Books read in September

Tolkien: Author of the Century (reread) by Tom Shippey
This is by far the best commentary on Tolkien that I have found. He manages to put into words things that I had felt were there, but couldn’t positively identify.

First Impressions by Debra White Smith
My least favorite of her Austen adaptations so far.

The Bride of Anguished English by Richard Lederer
There is something soothing to a philologist about other people’s grammatical mistakes.

Life on the Edge by James Dobson

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
For a book that has been touted as the best twentieth century novel, this was highly disappointing. It was a highly fatalistic story, and though the descriptions were good, the characters felt flat.

Consequence by Elizabeth Newark
Yet another P&P sequel, and like most the others, makes the Darcy and Bingley children just like their parents. Far too predictable.

The Tale of Despereaux (reread) by Kate DiCamillo
I first became enchanted with this right after it first came out, but became reenchanted with it because The Queen got the audiobook for her birthday. It is a children’s book, but, like the Chronicles of Narnia, has more than meets the eye. Also, the reader was excellent!

A Shepherd’s Look at Psalm 23 by Phillip Keller
Rather more than I ever wanted to know about sheep and shepherding, but an enlightening read.

The Eyre Affair (reread) by Jasper Fforde

Eldorado (reread) by Baroness Orczy
Baroness Orczy never re-attained the calibre of The Scarlet Pimpernel in her sequels, and she (a product of her times) has a tendency to be sentimental, and also to repeat descriptive words and phrases. But as far as pleasure reading goes, most modern writers have far to go to surpass her.

Central Park (reread) by Debra White Smith

Hornblower and the Hotspur (reread) by C. S. Forester
I had forgotten how much I like C. S. Forester, and how much I dislike Hornblower personally. He would be so likable...if he would only care for poor Maria.

Cousin Phillis by Elizabeth Gaskell
I had just started this when I read Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch’s recommendation as the third-best of Gaskell’s novels (behind Cranford and Life of Charlotte Bronte). I had read the other two, and found that this one was interesting (which I could not say for Cranford), though tragic. It’s also short, something which I am starting to value among the other Victorian tomes, all of which seem to be more than 400 pages. Wives and Daughters and North and South are my favorites of hers, as they seem to be of most of her fans, though literary critics rarely look at popularity when deciding on “the best”.

Our Mutual Friend (reread) by Charles Dickens
This was my month for rereading books I had not read in a long while; Eldorado, Hornblower and the Hotspur, Tale of Despereaux, Tolkien: Author of the Century, and finally this one. I like this best of the Dickens’ books I have read so far. I used to think that I disliked Dickens because he was depressing, but I have now honed my dislike to: his idiosyncratic minor characters, ungrammatical style of writing, sentimentality, cookie-cutter heroines, overuse of coincedence, and fondness of killing off characters. But I do dearly love the story of John Harmon and Bella Wilfer, especially since Bella is not an angel; and I can even appreciate Bradley Headstone, though he is an eccentric minor character. So...Dickens will never be a favorite of mine, and I still don’t consider him the greatest Victorian author, but I will allow him a certain greatness in getting me to love a story in spite of disliking almost everything about his writing style.

Charles Dickens and Other Victorians by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
I am glad to have finally meet “Q”, and his style is very engaging, only I’m not sure if what he says is all what he feels, or what he must say as a critic. He obviously likes Dickens and Thackeray a great deal, and probably does not like Trollope or Gaskell, but he seems so full of “they say” that I’m not sure what he says.