A Classics Challenge December Prompt: Wrap Up

This is the last prompt of 2012 A Classics Challenge hosted by Katherine (November’s Autumn), that act as well as a wrap up post for the whole year, and I am proudly say that I have participated in every prompt since January.

Link to your favorite Classic Literature post you've written this year, it doesn't have to be related to this challenge. Just something you'd enjoy sharing.

Or make a list of what you read for the challenge, you could compare it to your original list drawn up late 2011 when you were planning what to read, link to the posts you've written for the challenge, how many authors you've read or any little stat or detail you'd like to share.

I have posted so many classics literature, that it’s difficult to pick any favorite posts, so I’ll just pick my five favorite classics literature reviews that I mostly wrote in freshly emotional state right after reading the book:

Beloved

Germinal

Lord of The Flies

The Scarlet Letter

Great Expectations

And these are all the prompt from January to November:

January (Author)

February (Character)

March (Setting)

April (Cover)

May (Literary Movement)

June (Visual Tour)

July (Lasting Impression)

August (Quote) 

September (Music) 

October (Chapter Musing)

November prompt

Last but not least, I’d like to thank Katherine for hosted such an interesting literary challenge that have brought certain sensation into my classics readings during 2012. I don’t know whether this challenge would be up again next year, but I had much fun this year!

A Classics Challenge November Prompt

As we are approaching the end of 2012, November’s prompt for A Classics Challenge is asking us to summarize our classics reading during this year. I’m going to answer all of them…

Of all the Classics you've read this year is there an author or movement that has become your new favorite?

It’s Shakespeare! As a non-English speaker, and not having learned about any classics literature in school, my experience with the Bard was practically zero, until this year. Months ago I have decided to try Shakespeare’s comedy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, however without any success. I almost got lost about what’s going on or what’s so funny about it, being a comedy. But then I realized that maybe I have read it in a wrong way. That’s why I gave Shakespeare a second chance by hosting Let’s Read Plays reading event, where most of the themes are dedicated to the Bard. This time I’m going to read Shakespeare’s works as they should be praised. And it works! I have just finished Julius Caesar, which I loved dearly—or maybe it’s because I’m an ancient Rome history’s fan? Anyway..I think this was only the beginning, I am now reading Antony and Cleopatra, and I’m more and more falling in love with Shakespeare’s smart and witty writing.

Which book did you enjoy the most?

This is always the toughest question in every meme, but if I have to choose only one book, it’s Emile Zola’s Germinal. This books is perfect in many categories of my favorite books; the story was intense and emotional, it has a hope at the ending (not a depressing hopeless ones as most of Zola’s), and I love how Zola wrote it.

Or were baffled by?

Notes From Underground (Dostoyevsky). I’m almost totally lost of what the narrator (the underground man) was complaining. When it seems I begin to vaguely get to it, the man would babble about something else, and I’m lost again. I’m around 20% of it now, and pessimistic I can ever finish it… :(

Who's the best character?

Etienne Lantier from Germinal. I have featured him in one of my Character Thursdays. 

The most exasperating (character)?

Scarlett O’Hara from Gone With The Wind. Haha…you’ve probably known about this already. This is the only main character I couldn’t find any positive personality from all books I’ve ever read.

From reading other participants' posts which book do you plan to read and are most intrigued by?

There are a lot of them, but from several suggestions in my Classics Club November meme (most intimidating classics), I’m most intrigued to read Dante’s The Divine Comedy. I can’t wait to read it next year for Listra’s Narrative Poem Reading Challenge!

Back To The Classics Challenge 2012 – Wrap Up

This is my wrap up for Back To The Classics Challenge 2012 hosted by Sarah.

