Back to the Classics 2018 - Complete!

I did it! 

I read a book for all 12 categories (which gives me 3 entries for the drawing) in about 9.5 months! 

Boom.

Sometime last January I decided to look for a book club to join. I found only a few near me and those that I did find coincided with my work schedule. I then moved on to looking for an online book challenge and, after considering several different ones, I decided to try Back to the Classics 2018. 

The main rules are to read a different book (written 50 years ago or more) that fits within the 12 categories between 1/1/18-12/31/18. I added a few extra rules of my own: all books are by a different author; all books I haven't read before (except for the re-read category); and only 1 male author (all others will be female authors). Most of the books I chose have an overall genre/theme of science-fiction/fantasy, utopian/dystopian, and/or feminist. 

Here is my list:

FAVORITE BOOK I READ FOR THIS CHALLENGE:
1. A classic with a color in the title - The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge (p. 1946). 
"Sometimes a story that one hears starts off one doing things that one would not have had to do if one had not heard it."

This was such an adorable modern fairy tale! I enjoyed my way through the entire story! I think part of why I like this one so much is because it was one of the last books I read for the challenge (10th to be exact) and most of the previous books had been highly political and pretty heavy. It was a breath a breath of fresh air to read a light-hearted children's fantasy.

GOOD BOOKS:
2. A classic by an author that's new to you - Sultana's Dream and Selections from The Secluded Ones by Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (p. 1905; 1928).
"A lion is stronger than a man, but it does not enable him to dominate the human race. Women have neglected the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural rights by shutting your eyes to your own interests."

3. A 20th-century classic - Herland Trilogy by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (p. 1915). 
"Women 'woke up' to a realization of the fact that they were human. Before, they were only female beings; a little human, but mostly female. Now they are mostly human. It is a great change." -Moving the Mountain (book 1)

[Referrring to a society of all women, from the perspective of men] "Here you have human beings, unquestionably, but what we were slow in understanding was how these ultra-women, inheriting only from women, had eliminated not only certain masculine characteristics but so much of what we had always thought essentially feminine. This led me very promptly to the conviction that those 'feminine charms' we are so fond of are not feminine at all, but mere reflected masculinity-developed to please us and in no way essential to their fulfillment." -Herland (book 2)

"I noticed that Ellador and her sisters always said 'she' and 'her' as unconsciously as we say 'he' and 'his.' Their reason, of course, is that all the people are shes. Our reason is not so justifiable." -With her in Ourland (book 3)

4. A classic in translation - Beauty and the Beast by Madame de Villeneuve (French p. 1740) 
"How many girls are compelled to marry rich brutes, much more brutish than the Beast, who is only one in form, and not in his feelings or his actions?"

5. A classic by a female author - Votes for Women: A Play in 3 Acts by Elizabeth Robins (p. 1909). 
"Men say if we persist in competing with them for the bigger prizes, they're dreadfully afraid we'd lose their beautiful protecting chivalry. Well, the beautiful chivalry of the employers of women doesn't prevent them from paying tenpence a day for sorting coal and loading and unloading carts - doesn't prevent them from forcing women to earn bread in ways worse still. So we won't talk about chivalry. It's being over-sarcastic. We'll just let this poor ghost of chivalry go - in exchange for a little plain justice."

6. A 19th-century classic - The Mummy by Jane Loudon (p. 1827). 
"If you once allow innovation to be dangerous, you instantly put a stop to all improvement - you absolutely shut and bolt the doors against it. Oh! It is horrible that such a doctrine should be broached in a civilized country."

OK BOOKS:
7. A single-word titled classic - Kallocain by Karin Boye (Swedish, p. 1940).
"I have noticed that from certain persons there emanates such a strong radiation from their life philosophy that they are a threat even when they say nothing."

8. A classic crime story - The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (p. 1926). 
"The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to the seeker after it."

9. A children's classic - A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (p. 1905) 
"When people are insulting you, there is nothing so good for them as not to say a word - just to look at them and THINK. When you will not fly into a passion people know you are stronger than they are, because you are strong enough to hold in your rage, and they are not, and they say stupid things they wish they hadn't said afterward. There's nothing so strong as rage, except what makes you hold it in - that's stronger. It's a good thing not to answer your enemies. I scarcely ever do."

