Weekend Quote (22): War and Peace

Most women believe that men only see beauty in order to love. This quote reminds you that love and beauty are related each other, but not in the way most women think….

“It is not beauty that endears, it’s love that makes us see beauty.”

This came from Nicholas, one of the main male characters in War and Peace, who addressed the sentence to…err…the woman who finally became his wife—I don’t want to spoil the name :)

What do you think?

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Scene on Three (4): More from War and Peace

Apparently, War and Peace still doesn’t stop to amaze me till now. It seems that every passage and every dialog is more important and more intense than the others. Prince Andrew is my most favorite character. His insight and his dialog (especially with Pierre) are always valuable. It seems that through Andrew, Tolstoy communicates his own thoughts of war, as well as of life.

This passage is taken from the night before one of the most important battles against French. Pierre was conversing with Andrew, and he asked his friend’s opinion on the tomorrow’s battle under the new appointed commander-in-chief. After having listening to another general about strategy, plans and positioning, Pierre was surprised to hear Andrew’s answer:

“Success never depends, and never will depend, on position, or equipment, or even on numbers, and least of all on position. (It’s) On the feeling that is in me and in him, and in each soldier. (…) A battle is won by those who firmly resolve to win it! Why did we lose the battle at Austerlitz? The French losses were almost equal to ours, but very early we said to ourselves that we were losing the battle, and we did lose it. And we said so because we had nothing to fight for there, we wanted to get away from the battlefield as soon as we could. 'We've lost, so let us run,' and we ran. If we had not said that till the evening, heaven knows what might not have happened. But tomorrow we shan't say it! You talk about our position, the left flank weak and the right flank too extended. That's all nonsense, there's nothing of the kind.

But what awaits us tomorrow? A hundred million most diverse chances which will be decided on the instant by the fact that our men or theirs run or do not run, and that this man or that man is killed, but all that is being done at present is only play. The fact is that those men with whom you have ridden round the position not only do not help matters, but hinder. They are only concerned with their own petty interests. To them it is only a moment affording opportunities to undermine a rival and obtain an extra cross or ribbon. For me tomorrow means this: a Russian army of a hundred thousand and a French army of a hundred thousand have met to fight, and the thing is that these two hundred thousand men will fight and the side that fights more fiercely and spares itself least will win. And if you like I will tell you that whatever happens and whatever muddles those at the top may make, we shall win tomorrow's battle. Tomorrow, happen what may, we shall win!”

And this is what Tolstoy believed too, and I feel that one of his reasons to write War and Piece was to tell us what historians failed to do: to reveal what really defined the course of a battle; it’s not the chief’s orders or plans, but the spirit of the whole army. War might be inflicted by one or more ambitious King(s), but in the end it is a movement of humanity.

~~~~~~~

Jadi bagaimana cara berpartisipasi dalam Scene on Three :

• Tuliskan suatu adegan atau deskripsi pemandangan/manusia/situasi/kota dan sebagainya ke dalam suatu post.
• Jelaskan mengapa adegan atau deskripsi itu menarik, menurut versi kalian masing-masing.
• Jangan lupa cantumkan button Scene on Three di dalam post dengan link menuju blog Bacaan B.Zee.
• Masukkan link post kalian ke link tools yang ada di bawah post Bacaan B.Zee, sekalian saling mengunjungi sesama peserta Scene on Three.
• Meme ini diadakan setiap tanggal yang mengandung angka tiga, sesuai dengan ketersediaan tanggal di bulan tersebut (tanggal 3, 13, 23, 30, dan 31).

Scene on Three (3): War and Peace

I am now reading one of Leo Tolstoy’s masterpieces: War and Peace. And despite of the uncomfortable-bulk-book and the tiny fonts, War and Peace turns out to be an enjoyable story. Now I am asking myself, why have I been delaying in reading this until now? Was I afraid that the book will be boring? Not at all! I’ve been enjoying every bit since the beginning, and now am quite glad that I still have 400 pages to go, hoho!

For Scene on Three, I have picked a passage from page 110, it is when Russian troops get their first chance to meet their enemy, the French army. Being ready in their line, separated by some spaces to the enemy’s front line might be quite exciting—or frightening? What are they really thinking of? Can you imagine? Tolstoy can portray very vividly the anxiety and the feeling of the soldiers in this passage. Enjoy!

“One step beyond that boundary line which resembles the line dividing the living from the dead, lies uncertainty suffering, and death. And what is there? Who is there?—there beyond that field, that tree, that roof lit up by the sun? No one knows, but one wants to know. You fear and yet long to cross that line, and know that sooner or later it must be crossed and you will have to find out what is there, just as you will inevitably have to learn what lies the other side of death. But you are strong, healthy, cheerful, and excited, and are surrounded by other such excitedly-animated and healthy men. So thinks, or at any rate feels, anyone who comes in sight of the enemy, and that feeling gives a particular glamour and glad keenness of impression of everything that takes place at such moments.”

