Classics > F Classics > B

Advantages: pretty and romantic story
Disadvantages: slightly typified and unexciting

Evelina is a story about an unusually beautiful young women born into an unusual social position. A mystery surrounds her background and as the story unravels she (and we) discover her true situation. If this is all sounding a little bit familiar then this is probably because about a million eighteenth century novels have plots along these lines. As it happens, however, Evelina is not a bad example of the genre - she is a funny, lively and sympathetic ...
...occasions I was shouting at the pages trying in vain to alter her course of action! One aspect of the novel inevitably lies with Evelina's search for a husband. Ever in demand she commands a league of suitors (some of whom I mistakenly found myself charmed by) who provide comedy and reasonable amounts of drama. This is a less exposed example of eighteenth century women's writing and in that educational context is value is unmistakable, but if you're ... Read review

Advantages: A great read!
Disadvantages: A very unpleasant end.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles is one of my favourite Thomas Hardy novels, simply because the story is so unique and captivating. Ii read this over the summer and I can assure you that you also will enjoy the book. The price is very little and is definately worth having in your collection. However, those who are new to Thomas Hardy I must warn you that his work is often padded out with excessive details. This however does not ruin the story. The story ...
...invites you to sympathize with all that Tess is and all that she goes through. I highly recommend this novel, although it may not have a pleasant ending it is very interesting and meaningful! I must add that any woman intending on reading this you are surely to love it! ... Read review

Advantages: descriptions and not intimidating storylines
Disadvantages: maybe the french conversations for some people

Being a fan of the Bronte clan the first section I head to in my local library would be of that shelf. It was only a very short time ago that I discovered The Professor, not even realising Charlotte Bronte had written it. Indeed, ashamedly to admit, I had never even heard of it before then. It was created before Jane Eyre came about from the year 1845-6 and is an intimate and gentle story about William Crimsworth, a man working for his not quite ...
...to an 'older woman' from the adjoining girls school, it is only when he is appointed the position of teaching the young ladies to become better at speaking, writing and reading english that he discovers her cruel manipulations towards other peoples feelings and current situations. The girls he teaches and how he reactes to their behaviour is similar to that of Lucy Snow in Villette. As to where he mocks the written work of the prettiest and unruley ... Read review

Advantages: Some intriguing characters and great Gothic settings
Disadvantages: Sometimes too verbose in wrong places

Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker puts class to classics! Set in Victorian England and rather fictionalized fairytale Transylvania, Stoker´s lengthy novel is a story of a group of heavily idealized Victorian chaps, led by Dutch Professor Van Helsing, who try to save their womenfolk from a vampire king, Transylvanian Count Dracula (NOT Walachian prince Vlad of the most modern retellings!). Mixing the castles and graveyards, Victorian idyll and authentic ...
...vampire complexion), Stoker creates delicious backdrop to his most interesting characters Mina and Lucy, the feminine and pure "angels in house", who are vampirized by the Count. But who is saved in the end? And who dies? The prose is very Victorian, sometimes long-winded, and dehumanization of "lunatics" takes too much time, but great parts overshadow the morally polluted pedantry. ... Read review

Advantages: a 'classic', an interesting book to talk about, pretty short
Disadvantages: rather tiresome to read

...the voluptuous Connie as his Lady Chatterley. She does not conform to the slight proportions of the period, but instead represents a natural 'real' woman who is portrayed from the start as being slightly out of place in Sir Clifford Chatterley's aristocratic world. After a very dull introduction, briefly interrupted with some atmospheric descriptions of the industrial English midlands, Lawrence allows the reader to follow Connie on her own personal ...
...of Connie's position as a Lady of the manor at that point in time, or whether I think she's just dishonest… It's a difficult one to call. Aside from Connie's non-sexual relationship with her husband, the rest of the novel is indeed purely about sex. Either Connie is thinking about sex, planning sex, remembering sex or having it. This might sound wonderfully erotic and exciting, but trust me its drearily dull. Lawrence's prose is slow and I felt, ... Read review