Classics Archives - Page 4 of 4

The Water Babies

by Charles Kinglsey

The protagonist of this book is Tom, a naughty young boy who works under a cruel master as a chimney sweep. One day he gets himself into trouble, runs away and falls into a river where he is transformed into a \”water-baby\”, able to live among the fishes. Tom is anxious to meet other water babies, but first he has to learn to be nice and well-behaved. He meets a lot of underwater animals- otters, lobster, different kinds of fishes- and fairies. Through his interactions in the underwater world, Tom slowly learns his moral lessons, eventually going off to save his old master from punishment for wrongdoings, and making his way back to land. My main enjoyment of the story is in the unfolding of Tom\’s character- he\’s quite a cheeky boy, curious and unafraid to ask questions of anyone (although the answers often puzzle him at first). His transformation out of ignorance and selfishness is nicely done. I also like reading about all the different creatures Tom encounters- their personification mostly reflects the natural behavior of said animals, and it\’s not many books you come across that feature talking salmon, lobsters and dragonflies. A delightful book, but one that I think should be read with the outlook of its time well in mind.

For The Water Babies is a didatic tale, heavily reflecting the Victorian ideas of its time. It is full of stiff moral lessons, crammed with Christian perceptions of guilt and redemption, and spouts off a lot of prejudiced criticisms of different groups of people- including Jews, Catholics, Americans and the Irish (these parts have mostly been edited out of later versions). I am not sure if I have ever read an unabridged version. And although it is usually classed as a children\’s book, I don\’t know if I\’d feel comfortable reading it to my daughter without verbally editing some of those heavily opinionated passages. It\’s very interesting to read the wiki article about this book, which tells me that among other things, Kingsley wrote The Water Babies as a piece of satire, much akin to Alice\’s Adventures in Wonderland, although the flavor of this story feels more like Peter Pan to me. Moralism and satire aside, it\’s a tender and curious story, full of interesting characters and lively adventures.

Rating: 4/5 316 pages, 1863

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cucullus non facit monachum

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

A Journal of the Plague Year

by Daniel Defoe

I didn\’t know Defoe wrote anything other than Robinson Crusoe until I happened across A Journal of the Plague Year, which I read in college. My notebook from then reads: the horrors of this book are mitigated by the background distractions of busy waiting rooms: three hours at the DMV and two at the dental office. Thank goodness for distractions, sometimes. It\’s not a very long book, but crammed with such awful details that I struggled to get through it. Defoe\’s narrative is fiction, but based so closely on actual events and circumstances of the Black Plague in 1665 that it has been favorably compared to Samuel Pepys\’ diary of the same time period.

A Journal of the Plague Year describes life in London during the bubonic plague epidemic, through the eyes of one man. There\’s no real plot, just endless descriptions about what he went through, what he saw, and every bit of news and stories he heard. There are tons of anecdotes, (many which are examined for accuracy within the narrative) descriptions of efforts to halt or evade the disease, the havoc that fear caused, the plethora of superstitions and quack treatments that sprang up, how people turned to (or away from) religion, and much more. Statistics are also listed, and the numbers are staggering. This book is so terribly depressing, yet curiosity kept me turning the pages. What horrible things the people lived through- I don\’t know if I\’ve ever read anything worse, other than accounts of the Holocaust. I doubt I\’ll want to pick this book up again, but I do feel it was worth reading once, to bring a piece of history alive for me.

Rating: 3/5 186 pages, 1722

Dracula

by Bram Stoker

Even though I\’d been warned that Dracula would not be what I expected, it still surprised me. I thought it would be well, more frightening. But it wasn\’t. Maybe I just didn\’t get far enough. Or maybe it\’s that I don\’t read much horror and haven\’t learned to appreciate the genre. Dracula is certainly very creepy, moody and ominous. The characters themselves are frightened, but I couldn\’t manage to feel it myself. And the story moves so slowly, building up the suspense piece by piece of isolated mysterious incidents which by themselves aren\’t enough to alarm the characters into action, but seen as a whole by the reader, obviously point to what\’s going on… well, insofar as 112 pages told me. That\’s as far as I got before my eyes just began glazing over and I couldn\’t hold attention on the page. I was rather disappointed in myself for not being able to finish it, but I also don\’t try to force myself through books anymore… I found it interested that Dracula is told through letters and journal entries, rather similar to Frankenstein (which I did read in its entirety).

I have to credit Jena of Muse Books Reviews for advising me in the comments on my Sunshine post. She said: \”re: Dracula–it\’s a very slow read. I took it on when I was 16 (had to start it twice, \’cause it was hard to get into). If you\’re not into vampire lore, I don\’t think I\’d recommend Dracula. Maybe an abridged version…\” When she left that comment I got my feathers all ruffled because I used to pride myself (in high school) on reading fat books like the unabridged Don Quixote. My apologies, Jena. I should have listened to you!

My husband even talked me into watching Interview with a Vampire last night, to see if I\’d enjoy a vampire story more in film version. Nope. It was interesting, but still didn\’t really do it for me.

Abandoned 430 pages, 1897

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Classics

The Yearling

by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

This morning I surveyed my half-flattened, waterlogged garden. Tropical storm Hannah passed by us yesterday. Seeing what a mess one day of heavy rain can make, I thought of a vivid passage from The Yearling, where after days of endless rain, the family\’s crops were totally destroyed, and what little they could salvage to bring inside promptly went moldy. I can fall back on the refrigerator and supermarket, but for them it was a sudden matter of near-starvation.

The Yearling is set in central Florida\’s scrub wilderness, during the late 1800\’s. Its main character is the young boy Jody. His family is totally dependent upon the land for their survival, and much of the book is an ode to nature- wildlife and landscape abound in beautiful descriptions. Jody likes nothing better than to traipse off and enjoy nature by himself- or better yet, go hunting with his father. He longs for a pet, and when the opportunity to adopt an orphaned fawn presents itself, Jody is ecstatic. But when the deer grows up, it poses a serious threat to their crops. Facing what to do about his pet deer is only one of the tough decisions Jody has to make as he grows up. In fact, although the situation about the deer is pivotal in his coming of age, it is really not the focus of this book.

More than anything, this is a story about family, relationships and survival. Jody\’s father is a mild-mannered man, who tries to protect his son from harsh realities. His mother is far more domineering- and their contrasting personalities create an interesting family dynamic. Their closest neighbors are a clan of rough men, who alternately pose a threat, or the only nearby help in times of trouble. His best friend is a gentle, disabled boy. Jody also runs into strangers during trips to town, faces bullies at school, etc. As different dramatic events swirl around him, he veers between feeling admiration, love, disdain and hate towards other people- often experiencing opposite emotions towards the same individual. This book vividly portrays how conflicting feelings unfold inside the heart of a boy as he faces some very difficult life lessons. I highly recommend it.

Rating: 5/5 373 pages, 1938

Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Animals Fiction, Classics, Past Reads

Madame Bovary

by Gustave Flaubert

A few days ago I was looking through my shelves for unwanted books in too poor condition to swap to drop at the Book Thing next week, when I noticed a tattered copy of Madame Bovary sitting among the TBR clutter. It came from the same box at my mother\’s house that coughed up The Gulag Archipalego. I picked it up and thought: I really ought to read this. It\’s a classic.

So I tried. I made it through 120 pages about a pretty young wife who finds herself married to a country doctor. He\’s quite content with life, she\’s bored silly. He loves her very much, she finds him dull and repugnant. She longs to experience romance and emotional thrills. For a while she resists her feelings, because of society\’s strict moral code; then gives in and has several secret affairs.

One night when my husband couldn\’t sleep I said \”let me tell you what I\’m reading\” and began to relate the story to him. He was snoring within minutes. Yesterday I made another attempt to read a dozen more pages, and found my attention seriously wandering. So I skimmed through the rest, of Emma Bovary\’s second affair, her husband\’s failure, her ultimate tragic end. (Reminded me very much of Anna Karenina, which I read in high school). Maybe it was a poor translation (Lowell Bair)? maybe the subject just isn\’t shocking to modern readers anymore? I know this is great literature, meticulously constructed by the author, full of symbolism, details and profound portrayals of human nature. But I just couldn\’t sympathize with or like any of the characters, and I got bored. I seem to be in the minority here, so if you want to read great reviews about this book, check out A Guy\’s Moleskine Notebook or A Reader\’s Journal. They give Madame Bovary its due, where I cannot.

Abandoned …0/5… 303 pages, 1857

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Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Classics

A Sand County Almanac

And Sketches Here and There
by Aldo Leopold

Aldo Leopold is considered \”the father of wildlife conservation in America.\” He spent a lifetime working for the U.S. Forest Service and Game Management department in Wisconsin, continually advocating better land use and wildlife management. This book is his magnum opus. I always saw it on my mother\’s bookshelf growing up, so it lodged itself as a book of great importance in my mind. Yet I didn\’t read it until I was in college and picked up an illustrated copy at a garage sale one summer. Immediately I found myself immersed and delighted with the beautiful lyric prose, detailed and poetic descriptions of wildlife, and thoughtful, convincing arguments presented in the final sections.

The book is arranged in a manner that draws the reader in, to solidify and build towards Leopold\’s famous Land Ethic treatise. In the first part he describes a year on his exhausted farm in Wisconsin, describing the seasons, the land, the animals that live and travel there. The second part (Sketches Here and There) describes the natural history and local fauna/flora of different parts of the country: Idaho, Illinois, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon, etc. In the final section of the book Leopold expounds in detail the idea that land is a community of living things and can be a lasting and positive part of culture itself, if we use it wisely and treat it with respect.

A Sand County Almanac is a classic, one of the best pieces of nature writing I have ever read. It stands shoulder to shoulder with Silent Spring in terms of impact and lasting impression on me. Some parts of the book echo sentiment and ideas I recently read in Adventures with a Texas Naturalist.

Rating: 5/5 Published: 1949, pp 228

Tags: 5/5- Loved It, Classics, Nature, Past Reads

Black Beauty

by Anna Sewell

Although this classic is now commonly thought of as a children’s story, I don’t believe that was its original intention. Anna Sewell wrote it in order to bring to light the conditions horses lived in when they were as widely used for transportation as cars are today. I suppose you could call her one of the earliest animal-rights activists. She wanted to promote kindness to animals (and between people) and do away with the use of checkreins, which forcibly held a horses’ head high, often damaging their necks; and other cruel practices such docking horses’ tails. Through telling the story of one horse’s life, Sewell demonstrated how kind, indifferent or cruel treatment affected a horse’s health, soundness and well-being. She even showed how ignorant owners could harm their animals unintentionally. Black Beauty traded hands often, living in turns on a farm, on a rich estate as a carriage horse, in the city pulling a London cab, in a “rental” stable hired out for day use, hauling delivery carts for a butcher, etc. His equine acquaintances even share experiences as a mount in the military, a children’s pet pony, and racing in steeplechases.

I’ve read this book many times. Recently I found a beautiful copy at the public library, the Viking Whole Story for Young Readers edition, 2000. In addition to containing lovely pen-and-ink illustrations by William Geldart, it has text, diagrams and miniature reproductions of gorgeous classical paintings in the margins. These give further explanations of things mentioned in the story which may have been common knowledge in Sewell’s day but aren’t now. I found it delightful and very informative. If you’re interested in reading Black Beauty to understand how horses were used in the 19th century, I would highly recommend this edition.

Rating: 4/5

206 pages, 1877

Tags: 4/5- Great Book, Animals Fiction, Classics, Past Reads

Treasure Island

by Robert Louis Stevenson

I got to page 110. I don’t know why this one lost me. I did like Stevenson’s Kidnapped, and Treasure Island is more famous, but I just lost interest in the fighting and greed for gold. Pirates, adventure, high seas, yay. Long John Silver is such a curious, creepy character did you know he can run around on one leg and attack people? Here’s the thing that bugged me right from the beginning: this kid Jim, lives with his parents at an inn. An old pirate comes and terrorizes their inn, his father dies of illness, scoundrels come after the pirate, murder is committed there, and what does Jim do? He goes off to chase after gold, leaving his widowed mother behind. Why did she let him go? I don’t get it.

Rating: Abandoned

229 pages, 1914

Tags: 0/5- Abandoned, Classics, Juvenile Fic

Little Women

by Lousia May Alcott

This is a heartwarming account (loosely based on the author\’s life) of four sisters: Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy, growing up absent a father during the Civil War era with a strong-willed mother who teaches them to be moral and kind, independent thinkers and advocates for women\’s rights. Mostly it is a story of family life, squabbles between sisters, the growth of the girls\’ characters as they approach womanhood and marriage and Jo\’s aspirations to be a writer. The characterization is wonderful, the morality lessons are tastefully presented and the tragedy and triumphs of this family has touched many hearts and made this book a classic.

My only regret is that I wish I read Little Women first, instead of after viewing the 1994 film. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but it strongly colored my reading of the book. For once I found it annoying instead of admirable that the script stuck close to the original text, because as I was reading I kept picturing the scenes from the film, instead of re-creating it in my mind. It rather spoiled the reading experience for me, which is why I had to give this book 3 stars. I think I\’ll wait ten years and read it again, maybe I\’ll have forgotten most of the film by that time.

Rating: 3/5 464 pages, 1868

Tag: Classics

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