Yes. We studied Middlemarch at A level and thoroughly enjoyed it. Must revisit it at some point. We also did Silas Marner in my real life book group a while ago: a beautiful book although it didn't go down well with everyone. I've also read The Mill on the Floss and Daniel Deronda; both worth revisiting. (*Adds to reread list*)
The classic reread I have in waiting at the moment is Dickens' David Copperfield which I haven't read for years. I have a lovely new (to me) secondhand hardback copy awaiting my attention: prompted by my real life book group's more recent read, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. The latter is not, in my opinion, worth spending any time on, but it has inspired me to reread the vastly superior original.
I enjoy reading a book that has been held in the hands of people long gone; wondering how they responded to it. A small treasure is a copy of The Book of Illustrious Mechanics of Europe and America, by Edward Foucaud, translated from the original French and published in Aberdeen in 1858. It came to me from an old farmer in southern Ontario, and was probably new when his family moved there from Scotland. So much that we take for granted, or that has become distant history, was fresh and interesting then, even the early developments of steam power. It is really a small encyclopaedia of science and technology, compiled less than a century before I was born. I wonder if it influenced my friend: in his old age he was the first person I knew to have a digital camera, and the first to have a hybrid car.
I read Adam Bede and Silas Marner at school in the 'fifties, and enjoyed them enough to reread them several times, but not tried anything else.
Mill on The Floss was serialised on TV back in the '60s - I didn't watch it, apart from one episode - presumably the final one.
I will not go any further with that, but was put off by that unfortunate introduction sufficiently to avoid reading it ever since. I have also been put off Middlemarch by comments made about its length, and the complexity of the story.
I regret those decisions, especially as that reluctance seems to have kept me away from her other novels.
I think I ought to see if the library has any of them on audiobook CDs.
@windsofchange - reading a simpler version of a classic is a great idea. I remember Classic Comics from my childhood. Reading one of them helped me sort out Dora and the other woman (was it Agnes?) in David Copperfield because they were illustrated with different coloured hair.
It was good to see Trollope mentioned above as it's years since I've read any of his books, which I first encountered in a Victorian Literature course, so today I borrowed "Can You Forgive Her?" from the library today. It's the first book in the Palliser series.
Thanks! I should see if I can find a kids version of something by Trollope. People are always telling me they think I'd enjoy him, and they may be right. But as with the Iliad, I've had difficulty getting into it.
I 'enjoyed' / was outraged by 'The way we live now' during the last time around the block with T**** in the White House. But from what I remember, I'm not sure I could handle it during his second incumbency. I think I'll stop there before I spoil this nice thread.
@windsofchange - reading a simpler version of a classic is a great idea. I remember Classic Comics from my childhood. Reading one of them helped me sort out Dora and the other woman (was it Agnes?) in David Copperfield because they were illustrated with different coloured hair.
It was good to see Trollope mentioned above as it's years since I've read any of his books, which I first encountered in a Victorian Literature course, so today I borrowed "Can You Forgive Her?" from the library today. It's the first book in the Palliser series.
Thanks! I should see if I can find a kids version of something by Trollope. People are always telling me they think I'd enjoy him, and they may be right. But as with the Iliad, I've had difficulty getting into it.
I 'enjoyed' / was outraged by 'The way we live now' during the last time around the block with T**** in the White House. But from what I remember, I'm not sure I could handle it during his second incumbency. I think I'll stop there before I spoil this nice thread.
Haha, no worries! And actually, deciding to at least give it one more try, I downloaded a sample of "Barchester Towers" and was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying it! So no need for a simpler version after all!
Barchester Towers is fun!
A couple of weeks ago I was helping a customer to find some more Trollope. She'd read the first of the Palliser novels, and loved it, and we managed to find three more of the series for her. I did have to explain, though, that in Phineas Redux, Redux is not the character's surname!
Barchester Towers is fun!
A couple of weeks ago I was helping a customer to find some more Trollope. She'd read the first of the Palliser novels, and loved it, and we managed to find three more of the series for her. I did have to explain, though, that in Phineas Redux, Redux is not the character's surname!
What about Ferb?
Alternately, could the Phineas who is one of the hitchhiking ghosts in the Haunted Mansion be this Phineas? :O
Another Silas Marner fan here. I did read Middlemarch and even enjoyed parts of it, but I will probably never read it again whereas I have read Silas Marner a dozen times or more. Of course that may equate to roughly the same number of pages...
I am not the most intelligent person. I ploughed through The Odyssey. And whatever that Purgatory book is called from The Divine Comedy. In my 20s. At 47 I'm still not mature. They were interesting. But did I struggle. Do you just give up? Or do you think, it wasn't the right time, perhaps I was reading them more because I thought I should, rather than for entertainment/information?
I am a big fan, as I blabbered on elsewhere, of St Ephraim the Syrian [4th C], among other poetic and Syriac saints. His Hymns on Paradise, online if you are interested; I love II particularly, is one I am happy to return to.
Reading Wuthering Heights; slowly. Hearing Kate Bush's song again [love it! love her!] a while ago caused me to think, "I haven't read that!"
I was a fan of Dennis Wheatley when I was at school. I liked the Duke de Richleau books but I mainly enjoyed the series of Gregory Sallust and Roger Brook books.
I read the Illiad and Odyssey at school and at my final speech day I chose a book on Greek Mythology as my prize. I always thought that Achilles had a very unfair advantage and that Paris was a cad and a bounder
As the result of a really weird series of events in my personal life, I've started (again) reading old books--I'm on Athanasius now, a little bit every day. Before that came Julian of Norwich and Thomas Browne, Religio Medici (The Faith of a Physician) from the 1640s. I also read Theologia Germanica, but would recommend against it--super annoying.
Is anybody else out there reading old books? What? And what would you recommend, and why?
I'm still in Athanasius, this time Contra Gentes (Against the Heathen), after reading his life--which was a weird kind of comfort, as it confirmed that the church was as messed up then as it is now. Though the man appears to have been indestructible--a kind of whack-a-mole that keeps coming back?
I went through George Herbert's Country Parson and found it a bit meh.
As the result of a really weird series of events in my personal life, I've started (again) reading old books--I'm on Athanasius now, a little bit every day. Before that came Julian of Norwich and Thomas Browne, Religio Medici (The Faith of a Physician) from the 1640s. I also read Theologia Germanica, but would recommend against it--super annoying.
Is anybody else out there reading old books? What? And what would you recommend, and why?
I'm still in Athanasius, this time Contra Gentes (Against the Heathen), after reading his life--which was a weird kind of comfort, as it confirmed that the church was as messed up then as it is now. Though the man appears to have been indestructible--a kind of whack-a-mole that keeps coming back?
I went through George Herbert's Country Parson and found it a bit meh.
We need whack-a-mole types (you seem to one btw).
Herbert's poems on the other hand...
I suppose Anne Lister's diary counts as an old book - the extracts in the book I have run between 1817 and 1824, and include fascinating details of life in Halifax, Yorkshire, and her love life with other women. It was published, with additional explanatory text, as I Know My Own Heart, by Helena Whitbread, who also broke the code that Anne Lister wrote the diary in.
As the result of a really weird series of events in my personal life, I've started (again) reading old books--I'm on Athanasius now, a little bit every day. Before that came Julian of Norwich and Thomas Browne, Religio Medici (The Faith of a Physician) from the 1640s. I also read Theologia Germanica, but would recommend against it--super annoying.
Is anybody else out there reading old books? What? And what would you recommend, and why?
I'm still in Athanasius, this time Contra Gentes (Against the Heathen), after reading his life--which was a weird kind of comfort, as it confirmed that the church was as messed up then as it is now. Though the man appears to have been indestructible--a kind of whack-a-mole that keeps coming back?
I went through George Herbert's Country Parson and found it a bit meh.
We need whack-a-mole types (you seem to one btw).
Herbert's poems on the other hand...
Dang, you've made my day.
Herbert's poems are awesome. I think I was hoping for something of a similar value. And it's not like what he wrote is bad, it's just ... meh.
I studied literature at uni, so I have have read and enjoyed a lot of old books - sometimes books I wouldn't have finished reading if I hadn't had to write an essay about them, but I ended up loving them and reading several times in detail.
I was never required to read Pride and Prejudice, but I have occasionally in the past started reading it out of curiosity, as it seems so popular. But I always found myself irritated by it, and stopped reading. However, I am currently reading it and am 75% through and intend to finish. I was partly motivated by an online friend who absolutely adores Pride and Prejudice, has a huge collection of copies of it, and reads it several times a year. And partly motivated by the fact I had got myself a ticket to see the play 'Pride & Prejudice (sort of)' at my local theatre. I had planned to finish reading it before watching the play, but I was very tired, so only read a third of it, but I found the play very entertaining and cleverly done, and has given me a fresh perspective on the book.
I give myself a challenge to motivate myself to read in general, where I am reading five books at a time. The others I'm reading aren't old books, though one of them is Wide Sargasso Sea, which is of course based on Jane Eyre, so it has that connection to an old book.
I am not the most intelligent person. I ploughed through The Odyssey. And whatever that Purgatory book is called from The Divine Comedy. In my 20s. At 47 I'm still not mature. They were interesting. But did I struggle. Do you just give up? Or do you think, it wasn't the right time, perhaps I was reading them more because I thought I should, rather than for entertainment/information?
I am a big fan, as I blabbered on elsewhere, of St Ephraim the Syrian [4th C], among other poetic and Syriac saints. His Hymns on Paradise, online if you are interested; I love II particularly, is one I am happy to return to.
Reading Wuthering Heights; slowly. Hearing Kate Bush's song again [love it! love her!] a while ago caused me to think, "I haven't read that!"
Purgatorio!
… abruptly imagining penitential cookies for Lent, Purgatoreos…
I like the Dorothy L. Sayers translation of the Divine Comedy. Did you read the Inferno as well? Most people seem to read that but they leave out the Purgatorio and Paradiso altogether, which is a shame.
I have been planning to read the Divine Comedy too. I bought from a National Trust used bookstore a copy of it with the Italian on one page and English translation on the next. Though I can't find it at the moment - I think it's under my bed somewhere! But I will find it at some point and read it.
I was a fan of Dennis Wheatley when I was at school. I liked the Duke de Richleau books but I mainly enjoyed the series of Gregory Sallust and Roger Brook books.
I read the Illiad and Odyssey at school and at my final speech day I chose a book on Greek Mythology as my prize. I always thought that Achilles had a very unfair advantage and that Paris was a cad and a bounder
One of the most honest (and probably accurate) reviews I have ever read.
I quite liked Silas Marner. Other Eliot I've found rather too worthy and high-minded.
Yes! Thank you! Exactly! The last few pages of Middlemarch took my breath away... "Lo, Dorothea's problem was that she didn't really have enough scope" or words to that effect... Well thank you for spelling that out author, in case I had not worked it out over the last 1000 pages or so...
Silas Marner is short enough that there's not so much of this padding and is all the better for it. Also I think it benefits from Eliot's teenage experience of evangelicalism giving her an insight into Marner's interior world. I love the "ecumenical dialogue" between Silas and Dolly Winthrop as well.
My favourite 19c. literary couple is Heathcliff and Cathy. Read it first at 17 in my last year of high school.
Honestly when reading it at school aged 14 my sympathies were entirely with Edgar. But then as a bespectacled nerd I probably saw the world in a rather similar way.
I am not the most intelligent person. I ploughed through The Odyssey. And whatever that Purgatory book is called from The Divine Comedy. In my 20s. At 47 I'm still not mature. They were interesting. But did I struggle. Do you just give up? Or do you think, it wasn't the right time, perhaps I was reading them more because I thought I should, rather than for entertainment/information?
I am a big fan, as I blabbered on elsewhere, of St Ephraim the Syrian [4th C], among other poetic and Syriac saints. His Hymns on Paradise, online if you are interested; I love II particularly, is one I am happy to return to.
Reading Wuthering Heights; slowly. Hearing Kate Bush's song again [love it! love her!] a while ago caused me to think, "I haven't read that!"
Purgatorio!
Oh! That was obvious haha. Told you I wasn't intelligent.
I like the Dorothy L. Sayers translation of the Divine Comedy. Did you read the Inferno as well? Most people seem to read that but they leave out the Purgatorio and Paradiso altogether, which is a shame.
