Don Quixote can feel long because it’s really two separate works. Cervantes wrote a sequel to it that is now published with it as Part 2. I’d recommend reading “part 1” and setting it aside to come back to part 2 later.
I was also happy to see Varney on the list. I've read volume 1. Now, I'm ready to read Volume 2. I've just subscribed to your channel. Thank you for uploading. 💕 🌞
The Count of Monte Cristo is one of my favorite books ever. And your review and feelings for it are exactly how I feel. The slower parts were justified perfectly and it is a perfect story from beginning to end. AND what you said about Moby Dick. Love it and again agree with everything. And as a bonus, it definitely made me love whales so much more lol.
I would like to add "The Tale of Genji" a hugely long classic and one of the first pieces of Japanese literature written in the early 11th century by the noblewoman and lady-in-waiting Murasaki Shikibu. The original manuscript, created around the peak of the Heian period, no longer exists. I have read half of this huge book and it is very enjoyable and different.
Jennifer: I just stumbled onto your channel and I love it! I loved Moby Dick and Don Quixote is a superb novel. The Count of Monte Cristo was excellent (years ago I read it in French even). My 2020 new year's resolution was to read the complete works of Shakespeare and three years later I'm just about finished. I loved Henry the VI but nothing can top Richard III which is just spectacular but Jennifer, Varney the Vampire? Umm no. I can't see myself reading that but thank you for your wonderful channel and your great recommendations.
Yes Moby Dick is a great, profound novel, well worth the time. I may try Italian Hours at some point, as I really enjoyed the 19C perspective on Italy in The Marble Faun.
Italian Hours: I haven't read this because it seemed to me just a travel log. I read Henry James for his characters. My last Henry James was _The Princess Casamassima,_ which was very good, very readable.
Thanks for your review of The Count of Monte Cristo- it’s been sitting and waiting for me lol. Love your point on not needing forgiveness, made me want to read it more. Same with Moby Dick 🤍🐋 Could you make a vid recommending contemporary reads?
Want to try the count of monte cristo and moby dick now even if it’s audio. I wonder what things draw you into a classic book and things do u like in a good eg Victorian book.😊
You are so right about Moby-Dick. I've led multiple seminars on it, and have read it ten times or so. It's the best American novel and really there isn't anything to argue about here. It just is.
I have The Count of Monte Cristo, Don Quixote and Moby Dick on my shelf to read before this year ends. Varney the vampire I've added to my TBR. Thanks for your recommendations, Jennifer and great video. ☺️
Yes! The Count of Monte Cristo. And YES to unapologetic revenge stories! And plot. You've made me want to read it again. And kdrama?! Off to find it. I also had fun with Don Quijote, but in Spanish. I fell in love with Sancho and his neverending proverbs, recognizable in daily life if you're a Spanish-speaker. My high school English teacher made Moby Dick fascinating. Thank you, Ms. Rosatti! I'm going to search your channel for kdrama recs. Currently watching the 2015 The Lover (더 러버...🤣)
Excited to get my teeth into Don Quixote this year! I also have Anna Karenina waiting on the shelf but I still need to get Tolstoy's voice out of my head after War and Peace 😅 I've never had much interest in the count of Monte cristo but you've sold it to me.
The nineteenth century has a lot to explore… amazing works by talented women: Jane Austen, George Elliot, Mary Wollstonecraft and the Brontë sisters for a start! ‘Middlemarch’ by George Elliot is a weighty tome, and an underrated joy. As for the guys, Leo Tolstoy’s ‘War and Peace’ is a sheer delight to read. Perhaps even more than ‘Anna Karenina’, which is probably the more perfect novel. ‘Return of the Native’ may be the most enjoyable of Thomas Hardy’s many brilliant novels. ‘Great Expectations’ is gripping - and my favourite Charles Dickens classic. And ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ by Mark Twain is probably the first great American classic novel.
The count of Montecristo is a wild ride!!! Loved it ❤ Don Quijote is a work of art ✨I remember reading it for school and being one of the few that enjoyed it, I was like you guys are crazy, Don Quijote is funny and he has a heart of gold. I would really like to watch read authors like Balzac, Zola or Galdos, I think you would enjoy it.
Did you know that Dickens also wrote a non-fiction book about his year of traveling through Italy? It's called Pictures from Italy. I haven't read it yet, but I love Dickens' writing so much I'm sure it's going to be good.
You are right. Moby Dick was fascinating when you accept the concept of the book. If you are reading and constantly looking for the storyline, you will be disappointed. But digest it as a work that both entertains and feeds your intellect, you will do fine.
Really enjoyed this so happy there was a HJames for you 😅Italian Hours of course!!💕 I look fwd to reading it along with Moby Dick & yes TCOMCristo Monsieur Noirtier was possibly my favourite character 🤓👍
Love your reviews. It took me three times to finish Moby Dick, but it is now my favorite book of all time-no book is deeper or more profound. I also loved Don Q. I will try to read QMC this winter, and will give Varney the Vampire a look. Thanks and love your channel!
I love your choices here. Moby Dick is my favourite book, chapter 36, Ahabs speech on the quarterdeck is utterly tremendous I think. I think the book is about whales and also man’s search for meaning. Sometimes I think Moby Dick is more than a whale but a part of Ahab. And I agree about the Count of Monte Cristo, what a joy that story is. I just finished Henry V1 parts 1, 2 and 3.. I didn’t enjoy it hugely but I do think it has some excellent parts. I just wished it had expanded those parts to tell the whole more tightly. But I do see what you mean and will now reread it.
The Count of Monte Cristo is fantastic! It does say a lot of important things, but is such a good time. One of my favorites. Don Quixote is one I'm hoping to read this year, if I am in the mood for it.
Moby Dick has defeated me multiple times but I did love both Don Quixote and The Count of Monte Cristo. Haven’t read Varney . Funny, my husband was just mentioning how he’d like to read the Henry VI plays!
I would like to hear someone review the book Satan in Goray by Nobel Prize winner, the Yiddish writer, Isaac Bashevis Singer. I've searched for this book review and aside from a couple in Polish, nothing. This was singer's first novel published. It is a masterpiece. I think people are afraid of this book because it contains the word Satan frankly. Which is ridiculous! It is a historical novel about a wave of messianism in the Lublin area of Poland after Cossacks murdered Jews during the 17th century
Hi! I love all of your book recommendations. I am currently in the middle of reading The Count of Monte Cristo when I found this video of yours. I'm interested in the book tabs you have in your copy. Can you please describe your method of which pages you mark and why? Thanks
Great video again. I've got The Count of Monte Cristo on my TBR but haven't got around to it. I saw all three Henry VI's at the Globe in one day a few years ago. I like the historicals, but the consensus seems to prefer non-historicals except Henry V. Never read any Henry James. I loved Moby Dick. It took me a couple of goes but once I got into it I loved it. I call it a drama-documentary.
I started The Count of Monte Cristo last year, got to about page 360-something and stopped. 🤷🏼♀️ I think I was just overwhelmed at the time, I dunno. That said, I've been seriously considering picking it up again and after hearing you talk about it again, maybe it'll be sooner rather than later. 🤓 Thanks!
The H6 plays and R3 are actually among Shakespeare’s earliest plays. The depiction of Joan of Arc is hilarious. Moby Dick is awesome. The whaling chapters are metaphors and are filled with jokes.
You are a treasure, Jennifer! I have had Italian Hours for years and not taken it off a bookshelf. If you say it's dreamy, I will begin it today! I wish you'd been alive 53 years ago when first I went alone to Italy. I'm sure you'd have been more sensible 2 years later and chosen the Italian Lakes district for honeymoon, when offered, than chilly Canadian cities, interesting though they were . So, thanks to you, Jennifer, I'll live it vicariously now. Thank you for your stupendous vlogs and Time, in- depth takes.
I am in the middle of Count of MC and loving it! Can't wait to see how it all unravels. And I love your channel! I would like to see even more talk about rennaisance, Medicis etc😊 Greetings from Croatia.
