The Last of the Mohicans

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

This 1826 romantic novel is way better than I thought it would be. I remember when the movie came out in 1992; I never saw the Daniel Day Lewis flick but I have a hard time imagining him as Hawkeye. The French and Indian war is the setting for LOTM. The main characters are a multicultural mix of two English men, two English sisters, two Mohicans, and one English woodsman. Once the characters get in the woods the English skills are made worthless and they are constantly saved by Native smarts. Uncas and Hawkeye are the two most interesting characters. Uncas is the last descendant of the Mohicans, a tribe of skilled warriors who's last two members have befriended Hawkeye a white man without a cross. After the English group is betrayed by Magua, a Mingo (a derogatory term describing Mag's group of Iroquois) they fall in with Chingachgook (dad), Uncas (son) and Hawkeye. The English, David (Singer) Alice, Cora (sister daughters of and English commander) and Duncan, an overachieving young officer.
They begin a hide and seek with both the enemy Indians and the enemy French. This episode repeats several times. The small group manages to narrowly escape trouble time after time before getting to the English fort just in time for a devastating battle. Cora, Alice and David are captured by Magua. The rest of the novel is the chase and rescue of these characters. Hawkeye and Uncas are captured in the chase and look like they're in big trouble. Cora makes a stand and refused to go any farther with Magua. One of Mag's buddies goes ahead and kills Cora in an emotional scene. There ensues a was between the Deleware and the Iriquois. Uncas is killed by Magua seconds before Hawkeye picks off Mags with kildeer, his trusty rifle. The book ends with a sad and unifying funeral with Cora and Uncas.
Race and gender are prime themes in LOTM. The Indians are portrayed as skillful, but far from "civilized". The whites are civilized but are really worthless when not in their element. They seem to understand that they worship the same God. Hawkeye is the man stuck in the middle. He has characteristics of both sides and seems to be the ideal man to deal with all the situations that come up. The English females are real characters who have personalities and can think. The Native American women are present but vacuous. More animal than human, Cooper pays little heed to their thoughts and actions.
Although the language of the characters is a little florid at times, the action is non-stop.

Rating 10/10: A great read, a piece of American history, and action adventure. Good Stuff.

Pudd'nhead Wilson

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

A very strange and interesting book. I've read most of Twain's novels and this one is different. Pudd'nhead Wilson is Twain's most in depth examination of slavery. Huckleberry Finn is of course more recognized and popular, but to truly get a handle of Twain's feelings on slavery you have to read this book. Pudd'nhead is not just about slavery, however. Twain opens by describing the process of writing the book. He was in Florence and he invoked the muse of Dante and his beloved Beatrice. Twain also goes to great lengths to assure the reader of his authority and the veracity of the legal scenes.
Each chapter is headed by a an entry from Wilson's almanac. These are funny, ironic and clever, typical Twain. The story has many characters, but this is the plot in a nutshell: Wilson is a smart lawyer who is new in town. He is annoyed by a dog barking and jokes that if he owned half the dog he would kill his half. The dull town people don't get the turn of phrase and they dub him "Pudd'nhead". The name sticks for the next 24 years. Although he is the title character, Wilson hovers on the outskirts of the narrative until the end. The novel focuses on Roxana, an enslaved woman who is 1/16 African American. She has a child named Chambers at the precise time that her mistress has a child named Tom Driscoll.
Roxy is fearful that her child could be sold so she switches the nearly identical children at 8 months. Tom (nee Chambers) grows up to be a total jerk, blowing money and stealing to make up for his gambling habit. Chambers, (nee Tom) is a humble, good guy who takes crap from Tom all the time, and it's all the worse because he is Tom's slave. Tom's white father dies and he moves in with his uncle, a leading citizen. Roxy returns from working on a steamboat after 8 years and extorts money from the abusive Tome, threatening to tell the truth. Eventually, after lots of intrigue and plot twists, Tom goes ahead and murders his uncle to steal money. Two Italians who happen to be traveling through town get blamed because of a bloodstained knife. Wilson defends the unfortuate duo, but can't crack the case. He then goes and looks at his fingerprint collection (nice hobby) and is able to reveal the truth in a riveting courtroom scene. He proves Tom's guilt and restores Chambers to his rightful spot. Twain's conclusion once again details the writing of the book.
Twain's attitude to slavery is tough to pin down. Certainly slaves aren't mentally inferior, Roxy outmaneuvers all the other characters in the story. After Tom finds out that he is Roxy's son he often claims that it's the "nigger" in him that causes him to act poorly. That's more of Tom being an ass than Twain's feelings.
There are two things that jump out when reading Pudd'nhead. First, Twain goes into great depth to reveal the illogical shifts in social status that mere perception can cause. The real Tom is screwed over because people believe his mother was a slave. And clearly Twain is skewering the ridiculous notion of "blood" when he points out that Roxy is 1/16th black, making Chambers 1/32nd black. Good natured Tom is kept in the lowest class while dumbass Chambers is given chance after chance to behave because of social perception about status and race. Yet, at the end when the truth is revealed in court, no one has any problem switching their perception and elevating Tom and enslaving Chambers.
The second point is the strength of Roxy. She is the backbone of the story. She is a mixed bag of a character, making her much more real than some of the caricaturistic individuals in Pudd'nhead. She brilliantly switches her child to save him from being sold. She uses all her tools: beauty, guilt trips and guile, to keep herself free and afloat later in the story. She masterfully plays bad Tom to her advantage.

