong them of Barrie's. Next up for me is probably Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.

#207 Thorold - also a good point! I've done that on other books and that technique works too. Whatever it takes . . .

208 - Bjace ....tell me more about your ideas on Daisy Miller's demise. It sounds interesting! I have to admit I had the more conventional symbolism of malaria = bad air = malicious gossip.

84 Charing Cross Road - charming.

#211

I recently read 84, Charing Cross Road, and heartily agree. I loved the banter, especially the early correspondance. Snarky, brash New Yorker vs. extremely polite, genteel Londoner.

I finished my selection of a half dozen Euripides tragedies, and am now reading a few satires from Aristophanes. Classical classics.

I finished Marguerite de Valois, and am now attempting War and Peace. I have the P&V translation, but I'm also curious about the other, older translations.

Finished re-reading the classic Rebecca. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/74280735

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/120427

I'm a ways into Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee, his memoir set at the end of WWI in a rural English village.

I finished both The Mabinogion and Sundiata yesterday.

Read the children's classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for the first time. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/74281858

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/120427

Next stop another children's classic, Anne of the Green Gables.

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot.

Struggling through Faust II...

#219: I absolutely loved the first part of Faust. The second, not so much. It's so completely different.

>220 SusieBookworm:
Yes, I decided just to plough through and enjoy the language, not look anything up until I get to the end: that seems to be working. It's always been another of those "everyone else read it at school" books for me. Not having read Faust is a bit like not not having read Hamlet or The catcher in the rye in English - you don't actually need to do it, since you already know the plot and all the most memorable lines anyway, but it still feels like cheating if you haven't...

>217 Porua:, just read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory myself, with my 7-yr-old.

Now reading Black Like Me, which I guess counts as a non-fiction sort of modern classic.

I finished War and Peace, and then also Brideshead Revisited. I'm extremely relieved I managed to finish the Tolstoy, even though the second epilogue nearly did me in. It'll be a while before I attempt a re-read (with a different translation)! :D; I'm also interested in the supposed "original" version (i.e. the earlier draft), supposedly half the length but four times as exciting? :D;

I'm reading The Pilgrim's Progress.

Cold Comfort Farm, which halfway through is unexpectedly funny. (I knew nothing about it when I started).

I loved Cold Comfort Farm The movie is also quite good.

Me too. Cold Comfort Farm was hilarious. I didn't know there was a movie adaptation! I'll have to add that to my list of stuff to look for, together with the subsequent Cold Comfort Farm book(s?).

I just started reading Three Men in a Boat.

There are some folks who thing that Three Men in a Boat is the funniest thing since sliced bread; others of us think it is a pleasant little pastime. I'll be looking forward to another opinion.

Robert

Polished off De Avonden last weekend, and have now moved on to something much more seasonal with La gloire de mon père. Not that there's any sign of cicada weather here in Holland at present.

>228 Mr.Durick:
I think I'd put Three men in a boat in the "funny in parts" category. More curate's egg than sliced bread: it does have some very self-indulgent purple bits that are more fun for the writer than the reader. Three men on the bummel has always appealed to me more, but maybe that's just because Germany and bicycles are topics that interest me a bit more than the Thames.

Twenty pages into Fahrenheit 451.

I've finished Three Men in a Boat, but I doubt I'd go so far as to call it the funniest thing since sliced bread. There were parts that had me snorting with laughter, and the meandering plot made it a relaxing read, but I wouldn't rank it very highly on my list of favourite books.

I also read and finished The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, which only enforced my opinion that nautical stories aren't quite my cup of tea. It wasn't too bad, until I got to the end... and then suddenly that was it. I feel vaguely cheated!

Now reading Swann's Way, but I'm only as far as the introduction.

Personally I don't find sliced bread very funny? I guess funny things have come and gone since though!

Good luck with Swann's Way!

I'm struggling through Empire of the Sun. I'm not sure why it's such a struggle, as it's pretty well written and quite evocative. Maybe it's just the sometimes uncomfortable subject matter and the utterly unlikeable and worrying narrator.

