Yes it's not bad but it is early days. I like the biographic style anyway so I think I'm going to like it.Are you liking it so far?
Incidentally we stay at the hotel in Yarmouth, The Royal, where had supposed to have written a lot of it. I don't think the hotel has been decorated since then either, but it is a not bad hotel al the same.
Frankenstien is a favorite of mine. Though, I can't really say I'm a huge fan of Victorian literature in general. It's a bit too didactic for my taste.
Frankenstein is Romantic.Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
Ah, yes. You are correct. Hmmmm, so I guess there really aren't many Victorian novels that come to mind as particularly good. I liked A Tale of Two Cities pretty much, but I didn't love it. I should probably read more from the period.
You are joking, there aren't many Victorian novels that come to mind as particularly good? Try Thomas Hardy, Emily and Charlotte Bronte, Wilkie Collins, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, George Gissing, William Morris, Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, Elizabeth Gaskill, William Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, George Meredith, R. L. Stevenson, Thomas Hughes, Charles Kingsley...
..............................
Here's Guardian article opinion piece on the top ten Victorian novels, I wonder how much people agree with the choices?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002...ters.bestbooks
I would say that it's about as accurate as anyone is likely to get. I'm glad that Gissing is included as he's a superb writer whose own life reads like one of his novels.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
Good to see that Dickens gets two! But it's difficult to see why the two choices are better than:
David Copperfield
Pickwick Papers
Nicholas Nickleby
Bleak House
Little Dorrit
Oliver Twist
Yes it's always difficult to choose with Dickens because he is such a consistently good example of Victorian literature that it must needs be a personal preference when compiling this kind of list.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
I know this may be a bit off-topic, but has anyone read the latest Dickens biography? I was thinking about picking it up
It's years since I read News From Nowhere but I remember it as being pretty fanciful stuff. Gissing is wrongly neglected among his contemporaries and is well worth reading, as is Wells, whom I read extensively when I was younger and would particularly recommend Love and Mr Lewisham as one of his best.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
Oh yes it is full blown Utopian fantasy stuff, so much so I think he was even employing a little irony towards them as well as launching the popular socialist/communistic platform at the same time. It's clear he was also pushing the Art's and Craft movement as well. It's a good book, better than the part of it I read and disregarded at university anyway as is often the case when you are somewhat pushed for time with other things.
I started New Grub Street but I have put that aside for a while to read David Copperfield which I am really liking at present. I will also make a note of the Wells recommendation thanks. I enjoyed The Time Machine very much before that which I read a long time ago as well.
I heard bits of it on "book of the week" and was impressed. It's still available:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b017v88v
I read his science fiction novels and "collected" short stories when I was younger and was very impressed. Probably more impressed by the amazing short stories than the well known novels... I still haven't got round to reading his later "social" novels.
The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine are well written and ground breaking science fiction from a Victorian writer but, as you have pointed out, Wells wasn't only concerned with science subjects, he was also into sociology and his novels in this sphere are, in my view, better. Anyone wanting to read this side of Wells would do well to read Tono Bungay, a very funny send up of the patent medicine business, and Kipps which is semi-autobiographical. The History of Mr. Polly is also a very good read as is the above mentioned Love and Mr Lewisham, that also has autobiographical elements.
Last edited by Emil Miller; 02-04-2012 at 07:16 PM.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
I've been looking at that too, as I've heard great things. I'm waiting until my current list quiets down so I can devote the time to the biography that it probably deserves.
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
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