Rating 8/10: I'm a big Twain fan and I enjoyed this book. It is not typical Twain though. There is a darkly atmosphere in Pudd'nhead. The evils of slavery are more insipid here than in Huck although this work isn't as well executed. It seemed like Twain had a lot of good, profound ideas, but he tries desperately to pack everything together. The Italian twins are interesting, but they aren't well developed characters. Also, Pudd'nhead himself is a really interesting character, he would have been an ideal character to show us what small town life on the Missouri was like, but his potential isn't realized. Still a fascinating book.

(The image is a poster from The Acting Company's 2002 season, pretty sweet if you ask me.)

War and Peace

Leo Tolstoy 1828-1910

Probably the scariest looking author in the classics list, just imagine waking up to see this guy standing over your bed. Fortunately he's as good a writer as he is scary. This is one long book, well over 60 hours of audio. But it doesn't seem that bad once you get a hold on the characters and their situations. A good character guide that doesn't give away any key plot points would be invaluable. The story evolves within the Napoleonic Wars in Russia from 1804-1813. The main character include: Nicolai, Petya, Natasha, Sonya, the Bolkonskis, Andrei, Marie, Count Bezuhov, Pierre, Kuragin, Anatole, Helen, Napoleon, Kutezov, Dolohov, Platon Karataev, Ana Mehalovna, Boris and many, many more. The book follows the travails and joys of these people through (surprise) times of war and peace.
Society is a battlefield in this novel. Marriages, friendships and feuds are forged in parlors and at parties. There is simply too much to give an accurate plot summary, so I'll just relate a few things. Pierre Bezuhov is easily my favorite character. Sort of an innocent soul that that is thrown from his moorings when he sees any cruelty. He inherits a huge fortune but he spends the entire novel trying to find peace. Through a rotten marriage, an ill-fated attempt on Napoleon's life, a journey into Freemasonry, a POW stint, and a new marriage to the equally sensitive Natasha Rostov, he eventually ends up with a rather elegant world view: God is everywhere, a living, breathing part of it all.
Some things to remember about War and Peace:
-Tolstoy's ideas about history: it isn't determined by great men or popular groundswells, but a bit of both, and also an unseen source.
-Anatole's sleazy seduction of Natasha.
-Tolstoy's bitingly funny observations on people's social habits and actions.
-Petya's innocence. The young man wants to be a soldier and his last scene is touching.
-The idea that Russia was saved by its superior spirit rather than logic or military planning.
-The very human portrait of Napoleon.
-Prince Vasili's societal maneuvering.
-The execution scene in occupied Moscow.
-The French invasion of Moscow and the burning of the city.
-The randomness and pure chance of wars and battles. Andrei endorses this idea.
-The small, but important role of slaves.
-Fat, old, one-eyed Kutezov, who saved Russia.
-Tolstoy's ability to zero in on a very diverse (at least ideologically so) group of characters.

Rating: 10/10: An absolute epic. I'm going to have to figure out how Tolstoy was able to write something so intricate. The characters are engaging and the backdrop of a vast war for Russia's existence makes for exciting reading despite the book's massive length.

