I’m an odd girl. Two of my favorite movies are Titanic and Fight Club. I love romance just as much as I love watching guys beating each other up. So, I was super excited when one of my favorite books of all time, Pride and Prejudice, had zombie violence added to it. It was like a marriage of a favorite sister with an undead monster; a match made in comedy heaven!
This book is literally the exact same text as the original Pride and Prejudice except that now there is a strange plague facing England that is bringing the undead back to life. Good thing the Bennet sisters are some of the best fighters out there, having been educated in China by the best dojo’s of the day. Seriously though, what could be better than a regency romance, zombies, and ninjas? Nothing.
This book was really so much fun to read. The one thing you have to remember is that at the end of the day, it’s the same text as the original Pride and Prejudice. A few times during my reading, I was confused about why the book was taking so long to read and I even thought to myself, “this is like reading a classic!” Oh wait, it IS reading a classic, just with some flying limbs every now and then. So when you approach this book, remember that it is classically written and take it slow, it’s worth it.
But besides the fact of this book being a good way to introduce yourself to Jane Austen in a very entertaining way, it’s just hilarious what Seth Grahame-Smith wrote into this book. Two of my favorite scenes in Pride and Prejudice are the first ball at Netherfield and when the dreadful Mr. Collins comes to dinner. During the first scene at the ball, zombies attack!
“Unmentionables poured in, their movements clumsy yet swift; their burial clothing in a range of untidiness. Some wore gowns so tattered as to render them scandalous; others wore suits so filthy that one would assume they were assembled from litter more than dirt and dried blood. Their flesh was in varying degrees of putrefaction; the freshly stricken were slightly green and pliant, whereas the longer dead were grey and brittle- their eyes and tongues long since turned to dust, and their lips pulled back into everlasting skeletal smiles.”
Don’t worry, everything works out because the five Bennet sisters form the awesome Pentagram of Death and slay Satan’s army (Yeah, that was how it was in the book, it’s fabulous.)
But without a doubt my favorite part of the book happens to be the about the author section on the back of the book. It reads:
Jane Austen in the author of Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and other masterpieces of English Literature. Seth Grahame-Smith once took a class in English Literature. He lives in Los Angeles.
I laughed for a full five minutes after I read that and it was what ultimately made me want to read this book. Grahame-Smith has a great sense of humor and when you think about it, he has to know this book inside and out in order to so skillfully inject zombies into it and make it seem like they were meant to be there, which he manages to do. My one negative comment about this book is actually that there weren’t enough zombies. Sometimes it seems like they come out of nowhere and there is literally no point to their scene in the book. Or you will be reading along for pages of the original text and the only mention of a zombie or anything is one random sentence about the girls training in China. It made it hard to follow a few times because it got to be distracting when it should have been the center of attention. But all in all, this book was so much fun to read and I recommend it to any lover of Austen and zombies alike!
Until next time, happy reading! Send me your book recommendations if you have them, I’d be happy to check them out and review them all! Leave any comments below! I’d love to hear them!
Showing posts with label Classics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classics. Show all posts
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
A Note on Charles Dickens (for Mr. Thompson... more book reviews soon)
Hello dear little Honors English students! My name is Emma Phelps and I was in Honors English with Mr. Thompson back when I was in the ninth grade. If you look around the old forum pages, you’ll see me under the name of Londonchick (don’t even worry, I was a weirdy in ninth grade. I’m still just as nerdy, I’ve just toned down my obsessions)
As I understand it, Mr. Thompson is going to have you read a book by Charles Dickens in the upcoming term. He gave me the assignment to either a. make reading Dickens less agonizing for you or b. convince him to skip Dickens and make you read something else.
When I approached this lofty assignment, I at first wasn’t sure which of these I was going to attempt to do. I went back and reread some of what I once wrote in response to Dickens, read a few Dickens passages, and got over my fear of disappointing Mr. Thompson by discouraging his assignment. After a lot of contemplation, I have decided to support the reading of Dickens. Sorry everyone, but just go with me for a second.
So on this blog, I review the books I read. I’m an English nut and I’m very opinionated and I can’t function unless I share my opinions and feelings; typical girl, right? Just kidding. If you scroll down a bit, you can see my review of the book A Christmas Carol by Dickens. If you are too lazy, here is one of my first sentences:
“After a terrible introduction to Charles Dickens via Great Expectations in the ninth grade, I had sworn to hate Dickens for time and all eternity.”
Ok, probably not the best way to start this assignment of making Dickens less of a hassle. This is a very discouraging sentence, but stick with me a bit longer and it will all come together. In the rest of my blog, I continue my review. And after a long time of procrastination and tears, I started the book and loved every second of it.
Now, I did deplore reading Great Expectations and I didn’t read A Tale of Two Cities (yet) so you can’t call me out on either of those. I know what you guys think like and I know you will try to continue hating this assignment if I can’t convince you to give it a chance. I understand that A Christmas Carol is a lot shorter than either of the aforementioned books and I know we all have heard the plot of A Christmas Carol a million and three times. But as a great English teacher once told me, “You cannot separate a great work of fiction from its author.” The same is true for Dickens. Each of the novels he wrote were, in some form, similar to his others. If you can handle one, the other will be within your grasp too.
Here are my tips on Dickens. I’m no expert but I do know a bit more than you, no offense.
First, you need to give him a chance!!!! Have you ever noticed that after you read a really good book, it’s really hard to get into another book because you are so attached to the other characters and the other story? Dickens is like that. It takes more than five seconds to get into his books. I raided some of the forums and gathered a few quotes.
“Every time I pick up the book and read it for 30 seconds I get bored and sleepy and skip most of the words. I'm on chapter 5 and i hope i can finish it by midterm.”
We have all felt this way, I know that and so do you. But you need to know that it’s ok to feel that way for the first bit. Most books follow that sort of pattern; the beginning is mostly used as a set up for the rest of the book. We have to be told the intricate details of the storyline before we can fully appreciate the plot of the book.
Details. This brings us to our next point. Dickens is a nut for details. Another student said:
“This book makes me fall asleep! I think Charles Dickens is a bad author who is much liked by people who love exccesive amounts of detail!”
Not only did this student spell excessive wrong, but he’s being narrow minded. I hate to admit it, but I had this exact same attitude when I first read Dickens in the ninth grade. The detail Dickens uses is a bit excessive but you have to look at his writing from two different perspectives: the perspective of an author and the perspective of a performer.
Dickens wrote his books so they could be read out loud. Every year he read his Christmas Carol out loud to an audience in his town. Look at Dickens not as a reader. As an author, he cares about giving the reader the best picture he possibly could, something we should thank him for. I quote myself from an earlier blog:
“When I first read Dickens, his over description threw me for a loop. I thought it was too much, it was forced, and it made his reading drag very much. Now after hearing it come out of my own mouth, I’ve discovered that he wrote just as he spoke. When you tell a person about something you care about, you leave nothing to their imagination. Dickens cares so much for his characters and his stories that he can’t leave anything out and I thank him for that. He gives the readers an image that will not soon be erased from their minds.”
He wrote for a generation that didn’t have Google for something they didn’t know or a TV they could turn to when they were bored. They didn’t know what some of the things that he talked about were so he had to describe them. People in his time period thirsted for the latest installment of a story by Dickens. They would wait for so long and as soon as a new chapter was slapped into their hands, they raced home to read it. Not only did they read it to themselves, they read it to their families. Literacy wasn’t big in this time, or at least as big as it would become. So, the educated few of the towns took the liberty to read the story to everyone else. That way, not only could the reader enjoy it more but so could the audience. Read Dickens out loud.
Think about a movie or a play you have seen recently. Would you prefer to see it performed or read the script? Think about Dickens’ novels as scripts. If you are dedicated and willing enough, your mind can become the stage. Mr. Thompson on our forum said:
“Dickens demands your complete attention, so this is a very different sort of reading than most of you are accustomed to. You can't read Dickens while you are watching TV or listening to the stereo; your full attention must be on the words. Also, you have to set aside significant amounts of time for reading -- I recommend at least half an hour at a stretch, more if possible. It is very difficult to keep all the plots and subplots together in your head if you try to read the book in 70 ten-minute sessions; it is better to shoot for ten 70-minute sessions.”
You need to concentrate on his novels. His words are different than ours but if you let yourself sit back in time and be in the graveyards along with Pip or in the middle of the city in A Tale of Two Cities, it will be easier.
“And it takes a lot of concentration to read a classic like Dickens. I don't think a lot of modern readers are willing to give the book the proper amount of time and effort that it needs.” BE WILLING!!!! You are not the average reader.
“I think that reading this book is harder because they say things in a different way than we would. Kind of like Shakespeare but not quiet to that extent. Also, I think that it's because we don't seem to have very long attention spans nowadays. In the world today we seem to want to have everything fast and easy( fast food, high speed internet, cable) so when we have to read something like a classic novel, due to the time and effort needed to make sence of the story, it seems to make us think that it is impossible and can't be done.”
Get over the fact that Dickens doesn’t speak like you do. You are getting older, books and school and life for that matter are getting harder; you have got to accept this. The faster you accept it, the easier life is, trust me. During your reading of this book, don’t be surprised when you come across words you don’t know. This book will require more attention from you and more work. My recommendation, sit with a dictionary when you read this book. As soon as you see a word you don’t know, mark it with a post it note, grab a piece of paper, write it down, and LOOK IT UP! This will make reading take longer but when it comes time to take a test on this book or write an essay about it, it will pay off that you know what everything you read actually meant.
“When I first started, it was horrible! Now I understand it a lot better.”
This is delightful and so true. After all of your hard work reading this novel, be sure and have fun with it. People in Dickens day were entertained by it and believe me, people haven’t changed much. What Dickens writes about how people feel is still true today; that’s why Shakespeare is still popular, his characters are relatable. Give it time and take it slow.
To sum up this ramble, here are my tips for success with Dickens:
1. Give Dickens a chance. Don’t write him off based on prior knowledge or thoughts about him or just by reading the first page.
2. Accept the excessive details.
3. Think like a writer and a performer.
4. When in doubt, READ DICKENS OUT LOUD!
5. Turn off the TV and concentrate.
6. Take the time to really read the book.
7. Sit with a dictionary right next to you. Mark up your book.
8. Give it time. BE WILLING!
9. Have fun!
Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it. Please give Dickens a chance and enjoy him! Happy reading and best wishes!
As I understand it, Mr. Thompson is going to have you read a book by Charles Dickens in the upcoming term. He gave me the assignment to either a. make reading Dickens less agonizing for you or b. convince him to skip Dickens and make you read something else.
When I approached this lofty assignment, I at first wasn’t sure which of these I was going to attempt to do. I went back and reread some of what I once wrote in response to Dickens, read a few Dickens passages, and got over my fear of disappointing Mr. Thompson by discouraging his assignment. After a lot of contemplation, I have decided to support the reading of Dickens. Sorry everyone, but just go with me for a second.
So on this blog, I review the books I read. I’m an English nut and I’m very opinionated and I can’t function unless I share my opinions and feelings; typical girl, right? Just kidding. If you scroll down a bit, you can see my review of the book A Christmas Carol by Dickens. If you are too lazy, here is one of my first sentences:
“After a terrible introduction to Charles Dickens via Great Expectations in the ninth grade, I had sworn to hate Dickens for time and all eternity.”
Ok, probably not the best way to start this assignment of making Dickens less of a hassle. This is a very discouraging sentence, but stick with me a bit longer and it will all come together. In the rest of my blog, I continue my review. And after a long time of procrastination and tears, I started the book and loved every second of it.
Now, I did deplore reading Great Expectations and I didn’t read A Tale of Two Cities (yet) so you can’t call me out on either of those. I know what you guys think like and I know you will try to continue hating this assignment if I can’t convince you to give it a chance. I understand that A Christmas Carol is a lot shorter than either of the aforementioned books and I know we all have heard the plot of A Christmas Carol a million and three times. But as a great English teacher once told me, “You cannot separate a great work of fiction from its author.” The same is true for Dickens. Each of the novels he wrote were, in some form, similar to his others. If you can handle one, the other will be within your grasp too.
Here are my tips on Dickens. I’m no expert but I do know a bit more than you, no offense.
First, you need to give him a chance!!!! Have you ever noticed that after you read a really good book, it’s really hard to get into another book because you are so attached to the other characters and the other story? Dickens is like that. It takes more than five seconds to get into his books. I raided some of the forums and gathered a few quotes.
“Every time I pick up the book and read it for 30 seconds I get bored and sleepy and skip most of the words. I'm on chapter 5 and i hope i can finish it by midterm.”
We have all felt this way, I know that and so do you. But you need to know that it’s ok to feel that way for the first bit. Most books follow that sort of pattern; the beginning is mostly used as a set up for the rest of the book. We have to be told the intricate details of the storyline before we can fully appreciate the plot of the book.
Details. This brings us to our next point. Dickens is a nut for details. Another student said:
“This book makes me fall asleep! I think Charles Dickens is a bad author who is much liked by people who love exccesive amounts of detail!”
Not only did this student spell excessive wrong, but he’s being narrow minded. I hate to admit it, but I had this exact same attitude when I first read Dickens in the ninth grade. The detail Dickens uses is a bit excessive but you have to look at his writing from two different perspectives: the perspective of an author and the perspective of a performer.
Dickens wrote his books so they could be read out loud. Every year he read his Christmas Carol out loud to an audience in his town. Look at Dickens not as a reader. As an author, he cares about giving the reader the best picture he possibly could, something we should thank him for. I quote myself from an earlier blog:
“When I first read Dickens, his over description threw me for a loop. I thought it was too much, it was forced, and it made his reading drag very much. Now after hearing it come out of my own mouth, I’ve discovered that he wrote just as he spoke. When you tell a person about something you care about, you leave nothing to their imagination. Dickens cares so much for his characters and his stories that he can’t leave anything out and I thank him for that. He gives the readers an image that will not soon be erased from their minds.”
He wrote for a generation that didn’t have Google for something they didn’t know or a TV they could turn to when they were bored. They didn’t know what some of the things that he talked about were so he had to describe them. People in his time period thirsted for the latest installment of a story by Dickens. They would wait for so long and as soon as a new chapter was slapped into their hands, they raced home to read it. Not only did they read it to themselves, they read it to their families. Literacy wasn’t big in this time, or at least as big as it would become. So, the educated few of the towns took the liberty to read the story to everyone else. That way, not only could the reader enjoy it more but so could the audience. Read Dickens out loud.
Think about a movie or a play you have seen recently. Would you prefer to see it performed or read the script? Think about Dickens’ novels as scripts. If you are dedicated and willing enough, your mind can become the stage. Mr. Thompson on our forum said:
“Dickens demands your complete attention, so this is a very different sort of reading than most of you are accustomed to. You can't read Dickens while you are watching TV or listening to the stereo; your full attention must be on the words. Also, you have to set aside significant amounts of time for reading -- I recommend at least half an hour at a stretch, more if possible. It is very difficult to keep all the plots and subplots together in your head if you try to read the book in 70 ten-minute sessions; it is better to shoot for ten 70-minute sessions.”
You need to concentrate on his novels. His words are different than ours but if you let yourself sit back in time and be in the graveyards along with Pip or in the middle of the city in A Tale of Two Cities, it will be easier.
“And it takes a lot of concentration to read a classic like Dickens. I don't think a lot of modern readers are willing to give the book the proper amount of time and effort that it needs.” BE WILLING!!!! You are not the average reader.
“I think that reading this book is harder because they say things in a different way than we would. Kind of like Shakespeare but not quiet to that extent. Also, I think that it's because we don't seem to have very long attention spans nowadays. In the world today we seem to want to have everything fast and easy( fast food, high speed internet, cable) so when we have to read something like a classic novel, due to the time and effort needed to make sence of the story, it seems to make us think that it is impossible and can't be done.”
Get over the fact that Dickens doesn’t speak like you do. You are getting older, books and school and life for that matter are getting harder; you have got to accept this. The faster you accept it, the easier life is, trust me. During your reading of this book, don’t be surprised when you come across words you don’t know. This book will require more attention from you and more work. My recommendation, sit with a dictionary when you read this book. As soon as you see a word you don’t know, mark it with a post it note, grab a piece of paper, write it down, and LOOK IT UP! This will make reading take longer but when it comes time to take a test on this book or write an essay about it, it will pay off that you know what everything you read actually meant.
“When I first started, it was horrible! Now I understand it a lot better.”
This is delightful and so true. After all of your hard work reading this novel, be sure and have fun with it. People in Dickens day were entertained by it and believe me, people haven’t changed much. What Dickens writes about how people feel is still true today; that’s why Shakespeare is still popular, his characters are relatable. Give it time and take it slow.
To sum up this ramble, here are my tips for success with Dickens:
1. Give Dickens a chance. Don’t write him off based on prior knowledge or thoughts about him or just by reading the first page.
2. Accept the excessive details.
3. Think like a writer and a performer.
4. When in doubt, READ DICKENS OUT LOUD!
5. Turn off the TV and concentrate.
6. Take the time to really read the book.
7. Sit with a dictionary right next to you. Mark up your book.
8. Give it time. BE WILLING!
9. Have fun!
Thanks for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it. Please give Dickens a chance and enjoy him! Happy reading and best wishes!
Sunday, November 29, 2009
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
In my AP English Literature class, we were assigned to read A Christmas Carol over Thanksgiving break. Believe me, I was the complete opposite of excited. After a terrible introduction to Charles Dickens via Great Expectations in the ninth grade, I had sworn to hate Dickens for time and all eternity. The book sat like a hideous demon on the stack of books on my bedside table, a weight on my brain that needed to be done. Finally, I picked the book up and began to read it, sort of. I flipped through the pages, just getting more and angrier about having to read it. To procrastinate even more, I read the back cover. On the back cover, I discovered that Dickens read this story publically every Christmas Eve. This gave me an idea; try reading Dickens out loud and just buck up and give him a second chance.
Here’s is what I learned; when you are in doubt about an author, READ THEIR WRITING OUT LOUD! Dickens is like Shakespeare, if you read it silently, it’s just a bunch of words with no feeling or meaning behind it. It was not written to be read silently, it was written to be shared with an audience. Now, I’m not going to lie, I read this book out loud with a British Accent. Am I embarrassed? Nope. I never would have been able to understand his writing approach without reading it out loud. I was automatically transported back to the mid eighteen hundreds and I watched the spirits visit Scrooge one by one and saw his transformation take place.
When I first read Dickens, his over description threw me for a loop. I thought it was too much, it was forced, and it made his reading drag very much. Now after hearing it come out of my own mouth, I’ve discovered that he wrote just as he spoke. When you tell a person about something you care about, you leave nothing to their imagination. Dickens cares so much for his characters and his stories that he can’t leave anything out and I thank him for that. He gives the readers an image that will not soon be erased from their minds.
His metaphors throughout the book are so brilliant and original. He describes Scrooge’s house as a house that “one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and have forgotten the way out.” How brilliant is that personification? Can you not see that image perfectly? Mmmm… imagery is yummy.
So, I won’t lie, I was a bit creeped out when Marley’s ghost appeared. It’s a terrifying idea, having your house filled with usually lifeless bells and then suddenly chains rattling! Creeptastic, right?! But, I loved the humor that is thrown into the conversation Scrooge has with Marley. Scrooge takes the time, while terrified mind you, to speculate if a spirit can sit in a chair or not. Dickens is one funny dude.
‘Tis the Christmas season, which means it is the season for crappy holiday movies meant to warm your heart but, in truth, just make you gag because of all the special happy feelings. During the reading of this book, I wished more holiday movies took a creative approach while pounding you with moral values. Of course I am familiar with this story but I had forgotten about the two terrifying children hiding under the ghost of Christmas present’s cloak. Reading their description, I had to stop and take a minute to think about what Dickens is telling us. “Man’s Children,” symbolizing Ignorance and Want with Ignorance being pointed out as the sin Scrooge should most look out for has so much meaning to me personally as well as to all of us, I feel. I’ve always believed in the motto that ignorance is bliss. Recently though, I’ve gotten tired of holding back my feelings about everything in my life. I’ve become more direct and if I sense a problem, I have to know about it so I can clear it up. Ignorance is not bliss because in the end, ignorance leaves you all alone.
All in all, I’m so glad I gave dear Charles another chance. Now when I have to read Great Expectations again, I will hopefully appreciate it. Thanks for this assignment Mrs. Hansen!
Until next time, happy reading! Send me your book recommendations if you have them, I’d be happy to check them out and review them all! Leave any comments below! I’d love to hear them!
Here’s is what I learned; when you are in doubt about an author, READ THEIR WRITING OUT LOUD! Dickens is like Shakespeare, if you read it silently, it’s just a bunch of words with no feeling or meaning behind it. It was not written to be read silently, it was written to be shared with an audience. Now, I’m not going to lie, I read this book out loud with a British Accent. Am I embarrassed? Nope. I never would have been able to understand his writing approach without reading it out loud. I was automatically transported back to the mid eighteen hundreds and I watched the spirits visit Scrooge one by one and saw his transformation take place.
When I first read Dickens, his over description threw me for a loop. I thought it was too much, it was forced, and it made his reading drag very much. Now after hearing it come out of my own mouth, I’ve discovered that he wrote just as he spoke. When you tell a person about something you care about, you leave nothing to their imagination. Dickens cares so much for his characters and his stories that he can’t leave anything out and I thank him for that. He gives the readers an image that will not soon be erased from their minds.
His metaphors throughout the book are so brilliant and original. He describes Scrooge’s house as a house that “one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and have forgotten the way out.” How brilliant is that personification? Can you not see that image perfectly? Mmmm… imagery is yummy.
So, I won’t lie, I was a bit creeped out when Marley’s ghost appeared. It’s a terrifying idea, having your house filled with usually lifeless bells and then suddenly chains rattling! Creeptastic, right?! But, I loved the humor that is thrown into the conversation Scrooge has with Marley. Scrooge takes the time, while terrified mind you, to speculate if a spirit can sit in a chair or not. Dickens is one funny dude.
‘Tis the Christmas season, which means it is the season for crappy holiday movies meant to warm your heart but, in truth, just make you gag because of all the special happy feelings. During the reading of this book, I wished more holiday movies took a creative approach while pounding you with moral values. Of course I am familiar with this story but I had forgotten about the two terrifying children hiding under the ghost of Christmas present’s cloak. Reading their description, I had to stop and take a minute to think about what Dickens is telling us. “Man’s Children,” symbolizing Ignorance and Want with Ignorance being pointed out as the sin Scrooge should most look out for has so much meaning to me personally as well as to all of us, I feel. I’ve always believed in the motto that ignorance is bliss. Recently though, I’ve gotten tired of holding back my feelings about everything in my life. I’ve become more direct and if I sense a problem, I have to know about it so I can clear it up. Ignorance is not bliss because in the end, ignorance leaves you all alone.
All in all, I’m so glad I gave dear Charles another chance. Now when I have to read Great Expectations again, I will hopefully appreciate it. Thanks for this assignment Mrs. Hansen!
Until next time, happy reading! Send me your book recommendations if you have them, I’d be happy to check them out and review them all! Leave any comments below! I’d love to hear them!
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