The Readventurer

Reynje is one of my absolute favorite reviewers so it was a no-brainer that I would ask her to write the infamously vague "something" for Year of the Classics.  Her reviews are beautifully written, insightful, and often hilarious.  I couldn't wait to see what she would come up with for this feature.  When she sent her finished post to me, I was thrilled to see  that she had chosen to write about Tess of the D'Urbervilles, one of my favorite books from one of my favorite authors of all time, Thomas Hardy.  I'm very excited to share this with all of you today!    Take it away, Reynje.

I used to think that there was no science to the way I selected my favourite books. They spanned different genres, styles, themes and time periods. I had my dog-eared Raymond Carver’s on my shelves along with my pristine Jane Austen’s – (although not side by side because I have the strange habit of anthropomorphising my books and I don’t know if they’d get along). There wasn’t a clear pattern or set of criteria I could narrow down to define my reading “taste”; I just felt lucky when I discovered a new book to love. 
 
But I’ve since realised that, for me at least, there’s such a thing as book chemistry.
 
I’m a big believer in the idea of “the right book at the right time”. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve started one, lost interest or given up and put it aside, only to come across it months or even years later, and proceeded to fall completely in love with it. The book I once couldn’t force myself to finish would suddenly be the one I couldn’t put down. 

This happened with Thomas Hardy. I can’t remember how old I was when I first borrowed Far From the Madding Crowd from my local library, but it sailed completely over my head and I was bored within pages. I read a lot of classics growing up and wanted to read Hardy. But it seemed like Hardy didn’t want me. So I gave up. 

Then a few years ago, a friend of mine gave me his copy of Tess of D’Urbervilles and told me to read it. It was a second-hand (more like fifth or sixth-hand, probably) paperback edition, complete with stained yellow pages, cracked spine and a stranger’s name written inside the front cover. I started reading it mostly to humour my friend, because I’ll admit just the sight of the author’s name on the cover brought out the defeatist in me. 
 
And then I couldn’t stop reading it. 

At the time I was living in a dive of a flat, which was perpetually cold and dark, so I spent hours every day curled up in a blanket next to my lamp, unable to tear myself away from Tess. I don’t know what had changed. It seems too simple to just put it down to the fact that I was older. Because something about Tess of the D’Urbervilles, at that particular point of time in my life, spoke to me like no other book could. It was one of the most intensely emotional reading experiences I’ve ever had. It sounds dramatic, but I felt a connection to the story that was almost overwhelming, the strength of which has not waned with passing time.

Tess falls victim not only to the double standard of the time, but also to the version of herself Angel Clare has created in his mind. The manner in which the “real” Tess is suppressed and betrayed by the perfection Clare projects upon her, is heartbreaking to read. 

And in the age that coined the term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl”, when female characters can appear as idealized concepts rather than real people, Tess’ story still feels relevant and powerful. 

It’s been said that, in the context of the novel itself, Hardy is Tess’ only true ally. The only person who sees her as she truly is and whose love encompasses every aspect of her. So I like to think of all the people who have been touched by this book, identify with her story, and shelve it along with their favourites. All the love for her that now exists. 

I can’t help but think that Tess of the D’Urbervilles came into my life at the right time. That I rediscovered Thomas Hardy when I was ready for him. Prior to that point I might not have fully appreciated how truly poetic and moving this book is. 

[As a sidepoint, I also recommend the beautifully produced 2008 BBC adaptation of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, from which the screencaps above were taken.]

Thank you so much for sharing this with us today, Reynje.  I have often thought exactly the same things about "the right book at the right time."  There are many books that I know I wouldn't have appreciated before a certain age or before living through a certain experience.  And it's lovely to find another Tess ally!

Reynje is a contributing writer at The Midnight Garden and can also be found on Goodreads and Twitter.

We are so happy to have our Aussie friend Nomes from Inkcrush here today to write a guest post for the Year of the Classics. I asked her to write about one of our favorite series of all times, Anne of Green Gables. She got really into her assignment, randomly sending me factoids about L.M. Montgomery's life, and she was even sport enough to take a few pictures of her taking her own "Living As Anne" advice. 

How To Be Anne of Green Gables

1. Tragic back story is a must. Preferably involving TWINS in some form. Orphanages, child labour and imaginary friends found in the window reflections optional.

4. Find your kindred spirit, and love them so. Activities to share with your bosom friend: three-legged races, jumping on old ladies while they sleep in their beds in the middle of the night. Essential: develop code system of communicating involving blinds, lights and long distances. Writing letters, with paper and pens. City excursions and whispered secrets. A period of (forced, painful, but somehow poetic) estrangement optional. 


5. Never (and I mean never ever) back down from a dare. Bonus points: if your whole class (including cute guy) watches you accomplish said dare, fearless and daring, nose in the air. 

6. Always let your imagination get carried away with itself. Comes in handy when taking short-cuts through haunted woods.

10. View the world through romantical whimsy. That pond by the side of the road? The Lake of Shining Waters. 

11. Make desserts for your favourite teacher coming for dinner. This, coupled with your day-dreaming disposition, could be a recipe for disaster. Heads up: be on the look out for rats. (a rather romantic end for a rat, to be drowned in pudding...) 

12. Regarding apologies. You will need to make a lot of them. Don’t settle for the humble “sorry”. Compose elaborate apologies, adorned with poetically moving statements. 

15. Most importantly of all, to be Anne Shirley with an E ~ despite everything, all your stuff ups, and good intentions gone awry, you will charm everyone. Not only every citizen of Avonlea, all those prim girls of …. Children, teenagers and adults from the last century will fall in love with you.  

Anne Shirley, you are the most delightful of heroines, ever. Anne of Green Gables is not just a classic, it’s a rite of passage. 

Much love, 
Nomes.      

Thanks for the life advice, Nomes! I'd love to write something longer but I have really important things to do like playing 1,000,000 Draw Something games with you and watching Anne of Green Gables. Ladies and Gentlemen, HAPPY SATURDAY!

If there is really such a thing as a book twin," Emily is definitely mine. Hers are reviews I always check out first before reading any book that I am unsure about. You can compare our reviews of the same book and more often than not they are virtually identical. Awfully convenient to have someone with the same reading tastes as your friend, believe me.

I am very happy that Emily agreed to write something for us today, and why am I not surprised she chose one of the all time favorites of mine?
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When I was asked to write a post about classics for The Readventurer, I pretended for all of ten seconds to contemplate which unlucky author would have me drooling over their masterpieces. But I think there has only ever been one that fully spoke to me on a personal level that probably wouldn't even make sense to most people. Emily Bronte is the reason I read, the reason I found out just how big an impact a book can have on a person. I was eleven years old and it took me a month to finish Wuthering Heights - and it was perhaps the most emotional month of my life. I've needed to write something about the middle Bronte sister and her novel for a long, long time; something that I didn't have to write for an assignment and something that wasn't quite a review, I thank the ladies at The Readventurer for giving me the opportunity to do just that.

My love for Emily extends beyond a love of her writing, I can't deny that it probably has something to do with our shared names and the fact we both come from small towns in Yorkshire. Anyone who visits Haworth - the small picturesque village where the Brontes lived - and sees the tiny bedroom in which Emily would write and then takes a walk a little further out onto the moors that feature so often in her work, anyone who does that cannot fail to imagine how the world of Wuthering Heights took shape in Emily's mind, it's hard not to think you can see Cathy and Heathcliff wandering along that breezy wilderness in the world of their own that they'd always needed to be free.

Wuthering Heights is a book of mysteries: where did Heathcliff come from? Did Lockwood have a dream or see a ghost? Even down to that strange isolated world that forms the backdrop of the novel... and I think Emily Bronte is one of the greatest mysteries of all. How did a woman who never had a lover, who died at thirty after refusing to see a doctor... how could she write such a powerful and tragic tale of love? What secrets did she hold that could have inspired such raw emotion? It's these questions which have led me to sit on a stone bench in the middle of Haworth, surrounded by the village's creepily large cat population, and ponder the life of this remarkable woman.

What I think I love most about Wuthering Heights - and especially what I loved most about it when I was eleven - is that it is a book of outsiders. Growing up I was always an outsider, a little nerdy and weird, more concerned with reading and learning than participating in whatever games the other kids were playing. It was only natural that I would find something of myself in a novel where nothing quite fits in with the regular world. The dark, foreboding house on the moors is, itself, an outsider, away from civilisation and normality. Heathcliff spent his life an outsider, it was a curse that even wealth and love couldn't cure him of. For me, Wuthering Heights was always about an isolated place and an isolated man, and it was this I could understand, even at eleven years old.

