The Reading List for June 2024

 

June has come to an end and the time has arrived for another monthly reading list. The list for June will be relatively short - only four books.

I've already written blog posts for two of the books - The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope and High Rising by Angela Thirkell.

Jerry Coyne's Why Evolution is True is interesting, but anyone who watches science programs and reads the occasional science article is familiar with most of what he has to offer.

Book four is #18 in Donna Leon's Commissario Guido Brunetti series - About Face. A favorite theme for Leon is the illegal transport of toxic waste thru Italy. Of course, there's always a murder or two involved.

I won't finish the book I'm currently reading in time to make this list. It will be the first on July's list. The Case for God  by Karen Armstrong.

So, here's this month's list:

The Last Chronicle of Barset      by Anthony Trollope
Why Evolution is True                 by Jerry A Coyne
High Rising                                   by Angela Thirkell
About Face                                    by Donna Leon

High Rising by Angela Thirkell

 

I was recently browsing a Canadian website which offers ebooks that are in the Canadian public domain, fadedpage.com and came across an author of whom I was unfamiliar - Angela Thirkell. I discovered that Thirkell had written 27 novels based on the fictional county of Barsetshire created by Anthony Trollope (although 4 of the 27 are unavailable for download). I've recently finished reading Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles and was curious to see what Thirkell had added.

High Rising (1933) is listed as book one in Thirkell's Barsetshire series, although, frankly I don't understand why. I read in a Goodreads review that the two villages in the novel (High Rising and Low Rising) are located in Barsetshire but I found no mention of Barsetshire in the book. I certainly don't recall either High Rising or Low Rising being mentioned in any of Trollope's books and no descendants of the families from Trollope's work are in High Rising.

Never the less, I did enjoy the novel. Thirkell was a good writer and the book is mildly amusing and I'm looking forward to reading more from Thirkell's series in the months to come.

The Last Chronicle of Barset by Anthony Trollope

 

As the title of the novel proclaims, Anthony Trollope's sixth novel in the series is, in fact,The Last Chronicle of Barset. While ostensibly telling the story of Rev. Josiah Crawley and his being accused of stealing a cheque for £ 20, there are several stories interwoven into the plot. Trollope wanted to end the series by tidying things up. He begins the final chapter -
"It now only remains for me to gather together a few loose strings,and tie them together in a knot, so that my work may not become untwisted."

I don't normally give spoilers, but in the case of this final novel, I'll make an exception. Those folks just beginning the first novel, The Warden will have forgotten my spoilers by the time they get to the sixth novel. It's unlikely that anyone reading this post now has read the first five and will be disappointed in knowing how it all ends.

Like most novels from that time period, the six novels were originally published in serial installments. As I wrote in an earlier blog post, in the beginning of Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death, she writes that Hercule Poirot overhears a bit of conversation which reminds him of a story he once heard concerning Anthony Trollope. According to this story, Trollope was crossing the Atlantic at the time, and overheard two passengers discussing the last published installment of one of his novels. "Very good", one man said, "but he ought to kill off that tiresome old woman". Trollope was said to have told the men,"Gentlemen, I am much obliged to you! I will go and kill her immediately!"

At the time I wrote that post I suspected the "tiresome old woman" might have been the wife of Bishop Proudie. As it turns out, Trollope does kill off the Bishop's wife.

In my review of Book Five, The Small House at Allington, I wrote that -
"In his autobiography, Trollope is amazed by the number of letters he'd received from readers of the installments of The Small House at Allington who loved Lily Dale (who he considered a prig) and wished that Trollope would have Lily and John Eames marry. Trollope did not unite the two. Several of the characters from The Small House at Allington return in The Last Chronicle of Barset. Judging by Trollope's comments, I would be very surprised to see the couple marry in the final book."

Like Trollope, I too found Lily Dale a prig and hoped that she and Eames would never marry. I was beginning to worry in the final novel that Trollope would have the two wed, but I'm happy to say that Trollope had Lily Dale remain forever an "old maid".

Rev. Josiah Crawley is exonerated and all ends happily.

In the 1930s, fifty years after Trollope's death, English/Australian novelist Angela Thirkell began a series of 23 novels taking up the story of Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles. The first of her "sequels" is High Rising published in 1933. I'll put Thirkell's novel in the queue, although I have no idea how many of those I'll read.

