Rainy Day Reads

The Book This is Anne Brontë’s debut novel written under the pen name of Acton Bell. It was first published in 1847 and many believe that it depicts Anne’s own experiences as a governess. It deals with themes of oppression, treatment of animals, empathy and isolation, and at least one incident described in the book is based on real events (Agnes killing a nest of birds to prevent them from being tortured by the young boy of the family she is working for).  The Author Anne Brontë was born in 1820 and died in 1849. She was the youngest of the Brontë sisters and lived with her family most of her life. In her early 20s she worked as a governess, but after leaving that profession in 1845 she started writing. She wrote poems, which were published in a volume of poems written by her and her sisters, and she proceeded to write two novels, “Agnes Grey” and “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall” before she died. All of these were first published under a pseudonym; Acton Bell. Her sis...

Another installment in my "Reading the Classics" series. This time I tackle "Tess of the d'Ubervilles" by Thomas Hardy, and change my opinion (somewhat) from a previous read. The book The book, like many of its time, was first published in a serialized version. It was published as such in 1891 in the British illustrated newspaper “The Graphic” and as a book in 1892. It is considered one of the major novels of 19th century England, and some think it is Hardy’s masterpiece. When it first came out, it had mixed reviews, because it challenged the sexual morals of the time.  The author Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 and wrote about Victorian society at the end of the 19th century. He was influenced by Charles Dickens, but focused more on rural society, rather than Dickens’ cityscapes. He wrote a lot of poetry, but was mainly know for his novels during his lifetime. He was in school until the age of 16, when he was apprenticed to a local architect....

The book The book first appeared in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine in 1890, and the year after it was released as a book in a revised edition. As I am working on this post, I discover that the book is not necessarily considered a classic….great choice for the kick-off post for the series then! However, in my experience, it does usually appear on “classics” lists, so I am going to count it! At the time of the first publication in 1890 it was considered immoral, by a lot of people, but Wilde took offense to that and defended his story. When it was published in book form though, he had changed some things and added a preface, that stated that books cannot be moral or immoral, only well written or badly written.  The author Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was Wilde’s full name, but he later changed it to Oscar Wilde because, as he said, the name was too long for someone who was going to be famous. He was born on October 16th 1854 in Dublin, Ireland. He went to Trinity Co...

I have always felt a great urge to read the books defined as classics. I mean, they’re classics, so they must be good, right? And who doesn’t love a good book? This urge to read the classics has wavered over the years, because often I find myself not liking (and sometimes even detesting) these books. So is it me or is it them? I mean, it’s probably me, let’s be real, but often I wonder why a certain book is considered a classic.   So I have decided to start up with the classics again. I took to Goodreads and found several lists with “classic” books. It is hard to pick a conclusive list as the term “classic” is rather subjective and not all books on various lists are universally thought of as classics. I will use a variety of the available lists to guide me in my choice of books.  At first glance the lists almost all have a lot of well known books listed, and I have actually read quite a few of them. Most of the ones I read I have given 1-3 stars, but some of my absolu...

A teacher once told me that it doesn’t matter if you understand every single word in a text, what matters is that you get the essence of the text.  I think that is a really good thing to keep in mind when reading classics. There are a lot of small details, that I probably miss, but if I don’t feel like they’re essential for my understanding, I don’t stop to look up words or Google it. I just keep reading. Only if something comes back again and again and seems to play an integral part in the plot will I look it up. Mostly it isn’t necessary to look up stuff, so my reading flow is undisturbed.  If you still feel slightly daunted by the old-timey language and terms, there is usually a film or a series adaptation of the book that you can watch. You can watch it before you read the book, but the BBC/Andrew Davies series are usually so true to the text that you can watch it and follow along in the book. By watching the film or series, you will know the story line an...