Classics Considered

“But oh, Sylvie, what makes the sky such a darling blue?” Last night I finished Sylvie and Bruno 's sequel, which I had long been meaning to read (since two years ago!).  The two parts together make a truly lovely book, one I can easily call a favorite. While the Alice books feel more linear in plot, as well as claustrophobic (and thereby cosy), Sylvie and Bruno Concluded (1893) continues the story's broad setting - a combination of the real world and the two mythical siblings' world.  It is both fun and surprising the way the plot jumps back and forth, and sometimes combines, the characters in the real world and those in Sylvie and Bruno's world.  On the one hand, you have young Dr. Forester, whose broken heart regains hope when he learns his relationship with Lady Muriel is not altogether over.  At the same time, there are Sylvie and Bruno who must hold onto the love, symbolized by a locket, their father entrusted to them, and do what they can to help the people ...

For a limited time, you can listen online to Benedict Cumberbatch's recording of The Metamorphosis .  This (only slightly abridged) version is divided into four half-hour segments.  There are commercials before each part, so you will have to skip ahead a few minutes on each track.  I just finished the whole thing, and it's super good! 

Previously there occurred to me an idea for a post (since scrapped), called something like "H.G. Wells, Master of Humor and Pathos."  The gist of it, which I saw again in The First Men in the Moon *, is his unique knack for combining both emotions to pull you into the scientific-adventure plots.  Though having enjoyed his other best-known novels, I had middling hopes for this one (perhaps guided by the bias that it was not included in my hardback anthology, but never mind that ).  Turned out to be every bit as good. If Cavor is the model mad scientist, then Bedford is the archetypical starving writer, whose moment of inspiration is abruptly disturbed by Cavor's customary stroll by his house.  An unexpected collaboration on creating the scientist's Cavorite (a sort of anti-gravity substance) sends them literally to the moon.  The moon, contrary to Cavor's expectations, is not uninhabited.  This sets the two inventors at odds with each other, since Cavor is q...

The Master of the World Jules Verne 4 out of 5 stars A sequel to Robur the Conqueror , this 1904 Verne novel is centered on one of his classic themes: a vulnerable public terrorized by unknown and indisputably more powerful technology.  Here, U.S. lawman John Strock is sent to investigate "the Great Eyrie," in what becomes a sort of Americanized version of 20,000 Leagues .  Though it is hardly one of Verne's best, The Master of the World takes you into Verne's world with very little cumbersome prose, and I found it to be a rather fun read (and the Niagara Falls scene was truly exciting!). The Stark Munro Letters Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 4 out of 5 stars This interesting, often humorous series of letters can be best read as a fictional Doyle memoir, based on some real events in his early medical career.  For the medical side, read Round the Red Lamp - for the personal side, read this book.  Doyle fans will like it, as will anybody researching late Victorian life....

✓ The Master of the World (Verne) - On Basilisk Station (Honor Harrington #1, Weber) ✓ The First Men in the Moon (Wells) - The Sea Wolf (London) - Frankenstein (Shelley) - Dracula's Guest (Stoker) - The Jewel of Seven Stars (Stoker) - The Night Land (Hodgson) - The Purple Cloud (M. P. Shiel) - Arthur Mervyn (Ch. Brockden Brown) - The Doings of Raffles Haw (Doyle) ✓ The Stark Munro Letters (Doyle) - The Maracot Deep (Doyle) - The Tragedy of the Korosko (Doyle) - The Man Who Was Thursday (Chesterton, re-read)

In the past, I have written these in groups of four, but today I only have two books to review.  They each get 4 out of 5 stars , so perhaps there is still uniformity to this, after all?  To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee It would seem I should have more to say about this book, but what can I say?  You probably know the entire synopsis with or without having read it before.  I enjoyed it, more than I expected.  The writing was more vivid than the plot, painting a complex examination of prejudice and tension that even the (excellent) movie could not evoke.  Atticus and Scout were deep characters.  The ending felt somehow disappointing after the intricate buildup, hence four stars.  But the journey, rather than the end, certainly makes it a worthy classic, so if you have procrastinated as I did, procrastinate no longer. Notes on Life and Letters Joseph Conrad I was reading this book for the longest time, I don't remember when I started it...

Wilhelm deserves the reader's pity.  Not only is his name easily confused with the village of Wahlheim - a central location in Werther's tale - but his sole role is to play the long-suffering audience to Werther's letters of ecstasies, angst, and other sorrows.  Wilhelm listens attentively, offers his best advice to his friend, and ends his part in the story with a sense of utter helplessness and futility.  At least the audience is not alone. Perhaps I was biased by having already known the plot of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's most famous novella, The Sorrows of Young Werther .  Even its German Romanticism, however, cannot save this book from 1 out of 5 stars .  The story centers around the title character, Werther, who is a head-in-the-clouds, rather obstinately unemployed young man, with the added misfortune of having fallen in love with a woman already engaged.  This would be Charlotte, whose fiance Albert even Werther cannot dislike, but simply envy....