Archives by Tag 'Victorian Literature Challenge'
Review: ‘Liza of Lambeth’ by W. Somerset Maugham
If you were, hypothetically, to have your train delayed by over four hours one evening, taking your total journey home time from a little over two hours (which now seems almost reasonable by comparison) to six and a half hours, you’d definitely need a book or two with you to keep you sane. Ideally, you [...]
Review: ‘Elizabeth and her German Garden’ by Elizabeth von Arnim
I very rarely plan what I’m going to read ahead of time, preferring to pick books from my shelves as the mood takes me, so it’s even more surprising when literary serendipity strikes. I really enjoy suddenly discovering that the book I’m reading is set in a place that I’ve just visited, references a book [...]
Review: ‘The Mill on the Floss’ by George Eliot
There has been some discussion circulating around book blogs recently concerning abandoning books, and whether people prefer to persevere with reading in spite of not enjoying a book or to put it aside because life is too short to read things that aren’t appealing. I’ve spoken before about how I subscribe to what I term [...]
Review: ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ by Charles Dickens
Think of Victorian novels and which one author leaps immediately to mind? For me, and I suspect for many others, it is Charles Dickens. When taking part in a reading challenge which relates to Victorian literature, it seems only right to read something by the great man of Victorian literature himself. However, I have a [...]
Review: ‘The Warden’ by Anthony Trollope
In a world where there are too many wonderful books to be read and too little time in which to do so, I always welcome recommendations of books that I might enjoy. One such book was The Warden by Anthony Trollope which was recommended to me by a friend who told me to read and [...]
‘Diary of a Nobody’ by George and Weedon Grossmith
One of the best things about taking part in the Victorian Literature Challenge is that it has made me aware that the scope of Victorian literature is much wider than I had previously anticipated. It isn’t just doorstop sized books featuring worthy governesses, scheming gentlemen and the deserving poor; there’s also a lot of slimmer, [...]
‘The Prisoner of Zenda’ by Anthony Hope
Every so often I feel like reading something which doesn’t require me to think. I find it relaxing for my brain to read a book once in a while where I’m not constantly thinking about the beautiful, stylish writing, the complex subtexts and the hidden meanings. Sometimes it’s nice to gallop through a plot which is, [...]
Victorian literature challenge 2011
After the fun I had joining in with the R.I.P. Challenge this year I’ve beein looking around for some challenges to join for the coming year. Given the immense proportions of my TBR pile, I like reading challenges which provide me with gentle encouragement to read the books I already own, rather than those that tempt me to [...]