Basil by Wilkie Collins

27 April 2011 23:37

This is another book from my 2011 Reading List and it’s the fifth book which I’ve read by Wilkie Colllins. It was first published in 1852 and was the second book which he wrote. Although The Woman in White is his most famous book it isn’t my favourite, I think that that is still The Moonstone and I even enjoyed Basil more than TWIW.

Basil is the 24 year old younger son of a man of property and wealth. Basil’s father is in fact a terrible snob and the most important thing to him is his family name and its noble pedigree, he’s a very proud man and he likes everyone to know their place in society, and to stick to it.

So when Basil falls in love/lust at first sight with a beautiful young woman whom he meets on an omnibus, and he subsequently discovers that she is the daughter of a linen draper, he knows that his father would never approve of the situation. Such is Basil’s infatuation that he contacts the 17 year old Margaret Sherwin through one of her family servants and after only a few meetings with her Basil meets her father and agrees to a marriage with Margaret within a week. Mr Sherwin stipulates that the marriage must be kept a secret and, reading between the lines, unconsumated, for one year as Margaret is young and he hopes that Basil’s father will then accept the situation.

The book is just full of class snobbery with Mr Sherwin and his daughter being portrayed as vulgar gold-diggers, which is to be expected of someone in ‘trade’. Basil’s life falls apart and he eventually realises what a fool he has been.

If you enjoy Victorian melodrama and thrillers then you should give this one a go. There’s a lot more plot than I have written about.

I think it is quite funny that I was reading this book just before the William and Catherine wedding because I remember that James Whittaker commented quite recently that William wouldn’t marry Kate because her mother had been an air hostess (shock horror) and they were in trade, and we couldn’t have an heir to the throne marrying into that sort of family! Two fingers up to James Whittaker then!

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A Christmas Tree by Charles Dickens

17 December 2010 23:30

This is a short story by Charles Dickens and I must admit that it’s the only thing of his that I’ve ever actually got to the end of. That isn’t saying much because it’s only 40 pages long. It’s a very wee book with quite a lot of illustrations by HM Brock. You can read it here. I first read the story about 20 years ago, I wasn’t feeling at all Christmassy and when I saw this lovely wee book in a second-hand book shop I thought it might help me get into the spirit of it all. Ho Ho Ho! – and all that.

To begin with it did conjure up Victorian images of all the traditional decorations that could be found on a Christmas tree. But Dickens just couldn’t stop himself from adding Christmas ghost stories and dead children! I suppose it might have seemed uplifting to your average Victorian, given the child mortality rate in those days.

I don’t know if my attitude towards reading Dickens has been coloured by the fact that from an early age I knew that he was a bit of a swine to his wife. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not a good thing to know a lot about the private lives of authors because it can be really off-putting. Quite a few of them seem to have been bad and dangerous to know – if not actually mad too.

Should I give Dickens another whirl sometime in the future?

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The Belton Estate by Anthony Trollope

10 December 2010 00:01

The Belton Estate was first published in serial form in 1865 and for some reason seems to have been quite neglected over the years. I have to say that I really enjoyed it and it was a very quick read for me.

It’s another story featuring that dastardly thing – an entailed estate. Belton Estate is owned by Mr Amedroz, a widower with a grown up son and daughter, so the entailment shouldn’t be a problem. However, the son Charles has been indulged and spoiled by his father and after spending all of his father’s money and leaving nothing for his sister Clara’s future – and being the selfish, self pitying swine that he is, he commits suicide.

Clara is now in dire straits with no money and an ailing elderly father. When her father dies she’ll be penniless and homeless as the estate passes on to a distant cousin Will Belton. Clara fancies herself to be in love with Captain Frederic Aylmer who is a relative by marriage and a Member of Parliament (usually a bad sign), so when Will Belton, an honest, shy and gentle chap falls in love with Clara she turns his offer of marriage down. Silly Clara, but it had to be done, for the sake of the book.

Clara’s father is sure that the wealthy Mrs Winterfield who is Clara’s aunt by marriage will provide for Clara in her will and so thinks that he has nothing to worry about but Clara knows that her aunt is going to leave her estate and money to Captain Aylmer.

Eventually Captain Aylmer proposes marriage to Clara and she accepts but it isn’t long before she is comparing him with Will Belton and as Frederic is a cold man who never seems to be able to behave the way a fiance should to her, things begin to cool.

When Clara’s father dies she goes to stay with her prospective in-laws, whom she hasn’t met before and it’s obvious that Frederic’s mother and sister are dead against him marrying Clara.

That’s as far as I’m going with the story, because I don’t want to spoil it for people who might want to read it. Previously I’ve read The Barchester Chronicles, and I loved those books, so funny. Trollope must have known a fair amount of ghastly women in his time because he writes them so well. Mrs Proudie, the bishop’s wife, is wonderful in her awfulness.

But what struck me about The Belton Estate is that my copy had originally belonged to my mother-in-law. We inherited it along with a bookcase full of books so I’m fairly sure that she read it. We’ve been married for over 34 years and it’s taken me till now to discover who my mother-in-law took as her role model. It was the tyrranical Lady Aylmer of course, Frederic’s mother!

Charles Dickens often wrote about the conditions that poor people had to suffer, because he had been there himself and presumably hoped that he could help by writing about the inequality of life. Trollope, who was of a different class seems to have been trying to do much the same thing for the women of his own class who were put in a difficult position by entails. He’s also very sympathetic to women who were often harshly judged for what would be seen as a small misdemeanour if committed by a man. It seems to have taken another 20 years for entails to be abolished, by the Reform Bill of 1885.

Anyway, I recommend The Belton Estate as a good read, especially if you’re a bit wary of Anthony Trollope’s work.

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The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker

13 September 2010 23:48

It was a dark and stormy day with the rain battering on the windows and wind howling down the chimneys, so when the gas man finally managed to fix our NEW boiler, (he’s been trying since Thursday) I thought it was the perfect atmosphere for finishing off The Jewel of Seven Stars.

I’m afraid it didn’t help matters though. It says on the cover of this book: STOKER’S CLASSIC TALE OF TERROR, the inspiration for today’s Mummy movies!

At the beginning Abel Trelawny, a keen collector of Egyptian artefacts, appears to have been attacked in his own home and has fallen into a comatose state. It is thought that the many Egyptian mummies which are in his room have caused his illness.

On page 104 one of the characters who has been relating past experiences in Egypt at great length said, “I dare say you find this tedious;” which was exactly what I HAD been thinking!

It didn’t do anything for me at all. I’ve always avoided horror movies and for that reason I didn’t really know much about Frankenstein, so when I actually got around to reading the book earlier in the year I was pleasantly surprised that I really enjoyed it. I thought that I might be missing out on something and as quite a few people have been mentioning Dracula recently I thought I would start off with one of Stoker’s shorter books first. Now I’m not sure if I will bother with Dracula because although this book was only 188 pages long, it did seem to drag.

First published in 1903 this was apparently Stoker’s eighth book, which is a surprise to me because I didn’t think it was very well written and I had been thinking that he must have improved over the years, maybe not then. It was re-written in 1912 and I think it is that version which I read. I suppose it’s because it’s Gothic, but it’s stilted beyond belief, and I say that as someone who reads more Classic books than modern.

Even reading it with tongue firmly in cheek I couldn’t get any enjoyment from it, however I ploughed on regardless to the end. This was a book which I borrowed from the library and the previous borrower had left their bookmark in it less than half-way through, so I can’t be the only person who wasn’t enamoured with it.

I’ll see what others think of Dracula before embarking on it.

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Vanity Fair by W.M. Thackeray

21 May 2010 09:28

Like many Victorian novels Vanity Fair was first issued in monthly
parts, from January 1847 to July 1848. It was also issued in book form in 1848 but the edition which I read was one that I bought from the local second-hand book shop and is the revised 1864 edition with a whopping 878 pages.

Vanity Fair is a social satire which Thackeray wrote in the middle of his writing career. The action begins in London with Amelia Sedley and Rebecca Sharp about to leave Miss Pinkerton’s Academy for young girls, the wealthy Amelia for a life of comfort and the penniless Rebecca as a governess.

Rebecca has no intention of staying poor and immediately ‘sets her cap’ at Jos Sedley, Amelia’s brother. George Osborne, Amelia’s fiance, can’t bear the thought of being related by marriage to someone like Rebecca and scuppers her plans.

Undaunted, Beccy secretly marries her employer’s son Rawdon Crawley whilst Amelia marries George Osborne, the upshot of which is that both young men are disinherited by their fathers.

Thackeray’s writing is much more comical than I had expected it to be :

In a word George had thrown the great cast. He was going to be married. Hence his pallor and nervousness – his sleepless night and agitation in the morning. I have heard people who have gone through the same thing own to the same emotion. After three or four ceremonies you get accustomed to it, no doubt; but the first dip, everybody allows, is awful.

Well, it is funny until you remember that some men in particular could easily have got through three or four wives with so many women dying in childbirth.

As George and Rawdon are in the army they take part in the Battle of Waterloo, 1815.

Thackeray wasn’t born until 1811, he must have done a good deal of talking to men who were actually at the battle. I think that anyone studying this period would benefit from reading the book, even if they can only manage the run up to the battle and the aftermath.

At school I studied Waterloo to the Great Exhibition, 1815 – 1851, a very busy time in British history and I wish I had read the book as a schoolgirl.

As human nature never seems to change the characters are all recognizable and still with us today. Beccy and her husband Rawdon sail through life happy to live at other people’s expense with no thought to the harm which they inflict on others. Chapter 36 is entitled -How to Live Well on Nothing a Year-

As always seems to happen in books published first in periodical form, the story does drag at times as the author pads out the story at whatever the payment per word was in those days. But I thoroughly enjoyed the book even although the characters are nearly all very flawed human beings. I think that they all have their moments when they know how ghastly their behaviour has been.

I suppose ‘society’ has always been full of social climbers but I couldn’t help thinking that Beccy Sharp reminded me of Emma, Lady Hamilton, who behaved in very much the same way.

Although according to a very interesting book (if you are into that era) which I read a few years ago, Nelson’s Women by the historian Tom Pocock, Emma Hamilton had almost certainly been a very lowly prostitute before her climb up into high society and many people at the time couldn’t understand Nelson’s fascination with her.

I digress. Don’t be put off by the 878 pages of Vanity Fair. It’s definitely worth ploughing through.

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Miss or Mrs? by Wilkie Collins

20 April 2010 11:00

This was a very quick read at just 87 pages, I suppose it is a novella really. It was written in 1872 and I think if it had been written earlier when Collins was on the opium then he would probably have managed to work it up into a full sized novel.

Whenever I start reading a writers work, I like to work my way through as much of it as I can, so I’m glad that I could tick this one off. But I don’t think it would make anyone’s list of favourites.

It is really just a straightforward Victorian romance, with an unwanted dastardly suitor thrown in for good measure, and a dollop of suspense of course.

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Lady Audley’s Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon

3 March 2010 22:23

This book was first published in instalments in the London Journal in 1862 and it was hugely successful. I can’t understand how I have never come across Mary Elizabeth Braddon before, I’ve only ever worked in libraries, but anyway I was lucky enough to come across this book in my most recent trip to my local library.

At 476 pages long it’s a fairly chunky read but I found myself getting through it very quickly – always a good sign for me. I really enjoyed it. It’s very much in the Wilkie Collins mode and indeed he is given a name check by the author towards the end of the book. But I actually think that Braddon is even better than Collins. To me, the characters were more likeable and realistic.

The storyline features blackmail, bigamy and murder – what more could you want? Well of course the usual ‘mad’ Victorian woman too. Apparently, up until this book was published wicked women were always brunettes and it all changed with this book as Braddon’s villainess is beautiful, blonde and dainty.

Thackeray said: ‘If I could plot like Miss Braddon I should be the greatest novelist that ever lived.’

Henry James,Dickens,Tennyson,Gladstone and Queen Victoria were also admirers.

If you enjoy reading Victorian ‘sensationalist’ novels, I think you would like this one. I’m certainly going to be looking for more by Braddon and I will probably re-read this one at some point.

I read this book as part of the Thriller & Suspense Reading Challenge 2010.

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The Daily Telegraph Top 100 Books 1899

22 February 2010 23:13

I came across this list on Rose City Reader and I just had to see how many of them I have actually read. The answer is 12 but by a crazy coincidence I just borrowed Lady Audley’s Secret from my local library a couple of hours before I found the list, so I should be able to add that one to my ‘have read list’.

I think that a lot of these would probably be deemed to be unreadable nowadays but I’m going to have a bash at the ones that I can get hold of anyway.

To my shame I have never read any by Sir Walter Scott, although I’ve walked past his monument in Edinburgh plenty of times and I have no excuse as I inherited a lot of books by him. The books that I have read are in bold.

The Tower of London by W. H. Ainsworth
Old St Paul’s by W. H. Ainsworth
Windsor Castle by W. H. Ainsworth
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
Pere Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
A Window in Thrums by J. M. Barrie
The Golden Butterfly by Walter Besant and James Rice
Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood
Lady Audley’s Secret by M. E. Braddon
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
The Deemster by Hall Caine
Valentine Vox by Henry Cockton
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Last of the Mohicans by J. Fenimore Cooper
The Pathfinder by J. Fenimore Cooper
The Prairie by J. Fenimore Cooper
Mr Isaacs by F. Marion Crawford
Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Firm of Girdlestone by Conan Doyle
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Scenes of Clerical Life by George Eliot
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding
Mary Barton by Mrs Gaskell
The Aide de Camp by James Grant
The Romance of War James Grant
Gabriel Conroy by Bret Harte
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Elsie Venner by Oliver Wendell Holmes
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
Tom Brown’s Schooldays by Thomas Hughes
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
Two Years Ago by Charles Kingsley
Alton Locke by Charles Kingsley
Hypatia by Charles Kingsley
The Recollections of Geoffrey Hamlyn by Henry Kingsley
Soldiers Three by Rudyard Kipling
Guy Livingstone by George Lawrence
Harry Lorrequer by Charles Lever
Charles O’Malley by Charles Lever
The Atonement of Leam Dundas by E. Lynn Linton
Handy Andy by Samuel Lover
Rory O’More by Samuel Lover
Last of the Barons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Night and Morning by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Rienzi by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Caxtons by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The King’s Own by Captain Frederick Marryat
Peter Simple by Captain Frederick Marryat
Jacob Faithful by Captain Frederick Marryat
Midshipman Easy by Captain Frederick Marryat
Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith
John Halifax, Gentleman by D. M. Mulock
Under Two Flags by Ouida
It is Never Too Late to Mend by Charles Reade
Peg Woffington and Christie Johnstone by Charles Reade
Hard Cash by Charles Reade
The Headless Horseman by Captain Mayne Reid
Virginia of Virginia by Amelie Rives
The Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner
Tom Cringle’s Log by Michael Scott
Cruise of the Midge by Michael Scott
Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz
Rob Roy by Sir Walter Scott
The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott
Old Mortality by Sir Walter Scott
Kenilworth by Sir Walter Scott
Guy Mannering by Sir Walter Scott
Woodstock by Sir Walter Scott
The Talisman by Sir Walter Scott
Frank Fairlegh by Frank E. Smedley
Roderick Random by Tobias Smollett
Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett
On the Face of the Waters by Mrs F. A. Steel
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Soapey Sponge’s Sporting Tour by Robert Smith Surtees
The Wandering Jew by Eugene Sue
The History of Henry Esmond by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Newcomes by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Memoirs of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
Robert Elsmere by Mrs H. Ward
£10,000 a Year by Samuel Warren
The Wide, Wide World by Elizabeth Wetherell
Market Harborough by G. J. Whyte-Melville
Inside the Bar by G. J. Whyte-Melville
East Lynne by Mrs Henry Wood

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