Lady Chatterley’s lover by D.H. Lawrence

Middleclass woman Connie Read marries Clifford Chatterley of the Wragby estate, who got paralysed during WOI and is now bound to a wheelchair. This also means he isn’t able to give Connie any children of his own. The monotonous life at Wragby starts to bore Connie. When she meets her husband’s gamekeeper, the troubled Oliver Mellors, she loathes him at first. But in time, she visits him more and more in the woods and the two of them start an affair.

This is the winning novel of my first classics club spin. I added this book to the list because I saw the excellent BBC movie with Richard Madden and Holiday Grainger a few years ago. I didn’t remember anything from the plot so I was curious to start reading Lady Chatterley’s lover, expecting a romance novel with a lot of sex and drama.

But this didn’t turn out as expected. It’s written during the interwar period and has that typical early 20th century atmosphere. There were a lot of philosophical discussions that I wasn’t prepared for. About themes as social class, communism, women’s rights, industrialization… And that’s why I felt the story dragged on at times.

This book has a lot of sex, but compared to 21st century standards (I mean, we have 50 shades) it isn’t big deal. I can assume that in the 1920’s this was not done and the book has been banned in a lot of countries. But I also believe this was the cause because the book is about an affair between two people of a different social class. A respectable lady who mingles with a gamekeeper, who is far below her status… It would have caused quite a scandal in real life.

I didn’t feel the romance. Connie hates Mellors at first and slowly they grow towards each other, but I couldn’t understand why. The first times they have sex, it’s all about the sex and Connie is even thinking about other things while having intercourse. Her feelings towards Oliver change suddenly, but it’s never explained why. Mellors is a character that I couldn’t relate with. He speaks a certain dialect that I couldn’t understand (I read this book in English so that made these parts unreadable to me). I didn’t root for them, but I couldn’t also stand Clifford, who has little thought and affection for his wife.

The second part of the book got better (more action and dialogue, less philosophical themes), but all together I believe this story is better suited for a 2-hour movie than a 6-hour book.

This is book 5/50 for the classics club.

⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Have you read anything by D.H. Lawrence?

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CC Spin #26: my result

Last week I made a list of twenty classics for the classics club spin. It’s my first participation, so I was excited to discover my result. And the lucky number is…. 11!

This means I’m going to read ‘Lady Chatterley’s lover’ by D.H. Lawrence.

I wasn’t expecting a particular book. I made a list of 20 random and not too bulky books. Lady Chatterley’s lover doesn’t seem like the most hard or serious book on the list. This book was banned back in the 1920’s because of explicit sexual language. I’m quite sure that will not be the case if you compare it to current standards (50 shades anyone?), so I’m eager to see what the fuzz could have been about.

I know this is not a high-rated classic or story. A lot of people dislike it. But I did enjoy the 2015 BBC movie with Richard Madden and Holliday Grainger. So that’s why it ended up on my classics club list. 😅 I don’t remember everything from the story, so I guess it’s a nice moment to start reading the book.

I’ll start this classic after finishing my current historical mystery ‘Rags of time’.

What’s your result?

CC spin #26: the list

I’m going to participate in my first ever classics club spin! This is just too much fun and of course I’ve still more than enough books on my list left (current status: 4/50).

The goal of a classics club spin is to list 20 books from your CC list you still need to read in a random order. At the end of this week, a number is chosen and you have to read the book that corresponds that number on your list. In this spin edition, the deadline to read (and review) the book is the 31st of May.

I was already thinking about my next classic for April/May, so I’m sure this game will help me make a choice. This is my list:

1. Utopia by Thomas More
2. Dracula by Bram Stoker
3. My cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
4. The fifth queen by Ford Madox Ford
5. The trial by Franz Kafka
6. The scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
7. North and south by Elizabeth Gaskell
8. Tess d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
9. The prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
10. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
11. Lady Chatterly’s lover by D.H. Lawrence
12. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
13. Tender is the night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
14. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
15. The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro
16. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
17. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
18. Far from the madding crowd by Thomas Hardy
19. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoj
20. The idiot by Fyodor Dostoeysky

Let’s see what we get on Sunday!

Howards End by E.M. Forster

The middleclass sisters Margaret and Helen Schlegel are living in London together with their younger brother Tibby. On holiday in Germany, the land of birth of their deceased father, they meet the Wilcoxes, a family rich by business. Back in England, Helen goes to live a few days with them at Howard’s End, the favourite house of Mrs. Wilcox. But things don’t go as planned. After a romantic affair with the youngest son Paul, Helen returns to London. At an opera show, she accidentally steals an umbrella of the clerk Leonard Bast who has a poor income. In the coming years fate will bring these three families together again.

