This Month in History (1929): A Farewell to Arms published

First posted 11/11/2025.

A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway

First Publication: May to October 1929 in Scribner’s magazine Category: semi-autobiographical war novel Sales: ?

Accolades:

About the Book: Written when he was thirty years old, Hemingway’s semi-autobiographical novel is a “gripping…work [which] captures the harsh realities of war and the pain of lovers caught in its inexorable sweep.” AZ “The title is taken from a poem by the 16th-century English dramatist George Peele.” WK It has been “lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I.” AZ The story is “set during the Italian campaign of World War I.” WK “It is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant…in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army.” WK The novel also “describes a love affair between the expatriate Henry and an English nurse, Catherine Barkley.” WK The story also explores “the profound struggle between loyalty and desertion” AZ as “weary, demoralized men march…in the rain during the German attack on Caporetto.” WK “The novel has been adapted a number of times, initially for the stage in 1930; as a film in 1932 and again in 1957, and as a three-part television miniseries in 1966. The 1996 film In Love and War, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Chris O’Donnell and Sandra Bullock, depicts Hemingway’s life in Italy as an ambulance driver in the events prior to his writing of A Farewell to Arms.” WK Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon WK Wikipedia

Today in History (1937): Their Eyes Were Watching God published

First posted 11/11/2025.

Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neal Hurston

First Publication: September 18, 1937 Category: psychological fiction Sales: ?

Accolades:

About the Book: While now “regarded as a masterwork” LC “in both African-American literature and women’s literature.” WKTheir Eyes Were Watching God wasn’t a success upon its initial publication in 1937. The book was “out of print for almost thirty years due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist.” AZ African American critics said it was “facile and simplistic, in part because its characters spoke in dialect.” LC However, in 1975 author Alice Walker wrote an essay entitled “Looking for Zora” in Ms. magazine that “led to a critical reevaluation of the book.” LC Since the book’s reissue in 1978, is has “become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature” AZ and is “considered to have paved the way for younger black writers such as Alice Walker and Toni Morrison.” LC “The novel narrates main character Janie Crawford’s ‘ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny.’ As a young woman, who is fair-skinned with long hair, she expects more out of life, but comes to realize that people must learn about life ‘fuh theyselves’ (for themselves), just as people can only go to God for themselves. Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century.” WK It “brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston.” AZ British novelist Zadie Smith called it “a deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” AZ Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon LC Library of Congress (2012). “Books That Shaped America” WK Wikipedia

Today in History (1908): Anne of Green Gables published

First posted 11/11/2025.

Anne of Green Gables L.M. Montgomery

First Publication: June 13, 1908 Category: childen’s novel Sales: 50 million

Accolades (click on badges to see full lists):

About the Book: This “novel has led generations of children to laugh and cry – but mostly laugh – long with this beloved story’s vivacious heroine.” AZ This “is a cherished tale of the importance of family and community.” BN “Brother and sister Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert look forward to meeting the young orphan boy whom they hope to give a good life to at…Green Gables,” BN “a tranquil farm on Canada’s Prince Edward Island.” AZ Instead they are accidentally sent “a redheaded chatterbox named Anne. The spirited, precocious 11-year-old orphan finds ‘scope for imagination’ everywhere she looks.” AZ The Cuthberts “welcome the imaginative girl with loving arms. Under their care and through the friendships she forges at school, Anne enjoys adventures and experiences that teach her how to be loving and caring in return.” BN She “builds a world of enchantment around Green Gables and its surrounding woodlands, lakes, and valleys. Thanks to the freckle-faced girl’s imaginative musings, the rustic region’s natural wonders blossom into a fairyland of endless romance. Anne’s inspired prattle, goodwill, and joie de vivre win her a warm circle of friends, just as they have won the hearts of readers around the world.” AZ Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon BN Barnes & Noble

In July 2018, I became the organizer of the Classic Novels Book Club. Check out the Book Club tab here or Meetup for more information. This is our September 2024 book.

Today in History (1962): Madeleine L’Engle A Wrinkle in Time published

First posted 1/31/2026.

A Wrinkle in Time Madeleine L’Engle

First Publication: January 1, 1962 Category: children’s novel Sales: 14 million

Accolades (click on badges to see full lists):

About the Book: “Late one night, three otherworldly creatures appear and sweep Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe away on a mission to save Mr. Murray, who has gone missing while doing top-secret work for the government. They travel via tesseract--a wrinkle that transports one across space and time--to the planet Camazotz, where Mr. Murray is being held captive. There they discover a dark force that threatens not only Mr. Murray but the safety of the whole universe.” AZ Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon

 

The Best-Selling Book of All-Time: The Holy Bible: King James Version

First posted 6/24/2020.

The Holy Bible: King James Version Various writers

First Publication: 1610 Category: religion Sales: 6.7 billion (estimated)

Accolades (click on badges to see full lists):

About the Book: “Shortly after inheriting the throne of England in the midst of violent religious strife, King James I called together the country’s leading churchmen and theologians at Hampton Court, ‘for the hearing, and for the determining, of things pretended to be amiss in the Church.’” AZ “Out of that conference came the memorable decision to commission a new translation of the Holy Scriptures. King James I eagerly approved the idea in the hope that this new translation might help avert civil war by uniting the religious factions within his country. The uniform translation, since called the ‘King James Version,’ dramatically affected the course of development of the English-speaking world.” AZ “When the King James translation of the Bible was first published in 1611, it was the first time that many people throughout the English-speaking world were able to read the Old and New Testaments in their native tongue. It proved so wildly popular, in fact, that it was the only book that many families owned. The majestic scope and poetry of the King James translation’s language made an incomparable impact on Western religion, culture, and literature that still resonates today.” BN Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon BN Barnes & Noble

James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man published 100 years ago

First posted 7/4/2020; last updated 7/5/2020.

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce

First Publication: December 29, 1916 Category: semi-autobiographical modernist novel Sales: ?

Accolades (click on badges to see full lists):

About the Book: “Widely regarded as the greatest stylist of twentieth-century English literature, James Joyce deserves the term ‘revolutionary.’ His literary experiments in form and structure, language and content, signaled the modernist movement and continue to influence writers today.” BN “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is the semi-autobiographical portrayal of James Joyce’s early upbringing as an Irish Catholic in late 19th century and early 20th century Dublin.” AZ “The novel was originally planned as a 63-chapter autobiographical novel in a realistic style entitled ‘Stephen Hero’ however Joyce reworked the novel into five condensed chapters, dispensing with the strict realism which he originally planned in favor of the use of free indirect speech, a narrative style which allows the reader to peer into the developing mind of the protagonist.” AZ “Young Stephen Dedalus yearns to be an artist, but first must struggle against the forces of church, school, and society, which fetter his imagination and stifle his soul.” BN His life “is depicted from its various stages starting in childhood and moving through early adulthood. The language of the novel changes throughout the book to correspond with the artistic development of Stephen Dedalus as he ages and matures.” AZ “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is a masterful depiction of the process of self-discovery and rebellion against authority that is indicative of youth, one which would establish Joyce as a central figure of the modernist literary movement.” AZ Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon BN Barnes & Noble

Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment published 150 years ago this year

Last updated 7/6/2020.

Crime and Punishment Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky

First Publication: 1866 Category: novel/crime story Sales: ?

Accolades (click on badges to see full lists):

About the Book: “Few authors have been as personally familiar with desperation as Fyodor Dostoevsky, and none have been so adept at describing it.” BN In the two years before he wrote Crime and Punishment, his wife and brother died and the magazine he started with his brother collapsed. To try to get out of debt, he gambled away an advance for an unwritten novel AZ and “had to pawn his clothes and beg friends for loans to pay his hotel bill and get back to Russia. One of his begging letters went to a magazine editor, asking for an advance on yet another unwritten novel – …Crime and Punishment.” AZ The “tour de force of suspense” BN became “one of the most gripping crime stories of all time” BN and “catapulted Dostoyevsky to the forefront of Russian writers and into the ranks of the world’s greatest novelists. Drawing upon experiences from his own prison days, the author recounts…the story of Raskolnikov, an impoverished student tormented by…the struggle between good and evil.” AZ He “reasons that men like himself, by virtue of their intellectual superiority, can and must transcend societal law. To test his theory, he devises the perfect crime – the murder of a spiteful pawnbroker,” BN “an old woman…whom he regards as…good for nothing.” AZ Raskolnikov soon realizes the folly of his abstractions. Haunted by vivid hallucinations and the torments of his conscience,” BN he “confesses to the crime and goes to prison. There he realizes that happiness and redemption can only be achieved through suffering. Infused with forceful religious, social, and philosophical elements,” AZ “Crime and Punishment delineates the theories and motivations that underlie a bankrupt morality.” BN Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon BN Barnes & Noble Context (SparkNotes) Character List (SparkNotes)

In July 2018, I became the organizer of the Classic Novels Book Club. Check out the Book Club tab here or Meetup for more information. This is our August 2018 book.