Back to the Classics 2019

NOTE: This is my initial post for the beginning of 2019. For a more updated list, take a look at my 2019 Reading Challenge Wrap-Up!

I am excited to participate in the Back to the Classics Challenge again this year! I had a fun time getting into reading again, so I want to keep it up.

In the Challenge, there are 12 categories (which are meant to be filled with 12 different books). In order to qualify as a classic, the book has to have been published (or written) 50+ years ago, so 1969 or older. There are several other minor rules (like having to read all the books in 2019), which you can read at the link above. If you are interested in joining the challenge, the last day to sign up is March 1, 2019.

Last year, I added an extra ‘challenge’ to the challenge by reading all books (except for 1) by female authors. This year, I’ve taken a slightly different approach. Instead of 1 book per category, I’ve chosen 2 books. Out of the 24 books listed below, half of them are female authors and the other half are male. Now, there may be 24 ‘bound books’ listed below, but there are actually 41 novels/novellas/plays (e.g. My copy of The Space Trilogy by CS Lewis is a single physical book, but actually includes - you guessed it - 3 books).

I kind of doubt I’m actually going to read all of the books I’ve listed - but what’s the point of a challenge if you aren’t going to set the bar high? My goal is to read at least 1 book in each category and see how many extras I can read on top of that!

NOTE: As I read the books, I will link my reviews on the titles listed below. I will also check off the boxes next to the books I've completed.

1. 19th Century Classic. 
✅-Agnes Grey (1847)
          -Author: Anne Bronte (English, 1820-1849)
☐-The Last Man (1826)
          -Author: Mary Shelley (English, 1797-1851)

2. 20th Century Classic.
✅✅✅-Worlds of Exile and Illusion (First 3 books in Hainish Cycle) (1966-1967)
          -Author: Ursula K. Le Guin (American, 1929-2018)
✅✅✅-The Space Trilogy (1938-1945)
          -Author: CS Lewis (British, 1898-1963)

3. Classic by a Female Author.
✅-Jane Eyre (1847)
          -Author: Charlotte Bronte (English, 1816-1855)
✅-Lud-in-the-Mist (1926)
          -Author: Hope Mirrlees (British, 1887-1978)

4. Classic in Translation.
☐-Heidi (1880) - written in German
          -Author: Johanna Spyri (Swiss, 1827-1901)
✅-We (1921) - written in Russian
          -Author: Yevgeny Zamyatin (Russian, 1884-1937)

5. Classic Comedy.
✅-The Autobiography of Methuselah (1909)
          -Author: John Kendrick Bangs (American, 1862-1922)
❌-Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) (1889)
          -Author: Jerome K. Jerome (English, 1859-1927)

6. Classic Tragedy. 
✅-Wuthering Heights (1847)
           -Author: Emily Bronte (English, 1818-1848)
☐-1984 (1949)
          -Author: George Orwell (English, 1903-1950)

7. Very Long Classic. 500+ pages
☐-Middlemarch (1871) - page count: ~650
          -Author: Mary Anne Evans (Pen Name: George Eliot) (English, 1819-1880)
✅-Don Quixote (1615) - page count: ~790, written in Early Modern Spanish
          -Author: Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish, 1547-1616)

8. Classic Novella. under 250 pages
✅✅✅-The Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1945-1948) - trilogy, 3 novellas; written in Swedish
          -Author: Astrid Lindgren (Swedish, 1907-2002)
          -Page count: ~ 160 / 145 / 130
✅✅✅✅✅✅-Dickens at Christmas (1843-1848) - 5 novellas, including A Christmas Carol and a collection of Christmas short stories
          -Author: Charles Dickens (English, 1812-1870)
          -Page count: ~ 105 / 120 / 110 / 120 / 110

9. Classic From the Americas or Caribbean. Classic set there, or author from there.
☐-Christy (1967) - set in Tennessee and North Carolina
          -Author: Catherine Marshall (American, 1914-1983)
✅✅-The Diaries of Adam and Eve (1906)
          -Author: Mark Twain (American, 1835-1910)

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, Oceania, or Australia. Classic set there, or author from there.
☐-Death on the Nile (1937) - set in Egypt
          -Author: Agatha Christie (English, 1890-1976)
✅-The Plague (1947) - set in Oran, Algeria, written in French
          -Author: Albert Camus (French-Algerian, 1913-1960)

