It's time for another Classics Club spin--this one is #29! You likely know the rules. One of these books will need to be read by April 30th.
I'm breaking up my list into two categories.
Remaining books from my Classics Club List:
1.) James Baldwin/Go Tell It On The Mountain
2.) Samuel Butler/The Way of All Flesh
2.) Samuel Butler/The Way of All Flesh
3.) Willa Cather/A Lost Lady
4.) William Faulkner/A Light in August
5.) Oliver Goldsmith/The Vicar of Wakefield
6.) Thomas Hardy/Wessex Tales
7.) Henry James/Wings of the Dove
8.) Sir Walter Scott/Count Robert of Paris
9.) Virginia Woolf/The Waves
10.) Goethe/Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship
And...books I've downloaded from Project Gutenberg (but haven't read yet):
11.) Élizabeth Vigée Le Brun/Memoirs
12.) Goncharov/Oblomov
13.) G. K. Chesterton/The Man Who Was Thursday
14.) Thomas Peacock/Crotchet Castle
15.) Herbert Croly/The Promise of American Life
16.) Francis Parkman/Vassall Morton
17.) Israel Zangwill/The Big Bow Mystery
18.) Emile Gaboriau/The Larouge Case
19.) E. Philips Oppenheim/The Great Impersonation
20.) R. Austin Freeman/The Red Thumb Mark
I recently read Michael Dirda's Classics for Pleasure; Oblomov, Crotchet Castle & The Man Who Was Thursday were all praised there. Mudpuddle read the memoirs of Vigée Le Brun not so long ago & it got downloaded then. I've read all of Francis Parkman's non-fiction, so why not his novel? I used to subscribe to The New Republic and have thought about reading The Promise of American Life for years. (Croly was the founder of The New Republic.) I downloaded it on to my Kindle; when the battery on the Kindle died and I bought a Kobo, I downloaded on to the Kobo. It would fit in with my recent Edmund Wilson reading. And the last four are classic early mysteries for free! Why not?
I've been a pretty sluggish blogger lately (though reading lots). Maybe this will get me my off my duff...
Which look good to you?
How nice to be so close to the end of your classics list. I have not been doing so well on mine.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read any of those classic crime fiction books on your list but I want to read The Great Impersonation.
I've never read anything by Oppenheim, but I've heard good things.
DeleteGreat list! I've seen paintings by Vigee Le Brun but didn't know about her memoirs, very intriguing! Also very interested in the Hardy, I've read most of his major works and am hoping to read the earlier books eventually. Good luck with the spin!
ReplyDeleteMudpuddle--don't know you if you read his--made the memoirs sound fascinating.
DeleteI'm filling in the corners with Hardy myself. Thanks!
I haven't read many of those, but I really enjoyed The Man Who Was Thursday and The Great Impersonation. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteBoth of those would be good spins!
DeleteI loved Nightmare Abbey but found Crotchet Castle pretty unreadable. I believe it was a DNF for me. I also hated Light in August!
ReplyDeleteOTOH, Go Tell It On the Mountain is great, and the Vicar of Wakefield is fun. I got a kick out of The Great Impersonation too. So here's hoping you get something good.
I'm determined to read Light in August at some point, but Faulker...well...
DeleteI think I downloaded The Great Impersonation after your review.
I struggle with Woolf's fiction writing. I enjoyed her non-fiction book A Room of One's Own. So I then went on to read Mrs. Dalloway and found it to be like being on a rollercoaster. I started to read The Waves but ended up dropping it. I thought maybe it was because of the whole stream of consciousness style of writing. So I thought I would try another author who wrote that same style of book. I chose James Joyce's Dubliners and enjoyed it. So... hmmm....maybe it's just Woolf's fiction? I don't know.....
ReplyDeleteI like her fiction, at least the two I've read, Mrs. Dalloway & To The Lighthouse. I've never tried The Waves. But they are hard! And you have to be in the mood for it. Which is why it might not be wise to have put it on a spin...
DeleteHer non-fiction is totally different isn't it? If you liked A Room of One's Own, you might also like the Common Reader pair of books. I thought they were wonderful. (And much more straightforward than her fiction.)
It's hard to pick just one from this list! I'm a fan of Henry James, Thomas Hardy, Willa Cather and V. Woolf. I hope you get one of those. :)
ReplyDeleteJust randomly leafing through some volumes last night, I pulled Jeanette Winterson's Art Objects from the shelf, to the piece on The Waves (that's one of my fave Winterson's, time to reread maybe). I recommend it if your spin lands on Woolf.
ReplyDelete