So I've been seeing these go around the internet for a wee while and figured that it was something I could think about doing. I read a fair few of what I consider to be 'classics' so I thought this would be a relatively simple list to complete, although as with everything it gets trickier when you actually think about it.
1: An Overhyped Classic You really didn't like...
Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse.
I came across the Penguin decades series at my (then) local library. I read a few of them and was really enjoying the selection of decade defining classics. Then along came Billy Liar.... well I hated it. Just couldn't get on with it at all. The characters were annoying at best, not in a 'well this is an annoying character, I can see why the author has made him like that..' way but more in a 'hate that I am wasting a portion of my life reading about this little twerp' way. On top of this I found the conversations and situations depicted to be ridiculous and about as funny as having teeth pulled. There are so many genuinely funny or important books from the 1950s that genuinely capture the spirit of the age, sadly this just isn't one of them. An awful, awful read!
2: Favourite Time Period to read...
This is actually quite a difficult question to answer, part of me wanted to say the 19th Century covering the diverse range of authors that it does, and part of me thought I might actually plump for even earlier than that; however in the end I decided that the books that I go back to time after time are quite often written during and set in the interwar period of the twentieth century. This period seems to have seen a flourishing of writing especially of women's writing, often with a light and humourous touch, but usually with some form of message or universal truth behind it. I appreciate that Mary McCarthy's The Group was actually written in the 1960's but it is firmly set in the interwar period and is very much a classic as far as I am concerned. I would also throw books like Diary of a Provincial Lady and Our Spoons Came from Woolworths into this grouping, and can come back to these titles and be guaranteed to enjoy myself. Stella Gibbons is a writer who managed to mock the popular writing of the day and yet also to produce some little gems for anyone one who has never gone beyond Cold Comfort Farm I urge you to look at some of her other works. Winifred Holtby's books are fairly new to me, I think they only came onto my radar after the TV adaptation of South Riding, they seem to capture the spirit of the age and place quite perfectly. Then we come to Nancy. Nancy Mitford, one of the fascinating Mitford sisters and one of my favourite authors. Again there is a wonderful TV adaptation of her work which manages to bring out all of the Wodehouse elements without losing the lighter touch that comes through in her writing. For me her writing is simply marvellous. She mocks the society that she grew up in, pulling in all the characters that she had encountered and yet is able to make us feel for them at the same time. As something of a romantic, and, in my younger years possibly a bit of a Bolter too, the section where Fanny discusses Linda's recent death with her mother always resonates with me; Fabrice, Fanny explains, was “the great love of her life, you know”. The Bolter: “Oh,
dulling,” said my mother sadly. “One always thinks that. Every, every
time.” Absolutely true, heartbreaking, and simply perfect.
3: Favourite Fairy Tale....
I owe much of my love of fairy tales to the wonderful Marshall Cavendish StoryTeller series from my childhood. At one point I had every single one of these and deeply deeply regret that over time my collection has dwindled so that now all I own are a handful of the cassettes and the book that grouped together some of the better known stories. I have so many stories from this selection that I love. Wiser than the Czar, which is a Serbian folk tale I believe, is a particular favourite.
However I have a special fondness for the Grimm's fairy tales, and for Rapunzel especially. I listened to the Story Teller version so many times that this is still the way that I tell the story. I love that the storyteller version included the blinding of the Prince, and can forgive them for having Rapunzel betray her relationship by complaining about the Witch's weight rather than by her impending pregnancy causing her clothes to get too tight. I really love the story, in it's original form it is a candid look at the dangers of pregnancy and contains so many of the fundamental elements of fairy tales. On top of this it is really a rather romantic story of love, loss and sacrifice and I'm always a sucker for those. ;). Having recently watched the film Into the Woods, I can say that I really loved the version of Rapunzel that featured in the film.
4: Most embarrassing classic to have never read.....
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
O.K. so I'm blushing.... I've never actually read this book. I've seen the film.... I've read all about it... I know what happens but I've never actually opened this one. It's simply never appealed to me, like so many of the 'great American classics' really. To be honest my list of books that I think I should have read but that I haven't, reads like a list of American Classics.... I should get get on this one I think. My problem is largely that, thanks to other media, I am so familiar with the characters and stories of these books that it seems almost like a waste of my reading time to actually read them. A bad attitude and one I will work on. I really feel I should make a start with Mockingbird, and maybe 2015 is the year to do it, especially as Go Set a Watchman is due out later in the year. We shall see.
5: Top Five to Read Soon....
Like a few other people I've split this into my top five to read soon and my top five to reread soon..... Read soons first....
Five of the books that are on my tbr soon pile right now... Both Slaves of Solitude and The Pendragon Legand have been on my book self for a while, Hamilton is not an author that I have read before but he is someone who I have heard really good things about so I'm keen to get stuck in to Slaves. I have read a fair few of Antal Szerb's books and have loved all of them so far, Oliver VII was an especially good one with a few elements of the Zenda books. Szerb seems to have been an especially versatile author and it is tragic that he was unable to get the recognition he deserved in his lifetime. I am thinking that I shall combine my reading of A Legacy with reading Iron Gustav... I have a short list of WWI classics that I need to read actually, (shocking I know, me having a list of books to read!) but I think this is likely to be the first from the list to get ticked off. Over the summer my husband and I are planning a couple of nice little trips to Italy, so I have been gathering together a few suitable Italian classics to read while we are away. I always find that reading a book while you are actually visiting it's setting is an especially pleasant way to enjoy it. Our first trip is to Sicily in June, so for this I plan on taking The Art of Joy by Sapienza and Scent of a Woman by Arpino. The Art of Joy is billed as THE Sicilian classic so I'm looking forward to that one, while Scent of a Woman is set in war torn Italy following two men making their way back south. Both should be ideal for the beaches and cafes of Sicily.
5a: Five Classics to reread soon....
So these are my five that I plan to reread in the next couple of months.... I'm ignoring my habitual rereads like Cold Comfort and Diary of a Provincial Lady... I've already talked about those. These five are books that I can read again and again. With both Vanity Fair and Les Liasions Dangereuses I tend to dip in and out of the book, reading selected passages rather than the whole thing. There are moments in each that are quite perfect as far as I am concerned. The passage describing the battle of Waterloo and the pathos of George's death in Vanity fair is wonderful, as is Becky's first taste of a curry. in LLD it is the section where Madame de Rosemond tries to counsel the Presidente saying that 'a man enjoys the happiness he feels, a woman the happiness she gives.' her warning that the Presidente can only expect grief if she gives in to love is ignored and it is knowing this that gives such poignancy to the passage. Both Silas Marner and Ethan Frome are short and tragic stories that I indulge in on a regular basis, they both are rather dark at times but I delight in the darkness, also it helps that they are both quite short so I can squeeze them into the busiest of days. As for Zenda and it's sequel Rupert of Hentzau, I'm a sucker for central Europe, for a swashbuckling romance and for the high melodrama of these two adventures. The film version is wonderful despite it's ridiculous casting of Rupert of Hentzau, but I encourage everyone to try these two great Edwardian romps.
I think that is probably enough for one afternoon here so shall love you and leave you now....
tbc.......
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