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived. Read locally! Any classic set in a city, county, state,
     or country in which you've lived, or by a local author. (I live in MA, USA.)
☐-Work: A Story of Experience (1873) - set in the United States (possibly Boston, MA)
          -Author: Louisa May Alcott (American, 1832-1888)
          -Author from: Boston and Concord, MA
✅-The Bostonians (1886) - set in Boston, MA (mostly)
          -Author: Henry James (American-British, 1843-1916)
          -Author from: He lived several years in Boston/Cambridge, MA (he traveled around a lot)

12. Classic Play.
✅✅✅✅-Four Comedies: 
     Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night
          -(~1590-1601) - written in Early Modern English
          -Playwright: William Shakespeare (English, 1564-1616)
✅✅✅✅-Everyman and Other Miracle and Morality Plays (~1350s-1510s) - written in Middle English
          -Playwrights: Unknown

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.

The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge

Title: The Little White Horse

Originally published: 1946
Dates read: 9/17/18-9/21/18; 10/1/18-10/10/18
Back to the Classics category: Classic with a Color in the Title
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Elizabeth Goudge
In April 1900, Elizabeth Goudge was born in a small town in England and died in 1984. Goudge was an only child and not well educated. When she was 11, her family moved. She was sent to Boarding School in Hampshire, which coincided with the outbreak of the First World War.  She then went to art school to be a teacher. In 1923, her family moved again and her mother had a nervous breakdown. It was at this time, she wrote three plays, but a publisher told her to go away and write a novel. She continued to write and as her hard work began to pay off, she could afford to travel around Europe. She then had her first nervous breakdown and fought with mental illness for the rest of her life. In 1939, her father suffered a bad fall and died suddenly. The second World War broke out and Elizabeth took care of her mother until she passed in 1951.

Goudge was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1945. By 1959, Goudge had produced 25 titles and sold nearly ten million copies. She is perhaps best known for her novel The Little White Horse (1946), which won the Carnegie Medal. Elizabeth’s arthritis limited her mobility and she became reclusive. She developed high blood pressure, hardening arteries, and lowered concentration - which increased her depression. In 1978, she had a bad fall, a pin was inserted in her shattered leg, and had several unsuccessful operations. By 1984, she fell twice more, discovered her backbone was disintegrating, and developed cataracts making her work virtually impossible. She died at home peacefully a few weeks before her 84th birthday. (Source, Source)

Description on back of book:
When orphaned young Maria Merryweather arrives at Moonacre Manor, she feels as if she's entered Paradise. Her new guardian, her uncle Sir Benjamin, is kind and funny; the Manor itself feels like home right away; and every person and animal she meets is like an old friend. But there is something incredibly sad beneath all of this beauty and comfort - a tragedy that happened years ago, shadowing Moonacre Manor and the town around it - and Maria is determined to learn about it, change it, and give her own life story a happy ending. But what can one solitary girl do?

Favorite quotes:
"I have never taken weather into consideration in my training. In my opinion, to much attention to weather makes for instability of character."

"Old Parson does not mind animals inside the church. He says that dogs and cats and horses are much the best-behaved of God's children, much better behaved, as a general rule, than men and women, and he can never see why they should be kept out of God's house."

"There's nothing like protecting someone more frightened than one is oneself to make one feel as brave as a lion."

"I supposed we couldn't expect to succeed at the first try. But there has to be a first try, and now we've had it, and it's behind us."

Review:
This was such a wonderful book - I wish I had read it as a child! I loved the incredible descriptions and quickly got lost in the story. It was magical - and yet the animals didn't speak, which I appreciate. It really was a modern fairy tale. The characters were all a lot of fun and the mystery slowly unfolded itself. There is love, adventure, sadness, anger, reconciliation, and humor.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was the positive view of the church and Old Parson. Many books these days are skeptical about church/religion, especially Christianity. It was a breath of fresh air to read a description of a church service that I couldn't help but think, "that's how churches are supposed to be!" There are so many wonderful and/or humorous scenes about the church and Old Parson (like the one under Favorite quotes),  but here's one snippet:

"Maria had never heard anyone pray like this Old Parson, and the way that he did it made her tremble all over with awe and joy. For he talked to God as if he were not only up in heaven, but standing beside him in the pulpit. And not only standing beside him but beside every man, woman, and child in the church - God came alive for Maria as he prayed, and she was so excited and so happy that she could hardly draw her breath."

