Tag: Classics

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – June 2013 Meme

Geoff W

Classics ClubFor June the hosts of The Classics Club have another member submitted question asking “What is your favourite opening sentence from a classic novel (and why)?”

For once, I don’t have any real issues with this question; the only problem though is how do I narrow down the great opening lines? I am going to add a self-imposed limit as I have done in the past to keep the focus on The Classics Club and only choose from the 24 books I’ve read so far for the group. This allowed me to revisit my posts and relive some great novels, plus it kept me from choosing some obvious fun and more contemporary classics like The Hobbit or Harry Potter or pretty much anything by Margaret Atwood. The quote I chose I don’t know if it’s my favorite, but it has by far had the most impact on my reading over the past few years:

“You better not tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.”

If you didn’t recognize it, it is from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. And the first time I read that line I got chills. Even now I get an eerie feeling because I know what’s happening and what happens next, but even without knowing you know it’s not something good.

2013 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 203: The Canterbury Tales – Geoffrey Chaucer

Geoff W

I’m not sure about the rest of you, but in High School, one of my AP literature courses required that we learn a portion of the prologue in Middle English. Now rather than delight you all with a ridiculous video of me reciting it (I can still do the first 10-15 lines or so from memory), you’ll just have to use your imagination.

I’m glad I revisited this as part of my Back to the Classics, Classics Club and Mount TBR challenges. The only part I actually recall reading in class was the prologue. I remember discussing a few of the tales, but we never actually had to read them which I think is strange. Before I start to sound too impressive I did read a translated version (with the Middle English on the facing page – see photo below) and this was not the complete collection. This version of the book only contained eight of the 24 completed tales in addition to the general prologue. Just from a brief glance at a Fordham University free version, they appear to be the longer/most completed of the Tales. If Chaucer completed the collection it would contain 120 tales two for each person, one to Canterbury and one on the return so I only really read a third of the completed tales and 20% of what would have been the complete collection. Click here to continue reading.

Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – May 2013 Meme

Geoff W

For May the hosts of The Classics Club have asked members to “Tell us about the classic book(s) you’re reading this month. You can post about what you’re looking forward to reading in May, or post thoughts-in-progress on your current read(s).”

And as usual I have to pick a point of contention, mostly just because I’m a pain in the ass, but think about the wording of the question. It really only works if you answer the meme early in the month or if you predominately read classics. By time this posts I will have finished, and hopefully posted about one classic +and have finished reading two (Truman Capote’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Gertrude Stein’s The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, which isn’t even part of my Classics Club list) and will hopefully be part of the way through a third, The Canterbury Tales among other books I’ve read this month.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – April 2013 Meme

Geoff W

For April the hosts of The Classics Club have asked “Who is hands-down the best literary hero, in your opinion? Likewise, who is the best heroine?” And although I have major issues with the separation of hero and heroine, there is no need to separate the two into gender based categories or if you’re going to separate them make a point and call it a ‘shero’, my answer is below.

I really wanted to write about Bone Cartwright from Bastard Out of Carolina, and I guess I could write about her, but I tend to restrict the monthly memes to this specific reading list. If not there’s no telling who I’d write about, so I’ll go for another character with a story similar to Bone’s. Although hero isn’t the first word to come to mind she is one. Wikipedia has a great line which sums up her existence:

In modern movies, the hero is often simply an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who, despite the odds being stacked against him or her, typically prevails in the end.

I’m choosing to equate the word hero/heroine with the word survivor. From the moment of Celie’s introduction in Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple, as she is being viciously raped, the reader is aware her story and her life will be a struggle for survival and existence.

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2013 Challenges, Books, The Classics Club

Book 192: Middlemarch – George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)

Geoff W

So I finally finished it. It took almost an entire month, but I did it. It actually wasn’t a bad read, but it was such a long read that it was painful at times. Thankfully it counts for my 2013 Tea and Books and Mount TBR Challenges and for The Classics Club.

Looking back, I’ve realized that this novel is sort of like a proto-‘Love Actually’ – in that it is a network of love stories with interconnecting people who are only revealed slowly throughout the book. I felt the author did a great job at this even if it did cause me no end of frustration for the first couple hundred pages. I kept asking myself where this book was going and why the sisters from the beginning of the novel just disappeared, but they eventually reappeared and tied the story together.

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