Frederick’s Comments (group member since Nov 15, 2012)

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

Well, it is meant to just be about literature, but I admit I stray more than a little. Nevertheless, you might find my dalliances a diverting: do drop by!
http://frederickanderson.wordpress.com/

'When Katherine shared her experiences with friends, she often talked of her ‘transformation’ – how she had emerged from hospital a different person from the life-loving twenty-six year old who was rushed there after the crash.
“I’m a sort of butterfly in reverse. I went back to my chrysalis and came out as a bug.”'

The Butterfly Man is not just a story of one woman's courage when injury steals her career and her marriage, it is a fast-moving suspense thriller. Katherine, forced to leave the glamour of her West London life discovers a new career in a bleak northern landscape. But the work is not all it seems and her efforts are doomed to failure, until she discovers a decrepit butterfly farm and a man named Ben..

Gita, I think this group is intended for readers of existing works, not for self-promotion. Otherwise I'd be wading in with my own titles! Where are the moderators here?

I get little time to actually sit and read these days, so the tablet is essential. My books are on there with all the other stuff I have to do and I can just flick over to them when I have ten minutes in the train or the car somewhere. I can't remember when I sat down and actually read a printed book!

Andrew wrote: "The Name of the Rose. I read this book almost twenty years ago and I lked the medieval setting and the large amount of details." A lovely book - you can almost feel the cols seeping through the stones!

Alana wrote: "When I was in high school we were the first class in an experimental advanced class that blended history with literature so we would be learning about a particular historical era and reading a majo..."
Very interesting, and gratifying to know that someone out there is prepared to experiment with things that might otherwise be thought 'set in stone'. I believe, in English schools anyway, that history tends to be trivialized and limited to political considerations in the face of the ever-increasing demands of curriculum. A shame.

LaLaLa Laura wrote: "Frederick wrote: "School can either nurture a love of literature or inspire one to hate it. It took me five years to return to Shakespeare after 'taking it for GCE'. Dickens, on the other hand, ..."

I've often pondered this. The conclusion I think I have come to is that books are simply not suitable as an academic exercise. As art, they are as susceptible to taste as, say, a Picasso or a Rodin and need an equivalent approach. No-one, surely, would dream of offering a critique of 'Guernica' without first learning a little about Basque resistance in the Spanish Civil War. So it must be that 'Hard Times' is viewed very much as the outcome of a history lesson, or series of lessons focusing on social conditions in the England of the Industrial revolution. So few schools co-ordinate in that way, and very little social history is taught for that period; yet most 'classical' literature revolves around it, from 'Vanity Fair' to 'The Mill on the Floss'. How much background is needed to arouse interest in 'Julius Caesar'? Not only something of our balding little general's exploits, but also a savor of Shakespeare's London at the time the play was written.

I know good teaching can remedy much of this, but the choice of works will often militate against anything that can be done in class. Personally, I believe the safest course is to discard any title over fifty years old. We have enough richness in our modern literature: classics should be left until at least University level, when the reader can approach them on a more informed basis.

School can either nurture a love of literature or inspire one to hate it. It took me five years to return to Shakespeare after 'taking it for GCE'. Dickens, on the other hand, because I'd begun reading him before I went to school, remained a constant thread, even though they foisted 'Hard Times' on me for exam preparation. Those who compile the reading lists for schools and exam boards are not, cannot be, lovers of literature. Their souls are utterly devoid of poetry.

'Of Human Bondage' is one of the few Somerset Maugham's I haven't read. I must get into it!

I also love Zola. His writing has such depth and feel that even in translation it reads perfectly

Jessica wrote: "One of the most impactful books for me was The Pianist. I remember being so moved not only by Wladyslaw Szpilman's story but his passion/love/emotional connection to Chopin's music. There is a scen..." I just looked him up - what a story! Now I really have to buy the book.

Adam wrote: "The Cat in the Hat was my favourite childhood book. I wonder how that has influenced the person I grew up to be." Hmmm. I wonder? A very competent role model!

Tessara wrote: "The Hobbit, which I first read at age 8." That's some achievement! I was only just starting on the classics then,as I recall. I don't think I would have taken on Tolkien.

For me there was one book which, when I was just starting to read, set my imagination on fire. It was Kipling's 'Jungle Book'. I'd like to ask, what is the book that you've always remembered? The one you dreamed about more than any other, maybe even tried to model your life on? There must be some interesting answers out there....

Porky Park
The Moor's Last Pie
The French Lieutenant's Gammon?

Alessia wrote: "Honoria wrote: "My offering is:

book repository plays host to a cadaver"

The body in the library by Agatha Christie?

@Frederick I'd never have guessed that. Who's the author?" Christopher Landon. Its the story of an odd group of soldiers in the Second World War who drive an old army ambulance across the desert from Tobruk to join up with the allied lines in Alexandria, and their problems along the way. One of them - the captain, I think, is an alcoholic, and the image which he uses to motivate the others is of a pint of ice-cold beer which he says waits for them in a bar in 'Alex'. Sort of a 'Flight of the Phoenix' without the plane.

Honoria wrote: ""Moldy old Fleming might be extremely chilly inside?"

The Alexander Cold trilogy?" Nope, afraid not. Time I gave up on this one: 'Ice Cold in Alex'

Alessia wrote: "Frederick wrote: "Moldy old Fleming might be extremely chilly inside?"

Still thinking about this one. Has it something to do with the Fleming who discovered penicillin (because of "moldy")?

Anywa..." Yes (clue) - you've got the right Alexander...

Alessia wrote: "Frederick wrote: "Moldy old Fleming might be extremely chilly inside?"

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold ? I'm not really sure... This is quite tricky!" No, sorry - try again?

Biryani Junction - too easy, really, isn't it? Like Von Ryan's espresso?