Recap of Novels 251 - 260

  

Average rating of novels 251 – 260:  3.7 stars (out of 5)

 

251.  ★★★★              The Magus

252.  ★★★½              A High Wind in Jamaica

253.  ★★★★              The Remains of the Day

254.  ★★★                 TheAscent of Rum Doodle

255   ★★★★              LordJim
256.  ★★★½              Things Fall Apart
257.  ★★★½              Scoop

258.  ★★★½              Kim

259.  ★★★★             The Power and the Glory

280.  ★★★★             The Code of the Woosters

 

 

Favorite: Lord Jim

 

Least Favorite: The Ascent of Rum Doodle

 

Best Hero: Jim, the title character from Lord Jim

 

Best Heroine: Emily Thornton from A High Wind in Jamaica

 

Best Villain: Maurice Conchis or the magus. Very creepy, and even at the end it isn’t perfectly clear that he is a villain. He is.

 

Most interesting/Complex character: Unnamed priest from The Power and the Glory

 

Best Quotation: You can’t be a successful Dictator and design women’s underclothing. One or the other, not both. ~ Bertie Wooster

 

. 

 

The Code of the Woosters (1938) by P. G. Wodehouse — novel #260

You can’t be a successful Dictator and design women’s underclothing. ~ a musing of Bertram Wooster; just a glimpse at the depths of his profundity
 

·      Author: P. G. Wodehouse (pronounced wood-house)

·      Comic novel, British lit

·      Published: 1938

·      My edition: W.W. Norton & Company, 2011 (eBook)

·      Setting: Totleigh Towers a fictional country estate in Gloucestershire, England, pre-WWII

 

Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, Bertie to friends and family, is twenty something, a bachelor, and idle rich, residing in London with his resourceful valet Jeeves. The Code of the Woosters is "Jeeves #7": stories that were serialized in The Saturday Evening Post and The Strand magazines. They can be read in any order. Wooster has a talent for getting in trouble; Jeeves has a talent for getting him out.

 

In this story, a desperate telegram from Bertie’s old chum Augustus “Gussie” Fink-Nottle pulls him into the fray. Gussie has fouled things with his fiancé, Madeline Bassett, and now the engagement is off, threatening Wooster’s happy bachelorhood, as Madeline was previously, rather irrepressibly inclined for Bertie, and is likely to re-engage, literally!

 

According to Wooster, she is a ghastly girl.

I call her a ghastly girl because she was a ghastly girl. The Woosters are chivalrous, but they can speak their minds.

 

He admits…

…Madeline Basset was undeniably of attractive exterior—slim, svelte, if that’s the word, and bountifully equipped with golden hair and all the fixings.

 

But…

She was definitely the sort of girl who puts her hands over a husband’s eyes, as he is crawling in to breakfast with a morning head, and says” ‘Guess who!’

 

Bertie is called to the scene, ostensibly to clear things up. The reader who is familiar with Bertie’s tact and delicacy cannot be hopeful, but for the knowledge that Jeeves will accompany. There are other complications, involving blackmail, theft, arrest, assault, and a second imperiled engagement of another Wooster chum.

 

It is all quite ridiculous, preposterous, and yet—in Bertie’s world—somehow perfectly plausible.

 

It is great fun, a great read, a laugh-out-loud read, with one minor detractor: I’ve seen it all portrayed flawlessly by Stephen Fry (Jeeves) and Hugh Laurie (Bertie) in the wonderful television adaptation Jeeves & Wooster. I wholeheartedly recommend both the written format and the TV series. If you read first, picture Fry and Laurie in their respective roles.

 

My rating 4/5 stars

 

This was title #29 of 50 for The Classics Club Challenge –Round IV

 

Much of the charm is Wooster’s first-person narrative. A female acquaintance compares Wooster to Sydney Carton, the self-sacrificing hero of A Tale of Two Cities. Wooster is unimpressed.

 

Stiffy Byng thought me like Sidney Carton. I had never met the chap, but I gather that he was somebody who had taken it on the chin to oblige a girl, and to my mind this was enough to stamp him as a priceless ass.

 

Or this bit of dialogue, when Bertie discusses a hostile brute he had to blackmail. This brute was the leader of an intimidating fascist group making noise in England. Bertie, through Jeeves, learned he was also secretly the prorietor of a women’s lingerie boutique. (Bertie speaking first, then Jeeves)

‘You can’t be a successful Dictator and design women’s underclothing.’

‘No, sir.’

‘One or the other. Not both.’

