"Peter Quint - you devil!"

Over the weekend I finished my second choice - The Turn of the Screw by Henry James - of the 2007 Winter Classics Challenge hosted by A Reader's Journal - this post provides all the details of the challenge.

The Turn of the Screw is "widely recognised as one of literature's most gripping ghost stories", unfortunately I am obviously missing a literature gene as despite trying my darndest, I utterly failed to be gripped by this short gothic novella. It contains all the ingredients which usually captivate me; a bucolic English country estate, sinister supernatural spirits and unexplained occurrences along with the need to fully utilise your own imagination. But, something was missing for me, I hope you have more luck.

"What I had said to Mrs Grose was true enough: there were in the matter I had put before her depths and possibilities that I lacked resolution to sound; so that when we met once more in the wonder of it we were of a common mind about the duty of resistance to extravagant fancies." (James, 1991:33)

"Carbon, Betteredge! Mere carbon, my good friend, after all!"

In January 2006 I read my first ever Wilkie Collins, the magnificent The Woman in White, and now in January 2007 I have finished my second Wilkie Collins and my first choice for the 2007 Winter Classics Challenge sponsored by A Reader's Journal - The Moonstone.



An exquisite jewel, mysterious Hindoo curses and spies, morally and financially bankrupt gentlemen, exotic locales, opium eaters, bumbling cops and shrewd detectives, the Shivering Sand, scientific experiments, an overly pious and venomous spinster, philosophy courtesy of Robinson Crusoe and detective fever.

All this awaits your discovery in The Moonstone.




"Very good, sir. I'll just rest my eyes, and then I'll go on again. In the meantime, Mr Franklin - I don't want to hurry you - but would you mind telling me, in one word, whether you see your way out of this dreadful mess yet?" (Collins, 1999:298-99.)

2007 Winter Classics Challenge:

I am accepting the challenge to read 5 classics during the months of January and February.

My list of 5 classics:
The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins

Turn of the Screw - Henry James

Gothic Tales - Elizabeth Gaskell

The Jewel of Seven Stars - Bram Stoker

Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift

My list for extra credit:

Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (Already read this in January, before I knew about this challenge!)

Romeo and Juliet / Macbeth - William Shakespeare (Re-reads and quite short - hence 2)

The Washerwoman of Finchley Common:

"There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing, and fiddling: there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling the women...yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind. Yes, this is VANITY FAIR; not a moral place certainly; nor a merry one, though very noisy..."

(Thackeray 1994:ix)

(Image from Amazon UK)

It may not be moral nor merry, but it is a highly entertaining place to while away an afternoon or three and it's infinitely more reader friendly (way less pages!) than that other classic Napoleonic novel - War and Peace. Although our protagonists do feature in the Battle of Waterloo the main focus is on the social trials and tribulations involved in attempting to make it in suitable society.

For me, the scheming and manipulative Becky Sharp is a more interesting and memorable character than the insipid and dull Amelia Sedley...but I'm often drawn to dark characters! Who do you prefer and why?