The April 2024 Reading List

 The latest list:

Spiral (Ring 2)  by Koji Suzuki
Replay  by Ken Grimwood
Loop (Ring 3)  by Koji Suzuki
Past Master  by R. A. Lafferty
Utopia  by Thomas More
The Double  by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Small House at Allington  by Anthony Trollope

The Small House at Allington by Anthony Trollope

 

In April of 2021 I set out on a quest to read strictly dystopian novels during that month. As a result, I read 15 novels with a dystopian theme. I had previously read a few of the books that would make my list, but most were new to me (though not exactly new books). The last book in that series was first published in six installments in Blackwood's Magazine in 1881–82 - The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope . That book turned out to be one of my favorites in the dystopian series.

Reading a Wikipedia article on The Fixed Period, I learned that this was Trollope's only Sci-Fi/futuristic novel. He is best remembered today for two six book series of novels - the Chronicles of Barsetshire and the Palliser novels (AKA - the Parliamentary novels ). In May of that year, I began reading Chronicles of Barsetshire. After reading the 4th novel in the series, I decided to take a break from Trollope. I began reading the entire collection of Agatha Christie's mystery novels and soon forgot about Trollope.

He was forgotten until his books were mentioned by John Podhoretz on the Commentary Magazine podcast recently. Podhoretz highly recommended Trollope's Palliser novels and I felt I needed to finish the last two books in Chronicles of Barsetshire before I could read something different by Trollope.

I started book five - The Small House at Allington. I'm glad I did. This one is my favorite (so far) of Trollope's novels.

Generally, I'm not one for spoilers but I want to compare parts of The Small House at Allington with an earlier novel in the series, Doctor Thorne . In the earlier novel, a Mr. Moffat breaks off his engagement to Miss Augusta Gresham because he had found a more "advantageous match." To avenge his sister, Frank Gresham and one of his friends horsewhip Moffat within an inch of his life. Most of the characters in the novel appear to be OK with the beating, as does Trollope, for that matter. In The Small House at Allington, after Adolphus Crosbie jilts Lily Dale in order to marry Alexandrina de Courcy, Crosbie is simply given a black eye by John Eames.

In his autobiography, Trollope is amazed by the number of letters he'd received from readers of the installments of The Small House at Allington who loved Lily Dale (who he considered a prig) and wished that Trollope would have Lily and John Eames marry. Trollope did not unite the two. Several of the characters from The Small House at Allington return in The Last Chronicle of Barset. Judging by Trollope's comments, I would be very surprised to see the couple marry in the final book.

Literary References

 

I find it interesting, while reading a work of fiction, to come upon the name of another author or the mentioning of a book that one of the characters in the fictional work has read or is reading. I find it of particular interest if I'm familiar with the book mentioned.

One example is in a work of Agatha Christie which I've just finished, Death on the Nile . In the novel, Christie notes that one characters has a copy of Erewhon by Samuel Butler. Erewhon was one of the dystopian novels I read this past April.

Another example is from the Christie novel I've just began reading last night - Appointment with Death.  In the very opening of the novel, Hercule Poirot overhears a bit of conversation which reminds him of a story he once heard concerning the writer, Anthony Trollope. According to this story, Trollope was crossing the Atlantic at the time, and overheard two passengers discussing the last published installment of one of his novels.

"Very good", one man said, "but he ought to kill off that tiresome old woman".
Trollope was said to have told the men,
"Gentlemen, I am much obliged to you! I will go and kill her immediately!"

There is no mention of which Trollope novel was being referred to. I spent a good deal of time in April reading Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire ; I don't know if the reference is to one of those novels. If it is, I suspect the "tiresome old woman" might have been the wife of Bishop Proudie.

I suppose I'll never really know for certain.

The Seven Dials Mystery

For me, April of this year had become the month for reading dystopian novels, while May was the month for mostly Anthony Trollope, with bits of Agatha Christie thrown in at the end.

With my having just finished reading my 9th Agatha Christie mystery for this month, it should be obvious that June will become a full blown Agatha Christie month.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I've discovered a website that has all of Christies' novels available for download as EPUB files. Of course, these files are unreadable on a Kindle until converted into MOBI. Fortunately, there's another website which can accommodate.

