Catching Up

A note of some of the books I have read during the last few months:-

Anthony TROLLOPE – Ralph the Heir (Re-read; first read about 2004) - ***** *** (Comedy, politics and social criticism combine in this 1871 ‘novel of Trollope’s maturity’.)

Anthony TROLLOPE – The Two Clerks (Kindle Edition) ***** (Poorest Trollope I have ever read.)

Anthony TROLLOPE – The Way we Live Now ***** **** (Wonderful social satire from 1874/5)

Jane AUSTEN – Persuasion ***** *** (First time I have read this so far as I can recall. I certainly didn’t read it about six years ago when I had a spell of reading Victorian classics)

David Stuart DAVIES – Short Stories from the Nineteenth Century (978-1-84022-407-8) (Stories by Dickens, Hardy, Trollope, Doyle, Wells, Gaskell, Collins, Stoker, de Maupassant, Chekhov, Gilman, Lamb, O. Henry and Wilde.) Quote from Davies’s introduction – “Human nature with its nobility, its foibles, its reactions to love, death, fear and hate does not change, whether one wears a crinoline or a mini-skirt; and that’s what gives power to these stories.”

Michael D Everett "Victorian London Street Life" ***** *** 1986 0 906 933 05 6 64pp

Jules Verne "Around the world in eighty days" ***** * 1873 978 1 85326 090 2 161pp Re-read for the umpteenth time.

Mrs Henry Wood – East Lynne ***** **** 1860/1 978 0 19 953603 0 645pp

Mary Elizabeth Braddon – The Doctor's Wife ***** *** 1864 978 0 19 954980 1 431p

Michael MacIlwee – The Gangs of Liverpool ***** ** 2006 9781903 854600 262pp

Margaret Oliphant – Hester ***** **** 1883

Margaret Oliphant – Miss Marjoriebanks ***** **** 1866

Charles Dickens – Our Mutual Friend ***** *** 1864/

Charles Dickens – Dombey & Son ***** ***** 1846/8 (The best Dickens I have read –and will undoubtedly be one of my books of the year.)

There are a few more that I have since put in the loft without making a note of them. Once retrieved I shall bring the list up to date and hopefully shall not be so lax in the future. My aim is to return to doing proper reviews, however brief, of each book as it is read.