I really enjoyed the people, animals, and mystery in this story.  Since this is a children's book, some things were predictable and the dangerous scenes were easily overcome without much effort. If anything, I wish the book was a bit more complicated and had more intense dangerous/suspenseful scenes. Overall, though, this truly is a wonderful magical fairy tale.

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 Elizabeth Goudge have the last words:

"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."

Kallocain by Karin Boye

     

Title: Kallocain (Originally written in Swedish)

Originally published: 1940
Dates read: 9/1/18-9/14/18
Back to the Classics category: Single Word Titled Classic
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Karin Boye
Karin Maria Boye was born in Sweden in 1900 and was a poet, novelist, and short-story writer who is considered to be one of the leading poets of Swedish modernism. At the age of 9, she was awarded the first prize in a magazine competition for a children's picture story. She took piano lessons and wrote poems at the early age of l0.

She studied at the universities of Uppsala (studied Greek and Scandinavian languages and literary history) and Stockholm (studied history) - she graduated with a BA from both. Boye became a leading figure in the Clarté Socialist movement and propagated psychoanalytical theory and modernistic literary views. At 29, she taught at a secondary school and married Leif Björk - four years later they got divorced. From 1932-1933, Boye went through psychoanalysis in Berlin and then moved back to Sweden. During World War II, in 1941,  Karin Boye committed suicide. (source; source)

Description on back of book:
This is a novel of the future, profoundly sinister in its vision of a drab terror. Ironic and detached, the author shows us the totalitarian Worldstate through the eyes of a product of that state, scientist Leo Kall. Kall has invented a drug, Kallocain, which denies privacy of thought and is the final step towards the transmutation of the individual human being into a "happy, healthy cell in the state organism." For, says Leo, "from thoughts and feelings, words and actions are born. How then could these thoughts and feelings belong to the individual? Doesn't the whole fellow-soldier belong to the state?"

Favorite quotes:
"The accusations have increased steadily for the last twenty years. But that need not mean that crime has increased. It means that fear has increased. We have developed towards ever stricter supervision, and it has not made us more secure, as we had hoped, but rather more insecure. With our fear grows also our impulse to strike out."

 "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."

"I'm here then. As it had to be. A question of time, to tell the truth. Are you willing to listen to the truth, you? All are not truthful enough to hear the truth, that's the sad thing."

Review:
I wanted to like this book, I really did - but it kind of just fell flat for me. The writing was bland and the characters, even Leo Kall - the main character, did not have much depth. I wanted to know more about the society and get lost in it, but I just couldn't. It was an intriguing story, but by the time I was halfway through, I felt like nothing had really happened. The book should have been much longer and should have gone into much more detail (both in regards to the society as a whole as well as the individual characters). It makes me want to read 1984 by George Orwell again to compare the two books.

Overall, it does have an intriguing story idea - what happens when a "truth" serum (called Kallocain) is made and makes people share their innermost thoughts without any inhibition? What was neat to me is that there's an arch to what is discovered by Kallocain. The serum initially is supposed to weed out the few who have negative thoughts about the Worldstate, but then you find out that nearly everyone does - so everyone could potentially be considered a criminal. This then means the Worldstate is essentially able to arrest whoever they want and keep them contained - the irony is that most people who are administered Kallocain actually experience the most freedom they've had for their entire lives. This freedom comes because, for the first time, they can speak freely and truly be themselves as an individual instead of just being part of the collective - even though the effects of the drug are only temporary and people are then arrested.

Towards the finish I got excited about a good ending due to realizations different characters had, but, as this is a dystopian novel, it circled back on itself and ended on a negative note. I won't give it away, but, despite the sad ending, there is hope. If you have any interest in dystopian/totalitarian novels, then I would suggest reading this book, even though it is a bit bland.

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 Karin Boye have the last words:

"Perhaps a new world can come into being through those who are mothers - whether they are men or women, and regardless of whether they have borne or not. But where are they?"

The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

 

Title: The Incredible Journey

Originally published: 1960
Dates read: 7/16/18-7/24/18
Back to the Classics category: Classic Travel/Journey Narrative
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Sheila Burnford
Sheila Burnford was born in Scotland in 1919 and passed in 1984. She was an only child and went to primary school in Edinburgh. She attended Harrogate College in Yorkshire, England and also studied in France and Germany.  Burnford traveled extensively and called North America home for a period of time.

