Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Hi everyone! I tried for a blackout last year but failed due to reading too many non-classics in the last half of the year- hopefully better luck this year!


B1: Written by Nobel Laureate
B2: Classic Comedy or Satire Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
B3: Classic Tragedy Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola
B4: Classic Made into a Film/TV The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
B5: Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón

I1: 20th Century Classic Lust, Caution: The Story by Eileen Chang
I2: New-to-You Author A Legacy by Sybille Bedford
I3: Classic Play The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren
I4: Classic of More than 500 Pages Villette by Charlotte Brontë
I5: 18th Century or Earlier Classic If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho

N1: South American Classic
N2: Short Story Classic A Night in the Cemetery and Other Stories of Crime & Suspense by Anton Chekhov
N3: FREE SPACE Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy
N4: Poetry Collection Poems by Wang Wei
N5: European Classic Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens

G1: 19th Century Classic The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester
G2: Bokklubben (Norwegian Book Club) World Library List Book
G3: Classic Non-fiction A Handbook on Hanging by Charles Duff
G4: Group ReadLady Susan by Jane Austen
G5: Classic Recommended by a Friend The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

O1: Literary Prize of Your Country/Region
O2: Classic Folklore or Mythology
O3: Asian Classic As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-Century Japan by Lady Sarashina
O4: Classic Romance Sylvester by Georgette Heyer
O5: Prize-Winning Female Author Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith

Starting off with A Legacy by Sybille Bedford, picked up mostly on the blurb from Nancy Mitford and due to being a NYRB Classic as everything I've read from their selection is fantastic!

It was really good, would definitely recommend it as a funny, tragic and beautiful saga of two families.

Looks like a good start to me! I haven't heard of Sybille Bedford, but a good blurb from Nancy Mitford would be enough encouragement. Good luck with the rest of your challenge :)

Just finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë for a Classic over 500 Pages (my edition had 616 pages)! This book is fantastic, it's like a much lonelier, meaner and weirder cousin of Jane Eyre.

You are doing great with your challenge so far! And looks like you have ended up with some fantastic reads.

Pip wrote: "Just finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë for a Classic over 500 Pages (my edition had 516 pages)! This book is fantastic, it's like a much lonelier, meaner and weird..."

Your description is just TOO tempting. I'm gonna have to read Villette now!

Pip wrote: "Just finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë for a Classic over 500 Pages (my edition had 516 pages)! This book is fantastic, it's like a much lonelier, meaner and weird..."

I enjoyed Villette as well. It took me a while to get in to it, but by the end it was great.

Pip wrote: "Just finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë for a Classic over 500 Pages (my edition had 516 pages)! This book is fantastic, it's like a much lonelier, meaner and weird..."

Oh I'm glad to hear that! I've been meaning to read Villette for too long!

I definitely recommend it! Just make sure you get an edition with footnotes to translate the French bits (if you can't speak French!) - the first time I read it I didn't have those and I missed so much!

Pip wrote: "Just finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë for a Classic over 500 Pages (my edition had 516 pages)! This book is fantastic, it's like a much lonelier, meaner and weird..."

I think Villette is the best book written by a Bronte and the only one that I reread. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Pip wrote: "I definitely recommend it! Just make sure you get an edition with footnotes to translate the French bits (if you can't speak French!) - the first time I read it I didn't have those and I missed so ..."

Great tip--thank you!

On a roll this weekend - just finished Sylvester by Georgette Heyer in the Classic Romance category. You can't get any more classic than Georgette Heyer for Regency romances and this was such a good one, I think one of my favourites of her books I have read. I really enjoyed how it plays with gothic novel tropes!

Finished reading Poems by Wang Wei for the Poetry Collection category :)

I really liked this. Wang Wei was a Tang Dynasty poet who wrote in the 8th century, mostly about nature and countryside scenes. I don't think Chinese classical poetry is ever quite the same in translation but it was still beautiful:

“Fireflies pass across jewelled windows
Voices have ceased in the golden palace
One stays up through the autumn night, gauze-curtained
And a solitary light gleams on.”

Excerpt From: Wei, Wang. “Poems.” Penguin Books Ltd, 2015-03-25. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Good luck Pip! You have very unique choices for your bingo game. Love the Tang dynasty poetry choice!

Missy J wrote: "Good luck Pip! You have very unique choices for your bingo game. Love the Tang dynasty poetry choice!"

Thanks Missy! I'm trying to use the challenge to motivate me to read all the books on my tbr list which have been sitting there forever :)

Pip wrote: "Finished reading Poems by Wang Wei for the Poetry Collection category :)

I really liked this. Wang Wei was a Tang Dynasty poet who wrote in the 8th century, mostly a..."

That's a lovely selection. Thanks for sharing!

Pip wrote: "Just finished Villette by Charlotte Brontë for a Classic over 500 Pages (my edition had 616 pages)! This book is fantastic, it's like a much lonelier, meaner and weird..."

Oooh I've had this on my TBR list forever and now I really need to figure out how to fit in the read soon!

Just finished The Female Detective by Andrew Forrester, supposedly the first book about a female professional detective. This was pretty entertaining! The mysteries themselves weren't that great but I enjoyed the character of the mysterious "G", who is surprisingly resourceful when she needs to be ((view spoiler)[escaping a house fire/murder attempt with the use of a library ladder and assorted furniture! (hide spoiler)]).

