Classics Challenge Finale

Well, I'm finished! My list is:
Bleak House
The Golden Bowl
Les Miserables
War and Peace
The Cherry Orchard
The Sea,The Sea
I've enjoyed the challenge, the books were easier to read than I thought, but they took more time than I thought. I would like to do another classic challenge. It helps to have an external motivation because they do require more from the reader than a lot of modern fiction. Thanks for hosting. This is the only book group I partcipate in besides the mother-daughter at the library.

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov

This is my last selection for the Classics Challenge. I read an adaption by David Mamet because that was it for our library. In his foreword he explains that he views the play as a series of scenes repeating the same action i.e. frustrated lovers. I read the foreword hoping that it would help explain the play but I didn't really see Mamet's thesis. The story is an indolent woman returns home to her estate to find it on the chopping block (literally)! A wealthy businessman from peasant background devises a plan to save the estate by selling the cherry orchard for real estate development. She refuses to take any action and the estate is sold to the wealthy businessman who proceeds to chop down the cherry orchard. The indolent woman returns to her unfaithful lover in Paris and that's the end of the play. There are some subplots along with the main story involving lovers who cannot get together for various reasons. Everyone in the play is kind of irritating because they seem so inept and passive. I tend to see the play more as a commentary on the rot at the heart of Russian society, which is the very thing that Mamet is convinced it is not! The reason I think it's a commentary is that no one will take any action. They're living in denial as their estate is sold away, too busy having parties and histrionics. Also, the landowners seem incapable of work and the peasants seem incapable of leadership. The only person who takes action is the businessman who comes from a peasant family. So, I guess it's open to a lot of interpretation. In fact, this idea of being destroyed by debt has relevance right here right now! It was good to read a play because normally I don't and I have the Classics challenge to thank for that!

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch

This is the Booker Prize winner for 1978 and I can see why it was selected. There are many beautifully written passages and the story itself takes some bizarre turns which lend an unknowable and mysterious component to the book. The basic story is as follows, a famous and jaded theatre personage retires to the (you guessed it) sea, ostensibly to devote himself more fully to personal development. He purchases a very strange and almost unpleasant house near an unfriendly village. He has what I would describe as mystical experiences and here is a passage from the book that describes one of those experiences. "Later I knew that I had been asleep and I opened my eyes with wonder and the sky had utterly changed again and was no longer dark but bright, golden,gold-dust golden, as if curtain after curtain had been removed behind the stars I had seen before, and now I was looking into the vast interior of the universe, as if the universe were quietly turning itself inside out. Stars behind stars and stars behind stars behind stars until there was nothing between them, nothing beyond them, but dusty dim gold of stars and no space and no light but stars." I am not a great reader for sound but even I found this to be poetry. The great movement in the book is that Charles (the theatre guy) is reunited with his lost love of his youth. From there the story descends into madness you might say but eventually there is redemption for Charles and tragedy for some other characters. It (the book) starts a little dry but then rewards the reader with great imagination.

Kya- War and Peace

I thought I would continue my Napoleonic era reading with War and Peace. Les Miserables dealt with Napoleon from a French perspective and War and Peace deals with Napoleon from a Russian perspective. War and Peace is a story with many characters and families mostly from the aristocratic circles. Their stories are interwoven with each other and with the invasion of Russia by Napoleon in the early 1800's. Along with telling that story, Tolstoy shares his thoughts about the meaning and mystery of life and man' s spiritual quest. Most of the major characters undergo important transformations. Tolstoy touches upon almost every aspect of Russian society through his narrative and characters. That I think is the genius of the book, there's a seamless transition between everyday life, the inner workings of the heart and mind, and the powerful social forces at work over which no one really has control. Although Tolstoy vividly describes the horrors of war, he also gives his characters the ability to transcend those horrors. The characters that are able to do that (whether they live or not) are the true "victors" of the novel. Outside of the length of the book, I did not find this difficult reading and I think modern readers are so thoroughly familiar with this kind of book that it's hard to appreciate how different it was for its' time.

The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch

Once I started reading this book, I realized I'd read it before and mixed it up with another book by Iris Murdoch. I really love this story. A young woman is hired to be a companion to another woman living in a remote and dramatic area by the sea. It could be Cornwall or Scotland, we're never told. The woman, Hannah, turns out to be a virtual but willing prisoner in this dramatic house by the sea. She is being punished for adultery and violence toward her husband who is not present. The companion, Marian, becomes attached to Hannah and is horrified that Hannah is a prisoner, willing or not. There are other interesting characters and the story is told from several viewpoints. The tale ends with a series of dramatic deaths and not much expanation. So, it's a mystery as well as an modern myth. There's room for a lot of psychological analysis. It reminds me a bit of Jane Eyre minus the happy ending because of course it's a modern tale! It would be an interesting book for discussion in a book club.

Kya- Les Miserables

It's hard to know where to begin a review about this book. It's such a well known and monumental work. It encompasses so much more than the story of Jean Valjean and yet it fundamentally does remain a story of a man and the times in which he lived. There are many digressions, some are more interesting than others. The discussion of Waterloo and the history of the sewers of Paris were detailed and fascinating. Hugo's description of the underclass of Paris and the poor in general is realistic and moving. The suffering of Fantine and Cosette rivals any description of childhood misery in Dickens. Hugo describes Paris to us in a way that makes it very real even for someone like me who has not been that interested in Paris as a topic of study. I think the book remains fresh for today's reader because it's so profoundly interested in humanity and we can see the beginnings of many of our own attitudes about equality and dignity between people. On top of all that it's a ripping good yarn with plenty of over the top drama. Highly recommended, it's a labor of love at over 1400 pages, but such a sharp snapshot of where we have been.

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

I have to admit I wasn't that jazzed about this book but it was recommended and I decided to check it out. It really grew on me because it truly is an incredible and very inspirational story about an exceptional person and the equally exceptional people who help him. There's been a lot written about this book and so I won't go into details, just to say that it's about climber (usually a pretty self absorbed group) who vows to build a school for a remote Pakistani village whose people helped save his life. From there, his one promise becomes a lifes' work and passion. I love the way it's ordinary people helping themselves and each other. Ordinary meaning not rich, famous, or powerful. A worthwhile book to read especially in light of the recent passing of the 7th anniversary of 911.

Augustus by Anthony Everitt

This is a fascinating biography of Caesar Augustus, first emperor of the Roman Empire. Although I am somewhat familar with this era haveing read I, Claudius and watched the TV series, this was an excellent and very readable account of this time period of Roman history. The civil war between the backers of the former republic and the new imperial trend reads almost like headlines from today's political scene. It's especially interesting in an important election year. It's almost as though nothing ever really changes, all the old political tricks are still very much alive and kicking! I often have trouble being motivated to read biographies but this one is highly recommended.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

I've read many good reviews about this book and so decided to listen to it on tape while I'm doing other things. It really is a gripping story. It has mystery plenty, haunted house, ghost, disturbed family, literary illusions, the whole bit. I won't go into the story because it's been thoroughly described but definitely a good read. A little scary but not too much!

the pearl by Douglas Smith

This is a fascinating and well-researched history of a famous serf opera singer who went on to marry one of the wealthiest Russian nobles of the time. The book goes into some detail about the history and practice of serf theater, which is something I've never heard of, and of the institution of serfdom in general. I've read a fair amount of modern Russian history, specifically about the revolution but this is a topic I was totally unfamilar with and a very unique story. Most shocking about it is that it's true! the pearl is the stage name of Praskovia Kovalyova, born a serf (or slave) to Count Nicholas Sheremetev in Russia during the time of Catherine the Great. With his backing and training provided by him, she develops into an incredibly gifted singer and actress. They become lovers, eventually marry, she gives birth to his only heir and then dies probably of sepsis contracted through childbirth. Their union challenges all the beliefs of social order of the time. They both pay a high price for their relationship but eventually become an example of a new order of how society must be organized. I enjoyed reading this very much.

Kya- The Golden Bowl

This is book two for the classic challenge. The story line is that a very wealthy art collector and his adored only daughter both take a spouse. The daughter marries for love but the new husband is somewhat like a valuable acquisition. The father marries, at his daughter's request, the daughter's beautiful but poor friend. There is a betrayal, which I won't betray, and the bulk of the book is taken up with the psychological manipulations that bring the book to its' conclusion. This is primarily an interior story. There is a plot and there are plot developments but mostly it is about what the characters are thinking and by extension feeling. I would consider this not an easy book to read. The writing is very dense and not leavened with humor. I think it is an interesting and challenging read and I'm happy to have finished it.

Kya-Bleak House

This is a long but worthwhile read. In a nutshell, the story is about a long and destructive court case and the many characters that interact and are affected by it. It takes place in Victorian England but may really reflect an earlier time period more 1820-1840. The characters are wonderfully portrayed and there are many instances of beautifully written descriptive narrative. Thumbs up!

Book Review of Shakespeare's Wife by Germaine Greer

I have not read any of Greer's other books including The Female Eunuch, which made her quite well known in the 70's but I'm interested in Tudor and Elizabethan times and I'm always interested in reading about women in the past because there is so little information available.
I found this book quite fascinating, not so much because she has answers, but because she has new suppositions and theories. I'd not realized that Greer was such an academic and she has done a lot of research and she poses what ifs that are not usually posed or are considered ridiculous. Like what if Shakespeare didn't really despise his wife, there could have been other reasons they lived apart for many years. She documents that many women including upper class women spent long periods away from their husbands. Another what if is, suppose Anne Shakespeare was not the economic leech she has been presented to be, what if she had a viable way of making or supplementing the family income. Greer documents some of the occupations or home industries that were available to common women at that time and that some did rather well. Greer also plays devil advocate for some other accepted Shakespeare facts like he was a wealthy man. She presents data that might indicate that was not the case. Overall, I enjoyed the book and learned more about what at least some women were doing during this time period and that is always of interest to me.

Classics for Classic Challenge

I have not finalized my list but I think I want to read the Golden Bowl, Les Miserables, Bleak House,, The Count of Monte Cristo, and a non-fiction. I will attempt to do my link properly.