January 3, 2022 The Gambler – Fyodor Dostoevsky After this second reading, I’m forced to change my entire opinion on this book. This was my introduction to Dostoevsky, so I didn’t know…
January 1, 2022 Winter of Our Discontent – John Steinbeck The Winter of Our Discontent is the grand finale of John Steinbeck’s fictitious creation. Deriving the title from William Shakespeare’s Richard III opening lines…
December 29, 2021 Candide – Voltaire It seems that I haven’t known or understood Voltaire enough to appreciate his most acclaimed work. This reading put me straight since I’ve revisited…
December 9, 2021 The Bet – Anton Chekhov This is a very thought-provoking short story. The apparent theme is, which punishment is better? Capital punishment or life imprisonment. The lawyer thinks that…
December 8, 2021 The Hunchback of Notre-Dame – Victor Hugo I’m now quite resigned to being disappointed in books that are written by my favourite classical authors. It looks like I’m in the process…
December 8, 2021 Pedro Páramo – Juan Rulfo Written in the style of magical realism, Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Páramo is quite an unusual novel. Its characters are ghosts and the only one…
November 28, 2021 Cannery Row – John Steinbeck “It has always seemed strange to me…The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding, and feeling, are the concomitants of…
November 27, 2021 Night and Day – Virginia Woolf Night and Day is Virginia’s attempt at reconciling the past and the present. Here Virginia Woolf submits to the traditional form of a novel….
November 27, 2021 Wives and Daughters – Elizabeth Gaskell Wives and Daughters is Elizabeth Gaskell’s final novel which was interrupted in its completion due to the untimely death of the author. However incomplete…
November 26, 2021 A Sentimental Education – Gustave Flaubert Gustave Flaubert wrote about A Sentimental Education that, “I want to write the moral history of the men of my generation—or, more accurately, the…