Review: The Enchanted April

The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim
My rating: 4 of 5 stars



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Review: The Kreutzer Sonata

The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I think this should have been called The Destructive Power of Jealousy.. It was grim from start to finish, but Tolstoy is a masterful storyteller; I did not like what I was reading, but I read on without stopping once.

To say that the book takes a dim view of marriage, true love, and women doesn't really do twisted and disillusioned Pozdnyshev (our central character) proper justice.

I haven't read what more learned individuals have to say about this short book, but I am not prepared to accept that the author of Anna Karenina and War and Peace, is as hateful and small-minded and demented as was Pozdnyshev in this story.

The music for which the book is named - Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata No. 9 - played in the background as I read on, and it was as tortured as was old Pozdnyshev.

A tale of misery; I'm glad it was short.

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Review: Vanity Fair

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I paired this read with Earl Grey Tea and biscotti(!) And I stuck to the decaf version of this tea because this was a very looooong book but 100% worthy of the time invested. I grew to know and love (or know and hate) both the major and minor characters. Thackeray takes time building the action - not all authors can hold onto their reading audience without dropping big events onto every other page. He does this with art and ease; he painstakingly builds your knowledge of the place itself - Vanity Fair - and all of the fools who dally there.

The title of the book (first published as a series of papers) comes from Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress in which Bunyan described a town called Vanity where there was an ongoing party and where men and women went to sin and celebrate their worldly things. Thackeray sure does the name justice here. Chapter upon chapter, he draws back the curtain on 19th century British society.

It is a work of art. If you like writing from this era and enjoy epic books that honor the King's English from start to finish, then this is a book for you! Without giving anything away, I say, long live Captain William Dobbin ~

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