Classics Club Spin Yet Again!

Here it seems like we just had a Classics Club Spin and we’re having another one, #37! What is the spin, anyway? Well, if you are a member of the Classics Club you have posted a list of a number of classics you would like to read by a certain deadline, set by yourself. To participate, simply create a numbered list of 20 of the books on your list and post it by Sunday, April 21. On Monday, the club will post a number, and that number determines which book you will read for the spin. Post a review of that book by Sunday, June 2. It’s as simple as that. And don’t forget to add a link to that post in the Comments for the spin post on June 2nd.

With no further ado, here is my list. I no longer have 20 books left on it, so I have to repeat some:

1. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
2. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
3. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
4. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos
5. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
6. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
7. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
8. The Prophet’s Mantle by E. Nesbit
9. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
10. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
11. Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress by Frances Burney
12. The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette
13. Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
14. Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe
15. The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini
16. The Book of Dede Korkut by Anonymous
17. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
18. Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford
19. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
20. The Prophet’s Mantle by E. Nesbit
21. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Classics Club Spin #36!

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. What’s it all about? Members of the Classics Club select 20 books from their Classics Club lists (here’s mine) and list them by number on their blogs before Sunday, January 21. On that day, a spin number is selected by the club, and that number determines which book on the list the member will read by the spin deadline, which is Sunday, March 3. I am always ready to play, so here is my list:

1. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
2. Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress by Frances Burney
3. The Prophet’s Mantle by E. Nesbit
4. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
5. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
6. The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini
7. The Book of Dede Korkut by Anonymous
8. Weatherley Parade by Richmal Crompton
9. The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette
10. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
11. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos
12. Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
13. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
14. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
15. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
16. Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford
17. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
18. Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe
19. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (1862)
20. Weatherley Parade by Richmal Crompton

Review 2276: Classics Club Spin! The Tree of Heaven

Although the Preface states that the tree of heaven in this novel is stripped of its false identity in the end and shows itself as merely an ash—to symbolize the stripping away of Victorian sentimentality to realism—I have to say that depicting men’s deaths in World War I as glorious isn’t a bit realistic. But never mind. The book was written in 1917, so it pretty much had to.

The novel begins in the late 19th century when Anthony and Frances Harrison are young parents and have recently bought their house. One of the things Frances loves about it is the tree of heaven, which Anthony, a timber importer, states is nothing but an ash tree. The couple have four children, Dorothy, Michael, Nicky, and John. Frances is obsessed with her children, really the boys, to the point where Anthony feels left out.

This novel is about daily life in pre-war England through the microcosm of one family. Early on, as early as the first day depicted in the novel, when Michael refuses to go to a children’s birthday party, he demonstrates a fear of what he later calls the Vortex, which seems to be giving up his individuality because of the pressure of others’ excitements. As they grow, the children encounter situations which show and determine their personalities. The family takes in Veronica, the daughter of Anthony’s brother Barty and Frances’s best friend, Vera. Although Barty is family, he has become unbearable, and Vera leaves him for her long-time friend Ferdie Cameron. But Barty refuses to give her a divorce. Nicky, by then a schoolboy, becomes close to the lonely little Veronica, and it is thinking of her situation as a young man that makes him decide to marry a woman who is pregnant by another man, not for the woman but for the sake of the child.

As a young woman, Dorothy becomes involved in the suffrage movement, but doesn’t approve of some of their tactics. She too eventually backs off from the movement because of fear of the Vortex, while Michael joins a group of avant garde poets who renounce all previous poetry.

All of this leads up to World War I and the effect it has on the family and its friends. It is an interesting and well-written novel that provides a look at an ordinary (although well-off) family in the first couple of decades of the 20th century.

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Classics Club Spin #35

It’s time for another Classics Club spin. For the spin, members select 20 titles from their Classics Club lists and post them in a numbered list on their blogs. On Sunday, October 15, the club selects a number, and that determines which book to read for the spin. The goal this time is to read that book by Sunday, December 3, and post your review.