10. A classic travel or journey narrative - The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford (p. 1960). 
"Only one thing was clear and certain - that at all costs he was going home, home to his own beloved master. Home lay to the west, his instinct told him; but he could not leave the other two - so somehow he must take them with him, all the way."

11. Re-read a favorite classic - Animal Farm by George Orwell (p. 1945). 
"If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, all working according to his capacity, and the strong protecting the weak. Instead - she did not know why - they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind."

LEAST FAVORITE BOOK I READ FOR THE CHALLENGE (possibly ever):
12. A classic that scares you - Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (p. 1957). 
"Morality is: judgment to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, and integrity to stand by the good at any price."

You may have noticed that there are only 11 books in the picture above. That's because I got rid of Atlas Shrugged as soon as I finished it - horrible book. You can read my review to find out more - I'm not going to start a rant here.

I also wanted to read Last Man by Mary Shelley (best known for Frankenstein) and re-read 1984 by George Orwell. I'm going to save those for another time, though - even though I'm submitting this wrap-up about a month early. I'm reading 2 other books right now, including a manuscript draft of a book a friend wrote. (It's good to read modern books too!)

I'm excited to join the challenge again next year and can't wait for the new list of categories! I'm also starting to look into joining The Classics Club, where I would create my own list of 50+ classics to read in 5 years or less.

Happy Reading!

Sultana's Dream by Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

Title: Sultana's Dream and Selections from The Secluded Ones

Originally published: 1905 / 1929
Dates read: 11/11/18-11/16/18
Back to the Classics category: Classic by an Author New to You
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain was born in 1880 in a small village in northern present-day Bangladesh (a colonial British province at the time) and died in 1932. Little is known of her mom and she had 2 brothers and 2 sisters. Rokeya's father was an extravagant and extremely conservative large landholder - who spoke seven languages. Her 2 brothers went to good schools and learned both English and Bangla, but the 3 girls were not well educated. Her oldest brother secretly taught her English and Bangla. The same brother also arranged for her marry a widower in his late thirties. They were married in 1896 when Rokeya was only 16. Rokeya's husband was quite liberal and encouraged her to come out of purdah (though she always wore a burqa when appearing in public) and to write about her experiences.

Her husband died from diabetes in 1909 and left Rokeya, in addition to her legal share, a considerable portion of his savings to be spent on women's education. That same year, she established a girl's school in Bhagalpur. Male relatives were so outraged by her inheritance that she moved to Calcutta in 1910 and opened Sakhawat Memorial Girls' School in 1911. By 1930 the school had become a high school and the curriculum included physical education, handicrafts, sewing, cooking, nursing, home economics, and gardening, in addition to regular courses such as Bangla, English, Urdu, Persian, and Arabic. In 1916 she founded the Muslim Women Association, which directly supported disadvantaged poor women. They offered financial assistance to poor widows, rescued and sheltered battered wives, helped poor families marry their daughters, and helped poor women achieve literacy.

Rokeya's literary activities extended over 3 decades, from 1903 to 1932. Her works, especially her essays, were mainly on a few interrelated topics: 1) women's, especially Bengali Muslim Women's, situation; 2) Bengali Muslims and their problems;  and 3: Bengali society and its problems. Women were the focal point of Rokeys's thoughts: raising women's consciousness and ensuring women's' equal rights and status in society.

(Source: The book itself contains an extensive biography.)

Description on back of book:
"Sultana's Dream," first published in a Madras magazine in 1905 - a decade before Charlotte Perkins Gilman began to serialize "Herland" (my review) - is a skillfully drawn, witty, and very appealing tale of "reverse purdah." It posits a country, called Ladyland, in which women have taken over the public sphere and men are confined to the private, hidden world of seclusion. Moreover, women have rid Ladyland of war and turned science, including the invention of air travel and the use of solar power, to peaceful, productive ends. "Sultana's Dream" wittily exposes the injustices of purdah and imagines the possibilities of women power unleashed.

Publication of "The Secluded Ones" began in 1929 in the Monthly Mohammadi as a series of vignettes documenting women's experiences of purdah. Shocking both in 1929 and today, the stories illuminate the realities of life in purdah - sometimes painful, sometimes comic, sometimes cruel. Together with "Sultana's Dream" they offer a chronicle and an interpretation of purdah in South Asia in the early part of [last] century from the rarely recorded perspective of a Bengali woman who lived it herself.

Favorite quotes:
     "'Dear Sultana, how unfair it is to shut in the harmless women and let loose the men.'
     'Why? It is not safe for us [women] to come out of the zenana [Women's living quarters), as we are naturally weak.'
     'Yes, it is not safe so long as there are men about the streets, nor is it when a wild animal enters a marketplace.'" -Sultana's Dream

"Report Eight: Once, a house caught fire. The mistress of the house had the presence of mind to collect her jewelry in a handbag and hurry out of the bedroom. But at the door, she found the courtyard full of strangers fighting the fire. She could not come out in front of them. So she went back to her bedroom with the bag and hid under the bed. She burned to death but did not come out. Long live Purdah!" -The Secluded Ones

Review:
Wow, this was a great introduction into a culture and way of life that I knew next to nothing about! The book contains a great biography of the author as well as an Afterward that explains a bit more about purdah. When you Google "purdah," the definition that comes up is this: the practice among women in certain Muslim and Hindu societies of living in a separate room or behind a curtain, and/or of dressing in all-enveloping clothes (e.g. burqa), in order to stay out of sight of men or strangers. The definition and severity purdah changes depending on the time period, location, and religion of those practicing the custom - but, in general, purdah is the seclusion and segregation of women from men and (really) from society as a whole.

Sultana's Dream was quite funny and sarcastic to me - and I think that's the point. People reading this in her day would be appalled by a reverse purdah and call it ridiculous. That's exactly what she wanted to get across - that purdah is ridiculous and it doesn't make any sense to hide away half of the population. The one thing I had an issue with was that, in Ladyland, there is no police force because there are no crimes... because all women are perfectly innocent. My question is - did she really believe women to be above crime, or was she just reflecting the (ridiculous) "delicate and innocent" image that men held of women in that time period?

What's cool about the story (other than women's rights, obviously) is how futuristic it is. There are 3 main inventions that the book talks about. One is a large balloon with pipes attached - this floats above the clouds, collecting water from the atmosphere. This means that there are no storms ever and they can control how much to water their agriculture; It also provides an early form of indoor plumbing. Another invention is an instrument that collects heat from the sun - which is then used for cooking, heating homes, and even as a weapon against countries they're at war with. The third is an "air car" that runs on electricity and uses hydrogen to overcome the force of gravity. There are no deaths due to car or train wrecks, and, instead of having paved roads, everything is grown into beautiful gardens.

Sultana's Dream was the center point of the book for me, but the selections from The Secluded Ones were insightful too. These were reports of real-life experiences - not fiction. They were very shocking and horrifying to me - just go back to "Favorite quotes" above and read Report Eight for an example. I feel like I learned so much by reading Sultana's Dream and Selections from The Secluded Ones! I highly suggest this to anyone. It is a quick read and quite educational, especially for those who know little to nothing about purdah.

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain have the last words:

     "'Why do you [women] allow yourselves to be shut up?'
     'Because it cannot be helped as they [men] are stronger than women.'
     'A lion is stronger than a man, but it does not enable him to dominate the human race. You [women] have neglected the duty you owe to yourselves, and you have lost your natural rights by shutting your eyes to your own interests.'" -Sultana's Dream

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Title: Animal Farm

Originally published: 1945
Dates read: 10/22/18-10/26/18; 11/7/18-11/7/18
Back to the Classics category: Re-Read a Classic
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair was born on June 25, 1903, who later decided on George Orwell as his pen name, was the second child of British parents Richard Walmesly Blair and Ida Mabel Limonzin who then resided in Indian Bengal. Blair was an outstanding student and attended reputable educational institutions in England. He did not continue his studies at a university but joined the Indian Imperial Army in Burma. He resigned a few years later, in 1927, with immense hatred for imperialism.

During the 1930s, Orwell published several novels. In 1936, Orwell volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War for the Republicans where he was shot in the neck and had to flee for his life. During WWII until 1940, Orwell wrote book reviews in the New English Weekly for a living. He also worked for the BBC Eastern Service writing propaganda. Orwell married Eileen O’Shaughnessy around 1940 and adopted a son. When Eileen died in 1949, Orwell married Sonia Brownell. Orwell died of Tuberculosis at age 46 on January 21, 1950. (Source Source)

Description on back of book:
Animal Farm is a typical satirical and political novel from the ever known author; George Orwell. In this narration, readers go through a world of animals living with a different code of laws. Orwell says though Animal Farm was primarily a satire on the Russian Revolution it was intended to have a vast application. That kind of revolution, which he defines as 'Violent conspiratorial revolution led by unconscious power hungry people,' could only lead to a change of matters.

Favorite quote:
"It might be that their lives were hard and that not all of their hopes had been fulfilled, but they were conscious that they were not as other animals. If they went hungry, it was not from feeding tyrannical human beings; if they worked hard, at least they worked for themselves. No creature called any other creature 'Master'. All animals were equal."

Review:
I read this about 10 years ago while I was high school and decided I wanted to give it a re-read. The book was rather simple and predictable (maybe because I read it before), and overall I was underwhelmed. Nonetheless, I definitely think it's a book everyone should read at least once (it's less than 100 pages long). If you haven't read Animal Farm yet - then forget about this review and go read it!

Below contains spoilers.

Despite being underwhelmed, the book made me feel strongly by the end: I hated the manipulation, mistreatment, and two-facedness of the pigs (leaders of Animal Farm) to the other animals; and it broke my heart to see the potential rise and (inevitable?) regression of Manor Farm into Animal Farm and back to into Manor Farm.

Animal Farm starts off with 7 simple commandments which are summed up in "Four legs good, Two legs bad." The idea is that all animals are equal and work together against the humans. This has a botchy start since the pigs set themselves as leaders above the other animals right away and teach themselves to read and write (which is very human-like). Slowly, more and more human tendencies are accepted by the pigs and the commandments are altered. These changes can easily be made because the other animals can't read well, so they just believe whatever the persuasive pigs tell them. Eventually, in the very end, the pigs walk on two feet, become allies with humans, and change the mantra to "Four legs good, Two legs better." The Favorite quote listed above is inspirational until you understand the background of it - then it becomes tragic:

"It might be that their lives were hard and that not all of their hopes had been fulfilled, but they were conscious that they were not as other animals (not controlled by humans). If they went hungry, it was not from feeding tyrannical human beings (but from feeding the pigs); if they worked hard, at least they worked for themselves (they worked for the pigs and had no say in anything). No creature called any other creature 'Master' (though Napolean was never called Master, he was very much a dictator). All animals were equal."

All the parts in parentheses I added. And that last sentence of the quote? Well, in the end, the 7 commandments are painted over and replaced with "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others." (Gut. Wrenching.) In the very last sentence of the book, the animals could not tell the difference between the humans and the pigs - they became the very thing they rebelled against in the beginning.

My biggest wish would be to have Snowball (another pig leader) overthrow Napolean rather than the other way around. Napolean was clearly a tyrannical communist, but Snowball seemed to be a lot more of a (non-communist) socialist. I would have liked to see Animal Farm played out under his leadership. (Follow the link the very end of this review if you'd like to understand better the difference between communism and socialism.)

Now I'm off to read another book... but since a review should be more about the author of the book than about the writer of the blog, I will let George Orwell have the last words:

"As Clover looked down the hillside her eyes filled with tears. If she could have spoken her thoughts, it would have been to say that this was not what they had aimed at when they had set themselves years ago to work for the overthrow of the human race. These scenes of terror and slaughter were not what they had looked forward to on that night when old Major first stirred them to rebellion. If she herself had had any picture of the future, it had been of a society of animals set free from hunger and the whip, all equal, all working according to his capacity, and the strong protecting the weak. Instead - she did not know why - they had come to a time when no one dared speak his mind, when fierce, growling dogs roamed everywhere, and when you had to watch your comrades torn to pieces after confessing shocking crimes. There was no thought of rebellion or disobedience in her mind. She knew that even as things were they were far better off than they had been in the day of Jones and that before all else it was needful to prevent the return of the human beings. Whatever happened she would remain faithful, work hard, carry out the orders that were given to her, and accept the leadership of Napolean. But still, it was not for this that she and all the other animals had hoped and toiled. It was not for this that they had built the windmill and faced the pellets of Jones' gun. Such were her thoughts, though she lacked the words to express them."

Hey! Glad you're still here! Congrats and reading the review all the way through! Many of the books I've read this year have been highly political and I've been a little confused about different political ideologies. The Difference Between Socialism, Communism, and Marxism is just one of the YouTube videos I've watched trying to educate myself. I highly suggest it if you're interested. It's 11:25 minutes long  - if that's too long for you, skip to 5:18 and watch from there. Or you can just watch the recap, which starts at 9:45.