A Classic Update

I realized the other day that I hadn't really been keeping you up with my Classics reading, and then I felt a bit guilty...sooo here we go:

Early in January I started reading both Middlemarch, by George Eliot, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. On Saturday, I finished both of them. Yes, it took me a good month to read both of these books, but if you think about it my way, if I had been reading them seperately, it would only have been about 2 weeks for each. (Ha!)

So, Middlemarch...lets start with this one, since I finished it first. (2:30AM...yes, I stayed up rather late with this one - always a sign of a really good book, in my opinion.) Excellent book!!! I was fascinated with how George Eliot carefully wove all these different peoples lives together, placing a picture of provincial life at such an angle that we, the readers, can't help falling in love with each and every character and wanting the best (or at least the right or just) to happen for them. I'm not going to write a review, because a; I don't really have time right now and b; I don't really want to. :) So I'll leave you with my highest praise and recommendations for this truly classic novel.

Moving on to Wuthering Heights. I completed this one at about 2:30PM on Saturday...I was much amused by my time slots with these two books. Anyway...I really liked Wuthering Heights. I really had no idea what to expect when I started reading it - other than startling hints and astonishing winks of secrecy and such from people I talked to about it - so it was all pretty much a surprise. And I think I can safely say it was a very good surprise! I don't think I'll place this novel on my top favorites list, just because I can't put everything on it, but I really enjoyed it. Now I'll give you my own secretive hint, followed by a wink (although you'll have to use your imagination to see the wink,): It has a strangely happy ending. Yes. There you go, that's my bit of enticing hint.

So, now I'm almost done with my list of Classics (the much shortened version that I have finally settled upon), and I am going to begin work on some books that I'm labeling "Family classics", or, in other words, the books that pretty much everyone in my family has read, and therefore if I want to know what they know and be in the know and such, I must read them. (Congratulation to anyone who followed that sentence...)

But first I must read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn...