What are you reading?

[[deleted user]]

Hello, everyone. At the moment, I am reading Villette By Charlotte Bronte. I have quite recently read Pride and Prejudice. It really is one of the greatest books of all time! I would definitely recommend it to all!

[Rose]

Hi everyone!
I am reading Harry Potter 2!!!

[Beth-In-UK]

Florence, I read Villette many decades ago. It's rather a sad book, because it is most like Charlotte Bronte's own life, where she fell in love with the headmaster of the school she taught at in Belgium. I ought to give it another read perhaps, I don't remember a great deal about it other than that!

Harry Potter 2 is the Chamber of Secrets, right? Is this your first read, Rose, because if so I won't spill any of those secrets! But maybe you saw the film version already and know the ending. (Kenneth Branagh has a wonderful time playing Gilderoy Lockhart!)

[[deleted user]]

I have finished 'David Copperfield' now. I would recommend it highly.

[Beth-In-UK]

I've never read it all the way through - Dickens isn't my favourite. But I'm looking forward to seeing the new film adaptation once it's on TV. It's a sad sad story in so many ways, especially poor David's childhood before he gets rescued by his Aunt. The dreadful experience of a child labourer in the bottling plant is taken from Dickens' own childhood - it scarred him for life it was so dreadful. It probably helped to make him the social reformer he became in later life, using his novels to expose the terrible evils the poor suffered in Victorian England.

[Rose]

I have just starter Matilda by Roald Dahl. It is a very good book! I am also reading Harry potter 3 by J.K Rowling. I have also had a tiny peek at the Railway children and it is okay. Do you guys recommend any books for me to read? If you do then make sure you tell me. You can ask me for a link to my group and then put it on my discussion or just put it here!
Thank you!

[[deleted user]]

I just love the Railway children, especially the ending, when the Children's father comes home.

If you like the Railway children, you could try another E. Nesbit book, such as the children's classic 'Five Children and It'.

[Barbara]

I jsut finished a re-read of a book called "Lady Vernon and Her Daughter." It was an adaptation of an early Jane Austen work, a novella written in letters that Austen wrote when she was about 20. There have been a few adaptations of this work, I think I've read most of them, and this was the best of the lot - really have you beliving it was an Austen novel. I'll put up a review when I have time.
https://www.amazon.com/Lady-Vernon-He...

[[deleted user]]

Barbara wrote: "I jsut finished a re-read of a book called "Lady Vernon and Her Daughter." It was an adaptation of an early Jane Austen work, a novella written in letters that Austen wrote when she was about 20. T..."

I would love to give that a go. What is the basic storyline?

[Barbara]

You should probably read "Lady Susan" - it's a short work, written in letters and the plot revolves around Lady Susan Vernon who is a beautiful, flirtatious widow in her 30s with a 16 year old daughter. The plot revolves around her flirtations with the younger brother of her sister in law (the wife of her late husband's brother) and her silly cousin, Sir James Martin, while she tries to marry one and marry off her daughter to the other. It's not the sort of work Austen wrote in her mature writing because the devious woman might be a side character but never the main character.
I thought it was really clever how the authors were able to keep a lot of Austen's material in their version but just add some backstory and shift the point of view to make Lady Susan and her daughter the put-upon heroines and also liked how they fleshed out other characters that were only mentions in the original work.

[[deleted user]]

Barbara wrote: "You should probably read "Lady Susan" - it's a short work, written in letters and the plot revolves around Lady Susan Vernon who is a beautiful, flirtatious widow in her 30s with a 16 year old daug..."

Yes, I do actually have Lady Susan on my to-read list and have read other unfinished Jane Austen novels. Do you know The Three Sisters?

[Barbara]

I read The Three Sisters in a book of Jane Austen's juvenilia. Interesting how you can see her wit and sense of satire even in work that she must have written as a teenager.