I read Swann's way last fall and it was the longest two years of my life. While Proust undeniably has wonderful insights and a great gift I just couldn't deal with his prose in the long (very, very) run. Was glad to hear what you had to say about Three men in a boat--hope to try that one myself soon. I'm still working my way through Mill on the Floss and mostly enjoying it. I also read a Scarlet Pimpernel sequel--Mamzelle Guillotine--which was fun because the villain was a woman. Have Henry Green's Loving up next.

>232 LipstickAndAviators:: Thanks, I'll probably need it! :) Although after slogging through War & Peace I feel I ought to be able to finish reading anything. (Maybe not the entire In Search of Lost Time though...)

I'm not sure about sliced bread being funny, I think the original saying was 'the best thing since sliced bread'? I merely adopted a phrase from an earlier post.

>233 Bjace:: Your experience with Proust reminds me of this poem, A Bookmark by Tom Disch, I stumbled upon the other day. I hope you enjoy Three Men in a Boat though. :)

I haven't made any progress with the Proust, so I should probably not be typing this and go back to reading instead. :P

>233 Bjace:

Let me know how you find the Henry Green. I have Loving and Doting sitting in my 'to be read' pile. He seems exceptionally under-read these days. You've also reminded me I need to reading The Scarlet Pimpernel

P.S. it's one of my life ambitions to eventually get through In Search of Lost Time, not one I have made much headway with.

>233 Bjace:,235
Yes, it's strange about Green: I think he just gets overlooked. If you have to have a Difficult Modernist Novelist on your course reading list, then of course you pick a Bloomsbury aesthete and feminist saint, not a Tory factory manager from Birmingham...

#235, LipstickAndAviators, reading The Scarlet Pimpernel for the first time is one of the great reading experiences in life. My father loved it and he got me to read it when I was about 13. I pulled a trick on my sister to get her to read it and now she is trying to go through all the sequels. The sequels are mostly repetitive and can be missed, but you should read the original.

Les Miserables. It's a heartwrending work of art and I'm only 170 pages into it!

So many good books being mentioned here! Actually I didn't like The Scarlet Pimpernel all that much the first time. Some of the writing is a touch stilted (it was Orczy's second language, after all). But then I gave it another try and enjoyed it quite a bit. We also really enjoy the film version with Ian McKellan as Chauvelin. Very fun :)

And Les Mis... one of my all-time favorites! Are you reading the unabridged?

I've started Anthony Trollope's Doctor Thorne. I'm only a few pages in.

Yep, unabridged Charles E. Wilbour translation.

*happy sigh* My favorite!

I haven't read any classics since June, because I decided to spend this summer reading the second half of the Amelia Peabody series by Elizabeth Peters I'm on the last book in the series now, and it's been oh-so-fun!!!!!!!!

>>211 jnwelch: and 212 84 Charing Cross Road is one of my favorites! I love Hanff's childlike exuberance and enthusiasm, especially for books. I can so relate to her excitement as she recieves a parcel containing a book in the mail!

Read the children's classic Anne of Green Gables. My review is here,

http://www.librarything.com/review/74281158

Or my 75 Books Challenge thread,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/120427

I was a bit disappointed with The Scarlet Pimpernel, perhaps because I'd been anticipating it too much before actually getting round to reading it. I feel the premise has lots of possibility, which the actual story didn't really delve into. It's quite a short book, and the plot is quite simple. It left me feeling somewhat unfulfilled, which I suppose is what sequels are for (and I do want to read them... at some point). ;)

I've started The Country of the Pointed Firs, a long-standing tbr.

#245: Sarah Orne Jewett has been on standby with me for over a year. Let me know how it takes you.

I've started Phantastes by George MacDonald. It's slow reading; I'm hoping I'll get more into it. Soon, before I give up...

>247 SusieBookworm:

I Just read At The Back of the North Wind recently. If Phantastes is similar I don't think it will ever pick up, MacDonald doesn't seem to do momentum. I find his books very slow reads (even though they tend to be short). He usually has something interesting to say, but spends far too much time digressing from it.

# 45 & 46 I read The Country of the Pointed Firs earlier this . Quite a soothing read. Perfect for unwinding after a busy day.

What classic are you reading now? thread two is here,

http://www.librarything.com/topic/121732