Classics

Had low expectations but great results

Advantages: Great story that offers so much to the reader that they won't want to stop until it's over
Disadvantages: May miss parts of the audio and story

...out passages. When assigned Great Expectations these were the ideas that were conjured up in my mind and I tried so hard to avoid reading the book so I figured listening to it would be better. As soon as I heard the first chapter though I was hooked. The story begins with the excitement of the main character Pip meeting a convict, while in a graveyard visiting his parents graves. The convict takes everything Pip has and asks where his mother is, ...
...to be a happy ending. Great Expectations is so many things, a fake biography, a fairy tale, or a mystery story, which could entice any reader. And those wishing to read "the classics" or even a little Dickens should look to Great Expectations first. This classic is a great addition to any book shelf and to listen to someone else read it almost makes the story seem that more real. The only problem I had was that as I stopped to think about the great ...

wafflejr 02.03.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Tess - heroine or whore??

Advantages: A tragic but wonderful read
Disadvantages: None

...old favourite of mine - Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. When the book ( first called 'A Pure Woman') was published in 1891, it ruffled quite a few Victorian feathers!! Hardy fearlessly tackled issues such as murder, rape and violence which were, at the time unmentionable. What readers today have to understand is that the topics Hardy covered - while commonplace in contemporary literature, were considered obscene in the nineteenth century. ...
...truth be concealed." Tess of the D'Urbervilles deals with the oppression of an innocent girl. Most of the consequences she faced were not due to her own actions which makes this story somewhat of a tragedy in that sense giving the book a mood that you can try to make for yourself a good life, but you do not determine your own outcome. The book starts with a somewhat insignificant incident - or so we think : John Durbeyfield, a middle-aged peddler, ...

oldchem 04.07.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy

"Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a d

Advantages: A wonderful, wonderful book.
Disadvantages: Can take a little getting in to

...it was for me with Wuthering Heights - I had not yet seen the 1939 film starring Laurence Olivier, so all I had to visualise he charaters and settings were the wonderful words from Emily Bronte. Incredibly this dazzling, iconic novel published in1847 (under the pseudonym Ellis Bell) was the only book written by Emily Bronte. How tragic that she was taken only a year later, suffering from consumption - what more masterpieces could have been written? ...
...of those moors. Wuthering Heights is a powerful story about love and hate and sorrow and death. It takes place over a period of thirty years and is all narrated by firstly Mr. Lockwood, and mainly by Ellen 'Nellie' Dean, the faithful housekeeper. The book starts as Mr Lockwood has rented Thrushcross Grange on the Yorkshire Moors. His landlord - Mr Heathcliff - lives in a remote farmhouse called "Wuthering Heights". Lockwood finds Heathcliff and all ...

oldchem 08.07.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Wuthering heights - Emily Bronte

Who needs a passport? a passepartout please!

Advantages: Very easy to read
Disadvantages: perhaps a bit too short!

...local that he can go around the world in 80 days and he leaves the next morning! The journey across the continents is well described and although the obstacles he meets on his way are seem obvious the solutions around them are not! I was gripped by the story and my poor children 13 months and 32 months have been forced to watch Postman Pat a bit more than they would have liked!! I did manage to get to the end in two days and I thought the ending ...
...almost disappointed when the story ended. I found the book very easy to read even though we have been suffering from sleepless nights with a teething baby! It is very well written and contains a surprising amount of detail for such a short book. I would think it would be easily read by anyone over 10 . Some of it would probably be more understood by adults (a bit like the simpsons!!!!) I loved the character of Phileas Fogg, the old fashioned English ...

kazz42 18.07.2006 · Read full review
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Review of Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne

a review on the novel pride and prejudice.

Advantages: a gripping storyline
Disadvantages: quite long

...Jane Austen's most popular novel, Pride and Prejudice. And, of course, a single woman in search of a good fortune must equally be in want of a husband who has one! The difficulty for the Bennet sisters -- lovely, sweet-tempered Jane; beautiful, headstrong, intelligent Elizabeth (Lizzie); plain, bookish Mary; Kitty, who slavishly follows the lead of the youngest, the empty-headed and man-hungry Lydia -- is that because they have no brother their father's ...
...Collins, and they will be left with very little to live on. Solution: at least one of them "must marry VERY well" -- meaning, marry money. Enter a new neighbor, Mr. Bingley, a wealthy young man who takes a house in the neighborhood. The dithering, laughable Mrs. Bennet immediately selects him for Jane, and the young people oblige her by showing affection for each other. But Bingley's friend, Mr. Darcy, persuades the somewhat weak Bingley that Jane ...

ella10 07.08.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen