Please link your reviews for your Classic with a Number in the Title here. This is only for the Classic with a Number in the Title category. It must be an actual number (i.e., A Tale of Two Cities; Fahrenheit 451; The Nine Tailors.) Roman numerals (i.e., Henry V) are fine, but ordinal numbers such as "first" and amounts such as "half" or "none" are not numbers; therefore, they do not count.
If you do not have a blog, or somewhere public on the internet where you post book reviews, please write your mini-review/thoughts in the comments section. If you like, you can include the name of your blog and/or the title of the book in your link, like this: "Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate (Three Men in a Boat)."
Just entered 'The House of the Four Winds' by John Buchan.
ReplyDeleteTwo Gentlemen of Verona was wonderful. 'Tis a shame more Shakespeare plays aren't included in high school education. https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/31652839-marilyn?shelf=books-and-chocolates-challenge-2017
ReplyDeleteI read Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, and pretty much loved it!
ReplyDeleteReading up the Russian classics this time around due to the encouragement of the reminder that it is the 100th anniversary of the revolution (the one that, eventually, stuck). This time it was the highly enjoyable The Twelve Chairs.
ReplyDeleteI've entered Around the World in 80 Days. A fun read with a great, Victorian Steampunk feel.
ReplyDeleteJust finished "The 39 Steps" - it was a fun, escapist adventure story, but that's about it.
ReplyDeleteJust finished The Three Clerks...another fun Trollope novel!
ReplyDeleteTrollope detests Undy, but Undy will stay in my memory for one jaunty scene. After a confrontation with Alaric, Undy decides to go eat at his club: "It was part of his philosophy that nothing should disturb the even tenor of his way, or interfere with his animal comforts." Hee-hee, there are worse ways to deal with problems....
Deletehttp://majoryammerton.blogspot.com/2016/01/classic-3.html
One of Shakespeare's historical plays. Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk is accused of treason by Henry (Harry) Bolingbroke, Duke of Hereford. King Richard II banishes both of them, Mowbray forever and Bolingbroke for 10 years. After Richard speaks to John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster and father of Henry, Richard reduces the banishment to six years. When Gaunt dies, Richard seizes his property and wealth to help pay for his fight with Ireland. Upon leaving for Ireland, Richard leaves his uncle, Duke of York to rule in his stead. When Bolingbroke learns what Richard has done, he returns to England to claim his inheritance. Aumerle, son of York is loyal to Richard, but his father's allegiance changes because of the actions of Richard toward Bolingbroke. Richard is captured in Wales, relinquishes his crown, and is imprisoned. Bolingborke is crowned King Henry IV of England. Queen Isabella, wife of Richard II, appears but four times in this play. She is banished to France. Richard II is murdered. Six of his followers are beheaded at the end of the play.
ReplyDeleteRemembering always that tales of history are slanted by the teller of the tale, I shall be forced to read some other accounts of these events to judge for myself their merit.
I forgot to mention it was Richard II
DeleteShakespeare's Henry IV parts 1 and 2 - Though these plays are set during the reign of Henry IV they actually are more about his son Hal who would eventually become Henry V. In part I, Hal spends a great deal of his time with drunks, thieves, and prostitutes, in particular, with Falstaff. In the meantime, some men who helped to place Henry IV on the throne are now not pleased with the way he is wielding power. In particular, the Percies are a problem. Son Hal does go with his father to defeat the Percies and their allies. In Part 2, Henry IV is more and more concerned about his son since he himself is becoming quite ill and won't last much longer. Hal does grow up in this one and distances himself from Sir John Falstaff and others. Henry IV dies and Hal is crowned Henry V. Not quite as historically accurate as I may like, Shakespeare was NOT a historian but rather a playwright. The plays do cause one to be curious about the actual history. I'll have to do some more reading.
ReplyDeleteIf Fahrenheit 451 was real life I'd be in serious trouble, because I have SO many books!
ReplyDeleteShakespeare's Henry V - Some of the characters we saw in Henry IV, make an appearance herein. There is mention that Sir John Falstaff has died. Mistress Quickly wishes her husband and his friends her best as they leave for war against the French. One old friend of Henry's is executed for theft of an item from a French church. Henry makes an amazing speech to his troops before battle. Henry V leads his army to defeat the French at the Battle of Agincourt despite overwhelming odds. The Duke of York is killed, but the English suffer limited losses compared to those of the French. Henry believes that it was God's will that his men were so successful. Henry V then attempts with his limited French and her limited English to court Katherine, daughter of the French King. Their dialogue is delightful. It is hoped that their marriage and eventual offspring will unite the two countries. Unfortunately, Henry V who has shown himself to be mature, capable, caring, and religious, dies quite young. His only child is crowned King Henry VI. Now I need to find a comprehensive history of English Kings and Queens.
ReplyDelete4:50 From Paddington by Agatha Christie - An elderly woman on a train sees a man on another train which passes by strangle a woman. Though she reports what she has seen, no body is found and nothing comes of her report. She goes to her friend Miss Marple and tells her what she has seen. Since Miss Marple knows this woman, she knows that her account is credible and she sets out to solve the problem. Since she can not do the physical work of looking for the body, she enlists the help of a friend. As usual with Agatha Christie, there are red herrings to confuse us and the detective from Scotland Yard. I loved this way this tale unfolded and the ending was a surprise.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare's Twelfth Night - This one was a bit difficult to sort out since there are so many characters and so much going on at one time. I did note one particular quote spoken by Malvolio whose source I did not previously know. "Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them." (Act II, Scene V). Imagine in Shakespeare's time when no women appeared on stage, a man played the role of the woman Viola who was pretending to be a man named Cesario. And poor Olivia falls in love with Cesario (Viola) while at the same time Olivia's maid has set Malvolio up to believe Olivia is in love with him. Definitely comedy with no tragedy in this instance. It does all sort itself out in the end for all but poor Malvolio.
ReplyDeleteI read Shakespeare's Richard III! I loved it :)
ReplyDeleteShakespeare's Richard III - The War of the Roses between the house of York and the house of Lancaster is won by the Yorks and there is peace under King Edward IV. However, his younger brother Richard resents the king and is bitter over his own physical deformity. Richard wants the throne for himself and will kill anyone and everyone in order to have the throne. Using deception and manipulation he pursues that goal. He manages to marry Lady Anne despite the fact that she knows he murdered her first husband. He has his older brother Clarence murdered and blames their eldest brother King Edward. Richard has himself appointed lord protector of England—the person in charge until the elder of Edward’s two sons grows up. Richard kills those noblemen who are loyal to the young princes, including Lord Hastings, Lord Chamberlain of England. He has the princes' relatives on their mother's side arrested and executed. Richard imprisons the young princes in the Tower of London and, in his most vicious act yet, sends hired murderers to kill both children. There is, however, a challenger to the throne in France. The Earl of Richmond is a descendant of a branch of the Lancaster family and those nobles who fear the power hungry Richard rally to support Richmond. In an effort to further his power, Richard has his wife Queen Anne murdered so that he can marry Elizabeth, the daughter of the former Queen Elizabeth and the late King Edward IV. Queen Elizabeth is able to stall him and she secretly promises to marry young Elizabeth to Richmond. Richmond finally invades England. The night before the battle, Richard has a dream in which the ghosts of all the people he has murdered appear and curse him, telling him that he will die the next day. During the battle on the following day, Richard loses his horse and proclaims, "My kingdom for a horse." He is killed, and Richmond is crowned King Henry VII. Promising peace in England, the new king is betrothed to young Elizabeth thus uniting the warring houses of Lancaster and York. Ruthless! Certainly makes one curious about the history of England.
ReplyDeleteI read this on a transatlantic plane flight. It passed the time for me, but it is definitely one of Thomas Hardy's more soap operaish books. Entertaining but not stirring.
ReplyDeleteJust entered 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!
ReplyDeleteI read Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Parts of this book were insightful and interesting, and parts were extremely funny. However, not being familiar with English geography, I found his descriptions of the destinations along the Thames River to be quite tedious. His historical interjections were quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare's Henry VIII - This Shakespeare historical play deals only with that period of time when Henry VIII was attempting to divorce Katherine who had failed to give him a male heir. The Pope refused to grant an annulment so Henry VIII broke with the Catholic Church and appointed himself Head of the Church of England. He then married Ann Boleyn who bore him another daughter. There are at the same time disputes between various nobles at court. Always there are disputes over power.
ReplyDeleteRead Fahrenheit 451. Not my favorite.
ReplyDeleteI see a number of people beat me to it, but I just finished Fahrenheit 451. I thought it was very good. I haven't read Bradbury in years. This was a good reminder I need to get back to him. ALSO *fanfare please* with this book I completed all 12 categories of the challenge!
ReplyDeleteOne Hundred Years of Solitude here. It was a trip!
ReplyDeleteHello Karen,
ReplyDeleteI have acidentally attached a wrong link to my entry, so I made a second one with the right link this time. Please, discard the first entry and thank you for this wonderful challenge.
Anahit @ Goodreads
I originally posted Three Treatises for this category. But I'm thinking I could switch Three Treatises to the books in translation category (since it was originally published in German) and count 1984 towards this category.
ReplyDeleteReviewed Fahrenheit 451.
ReplyDeleteFive Children and It was delightful!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading A Tale of Two Cities for this category.
ReplyDeleteI read The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason. I still want to watch the film because I suspect it works well as a period piece, with all the different locations and a love triangle. But as a book I couldn't get into it -- the characters were all far too wooden and one-dimensional. Sentences like this didn't help: "Women were given to a hinting modesty of speech, at all events the best of them."
ReplyDelete. . .
I'll risk some immodesty, then, and just say this: This book alternated between being annoying and downright painful to read.