As a young woman during WWII, she was part of the Royal Naval Hospitals Voluntary Aid Detachment from 1939-1941 in England. She worked as an ambulance driver for a majority of that time. During this time, she met and married her husband, a doctor, David Burnford in 1941.

As a young mother and new bride when her husband David was away to war she acquired Bodger an English bull terrier who became her best companion on the blacked-out nights of war. The bull terrier became an inspiration and namesake for one of the main characters in The Incredible Journey she would write years later.

Description on back of book:
Instinct tells them that the way home lay west. And so the doughty Labrador retriever, the rough bull terrier, and the indomitable Siamese case set out through the Canadian wilderness. Separately, they would soon have died. But together, the three house pets face starvation, exposure, and wild animals to make their way home to the family they love.

First sentence:
"This journey took place in a part of Canada which lies in the northwestern part of the great sprawling province of Ontario."

Review:
I was excited to read this because Homeward Bound was a favorite movie of mine growing up. I didn't realize it was a children's book and was surprised at its simplicity. The general story is the same, but there are some definite differences.

The animals never talk. You sometimes can hear their "thoughts" or are told what they are feeling... but it's mostly just action. I love the banter between the animals in the movie and was looking forward to the humor in the book, but there was none. It's a pretty serious book about survival. It was kind of boring to me with basically no dialogue at all.

As the first sentence from the book states, the story takes place in Canada, not the USA. "Chance," the black and white American Bulldog is actually "Bodger an all-white English Bull Terrier. "Sassy" the Himalayan cat is actually "Tao" a male Siamese cat. "Shadow" the long-haired Golden Retriever is actually "Luath" a short-haired Golden Labrador. The personalities are basically the same except Bodger is the old dog and the Lab is the younger one. Luath/Shadow gets the quills in his face and it's Bodger/Chance that comes running/limping out last at the end of the book.

The family consists of 9-year-old Elizabeth, who loves her cat; 11-year-old Peter who got Bodger as a puppy for his first birthday; and Jim Hunter, their father, and main owner of Luath who he trained as a hunting dog. There is no mention of a mother. Jim is a professor and does a year teaching in England, so they leave the animals with a family friend, John Longridge. At the end of the 9 months, John goes on vacation for a couple of weeks and his neighbor is going to take care of the animals. Well, due to the 2-page note and 1 going missing (as in the movie) the neighbor thinks he took the animals on vacation with him.

The animals do come across bears, a raging river, and porcupines - but slightly different. They all meet an old man in the woods, but it's a little girl from a Finnish family that rescues Tao/Sassy after the river. There's no mountain lion or seesaw trick. A lynx tracks Tao/Sassy while he's alone and a big chase ensues. Tao hides in a rabbit burrow and a hunter shoots the lynx. Towards the end, they go into town to get rid of a wolf tracking them and are taken in by a farmer who removes the quills the lab's face... but they leave a few days later to continue their trip. They meet a group of Indians in the beginning, but there's no missing girl or train tracks with a ditch for them to fall into in the end.

When John returns from vacation he tries to figure out what happened, the next day the Hunters return home and he has to tell them the bad news. They try to track down their pets for the next 1-2 weeks. At Peter's 12th birthday, the animals return with much rejoicing. The timing is a little weird, but my guess is that it took them about 3-5 weeks to go from John Longridge's home to the Hunter's home, which is said to be 250 miles apart from each other. The book says on good days they traveled 15 miles.

Overall, it's an OK book - the movie is definitely better. If you have young children, I think this would be great to read to/with them. For adults, I think it's pretty boring. I wasn't expecting it to be so serious - the movie is relatively lighthearted (despite tearing up every time I see Shadow come limping up the hill in the end).

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 Sheila Burnford have the last words:

"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."

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

 

Title: Atlas Shrugged

Originally published: 1957
Dates read: 5/21/18-7/15/18 (Part I 5/21-6/13; Part II 6/14-7/3; Part III 7/3-7/15)
Back to the Classics category: Classic that Scares You
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand was born in St. Peterburg, Russia in 1905 and died in New York City, USA in 1982. At age 6, she taught herself to read and, by 9, she decided to make fiction-writing her career. She lived through communist Russia and the final Communist victory brought the confiscation of her father's pharmacy and periods of near starvation. Thoroughly opposed to the mysticism and collectivism of Russian culture, she became an atheist and took America's capitalism as the model of what a nation of free men could be.

