Rebecca Reads

Maybe this is odd but I’m not crazy about adventure stories. Characters are stereotypes, the adventures they must go through are stereotypes, and all ends up well in the end. I guess I just hope for a little depth or humor or ambiguity when I read.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was, in many senses, [...]

I first encountered Sei Shonagon in a college course about the personal essay. We talked about her tone in the essay “Hateful Things,” and I wrote about the credibility of her critique.
“Hateful Things” is an interesting piece when considered as an essay because it doesn’t read like any other essay I read for that class. [...]

Medea is another ancient Greek play by Euripides, and yet, it is completely different from the other play I read last year. I read the Rex Warner translation in The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces (seventh edition). As I haven’t read any other translations, all I can say is that this one was refreshingly easy [...]

Aucassin et Nicolete was written in medieval France, but it’s not your typical roman d’amour.
I haven’t actually read any other medieval romances. My expectations of “typical” are all formed on stereotype. In many ways, Aucassin and Nicolette meets those fairy tale stereotypes. On the other hand, something goes quite “wrong” in this love story, for [...]

Heather and I are hosting the Really Old Classics Challenge from November 2009 to the end of February 2010. I am so excited about it. I’ve enjoyed every really old classic I’ve read thus far, and I’m looking forward to a little motivation to read some more!
It’s a fairly simple challenge. To finish, you need [...]

Welcome to the 35th Edition of the Bookworms Carnival.
Today we celebrate really old classics. I hope this carnival is fun, whether you already have developed a love for really old classics or are among those who haven’t read them lately (or ever!). Maybe this will give you some ideas for your next classic read.
I [...]

It’s bawdy. It’s erotic. It may be inappropriate for young minds. It’s irreverent, especially considering a strict Islamic world such as the 1500s when they were written. And yet, The Arabian Nights has historically been an immensely popular collection of stories.
As The New Lifetime Reading Plan reminds me, these were one of the first “best-sellers,” [...]

It was diverting to read, but Utopia by Thomas More was not a delightful, engaging read. It has essentially no plot: a world-traveler tells a man named Thomas More about a land called Utopia as they discuss various social problems.
And yet, Utopia was interesting to me as a commentary on “utopias” and “dystopias” in general. [...]

I thought that The Odyssey by Homer (trans. by Robert Fagles) was much more readable than The Iliad (also trans. by Fagles) was. It was driven by far more action, and the ending was happy.  I found it a delight to read, as I did The Iliad. And yet, I was surprised by how [...]

I read The Odyssey when I was in high school, but I didn’t recall much about it. If you aren’t familiar with it, here are some basic facts of the story. Please note that I’m not an expert, and these are only preliminary thoughts after having read the poem twice in the course of my [...]