A Midsummer Night's Dream but more like a cry for help!

This will be a English or Literature Professor's nightmare on my take of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Definitely not my favorite Shakespeare play and I think a lot of it has to do with because I never totally understood what the hell was going on. All the Shakespeare I've ever read has always been in an English class where my teacher for the most part had the competence to understand and teach us the meaning and the point of the play (well again, I don't remember too much from Hamlet, but Big Red was my teacher and anyone who has taken "Honors" English with her knows what I speak of). The version of the play that I had was published by the Royal Shakespeare Company and they did give pretty good notes but I found myself re-reading passages and trying to make sense of what was going on.

So what have I learned from this novel? That the fairies interfered with the humans? I really can't make a judgement on this novel except I need to talk to an English teacher who can walk me through it. Damn you Shakespeare!

Fortunately, I also read An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin that I think you all will enjoy. I also read One, Two, Buckle My Shoe by Agatha Christie and I am still reading Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens (I am 73% done, so almost there!) and I just started The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. I have been on a British Literature kick so I will be going back to some American Literature for the time being! I will write my review of An Object of Beauty next week. In the meantime, if anyone has any insight on A Midsummer Night's Dream and would love to discuss, I would love it!

Until next time, happy reading!

Northanger Abbey or as I like to call a lesser Jane Austen novel



I found a picture that made me think of Northanger Abbey

It's been almost a month since I have blogged last, and I have read a few books but I have been busy with my summer class so I will finally put together a review for Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen which took me longer to finish than I would have imagined for an Austen novel since 1) it shorter than her other novels 2) I love a Austen novel. However, I was disappointed with the novel. It was Austen's first novel and that shows. It took me longer to finish, her later works, especially Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility are so much better but since this is her first work, Austen gets some slack. I mean, we are still reading her novels in the 21st century. What have I done? Frankly, I have no reason to critique her work, I am a lowly pleb!

Well, this lowly pleb will critique Austen anyway! Northanger Abbey is apparently a parody of the Gothic novel genre that was popular during Austen's time and she even name drops a few of them, such as The Monk by Matthew Lewis (which I also read, I think I have a review for that one). The main character, Catherine Morland, is a feisty, (mostly) level-headed, romance reading and Gothic novel obsessed girl who heads to Bath to party the winter away with her aunt and uncle (and possibly find a husband). There she meets her new best friend, Isabella Thorpe, who wants to set her up with her brother John (who is absolutely smitten by her) and Catherine falls in love with Henry Tilney. John Thorpe weasels his way to spend time with Catherine, at the expense of others and even talks ill of Catherine's brother James, who has fallen in love with Isabella (and Isabella, we think, loves James. The story is full of Austen's satirical references and plenty of wit. It also lets us see a less polite side of society, where a woman openly misbehaves in public and Catherine doesn't hide her feelings for the dislike of others.

The story does feel like two stories that merge into one, with the light hearted romance and fun in the first part of the novel and the latter part full of Gothic "horror" where nothing seems to go right. While these are not my favorite characters and Isabella and John Thorpe are in the running as the most annoying characters (along with Lucy Bennett), any Austen fan will love this novel.

I give it 3/5 stars.

I will soon do a review of a play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I finished and I am also still reading Nicholas Nickleby and An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin. Once I finish Martin's book, I will plow through Dickens and finally finish Nicholas Nickleby. Until then, happy reading!