Any 19th Century Classic -- The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Any 20th Century Classic -- Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Reread a classic of your choice -- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

A Classic Play -- A Midsummer Night's Dream -- by William Shakespeare

Classic Mystery/Horror/Crime Fiction -- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Classic Romance -- Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Read a Classic that has been translated from its original language to your language -- A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (translated to Bahasa Indonesia)

Classic Award Winner -- Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell (Pulitzer)

Read a Classic set in a Country that you (realistically speaking) will not visit during your lifetime -- Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

I wrote this post as soon as I have finished all the readings (this is the first challenge I have completed this year), there are many others I still have to complete.. :(

And I’d like to thank Sarah for this challenge, it’s been fun, although I haven’t got the chance to hop to each of other participants posts.

Beloved - A Classics Challenge October: Chapter Musing

October prompt for A Classics Challenge is….

Chapter Musing

Jot down some notes about the chapter you've just read or one that struck you the most. It can be as simple as a few words you learned, some quotes, a summary, or your thoughts and impressions.

This time I’ll pick a powerful novel by Toni Morrison: Beloved. This is a dark chronicle about slavery, and the particular passage I choose is from Chapter 15 (p. 140 – 141). Baby Suggs was a black old woman slave who has been freed by her son. This passage reflected how she felt on the day of her freedom, after having been a slave for sixty years!

“The sadness was at her center, the desolated center where the self that was no self made its home. Sad as it was that she did not know where her children were buried or what they looked like if alive, fact was she knew more about them than she knew about herself, having never had the map to discover what she was alike."

 "Could she sing? (was it nice to hear when she did?) Was she pretty? Was she a good friend? Could she have been a loving mother? A faithful wife? Have I got a sister and does she favor me? If my mother knew me, would she like me?” ~ p.140

Hope by George Frederic Watts, 
an oil on canvas, 1885

“She didn’t know what she looked like and was not curious. But suddenly she saw her hands and thought with a clarity as simple as it was dazzling, “These hands belong to me. These my hands.” Next she felt a knocking in her chest and discovered something else new: her own heartbeat. Had it been there all along? She felt like a fool and began to laugh out loud.” ~ p.141

I was kind of struck by this passage. It will never have occurred to me that when ones were born as slaves, they could never possess anything in their life. Everything belonged to their masters, and everything they could get, they got from the masters, even their names. The masters used to split families, and sold children to separate buyers to cut any relationship of the slaves. They never knew who they were in this world, they just did not have the root and probably have never existed, if nobody bought them freedom. They would never know many things about their qualities, and…well…there were so many things they would never experienced, although they had never done anything wrong.

It’s really a tragedy when innocent people were dehumanized by others; when they did not permitted to have even themselves as a human. Reading about how Baby Suggs was surprised to realize that her hands now belonged to her, that her heart was pounding to give herself a life was...well, that was a powerful image, really!

And I just realized something, which one is better for them: living their whole lives as slaves, or like Baby Suggs, could experience freedom at last? But after they have been enslaved for all their lives, could they manage to survive in the world alone (if they had been separated from the families)? That would be awful… :(

Robinson Crusoe & Vanessa Mae - A Classic Challenge September: Music

When the September prompt for A Classic Challenge was published in Katherine’s November’s Autumn, I was skeptic that I would be able to post it this month, the prompt is…

…to select a piece of...

Music

...that you feel reflects the book. Modern, classical, jazz, anything, it doesn't have to be from the period of the novel but share what it is about the piece that echoes the novel in someway.

Well, that was hard because I’m not a big fan of music, though I have quite a lot of CD collections. I can’t imagine what music would reflect Gone With The Wind or Robinson Crusoe—two classics that I’ve been reading this month. However, not long after I have finished Robinson Crusoe—and the rescue scene was still lingering in my mind—one of Vanessa-Mae’s songs suddenly echoed in my ears. It was Contradanza, one of my favorite of hers in my ‘The Violin Player’ album.

I knew instantly that that song would perfectly reflect the emotion of the rescue scene in Robinson Crusoe. It was when Friday first saw three canoes approaching the island, then told Crusoe about it, who instantly arranged an ambush (with only two of them!). The process, how he was agitated to see the strangers and wanted to fight and kill them, how he armed himself and Friday and marched together to the beach; but on the way he reflected that he did not have the right to act as judge by killing them; then after seeing that they were to kill the prisoner, decided to attack them. Then finally the battle scene began…and oh…how all of those made my heart pounding so hard!