I may look that up if I give it another go. Yes: I found them interesting, but a lot of the classical references flew over my head; but it was an enjoyable read despite my struggles.
On poetry, I think I have confessed this here before, but once I hit Year 11 I became very argumentative and disagreed violently with my English teacher about some (imnsho, god-awful) poem about a wombat, saying it had no redeeming qualities. He said if I stayed behind after school he'd teach me a different poet. And thus began my love affair with John Donne. And this at a bog-standard government school. I really didn't deserve my teachers.
I have been planning to read the Divine Comedy too. I bought from a National Trust used bookstore a copy of it with the Italian on one page and English translation on the next. Though I can't find it at the moment - I think it's under my bed somewhere! But I will find it at some point and read it.
I take it you read Italian? That would be interesting. I picked up some German books as encouragement when I learnt it in my 20s, but never got very far. On the Sunday night of Pascha (Easter), we read a Gospel passage in as many languages as possible; I could at least contribute that.
Can I add. I am not excusing myself. I was argumentative. I adored this English teacher. I did. But he and I had very different views on things. Add in my argumentativeness. I had challenged, question, probed, etc. for months in year 11 because I wanted him to explain his point of view and he never came back at me. Finally, we got this poem. I remember thinking, "It's okay...I don't like it. But let me give both barrels ["no redeeming qualities"] and he has to come back." He didn't. Again. I am not excusing my insane behaviour. But if you read it and enjoy it, and re-reading it now I don't mind it, that is some background.
edit: I did write to him after I left school and apologised. For what it's worth.
Honestly when reading it at school aged 14 my sympathies were entirely with Edgar. But then as a bespectacled nerd I probably saw the world in a rather similar way.
Me too. To adapt what was said of Thomas and Jane Carlyle, it is a pity Catherine did not marry Heathcliff as then only two people would have been miserable.
Welp. Slogged through Fraser's Golden Bough for probably the last time in this incarnation and moved on to more entertaining fare - Jan Comenius' Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart.
Incredible how his description of human foibles of 17th century Europe are so pointed, ironic and hilarious - and correspond directly to today's society 400 years later.
Comments
The classic reread I have in waiting at the moment is Dickens' David Copperfield which I haven't read for years. I have a lovely new (to me) secondhand hardback copy awaiting my attention: prompted by my real life book group's more recent read, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. The latter is not, in my opinion, worth spending any time on, but it has inspired me to reread the vastly superior original.
Mill on The Floss was serialised on TV back in the '60s - I didn't watch it, apart from one episode - presumably the final one.
I will not go any further with that, but was put off by that unfortunate introduction sufficiently to avoid reading it ever since. I have also been put off Middlemarch by comments made about its length, and the complexity of the story.
I regret those decisions, especially as that reluctance seems to have kept me away from her other novels.
I think I ought to see if the library has any of them on audiobook CDs.
I 'enjoyed' / was outraged by 'The way we live now' during the last time around the block with T**** in the White House. But from what I remember, I'm not sure I could handle it during his second incumbency. I think I'll stop there before I spoil this nice thread.
Haha, no worries! And actually, deciding to at least give it one more try, I downloaded a sample of "Barchester Towers" and was pleasantly surprised to find myself enjoying it! So no need for a simpler version after all!
A couple of weeks ago I was helping a customer to find some more Trollope. She'd read the first of the Palliser novels, and loved it, and we managed to find three more of the series for her. I did have to explain, though, that in Phineas Redux, Redux is not the character's surname!
What about Ferb?
Alternately, could the Phineas who is one of the hitchhiking ghosts in the Haunted Mansion be this Phineas? :O
yes, two Disney references in one go
I am a big fan, as I blabbered on elsewhere, of St Ephraim the Syrian [4th C], among other poetic and Syriac saints. His Hymns on Paradise, online if you are interested; I love II particularly, is one I am happy to return to.
Reading Wuthering Heights; slowly. Hearing Kate Bush's song again [love it! love her!] a while ago caused me to think, "I haven't read that!"
I read the Illiad and Odyssey at school and at my final speech day I chose a book on Greek Mythology as my prize. I always thought that Achilles had a very unfair advantage and that Paris was a cad and a bounder
I'm still in Athanasius, this time Contra Gentes (Against the Heathen), after reading his life--which was a weird kind of comfort, as it confirmed that the church was as messed up then as it is now. Though the man appears to have been indestructible--a kind of whack-a-mole that keeps coming back?
I went through George Herbert's Country Parson and found it a bit meh.
We need whack-a-mole types (you seem to one btw).
Herbert's poems on the other hand...
Herbert's poems are awesome. I think I was hoping for something of a similar value. And it's not like what he wrote is bad, it's just ... meh.
I was never required to read Pride and Prejudice, but I have occasionally in the past started reading it out of curiosity, as it seems so popular. But I always found myself irritated by it, and stopped reading. However, I am currently reading it and am 75% through and intend to finish. I was partly motivated by an online friend who absolutely adores Pride and Prejudice, has a huge collection of copies of it, and reads it several times a year. And partly motivated by the fact I had got myself a ticket to see the play 'Pride & Prejudice (sort of)' at my local theatre. I had planned to finish reading it before watching the play, but I was very tired, so only read a third of it, but I found the play very entertaining and cleverly done, and has given me a fresh perspective on the book.
I give myself a challenge to motivate myself to read in general, where I am reading five books at a time. The others I'm reading aren't old books, though one of them is Wide Sargasso Sea, which is of course based on Jane Eyre, so it has that connection to an old book.
Purgatorio!
… abruptly imagining penitential cookies for Lent, Purgatoreos…
I like the Dorothy L. Sayers translation of the Divine Comedy. Did you read the Inferno as well? Most people seem to read that but they leave out the Purgatorio and Paradiso altogether, which is a shame.
One of the most honest (and probably accurate) reviews I have ever read.
Yes! Thank you! Exactly! The last few pages of Middlemarch took my breath away... "Lo, Dorothea's problem was that she didn't really have enough scope" or words to that effect... Well thank you for spelling that out author, in case I had not worked it out over the last 1000 pages or so...
Silas Marner is short enough that there's not so much of this padding and is all the better for it. Also I think it benefits from Eliot's teenage experience of evangelicalism giving her an insight into Marner's interior world. I love the "ecumenical dialogue" between Silas and Dolly Winthrop as well.
Honestly when reading it at school aged 14 my sympathies were entirely with Edgar. But then as a bespectacled nerd I probably saw the world in a rather similar way.
I may look that up if I give it another go. Yes: I found them interesting, but a lot of the classical references flew over my head; but it was an enjoyable read despite my struggles.
On poetry, I think I have confessed this here before, but once I hit Year 11 I became very argumentative and disagreed violently with my English teacher about some (imnsho, god-awful) poem about a wombat, saying it had no redeeming qualities. He said if I stayed behind after school he'd teach me a different poet. And thus began my love affair with John Donne. And this at a bog-standard government school. I really didn't deserve my teachers.
I take it you read Italian? That would be interesting. I picked up some German books as encouragement when I learnt it in my 20s, but never got very far. On the Sunday night of Pascha (Easter), we read a Gospel passage in as many languages as possible; I could at least contribute that.
Can I add. I am not excusing myself. I was argumentative. I adored this English teacher. I did. But he and I had very different views on things. Add in my argumentativeness. I had challenged, question, probed, etc. for months in year 11 because I wanted him to explain his point of view and he never came back at me. Finally, we got this poem. I remember thinking, "It's okay...I don't like it. But let me give both barrels ["no redeeming qualities"] and he has to come back." He didn't. Again. I am not excusing my insane behaviour. But if you read it and enjoy it, and re-reading it now I don't mind it, that is some background.
edit: I did write to him after I left school and apologised. For what it's worth.
Oh, but the Paradiso is glorious! ❤️
They’re so cute! ❤️
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/o-uommibatto-how-the-pre-raphaelites-became-obsessed-with-the-wombat/
I've only seen two in the wild in my life [I'm almost 48]. And I bushwalk a fair bit. Though not necessarily where they live, to be fair.
It certainly is but Emily Bronte may well have invented it
Incredible how his description of human foibles of 17th century Europe are so pointed, ironic and hilarious - and correspond directly to today's society 400 years later.
The more things change ...
AFF