At the Univerity of Petrograd, she studied philosophy and history and graduated in 1924. One of her greatest pleasures was Western film and plays. Long a movie fan, she entered the State Institute for Cinema Arts in 1924 to study screen-writing. In late 1925, she obtained permission to leave the USSR for a visit to relatives in the United States. Although she told the Soviet authorities that her visit would be short, she was determined to never return to Russia.

She went to Hollywood to pursue a career as a screenwriter. After 2 weeks in Hollywood, she met an actor, Frank O'Connor, whom she married in 1929; they were married until his death 50 years later. Her first job was as an extra, then as a script reader, and, after struggling for several years at various non-writing jobs, she sold her first screenplay. Rand wrote several plays/screenplays, 4 fiction novels, and 9 non-fiction books about her philosophy, Objectivism. She published and edited her own periodicals from 1962-1976. She had a hard time initially getting published, was not well received in her day, and is still considered controversial today.

The Description on Back of Book:
Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves?

You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the baffling events that play havoc with the lives of the amazing men and women in this book. You will discover why a productive genius becomes a worthless playboy...why a great steel industrialist is working for his own destruction...why a composer gives up his career on the night of his triumph...why a beautiful woman who runs a transcontinental railroad falls in love with the man she has sworn to kill.

Objectivism: "My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

Favorite quotes:
"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."

"Achieving life is not the equivalent of avoiding death. Joy is not 'the absence of pain,' intelligence is not 'the absence of stupidity,' light is not 'the absence of darkness,' an entity is not 'the absence of a nonentity.' Building is not done by abstaining from demolition. Existence is not a negation of negatives. Evil, not value, is an absence and a negation, evil is impotent and has no power but that which we let it extort from us."

"In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit."

Review:
I was scared to read this book because it seemed highly philosophical, its philosophy seemed to be very contradictory to my worldview, and it also is super long. My fears were well founded since it was philosophical and, for the most part, contradictory to my worldview. My mass paperback version is 1078 pages long and, if it wasn't for the Classics Challenge, I would have stopped reading the book before I made it to 100 pages.

Atlas Shrugged made me depressed, angry, and feel sick to my stomach. I consciously had to refrain from throwing the book across the room due to the stupidity of the characters and my mind kept screaming 'JUST GIVE UP AND LET THE WORLD BURN!" Spoiler alert - that's what happens in the end and there was absolutely no reason for the book to be as long as it was. If nothing else, the book definitely made me feel strongly.

The story itself was intriguing, but it was very extreme and unrealistic. The characters were black and white - there was no middle ground. There were parts that drew my attention, but also many long stretches of boredom and exposition and more exposition and more exposition. I think part of what made it so hard to read was that I tended to relate more with the antagonists than the protagonists. Oh, did I mention that there's a lot of exposition?

For example, John Galt gives a 58-page speech at the end of the book. By the time it got to the speech, I understood the philosophy pretty well and felt it was unnecessary. It was during this speech that I felt sick due to the denunciation of Christianity. There are parts of the philosophy that I can agree with, but when I say "I believe in God," then I automatically disagree with Objectivism's metaphysics, epistemology, and view of human nature.

I also believe that socialism is the biblically ideal form of politics, which means I disagree with Objectivism's ethics and politics. Due to sin in the world, I do not think that we will ever see socialism actually work in the world until Jesus comes back. Until then, I do think that Meritocracy is the best substitute, but I'm also a strong supporter of Welfare.

I just cannot accept a philosophy that denounces both God and altruism since both are extremely important to me and my worldview. Even so, there are parts that I do agree with and I had a hard time reconciling those with the 2 main parts I disagree with. I'm not a philosopher, and though I have a degree in biblical studies, I don't really consider myself a theologian. After reading the book, I looked for reviews that would help me understand the book and philosophy better.

If you are thinking of reading Atlas Shrugged, I would suggest reading The Ethics of Ayn Rand by John Piper before you do. His review is the review I wish I had the knowledge to write here. If you are still interested in the book after reading his review, then go ahead and read it. If my review or his makes you question reading the book (or you think my review or his is too long), then I suggest not wasting your time. I wish I had not wasted mine.

[John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota and is the author of over 50 books.]

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 Ayn Rand have the last words:

"'If you saw Altas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down on his shoulders - what would you tell him to do?'"

