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Sep 17, 20221 min read
1012. James Joyce - Ulysses
I don’t normally write up a book I haven’t finished, but I will make an exception here. I have read it before (on holiday in Majorca...
Jun 14, 20221 min read
989. Charles Dickens - Martin Chuzzlewit
I always try to take a Dickens or big 19th C novel on holiday. If Galbraith can be prolix and needs editing, what do you say about...
Feb 18, 20221 min read
948. Henry James - Washington Square
A serious and classic novel in response to the above thoughts; I am not sure if I have read this before, although we bought it in 1978!...
Sep 30, 20211 min read
900. Anton Chekhov - The Cherry Orchard
We are going to see this in the theatre tonight, with Ian McKellan and other vaunted actors, and I hope it is better on stage than on the...
Jul 31, 20211 min read
881. William Shakespeare - Hamlet
In anticipation of a trip to the theatre. I don’t read much Shakespeare, but really enjoyed this and found it compact and easy to read....
Mar 30, 20211 min read
853. George Eliot - Middlemarch
Remains, probably, my favourite book, but it is seriously long! (although lots of distractions over the last few weeks – cricket,...
Mar 5, 20211 min read
850. George Eliot - Silas Marner
Wanted a short book by George Eliot and there aren’t many, so went for this one. It is hard work – Marner is an opaque and rather...
Jan 15, 20211 min read
842. Émile Zola - Madeleine Ferat
Contemporary with 'Thérèse Raquin', this is not that interesting. Set in French 19th century bourgeois society, a story of a rather dull...
Dec 24, 20201 min read
837. Émile Zola - Thérèse Raquin
I am reading these in chronological order as I find the complete works pretty un-navigable on my kindle. I have read this before, but...
Dec 20, 20201 min read
836. John Le Carré - Agent Running In The Field
Probably his last published book, as he died last week. Le Carré is a writer (like Graham Greene) whose prose an English middle class...
Dec 19, 20201 min read
835. Emile Zola - The Mysteries Of Marseilles
No. 3 in my unnavigable Complete works. If I was writing a critical summary of Zola’s novels, I would say that this is a much longer...
Dec 13, 20201 min read
834. Emile Zola - The Dead Woman's Wish
I think 833 is the first book; this is the 2nd. Much more plot and characterisation, a dying woman entrusts her adopted son to care for...
Dec 12, 20201 min read
833. Emile Zola - Claude's Confession
I read this as a not very good Bildungsroman. About a young Provencal man who has come to Paris and ends up living in pretty abject...
Oct 22, 20201 min read
821. Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist
Thought I would try another Dickens after 819 and not really enjoying the 21st century 820. Quite enjoyed this, but Dickens' characters...
Oct 9, 20201 min read
819. Charles Dickens - Our Mutual Friend
Not being a big Dickens fan, I thought I would try one yet again and took this on holiday. Deliberately chose a book I knew nothing...
Sep 16, 20201 min read
814. John Fowles - The French Lieutenant’s Woman
Coincidentally (?), another book about Victorian adultery. I really enjoyed most of this but got lost, typically, towards the end....
Sep 7, 20201 min read
812. Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina
Thought I should follow the first great 19th century novel about adultery with the 2nd, but it is long (850 pages). Completely different...
Jun 27, 20201 min read
794. DH Lawrence - Sons and Lovers
Haven’t read this for many years, and not sure I will read it again. Prolix and verbose, I struggled to get anything out of it. Paul...
Jun 13, 20201 min read
791. Graham Greene - The Tenth Man
I am not reading very well at the moment and have trouble following the plots of lots of books, this is really a novella written for a...
May 28, 20201 min read
783. Lawrence Durrell - Clea
Disappointing. Darley returns to Alexandria with Nessim’s daughter, who is immediately taken home by Nessim. War has now broken out and...