Classics Club Spin

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on April 20, 2020 by Margaret15 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin was announced yesterday. It’s number … 6

which for me is The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by 1 June, 2020.

The Return of the Native

I’m delighted with this as I’ve been meaning to read it for years and never got round to it.

‘To be loved to madness – such was her great desire’

Eustacia Vye criss-crosses the wild Egdon Heath, eager to experience life to the full in her quest for ‘music, poetry, passion, war’. She marries Clym Yeobright, native of the heath, but his idealism frustrates her romantic ambitions and her discontent draws others into a tangled web of deceit and unhappiness.

Early readers responded to Hardy’s ‘insatiably observant’ descriptions of the heath, a setting that for D. H. Lawrence provided the ‘real stuff of tragedy’. For modern readers, the tension between the mythic setting of the heath and the modernity of the characters challenges our freedom to shape the world as we wish; like Eustacia, we may not always be able to live our dreams. (Amazon)

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

Published on April 18, 2020 by Margaret19 Comments

63269-classic2bspin

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. I was wondering if one was due, so I’m pleased to find it is, especially as I haven’t made much progress with reading any off my list recently.

- Before Sunday 19th April 2020, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. This is your Spin List. I only have 9 unread books left on my list so I’ve listed them twice and added two more books that I’d like to read.
- You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.
- On 19th April the folks at 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 1st June 2020.

- 1. The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexter
  2. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
  3. Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford
  4. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
  5. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
  6. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
  7. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  8. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
  9. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
  10. The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexter
  11. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
  12. Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford
  13. Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
  14. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
  15. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
  16. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
  17. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
  18. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
  19. I’ll Never Be Young Again by Daphne du Maurier
  20. How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn

Have you read any of these and loved them? Any that you didn’t enjoy?

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on December 24, 2019 by Margaret6 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin was announced yesterday. It’s number … 13

which for me is Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by January 31, 2020.

Charles Dickens oliver twist etc

I’m delighted with this as I’ve been meaning to read it for years and never got round to it.

The story of the orphan Oliver, who runs away from the workhouse to be taken in by a den of thieves, shocked readers with its depiction of a dark criminal underworld peopled by vivid and memorable characters – the arch-villain Fagin, the artful Dodger, the menacing Bill Sikes and the prostitute Nancy. Combining elements of Gothic romance, the Newgate novel and popular melodrama, Oliver Twist created an entirely new kind of fiction, scathing in its indictment of a cruel society and pervaded by an unforgettable sense of threat and mystery.

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

This is my last post until after Christmas, so I’m wishing you all a very …

Christmas bells

The Classics Club Spin – My List

Published on December 16, 2019 by Margaret6 Comments

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. Before next Sunday 22nd December 2019 compile a Spin List of twenty books that remain ‘to be read’ on your Classics Club list.

On that day the Classics Club will randomly pick a number and that will be the book to read. You then have until the 31st January 2020 to finish your book and review it.

I have only 10 unread books left on my list so, I’ve repeated the list to make the numbers up to 20.

The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexter
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
The Riddle of the Third Mile by Colin Dexte
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
Parade’s End by Ford Maddox Ford
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
Orlando by Virginia Woolf

There are several long books on my list, but for the beginning of next year I think I’d prefer one of the shorter books. What do you think?

The Classics Club Spin Result

Published on September 24, 2019 by Margaret11 Comments

The spin number in The Classics Club Spin was announced yesterday. It’s number …

which for me is Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell. The rules of the Spin are that this is the book for me to read by October 31, 2019.

Mary Barton

I’ve read some of Elizabeth Gaskell’s books and enjoyed them. This is her first book, set in Manchester between 1839 and 1842.

Here’s the blurb from Amazon:

Mary Barton, the daughter of disillusioned trade unionist, rejects her working-class lover Jem Wilson in the hope of marrying Henry Carson, the mill owner’s son, and making a better life for herself and her father. But when Henry is shot down in the street and Jem becomes the main suspect, Mary finds herself painfully torn between the two men. Through Mary’s dilemma, and the moving portrayal of her father, the embittered and courageous Chartist agitator John Barton, Mary Barton powerfully dramatizes the class divides of the ‘hungry forties’ as personal tragedy. In its social and political setting, it looks towards Elizabeth Gaskell’s great novels of the industrial revolution, in particular North and South.

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

The Classics Club Spin: My List

Published on September 16, 2019 by Margaret14 Comments

63269-classic2bspin

It’s time for another Classics Club Spin. By 23 September compile a Spin List of twenty books that remain ‘to be read’ on your Classics Club list.

On that day the Classics Club will randomly pick a number and that will be the book to read. You then have until the 31st October 2019 to finish your book and review it.

I have only 13 unread books left on my list so, I’ve repeated seven of the titles to make the numbers up to 20.