All Passion Spent - Vita Sackville-West

59%

10.12.25

Although the style and much of the subject matter is dated, you could bump into many of the characters today. Everyone was eccentric in their own way - sometimes charmingly and sometimes obnoxiously but always vividly. And the message of women's sacrificing their individuality for men and family is still, sadly, relevant.

Carmilla - Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

52%

01.10.25

Predating (ha!) Dracula by 25 years, this is celebrated as the original queer vampire story. But that's misleading - the lesbian implications seem mainly a metaphor for power imbalance and a blunt condemnation of 'unnatural' behaviour. The story, atmospheric as it was, didn't make much sense and rushed the ending.

The Woman in Black - Susan Hill

 64%

28.10.23

This modern classic was spectacularly (spectre-cularly?) well written on a line level, a model for using different techniques to create atmosphere, which explains its presence on Eng Lit reading lists. But the pace and the story itself didn't match that poetry. It wasn't particularly scary and only slightly creepy. And it never was clear why the woman wanted to get her revenge on random people. She just did. I suppose ghosts don't need to explain themselves.

Gaudy Night - Dorothy L Sayers

53%

01.08.20

The interest of this lay in my own experience of an Oxford college, albeit one that seems to have been struck from the record in this story. Otherwise, it was all rather dated, wordy and confusing, and riddled with typos. And, disappointingly for a 'golden age' detective story, there wasn't even a murder!

Emma - Jane Austen

70%
28.03.20

Inspired by the latest, and very lovely, film adaptation, I gave this a re-read and (spoiler!) it's really rather good. The humour and reactions are still recognisable, and it's a masterclass in characterisation that modern authors would do well to study.

Note that I didn't like it much when I last read it, 15 years ago, and, in fact, have no recollection of reading it then at all. The 'anti-feminism' I objected to doesn't bother me as much these days - it's a product of its time, and Emma (as a character) interestingly pushes the boundaries of what a woman in her circumstances was free to do, but is simultaneously trapped by her own snobbery and prejudices.

(It's had some off-putting covers over the years but I think this engaging example captures the spirit of the story.)

Death on the Nile - Agatha Christie

53%
20.02.20

Ever since overindulging on Christie as a 14-year-old, I've thought her mysteries to be formulaic and shallow, if moderately entertaining, and it seems I've been quite correct all these years. The most interesting thing about this one is that the murderer has the same name as one of my exes.

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

65%
15.01.19

A friend sent me this for Christmas, or I'd never have read it. And I'm glad I did, from an intellectual point of view at least. Despite being nearly 60 years old, it's a strikingly modern look at, well, everything - prejudice, culture, morality, academia, the nature of intelligence, sexual and emotional development, Freudian psychology... the term 'science fiction' seems rather limiting for this classic.

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase - Joan Aiken

60%
18.09.18

I read this kids' classic to screen it for my daughter, who was nervous of the eponymous wolves. Turns out they're zombie prototypes, though sadly their significance becomes merely metaphorical as the story progresses into Jane Eyre/Lemony Snicket territory. Readable enough, if rather odd.

The Swish of the Curtain - Pamela Brown

67%
13.06.18

With a sudden burst of nostalgia for this childhood favourite, I ordered the new edition from the library. And, while it's not exactly the epic tale of theatre folk I remembered, it's still a delightful, perceptive and engaging account of a group of overachieving children (mostly aged 13+ but teenagers had not yet been invented). It's even more extraordinary for having been written by a 14 year old, evidently an overachiever herself.

Regency Buck - Georgette Heyer

71%
30.01.18

It seems I love Georgette Heyer's Regency romances as much now as I did when I was 14, when I last read one. The difference is these days I prefer the Regency aspects to the (rather dodgy) romance. So much research, so lightly conveyed. It's not exactly hardcore literature but who cares? It's fabulous escapism.

Strangers on a Train - Patricia Highsmith

67%
28.08.17

Impressively well written, if a little unlikely. A true psychological thriller that sounds much more complex and satisfying than the film (which apparently changed vital details and which I've never seen).

The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton

55%
14.05.17

There were plenty of houses but there wasn't much mirth. The style itself is hardgoing these days, and the self-sabotaging heroine so much the product of another time that is was hard to sympathise with her plight. Still, it's one of those classics that I can now drop into conversation when I next find myself discussing the commodification of women in early 20th century America.

Death of Anton - Alan Melville

63%
01.05.17

A rather delightful lost classic, set during a very specific period of time. Interesting protagonists and some striking turns of phrase make its obscurity rather unjust.

The Tortoise and the Hare - Elizabeth Jenkins

65%
28.09.16

I ordered this from the library on a whim, after reading several glowing reviews. It's certainly of its time (late 1940s/early 1950s) and, to modern readers, the main character can be maddeningly passive as her awful husband blatantly takes up with another woman. But modern minds could also view it as a fairly convincing account of emotional abuse that causes depression and loss of self-confidence. It is beautifully written (if oddly edited) and rather intriguing in its account of class behaviour.

The Enchanted April - Elizabeth von Arnim

73%
17.08.15

Enchanted, indeed, and witty and charming and delightful. Of its time (1923) but none the worse for that, and extraordinarily well written for what is at first glance a superficial story about the transformative powers of a holiday. I shall recommend this to anyone who needs a bit of cheering up.

Excellent Women - Barbara Pym

67%
14.06.15

Excellent women, excellent novel. Somehow I've missed Barbara Pym up to now but, thanks to the ever-generous Becks, I am now initiated into the witty, slightly bitter cause. It's one of those books that might be very deep or not deep at all but it's certainly entertaining. (Disclaimer: my grandmother-in-law happened to be reading it at the same time and wasn't keen on the story because her experience of women's lives at the time it was written was quite different to that portrayed.)

Silas Marner - George Eliot

55%
22.11.14

Despite my degree in English Literature, I've managed to avoid Eliot's novels up till now - although we did seem to spend 3 or 4 tutorials analysing the first page of Middlemarch. This was so instantly forgettable that I almost forgot to review it. Not as deep as people think it is.

The Vet's Daughter - Barbara Comyns

55%
12.07.14

Another tightly written forgotten classic in Sarah Waters' top 10. Again, the influence is pretty clear in its strangeness and unexpected twists. But it was also somehow unmemorable, perhaps because it was hard to puzzle out the significance of certain parts of the story, especially in light of the ending.

The Slaves of Solitude - Patrick Hamilton

70%
30.06.14

Sarah Waters recommended this 1947 classic so of course it was good. Its influence on her work is clear in its merciless dissection of daily life, the carefully chosen words, the nuances of communication, the well-drawn characters who may - or may not - get what's coming to them. And, as a chronicle of the tedium and deprivation of the war years, it is unusually vivid.

A Passage to India - EM Forster

57%
08.06.14

I'm sure I've read this before, probably 20 years ago when I thought EM Forster was the poster boy for early-20th century society skewering. But tastes change. While this is an angry dissection of the corrosive effect of colonialism, it's also a product of its time - wordy, philosophical, trapped in cultural expectations. Angry's fine but these days I like my social criticism direct.