2018 Back To The Classics Challenge - Wrap Up

Thanks to Karen K at Books and Chocolate for hosting the 2018 Back To the Classics  Challenge.  It was my first year taking the challenge and I am happy I did.  So, here are my wrap up thoughts for each of the 12 classics that I read in 2018:

1. 19th Century Classic - New Grub Street by George Gissing.  My favorote book from the 2018 Classics Challenge set in the publishing world of 1880's London, a world in which talent plays second fiddle to how well one's books can sell.

2.  20th Century Classic - Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurtson is right up there with New Grub Street as being my favorite novel from the 2018 Classics Challenge.  For me its a novel about love and the scene I will remember is Janie Crawford standing outside her house looking up at the sky for a sign from God about why he would do this terrible thing to her and her beloved husband Tea Cake.

3. Classic by A Woman Author - The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. I felt this was an exceptional novel dealing with some important issues, alcoholism, spousal abuse, child custody and the importance of who you marry.  These are issues just as relevant today as they were in Victorian times.

4. Classic in Translation - The Decameron by Giovanni Boccacio is one of the classics of the Middle Ages and set during the time of the Black Death.  The novel consists of a total of 100 stories told by ten young people who have moved to the country outside Florence to escape the plague   It's amazing how forward thinking Boccaccio was not only for his time but some of his stories would have the censors howling today!

5. Classic of Children's Literature - Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I loved it.  It's the first book in Wilder's acclaimed Little House on the Prairie series and though I have a tendancy not to finish a series, this time it will be different.

6. Classic Crime Story - And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.  I was expecting to like the book more than I did but when ten characters secluded on an island start dying off there isn't much time for character development.  Mostly though I didn't like the vigilante theme in which one character plays God.  But Christie is a major talent and I love Hercule Poirot.

7. Classic Travel or Journey Narrative - I chose Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan about a man who goes on a religious pilgrimage leaving his home so that he can  make his way to the Celestial City (heaven).  This is a major classic and some say a candidate for the first English novel (published 1678).  A great work of literature, although a rather fearsome view of God.

8. Classic With A One Word Title - Belinda by Maria Edgeworth is a novel Jane Austen admired so much that she has one of her characters mention Belinda favorably in Northanger Abbey.  Austen was right about this book and Lady Delacour in particular is a character you want to meet. 

9. Classic With A Color In The Title - The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare.  Published in 1958 and winner of the prestigious Newbery Medal for children's literature.  I enjoyed the book set in 17th century New England.  A book like this can inspire kids to find out more about what life was like in Puritan times.

10 Classic By An Author New to You - The Trial by Franz Kafka.  Kafka writes in a very understandable prose style and I really appreciate that.  As with Camus's The Stranger what Kafka was trying to say in the Trial is open to interpretation.  It's a disturning book but I finished the novel wanting to know more about Kafka and maybe check out his diaries and short stories.

11 A Classic That Scares You - The Sound and The Fury by William Faulkner.  I finished this book annoyed.  A stream of consciousness novel narrated in large part through the thoughts of a character with the mind of a three year old.  I knew I was in trouble from the first page and apparently I'm not the only one.  There is now a color coded version of tbis book so that the reader can more easily figure out who is narrating each part.

12. Reread A Favorite Classic - Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.  Held up very well, although Lennie not as I remembered.  In 2019 I would like to reread another great Steinbeck book Travels With Charley.

That's the wrap up and I have decided to take the 2019 Challenge and post my book choices in about a week or two.  A Happy and Healthy New Year to All and thank you for visiting my book blog.  I really appreciate it.