David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

There is an awful lot of Charles Dickens on the Penguin list of classics, some of it not so great (Edwin Drood) some of it totally awesome (most everything else). Copperfield falls into the awesome category. It's a sweeping, semi-autobiographical novel full of memorable scenes and more memorable characters. The bad guys are really bad and the good guys are really good and there are even some people who occupy a nuanced, grey area.

This is Copperfield's book. He is writing it at a time after he has become an accomplished author looking back on how he got there. He has a unique voice, enthusiastic and emotional, that makes the book chug along even when it hits some slow spots.

The characters are what make Copperfield, otherwise it's a slightly overdramatic plot with criticisms of several of Britain's institutions. Uriah Heep, Mr. Micawber, Steerforth, Mr. Dick, Miss Dartle, Peggotty, Aunt Betsey, Dora and on and on. Heep is particularly noteworthy for his capability to be hated for his humbleness.

As for the plot we see David's whole life. He loses his secure place in society when his mother remarries and scrambles for everything he gets from there. There are many who help and hinder him on his path to adulthood. There are even a lot of twists and turns that I didn't see coming, The Tempest chapter is dramatic and touching, there might have been some tears shed in one of the death scenes as well.

Rating 9/10: High level Dickens. Touching, entertaining, funny, and memorable; this one deserves to be in the list.

Bleak House

Charles Dickens

A long, interminable, mindnumbingly infuriating, suicide-inducing court case screws up a family and leaves everyone's lives in ruin. That's pretty much Bleak House. The only good thing that happens for the first 4/5s of the book is the reunion of a minor character and his mother. Everything else is, well, bleak. Esther is the main character. She's the right hand lady of Ada. Ada and Richard are involved in the lawsuit of Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. They are introduced to each other and the suit by the benevolent John Jarndyce. John tries to shield them from the fools gold of a court victory. Guess how well that plan works.

Bad stuff starts happening after Richard and Ada fall in love. Richard is a slacker, Esther gets sick, some philanthropists are jerks, Richard obsesses about Jarndyce, a kid dies, Esther is disfigured because of her illness, not great times. There are some notable minor characters in the novel. The Mrs. Jellyby, who care more about saving Africa than her own family, Miss Flight who's attended Jarndyce sessions forever.

This thing really takes a long time to get its legs. Once it does, though, there's a lot of good stuff. Esther and her mom, Richard's descent into obsession, John and Esther's relationship, all interesting and the theme of the injustice of the justice system is everywhere.

Rating: 6/10 Too long, conflict and drama not all that dramatic.

Herzog

Saul Bellow (1915-1905)

Reading this book made me feel like I was back in grad school. There were times when I'd sit in a small classroom with seven or eight other students and a professor and feel profoundly dumb. I'm not talking about how I felt in math class where I didn't care whether I knew what was going on, I was legitimately interested in the subject matter and tried to understand it and still had no clue what other people were talking about. Saul Bellow's command of language and a turn of phrase is something at which to marvel. His knowledge base is vast. He delves into psychology, history, sociology, literature, all in telling the tale of Moses E. Herzog. The narrator is omniscient, but has the voice of someone who could have been friends with Moses or perhaps even Moses looking at his own life. Much of the story is told through Moses's letters that he writes to just about everyone but never sends.

We meet Moses after his second wife, Maddy, has left him for former friend Valentine Gersbach. Moses is an academic with lots of knowledge, a relatively impressive career but he's fallen on hard times. His letters touch on his personal relationships, the direction of the country and society as a whole and most notably his nostalgia for the his upbringing in Montreal and Chicago. It's a tribute to Bellow that there really isn't any action in the entire novel. Moses, in his darkest hour, a time where he finds clarity in his life, nearly rocks the boat, but he backs off. Most of what the reader gets is up in Moses's head. There are a ton of real show stopping lines, the kind of phrase that makes you think, "I could have never thought of that in 100 years."

RATING: 7.5/10 Not much action but lots of good writing.

The Way We Live Now

Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)

Financial crisis, celebrity maneuverings, wild parties, suspicious deaths: is it 2009? nope it's "The Way We Live Now," a book way ahead of its time. Does that make it great? no, not really. There are a bunch of characters, Melmotte, his wife and daughter, Lady Carbury, Felix Carbury, Hetta Carbury and on and on. None of these characters are very likable. Those who are wise seem to be conniving cheats, and those who are innocent seem to be naive and dumb. Melmotte plays the market and inflates stocks by his guile. The stodgy English gents don't perceive Melmotte's financial genius and anticipate huge gains no matter what the real situation is.

There are many interpersonal relationships, Hurtle/Montague etc. but this book is about society and the perception of wealth. When finances get screwed up everything goes wrong. A good book for out times, but not particularly entertaining.

Book Ratings: 5/10

Update

Just went through the list and I've read 161 of the more than 1400 Penguin Classics. I also have only reviewed about 40 of them. That's pretty lame of me. Granted I read many of the classics before I started this blog. Over the next week I'm going to pound out some reviews of stuff that I read a long time ago. They're going to be more my impressions of the works more than detailed summaries, but maybe that will be better.

The Brothers Karamazov

Fyodor Dostoyevski (1821-1881)

A grating religious fanatic, an ultrasnobby intellectual, and a prick army officer: these are the Brothers Karamazov. This is said to be one of the greatest examinations of psychology in literature, well I'll do some psychology right here, if you like this book you need some serious meds.

Books about exciting subjects, like the murder of a hated father and the rivalry between sons culminating in a dramatic trial, should not be boring (See Dick, Moby). The book opens with Alyosha (the religious guy) and his mentor Zosima. We get their philosophy for about 300 pages. It's very boring. Nothing happens. Dosty tells us about God, man's morality etc. when he could have easily shown us these things with the characters' actions.

Dmitri is the jerk soldier who fights people and is trying to get with a whore named Grushenka. He's an ahole like his father who is also trying to get with Grushenka.

Honestly I don't really want to review this book it was so bad. Philosophy is great in a philosophy book. When you try and jam it down my throat and ruin a decent story it doesn't work. Brothers Karamazov has seized last place in the Classics I've read so far. Congrats Wizard of Oz, you are off the hook!

Rating 1/10. Barely got through this one. The bad news is that this book was horrible. The worse news is that there are 6 more Dostoyevsky titles on the list.