So, with no further ado, here is my list of 20 books:

1. The Book of Dede Korkut by Anonymous
2. The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
3. Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe
4. The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini
5. Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
6. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
7. Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford
8. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
9. The Princess of Cleves by Madame de Lafayette
10. Weatherley Parade by Richmal Crompton
11. Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress by Fanny Burney
12. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos
13. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
14. The Methods of Lady Waldhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
15. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
16. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
17. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
18. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
19. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
20. The Prophet’s Mantle by E. Nesbit

Since I have exactly 20 books left on my list, this will be the last spin that I can participate in for a while that doesn’t require repeating some of my entries. I’m interested to see how it turns out.

Review 2216: Classics Club Spin Result! Miss Mole

I don’t know what readers in 1930 would have thought of Miss Mole—maybe found it a little shocking—but I thought it was delightful. I read it for the latest Classics Club Spin.

Miss Mole is a forty-something spinster of little means. Of yeoman stock, she was well educated but left with little when her parents died. Since then, she’s been working in various genteel, poorly paid positions. When the novel opens, she’s a companion for Mrs. Widdows, but she has difficulty sometimes hiding her true nature under the submissive aspect her employers expect, and she’s fairly sure she’s going to lose her position soon. She goes to tea with Mrs. Spenser-Smith, a prominent citizen in town who is also her cousin. Lillia Spenser-Smith would like her relationship with shabby Miss Mole to remain a secret, so she helps her get a position as housekeeper with the chapel rector Mr. Corder, as she is worried about his two daughters and the incursions of Patsy Withers, who would like to be their stepmother.

Miss Mole finds the Corder household an unhappy one. Corder is an energetic pastor, but at home he expects his family to see no fault in him and he pays no attention to the state of his children. Everything must revolve around him. His oldest daughter Ethel is restless, horsy, and prone to bad temper. She has been supposed to have been running the household but has been paying more attention to her charities. Cousin Wilfred soon appreciates Miss Mole’s sense of humor, but young Ruth is at first mistrusting. Miss Mole decides to help Ruth even though she dislikes Mr. Corder.

Mr. Blankinsop, an acquaintance from Miss Mole’s former lodging, comes to tell Mr. Corder that he is changing churches because he disagrees with him. Although he seemed to want to avoid Miss Mole at the lodging, he begins to seek out her company. She thinks he is in love with a helpless married woman at his lodging.

Energetic Miss Mole does her work well and the Corders’ lives improve, but she has a secret that threatens when a minister of a neighboring chapel, Mr. Pilgrim, appears.

Miss Mole is a great character—intelligent, cynical, but with an ability to find joy in life, coupled with a tendency to lie but also to speak her mind.

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Another Classics Club Spin!

Classics Club has just announced another spin. How does the spin work? Club members select 20 books from their Classics Club list and post them in a numbered list by this coming Sunday, June 18. The club then picks a number and that determines which book you read next, attempting to post a review by Sunday, August 6. So, with no further adieu, here is my list for the spin:

1. Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
2. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
3. The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette
4. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
5. A Double Life by Karolina Pavlova
6. Castle Rackrent by Maria Edgeworth
7. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
8. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
9. Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford
10. The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini
11. The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
12. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
13. Miss Mole by E. H. Young
14. Merkland: A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
15. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
16. Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress by Frances Burney
17. Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
18. The Book of Dede Korkut by Anonymous
19. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
20. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos

Are you participating in the spin? Which book would from your list do you hope is picked?

Review 2164: Classics Club Spin Result! The Moorland Cottage

When I selected The Moorland Cottage for my Classics Club list, I didn’t really read what it was about. Then when it arrived—a print-on-demand novella without any extraneous information—I thought maybe it was a gothic story, since most Victorian writers wrote some early in their careers. However, it is a romance with a strongly moralistic ending.

The Brownes live in an isolated cottage on the moor. Mrs. Browne is the widow of the respected curate of Combehurst. She dotes upon and spoils her son Edward while scolding and nagging at her daughter Maggie. As a result, Edward is selfish and unheeding, while Maggie is loving and giving.

When the local squire, Mr. Buxton, who was friends with Mr. Browne, decides to send Edward to school, the Browne children meet Frank Buxton and his cousin Erminia, both about their same ages, with Frank being a little older. Both Buxton children are impressed by Maggie but dislike Edward, and Maggie and Erminia become good friends.