Cousin Bette

Honere de Balzac 1799-1850

France in the 1840s was a pretty crazy place. Parisians walking in two spheres, the respectable world and that of the courtesans. Balzac contrasts these worlds masterfully as reason/passion and duty/pleasure in his 1846 work Cousin Bette. The characters in the book are alternately enticed and smashed by this system.
It all begins with the title character, Cousin Bette Fisher. She is the old maid/black sheep of a peasant family. Her sister, Adeline, married the rich and powerful Baron Hulot. Cousin Bette kind of hangs around the periphery of this new high class life, not being as good looking or charming as her sister. Consequently, she is taken for granted and stepped on for her entire life. Bette snaps when her niece, the seemingly naive and innocent Hortense, steals her "lover" Wenseslas. Bette vows revenge against the family. She teams with the enchantingly beautiful Valerie Marneffe. They work together to tempt the easily temptable Baron Hulot. The Baron is kind of a good natured philanderer who can't keep his hands off of the young girls. Hulot fritters away his money and eventually puts his family into ruin. His wife, Adeline, never challenged her husband's infidelity, instead she worshiped him and accepted his extracurricular activities.
The shenanigans eventually engulf many more people. The most pathetic is the Baroness. She's still beautiful at 50, but she let's Hulot trample her. In contrast her daughter, Hortense, refuses to accept Wenseslas's dalliances with Valerie Marneffe. Neither strategy seems to effect the actions of either man, but at least Hortense has some backbone.
Eventually all the backstabbing and revenge catches up with the main characters. Madame Marneffe is poisoned by her Brazilian lover, Bette dies, the Baron is restored to his honorable position thanks to the diligence of his son, but he is soon discovered messing with a plain country maid. This final insult kills Adeline Hulot.
As evil as Bette's vengeful machinations are, they couldn't have been successful without the utter faithlessness of the men and the conniving of her niece. Hortense takes Wenseslas, the only good thing in Bette's life. Courtesans in Cousin Bette are sirens capable of ruining marriages and causing the shift of thousand and thousands of Francs. Men cannot resist these charming females, so different from regular women. It's the rare woman who has the qualities of wife and courtesan, they don't get cheated on.

Quotes: "Parents may hinder their children's marriage, but children cannot interfere with the insane acts of their parents in their second childhood."

Rating: 7/10: An interesting picture of Paris in this era. The book is, at times, confusing. There are many different characters, some thrown in for only a scene or two. There is also a lot of financial finagling that bogs things down a bit. That being said this is a very realistic look at upper class life in a revenge story.

Captain Blood

Rafael Sabatini 1875-1950

After trudging through the coma-inducing The Idiot I was hoping for something with a little better pacing and a little more action. Luckily I picked Captain Blood and I got action in droves. This is the prototypical pirate story. It's full of sailing, sea battles, shifting allegiances, a beautiful woman, and a pirate captain with a heart of gold.
Peter Blood MD was tending his geraniums when a group of revolutionaries try to overthrow King James, around 1660. Blood sees their actions as a waste of time, but answers when called to treat a wounded rebel. This generous act leads to his enslavement and deportation to Barbados. He is bought by the vile Col. Bishop, but enjoys more freedom than the other slaves because of his medical knowledge. Bishop's niece is a boyish, frank girl who becomes Blood's guiding hope through all his travails, her name is Arabella. The desperate slaves escape the island when they are attacked by foreign forces. Although the slaves save the city, Col. Bishop is enraged by their escape. Peter Blood becomes Captain Blood, a pirate who harasses the mighty Spanish. The Spanish are traitorous, dishonorable people who routinely break the trust of everyone. Blood is in the habit of making lifelong enemies, England (King James) Bishop, Don Miquel and Lavasseur. He is aligned with everyone, and aligned against everyone at one time of another.
In his adventures Cpt. Blood takes the head of the Spanish fleet, raid the wealthy city of Maricaibo, and is forced to killed the lascivious Lavasseur. Yet, through all the brutal attacks and invasions, he keeps a tight ship. Absent is the raping and pillaging so common with other crews. This is all because of Blood's love and respect for Arabella. But when they meet again Arabella is disgusted with his life as a "pirate and thief," words that stick with Blood and drive him to near ruin. Allegiances continue to shift until a final battle with the French goes down in Barbados. I'll save the ending, but it is dramatic and perfect for this book.
The one qualm I have with Captain Blood is its treatment of Africans. Whether they are house slaves, field hands or pirates, Sabatini portrays them as savages, given no voice and only a faint glimmer of humanity. Otherwise this books is a whirlwind adventure story with a memorably brilliant main character.

Rating 10/10: The most fun book I've read in a long time. Blood is witty, sarcastic, and noble. There are no long boring diatribes into philosophical theory. A great read.

The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoevsky 1821-1881

Well, this was a really boring book. I hate to say it, but this is my least favorite of the classics I've read so far and when I become emperor of the world I will probably make it illegal to call it a "classic."
Prince Myshkin rides into St. Petersburg on a train where he meets Rogozhin and the very annoying Ledbedev. Rogozhin is a dark man (get ready for a crapload of Light/Dark imagery) who is on a mission to get the beautiful but scandalous Nastashia Philipovna. Throughout the book people worry that Rogo is going to kill Nastashia, nobody really explains why. Well, turns out Prince Myshkin, the idiot of the title, falls in love with her too. He also falls in love with Princess Myshkin's, a distant relative, daughter, Aglaya. Aglaya is a typical teenager, very annoying and stuck up. She probably would have been on My Super Sweet Sixteen if they had MTV in 1860s Russia. What ensues is a tangled mess of love intrigue, sudden fits of illness and a whole lot of long long long scenes. (See Hippolite's suicide scene). None of the characters save Myshkin are likable. I have no idea why Myshkin is considered strange, he speaks with eloquence, yet everyone seems to know he was an "idiot" before. In the end, people die, some are spurned, some go to jail and some revert to previous mental states. It ends like it began, with Myshkin in Switzerland and me not that interested.

Rating 2/10: An incredibly dull book. The lesson, as always, women drive men crazy, sometimes crazy enough to kill.

Barchester Towers

Anthony Trollope 1815-1882

Barchester Towers is the second of six in the Chronicles of Barsetshire. Trollope created a giant mountain of literature during his life. Towers was written in 1857 during Trollope's apex in popularity. Later in life critics weren't as kind, and now his reputation is a bit overshadowed by his contemporary, Charles Dickens. This is the first Trollope book I've read, but I think he compares in style and volume of words to Dickens.
This turned out to be an excellent pick. It's incredible that Trollope is able to stuff this much intrigue, love, rivalry and humor into a story centered on a regional church appointment. We have no heroes in this book. Events are put into motion by the death of the Bishop of Barchester. Instead of selecting the bishop's son, Dr. Grantley, an anonymous nobleman selects a Londoner, Mr. Proudie (and his domineering wife Mrs. Proudie). Also included in the deal is Proudie's private chaplain, the slick Obediah Slope.
The main conflict involces Slope and Dr. Harding. Harding was warden of an old folks home and looked forward to regaining that title under the new bishop. The town supported him, but Mrs. Proudie and Slope wanted Mr. Quiverful in that office, someone they could control. But everything is thrown into disarray when Slope meets Harding's daughter, Eleanor Bold, a widow. He falls in love with her and decides to get her dad the wardenship in hopes of wooing her. This sets up a showdown with Mrs. Proudie. The waffling Bishop Proudie meekly sides with Slope, temporarily (and for the first time) giving him hand in the relationship (to reference Seinfeld). We are then introduced to the Stanhopes and Mr. Arabin. Arabin is a thoughtful, 40 year-old clergyman. He's a good guy who also falls in love with Eleanor. The Stanhopes inclue Bertie, a slacker/semi-serious suitor for Eleanor.
Another Stanhope is Senora Neroni, the most interesting character in the book. She married a lowly Italian who beat her so badly she lost the use of her legs. All she has left is playing people for intrigue. She is exceptionally beautiful and quickly ensnares any man she likes, she starts with Obediah Slope. He is scandalized by this relationship.
Eleanor is also scandalized because she is connected with slope by rumor. He is a distasteful man and she is very hurt by the insinuations that their marriage was a foregone conclusion. Eventually Slope asks her to marry him and she slaps him. Bertie doesn't press his suit and eventually Mr. Arabin steps up to the plate and proposes. She gladly accepts. Behind the scenes Senora Neroni had engineered the entire engagement. The Senora also cruelly ridiculed Slope for the slap, but he deserved it. Arabin gets the coveted deanship, Quiverful the wardenship and Harding is happy with his new son-in-law.
Trollope loves speaking directly to the reader. He totally ignores the proverbial fourth wall and talks about his editor and how many pages he's been alloted to finish the story. He doesn't give us much indication of what these people look like, but we understand how they feel. The women in this novel really stand out: powerful Proudie, sincere Eleanor, and the connivingly seductive Senora.

Rating 8/10: I didn't know what to expect from this book, but I really enjoyed the read. Trollope is good with a funny turn of phrase and the book truly is a comedy. Mrs. Proudy and Slope are the two most frequent targets of Trollope's humor. The only problem/opportunity (maybe I'll have to get one of those Chinese tattoos) is that now there are five more books in the Chronicles of Barsetshire to read.

Three Men on the Bummel

Jerome K. Jerome 1859-1927

Three Men on the Bummel is the sequel to the comic masterpiece Three Men in a Boat. Jerome wrote this eleven years after Boat and it enjoyed limited commercial success but got a cool reception from critics.

A bummel is a trip with no beginning and no end, just a lot of roaming around and a place you have to be at the end of your allotted time. This book is similar to Boat. George, J, and Harris are back and they plan a vacation from dreary London. They decide the best course of action would be a bicycle trip through the Black Forest. This novel was written during the turn of the century, the most cycling mad era in history. There are the typical machinations for getting the men out of town, convincing skeptical wives, packing way too much, and barely making the train.
Germany itself is described in great detail. Jeromes captures the German character prophetically. The Germans are slaves to authority and can't do much for themselves individually. When they are in groups with someone in charge they can accomplish anything. Som incidents on the trip: a kreipe, a German, late night, male, drinking party. At such an event Jerome advises the reader to pin a name tag to their shirt to ensure they get home after passing out. Harris remembers when his wife fell off their tandem bike and he didn't notice. They make plans to wake up at 6 AM and never leaving before 8. Harris has an adventure with a water hose and a bunch of soaked and angry Germans. The trio constantly struggles with directions, at one point they are so confused they decide to wait out a rainstorm outside rather than heading to an unseen restaurant 20 yards away. The Germans are absolutely obsessed with order, they worship anyone wearing buttons. The most elaborate story in the book involves J and Harris's attempt to temper George's drinking. Apparently the German beer is a little too much for him. It is a very intricate plan that is too involved to explain here, but it deals with lots of drinking and multiple statues.
The biggest difference between Boat and Bummel is the lack of the lovable dog Montmorency. His space is replaced by a detailed study of German culture. Geroge is very cynical and funny. There are lots and lots of jokes I missed in here, either from quick reading or cultural and chronological space. But it is short so I can always go back over Bummel. Seems like the guys had a great time drinking and riding around Germany, but it doesn't quite match the overall magical experience that they enjoyed in Boat.

Rating: 8/10 Reminds me a lot of a sketch show. The characters are put in funny situations and they do funny things. Although Germany and the German people provide a constant thread, they don't have the same power as the Romantic Thames River.

Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser 1871-1945

I had to read Sister Carrie for my Gilded Age in America class in the Spring of 2006. It fit very well into the themes established in the class such as: the transition from rural to urban, the male bachelor subculture, female/male relations, the vital importance of money, the divisions in class, labor issues, the breakdown of family bonds and male conquest. When you get down to it this is the quintessential Gilded Age book. It contains lots of fun literary devices and wry comments from the narrator. There are some problems, however. It is sometimes painful to listen to the narrator speak for Carrie. He can be sexist, generalizing what all women should feel. There is something off-putting about his voice. The end of the book is ponderous and slow.
Carrie Meeber is the main character of the story, a small town girl to whom we are introduced on a train on the way to Chicago. The use of a machine taking an innocent girl from the nourishing country to the corrupting city is an apt way to begin the tale. Carrie is intrigued by the world of wealth and society. She accomplishes social gain by becoming a kept woman, quite a damning state of affairs around the turn of the century. The fact that Carrie's options are so incredibly limited (work for a pittance, marry a poor man, return home, or have an affair) is an indictment of the gender situation at the time. She and her lover, Hurstwood, have a whirlwind affair that takes them around the country, into and out of good situations, and finally to disaster.
Hurstwood is a respected bar manager at a high class place in Chicago. He leaves his family and his job because he is obsessed with Carrie, a lover of his friend. His desperation is a powerful force in the book. He completely breaks through all cultural restraints by stealing money from his bar and spiriting Carrie out of town. His life spirals downward as the travel through Montreal and New York where he finds a job in another bar. Eventually though, he is thrown out of work and becomes destitute. Carrie fulfills her dream of becoming a stage star (reminiscent of Nana by Emile Zola). The couple does not stay together, but their tortured thoughts go on. The late introduction of the enigmatic Ames makes for a confusing ending.
Carrie herself is a tough character to get a grasp on. She is subdued most of the time. For some reason I never got a clear picture of her in my head. She also never seemed happy. Since people are always using Carrie for their own purpose she has good reason to be sad.
My favorite part of Sister Carrie is the portrayal of the cities. Dreiser's realistic style is especially suited to conjuring the essence of the metropolises. Chicago, a rapidly developing city, has streets that run to nowhere. The grid is ready before the houses, businesses or people are. The upper class know each other well. The poor classes toil endlessly and earn nothing. When Carrie lives with her sister and the grey, depressed Sven the oppression of the city is palpable. New York, with the glitter of Delmonico's, Sherry's, and the theaters. The final message from in Sister Carrie comes from Carrie herself. She's found the wealth, fame, and achievement she's alway desired, but she can't help but feel terrible for the working and non-working poor (including her ex-lover Hurstwood). She just wishes she could do something about it, but she can't figure out a way to help.
This was Dreiser's first book. Quite an achievement. It was written in 1900 but got little publicity because of the controversial subject matter. Dreiser's success did not come until later.

Quotes and Main Themes
-About Hurstwood, "Bigamy lightened the horizen of his shadowy thoughts for a moment."
-Drouet to Carrie, "Be natural."
-After Hurstwood is ruined, "Hurstwood sat there, a perfect load to contemplate."

Rating: 7/10 This book has its pros and cons. The realistic tone is a departure from earlier American novels. Dreiser's strengths are his vivid descriptions of cities and his ability to relate the feeling of the time. The Gilded Age is a favorite time period of mine, so this book was an illuminating experience for me. Yet Dreiser's long-winded prose can get irritating.

Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

Jerome K. Jerome 1859-1927

An awesome book from a guy with an awesome name. Written in 1889, this travelogue of the Thames was so popular that boat registrations on the river went up 50% the year after publication of Three Men in a Boat. Jerome acted in London for awhile before trying his hand at writing. Following his honeymoon trip on the river he penned his most famous book.

Unlike most funny novels Three Men in a Boat holds up well today. The story is about three friends, they are real friends; they fight, laugh and make fun of each other. The gentlemen are well-off and lazy. They decide a boat trip on the Thames would be good for their health. The river is the fourth main character in the narrative. Not being familiar with the region, some of the references went right over my head. Jerome's description of the trip is alternatively hilarious, historical and sappily beautiful. The book is more episodic than linear, as J. (the main character) describes the history and beauty of the river. He is joined by the rotund George, the constantly imbibing Harris and the dog, Montmorency. The novel details the packing, boats, tents, food, mazes and songs that go into such an endeavor. The humor is dry and biting, a sarcastic humor I think of when I think of British comedy. The language is shockingly common and realistic. Jerome has a round about way of making a point that reminds me of Dickens and a rapier wit similar to Wilde. To Jerome's credit, Three Men makes you want to travel to London and hang out with the characters. They seem like fun, normal guys despite the cultural and chronological separation from today.
And I haven't really spoke about the dog. Montmorency always seems to have "friends," all of them brutish roaming dogs, hanging about. The group arrives at a landing where Montmorency has 25 fights in two days, the dog feels like "he was in heaven." There was a sequel to Three Men in a Boat called Three Men on a Brummel, about cycling through Germany.

Quotes and main themes
-"I like work. It fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours."
-During a comic scene of inept packing for the trip J. comments, "When George is hanged, Harris will be the worst packer in the world."

Rating: 10/10 Maybe not the greatest book ever, maybe not the most well-constructed, but I enjoyed reading this as much as any novel I've encountered. There are very few books this old that has humor which still thrives today.