This is the song, what do you think? Does it reflect the heroic battle scene? 

And this is how the energetic Vanessa-Mae played this song in one of her concerts. I love her performance!

Vanessa-Mae (Vanessa-Mae Vanakorn Nicholson) was a British violinist who was born in Singapore, from a Thai father and a Chinese mother—a semi-professional concert pianist. Her music style is self-described as "violin techno-acoustic fusion", as several of her albums prominently feature the techno style. She began playing piano at the age of three and violin at five. At ten she joined the Philharmonia, and at twelve she joined the London Mozart Players in Mozart Bicentenary.

The Classics Club Group Check-In #1: September 2012

It’s been six month that I have been joining The Classics Club, and so far it’s been enjoyable. Especially when this club has been grown to a bigger community (221 clubbers to date), and has been taken seriously by a number of moderators. Here we are not only organizing our classics reading for five years, it’s also a place where we can meet others who share the same interests in classics. There are plenty of events and features that make classics reading more fun.

My list has been growing, from 100 at the start to 120 at this moment. So far I have been reading 19 books, I love most of them, but the most memorable one was L’Assommoir by Émile Zola. It shocked me when I finished it, and the impression lasts till now. But the most enjoyable read was probably Germinal. Yep, both are from Zola, I’m crazy about him! :)

The latest book I’ve finished is Robinson Crusoe, it was a good experience to read it, the review will be published in a couple of days. I am now reading Gone With The Wind for my read along, I am quite struggling with this one, being not in my usual reading genre. However, the read along is so far fun, there’re several of us whose pace is similar to me, and we’ve been discussing how we hate Scarlett :) or whether we are on Rhett or Ashley’s team… *poking Bzee, Chinoiseries and Vannya*

There are a lot of classics books waiting for me for next months till the end of 2012. Besides continuing Gone With The Wind during October, I’m going to read Toni Morrison’s Beloved together with Joon Ann and Listra (it’s not an official event, though). Then there’s Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde I’ve been meaning to read for months.

In November, I will be hosting a yearlong plays reading event. The sign up post will be up in several days (I’m just waiting for my co-host to finish the—I hope—lovely button for this event. Hey, the button will be showed up in my blog the whole year, it’s got to be lovely, right?). Besides plays, The Scarlett Letter and Notes From Underground are waiting for me in the same month. As for December, I’m planning to read The Jungle Book and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and finally ended the year with Great Expectations. Sounds exciting, right? And busy… :)

While I’m not reading, I will be busy blogging! Lately I really enjoy writing character analysis for my Character Thursday weekly features. I’ve made myself to write at least two characters for each book. I’ve been waiting Saturday afternoons lately, for it’s a perfect time for me to concentrate on my writing; either reviews or one or two character analysis. Listra’s Weekend Quote is always a fun too; not mentioning other monthly meme from Classics Club and November’s Autumn A Classics Challenge. Far from burdening, these memes and features only add my excitement in classics reading, as I can explore more about them.

So, how have you been with your classics club, dear clubbers? :)

Germinal - A Classic Challenge August: Quote

The August prompt for A Classic Challenge is so far the one I like most! It’s the simplest and most exciting of all :)

Rather than a questions this month's prompt is to share a memorable

Quote

... or a few of them from what you're currently reading. Try to select one that are not so well-known but, of course, if you can't help yourself share it too!

I have just finished reading Germinal by Émile Zola, and  LOVED it so much! This time it’s not only distressing, but Zola slipped a hope for a better world at the end of the novel. It reflected on the ending—and I found myself reading this quote over and over again, always feeling warm after that. And I also enjoyed Zola’s beautiful metaphors here….

“Now the April sun, in the open sky, was shining in its glory, warming the earth as it went into labour. From its fertile flanks life was leaping forth, buds were bursting into green leaves, and the fields were quivering with the growth of the grass. On every side seeds were swelling, stretching out, cracking the plain, filled by the need of heat and light. An overflow of sap flowed with whispering voices, the sound of the germs expanded in a great kiss. Again and again, more and more distinctly, as though they had come right up to the soil, the comrades were hammering. In the fiery rays of the sun, on this youthful morning, the country was pregnant with this rumbling. Men were springing forth, a black avenging army, germinating slowly in the furrows, growing up for the harvests of the next century, and their germination would soon overturn the earth.” ~p. 478 (closing quote).

Don’t you just love it?

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (7)

Woman Reading - anythinggauche.com

After two months of Victorian reading (June & July) I felt quite exhausted; so for August I have picked books that I really want to read, and most of them are not classics. However I still put two classics in my schedule. One of them is from Albanian’s author: Ismail Kadare. I haven’t read his works before, and this time I read the translated version (Bahasa Indonesia) of The Palace of Dreams. It’s a bit magical realism, and the main theme is the dictatorship of Ottoman Empire in 19^th century who controlled the dreams of its people. Although the theme is quite interesting, I did not find it very entertaining. Here’s my review.

Yesterday I started Germinal by Emile Zola. Zola is one of my favorite authors, and I found the first few pages were beautifully written, that I have a feeling I’ll enjoy this book. Next week will be a long holiday here in Indonesia (the moslem will celebrate Idul Fitri), so from 17^th to 22^nd I will stay at home, and hopefully I can read as much as I want to. Along with Germinal, I have planned to re-read ancient Indian epic: Mahabharata. I have the re-told version in graphic novels in my collection (two hardcover books), it’s in Bahasa Indonesia and illustrated in Indonesian folklore by a famous Indonesian comics illustrator. I have read this several times when I was a kid, and it will be nice to re-read it as an adult reader. I still remember that there are many good moral value in it, which I think worth to read for many times.

So…how about you? How is your classics reading for this week? And what is your plan for next week?

Twenty Years After - A Classic Challenge July: Lasting Impression

July prompt of A Classics Challenge is lasting impression – What is a moment, quote, or character that you feel will stay with you? Years from now, when some of the details have faded, that lasting impression the book has left you with... what is it?

I knew when I was in the middle of Twenty Years After (sequel of The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas), that this is a book (or rather a series) that has a strongest impression on me.

I read The Three Musketeers for the first time when I’m in elementary school (around 6^th grade), it was a graphic novel my father bought me, an abridged one of course, as it was intended for children’s reading. I remember how I enjoyed it then, though it’s most because of the friendship of the four musketeers and their heroic acts, rather than the political intrigue which I did not comprehend at that moment. Around two years ago I read the unabridged novel (finally), and this time I can say that I (still) really enjoyed it. And now, after just finishing Twenty Years After (review will be posted on 31^st July), I enjoyed it more, that I think it begin to give me a lasting impression!

“All for one and one for all” - and everything around that oath will echo in my heart and mind (I hope) forever.

The oath itself (and the scene when the four musketeers were touching their swords while making the oath) has been buried in my mind since I first read the graphic novel. It’s been echoing ever since, until now when I read Twenty Years After. In fact Athos, Porthos, Aramis and d’Artagnan did not made their famous oath in this book, for most of the time they act separately or formed two different groups; however I feel that the oath has been transplanted into their heart and that the spirit of unity has always inspired them in every occasion. The oath has been transferred to their strong bound of friendship, that when being in danger, each of them rest assure knowing that the others would and could help him.

The personal character of each musketeer is also one of lasting impressions I got from the series. After The Three Musketeers, The Man In The Iron Mask and Twenty Years After, I feel I have been knowing the four musketeers myself, as if we were all old friends. Athos—the calm and brave man with his nobleness (that d’Artagnan said as a ‘demigod’), Porthos—the simple guy with his passion on fashion and food, Aramis—the mysterious man who are always torn between church and women (but often than not, he fell on the first), and of course…d’Artagnan—the bravest and smartest of the musketeers, with his wit and cynical humor and iron wrist. Now tell me, who can ever forget such characters as them?

 

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (6)

A Woman Reading - Ivan Olinsky

This month has been crawling quite slowly… I mean both in my real and in literary life. Especially in literary I think, because I’ve spent the first two whole weeks to finish The Old Curiosity Shop [see my review], which by the way, worth the time and effort. Although it is quite engaging—like all Dickens’ serious novels—I could enjoy the story at the same time. I think OCS is the best Dickens I have read so far, for although A Tale of Two Cities is equal in writing quality, but I found OCS is more deeply touching my soul. The characters are more memorable too, compared to Tale of Two Cities—which only have Sydney Carton as the most memorable one.

Finished with OCS, I directly buried in Twenty Years After, the sequel of Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers. After the slow pace of Dickens, Dumas takes me directly into a fresh gallop J. In only 6 days I have been proceeding to more than 300 pages (from 688!), it’s quite fast for me to read classics!

I wish to finish Twenty Years by around next week, but I will perhaps slip one or two Victorian classics short stories during this weekend. How about you? How is your classics reading for this week?

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (5)

I know, it’s Saturday already! However, yesterday was quite a busy day for me, so I didn’t have time to post the Friday Progress for Literary Classics Challenge. Never mind, better late than never, anyway.. J.

Child Reading a Book by Jessie Willcox Smith
[source]

This week I am still in the middle of The Old Curiosity Shop, page 240 of 544, however I was able to slip two classics short stories reading. It’s The Three Strangers from Thomas Hardy and A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins (the review will follow). I quite enjoyed them, a ‘fun escape’ from Dickens. I think it’s a good idea to read short stories from authors whom we haven’t read the book, for we could get to know their styles before deciding whether we would like to read their novels or not. And after reading both Hardy and Collins, I know I’d love to read their novels, especially for Collins.

That’s it, a short progress of my classics reading. Meanwhile, I am rejuvenating my feature: Character Thursday. You would find the post very soon. And if you’d like to join me in Character Thursday, please feel free to join in next Thursday!

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (4)

I had spent the whole last week together with the witty and flamboyant Oscar Wilde in his ‘ThePicture of Dorian Gray’. Sipping the 256 pages and publishing chapter posts every day was quite a hard task, but I really enjoyed every moment ‘till the end.

Actually the next book on my schedule is The Old Curiosity Shop by Dickens, and I have started the first few chapters, however now I don’t feel very excited to continue on. I don’t know, perhaps it’s because I have spent my energy and emotion to finish Dorian Gray. So, now I’m still not sure what to read next. I have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dumas’ Twenty Years After on my TBR, but Dr. Jekyll is too gothic (not after Dorian Gray definitely!), and Twenty Years After…hmm..it’s 600s pages..! On the other hand, I have in my Kindle several classics short stories, maybe I’ll pick few of them to cool my brain off J. Besides, several of them are Victorian authors too, so I can still read something for AVictorian Celebration anyway.

 I have here: Thomas Hardy, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, Henry James, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Edgar Allan Poe. Which one do you think I should grab first? J. Should I go to America? Or should I stay at the city of the following image for a little while….. Can you guess where it is?

The north end of Drury Lane runs into High Holborn-Louise Rayner source

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (3)

This week is my most productive week for the Literary Classics Reading Challenge so far. I have done with Black Beauty, and it has been a very relaxing moment after reading a Dickens J. I’ve been enjoying Black Beauty for only 2 or 3 days, mostly in the weekend.

Then I started a new week with a new book with a fresh excitement. Oscar Wilde’s ThePicture of Dorian Gray was my choice, and I’m glad I’d picked this book. Dorian Gray is a kind of psychological story, and I always love fictions which talk a lot about psychological aspects. Besides that, I’m in the mood for reading Victorian books for A Victorian Celebration. Dorian Gray is also a perfect choice for Indonesian Book Blogger’s group read of this month theme: gothic, and will be counted as my ninth classics for Classics Club Project.

At first I thought Dorian Gray will be quite fast, for it is only 256 pages. However after finishing chapter 1, I soon realized that this is a book that you must digest slowly to be able to get the best of it. If book is a drink, Dorian Gray is a cup of coffee…instead of drinking it in gulps, you should take it sip by sip, while savouring the bitter-sweet taste, feeling the warmth liquid flowing through your throat and inhaling the sweet fragrance that come into your nostrils. There are many aspects in a cup of coffee that you can enjoy, which, if you drink it in a hurry, you will lose the sensation! J (writing this made me crave for a cup of coffee!). 

And so, I decided to read Dorian Gray chapter by chapter, and write a post for each chapter (sometimes I will write for 2 chapters in a post) right after I read the chapter. I won’t leap to next chapter before I sit down and pour all my thoughts of what I have read in my PDA (I usually do it after dinner), to be posted the next morning. That way, I can read a new chapter in the next morning with a new excitement.

Reading AND writing takes a long time indeed, and I haven’t had much time lately, but I think it’s worth the satisfaction I got from this book. Anyway, I can always catch up the schedule on weekend, and hope I can finish it by end of this month. If you are curious with The Picture of Dorian Gray, you can take a look at my chapter posts on my sidebar. But I warn you, you might find spoilers on them!  

Well, that’s my week, what about you, how is your classics reading this week?

Black Beauty Visual Tour: A Classics Challenge June

The June prompt for A Classics Challenge is about Visual Tour. Here is the task:

Sometimes we come across a scene or description that creates such vivid imagery it moves us. Select a quote from the Classic you're currently reading and create a visual tour. 

And here are where my imagination has taken me to from the classic I just finished: Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. [click the image to enlarge]

"The first place that I can well remember, was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it..." ~p. 23

"...Some trees overshadowed the pond, and rushes and water-lilies grew at the deep end..." ~p. 23

"At the top of the meadow was a plantation of fir trees; and at the bottom, a running brook overhung by a steep bank." ~ p. 23

"It was a great treat to us to be turned out into the Home Paddock or the old orchard; the grass was so cool and soft to our feet; the air was so sweet, and the freedom to do as we liked—to gallop, lie down, roll over on our backs, or nibble the sweet grass—was so pleasant. Then, as we stood together under the shade of the large chestnut tree, was a very good time of talking." ~p. 40

"I had been driven with a bearing rein by the dealer, and I hated it worse than anything else (...) You, who never had a bearing rein on, don't know what is is; but I can tell you it is dreadful. (...) I like to toss my head about, and hold it as high as any horse; but you can fancy how it would feel if you tossed your head up high and were obliged to hold it there for hours together, not able to move it at all, except with a jerk still higher; and all this time your neck was aging till you did not know how to bear it." ~p. 46

"Dinah's family lived in a small farmhouse up a green lane, close by a meadow with some fine shady trees; there were two cows feeding in it." ~p. 156

"The winter came in early with the great deal of cold and wet. (...) When it is a dry cold, a couple of good thick rugs will keep the warmth in us; but when it is a soaking rain, they soon get wet through and are no good." ~p. 157

horse cab in rain

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (2)

Finally…I have finished my Sketches by Boz! I don’t know why it took me this long (two weeks..or more?) to read it. Perhaps it’s because I don’t quite like anthologies, they made me quickly distracted every time I finished a story. With novels, there is the plot that makes me more engaged with the story. Or maybe, it’s just Dickens’ style with many long sentences that often forced me to re-read certain paragraph (sometimes one paragraph could contain only one sentence, one long sentence…phew!). The second reason is that there are a lot of things happened this week that I felt quite overwhelmed.

Anyway…I am done with Boz (I am preparing the review now), so that I can start the second book for The Literary Classics Challenge. I picked something very light and fun after Boz: it’s Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. It is sooo.. relaxing to get to Black Beauty after Dickens’ and I am enjoying it very well. J This is also the third book I’m reading for A Victorian Celebration, and the 9^th book for The Classics Club. I think I will digest it very quickly, so that Monday I can grab for the next one on my waiting list: The Picture of Dorian Gray.

By the way...I think, reading Black Beauty will create a sense like this... Don't you agree? 

What about you, how is your classics reading this week?

The Literary Classics Reading Challenge

I know, I’m a challenge-addicted! I don’t even calculate anymore how many challenges I’ve joined this year. But (here’s my self-defense J) if I can combine several challenges with each other, then why not? I don’t have to read more than what I have planned to, but at the same time I get excited with each challenge. So..here’s my new reading challenge, which I can combine with The Classics Club Project and A Victorian Challenge—which has just begun (and several other challenges of course..): The Literary Classics ReadingChallenge. The task is to read classics throughout the year (1^st June 2012 – 31^st May 2013), we are free to make our own list and our target in number of books we’d like to read, quite easy, isn’t it? J. So…this is my list. It’s not a fixed list, I might change the schedule or the books, but I make a commitment to read at least 24 classics until May 2013.

2012

June

Sketches by Boz - Charles Dickens

The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde

Black Beauty – Anna Sewell

July

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde – Robert Louis Stevenson

Twenty Years After – Alexandre Dumas

The Old Curiosity Shop – Charles Dickens

August

Resurrection – Leo Tolstoy

The Scarlett Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne

September

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

The Old Man and The Sea – Ernest Hemingway

October

Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell

Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe

November

Notes from Underground – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad

December

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

2013

January

Of Human Bondage – W. Somerset Maugham

Call of the Wild – Jack London

February

Little Dorrit – Charles Dickens

Little House on the Prairie

March

The Masterpiece – Emile Zola

April

The Portrait of A Lady – Henry James

Enchanted Castle – Edith Nesbitt

May

The Man Who Was Thursday – G.K. Chesterton

David Copperfield – Charles Dickens

Hmmm…I just realized that I have put four Dickens for a year! Well, I just love how he writes and have planned to read all of his works, so why not? Actually I’m an organized person, so I like to schedule my readings for the next months. That way I always have a book to read after I finish ones (and don’t have to sort from my huge pile J). If I want to read other than the list, I would just revise or re-schedule it. This challenge really helps me to set a list for the whole year, thanks to Ali!

What about you? Come and join me in the challenge!

The Color Purple, Between Post-Modernism and Contemporary: A Classics Challenge May

Although it is not clearly stated in the book, I believe that The Color Purple is first set around 1910 or 1920, and stretched to the beginning of civil rights movements, around 1950s. However, I prefer to put this work of Alice Walker by the values she brought at the time she wrote this novel, rather than the time setting. So, although the original time set is within the first half of 20^th century, I think the best place to put this book is between the post-modernism and contemporary literary movement. Post-modernism is a historical period that began in the 1940s, a style of literature, philosophy, art, and architecture, or the situation of Western society in a late capitalist or post-capitalist age. Social issues as writers align with feminist & ethnic groups, are among this movement.

At the time Walker wrote The Color Purple, America has been struggling with both African-American racism and men-women discrimination and gender minority. The Color Purple is also the sign of African-American literature rising. Besides Alice Walker, Maya Angelou and Zora Neale Hurston were among the female authors that brought up the same values as The Color Purple. Their works shows the hardships of African-American women.

The story of Celie (female protagonist of this book), her hard times under the dominancy of his step father and husband, and the story of African people under the white people power truly reflect the focus of the post-modernism movement, especially the rising of African-American. As a woman, these issues are quite intriguing and emotional, so I might read other similar works, such as Maya Angelou’s I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings in the future.

