Summers are the perfect time to engage in new reading and exploring different literature, but it’s also a lovely time to revisit old books, and for me this includes works that I’ve both loved and mostly wondered about (so not exactly hated). These are mostly “classics” which, while written in different eras, have aspects that amuse me as someone who is open to any subject. I thought I would share some of these and present them briefly from my point of view to suggest them as summer reading to anyone interested in exploring English classics.
Vanity Fair (1847-1848) by William Makepeace Thackeray
This “brick” of a Victorian novel presents subjects that still resonate even with the contemporary reader – namely, how ego can make a person ugly in their endeavors to achieve something and how snobbish any person can be. There are two plots, one which follows Becky, a ruthless social climber who basically becomes the worst in nature, and the other follows Amelia, a delicate and pitiful opposite, who falls in the social scale as Becky climbs higher. Their plots open a sketch of nineteenth century British society which Thackeray portrays with sharp satire to show the ugliness of reality, of hypocrisy and arrogance, and this creates a novel with no “heroes.” Because of its broader structure, the novel has made me laugh, annoyed, stunned, even angry at times. What makes the story significant is its narrator who enlivens the text with satire, irony, and digressions which, you’ll have to accept, appear frequently. But they contain intriguing thoughts about manners and society from the author’s journalistic perceptiveness, which then complement the story as the events unfold through the female characters.
Daisy Miller (1878) by Henry James
This novella seems to always be included when James is brought up in university English literature classes, but for good reason, of course. To me, the language is just delicious, but the characters are positively annoying. Some absolutely hate the titular character, Daisy, yet I both love and am annoyed by her. She is unapologetically bold, therefore, unapologetically American while in European company, but she also seems to annoy on purpose with her vivid flirtatiousness. We first meet Frederick Winterbourne who is also American, but a sharp contrast to the New York born young woman, because Winterbourne has lived most of his life in Europe, and therefore more prone to the upper-class rules of propriety. The story is told from his perspective, and what makes it fascinating is the very issue that the man tries to analyze Daisy’s character. Because of her boldness and mere acquaintances with other men, Daisy then becomes a subject of “scandal.” But the absurdity of this, then, makes her just an innocent young character in a strict society of Americans in Europe.
The Awakening (1899) by Kate Chopin
On the surface, this novel is about a woman’s sensual awakening which makes her determined to follow her own volition and forget her strict role as a housewife. While the story can be deemed as another narrative of a desperate housewife, it is so much more than that. Chopin’s story depicts something that is also about gaining a sense of selfness, a sense of one’s own individual being as the narrative follows its protagonist’s, Edna Pontellier’s, development. The author takes care to depict the influence of her surroundings, their effect on her sensibilities, and the acceptance of these sensibilities because they connect the character to herself and her surrounding world. The character may come off as capricious, but the narrative, while simple in structure, holds significant implications about coming to own one’s own body and soul. The thought of also becoming connected to one’s environment becomes a significant aspect, and while we certainly can come and go freely, exploring our cities, to me, the novel also reminds of truly enjoying those environments that might interest and please us.
Mrs. Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf
A strange novel with its delights and tragedies. Woolf has composed the story through the stream-of-consciousness method which strives to present the intricacies of passing thoughts during the many moments of just one day. The iconic beginning, that Mrs. Dalloway “would buy the flowers herself,” begins the day, and as the narrator follows the titular character and others through her, the mode of expression moves from omniscient voice to different interior monologues by many characters. With Clarissa, for example, the narration expresses her thoughts and quick observations in the fleeting way that characterizes the human thought process while one goes on about their day. The plotless narrative begins with the upper-class Londoner who gradually reveals more about herself through her memories and ponderings which make her quite intricate. As she moves through London, the story also begins to follow Septimus Warren Smith, a mentally damaged war veteran whose trauma is not taken seriously. We are left reading his troubled thoughts as he doesn’t get the proper aid he needs, his illness, then, rather contained. Through these characters particularly, the narrative presents two different worlds with the overwhelming presence of the passing time, which as a reader you may sense as well.
These choices were particularly inspired by their ways of narration that, I think, always reveal more than just what happens on the surface. Therefore, they become fascinating reads, whether you come to hate or love them – or, just wonder about them.