More Blogging with the Classics!

Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

Maeve writes:
For my independent reading book this quarter, I am reading Dracula, by Bram Stoker. I am enjoying it immensely. I am not very far into the book yet, but I hope to progress much further in the next weeks.
The novel so far has been narrated by the main character, Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, in the form of his journal. The story begins with Harker’s traveling to Transylvania, where he plans to meet with the count, Dracula, who owns a large castle there and presides over the surrounding land. Harker meets very peculiar behavior when he tells the locals where he is going. They keep crossing their chest and making a sign to ward off the evil eye. He can make neither heads nor tails of this strange behavior, but accepts a rosary with a cross from the woman who owns the inn where he is staying. He thinks nothing of it at the time, but is later very glad to have it. After a terrifying carriage ride involving wolves and strange blue fires in the night, he arrives at the Count’s castle. Dracula has all the makings of your classic vampire. Red lips with protruding fangs, pale skin – the whole shebang. At the time, Harker thinks this is just peculiar and rather likes the Count. However, as time progresses, Harker begins to get suspicious. For one thing, the Count never dines with him and always leaves come morning. Harker begins living a nocturnal lifestyle, as night is the only time he can talk to the Count. As he is there on the business of selling the Count a house in the English countryside, this is necessary.
After Harker has a startling series of adventures involving forbidden rooms in the castle and seeing the Count crawl like a spider down the castle wall, returning with a large bag (containing a child which is shortly after killed), he begins to get seriously alarmed. He writes that he is a prisoner, and that the Count plans to kill him (which, from all points, seems to be the case). The Count realizes that Harker is getting suspicious and locks him in his room for long periods of time and takes away almost everything he owns.
When Harker discovers that where the Count really goes during the day is down to the castle basement and into a coffin where he sleeps until the night comes again, he plans his escape. After a group of men come and take the coffin away (after Harker has a near brush with the Count involving a shovel), Harker decides to scale the castle wall with some gold in his pockets and strikes out for home. His journal entry ends with a farewell to his beloved Mina.

James Joyce

Meaghan writes:
For my independent classic reading book this last quarter, I chose to read Dubliners, by James Joyce. James Joyce was an Irish novelist, who was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882. Both of his parents studied literature when James was growing up. Joyce expressed his great use of language in Ulysses (1922) and Finnegan’s Wake (1939). Throughout writing all three novels, he expressed his great use of allusions, word play, history, and puns. He published Dubliners in 1914 right after attending Belvedere College in Dublin. James Joyce died on January 14, 1941.
The novel, Dubliners, consists of fourteen short stories, with the addition of an introduction and a preface. This book is very unique, and so far has kept my interest. I am not too far in the book now, I am about to start my fourth short story. The climax comes quick in the short stories, and at the end of each one, I am constantly finding myself wanting to read more. Like I said, Dubliners is a very unique selection consisting of short stories. I have never read anything like any one of the stories. There are loads of characters for every short story. For example, in my favorite so far called The Sisters, I was introduced to Nannie, Eliza, Father O’Rourke, Miss Flynn, Auntie, and Rev. James Flynn. It is hard to keep track of what each character does, but at the end they all come to a conclusion.
I am looking forward to continue reading Dubliners. It will be interesting to see if my personal favorite short story The Sisters will fluctuate and possibly I might have a new favorite short story once I am finished.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Kristina writes:

This term I am reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The story takes
place in England at a house called Wuthering Heights and at Thrushcross Grange,
during the early 1800s. So far in the story I have met Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw,
Zillah, Lockwood, Joseph, Mrs. Heathcliff, and Hareton. Heathcliff is the main
character of the story. Lockwood is the tenant that is supposed to be staying at a
house called Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff brings him to go introduce his to his
family. Lockwood gets into a fight with Mrs. Heathcliff and Joseph and runs out of
the house. Dogs attack Lockwood and Zillah the housekeeper tells him stay at the
house because the weather is bad and he is hurt. Lockwood is not supposed to
make noise when he is in the house because Heathcliff doesn't know that he is
there. In the room he is staying in he sees books written by Catherine and reads
them. He then soon falls asleep and has a nightmare. Heathcliff wakes up because
he hears him. The story is supposed to be the love between Catherine, Mr.
Earnshaw's daughter and Heathcliff. Catherine has not been introduced in the story
yet. This story has some very difficult language. The plot seems very interesting
though, and I can't wait to read more of the story.

