Elisa’s Comments (group member since Dec 27, 2019)

Elisa’s comments from the #ClassicsCommunity 2021 Reading Challenge group.

This year I've already read:
- The Fountain Overflows (Rebecca West)
- Jezabel (Irene Nemirovsky)
- The Little White Horse (Elizabeth Goudge)
- Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
- Lust, Caution (Eileen Chang)
- Lisistrata (Aristophanes)
- Matilda (Mary Shelley)

As my 2021 goal, I'd like to focus on exploring more of my beloved authors and some lesser known works:

- The Black Tulip (Alexandre Dumas)
- Desperate Remedies (Thomas Hardy)
- The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
- The Awakening (Kate Chopin)
- A Rose for Emily (William Faulkner)
- My Cousin Rachel (Daphne du Maurier)
- Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton)
- Quo Vadis? (Henryk Sienkiewicz)
- Sonečka (Marina Cvetaeva)
- The Lady and the Law (Wilkie Collins)
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle (Shirley Jackson)
- Middlemarch (George Eliot)
- Howards End (E. M. Foster)
- The French Lieutenant's Woman (John Fowles)
- A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry)
- something from Elizabeth Gaskell
....

Will I read all these novels? Probably not all, but I hope to enjoy my reading.

Katie wrote: "Slow! I found myself distracted by the lockdown and the sudden overflow of free time. Managed to get myself into a routine and recently picked up Pride and Prejudice. Enjoying it thus far!"

I'd like to re-read Pride and Prejudice sometimes. I was 14 when I read it.

allieereads wrote: "Like most of us, I am also a mood reader and am reading other books throughout the year. But the classics I have read so far are:

- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor D..."

Great list! I love the Brontes (Jane Eyre, Shirley, Wuthering Heights, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and all the other works!). George Eliot suprised me last year: The Mill On the Floss was such a good novel (even if not my favorite) and I can't wait to read Middlemarch!

Natasha wrote: "I'm a mood reader too and also not just reading classics this year, but the classics I've read this year (so far) are:

- The Paris Mysteries by Edgar Allan Poe
- The House on the Strand by Daphne ..."

I'm also reading others books, not just classics. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is one of my favorite novels.

The Bookworms Nook wrote: "I've read pride and prejudice and Jane Eyre. I'm a slow reader and I'm reading other books not just classics."

It doesn't matter. Everyone has is times. I'm also reading books that are not classics (historical fiction, horror, biography, ecc).

Candles Coffee and Copyrights wrote: "I am a definite mood reader... I have done lots of reading this year, but I like to take my time and really consume and digest the classics I read.

I've read:

Wives and Daughters
Olive
Two on a ..."

Your list is so great. I've read Les Miserables too. My list is also very ambitious:

- Tender is the Night (Francis Scott Fitzgerald)
- The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
- Bebo's Girl (Carlo Cassola)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
- Song of the Lark (Willa Cather)
- Frankestain (Mary Shelley)
- The Bird's Nest (Shirley Jackson)
- The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)
- The Black Tulip (Alexander Dumas)
- Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)

Tracey wrote: "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is such a great story. I hope you're enjoying it.
My goal for this year was to reread all of Alexandre Dumas' works that I own. So far I've finished:
-"The Three Muskete..."

I've never read Dumas, but I'd love to. 'The Black Tulip' and 'The Count of Montecristo' are on my TBR.
And yes, 'The Tenant of Wildfell Hall' is so great, I'm enjoying it. The first novel by Anne I'm reading, I'm glad to find that she was as talented as her sisters.

Until now, I've managed to read these classics from my TBR of 20 books:

- Persuasion (Jane Austen)
- Suite francaise (Irene Nemirovsky)
- Far From the Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy)
- Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
- The Painted Veil (W.S. Maugham)
- North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell)
- Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
- Mildred Pierce (J.M. Cain)
- Around the World in 80 Days (Jules Verne)

and I'm currently reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Bronte). Beside those, I've read other classics:

- The Ghost-Seer (Friedrich Schiller)
- The Lottery and other stories (Shirley Jackson)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (William Shakespeare)
- 'The Custard Heart', 'Big Blonde' and 'You Were Perfectly Fine' (Dorothy Parker)
- 'The Cracked Looking Glass' (Katherine-Ann Porter)

I don't know if I'll be able to achieve all my reading goals. Maybe my TBR was a little too ambitiouos. Well, never say never.

What about you? How is your reading challenge going?

I'm reading 'North and South' (Gaskell) and 'Mrs Dalloway' (Woolf)

My goal is to read at least 20 classics. I've prepared a temporary list:

1) Persuasion (Jane Austen)
2) Far From the Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy)
3) The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins)
4) North and South (Elizabeth Gaskell)
5) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
6) Les Miserables (Victor Hugo)
7) Tender is the Night (F.S. Fitzgerald)
8) The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Anne Bronte)
9) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Betty Smith)
10) Lizzie (Shirley Jackson)
11) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley)
12) Bebo's girl (Carlo Cassola) (-> La ragazza di Bube)
13) The Grapes of Wrath (J. Steinbeck)
14) Around the World in 80 Days (Jules Verne)
15) Mrs Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
16) The Painted Veil (W.S. Maugham)
17) Suite francese (Irene Nemirovsky)
18) The Black Tulip (or The Count of Montecristo) (A. Dumas)
19) Song of the Lark (Willa Cather)
20) Mildred Pierce (J.M. Cain)

Also:

1) Little Women (L.M. Alcott)
2) The Lady of the Camelias (A. Dumas, son)
3) A book by Daphne du Maurier
4) A book by E. von Armin
5) A book by Lovecraft
6) Crime and Punishment (Dostoevskij)
7) Lady Audley's Secret (M.E. Braddon)
8) Bel Ami (Maupassant)
9) Cheri (Colette)

So many books, so little time...

Hello. I'm Elisa and I'm from Italy (Padua). I love books, cinema, history, art and musicals. Of course, I adore classics and literature, above all English and American literature. I've a soft spot for Jane Austen and Victorian authors: Dickens, the Brontes, Gaskell, Hardy... I'm slowing getting to know modern classics: in 2019 I've read Shirley Jackson (The hunting of Hill House, The missing girl) and Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca), and I've fallen in love with them!

Of course, I also enjoy French and Italian literature (Flaubert, Zola, Balzac, Svevo, Pirandello...), but I haven't read many others foreign authors. Just a few Russian titles (The Master and Margarita, Anna Karenina, White Nights...). I should read more about them. War and Peace by Tolstoj and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevskij are in my TBR.