Tag: Daphne du Maurier

The American Lover by Rose Tremain

Posted March 18, 2015 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Short Stories / 2 Comments

Title: The American Lover (Goodreads)
Author: Rose Tremain
Published: Chatto & Windus, 2014
Pages: 240
Genres: Short Stories
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Rose Tremain is a name I have heard so often but never had the chance to read on of her books; in fact her name is familiar but I couldn’t tell you anything about her books. She has published thirteen novels including The Road Home (which won the Orange Prize in 2008) and Music and Silence (winner of the Whitbread award in 1999). She taught creative writing at the University of East Anglia until she was appointed chancellor in 2013 and she is married to Romantic biographer Richard Holmes (not that her marriage affects her writing, just an interesting fact). She has also written five collections of short stories including her latest The American Lover.

While I sometimes struggle to read and review short story collections, I still wish to talk about them (just so I have a record). I picked up The American Lover because it mentioned a story about a famous Russian writer’s (story was inspired by Tolstoy’s life) final days living in a stationmaster’s cottage outside of Moscow. As most people know, I am a fan of Russian literature and books about Russia itself. When I looked at the author’s name, I was excited even more, it was a chance to finally dip into the writing style of Rose Tremain.

Without going into all the stories within the book, Tremain goes into some very interesting topics from transgressive love, sex, reflections of life and even a very unusual story about Daphne du Maurier. What I found in this collection is that Rose Tremain has a great ability to create characters and express emotions. There are some brilliantly dark and sometimes comical moments the she masterfully crafted into her stories. She has produced a collection centred around so many different emotions and skilfully managed to fit them into such short stories.

I really love the characters and emotions expressed in these stories and really makes me want to experience Rose Tremain’s style in long form. However I am not sure which novel to start with and would love some recommendations. The American Lover was a brilliant way to dip into Tremain’s writing and I am so glad to have finally had a chance to do so. If her writing abilities work just as well in her novels, she may have found a new fan.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

Posted November 26, 2014 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Young Adult / 0 Comments

Title: We Were Liars (Goodreads)
Author: E. Lockhart
Published: Allen & Unwin, 2014
Pages: 225
Genres: Young Adult
My Copy: Library Book

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Meet Cadence (Cady) Sinclair Eastman; she is seventeen years old from a family that is so wealthy they spend their summers on their own private island. The summers are spent with her cousins Mirren and Johnny, plus her crush Gat. The four of them are so close they are collectively known as the Liars. However, there is a big secret within the family, a secret that has been kept from Cady. An accident when she was fifteen left Cady damaged and with some memory loss. What are they hiding?

I picked up this book because of the marketing campaign; see good marketing does sell books. Basically the concept behind the campaign was to read the book then lie about it; a great way to stop anyone from spoiling the fact that Cady’s grandfather is really a Russian sleeper spy. We Were Liars is this wonderfully secretive novel with a psychological element that slowly gets revealed. The way I view this book is if Daphne du Maurier (Rebecca) wrote a YA novel set in the world of the TV show Revenge.

There are a lot of people that loved this book and to be honest I wasn’t sure if I would be among them. I started off reading this book thinking there wasn’t anything special and it felt like privileged white kids with first world problems. However, like most people, I got to a point where everything clicked and I was floored. Everything started making so much more sense. As you can tell, this is a difficult novel to write about because I don’t want to give away the plot about the zombie apocalypse.

I am of two minds about the writing, on one hand it was pretty basic and I found it incredibly easy to rush through the novel and not miss anything important. However as things start to reveal themselves, you can think back to previous chapters and see all the subtle clues that were missed. In the end, I think E. Lockhart did a brilliant job of making the book so easy to read while packing in subtle evidence that The Sinclair family are just a big crime family. The subtlety worked really well throughout the novel and I feel like I was so blind, I would never have guessed that they were aliens, but the evidence was there.

I may joke about the ending and the fact that it was all a dream but I am just following their marketing campaign. I had a lot of fun reading this book; much like Gone Girl, the twist was done so well and We Were Liars kept me up at night as I desperately tried to finish the book. I am very surprised by this book and I wonder if re-reading this book would be any good. I can’t imagine going into the novel knowing what happens would be any fun, but I am not the kind of person that likes spoilers.

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole

Posted September 19, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Classic, Gothic / 0 Comments

Title: The Castle of Otranto (Goodreads)
Author: Horace Walpole
Published: Penguin, 1764
Genres: Classic, Gothic
My Copy: Audiobook

Buy: Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle (or visit your local Indie bookstore)

Conrad, the heir to the house of Otranto, died under mysterious circumstances on the day of his wedding. His father, Manfred, lord of the castle, who feared the end of his dynasty, was determined to marry his son’s betrothed. However as Manfred tries to marry Princess Isabella, she escapes to a church and a number of supernatural events stand in his way. These terrifying omens soon threaten this unlawful union, as the curse placed on Manfred’s ancestor, who usurped the lawful Prince of Otranto, begins to unfold.

The Castle of Otranto established the Gothic as a literary genre and inspired Ann Radcliffe, Bram Stoker, Daphne Du Maurier and Stephen King. The Castle of Otranto has a unique blend of psychological realism, supernatural terror, guilty secrets and unlawful desires but I read this book as a critic on marriage. In 1773 The Marriage Act was passed, an act that is also known as “An Act for the Better Prevention of Clandestine Marriage”. The act was successful in preventing marriages not performed by an Anglican clergyman but also this act didn’t apply to royalty.