In addition to the eight novels read so far in June, I read two of the earliest novels at the end of May, making the total, so far, ten. I've tried, for the most part, to read these books in the order in which they were published.

Last night, I finished The Seven Dials Mystery. This novel was the second Christie novel to take place in and around the fictional estate - Chimneys (the first being The Secret of Chimneys ). There are a number of characters appearing in both books, and I suspect that Christie may have intended to develop this into a larger series. However, The Seven Dials Mystery received mostly unfavorable reviews when it was released, so Christie may have changed her mind on that.

I tend to agree with the reviewers of the time who thought that the novel started out well, but found the ending absolutely far fetched - The New York Times reviewer calling the solution "utterly preposterous".

I will say one thing; the ending took me by surprise.

Having finished The Seven Dials Mystery , I'm on to the first in the Miss Marple canon - The Murder at the Vicarage.

May's Reading List

For several years, it had been my habit to keep a list of the books that I've read and I would post the list for an entire year on to one of my blogs. Naturally enough, my last annual book list was for the books read in 2020.

Beginning this year, I began posting my book list for each month - the first monthly book list being my January's Book List. Continuing in that new tradition, I'm posting today the books I read in May.

I've commented on these books earlier during the month. My first thought was to read all six novels in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series. However, after finishing the 4th book in the series, I decided to take a break from Trollope and read a different writer. I decided to read what I could find of Agatha Christie's work.

I was able to read two of her novels before the month of May came to an end. I've finished a third one today and it will go on the list for June.

So now, without further delay..... the list of novels I'd read in May, 2021

The Warden                          Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers               Anthony Trollope
Doctor Thorne                     Anthony Trollope
TaoTe Ching                        Lao Tzu
Framley Parsonage              Anthony Trollope
The Secret Adversary          Agatha Christie
The Murder on the Links     Agatha Christie

Now, On to Something Different

In my post of two days ago, I wrote of my disappointment in the 4th novel of Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, Framley Parsonage . At the time of that writing, I was half way thru the novel and it seemed to me that I would abandon the novel unfinished.

I also wrote in that blog post that I would give the novel one more chance before going on to something different. I'm inclined to see that as a proper decision now.

Not long after taking it up again, I came upon this sentence spoken by Mrs. Harold Smith in a conversation with Miss Dunstable:
We are so used to a leaven of falsehood in all we hear and say, now-a-days, that nothing is more likely to deceive us than the absolute truth.

The wisdom of that remark struck me.

The sentence is as powerful (and true) today as it had been in 1860. Having come upon that piece of wisdom, I wanted to continue where I had left off and finish reading the novel.

As I stated previously, many of the characters in Framley Parsonage had been introduced to us in earlier novels in the series. Honestly, I wanted to know how the lives of these characters had gotten on. I was no longer disappointed.

True enough, the novel drags on in spots, but I'm happy that I was able to persevere until the end. Of course, as with all the Trollope novels I'm familiar with, this one ends happily. Never the less, I feel as if I should go on to another writer before reading the two final books in the series - The Small House at Allington and The Last Chronicle of Barset. There was a span of two years between the publication of books four and five. I don't intend on going that long, by any means - but a small break won't hurt.

I've managed to download five Agatha Christie novels which are now in the public domain. I suppose I'll go in that direction presently.

A Disappointing Novel

I really don't like the idea of my giving up on reading a particular novel once I've started, but I may make an exception with the 4th novel in Anthony Trollope's Chronicles of Barsetshire series, Framley Parsonage. It feels like I'm been struggling with it for ages, although I'm only 49% in.

Many of the characters appearing in Framley Parsonage are familiar, having been introduced in earlier novels. Unfortunately, those making a reappearance seem less developed than they had been in the earlier works.

Trollope seems to have run out of ideas for plots by this point as well. There are differences, of course, but in Framley Parsonage we are given a rehash with a main character being deeply in debt, and an unrequited love between two characters who are in different social classes.

I'll give the novel one more chance today. If it can't hold my interest much longer, I'll switch to another novel.

