Alice Poon's Blog - Posts Tagged "english-classics"

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

I saw the 2006 movie “The Painted Veil” on TV some years ago and somehow couldn’t quite forget Edward Norton playing the always tense and melancholic Walter Fane, who actually has a sensitive and loving heart beneath what appears to be a cold and distant outer shell.

Recently in an online chat with other readers at Goodreads, I was asked to name my favorite movie which was adapted from a novel and I answered “The Painted Veil” just because I loved the movie very much as I remembered it. But I had never read the novel before. So I decided to read the novel. When I finished reading it, I felt the novel impresses me even more than the movie.

The novel moves me on several levels.

Read the full review on my blog:

http://alicewaihanpoon.blogspot.ca/20...

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.

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

I've given 3 out of 5 stars to this acclaimed masterpiece by W. Somerset Maugham.

Here's my review:-

When I was about two-thirds through the book, I was getting so exasperated by Philip’s (the protagonist) foolish, maudlin, almost masochistic kind of blind passion for an undeserving woman named Mildred, that I was ready to give up reading there and then. But then I pressed on, and I’m glad that I did.

Overall, for a “bildungsroman” (coming-of-age story), I find “Of Human Bondage” tending a bit much on the grim and dark side of life throughout with almost no relief until the very end, when a silver lining finally appears. Also, I personally feel that the novel is too drawn out and a rather slow read. So, for those who are interested in reading the novel, I would advise them to exercise patience.

Now let’s turn to the positive aspect of the novel. I quite like the way the author inspires his readers to think deeply about the meaning of life, and I personally am inclined towards his philosophical thinking which is expressed through Philip’s inner thoughts as he progresses through life.

Philip’s young life (from the time he is nine to the time when he turns thirty) can be termed one big tragedy. Generally, it is filled with morose sadness (he is orphaned from the age of nine) and misfortune (he was born with a clubfoot). At various stages, he is plagued by morbid inhibition and failure (at socializing in school and at work), excruciating heartbreak (over his wretched love relationship with Mildred and betrayal by Griffiths), desolation (over the deaths of his close friends), despair and destitution at one point, and desperate loneliness due to his acute sensitivities and general distrust in people.

Yet, despite all his sufferings and pain, Philip seldom fails to try to do the right thing even if it means he would be all the worse for it, and would actually let others take advantage of his generosity, kindness and good-naturedness. He is even philosophical enough to urge himself to forgive Mildred and Griffiths, because they “could not help themselves”. In fact, the whole human race “were the helpless instruments of blind chance”.

His poet friend Cronshaw once tells him that he must find out the meaning of existence by himself and gives him a piece of old Persian rug as a present. This sentence perhaps sums up the epiphany that Philip comes to discover: “He told himself strenuously that he must accept with gaiety everything, dreariness and excitement, pleasure and pain, because it added to the richness of the design.”

In the end though, Philip also discovers that the simplest pattern is likewise the most perfect. He realizes this when he decides to marry Sally instead of sticking to his dream plan of travelling to all corners of the world in search of beauty. Simple happiness that a man finds in work, marriage, family and children is ultimately the perfect happiness. This is the silver lining!

Finally, I would have to say that I liked “The Painted Veil” much better.

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

I’ve enjoyed reading “The Picture of Dorian Gray”, which is a Gothic supernatural kind of tale with a Faustian theme.

Dorian Gray is a young and handsome lad who has bartered his soul for eternal youthfulness and a life of wild pleasures. After experimenting a debauched life, inspired by a poisonous book that his cynical friend Lord Henry has given him (believed to be the French novel “A Rebours” by Joris-Karl Huysmans, which was to become a famous, so called “decadent” novel), he finds that his own enemy is and has always been his conscience, which is represented by the portrait that his artist friend Basil Hallward once painted of him. When Dorian further engages in one wicked deed uncontrollably after another, he is ensnarled in utter despair. Is he ever going to get out of the vicious cycle?

It is amusing to note some of the criticisms that “The Picture of Dorian Gray” received when it was first published in 1890. It was described as “mawkish and nauseous”, “unclean”, “effeminate and contaminating” (from Wikipedia). In hindsight, it is clear that the criticisms were more directed towards the novel’s unconventional moral concepts that Wilde had the audacity to put forward in conservative Victorian times, rather than towards the work as literary art. He was censored for being too avant-garde and too rebellious in his ideas of hedonism, art appreciation, love (with homosexual overtones), marriage and religion, often mixed with a shot of mockery at the lack of sensitivity for art and general hypocrisy in English society.

The novel doesn’t lack purple prose, which I find not at all cumbersome but actually complementary to the Gothic mysteriousness, as it creates a paradoxical mood for romance and horror, spurring the imagination into curious activity.

My only complaint is that I find the ending a bit too melodramatic!

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

I've enjoyed this Shakespearean comedy tremendously, which is an awkward statement from someone who has never been a great fan of Shakespeare’s! There are two things about this play that particularly pleased me. One is the comic effect rendered by the lighthearted world of sweet fairies, in particular the bumbling but innocent blunder committed by Puck, which is the pivot of the play; and the other is the sympathetic tendency shown by the author towards the plight of women in the areas of courtship and marriage in a patriarchal society.

When Puck realizes he has made a huge mistake, he just nonchalantly blurts out: "Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth, a million fail, confounding oath on oath." Then when Oberon has drugged Demetrius in an attempt to remedy Puck's mistake, Puck mischievously looks forward to watching some human drama unfold, saying: "Then will two at once woo one; That must needs be sport alone; And those things do best please me that befal preposterously."

In the happy world of dreamy fairies, nothing is serious and everything is fun. When this is juxtaposed with the sorrowful world of humans, where disobedience to the father in the matter of marriage means death or life confinement to a nunnery for the daughter, the satirical irony becomes intense. Luckily, at the end of the play, the comic world of dreams prevails.

Another important theme is inequality of the sexes which pervades throughout the play. Apart from the unfair patriarchal demand imposed on Hermia, we also see Helena as a victim of her times. The latter's bitterness about her unrequited love is obvious from this line of hers (to Demetrius): "Your wrongs do set a scandal upon my sex: we cannot fight for love, as men may do; we should be woo'd and were not made to woo." The fact that she dares to chase after Demetrius regardless must have seemed quite incredible to readers of yonder times! Nonetheless, her position still seems doomed. By contrast, in the world of fairies, Titania is at least able to hold her ground and refuse Oberon his brutish demand. So Hermia's and Helena's happy endings that are made possible with the fairies' help are particularly heart-warming. Hats off to Shakespeare for inspiring hope in mortals that dreams may come true!

I've given it 4 out of 5 stars and find the allegory adds charm and an endearing quality to this sobering novel.

My review:-

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

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This was my first foray into Charles Dickens' works and I went in with much excitement and perhaps too much by way of expectations. The book took me much longer than expected to finish. Throughout the novel (at least in the first three-quarters), I failed to feel empathy with any of the characters. It was only when I neared the end that I became more absorbed with the plot twists. I would be lying if I said I wasn't deeply moved by the story's ending.

Was it the wordiness of the novel that put me off? Maybe not, because I've read and liked other wordy authors. I think I would blame it on the author's slightly going overboard with sarcasm and sentimentalism in case of this particular novel. As well, his characterization could have gone a little deeper with Sydney Carton. Having said that, I still like his ingenuity in patiently building up suspense to climactic heights near the very end. On balance, I am inclined to give this novel three out of five stars.





View all my reviews

To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



This was my first Woolf novel, having recently read her non-fiction title “A Room of One’s Own”, which is an extended essay in fictional narrative form and which gave me a taste of her writing style.

Still, I have to admit that in the first tenth of the novel I had a slight problem adjusting to her “stream of consciousness” style, often having to turn back the pages to get a grip on who’s saying what. Once I got adapted to it, I found that I became sort of addicted to being transported into the hearts and minds of the characters, who are just members of an ordinary family and their friends, each trying to cope with changes in his/her life.

The outstanding skill of Woolf is her way of using affecting imageries throughout the novel, at times to paint an atmospheric background (particularly in Part 2), and at other times to inject thoughts and emotions into her characters. The end result is a picture-perfect story that is created out of a non-dramatic, even mundane narrative concerning the everyday life of the Ramsay family and their friends.

After putting down the book, I found that the words are no longer there, but the imageries have stuck.




View all my reviews

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This was my first Austen novel. I saw the 2005 movie adaptation starring Keira Knightley and my impression was that it was an artificially sweet romantic story bordering on the make-believe kind. Reading the novel has confirmed that first impression, and I've been wondering if I might have enjoyed the story more had I read it in my younger days.

For me, one redeeming element of the novel is Austen's attribution to Mr. Bennet of an acute sense of humor, other than her witty depiction of Mr. Collins' obsequious falsehood and Lady Catherine de Bourgh's self-important snobbishness. Overall, I find the novel in want of any meaningful themes, and the love story between Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy seems to be no more convincing than a well-constructed fairy tale.











View all my reviews

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I'm giving this novel 3.5 stars. The story started out very promising, but then towards the last one-third, especially the denouement, it got a bit drawn out and trying on my patience.

Overall, the plot is very intricate and saturated with well thought out details and the characters are vividly drawn. The writing style can be somewhat cumbersome though, but not unusual of authors of that time period. I do like the sensitivity and compassion towards women that Collins displays throughout his writing. There is also a subtle tint of humor in his description of the two Italian characters (the hearty Professor Pesca and the abominable Count Fosco) and the quirky and self-indulgent Mr. Frederick Fairlie.




View all my reviews