Around the World in Eighty Days

Like many children growing up in 80s Britain, I was introduced to this book through an animated cartoon which had a jaunty theme tune that I now can't remember, but would recognise if I heard it again. I can't remember how old I was when I finally read the book, but once again it was a pleasureable experience. As most of my literary experiences have been, really.

Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There

Surprisingly, I only read this fairly recently. Full of familiar stories though ... can anyone believe five impossible things before breakfast?

The Moonstone

I understand that this was the first detective novel written ... or something similar. Anyway, I read it a few years after "The Woman in White", and enjoyed it almost as much. The main image in my mind it is of a walk along a cliff by a beach ...

God's Grandeur

God's Grandeur
By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

***
I just wanted to share one of my favourite poems ... and if it's here, I know I can find it easily!

Little Women

My namesake! I was obviously inspired by Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo's Boys, writing to Louisa in my diary and naming key characters in my tales after her. Favourite character? Had to be Jo, of course. Read Alcott before I discovered Austen and the Brontes ... must re-read, I think, since she may have been usurped in my later years!

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

I was quite into Jules Verne when I was in primaries six and seven. It was possibly an edited version that I read ... How exciting though, to journey to the centre of the earth! ... how hot!

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice, a little girl with long, yellow-blonde hair and a short blue pinafore dress, running after the White Rabbit ... I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date! ... sliding down a long rabbit hole ... Who am I? What did I eat for breakfast? ... eating and drinking unknown drinks and cakes ... Drink Me! Eat Me! ... smoking a hookah with a Caterpillar ... having tea with the Mad Hatter ... grinning with the Cheshire Cat ... trying to avoid being beheaded by the Queen of Hearts ... What an adventure!

The Woman in White

I loved this book! It was one of the books left in my Great Granny's old bookcase, an old, musty book, that looked interesting ... and when I read the dusty, browning pages, I was whisked away. Highly recommended!

A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ... I always thought that this would be long and hard, and how wrong I was! I loved reading this; well written and gripping. With a heartbreaking ending.

Moby Dick

An epic full of Biblical characters (such as the whale ...), Shakespearean tempests, tattooed sailors, wooden legs, revenge, Ahab, the Pequod ... Again, this was a university set text, but unusually, I think this was on the Theology and Imagination syllabus.

Wuthering Heights

I have very bizarre memories of Wuthering Heights ... I read the first half when I was younger, focusing on the older Catherine. In fact, I probably got up to around the point when she had her daughter and dies. Years later, at university, studying Gothic Novels, I decided to start at the point where I left off. So, in my mind I only had the younger Catherine! It led to a very strange way of looking at the novel. So eventually, I had to read the whole book from start to finish. I'm glad I did!

I went to the theatre with my Mum round about the time I began reading Wuthering Heights to watch a production of it. I can still picture the window, the tree, the ghostly figure ... it was very well done.

And I can't leave this post without mentioning the fact that "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush is presently at no 16 (out of about 2500) on my husband's "most played" list! (163 plays so far since he downloaded it ...)

Jane Eyre

Although the very recent BBC adaptation was good, the version I remember must have been in the early 80s ... a scene with a bakery, and a scene of a very scary mad woman ...

Eventually I read the book, and, romantic that I am, enjoyed it. The horrors of the red room, the woman in the attic, the threat of St John Rivers ... and the cry across the moors! Ah!

I also enjoyed studying it (yes, another Gothic Novel), and, while watching the BBC adaptation, considered again the theory that Jane, as a strong woman, could only be matched by a weakened man. I wonder if Charlotte Bronte really thought of it like that? Somehow I doubt it. But subconsciously?

The Pit and the Pendulum

This Poe story was also in that big, old book. I remember really loving Poe, being quite eager to curl up and be frightened by the mysteries within. I wonder if it helped that the book was old and musty?

A Christmas Carol

This is one of those stories that you hear about from the very earliest age. You see it in cartoons, you watch different film adaptations, you read early "how to read" books with brightly coloured pictures, you watch animated and animal versions. And yet, how often do you read the real thing? Well, I did, eventually, and it did not disappoint.

Another conscience pricker. How many chains do we add to our burden every day, how many ways can we cut off our chains in life?