Chronicles of Barsetshire - Continued

When I last wrote about my reading Chronicles of Barsetshire, I had finished reading the first two novels in the series (The Warden and Barchester Towers ) and I had read about 25% of the third novel in the series, Doctor Thorne . At the time of that writing, I had a good impression of the third novel, although now, having read it entirely, my opinion of the novel isn't quite as high.

At about the half-way point in the novel, the ending became obvious and trying to get to the end, while pretty much knowing how it would all end became a bit tedious. It was obvious that Mary Thorne would inherit a fortune and all would be well.

Many of the characters who were supposed to be "heros" in the novel began to rub me the wrong way. Most accepted that Mary Thorne was less than an acceptable person due to her questionable birth and her poverty. Mary even accepted that opinion herself. The only person who was not of that opinion was the squire's son Frank Gresham.

In many ways, Frank is the most likeable character in the novel - at least up to the point of his treatment Mr Moffit. Frank and his friend track down Mr. Moffit and whip him within an inch of his life. I could not agree with Frank's motive for beating Moffit, although most of the characters in the novel seemed ok with it - I presume that when writing the novel, Trollope was fine with it as well.

The novel is over 375 pages long, much of which Trollope would have done well to edit out.

I've moved on to book four, Framley Parsonage and we're back to seeing the lives of clergymen in the Church of England. So far, no problems.

Chronicles of Barsetshire

As regular readers of this blog are aware, my reading list for this past April consisted entirely of novels dealing with a dystopian theme. Those same readers should also know that the final novel on that list was The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope. Prior to this, I had never heard of this English novelist of the Victorian era. However, I was so impressed with The Fixed Period, I wanted to learn more about Mr. Trollope.

His best known work is a series of novels collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire. I immediately downloaded all six novels in the series from Project Gutenberg and began reading the first in the series, The Warden , on the first day of this month. As I write this, I've finished the first and second (Barchester Towers ) and about 25% of the third novel in the series, Doctor Thorne .

The first two in the series deal with of the coming and goings of a small group of Church of England clergymen in the fictional city of Barchester - particularly Mr Septimus Harding (the Warden of Hiram's Hospital in book one) and his sons -in-law.

Several characters appear in both novels, although two characters from book one are killed off by Trollope, with a few new characters appearing in the second novel.

As much as I enjoyed the first two novels in the series, I didn't think Trollope could pull off writing six novels on these same characters. Fortunately, the series takes a turn with the third novel dealing with a local physician, Doctor Thomas Thorne.

So far, the only negative thing I can say about the series is the concentration on English social class structure in the Victorian era. At this point, I can't tell if Trollope is for it, or against it.

Never the less, I'm enjoying my stroll around Barsetshire and I'm looking forward to the next three in the series.

The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope

Immediately upon my finishing Erewhon; Or, Over the Range by Samuel Butler I began reading The Fixed Period by Anthony Trollope.

I had given myself a mission to read dystopian novels thru out April and this would be the final one.

The novel was published in 1882; the story takes place on the fictional island of Britannula in the late 1970's / early 80's. At the time of the book's publication, Great Britain was the dominant world power and with the two world wars far into the future, Trollope had assumed that in the 1980's Britain would have maintained it's dominance.

Following the story line of the novel, Britannula was settled by colonists from New Zealand around 1940 (more or less). The British government took the unprecedented step of granting independence almost immediately.

The first legislative Assembly of the newly formed country consisted mainly of young, energetic men set on establishing a modern state. One of the problems which this young Assembly wished to address was the issue of the aged. It was seen that, although there might be exceptions, the elderly were often faced with illness - physical and mental deterioration. In order to help the elderly live out their last years, a plan for a "Fixed-Period" was put into law.

After much debate, it was determined that upon reaching age 67 each citizen of the country was to be "deposited" into "The College", where he or she would stay for one year, until ultimately being euthanized and subsequently cremated .

Trollope was a very successful writer in his day, although The Fixed Period was his only dystopic novel. I've read several dystopic novels this month, and if I could only recommend one, I would highly recommend this one.

I've since learned that Trollope was best known for a series of novels collectively known as Chronicles of Barsetshire . I've downloaded the entire series which I will begin reading in May.