Classics Considered

Poems in Two Volumes by William Wordsworth   Overall rating:   3.5 out of 5 stars Just what the title says: a (incomplete) collection of poems, by Wordsworth.  Some are narrative, some are world events-inspired, and many deal with nature (particularly flowers).  The Prelude was not included, but the book contained a decent selection, overall.   Sometimes I just find myself in the mood to read poetry.  If you have these moods, too, then this is a nice, relaxing read.  It's not nonstop epically wonderful, but there are some gems here and there.  Certainly gives you a good sample of Wordsworth's work.         Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (1889) by Jerome K. Jerome Overall rating :  4.5 out of 5 stars.  There is one use of a racist word.  I read a public domain and presumably unedited version, though, so this might be omitted in other editions. Victorian England.  Looking to get...

By Andreas Tille (Own work) [ GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons By Aaron Logan (http://www.aaronlogan.com/ and http://www.lightmatter.net/gallery/albums.php) [ CC-BY-1.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons By AngMoKio (selfmade photo) [ CC-BY-SA-2.5 ], via Wikimedia Commons Kleuske at nl.wikipedia [ GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0 ], from Wikimedia Commons I went to Rome this summer; Hawthorne was my tour guide.  I saw catacombs, cathedrals, gardens, tombs, fountains, picture galleries, countryside--he described it all, with great detail.  And we met some interesting people, too. There was Kenyon, the American sculptor, studying the statuary and working on a portrayal of Cleopatra.  He's a "well-informed" gentleman, with an unfortunate tendency to go off onto long, philosophical discourses whenever he has an opportunity to do so.  It is very like him not to choose a Roman legend as his subject...wherever he is, his truest thoughts seem elsewhere. They revert...

Under Western Eyes (1911 ) by Joseph Conrad Overall rating :  5 out of 5 stars By his comrades at the St. Petersburg University, Kirylo Sidorovitch Razumov, third year's student in philosophy, was looked upon as a strong nature—an altogether trustworthy man. This, in a country where an opinion may be a legal crime visited by death or sometimes by a fate worse than mere death, meant that he was worthy of being trusted with forbidden opinions. Forbidden opinions...those are precisely what Razumov wishes to avoid.  An illegitimate son of a Russian nobleman, Razumov lives alone and has no expectations in the world, nothing except what he can earn through persevering work.  Content with his life, he tries to ignore the revolutionists on campus and instead turns his energy towards earning "the silver medal", by which he can better his academic standing.  But one day, he comes home to find an assassin hiding in his rooms, expecting aid in escape.  Razumov...

Round the Red Lamp , Being Facts and Fancies of Medical Life by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle My overall rating:   5 out of 5 stars Round the Red Lamp is not a novel, but a collection of short stories.  Each is somehow connected with doctors and their work, of the late Victorian era; but beyond that, they hold few similarities.  Nostalgia, romance, horror, comedy, science-fiction, realism--the genres vary drastically from story to story, with plots ranging from the heartwarming to the nerve-wracking.  And oftentimes, the reader can only guess at what is Fact and what is Fancy. The subject of Victorian doctors may sound, at a glance, boring; but I found this book to be a real page-turner and excellent reading (with a couple of exceptions).  I especially loved the "day in the life" stories that seemed firmly based on reality (i.e. "His First Operation", "A Medical Document"), and the hilarious "A False Start", about a young doctor desperate fo...

  "  Noise, laughter, bowing, hurrying mixed, Gallop, mazurka, waltzing—see! A pillar by, two aunts betwixt, Tania, observed by nobody, Looks upon all with absent gaze And hates the world's discordant ways. 'Tis noisome to her there: in thought Again her rural life she sought, The hamlet, the poor villagers, The little solitary nook Where shining runs the tiny brook, Her garden, and those books of hers, And the lime alley's twilight dim Where the first time she met with him . " Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin Edition:  Oxford World's Classics, paperback My overall rating :  5 out of 5 stars.  Bored by the dissipation and drama of his youthful life, Eugene Onegin withdraws from society to his inherited estate in the Russian countryside.  His only friend is Vladimir Lensky, a young, romantic poet who is engaged to Olga Larin.  Her older sister, Tatyana, is a plain, quiet introvert.  She takes more interest in books and the countryside than anythi...

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne Edition:   Oxford World's Classics, paperback. My overall rating:  4.5 out of 5 stars 19th century New England.  A group of men and women set out to establish "Blithedale", a community of farmers whose aim is to set an example to the world of their peaceful, profitable, and simpler life.  Blithedale is led by three celebrities:  Miles Coverdale, a poet and the narrator; Hollingsworth, a philanthropist; and the elegant "Zenobia", an author and women's rights advocator.  They are also joined by a strange, timid girl, Priscilla, whose very existence and loving personality changes their lives--or rather, it helps bring to light the true characters of those around her. This book was not originally on my reading list; I chose it at random at the library, because I'd been wanting to read more Hawthorne and it looked very readable.  I really didn't know what to expect. As a work of American literature, I think Th...

The Shadow-Line , A Confession by Joseph Conrad Edition:  Oxford World's Classics, paperback My overall rating :  5 out of 5 stars.  Recommended. A young merchant officer finds his career taking an unforeseen turn, when he is suddenly promoted to becoming captain of his first ship.  What he doesn't know is that its last captain died a deranged man; and the ship's second-in-command, Mr Burns, is still haunted by the memory. And when the voyage starts to go very wrong, the new captain realises he must fight something different than physical hardships, if he is to lead the ship safely to port. This is the third story by Conrad I've read, and maybe even the best.  It is only about 130 pages long and very readable, but Conrad's signature style--full of eerie atmosphere, eccentric characters, and intense narration--was strong from start to finish.  At the same time, The Shadow-Line has a very youthful narrator with an entirely different "voice" than Marlowe (th...