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| These are the novels on TWEM list that I kept; the rest I donated. |
Morrison: Song of Solomon (1977) [DNF - read one chapter]
From the first chapter, I was not impressed with the language or concept. I was relieved to trash it. That's all I'm going to say.
ONE STAR
Conrad: Heart of Darkness (1902) ⭐
I absolutely hated this one, but it would be interesting to see what I think about it if I did give it a second chance. Many readers love this one. I just could not comprehend it.
TWO STARS
Cavino: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler (1972) ⭐⭐
James: The Portrait of a Lady (1881) ⭐⭐
To be fair, I was very angry with James at the time for writing this story. However, I plan to reread it, and I will make a fair attempt to better understand it. I have since forgiven James.
THREE STARS
Bellow: Seize the Day (1956) ⭐⭐⭐
Camus: The Stranger (1942) ⭐⭐⭐
Oh, I was really disgusted with Camus regarding this one. And it has drawn the most hostile readers who disagreed with me. Some people are really protective of Camus' philosophy of Absurdism. Yuck!
Woolf: Mrs. Dalloway (1925) ⭐⭐⭐
This was a really difficult one to get through. I am surprised I gave it three stars.
Byatt: Possession (1990) ⭐⭐⭐
This was a really interesting concept, but I was a little bored by it, too.
Kafka: The Trial (1925) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Ellison: Invisible Man (1952) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Dickens: Oliver Twist (1838) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
I think I liked the happy ending most of all because I am not a big fan of Dickens.
Hardy: The Return of the Native (1878) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
This was my first Hardy, and I struggled in the first chapter. However, I wonder if it will get even more stars once I reread it? I have since fallen in love with Hardy.
FIVE STARS
Wright: Native Son (1940) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was gripped by Native Son; however, I'm a little apprehensive to go through it again because it was a haunting.
Melville: Moby-Dick (1851) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
An impressive work, but it takes commitment to stick with it.
Marquez: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
I disliked OHYOS the first time, but the reread opened my eyes to its magic. I love it!
Crane: The Red Badge of Courage (1895) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
I struggled to place this one ahead of OHYOS because this is a serious work, but tedious, too. Not as interesting as mystical realism. So...
Wharton: The House of Mirth (1905) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bunyan: The Pilgrim's Progress in Modern English (1679) re-read review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Cervantes: Don Quixote (1605) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (partial re-read)
Some people dislike DQ. How cruel he is! But I find Cervantes hysterical. I can't help it.
Twain: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
I love Twain's dig at civilization and slavery.
Brontë: Jane Eyre (1847) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
I mean, this is epic writing. So, it counts for something even if the story is odd and Mr. What's-his-face is a weirdo.
Flaubert: Madame Bovary (1857) re-read ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I just finished re-reading this, and it was really eye-opening!
Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter (1850) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
The first couple of times I read this, I disliked Hawthorne's attack on the Puritans. Everyone likes to dump on the Puritans. Well, this third read I really dug deeper and came to actually appreciate this work.
Dostoyevsky: Crime and Punishment (1866) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
The Russian authors are impressive. What can I say?
Austen: Pride and Prejudice (1815) re-read review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is one of the cleverest of stories around the classic world. You go, Jane!
Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (1877) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (rereading now)
Another major impressive work and story, full of noble ideas.
Orwell: 1984 (1949) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read multiple times)
Only radicals read this and hold fast to its truths.
Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby (1925) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read)
One of the most eccentric, memorable, and quintessential American works. Like a speeding car struck you down in the middle of the night...and kept going. (I don't know why it makes me feel like that.)
ALL-TIME FAVORITE
Stowe: Uncle Tom's Cabin: Or, Life Among the Lowly (1851) ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (re-read multiple times)
UTC is not a popular book, it seems. Possibly no one is interested in another book about American slavery as it was. But this is a good place to start if you do want to know something. Stowe's writing style is superb, her words are commanding and compassionate. Many characters are beautiful and good. It is a hopeful story at a time when a nation was at a crossroads.
What impresses me most is Stowe's courage to write such a book at that time. Today she would have been censored by the powers that control the narrative. She took on an entire nation - yes, both North and South, pro-slavery and anti-slavery, including the Christian Church - with her pen.
Reading this inspires me and makes this book my most favorite novel from The Well-educated Mind.
* * *
Do you have any favorites from this list? Which ones and why?
I love seeing them all ranked by you this way! That was really fun to read :-)
ReplyDeleteJane Eyre is my favorite novel, so I was happy to see it got 5 stars from you. And I agree, what IS the appeal of Heart of Darkness? The only thing I liked about it was discovering where the line "Mistuh Kurtz, he dead" from T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" comes from.
The crazy thing about Heart of Darkness, was that there was a movie version - Apocalypse Now, which was also very appealing to a lot of people. It had an amazing cast, but, my goodness! It was like, "What the heck did I just watch?" It was really violent -- well, too violent for my taste.
DeleteYeah, I've seen Apocalypse Now too, and was equally underwhelmed by it. Just not my thing, I guess.
DeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteThis is Silvia. Congratulations. What an impressive feat. I have read many of the books in the list. Something worth noting it’s that, like you, books we have read more than once tend to grow on us, as it’s the case with your rereads. Like you, I have Madam Bovary, Moby Dick, Quixote, Gatsby, Ana Karenina, Dostovyesky, Jane Austen, OHYOS, etc in my most loved books. For the ones you scored lower that I too have read, White Noise I agree completely with your review and believe that modernism or wherever the book falls under, it’s the moment where the characters have all lost faith in the afterlife, even the religious. All behave within the same mindset. The same with The Stranger. I like it as I like Gatsby, not because I share beliefs with the philosophies held but because I believe they represent them in a literary form, with quality and wit, and with honesty. Include Heart of Darkness and Calvino’s If on a winter… I find them great representations of the system of thought and beliefs that they are. Even Don Quixote is that way. I don’t find it cruel either but hysterical. It’s not literal, Cervantes society was cruel if we remember that it is hyperbolic, not so different to the more obvious magical realism, or the tenderness to White Noise characters.
ReplyDeleteHi, Silvia!! Yes, very true about reading a book multiple times, especially during specific times in one's life, it could also have a memorable effect. It's been a long time since I read White Noise, and I found it very entertaining; I said I would reread it, but then changed my mind. I'm just curious how I would understand the message today if I did reread it now. But that's a good point about a book's literary representation of the time's thought and beliefs. And YES, Cervantes' time and society were very cruel. Great reminder! Explains a lot about Don Quixote's character. LOL!! It's good to know these things, too, when we read a book.
DeleteI can see from this post that we do have a similar taste in classics literature. Your one, two, three stars, are mostly mine too. I DNF-ed Possession, and didn't understand what If on a winter's night... is about! I've also struggled with Song of Solomon and Mrs. Dalloway. But I did like Portrait of a Lady, maybe because I could well relate with the protagonist.
ReplyDeleteA lot of your five stars are my favorites: House of Mirth, Great Gatsby, Moby Dick, Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom's Cabin, but not Don Quixote and One Hundred Years of Solitude :))
I didn't like House of Darkness too when I read it (can't grasp its point), but few years later I found an article - I forgot where - about it, and I had a little hint on why there're people who like it. I think I owe Joseph Conrad a second chance, maybe some day...
For some of your 1,2,3 stars which I haven't read, now I can happily scrap it from my list (goodbye The Stranger & White Noise!). And for Anna Karenina, Native Son, Pride and prejudice, they are all in my list, just need to wait for the perfect time (and mood) to read them.
Fanda, I remember you loved Portrait of a Lady! I am going to reread it this year -- I plan to -- and have different eyes this time. I'm over being mad at James. Also, I think you will really like Anna Karenina. And Pride and Prejudice.
DeleteFrom this list, Jane Eyre is my favorite story -- but 1984 has more immediate and lasting resonance, especially as postmodernity sinks into more and more of some technodystopia ruled by monsters maserquerading as human beings.
ReplyDeleteTell me about it. I plan to reread 1984 this year, which will be interesting to check off some of today's similarities. And our own government -- the culprit! So sad.
Delete