I feel like I must say something in defense of Heathcliff, it's true anyway that one cannot write about Wuthering Heights without having something to say about Heathcliff. But as someone who feels strongly about feminism and has written extensively about feminism and sexism in literature, I want to talk about the "bad boy". Most of my reviewer friends are exhausted with novels that glorify control-freaks and violent boyfriends, in a world where books like Hush, Hush and Fallen are bestsellers you simply cannot ignore the dangers of the "bad boy" stereotype.

And it's no secret that Heathcliff - despite all his violent, abusive, insane ways - has been romanticised, I think because a lot of women just want someone to love them as passionately as Heathcliff loved Cathy. Having men like these in the movies doesn't really help the situation:

But I think this is a mistake. People got it wrong or the media changed it or... something. For Emily Bronte, Heathcliff wasn't a bad boy in the sexual sense. For me, Heathcliff was never a bad boy. For Charlotte Bronte, he most certainly wasn't:

"Whether it is right or advisable to create a character like Heathcliff, I do not know."

But Heathcliff is actually a victim of abuse, he's the outsider I mentioned before, the one who doesn't know how to be anything other than evil with anyone other than Cathy because she is the only form of love he's known. Heathcliff is a tragic character, not unlike Othello or Macbeth; he is a man who was doomed to fail at life because of his lack of self-worth, because of his surety that he could not possibly be loved. This story isn't about finding forgiveness for Heathcliff, but I do believe it's about achieving a certain level of understanding. And perhaps the suggestion that even the most evil and violent characters deserve some peace and love in the end - as that is what I believe Emily Bronte gave Heathcliff through his death. I say so often in my reviews that I don't really care for romances, but that's not strictly true. A romance story can fill/steal/break your heart if it's done right, but it so seldom is. Emily Bronte, a woman who remained single to the day she died, seems to know more about telling a love story - a sad, heartbreaking love story - than all today's authors put together.

I'm a weird person and I love the darkness and beautiful sadness of Emily Bronte's masterpiece. I've never known a book where the mood is so very present in everything from the landscape to the character descriptions. This is my favourite book of all time and I don't think any modern author has it in them to change that. I'm going to end this post with a short list of a few of my other favourite classics.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Another gorgeous Bronte novel with a love story, but mostly about a woman trying to find her place in the world.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. A fantastic story about social class, snobbery and how the real gentlemen are not always who you were expecting.

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. The true dystopian classic about how totalitarian regimes can take away even the freedom of your mind.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. The disturbing but incredibly well-written tale of a man's perverted obsession.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Okay, so maybe not quite a classic - yet. But this is a well-crafted feminist dystopian nightmare, a definite classic of the future.

Thank you so much Flannery, Tatiana and Catie for having me, it's been fantastic to be part of the classics love!

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Thank you, Emily, for visiting us and talking so passionately about a book that is loved by all of us. I especially agree with your points about Heathcliff. I am the type of reader who falls easily for moody and brooding, but I was never romantically attracted to Heathcliff. Hareton and Cathy's is the love story I am personally much more attached to.

You can check out Emily's wonderful reviews on Goodreads and on her pretty blog - The Book Geek. 

I'm not much of a classics reader. When Flannery first asked me to write a post about classics for The Readventurer, I told her I couldn't think of anything that I'd like to talk about. She then pointed out that the Narnia Chronicles is in my list of favorites and I realized that it would be easy to share my thoughts about C.S. Lewis' most popular series. I first found out about the Narnia novels in grade school because our school library had copies of some of the books. I remember falling in love with the series even though I wasn't able to read all of the books. I even tried to convince my grade school friend to read the books by constantly chanting, "The Last Battle! The Last Battle!" in between classes. I don't think I was able to convince her.

