What I Read #4: Anna Karenina, Slaughterhouse-five and the classics I picked up in 2020
A lot has happened since the beginning of 2020. For the sake of your sanity, and mine, I will not list all the reasons why this year has been a miserable one for all of us. If there is a silver lining in this cloud, it is that the pandemic left me with more time on my hands than I knew what to do with. So along with my normal reading, I picked up a ton of classics this year. I realised towards the end of last year, while looking back at all the books that I have read since 2018 that there were many essential reading classics that I had never picked up. There are classics that many of my friends read while in school that I never did. So I took the last ten months as an opportunity to rectify this. This is the only self-improvement project that I took on during the lockdown, and I’m not complaining.
Disclaimer 1: Not all classics are good. Not all classics need to be read.
Disclaimer 2: Classics are a product of their time. Having said this, it is not always possible to ignore the blatant problems in them.
Disclaimer 3: I am not a literature student, though I hope to be one soon. I read these books for pleasure, so my opinions about them also come from an amateur point of view. So basically, don’t @ me if I didn’t like your fav.
Read
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Who doesn’t know the story of this iconic novel? Who knows the story and does not fancy themselves at least half in love with Mr Darcy? There’s a faction of readers online who do not enjoy this novel. To them, I have only one question, HOW? This was a reread before I picked up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is one of the most enjoyable adaptations that I have read this year.
I declare after all there is no enjoyment like reading! How much sooner one tires of any thing than of a book! -- When I have a house of my own, I shall be miserable if I have not an excellent library.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1813)
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
It takes a certain amount of talent to talk about infidelity while maintaining the decorum of 1870s upper-class New York. Wharton’s characters are all unique, and her manner of describing them paints a picture of a time that I would have loved to experience. The book, however, did not leave as much of an impression on me as I would have liked.
We can't behave like people in novels, though, can we?
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence (1920)
The Man Who was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton
Halfway through the book, I was convinced that this book was either too bizarre or I was too stupid to understand the commentary that Chesterton was attempting to make. Reading reviews of the books online reassured me that I was not alone in this struggle. There are parts of the story that made me laugh out loud and others that just left me scratching my head.
If you'd take your head home and boil it for a turnip it might be useful. I can't say. But it might.
G. K. Chesterton, The Man Who was Thursday (1908)
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Rhys reimagines the story of Mrs Rochester in this novel that follows Mr Rochester’s ‘mad’ wife, Antoinette Cosway, a Creole heiress. Jane Eyre really does Beth dirty, and Rhys’s attempt to give her a character and backstory is appreciable. But something about the language of this book gave me the same feeling that many people complain about when reading classics.
There are always two deaths, the real one and the one people know about.
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966)
Excellent Women by Barbara Pym
I did not love this book, and neither did I hate it. It felt very ordinary in its light descriptions of the life of a woman in 1950s London. It is not one of those books that feature on the must-read classics lists, but I’m glad that I did pick it up.
My thoughts went round and round and it occurred to me that if I ever wrote a novel it would be of the 'stream of consciousness' type and deal with an hour in the life of a woman at the sink.
Barbara Pym, Excellent Women (1952)
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
This should be a book that everyone must read, not only women. There were several points in the book where Woolf’s arguments made me yell out in agreement. Since I was listening to the audiobook- Sneha was the bestest friend and got me a physical copy soon after- it made me look like quite a fool. But I have no regrets. I wish to one day be as articulate as Woolf was.
I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1929)
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
A quiet, breezy novel that I finished in one sitting. Even though I don’t have much to say about this story of an art restorer visiting a small town in the country, the experience of reading it was pleasurable. One of those quick summer reads that people keep talking about.
If I’d stayed there, would I always have been happy? No, I suppose not. People move away, grow older, die, and the bright belief that there will be another marvelous thing around each corner fades. It is now or never; we must snatch at happiness as it flies.
J. L. Carr, A Month in the Country (1980)
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Probably a book I have been meaning to pick up for the longest time. My inability to understand or appreciate poetry means that I may never read any of Plath’s work. But reading this book made me wish that I could do so. Her exploration of mental health, done using the most lyrical yet sparse writing, left me stunned.
I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar (1963)
The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Another book that explores the theme of mental health and womanhood but with a touch of creepy vibes. I am sure there were parts of this short book that I didn’t understand or metaphors that I missed, but regardless I would recommend that people read it.
But I MUST say what I feel and think in some way — it is such a relief! But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wall-Paper (1892)