Review: Silas Marner

Silas Marner by George Eliot
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This started off as almost a chore. I couldn't get into the writing or the story, but around halfway through it improved quite a bit for me. It's true, it was pretty feel-good toward the end, but I don't mind that. I liked the commentary on the change and industrialization, which seems rare for novels of this time (Dickens notwithstanding). 

Anyway, it was short enough to be a cute introduction to George Eliot. I'll be on the lookout for Middlemarch. 

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Review: The Life and Times of Prince Albert

The Life and Times of Prince Albert by Patrick Allitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

More interesting than I thought it would be. I always imagined he was simply a hanger-on of Queen Victoria's but it turns out he was anything but.

On the other hand, the praising in this book didn't seem to stop. So now I'm wondering how much of it was unmerited and I want to pick up a biography of Queen Victoria to see what it would have to say...


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Review: Lady Audley's Secret

Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So I figured out what Lady Audley's Secret, guessing that maybe something that is obvious to the reader of today might have not been so to the pre-Sherlock Holmes reader of the 1860s. And then it turned out I was wrong, and what I thought was the secret was nothing but a ruse, and it seems that the reader of today (at least, this reader) can still be tricked by the writer of the 1860s.

Regardless, this has quite a few interesting aspects: murder, bigamy, detective work (not at a Sherlock Holmes level, but interesting nonetheless), insanity, etc. But I appreciated the (slight) nuance regarding the villain the most. You don't empathize per se, but, well, you'll see.

A bit slow at points, but all in all a good find.

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Review: Translating Culture - Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese

Translating Culture - Late-Victorian Literature into Chinese by Isaac Yue
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Once again, this was probably beyond my pay grade. The subject seemed a tad esoteric, and I guess it is, but it's pretty fascinating regardless. It reminded me of Tim Parks' "Translating Style", although that was for IT-EN, which is my language combination. This one dealt with late Victorian literature and the translations of some select works into Chinese. As with Tim Parks' book, I think that even someone with little or no knowledge of Chinese will get quite a bit out of this, since it is a very thorough analysis of what was going on in Late Victorian literature, and how it affected the authors. I especially enjoyed "New Women Novels and their Translations" and "Dandyism and Witticism: The importance of being Oscar Wilde in the Context of Translation".



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Review: Stephen Fry's Victorian Secrets

Stephen Fry's Victorian Secrets by Stephen Fry
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A delightful listen. Of course, these are all anecdotes - so don't expect a thorough or scientific study of any sort - and they concentrate on the scandalous, outrageous, etc. etc. But still, impeccably narrated, and with many interesting tidbits, facts and names that I had never heard before.

You also get to hear a recording of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle speaking!




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