Reading Through the Classics: Four Anton Chekhov Plays

TITLE: The Seagull
Uncle Vanya
Three Sisters
The Cherry Orchard
AUTHOR: Anton Chekhov
PUBLISHED: 1895, 1897, 1900. 1904
CATEGORY: Plays
GENRE: Realistic Fiction/Family Drama
MY THOUGHTS: So I recently took the plunge into plays, and one of my ongoing projects this year is to read through the ones being put on Broadway this season (I'm really excited about the Tonys, FYI). There are two Chekhov plays being done. One of them is The Cherry Orchard. The only copy my library had was a volume that was a bind-up of these four plays. Which is fine, these were also on my TBR list.
Of all four of them...I think Cherry Orchard was the best. Chekhov does a lot of focus on family drama things. There's probably some commentary on Russian things that I'm missing due to not knowing much about Russian history as well.
If you're just getting into Russian lit, I think Chekhov is a great place to start. I say this as someone also very new to it. His writing is easy to understand and quick to get through. You don't have to know everything about Russia to get his plays. So for those of us who may have been say...intimidated by Russian lit in the past (I fully blame Tolstoy. Trying Anna Karenina first, was probably not my wisest choice), Chekhov is a nice gateway into Russian lit.
WHO SHOULD READ: Theater nerds, Russian lit fans

Reading Through the Classics: North and South

TITLE: North and South
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Gaskell
PUBLISHED: 1854
CATEGORY: Classic, Adult
GENRE: Romance
PREMISE: A young woman moves to a new town after her father has a crisis of faith.
MY THOUGHTS: The first thing that popped into my mind as I read this was "this is kind of like Pride and Prejudice" and...it honestly is basically a bit of a redux on it. Gaskell definitely does her own take on people falling in love despite differences of opinion on things. Things don't go down quite the same way. I'm not saying it's a rip-off or anything like that. But...you can sort of tell, Gaskell got a lot of inspiration from Austen. As an Austen fan, I don't mind.
This one took the social commentary to higher levels then Austen did. But there was also still plenty of heart tugging romance. I definitely see why a lot of people fell for this story. There's lots going on, a lot of things to think about and the prose are great. Very wordy at times, like most of the classics are (daily reminder: a lot of authors back then were paid by the word. The books are wordy for a reason).
This was actually a rather enjoyable classic. I'll definitely be looking into Gaskell's other books in the future.
WHO SHOULD READ: Romance fans, Jane Austen fans, Bronte fans

Reading Through The Classics: A Doll's House (note: there are spoilers for the ending)

TITLE: A Doll's House
AUTHOR: Henrik Ibsen
PUBLISHED: 1879
CATEGORY: Play
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A wife's life starts to come down around her and then she realizes she was perhaps trapped all along...
MY THOUGHTS: I continue through my new obsession with plays. This recent one has been on lots of feminism lists and...I suppose in a way it is. If you go by first wave feminism rules. Nowadays...I personally have issues with the way the wife left (she could have at least taken her kids with her...). But I notice everyone has different takes on that ending so...
This is a very slow character piece and honestly the realization Nora goes through seems to come out of no where as the first half and midway through the second half, she seems perfectly fine with how things are. It's not terribly subtle in making you the viewer see that this marriage was not okay though.
Honestly, like most classics, I have a lot of mixed feelings about this one. At the time it was released, it was probably very gutsy as divorce/leaving your husband was just not seen as an option back then. Nowadays...I feel like the pacing is awkward and there could have been a much better lead up to Nora leaving. I have to say I'm very curious about the new play on Broadway that is apparently a sequel to this about what happens when Nora comes back.
WHO SHOULD READ: those interested in first wave feminist literature (who don't mind how dated said literature can be), theater nerds, feminists

Reading Through the Classics: The Picture of Dorian Gray

TITLE: The Picture of Dorian Gray
AUTHOR: Oscar Wilde
PUBLISHED: 1890
CATEGORY: Adult
GENRE: Paranormalish
PREMISE: A narcissistic young man has a portrait painted of him....
MY THOUGHTS: You know that image a lot of students have of classics? Where they're stuffy and boring? Now, I personally don't agree. Not all classics are the same. But this one here...could honestly qualify for that classics are boring image. Because wow, was it dull. Even with the murders going on, it was dull.
Part of my issue is that it is very dialogue heavy. A majority of the book is Dorian chatting with either Henry or Basil. Usually one or all three of them are being sexist douches during this dialogue. Yeah, yeah, I know, sexism was common during Wilde's time. I don't care. Doesn't make the rampant misogyny in this book okay. As for the LGBT mentions in it...there was subtext. I guess. Though I personally felt like the subtext was more on Basil's part then on Dorian. The stuff with the portrait doesn't start until halfway through the book, I guarantee you by then you will probably want to punch all of these characters in the face.
Yes, I got the social commentary. We'll have to agree to disagree on the writing. Because Wilde literally would spend a whole chapter on something that could have been summarized in a paragraph. I guess that's what happens when you pay authors by the word. This book isn't really a difficult read. It's pretty straightforward. It's just...very dull and at times very aggravating. I am going to try and read The Importance of Being Earnest at some point, but other then that...I think Wilde and I are going to have to part ways.
WHO SHOULD READ: Classic buffs, fans of the horror/paranormal classic canon, Oscar Wilde fans

Reading Through the Classics: The Sherlock Holmes Series

TITLE: The Sherlock Holmes series

AUTHOR: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

PUBLICATION Started: 1887 Finished:1927

CATEGORY: Adult

GENRE: Mystery

PREMISE: A brilliant detective solves mysteries in England.

THOUGHTS: Over the past several months I've been going through the Sherlock Holmes series. It's been a process. Not because the books are hard. In fact, they're very easy books to understand. It's just they get repetitive. Now, I have read some Sherlock Holmes before this year. I read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes a few years ago back when the Robert Downy Jr. movies started. I also did The Hound of Baskervilles back when the Sherlock TV show did their version of it. 

To everyone moaning about how they became a procedural on CBS: please. That's actually the perfect format for these books. If you don't think so, that actually tells me you've maybe never actually read these books. Or if you have, you have a very rosy eyed view of them. Which can be a issue with a lot of Sherlock Holmes book readers. As poor Arthur Conan Doyle found out when he tried to quit writing the series.

If you only read one or two of the books, I recommend going for A Study in Scarlet and then either The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes or Hound of Baskervilles. The rest aren't very necessary, unless you want bragging rights about how you've read the whole series. Which, honestly, is mostly why I read the whole thing. 

WHO SHOULD READ: Die-hard Sherlock Holmes fans, you want to say you've read the whole thing

ORDER OF SERIES: A Study in Scarlet

The Sign of Four

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

The Hound of Baskervilles

The Return of Sherlock Holmes

The Valley of Fear

His Last Bow

The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes

Note: sorry about weird formatting, blogger was being a pain today for some reason.

Reading Through the Classics: Madame Bovary

TITLE: Madame Bovary
AUTHOR: Gustave Flaubert
PUBLISHED: 1856
CATEGORY: Adult, Classic
GENRE: Drama, Realistic Fiction
PREMISE: A wife grows bored with her husband and life in a small town.
MY THOUGHTS: This is yet another classic that was honestly just very boring. I'll give this for the author: this one had a plot. Which is more then I can say for On the Road. It was just a very boring plot with not a terribly satisfying ending.
I've noticed Madame Bovary is one of those books people either really love or really hate. There seems to be no in between. I personally, fall into the hate category sadly. It's just so dull. I thought at least with all the scandal surrounding the publication of this book, there'd at least be sexy sex scenes, but there aren't even that. This is possibly the tamest "scandalous" book I've ever read. If you need proof that people were easily shocked in the 1800s, this book is it.
Honestly, if this wasn't a classic, I would have ditched it early on. But I have a thing with classics: I need to finish them. Other books, I'm willing to ditch in a heart beat. But classics...not so much. It's a thing I have. So this one was another bust. Hopefully my next classic: The Jungle Book is better.
WHO SHOULD READ: those interested in French literature, drama fans