YIKES!!!!

I just realized that it's been two months since my last post. In that time I have been reading, I can assure you of that. But since I've not been keeping up with my blogging, I'll just provide a brief overview of what I've read since the beginning of December, 2011.

Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country was a great read. She always manages to create a character that the reader really enjoys disliking, there were several of those characters in this novel. Certainly one I'd recommend and one I will return to.

George Douglas Brown's The House With the Green Shutters (first published in 1901) was also a great read. The ending of this novel is truly remarkable. While I had trouble getting through the Scottish language in the novel, after about 100 pages or so it became easier. Another one that I would read again.

Jane Austen's Persuasion, first published in 1817, her last novel was another good read. It seems that by the end of her career Austen was moving away from the neat and tidy Victorian novel and as a result, this is by far my favorite of her novels that I have read. I was pleased and surprised by the turns within this novel and again it is one to which I would return.

And finally, I am half way through Zuleika Dobson, or, an Oxford Love Story by Sir Max Beerbohm. Again, I really do enjoy this writer. In this novel, the narrator is one who is omnipotent because of the of the Greek muse Clio's desire to experience history as it is happening, rather than after it has occurred. The narrator is placed into this point in history to "report" on what happens with Dobson's character, however he can neither interfere or change what is going to happen. It is a fascinating sketch about love and destiny that I am eager to get back to. Originally published in 1911 this was Beerbohm's only novel and yet was named the 59th best English language novel of the 20th century by the Modern Library.

That is all for now, I hope to be a better chronicler of my readings as the months and books progress.