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Nov 27, 20151 min read
357. Émile Zola - Nana
Didn’t plan to read another Zola, but finished no.356 unexpectedly in bed and needed something else to read. Zola is a terribly prolix...
Nov 20, 20151 min read
356. Émile Zola - L'Assommoir
This is a very grim book, in the vein of 'La Terre', but set amongst the Parisian working class. The central figure is Gervaise, who has...
Jun 13, 20151 min read
312. George Eliot - Felix Holt: The Radical
I suppose a pre-cursor of Middlemarch, this centres on the 1832 general election, which seems to have post-dated some electoral reform....
Jun 9, 20151 min read
310. Jane Austen - Pride And Prejudice
And now for something completely different, Paddy’s aeroplane reading, rather classier than mine. I haven’t read this for years and my...
Apr 17, 20151 min read
298. Naomi Alderman - Disobedience
This was excellent as well, although the ending disappointed me, and again totally different. Heavily framed by orthodox Judaism, about...
Feb 14, 20151 min read
282. Elizabeth Jane Howard - Casting Off
This is the fourth, and I think she planned final book in the quartet. They do get better as you progress through them; the characters...
Dec 28, 20141 min read
272. Émile Zola - Earth
The only other Zola book in the house, although I have since invested something like £1.69 in Amazon to buy the complete works for my...
Dec 22, 20141 min read
271. Émile Zola - Germinal
Possibly the best book I have read this year. Zola completely turns 19th century fiction on its head and writes a book in which the...
Dec 14, 20141 min read
269. Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
I quite enjoyed this, although it took ages to get going (around page 300!?). One of my problems was that none of the characters were,...
Aug 21, 20141 min read
236. Peter May - Entry Island
Thriller with two parallel time lines; modern day Canada and the Highland land clearances in the mid 19th century. The two plot lines run...
Jul 6, 20141 min read
226. William Thackeray - Vanity Fair
Chose a long serious(?) book after all the Håkan Nessers, although it is hard work to read a book this long when not on holiday. Did I...
Jun 18, 20141 min read
222. Thomas Mann - BuddenBrooks
If I have read Thomas Mann before, it was 'Death in Venice' 40 years ago. This, especially the first half, was a wonderfully stately...
Mar 9, 20141 min read
187. Honoré de Balzac - Eugenie Grandet
A proper story at last. I hadn’t realised how early in the 19th century Balzac was writing; 1820’s/30’s. So there is lots of classicism,...
Feb 5, 20141 min read
181. Patrick White - The Tree Of Man
Extraordinary. Long and difficult (although ultimately very simple) book, simply about human life. Very un-glorified. The characters are...
Jan 6, 20141 min read
174. Thomas Hardy - Jude The Obscure
Another A level text, but I loved this on re-read after it must be 40 years. The complicated love story between Jude & Sue was so...
Dec 22, 20131 min read
171. George Eliot - The Mill On The Floss
This was an A-level set text, and I read my old copy from the time, which is almost ruined by asinine adolescent observations. I will get...
Dec 8, 20131 min read
168. Anthony Trollope - The Warden
I did find an easier Trollope, and read 'The Warden'. I found the first half sentimental and annoying but the second half took off for me...
Aug 31, 20131 min read
140. George Eliot - Silas Marner
Bought this in 1976 and don’t think I have ever read it. It is bloody good. Quite simple, short, and beautifully compressed tale of...
Jul 8, 20131 min read
126. David Lodge - Nice Work
Not certain whether I have read this before; certainly seen it on TV with Warren Clark and (?) Hayden Gwynne. What struck me is how...
Jun 19, 20131 min read
120. Henry James - The Bostonians
By way of contrast, a book I have never read before and a real shock at that. Not a comedy of manners, nor a US/European culture clash as...