Classics > E Classics > Jane Austen

Advantages: Witty, brilliant characters
Disadvantages: Quite lengthy, as predictable as any other love story

Emma makes for superb reading, better in my opinion than Austen's rather more popular Pride and Prejudice. Austen writes, as always, with great wit and puts forward a rather tongue-in-cheek insight into the life of a young woman, very conscious of social order and hierarchy, whose failed attempts at match-making and trying to understand the relationships between the people around her lead her to realise that she cannot ever comprehend the ways of ...
...Emma contains some excellent characters, my favourites being the talkative Miss Bates, who, although irritating is depicted as very worthy, humble and grateful to those of better social standing than herself and is overall a truly endearing character, and the repulsive Mrs Elton whose puffed up view of herself makes her perfectly detestable. I would always recommend Jane Austen as an excellent example of period romance writing, and Emma is the favourite ... Read review

Advantages: The best reading experience ever
Disadvantages: It ends… I will read it again and again and again…

Ulysses by James Joyce For me, James Joyce's Ulysses is not just a novel; it is a complete project. When I first read the book a couple of years ago, I was very apprehensive; I prepared some reference books and articles from the Internet, took a deep breath, and yet was unsure as to whether I would be able to appreciate such a difficult book properly. The novel has the same structure of The Odyssey, and I honestly don't remember which one of the ...
...to take a look at Ulysses for Dummies, which summarizes the books using basic moving pictures . In short, the huge 1040 page novel describes a single day in the life of a young man called Stephen Dedalus, an older man called Leopold Bloom, and ends with the ideas of Bloom's wife, Molly. Well, things are not that simple. Each chapter in Ulysses has a different structure, for instance, one of the chapters ... Read review

Advantages: Inspiring
Disadvantages: none that i can think of

I wish i had been the first but I can't believe that there's only one person ahead of me! I have heard that this book has inspired politicians and activists for generations. I can only suggest that some need to read it again! I won't rewrite the last excellent review..the book is inspiring, shocking and beautiful. There are parts, the tenderness of which will bring tears to your eyes. ..where Owens son falls asleep wrapped round his dad or where ...
...laugh out loud..the names of the characters and firms.. the Brigands conspiring to defraud the council; there are descriptions of poverty and hardship that will stir the revolutionary in you. The baddies are bad and have no redeeming features, the goodies are flawed. Although there are political lectures throughout - they educate and agitate without being preachy and precious. My favourite parts are the internal dialogues and turmoil of Owen and ... Read review

Advantages: there is non
Disadvantages: the worst book in the world!

...in that film they go around the world in a hot air balloon. But because this book was made ages ago they travel by steamer (Boat) and train. In my opinion that makes it pretty boring. In the book they have a detective after them who imprison them in Liverpool, but in the film there is no detective... And also in the film they just pick up the woman, when in the book they rescue her! I hope I have interested you boringly, so that you people won't ... Read review

Advantages: First of its kind..
Disadvantages: Was written well over 200 years ago..

The Castle of Otranto is touted as being the first gothic novel written in English. It was first released in 1764. The novel was originally sent out as a gift and claimed to be a translation of an Italian novel. Apparently this was a common tactic at the time so that if your novel was detested you could claim no fault. The use of gothic style when writing is considered as an authors attack on all that is the culture of the 18th century. The use of ...
...a revolt against society. The lack of realism in gothic stories goes against nature and the use of the uncanny and focusing on ones emotions, rather than reason - revolts against reason. A style that many detest, such as William Wordsworth who spoke against the fantastic writings and firmly stuck to writing things (somewhat like as Mark Darcy says to Bridget Jones) "just as they are". The pen of course being mightier than the sword, must have had ... Read review