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A Reader's reviews
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-22 11:53:59 for Bleak House.
(Language: English)
 
This is quite possibly my favorite book. Dickens shines with his darker characters, and Bleak House has more than enough of those to go around. Beautiful language, an interesting fascination with the power of names... sometimes called the first English mystery novel.
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A Reader posted a review at 2009-03-22 11:48:38 for Billy Budd, Sailor.
(Language: English)
Unintentionally hilarious.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-20 08:54:59 for Duino Elegies.
(Language: English)
Rilke himself wrote that he didn't know what these meant. I very much enjoy poetry--I love the rhythm and sound and feeling of words, often to my detriment as a fiction reader--but I thought this was just horrendous. Perhaps I would have enjoyed them more in the original.... In English, at least, the words and rhythms didn't seem to be well thought out, and it was painfully evident that the poet didn't have any idea what he was writing about. When I finished reading I was left only with a sense of pretentiousness. I've read some of Rilke's other work, and enjoyed that, but the Duino Elegies were incredibly unsuccessful from my point of view. Very famous, I realize, but... some of the worst poetry I've ever read.
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-20 08:40:50 for The Mill on the Floss.
(Language: English)
There were some really wonderful parts to The Mill on the Floss, particularly Eliot's ability to follow the characters over time and to draw on complex social dynamics to create character. I found the long passages of exposition to drag the narrative, though, and that much of them didn't really carry beyond the society in which they were written. I also seriously contemplated murder when I reached the ending. Possibly even exhuming Eliot just to give her a good thrashing. After building up interesting and well-motivated choices, I don't know that it would be possible to end things in a less satisfying way. The characters entirely escape making any kind of interesting or difficult choice.
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