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Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
For a work that was first published in 1998 Daughter of Fortune strikes me as something more suited to the 1970s. Don’t get me wrong, I love Isabel Allende’s work and she is one of my favourite authors, however, at the risk of coming across as an oversensitive zillennial, her mystification of China struck me…
1830s, 1840s, 1850s, 3 STARS, 3rd pov, ADOPTION, Adult, adventure, America, California, chile, Chilean American author, China, class, daughter of fortune, doctors, drama, FAMILY SAGA, favourite authors, female authors, GRIEF, heavy on telling, HISTORICAL FICTION, ISABEL ALLENDE, latin america, latin american, latinx author, MAGICAL REALISM, MARRIAGE, MELODRAMA, miscarriage, orphans, pregnancy, problematic, prostitution, published in 1998, road trip, ship, slow pacing, survival, TRANSLATED FICTION, travel, unrequited love, voyage -
No Name by Wilkie Collins
I love Wilkie Collins’ humour, the quirkiness and mannerisms of his characters, and the intricate plots of his novels. No Name focuses on a rather unconventional heroine, Magdalen Vanstone, who in a short amount of time finds herself orphaned and – due to an idiotic a legality – penniless. Her rightful inheritance lands in the…
1840s, 1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 3rd pov, 4.5 STARS, Adult, adventure, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, drama, england, family, favourite authors, GOTHIC, HISTORICAL FICTION, HUMOR, LONDON, male authors, MYSTERY, No Name, published in 1862, read in 2018, sensation fiction, SISTERS, suffolk, VICTORIAN, WILKIE COLLINS, york -
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë — book review
“Who blames me? Many, no doubt; and I shall be called discontented. I could not help it: the restlessness was in my nature; it agitated me to pain sometimes.” Jane Eyre is not only considered a classic (if not the classic) in feminist literature, but an exemplary piece of Romantic Gothic literature. Personally, I view…
1830s, 1840s, 1st pov, 3.75 stars, age gap, beautiful prose, bildungsroman, boarding/private school, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British author, british classics, CHARLOTTE BRONTË, CHILDHOOD, class, CLASSICS, england, favourite authors, female authors, friendships, GOTHIC, growing up, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, illness, introspective, jane eyre, madness, manor/big house, Mr. Rochester, orphans, psychological, published in 1847, READ IN 2019, Religion, sitter/au pair/governess, St. John Eyre Rivers, Thornfield, VICTORIAN, victorian madness -
Bleak House by Charles Dickens — book review
While the first few chapters of Bleak House are rather entertaining, the fifty chapters that follow? Not so much. There is a lot of ‘jumble and jargon’ going on in Bleak House. Having genuinely loved Great Expectations I am rather disappointment by this novel. The humour present in Bleak House consists mostly in the narrative…
1840s, 1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 3 STARS, big books, Bleak House, bombastic style, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British author, british classics, CHARLES DICKENS, class, CLASSICS, courtroom drama, DEATH, DETECTIVE, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), drama, england, HISTORICAL FICTION, HUMOR, illness, LONDON, male authors, MELODRAMA, orphans, playful style, READ IN 2019, satire, sensation fiction, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, VICTORIAN -
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
“If I had been a man, I would have knocked him down on the threshold of his own door, and have left his house, never on any earthly consideration to enter it again. But I was only a woman – and I loved his wife so dearly!” A thoroughly entertaining novel that is intriguing from…
1840s, 1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 4.5 STARS, aristocracy, British author, CLASSICS, drama, england, epistolary, friendships, GENDER, GOTHIC, HISTORICAL FICTION, HUMOR, illness, Italy, male authors, MYSTERY, mystery puzzle, read in 2017, ROMANCE, sensation fiction, SISTERS, SUSPENSE, THE WOMAN IN WHITE, VICTORIAN, WILKIE COLLINS -
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
Even after a third reading I am still surprised by how much this novel resonates with me. A lot readers will start Villette expecting a rehash of Jane Eyre—a novel which I enjoyed but wasn’t particularly taken by—which is a pity given that the narrative of Villette takes its reader through a much more labyrinthine path that the straightforward Bildungsroman…
1840s, 1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 1st pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, ALIENATION, ambiguous protagonist, boarding/private school, British author, british classics, CHARLOTTE BRONTË, CLASSICS, cold tone, england, existentialism, female authors, female doubles, FRANCE, GENDER, GOTHIC, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, introspective, LITERARY FICTION, loneliness, Lucy Snowe, MEMORY, philosophical, published in 1853, re-reads, Religion, ROMANCE, travel, unreliable narrators, unrequited love, VICTORIAN, VILLETTE
luce [is reading] 