The Fall of the House of Usher

I read this many, many years ago; it was contained in an old book that I found in the old bookcase of my old Great Grandmother. (Not that I would have called her old, you understand ... it just fitted the sentence ...). I will need to read this again, and I see it can be found here:

http://www.bartleby.com/195/10.html

The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner

I have to confess to really enjoying this book. The main character believes that he has been predestined by God to go to heaven ("those he chose, he also pre-ordained, those he pre-ordained, he also justified", or words to that effect ...), and therefore he believes that he can do anything at all now, here on earth. Including murder. And still get into heaven ...

If anything could be written against the belief in predestination, then this is surely it! I found this a challenging book at university, since I think/thought that I believed in predestination ... the theory that God knows all that will happen, but moreover has chosen his "chosen people". Now that I'm older, and have thought more about this issue (and, indeed, have recently been teaching about this doctrine and that of hard and soft determinism and libertarianism), I would say that my beliefs have changed somewhat, at least in how I express them (to myself, as well as others). I think I am probably a soft determinist; I do believe that God knows all that will ever happen, in the same way that any being outside time looking in at time would know what happens, but I also believe that we have free will and are morally responsible for the choices we make. I do believe that I will go to heaven, for a variety of reasons (none of which are that I think I'm "good" enough to go to heaven), but I don't believe that anyone can make that judgement on anyone else. Only God has that judgement to make - although I do believe that the criteria for entry are fairly clear. However, God is God and there are many situations which are unclear, so we should leave them to God to make.

Emmm ... I think that may sound very wishy-washy! Never mind. I suppose what I'm demonstrating is that this is an intellectually fulfilling book, which raises more issues than it answers. (What a cliche!) I'm recommending it to my Ethics students. I'm recommending it to you!

Frankenstein

Yet another Gothic Novel, although this time I would hope that I'd have read this anyway at some point. We watched bits of the video with Robert De Niro. The sections we saw were, in retrospect, truly moving. The story has got so much to teach us today, since there are so many occasions when we become frightened of what we don't understand. As an RE teacher, I really should use this book/film so much more often in my lessons ...

Northanger Abbey

Another novel on both my Gothic Novels set text list, and in my "Complete Works of Jane Austen" list. A large house, a brother and sister ...

Persuasion

Since I have read all of Jane Austen's novels, I know I have read this one. Images of Bath, of a harbour? Will revisit sometime.

Emma

The first Austen book that I read - on the set list for one of my many English modules. I loved it straightaway. The young woman who wants to try and set people up, the way she blunders in at the risk of spoiling her friend's future, the way she doesn't realise what is going on with other people even though she thinks she knows exactly what is going on ... and, of course, her relationship with Mr Knightley. Aaah, that scene with Mr Knightley at the end ... Must go and re-read that, as well ...

Mansfield Park

Another from the "Complete Works of Jane Austen" that I have read and enjoyed.

Pride and Prejudice

The piece de resistance of the list, in my opinion. It's a while since I last read P&P - I really ought to again. This is one of my favourite books of all time, with Emma very close on the list. Once again, though, I saw the BBC adaptation first, although this was around the time I was studying Emma for English. Mr Darcy! The book - and that particular adaptation - always brings back memories of university, sitting swooning over Mr Darcy with my flatmates in the living room. Actually, at the time I don't think I swooned that much over Mr D, but thought he was okay, and another of my flatmates was swooning instead over Kevin Bacon, much to the amusement of the rest of us, at that time!

Why is this book so good? What makes it so special? I will answer later in the comments, I think ... what are your views?

Sense and Sensibility

We come to the first of Jane Austen's many wonderful books that are on this list. I watched this first on the big screen, the adaptation with Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant. A great adaptation, and a great book. Should we be rational, or emotional? What should guide us? A completely romantic book. I remember being quite taken by Mr Willoughby onscreen ... I presume Emma Thompson was too!

The Monk

Monks, Nuns, temptation, succumbing to temptation, witchcraft, catacombs, necrophilia ...

Rebecca's Tale

I have just finished this sequel to Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" by Sally Beauman, which I took out the school library. It's quite a long book, hence I was quite late up this morning, since I wanted to finish it.

An enjoyable book, it did lose some of its power slightly when I read a bookclub review of it on the internet, and made discoveries about some of the characters sooner than I should have done! However, it was still an enjoyable read, which I was glad about - I read one of the sequels to Pride and Prejudice that was terrible, so I am glad that Rebecca hasn't been spoilt in that way. It's such a long time since I read Rebecca, and it was nice to be reminded of it.

One of the reviews (by Linda Grant of the Guardian) reads "while both du Maurier and Beauman are great storytellers, Beauman really is the better prose writer". Now, it is a while since I read Rebecca, like I said, but my gut instinct and memory would disagree. I should re-read the original, perhaps.

The Mysteries of Udolpho

Now I am getting onto books that I have really savoured and enjoyed. This is a *really* long book, with densely packed descriptions of forests, trees, monasteries, old buildings, countryside ... It took an age to read, again for my Gothic Novels course, but it was worth it. What was the mysterious horror that the heroine, Emily St Aubert, witnessed in the castle?

The Castle of Otranto

I read this early example of a Gothic novel (the first example, if memory serves me correctly) in my Gothic Novels class at university. I didn't realise at the time how useful that class would be in "upping" my tally of books in "1001 Books ..." that I have read! I associate skulls and feathers with this book (short story?).

A Modest Proposal

It was to be a long time before I read the other piece of Swift writing that is found in "1001 Books ...". I only read A Modest Proposal when covering an English lesson a couple of years ago. I picked up the text, and began reading about eating babies. Satire during my secondary education was limited to "Animal Farm".

Gulliver's Travels

I was either in the upper end of primary school or the lower end of secondary school when I read Gulliver's Travels. The image that stands out most clearly to me now is the argument between the two neighbouring countries about whether eggs should be stored pointed end up or flattened end up (although I don't think that's quite how it was put!) - what a silly reason to go to war with someone. And for what silly reasons we argue with each other today, I know realise ... So probably my first foray into satire.

Robinson Crusoe

My interest in this particular book stems from a childhood visit to Lower Largo, in Fife, where I was shown a statue of Alexander Selkirk, and was told that he was the real Robinson Crusoe. In my mind I can clearly see the photograph I took that day, many years ago. I was looking up at the statue, a tall bearded man in old fashioned, torn clothes.

Ovid's Metamorphoses

Let me make it clear, first of all, that I may not have finished this. And in my mind it is muddled up with another Greek text that I studied in secondary school, about kisses ... by Catalus? But I'm sure that at least parts of this text were used as set texts in my Higher Greek course, so I feel no guilt about including this on my "have read" list. Don't worry, the other books I will look at will have been read by me!

Aesop's Fables

According to "1001 Books to Read Before You Die", Aesop's Fables is one of the earliest books I have read. So I've decided to write an occasional series of short thoughts on the books in this list that I have read, starting with this one.

I should point out that the book I'm thinking of belonged to the Puffin Series (I think) of children's books ... a small "Easy to Read" hardback with short illustrated stories in simple, bold words. So I'm not sure if it counts! However ... some memories. The dog lying in the manger, refusing to let the cow eat the hay - "If I can't have it, no one can." Something about a fox and grapes ... and tall, thin bottles being drunk out of by birds with long, thin beaks ...

Jasper Fforde

I was given two books for my birthday: "The Eyre Affair" and "Lost in a Good Book". It was particularly interesting reading about a fictionalised Jane Eyre and Mr Rochester in between watching the penultimate and final episodes of the BBC'c latest dramatisation of Jane Eyre.

Hmmm. Having considered that last sentence, perhaps "a fictionalised Jane Eyre" isn't quite the correct definition! An even more fictionalised JE? An unfictionalised JE?

I enjoyed both these books - a nice, relaxing, happy way to spend some time, and they were both good enough to make me have a few late nights when I should have been sleeping. I would like to read the rest of the Thursday Next series, and I recommend Jasper Fforde's website. However, I haven't felt myself trying to persude my husband to read them, or had an urge to discuss them in great detail with them. Unlike Kazuo Ishiguro's books, for example.

The Point of this Blog ...

This is my "on the side" blog. I thought I could add bits about books to my main blog, but then I thought maybe I should have an "occasional" blog in which I can keep a diary about the books I read. So, now that I've introduced my new blog ...