You are moving right along! Love your comments about Villette...not sure I'll get to it this year, but definitely on my tbr list!

Read a book that's been sitting on my to-read shelf for ages - A Handbook on Hanging by Charles Duff for the Classic Non-Fiction category. This book was really good, it's a satirical pamphlet on the "art of the hangman" and a passionate criticism of the death penalty, written in 1927..

Just finished The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren, a classic Chinese play about the fall of the Ming dynasty in the seventeenth century.

This was very good although it would have benefited from me knowing more about this period of Chinese history! I'm glad I read the Wang Wei poetry first, it helped to understand the (many) references to the Peach Blossom Spring :)

Today I finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen in the Classic Comedy or Satire category :)

This was a reread but long enough ago that it wasn't on goodreads before! I love this book, which lovingly sends up Gothic novels (especially The Mysteries of Udolpho and the other gothic novels by Ann Radcliffe). The humour is much less subtle than in her later works but still very funny!

Another book read today, for the Winner of a Foreign Literary Prize category: Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was by Sjón, which won the Icelandic Literary Prize in 2013. This book was beautiful and very moving.

You're flying along with this challenge! I'm glad you're enjoying what you're reading :)

Two books for this update because I forgot to comment last time: Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola for the Classic Tragedy category and The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham for a Classic Made into Film/TV.

This was very different from the movie, although I enjoyed both the movie and the book - the book is definitely not a romance.

Finished Desperate Remedies by Thomas Hardy which fits in the free space - this was Thomas Hardy's first novel and both similar and different from his later work. Some things were very familiar (the nature scenes, country people) and others were very different - this is a sensation novel!

It dragged a bit in places (I was never fully convinced by the hero) but the villain is wonderful and the final third really accelerates as the mystery starts to unravel, it was great. Also there is an amazing scene where a slightly sinister character tries to seduce our heroine by sexily playing an organ solo DURING A THUNDERSTORM.

Pip wrote: "On a roll this weekend - just finished Sylvester by Georgette Heyer in the Classic Romance category. You can't get any more classic than Georgette Heyer for Regency roma..."

I love her books too.

siriusedward wrote: "Pip wrote: "On a roll this weekend - just finished Sylvester by Georgette Heyer in the Classic Romance category. You can't get any more classic than Georgette Heyer for ..."

She's fantastic :) I love her detective novels as well, her gift for dialogue carries over really well!

Pip wrote: "siriusedward wrote: "Pip wrote: "On a roll this weekend - just finished Sylvester by Georgette Heyer in the Classic Romance category. You can't get any more classic than..."

yea those cozy mysteries should be read more I think..good ones

Finished A Night in the Cemetery and Other Stories of Crime & Suspense by Anton Chekhov in the Short Story Classic category.

The translation wasn't the greatest, but Chekhov is still incredible at writing short stories.

Read Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith - so suspenseful and great. The plot was changed a lot for the Hitchcock film so if you have seen it, you still won't know what's going to happen next!

Pip wrote: "Read Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith - so suspenseful and great. The plot was changed a lot for the Hitchcock film so if you have seen it, you still won't know..."

That's good to know, I've only read The Price of Salt by her, but I'd like to read more.

I read The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy based on my friend's recommendation - it was really good! I thought going into it that I wouldn't find it too bleak because the main character was too unsympathetic (he sells his wife and child to a stranger in the first chapter), but I underestimated Thomas Hardy as a writer.

This was a fantastic book, although Hardy really likes to kick a character when he's down (that way he can more easily kick him in the face).

Pip wrote: "I read The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy based on my friend's recommendation - it was really good! I thought going into it that I wouldn't find it too bleak beca..."

Good to know. I need to read more Hardy. I think he has the most amazing titles, but when I look at what they are about I always think I don't really want to read them. lol

Read Lust, Caution: The Story by Eileen Chang in the "20th Century Classic" section. This was a very good story - I wish my Chinese was better to read the original but the translation was still great!

Pip wrote: "I read The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy based on my friend's recommendation - it was really good! I thought going into it that I wouldn't find it too bleak beca..."

Oh Pip, that sounds like a book I need to read very soon.

Great choices here!

Pip wrote: "Hardy really likes to kick a character when he's down (that way he can more easily kick him in the face).
"

Srsly, right? That dude is mean.

Read If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Sappho for the 18h Century or Earlier Classic category- this well and truly qualifies seeing as the poetry was written around 600 BC! This was really interesting; I didn't realise how little of her poems had survived intact, a lot of it is just words - but the fragments remaining are beautiful.

Read As I Crossed a Bridge of Dreams: Recollections of a Woman in Eleventh-Century Japan by Lady Sarashina in the Asian Classic category. This was a short but interesting read with a mix of prose and poetry, giving a fascinating picture of the author's life as a woman in Heian era Japan.

You are doing nicely on the challenge Pip.

Katy wrote: "You are doing nicely on the challenge Pip."

Thanks Katy! The end is in sight - just have to keep the momentum going!

Read Lady Susan by Jane Austen from the groin bookshelves for the Group Read category. Despite a slightly disappointing ending which breaks out of the epistolary structure, this was very clever and very funny. I was caught between deploring Lady Susan (she treats her poor daughter dreadfully!) and cheering her on as she tramples victoriously over the men she encounters.