Subject Tag: social class

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf

Filed under: Nonfiction, Reviews, Speeches/Essays

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf is an historical essay, so as I began reading, I wondered how relevant it was for me. After all, I don’t feel I’ve been discriminated against because of my gender and I like where I am with my life and the options I have before me. However, [...]

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Filed under: Fiction, Reviews

Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is full of dark Victorian romance. Muddy roads on a dark night. A secluded house on a corner that echoes footsteps. Cemetaries at night. And, of course, Paris streets that run with wine and then blood because of La Guillotine.  It is a sinister world for the upper [...]

Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Filed under: Fiction, Reviews, Short Stories

Sometimes I just need something light. Something that makes me chuckle. I’ve been reading a lot of old classics (which I love) and nonfiction (which fascinates me). But when I went to start another portion of my painting project, I needed something light and funny. I couldn’t concentrate on serious when I was doing a [...]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

Filed under: Fiction, Reviews

Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray is creepy. Dorian Gray, as an innocent and attractive young man, in a fit of passion exclaimed:
How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrible, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young. It will never be older than this particular day of June. … If [...]

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Filed under: Fiction, Reviews

At first, I didn’t love Sense and Sensibility. The characters felt like flat stereotypes. The elder sister, Elinor Dashwood, was full of sense and Marianne (and her mother) was flighty and emotional (the “sensibility” of the title). These two acted in the extremes of their stereotypes, and I didn’t feel drawn in to the story. [...]

The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Nonfiction, Reviews

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. [...]

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

Filed under: Fiction, Reviews

In Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf captures a woman’s joys and frustrations in a single day by revealing her thought processes. Although some other character’s thoughts are captured as well, it was Clarissa Dalloway that I related to.

Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell

Filed under: Fiction, Reviews

Mary Barton is the only living child of John Barton, poor factory worker and Union leader in Manchester. He hoped for better for her, so he apprenticed her to a dressmaker, hoping that she could avoid the dreary life of a factory girl. Mary has high ambitions, hoping to snare the attentions of the young [...]

The Life of Wilkie Collins (Biographies by Clarke and Peters)

Filed under: Biography/Memoir, Nonfiction, Reviews

Today I welcome Wilkie Collins to my blog through the Classics Circuit.
Although I like reading classics, I don’t know much. Before August of this year, I’d never heard of Wilkie Collins! I first experienced Wilkie Collins through The Woman in White (loved it!), and I recently read The Moonstone.
For this Circuit, I decided to read [...]

Victorian Second Helpings (The Moonstone by Collins and North and South by Gaskell)

Filed under: Fiction, Reviews

My experiences with Victorian novels had been quite positive, so I jumped in to read a few more. I enjoyed both The Moonstone and North and South very much.
I did give up on A Tale of Two Cities this week. While Oliver Twist seemed intuitive and easy to breeze through, Two Cities has been confusing, [...]

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