Tag: Classic

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne

Fiction

I don’t read the classics very often. But when I do, it’s because I feel like it’s something I should read, because it’s a well known piece that history just can’t seem to let anyone forget. In this case however, a friend of mine was praising his love of classic literature after we got into a discussion about books. I mentioned that I would read anything, and he literally walked to his house to pick up one of his two copies of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea for me. 

This was a great book! It didn’t bore me, which I was a bit anxious about before I started. The author beautifully describes various fish and sea creatures that the narrator sees during his journey, some of which I knew of, being an admirer of ocean life, and I can verify that they were described accurately. I love the enthusiasm that is expressed by Professor Aronnax whenever he is able to study a creature by observing it through the large glass panel of the library. The only thing I was disappointed in was the abrupt ending. I would have loved to know a little bit more about what happened to our three captives, but I guess I will just have to take solace in knowing that they got what they wanted in the end.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence

Fiction

If the Netflix trailer for the film had not piqued my interest so greatly, would I have ever read this book? Probably not. Am I glad that I read this book? Yes, I think so. Banned books have always intrigued me simply because at a point in time they were labeled either too vulgar or too revolutionary to be read by the general public, and so the persons in power, who didn’t want the masses to read such perverted literature or get radical ideas, decided that they must be banned. As I was reading the afterword, I learned that this book is still banned in China, and by that I am going to guess that it is still banned in a few other countries as well. I can see why, at the time, this book was banned in both the United Stated and the United Kingdom. It would have upset the ideal of the nuclear family and traditional male and female roles. 

I usually don’t enjoy the classics, but if more of the classics were written like this then I would. I enjoyed reading in the language of the time, even if it is hard to believe that people at the time actually spoke like that, and it was made even more enjoyable by the filthy and sometimes crude language of the gamekeeper, Mr. Mellors, as he speaks intimately to his lover, Lady Constance Chatterly. Although I have not seen the film yet, I expect that they will modernize the dialogue to make it easier for the audience to understand as well as make it more enjoyable for todays ears. I do hope that they keep some of the more raunchy lines, because they really do make the story. If you want to get into the classics, I would highly recommend this as a starting point. It’s somewhere between Pride and Prejudice and a Bertice Small historical romance, a blend of which I really enjoyed.