The Great Gatsby’s Cover - A Classic Challenge April: Book Cover

The April prompt for A Classic Challenge picks Cover as the topic. It’s a good choice I think, because cover—especially in classics books—speaks strongly of the entire book. Actually I read 3 classics this month, but I will choose to discuss The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I picked the Indonesian translation, published by Serambi:

What I like the most from this cover is the color, soft beige, which is the first thing that attired my attention to the book. There are three persons, two men and one woman are standing in the middle of a party took place in a mansion. That was my first impression of this cover, and it turned out to match the book theme. The luxury party and the snob expression of those three persons could reflect the moral decadency of the “Jazz Age”. However, I can’t make a guess of who’s who in this cover. The man in the front, is it Gatsby? Or Tom? If I was the illustrator, I wouldn’t picture Gatsby like that. Gatsby, I think, is more a dreamer than a snob (like the impression of the man in the front). I would rather picture him as a gentleman with self esteem, who is throwing his gaze afar, as if he is looking his fixed target, knowing that he will soon achieve it. I found this cover that perfectly reflects my idea:

taken from listal[dot]com

I also found another cover which accurately pictured Gatsby’s pose when Nick saw him for the first time, pointing his finger to the small green light from across the river. It reflects perfectly about dreaming for the future, reaching something that you can see from where you are standing. However this cover is too gloomy, you’d think it’s a gothic book! No, I won’t pick this!

taken from filmofilia[dot]com

Back to the cover I am discussing, if the man in front is meant to be Tom, it would be strange because this book is about Gatsby, so it must be on Gatsby the cover is focusing. Well, I don’t know…and as the publisher didn’t put the illustrator name, I can’t ask him/her either. Overall, it seems that the woman (Daisy) is torn between the two men. She perhaps will choose the man in the front (Gatsby I presume), but she is somehow still attached to the man behind (Tom I presume), who is staring at her sharply, afraid of losing her. All in all, the whole cover can reflect the story quite well, but I think it’s poor in reflecting the character itself: The Great Gatsby!

The Laundress on L’Assommoir - A Classic Challenge March: Setting

Firstly I must admit that this challenge, hosted by November Autums is absolutely challenging. Every month we must deal with certain different topics to discuss from the books we read. For March, it’s about “Setting”. Fortunately, I have chosen L’Assommoir by Émile Zola for my classic reading of March. Zola’s writing always put everyday life strongly in detail. The most interesting setting in L’Assommoir is not the dram shop (l'assommoir) itself, but the laundress of Gervaise (the female protagonist in this book).

"From far away, in the centre of the black row of the other shop-fronts, her shop seems to her full of light, so cheerful and new, with its pale blue sign on which the words "High Quality Laundering" were painting in big yellow letters. In the window which was closed at the back with little muslin curtains and papered in blue to show off the whiteness of the linen, there were mens' shirts displayed and womens' bonnet hung by their ribbons from brass wires. She thought her shop was pretty, the color of the sky. When you went inside there was still more blue, the paper was a copy of a Pompadour chintz, showing a trellis entwined with morning-glories; the workbench was a huge table with a thick cover; it took up two thirds of the space and was draped in a piece of cretonne printed with big bluish leaves, that hid the trestles. Gervaise would sit down on a stool, panting slightly with pleasure, delighted by how beautifully clean it was and gazing fondly at all her new equipment. But invariably her eyes went first to the cast-iron stove, where ten irons could heat at the same time, arranged round the grate on sloping stands."

From that scene I can see that Gervaise is very proud of her new laundress. She set it up neatly and cleanly, which will give a good impression to the neighborhood (her future customers). I think Gervaise is a woman with a business touch, she knows how to attract customers. Laundry equals to cleaning, so a clean shop reflects clean work on laundry. Look at how Gervaise uses white and blue color for the laundress which reflect cleanliness and freshness.

Laundress is a common business in 19th centuries--the setting of this book, which Émile Zola describes very detailed here. It's like I myself sit down together with Gervaise, watching her doing her works, and felt the heat from the stove when they were ironing. I think these are Zola's strength in his writing. The laundress is of course showing Gervaise's up and down. She achieved success with the laundress, and she fell down with it too. We could certainly not change this setting, because the laundress is actually Gervaise's life, as well the heart of this story.