Classics > S Classics

Advantages: Adventure on the high seas, Pirates, Long John Silver, Coming of age
Disadvantages: Understanding Pirate Talk, Realisation you're parents deprived you of a good book

The story and adventure constantly come at you as though waves stretch across the golden sands of 'Treasure Island'. Coaxing you out into the blue horizon and reaching out towards the edge of the earth on the 'Hispaniola' to find out where the next chapter will take you. And you will not be disappointed, each chapter has a new turn of events which constantly keep you wanting more. The great ability of the book is keeping the characters alive in ...
...even hate them or love them. I particularly found the ability in conveying Long John Silver as the chaotically suave 'gentleman' that he is, very effective in generating my illicit need to be a pirate and go on many of his previous adventures of which my imagination takes me. The method of writing, and including the smallest and insignificant of details, is able to spin the image of the grand docks or of the island itself in the centre of your minds ... Read review

Advantages: The start of the vampiric fascination of all horror lovers.
Disadvantages: Can be slightly confusing if you let your mind wander from the plot

...someone with the name, Count Dracula was never certain to be the simple, sign his signature kind of guy. Instead, Harker is caged away by the Count and led down a dark and painful road in his mind. He suffers torment and sheer fear of what may happen to him. And as the book continues we hear his struggles and worry for his friends and loved ones. Obviously I don't want to spoil the plot because this really is an AWESOME book and having it at audio ... Read review

Advantages: Discover a great story of friendship and hardship
Disadvantages: Read it and you will know

...book is about the struggles of two very contrasting yet likeable charactors in the duo George and Lennie. They are two out of work and out of luck men in the depression period in the USA. They do everything together, work eat sleep everything. They even share the same dream of owning their own ranch where they can work for themselves. A thoroughly enjoyable book which I am glad that I bought, definitely surprised me more than once and especially ... Read review

Advantages: Very funny, far more complex than it seems, the characters...
Disadvantages: Not everyone will see its depth, unfortunately

...for writing 101 Dalmations, but I Capture the Castle is simply delightful and I wish I'd had it when I was 12 or so. As the introduction by Valerie Grove acknowledges, this is a book with universal appeal - she's given copies to young girls, men in their sixties and various people in between. It's hard to describe without putting some people off - you could call it a coming of age story, a romance, a family drama and many other things - so suffice ...
...would be easy to dismiss I Capture the Castle as merely a simple story, if it were not for its complex characters, interesting social context and wonderfully entertaining style. It has amazing depth - which I'm sure will become even more apparent when I reread it - which is part of its universal appeal. Older children will view it as a sweet, funny story; adults will appreciate its scope and analysis of the characters and their situations. If you ... Read review

Advantages: If you read it you'll be able to say I've read it
Disadvantages: Its 120 Days of Sodom

...their actions over the following 120 days are chronicled to prove who is indeed the most debauched. And that, my friends, is the plot. I was very curious to know how good a standard of writer Sade actually was and I can confirm with confidence that he was well, distinctly poor. The writing style is ironically rather stilted and unimaginative in my opinion. The characters are never fully explored and the plot is tenuous in the extreme. The principle ...
...it rather difficult to care: 120 days of debauchery quickly came to feel like 120 years. The interest in the novel is in determining to what extent the man and the author can be separated. It can be contended that the lonely figure writing in his prison cell courted infamy in his lifestyle yet purposefully wrote in an unreadable and distant style to push the reader away but to justify himself to himself at the same time. It is just about possible, ... Read review