Tobias Wolff

Tim writes:


The book I chose to read in This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff. He was born on June 19, 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama. The novel is a memoir about his life as he was growing up as a boy just before his teenage years. He grew up with his mother who he was very close to whom always seemed unsettled and was constantly on the move and his abusive step-father. Tobias moved out of Florida with his mother, Rosemary to go north to get away from the step-father and to get rich mining for uranium since Rosemary did not have a lot of money. As a pre-teen, Wolff was always getting in trouble from writing on the bathroom, to throwing eggs at nice cars, to opening up car doors, turning the emergency brakes off and watching them roll down hills hitting other cars on the way.
Wolf attended Stanford University in California in 1977. Before that, he served as a lieutenant in the army from 1964-1968 during the Vietnam War. When he got into writing, he wrote a few short stories including Back in the World and A Night in Question. One novel he wrote was The Barracks Thief. In addition to writing all these, he got several awards including the National Endowment fellowship award and the Henry award.
I’m looking forward to reading this memoir especially because it is about a boy only a few years younger then me. I will probably be able to connect to him in many ways. I have already started reading it and I found that it is very easy I think because of the fact that it is about a boy instead of an adult.

The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot

Kayla writes:


So far, in The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot, I have met the Tulliver family. The Tulliver family consists of Mr. Tulliver, Mrs. Tulliver, Tom, and Maggie. The family lives near a river, and they own Dorlcote Mill. Mr. Tulliver declares to his wife that he wants to send his son Tom to get a good education after he comes home from his previous school. His daughter Maggie never wants her hair curled and is always running around acting like a boy. She loves her brother Tom a lot and cannot wait until he comes home so she can be with him. When Tom comes home Easter is coming up and the dreadful aunts and uncles are coming.

E.M Forster

Erica writes:
The classic I am reading is A Room with a View by E.M Forster. Edward Morgan Forster was born in England in 1879. Unfortunately his father died around the time that he was born so he had to be raised by his mother, who was irresponsible. When Forster got older he eventually went to King’s College in Cambridge. Shortly after he graduated from King’s college he became a writer. He began by writing mostly about “changing social conditions after the decline of the Victorianism”. His writing did begin to differ later on. Some novels he wrote are “Where Angels Fear to Tread (1905) and The Longest Journey (1907), followed by the comic novel A Room With a View (1908)”. Forster later died in 1970.
I have started reading the novel A Room with a View. It begins with a British woman named Lucy staying in Florence with Miss. Charlotte Bartlett. They were supposed to have the front room of where they were staying but they did not and instead got a room without a view, until Mr. Emerson traded rooms with them because he is a kind man. The novel then gets into how Lucy witnesses a murder. Seeing this occur she suddenly faints in George Emerson’s arms. Overall even though I am not to far into the novel it is still pretty good and look forward to reading more.

http://www.gradesaver.com/author/e-forster/

Thomas Hardy

Talis writes:
My classic for this term is Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.
I was recommended this book by Aimee, who said it was a pretty good
read. Thomas Hardy is an English author and lived during the time from
1840-1928. He was mainly a poet and wrote a lot about romance and his
interest in the supernatural. His poems were first published in the
1850’s and his first novels were published soon after. Hardy was
married to Emma Gilfford; and she helped inspire his best writing. His
most famous novels included Under the Greenwood Tree, A pair of Blue
Eyes, and Far from the Madding Crowd.
In my novel so far I have been introduced to the main character
Gabriel and his love at first sight Bathsheba. He sees her one day
having troubles with her wagon and then the next at her aunt’s house.
Gabriel uses every chance he can to see her, but she is not very fond
of him. Finally, Gabriel goes down to ask her aunt for Bathsheba’s
hand, but is rejected. Bathsheba comes running after him to say it is
not because there is another man but because she is not in love with
him. Gabriel tries to convince her with having a good life since he
owns a pretty big farm and could make a lot of money; but still she
refuses. Gabriel finally gives up hope on marrying her.

Isabel Allende

Hannah writes:
Isabel Allende was born in Lima, Peru on August 2, 1942 and grew up to be a Chilean-American novelist. As a child, she went to private school and she was home-schooled for a little while. She really liked to read Shakespeare’s works. In 1962 she married Miguel Frias in Chile. With Miguel, she had a daughter, Paula, and a son, Nicholas. Early in her career, she worked as a journalist. She was also the author of many books, as well as a teacher at many colleges in the United States and in Europe. For a short time, she also worked as a playwright. Throughout the years, she has won many awards for her writings. Isabel wrote The House of the Spirits, or La Casa de los Espiritus in 1982. This book made her an instant best selling author and it was a hit throughout the whole world. This novel received the Best Novel of the Year award in Chile, as well as the Panorama Literario award. Her inspiration for writing this novel came from the fact that her 99-year -old grandfather was dying, and she wrote him a letter, which was published into this book. Out of all her books, she is most well known for writing this one. Her books have been translated into 27 languages all over the world. She is still alive and well and lives in San Rafael, California with her husband Willie Gordon.

Thomas Hardy

Sasha writes:

Thomas Hardy, the author of more than ten classic novels was born on June 2, 1840, to Thomas and Jemina Hardy. He was born in Higher Bockhampton in Dorset. His home played a big role in the setting he created for many of his novels.
Hardy was the eldest of four children, but was a small and sickly child. Because of this, Hardy spent much of his childhood indoors, reading.
His earliest writings were not novels, but rather poems. He tried several times throughout his early adulthood to get his poems published, but was rejected every time. Then, after working as an architect for eleven years he wrote his first novel The Poor Man and the Lady. This novel and his next novel were unsuccessful and he continued to work as an architect until 1870, when he met Emma Lavinia Gifford, who later became his wife.
After meeting Gifford he began to write again, this time more successfully. By 1874 his writing had become successful enough that he could stop being an architect and support himself and Gifford, who he married that same year.
His wife died in 1912 after they had spent many years together, living peacefully and traveling around the world together. He continued to write, and in 1914 was remarried to Florence Emily Dugdale. They were married until he died on January 11, 1928. His ashes were put inside Westminster abby, and a collection of his poems entitled Winter Words was published after his death.

Works Cited
Ross, David. "Thomas Hardy." Britain Express. 2000. 14 May 2009 .

"Thomas Hardy biography." Notable Biographies. 14 May 2009 .

Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez

Araz writes:

Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez was born on March 6,1928,in Aracataca, a town near Northern Colombia. He is a Colombian short-story teller, screenwriter, and journalist. He is best known for his novel, 100 Years of Solitude (1967), and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985). In 1982 he was awarded the Noble Prize of Literature. He married Mercedes Barcha in 1958, and a year later they had their first son, Rodrigo Garcia. In 1961,the family traveled by Greyhound bus throughout southern United States and eventually settled down in Mexico City. His novel a 100 Years of Solitude was widely populated and led to Garcia’s Romulo Gallegos Prize in 1972. In 1999 Garcia Marquez was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Chemotherapy provided by a hospital in Los Angeles proved to be successful and the illness went into remission. In June 1967 over 8000 copies of 100 Years of Solitude had been sold out. His novels are now translated internationally.

Alexandre Dumas

Parisa writes:
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas was a French writer best known for writing adventurous novels like The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers. He was born in Villers-Cotterêts, northeast of Paris, on July 24, 1802, to an impoverished family that had once been reasonably well off and was descended from nobility. His father had been a general in Napoleon’s army but died in 1806. Alexandre Dumas grew up loving books and listening to his mother’s heroic war stories about his father. Although the two were poor they still had aristocratic connections left by the distinguished General Dumas, and when Alexandre was 20 years old he got a job in Paris working in the Palais Royal. He started writing articles for magazines and then plays for theatre. In the years to come he wrote several very popular plays, and made enough money to become a full time writer, leaving his job at the Palais Royal. He became enormously successful when he started writing novels. He became very wealthy however had the unfortunate predilection to spend more than he had.
Dumas’ paternal grandparents were a French nobleman and a Haitian slave, so he was of mixed race, a fact which affected him all his life. He once responded to an insult with "My father was a mulatto, my grandfather was a Negro, and my great grandfather a monkey. You see, Sir, my family starts where yours ends." In 2002 French President Chirac had Dumas’ body moved to a more prestigious burial site, the Panthéon of Paris, a mausoleum where many French heroes rest, and acknowledged in a speech that racism had existed, and that Dumas should now be honored as the great writer he was. His coffin was carried in a procession by men costumed as the three Musketeers, in a televised ceremony.
The books of Alexandre Dumas are action-packed, vivid stories which naturally lend themselves to becoming movies, and in fact more than 200 movies have been made of Dumas’ books. I enjoyed the Count of Monte Cristo tremendously, it’s my new favorite book, and I plan to read The Three Musketeers next. Also I cannot help but notice that the third movie in the series of The Pirates of the Caribbean seems to have stolen the idea of escaping prison by taking the place of a dead man from the Count of Monte Cristo.

Kurt Vonnegut

Nick writes:

Cats Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut writes extraordinarily well in his novel, Cat's
Cradle. The way he writes however is in a way that tells more of
ideas rather than a story. The main character is looking back on
the events. He relates everything to this idea of Bokonism. Of
course, there is a plot. The idea of the novel is to tell how
this man's path leads him to believing in Bokonism. He is
planning to write a novel on the life of Dr. Hoenikker the father
of the atom bomb. In the process he meets his family, and
discovers a lot about his life. Dr. Hoenikker was a brilliant man
and at one point designed a product with the capability to
destroy the earth. The product, called ice nine is split between
his three kids. The main character believes the kids are all part
of his Karass. A Karass is a Bokonist term for team. Throughout
the novel, the Bokonist ideas show up repeatedly. For example, at
one point the main character lets a man live at his house because
he had nowhere else to go. The man killed the main characters
cat, and destroyed the house but looking back it was a good thing
because it led him into the right direction toward becoming a
Bokonist. So far I have actually discovered a lot about the
family too. The doctor had three kids. Newt is a midget, very
smart and otherwise a surprisingly normal person. Angela lived
her entire life after sixteen years old looking after the doctor.
She has no friends and nowhere to turn after the doctor passes
away. Lastly, Frank is an extremely talented sculptor with a lot
of talent. Unfortunately, he got mixed up in some illegal people.
Frank fled to an island where a dictator keeps him alive only to
be his right hand man. The island, San Lorenzo I Imagine will
later on have more importance to the novel. As I read on, I
imagine I will continue to uncover more about the father of the
atom bomb, his three kids, ice nine, and how it all relates to
these Bokonist ideals.