‘Precisely, sir.’

For the record, the “code” of the Woosters is…

"Never let a pal down"

 

Have you read The Code of the Woosters, or other stories in the series? What did you think? I bet you are not neutral.

. 

The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America by Thomas S. Kidd

Author: Thomas S. Kidd

Genre: History; Religion

Published: 2007

My edition: Yale University Press, paperback

 

I consider myself an evangelical, though I’d never considered, that at some point, it was a new term, and I’ve heard of The Great Awakening, and could even name two principals figures: George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, but I couldn’t name the dozens more who were involved, nor pinpoint precisely when it occurred.

 

Thomas S. Kidd’s The Great Awakening sheds light on the two mysterious terms. Indeed the first question he addresses is whether there even was such a thing as The Great Awakening. He saves the conclusion till the end, but yes, there was such an event. It began in the 1730s with ebb and flow throughout most of the remaining 18th century. It was primarily an American-Colonial phenomenon, though it had traces to the old world. As I’ve mentioned, one of its most prominent figures was English itinerant preacher George Whitefield.

 

Kidd identifies three main camps that shaped the movement:

 

• Moderate revivalists—the mainstream evangelical core that emphasized order, but accepted some level of fervor or enthusiasm. Whitefield and Edwards were in this camp.
• Radical revivalists—whose meetings were often characterized by chaotic frenzy of the congregation who could simultaneously experience, terror, repentance, joy, evidenced by cries of despair, laughing, singing, fainting, praying, exhorting, and seeing visions.
• Anti-revivalists who staunchly opposed the movement, and its challenge to convention and authority.

 

Kidd portrays all in the historical context, without making heroes or villains.

 

The tenets of this new brand of Protestant Christianity—evangelicalism—include emphasis on personal conversion, or new birth, the irresistible work of the Holy Spirit in conversion, assurance of salvation, and a spiritual equality before God of converts, which in this American story included women, children, African-American slaves and free, and native-Americans.

 

Kidd concludes The Great Awakening was a real historical event. He also offers his own view, which I think may be the popular opinion, that this period, 1730s to 1780s or 90s, is the FIRST Great Awakening, but that there is only an ambiguous break between the First and Second Awakening—and probably continuing with the third as well.

 

Finally, Kidd addresses the Awakening’s relationship to the American Revolution. He sees real cultural and rhetorical connections—ideas of liberty, resistance to tyranny, and individual conscience—without asserting direct cause and effect. He cites numerous examples of moderates, radicals, and anti-revivalists in both the patriot and loyalist causes.

 

I felt the title and subtitle were reversed from the emphasis that I inferred. It seems more about the genesis of evangelicalism in America as it was shaped by the widespread, phenomenal spiritual experiences, known as The Great Awakening. Either way, it was not quite what I was expecting—a Christian perspective celebration. The book is much more historical and documentary. I thought it was very thorough and enlightening.

 

. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry VI part 1 (1591) by William Shakespeare

• 
  by William Shakespeare (possibly with Thomas Nashe)
  
• Genre: Play, Historical play
• Written: 1591
• My edition: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, J.W. Edwards Inc., 2009
• Setting: 1422, England and France, opens at the funeral of Henry V

 

This play is part of the Henriad that is made up of 2 tetralogies, or 2 sets of four plays. The first tetralogy: Richard II, Henry IV part 1, Henry IV part 2, and Henry V, is sometimes considered the Henriad by itself. In a broader definition, the Henriad includes the second tetralogy: Henry VI part 1, Henry VI part 2, Henry VI part 3, and Richard III. And to confuse things just a bit more, the second tetralogy was written earlier than the first, but chronologically takes place later.

 

So, this is the 5th play in the full Henriad, and the 1st play in the second tetralogy of the Henriad.

 

Enough of that!

 

The play opens on the funeral of Henry V. It gets a little depressing after that.  

 

As with any play, it is meant to be enacted. Much is lost when reading a play; reading Shakespeare’s plays is particularly challenging. However, I had a split decision of both the pleasure and the ease of reading this play. I found the action—what was happening—rather easy to follow in this play. But exactly who was doing what, that was a bit confusing due to a dizzying cast of characters. There is a host of English dukes, earls, knights, soldiers, and of course the King, and then there is the same on the French side. There are a few ladies, maidens, and one Joan of Arc.

 

The French were pretty easy to keep track of, but the English? There’s a lot of duplicity going on, and it is difficult to remember who is loyal to whom, and why and when. Some of them even change titles mid-play. I made myself a cheat sheet, and added notes for each English peer as some new intrigue was added to their account. And with that, everything came up roses.

 

Little pun there. This part of the Henriad covers the historical period known as the War of the Roses: a period of the English monarchy, 1455 - 1487 with various houses vying for control, through intrigue, betrayal, covert and overt battles.

 

I am working my way through the Henriad, and I’ve enjoyed it very much. This was no exception. It is one of Shakespeare’s earliest history plays, and it shows. It’s a bit less extravagant. As I said, it was fairly easy to follow the action—not always my experience with Shakespeare.

 

Spoiler alert: As is often the case, the one true, noble, and admirable character doesn’t survive the play: Lord Talbot. He is overpowered by the French because suspicious groups on the English side fail to come to his aid. There is a powerful scene when Lord Talbot urges his own son Jonathan to flee the field, for if he stays they both shall die. Jonathan responds:

Then let me stay; and, father do you fly:

Your loss is great, so your regard should be;

My worth unknown, no loss is known in me.

Upon my death the French can little boast;

In yours they will, in you all hopes are lost.

Flight cannot stain the honour you have won;

But mine it will, that no exploit have done;

You fled for vantage, every one will swear;

But if I bow, they’ll say it was for fear,

There is no hope that ever I will stay,

If the first hour I shrink and run away.

Here, on my knee, I beg mortality,

Rather than life preserv’d with infamy.

Besides Lord Talbot, the most interesting character is Joan of Arc. Spoiler alert: She will not survive the play either. She is battling the Duke of York, who thinks she will use witchcraft to change him into some other form. She retorts: 

Chang’d to a worser shape thou canst not be.

Great line, great play! Historically, it marks the beginning of the end of English rule of France; the beginning of the War of the Roses; the beginning of the end of the House of Lancaster; and the rise of the House of York.

 

It is also the start of Shakespeare’s history plays.

 

.

The Power and the Glory (1940) by Graham Greene — novel #259

What an impossible fellow I am, he thought, and how useless. I have done nothing for anybody. I might just as well have never lived. ~ thoughts of the priest and main character of the tale.

 

• by Graham Greene
• British lit, Mexican lit, Historical fiction
• Published: 1940
• My edition: Open Road Integrated Media (eBook)
• Setting: 1930s Tabasco, Mexico
• Awards: Hawthornden Prize 1941
• Also by this author (that I’ve read): The Heart of the Matter

 

In Mexico, God has been outlawed; religion at least, but only in the southern state of Tabasco is the law seriously enforced. Catholic priests are rounded up and summarily executed. A few are given the chance to renounce their faith. But one remains at large—the unnamed hero of the tale, nicknamed the whiskey priest, for his misappropriation of the sacramental wine, though it is wine, brandy and beer that he drinks in the story. Alcohol in most forms is also illegal, making the priest a double offender. He could probably escape to a neighboring state where the law is not so zealously enforced, but he is repeatedly called to minister to the shepherd-less flock in Tabasco—a call he will not ignore.

 

He considers himself a bad priest, for his alcohol use, but more so because he has an illegitimate child, and yet more because he has abandoned her. These flaws are revealed slowly to the reader as the priest makes haphazard, unappointed rounds, or perhaps, appointed by providence? During his wanderings he finds a scrap of paper containing the poem Lord Ullin’s Daughter by Thomas Campbell; the final line 'O daughter, O my daughter’ affects him greatly.

He felt in the foreign words the ring of genuine passion and repeated to himself on his hot and lonely perch the last line—‘My daughter, O my daughter,’ The words seemed to contain all that he felt himself of repentance, longing and unhappy love.

For all his faults, his compassion shines through. One night, spent in a prison cell, with a miserable group of humanity, he reflects on his inability to despise them.

When you visualized a man or woman carefully, you could always begin to feel pity—that was a quality God’s image carried with it. When you saw the lines at the corners of the eyes, the shape of the mouth, how the hair grew, it was impossible to hate. Hate was just a failure of imagination.

It was not a happy time in Mexico, and this is not a happy tale, though it is heart-warming at times. It ranges from faith to faith in crisis; courage to cowardice, guilt, redemption, and love.

 

I’ve not mentioned the police lieutenant, the priest’s chief pursuer and zealous enforcer of the state’s law. By the end, the priest is not the only one suffering a crisis of faith. They are a little like Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert from Les Misérables, though the priest is not so virtuous as Valjean, nor the Lieutenant so ruthless as Javert.

