Classics > G 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
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

There more to the French than cheese.

Advantages: you might decided to read the book
Disadvantages: that I might have put you off reading the book

...The novel Germinal was published in 1885, but set in around 1860, and was part of set of twenty novels which was to trace the history of a family during this great change in French history. The novel starts with the main character of the book, Etienne, looking for work, and stumbling into a mining town. Through the eyes of Etienne, we see how the miners and their families live, and their daily struggles to survive. Zola does not paint a pretty picture ...
...openly their sexual lives, which must have shocked the middle class readers of the time. The miners come over as crude, poorly educated and in many ways not much better than animals. Zola sees this as an effected of the society they live in, but also to their genetic makeup. That the new science of genetic was making a breakthrough at this time and Zola was interested in this area, and it runs throughout the novel. Just over a hundred years later, ...

oldgoth 21.07.2003 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Germinal - Emile Zola

An epic story of war, love and loss

Advantages: A gripping, emotional masterpiece!
Disadvantages: It is a long read, it took me quite a while to finish it.

What a wonderful book! The fact that this is such a classic meant that i already knew some of the story before i started to read. The novel tells of a strong but ruthless woman called Scarlet O'Hara and her struggle to survive the destruction of the American Civil War. It shows her transformation from spoilt rich kid to breadwinner, business woman and general leader of the family. What made the book so powerful for me was that although you sympathise ...
...a lot of the time. She is manipulative and will destroy people to get what she wants. She will delude herself in to thinking she is doing the right thing in the long run and is prepared to suffer to protect her family from the poverty that was so endemic in her community. It is this respect and loathing that keep you so gripped. When you see her making stupid choices that you know are causing suffering you want to reach inside the plot and scream! ...

JennyCosgrave 16.09.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Gone with the Wind - Margaret Mitchell

Little Women Grow Up

Advantages: Touching Story, Very Absorbing
Disadvantages: Does get a little long-winded in places

A rather heartwarming and touching novel that follows the continuing adventures of the March girls, and explores the trials and tribulations of entering into womanhood. Although not always relevant to today's society and expectations, the emotions and experiences that are so vividly described are still true to a large extent. The expectations that women had to live up to, and how they were supposed to behave, helps shed light on generations past, ...

Tempesta 11.08.2006 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: somewhat helpful
Review of Good wives - Louisa May Alcott

more farting and funnines

Advantages: gags
Disadvantages: obscurity

Written second in the series although chronologically this book takes up the first movements in the epic tales of Rabelais. The giants flounder around France urinating on Paris, eating humans, waging war on cake-makers, giving birth out of their ears and vomiting and drinking at will. This is a slightly more mature work than “Pantagruel” and has the same persuasion towards humanist education and learning and is interesting for that very reason. I ...

lewiscrofts 17.07.2000 · Read full review
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Review of Gargantua - Francois Rabelais