Gustave Flaubert

Mairian writes:
I am reading Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. He was born on December 12, 1821 in Rouen. He wrote Madame Bovary in 1856. He also wrote several other novels including La Tentation, Salammbo, L’Education Sentimentale, Trois Contes and others. He sometimes writes stories that have something to do with events in his life or his surroundings. He died on May 8, 1880 because of a stroke at Croisset.
So far in the novel there is a character named Charles and he is a doctor. He got married to a woman named Heloise who didn’t love him much and she was very bossy. She was years older than him and a wealthy widow. One day he got called to a house in the country to fix a man’s broken leg (his name is Roault) and he starts liking the man’s daughter, Emma. He kept visiting the family, too often and Heloise got suspicious and made him promise never to go there again. He promised but soon he found out that Heloise’s lawyer had taken all her money and she lied about the money before the wedding. Charles’s family got angry and a week later Heloise died from shock. Charles started becoming good friends with Roualt and he got remarried to Emma. Emma talked to him about how she didn’t like the country but Charles seemed to be more interested in her beauty. After the wedding Charles took Emma home and she tried to improve her new home. She feels that she isn’t really in love and that it doesn’t seem like it did in the Romance novels that she read.

A Book To Choose

Katherine writes:
On deciding which book to pick as my fourth term classic, I
couldn't seem to make up my mind. I had asked several classmates
about their last term reads, all giving me yes or no approvals of
their selections, but none that truly stood out until the last
person I interrogated. I asked him, "Did you like your book?"
He paused seemed to think of the right thing to say, and caught
off guard, avoiding to answer with a yes or no, he replied with,
"Yeah I guess, if you are a seventeen year old girl." Now, he
failed to acknowledge whether or not he liked the book, however
his response intrigued me to look further into it. The book, In
Country, by Bobbie Ann Mason, is about Sam, a small-town Kentucky
girl, who lives with her Vietnam War Veteran Uncle. When my
classmate first answered with "if you are a seventeen year old
girl," I thought he was saying if you are a teenage girl like
yourself, you might like it, but also because he did not want to
admit that he liked a book based of an audience of "seventeen
year old girls," with a yes answer.
I'm glad, rather than playing it safe and merely choosing the
"Yes" categorized books, I went with the mysterious choice. I
have just started the book, but I am enticed by the story, which
is about Sam's interest of her secretive Uncle's past, her
struggle to get information about her father, who was killed in
Vietnam, and her coming of age in Hopewell, a small Southern
town. I also am very interested in History and war scenes so I am
excited to read further and find out more about Sam and her
Uncle's story.

Aldous Huxley

Currently my classic novel I am reading for class is Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Hurley was born in Godalming, Surrey on July 26, 1894 and he died in Los Angeles on November 22, 1963. Huxley was boor into an upper-class family and was initially surrounded by writing basically from birth because hi father, Leonard Huxley, was a biographer, editor and poet. Huxley lived a hard life starting from the young age of fourteen. At the age of sixteen he was suffered from keratitis punctata, and for about eighteen months he was totally blind.
Huxley attended two colleges in his life. The first was Eton College, Berkshire which he attended from 1908-1913. The second college he attended was Balliol College, Oxford from 1913-1915, here he received his B.A in English in 1916. Huxley did not always want to be a write and a master of English though, at first he wanted to be a scientist, but he was not able to pursue this dream, and switched his career of to study English.
In the novel, Brave New World Huxley’s writing can be seen as complex and hard to read, but if you start to get the idea of the story then I think the reader would have enough determination to get through it, because so far it is a very intriguing story. For some it the novel may not be as interesting to read if one of your favorite genres is science fiction, which mine is, which is what makes the story so enjoyable to me.\
So far I am on chapter five of sixteen. The setting of the first chapter is Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, and the World State’s motto “COMMUNITY, IDENTITY, STABILITY” is hung before the main entrance of the building (which I am sure is to have some significance later on in the novel). The scene takes place in a laboratory, and Huxley gives the impression that this place is dark, dank and secluded, but very busy.
The first character the reader is introduced to is the Director. I don’t want to be too specific for those of you who may want to read this, but the first impression you get about this character is that they are power hungry and determined about whatever project they take on, and do not want any obstacles to overcome them. What the Director is doing when he is introduced is showing new students around the facility. He explains what they do here at the Hatchery, which is to reproduce humans no longer by natural sexual reproduction, but by artificially producing/developing them in test tubes, bringing true meaning in this book to test-tube babies. The Director goes into further detail about the process, and about the experiments done to the embryo’s, which all of this is called “Bokanovsky Process”. It is believed that this will further stabilize society and help civilization develop.
The next character the reader is introduced to is Mr. Foster, a worker at the Hatchery that is very enthusiastic and knowledgeable of his job and the whole Bokanovsky Process.
Later the Director shows the students around the Nurseries. I do not want to give too much away so I can avoid spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that so those who will later read this can find out about this place. In the World State the idea of loving nature and purity of all things has been abolished by those who work in places like the Hatchery (there are many places all over the world like this, producing billions of artificially produced humans a year).
I think I will stop here, so I can make sure as to not give away too many ideas of and events that occur in Brave New World.

