Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Back to the Classics 2022


Hello bloggin friends! A little late to the party but let’s see if I can read and blog about a few of these in 2022. A few I have actually already read. I just need to make the time to write up the blog posts!

1. 19th Century Classic: I have a few Anthony Trollope novels on my shelf that I could read here. Cousin Henry, The Kellys and the O’Kellys, John Caldigate or The American Senator are what I can choose from if I stick to what I already own. But I've been pretty strict limiting my book purchases in the past two years and now I feel like indulging. BUY BUY BUY. So maybe I will read something I don't own yet. 

2. 20th Century Classic: For now, I am going to leave this open. I read plenty of backlist but would like to reserve this spot for one of the 27 books I have left to read from Modern Library Top 100

3. Woman Author Classic: I read a Furrowed Middlebrow imprint title from Dean Street Press every two months with a group on the reading app Litsy. I will probably pick one of these, since they are always mid-century novels by lesser known British female authors.

4. Translation Classic:  I might stick with Zola for this. The next title in the recommended reading order is La Curée (The Kill). So far I’ve read the free editions available on Gutenberg but I think Oxford University Press has them all in print. I might start buying them. For the annotations and for the unexpurgated versions, since Victorian translators often edited out parts of novels to assuage British sensibilities. 

5. BIPOC Classic:  I've already read this month the book that will fit perfectly for this category. It is the American poet, Gwendolyn Brooks' only novel: Maud Martha.

6. Mystery/Detective/Crime Classic: Well, I have one more Josephine Tey novel, The Singing Sands, to read. Maybe I will pick that. On the other hand, I have a hankering to re-read some Lord Peter Wimsey novels.

7. Classic Short Story Collection:  I have two beautiful Virago naked hardbacks with Daphne DuMaurier’s short stories. This is what I should pick.  I’m not much of a fan of short stories in general. I might not manage this one at all. 

8. Pre-1800 Classic:  I have already read The Golden Ass by Apuleius in February which was “published” in the late second century CE and will fit the bill. 

9. Nonfiction Classic: This is tough for me since I avoid nonfiction. Maybe I will pick Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad. If any of you have a suggestion, I am all ears. 

10. Longest on your TBR: I think here I will pick another from Modern Library Top 100.  I have a print out of this list and have been working on it since 1998, so pretty long! 

11. Classic Set in a Place You'd Like to Visit: This is subject to change, but I might pick Norman Collin’s London Belongs to Me or Rumer Godden’s The Greengage Summer.  

12. Wild Card Classic: I recently bought a copy of Wilkie Collin’s The Law and the Lady. I haven’t read any of his books in a while and I love a good Victorian sensation novel.

20 comments:

  1. I always like seeing which classics you choose to read every year! I'm not a big fan of short stories either, but I did read and enjoy both of Daphne du Maurier short story collections. Several of her stories were turned into Hitchcock films. And I'm thinking about reading Twelve Years a Slave for my Nonfiction Classic because it's a book I've been meaning to read for years. Good luck with this challenge! :D

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    1. Thanks for the NF sugggestion Lark! I think I will also like the du Maurier stories as well. I haven't seen either Don't Look Back or The Birds in their entirety, but I think both are somewhere in the collection and will be interested to compare them to what I know of the films.

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  2. Hi Ruthiella, so great to see your classics list. I have Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier on my list to read this year. I read Black Narcissus by Rumer Godden a few years ago and I was impressed. I hope you enjoy the Greengage Summer. I think that is great that you are working through the Modern Library's list. It's an important resource for 20th entry classics.

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    1. Hi Kathy! Rebecca is such a great book. I hope you like it. I have heard so many good things about Rumer Godden books, I really must try one. The Modern Library list has been such a great way of finding fantastic, lesser known, classic novels.

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  3. I'm making a little progress on this challenge. I hope to read Zola's Nana in April.

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    1. I am reading! It's the blogging that slows me down. I look forward to your review of Nana. I would love to be able someday to say I've read all of his Rougon-Marquart series.

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  4. Glad you're joining!

    I'm curious about Maud Martha because I like Brooks' poetry, but haven't read the novel.

    I thought Innocents Abroad was pretty good. Though you could you start reading from the Modern Library non-fiction list, & that would give you lots of choices... ;-)

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    1. Don't even get me started on the Modern Library non-fiction list! LOL I think if you like Brooks poetry, you will like Maud Martha. I ended up purchasing a copy of just the novel but I also cheked it out from the library in an bind up that had her collected poems as well and stylistically I felt there was overlap.

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  5. Hi Ruthiella, very happy to see your new post! I've missed your reviews. :)
    If you haven't read 'To Sir With Love' I'd recommend that as a non fiction title. (E.R. Braithwaite).

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    1. Hi Carol. I have missed blogging reading everyone's posts. Hopefully I will be a little better about it moving forward. Thank you for the recommendation. I saw the movied with Sidney Poitier when I was a teenager and really loved it too.

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  6. Hello Ruthiella, if you want a non-fiction classic that isn't hefty or dry, I recommend Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington. It is less than 300 pages and is the direct account of Booker being freed according to Lincoln's abolition of slavery and the life he leads thereafter. It's my reread for this year's challenge, as it's been a while since I've read it, but I remember snip bits and enjoyed it :-)

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    1. Thanks for the recommendation R.E.! I appreciate it. And under 300 pages is also a real plus. Also, as an American, I think I should be better read in the country's history and this would definitely help in that regard.

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  7. So glad you are joining in again this year. It really is a fun challenge.

    I love Josephine Tey novels and haven't read The Singing Sands, so I will be looking forward to your review of this.

    And Daphne Du Maurier is a favorite, so reading a collection of her short stories should be a real treat.

    I don't know Gwendolyn Brooks wrote any novels. I will have to consider that for next year's challenge.

    Happy reading!

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    1. Thanks Jane! I do really love this Classics Challenge. I am looking forward to reading all of the books, for sure. :D

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  8. The Singing Sands is not my favorite Tey but it has a very memorable ending: one of those tips that would be helpful to keep in mind if one needed to commit a crime!

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    1. Ha ha. I will keep that in mind when I read it!

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  9. Welcome to the Party! I'm lagging a bit on my classics list so far this year, but need to get some more under my belt. You simply cannot go wrong with DDM short stories! Innocents Abroad is okay, although Twain is definitely not among my favorites these days. I read this roughly 40+ years ago, and even then thought Twain consdescending and annoying in his non-fiction. I think memoirs count as non-fiction. I am reading Gerald Durrell's books about growing up in Corfu, which I love. Just as an alternative to Twain :)

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    1. Memoirs definitely count as non-fiction! I will keep the Geral Durrell book in mind as an alternative to Twain. I have long wanted to read My Family and Other Animals.

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  10. Hi Ruthiella! So glad to see you're doing the Challenge, as I so much enjoy your reviews. I have my fingers crossed that you'll read Zola, as I just finished my first novel by him a couple of weeks ago. I read the Oxford World Classic edition, which impressed me very much; the introduction, while lengthy, was very good and the notes were excellent.
    I think I'd at the opposite part of the book buying cycle from you, i.e., I over indulged so much in the last two years or so I'm being relatively frugal these days. It helps, I suppose, that I'm not seeing very much contemporary fiction that's tempting me.
    I hope my comment goes though, as I always seem to have trouble posting on blogspot (in fact, this is my second attempt).

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    1. Book buying does seem to go in cycles, doesn't it? I'd say compared to some, my purchases are fairly sedate but for other readers, extravagant. I am sorry you have such trouble posting to Blogspot. :( I will definitely keep the Zola in mind for the Translated Classic. I've quite enjoyed the first two that I've read in recent years. I also read Germinal in college but that was so long ago, it hardly counts any more.

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