Charles Dickens: "The Great Winglebury Duel"

This novel first struck me because of its title; quite gripping and intriguing in a way. I have always loved books written by Charles Dickens so I took this as an opportunity to read more. It is book N°37 in the Penguin Little Black Classics.

The first part of the book, The Great Winglebury Duel, was the best story in my opinion, my favourite out of the two stories from the novel. I enjoyed it because it was funny and exciting, unlike many of Dickens' books at the time, which were more of mockery and slightly gloomy in a way. It was a story about mistaken identity and with humour within it, something I wasn't really expecting but this made it all the more enjoyable to read.

On the other hand The Steam Excursion; the second story, was rather boring and dull. About a lazy law student, Percy Noakes, who organises a steamship excursion. He's a very good man, and gets his way around by being so. But on this steamship excursion, where many guests are present, a storm rises causing the boat to tilt and many of the guests on board get seasickness. They blame it all on Percy; frustrated by his lack of success on this journey, he goes back to being an ordinary law student and continues his studies. In time he becomes a prosecuted counsel, feared by everyone. I didn't enjoy  this story that much because it is too predictable what happens in it.

I personally preferred many of Dickens' plays rather than these short stories, but it was something different to read therefore slightly entertaining.

'Circe and the Cyclops' by Homer, summary, analysis, and thoughts on the book

I have finished reading my black book, Circle and the Cyclops by Homer. The book takes you on the journey of Odysseus and his men. Odysseus narrowly escapes being killed by a Cyclops. Odysseus and is men find a home of Aeolus, master of the winds, for a month before he decides to continue his journey home. With the help of Aeolus’s pouch that captured the winds that may drive them off course, they set sail. During the ten day journey Odysseus falls asleep and his curious men open the pouch handed to hum by Aeolus, this caused the master of wind to refuse help them anymore. With no wind favoring them, the Greek men were forced to row and appear at Laestrygonians where they meet giants that attack them suddenly by throwing large boulders at their ship, and killing many of Odysseus’s crew. Only Odysseus’s vessel escapes and sails to the island of Aeae, home to the beautiful yet dangerous goddess Circe who poison, and capture many of Odysseus’s men. Odysseus manages to overcome her powers by receiving help from Hermes, son of Zeus. Hermes gives him a herb called Moly, which protected Odysseus from Crice’s poison, amd allowed him to het his men back.

Circle and the Cyclops is a very gripping story about Greek mythology and the idea of narrowly escaping death adds a sense of curiosity and fear in the readers, which really attracts us deep into the story of Odysseus and his crew.

Throughout the book, Odysseus shows many signs of judgment and courageousness. His men told him not to instigate the Cyclops, as well as not to go visit Crice, the beautiful which. Odysseus ignored this advice and due to his ignorance, he managed to save his men in those two scenarios. However his success is also due to the help of the gods as without Aeae, he would not have had a place to stay and without Hermes, he would not have been able to withstand Circe’s poison and rescue his men.

The way the book is written has an effect on the readers, as it is very poetic at times. At times of courageousness or confidence, this poetic structure adds a 

wavy flow to the lines and engages the readers into the book, as well as helps them understand the storyline more Cleary.

In conclusion, I enjoyed the book very much and it really inspired be to read more stories about ancient Greek mythology. It also engaged me very well due to the storyline of how Odysseus and his men always, narrowly, escaped death, and the poetic structure which added a nice flow, and helped me understand the language and storyline better.

The Farseer Trilogy series

The Farseer Trilogy series

I read a series called The Farseer Trilogy series written by Robin Hobb. The series comprises of 9 books separated into three sub series for different years of the hero's life. 
       The books are all fiction, and are based in a medieval time. They talk about the bastard son of a King-in-Waiting and his adventures with his royal blood and magics.
      I read some of these books over the Christmas holiday and have almost finished the entire series. I would give them an 8.5/10, as I find them a very enjoyable read. The author uses good language and complex plots in the books, which makes the books very intriguing.
   One of the main reasons that I'm writing this blog about this series is because the author uses many themes from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. For example in Twelfth Night Viola says: "She sat like Patience on a monument, Smiling at grief". In The Farseer Trilogy series one of the main characters is called Lady Patience. In Twelfth Night, Feste is the smartest character, a mock showing that in a play full of foolishness and stupidity (in the drama between the characters) and only the Fool knows what is happening. In The Farseer Trilogy series a Fool is one of the main characters who not only is the smartest person in the play but also is the only one who can predict the future as a 'White prophet'. In Twelfth Night Feste is disguised as Sir Topaz which can be a golden honey coloured stone. In The Farseer Trilogy series the Fool has many disguises one of which is Lord Golden, a noble from a faraway country.
   I find the link between Twelfth Night and The Farseer Trilogy series very intriguing and Robin Hobb seems to use Shakespeare's characters who have incredibly interesting and smart personalities to light up her very own book.

Theo C-W

My Black Book

I read The Meek One by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and in this book a man who has taken a interest in a young girl tries to help her and give her a better life, it was quite an interesting book with a lot of turns and twists throughout the book, but i did not really find it as enjoyable as i thought i would. If you like sad stories about being treated wrongly and about depression, then this is the book for you.

"Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls" by Marco Polo

Upon finishing this book, I found myself wondering what a different experience the events told by Marco Polo must have been compared to the western life he was used to in 14th Century Italy. The culture shock that he would have experienced coming into the "Land of Serpents and Pearls", or as I suspect 14th century India, due to the population being completely against eating ox, which is an inherently Hindi tradition, as with the worshipping of many idols. 

The book itself speaks of many traditions that would have been considered strange to a western man at the time, even today when you do go to the eastern part of the world, many of the habits will be entirely strange to the people living there, though some will still be practiced. Marco Polo speaks of the King of the land that war many jewels, and used them as a currency, almost, paying twice their value to any who found them, which is seen to be a very similar way of life to that of the western kings at the time, who would also wear many jewels, and keep many more in their castle, as with the Crown Jewels of England, which are still considered to be a very important sign of the English Monarchy.

Marco's style of writing is also one that is somewhat antiquated, and is strange to read, his grammar, though correct, being used in a very different manner than the way that it is used in today's times.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I very much enjoyed the book, and thought that it was very interesting to delve into the world of nearly a millennium ago, and through the eyes of someone who is unused to the culture as well, and seeing how my personal perception of that eastern world is different from that of Marco Polo.

Mrs Rosie and the Priest

I am about half way into the little black reading book that has been assigned in class, called Mrs Rosie and the Priest my Giovanni Boccaccio.  The little book contain 4 tales taken from Boccaccio’s Decamaron, written in Tuscany in the 14th century. One is about a man being robbed and himself a thief to regain his losses, one is about an old man being cuckolded by his much younger and wife, the third is about a priest tricking a married woman into having sex, and the last story I have not yet read. Though I must say that the previous three stories have sadly not blown me away, some parts were quite humorous and funny but mostly it was not exactly what I was looking for, so not gonna recommend this one, Im sure there are better ones out there ! 

What I have recently finished reading was "the end of an affair" by Graham Greene, I thought it was an amazing book, which took some time to get into but eventually really caught the readers attention. It is mainly about a love triangle really between a young married couple and the main character who had a affair with the wife a few years back. The book shows very deep insight into the main characters thoughts and obsessions with the young couple, quite shocking at some points but very interesting. I had to read some passages again to really understand what going on since the way it is written is slightly confusing but very descriptive and insightful so GO read it !