Joseph Conrad

Greg writes:
Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) was born in Poland as the son of Apollo
Korzeniowski, a Polish playwright and nobleman. His father was well respected in his hometown of Berdychiv (then, it was spelled Berdyczów) mainly for his abilities as a translator of the works of very notable literary geniuses – Dickens, Shakespeare, and Hugo, just to name a few. A life of literature clearly ran in the family!
Conrad became an orphan in 1869, when his father died four years after Conrad’s mother had died of tuberculosis. As a result of these tragic events, the young Conrad spent the rest of his childhood with his uncle in Kraców. Despite having known his father for a relatively short amount of time, his influence spanned Conrad’s entire lifetime; Koreniowski, being a translator, always had the house filled with books in other languages lying around, and a curious Conrad loved to pick them up and read. As a result, Conrad learned three languages – Polish, French, and a bit of English – before his parents’ death, which would prove to be quite useful in his later years, when he developed a love of writing.
At age 16, Conrad began his life at sea. As a seaman, Conrad traveled to all sorts of exotic parts of the world – Australia, Borneo, and the Congo just to name a few. Conrad always found himself writing about his surroundings as a sort of escape. Many voyages out to sea later, Conrad had decided that his true passion was not at sea, but rather with paper and ink. At age 36, Conrad decided to live a more relaxed life at his home in England, and began writing “Heart of Darkness”, a novel that was loosely based on his experiences at sea. Conrad became a well-renowned author in his days, and remains to be one, long after his death at age 66.

The Mill On The Floss

Katherine writes:
Reflecting back on my latest read, George Eliot's The Mill On
The Floss, I'm also reflecting back to the life of character
Maggie Tulliver, the novel's protagonist. For our first entry
blog, I mentioned the life of author George Eliot and her secret
affair with married man George Henry Lewes. As I was reading
Maggie's story, I felt that I was also connecting to George
Eliot, in the aspect that she put a bit of her life in Maggie's
love connection to character Stephen Guest, who is engaged to
Maggie's cousin Lucy. This intrigued me and enticed me to read
on, eventually I became engrossed in the novel. The story is
certainly a good read, with the exception of a rather dull
beginning. Eliot's story starts off rather plainly, not very
appealing, and in need of some encouragement to get you through.
The turning point in the novel where the pace picks up a bit, and
gets going, is when Eliot includes humorous situations, such as
Maggie cutting all her hair off because she thinks her aunts like
short thin hair better. In fact, her family is repulsed by her
new hair style, with its stumpy jagged edges sticking out every
which way. If you are someone who prefers a page turner from the
get-go, I would not recommend this novel for you, however you
would be missing out on a classic read with a devastating
cliff-hanger ending. I would rate this book a six and a half out
of ten. Overall it was a good book, however the monotonous ending
brings it down slightly, and for me personally it wasn't the
exact type of genre I was looking for. However I do not
discourage others from picking it off the shelves, in fact I hope
you do just so because the ending is definitely worth it.

Katherine writes:
Reflecting back on my latest read, George Eliot's The Mill On
The Floss, I'm also reflecting back to the life of character
Maggie Tulliver, the novel's protagonist. For our first entry
blog, I mentioned the life of author George Eliot and her secret
affair with married man George Henry Lewes. As I was reading
Maggie's story, I felt that I was also connecting to George
Eliot, in the aspect that she put a bit of her life in Maggie's
love connection to character Stephen Guest, who is engaged to
Maggie's cousin Lucy. This intrigued me and enticed me to read
on, eventually I became engrossed in the novel. The story is
certainly a good read, with the exception of a rather dull
beginning. Eliot's story starts off rather plainly, not very
appealing, and in need of some encouragement to get you through.
The turning point in the novel where the pace picks up a bit, and
gets going, is when Eliot includes humorous situations, such as
Maggie cutting all her hair off because she thinks her aunts like
short thin hair better. In fact, her family is repulsed by her
new hair style, with its stumpy jagged edges sticking out every
which way. If you are someone who prefers a page turner from the
get-go, I would not recommend this novel for you, however you
would be missing out on a classic read with a devastating
cliff-hanger ending. I would rate this book a six and a half out
of ten. Overall it was a good book, however the monotonous ending
brings it down slightly, and for me personally it wasn't the
exact type of genre I was looking for. However I do not
discourage others from picking it off the shelves, in fact I hope
you do just so because the ending is definitely worth it.

The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende

Araz writes:
The novel that I read as my third quarter classic was The House of Spirits by Isabel Allende. This novel was well composed and written. It gives you a good glimpse of what political life was back in the day and shows how political leader’s family members lived. This novel is based off of a letter that was written to Isabel Allende’s grandfather who was on his death bed. The beginning of the novel was pretty boring but by chapter six the story got really good and I was unable to put down the novel. I would rate this novel an 8 out of 10 because it had an easy plot to follow. The only problem was that they never notified the reader when the points of view were changing. This novel is considered a journal that Clara and Alba wrote in. This journal enabled them to write down all their thoughts and ideas. I would definitely recommend this novel to a friend because I know they would enjoy it as much as I did.

Cat’s Cradle

Sasha writes:
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is a sarcastic, darkly humorous account of the aftermath of a number of fictitious WWII events. The story is told by John, although his role in the plot, other than to chronicle the events is minimal.
The story is kicked off by a man named Felix Hoenikker, a brilliant, if somewhat childish scientist and inventor, who was one of the unintentional parents of the atomic bomb. His last invention before he died was a mysterious substance called ice-nine. When the story takes place Hoenikker is already dead and it is his children who are actually there.
What is probably my favorite aspect of the book is the fictitious religion that many of the characters practice. The religion is called Bokononism and is based around the teachings of a man named Bokonon. Many of the parables and facets of Bokononism are mentioned throughout the book. They can be confusing at times but if you pay attention the pieces do fit.
The novel is written in a style that can at times feel choppy, with very short chapters and often very short sentences, but at the end it has a well-put together feel and the style fits with the story.
At the end of the novel I was left with a feeling of satisfaction, something I always enjoy when finishing a good novel, and something I experience all to infrequently. This has become one of my new favorite novels and I would probably give it a nine out of ten and a strong recommendation. I would however caution someone who does not particularly enjoy reading and who does not enjoy novels that do not get straight to the point that this could be frustrating.

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Kayla writes:
I would rate my novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a seven out of ten. In the small town of Macondo, the Buendia family lives. Jose Arcadio Buendia helped found the town, and he is the start of many generations. Throughout generations each person in the Buendia family has many moments of prosperity and struggle. They encounter love, lust, grief, death, happiness, and most20of all, solitude. Macondo grows and prospers, but in time it becomes abandoned and a place of solitude for the last remaining Buendia. Alone and in need of comfort, he deciphers ancient documents that belonged to a gypsy friend of Jose Arcadio Buendia’s. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading fiction and novels about fantasy.

A Room with a View

Mairian writes:
In this story Lucy the main character falls in love with a guy she met in Italy named George Emerson. Sadly many people she know disapprove of him and his father and once her cousin finds him kissing her in a garden she decides Lucy must go away from him and not tell her mother. They pack to leave to Rome to stay with the Vyses. When Lucy goes back home to Surrey she accepts the third marriage proposal from Cecil Vyse Cecil disapproves of many people and one day he sees the Emerson’s in a Museum and offers them a small ugly villa that they move into. After a game of tennis George kisses Lucy once again and explains why she shouldn’t marry Cecil. Lucy sees Cecil differently and breaks off the engagement that night. Lucy doesn’t believe that she loves George and decides to go to Greece with the Miss Alans. By surprise she meets Mr. Emerson who tells her that she loves George and should marry him instead. The book ends with a happy ending of Lucy and George in Italy, in the same Hotel they stayed before, in a room with a view.

I would give this novel 8 out of 10. I thought it was a good story and it is very interesting. Once I got further in the novel it kept my attention but in the beginning it was a little hard to understand and it was progressing slowly. Overall it was a good book and I would recommend it to other student’s especially the ones who enjoy love stories.

