200. Born in Exile

Born in Exile
George Gissing
1892
Around 450 pages

200. A mere 801 to go! Thank you to those of you who have stuck with me for 200 novels that vary oh so greatly in quality. For those of you who haven't read all 200 of my posts: get cracking, scumbags. I mean...welcome, gentle readers.

Godwin Peak, otherwise known as Whiny McWhinyson-Peak, is a man of superior intellect who is born to socially inferior circumstances. So of course as soon as I began this novel I was instantly convulsing on the floor, tormented by Knut Hamsun flashbacks.  Godwin is perhaps the original hipster, despising certain novels without reading them simply because they are popular. On the whole, though, I think hipsters are fonder of women than Godwin is. Anyway, Godwin's Cockney uncle decides to open an eating house near Godwin's college. Godwin is so humiliated by this that he quits school. Still, he pines to be a part of the upper class. He decides to do this by wooing Sidwell Warricombe, a deeply religious woman. In the grand tradition of idyllic courtship, this involves lying to the woman constantly.

An unrecognized genius tethered to the lower social class because of his birth, doomed to obscurity among the ignorant masses...male authors sure do love spinning that tale. I wouldn't mind so much if there was a dash of humor involved, but I had the feeling Godwin didn't know how to laugh. Gissing is a talented writer, so I was never bored, but I also didn't like a single character.

The previous book on the List, The Diary of a Nobody, also tackled class struggles, but it did this by pointing out absurdities in funny ways. I much preferred that to reading Godwin bitch and moan for 450 pages.

RATING: ***--

Interesting Facts:

Gissing has me stumped on this one. Um, the 1001 book app says this novel was published in 1891, but all the other sources I found say 1892. That's interesting, right?

I'll see myself out.

UP NEXT: The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. A real shorty, so I should have this up soon.

199. The Diary of a Nobody

The Diary of a Nobody
George and Weedon Grossmith
1892
Around 200 pages

I am not sure how one goes about writing a novel collaboratively, let alone with a sibling. It seems like you would have all sorts of problems with consistency and tone, and most writers I know (myself included) are rather...territorial about their work. But I have to hand it to George and Weedon; this felt very cohesive. Maybe they took turns writing entries.

Charles Pooter decides to keep a diary, despite the fact that his wife Carrie and son Lupin (unfortunately not the hot werewolf Lupin but a different Lupin) believe no one would ever be interested in reading it. Charles is mostly interested in chronicling his witty bon mots (i.e. dad jokes) that often go unappreciated and the various humiliations he endures trying to climb the social ladder. Of course, he would never admit to trying to climb the social ladder.

So this is a funny little novel. I recently read my first P.G. Wodehouse novel and it is easy to see the brothers influence on his Jeeves series. Like most Americans, I love reading about bumbling Englishmen, so I was delighted for most of the novel. It didn't overstay its welcome either; a concept like this could get wearing if it was more than 200 pages.

In conclusion, the Grossmiths make the Wright brothers look like literal garbage.

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

Evelyn Waugh called this the funniest book in the world.

UP NEXT: Born in Exile by George Gissing. The Big 200!

198. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Arthur Conan Doyle
1892
Around 450 pages

I have probably mentioned this before on this blog, but I have a bone condition called Multiple Hereditary Exostoses, which is my pithy introduction to this post. I spent a lot of time recovering from surgeries when I was younger. One particularly nasty surgery took me out of school for a semester, which was a painful and lonely period of my life. I took this opportunity to read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories. I know it's cheesy, but these characters really felt like friends to me. Needless to say, I took "The Final Problem" rather hard. But these stories are very close to my heart, and I know I am not alone in feeling that sentiment, as Doyle received death threats after he stopped writing about Sherlock. Ah, booklovers.

This is a collection of twelve short stories, all of which are narrated by Dr. John Watson. My favorites in this grouping are "A Scandal in Bohemia," which features the dazzling Irene Adler and "The Red-Headed League," which is a strange little story about a pawnbroker tasked with copying the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Doyle's Holmes is such a fascinating creation that it is unsurprising that people still can't get enough of him. Of course, once you read some of Poe's Dupin stories, you realize how derivative it is, but it doesn't matter. Doyle seems like he is having a lot more fun than Poe ever did, and that gleeful sense of adventure is palpable in his writings.

Just pure fun, which is particularly welcome in this era of gloomy Swedish novels (ahem Hamsun) and sexist Russian ramblings (ahem Tolstoy).

RATING: *****

Interesting Facts:

Doyle has said "The Adventure of the Speckled Band" is his favorite Holmes story.

Sherlock Holmes has been portrayed by over 70 actors in over 200 movies.

UP NEXT: Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith. Sounds intriguing!

197. News from Nowhere

News from Nowhere
William Morris
1891
Around 250 pages

So before we can skip off into the sunset and discuss Doyle, we have to get through this very long socialist pamphlet...I mean novel.

William Guest falls asleep after a meeting of the Socialist League. When he wakes up, he finds himself in a socialist utopia, which is still very English. He spends most of his time with Dick and Clara, who are happy to show him around. And...that's it. They show him around.

What motivates me to pick up a book is the pure joy I experience when I am told a good story. This isn't much of a story; its thinly veiled agenda grated on my nerves. I am not saying that calls for change have no place in literature, but it's not very effective when it feels more like a lecture than an allegory. It was particularly obnoxious when the old man explained that in this idyllic society women still wait on men because all clever women love nothing more than to manage households. Thank you, Morris, for keeping my greatest pleasure intact: that of handing a penis-bearer a plate at dinner.

He doesn't really offer any strong counterarguments against the traditional complaints wrought against socialism. But what motivates someone to work hard then, William Guest asks the old man. Oh, because everybody loves their work! Um...okay you naive little duckling. Then the old man even says that men no longer tyrannize women in this society, because they just stopped being at jealous at one point. But then later the recent murder of a man by a jealous romantic rival is discussed, and everybody agrees that he was sorry so there is no reason to have a court system. What?

Morris manages to give this relatively harmless "story" a rather sinister edge with the chapter on how the change came to be. Morris intimates that a lot of blood had to be shed to bring about this metamorphosis, which was a necessary path to paradise. But in Morris' "paradise" people don't seem to like to read. So how utopic can it be?

RATING: **---

Interesting Facts:

"Nowhere" is a literal interpretation of the word "utopia." The word comes from the Greek "ou" (not) and "topos" (place).

UP NEXT: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. All the yays.