Classics Archives - Page 3 of 4

The Sea-Wolf

by Jack London

A seafaring adventure that at first glance would be something like Captain\’s Courageous (which I actually liked) but similarities are only on the surface, as I surprisingly found this book very forgettable. Not sure why, as I\’ve like other books of adventures at sea before, and also London\’s books about intrepid canines in the North (Call of the Wild and White Fang) are among my favorites, very memorable. Maybe this one waxed too philosophical. Or got me lost in nautical terminology and descriptions I couldn\’t quite follow.

Anyway, it\’s about a well-to-do young man named Humphrey (unfortunately his nickname is Hump) who survives when the ferry he\’s on capsizes, and gets picked up by a sealing vessel. The captain, Wolf Larsen, is a cruel taskmaster and forces Humphrey to work as part of the crew. So a lot of the story is about how life at sea hardens this young man, and friction among the crew. The main points I remember are an attempted mutiny, and that somehow a young woman ended up on board. Of course Humphrey falls in love with her, then has to protect her from the attentions of all the other men on board. I think at the end Humphrey and the woman end up shipwrecked on an island, surviving off seals, but that somehow the captain ended up there with them as well and there is some final confrontation. But I forgot most of it, and don\’t really feel inclined to read it again.

Rating: 2/5 244 pages, 1904

more opinions:
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Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Classics, Past Reads

Down and Out in Paris and London

by George Orwell

This is the second or third time I\’ve read this book; you can read my earlier post of it here. I found that my memories of it had gotten quite mixed up with Jack London\’s People of the Abyss. Orwell\’s book is much narrower in scope than I had recalled; it details mainly his fruitless searches for work in Paris and finally landing a few jobs- first scrubbing dishes in the basement of a \”nice\” hotel, then working in a poorly-run restaurant (the source of my revulsion, it was much worse conditions than the hotel, which I had remembered incorrectly). In between jobs he scrapes pennies, pawns his clothes, follows up useless leads, and often just lies around bereft of energy due to hunger. The second half is about his time spent as a tramp in London, when he showed up for a job that did not materialize for several weeks. Having nowhere to go and no money he slept in various charity wards, other homeless men showing him the ropes. He analyses the system of public assistance (such as it was in his day) from the perspective of the recipients, makes suggestions for its improvement and most of all, lays bare how insulting and demeaning the offers of aid can actually feel to men in dire straits.

I had forgotten completely that the book opened with an unsavory scene where a friend of his pays a nun for the privilege of raping a girl- or so it seemed to me; the scene was more suggestive than than explicit. I think if I had been a bit more of an astute reader the first time around, this would have put me off the entire book! More interesting to me than the narrative itself this time around, what what I gleaned from the introduction. I did not realize before, for instance, that Orwell used a pen name. His real name is Eric Blair, and he assumed a pen name because his parents were appalled that he wanted to be a writer. I also found interesting the descriptions of how much he had to edit out swearwords from the original text, and the variations between the French translation and the English version. Orwell\’s own little list of local slang terms he encountered on the streets and their various meanings intrigued me as well.

Rating: 4/5 …….. 230 pages, 1933

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Much Ado About Books
the Oddness of Moving Things
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wandering walls

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Classics, Current Reads, Re-reads

Curious George

by Margaret and H.A. Rey

I\’ve missed reviewing children\’s books lately, and so am trying to get back into that. Especially as my youngest is starting to move beyond the board books and into regular picture books, which are a bit more interesting to write about. She\’s really into Curious George lately, and this is the one where it all started (we have five Curious George books on our shelf at home, and keep finding others to borrow from the library).

The basic storyline here is that a man who seems to always dress in yellow with a wide-brimmed hat captures a young monkey from the jungle, takes him home to put in the zoo but ends up rather adopting George (in a subsequent book) to live in his house. George causes all kinds of mischief but it always turns out alright in the end.

All the stories about George follow a similar pattern, although I find the originals more endearing; the later books that have been written by a different author are a bit too formulaic for me. But the originals have a few issues of their own. One is that they definitely show evidence of being written in a different era. There seems to be no problem with the idea that a man on vacation (or whatever he was doing there- exploring? collecting more likely) can just bring a wild animal home with him. I find the method of capture charming, as it reflects the insatiable curiosity of the little monkey- the man simply puts his hat on the ground, George approaches and tries to put it on himself, hides his own eyes, and is caught. On the way home via ship George falls overboard and is rescued; once back in America he spends the night at the man\’s house and eats dinner at the table, then smokes a pipe (hello- what?!) before going to bed. The next day the monkey is left alone for a while and plays with the telephone (a very archaic-looking instrument to my kids!) which gets him in trouble with the fire department and thrown in jail. He escapes, walks across telephone wires, flies away with a bunch of balloons and eventually is found by the iconic man-with-the-yellow-hat (this fellow never has a real name) who takes him to the zoo where he appears happy despite the austere environment- a bare cage with just a swing.

