Classics Club Spin

Published on March 14, 2022 by Margaret13 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin.

I have a new list, so plenty to choose from for this spin list. Before next Sunday, 20th March create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list.On that day the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 30th April, 2022.

Here’s my list:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Another Part of the Wood by Beryl Bainbridge
The Mousetrap and Selected Plays by Agatha Christie
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
The Case of the Gilded Fly by Edmund Crispin
The Stars Look Down by A J Cronin
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
The Black Tulip by Alexandre Dumas
The Birds and other short stories by Daphne du Maurier
A Room with a View by E M Forster
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
A Town Like Alice by Neville Shute
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
The Invisible Man by H G Wells
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

I ‘d really like The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo to be picked as that is a book I’ll definitely be reading for FictionFan’s Review-Along to be reviewed on 20th April – that would be my ideal choice. Failing that, I’d like a shorter book! Maybe The Birds and other short stories by Daphne du Maurier. Any of one them would be OK, although I probably wouldn’t be able to finish it in time …

So, I’ll be looking out for number 14!

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on October 17, 2021 by Margaret7 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …

which for me is Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 12 December, 2021.

I am delighted as this just the book I wanted to read next! It was one of my 20 books of Summer, but I didn’t get round to reading it then.

It was a cloudless summer day in the year nineteen hundred.

Everyone at Appleyard College for Young Ladies agreed it was just right for a picnic at Hanging Rock. After lunch, a group of three of the girls climbed into the blaze of the afternoon sun, pressing on through the scrub into the shadows of Hanging Rock. Further, higher, till at last they disappeared.

They never returned.

Whether Picnic at Hanging Rock is fact or fiction the reader must decide for themselves. (Goodreads)

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

Classics Club Spin

Published on October 16, 2021 by Margaret10 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin.

I have just 2 books left on my Classics Club list, so I’ve started to compile a new list. and have added 18 of these to make up my Spin List. Tomorrow the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 12 December, 2021.

Here’s my list:

The first two are the ones left to read on my old list

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Another Part of the Wood by Beryl Bainbridge
Out of Africa by Karen Blixen
Death in the Tunnel by Miles Burton
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
How Green was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn
Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D H Lawrence
1984 by George Orwell
Night at the Crossroads by Georges Simenon
Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon
The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope
Strangers on a Train by Patricia Wentworth
Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf

I suppose I really should just read the first two books but I really fancy reading one of the books from my new list. And a little bit of what you fancy does you good according to the English music hall song. What do think?

Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope

Published on August 22, 2021 by Margaret13 Comments

Framley Parsonage is my current Classics Club spin book. Although I read my previous spin book, Little Dorrit , I didn’t write a post about it. So, I decided to make an early start with Framley Parsonage to make sure I finished it before the 22nd August deadline – which I did!

Synopsis – Goodreads

A brilliant depiction of social climbing and scandal, Framley Parsonage tells the story of Mark Robarts, a young clergyman with ambitions beyond his small country parish of Framley. In a naive attempt to mix in influential circles, he makes a financial deal with the disreputable local Member of Parliament, but is instead brought to the brink of shame and ruin.

One of Trollope’s most enduringly popular novels, Framley Parsonage is an evocative portrayal of country life in nineteenth-century England, told with great compassion, humour and an acute insight into human nature.

It is the fourth book in Anthony Trollope’s series, the Chronicles of Barsetshire, first published in serial form in the Cornhill Magazine in 1860, then in book form in 1861.

This is a long book – 688 pages in the Penguin classics edition – and begins slowly. It took me a while to settle into reading it and to sort out who all the characters are and how they relate to each other, There are several plot lines – there’s the clergyman Mark Robarts, the Vicar of Framley, and his attempts to climb up the church hierarchy. Mark through naivety, is bamboozled by Nathaniel Sowerby, a member of parliament. He guarantees a three-month bill of Sowerby’s for £400 (making Mark liable if Sowerby does not pay a £400 debt within that time) and then a further bill for £500. This does not go well for Mark!

Another plot line is that relating to Mark’s sister, Lucy and her on/off romance with Lord Lufton, much to the disapproval of his mother, Lady Lufton. Mark and Lord Lufton were childhood friends and Lady Lufton is Mark’s patroness, which causes problems all round, especially as she would much prefer her son to marry Griselda Grantley, the daughter of Doctor Theophilus Grantly, the Archdeacon of Barchester. There’s also a subplot involving Mrs Grantly and Mrs Proudie, Bishop Proudie’s wife, and their rivalry over their daughters’ marriages. There’s another marriage in the offing, that of the outspoken heiress, Martha Dunstable, to Doctor Thorne, the eponymous hero of the preceding novel in the series, Doctor Thorne.

Framley Parsonage is full of lifelike and interesting characters engaged in their everyday life and inevitable class inequalities and power struggles, described with a fair amount of wit and humour. Interspersed between the plotlines Trollope introduces several sections of political commentary on the Parliamentary shenanigans of the day, which I have to admit were less interesting to me. But it seems that not much has changed in the way the political parties carried on both in parliament and in their relationship with the press. The next book in the series is The Small House at Arlington, which I expect I’ll eventually get round to reading.

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on July 19, 2021July 19, 2021 by Margaret8 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin is number …

which for me is Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 22 August, 2021.

This book has been on my Classics Club list for a long time. It’s the fourth novel in the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, first published in 1860. I’ve read the earlier books, so I’m looking forward to reading this one.

Mark Robarts is a clergyman with ambitions beyond his small country parish of Framley. In a naive attempt to mix in influential circles, he agrees to guarantee a bill for a large sum of money for the disreputable local Member of Parliament, while being helped in his career in the Church by the same hand. But the unscrupulous politician reneges on his financial obligations, and Mark must face the consequences this debt may bring to his family.

(Description from Amazon)

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

Classics Club Spin

Published on July 17, 2021 by Margaret3 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. I only have 3 books left to read and although I did read my last Spin book, Little Dorrit I still haven’t written about it. For this spin I shall read one of these three books by 22 August 2021: