Kirkus a Classic

Persuasion
by Jane Austen

A woman who is slightly past her prime (at least what prime was 200 years ago) gets a second chance at love and life.

Anne Elliot is the sensible middle daughter of a once very rich and always very vain Baron who has squandered the larger part of his fortune away since his wife's death over ten years past. His circumstances have become so drear that he is forced to let his large estate to another while he and his two eldest daughters relocate to the fashionable and much less expensive Bath. To Anne's distress, her father has rented the place to the sister of Captain Wentworth, a man who proposed to her 8 years ago when he was a nobody. Anne loved him, but was persuaded to refuse him by her godmother, Lady Russell. The oldest sister, Elizabeth, decided to take a friend with her to Bath while merrily sending Anne off to stay with their hypochondriac sister, Mary, who lived close to the estate. When the two lovers meet again, one is bitter and resentful while the other is anxious and regretful. Eventually an event occurs that restores Captain Wentworth's view of Anne, but he seems to have entangled himself unwittingly in the life of another who's family expects him to marry her. Before anything can be done to remedy the situation, Anne returns to Bath where she is pursued in marriage by another dashing young man with devilish designs of his own. Scoundrels are revealed and everyone with a kind heart is paired up with another who fits them best.

An unrealistic, yet hopeful read for the fan of classic love stories.

Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea

A Wizard of Earthsea
A High Fantasy Classic

by Ursula K. Le Guin

The Earthsea Cycle:
#1 A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
#2 The Tombs of Atuan (1970)
#3 The Farthest Shore (1972)
#4 Tehanu (1990)
#5 Tales from Earthsea (2001)
#6 The Other Wind (2001)

I have wanted to read this book for a long time. I saw the miniseries when it came out in 2004 and loved it. When I saw the book was in the juvenile collection of my library AND that it was written by Ursula K. Le Guin, the series gained a firm place on my to-read list. That’s right, it’s in the juvenile collection of my library. When I saw our textbook list it as a fantasy, I was overjoyed to be able to sneak in a book that would add to my knowledge of the collection I work with as well as fulfill a class assignment.

Earthsea is rather like a medieval island country with magic and dragons throughout. A young man in a teeny village discovers he has some skill with magic. He does something extraordinary to save his village and his fame spreads to a wizard on the island. The wizard, Ogion, gives the boy his true name, Ged. If he tells anyone his true name, they will have power over him, so he goes by Sparrowhawk. Ogion’s ways of teaching magic are too slow for the prentice, so the boy goes to Roke—an island with a magic school.

Being naturally very skilled at magic, Ged soon gets himself into trouble by performing a spell to bring a spirit back from the dead. He is too young and ignorant to be able to control the spell, so he ends up making a tear in the fabric of space (or something like that). The Archmage (or the Dumbledore of the story) seals the tear using up most of his power. Before he sealed it, something had a chance to escape. This shadow creature attacked Ged but got ran off. Throughout the rest of the story, Ged is chased by the shadow creature everywhere he goes. That is, until Ged decides to become the hunter instead of the hunted.

I haven’t read a lot of high fantasy before. Some of the stuff I’ve touched on has seemed a bit too much at times, reeking of melodrama. I didn’t feel that way with this one. I really liked it and intend on reading the rest of the series.

Give the Crazy Lady in White a Chance

The Woman in White

by Wilkie Collins (1859-60)

Classic Mystery

Each chapter gets you deeper and deeper into the lives of the characters. Each chapter gets you more and more twisted in the plot. Each chapter makes you want to read the next.

The characters really drive the story. They were all well thought out with such unique personalities that they could have been based on real people. Laura (the ingénue) was beautiful, talented, and rich, yet dressed in plain clothes and was incredibly modest. Walter (the hero) did everything he could to defend the honor of his beloved with the meager funds of an illustrator/drawing instructor. Anne Catherick (The Woman in White) was your typical insane character who didn't make much sense and was pretty harmless unless her fears were triggered. Sir Percival Glyde is a smarmy middle-aged aristocrat who breaks out in spurts of anger whenever his plans are questioned.

The two characters that shine most in the eyes of critics are Marion Halcombe and Count Fosco. Marian is the half-sister of Laura who has the perfect body and mind but an ugly face. Her instincts and quick wit help unfold the mysterious plot against Laura to the utmost. (Do you ever find that you start writing or talking in a style not your own after reading something of another time or place?)

Count Fosco is the maker of the intricate plot which unravels, but you wouldn't know it. He is the most intelligent character in the story, yet at times, the most ridiculous. He has trained birds and mice that he dotes on and tweets at. He is jovial and courteous to everyone from the richest landowner to the lowliest street rat. Even the ever ready Marian cannot break the gaze of his cunning gray eyes when they've caught her. Few realize how dangerous a man he is. Our main characters only scrape the surface of this incredibly complex villain--and they know it.

I enjoyed this story, but because of its length, I think it would be better to read it like it was originally published--in serial. You can do that here: http://www.wilkiecollins.com/. I would liken reading this book to watching a long mini-series. Sometimes it's better to get a story in pieces rather than all at once.

I wonder if there are books on Anne Catherick like Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys that's based on the crazy lady in the attic of Jane Eyre. There are so many crazy ladies in fiction--Great Expectations, Sweeney Todd, Jane Eyre, The Woman in White. I'm sure there are many, many more. A list of books based on the crazy ladies of fiction might be an interesting one to conjure up, don't you think?