Book Challenge: 23 More to Go
This morning I just finished Persuasion. Such a beautiful story! I had already seen both movie versions of Persuasion so there really were no surprises when I read the book. Of course, no matter how well movies are done, the book is still better! Though I do think that they did pretty well with both movies in certain areas. I would have to say that I like the 2007 version better though it was had a bit of a modern flavor because I think they casted Captain Wentworth better. But anyways. . . .
My favorite passage from Persuasion would have to be Captain Wentworth's beautiful letter to Anne towards the end of the book:
"I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in
F. W.
"I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never."
I definitely melted on the spot. :D
I'm not sure what I'm going to read next. Maybe Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe Les Mes. Or maybe some Elizabeth Gaskell. We shall see.
01. The Inheritance by Louisa May Alcott
02. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
03. Persuasion by Jane Austen
04. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte
05. The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie
06. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
07. Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
08. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
09. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
10. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens
11. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
12. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
13. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
14. Howard's End by E.M. Forster
15. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
16. Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
17. Mr. Harrison's Confessions by Elizabeth Gaskell
18. My Lady Ludlow by Elizabeth Gaskell
19. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
20. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
21. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
22. The French Powder Mystery by Ellery Queen
23. The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen
24. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
25. Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain