General Chat

I remember starting it once Helen, but don't think I finished it - I was too young for it I think :-) The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins This is the first and greatest 'Sensation Novel'. Walter Hartright's mysterious midnight encounter with the woman in white draws him into a vortex of crime, poison, kidnapping, and international intrigue. The novel is dominated by two of the finest creations in all Victorian fiction - Marion Halcombe, dark, mannish, yet irresistibly fascinating, and Count Fosco, the sinister and flamboyant 'Napoleon of Crime'. A masterwork of intricate construction, The Woman in White sets new standards of suspense and excitement, and achieved sales which topped even those of Dickens, Collins's friend and mentor. Using a series of accounts by different characters written in the style of legal affidavits, witness statements, and diaries the reader becomes both the judge and the jury to the proceedings as they unfold. Maz. XX

Have you all ever read War and Peace?? I know it's usually a joke as it's so long.....

Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot. When 'Scenes of Clerical Life', George Eliot's first work of fiction, was published anonymously in 'Blackwood's Edinborough Magazine' in 1857, it was immediately recognised, in the words of the critic for the 'Saturday Review' as the production of 'a peculiar and very remarkable writer'. The first readers, including Dickens and Thackeray, were struck by its humorous irony, the truthfulness of its presentation of the lives of ordinary men and women, and its compassionate acceptance of human weakness. The 3 stories that make up the 'Scenes' 'The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton'. Mr Gilfil's Love Story' and 'Janet's Repentance' foreshadow George Eliot's major work, and their success gave her the confidence to become one of the greatest English novelists. From the book jacket. Alfie

I am going to pass on the Classic for now as I am intent on finishing Wuthering Heights - Michelle

Hadn't heard of that one dee, sounds a good one. Ann Glos

My classic suggestion is The Well of Loneliness – Radclyffe Hall A powerful novel of love between women; it brought about the most famous legal trial for obscenity in the history of British law. Banned on publication it then went on to become a classic bestseller. Stephen Gordon (named by a father desperate for a son) is not like other girls; she hunts, she fences, she reads books, wears trousers and longs to cut her hair. As she grows up amidst the stifling grandeur of Morton Hall, the locals begin to draw away from her; aware of some indefinable thing that sets her apart. And when Stephen Gordon reaches maturity, she falls passionately in love – with another woman

Hi Ann I will be back later with a classic (hope you had a good break, will be in touch soon) Dee xx

Hi All. Please add one CLASSIC suggestion for June reading. vote to be 28/29th may, result after 5pm on 29th Book to be read by and reviewed on 10th July 07 (i.e. 6 weeks as agreed). Ann Glos