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It was time to start a new thread for this topic.

I am currently having an absolutely ball revisiting the fiction of Henry James. I read several of his novels more than 35 years ago while I was on my icebreaker for two-and-a-half years, and was less than impressed. Well, I've reread Washington Square and I'm now half-way through a reread of The Portrait of a Lady. Frankly, at this point in time I'm ready to state that this is simply some of the most sublime fiction I've read in a while. I'm so glad that I've embarked upon this author for my summer 2013 reading project.

Still reading through the several interesting topics in this group. ;-)

I just finished another of Zola's Rougon-Macquart. Last night I started Richard Russo's debut, Mohawk. Russo is a delight and I can't imagine he won't still be read 100 years from now.

Trying to read. That's the only description for it. Can read for about 10 min and that's it! Very frustrating.

Deborah wrote: "Trying to read. That's the only description for it. Can read for about 10 min and that's it! Very frustrating."

Why's that, Deb? What's going on?

Got caught up on Dombey, and started my Trollope frolic last evening with Can You Forgive Her?.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Got caught up on Dombey, and started my Trollope frolic last evening with Can You Forgive Her?."

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Got caught up on Dombey, and started my Trollope frolic last evening with Can You Forgive Her?."


I'm reading CYFH too with an on-line group that I belong to on Shelfari. We're reading it as serial read, i.e., four chapters per week. Frankly, I am not particularly engaged with the novel yet and I'm some 300 pages into it. Perhaps it is a function of the serial read and losing my train of thought week to week...

Christopher wrote: "Frankly, I am not particularly engaged with the novel yet and I'm some 300 pages into it. Perhaps it is a function of the serial read and losing my train of thought week to week... "

I loved this from about page 2, although the kindle version I have is unpaginated. The very short intro said Punch had a spoof "Can You Stand Her?" Not every book appeals to every reader.

I am now nearly 400 pages into my group serial read of Trollope's Can You Forgive Her?. It has picked up a bit, but is still not knocking my socks off though.

On the other hand, I am now nine books into my reading the lion's share of Henry James's oeuvre, and I'm loving every moment of this undertaking. I have been reading them in chronological order, and it has been fascinating to see his writing style and structure of each novel shift over time. I have read 9 of the 15 James novels that I have on the shelf.

While in the Bahamas, I plan to reread The Portrait of a Lady in conjunction with Michael Gorra's recent book Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece. I've heard that it is a real 'eye-opener' into James and his crafting of TPoaL. I'm also taking Colm Toibin's The Master, a fictional look at Henry James and his fiction. Finally, I am taking Edith Wharton's last novel The Buccaneers, unfinished at her death, but then finished by Marion Mainwaring. I think I've enough to keep me busy for a while.

Christopher wrote: "...While in the Bahamas, I plan to reread The Portrait of a Lady in conjunction with Michael Gorra's recent book Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American Masterpiece. I've heard that it is a real 'eye-opener' into James and his crafting of TPoaL...."


Have a great trip, Chris! I hope it is cooler than NE US. Supposedly we are to get some relief by Sunday.

Enjoy the sand in your toes, Chris!

Thank you, my friends! I know that both of us are certainly going to enjoy this momentary respite from the hustle and bustle.

'Books, the Beach, and Bahamian rum cocktails!'

Sounds like a plan!

I've caught up with Dombey and Son. I'm also doing a buddy read with my son of A Dance With Dragons.

I'm in the middle of Vanity Fair. I started reading with another group and got too far behind. I put it down so when I picked it up again I actually started it over. I'm not quite halfway, and have been enjoying it.

Crime and Punishment here. In Russian. I'm not from Russia, don't be mislead by my name. As a Bulgarian, my mother tongue is similar to Russian, yet there are many differences. Also, Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment in 1866, which makes it slightly harder to understand in original. So, I sometimes have to open the translated in English eddition to re-read a chapter which I didn't get, but it is worth the efforts.

By the way, the name of the main character is killing me: Raskolnikov ('Raskol' - a split, a dissent). Raskolnikov seems to suffer from schizophrenia.

Currently Middlemarch by George Eliot and The Fortune of the Rougons by Emile Zola.

Had a small stack of books from the library, but only read one of them before I had to take them back. Kind of off the mark on my reading these days. Three behind on my yearly goal. *sad trombone*

Deborah wrote: "I'm in the middle of Vanity Fair. I started reading with another group and got too far behind. I put it down so when I picked it up again I actually started it over. I'm not quite halfway, and h..."

Probably my all-time favorite Victorian English novelist and his best novel. I've read it at least twice. Keep up the good fight!

Kirk wrote: "Deborah wrote: "I'm in the middle of Vanity Fair. I started reading with another group and got too far behind. I put it down so when I picked it up again I actually started it over. I'm not quit..."

Thanks Kirk for the encouragement. I actually am truly enjoying it, and have been meaning to read it for quite some time. It was great to take it off the shelf and have a go.

