Six Degrees of Separation: from Eats, Shoots & Leaves to A Tale of Two Cities

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly meme hosted by Kate @ booksarmyfavouriteandbest. 

 

This month’s chain begins the grammar guide, Eats, Shoots & Leaves. The title of which, is the second-best argument for the Oxford comma. The best argument sentence is: “I’d like to thank my parents, Mother Teresa and the Pope”. I haven’t read Eat, Shoots & Leaves, but I’m familiar, and I’m a big fan of the Oxford comma (never wrong to use it, sometimes horribly wrong if you don’t). I have read the rest of these, and as usual, I am sticking to the classics.

 

The grammar guide let me to the book that breaks all the grammar rules: 

Ulysses by James Joyce. Not a fan of that book, but it led me to another by Joyce, that I found much more accessible.

 

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. And that for obvious reasons, reminds me of:

 

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. I’m not a big fan of Henry James either, but I did like this one. And the main character, Isabel Archer, reminds me of an erstwhile book blogger, whom I shall not name, but…she is THE #1 FAN of Margaret Mitchell and…

 

Gone With the Wind, the heroine of which, is of course, Scarlett O’Hara. Perhaps she is an anti-heroine. Regardless, Scarlett reminds me of Becky Sharp from…

 

Vanity Fair. I’m not the only one, there are some who surmise that Becky was in part an inspiration for Scarlett. I did like Vanity Fair very much, and you know who else did? Charles Dickens. In fact, he named one of his children after William Thackeray. So, I’m going with a Dickens novel to wrap this up, but which one? I’ll just go with my favorite, and Dickens’ best…

 

A Tale of Two Cities

 

 

 

And that is how you get from Eats, Shoots and Leaves to A Tale of Two Cities.

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