'I... don't know. What... could he do? What would you tell him?'

'To shrug.'"

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Title: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Originally published: 1926
Dates read: 5/7/18-5/16/18
Back to the Classics category: Classic Crime Story
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is credited as the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespear. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, as well as the world’s longest-running play – The Mousetrap. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation.

Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller was born in England, 1890. At 11 her father passed and she was then raised by her mother. By 18 she was writing short stories and she also was a talented pianist and singer. In 1912 she met Archie Christie, who was an aviator in the Royal Flying Corps - they were married 2 years later. During WWI, Archie was in France and Agatha worked as a nurse in a Red Cross Hospital in England. In 1919, Agatha and Archie moved to London and she gave birth to their daughter Rosalind. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was also published that year and she was contracted to write 5 more. This book was the introduction of Hercule Poirot.

By 1925 her mother passed and her husband fell in love with a family friend. In December 1926, Agatha left home without saying where she was going and was missing for 11 days. Her abandoned car was found a few miles away and a nationwide search ensued. It was eventually discovered that she took a train to Harrogate and checked into a hotel under a false name. Hotel staff recognized her and notified the police. When her husband met her, she didn't recognize him and didn't know who she was. She was sent to get psychiatric treatment for amnesia. It was never discovered what really happened.

Agatha and Archie remained apart and divorced in 1928. Later that year she wrote her first novel under the pseudonym, Mary Westmacott. While traveling in 1929, she met Max Mallowan, an archeologist - they were married a year later. During WWII, Max worked in Cairo and Agatha wrote and volunteered at a hospital in London. Her daughter was married and gave birth to a son in 1943. By 1945, the war was over and Max returned. Now in her mid-50s, she started to enjoy a slower paced life. In the 1940s and 1950s, she was involved in theatrical productions. She passed peacefully in 1976.
(source)

Plot summary:
Roger Ackroyd knew too much. He knew that the women he loved had poisoned her brutal first husband. He also knew that someone had been blackmailing her because of it. Then came the news that she had taken her own life with a drug overdose. The next evening, a letter came to him telling him who the blackmailer was. Before he could finish reading the letter, though, he was stabbed to death.

Favorite quotes:
"Everyone has something to hide."

"We work to obtain an object, and the object gained, we find that what we miss is the daily toil."

"Many crimes have been committed for the sake of less than five hundred pounds. It all depends on what sum is sufficient to break a man. A question of relativity, is it not so?

Review:
This was the first Hercule Poirot story I have read. I've seen the new Orient Express movie, but that's all the exposure to this detective that I've had. Everyone I've talked to really likes Poirot as a character, but I wasn't that impressed. All the eccentricity was just too much... and I think I'm just biased towards Sherlock.

There was actually a Sherlock and Watson reference in the novel, which made me smile. Similar to how the Sherlock stories are written by Dr. Watson, this book is written by Dr. Sheppard and you get to hear his perspective as the mystery unfolds. There is even a point where he gives the book to Poirot to read:

"Still somewhat doubtful, I rummaged in the drawers of my desk and produced an untidy pile of manuscripts which I handed over to him. With an eye on possible publication in the future, I had divided the work into chapters, and the night before I had brought it up to date with an account of Miss Russell's visit. Poirot had, therefore, twenty chapters."

And looking back, as this was written after chapter 20, that chapter break was accurate to the actual published novel I read. He clearly had some catching up to do on his writing at that point, but he finds time to write it all out in the midst of helping Poirot solve the murder.

The ending was definitely a huge a huge shock. I honestly don't know how much I should write in this review because I don't want to give anything away. I did briefly consider the actual murderer as a suspect, but I didn't want that person to be it, so I just ignored it. There was another person I really wanted to be the murderer, just because the character really annoyed me, even though there wasn't much evidence against the person. Another person that rubbed me the wrong way was Caroline. (She is not a suspect in the murder, so I feel I can actually name her.) She is a huge gossip and I think she was meant to be a source of humor for the story, but it just fell flat to me.

I know I didn't write a lot of positive things about the novel, but if I did, I would give things away. Overall, it's a decent story. If you haven't seen the movie already, I would suggest reading this! 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 Agatha Christie have the last words:

"The truth, however ugly in itself, is always curious and beautiful to the seeker after it."

