Rasselas. Samuel Johnson.

Rasselas: Prince of Abyssinia.
Samuel Johnson.

John B. Alden: 1887.

A short classic about a young prince who leaves his overprotective castle to search the world for happiness -- or, the way to live happily. He is joined by his sister and an older "man of learning," Imlac, on his quest.

Along their way, they meet with a variety of people who seem happy: farmer, hermit, scientist, philosopher, ruler, etc.; yet each one declares himself to be unhappy. Eventually, they decide to return to Abyssinia.

Johnson's cynicism and pessimism are laughable at times, probably intentionally. Rasselas intends to find a life of continual ease and happiness -- such as his father intended for him at Abyssinia -- yet despite his own experience and observations, he his unable to see that struggle and strife are necessar to experience true happiness.

King Solomon's Mines. H. Rider Haggard.

King Solomon's Mines.
by H. Rider Haggard.

Supposedly the first African adventure novel, this book contains interesting details of the white man's experience of Africa circa 1885, but since so much is obviously made up, there are some places where you're not sure how much Haggard is intentionally stretching the truth.

Two English men approach a white hunter to locate their brother whom the hunter (Alan Quatermain) knows has gone off to search for King Solomon's Mines. They enlist some native help, and discover a lost valley. One of their helpers happens to be the rightful king. They invoke a civil war, win it, and are led to the diamond mines by an evil and ancient witch, who then betrays them, only to wind up dead thanks to the efforts of African maiden in love with John Good. They escape with a few diamonds and live happily ever after, etc.

The plot is too simple for its time and genre, but laced with enough humor to keep your interest. Quatermain stars in 16 more books and stories, although he dies in the sequel to this one.

The Treasure. Selma Lagerlof.

The Treasure.
by Selma Lagerlof. Translated by Arthur Chater.
Doubleday, Page & Co: 1925.

A very enjoyable book. Set in 16th century Sweden, it tells the tale of a brutal murder by villains, and how the only survivor, the ghosts of the victims, and the last person to see them alive avenge their murders. The plot twist is that the survivor, a 14-year old girl, falls in love with the leader of the villains. The leader is haunted by a ghost and is very remorseful; he falls in love with the girl. The witness is too cowardly to do much of anything.

It ends with the lovers hating each other, the girl kills herself so that the leader can get caught (he doesn't) and the witness finally gets the courage to make a stand. The bad guys are eventually caught, and the girl is honored in/by her death.

This has all the aspects of a successful fairy tale: a fun yet dark & twisted plot; good characters; yet reads as easily as a young adult novel. Lots of neat setting details make this successful just as an historical novel.

The Moonstone. by Wilkie Collins.

The Moonstone
by Wilkie Collins.

One of my favorite boks of all time. Collins was a friend of Dickens, who acted in two lays written by Collins. Moonstone is described by T.S. Eliot as the first, longest, and best of English detective fiction. And rightly so.

Switching narratives as the story progresses, the book follows the Moonstone diamond's capture from India, delivery to young English woman, theft, and recovery.

Two things really stand out: first is the quality of writing - excellent characters, all believable, most a bit absurd - excellent shift in voices with changing narratives, concise plot (Collins was criticized for placing too much emphasis on plot, though I'd rather read a good story than a good description); second is a plot that gradually narrows your suspicions, yet never actually solves it for you until the end. Very unlike Agatha Christie, for example, who tends to make a puzzle rather than a book.

John MacNab

John MacNab

John Buchan. Wordsworth Classics: 1986.

A fairly short but entertaining adventure/mystery about three men, bored with respectable life, who go to the country and challenge their neighbors that "John MacNab" will poach an animal from their estate during a given time period of three days.

Of course, there are minor subplots, and some fun characters, but the bulk of the story is the planning and execution of the stunts. It has the same intellectual stratagem of a mystery, the excitement of a suspense novel, and a LOT of Scottish colloquialisms.

Yes, this is fun, but the former English major in me cannot resist seeing the Christian Trinity in the MacNab three-in-one persona: father (loss of innocence plot), son (fish miracle plot), and Holy Ghost (power of love plot.)

May 28, 2005

Fanny Hill

John Cleland. Wordsworth Classics: 1993/1748.

One of the early works of Western erotic literature, this novel, in two parts, follows the adventures of a country maid who goes to London and becomes a prostitute. Heavily idealized: she is always well paid, well treated, gets no diseases, never becomes pregnant. At the end, when she catches her man, she spouts off for a while about how much better it is with someone you love, and how much more pleasure is derived from Virtue rather than Vice: a questionable conclusion coming from someone (this applies to the author as well as the character) who so clearly relishes giving full detail to her life's erotic adventures.

Great line "me, whose natural philosophy all resided in the favourite centre of sense." Reminiscent of de Sade: reliance on the sense to develop a philosophy. Indeed, and perhaps some interesting conclusions may be drawn, this is the same groundwork of empirical science, which was blossoming roughly at this time; and both empiricism and eroticism were both heavily attacked by the Church.

May 28, 2005

Vanity Fair

William Makepeace Thackeray.

A contemporary of Dickens, and Vanity Fair being his masterpiece, Thackeray displays an equal though not as subtle wit to Dickens, with similar social commentary running through both authors' works.

This is the tale of two women -- one is pure & good, the typical timid & meek woman, the other (the more engaging Becky) is poor and struggles constantly toward fame and fortune by lying and Machiavellian schemes. A very long novel, but reads quickly due to the interesting characters. Even though Becky is rarely portrayed doing anything good - and when she does, it is almost always for selfish reasons - the author clearly enjoys her character as much as the reader does. I am always rooting for her to achieve the success she longs for.

Well, eventually, she does in a way, and even makes a generous gesture towards Amelia, whom she had much abused in the past. Happy ending, fun reading with some truly great moments along the way.

2005 update (this was originally written in 2000): Glad this classic has been made into a popular movie & created a new generation of readers for the book!

March 26, 2005

Justine: A Philosophical Romance, or "The Misfortunes of Virtue"

Marquis de Sade. 1791/1963.

This is supposedly "for the first time translated from the original French" version. Hilarious book. De Sade loves to tack a seemingly good moral at the end of various episodes, but he clearly revels in the debauchery and libertinism of his scenes, and he devotes so much time to the development of logical rationalizations for the villains' actions. Justine/Therese's 'virtues' and the conclusion of the story are tongue-in-cheek attempts to placate the good Christian reader more than anything else.

The villains' underlying philosophy is two-fold: first, that we are of nature and therefore everything we do is natural, and second, that good and evil must always be balanced, and since society is always urging people to be good, the villains take it upon themselves to do bad, which feels better anyway.

March 12, 2005

Wieland & Memoirs of Carwin

Charles Brockden Brown. Kent State University Press: 1977.

Brown is touted as the first American professional novelist. Wieland was first published in 1798, and by the early 1800's, Brown started writing more articles and essays, since his novels weren't doing too well.

Although Wieland is a gothic novel, it differs from the norm in a few ways. The woman's romantic attachment is not the cause of all these horrors (nor her saviour from them), and although there is a special building, it is a garden pagoda, not a haunted house. There is a villain, of course, who creates seemingly supernatural events (through biloquism), but he is neither the murderer nor the sole cause of evil, as her brother turns out to have gone insane - or religiously inspired - and kills his family.

I liked the book, but was dissapointed in the epilogue which seems tacked on to an otherwise brilliant ending, just to give closure to a few points better left open

February 10, 2005

Bleak House

Charles Dickens. Houghton Mifflin: 1956.

Truly a masterpiece, and one of the best books I've read. It has the usual Dickensian coincidence, humor, outrageous characters, social commentary, and pre-detective novel plot twists galore, but it is all presented in such excellent form as to surpass the other works of his I've read.

The story revolves around an orphaned girl (told in first person at times) who becomes connected with Mr. Jarndyce, whose surname is best known for Jarndyce & Jarndyce - a suit in Chancery which has gone on for two decades and destroys anyone who becomes involved.

In spite of the fact that it has taken me a long, long time to read, I hope to have the pleasure of re-reading it someday.

January 4th, 2005

The Thousand and One Nights

Translated by Edward William Lane, rev. by Stanley Lane-Poole.

Harvard Classics: P.F. Collier & Sons.

The basis of the story is a newly-wed queen must tell her king a wonderful story each night or he will kill her. This becomes quite complex, as the characters in her stories tell stories in which people tell stories, etc., so that one winds up with an intriguing hierarchy of tales. The importance of the story is paramount - which makes sense not only in the framework of the story itself, but also when the stories were written (13th century) - a largely pre-literate time when oral story-telling was an art.

The tales are pure fantasy, often involving great wealth, fair damsels (always compared to the full moon), strange creatures including the Jinn, and always a Sultan or two. God is repeatedly praised and invoked, and the characters verbally exhibit a fatalism and resignment to God's will; yet, their actions frequently reveal a strong desire to change their rueful destiny.
One note of interest is the differences between these versions of Aladdin and Ali-Baba and the modern understanding of them.