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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 -
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie — book review
Death on the Nile is one of Agatha Christie’s most ingenious mysteries. While Christie has definitely penned more ‘twisty’ whoddunits, the shifting dynamics between the book’s various players make for a suspenseful story. With the exception of our wonderfully punctilious Poirot, Death on the Nile is almost entirely populated by unlikable characters (who are either…
1930S, 3rd pov, 4 STARS, AGATHA CHRISTIE, BOOK REVIEW, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, CRIME, Death on the Nile, DETECTIVE, egypt, england, favourite authors, female authors, golden age detective fiction, hercule poirot, HISTORICAL FICTION, light reads, MURDER, murder investigation, murder mystery, MYSTERY, published in 1937, QUEEN OF CRIME, re-reads, read in 2020, REVIEW, rich people, whodunnit -
Frost In May by Antonia White — book review
“Do you know that no character is any good in this world unless that will has been broken completely? Broken and re-set in God’s own way. I don’t think your will has been quite broken, my dear child, do you?” After converting to Catholicism, nine year old Nanda Gray is sent by her father to…
1910s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 4 STARS, academia, all girls school, Antonia White, beautiful prose, boarding/private school, British author, british classics, catholicism, CHILDHOOD, CLASSICS, coming of age, convent, england, female authors, female friendships, friendships, Frost in May, growing up, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, LITERARY FICTION, nuns, published in 1933, read in 2020, Religion -
The Charioteer by Mary Renault — book review
“He was filled with a vast sense of the momentous, of unknown mysteries. He did not know what he should demand of himself, nor did it seem to matter, for he had not chosen this music he moved to, it had chosen him.” This is the fifth time I’ve read The Charioteer and once again I’ve been…
1930S, 1940s, 20th century, 3rd pov, 5 STARS, ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, academia, beautiful prose, bildungsroman, boarding/private school, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, coming of age, england, existentialism, family, favourite authors, female authors, first love, friendships, gay, greek myths, HISTORICAL FICTION, HOSPITAL, identity, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, LITERARY FICTION, Longing, love triangle, m/m, male friendships, Mary Renault, masculinity, modern classics, morality, mothers & sons, My reviews, philosophical, psychological, published in 1953, queer, re-reads, read in 2016, read in 2017, read in 2018, read in 2020, read in 2021, ROMANCE, SEXUALITY, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, The Charioteer, unrequited love, WWII -
Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon — book review
Lady Audley’s Secret is a pretty entertaining sensation novel. The story is centred around Lady Audley who, surprise surprise, has a secret. Like most other sensation novels, Lady Audley’s Secret combines melodrama with an investigation of sorts. Robert Audley, the nephew of Sir Michael, is suspicious of his uncle’s new wife, the beautiful and young…
1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 3 STARS, big books, BOOK REVIEW, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, drama, england, female authors, GOTHIC, HISTORICAL FICTION, Lady Audley’s Secret, MARRIAGE, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, MELODRAMA, MURDER, MYSTERY, published in 1862, read in 2020, sensation fiction, VICTORIAN -
Olivia by Dorothy Strachey — book review
“And so that was what love led to. To wound and be wounded. ” Set in a French finishing school Dorothy Strachey’s Olivia tells the story of a schoolgirl’s infatuation with her headmistress. Narrated by its titular character, Olivia perfectly evokes adolescent love. Olivia becomes enamoured with Mlle. Julie, and experiences an awakening of sorts.…
1890s, 19TH CENTURY, 1st pov, academia, age gap, all girls school, beautiful prose, beauty, boarding/private school, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, Dorothy Strachey, england, f/f, female authors, first love, FRANCE, HISTORICAL FICTION, introspective, it’s about the *yearning*, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, light reads, Longing, modern classics, Olivia, published in 1949, queer, re-reads, read in 2020, read in 2021, ROMANCE, sapphic, SEXUALITY, teachers, unrequited love -
Maurice by E.M. Forster — book review
“No tradition overawed the boys. No convention settled what was poetic, what absurd. They were concerned with a passion that few English minds have admitted, and so created untrammelled. Something of exquisite beauty arose in the mind of each at last, something unforgettable and eternal, but built of the humblest scraps of speech and from…
1900s, 1910s, 20th century, 3.5 STARS, 3rd pov, academia, bad love, bildungsroman, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, British author, british classics, Cambridge, campus, class, CLASSICS, coming of age, E.M. Forster, Edwardian era, england, first love, Forster, Greece, greek myths, HISTORICAL FICTION, lgbtq+, LGBTQ+ Author, lgbtq+ classics, LONDON, Longing, m/m, male authors, masculinity, Maurice, morality, philosophical, published in 1971, queer, read in 2020, ROMANCE, SEXUALITY, SOCIAL COMMENTARY, Southampton, UNIVERSITY/COLLEGE, unrequited love -
The Common Reader by Virginia Woolf — book review
Throughout the course of my undergraduate degree I consistently and persistently avoided Virginia Woolf’s body of work as on the best of days I have little patience for stream of consciousness (especially of the Joycean variety) and modernist literature. When my lecturers mentioned Woolf they always seemed to confirm my impression of her being a…
1920s, 20th century, 4 STARS, beautiful prose, Booklr, books about books, books about writers, BOOKS ON WRITING, British author, british classics, CLASSICS, england, ESSAYS, female authors, LGBTQ+ Author, literary criticism, modernism, Nonfiction, philosophical, published in 1925, read in 2020, REVIEW, The Common Reader, Virginia Woolf -
Invitation to the Waltz by Rosamond Lehmann
Invitation to the Waltz is a short novel which was first published in 1932 and written by Rosamond Lehmann, an overlooked yet clearly talented author. The narrative takes place over the course of two days: the day of Olivia Curtis’ seventeenth birthday and the day in which, together with her older sister Kate and a…
1930S, 20th century, 3.25 stars, balls, BOOK REVIEW, BOOK REVIEWS, Booklr, British author, british classics, class, CLASSICS, coming of age, dancing, drama, england, female authors, girlhood, HISTORICAL FICTION, identity, introspective, Invitation to the Waltz, LITERARY FICTION, Longing, modern classics, published in 1932, read in 2020, Rosamond Lehmann, satire, SEXUALITY, SISTERS -
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
luce [is reading] 