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

    

Title: A Little Princess
Originally published: 1905
Dates read: 4/25/18-5/4/18
Back to the Classics category: Children's Classic
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
British-born author of romance novels and children's books. Best known for The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and A Little Princess. She grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and married Dr. L. M. Burnett of Washington D.C. in 1873. Their son died of consumption in 1890. She divorced Burnett in 1898, a large scandal at the time. Famous in her own lifetime, she was often criticized in the press for working, being away from her husband, and the way she raised her son. She married Stephen Townsend in 1900 and divorced him in 1902. She died of heart failure in 1924. (source)

Plot summary:
Sara Crewe, an exceptionally intelligent and imaginative student at Miss Minchin's Select Seminary for Young Ladies, is devastated when her adored, indulgent father dies. Now penniless and banished to a room in the attic, she is forced to work as a servant. Then Sara's fortunes change again.

Favorite quotes:
"What I believe about dolls is that they can do things they will not let us know about. Perhaps, really, my doll can read and talk and walk, but she will only do it when people are out of the room. That is her secret. You see, if people knew that dolls could do things, they would make them work. So, perhaps, they have promised each other to keep it a secret. If you stay in the room, my doll will just sit there and stare; but if you go out, she will begin to read, perhaps, or go and look out of the window. Then if she heard either of us coming, she would just run back and jump into her chair and pretend she had been there all the time."

"Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage."

"If Nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart; and though there may be times when your hands are empty, your heart is always full, and you can give things out of that - warm things, kind things, sweet things - help and comfort and laughter - and sometimes gay, kind laughter is the best help of all."

"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."

Review:
This is the first time I'm reading this book and I've never seen the movies. The very blatant message in the book is that a princess isn't a princess because of wealth or the clothes she wears, but a person's thoughts and actions determine if she's a princess. Basically to be kind, polite, and not let anger control you is what it means to be a princess.

To me, the book was rather bland. The story was simple, there wasn't much depth to the characters, and it was predictable. Though I wasn't impressed as an adult, I do think it would a good read for children. At the beginning of the book, Sara, the main character, is 7 and, by the end of the book she is 13. A child reading the book in that age range would probably enjoy the book.

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 Frances Hodgson Burnett have the last words:

"Being a princess has only to do with what you THINK of, and what you DO."

The Story of the Beauty and the Beast by Madame de Villeneuve

 

Title: The Story of the Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete)
Author: Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (1695-1755)
Originally published: 1740 (Originally written in French)
Dates read: 4/7/18-4/13/18
Back to the Classics category: Classic in Translation
Find out more about the Back to the Classics 2018 reading challenge HERE.
Read my other book reviews from the challenge HERE.

Favorite quotes:
"This rose has cost me dear. It is not in money, however, and would to Heaven that I might have purchased it with all I am yet worth in the world."

"How do we know, perhaps the dreadful fate which appears to wait me conceals another as happy as this seems terrible?"

"You should not take counsel from your eyes alone. You should let yourself be guided by gratitude. By doing so, you are assured you will be happy."

"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?"

"I knew not how much I loved you. The fear of losing you has proved to me that I was attached to you by stronger ties than those of gratitude. I vow to you that I had determined to die if I had failed in restoring you to life."

"Generous Fairy! For mercy's sake, do not allow Beauty to depart! Make me, rather, again the Beast that I was, for then I shall be her husband. She pledged her word to the Beast, and I prefer that happiness to all those she has restored me to, if I must purchase them so dearly!"

Review:
Madame de Villeneuve's tale is credited as the oldest known version of Beauty and the Beast. This translation is an easy and quick read. With it originally written in 1740, I expected it to have old style English, but it's very modern. It doesn't actually have names for any of the characters. They all just have nicknames or titles: The Merchant/Old Man; Beauty; Beast; Good Fairy; Old Fairy; etc. This sometimes got confusing because some characters had the same/similar titles (there were multiple characters titled 'Queen') and other characters weren't just called by one nickname (ie Beast/Prince).

What's interesting is that Disney's Beauty and the Beast is actually only the first half of the book. The second half of the book tells the backstory of the parents of both Beauty and the Beast and how they came to be in the situation they were in. Basically, the Beast becomes human and reunites with his mom and the Good Fairy. He tells Beauty his perspective of growing up and how/why he became the Beast. Then Beaty's father shows up and the Good fairy tells everyone about what happened to the parents that led to the whole "Beauty and the Beast" situation.

