Classics > M Classics

Advantages: A great French classic
Disadvantages: An unappealing heroine from my male viewpoint

Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Emma Bovary is bored. She’s bored with her humdrum life; married to a boring and mediocre doctor she lives under the burden that people judge her only relative to her husband and she struggles to find her own identity. She fills her empty days reading chick-lit romance novels and shopping before embarking on a string of adulterous affairs trying to find a man who will love ...
...was written in 1857. Madame Bovary was the first novel published by Gustave Flaubert and to say it caused something of a stir would be an understatement. In correspondence with friends Flaubert had said that he wanted his first book to make some waves but even he was surely surprised by the outcry that greeted its publication. The book was initially banned on the grounds that it was morally offensive and it took a high court ruling before publication ... Read review

Advantages: Suspense, suspense, suspense
Disadvantages: Can't think of any!

Ambrose, Philip's guardian since the loss of both parents at an early age, travels abroad to Italy for the sake of his health where he meets, falls in love with and marries "my cousin Rachel". Months later, Philip receives a disturbing letter from Ambrose concerning the state of his health, which also hints at Rachel's involvement in his illness. On travelling to Italy to investigate, Philip finds Ambrose dead, and Rachael has departed. Philip returns ...
...he has now inherited from Ambrose. Shortly thereafter Rachel invites herself to come and stay with Philip in the house which she would have shared with Ambrose had he lived. Philip accepts, with the intention that he will question Rachel on her involvement in Ambrose's death and mete out her punishment accordingly. However, on meeting Rachel, Philip becomes enthralled with her and will entertain no doubts as to her character and honour. The remainder ... Read review

Advantages: briliant analysis of justice
Disadvantages: long

...justice and revenge in society. Michael Kohlhaas’s horses are abused by a Junker and he seeks recompense, but this gets out of hand and the situation escalates into Kohlhaas leading a band of robbers pillaging across the country. This was not his intention but it defines him as a criminal which he wasn’t initially. This is a fine analysis on to what extent revenge is and can be justified. It is long and at times long winded but is ultimately rewarding ... Read review

Advantages: Not your average sickly-sweet Victorian novel. Has passion!
Disadvantages: Long!

...when describing the locals of Middlemarch points to the fact that Eliot requires intellectuals to act as the protagonists in her epic in order that her writing does not entirely descend into irony and condescension. Therefore, since Eliot seems not to be writing about the society of Middlemarch itself, the novel coheres, on the theme of marriage, and it is here that the disparate points of the plot converge, and here where the real strengths of Eliot's ...
...genuinely interesting and feisty girl. I am convinced that this novel is NOT irrelevant, but instead was seminal in its presentation of issues relating to women's rights. This novel is REAL - Eliot wanted to escape flaccid sentimentalism. It's a long read, but worth it. None of the Austen-trash, no real cliches, very gritty and exciting. ... Read review

Advantages: Powerful, Insightful, Provocative, Enchanting
Disadvantages: I can't think of a single one

...I first came across Moll in the form of an ITV television adaptation when I was in my late teens. I wasn't instantly besotted with the television programme in the same way I would later be with the original book however it was where my association began nevertheless. Having been written by Daniel Defoe (most famous for "Robinson Crusoe") in 1722, "Moll Flanders" is really quite dated given how far on society has moved in the centuries since. Yet ...
...created a real spirit for Moll that is timeless and still relevant to modern women nearly three hundred years later. For those of you unfamiliar with the story, Moll Flanders is the central character in a fictitious biography of her life. The story is told in the first-person narrative by Moll looking back over her life and all the wicked deeds she'd committed. Moll first introduces herself to us by explaining that the name "Moll Flanders" is in ...