As young men and women, Edward has not improved his character, while Maggie is good and beautiful, used to thinking of everyone but herself. Frank falls in love with Maggie, but Mr. Buxton is strongly opposed to their engagement. Then Edward’s misdeeds complicate the situation.

I had to laugh when I saw this novel described as “feminist” on Goodreads. When I was a little girl, I detested a fairy tale called “Patient Griselda.” It was about a prince who subjects the girl he loves to a series of painful tests to see if she is worthy of him. I wanted the girl to tell the prince to buzz off. This novel is going in the direction of Griselda except it is Edward, not Frank, who is always making demands. Thankfully, the ending was a little better than I expected. The novel has a strong religious message but one that seemed wrong-headed to me.

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Classics Club Spin #33!

Classics Club has announced another spin. How does a spin work? Members post a numbered list of 20 of the books from their Classics Club lists by Sunday, March 19. The club picks a number, and that’s the book members try to read and post a review of by Sunday, April 30. Anyone can participate who has a Classics Club list registered with the club.

So, here is my list for the next spin:

1. Isa’s Ballad by Magda Szabo
2. Cecilia, Memoirs of an Heiress by Fanny Burney
3. The Book of Dede Korkut by Anonymous
4. Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
5. Miss Mole by E. H. Young
6. Weatherley Parade by Richmal Crompton
7. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
8. A Double Life by Karolina Pavlova
9. Hero and Leander by Christopher Marlowe
10. The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
11. The Tavern Knight by Rafael Sabatini
12. The Prophet’s Mantle by E. Nesbitt
13. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
14. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
15. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
16. Tis Pity She’s a Whore by John Ford
17. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
18. The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell
19. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
20. The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût

Hope some of you will join me. Have fun with the spin!

Time for Another Classics Club Spin (#32)

The Classics Club has announced another spin. How does this work? Classics club members select 20 books from their lists and post a numbered list of those choices by Sunday, December 11. On Sunday, Classics Club picks a number, and the club member agrees to try to read the book corresponding to that number and post a review by Sunday, January 29, 2023.

I enjoy taking part in these spins, so here is my list!

1. The Fair Jilt by Aphra Behn
2. The Methods of Lady Walderhurst by Frances Hodgson Burnett
3. We by Yevgeny Zemyatin
4. The Ten Thousand Things by Maria Dermoût
5. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
6. The Saga of Gosta Berling by Selma Lagerlof
7. A Double Life by Karolina Pavlova
8. Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare
9. Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie
10. Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
11. The Tree of Heaven by May Sinclair
12. The Deepening Stream by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
13. The Passenger by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz
14. Merkland, A Story of Scottish Life by Margaret Oliphant
15. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
16. The Princess of Cleves by Madame de La Fayette
17. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
18. The Book of Lamentations by Rosario Castellanos
19. The Moorland Cottage by Elizabeth Gaskell
20. Miss Mole by E. H. Young

Review 2051: #1929 Club! Classics Club Spin! Grand Hotel

The first book I chose for the 1929 Club was one that I have long heard of but never read. It was also coincidentally chosen for my Classics Club Spin!

In the 1920’s, the Grand Hotel is the most expensive in Berlin. Staying there are several guests whose lives are going to be changed.

Grusinskaya is a great ballet dancer still at the top of her form. But her clearly classical style has gone out of fashion, and after a lifetime of being alone, she’s very tired.

Kringelein is a poor clerk who has just found out he is dying and wants to experience a few weeks of luxury and “living.”

Doctor Otternschlag is an injured World War I veteran who hangs around the hotel doing nothing. He begins taking Kringelein around Berlin.

Baron Geigern is young, handsome, and personable, but he makes a living as a cat burglar, and he’s after Grusinskaya’s pearls.

Herr Preysing is the general manager of a company there to make a deal who ends up in a mid-life crisis.

Grand Hotel is a zeitgeist novel, very much a product of its time. Baum’s characters show their foibles or redeem themselves. Each one is flawed and complex.

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