The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas

I’ll be honest. I have a sort of overarching paranoiac fear associated with books that are a) “old” and b) long. This probably originated with my very drawn out and painful reading of David Copperfield in the 9th grade. The Count of Monte Cristo is one of “those”—old and long books which I approached with hesitation and fear. Fortunately my fear was completely unfounded. The Count of Monte Cristo is anything but painful, drawn out and/or boring. This is a quick, intense, easy read. Dumas’ writing style is action packed and devoid of unnecessary details.

You’ve probably seen the movie and therefore have a general grasp on the plot of this book. (Although, let me tell you, while I loved the movie, it BUTCHERED this book.) For those who aren’t familiar with the plot: the main character, Edmond Dantes, is a young, happy sailor who is engaged to a beautiful woman, and is in love. His life is turned upside down when he is wrongfully accused of treason. He is imprisoned in the Chateau d’If; after which, he seeks revenge on those who wronged him. Okay, so Edmond Dantes isn’t exactly a great role model, but the story is awesome nonetheless.

Favorite Quotes: “Live and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget that, until the day comes when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these words: Wait and hope!”.

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG-13

Overall Grade: A-

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yes, absolutely.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I decided to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (AAW) now since the new movie will be coming out shortly and I wanted to read the book before I saw the movie. Generally, I don't enjoy going to movie theatres, but for a Tim Burton movie with Johnny Depp, I'll make an exception.

AAW is only 118 pages long (in the edition I read) so it is one of those books where the movie really tells the entire story. Actually, it tells the entire story plus some. For example--Tweedledee and Tweedledum and Humpty Dumpty aren't even in AAW; They are characters in the sequel--Through the Looking Glass.

I learned in the introduction that there was an edition of AAW released in 1999 called Annotated Alice. This edition includes footnotes explaining insight that Victorian readers would have understood but that are lost on modern readers. I wish I would have picked up Annotated Alice.  I think it would make the story far more insightful and amusing. What makes AAW entertaining is the plays on words, the quirky characters and plot, and the random, dreamlike feel of the entire book.

The most interesting thing I learned was in the introduction and was the following. Lewis Carroll had a strong affinity for photographing young girls nude. He apparently had an innocent obsession with children--especially female children. He was friends with a family--one of the daughters was named Alice and he was in love with her. He told her the story of Alice in Wonderland (originally titled Alice's Adventures Underground) and later wrote it down for her. He supposedly mentioned the possibility to Alice's parents of his marrying her someday at which point Alice's parents promptly severed ties with Lewis. Curious.

Favorite Quotes: I don't have a favorite quote, but I enjoyed the section about the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon.

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: G

Overall Grade: B-

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Yep.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I Capture the Castle was a really delightful story of 17 year old girl—Cassandra Mortmain—growing up in 1930s England. She and her family live in abject poverty in an old run down English castle. Her father is a famous author, who has experienced a decade of writers block sparked by a year of imprisonment (the background of which was rather humorous). The result is that the only people in the Mortmain household capable of earning any income are Stephen, an orphan who helps out around the house, and Topaz, the eccentric step-mom who earns money by modeling for paintings. Cassandra is the narrator of the book via her journals; which she started keeping in order to practice speedwriting.

When two young American men, Simon and Neil Cotton, arrive at the castle, the Mortmains lives change drastically. They bring inspiration, financial assistance, love, food and entertainment to the Mortmains and ultimately provide Cassandra with tons of material for her journals.

I kept getting lost when reading I Capture the Castle as the author doesn’t do much by the way of putting the story in historical context. My recent readings have been set during the late 19th century, while I Capture the Castle is set during the mid 20th century. It was interesting to note the various social changes that occurred between the 19th and 20th centuries.

This was a funny, clever, amusing, easy read. The characters were well defined and easy to love (or hate). The story was suspenseful, but not too much, and heart-wrenching in places, but not to bring you to tears.

Favorite Quotes: "In the end, Miss Marcy took the middle pages out of her library record, which gave us a pleasant feeling that we were stealing from the government..." (15)

"And no bathroom on earth will make up for marrying a bearded man you hate." (130)

"I DO NOT ENVY ROSE. When I imagine changing places with her I get the feeling I do on finishing a novel with a brick-wall happy ending--I mean the kind of ending when you never think any more about the characters..." (197)

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG-13.

Overall Grade: B

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Some of them--the less intellectually driven ones, or those who want a good, quick, vacation read.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

Upon closing the back cover of Tess of the d'Urbervilles (which will be abreviated TdU moving forward), my husband looked over and asked "what did you think?" to which I replied "I loved this book. Yeah, I loved it."

When my brother was home over Christmas and I was reading Emma, he and I were discussing our distaste for Jane Austen novels and one complaint that surfaced was that her stories typically focus on people and their high class problems. ("High class problems" is a phrase our family uses if someone is stressed out about where to go on vacation or what to wear to the ball, etc.) Part of what I loved about TdU is that this story is not about high class problems, in fact, quite the opposite. Also, I loved this book because it is another story about crazy people in love (which, as mentioned previously on this blog, I enjoy.) Finally, I thouroughly enjoyed Thomas Hardy's writing style. It was artistic, expressive and detailed without excessive verbosity.

TdU gained a lot of attention (some positive, some negative) in its day because it was daring--it questioned social order, destiny, values, and religion. Most importantly, the book is based on a "true" story which in today's society would be, for the most part, commonplace but would have been kept intenesely secret in the 1800s.

TdU is a story of Tess Durbeyfield, who was the oldest daughter of an impoverished, drunk beggar and a milkmaid. The book chronicles her life and her struggles as a poor woman in rural England.

Favorite Quote: I have three--I couldn't pick one. 1) "the magnitude of lives is not as to their extrenal displacements, but as to their subjective experiences. The impressionable peasant leads a larger, fuller, more dramatic life than the pachydermatous king." 2) "It was for herself that he loved Tess; her soul, her heart, her substance--not for her skill in the dairy..." 3) "This was always how Clare settled practical questions; by a sentiment which had nothing to do with them."

If this were a movie, I'd rate it: PG-13.

Overall Grade: A

Would I recommend this book to my friends: Absolutely...although, not to the ones who demand "happily ever after" endings.