Kathy's (kac522) BFBs in 2024
Forum2024 BIG FAT BOOK CHALLENGE
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1kac522
I'm going to try again this year to read at least 8 BFBs. I hope to read more new titles, but also continue with my beloved re-reads, which give me great comfort.
Some possible new-to-me BFB titles:
The Old Wives' Tale, Arnold Bennett
No Name, Wilkie Collins
Romola, George Eliot
Felix Holt, the Radical, George Eliot
Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden
Completed: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); 514 pages
The Family Moskat, Isaac Bashevis Singer
Completed: The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope
Jessie Phillips, Mrs Fanny Trollope
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories, Jenny Uglow (biography)
East Lynne, Ellen Wood
The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge
Completed: John Adams, David McCullough
Some possible BFB re-reads:
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Completed: Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1853), 770 pages on audiobook
Completed: Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857), 804 pages on audiobook
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope
Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope
Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope
Let the fun begin!
Some possible new-to-me BFB titles:
The Old Wives' Tale, Arnold Bennett
No Name, Wilkie Collins
Romola, George Eliot
Felix Holt, the Radical, George Eliot
Sylvia's Lovers, Elizabeth Gaskell
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden
Completed: Waverley, Sir Walter Scott (1814); 514 pages
The Family Moskat, Isaac Bashevis Singer
Completed: The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope
Jessie Phillips, Mrs Fanny Trollope
Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories, Jenny Uglow (biography)
East Lynne, Ellen Wood
The Heir of Redclyffe, Charlotte Mary Yonge
Completed: John Adams, David McCullough
Some possible BFB re-reads:
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
Completed: Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1853), 770 pages on audiobook
Completed: Little Dorrit, Charles Dickens (1857), 804 pages on audiobook
Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
He Knew He Was Right, Anthony Trollope
Can You Forgive Her?, Anthony Trollope
Phineas Finn, Anthony Trollope
Let the fun begin!
3kac522
>3 kac522: Thanks! A bit heavy on the Victorian, though, now that I look at it as a whole. We'll see if I can mix it up a bit.
5kac522
>4 connie53: Thanks! Good luck with your BFBs, too!
6kac522
FINALLY, a BFB in 2024:
1. Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853); 770 pages; a re-read on audiobook narrated by Simon Vance
1. Bleak House, Charles Dickens (1853); 770 pages; a re-read on audiobook narrated by Simon Vance
7johnsimpson
Hi Kathy my dear, good luck with your 2024 BFB reads my dear friend.
9kac522
2. Waverley by Sir Walter Scott (1814); 514 pages, which includes detailed notes by Scott himself.
Considered to be the first full historical novel in Western literature, this is the tale of a young Englishman Edward Waverley who gets caught up in the 1745 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland to install Bonnie Prince Charlie to the throne. I had some trouble with the language and dialects at first, but by the halfway point I was completely engaged in the story. Scott's tale was well-researched, gathered from written narratives and accounts he had personally heard from rebellion survivors and their descendants.
Bit of trivia: the book was originally titled "Waverley, or 'Tis Sixty Years Since." Scott makes a point of mentioning "sixty years since" several times in the book, to remind the reader of its historical nature. I believe this is why the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction only considers books for the prize that are set at least 60 years in the past.
Considered to be the first full historical novel in Western literature, this is the tale of a young Englishman Edward Waverley who gets caught up in the 1745 Jacobite rebellion in Scotland to install Bonnie Prince Charlie to the throne. I had some trouble with the language and dialects at first, but by the halfway point I was completely engaged in the story. Scott's tale was well-researched, gathered from written narratives and accounts he had personally heard from rebellion survivors and their descendants.
Bit of trivia: the book was originally titled "Waverley, or 'Tis Sixty Years Since." Scott makes a point of mentioning "sixty years since" several times in the book, to remind the reader of its historical nature. I believe this is why the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction only considers books for the prize that are set at least 60 years in the past.
10kac522
3. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens (1857); 804 pages, on audiobook read by Simon Vance.
This was my 4th read of Little Dorrit and the 2nd time on audiobook. I listened to it in 2021 and it was a great comfort to me during the pandemic. I would say it is my 2nd favorite Dickens after David Copperfield. There are a couple of scenes with Young John Chivery that the audiobook narrator, Simon Vance, did so well that it brought me to tears.
One of the things I've been noticing about reading Dickens in order is in the last few books there is always at least one woman who seems cold and hard and implacable. This woman is often softened a bit by a younger woman/girl and at certain points in the story this older woman gives a long monologue/soliloquy on why she is the way she is. I'm thinking here of Mrs. Edith Dombey with young Florence Dombey in Dombey & Son; Lady Dedlock with Esther Summerson and Rosa in Bleak House; Louise Gradgrind with Sissy Jupe in Hard Times; and in Little Dorrit we get 2 such women: Miss Wade with Tattycoram and Mrs Clennam with Little Dorrit. Dickens will do this again in Great Expectations with Miss Havisham and her ward Estella. I am not sure why Dickens chooses to have these women form attachments with younger women and then give long speeches to explain themselves and reveal their histories, instead of in the narrative text.
This was my 4th read of Little Dorrit and the 2nd time on audiobook. I listened to it in 2021 and it was a great comfort to me during the pandemic. I would say it is my 2nd favorite Dickens after David Copperfield. There are a couple of scenes with Young John Chivery that the audiobook narrator, Simon Vance, did so well that it brought me to tears.
One of the things I've been noticing about reading Dickens in order is in the last few books there is always at least one woman who seems cold and hard and implacable. This woman is often softened a bit by a younger woman/girl and at certain points in the story this older woman gives a long monologue/soliloquy on why she is the way she is. I'm thinking here of Mrs. Edith Dombey with young Florence Dombey in Dombey & Son; Lady Dedlock with Esther Summerson and Rosa in Bleak House; Louise Gradgrind with Sissy Jupe in Hard Times; and in Little Dorrit we get 2 such women: Miss Wade with Tattycoram and Mrs Clennam with Little Dorrit. Dickens will do this again in Great Expectations with Miss Havisham and her ward Estella. I am not sure why Dickens chooses to have these women form attachments with younger women and then give long speeches to explain themselves and reveal their histories, instead of in the narrative text.
11kac522
4. The Way We Live Now, Anthony Trollope (1875); 825 pages.
Trollope's longest book starts out following Lady Carbury, a mediocre novelist with little money who is attempting to get good reviews for her books and get her son and daughter into advantageous marriages. The book slowly shifts focus to the great financier Augustus Melmotte, whose background and source of great wealth are a mystery. (From what I've read, Melmotte's portrait was a conglomeration of real-life men of wealth during the Victorian era.) The more that is revealed about Melmotte, the more I disliked him. Trollope can often portray unlikable characters but still get me to have pity or sympathy with them (Louis Trevelyan in He Knew He Was Right, for example), but not here.
Trollope's intent, I think, was to portray a society that has become so corrupt that it has lost all sense of honesty and integrity. Laudable aims, but overall I can't say that I enjoyed this book very much. There really wasn't a character that I liked or even appreciated, except possibly Roger Carbury (Lady Carbury's distant relation) and to a lesser extent (because they were very minor characters) Mr Breghert, the Jewish banker. and Mr Broune, Lady Carbury's friend. This was a disappointment for me. At some distant time I may re-read it, and perhaps knowing the outcome I will better appreciate what Trollope was trying to do.
It's also interesting to compare Mr. Melmotte here with Mr. Merdle in Little Dorrit, which I read last month. Both characters are men of great wealth that are a mystery to the general public, and both were based on real-life figures. Dickens keeps Mr Merdle at a distance; we never get inside of his head, like the way Trollope digs into Melmotte. Both have the same unhappy endings and in both books there is a ripple effect on society and some characters in the books in particular. But in Dickens it comes as a complete shock and had more impact on me as a reader; in Trollope it's just good riddance to bad rubbish.
Trollope's longest book starts out following Lady Carbury, a mediocre novelist with little money who is attempting to get good reviews for her books and get her son and daughter into advantageous marriages. The book slowly shifts focus to the great financier Augustus Melmotte, whose background and source of great wealth are a mystery. (From what I've read, Melmotte's portrait was a conglomeration of real-life men of wealth during the Victorian era.) The more that is revealed about Melmotte, the more I disliked him. Trollope can often portray unlikable characters but still get me to have pity or sympathy with them (Louis Trevelyan in He Knew He Was Right, for example), but not here.
Trollope's intent, I think, was to portray a society that has become so corrupt that it has lost all sense of honesty and integrity. Laudable aims, but overall I can't say that I enjoyed this book very much. There really wasn't a character that I liked or even appreciated, except possibly Roger Carbury (Lady Carbury's distant relation) and to a lesser extent (because they were very minor characters) Mr Breghert, the Jewish banker. and Mr Broune, Lady Carbury's friend. This was a disappointment for me. At some distant time I may re-read it, and perhaps knowing the outcome I will better appreciate what Trollope was trying to do.
It's also interesting to compare Mr. Melmotte here with Mr. Merdle in Little Dorrit, which I read last month. Both characters are men of great wealth that are a mystery to the general public, and both were based on real-life figures. Dickens keeps Mr Merdle at a distance; we never get inside of his head, like the way Trollope digs into Melmotte. Both have the same unhappy endings and in both books there is a ripple effect on society and some characters in the books in particular. But in Dickens it comes as a complete shock and had more impact on me as a reader; in Trollope it's just good riddance to bad rubbish.
12kac522
5. John Adams, David McCullough (2002); 651 pages
In this biography of the 2nd President of the United States, I felt like I really knew the personality and character of John Adams when I finished this book. McCullough used quite a bit of Adams' correspondence with his wife Abigail and others to bring him to life. Adams felt most proud of his work for independence during the early revolutionary years and his part in constructing the Massachusetts constitution, which later became a model for the U.S. Constitution. I got the impression he was least satisfied with his work as President and Vice-President. I love McCullough's narrative style and it made the book move quickly despite its 600+ pages.
In this biography of the 2nd President of the United States, I felt like I really knew the personality and character of John Adams when I finished this book. McCullough used quite a bit of Adams' correspondence with his wife Abigail and others to bring him to life. Adams felt most proud of his work for independence during the early revolutionary years and his part in constructing the Massachusetts constitution, which later became a model for the U.S. Constitution. I got the impression he was least satisfied with his work as President and Vice-President. I love McCullough's narrative style and it made the book move quickly despite its 600+ pages.