I'm on to the 2nd of the Trollope's Palliser series and enjoying it very much. I've also started to peek into Frederick Brown's biography of Zola, but just a peek.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "I'm on to the 2nd of the Trollope's Palliser series and enjoying it very much. I've also started to peek into Frederick Brown's biography of Zola, but just a peek."

I "happened" to read Barchester Towers again a few months ago after a 40 year lapse since a college literature course. Makes me wonder why I haven't read any other Trollope.

Kirk wrote: "I "happened" to read Barchester Towers again a few months ago after a 40 year lapse since a college literature course. Makes me wonder why I haven't read any other Trollope. "

If you liked that one (the 2nd in the Barsetshire Chronicles series), you might like some of his others. My first Trollope was The Way We Live Now, at which time I became a "fan."

Finished up Phineas Finn this afternoon - this Palliser series is excellent! I'm not positive what I'll pick up next, but I'm leaning toward Wharton's The House of Mirth. Must get to the next installment of Dombey first, though.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "...Last night I started Richard Russo's debut, Mohawk. Russo is a delight and I can't imagine he won't still be read 100 years from now.
..."

The 21st Literature Board is discussing Russo's Empire Falls right now as one of its August reads.

Lily wrote: "The 21st Literature Board is discussing Russo's Empire Falls right now as one of its August reads. "

That was my introduction to Russo. My favorite remains Bridge of Sighs.

Elizabeth (Alaska) wrote: "Finished up Phineas Finn this afternoon - this Palliser series is excellent! I'm not positive what I'll pick up next, but I'm leaning toward Wharton's The House of Mirth. Must get to the next insta..."

I enjoyed House of Mirth, but it's not in the same league as Dombey.

I,m currently re-reading Pearl Buck's Dragon Seed (hard copy) and Armadale by Wilkie Collins on my tablet. The TBA stack is HUGE, but I'm trying very hard to be disciplined about not starting another until I've finished these two. I find it to be an extraordinarily difficult task to keep my fingers out of the TBA stack!

Rosemary wrote: "I,m currently re-reading Pearl Buck's Dragon Seed (hard copy) and Armadale by Wilkie Collins on my tablet. The TBA stack is HUGE, but I'm trying very hard to be disciplined about not starting anot..."

Okay, Rosemary -- please indicate the meaning you assign to "TBA." I may use "TBR" -- to be read -- for similar meaning, but not sure.

I started Wharton's The House of Mirth last evening. Wharton is so good!

My TBR stack is especially daunting this year, as I recently came home with two bagfuls of books at a charity sale. I just started an unexpurgated edition of Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence. Lawrence is not a favorite writer of mine, unfortunately. I would like to finish it before the end of the month.

At the moment Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience is beside my bed. I know Blake is a little early 1789-1794, but, I think he was first of the Romantic movement. An amazing book for its time, the colour edition is a must.

Lady Chatterly was a book that I loved as well. I also enjoyed the beauty of the art associated with Blake. Had to read the Blake in a literature course I took for fun.

I'm reading a modern novel set in an older age. It's called Silence in the Sanctuary. So far, it's a very fun light read.

A quick read, Daisy Miller, is up next.

I'm planning next quarter's reads for my challenge group, and hope to get to these:

The Eustace Diamonds
The Charterhouse of Parma
A Harlot High and Low
The Old Wives' Tale
The Dream
The Conquest of Plassans

Thank you, Dagny! I keep putting Lost Illusions on my list and then other titles bump it off. I might switch them - or do them both! Ha!

Hi! I'm new to this group, but I'm glad to have found you all! My bedside reading is nearly always a nineteenth-century novel. Over the last six months, I've had the most engrossing, emotionally powerful literary experience of my life, reading Hugo's Les Miserables in French. I was profoundly moved by the story of Jean Valjean, but even enjoyed the respite provided by Hugo's famously long digressions into topics like the Battle of Waterloo, French convent life, and the Paris street urchins. Because I was reading in French, I was forced to slow down and could marvel at the beauty of Hugo's prose.

I'm now in a post-Les Miserables vacuum. Where to go next? Notre Dame de Paris? Another nineteenth-century French author? Or return to English fiction? I love Jane Austen, but I'm not in the mood right now. Other personal favourites: Eliot, Gaskell, Trollope, Hardy. One friend suggested revisiting the Brontes, which I may do at this point. I'm open to suggestions!

I've also read Les Miserables in both French and English, as well as the following, set in the 19th century:

The Count of Monte Cristo

In fact, any of the Dumas novels are pleasing as long as you don't mind the period of the story.

19th century settings:

Eugénie Grandet
Père Goriot
Le Juif Errant

I can also recommend the short novels in French by Marcel Pagnol, esp. if you want some lighter reading before tackling another big book. The setting is pre-WWI time period.

I started Notre Dame some years ago in French, got half way through, and abandoned for some reason or other. It seemed to me that Hugo's vocabulary and style in novel was quite different from Miserables, but it's possible he was trying to reflect the different time periods of the works. There are quite a few long digressions here too. Hugo was getting paid by the word, apparently.

I am one who has not yet read Les Miserables and can't read French, unfortunately. However, I think you might consider Balzac's The Chouans as a follow-up. It follows the Hugo as to the revolution. My reading Balzac in English is a disadvantage, perhaps, but I do enjoy him.

i'm reading a paranormal (?) thriller:
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31...
the house of lost souls by f. g. cottam

One of my favorites:

Vanity Fair

Interesting that you mention Marcel Pagnol, Kirk. I've had his Trilogie marseillaise sitting on my desk for about a year now, and I wondered the other day (while dusting!) whether I ought to try that next.

Balzac also strikes me as a good recommendation. I read Eugenie Grandet in a university French class, but haven't read anything else by him since then.

A further note on Les Miserables: For anyone wanting to read it in English, the recent translation by Julie Rose is very good. I kept her translation by my side when I got stumped with some of the technical vocabulary or 19th-century slang that Hugo used. The English version that's available on Project Gutenberg is full of clumsy passages and mistranslated words.

My English copy of Miserables is the Modern Library version translated by Charles Wilbour.

The trilogie are 3 plays, not novels. Different sort of reading. You can read one in a few hours to see how you like it. My Pagnol favorites are his Souvenirs d'Enfance series.

Recently finished Vanity Fair. Now reading a modern novel but its about Elizabeth Barrett Browning. It's called Lady's Maid and has been very enjoyable. It's nice to see new members participating.

I have some contemporary reading planned for this quarter, but I couldn't resist starting Lost Illusions. Thanks, Dagny, for encouraging me to put it on the schedule.

Not very far into it, but the background already provides some insight into old society/new society and why, even in the US, the people of "new money" were excluded from established society.

I just finished The Cuckoo's Calling, the mystery by J.K. Rowling. This is a great choice for those of you who like clever mystery/police procedurals with appealing detectives (including an intelligent and resourceful female sidekick (yay!)) no gory details/sexual perversions and a nicely complex plot which ties up most satisfactorily at the end. I'm hoping this is the start of a new series.

Frances wrote: "I just finished The Cuckoo's Calling, the mystery by J.K. Rowling. This is a great choice for those of you who like clever mystery/police procedurals with appealing detectives (including an intelli..."

Good to know. It's on my TBR list.

A couple of Pulitzers are on the table - Stories of John Cheever and The Optimist's Daughter (Eudora Welty). And for something completely different, I've been reading through the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series because my tween daughter started reading the books. Well, she took a "break" after the first book but I kept going :) My real guilty pleasure is reading mysteries/thrillers but for some reason I don't have any of those going right now. Thank you Frances for the quick review of The Cuckoo's Calling.

I've enjoyed seeing what everyone else is reading - Vanity Fair is somewhere on my TBR as well as Trollope.

Besides the club reading, I've been reading Lady of Ashes which is a modern novel but written about a Victorian female undertaker. It has been quite interesting.

I've just finish a contemporary novel called The Interesting's by Meg Wolitzer and then started The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald. I'm considering to read Emma by Jane Austen one more time as it is my favourite novel of her.. The story is not complex at all, but the social rules demanded for and by Miss Woodhouse are very expressive, reading Emma is like having a glimpse of social structure in XIX's century without the problem of money by the main character!

Christopher wrote: "It was time to start a new thread for this topic.

I am currently having an absolutely ball revisiting the fiction of Henry James. I read several of his novels more than 35 years ago while I was o..."
I read "Portrait of a Lady" about 20 years ago and
I can remember crying - it was just so poignant.
I have "What Maisie Knew" on my "to read" list but
I may change it to "Portrait of a Lady". Thanks for
the reminder Christopher.

At the moment I am reading "Kirkham's Find" by
Mary Gaunt. It is an Australian book written in
1894 and about a woman's strive for independence
as she delves into the world of beekeeping. After
being forever told (there is a least one conversation
per chapter) about how unattractive she is and if
she is not married by the time she is 25 there is
no hope for her, she decides to move into a little
cottage and really make a go of her bees. Pretty
good, but the constant harping on looks and how
men only want women as ornaments gets a bit much.
I am not finding it as easy to read as other books
I have picked up recently.

Diane wrote: "At the moment I am reading "Kirkham's Find" by
Mary Gaunt. It is an Australian book written in
1894 and about a woman's strive for independence
as she delves into the world of beekeeping. After
be..."

That sounds interesting. I'm reading some current nonfiction about Alaska.

I think anything is more interesting than the book I'm reading at the moment. The Princes of Ireland by Edward Rutherfurd is soooo bloody boring. Trying to speed through it (at 700+ pages that's not easy to do) so I can get started on Wolf Hall I finally was able to get at the library.