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Tag Archives: classics

20 Classics #8: Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

October 19, 2011 – 10:59 am

I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books. I aimed to read them all in 2011, but that’s beginning to look unlikely. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? I had vague ideas about Gulliver’s Travels. I remembered Ted Danson being tied up by some little people in a film version I [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged 18th Century, 18th Century literature, 20 classics, 20 Classics in 2011, adventure, Alexander Pope, ambition, Big-Endians, British authors, British literature, Brobdingnag, colonialism, contradiction, corruption, England, fantasy, government, greed, Gulliver's Travels, Houyhnhnm, humour, Irish authors, Jack Black, Jacobites, Jonathan Swift, kings, Lilliput, Lilliputian, Mary Gulliver, pride, rebellion, religion, royalty, rudeness, satire, satirical literature, sci-fi, science fiction, seafaring, Ted Danson, Vintage Classics, war | Comments (5)

20 classics in 2011 #6: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

April 28, 2011 – 7:15 am

I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? I love Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, and dystopian fiction in general. Plus, the sections of my work-in-progress that people have read have been compared to Brave New World. I thought it was about time I read it [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, British authors, Chrome Yellow, civilisation, complacency, consumerism, dystopia, dystopian fiction, Freudian, futuristic novels, happiness, hypnosis, LSD, modern classics, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Our Ford, Pavlov, psychadelic drugs, retro-future, sci-fi, science fiction, SF, SF classics, Shakespeare, soma | Comments (15)

20 classics in 2011 #5: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

April 15, 2011 – 9:30 am

I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? I’d always heard Oscar Wilde was a wit, and the supernatural element of the story appealed to me. When was it published? It was first published in 1890, as an issue of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. A later [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged 19th Century, 19th Century fiction, 20 Classics in 2011, aesthetics, art, beauty, decadent movement, homosexual writers, Irish authors, narcissus, Oscar Wilde, supernatural themes, The Picture of Dorian Gray, youth | Comments (4)

20 classics in 2011 #4: Heroes and Villains by Angela Carter

March 28, 2011 – 7:15 am

I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? I only heard of Angela Carter, strangely, when I started my doctorate and attended a seminar about one of the stories in The Bloody Chamber. It included a hand-out with an extract of the story. Feminist, [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged 1970s, 20 Classics in 2011, Angela Carter, appropriation, Barbarians, Cold War era fiction, cult books, English authors, English literature, erotic fiction, feminist literature, Heroes and Villains, po-mo, post-apocalyptic, post-modern literature, Professors, science fiction, The Bloody Chamber | Comments (6)

20 classics in 2011 #3: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

March 3, 2011 – 7:30 am

I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? Yarrrr, I was in the mood for some adventure! And so much legend exists because of this one book: one-legged pirates, parrots, treasure maps marked with an X and more. When was it published? It was originally [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged 20 Classics in 2011, Captain George North, children's classics, children's fiction, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Dr Livesey, Edinburgh authors, Hispaniola, Jane Yolen, Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver, one-legged pirates, pirate legends, pirate mythology, pirates, Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish authors, Scottish literature, Scottish writers, Squire Trelawney, Treasure Island, treasure maps, women pirates, Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum | Comments (3)

20 classics in 2011 #2: The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

February 8, 2011 – 9:16 am

I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. ‘A great many people give me the impression of never having for a moment felt anything’ – Isabel Archer, The Portrait of a Lady. Why did I want to read it? Well, first of all, Henry James is one of the ‘great’ novelists [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged 19th Century fiction, 20 Classics in 2011, American authors, classic books, Henry James, Isabel Archer, Portrait of a Lady, strong female characters | Comments (8)

20 classics in 2011 #1: The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood

January 27, 2011 – 11:13 am

I’m reading 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. Read more about this project here. Why did I want to read it? After seeing the elegant and moving film A Single Man (and falling for Colin Firth all over again) I learnt it was based on a novel by Christopher Isherwood – a rather famous gay writer who for [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged 1930s, 1930s Berlin, 20 Classics in 2011, A Single Man, American writers, Berlin, Berlin is a skeleton, British writers, Cabaret, Christopher Isherwood, Colin Firth, English writers, Germany, Goodbye to Berlin, Mr Norris Changes Trains, queer writers, Sally Bowles, The Berlin Stories, The Last of Mr Norris | Comments (7)

20 classics in 2011: blog project

January 18, 2011 – 8:30 am

I am going to read 20 classic, modern-classic or cult books in 2011. All book-lovers have gaps in their reading – how could you possibly read everything? In recent years I’ve been fairly up-to-speed with newer books and Australian literature, but I’ll often find myself in conversation, saying ‘oh, I haven’t read such-and-such yet’. People often assume I [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in 20 Classics in 2011 | Also tagged 20 Classics in 2011, classic books, famous authors, gaps in reading, must-reads, reading, reading project | Comments (46)

Collected Stories – Richard Yates

January 18, 2010 – 8:04 am

Vintage 9780099518549 (Aus, US) When a man is fired from his job in the story ‘A Glutton for Punishment’, he realises he has enjoyed the failures in his life. The character in this – like many of the other characters in Richard Yates’ Collected Stories – runs over a conversation in his head, with his [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in Reviews + Analyses | Also tagged A Glutton for Punishment, American authors, American literature, child characters, Collected Stories, depressing books, domestic, failures, favourites, humour, my favourites, new york, offices, relationships, Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates, sad writers, Saying Goodbye to Sally, short stories, tragedy, Vintage | Comments (7)

Guest review: Sam Cooney on Mark Mordue’s Dastgah

July 21, 2009 – 8:05 am

Dastgah, Mark Mordue Allen & Unwin (2001, Australia). Also published overseas. Review by Sam Cooney. Dastgah is an account of Australian writer, journalist and editor Mark Mordue’s first trip overseas: a one-year journey through the regions of India, Nepal, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Iran, and the cities of Paris and New York. The [...]

By Angela Meyer | Posted in Other People's Words, Reviews + Analyses | Also tagged Allen & Unwin, Australian literature, Australian writers, Dastgah, Iran, Mark Mordue, memoir, Nepal, new york, travel literature, Turkey | Comments (8)