Tag: Classic Literature

Classics Club Spin #45

I joined the Classics Club with this list of 50 classic books only this spring, and this will be my second spin. In the last spin (#44), I got Jezebel’s Daughter by Wilkie Collins (#9), but, regrettably, I haven’t read it. Hopefully, this second time, I will be more committed and read the book chosen by the spin. The rules are: go to your blog; pick twenty books that you listed as “to read” for the Classics Club challenge; and post the list, numbered 1-20, on your blog by 16th August 2026. The number will be announced on that day, and the challenge is to read the book that falls under the announced number by 4th October 2026.

My spin list this time:

1. In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck
2. The Violent Land by Jorge Amado
3. Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
4. Twilight Sleep by Edith Wharton
5. The Lily of the Valley by Honoré de Balzac
6. The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andrić
7. Embers by Sándor Márai
8. Bomarzo by Manuel Mujica Lainez
9. The Awkward Age by Henry James
10. The Wild Ass’s Skin by Honoré de Balzac
11. Redburn by Herman Melville
12. The Illustrious House of Ramires by Eça de Queirós
13. Doña Bárbara by Rómulo Gallegos
14. The Relic by Eça de Queirós
15. The Wayfarer by Natsume Sōseki
16. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
17. The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
18. The Village of Stepanchikovo by Fyodor Dostoevsky
19. Home of the Gentry by Ivan Turgenev
20. And Then by Natsume Sōseki

Recent Reading: American Short Stories

Winter Dreams by F. Scott Fitzgerald – ★★★★1/2

“As so frequently would be the case in the future, Dexter was unconsciously dictated to by his winter dreams“. Apparently, this is the story that Fitzgerald fleshed out to then produce The Great Gatsby. The focus is on Dexter Green, a very dreamy and aspiring young man who loves all things prestige and luxury, and who gets infatuated with one lovely, rich girl, Judy Jones. The issue though is that Judy is very popular and he faces much competition: “She had brought him ecstatic happiness and intolerable agony of spirit”. The Great Gatsby themes are everywhere in Winter Dreams: the abundant, unreasonable hope, the rags-to-riches narrative, one beautiful, unattainable and fickle woman. It is a flowing narrative that necessarily invites much comparison with Fitzgerald’s most famous novel and, therefore, feels lacking and less subtle, almost an exercise in the anticipation of a real thing. Still, there is this nostalgic, melancholic quality to this tragic tale that simply spellbinds.

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10 Best Last Lines

Much has been made of opening lines in fiction, but what about closing ones? Do last lines matter as much? Should aspiring authors learn to perfect them? Below are 10 best last lines (in no particular order) that showcase a mixture of poetic, chilling and moving book closures that leave a memorable impression on the reader.

I. “Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, ‘Wait and Hope’.” …”Who knows if we shall ever see them again?’ Morrel said, wiping away a tear. ‘My dearest,’ said Valentine, ‘has the count not just told us that all human wisdom was contained in these two words – “wait” and “hope”?’ – The Count of Monte Cristo

II. “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” – The Great Gatsby

III. “After all, tomorrow is another day.” – Gone With the Wind

IV. “He loved Big Brother.” – 1984

V. “But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the Forest a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.” – The House At Pooh Corner

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Review: Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac

Honore de Balzac Lost Illusions

Lost Illusions [1837 – 1843/1971] – ★★★★★

“...he was living in one of those golden dreams in which young people, cantering along on their ifs, leap over all barriers” [Balzac/Hunt, 1837/1971: 113].

“It’s hard…to keep one’s illusions about anything in Paris. Everything is taxed, everything is sold, everything is manufactured, even success” [Balzac/Hunt, 1837/1971: 387].

This week I am celebrating my first blogaversary – my blog is one year old (thank you to all my followers for following!), and this will also be my 70th full book review (see the others here). Therefore, I thought I would review a classic for a change as a way to “celebrate” and also to draw attention to the best literature has to offer.

Translated from the French by Herbert J. Hunt, Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac is part of his La Comedie Humaine series, and centres around Lucien Chardon, a handsome and optimistic, but very naïve, young man who desires to be successful in high society through his talent – he is a writer. He leaves his friend David Sechard, a typographist, in Angouleme and embarks on a dizzying adventure full of dramatic ups and downs in Paris, where he has to make difficult for him decisions about which path to success to follow. This is not one’s ordinary tale of a man’s fall from grace or the corruption of innocence. Balzac masterfully portrayed a story with a number of vivid characters, and his observations on the society, its hierarchy and its unspoken rules are second to none – making this work a true classic, both entertaining and insightfully profound. Through his tale, we get to understand the nuts and bolts of a printing business and journalism in the countryside and in Paris in the 1820s, as well as the consequences of unrelenting ambition and talent when they are not underpinned by solid connections and easily swayed by vanity and egocentrism. 

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