I was finally able to read all of the Narnia books back in high school, when my dad gave in and let me order a copy through Amazon. Now, ordering from Amazon is pretty expensive because usually shipping costs just as much (if not more than) the book that you ordered. So I made sure that the books that I ordered were not locally available (bookstores in the Philippines back then weren't so great) and they were books that I really wanted. I ordered a complete set of the Narnia Chronicles together with a boxed set of The Lord of The Rings. I didn't even know it was an omnibus edition until it arrived. I regret nothing though because it's a beautiful copy. Here, I even took some pictures so you can see them:

I love  how the cover features a map of Narnia. There are also several maps included inside the book:

While going through some old files, I found a paper that I wrote for a philosophy class in college relating The Narnia Chronicles to our lesson. I'm sharing a snippet here because I find it funny that I wrote about one of my favorite books for a class:

"It wasn’t until I recently read the Narnia books again that I came to understand that C.S. Lewis is trying to re-create what the religious feel about the Holy. Narnia experiences can best be understood using discussions involving Otto’s Mysterium-Tremendum-Fascinosum and Marcel’s idea of hope."

And I proceeded to give specific examples to show how Narnia is C.S. Lewis’ way of spreading the God story the way he understood it. Here's another snippet:

"In Narnia, Aslan is the King of the wood, the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea, which can be compared to the Wholly Other for us. He is the creator, the savior, the absolute being. Otto describes the religious experience of the Holy as something that fills the believer with tremor and fascination. This can be applied to Aslan who seems terrifying at times, being a ferocious lion and all that but he can also be as playful as a large cat. Another aspect of the Holy or the numen is that we only have the courage to view the Holy through the vantage point of our finitude, because the Holy lies beyond our comprehension. This is repeatedly seen across the whole span of the chronicles. People in Narnia did not question Aslan’s actions nor did they seek to understand him as anything but something that lies beyond what they understand. The mere mention of his name already evokes feelings that people have no way of understanding. When his name is first mentioned by the Beavers to the four Pevensie children, they felt a strange feeling come over them. Without knowing why, they longed to see him yet at the same time, were afraid of the prospect of doing so. He comes and goes as he pleases because after all, it’s not as if he is a tame lion. The Mysterium aspect of the human experience of the Holy involves the Wholly Other as something that is beyond the sphere of familiar and fills us with blank wonder and astonishment."
      
What the heck was I talking about back then?! I can't even remember. I'm sure it made perfect sense while I was writing it. I have no idea what grade I got for the paper though since I only have an electronic copy. I believe it was a philosophy of religion class. I just love that I've reread the series several times since I first discovered it - I think that's the mark of a true favorite: how you can still enjoy reading the book over and over again. 

Thank you, to The Readventurer for having me here! Feel free to share your thoughts about the Chronicles of Narnia in the comments.     

Thanks, Chachic, for sharing some of your experiences with the Narnia books. I'd never seen this edition until you shared pictures and I can just imagine how fascinating it would be for children to pore over its pages. I used to hoard David Macauley and Graeme Base's books because they were large and full of beautiful illustrations. If I'd had this omnibus edition, I probably would've read the entire series and not just The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. And how fun that you had the chance to write about books for your philosophy paper in college. I never got the chance to write about books--all my papers were about history and politics.

Visit Chachic at her blog, Chachic's Book Nook, to read more of her thoughts on books!

When I first starting thinking of people I'd love to have write about their favorite classics for our Year of the Classics feature, Sparrow jumped to my mind right away. I read a few of her reviews and we were friends on GoodReads for a while, and then my younger sister went to the same law school she goes to and I pretty much told my sister she had to seek her out and befriend her because she was an amazing reviewer and in my mind that is equated with also being a wonderful human being. As it turns out, I was right. We have so much fun in real life, especially when I beat her at book trivia games. (Muahaha!) However, she does and probably will always know more than I do about classics--I have some major catching up to do. I asked her to write today about one of her favorite authors, so here she is, writing about Willa Cather:

There is something special about a writer who can turn a topic that is ordinarily gross into something magical.  Willa Cather is my favorite example of this because prairies are terrible.  Maybe I read too many Little House books as a kid, but I am not interested in anybody teaching me how to build a log cabin or till a field.   I don’t particularly like to put together a tent, and my ability to rassle a farm animal into a harness is quite limited, so it is unlikely I will retain any helpful agricultural instruction from prairie books.  Luckily, Willa Cather could not care less about teaching me to farm, but she does, against all odds, make me love the idea of it.  I would go so far as to say that if Willa Cather wrote a book about planning a wedding or cleaning out the litter box, she might even be able to throw some charm into those horrid activities.  She is wonderful.  She turns the prairies, or the city, or the desert, or wherever she happens to set her stage, into a cradle of humanity.

