Leo Tolstoy War and Peace

First posted 6/10/2020; updated 7/5/2020.

War and Peace Leo Tolstoy

First Publication: 1869 Category: historical novel Sales: 36 million

Accolades:

About the Book: “The most famous – and perhaps greatest – novel of all time,” BN War and Peace is “both an intimate study of individual passions and an epic history of Russia and its people.” BN The novel is “noted for its mastery of realistic detail and variety of psychological analysis” LN as it details “the metamorphosis of five families, some peasant, some aristocratic” AZ struggling for survival during Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.” BN “The theme of war, however, is subordinate to the story of family existence, which involves Tolstoy’s optimistic belief in the life-asserting pattern of human existence.” LN “Each individual is immersed in experiences and conversations elucidating Tolstoy’s themes of self-sacrifice and self-indulgence, anguish and ecstasy, diplomacy and deception, and religion and perdition. The complexities of character and plot are sometimes enigmatic, and names are often exhausting to recollect, but the genius of this book is everlasting.” AZ The impressive dialog sparkles with humor and wit, and the vivid scenes of battle are riveting.” AZ “The novel also sets forth a theory of history, concluding that there is a minimum of free choice; all is ruled by an inexorable historical determinism.” LN “War and Peace is nothing more or less than a complete portrait of human existence.” BN The book is well known for its length. “Even the author said it couldn't be described as a novel. But the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha – and the tragic and unexpected way their lives intersect – grip you for all 1,400 pages.” TG Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon (review from Library Journal by Barbara Mann) BN Barnes & Noble LN The Literature Network TG Telegraph: The Perfect Library

Little Women: Yet Another Movie Version Released

Last updated 7/6/2020.

Little Women Louisa May Alcott

First Publication: 1868 Category: coming-of-age novel Sales: 1 million

Accolades:

About the Book: “Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters,” BN “united in their devotion to each other and their struggles to survive in New England during the Civil War.” BN “Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy.” BN Although Little Women is set in a very particular place and time in American history, the characters and their relationships have touched generations of readers and still are beloved.” LC “Far from being the ‘girl’s book’ her publisher requested, it explores such timeless themes as love and death, war and peace, the conflict between personal ambition and family responsibilities, and the clash of cultures between Europe and America.” BN “The novel is a classic coming of age story which follows the development of the young women into adulthood.” AZ “Central to the theme of the novel is the issue of overcoming one’s character flaws. For Meg it is vanity; Jo, temper; Beth, shyness; and Amy, selfishness. Through the various activities of the four sisters told throughout the novel lessons are learned of the consequences of these particular flaws.” AZ “The story begins to unfold during Christmastime. With their father away at war, the family must endure great poverty induced hardship, often times going hungry.” AZ “It is no secret that Alcott based Little Women on her own early life. While her father, the freethinking reformer and abolitionist Bronson Alcott, hobnobbed with such eminent male authors as Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne, Louisa supported herself and her sisters with ‘woman’s work,’ including sewing, doing laundry, and acting as a domestic servant. But she soon discovered she could make more money writing.” BN “Little Women brought her lasting fame and fortune.” BN “This first edition…was published in 1868 when Louisa was thirty-five years old. Based on her own experiences growing up as a young woman with three sisters, and illustrated by her youngest sister, May, the novel was an instant success, selling more than 2,000 copies immediately. Several sequels were published, including Little Men (1871) and Jo’s Boys (1886).” LC The book has been adapted seven times for film, first in 1917 and most recently a 2019 version directed by Greta Gerwig. It starred Saoirse Ronan as Jo, Emma Watson as Meg, Florence Pugh as Amy, and Eliza Scanlen as Beth. The cast also included Meryl Streep, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, and Chris Cooper. Some critics called it “the definitive adaptation.” WK Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon BN Barnes & Noble LC Library of Congress (2012). “Books That Shaped America” SparkNotes (study guide) Wikipedia

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 March 2020 book.

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.

Jane Austen's Emma published 200 years ago today

First posted 6/12/2020; updated 7/5/2020.

Emma Jane Austen

First Publication: December 23, 1815 Category: novel/comedy of manners Sales: ?

Accolades:

About the Book: “Virginia Woolf called Jane Austen ‘the most perfect artist among women,’ and Emma Woodhouse is arguably her most perfect creation.” BN “Before she began the novel, Austen wrote, ‘I am going to take a heroine whom no one but myself will much like.’” WK “The main character, Emma Woodhouse, “is spoiled, headstrong, and self-satisfied.” WK She is “a young girl from a good home that does not need the financial support of a husband and is determined not to marry.” AZ She is a “thoroughly self-deluded young woman who has ‘lived in the world with very little to distress or vex her.’” BN This doesn’t deter her from playing matchmaker for the locals in the “fictional village of Highbury and the surrounding estates of Hartfield, Randalls, and Donwell Abbey.” WK. However, she “is blind to the dangers of meddling in other people’s lives; and her imagination and perceptions often lead her astray.” WK At the same time, she considers herself “herself impervious to romance of any kind” BN and “refuses to recognize her own feelings for the gallant Mr. Knightley.” BN “What ensues is a delightful series of scheming escapades in which every social machination and bit of ‘tittle-tattle’ is steeped in Austen's delicious irony.” BN “Emma, the last novel completed and published during Austen’s life, WK is her “most cleverly woven [and] riotously comedic” BN work. “As in her other novels, Austen explores the concerns and difficulties of genteel women living in Georgian–Regency England; she also creates a lively comedy of manners among her characters and depicts issues of marriage, gender, age, and social status.” WK Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon BN Barnes & Noble WK Wikipedia

Lewis Carroll Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: 150th anniversary!

Last updated 7/6/2020..

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll

First Publication: November 26, 1865 Category: fantasy/children’s novel Sales: 100 million

Accolades (click on badges to see full lists):

About the Book: “During a boat trip up the Isis River with Reverend Robinson Duckworth and the three young daughters of Henry Liddell, one of whom is named Alice, Lewis Carroll, the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, invents a story about a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure. Several years later this tale would be forever immortalized as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.” AZ Alice follows a White Rabbit “down the rabbit hole and ends up in the fantasy world of Wonderland,” AZ a place “filled with a plethora of interesting and fantastical creatures.” AZ The reader can watch Alice “take tea with the Mad Hatter and March Hare [and] follow a game of croquet between Alice and the Queen of Hearts.” BN Alice also “encounters a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah, the mischievously grinning Cheshire Cat, …a sleepy little Dormouse whom she attends a tea party with, …[and] many other curious characters.” AZ “Beloved by millions of children and adults ever since its first publication, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a classic tale of fantasy that has been cherished by readers ever since its first publication and will surely delight for many years to come.” AZ Resources and Related Links: AZ Amazon BN Barnes & Noble