I\’m guessing most of the issues here won\’t bother kids at all. The one that actually bugs me most is that George is consistently called a monkey when he looks like a chimpanzee– although his fur is reddish brown, not black.

It\’s funny though; even though when I think closely about it I find some things odd or inappropriate about the original stories, I still like them better than the newer books. (There are two sets of these, which we\’ve found at the library. One which mimicks the original style closely, the others seem to be based on a tv series and has a smooth, animated look, not hand-illustrated. I have another set of minor issues with these, which will come up later if I continue to write about them). The originals just have more charm, and of course are loaded with nostalgia for me. My mom read them to me over and over, when I was a kid.

Rating: 4/5 ……… 64 pages, 1941

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Classics, Past Reads, Picture Books

The Reluctant Dragon

by Kenneth Grahame

This is one of those books I just can\’t believe I never read before! It\’s a charming little story about a boy who befriends a dragon near his cottage home. The dragon is quite the gentleman, loves poetry, and is also rather lazy- he likes his quiet time, let\’s say. The local villagers discover his cave is occupied and get quite upset. Even though he\’s never bothered them or so much as set foot in the village, they ask the famous knight St. George to come get rid of the dragon. When the knight arrives, everyone is eager to see a battle- except that the dragon doesn\’t want to fight at all. The boy is just as excited as the others about a fight, but of course he wants to help his friend. How can he work out the situation? I thought the solution quite clever, and funny too. The original illustrations by Ernest Shepard (of Winnie-the-Pooh fame) are just lovely.

I really discovered this one because of another, newer edition with colored illustrations that I found on a library shelf. I wanted to read the original before the adapted version. It\’s really not a long story so I\’m not sure why it had to be adapted, but I\’ll find out soon enough if a lot of text got cut; reading that one next.

rating: 4/5 …….. 48 pages, 1966

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Classics, Current Reads, Fantasy / Sci Fi, Juvenile Fic

Tess of D\’Urbervilles

by Thomas Hardy

I don\’t know how or when Tess of D\’Urbervilles first got on my reading list, and I really had no idea what it was about before reading it this week. I\’ve been fitfully participating in our public library\’s summer reading program (yes, they let adults play too) which this year is mostly about familiarizing yourself with the library\’s many resources- so for the first time I\’ve browsed their DVD selections, and used some of the online databases- interesting stuff! One of the requirements however is to read a classic you\’ve always wanted to and I picked Tess.

This is one of those cases where I don\’t quite know how to write about a book without possibly giving spoilers, so you\’ve been warned!

It\’s been a long time since I read a classic and I\’ve never read Hardy before- let me tell you, it was a rich experience! I was drawn in immediately by the descriptions of rural lifestyle and the character of Tess herself. She lives in Dorset, 19th century. Her family the Durbeyfields is poor but her shiftless father discovers one day that they are supposedly connected to an ancient aristocracy named D\’Urberville and he immediately starts putting on airs, gets so drunk he can\’t function the next day so Tess is sent on an early-morning errand. She falls asleep on the road and gets into an accident which kills their family\’s only horse. They are now facing ruin but the mother urges Tess to visit a well-to-do lady in the next valley who is also supposedly of the D\’Urberville line, and ask for help. Tess reluctantly agrees because she feels guilty about the death of the horse. When she arrives at the estate she immediately catches the eye of a certain young man. He\’s not really related to her- his family assumed the D\’Urberville name for their own reasons- so he has no qualms about flirting with her, then practically stalking her, then well- things go badly for Tess- who disliked him from the start- and she ends up back at home with an illegitimate child. Things are miserable for a while but Tess eventually moves on, vowing to never marry.

She takes work as a dairymaid in another part of the country where people don\’t know her history, and then falls in love with a man who has rejected his family\’s standing as clergymen to become a farmer himself. This Clare sees Tess as a beautiful unspoiled country girl, even though she repeated tries to tell him of her sullied past he refuses to listen. Tess wants to marry him, but feels unworthy and is afraid of his finding her out. And then- of course- the man who ruined her life in the first place makes a repeat appearance- and things just get worse and worse. I\’ve probably said too much already so I\’ll stop now. But it has a sad ending. Rather melodramatic, I thought. I mean- really- Stonehenge? I can\’t imagine anyone sleeping on a slab there, when today you can\’t even step inside the circle to take photos, it\’s so roped off (or so I\’ve gathered, never having been there myself)

But regardless, what a story. I really felt bad for Tess. She was a good person at heart, smarter than her family, had her pride, did what she thought best. Some seem to think she deserved her lot and put herself in harm\’s way with her so-called \”cousin\” but that guy gave me the creeps from the start. Ugh, what an awful man. What I really enjoyed about the book was all the details about how people lived in rural communities more than a century ago. The tasks of threshing wheat, preparing straw to thatch roofs, digging turnips in the fields, and particularly how work was done on the prosperous dairy farm- all so different from today\’s operations. The dialect of the people being particular not only to the time and locale- many words out of use- but also to the family\’s being poor it was often hard to understand what exactly they meant but I was usually able to gather it from the context- I like that kind of reading challenge- and only after finishing the book did I realize there was a glossary in the back.

It\’s not as long as it looks. The edition I read (borrowed from the library) had appendixes, maps, several different forwards and afterwords written by different people for various other editions, excerpts that had been edited out of early editions (which shocked contemporary readers) and copious notes on the text. It\’s the first time I\’ve ever read a book which had a note at the head of the forward warning of spoilers! so of course I didn\’t read that until later, glad I did as it gave away some of the crucial twists in the plot. I didn\’t read all the extra material, but did find interesting an included article all about the artists who illustrated early editions of Tess (which was first published as a kind of magazine serial). I definitely want to read more Hardy now.

That was rather rambling, apologies. It\’s late but I wanted to jot something down before sleep while it\’s all still turning in my head. I could say a lot more but will rest now.

rating: 4/5 …….. 518 pages, 1891

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Valeehill
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Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Classics, Current Reads

Lolita

by Vladimir Nabokov

My computer was down for a few days so I have a backlog of book posts to catch up on, but I\’ll start with the most recent one, a book I gave up on: Lolita. I\’d been wondering for a long time if I even wanted to try reading Lolita, because I knew well what it was about: a pedophile professing his twisted ardor for a preteen girl he forces to basically be his sex slave. The only thing that made me curious about this book was that all those bloggers (see a few below) profess that despite the distasteful subject matter, the story was so well-written and such a fascinating character study of this disgusting man Humbert that it made good reading.

For the most part, they were right. The writing is very rich. In spite of what you know is really going on between this older man in a fatherly role and the twelve-year-old he is abusing, the revolting bits are never stating explicitly, and in fact you might even miss them because they are so casually mentioned between pages and pages of rambling lists and descriptions. It\’s really rather frustrating to read, actually. I\’d rather have known more about what was happening, or more about Lolita herself; the bare glimpses you get of her through Humbert\’s endless dronings on about how lovely she is or describing all the hotels they stopped at or all the cars they saw or all the landmarks they visited etc etc are so obscure you never really know what she\’s thinking or feeling about all this. One moment it seems she is actually flirting with the creep, the next she\’s sobbing and protesting. Overall she comes across as a spoiled brat (he\’s constantly buying her gifts to keep her compliant), mouthing off, talking back, acting like a regular teenager. He\’s constantly paranoid that she\’s going to run away, or ogling her friends, or worrying about how to keep his obsession a secret. The first part, about how he weaseled his way into her family and became her stepfather, was interesting but then it gradually just got so dull I couldn\’t stand it anymore. Not that I wanted more details of a particular sort, I just wanted more story. Of course I suppose this is just to give the reader a picture of what it\’s like inside a depraved mind, but it was boring. I really did try to finish, because I wanted to know what happened to Lolita. I quit actually reading the book around page 180, then did some skimming, enough to find out

SPOILER ALERT highlight if you want to read the next paragraph

that she ends up in the hospital and then later on is married and has her own kid, escaped from Humbert\’s clutches and still it appears, communicating with him begging for money, and so on while keeping her distance. Unfortunately I didn\’t care anymore, not even enough to try and read the pages in between to learn how she got to that final place, much less interested in the agonies Humbert was going through being apart from her or the mess his life was afterwards.

Bah. O well. I didn\’t finish it, and I don\’t care. If somebody ever writes a book about Lolita from the girl\’s point of view, I might be interested in that, but just barely.

This is the first Nabokov book I\’ve attempted to read, and I\’m afraid it might also be the last. In the back of the edition I borrowed was a list of all his other titles with brief descriptions, and not a single one caught my interest.

Borrowed from the library.

Abandoned ……… 317 pages, 1955

more opinions: Shelf Love
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Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Classics

Bambi

A Life in the Woods

by Felix Salten

This is one of my most favorite books ever. I read it many times in my childhood, but it\’s been years since I last visited its pages. I happened across a beautifully illustrated edition at the library and borrowed it (even though I have my own copy) to enjoy again with these new images. The paintings by Michael J. Woods really make the forest setting and animals come alive. They are so lifelike, and so expressive at the same time. I paged through the book several times after reading it, just to look at the pictures again. (click on images to view them larger)

Bambi tells the story of the life a deer leads in the forest. It begins with his birth and follows him through the unfolding of his understanding, from the first questions he asks his mother- reminiscent of any toddlers incessant why is the sky blue? but why? – to his playful explorations in the meadow to his youthful feelings of invulnerability. He soon learns that the forest isn\’t safe at all, often full of dangers. For some time the exact nature of danger is unclear as his mother is unwilling to speak of it and he speculates with his playmates what it could be. But soon enough he learns about the threat of man, who seems to be an inescapable and incomprehensible horror. This combined with the hardships of his first winter make Bambi realize that life is a very serious thing indeed.

In fact, a lot of the book deals with themes of facing mortality and the constant threats to life. Bambi sees plenty of other creatures die, from his mother to other deer they associate with; a squirrel gets its throat torn out by a predator, crows attack smaller creatures, a dog relentlessly tracks down an injured fox, etc. And yet he finds plenty to delight in as well. His first experience of the mating season is a time of giddy passion, surging emotions that culminate in fights with the other bucks (although there\’s nothing \”twitterpated\” here at all). He also takes simple joy in his surroundings, the colorful flowers, birdsong, warm sunshine etc. The nature writing is wonderful, beautifully evoking the seasons and surroundings of lush plant life and bird voices. As Bambi moves into adulthood his life becomes more solitary and then he begins to associate closely with an older stag of the forest, who mentors him and shares his wisdom.

One of the most interesting parts of the books is about another deer named Gobo whom Bambi grew up with. During their first winter Gobo collapses in the snow and is rescued by a hunter. The other deer are all shocked and amazed when he reappears healthy and well later on. But even though Gobo survived at the hands of Man, he is now unfit for life in the forest and his inability to live as a wild deer is painfully illustrated. Another part of the book also shows how the animals interact with mankind: when the fox is tracked by a hound they end up arguing about their relationships to man. The fox sneers at the dog for being a traitor to animals by serving man; the dog asserts that man is good to those who work for him. Other parts of the story that also show how humans affect wildlife, as in when a massive tree is chopped down and many small creatures are suddenly homeless.

I could go on and on, but I won\’t tell you more because I want you to read the book! I think most people are only familiar with the Disney film version of Bambi, and that\’s a shame. There are few similarities, namely the early death of Bambi\’s mother. There are no giggling bunny and skunk friends; the Hare Bambi meets is a serious creature and the Owl he knows is a little screech owl who delights in trying to frighten others with his shrieks. There is no fire in the book, and the threat of human hunters is much more prominent. This story is so different, much deeper and so beautifully written. I wish more people would read it, especially to their children.

Rating: 5/5 …….. 158 pages, 1928

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Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Animals Fiction, Classics, Current Reads, Juvenile Fic, Re-reads

The Plague

by Albert Camus

I thought it would be interesting to read another account on similar subject, after The Dancing Plague. This novel tells about a French town in Northern Africa that suffers a plague outbreak in the 1940\’s. The citizens are not much concerned when they start to see dead rats everywhere, even when the animals come out and start dying by the thousands in the streets they feel horrified and repulsed but not yet fearful for themselves. Then people start to die of suspicious symptoms- high, raving fever, swollen buboes in the armpits and groin. A few isolated cases which quickly escalate until there are hundreds a day. There are long passages about the emotional unrest of people separated from their loved ones when the city gates are locked, of the preacher\’s sermons harping guilt into the people, of the magistrate\’s futile efforts to enact laws that halt the spread of disease. The main characters are a doctor, a reporter and a few other French men. But I found I didn\’t care much about them. And I kept taking breaks from the book to read other novels in the meantime. Each time I had less interest in coming back to this one until I just decided I didn\’t want to read any more. I wasn\’t interested in any of the characters and the long passages were so dull. I read a bit about this book on wiki to find out how it ended, and it said there that the novel was in part a metaphor of French resistance to Nazi occupation during WWII. I didn\’t see any of that in the novel, but then I wasn\’t looking for it while reading. Made it halfway through. Moving on.

I had The Stranger on my TBR list but after my experience with The Plague I don\’t feel very interested in reading more Camus.

Abandoned …….. 278 pages, 1947

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Tony\’s Book World
I Wish You\’d Have Told Me

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Classics

“National Velvet”

by Enid Bagnold

This is a story set in a small English village in the 1920\’s. Its protagonist is a teenage girl named Velvet, the local butcher\’s daughter. Although her father does well, she has lots of siblings, so there isn\’t enough money to indulge in her dreams- owning a horse. But when a horse considered a local nuisance- a black and white piebald with one blue eye who is constantly jumping fences and running about the streets- gets puts up for a raffle, Velvet wins. In another stroke of unexpected luck, an elderly gentleman becomes aware of her love for horses, and leaves her five ponies in his will. Now Velvet is the sudden owner of six horses. She and her sisters ride the ponies in small local gymkhanas, with various success. Then, inspired by a comment of her father\’s assistant who is an ex-jockey, Velvet gets the idea to train and enter the piebald in the most difficult and competitive equestrian event in the country- the Grand National steeplechase. There are several problems to overcome: her horse is wild and untrained, she\’s too young to enter the race, and at the time only men were allowed to participate, as it was considered too dangerous for female riders. Velvet is determined, though, and won\’t let any of these things stop her from pursuing her dream.

National Velvet is one of those books I almost missed falling in love with. It sat on my shelf for five or six years, and twice I tried reading it, giving up within the first twenty pages, finding it dull. But I think it just takes the right mindset and appreciation, for the third time I picked it up I fell in love with the story. It\’s not just about a girl who loves horses, it\’s also a story about growing up, about living in a large family, about life in a small coastal English village. Velvet\’s family is full of interesting characters and family dynamics. The sisters squabbling, keeping secrets, banding together against outsiders (or their parents). The obstinate little brother who makes the funniest remarks, so like any toddler with his fits of tears and fury. The solemn authority of their mother- who once won a medal for swimming the English channel but obscures her former glory in bustling housework. The at-first mysterious figure of Mi, the butcher\’s assistant, who doesn\’t speak of his past until the sudden influx of horses into the butcher\’s field can\’t help revealing his interest and knowledge of them. And besides her involvement with horses, Velvet has other trials- she\’s prone to fits of nerves and anxiety, she has to wear a gold bar wedged between her teeth to correct something (I had braces for six years, how I could relate!).

This is a wonderful book, and I wish I could find more reviews to point you to. Most of the ones I came across online were of various film adaptations, which changed the story somewhat- making Velvet an orphan, making the piebald her only horse, or a beautiful well-bred horse instead of the awkward unruly creature he was (potential hidden in an unlikely form!)

Rating: 4/5 …….. 288 pages, 1935

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Tags: 3/5- Good Read, Animals Fiction, Classics, Juvenile Fic, Past Reads

Emma

by Jane Austen

What to say about Emma. If I had not been reading this book for a challenge, I would have given up before page 20. And it did not get really interesting for me until about page 300! Even then, I could have put it down at any time. So I have some thanks to give to the 9 for ’09 Challenge for stretching my brain with this one. As I did not really like it, I don’t want to say much about it, and leave it to other bloggers (links below) to give better criticism, analysis and praise. To be short: Emma is about a young woman in 19th century England, whose greatest concern is who her friends will marry. She doesn’t ever want to marry herself, but gets all involved in matching up her friends- and nothing goes as she thinks it will. In the end, everyone ends up being in love with someone other than who we thought- including Emma herself. Oh, and her pet project was to take a lower-class girl, Harriet, and try to educate and culture her, then make her a match with a gentleman. I\’m glad it ended up well for Harriet, I was feeling sorry for her near the end.

On the whole, I found Emma incredibly dull. I’ve read other books (in my school days) set in this time period, even with similar themes, which have far more interesting descriptions and events. Emma is full of musings and plans, veiled conversations and quiet get-togethers. It’s all talk and letters and nothing much seems to happen. (Except for one scene where two ladies walking alone were terrified out of their wits by a band of begging gypsies). The occasional quaint spelling and view of a by-gone way of life was interesting, but that was about it. I admit my mind wandered a lot, as I struggled at almost every sitting to keep from falling asleep over the book- so I probably missed a lot of subtle humor and clever plot things. But I’m not itching to try it again. After Madame Bovary and this one, I’m starting to think that classics just aren’t my cup of tea anymore.

This book reminded me of The Importance of Being Earnest, although I read that so long ago (high school) I can hardly recall what it’s about. And- this may sound silly- at the end I couldn’t help thinking of the Harry Potter books- because at the close of every one of those you find that some of the characters had quite different intentions than you thought all along- or at least, than the main character thought.

Rating: 2/5

367 pages, 1816

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Tags: 2/5- Just Okay, Classics, Current Reads

Tag: Classics

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