This got confusing due to no one having names and because it was unchronological. It was also disappointing because the backgrounds were told as summed up pasts and not as full stories, like the first half of the book was. The idea of "show don't tell" was not followed at all in the second half of the book. I wish that the book was in order and told all in the form of a story with much more details. I would have loved to hear more about the Faries and both sets of parents. There was so much great potential and it just seemed to be tagged on to the end of the Beauty and the Beast part of the tale as an afterthought.

Disney's Beauty and the Beast was one of my favorites growing up and I was excited to read this. I was expecting more of a Grimm fairy tale, but this actually does have a positive ending. The basic premise of the story was there, but many things were different as well - which I expected.

The enchanted rose the Beast was offered at the beginning of the movie that he refused? Was actually a marriage proposal by an ugly, old, mean Fairy (that wasn't a beautiful enchantress in disguise). He refused and since she believed it was only because she was ugly, she turned him into a dumb Beast (he is "stupid" not "ferocious"). The only way he would change back is if a young lady married him out of true love, of her own free will.

Beauty's father isn't an inventor, but a rich Merchant who then loses all his wealth and moves to the country with his 6 sons and 6 daughters. His sons seem like generally good people, but his daughters are very vain and needy. All except the youngest daughter, Beauty, who is kind, generous, and optimistic. When the Merchant leaves to try to regain some of his wealth, his daughters ask for all sorts of lavish gifts, except Beauty who only asks for a simple rose.

The Merchant gets lost on his way home, accidentally discovers a palace, and eats a lavish meal set out for him. He tries to find the owner to thank him, but it is in vain. On his way out he notices rose bushes and decides to pick some to give to Beauty. The Beast confronts him saying that he fed the poor man and the Merchant has repaid his kindness by stealing from him. The Beast tells the Merchant he will go home and one of his daughters must volunteer to come live with him forever. After some trickery, the Merchant agrees and heads out. Upon hearing her father's story, Beauty volunteers since it was because he was picking her a rose that he got into this situation. The rose in the story had more to do with Beauty - the Beast did not have an enchanted rose.

Beauty and her father go to the palace together and they do get a chance to say goodbye before her father leaves. There are inanimate, though lifelike, statues everywhere. You find out much later that all the staff was turned into statues until the curse was broken. There is a big library, as well as a room full of instruments she could play. There was a large aviary of rare birds that would sing to her, monkeys that attended to her needs and performed plays, and parrots that she could have conversations with. She was allowed anywhere in the palace - there were no "off limit" places.

There also isn't a magic mirror, but there's a room in the palace with several different windows that open onto different stages around the world and she could watch the performances. She would have dinner with the Beast every night. He would ask basic questions like, "How did you spend your day today?" and "Is there anything I give to make you happier?" He always ended the night asking Beauty to mary him, she would say no, and he would leave until dinner the next night.

There is no Gaston, but when she leaves the Beast to visit her family, all her sisters' suitors dump them to pursue Beauty. Her father tries to convince Beauty to marry the Beast since he isn't as mean as they thought he was. While she is at the palace, Beauty has dreams about the handsome Unknown, which is actually the Beast in his human form - but she doesn't know that. She falls in love with her dream, which is why she hesitates in marrying the Beast. One night, in a dream, the Unknown goes to kill the Beast and she gets in the way to protect him. This, as well as seeing the Beast almost die in actuality, leads her to agree to marry the Beast.

I'm not going to get into the second half of the story much because it's confusing and this is already a long blog post. You find out that the Merchant isn't actually Beauty's father, but that she is the daughter of the King of Fortunate Island. Beauty is not only royalty by birth, but is half fairy... and cousin to the Beast/Prince. You find out that, as an infant, Beauty was cursed to become the bride of a beast. She was cursed years before the Prince by the same Old Fairy that proposed to him. Beauty was cursed because she was the offspring of an illegal marriage between a fairy and a human. It was viewed that, just as the Fairy married beneath her kind to marry a human, their daughter would also mary beneath herself to marry a beast.

It's a good book, I just wish it was in chronological order, and much longer so we could have an expanded backstory to The Beauty and the Beast. 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 Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve have the last words:

"The Queen, mother of the Prince, caused this marvelous history to be recorded in the archives of her Kingdom and those of the Fortunate Islands, that it might be handed down to posterity. They also disseminated copies of it throughout the Universe, so that the world at large might never cease to talk of the wonderful adventures of Beauty and the Beast."