I am almost finished reading all of Willa Cather’s books, so I will give you a ranking of the books I have read so far so that you may choose among them the book that is right for you.  I’m sure, after reading this blog, you will all be running to the store to purchase your very own Cather novel, so choose wisely.  All of them have her sparse, focused prose, and they all have something pointed to say about the nature of humanity, but they are not all for everyone . . . I guess.  

I have three left, and then I will proceed to finding out about her life.  I did watch a documentary about her once, but I do not think that makes me knowledgeable enough to really comment about her as a person.  Maybe I don’t think even someone who has studied her life is knowledgeable enough to comment, but holy shit, look at the Willa Cather Archive. That is so rad.  Also, check this out: http://cather.unl.edu/geochron/. Cather was so well traveled. 

I do know that at the end of her life, Cather tried to burn all of her letters, which I think is pretty badass despite being a little tragic for me personally.  But, like Seymour Glass, she probably just didn’t want a bunch of fools looking at her tattoo.  Along these lines, there is a lot of speculation about her personal life, including speculation about her sexual orientation.  My uninformed opinion is that this type of speculation can be empowering or demeaning depending on the way it goes down.  While Cather writes wonderful women, she does not do so in an overtly sexual manner, so, to me, guessing about her sexual orientation is not a particularly illuminating pair of glasses through which to read her books.

Rather, I think Cather is inspiring as a successful woman who found success on her own terms.  The caveat to that, of course, is the question, how much can a woman live on her own terms in a country where she can’t vote, can barely own property, can be legally raped, and can be imprisoned for using birth control?  But, you know, I still feel like Cather lived, as much as possible, as herself.  Maybe it is naïve to think this, but I do feel like the women she wrote are real women, talking like women talk, caring about what women care about.  They are strong and practical and beautiful, like Cather herself.  

I don't know about our readers, but Sparrow has definitely made me want to read some Willa Cather. And if I'm speaking honestly, she's also made me a little bit ashamed that I haven't read any already. Luckily for all of us, a significant amount of her work is readily available online for free. [Project Gutenberg | Amazon] Be sure to check out her other reviews on Goodreads--they are well worth your reading time--or you can check out her blog at Sparrow Guide.

Today, we're happy to have one of our favorite people visiting for a guest post, Jo from Wear the Old Coat. (her blog title is based on the quote, "Wear the old coat and buy the new book," by Austin Phelps) Her assignment, which she chose to accept, was to write "something" about classic literature. After you read her thoughts, I'm sure you'll understand why she was one of the first people who came to my mind for a guest post.

When the lovely ladies at The Readventurer asked me to write a guest post for The Year of the Classics, the first thing I felt was panic. Well, OK, that’s a teensy lie. I felt joy and happiness to be invited to be part of one of my favourite blogs… but then there was panic. You see, I have a dirty secret. A secret so dirty that I have kept it close to my chest since I was sixteen. I live in fear that it will be discovered one day. 

*deep breaths*

I don’t like classics. What?! Yes, that’s right, I don’t like them. I’m peeved by period drama. I’m bothered by bonnets. I’m sick of sideburns. I…have…an…aversion…to… Austen. I know. I know. I’m a horrible human being. I’m going to be smited down by the literature goddesses. I am up to my eyeballs in debt because I call myself a literature student (Seriously, can they take degrees off you if they find out?!) yet I don’t like the classics. But there was no way that I was going to tell anyone, and at least not broadcast it on a blog as brilliant as The Readventurer, so I smiled (um…via e-mail) and agreed. Then I ran to my bookshelf and stared at it blankly, hoping inspiration came soon. My eyes skimmed across my YA shelves, passed my graphic novels and landed on my grown-up section. And, guys, it was meagre. So after a few moments of making pledges to buy and read more books that have main characters who have reached puberty, I noticed something: It seemed my grown-up shelf had been sponsored by one particular author--Edith Wharton. 

Now, I hate it when people ask me what my favourite book is. For me, that’s the equivalent of asking me: “Hey Jo, if your house was on fire and you could only save one member of your family, who would you choose?” But if I had to think about it, and I mean really think about it, I would say my favourite book of all time is Ms Wharton’s The Age of Innocence. I first read  TAoI when I was in my third and final year at university and I was searching for a topic for my dissertation. I had already decided that I wanted to write eight thousand words on literature set in New York but that’s about as far as I had got. So after a few internet searches and standing in Waterstones, waiting patiently for inspiration to move me, I discovered Ms Wharton.

I am a quick reader. I can get through a book in about a day, two at the most, but it took me almost a week to get through The Age of Innocence and this was for two reasons:

1) I had to stop every page to write down a quote and to run to my housemate and yell “I have to read this bit out to you, it’s possibly the most heart-breaking scene in the entire world” in her face.
2) It would have been a literary sin to have rushed that book.

I never actually got the chance to write my dissertation on TAoI because of reasons I won’t bother going into here, but I have to say that out of all the books I read during my degree this is the one that affected me the most and it is the one I will always, always remember. Ms Wharton was a master of telling stories. When you’re reading her books you think you know exactly what is going to happen and then she trips you up, completely and utterly. And not even in the “Oh god, I just tripped over the pavement but I managed to still walk away cool because no one noticed” kind of way. I mean truly trips you up. The “Oh god, I’m lying on the floor and people are stepping over me and an old man just had to stop and help me up” kind of way.
Normally I hate books like that because it often feels like the author is doing it just to be clever, but you know when you pick up one of her books that it is Ms Wharton who is in charge and there’s no point arguing.
When I pick up a book by her, I know instantly that I’m going to be in for a brutal yet exquisite journey. Is there anything more you want from a book? 
 
Her characters are immaculate. Just when you think you’ve got them worked out they do or say something that makes you realise that you have got them completely wrong. They may not be the most likeable characters, they may not always do things that you agree with and they might be so blind that you just want to throttle them, but they are real. Countess Olenska is definitely one of my favourite heroines of all time and Newland Archer… well, I have lots of love for that poor, unfortunate man. (Don’t even get me started on Lily from The House of Mirth)

Wharton's wit was and still is unmatched. She could see the world and society in a way that no one else could. She depicted New York society with such fearless honesty that you almost feel like you are there with her characters, eavesdropping on their conversations and sitting next to them as they look out across the theatre and first see the person that will change their entire being. 

And her writing? Well, I’ll let that speak for itself…

“In reality they all lived in a kind of hieroglyphic world, where the real thing was never said or done or even thought, but only represented by a set of arbitrary signs.” – The Age of Innocence

“Archer reddened to the temples but dared not move or speak: it was as if her words had been some rare butterfly that the least motion might drive off on startled wigs, but that might gather a flock if it were left undisturbed.”- The Age of Innocence 

“She was so evidently the victim of the civilization which had produced her, that the links of her bracelet seemed like manacles chaining her to her fate.” – The House of Mirth

Absolutely stunning, no?

Of course I can’t talk about The Age of Innocence without mentioning that fantastic adaptation by Martin Scorsese. (who, funnily enough, was one of the two directors I eventually did my dissertation on) And I know this is a book site but… shh. This is definitely one of my favourite book-to-film adaptations. You should definitely check it out if you ever have the chance. But read the book first!

You might wonder, if I’ve only read two books of hers (at the moment), how she can be my favourite author. 
And you’d have a point. Can an author be your favourite if you’ve only read two books of hers? I’m going to say yes. If an author can stop you in your tracks with her stellar writing, then yes. If an author can make you fall in love with her characters, then yes. If an author can shock you so much with their ending that you actually have to go and buy cheesecake to make you feel better (actually happened), then yes. If an author can reduce you to a quivering wreck at the mere mention of yellow roses, then yes. 

It’s funny how much of a Wharton fan girl I have become in recent years. It seems that, when my birthday and Christmases come round, the go-to present for me is something Wharton related.

I have books.  I have trinket boxes. I have jewellery. 

Dear Ms Wharton, 

You have not only written two of my favourite books but you have also taught me something incredibly important about myself. I take my classics modern.
 
“Each time you happen to me all over again.”

Yours truly,
Jo.  

Other Modern Classics I Love: 
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolfe.  [Goodreads | Amazon]
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. [Goodreads | Amazon] 
A Room With a View by E.M Forster.  [Goodreads | Amazon] 
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh. [Goodreads | Amazon] 
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe (This was another book I was originally planning on dissertating with… I was about 100 pages in when I found out I had to change my subject… but I didn’t stop reading. 730 pages later..) [Goodreads | Amazon] 
Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys. [Goodreads | Amazon] 

A huge thank you to The Readventurer for giving me a venue for my Edith Wharton love-fest. I hope that you enjoyed my post or were so bored by reading it that you ran out instantly to purchase your own copy of The Age of Innocence and/or The House of Mirth. 
Either way, I win!  

Thanks, Jo! One of the best things about classics is that most of them are past their copyright years so you can read them for free on your e-readers or online. If Jo has you uncontrollably drooling for some Edith Wharton,  you can get The Age of Innocence for free on Amazon. (along with more of her works) And don't forget to visit Jo at her own blog, Wear the Old Coat. Our own Catie uploaded her review of The Age of Innocence into our archives, so you should check that out here. Happy reading!

When Flannery asked me to write a guest post for The Year of the Classics, I was thrilled.  As a teenager I read classics almost exclusively (nerd alert).  Ironically, now that I’m thirty I spend most of my time reading books that were written for young adults.  Of course that’s obviously not a big deal because thirty is still young.  That’s what I like to tell myself anyway.  I often wonder what our generation’s classics will be – will they be the obscure critical darlings, or the massively popular best sellers? 

Sometimes when I think about the latest dystopian/post-apocalyptic trend, it makes me afraid for the future of this world – like the trend itself is a symptom of our collective acknowledgment that the world will be ending soon. But then I comfort myself by remembering that we’ve been imagining different versions of this world's demise for centuries.  See, the classics aren’t just timeless works of art; they’re useful too. For false but comforting piece of mind!

In honor of the Partials giveaway today, I thought I’d go back and revisit some of my favorite classics in dystopian/post-apocalyptic science fiction.  In any genre, it’s interesting to go back to where it all started.  (For a very comprehensive, not to mention stunning view of science fiction in general – check out this map).  But in this genre it’s particularly interesting, because we’re now living in the time that many of these books tried to envision.  Some of their predictions seem silly now, but some have proven disconcertingly accurate. 

1984 by George Orwell
First published in 1949

This should be an absolute staple for any dystopian fan.  Orwell’s vision of the future is utterly frightening, all the more so because it’s a plausible one.  In an intensely rigid “utopian” society where surveillance and mind-control are widespread, Winston Smith works for the Ministry of Truth, revising news and media from the past to fit current propaganda, even as he dreams of breaking free.  Orwell’s vivid descriptions have proven to be, in many ways, prophetic.  

“War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is
strength.”

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
First published in 1932

Aldous Huxley imagined a no less controlling, but very different future than that of George Orwell.  In the society of Brave New World, humanity is mass-produced and conditioned to perform different tasks, resulting in a highly compartmentalized society.  The elite “alphas” live deceptively free lives – being consumers, having sex (but never relationships), and drugging themselves happy.  When outcast alpha Bernard Marx goes on vacation to visit the “savages,” a group of people living in a more collective way, he encounters John, the son of a lost alpha.  Bernard brings him back into society, but John can’t adapt.

“But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real
danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Originally published in 1950

Another chilling prediction of the future – especially frightening for all of us book nerds. Imagine a society in which all literature is banned and must be burned.  Television watching is a major part of everyday life and too much thinking is discouraged.  Sound a bit too familiar?  Guy Montag is a fireman – only in this society firemen don’t put out fires.  They start them.  Guy loves his job: hunting down and burning illegal books and the homes of those who keep them.  But a chance encounter with a young girl sparks Guy’s thoughts, and soon he becomes dangerously curious.

“We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once
in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?”

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
By Philip K. Dick
Originally published in 1968

Philip K. Dick is, in my opinion, the master of the plot-twist.  I always feel excited and a bit nervous when I start one of his stories: I never know what’s going to come next.  In this classic novella, much of the Earth’s organic life has become extinct after mass nuclear war and is now considered precious.  The majority of humanity has fled from Earth to live more comfortably on other planets.  Rick Deckard is a bounty hunter who tracks down and exterminates androids who are passing as human.  This is a very thought-provoking work about empathy and what it means to be human and alive.

“Empathy, he once had decided, must be limited to herbivores or
anyhow omnivores who could depart from a meat diet. Because, ultimately, the empathic gift blurred the boundaries between hunter and victim, between the successful and the defeated.”

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Originally published in 1992

“But wait…” I hear you say. “This book was published after 1980 and the author is in fact still alive.”  Well, these authors aren’t the only ones who can make predictions.  For my last trick I thought I’d predict a classic of the future.  Dun dun dun!  In this novel, Neal Stephenson describes a world in which everything has been privatized: governments, jails, chop-shops, and even the mafia. The Earth is so overcrowded that people live in tiny storage units – if they’re lucky.  But thankfully there’s the metaverse: a virtual world where people go to escape the real one.  It already sounds familiar!  And did I mention that this novel is incredibly funny?

“Most countries are static, all they need to do is keep having babies. But America's like this big old clanking smoking machine that just lumbers across the landscape scooping up and eating everything in sight.”

And now that you've read through my first post here, I will reward you by handing out fabulous prizes! Many congratulations to Rachel H., the winner of Partials by Dan Wells!

I had so much fun writing this guest post that I've decided to move in here.  Lucky for me, Flannery and Tatiana seem okay with it.  They haven't thrown my stuff out on the curb yet anyway....

I am so happy to be a new member of the Readventurers.  Being a third wheel has never felt this good!

Happy New Year! I've been thinking for a few months about knocking out a significant amount of classics in 2012. I had all these grand ideas of doing a shared blog challenge and setting group goals and cross-posting reviews of any classics my friends read throughout the year. (still will cross-post reviews of some of my fellow bloggers but no "challenge" beyond mere attempt) A few other bloggers ARE running Classics challenges this year so if that is your thing, go for it!

Here are a few I've seen around:
Back To The Classics, hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much
A Classics Challenge, hosted by November's Autumn
Greek Classics Challenge 2012, hosted by Howling Frog Books

I had several conversations with friends about what a "classic" book is and it seems obvious that the definition is different for everyone. (Duh.) I'm not here to declare myself QUEEN OF THE INTERWEBZ and lay down the definition of a classic for all. But HEAR YE, HEAR YE! The Readventurer declares that the definition of a classic, for the purposes of her 2012 reading goals is just any book written before 1980 whose author is deceased. Sure, there are modern classics whose authors are still alive. Sure, there are hundreds of thousands (or millions) of books that fit the criteria which are underwhelming and/or utter crap. But I don't care about that, all I care about is jumping into a bunch of stories and oldey timey drama and crossing off list items. Speaking of lists, I'm going to start with the Pulitzer Prize winners at the beginning, though I'll probably jump around once in a while. Despite the fact that I've read over a thousand books, I was a bit embarrassed when I added the list of winners to my blog and found that I'd read...wait for it...wait for it...

ONE BOOK ON THE LIST.

Welcome to Mortification Station, me. (it was Killer Angels by Michael Shaara but I'm just going to reread it because I don't remember it at all) So my quest to read these worthy titles begins with His Family by Ernest Poole. Never heard of it? I hadn't either! Here's the blurb from the world's most accurate source for information, Wikipedia:

        His Family tells the story of a middle class family in New York City in the 1910s. The family's patriarch,  widower Roger Gale, struggles to deal with the way his daughters and grandchildren respond to the              changing society. Each of his daughters responds in a distinctively different way to the circumstances of their  lives, forcing Roger into attempting to calm the increasingly challenging family disputes that erupt.

In all seriousness, I'm excited. It's on. Oh, and let me know if you are reading any classics this year, whether it is for a challenge or not. If you want to cross-post any reviews, just let me know.

Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS! You finished reading this post. If you comment on this thread and tell me one classic that you are embarrassed you haven't read or that you want to read this year, you can enter to win one Penguin clothbound classic (up to $15,the link shows 24 choices but there are more than that available in the price range). Open Internationally. Fill out your info on the contact form and extra entries if you tweet or blog about it. I WANT ALL THE CLOTHBOUND CLASSICS! Contest ends 1/31, 9pm PST. Good luck!

Here's a sample tweet: Enter to win the Penguin Clothbound Classic of your choice @TheReadventurer: http://www.thereadventurer.com/1/post/2012/01/2012-the-year-of-the-classics-giveaway.html