I don’t answer the Classics Club question every month but this month’s caught my eye when I saw the diversity of other members’ answers and I thought it’d be fun to share some thoughts.
Q: What is the best book you’ve read so far for The Classics Club — and why? Or, if you prefer, what is your least favorite read so far for the club, and why?
So far I’ve read 11/52 of the books I put on my rather eclectic Classics Club list and my favourite has to be The Warden by Anthony Trollope.
Gossipy, centred around a moral dilemma and social relationships and filled with good cheer, it was the second Trollope book I’d ever read (the first was back when I was about 16) and once I got used to the pace it swept me up. I’m so delighted because I now have the other five books in this Barchester Chronicles series to read and enjoy.
If you like pace-driven reads or need the core of the story to be relevant and modern you probably won’t get much out of it. If you like thinking about ‘what if’, character growth and choose your own adventure style stories it’s very charming indeed. :)
Runner Up: Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner
As for least favourite CC read? Well, it doesn’t take too much thinking about it. I am pretty much on my own here I think but it’s got to be:
I know, I know. You all love it. I am wrong, wrong, wrong to hate it. But oh my word, do I hate The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. Freakish people, terrible dialogue, coincidence after coincidence and everything sacrificed to make Collins’ complex plot work.
To try and understand the author better I read a biography of Collins (he really wasn’t a very nice guy but I didn’t know that until I read the biography), read some interesting thoughts on gender in the book and hunted out and read many, many positive reviews. It’s charms still elude me.
Runner Up: The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein
January 23, 2013 at 02:47
Interesting… I liked The Warden, but didn’t love it. It inspired me to read The Way We Live Now – which I am enjoying but haven’t picked up in ages. Must return to it soon or I’ll need to start over! I thought The Woman in White was a good read, but The Moonstone was outstanding!
January 23, 2013 at 09:10
Ah, I just replied to another comment and said I was debating giving The Moonstone a read in a while to see if there’s a Collins novel I’ll enjoy out there… Maybe in a year or two!
January 23, 2013 at 05:33
HI Alex, I came to find you after you left your comment on my blog. Thanks so much! I’m going to add you to my blog list. I read your post on the favourite classics so far, and I really need to read Trollope. It’s on my list of books to read this year. I don’t have book one in the series, only book 2, Barchester Towers. I’ve heard many good things about him. I like how you describe his writing as being curious about the characters, what if and growth.
I had Lolly Willowes out from the library and didn’t get a chance to finish it. I have to get it out again, I enjoyed what I did read of it.
I have to confess that I enjoyed Wilkie Collins when I read him, though it was over 20 years ago. I’m due to reread him soon. I like The Moonstone more than The Woman in White, from what I remember of the two books. I’m reading Drood right now by Dan Simmons, which is a fictional story written from Collin’s point of view about Dickens and the nightmares Dickens supposedly had after he survived a train wreck near the end of his life. Drood is a character Dickens witnesses at the scene. It’s very good so far, and Collins is so jealous of Dickens!
January 23, 2013 at 09:06
Hi Susan, thanks for coming by. Barchester Towers is fine as a starting point, I only went back to The Warden because I’m a completist. I think I went in expecting it to be more like Dickens but when I relaxed into it I enjoyed the smaller, knotty problem solving details. :)
The ending of Lolly Willowes is well worth borrowing the book for again. The Devil turns up and he’s a nice guy – not at all what you might expect!
I’m half tempted to try The Moonstone in a year or two to see if it’s all Collins’ novels I dislike or whether it’s just The Woman in White… But it won’t be any time soon. Drood sounds much more interesting to me though. :)
January 23, 2013 at 08:53
I enjoyed The Woman in White, but I can see why you hated it. And, my, how I am with you on The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. I slogged through it for my MA, and I just don’t get it. Why, Gertrude, why?
January 23, 2013 at 09:07
Hahaha, I want a t-shirt with ‘Why, Gertrude Stein, Why?’ on it. ;)
January 23, 2013 at 09:18
It could be done!
January 23, 2013 at 13:45
Interesting that you didn’t like the Collins, but it’s nice to hear it, there is so much positivity about it the other side is important to hear, too. I must get to the Barchester series.