Beverley’s Comments (group member since Jan 10, 2013)

Beverley’s comments from the Classics Without All the Class group.

Beth wrote: "I just watched the movie: Never Let Me Go. It was beautifully filmed with a gorgeous musical score. Like the book it was quiet, gentle and so very sad. It was pretty true to the book but did leave ..."

I almost always hate movie adaptations but, to be fair, this one was very good with some amazingly underplayed performances. I thought the book was one of the most harrowing I've ever read, probably because of the resignation of the characters to their fates and the complacency of all around them, as many people have remarked upon. Altogether too plausible I think, and the film captured this 'banality' of the horrific situation very well.

Tanya wrote: "I really enjoyed Ripley as well...enough to make me look into the whole series and procuring it in time for next year. I like to take time with certain series...if I plow through them in one fell s..."

Completely agree! I just bought Two Faces of January to take on holiday to Italy with me and have been avoiding any spoilers from that film version that's just come out :)

Tanya wrote: "And I forgot...Revolutionary Road made quite an impact as well. Decently written and well plotted but it was the ending that has stayed with me for the last couple of months."

I loved Revolutionary Road too, and I don't usually read many 'domestic dramas' but it was so much more, compellingly uncomfortable! I'd my other fave on your list is the Talented Mr Ripley. I'll have to give Garp try :)

Fair play Tanya, that is a cracking list, a really eclectice mix! I've read about half of those over the years. Tell me, is Ayn Rand worth a look? I'm always a bit put off by the denseness of the books and the fact the novels really seem to divide readers. Well done you! Which was your favourite and which did you like least?

Kara wrote: "I had never even really heard of this book before the group decided to read it. I think the title is just so appropriate!

There is a certain amount of "British-ness" about how they avoided talk..."
I'm with you there! Even without the modern hazards of iPhones and social media etc, how would no one from neighbouring towns start noticing the preggers women then the weirdly similar babies, let alone social services etc. an explanation is offered for this in later chapters which is actually pretty damn funny. Yet despite this the book is somehow still really quite creepy rather than silly!

Yes,the canary was a nice touch - and the 'hooking' people out of the edge of the zone. I think it quite cleverly highlights that if people can't get get their head around the inexplicable large nature of a situation they'll focus on the little practical things moment to moment.

Having read on a bit now what I found interesting in the first bit is no one discusses the option of not seeing the pregnancies to full term. I know this would have been a controversial and illegal topic at the time but it would have been available for certain medical grounds and surely this would fit the 'exceptional' box! Only Zellaby's wife voices the true horror of the situation the women find themselves in rather than a practical situation to be managed and kept private, away from the press and rest of the populace.

I'm really enjoying this one already but Am I the only one who is surprised to find there's an air of almost wry black humour in the first eight chapters. I imagine everyone's aware of the premise now but Wyndham goes to extraordinarily 'British' lengths to find ways not to ever get anywhere near the suggestion of sex. And the husbands take it all so well, except the mention of one or two 'troublesome' ones and the comedy chap found conked out in the married lady's garden!

Carrie wrote: "I love Scarlet O' Hara of Gone with the Wind and Lady Audley from Lady Audley´s Secret"

I vote for Lady Audley too! Just wish she'd gotten away with it.

Becky Sharp from Thackeray's Vanity Fair! Every time!

Breakfast at Tiffany's , the novella, is pretty good. It's really very little like the movie, so even if you feel put off by Moonriver and Mickey Rooney's scary comedy racism from the flick you'll find something 'new' in the original. Like Alex above suggested, a good intro to Capote without having to slog through In Cold Blood. ( Capote's short story anthologies are really good too.)

Karena wrote: "What classics do you consider the monsters?

Anna Karenina strikes me as a monster read as does Atlas Shrugged."

I really want to give Atlas Shrugged a go. I just see it on the shelf and chicken out!

Louise wrote: "The Count of Monte Cristo. My unabridged copy is 1250+ pages with another 100 pages of endnotes.

Reading it at the moment though and despite its length it's not a heavy going read at all."

I think I've been gushing somewhere else on this site about The Count of Monte Cristo but it's still one of my all time faves. Even at that whacking great length it didn't feel like a slog. Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea on the other hand, is a mere pamphlet but boy did I feel every. Single. Stilted and short. Sentence, Yes. Indeed it was. Dull.

Sebastian wrote: "I am probably going to get stoned for this, but Moby Dick is probably the worst book I have ever read. I generally like most classics, but for this one, I had to force myself to finish reading it. ..."

I'm right with you on this one Sebastian! I love classics (my masters was in The Victorian novel so I don't mind a weighty tome!) but MD bored me to tears. I also can't bear DH Lawrence. What a self conscious pile of old tripe! not so great when I actually had to teach Sons and Lovers to an access to higher ed class of serious adults in awe of 'literature' :)

Glad you agree, people turn up their noses sometimes when I say it's one of my faves, like it's not Literatoor! I blame Richard Chamberlain and that bloke off of Person Of Interest :)

Everyone's heard of The Railway Children but E Nesbit's The Treasure Seekers is one of my faves, less sentimental, funny, with Edwardian high jinx and misbehaviour. Has anyone read Philippa Pearce's Tom's Midnight Garden. I was obsessed with this book as a kid. Definitely a modern classic.

Marwa wrote: "I've been reading Russian and Asian literature recently. So how about something French??!! Old Goriot or The Phantom of the Opera perhaps??"

You could try Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo. Don't be put off by the watered down film versions. It's a stone-cold classic of revenge and obsession and was pretty controversial for its time with som genuinely dark elements. Plus a cracking read!

Hi, I'm a novelist from Cardiff, Wales (UK)with my first two books published this year! Very exciting! I've just discovered Goodreads, which is brilliant because i love nothing better than a good old gossip about books, pretty much any genre (though my MA is in Victorian Lit I'm pretty partial to contemporary and sci-fi too. I have trouble working IT and computer stuff though so be patient with me! :)

No Country For Old Men, Cormac McCarthy. I read the book first, loved it and thought they film would never capture the menace and pared down brutality of the text. But Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin (and Javier Bardem with that potentially silly hair) were superb. The 'lucky penny' scene (no spoilers) is almost unbearably tense on the page and in the movie. It felt like a very faithful adaptation (which doesn't always work).