Harking Back...Part III: University (Year 2)

Shakespeare

We read 12 plays (tragedies & comedies).  Having only my high school Shakespeare experience to go on, I did not know what to expect from this course. Almost everyone I knew majoring in English took this course for 1 of 2 required early lit credits! We used all Folger editions, which are very well developed and offer side-by-side page views of the translated play version and the language translation with key words in bold to correspond. This made it much easier to follow the play seamlessly without having to change pages to read the translation!

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Hamlet

Yup, we read this again. It was an even richer reading experience, knowing many of the themes & great characters.

Rank:  (A+)- A must-read




Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Othello

Surprisingly, I didn’t read this in high school, even though it is highly appropriate for the age group. A controversial romance to be sure (see also A Taste of Honey) between the moor Othello and the tragic Desdemona. Iago is considered Shakespeare’s most evil villain, though I thought King Lear’s Goneril & Regan were pretty despicable.

Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend



Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

My favourite (so far) of the comedies. I thought it was so whimsical with dreamlike imagery and enchanting descriptions of the setting, and the humour, like Oscar Wilde, is still quite funny.  There is a lot to visualize, which allows flexibility in how people perceive the world these characters live in.  The movie version from 1999 is decent but the set design is just like I thought of it--so luscious.

Rank:  (A+)- Excellent (the best Shakespeare comedy I've read)




Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Measure for Measure
I had to look up what this play was about, so it likely wasn’t that memorable and is one of the least known Shakespeare plays. It’s technically a comedy, though has some light tragic elements and is a testament to sexual politics before the term was even coined.
Rank:  N/A (can't really rank something that I don't remember!)

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Henry V
A historical play that I didn’t expect to enjoy, but did.  Best line:  “Once more unto the breach, dear friends…”  Best Folger cover: this one.  They use rich colours and blends, but this one is the most striking.
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend



Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters



Richard III

We started the course reading this play. It is full of memorable lines: “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.” “Now is the winter of our discontent.”
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend



Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters



Antony & Cleopatra
Wasn’t too fond of this one, as I recall. Historical plays are hit-and-miss for me.
Rank:  (C)- Just okay












Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters


Titus Andronicus
I hadn’t heard of this one before and it turns out that Anthony Hopkins starred in a film adaptation of it. A rather sinister ending that questions the quality and definition of justice.  It's the most violent written work I've ever read.
Rank:  (B)- Recommend

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

King Lear

Sadly, I can’t remember much about my reading experience with this one. I do think it exudes sympathy for Lear and his relationship with daughter Cordelia is rather emotional. I will have to reread this…ack, more TBR material :oD
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend



Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Cymbeline

Like Measure for Measure, I hadn’t heard of this play before taking the course. It has similar themes to most of Shakespeare’s tragedies and comes across like a combination of Twelfth Night (female-male cross dressing) and Othello (claiming a false affair & plotting to kill for revenge).
Rank:  (B)- Recommend



Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters


The Tempest

I enjoyed this one and thought the use of magic was a new idea that hadn’t been explored in as much detail in Shakespeare’s other plays, drawing some ideas from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I remember watching the BBC version of this play and we all thought the actor playing Caliban was completely off the wall!
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Twelfth Night

I had already read this in high school & was excited to read it again.  It is a very sweet, likeable play that is the best Shakespeare play to start reading as its language isn't too difficult to grasp.
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend

Studies in American Literature
Theme: hard-boiled detective fiction!  This was a fun theme to study and turned out to be a more complex genre than I thought it would be.

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

The Big Sleep- Raymond Chandler
Chandler is best known for writing the character of Sam Spade, brought to life on the screen by Humphrey Bogart. I would have preferred to read The Maltese Falcon, which we watched scenes of in the Bogart movie (one of my favourites). The novel’s ending was confusing and I remember having to reread at least 1-2 times to have some idea of what happened. The movie with Bogart and Bacall was pretty dull. I preferred To Have & Have Not, though that one is also not as good as Maltese Falcon.
Rank:  (C)- Just okay

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

The Thin Man- Dashiell Hammett

Nick & Nora Charles are classic characters, played by the often-paired William Powell & Myrna Loy in 6 films, though there was only 1 novel. Hammett mixes humour with hard-boiled mystery, making women more prominent characters in the stories, instead of reducing them to femme fatales, like other such writers (i.e. Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Mickey Spillane). Again, I found some parts confusing to follow, but overall it was a more enjoyable read than Chandler.  Haven't seen the movies yet but they are supposed to be even better.
Rank:  (B)- Recommend