~~~~~~~

Jadi bagaimana cara berpartisipasi dalam Scene on Three :

• Tuliskan suatu adegan atau deskripsi pemandangan/manusia/situasi/kota dan sebagainya ke dalam suatu post.
• Jelaskan mengapa adegan atau deskripsi itu menarik, menurut versi kalian masing-masing.
• Jangan lupa cantumkan button Scene on Three di dalam post dengan link menuju blog Bacaan B.Zee.
• Masukkan link post kalian ke link tools yang ada di bawah post Bacaan B.Zee, sekalian saling mengunjungi sesama peserta Scene on Three.
• Meme ini diadakan setiap tanggal yang mengandung angka tiga, sesuai dengan ketersediaan tanggal di bulan tersebut (tanggal 3, 13, 23, 30, dan 31).

Scene on Three (2): The Cherry Orchard

The Cherry Orchard is one of Anton Chekhov’s most famous plays. It’s about a family who is about to lose their estate in an auction because of their debts. Among the most treasured things about the estate, is the cherry orchard, which is claimed as the most beautiful place in the world by one of the characters in the play. The cherry orchard might not be just beautiful, but it keeps family history and secret for years, which bear sentimental memories in the resident’s heart.

For today’s Scene on Three, I picked a passage describing the beauty of the cherry orchard.

“In a field. An old, crooked shrine, which has been long abandoned; near it a well and large stones, which apparently are old tombstone, and an old garden seat. The road is seen to Gaev’s estate. On one side dark poplars, behind them begins the cherry orchard. In the distance is a row of telegraph poles, and far, far away on the horizon are the indistinct signs of a large town, which can only be seen on the finest and clearest days. It is close on sunset.”

I didn’t get used to read a playwright which is describing the scene so detailed, so this one is quite amazed me.

Jadi bagaimana cara berpartisipasi dalam Scene on Three :

• Tuliskan suatu adegan atau deskripsi pemandangan/manusia/situasi/kota dan sebagainya ke dalam suatu post.
• Jelaskan mengapa adegan atau deskripsi itu menarik, menurut versi kalian masing-masing.
• Jangan lupa cantumkan button Scene on Three di dalam post dengan link menuju blog Bacaan B.Zee.
• Masukkan link post kalian ke link tools yang ada di bawah post Bacaan B.Zee, sekalian saling mengunjungi sesama peserta Scene on Three.
• Meme ini diadakan setiap tanggal yang mengandung angka tiga, sesuai dengan ketersediaan tanggal di bulan tersebut (tanggal 3, 13, 23, 30, dan 31).

Weekend Quote 21: Purgatorio

For more than a week I have been delving into Dante’s Purgatorio, and this particular quote has been captured my mind.

“Insane is he who hopeth that our reason

Can traverse the illimitable way,

Which the one Substance in three Persons follows!

Mortals, remain contented at the ‘Quia’;

For if ye had been able to see all,

No need there were for Mary to give birth.”

These two stanzas appear within the Ante-Purgatory, in Canto III. Here Virgil scolds Dante for his thirst of knowledge about Purgatory and its mysterious nature. Virgil says that God only let humans to know part of its existence in the Universe; and men cannot ask for more.

Dante mentions about ‘the one Substance in three Persons follows, and I think he refers to The Holy Trinity; which we could never really understand. It is when humans cannot understand all, will there be faith, because faith is the one that fills the gap between what we know and what we don’t.

Dante insists that humans should remain content with the ‘what’ (quia), while keep being blind from the ‘why’. For if human get to know everything, Christ would not have ever to be sacrificed for us.

Thank you Dante (and Virgil) for the enlightenment! For I believe that thirst of knowledge leads us to many sins, including Pride and Avaricious, and it is what made Adam and Eve fell to sin in the first place.

What do you think?

Weekend Quote is a meme hosted by by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 20: Richard III

“O momentary grace of mortal men,

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!

Who builds his hopes in air of your good looks,

Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,

Ready, with every nod, to tumble down

Into the fatal bowels of the deep.”

It’s Lord Hastings’ lamentation just before he was executed by the order of Richard III. He condemns men who only hunt mortal virtues rather than God’s wisdom; for their lives would be so vulnerable, that very little obstacles or crisis would draw them down.

Do you agree?

Weekend Quote is a meme hosted by by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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The Taming of The Shrew Quote: Play Monthly Meme April

This month's prompt for Listra's Play Monthly Meme, as a part of Let's Read Plays event pick the easier topic so far: 

Memorable Quote

When Lucentio decided to disguise as a school teacher to approach Bianca, his servant Tranio—knowing that Lucentio would soon bury himself into books—advised his master to put pleasure too into consideration:

“No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en. In brief, sir, study what you most affect”

And I am 100% agree with Tranio. Every job, every task, would never bear any decent fruit if we don’t love it. Maybe with a severe determination, we could achieve something from tasks we loath, but in the end, is it worth? It would only desperate us.

Bless us all, book bloggers who love to read books, and put huge efforts to write reviews, to host events, and to patiently maintain our blogs, only to gain satisfaction in the end! :)

As this meme is about quote, I’ll include this post in my 20^th Weekend Quote, a weekly meme also hosted by the fair Shakespeare’s lover: Listra….

Weekend Quote is a meme hosted by by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 19: The Masterpiece

The Masterpiece is called the most autobiographical novel of Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series. Zola’s personage was reflected from Pierre Sandoz, a kind hearted novelist, a best friend of Claude Lantier—the protagonist of this book—who represented Paul Cézanne or Claude Monet. The quote I am featuring this week is from Sandoz,

“So long as you can say to yourself that you’ve put your whole life into your work, that you expect neither immediate justice nor even serious appreciation, that you’re working without hope of any kind, simply because the urge to work beats in your body like your heart, because you can’t help it, you can let yourself die happy and console yourself with the illusion that you’ll be appreciated one day…”

I can’t agree more with it. Sandoz here wanted to console Claude who was depressed because the world rejected his works, and he felt himself useless. The fact is, we might be different from others, we might not be with the mainstream, but that doesn’t mean that we are not as good as they are. I believe that success comes not from the world’s appreciation, but from the happiness which our work had brought us. As long as we can do what we want which came from our heart, make the best of it, to achieve what is right for us, then I’ll call that ‘success’. To be praised by others would be a bonus, but without that, we can claim that we have served our purpose very well…. and die happily, as Sandoz put it…

Do you agree?

Weekend Quote is a meme hosted by by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 18: Mrs. Dalloway

This is, or would perhaps be, my longest Weekend Quote—if not passage—so far…. But, I just can’t ignore this beautiful passage from Virginia Woolf which shows her genius in mind description. This is taken from Lucrezia “Rezia” Warren Smith, a suffering wife of a mad man—either schizophrenia or post-war nerve disorder—Septimus. Rezia loved Septimus a lot, and she always tried to save him from humiliation in public, by making him looks normal, so that people won’t see his abnormal behavior. This, and feeling that Septimus did not love her anymore, tortured her. She felt lonely because she must endure it alone, having nobody to tell about it. And Woolf has described Rezia’s deep feeling in this…

“There was nobody. Her words faded. So a rocket fades. Its sparks, having grazed their way into the night, surrender to it, dark descends, pour over the outlines of houses and towers; bleak hillsides soften and fall in. But though they are gone, the night is full of them; robbed of colour, blank windows, they exist more ponderously, give out what the frame daylight fails to transmit—the trouble and suspense of things conglomerated there in the darkness; reft of the relieve which dawn brings when washing the walls white and gray, spotting each window-pane, lifting the mist from the fields, showing the red-brown cows peacefully grazing, all is once more decked out to the eye; exists again.”

Does being alone in a great suffer feel like dissolving into the darkest of the night? Maybe it’s when we are in our deepest despair. But somehow, the sun will shine again, we exist again. Or is it about bearing humiliation? That Rezia wanted to dissolve into the dark, but she couldn't hide it forever from the world, that one morning, everything would be clear, and everyone can see it? I don’t know, until now I still vaguely hold the meaning of that passage. It deserves my deeper reflection. Can you light me?

Weekend Quote is a meme hosted by by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 17: Medea

This time I’d like to share a passage from Medea, a Greek play by Euripides.

‘Tis best men tread the equal way.

Aye, not with glory but with peace

May the long summers find me crowned;

For gentleness-her very sound

Is magic, and her usages.

All wholesome; but the fiercely great

Hath little music on his road,

And falleth, when the hand of God

Shall move, most deep and desolate.

The nurse (nurse of Medea and Jason’s children) reflected that she was very grateful to live a moderate life, as she believed that wealth and fortune only brought unhappiness towards men. It’s wisely true, but unfortunately greediness is often overshadow this wisdom from us.

Weekend Quote is a meme hosted by by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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When Love Is Gone… (A Quote From Little Dorrit)

While this quote I picked from Dickens’ Little Dorrit might not have any greater values, it was such a beautifully written piece that I can’t just leave unquoted. This narration followed a poor gentleman in this story, who had been unlucky in his love adventure.

Here’s the previous narration…. ‘When he had walked on the river’s brink in the peaceful moonlight for some half an hour, he put his hand in his breast, and tenderly took out the handful of roses (a farewell present from the girl he has been in love with). Perhaps he put them to his hearts, perhaps he put them to his lips, but certainly he bent down on the shore, and gently launched them on the flowing river…’

And this is the beautiful-touching quote I picked for my Weekend Quote this week, and which inspired me to find a beautiful image that suits it:

“While the flowers, pale and unreal in the moonlight, floated away from the river; and thus do greater things that once were in our breasts, and near our hearts, flow from us to the eternal seas.”

Well I think it’s not just about lovers, everytime we lost something dear to our hearts (it could be a friendship, a big opportunity, or anything we value the most in life), the above metaphor of the roses flowed from us to the eternal seas could describe perfectly our feelings, don’t you think so?

This can be regarded as my 16^th Weekend Quote, a meme hosted by by Half-FilledAttic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 15: The Portrait of A Lady

Still from The Portrait of A Lady, this time I borrowed something Ralph Touchett—a dying young man who loved the heroine, Isabel Archer, but knowing that he won’t be a good husband for her, he could only love from afar—had said to Isabel. If only Ralph didn’t have love in his heart, he must have died months before, but his love for Isabel had made him much stronger. He chose to live because he worried about Isabel’s unhappiness. This was what he said to Isabel when Ralph was about to go home to London, to die in peace…

“It was for you that I wanted—that I wanted to live.”

It is short, simple, distinct and really-deeply touching!

Why oh why, women tend to love long-flowery sentences (or even poems??)—that might keep a lot of contradictions if you are thorough enough to examine them—while there is a very simple way to express one’s love.

When a man expressed that he had forced himself to live—while he could have rested in peace—just because he loves you, well…what more do you expect, ladies?

This Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 11: Julius Caesar

From Julius Caesar I learned that Brutus was a loveable and loyal friend. However, it was a bit of ironic that he was sad when his relationship with Cassius grown cold, after what he had done to his other intimate friend: Julius Caesar. Anyway, what Brutus said about friendship is deserves our reflection, because it is so true….

When love begins to sicken and decay, It useth an enforced ceremony. There are no tricks in plain and simple faith. But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, Make gallant show and promise of their mettle.

Be careful if one of your friends suddenly changes his/her behavior! :)

This Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 10: The Scarlet Letter

I happened to find this lovely quote from The Scarlet Letter. This quote appeared in the narration, when Hester and Dimmesdale met each other in the forest in ‘A Flood of Sunshine’ chapter. This was a crucial moment for both of them, for many things changed (especially for Dimmesdale) after this forest excursion. Here is the quote…

Love, whether newly born or aroused from a deathlike slumber, must always create sunshine, filling the heart so full of radiance, that it overflows upon the outward world.

In fact, I believe that Dimmesdale found his courage and new spirit from his meeting with Hester, particularly after having Hester’s love and support. Without it, I think Dimmesdale would keep continuing his life under the evil power until his death. Love DOES create sunshine, doesn’t it?

This Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weekend Quote 8: Gone With The Wind

Since I’m still reading Gone With The Wind, I hope I’m not boring you with another post about this book :)… I found this piece of quote from Part four. The Civil War has been over, yet the worst would still come. In this Part four I begin to see what Mitchell wanted to speak through her book. It was about the changing era that was following the war. In the middle of the uncertainty of the future, Mitchell showed us through her characters and their dialogues, that one must be brave to move along. One must not regret over the ideal life he once had, and dreams for living the same ideal in the future. One must work hard—although it is far from his ideal—to survive and to face the future.

This particular quote showed that spirit,

“It’s a poor person and a poor nation that sits down and cries because life isn’t precisely what they expected it to be.”

I think it helps us too right here, right now. The world is changing rapidly, and we know that the ideal life has long gone, so we must go on living, never dream about the past, but do our best for the future.

This Weekend Quote is hosted by Half-Filled Attic. Feel free to join. You can:

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Weeken Quote 4: Lord of The Flies

This time I picked a quote from Lord of The Flies by William Golding. It’s about a bunch of little and teenage boys who must live by themselves in an isolated island. Several of them soon transformed to barbarians while only few of them could keep their sanity. This quote is from Piggy, one of the civilized boys, a boy of twelve years old, fat, with severe asthma and a pair of thick glasses. A kind of boy who would be neglected in the real world, but proved to be the most reasonable among the other boys in the island. The quote was addressed to the tribe (the barbarian boys) in the beginning of their unequal battle….

“Which is better—to be a pack of painted niggers like you are, or to be sensible like Ralph [Piggy’s friend who was elected as their Chief] is?
Which is better—to have rules and agree, or to hunt and kill?
Which is better, law and rescue, or hunting and breaking things up?”

In our lives, this quote was also relevant, as we have so often watched how people became more and more barbarian in spite of the more modern life… Don’t you agree?

Lord of The Flies is a very good book that I recommend you to read, the review will be published next Wednesday.

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My Favorite Classics (Classics Club Meme August)

This is the first monthly meme for The Classics Club (yes, we have our own meme, and it only makes classics reading for the next five years becomes more fun!). Actually topic of this month is quite simple, favorite classics, however I find it difficult to pick only ONE favorite. I have a lot of favorites, and have managed to narrow the list to four, but could never decide which one I love the most. So, here are my favorite classics until now… (it could change now and then!)

The Curtain by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s were the first adult novel I read when I was in junior high school. Before that my readings were of Enid Blyton’s or Alfred Hitchcock’s adventure novels. Then someday I found “After The Funeral” in school library, and was suddenly intrigued to read a murder case. That was my first ‘love’ with Agatha Christie. After that, every time my parents took me to bookstore and let me choose one novel to buy, I always picked Agatha Christie’s. Agatha Christie has opened my eyes for the first time that life is not black or white as in children tales, where the good people do good deeds and bad ones do evil things. No, in true life, good ordinary people can commit a murder because of many reasons, not because they were born evil. I love almost all of Hercule Poirot’s series and several other stories with no detective (And Then There Were None), but my most favorite is always The Curtain. I have read The Curtain for several times, and still cried every time at the end. The Curtain is not only our farewell to Poirot, but it made me realize that in life we cannot win every battle, that sometimes the evil must win, and what we can do is only trying to minimize the damage as best as we can. Just as Poirot did.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill A Mockingbird was among the first classics I have read when I was an adult, and it was one of the reason I am now delving into classics works [and join The Classics Club :) ]. This book is not only entertaining, it’s also touching. I have read To Kill A Mockingbird few times, and would re-read it again for The Classics Club. A book that is entertaining is a good book. A book contains high moral value or deeply touch you is a great book. But a book which can entertain and deeply touch you at the same time is the greatest book! To Kill A Mockingbird is within the last one, which I would recommend to everyone over and over again.

Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

When I was a child (I think my readings at that time was Enid Blyton’s Famous Five or Herge’s Tintin), my dad bought me a big-thick book contained of three stories, Florence Nightingale, The Three Musketeers and another story which I forgot. It was kind of novel with many illustrations, meant for young readers. I was so fond of that book, that I remember read it again and again, particularly The Three Musketeers which I read most often. I was so amazed with the story, to the musketeers’ spirit and friendship (every time they gathered their sword tips and yelled ‘all for one and one for all!’), and to the royal nuances throughout the story (the illustrations helped my imagination a lot). In short, I have fell in love with it right then. And then, around two years ago I re-read The Three Musketeers again (now the complete novel, translated to Bahasa Indonesia). It’s a completely different experience this time, and I found myself fell deeper in love with it. Finally I completed my thirst of Dumas’ Three Musketeers series by reading The Man In The Iron Mask and Twenty Years After. Then I found a new favorite…Twenty Years After! This is the best part of the series, where the four devoted friends had their reunion after twenty years separation. Twenty Years After have more actions than Three Musketeers, and in this part their friendship were hardly tried. I got to know more about each personal character through this novel, and the emotion remains with me long after I finished it.

L’Assommoir by Emile Zola

What can I say? After the first Zola’s I’ve read last year (Therese Raquin), I fell in love with his writing. Reading Zola is not at all fun, but his books (I’ve read two so far, and am reading the third) always trouble my soul. So far I liked L’Assommoir better than Therese Raquin, but as I am reading Germinal right now, my favorite could still change :)

That was for books of my favorites, what’s yours?

Weekend Quote (3): Black Beauty

I have just finished Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty today, and would like to share some quotes that touched me quite deeply. All of these quotes are from Jerry Barker, a kind hearted man who became one of Black Beauty’s favorite masters.

“Do your best,

And leave the rest,

Twill all come right

Some day or night”

“’Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?’

‘No,’ said the other.

‘Then I’ll tell you. It is because people think only about their own business, and won’t trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doer to light.”

“My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and yet do nothing, we make ourselves shares in the guilty.”

Do you have favorite quotes from books you read? Let's share in Listra's weekly meme!

The idea is to pick a quote from a book or author you read, like, or hate, and write your comment about it. You can post the “Weekend Quote” article every weekend (Saturday or Sunday), or at any weekend suits you best.

Here are the rules:

• You have to pick one quote and comment about it. It may be the reason why you agree or don't agree with it, or why it is interesting for you. I can also be your experience that reminds you of that quote. Feel free to use your imagination. :D
• Please put the picture of “Weekend Quote” on either your blog sidebar or everytime you post the quote. (It helps people to know what we are doing).
• Please give a link back to Listra’s blog at your post.

Weigh in Wednesday (6): Graphic Novel vs Traditional Novel

When I am in reading process, a huge movie is performing at the same time inside my mind. Of course, I created the scene and image by my own imagination, based on the description of what I read from the book. That’s why I love traditional novel because it provides me a wide room for imagination. With graphic novel, I cannot do such thing. Graphic novel already provided the image or illustration for the story, thus we lose the freedom of imagination. So, weighing the two choices of this week, I pick traditional novel! Novels are always promising the fun of reading pages full of words! J

What about you? Are you a fan of graphic or traditional novel? You can share your weigh in Wednesday, hosted by Lauren.

And if you love memes, please check out my weekly meme : Character Thursday

Top Ten Books I Had VERY Strong Emotions About: Top Ten Tuesday Rewind (5)

I’m glad that we can pick any past topic we want for this week’s top ten Tuesday (it’s Top Ten Tuesday Rewind, woohoo!). This time I’d pick a topic I haven’t write, since I hadn’t joined this meme at that time, it’s about books I had strong emotions about. Here’s the top ten emotional classics book I’ve ever read (in random order):

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Until now, To Kill A Mockingbird is still my favorite book of all time. I have read it twice, and twice it stirred my emotion.

Quo Vadis? by Henryk Sienkiewicz

The part which left a great effect to me is the scene of Paul asking Jesus when he (Paul) run away from Christians’ slaughter by Nero: “Quo vadis, domine?”, and Jesus answered: “Because now you leave my people, I would go to Rome, to be crucified for the second time” (or something like that, as I read the translation copy).

The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank

I’m touched by how Anne always kept her hopes in life, even though life had not been friendly to her.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

It’s the only Dickens’ book that shed my tears (until now, because I haven’t read all of his books). It’s the true love showed by Sydney Carton that caused it…

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

I know, Monte Cristo does not suppose to be an emotional novel, however I found my self quite engaged by the last chapter, especially when Dantes met Mercédès for the last time.

L’Assommoir by Emile Zola

Reading Zola means you must be prepared, for Zola is a true naturalist. He writes the worst of life, and it’s often striking and even shocking. L’Assommoir did shocked me with the dying scene.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

This perhaps is the most touching children book I’ve ever read.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

The melodramatic ending of Uncle Tom has successfully shed my tears..

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

I think its epistolary style gives a more emotional touch to Celie’s fight as a woman and an African-American.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Marcia Marquez

When it said emotions, it doesn’t have to be something touching, right? Anger or disgust is emotion too. And I put this book in the bottom of the list because I HATE the male protagonist: Florentino Ariza!

What about you? What books do you think have the strong emotion? You can share your top ten Tuesday here.

And if you love memes, please check out my weekly meme : Character Thursday