Conrad Richter-The Awakening Land

Conrad Richter-The Trees, The Fields, The Town
This is the Awakening Land Trilogy of Conrad Richter and I believe it is some of the best writing of the 20th Century. I never knew that his work existed until the 1980's when I happened to watch the miniseries starring Elizabeth Montgomery(remember Bewitched?) and fell in love with the story.

He captures the day to day life and problems of everyday people on the Ohio frontier with such richness, intensity and drama that to this day I still think about his characters. Memorable scenes from his books have had a profound influence my writing. He traces the evolution of an Ohio settlement from the early days of hardship in the wilderness, to the prosperous development of a town years later, a theme and evolution which is repeated time again across our entire continent. In 1951, he was awarded Pulitzer Prize for this work.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

For Halloween-If there is one classic that terrifies me the most, it is Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Ever since I was a child my worst nightmares have been of the monster pursuing me while my running gets slower and slower. Call it a psychological hang up, I call it terrifying.

It is yet another Victorian commentary on the Industrial Revolution or science gone wrong like Jekyll and Hyde. Neverthelss the idea does not seem so outrageous anymore, not in a world that is developing cloning.

All in all, I thought Frankenstein was an excellent book until the end when Shelley puts the monster up in the Arctic or was it down in Antarctica? It seemed so random and unnecessary, like she was filling space. Am I missing something? Anyhow, if you want to complete the tour of classic horror, don't miss it.  

Book Trailer for Amanda Hughes' Novel The Pride of the King

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

When I was in Edinburgh, I went to Brodie's Close, to the home of a man who was a respectable cabinet maker by day, violent criminal by night. It is said Deacon Brodie along with Jack the Ripper were templates for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. This short novel is based on the Jack the Ripper killings and like Frankenstein is a commentary on man dabbling in science, sometimes with disastrous results. All heady analysis aside, the book was scary.

Sometimes it is hard to put aside a story that you have heard about your whole life and read it as if it was the first time, but I tried. Yes, it was frightening and not at all far-fetched. We see this sort of violence in the news all the time. Like Dr. Jekyll, the killer was the "quiet neighbor" next door, a hideous monster by night.  Even though it was written over a century ago, Stevenson really nailed it. It is a timeless story of the nature of some "humans".

Hawthorne-The House of Seven Gables

Nathaniel Hawthorne-The House of Seven Gables

How come they have not made this into a movie recently? I know of one black and white film from the forties with Vincent Price (which isn't even on Netflix) but no other screen adaptations.

I was surprised when I was reading the movie trailer that the The House of Seven Gables was about one brother framing another brother for murder. I read the book in my college days, and I don't know if I can't remember the plot line because it is not memorable, or if my mind is simply thick with cobwebs. I do remember the house itself, which still stands in Salem, and it still haunts me. It is a dark and gabled structure and every bit as creepy as you might think. And I also remember vaguely that the story is about the sins of the father revisiting the sons through the ages. It is about the later generations of a family in Massachusetts, whose ancestors had been involved in the Salem witch trials.
The tourist dept. in Salem tries to make you think this book is hair raising but that much I do remember, it is not! The House of Seven Gables was different than what I had thought at the outset, but I do remember liking it. Why did I write this review? Maybe I shouldn't have, time to re-read this book.

Oscar Wilde-The Portrait of Dorian Grey

Oscar Wilde-The Picture of Dorian Gray

I am glad that the general public is noticing Wilde again, but I must confess, it annoys me. Wilde is all the rage right now, like Austin was a few years ago, but I believe many of these people are not sincerely interested in the works of Wilde and that they are simply name-dropping in an effort to look cutting edge. They act like someone just unearthed an old manuscript of his and published it. I've got news for them, some of us have been reading his works all along. Next week, Wilde will be long forgotten for someone new and ever so trendy.

Now onto The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is dark and immensely preachy but in a GREAT way! I know very little about Wilde, but I find it ironic that he was imprisoned for his "morality" yet the Victorians could not see what high standards he had for human behavior...such were the times. The book is about one man's descent into evil and depravity, and how in spite of his sins, he retained a beautiful outward appearance. Such is the glamour of evil (now I am being preachy). This is a short novel with a terrific impact.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Victor Hugo-The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Spoiler Alert in this review

I am going through and I am including this in my Halloween posts about the classics but with reluctance. Before I read this book, I assumed that this was was horror, but on the contrary. It is a Gothic novel filled with tragedy and pathos. ^Spoiler alert^  Every screen version, I have ever seen, has a happy ending. Not so!

All of the main characters die tragically in the end, and it is a very sad book. Nevertheless, as incredibly difficult as it is to wade through, I loved it. Try not to get discouraged, the first chapter is a minute description of the Cathedral for pages and pages, but if you are a lover of the classics, you know sometimes you have to slog through the verbosity (is that a word?). The classics are tough, but this one is worth it. The book has stuck with me for years. The concept of The Court of Miracles, a community of handicapped people (in this case a sham to beg money), I used in The Pride of the King. The imagery of the Gothic architecture complete with gargoyles, the evil depraved priest, the flamboyant gypsy Esmeralda and, of course, dear Quasimodo (who I named my parakeet after) are timeless. Don't miss it.