I had already seen the most recent BBC/Starz adaptation, so I knew the story a bit. I love how everything comes together at the end and how Howard’s End seems to be an extra character in the book. The house is always there, looming over the events.

Howard’s End was published in 1910 and offers a pre-war perspective on European relationships. At times, it felt like a total different world out there. The book covers a lot of interesting themes: social class, poverty, prejudice, feminism and sisterhood. The three families are all part of a different social class. The Schlegel sisters are middleclass. They love art, poetry and culture and don’t need to worry about money. The Wilcoxes are affluent, trying to make even more money thanks to the right investments. They tend to value things over people. While at the same time, the Basts are struggling to make ends meet. Leonard wants to get higher up in life and starts taking an interest in books and art, a subject he enjoys discussing with the Schlegel sisters.

The main perspective was that of Margaret, the older Schlegel and not my favourite character. Margaret is sensible and thoughtful. She’s the perfect opposite of her impulsive and emotional sister and the rather dull and rational Wilcoxes. She’s the much needed conscience in the story, as many of the other characters appear rather flat and insensitive at times.

The writing is good, although I found it a bit difficult at times. There is some dialogue, but also a strong narrator perspective where Forster directly speaks to the reader. Some of these aren’t always that easy to follow. There are also some time jumps that can be confusing.

In the end, I understand why Howard’s End is considered a true classic. The unique atmosphere of Europe before the Great War combined with themes that are still highly relevant today make for a great novel. I also have ‘A passage to India’ from Forster on my classics club list and am looking forward to see if I’ll like it even more.

This is book 3/50 for the Classics Club.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Have you read anything by E.M. Forster? What’s your favourite?

The man in the iron mask by Alexandre Dumas

Our hero d’Artagnan is in the service of king Louis XIV as captain of The Musketeers. What he doesn’t know is that his friends Aramis and Porthos are plotting to remove the king. On the countryside, Raoul is still heartbroken over his love for Louise de la Vallière, the king’s mistress. His father Athos tries to console him. And in the Bastille, a young prisoner Philippe who bears a likeness to Louis, has no idea of the crime he has committed. These events will bring the former musketeers to opposing sides of a conflict at the heart of the Sun King’s court.

The man in the iron mask is the last part in the d’Artagnan romances. As I haven’t read the other books, apart from the first ‘The three musketeers’, I needed some time to understand what has happened before. Some day, I hope to read all these books again in order. Quite a task, I know.

The book opens with a strong prologue where Aramis visits a prisoner in the Bastille. We quickly discover our former musketeer, who is now bishop of Varenne, has contrived a plot against the king. Slowly, the other musketeers appear in the story and I did find the first few chapters very compelling and funny. There are a few scenes at a tailor’s shop that made me laugh out loud.

But when Aramis’ plot falls apart in the middle of the novel, the story does the same. Our attention moves to minister Fouquet and his fall out of grace with the king. There’s also the subplot of Raoul and Athos that I found a bit messy, but that might be because I haven’t read the previous books. Towards the end, the story grows stronger again and I did enjoy the last few chapters. I believe this is a great end to the series and to the lives of these characters that I love so much.

Maybe this book lacks a Milady De Winter or some other villain against which the musketeers can stand together. Now they are at opposing sides while still honoring their friendship. But nonetheless this is again a great piece of storytelling from Dumas and also a fine look into a fascinating part of French history.

This is book 2/50 for the Classics club.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

What’s your favourite Alexandre Dumas novel?

The tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë

When Mrs Helen Graham and her five-year-old son Arthur move into the abandoned Wildfell Hall, she becomes the talk of the town. Her strange ways and ideas mark her from the other nobel families. Gilbert Markham is the only one to befriend the young woman who paints to earn a living. But rumours grow that Helen has left her husband, the father of her son. Wildfell Hall is a quiet sanctuary no longer when her secrets are to be exposed.

Anne is the last of the Brontë sisters of whom I hadn’t read a novel yet. Having both loved ‘Jane Eyre’ and ‘Wuthering Heights’, I was looking forward to discover her writing. So ‘The tenant’ became my first book for the classics club.

The tenant of Wildfell Hall is a Victorian epistolary. The novel is told from two perspectives. The first part is a long letter from Gilbert Markham to his brother-in-law (who doesn’t appear in the novel, apart from just being the unknown receiver of the letter). He writes about the arrival of Mrs Graham and her son at Wildfell Hall and the reception by the other families. There is some irony about the elite in this book reminiscent of Jane Austen. But in my opinion Anne is more subtle and funnier (I especially loved Fergus, who’s sadly only a minor character).

I loved Gilbert’s perspective. You get to read the opinions of women on another woman from the point of view of a man who adores her. Gilbert is a bit naive, insecure and stubborn at times. But still he makes for a good main character.

Halfway, Gilbert receives Mrs Graham’ diary and we are introduced to her story. Here, the writing style changes and I needed some time to get used to it. Helen’s story covers some very serious themes that must have been taboo subjects in the 19th century. Alcohol addiction, mental abuse, adultery… The men in Helen’s story are vile creatures.

Anne has written a quite modern story, that maybe isn’t as upsetting anymore than it used to be. But it tells the story of a woman fleeing her unhealthy marriage for a safe haven. This story doesn’t need ghosts or a haunted house. The writing is extremely readable, it didn’t feel as if I was reading a 19th-century-book.

This doesn’t make it any easier to choose my favorite Brontë sister 😅

This is book 1/50 for the Classics club.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

What’s your favorite Brontë classic and why?

I’m joining the classics club in 2021

And it scares the hell out of me. A few years ago, I already started my own classics project. And I did read some great classics: the novels of Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, The three musketeers… I enjoyed them all, but the last years I’m just picking up other books above classics. Mainly because I think they will be too difficult to read and thus take too long to finish. But I kept enjoying TV adaptions of classics such as War and peace and Les miserables. So now, I want to start reading classics again.

That’s why I joined the classics club where the goal is to make a list of 50 classics and read them in the coming 5 years! You review them on your blog and track your progress on a separate page. I don’t have high hopes in really finishing 50 classics in 5 years. I will try, but as I only read around 35-40 books every year, it’s a great commitment. But I’m not afraid of a challenge. I know that by joining I will have read a lot more books from this list by 31st December 2025 than without this challenge.

My list consists of authors I already enjoyed or think I will enjoy (the Brontë sisters, Dumas, Du Maurier…), of stories I already know because of the TV version (Vanity Fair, Les miserables, War and peace…) and of some older historical fictions works (Richard III, The fifth queen, I Claudius…).

When you take a look at my list, you should keep this in mind:

• No Jane Austen on this list as I already read her books.
• No Ernest Hemingway, as I hated ‘the old man and the sea’.
• Not too much of dystopian fiction as it really isn’t my thing. So no Orwell or Wells, I made the exception for ‘a clockwork orange’ since one of my best friends loved it so much and for ‘the handmaid’s tale’ because everyone seems to love it.
• There are some authors on this list that I’m scared to start reading because of what I heard about their writing. That’s why I only chose one book from them so that I can give up on the author if the writing is not my cup of tea. This is the case with Charles Dickens, G.G. Marquez and Fyodor Dostoeysky.
  

This is my list:

1. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
2. My cousin Rachel by Daphne Du Maurier
3. Jamaica’s Inn by Daphne Du Maurier
4. Villette by Charlotte Brontë
5. Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
6. The tenant of Wildfell hall by Anne Brontë
7. Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
8. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (reread)
9. War and peace by Leo Tolstoj
10. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoj
11. Les misérables by Victor Hugo
12. The count of monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
13. The man in the iron mask by Alexandre Dumas
14. La reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas
15. The Borgias by Alexandre Dumas
16. The prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
17. Utopia by Thomas More
18. Howard’s end by E.M. Forster
19. A passage to India by E.M. Forster
20. To kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee
21. Dracula by Bram Stoker
22. Tess d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
23. Far from the madding crowd by Thomas Hardy
24. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
25. Lady Chatterly’s lover by D.H. Lawrence
26. I, Claudius by Robert Graves
27. The handmaid’s tale by Margaret Atwood
28. Tender is the night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
29. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
30. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
31. And then there were none by Agatha Christie
32. Great expectations by Charles Dickens
33. The color purple by Alice Walker
34. The idiot by Fyodor Dostoeysky
35. North and south by Elizabeth Gaskell
36. The remains of the day by Kazuo Ishiguro
37. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
38. The fifth queen by Ford Madox Ford
39. The woman in white by Wilkie Collins
40. Treasure island by Robert Louis Stevenson
41. The Iliad by Homer
42. The Odyssey by Homer
43. The scarlet letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
44. A clockwork orange by Anthony Burgess
45. The cacher in the rye by J.D. Salinger
46. The trial by Franz Kafka
47. The bell jar by Sylvia Path
48. Richard III by William Shakespeare
49. Love in time of cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
50. East of Eden by John Steinbeck

What’s your favorite classic?