Classics > A Classics

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
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Around the World in 80 Days - Jules Verne

A Passage To India

Advantages: It got me an A in Higher English
Disadvantages: I spent a year reviewing it!

...India” by E.M Forster, is a novel set at the end of the British Raj over India. Set in the fictional city of Chandrapore, Forster clearly explores the problems with the British bureaucracy ruling a country they knew very little about. Despite being based on the poem “A Passage to India” by Walt Whitman, Forster contrasts every theory explored in this poem. While the Suez Canal was an act of blending two cultures together Forster depicts the lack ...
...Marabar Caves. However, due to a hallucination or another person Adela is “insulted” in one of the caves and makes her accusation against Aziz. Ironically Miss Quested’s desire to the real India results in one of the most heightened racial divisions Chandrapore has ever witnessed. Ironically this novel, which is saturated with prejudiced and racist comments, opens with one of the most precious human connections between two individuals of two different ...

beckymilar_4 02.11.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of A Passage To India - E.M. Forster

A war book against war

Advantages: Easy to read, good storyline, humane approach
Disadvantages: nothing as such

...accounts of the war. All Quiet on the Western Front can be enumerated as a novel that shows the horror of the war where the solders feel totally detached from the mainstream society once they returned from the front. The main protagonist of this novel is Paul Bäumer who is also the narrator of the story. He and his friends, Kropp, Müller and Tjaden, with 18 others from his class, joined the war at an early stage inspired by their teacher Kantorek. ...
...The main purpose of Remarque`s All Quiet on the Western Front is to convey the readers that war or conflict of any sort between nations is not only an evil by nature but also an unnecessary evil. This unnecessary evil taught the writer that there is little about bravery in a war and rather it was just chance of survival and death and no one is certain when his death would come. The writer writes this novel with the hard boiled conclusion that “We ...

sabyasachi12 18.05.2009 · Read full review

Review of All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque

A complex, enjoyable, classic Dickens publication.

Advantages: Everything good about Dickens' style is displayed in a challenging and consuming read.
Disadvantages: Perhaps starts a little slowly before gaining speed, very challenging in parts, but is rewarding.

A Tale of Two Cities is a well known and popular novel by Charles Dickens, typically considered among his best publications. Although this is not my personal favourite in terms of Dickens' publications it is still deserving of all 5 stars. The great thing about this book is that it is more than just a fascinating and twisting story; but also an insight into class conflicts and struggles of the French Revolution. From perhaps the most famous opening ...
...sure if I can name a more intriguing character than Madam Defarge. This can be, in parts, difficult to follow and fully understand, but throughout you can feel Dickens' genious in the putting together of this complicated masterpiece. The only disadvantage I could possibly name is that perhaps it starts a little too slowly; I certainly enjoyed the second half of the book more than the first. This is another great read for any fans of Dickens' work, ...

dizzy07 02.08.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

Anna Karenina

Advantages: Beautifully written, complex characters, thought provoking
Disadvantages: Time consuming

Anna Karenina is one of Leo Tolstoy’s best known and best loved works. The novel enjoys continued influence in today’s society and although it was written almost two centuries ago, the continued relevance of its central themes makes the book as provocative now as the day it was written. The main theme of the novel seems to be that of happiness. Yet it does not simply deal with the shallow emotion but with human fulfilment of life. This idea is best ...
...The character of Anna has beauty, charm and wealth, yet finds her life to be completely unsatisfying. Her choice to begin an affair with the officer Vronsky is a decision to struggle against this feeling of emptiness. The consequences are heartbreaking with the happiness she so desperately seeks continually eluding her. The path she chooses to add passion to her life is ill-advised and ultimately destructive, yet in many ways understandable. Her ...

Ellen12345678 23.04.2009 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy