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Book reviews --Classics
Two early 20th-century classics that continue to be beloved by a lot of readers, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of Green Gables, are closely related to each other, not only because they both feature smart, precocious, good-hearted heroines growing to young womanhood in small villages in northeastern North America, but because (as I learned here on Goodreads) the former novel was actually the main literary influence on Lucy Maud Montgomery in creating the latter. Here are the links to my reviews of both of these: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15334015 and www.goodreads.com/review/show/20301627 . (Both of these books are in Easley's Library's Juvenile collection --which isn't just for children!-- and we also have all of the numerous sequels to Montgomery's masterwork.
Recently posting a link to my review of Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories reminded me that, up until then, I'd never reviewed our comparable collection by her contemporary and fellow New England regional Realist, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, A New England Nun and Other Stories. Last night, I remedied that, and here's the link to that review, my latest one: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15330218 .Three other top figures of the American Realist school in the late 19th century, who are among those well represented at Easley Library, are Henry James, William Dean Howells, and Hamlin Garland. I've posted reviews on Goodreads of books by all three; here are links to, respectively, my reviews of James' The American, Howell's The Rise of Silas Lapham, and Garland's Main-Travelled Roads: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15331728
www.goodreads.com/review/show/15330997
www.goodreads.com/review/show/17438385
So far, the links I've posted have all (except for Anne of Green Gables, which is by a Canadian author) been to reviews I've done of American classics. But I've reviewed a few British classics during my time on Goodreads, too! A couple of my reviews are of books by Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (www.goodreads.com/review/show/15317117 ) and Sense and Sensibility (www.goodreads.com/review/show/15317150 ). I'm not ashamed to call myself a Janeite! :-) (Easley Library has some excellent film adaptations of Austen's novels, too!
Continuing to link to some of my reviews of British classics, Sir Walter Scott is another British (actually, Scottish) writer who's work I've very much enjoyed, insofar as I've read it --though I'm sorry to say I've only read two of his many novels, Ivanhoe and The Heart of Mid-Lothian. Here are the links to my reviews of those: www.goodreads.com/review/show/17081087 and www.goodreads.com/review/show/17080993 .Charles Dickens is another writer whose work I've read relatively little of (and not reviewed all of what I have read), but greatly enjoyed that relatively little. My review of his A Christmas Carol is linked to on another thread; but here's the link to my review of A Tale of Two Cities: www.goodreads.com/review/show/16856323 . Easley Library has the complete corpus of all the works of both Scott and Dickens (as well as Austen; see the previous message), so I'll have plenty of opportunity to read more!
We're also well supplied with books by both George Eliot (whose real name was Mary Ann Evans) and Rudyard Kipling. I was lucky enough to be introduced to Eliot in junior high school, through Silas Marner; here's my review of that book: www.goodreads.com/review/show/16856587 . As a kid, I'd already encountered Kipling through The Jungle Book; and Anna Sewell's Black Beauty was another childhood favorite (read multiple times!) Here are the links to those reviews: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15332787 and www.goodreads.com/review/show/15333182 .
In going through my "classics" shelf just now, I found four more reviews that I thought I ought to link to here. One, www,goodreads.com/review/show/15330557 , is of another British classic, Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Victorian-era novelist Thomas Hardy. I've read all of Hardy's major novels, and his excellent short story collection, Wessex Tales (all of which Easley Library has!), but this is the only one of his books that I've actually reviewed.All three of the other reviews are of the work of 19th-century American writers: The Unabridged Edgar Allan Poe (www.goodreads.com/review/show/15333046 ), Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The House of the Seven Gables (www.goodreads.com/review/show/15330796 ), and Herman Melville's magnum opus Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (www.goodreads.com/review/show/15332840 ). Hawthorne and Poe in particular are favorites of mine!
While I've reviewed several other books that have the status of classics, I'm thinking those reviews could best be linked to on other threads (some are already on the supernatural fiction reviews thread). In particular, I'd like to start a historical fiction reviews thread (and of course, the links to the reviews of A Tale of Two Cities and the two Scott novels above could have gone on that thread, too!).
Sir Edmund Spenser's Elizabethan epic poem (unfinished when he died, but published in its partial state), The Faerie Queene, is on my "poetry" shelf rather than my "classics" shelf; so I didn't at first think of that review when I was linking to the ones above. But I think most modern readers would think of this work as a classic, rather than as the kind of poetry they have in mind when they go looking for a poetry read. So I'm going to link to that review here too: www.goodreads.com/review/show/17312728 .
I've linked, above, to quite a few of my own reviews; but the idea of these review threads is to provide helpful information for people in choosing books to read, and for that to work, we need to draw on the much broader range of reading that ALL our members can provide, not just one person. (And it's often also helpful to get different people's takes on the same book!) Crystal gave me permission to link to her reviews as well, so I thought I'd share some of these. The following reviews are of 19th-century British classics we have here in the library:Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy. www.goodreads.com/review/show/163473944 .
Villette by Charlotte Bronte. www.goodreads.com/review/show/205625845 .
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. www.goodreads.com/review/show/155638905 .
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. www.goodreads.com/review/show/151009377 .
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. www.goodreads.com/review/show/54360266 .
Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. www.goodreads.com/review/show/52577317 .
Here are links to three of Crystal's reviews of 19th-century American classics:The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories by Sarah Orne Jewett. www.goodreads.com/review/show/54361952
The House of the Seven Gables (Hawthorne) www.goodreads.com/review/show/674991316
Henry David Thoreau's Walden. www.goodreads.com/review/show/155638431
I wasn't sure at first how to characterize Tales from Shakespeare, first published in 1807 by Charles and Mary Lamb, but perhaps "Classics" is as good a heading as any! It's a re-telling of several of Shakespeare's plays, but done as prose short stories (mostly or all with straight narration rather than dialogue). Here's the link to Crystal's short review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/251769632 . (She reviewed one of the audiobook editions; of course, we only have it in the print format.)
Born in West Virginia, but raised in China, where she spent much of her life and set most of her fiction, novelist Pearl S. Buck became the first American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Her masterpiece, The Good Earth, can certainly be considered a 20th-century classic. Here's the link to Crystal's review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/153544005 .
The fact that a book is usually given the status of a "classic," of course, doesn't guarantee that any given reader will personally like it. Ernest Hemingway is a writer whose work has long been accorded canonical status in American literature by the critical establishment, but I definitely didn't care much for his novel The Sun Also Rises. Here's the link to my one-star review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15571406 .
One of several Goodreads groups I belong to is a classics group, and this month the group has been reading Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream as a common read. I've seen it performed twice, but had never read it until now. Here's the link to my review, posted last night: www.goodreads.com/review/show/970350792 . (I don't rank it as highly as I do some other Shakespeare plays that I've watched/read.)
First published in 1915, and trail-blazing in its genre, John Buchan's novel The 39 Steps has earned classic status. My review is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/33319505 .
Here's the link to my review of Aristophanes' ancient Greek play Lysistrata: www.goodreads.com/review/show/54016998 . We don't actually have a free-standing copy of this one in the library, but it's included in An Anthology of Greek Drama, which we have.
Another lamentable gap in our holdings of literary classics, until very recently, was Edgar Rice Burrough's masterpiece Tarzan of the Apes, whose title character is one of the few figures from fiction to have become a household word universally recognized throughout the world. Here's my review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15317295 .
My newest review of a classic our library has (posted just a couple of days ago) is of Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. Here's the link (and I'll cross-post it in our thread for historical fiction reviews as well): www.goodreads.com/review/show/33317965 .
I've just posted this link to my review of Billy Budd, Sailor over on the Historical Fiction thead in this folder; but I think it's equally important to do so here. So, excuse the cross-posting: www.goodreads.com/review/show/17080623 .
Here's another cross-post, for my review of Robert Louis Stevenson's The Black Arrow: www.goodreads.com/review/show/17081455 .
And yet another cross-post from the Historical Fiction thread, this time a review of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
It wouldn't do to review Wuthering Heights and ignore the other classic from the pen of a Bronte sister that I've read, Charlotte Bronte's masterpiece Jane Eyre; so here's that review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
I've read and liked several novels by Jack London, though I haven't reviewed many of them. But his Martin Eden wasn't on my to-read shelf at all, until a lady in another one of my groups recently prodded me to read it. She definitely did me a favor; it got four stars from me! Here's that review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Although I'm not nearly as well read in the classics as I ought to be, I have read a fair few of them, including several that I read in my childhood and youth. Especially in the case of the latter, though, and of classics I read before joining Goodreads in general, I've been pretty remiss in reviewing them on Goodreads. Thackeray's Vanity Fair is one that I've actually read twice, but only got around to reviewing last night. Here's that long overdue review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Although I read
by Graham Greene some 18 years ago (as background reading for teaching British Literature, back when we were homeschooling our girls), I'd never gotten around to reviewing it. The prospect of doing a common read of another Greene novel next month in another group prompted me to remedy that last night, so here's that review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . I didn't get into this one as much as I did Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Greene's contemporary and fellow Catholic novelist Evelyn Waugh (another pre-Goodreads read that I've never reviewed, and need to get around to reviewing sooner rather than later!).
I'm not as well read in the classics as I'd like to be; and although I have a number of them on my to-read shelf, that shelf has so many books that sometimes it takes a common read in one of my groups to push one of them to the top. That was the case with Lew Wallace's Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ, which definitely repaid my time! My review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . (This link will be cross-posted to the Historical Fiction thread.)
] The Deerslayer was a long read (it's a well over 500 page book) which took me a full month to complete; but it was worth every minute of it. My five-star review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .Earlier, I linked to my recent retrospective review of another Cooper novel,
The Spy, on the Historical fiction thread; but I forgot to cross post that link here. Here it is: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
My latest review, a retrospective one of a novel I read in the late 90s, turned out to be one very appropriate for the Easter season, though that wasn't actually my original thought when I decided to review it! It's a review of Lloyd C. Douglas's 1942 classic
The Robe, here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Continuing my reading of Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, I've now finished
The Pathfinder; that four-star review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . (It would be four and 1/2 if I could give half stars.) Now there's only one book left in the series that I haven't read, The Prairie, and I'm reading that one now! (But I do plan to go back and re-read The Pioneers, which I last read nearly 50 years ago in junior college, sometime relatively soon.)
We recently added Edgar Rice Burrough's
to our collection; and that's a book I'd actually read and reviewed some time ago. Here's the link to that review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Having finished reading
The Prairie over the weekend, I've finally completed my reading of James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales series, a saga I began as a nine-year-old kid. That's been a rewarding reading adventure! My review of this last book (in terms of its internal chronology) of the series is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
My review of Charles Dickens'
Great Expectations is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . I've read this book twice, both in junior high school as a required read and as an adult, and it's one of my favorite Dickens novels; but I'd never written a review of it until yesterday.
Although I haven't read as many of the older classics as I'd like to have, I continue to expand my acquaintance with them as I get the opportunity. The latest one I've read and reviewed (which had been on my to-read shelf forever) is Ann Radcliffe's 1794 chunkster The Mysteries of Udolpho, which I finally finished yesterday after starting it back on July 1. That review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ; I gave it three stars.
As a general rule, I don't write separate reviews of individual short stories that I've read as parts of collections (I just review the collections). But I've been taking part in a common read and discussion of Katherine Mansfield's story
The Garden Party in another group, and read the story again last night as an online e-story. So, I've reviewed it, here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . We have this story in several of our anthologies, as well as in our collection of the author's collected stories; so I thought it would be appropriate to link to my review on this thread.
Another one of my groups is doing a common read of Anthony Hope's 1894 action-adventure novel The Prisoner of Zenda this month. Although I'd heard of the book, it wasn't really on my radar before this; but it turned out to be a much more satisfying read than I'd expected. My four-star review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
For some time, I'd been intending to do a "retrospective" review today of Irene Hunt's Civil War novel
Across Five Aprils, which I read as a kid back in the 60s. But at the last minute, I decided that one will need a reread in order to do it justice. So, instead, here's a review of an enduring 19th-century children's classic,
Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Although I've reviewed almost every book I've read since joining Goodreads, I joined in my 50s; so obviously I read quite a few books before that. Relatively few of those have been reviewed; but I try to review one every so often, as I have time to, and I wrote one of those reviews just now. This one is of
Robin Hood (1912) by British author Henry Gilbert --and it goes back a LONG way, since I read it as a seven-year-old child, back in about 1959. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Some recent discussion in another group about Daniel Defoe's classic novel
Robinson Crusoe (1719) prompted me to write this three-star retrospective review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . (I'd read the book about 20 years ago, but until last night had never gotten around to reviewing it here.)
Since I'm putting on a push this year to read any of the works of Jane Austen that I haven't read yet, I thought this would be a good time to review the only Austen novel, of the ones I'd already read, that I hadn't reviewed. So, here's my review of
Persuasion: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
On Friday, I finished what I hope will be the first of several Jane Austen books I finally read this year,
Emma. That review is now up, here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Yesterday, I finally posted a review of a classic I read (multiple times) in my pre-Goodreads days,
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Recently reviewing Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, and the ongoing discussion of that novel in another group right now, made me think of the sequel,
Little Men. That was actually the first Alcott book I read, as a very young child; but until today, I'd never reviewed it. I've remedied that now, and my review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . Unlike Little Women, I've never reread this one (though I might in the future!), so didn't rate it as highly; but I still liked it.
Continuing my program, for this year, of reading any of the works of Jane Austen that I've neglected up until now, I recently finished her early novella
Lady Susan. That review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . I gave it four stars: it might be considered "second-string" Austen, but even Austen writings that are in the second class are very good!
There are so many potentially wonderful books out there which I haven't read yet that I rarely reread the ones I've already read. But I sometimes make exceptions for books I read decades ago and need a refresher before I can review them fairly. My latest finished read,
The Tory Lover (1901) by Sarah Orne Jewett, falls into that group. Here's my three-star review of that one: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Since I started reading independently at the age of six, and I'm now 67, I read a LOT of books before Goodreads was ever imagined. Reviewing those is a slow, slow process; some of them aren't worth a review, and others I don't remember well enough to do them justice without a reread. But
The Forsyte Saga by John Galsworthy is eminently worth reviewing, and has stayed with me remarkably well after over 50 years. So here, finally, is that review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Today, I finished and reviewed (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... )
Mansfield Park. It's the culmination of a reading adventure begun in high school, and in a way, it's a bittersweet milestone; I now no longer have any unread Jane Austen novels to look forward to (though I want to reread Sanditon sometime). Fortunately, though, there are still pastiches, spin-offs, and other novels set in the Regency era....
Although I'd read it decades ago, I've wanted for a long time to reread Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer-prize winning novel,
The Bridge of San Luis Rey, because although I'd greatly liked it the first time, I felt I didn't recall it well enough to fully do it justice in a review. This morning, I finished that reread, and I was as impressed as I was the first time! Here's the link to my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
This month, in another group I belong to, several of us have taken part together in a multi-person buddy read of
The White Company by one of my favorite authors, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I first started to read this one way back in junior high school (9th grade), but got sidetracked --long story! So it's been a "loose end" on my radar for a long time, making me glad to finally read it; and doubly glad when it earned five stars. Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
George Orwell's
1984 was a book I read the summer before I started college, and one of the fiction reads that had the most impact on shaping my thinking; but until today, I'd never reviewed it here. Today, I finally remedied that, and my five-star review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Since I've been reading HPL's work for over 30 years, I'd already read most of the material contained in
The Complete Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft before I started reading the collection late last month; but I wanted to read all of the stories I'd never read before. Now that I've done so, it marks sort of a milestone in my reading --there's nothing more unread by this author to look forward to! My five-star review is here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... .
Here's my review of
The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder by William Hope Hodgson: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... . There was a first edition in 1913 that only had six stories (all that the author had written up to that time) and that's apparently the one used for the free public domain e-books available online. However, this edition is based on the 1947 Arkham House edition, and has all nine of the Carnacki stories WHH wrote.
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A couple of classical American writers who tend to be neglected today are Sarah Orne Jewett and Rebecca Harding Davis. Here are links to my reviews of two excellent collections we have of their short fiction, Jewett's The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories and Davis' Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories: www.goodreads.com/review/show/18682288 and www.goodreads.com/review/show/481295806 .
Charles M. Sheldon, the author of In His Steps, is less well-known in general American literature circles today than either Jewett or Davis, who were his contemporaries; but his 1896 novel is still fairly popular in Christian circles, and has often been reprinted. My review is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15333239 .
Among the early 20th-century American classics I've
read and reviewed are Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie (www.goodreads.com/review/show/15330027 ) and Willa Cather's My Antonia (www.goodreads.com/review/show/15317362 ). Jack London is a favorite author of mine; and since they have many commonalities, I combined my reviews of The Call of the Wild and White Fang into a single review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15332224 .