Jude The Obscure

Nick writes:
Jude The Obscure by Thomas hardy a novel renowned for its
quality, writer, and the mark it left in the time period based on
its obscenity. Although it's not nearly as bad as many of the
books out there now, for the time period it was considered
vulgar. Based on the language in the novel it can be assumed the
time period was some time ago most likely in the late 1800's
possibly early 1900's. The language can make this a tougher read,
but I would still recommend it to someone that I knew could
handle filling in the blanks, and figuring out what Thomas Hardy
is trying to say. Halfway through the Novel you find the
difference in language doesn't have any effect on your reading
any longer. Now on to the Main summary, Jude is an ambitious,
intelligent and well, obscure boy. In the beginning of the novel
you meet a boy who's only mentor is leaving to go to the center
of learning in that area. Christminster. To Jude the teacher
leaving was a huge deal, the teacher had meant a lot to Jude, and
was close enough to Jude to have told him his private ambitions
to become a scholar at the university in Christminster. Jude's
Ambitions soon turn into a lifestyle. He reads classics, and
learns all he can with a little help from his old friend, and
mentor teacher. A Huge theme I noticed in the novel was how a
human's love can get in the way of their ambitions. This is
exactly the story in Jude's case. He's dumb enough to find
himself involved in a relationship with a Young girl who cares
not for his needs. His first mistake was Arabella, the
relationship like many in his family's history ended poorly and
had a huge effect on Jude getting to Christminster because he was
forced to put his classics aside for the most part and focus on
his wife. He married her in response to her lie that she was
pregnant. Arabella unintentionally messed up Jude's life pretty
badly. Eventually Jude moves into Christminster to fulfill his
dream, and this was the section Jude faced his disappointment in
many aspect. His Teacher, His mentor, had he really cared for
Jude so much? Evidentially not because he couldn't seem to
remember the name Jude at all, for me reading this I could really
feel Jude's tremendous disappointment. Jude will find
disappointment repeatedly from this point on. Although I loved
the story in the novel I did find it hard to read for a long
period of time. As to not spoil the end I will not reveal
whether or not Jude reaches his dream, or if he ever finds love
again. I do recommend this as a book, but only if you have the
time to read it, I truly found it much more enjoyable in rations,
possibly half hour a night to forty five minutes. After that the
book begins to seem much worse than it really is. I liked the
book, but I wouldn't have finished it if I didn't have too. This
is because I prefer books that really get my emotions going, and
have a lot to them. Somehow this novel just wasn't doing it for
me. Because of the situation I have two scales for this book. On
the scale of how much I enjoyed it I give it a six out of ten. On
a scale of how much I appreciate the writing, and how well I
realize it is written I give it a nine. Unfortunately my
appreciation for Thomas Hardy's style was not enough to make the
book stimulate my brain for long.

The Cider House Rules

Caitie writes:
I read The Cider House Rules by John Irving. The book is about an orphanage in St. Cloud’s Maine where illegal abortions are preformed. Dr. Wilbur Larch cares for all the orphans in St. Cloud’s orphanage with the help of Nurse Edna and Nurse Angela. These nurses also help him with abortions. The nurses are responsible for naming all the orphans, one orphan they name Homer Wells. Homer is not an average baby, he does not cry. When adoptive families take Homer home they think there is something wrong with him, one family beats him to make him cry. This made him sensitive to the smallest touch or movement. Now he won’t stop crying. Each family can never seem to really mesh with Homer Wells. Dr. Larch stops trying to find Homer Wells’ perfect fit after Homer went on a day trip with one family and the family was gruesomely killed. Homer remains at the orphanage and becomes a son to Dr. Larch and Nurse Edna and Nurse Angela. They start giving him responsibilities and chores. He has to take out the trash and this is how he discovers Dr. Larch’s secret, he finds a fetus in the trash. Dr. Larch has to tell Homer about his secret career. He tells Homer and even starts training him to be an abortionist.
Homer is starved for attention at times so becomes close friends with a rude girl named Melonie, who is in the same predicament as Homer as far as being an orphan that never gets adopted in the girl’s division of St. Cloud’s. Homer and Melonie make a promise to each other that neither would leave St. Cloud’s without the other. Homer is trained to be an abortionist for the next few years. In the meantime the reader is introduced to Candy Kendall and Wally Worthington. Wally comes from a very rich family who owns a famous apple orchard; Candy’s dad is a very hard working, well respected handy man. Candy and Wally are “the couple” in Heart’s Haven, a town a few miles from St. Cloud’s. Candy happens to be the same age as Homer Wells and when she discovers she is pregnant she feels she is too young and has too much going on in her life right now to support a child. She knows Wally will support her, money is not an issue, and she just wants more time to live her life without having to care for a kid. She feels that she has no choice but to gat an abortion. Wally has heard about St. Cloud’s and Dr. Larch’s work. He takes Candy to St. Cloud’s for an abortion. The couple meets Homer Wells there. Homer really likes Candy and wants to help her but he has made up his mind that he thinks abortion is wrong, he doesn’t want to perform abortions anymore. This destroys Dr. Larch who had spent so much time training Homer. Homer will deliver babies but he will not kill them. So during Candy’s procedure he waits outside and talks with Wally. They create a fast friendship and he asks Homer if he wants to take a road trip with him and Candy. This road trip turns into a summer job for Homer. He had to break his promise with Melonie when he left and now Dr. Larch feels like his son is being taken away. Dr. Larch solves many of his problems with his ether addiction but this time he tries to find a new apprentice. He asks Melonie if she would like to learn how to abort a pregnancy. This does not work out because Melonie does not like blood and guts. Dr. Larch is very depressed and doesn’t hear from Homer for a while. Homer is having fun but the story has a twist that I do not want to give away if you want to read the book which I highly recommend.
It was a great book and I really enjoyed it. I like the way John Irving writes. He describes things really well; I can see what is going on. I also really like the characters and the setting. I think they add to the story in the best way. I would give the book 7 out of 10. I really enjoyed this novel and recommend it to anyone that likes a really good author; I wouldn’t however recommend this book to people who usually choose fantasy books. I would also not recommend it to anyone who is particularly squeamish or easily disturbed because there are some very disturbing scenes in the book.

Tess of the D’Urbervilles

Parisa writes
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
By Thomas Hardy

I would rate this book a 7 ½ out of 10. I would recommend this book for good readers because it contains rather advanced vocabulary. The novel is the story of a very young woman’s life in 1800’s England, her quest for happiness and love, and the obstacles society puts in her path. Hardy is concerned with right and wrong, and Tess strives to be a moral person. The novel covers very shocking material for that time, including rape and seduction. Not to give it away, but this book is not for people looking for a happy ending. Some parts of this book are very tragic, and the life of the main character, Tess, is difficult. Hardy can teach a lot about that period in English history and how people’s lives were lived. There are detailed descriptions of farm life, villages, and scenery. He has a strong feeling for poor people’s troubles, and creates a believable character. Although sometimes the sadness of the story forced me to put it down, I did find the story interesting and readable. The best thing about the book is the plot, which is brilliantly complicated, involving all the many characters, woven to keep the reader guessing until the end.

The Count of Monte Cristo

Hannah writes:
Personally, The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas did not meet my expectations. I thought the plot was confusing and hard to follow. There were too many characters and plot changes and it took away from the over all meaning of the novel. Also, I think the language was difficult to understand and not age appropriate. Along with the diction and the plot being hard to keep up with, some of the parts of the story were so depressing, like when the characters are enslaved in horrible prisons for very long periods of time. I did not find parts like that enjoyable to read about. This book was definitely not a page-turner for me, it was actually the opposite! I got bored reading this novel a lot of times and I would just want to put it down. I have read longer books than this in the past, but this one felt like it went on forever!
I would rate this book a 5/10 because I thought it was confusing and boring and not age appropriate. I would only recommend it to someone with a lot of patience and someone who enjoys reading very long books. I do not mean to insult the author in any way, but this book just wasn’t as good as I thought it would be when I read about the author and heard what other people who read it thought about it. Overall, this novel was not a good match with my reading style and preference, and hopefully next time I will read a novel that I enjoy more than this one.

Ethan Frome

Kristina writes:

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton was a short novel filled with a lot of description and
passion. It is a story that I will remember, because I have never read a story like it
before. The amount of description that Wharton gives lets the reader get into the mind
of the characters. You can understand how much Ethan and Mattie (two of the main
characters) love each other, because of the description of the emotions that are
running through their heads.
I would rate this book a 7 out of 10, because as much as I love reading love
stories, in my opinion I do not like the plot very much. I thought it was also very
predictable. I would recommend this novel to a friend, because just because I didn't
enjoy it I know someone else will probably enjoy it.

Madame Bovary

Eric writes:
The novel Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert is a detailed novel that tells the story about a young, beautiful woman named Emma who is very unhappy with her life. Flaubert’s work in the novel is explanatory in almost anything a character does. He is able to make you feel like you are in the novel watching and hearing the situation as it is happening. I would rate the novel a six out of ten, this is because I found that Flaubert did not get to his point quick enough. Even though he made his writing vivid for the reader he seemed to drag out most of the situations which made me get bored of what I was reading. Flaubert did write a surprise ending which was unexpected. (I will not say to much in case any of you would like to read Madame Bovary). I would recommend this novel to anyone who likes to read about romance, unexpected situations, conflict between characters and some forbidden love. Overall looking back on the novel Gustave Flaubert did a good job on writing Madame Bovary it was full of all sorts of problems that will make you want to keep reading.

Cat’s Cradle

Sasha
The novel I read as my third quarter classic was Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The writing is well crafted and the plot is fast moving. However while the novel is delightfully written, there is very little emphasis placed on characters and their development. They almost seem to be put in as an after thought, more there to help the plot along than for their own sake. What is interesting about this is that unlike many authors whose characters have no development because they are not very good at what they do, this lack of character development comes off as completely intentional and in fact works very well for the story and for Vonnegut’s style.
In the novel it is very hard to become attached to any of the characters and to really feel them as human beings. This should make it hard to relate to the novel, but what it does instead is make you read for the plot itself and not for the characters. Instead, it feels almost like the plot itself is the character that you watch develop.
The novel is told from the first person, but in an oddly disconnected way. While the narrator is part of the events of the book, his telling seems oddly removed and his presence does not seem to have any real effect on what happens.
It seems that all of these unusual writing techniques would not make the novel an enjoyable one, but Vonnegut’s writing is so clever and so unique that the reader cannot help but be completely drawn into the story and feeling like the monumental occurrences that take place in the novel effect this world as well.