Miss Marley (2018) by Vanessa Lafaye #ALiteraryChristmas #InspiredByClassics

🎄 We all know A Christmas Carol is the most famous Christmas story ever, written by Charles Dickens, the man who re-invented the Christmas spirit. It' is about Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation - perhaps the biggest character transformation in literature. We know what has made him the hard miser we have known him at the start. And his transformation begun with Jacob Marley. But what we know about Marley? What had made him ended up a tormented spirit burdened with those self-forged chains? This novella, Miss Marley, is our answer, written as a prequel to A Christmas Carol.

🎄 Miss Marley is Clara Bell Marley, sister to Jacob Marley. The siblings lived comfortably in their big house. But after their parents death, they were expelled from their house by their corrupt wicked uncle. Thus begun their wretched lives in London's slump. It began in working house, which infected poor Clara's lung and gave her severe coughing. Then Jacob brought her out in the street. And that's where we saw them at the beginning of the story.

🎄 Few days before Christmas, cold, hungry, and homeless, the siblings kept dreaming of a better life. Jacob was caring and attentive towards his sister. During their wretched hours, he kept telling her that he will fight and work hard to make Clara's life happier. One night they witnessed a man dying in the corner of the street. Instead of calling for help, Jacob picked one the man's two purses, and they ran away.

🎄 The money provided them shelter and medicine for Clara. They started working, and with the money, Clara suggested to lend money to the poor - thus the start of their money-lending business. Later on Jacob would find the acquaintance of a young ambitious Ebenezer Scrooge, with whom he would partner in building Scrooge and Marley counting house.

🎄 As soon as they started the money-lending business, Clara witnessed how Jacob gradually changed, from the caring and attentive boy who protected her in the street, to be the ruthless businessman who ignored his clients' plight for the sake of gain. This makes Clara abandoned their joint business, and chose to work at the store instead. After Scrooge and Marley, Jacob's transformation to the heartless man became more permanent. He didn't even relent when Clara and her fiancée needed business fund.

🎄 If you love A Christmas Carol, then this novella might thrill you. But let me warn you that it's less cheerful and hopeful for a Christmas read. It's about what had led Marley to be the doomed spirit, is it not? You can't hope that kind of story would make you feel Christmassy. But as a classic reader, I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Moreover, Vanessa Lafaye has kept the atmosphere true to Dickensian London.

🎄 An interesting fact: Lafaye died in the midst of writing this novella. The publisher and her husband then asked her writer friend Rebecca Mascull to continue. And we must give credit to Mascull for a seamless story, which you wouldn't know had been penned by two writers.

Rating: 🎄🎄🎄🎄

James: A Novel by Percival Everett, the reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn #InspiredByClassics

Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

🛶 James is the reimagining story of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, now told from the enslaved Jim's point of view. My reading of Huckleberry Finn was a few decades ago (hence no link of a review to provide here), that I almost remember nothing of the details before reading this book.

🛶 This story begins at the same point as was Huckleberry Finn. Jim heard about Miss Watson's intention to sell him, while Huck was apprehensive following news that his abusive Pap is coming home. Both slave and boy ran away that night. First to the Jackson island, then along the Mississippi river, with a lot of adventures - misadventures is more appropriate; more dangerous than fun - and revelations.

🛶 Their first adventures are close to what Mark Twain written in Huckleberry Finn - their boating along Mississippi river towards Cairo, the great flood that swept a house, from which they took provisions. I don't remember, though, the identity of the corpse they found in the house, which, would be revealed later in this novel. Their encounter with two con artists or confidence men, the King and the Duke, who were always attempting to prey on the gullible and naive, is also told here.

🛶 The major difference between the two books is in the depth of the story. Huckleberry Finn is more appropriate for YA readers, while James is more for those who had read the latter at school and now want to dig deeper than just what's on the surface, that is the adventures. For instance, here we get to know more of Jim's personality - his thirst for knowledge and passion for reading and writing.

🛶 His literary passions shaped Jim to be a more dignified man. The farther we plough through the book, we get to know the true mind and personality beneath the seemingly stupid, enslaved Jim: the intelligent, resilient, family man James.

