thelibraryofalexandra’s Comments (group member since Jan 14, 2020)

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

Similar to you all - I would also like to read at least one classic per month!

This year I have read:

- War and Peace
- The Pickwick Papers
- Childhood, Boyhood, Youth
- Animal Farm
- Letters to a Young Poet
- Perfume
- The Castle of Otranto
- Passing
- Silas Marner
- This Side of Paradise
- Ethan Frome
- The Little Prince

I would love to read:
- Oliver Twist (currently reading)
- Middlemarch
- Summer by Edith Wharton
- Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy
- The Longest Journey by EM Forster

and any others that I’m in the mood to read haha!

My absolute favourite classic of 2019 would have to be Anna Karenina. It blew me away and Tolstoy’s writing is magnificent!

Hi everyone! I’m Allie, 26 and from Melbourne, Australia! I am currently completing my PhD in Education (more sociology of education focused) and I have always been a huge book lover ever since I remember.

This year the challenge enabled me to read so much more classics than I have ever read! I’ve been wanting to read more classics for a while but always felt a bit too intimidated to do so. But this year I found some of my favourites and was able to really immerse myself in classics overall.

My favourite classic of this year would have to be Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and it might be my fav classic of all time! I also did a mini challenge with myself this year to complete all of Jane Austen’s full-length novels - which I did and it was incredible! Emma is my favourite Austen novel now haha.

I would like to read all of Oscar Wilde’s plays next year as well as reading the rest of the Bronte books I have on my shelf ! Would love to read War and Peace as a challenge to myself but we shall see how I feel next year haha!

Georgie wrote: "I’d be up for buddy reading North and South!!"

yay! if you are still open for the buddy read, let's organise it! i can create a little forum here or we can do it over on instagram? it's up to you! xx

Hi everyone! Is anyone organising or wanting to read North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell?? I’m thinking gif reading it in November - let me know if you want to buddy read! Xx

October has been such a weird reading month for me haha but I’m planning on finishing The Europeans by Henry James that I’ve just started. I’ve already been able to read Persuasion by Jane Austen and To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf for my classics this month.

If I can, I would love to be able to read Rebecca by Daphne De Maurier and If On A Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino!

Classics I read in August were The Age of Innocence, Villette, Washington Sqaure, Prometheus Unbound, Tp Kill a Mockingbird (is that a classic? I’m pretty sure it’s a modern classic????), The Great Gatsby and Mrs Dalloway! A pretty great classics reading month and I’m super happy with my progress! X

Like most of us, I am also a mood reader and am reading other books throughout the year. But the classics I have read so far are:

- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Lady Susan by Jane Austen
- Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
- Agnes grey by Anne Bronte
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
- David copperfield by Charles Dickens
- The moonstone by Wilkie Collins
- Prometheus unbound by Percy Shelley
- Washington square by Henry James
- The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Mrs dalloway by Virginia Woolf
- To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Villette by Charlotte Bronte

I have also read three of Oscar Wilde’s plays:

- The importance of being earnest
- A woman of no importance
- Lady Windermere’s Fan

I am currently reading The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton! I’ve actually read the 12 books of my classics TBR so I’m thinking of reading a few more Bronte books and maybe some George Eliot books for the rest of the year!

Hi everyone! I just finished Villette and I am looking forward to hearing all of your thoughts! Xx

I'm really enjoying it. Im on chapter 27 and i feel like it's starting to pick up a bit. I also agree about lucy in that she is a keen observer and I also find her to be a slightly unreliable narrator.

I think the main theme that I am enjoying is the exploration of loneliness and how crippling it can be as well as portraying Lucy's depression throughout the novel. I also liked how the characters that we met at the beginning of the novel make a reappearance.

It took me a while to fully get into it, so i can completely understand that! the french does break up the flow of reading, and i wish that the translations for it were as footnotes in my edition instead of having to go to the back of the book instead! but that's just a pet peeve!

okay, so ive been reading the past twoish days and wow. im really enjoying this book much more than i anticipated! im up to volume two, chapter 16. Lucy is definitely growing on me now.

im really interested to see where this story goes...

I haven’t been able to read anything yet which I’m so annoyed about haha but I’m planning to tonight! I can’t wait to be introduced to these characters and see what you both have been talking about!

Yay! Ive already followed your instagram - I’m @allieereads !

How about we do the buddy read from monday till the end of august? Does that give us enough time? We can then figure out how much we want to read per week or whatever.

I would definitely love to !!

I am hoping to read Washington Square by Henry James, The Great Gatsby, Mrs Dalloway and The Age of Innocence! I’ve already been able to read Prometheus Unbound by Percy Shelley!

Hi all! In July I read The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins and The Professor by Charlotte Bronte! Not many, but I’m planning on reading more in August.

I’ve been wanting to read this book for ages! I’m not 100% in (because of uni work) but I’ll try! Xx

Li wrote: "Chapter 5, Part Three:

Constance Garnett:
And the bushes about the river had been cut down, and the river itself, not visible before, now gleaming like steel in its bends, ...

Richard Pevear:
The..."

in the Maude translation, "The bushes by the river where the grass had been cut and the river itself with its curves, previously invisible, were now glittering like steel..."

hmm maybe? i do think you are right and that the bushes were mowed around so now the characters can see the river itself as a result?

i have misplaced my notes that i made for this purpose, so here are my thoughts (though brief!)

YES I agree with the two previous posts. I have been enjoying the experience of reading this book far more than I thought I would. I think the character of Raskolnikov is incredibly engaging and I am enjoying being in his head, reading his intrinsic emotional reactions. I find Raskolnikov to be quite emotional - as in, he reacts with emotion first...does anyone else think that??

The murder scene would have to be my absolute favourite scene of the book yet (that sounds strange, doesn' it? haha) but the author created such a tense atmosphere and everything happened so quickly! I was on the edge of my seat! I can't wait to see what happens now in the aftemath especially in how he is emotionally and mentally.

Absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much! Can’t wait for the discussion!