Tag Archives: classics

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Book of the Week – The London Scene by Virginia Woolf

Hello gentle reader,

last weekend I went to the National Portrait Gallery to visit the temporary exhibition about the Life, Art and Vision of Virginia Woolf. It’s an amazing exhibition and I really recommend it if you find yourself in London before 26 October 2014. I find there’s nothing quite as inspiring as seeing a great writer’s personal notes, letters and photographs. It gives us a ‘behind the scenes’ look at their life, struggles and inspiration.

VirginiaWoolf

Following my visit to the National Portrait Gallery, I decided to read one of Virginia Woolf’s works. I chose The London Scene, and again, I recommend it if you’re interested in London and beautiful writing.

The London Scene

From Goodreads:

Virginia Woolf was already an accomplished novelist and critic when she was commissioned by the British edition of Good Housekeeping to write a series entitled “Six Articles on London Life.” Originally published bimonthly, beginning in December 1931, five of the essays were eventually collected and published in 1981. The sixth essay, “Portrait of a Londoner,” had been missing from Woolf’s oeuvre until it was rediscovered at the University of Sussex in 2004.

A walking tour of Woolf’s beloved hometown, The London Scene begins at the London Docks and follows Woolf as she visits several iconic sites throughout the city, including the Oxford Street shopping strip, John Keats’s house on Hampstead Heath, Thomas Carlyle’s house in Chelsea, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and the Houses of Parliament.

These six essential essays capture Woolf at her best, exploring modern consciousness through the prism of 1930s London while simultaneously painting an intimate, touching portrait of this sprawling metropolis and its fascinating inhabitants.

It’s a very short read (about 100 pages), yet incredibly powerful. Virginia Woolf managed to capture the essence of London in these essays, showing both what the city was like in the 1930s and what makes it utterly timeless. If you love London as I do, or if you dream of going there one day, then I strongly suggest you read The London Scene. You won’t regret it.

What have you been reading this week? Have you read any of Virginia Woolf’s books? Feel free to leave me a comment below!

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The Writer In You Blog Hop – 3

The Writer In You is a blog hop hosted by Katie at The Fiction Diaries. In her own words, “this is a blog hop for all aspiring writers out there. It is a chance to meet other writers and share tips, writing, and experiences, all while gaining new followers for your lovely blog…” Every Saturday, Katie asks a question that we have to answer.

This week’s question is: What is your favorite classic novel and is there anything in particular you take from it that you hope to see in your own writing?

My favourite classic novel is undoubtedly Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Published in 1847, this book is considered a masterpiece of English literature. It is famous for its doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, which is indeed the most passionate and fascinating love story I have ever read.

But what I find incredibly inspiring in this novel is how DARING it is. Not only does the novel have a complex narrative structure (hello multiple narrators and mise en abyme) and it depicts an amazing setting, but it also includes incredibly violent scenes, bold topics and dialogues in Yorshire dialect.

Wuthering Heights’ writing is actually so bold and original that it has often been suggested that Emily Brontë, a shy clergyman’s daughter who lived in the middle of nowhere, couldn’t possibly have written such a book. Yet she did. It’s called the power of imagination.

And I wish my books were half as daring as Wuthering Heights.

“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”

For everything there is to know about Wuthering Heights, visit: http://www.wuthering-heights.co.uk/index.htm

What about you? What is your favorite classic novel? Join the fun here and happy writing!

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Quote of the Day – 8

Have you ever been really scared by a book? As in: I read that book, I couldn’t sleep the next night, I will never read it again and just thinking about it sends chills down my spine? Well, if you haven’t, you might want to read The Fall of the House of Usher.

 

“As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell –the huge antique panels to which the speaker pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, ponderous and ebony jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust –but then without those doors there DID stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated.”

“The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe.