“He is born to be hung,” said Roger to himself as he went to his room,–”and he’ll deserve it.” So says Roger Carbury about Sir Felix, after Felix crawls into Roger’s house at 4 a.m. Felix stars as a true cad in this chapter, first proposing to Marie Melmotte, then slipping off for a half hour [...]
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“Every vice might be forgiven in a man and in a son, though every virture was expected from a woman and especially from a daughter.” Lady Carbury’s blunt difference in expectations and affection for her son and daughter stood out to me as the theme in this segment. I thought the lowest moment was the [...]
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One of the most prestigious awards in American literature, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction has been awarded to some of America’s most highly regarded authors, including Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Jennifer Egan and Philip Roth. The jurors for selecting the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for fiction submitted three unranked finalists to the board: David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King, Karen [...]
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The collapse of giant financial houses, all night gambling and drinking binges, a jilted lover threatens her revenge with a horsewhip. . . .all part of “The Way We Live Now.” Today marks the beginning of our blog’s read along of Anthony Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now.” First reading segment starts with Chapter 1, concludes at the end [...]
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A central character in Brian Selznick’s book, the Invention of Hugo Cabret, and in Martin Scorcese’s film of the book is the complex automaton that writes. Turn the key and click for these other tales of automata! At the time of the French Revolution, a young inventor’s greatest device–a talking mechanical head– crowns his [...]
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2012 has marked the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens. . .are you ready to read his contemporaries? Wilkie Collins? George Eliot? What about Anthony Trollope? Our blog will lead a read along of Trollope’s The Way We Live Now. Trollope describes the theme of his 1875 novel: Nevertheless a certain class of dishonesty, dishonesty magnificent [...]
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The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic has also inspired a number of novels based on the disaster. The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott A spirited young seamstress survives the Titanic only to find herself deeply torn between two men. Echoes of Titanic by Mindy Starns Clark Kelsey Tate’s great-grandmother Adele endured the sinking of [...]
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Charles Dickens used London as the setting for many of his novels, and the great sprawling city of Victorian era London itself was a force in his works, as much as any character that Dickens created. Explore twentieth century London through the eyes of these contemporary authors. London’s Portobello Road, a street fabled for its shops and outdoor [...]
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Archon: the Books of Raziel by Sabrina Benulis Angela Mathers is a girl who discovers that she is an Archon–a human possessed by the spirit of a dead angel–and that she is equally hunted and desired by angels and demons. Torn between mortal love and angelic obsession, she must soon face the truth about herself and her world. [...]
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