Book 47: Lady Susan by Jane Austen

This is the final Jane Austen novel on my list.  I believe that she's written other short stories, etc. but I've now read all of her novels.  It's an extremely short piece (80 pages) and one that I've not really heard much about before.  I have heard that this was the first novel that Jane Austen started but the last to be completed.  Some of that roughness is bound to come through.

80 pages in one week;  12 pages per day... might finish a little early.


REVIEW:

This book was a lot different than I thought that it would be.  The book is written entirely in the form of letters between the characters.  The main character is Lady Susan Vernon who has just recently been widowed and is seeking an advantageous second marriage.  She's been chased out of the house of some friends due to her flirting and meddling and is now preparing to move to the house of her brother and his family.

The character of Lady Susan is one of the worst seen in Austen's work.  She has very few redeeming qualities. But she is attractive, intelligent and shrewd; and expert at manipulating people and events in her favor.  She likes to play the innocent card, but her letters to her friends show her true nature.  Which shows the true brilliance of this style novel.

Because of the limitations of scope inherent in a set of letters you don't get to see the events as they unfold, only the after-effects and the reactions of the characters.  You do get to see their more private feelings and motivations, however, so you have a mix of limited point of view but enhanced personal insight.  It's really quite interesting.

The ending was good, but a little rushed and I wish that the fate of the characters had been more thoroughly explored.  I'm going to miss Jane Austen and it's been a great time reading her work.  She's still one of my favorite authors and reading all seven of these books has given me a good view of her range and limitations.  This book in particular was not one of her best but was definitely one of her most creative.

7 out of 10.

Book 37: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Last time I read Jane Austen it was the last book she wrote, Persuasion.  This time it's the first she wrote, Northanger Abbey.  I've heard that, like Persuasion, it's not as polished as her "big" novels, but I'm interested to see how it plays out.  It's making me a bit sad that I only have 2 more Austen novels to read.  Maybe I'll try to drag it out a bit.

At 256 pages it's going to by tough to drag it out... that's only 37 pages per day.

REVIEW:  This book was a very pleasant surprise for me.  I've read almost all of Jane Austen's novels now and just have left some of her minor works.  They are all supposed to be either early works, like this one, or unfinished works that were posthumously edited together.  Either way, they are shorter, unpolished novels that may not hold up to her master works.

However, Northanger Abbey turned out of be one of my favorites!  This is the first novel that Jane Austen wrote, though not the first published.  As such, it is a little raw in places but it does not suffer for it. What really surprised me, though, is that it was so funny!  The main character in the book, Catherine, is 17 years old and really comes off as young and naive.  She jumps to conclusions constantly, usually way off-base, and gets herself into embarrassing situations because of it.  The narration is also quite witty and addresses the reader directly in many places.  Because of this, the novel has a much more intimate feel to it, as though Austen is telling you the story personally.

As usual, reading Austen is always a pleasure.  She, and therefore her characters, are smart, funny, witty and complex.  I would highly recommend this novel to anyone that has enjoyed her other works, and would even recommend it to others who have not.  I'm going to place it squarely in my top three of her works, right behind Pride and Prejudice and Emma.

9 out of 10.

Book 32: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

I'm cheating on my little project here as the Russian book is giving me a harder time than expected.  I should have finished by now but am only about 160 pages in.  I'm going on a weekend vacation and don't really feel like working through Pasternak, so I'm taking a little break and reading a murder mystery.  It's pretty short at 256 pages and I'll probably try to finish it by the end of the long weekend so about 85 pages per day. 

REVIEW:  This is the second Agatha Christie mystery that I’ve read and I was impressed with this one as well.  I have this little game that I like to play with mystery novels where I write down a list of suspects and, every quarter of the book or so, I try to guess who is the guilty party.  I find that my choice generally changes as more evidence is uncovered.  I generally take it as a sign of a good mystery if the crime is solvable at the end of the book without additional “clues” being introduced at the last minute.  Christie is really good at laying out all of the information but still surprising you at the end.  Twice now, I’ve played my little game and didn’t even come close to guessing the guilty party.

This book wasn’t quite as good as the previous one I read as I felt the ending was a little bit unfair but that may just be sour grapes because she got me again.  I do really like the character of Hercule Poirot and I’m wondering if I would like her other main character, Miss Marple, as much.  Maybe I’ll explore that next.

Overall, it was a great little mystery and another interesting read.  I suppose there’s a reason that Agatha Christie has sold over 2 billion books.  It wasn’t quite as good as The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, however as the ending felt a little contrived and the mystery was laid out a bit too clinically. 

7 out of 10.

Book 26: Persuasion by Jane Austen

Well, I'm back around to Jane Austen.  I've read all but three of her novels so far: Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan and this one, Persuasion.  I have to admit that I really don't know anything about this book so we'll have to see how it goes.  I'm still a big fan of Jane Austen's writing, however, so I assume it will be pretty good.

Only 272 pages, so around 40 pages per day.  Piece of cake!

REVIEW:  This book is now one of my new favorites.  It’s not as good as Pride and Prejudice or even Emma, but even the third best book by Jane Austen is better than most people’s best books. 

The story takes place from the point of view of Anne Elliot, the middle daughter of a baronet, Sir Walter Elliot.  Her mother is dead, her father and sister are vain and selfish and her younger sister is already married and, therefore, head of her own little household, though that doesn’t keep her from meddling in everyone else’s lives.  Anne is the standard refined, smart heroine of Austen’s novels, but she’s unappreciated.  Her good judgment is often disregarded though everyone relies on her dependibility. 

She is now 27, practically a spinster in Austen’s world, though eight years earlier she was engaged to a yound naval officer, Frederick Wentworth.  She loved him dearly, but was persuaded to break off the engagement by her family and friends due to his lack of status and fortune.  Now, eight years later, Captain Wentworth has returned and she must learn to adjust to his contant presence.

While Anne is unassuming, she is not meek, like Fanny in Mansfield Park. She is, therefore, a much more interesting character.  She does have opinions and advice even if they are disregarded.  While she was meek enough to be persuaded earlier against her desires, she is now older and more independent.  Overall, she’s the opposite of most of Austen’s heroines, choosing a self-made commoner over the aristocratic heroes of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Emma. 

The story felt a little rough in spots and very hurried at the end, but as this was the last book written by Ms. Austen, in fact, written on her deathbed, it didn’t get the usual amount of revision, editing and polishing that most of her novels did.  As such, it’s simpler, more direct story but, I feel, it comes across as more realistic and moving.

Overall, I really liked this book – 9 out of 10.

Book 13: Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad

I know a few people who just detest Joseph Conrad but, in my limited readings (I've only read Heart of Darkness) I find that I actually enjoy his writing.  I find it impressive that he writes such good prose for a non-native English speaker and I think that his depictions of the human psyche are quite interesting and believable.  I had a couple of Conrad novels to choose from and Lord Jim kept popping to the top of the list so, with very little knowledge of what it's about, I'm going to give it a go.

It's 417 pages in my copy so that makes about 60 pages per day.  I have a couple of other events coming up this week, however, so I'll probably have to do a bit better than that.

REVIEW:  I had a hard time getting through this one.  It didn't capture my attention quite as well as some of the other books I've been reading lately.  I also had a lot of things going on this past week and wasn't able to read as often as I'd have liked to and maybe that had something to do with it.

The book is roughly split into three main sections.  The first part reads very mysteriously as you are told about the title character, Jim, and that there is something about his past that haunts him.  Little by little we are let in to the secret and all comes out eventually.  The second part deals with the complete story of the event that has shaped Jim's life.  It reminded me of The Rime of the Ancient Mariner the way that the narrator is held enthralled while the main character tells his unfortunate story.  Finally, we are shown the effects of this event and Jim's gradual redemption through the assistance of the narrator.

It was this final part that seemed to drag on a bit.  I kept wondering how much could possibly be left while I still had 150 pages to go.  Conrad managed to keep the story going, however, and I eventually made it to the end.

The plot was interesting and some passages were very well written but, ultimately, it felt more like a chore to finish the book.  I certainly didn't hate the book, but it wasn't one of my favorites.  It's definitely a good book, but not for me.  5/10.

Book 6: "Emma" by Jane Austen

Only two days late now.  Made up quite a bit of time with Book 5.  So now, on to something girly!  Hahaha.  Seriously, I really like Jane Austen.  Her stories are not always brilliant; I found Mansfield Park to be particularly dull.  But, her mastery of the English language is amazing.  You rarely come across such well crafted prose.  So, with that prologue, I'm looking forward to some good Regency era reading.  462 pages means 66 pages per day.  I'll probably shoot for more to try and finish it in 5 days so that I'm completely caught up.

UPDATE (08/29/11) - Another enjoyable read... It must be getting rather tiresome to hear nothing but positive reviews, but I spent quite a bit of time choosing my first few books for this project to make it as enjoyable as possible, so it's really no surprise.  Pride and Prejudice is indisputably Jane Austen's master work, but Emma comes in a very close second, in my opinion.  What I enjoyed most was the growth of the title character, Emma. In the beginning, she is meddlesome, arrogant and headstrong but, through a series of bad judgments on her own part and the effects her actions have upon her friends, she gradually learns from her mistakes and becomes a better person for it.  Other than, perhaps, Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, it's a change unseen in most of her other characters.

So there it is, my new second-favorite Jane Austen novel.

Book 4: "Robinson Crusoe" by Daniel Defoe

I needed another "easy" book to help get back on schedule after vacation threw me so far off.  I was originally scheduled to finish this book on August 13th and I'm now 3 days overdue.  At 282 pages, I need to get through 40 pages a day to finish in a week.  More if I want to catch up a bit more.

Update: Finished on August 18th, still 4 days behind.  Great book though.  I was looking for something exactly like this: someone marooned has to recreate civilization from scratch.  The concept is interesting and the execution here is quite good.  You kinda forget that it's fiction and not an account of someone's life.  The other thing that I liked was that, being 300 years old, there were some parts that were a little uncomfortable, dealing with slavery and treatment of native peoples... and, surprisingly, Defoe also seemed uncomfortable with these issues.  Rather progressive for someone writing around 1700.  Anyway, the book holds up to its many years and I highly recommend it to anyone.

Book 2: "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens

I've always disliked Dickens but, to be fair, I hadn't read any of his works since high school. So, I decided to give him a second (and possibly last) chance.  368 pages meant about 53 pages per day  but it ended up being not-so-bad.


He's still overly wordy, but the story was engaging and kept me interested through to the end.  I have to say, I wouldn't mind reading more Dickens... later... much later.