🛶 Through James we were reminded of the extend of cruelty in slavery. Not only physical - the punishment, the lynching - but also the belittling of innocent human being. This novel is daubed as "both harrowing and ferociously funny". I personally think it's more thought provoking, though there are sprinkles of hilarity here and there, and of course, it's packed with the youthful adventures we are familiar with from Huckleberry Finn.

🛶 My favorite part is when Jim, or I should call him from now on James, talk normally to his fellow blacks, but then changes his language when a white people is present. His philosophizing in his mind or dream with John Locke or Voltaire is indeed quite hilarious. But my most favorite is perhaps the biggest revelation in James and Huck Finn's relationship; that is something I did not see coming, yet, quite makes sense. Their dynamic relationship is the book's soul anyway.

🛶 Needless to say, I am so impressed by this book, something I didn't expect. It deserves one day to be a classic of its own, which I believe Mark Twain would have approve had he read it himself. It's harrowing, but also hopeful.

Rating: 5 / 5

**James will be published on 11th April 2024.

Jane and The Twelve Days of Christmas by Stephanie Barron #InspiredByClassics

🎄Jane Austen is famous for her wit and intelligence in her writings. Now imagine, what if she's used those qualities to investigate a murder mystery? That's what Stephanie Barron captured in her "In Being Jane Austen Mystery" series. This Christmas story is the first time I heard about this series, but I loved it, so I might read more in the future.

🎄 The Austens were invited to celebrate Christmas at the Vyne, home of William Chute, a prominent figure in British politics. By the Austens I meant Jane, her mother, her sister Cassandra, her brother James and his family. Yes, Barron brought the real Austen's family and friends into the story. Not only that, in fact Barron based her story on Jane Austen's letters and journals.

🎄 It's the year of 1714; Napoleon has been banished to Elba, and John Quincy Adams signed the Treaty of Ghent on Christmas Eve. A messenger was sent to dispatch the treaty, but was killed while staying at the Chutes' while the area was snowbound. Meaning, that the murderer is one of the staying guests. The question is, is it a political murder, or a personal one?

🎄 It being a cozy mystery, the murder itself only happened after one third of the book. And if you worry lest the Christmas vibes is going to be polluted by the murder, don't be! There's a lot of Christmassy things to be enjoyed despite of the murder. Jane and Cassandra's Christmas presents to their niece, for instance. A beautiful doll and its twelve gorgeous handmade outfits, each submitted in twelve days of Christmas, is perhaps what most girls would ever dream of! And don't forget about the hint of a (promising) romance throughout the story..l. 😘

🎄 All in all, if you are a fan of Jane Austen, or at least of 18-19th century literature, and in need of cozy mystery with Christmas vibes, then this book is a perfect one. But diehard fans of crime novel might be disappointed by the plot.

Rating: 3,5 / 5

Mrs. Osmond by John Banville #InspiredByClassics

🖤 Mrs. Osmond is none other than Isabel Archer from Henry James' The Portrait of a Lady. Banville wrote this book to imagine Isabel's fate after her marriage with the deceitful Gilbert Osmond, who actually loved other woman (Madame Merle) and only married Isabel for money.

🖤 Mrs. Osmond starts where Portrait ends, thus making it a sort of its direct sequel. Banville's similarity in writing to James' style is also quite uncanny.

🖤 After Ralph's death in Portrait, Isabel was said to be leaving for Rome, returned to her bitter marriage with Gilbert Osmond. But Mrs. Osmond "revealed" to us that she's actually reluctant to return home, and made a detour, instead, to familiar places in England and France, in order to sort out her own predicament and what she would/could do when she must inevitably confront her husband. Would she continue to live unhappily in Rome, or could she secure her freedom, which Ralph has intended to when he left her the inheritance?

🖤 Reading this book reminded me again of how I was drowned to Isabel Archer's personalities while reading Portrait. Her intelligence, her crave for freedom, and her independent way of thinking. But also her pride and sense of duty to others who depended on her, which eventually led her to bitterness. In a way, I share those qualities, and that's why both Portrait and Mrs. Osmond would forever be two of the most memorable readings for me.

🖤 I would love to share Isabel's final decision here, but I think knowing the ending would lose the charm of reading this book. You need to follow Isabel's psychological struggle, moments of doubts, and her courage, to truly understand and appreciate the ending, whatever it might be.

🖤 A marvelous book, one that I'm sure Henry James himself would have approved!

Rating: 4,5 / 5