 

I have read that Greene did not consider himself a catholic writer. Of the two novels that I’ve read by Greene, the Roman Catholic faith plays considerably. I’ve also read that some years after converting to Catholicism, Greene described himself as a Catholic agnostic. I think the priest in The Power and the Glory might consider himself the same. He certainly had doubts about organized religion, while still seeing value in the compassion of Christ. It is a novel of energy and grandeur.¹

 

My rating 4/5 stars

 

 

Title #28 of 50 for The Classics Club Challenge – Round IV and also as my spin book for The Classics Club Spin #44

 

The title is derived from the final line of the Lord’s prayer: 

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 6:13(b)

 

Not an excerpt from this novel: When asked what the greatest commandment is, Christ responded…

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31

¹ “energy and grandeur” are terms I borrowed from John Updike’s introduction. It’s a marvelous play on the title.

Classics Club Spin #44

It is time for the 44th edition of the Classics Club Spin – List 20 books from my Classics Club “to be read” list, and post it to my blog by Sunday, May 17, 2026; the mods will then pick a random number, and I have until July 5 to read the corresponding book.

 

UPDATE: And the lucky number is...9

My spin list:

1. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens

2. The Code of the Woosters by P. G. Wodehouse

3. The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder

4. The Godfather by Marion Puzo

5. A Spy In The House Of Love by Anais Nin

6. The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers

7. Grendel by John Gardner

8. The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

9. The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

10. Cool Hand Luke by Don Pearce

11. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

12. The Silver Sword (Escape from Warsaw) by Ian Serraillier

13. Post Office by Charles Bukowski

14. The Mask of Dimitrios by Eric Ambler

15. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

16. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

17. The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov

18. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke

19. Casino Royale by Ian Fleming

20. The Deerslayer by James Fenimore Cooper

 

I’m hoping for The Code of the Woosters—obviously! Any of the three Sci-Fi would be OK too. Not hoping for anything loooong, so not Barnaby Rudge. I love Dickens, just not in the mood for a tome right now. Cheers!

Corto Maltese: Ballad of the Salt Sea by Hugo Pratt

Ballad of the Salt Sea introduces Corto Maltese, the hero, some might say antihero, of Hugo Pratt’s popular graphic novel series. 

• by Hugo Pratt
• Illustrated by Hugo Pratt
• Genre: Graphic Novel, historical fiction
• Published: 1967
• Setting: 1913 South Pacific, Melanesia, Polynesia
• Awards: Fauve d’Or: best foreign realistic comic

Corto Maltese is a sea captain—more precisely, a pirate—though at the beginning of this story he is without ship or crew. His crew mutinied and set him adrift. Fortunately he is rescued by a confederate, Captain Rasputin. Corto and Rasputin do not like each other. Indeed they each threaten to one day kill the other 6 or 7 times in this story. But, they both work for the same master, a ruthless mystery man known only as the Monk. They reluctantly cooperate in various, nefarious schemes. In contrast to Rasputin, Corto is a “rogue with a heart of gold”.

 

In his debut tale, Corto is inextricably caught in Rasputin’s current intrigue, which includes ransom of cousins, Cain and Pandora, who are also found adrift in a lifeboat, the apparent only survivors of their ship. They come from wealthy families, so they are treated decently in hopes of ransom or reward. Of course Pandora, probably 17-18ish, is beautiful, but for a “graphic” novel about pirates, the story is PG-13 at worst. Which doesn’t mean she doesn't at least notice the handsome, dark and brooding Corto Maltese.

 

It's a tale of intrigue, ransom, and reluctant alliances on the eve of World War I.

 

I didn’t love this story, but I think it may have suffered in translation. It was originally written in Italian and French. The speech bubble dialogue in my English edition was very choppy and stilted. 

When reviewing a graphic novel, I suppose it is relevant to mention the artwork. I didn’t love that either, but I'm no art critic. Hugo Pratt illustrated it himself, and it certainly demonstrates skill and his own unique form. I’m sure some love the artwork. The cover is in color, but the pages are black and white.

Some years ago, I decided to read a handful of graphic novels, and researched to find some classics of the genre. The Corto Maltese series is widely considered a masterful bit of literature and artistry. I can’t argue with that, but for me it wasn’t exceptional.

Finally, is it a comic book, or graphic novel? It isn’t comic, though it is a book. It is definitely graphic, and while technically not a novel, it is a novella: approximately 25,000 words. So, I’ll bend a little and opine it is a graphic novella.

 

For my other experiences with graphic novels, click HERE

 

.