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Fearless Jones- Walter Mosley
Mosley is best known for his series starring Easy Rawlins, a black PI, played by Denzel Washington in Devil in a Blue Dress (though Don Cheadle stole the movie in one of his earliest roles) the only film adaptation of Mosley’s books so far. Fearless Jones is the first of a separate, smaller series. His style of writing urbanizes the hard-boiled genre, which made the story more relatable and more contemporary. It made me think of how Sam Spade could be written as a black character…Forgot how great this cover is, resembling the pulp fiction serials of the hard-boiled mystery genre.
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Motherless Brooklyn- Jonathan Lethem
This novel features most unique mystery character ever: Lionel Essrog, a detective with Tourette’s syndrome, who adds self-deprecating humour that goes deeper than but is nonetheless inspired by Hammett. Actor Edward Norton has spent several years trying to bring this story to the screen and is set to adapt, star & direct the film version. I think he is just the right guy to do it.  I enjoyed the characters more than the story.  The mystery is not very complex, lending more space to Lionel & his quirks, such as a love of Prince, whose music he equates with his tics so much he once thought Prince had TS as well!
Rank:  (A+)- Excellent

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

A is For Alibi- Sue Grafton
The first in her Kinsey Millhone series. I enjoyed it thoroughly and liked having a female detective written in a grittier, contemporary style that puts forth women as more than the femme fatale or the helpless victim. The ending was sudden & heart-stopping. The first of her anticipated 26-book series for each letter of the alphabet (she’s up to U is for Undertow, and has the title set for the last novel (Z is for Zero) is a twisty, observable novel that puts to rest any notions of “girls playing detective” to give Kinsey a strong hold on a male-dominated role. The series is on my TBR list.
Rank:  (A+)- Excellent

Coming soon...Year 3.

Harking Back...Part II: High School

Grade 9-


Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Twelfth Night- Shakespeare
An excellent play to jumpstart a Shakespearian education in high school, in which we covered a play per year, as is the practice even nowadays. I enjoyed this play thoroughly and was able to understand it, despite the language barrier that turns off many students (and even adults!). As with most Shakespeare classes, I saw the film version with Helena Bonham Carter, which was a good interpretation of the play, even without Kenneth Branagh at the helm. I am still tickled by Shakespeare’s and Oscar Wilde’s comedies, which stand the test of humourous time. 
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend

 

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters



The Chrysalids- John Wyndham

This was a love it or hate it novel. Having not read a science-fiction novel with my class and only having read about two Monica Hughes novels up to that point, I had no idea what to expect from this book. I haven’t read it since Grade 9, however I remember some details of it and how it tried to appeal to a younger audience with its characters, though I don’t remember the themes suggested in most online forums. At the time, I found it “just okay.”

Rank:  (C)- Just okay

Grade 10-

 

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Lord of the Flies- William Golding
A brilliant philosophical tale, albeit told through the eyes of children, but stemming from deeper political and psychological means. The tragedy of succumbing to influence struck me even then, and I still believe it to be very relevant to misgivings in society today.
P.S.  The edition at Chapters is the one I read & the cover is really disturbing...Freaked me out for a few weeks!
Rate:  (A)- Highly recommend





Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Romeo & Juliet- Shakespeare

Not the most memorable time spent in studying this play, but nonetheless it is hard to resist the romantic/tragic underpinnings of the star-crossed lovers. At least it is for girls :o) We saw both the Olivia Hussey-starring, Franco Zefferelli directed version from 1968 and the highly popular Leonardo DiCaprio-Claire Danes version of 1996, which Baz Luhrmann directed in a sparkly, flittingly spasmodic style a la Moulin Rouge, which was a much better film IMO. I preferred (and still prefer) the Zefferelli interpretation, which gives a rich backdrop to Verona with amazing detail and elegant costumes. R + J was set contemporarily, I realize, but lacked much depth and was more a star vehicle that pairs nicely with Titanic in its themes and its beautification of Leo.
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend

Who’s on First?- Abbott & Costello (during class :oP)

Sorry to Mr. Williams, my long-retired Grade 10 English teacher, but I’ll admit that I snuck a glance through our anthology textbook and came across this classic that has always been my favourite comedy routine. View it on YouTube for major laughs! I nearly laughed out loud reading this during class. As a teacher, I cringe a bit at my behaviour, but I feel that this material could have been much more appealing than what was averting my attention to it.

Grade 11-

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

To Kill a Mockingbird- Harper Lee

Still remains a coming-of-age milestone in literary education. At the time, I felt that the first half of the book was rather tame with not much occurring, but my teacher insisted (and was correct) that the second half was so powerful it was worth the trek. As usual, we also viewed the Gregory Peck-starring film, a very worthy adaptation that next to Lord of the Rings, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile…is probably the greatest book-to-film piece ever made. Any others that come to mind?

Rank:  (A+)- Instant favourite

Purchase: Amazon | Chapters

Inherit the Wind- Jerome Lawrence & Robert Edwin Lee
A play based on the controversial Scopes evolution-in-education trial. Being in a public school, it seemed like a no-brainer to teach Darwinian theory in science since it gave a secular viewpoint on the history of mankind free from religious bias. That being said, there was very little debate about the subject matter as we were basically all in agreement, which stifled (and likely shortened) the unit on this play, but it tied in nicely with the popular law course. Again, we saw the film versions: Spencer Tracy & Fredric March in 1960, and Jack Lemmon & George C. Scott in 1999.
Rank:  (A)- Highly recommend

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Animal Farm- George Orwell

At this point in Grade 11 English, we had a student teacher who was less than effective and didn’t offer much, if any, insight to the socio-political entanglements of the novel. I was very confused by its themes, but I’d like to reread it some day, as I am determined to get a better hold on it. Since then, it’s been a turnoff. The animated film versions of 1954 & 1999 supposedly aren’t much better.
Rank:  (C)- Just okay
  

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Macbeth- Shakespeare
Again, this was taught by a student teacher who didn’t make it very understandable. It is supposed to be Shakespeare’s most appealing tragedy to teenagers because of its profound violence & sexuality, but it came off to me (at 16 years old!) as vulgar. I want to insist that I wasn’t being prudish at all—I couldn’t stand most excessively violent movies until I was about 18—but again, I feel that having a teacher’s direction would have improved my experience reading this play. I may try rereading it some day, but until then it remains my least favourite Shakespearian work. On top of all this, we watched some of the Roman Polanski-directed film, which includes the disturbing image of all the dead children, eerily similar to photos of Holocaust victims’ mass graves.
Rank:  D (Don't Recommend)\

Grade 12-

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

The Great Gatsby- F. Scott Fitzgerald

I learned a great deal about imagery and metaphor from this novel—the glasses overlooking the Valley of Ashes is a memorable motif with Orwellian “Big Brother” allusions—and the juxtaposition of class influenced a number of later (perhaps even better) works, but overall I failed to connect with the entitled, upper class society and could not sympathize with most characters. Like the follow-up to Gone With the Wind (The Wind Done Gone from the point-of-view of the slaves), the novel may have been more interesting if it was from Myrtle’s point-of-view. To be fair, I did think that Nick Carraway was a worthy narrator, considering he was as much of an outsider as the reader is, and it wasn’t as cheap a decision as, say, Gatsby being the narrator. Frankly, I don’t understand why this novel continues to be taught in high school as there isn’t much teenagers can come away with from it. Maybe I’m biased due to my bland experience with Gatsby, but it doesn’t seem relevant to the age group studying it. Am I missing or forgetting a key aspect of the novel that does relate to high schoolers? As for the more familiar 1974 film adaptation with Robert Redford & Mia Farrow, we saw it but it didn’t bowl me over, either.
Rank:  (C)- Just okay

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Hamlet- Shakespeare

Like Romeo & Juliet, this is Shakespeare’s most relatable play to be taught in high school. The protagonist is indecisive, moody, high-strung, and bitterly wry to all but his best friend—sounds like the ages of 13-18! This is the first Shakespeare tragedy I enjoyed reading and the language continues to be quoted in many forms. BTW, I can recite the first half of Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” monologue on command :o) The only drawback is the lack of time devoted to the hilarious gravediggers, and the suspicious dismissal of “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are dead” (a deus ex machina, no?), which Tom Stoppard has infamously used to great success. Maybe a play about the gravediggers is in order? I have never seen Laurence Olivier’s film version, but Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation is absolutely fantastic and, with Henry V coming close, is his best Shakespearian work.
Rank:  (A+)- Must-read (the best Shakespeare tragedy I've read)

Purchase:  Amazon | Chapters

Death of a Salesman- Arthur Miller

This play reminded me of Paul Zindel’s The Pigman from Grade 7 with its comparable title subjects: sad, pathetic, washed-up men who glow optimistic in the light of youth. For the Pigman, it was John & Lorraine; for Willy Loman, it was his sons. The differences are few; they both end tragically. We also saw the Dustin Hoffman TV movie version, which he played splendidly. It is a comic tragedy that conveys sympathy for unusual people like Willy Loman, who we often encounter but rarely pay mind to. The play alludes to this kind of ignorant attitude and creates meaning in people who are otherwise thought disposable.
Rank:  (B)- Recommend

Coming soon...Part III: English University Degree Course Selections

Between the copies I kept, what I can remember, and what I Googled haphazardly until I pieced together the missing links, I have a nice selection of novels that were read amongst the countless theories & articles.  Not a single textbook bought after my 1st year...!