Category: Classics

WWW Wednesday 28 January 2026

Published on by Margaret13 Comments

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Currently I’m reading The Inheritance of loss by Kiran Desai, the winner of several prizes including the 2006 Booker Prize. It’s a book I bought in 2007 and meant to read long before now. I’m reading this slowly and so far it’s looking good.

This is set in the Himalayas where a judge and his granddaughter live in a dilapidated mansion. The judge, broken by a world too messy for justice, is haunted by his past. His orphan granddaughter has fallen in love with her handsome tutor, despite their different backgrounds and ideals. The cook’s heart is with his son, who is working in a New York restaurant, mingling with an underclass from all over the globe as he seeks somewhere to call home.

I’m also reading The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch, another book I’ve had and left on the shelves for far too long. I’ve read just a few opening chapters and think I’m going to enjoy this book. It’s set in Ireland, where a young woman goes to work as a governess in the remote Gaze Castle only to find there are no children. She is confronted with a number of weird mysteries and involved in a drama she only partly understands.

The last book I read Quite Ugly One Evening by Chris Bookmyre which will be published in May, so I’ll write about it later. It’s crime fiction set on the Atlantic.

Description from Amazon:

An Atlantic voyage. A family at war. A secret worth killing over.

Reporter Jack Parlabane thrives on chasing stories in unlikely places, and where could be less likely than a fan convention on a cruise liner celebrating a contentious Sixties TV series? But unlike the media family exploiting their show’s renewed relevance, he’s not there to stoke controversy: he’s there to solve a murder.

Already in deep water with his employer, Jack desperately needs a win, and solving this decades-old mystery could be it. Problem is, he’s in the middle of the Atlantic, and someone onboard has already killed once to keep their secret.

And that’s not even the tricky part. No, the tricky part is definitely the dead body locked in a stateroom with him, covered in his blood. Now Jack has to solve two murders, otherwise the only way he’s getting off this ship is in handcuffs – or in a body bag.recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

What will I read next? It could be Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Like her previous novel The Luminaries, which I loved, this book is set in a fictionalised New Zealand, primarily in and around a national park in the South Canterbury region. The title is taken from a line in Macbeth. It follows members of a guerilla gardening collective, Birnam Wood as, with the help of a charismatic tech billionaire, they undertake a new project on abandoned farmland.

But when the time comes to start another book it could be something completely different.

26 Questions in 2026 from The Classics Club

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

26 Questions in 2026 from The Classics Club 

When did you join The Classics Club? How many titles have you read for the club so far? Share a link to your latest classics club list. I joined the Classics Club in April 2013. I didn’t finish reading and reviewing the books until 2022! Here is my completed list. I am now on my second list , aiming to finish it in January 2027 and have read 30 of the books, making a total of 80 books. The books on both lists are all either physical books on my bookshelves or e-books on my Kindle. 

What classic are you planning to read next? Why? Is there a book first published in 1926 that you plan to read this year? It will probably be The Unicorn by Iris Murdoch. It’s been years since I read any of her books and I have a paperback copy lined up to start soon. I haven’t got a book first published in 1926 in mind to read this year.

Best book you’ve read so far with the club? Why? This is a hard question, too hard, there are so many!

Classic author who has the most works on your club list? Or, classic author you’ve read the most works by? Charles Dickens – 10 books

If you could explore one author’s literary career from first publication to last — meaning you have never read this author and want to explore him or her by reading what s/he wrote in order of publication — who would you explore? Obviously this should be an author you haven’t yet read, since you can’t do this experiment on an author you’re already familiar with. 🙂 Or, which author’s work you are familiar with might it have been fun to approach this way? Evelyn Waugh. I read Officers and Gentlemen years ago, the second book in his Sword of Honour trilogy, so I’d like to read all three, but I’m not sure I want to read all his books in the order they were published.

First classic you ever read? I was about 12 when I first read Pride and Prejudice.

Favorite children’s classic? I can’t decide between What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge and Heidi by Johanna Spyri.

Which classic is your most memorable classic to date? Why? These are such hard questions. I think it could be The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck because it totally surprised me by how much I loved it. Cannery Row was the first of Steinbeck’s novels that I read and I thought then that Steinbeck’s style is perfect for me. With both books I felt that I was there in the thick of everything he described

Least favorite classic? Why? Washington Square by Henry James because it just didn’t catch my imagination and I found it tedious.

Favourite movie or TV adaption of a classic? I usually prefer a book to a movie or TV adaptation. But I did enjoy the 2005 BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Bleak House with Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock and Charles Dance as lawyer Mr Tulkinghorn, which prompted me to read the book. I loved the book.

Favorite biography about a classic author you’ve read, or the biography on a classic author you most want to read, if any? I’ve read several biographies of classic authors so this is yet again a difficult question, but I’ve chosen Peter Ackroyd’s biography of William Shakespeare. I’m familiar with several plays, which helped enormously with reading Ackoyd’s biography as he has structured it mainly around the plays.  But above all, he has placed Shakespeare within his own time and place, whether it is Stratford or London or travelling around the countryside with the touring companies of players. Shakespeare spans the reigns of two monarchs, which saw great changes and Ackroyd conjures up vividly the social, religious and cultural scene. It’s a very readable book, full of detail.

Favourite classic author in translation? Do you have a favorite classics translator? What do you look for in a classic translations? I think my favourite classics author I’ve read in translation is Leo Tolstoy. I loved War and Peace so much that I forgot that I don’t like reading about battles and war.

Do you have a favorite classic poet/poem, playwright/play? Why do you love it? I don’t read a lot of poetry but I do like Robert Frost’s poems. When we used to live near enough to see plays at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford we went to several live performances including Twelfth Night, King Lear and The Tempest. I love to see plays rather than just reading them.

Which classic character most reminds you of yourself? Which classic character do you most wish you could be like? I’ve never really thought about this before and off the top of my head I can’t think of any characters who remind me of myself.

What is the oldest classic you have read or plan to read? Why? The oldest book I own is Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, 161–180 CE. I’ve only read some of it.

If a sudden announcement was made that 500 more pages had been discovered after the original “THE END” on a classic title you read and loved, which title would you be happiest to see continued? I can’t think of one.

Favorite edition (or series) of a classic you own, or wished you owned, if any? I still have my mother’s copy of Pride and Prejudice which I treasure.

Do you reread classics? Why, or why not? Yes, Jane Austen’s books, Jane Eyre, The Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, and Rebecca are some that come to mind.

Has there been a classic title you simply could not finish? The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton.

Has there been a classic title you expected to dislike and ended up loving? There aren’t any I expected to dislike, but there are some that I was surprised at how much I enjoyed them – War and Peace, as said before, as I usually dislike reading about battles, but I loved it.

List five fellow Classic Clubbers whose blogs you frequent. What makes you love their blogs? There are more I could list – they all write such interesting and in-depth reviews.

  • Anne at My Head is Full of Books
  • FictionFan at FictionFan’s Book Reviews
  • Brona at Brona’s Books
  • Helen at She Reads Novels
  • Karen at BookerTalk

If you’ve ever participated in a readalong on a classic, tell us about the experience? If you’ve participated in more than one, what’s the very best experience? the best title you’ve completed? a fond memory? a good friend made? In 2022 when FictionFan mentioned she was intending to read Notre-Dame de Paris and hold a Review-Along on her blog that nudged me into reading it. I am glad I read it even if I couldn’t give it more than 3 stars – I  liked it, a good, enjoyable book. I also contributed to the Classics Club Jane Austen event last year. I really enjoyed reading the other members’ experiences in reading her books.

If you could appeal for a readalong with others for any classic title, which title would you name? Why? Maybe Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens, or one of his others I’ve still not read.

What are your favourite bits about being a part of The Classics Club? The Spins – I look forward to them immensely.

What would like to see more of (or less of) on The Classics Club? Not sure about this.

Question you wish was on this questionnaire? (Ask and answer it!) How do you define a classic? What is the definition of a ‘modern’ classic? What is a ‘vintage ‘ classic? These all seem to me to be rather loose, vague terms, with no fixed timelines and criteria. Just who decides whether a book is/will be a classic? I don’t know the answers.

Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

Published on by Margaret9 Comments

The summary on Goodreads:

A wickedly clever satire uses comic inversions to offer telling insights into the nature of man and society. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Gulliver’s Travels describes the four voyages of Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon. In Lilliput he discovers a world in miniature; towering over the people and their city, he is able to view their society from the viewpoint of a god. However, in Brobdingnag, a land of giants, tiny Gulliver himself comes under observation, exhibited as a curiosity at markets and fairs. In Laputa, a flying island, he encounters a society of speculators and projectors who have lost all grip on everyday reality; while they plan and calculate, their country lies in ruins. Gulliver’s final voyage takes him to the land of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses whom he quickly comes to admire – in contrast to the Yahoos, filthy bestial creatures who bear a disturbing resemblance to humans.

I think Gulliver’s Travels is such a strange book, definitely not a children’s book as I had thought. There are very many editions of this book. The edition I read is the e-book edition based on the text of Swift’s 1726 original, with the 1899 illustrations of Arthur Rackham. It’s a satire on human nature and the imaginary travellers’ tale literary subgenre about Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon who travels to four strange and distant lands.

This is one of those books that I’ve known of since childhood and have known bits of the story, but have never read. I did see a TV cartoon version several years ago and I’ve been meaning to read it for years. It’s a book, which operates on several levels, as the Introduction in one of my copies (an Odhams Press Limited publication) states:

An embittered, middle-aged man sat down to write a book that would scourge the vices and follies of mankind. That book, with its sting mellowed during the passage of two hundred years, has become – of all things – a children’s classic. ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ was the splenetic outburst of a passionate mind, whose genius gave immortality to so transient a thing as satire; but that immortality had a permanent basis – a child-like delight in marvels, a freshness of invention, a limpid style and a selective perception that created images of giants, dwarfs and fabled races with a vivid pulsating life of their own.

I don’t think I’d have liked it very much if I’d read it as a child as there are many passages that would have bored me stiff and which even now I found tedious and heavy going in parts. It satirises the political situation during Swift’s lifetime, and is full of political and social allusions, a lot of which, interesting as it is, passed over my head.

But it is a fantastical fantasy set in such different places, the ones I found most interesting are Lilliput inhabited by tiny people Brobdignag, the land of giants, and the country of the Houyhnhms, where a race of talking horses, rule the Yahoos, strange, filthy humanoid animals that Gulliver viewed with contempt and disgust. Gulliver became a part of one of the horse’s households and grew to admire and wanted to emulate the Houyhnhms’ way of life, which left him horrified with humanity. Less interesting is his visit to Laputa, a flying island and it’s rebellious cities.

It was not really what I expected, and whilst I think a lot of it is absurd and amusing, it’s certainly not a book I can say that I enjoyed, I think it was worth reading and I’m glad I finally got round to reading it.

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on by Margaret7 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …

which for me is

Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault

The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 21 December 2025.

Synopsis from Amazon

In the first novel of her stunning trilogy, Mary Renault vividly imagines the life of Alexander the Great, the charismatic leader whose drive and ambition created a legend

Alexander’s beauty, strength and defiance were apparent from birth, but his boyhood honed those gifts into the makings of a king. His mother and father, Olympias and King Philip of Macedon, fought each other for their son’s loyalty, teaching Alexander politics and vengeance from the cradle. Hephaistion’s love taught him trust, while Aristotle’s tutoring provoked his mind and Homer’s Iliad fuelled his aspirations. At age twelve, he killed his first man in battle; at sixteen, he became regent; at eighteen, commander of Macedon’s cavalry; and by the time his father was murdered, Alexander’s skills had grown to match his fiery ambition.

I read Mary Renault’s Theseus books, The Bull Must Die and The King from the Sea years ago and loved them, so I’m looking forward to reading Fire from Heaven and hoping I’ll love it too.

Did you take part in the Classics Spin? What will you be reading?

Classics Club Spin

Published on by Margaret19 Comments

Before next Sunday, 19th October, 2025 create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain on your Classics Club list. On that day the Classics Club will post the winning number. The challenge is to read and review whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by the 21st December, 2025.

Here’s my list:

  1. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
  2. The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
  3. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
  4. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
  5. The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle
  6. The Time of Angels by Iris Murdoch
  7. I’ll Never be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier
  8. The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsyth
  9. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
  10. The Go Between by L P Hartley
  11. The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard
  12. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
  13. Daisy Miller by Henry James
  14. Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
  15. Friends and Heroes by Olivia Manning
  16. Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell
  17. Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
  18. The Night Manager by John le Carre
  19. Maigret’s Doubts by Georges Simenon
  20. Loitering with Intent by Muriel Spark

 Which one would you like to see win?

WWW Wednesday 8 October 2025

Published on by Margaret12 Comments

WWW Wednesday is run by Taking on a World of Words.

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

I haven’t done a WWW Wednesday post since July! Where has the time gone? We’re now in October and it’s definitely Autumn – colder but stil some bright sunny days. The leaves are now falling, soon our garden will be covered by them – we have a lot of trees.

Currently I’m reading one of Donna Leon’s Commissario Brunetti novels – Blood from a Stone, which I’m thoroughly enjoying. I’m not surprised by that as I’ve enjoyed all of the Brunetti books I’ve read. He is one of my favourite detectives, maybe even the favourite.

In this one Brunetti is investigating the death of one of the vu cumprà, illegal immigrants selling fake designer handbags from sheets on the ground. He was killed one cold night near Christmas when two men entered Venice’s Campo Santo Stefano and shot him five times. The only witnesses are some American tourists.

I’m also reading Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift (1667-1745), which I think is such a strange book, definitely not a children’s book as I had thought. First published in 1726, it’s a satire on human nature and the imaginary travellers’ tale literary subgenre about Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon who travels to four strange and distant lands. I’ve nearly finished it and I’ll write more about it in a later post.

The last book I read was West with Giraffes by Linda Rutledge, a novel based on a true story which I loved.

Description from Goodreads

Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.

It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo. Behind the wheel is the young Dust Bowl rowdy Woodrow. Inspired by true events, the tale weaves real-life figures with fictional ones, including the world’s first female zoo director, a crusty old man with a past, a young female photographer with a secret, and assorted reprobates as spotty as the giraffes.

What will I read next? It could be The Case of the Canterfell Codicil Anty Boisjoly Mysteries Book 1) by P.J. Fitzsimmons, a locked room mystery.

Description from Goodreads

In The Case of the Canterfell Codicil, Wodehousian gadabout and clubman Anty Boisjoly takes on his first case when his old Oxford chum and coxswain is facing the gallows, accused of the murder of his wealthy uncle. Not one but two locked-room mysteries later, Boisjoly’s pitting his wits and witticisms against a subversive butler, a senile footman, a single-minded detective-inspector, an irascible goat, and the eccentric conventions of the pastoral Sussex countryside to untangle a multi-layered mystery of secret bequests, ancient writs, love triangles, revenge, and a teasing twist in the final paragraph. 

But when the time comes to start another book it could be something completely different.