Hi,
As the summer holidays are drawing to a close, I thought I'd email you all to remind you about the book we're reading and when we're going to meet up for the first time this academic year.
The book is What I Loved by Siri Hustvedt.
Note (for those who haven't started the book or might be struggling with it): After talking about this book with Michelle she was of the same opinion as I. For around the first 130 pages, prior to the "élément perturbateur*" on which the action turns, the book is rather hard going, the characters seem over-intellectualised and over-intellectualising, making this probably the most difficult book we've so far. However, tbook takes off from this point* and it becomes a real page-turner, so it's really worth persisting beyond the opening.
Date: Friday, 4th September. Same place, same time.
Enjoy the last 12 days before the new school year begins!
Oscar Wilde brings his enormous gifts for astute social observation and sparkling prose to The Picture of Dorian Gray, his dreamlike story of a young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. This dandy, who remains forever unchanged—petulant, hedonistic, vain, and amoral—while a painting of him ages and grows increasingly hideous with the years, has been an enchanting read for many years for myself, this story just doesn't grow old or become even the slightest bit dull with time.
Taking the reader in and out of London drawing rooms, to the heights of aestheticism, and to the depths of decadence, The Picture of Dorian Gray is not only a melodrama about moral corruption. Laced with bon mots and vivid depictions of upper-class refinement, it is also a fascinating look at the milieu of Wilde’s fin-de-siècle world and a manifesto of the creed “Art for Art’s Sake.”
The ever-quotable Wilde, who once delighted London with his scintillating plays, scandalized readers with this, his only novel. Upon publication, Dorian was condemned as dangerous, poisonous, stupid, vulgar, and immoral, and Wilde as a “driveling pedant.” The novel, in fact, was used against Wilde at his much-publicized trials for “gross indecency,” which led to his imprisonment and exile on the European continent. Even so, The Picture of Dorian Gray firmly established Wilde as one of the great voices of the Aesthetic movement, and endures as a classic that is as timeless as its hero.
Hi Everyone,Descriptions du produit
Byatt, one of the most distinguished contemporary British fiction writers, lends a definite knowledge of the field to her gathering of outstanding short stories from her native land, all written at some point between the mid-nineteenth century and the present. She includes necessary masters--Rudyard Kipling, Saki, D. H. Lawrence, and V. S. Pritchett, to name a few. But, bless her good taste and reading experience, she draws into the fold the work of several extremely talented writers of which few readers on this side of the Atlantic will have heard. Falling into this category are such writers as Malachi Whitaker, H. E. Bates, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Charlotte Mew. The difference between a Charles Dickens story and one by the very contemporary Ian McEwan is no difference at all in terms of talent with the form. Fans of the short story will be delighted by what they discover here. Brad Hooper
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8 internautes sur 8 ont trouvé ce commentaire utile :
 Attention, chronophage en vadrouille., 8 février 2008 |
Maria Ledoux
Next chat is planned for Friday 20th February 2008.
A Picture of Dorian Gray. I'm sure everone will have plenty to say about this book.
To be updated shortly ( need to go shopping)
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