recent additions to my book collection; book club picks, classics and a recent kindle read.
god forbid a girl wants to splurge on a few books every now and then.. anyways, food for thought, right?
1 / Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder by Evelyn Waugh
“The most nostalgic and reflective of Evelyn Waugh's novels, Brideshead Revisited looks back to the golden age before the Second World War. It tells the story of Charles Ryder's infatuation with the Marchmains and the rapidly-disappearing world of privilege they inhabit. Enchanted first by Sebastian at Oxford, then by his doomed Catholic family, in particular his remote sister, Julia, Charles comes finally to recognize only his spiritual and social distance from them.”
Recently, I’ve been re-reading “the secret history” by Donna Tartt in an effort to re-experience all of my favorite books, and hopefully dive deeper into their meanings and symbolisms, and to engage more with the content of the novels. While reading, I’ve ended up in a rabbit hole of research on all the books that inspired her while writing “the secret history”, and this book seems to pop up in every article and interview. Admittedly, I had never heard of this book on my first read, not being as enthralled by it as I was on my second. Now, however, on my third re-read of the book, I’m embarking on a journey to better understand it through its references and symbols, starting with this one.
2 / The brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevksy
“The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture.”
Last year, I finally picked up “Crime and punishment” by the same author, and it immediately enthralled me. It quickly ended up becoming one of my favorite books of all time, and I still catch myself thinking about it at odd times. So I promised myself to explore more of his works and see if he was a one-hit wonder for me, or a literary soulmate. I’ve since read “White nights”, which I didn’t like, and I also tried to read “Notes on underground” but I ultimately failed when I didn’t really see the point of it. Despite the fact that both of these were a fail, I’m still interested to see how his other books compared, especially some of his longer ones, so “The brothers Karamazov” is up next on my journey.
3 / The divine comedy; Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso by Dante Alighieri
“Informed by a profound belief in the dignity and compassion of humanity, and influenced by the turbulent society of thirteenth-century Italy, Dante's Commedia is one of the most extraordinary visions of sin and redemption in literature. A work of boundless invention and vast intellectual synthesis, it broke new ground with the vigour of its language and storytelling. The three parts of the Commedia chart the spiritual and physical journey of Dante: in the Inferno he descends into a freezing Hell with the Roman Virgil as his guide, in Purgatorio he climbs Mount Purgatorio and is reunited with his last love, Beatrice, and, finally, in Paradiso, he ascends to heaven and a sphere beyond space and time.”
The divine comedy is one of those books that seems to be referenced in just about every book ever written, so as a literature nerd, obviously I have to read it. Although it was composed 700 years ago, inferno continues to influence our society in every way, from religion to video games, and it serves as endless inspiration in literature. I genuinely believe that it’s one of those books that every reader should read at some point in their lives, and I feel like my time is now.
4 / The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and other tales of terror by Robert Louis Stevenson
“Published as a 'shilling shocker', Robert Louis Stevenson's dark psychological fantasy gave birth to the idea of the split personality. The story of respectable Dr Jekyll's strange association with 'damnable young man' Edward hyde; the hunt through fog-bound London for a killer; and the final revelation of Hyde's true identity is a chilling exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil. The other stories in this volume also testify to Stevenson's inventiveness within the Gothic tradition: 'Olalla', a tale of vampirism and tainted family blood, and 'The Body Snatcher', a gruesome fictionalization of the exploits of the notorious Burke and Hare.”
While he’s probably most known for his children’s classic “Treasure Island”, he’s got a whole array of other novels and stories and is well known in the literary world for his horror stories. This is another one of those books that comes up as books to read if you like “the secret history”, and while I have already read the title story in the past, I’m very interested to re-read it and see the parallels between the two. I’ve also been wanting to read more of his works, so I’d call this a win-win situation.
5 / Melmoth the wanderer by Charles Robert Maturin
“Created by an Irish clergyman, Melmoth is one of the most fiendish characters in literature. In a satanic bargain, Melmoth exchanges his soul for immortality. The story of his tortured wanderings through the centuries is pieced together through those who have been implored by Melmoth to take over his pact with the devil. Influenced by the Gothic romances of the late 18th century, Maturin's diabolic tale raised the genre to a new and macabre pitch. Its many admirers include Poe, Balzac, Oscar Wilde and Baudelaire.”
Melmoth the wanderer is our book club pick for July, and I notoriously hate reading classics on kindle, so I grabbed a physical copy of it while I was getting these other books on the list. A couple of years back, I started really getting into the gothic genre, and I wrote down a list for myself on gothic novels to read, and this is one of them. This is one of those books that has always seemed very intimidating to me, and even though I’ve been wanting to read it for a long time, I always manage to push it back somehow. Fun fact, this is actually how it ended up as a book club pick, because now I have no choice, and I have a group of wonderful people to experience it with.
6 / Chlorine by Jade Song
“Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach, her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life. But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that dragged them down and drowned them. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she's always longed to become: mermaid. Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine--the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.”
The only book on this list that I’ve already read, Chlorine was fascinating coming of age story sprinkled with some heavy duty gore. I was actually a bit apprehensive about reading this one, as it was recommended to me by my best friend and I’m always a bit scared to not enjoy the books that she recommends me (there’s nothing worse than hating a book your friend loves), so it took me quite some time to get to it, but in the end, I absolutely devoured it. I originally read it on my kindle, but I decided that I really needed a physical copy of it for keepsake, and for annotation purposes whenever I get around to re-reading it.
It’ll be a classics summer for me this year, but I can’t really complain about it, it is slowly becoming my favorite genre. It’s so diverse, and so many of these stories are so fundamental to many of the stories currently being written, it’s an endless backlist of inspiration. I’d love to know if you’ve read any of these books, and how you feel about them!
Until next time,
