Ashley’s Comments (group member since Jun 05, 2020)

Ashley’s comments from the #ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge group.

Li wrote: "Just finished Chaper 6 (Anthony Briggs) in which Andrey advised Piere not to marry and Pierre went to Anatole's place where Dolokhov performed a derring-do.

Chapter 7, in which Prince Vasily fulfi..."

Wow your chapters are very different! The summary of chapter 7 coincides with my chapter 10!

I just finished Fahrenheit 451 today. I am reading Brideshead Revisited, East of Eden, The Count of Monte Cristo, and War & Peace. The latter 2 will be multi-month slow reads, but once I finish my current quick reads, I have not planned what else I will pick up.

Yay! This works perfectly!

I read Pippi Longstocking and Strawberry girl with my 6 yo daughter. I also read North and South and Anne of Ingleside on my own. I read Little Prince too, if we call that a classic.

I read it in just under 2 months my first time so around 2 months sounds good to me! I vote for October-November.

I could also wait until October when 1 or my 2 long reads is over. Whatever we decide is fine. And I agree that taking a few months to read would be good! It’s a fabulous read, but I think it needs to be taken kind of slow.

Who would be in if we started in September?

Let’s get back to discussing!! I’m finally caught up and on a good schedule! How is everyone else doing?

Some of my thoughts from the last 2 weeks:

Interesting portrayal of depression and hopelessness. And then hope comes in the form of a friend! I am thinking about the fact that it’s an abbe. Is that significant? His hope and futures comes from a religious leader. But also, his revenge and hatred. He wouldn’t know who ruined his life or had the ideas to devote the rest of his life to ruining theirs.

Did you have any thoughts on the words about books and learning in chapters 16 & 17? He lists the books they are the most important to a learned person. And then in chapter 17, he talks about how “human knowledge is confined within very narrow limits”. Also “to learn is not to know; there are the learners and the learned. Memory makes the one, philosophy the other.” Thoughts on these? Do you agree?

Dantes is young and innocent, maybe childlike, in the beginning. Now he has 14 years “experience” and age beyond that. He has patience to wait as he travels with the smugglers instead of jumping at any chance to get to Monte Cristo. He is able to play his character and deceive the smugglers so they don’t suspect him. But at the same time, he is still child like in the way he can’t wait to get to the treasure and is so focused on that.

I love this quote at the beginning of chapter 20. “No. I desire to struggle to the very last; I will wish to recognize the happiness of which I have been deprived.” At this moment he decides not to sit in that desire to die and decides to try and make his life better and do what it takes to live and escape. He will accept struggle to get what he wants. Thoughts? I think life is full of struggle. Do we choose to accept that with the good that comes? Does it have to be that way? Other thoughts?

Things keep happening to foil things for Dantes. Like when he falls and get injured on Monte Cristo. Is providence sending a warning or are things things really blessings for the divine to whom he keeps praying? The injury allows him to stay on the island. But was it all/mostly good or was it a bad situation that he made the best of? Was it a warning not to go down the path he’s headed on?

Oops! I know I would confuse them. Li He is also in the group reading Brideshead so I thought I was in that group at the moment. This group is where I’m read The Count... The rest are other groups. Some day I’ll get it straight!

I am reading Brideshead and East of Eden with this group. I’m also reading Count of Monte Cristo with another group. I will start Underground Railroad and Fahrenheit 451 next week for another group. I may have confused which ones were which groups. I have 3 GR groups I’m joining in. I am also reading The New Jim Crow with a friend and listening to a Christian book. I need to read Eight Cousins in the next week or so for a FB group. I started a book of essays by Wendell Berry last month, but have been too busy to get far! I may not finish that this month.

Oh yeah and I’m reading Phantom Toll booth with my 6 and 8 year old and then Sean Lake with just my 6 yo (she and I read while the 8 yo reads with dad). I tend to do a lot at once!

Wow. How sad! But thank you for the great info!

I’m trying to get ahead of my other 2 group reads so that I can start this this weekend. I am going to have to start using my computer more often since the app on my phone doesn’t allow me to open the spoiler tags. It’s just says “spoiler removed” and I can’t see all photos or links people update.

I’ve got my character map all done and am still taking notes on background for now. Susan Wise Bauer would approve if the idea of one sentence for each chapter. I may try it for this book to see if it’s helpful. I’m always up for new ways to read and study!

Has everyone read Tolstoy before? Is this your first book? I read AK a few years ago. I guess I read half of W&P in college, but because it was a fun read, I ended up giving up because I was too busy with classes. I read Brothers K after AK and decided I much prefer Tolstoy’s writing to Dostoyevsky’s. Tolstoy is a genius. I will try Dostoyevsky again another time. Maybe it’s just that BK is a strange book 🤷‍♀️

Solomon, can you say more? I have been trying to dive into eastern literature, being from the west and well read in “our” classics. What else would you recommend? What immerses the reader into the culture? I used to love to read historical fiction like Memoirs of a Geisha because I felt like I was there with the people, a part of them. But the books have to be really good or I won’t be excited about it. And I’m not sure good authors that actually represent the culture and people. Im so interested in history and philosophy and anything you want to recommend! Thanks!!

Solomon- I read that plus EofE and GofW in high school and loved all of it! I haven’t read any Steinbeck since and have been wondering, now that I’ve read a lot more grey books, if I’d feel the same. I started EofE again yesterday and got sucked in! Steinbeck is seriously a master. He knows how to paint a picture and create characters. I’ve read less than 40 pages and already feel attached to 2 families (like 6 people). How did he pack that much into so little time? He’s brilliant!

I’ve been MIA this week and miss this discussion! I will catch up tomorrow and be back. Hopefully we can all discuss even with a holiday weekend for the states!

I am reading the Maude translation. I tried some Kindle samples and preferred that one. Interesting about the first few chapters!

Also, so that we are on the same page. The Kindle version I have is separated into books, as you can see from my outline. Some are separated into volumes and parts, so Volume 2 Part 1 is Book 4 in some translations. Easy enough to figure out, just wanted to point it out!

Thank you Li He! Love the schedule. I plan to discuss here, but I checked out the FB group and may pipe in there. Is everyone else still wanting to discuss here?

@Tuya- is 100 pages (give or take, based on chapter length) too quick for you? I do read a lot of other things, so that’s a more challenging pace for me, but it would be good to force me to read. The Count of Monte Cristo buddy read is good for me to squeeze in at only 5 short chapters a week, but it also is easy to put off and not finish and to forget what I read, so i would be good with a quicker pace (3 month read).

Oh wait. You said classics. Well those books are great. Haha. We often don’t talk about the fact that Dumas was black, so Count and his others. Frederick Douglass. W.E.B Dubois. Sojourner Truth. Harriet Jacobs. I’d consider Maya Angelou a writer of classics. And I love anything by Toni Morrison.