Alice Poon's Blog - Posts Tagged "classics"

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I’ve just finished “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame. I’m giving it 5 stars out of 5 because I was absolutely bewitched by the endearing animal characters, the spellbinding scenery and the sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious twists and turns of the story. The minute description of English rural scenery shows the author’s genuine love of the place where he spent his boyhood – the enchanting Berkshire countryside and Thames River vicinity. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves animals.

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



About a decade or so ago I had seen on TV for the first time the 1993 film adaptation of this novel that starred Michele Pfeiffer and Daniel Day-Lewis. It had made a deep impression on me, especially the performance of supporting actress Wynona Ryder, who played May Welland. After that I saw TV repeats of it a few more times, which left me ever more bewitched. Last week, I finally came round to reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The power of Wharton’s beautiful prose, along with the pathos of a tragic-ending love story plotline, made it a sublime reading experience.

What the author brings into the novel, set in 19th century New York, is much more than pathos of forbidden love. Her clear-eyed insight into the hypocrisy and pretentiousness of high-society New York in what was called the “Gilded Age”, which insight her upper-class up-bringing had chanced to cultivate, gave that much more emotive profundity and even raison d’etre to the storyline.

During the reading, I had that nagging feeling that the author seems to treat the devious and cold-hearted May Welland and her lot with too much leniency. Then I found out from Wikipedia that Wharton meant for The Age of Innocence to be an “apology” for her earlier novel The House of Mirth, which had been much more critical and brutal about the same theme - how social dogmas restricted individual freedom. It just goes to show how unforgiving and oppressive certain moral fetishes can be, under the guise of preservation of family/social traditions.

I don’t know if I’m the odd one out here, but the one character in the novel whom I admire is the joyously obese Mrs. Manson Mingott, if only because she is as generous and non-judgmental in her compassion as in her appreciation for food.

Lastly, I just have to say that I love the satirical ring to the title name. Allegedly the title was inspired by a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which was originally named A Little Girl and later changed to The Age of Innocence. It makes me think that the story’s protagonist should be May Welland rather than Countess Ellen Olenska. Welland’s innocence is the “invincible” kind of innocence, the innocence that seals the mind against imagination and the heart against experience.






View all my reviews

The Trial by Franz Kafka

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This novel is a bleak parody of the legal system, or bureaucracy in general, or even life itself, depending on the reader's interpretation. The shadow of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment does hover above this novel with its philosophical metaphors.

It is said that the description of the protagonist's bizarre experiences with the law was inspired by an actual legal case in which Kafka was involved in. I don't doubt that absurdities of the strangest kind did and still do exist even in democratic countries, let alone authoritarian regimes.

On the whole, I didn't enjoy this novel quite as much as I did The Metamorphosis. The writing seems to drone on and on. None of the characters moves me. Hence 3 stars.





View all my reviews

Watership Down by Richard Adams

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



An entertaining summer read! If you've read and enjoyed Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, you'd enjoy this one too.

It's hard not to admire the rabbits described in the book. With only a few exceptions, they are all loyal to and caring about their community; they are compassionate, cooperative, considerate, tenacious in face of hardships and creative in their struggles to survive. Living under constant stress and circumstantial perils, these vulnerable creatures never give up hope for a better tomorrow.

"Rabbits (says Mr. Lockley) are like human beings in many ways. One of these is certainly their staunch ability to withstand disaster and to let the stream of their life carry them along, past reaches of terror and loss. They have a certain quality which it would not be accurate to describe as callousness or indifference. It is, rather, a blessedly circumscribed imagination and an intuitive feeling that Life is Now. A foraging wild creature, intent above all upon survival, is as strong as the grass."

Richard Adams declares that he drew much information about rabbits from R. M. Lockley's The Private Life of the Rabbit.

Being one born in the Year of the Rabbit, I have a natural liking for rabbits.




View all my reviews

The Peach Blossom Fan by Kong Shangren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



I read the English version of this famous classical Chinese play set in the late Ming/early Qing dynasty. The translators did a superb job, considering the difficult classical Chinese language and the numerous historical allusions, which are not easy to grasp even for the average Chinese person.

The story is about a late Ming courtesan's struggles to stay loyal to her true love despite villainous attempts by self serving power mongers to tear the lovers apart. It reflects on the stark contrast between the courtesan's strong-willed patriotism and the traitorous deeds of an avaricious and corrupt clique at the Southern Ming court, whose total lack of morals and internecine feud ultimately led to the demise of the Southern Ming Pretender's reign.

I loved the historical background of the play, as well as the poetic renderings of much of the dialogues, which add to the poignancy of the story. I kept referring to the original Chinese edition to check out the beautiful poetry.

Overall, it was a 5-star read.





View all my reviews