This act was passed eleven years before The Castle of Otranto was published and considering the fact that Horace Walpole was the Member of Parliament for Callington (1741–1754), Castle Rising (1754–1757) and King’s Lynn (1757–1768), I get the sense that he would have had strong opinions on the topic. From some quick research on Horace Walpole, I know that he had a strong interest in social and political issues. We can’t overlook his sexuality either, Walpole never married or had relationships with women; some claim he was asexual but I tend to side with the people that claimed he was a homosexual. Some of his closest friends including Anne Seymour Damer and Mary Berry are apparently lesbians as well. This information and the reading of this novel led me to interpret the fact that Walpole was against The Marriage Act.

Let’s look at the novel, Manfred was planning on ending his marriage with Hippolita and marry the much younger Isabella. The introduction of the Marriage Act (despite this book being set sometime between 1000 and 1200) meant that the marriage would have been easier to achieve and Isabella’s fear of Manfred more realistic. Putting aside Isabella’s reluctance to the marriage, there were also the supernatural events (the Church) standing in his way, in which I interpreted as the church still being against clandestine marriage despite it being possible for Manfred. I read the entire book as a metaphor of society and the church standing in the way of a desired marriage. This brings me to an interesting thought; Lord Manfred is considered the antagonist on the novel, portrayed as being deranged but I viewed this as the social view of homosexuality at the time.

There is so much more I can talk about here, like the archetype of Gothic characters (involving heroes and anti-heroes) and the setting (the Castle). While I have talked about Manfred, I want to quickly talk about Isebella and the castle. When Isebella tried to escape she turned into the outsider, a person thrown out of her community; this could also be used as a metaphor for Walpole’s feelings and sexuality. When she escaped she used the underground passages of the castle, which invokes all the characteristics of the Gothic genre; the darkness, obscurity, vastness, and the terror that may arising. Yet the castle and its mysterious characteristic could be a motif for Horace Walpole’s loneliness in the universe.

I won’t go into any more symbols, themes or motifs or this would turn into a really long review. My main interpretation of this novel is clear and I hope I have given you enough to back up my claims. While this isn’t my favourite example of Gothic literature, it was a great read and while short, there is a lot to digest. For all Gothic fans, I recommend checking out The Castle of Otranto; this is an excellent example of the gothic form.

Five Decent Movie Adaptation

Posted July 10, 2013 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Adaptations, Top 5 / 0 Comments

Yesterday I did a Top Ten Tuesday list where I looked at ten of the Worst Movie Adaptations in my opinion. These were books that really don’t translate well to the screen. But as a counter balance I thought I would give you five good movie adaptations. Yes only five, there are not many adaptations that I feel work as well as the book. So in no particular order:

5. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding

4. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

3. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

2. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

1. Scott Pilgrim Verse the World by Bryan Lee O’Malley

Also I would like to include The Virgin Suicides, Revolutionary Road, Perfume, Fight Club, The Road, American Psycho and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy which are not perfect but they are still pretty decent compared to some of the other adaptations out there. Now it’s your turn, what do you like that worked well as a book adaptation? Maybe next time I’ll look at decent Noir adaptations.

My Experience with the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die List

Posted October 27, 2012 by Michael @ Knowledge Lost in Literature / 29 Comments

One of my favourite bookish podcasts is The Readers; if you haven’t heard it before go and subscribe, it offers random book-based banter which has been both enjoyable to listen to and offers some interesting ideas for future blog posts. This post is inspired by the latest episode about the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list.

With the newly revised book being released earlier this month, I thought I would share my experience with this list. As most people know I was never much of a reader, I think I read about one or two books a year. In 2009 something clicked in my head (thanks to Craig Schuftan) and I wanted to read everything I could get my hands on. But I had a problem; I really didn’t know where to start. I found plenty of books that looked interesting but I wasn’t sure if they would fulfil my yearning.

So with no idea of what my literary tastes were and not knowing what books would be required reading. I turned to a “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list which I found while searching books that were considered required reading for everyone. The thing I loved about this book was the fact that it was a combination of old and new books ranging from all different genres. This helped start my literary journey and find a real joy in being a literary explorer.

While I don’t read many books from the list now, I discovered the types of books and genres I really like and what hasn’t worked for me. Personally I would love to read every book on the list but as I discovered there are now four different editions. Do you read the entire list from one edition or combine the lot and read every book ever mentioned? I’ve come to the conclusion I would rather use the list as a guide in addition to discovering new books on my own accord as well.

I will always hold this list close to my heart because it did nurture my newly formed love of reading but it also helped my pretentious level as a book critic. I wish the publisher released a list of the books that have been removed from the new edition, I know there was a spread sheet that had the first three lists on it, so you can see which ones disappeared from each update and tick off all the books you’ve read but sadly that was taken down for copyright violations. The publisher should look into something similar as I’m sure there are people out there that are willing to pay a small fee to have access to all the lists for referencing.

As a point of reference since beginning my reading journey back in 2009, I’ve now read over 400 books and seventy six of them were from the “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list. The list is still a point of reference for me when I feel like I’m not reading books that are literary enough. While the list covers most genres and offers an interesting perspective on your reading life, it never really felt like it was full of highly literary novels. For me it was just a way to explore and cover the essentials in reading. Here are ten books from the ones I’ve read that I loved and highly recommend;

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
Perfume by Patrick Süskind
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess