Classics Challenge Completed

I've officially completed the Classics Challenge hosted by Crazy Cozy Murders. Finished it up last night with C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters which I owe a review on. I liked it well enough though to be honest it was one of those books that I read sometimes and then thought "wait a minute what did those last 10 pages say?" Hate it when that happens...Anyway, this one was a success overall. I really enjoyed Rebecca which replaced The Age of Innocence which I just couldn't get through and I loved The Death of Ivan Ilyich. I'm going to try to read some more Tolstoy next year if there's time.

1. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
   
2. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
   
3. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
   
4. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

The Death Of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

This is another one that has sat on my shelves for awhile, but finally got read thanks to the Classics Challenge. I really enjoyed The Death of Ivan Ilyich...well, I don't know if "enjoyed" is the write word, but it is a remarkable novella. There's a wonderful intro written by Ronald Blythe. In the intro Blythe writes about Tolstoy's great fear of death that eventually turned into an obsession with death that lead to the creation of The Death of Ivan Ilyich, his meditation on the subject.

The book opens immediately after the death of Ivan Ilyich. Ivan was a judge and when his co-workers find out about his death, the first thing they begin to talk about is who will take his place. This scenes is followed by his funeral where we meet his wife who is in mourning. The book then goes on to introduce us to Ivan and his wife in the early days of their marriage and paints a picture of a marriage that was all bright colors on the outside, but rather dark behind closed doors. Ivan soon finds out that he has a "floating kidney" and his health slowly deteriorates over the next few months eventually leading to his death.

The beauty of this book is that the plot is given away in the title. Ivan dies...you know the book ends with his death. Tolstoy's masterpiece lies not so much in the actual storyline, but in the thought process, the philosophy, and the atmosphere behind it. The only way I can describe the feel of this book is claustrophobic. From the minute that Ivan learns and recognizes that he is dying, the feel of the story is one of collapsing, closing in. It becomes a story of seeing the world fly by so fast that you can't grasp on to anything to stay in it. It's quite sad actually, but so wonderfully told by Tolstoy and becomes one of the most haunting stories I've ever read in it's final pages.

I'm glad that I've finally gotten around to this one and look forward to revisiting Tolstoy in the future, most probably with Anna Karenina based on comments from yesterdays post! This one's a quick read, but a poignant one...highly recommended.

The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis

Halfway through this book, I had decided that I wasn't going to write a review for it - mainly because my thoughts would stray from it at times because it would not always hold my interest and I didn't think that I could do the book justice. I probably still can't do the book justice, but I did realize that I was writing down quite a few quotes from this book, so there had to be something there!

What Lewis has done here really is a beautiful piece of work. It is a meditation on love. He discusses his "four loves": affection (love shared between a parent and child), friendship, erotic love, and charity. He discusses these from a Christian philosophy point of view which normally might dissuade me as it may be too preachy, but I felt safe in the hands of Lewis, an author that I love. He balances his thoughts well and discusses the subject of love in a way that certainly appeals to Christians, but would not be unreadable to non-Christians.

After reading for awhile, I figured out what was making my mind wander. When it comes to philosophy and one's views on love (especially when mixed with religion), you're never going to agree 100% of the time. Not that my mind drifts when I disagree, in fact, most of the time, I become more interested when I disagree with something. But with this book, I found that at times Lewis was a bit long winded on topics that didn't hold my interest. There were other times however where I thought that Lewis did a marvelous job of writing on a very personal level with an almost conversational tone.

This one's been sitting on my shelf for about 3 years now, and thanks to the Classics Challenge, I finally got to read it. I'd like to leave you with my favorite passage from the book. This passage jumped out at me and really struck a chord with me, especially considering all that Megan and I have been through since the hurricane. Anyone who's ever loved anyone can relate, I'm sure:

"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. but in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy is damnation. The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell."

Siddhartha by Herman Hesse

I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this book. It's not a book that pulls the reader along, it's a book that you read slowly and ponder on. It's a book that kept my opinions changing throughout my reading of it. I'd think that it was beautiful and then I would think..."now why did he do that..." But to an extent, I think that this was Hesse's point.

Siddhartha is the story of a man by the name of Siddhartha who sets out to find himself. He sets out to achieve enlightenment through the teachings of the Buddha. Upon meeting the Buddha, the enlightened one, he finds that his beliefs contradict the Buddha's to an extent, so he takes his own path to enlightenment. This is where the book starts to frustrate me. The book, in my opinion becomes sort of fragmented here. He has many different experiences, which all contribute to his path to enlightenment, but some seem a little far fetched, or at least not explained enough.

For instance: He meets a young mistress by the name of Kamala who tells him that if he wants to "be with her" he has to have money and material possessions...so Siddhartha goes to work for a local rich man as a translator since he can read and write. Sure, he's giving in to material possessions and such, but he still seems to maintain this certain air of happiness about him...a zen mentality. Then all of a sudden, he's gambling away all of his money and he's depressed and suicidal and it literally comes out of nowhere. I kept looking to see if there were pages stuck together that I missed.

There were a few little parts like this in the book that bugged me, where I thought that Hesse could've went into depth a little further, but over all, it was a beautiful book that focuses on the essence of self realization...the journey of discovering what life is about, what matters in life, and how everything fits together.

First read for the Classics Challenge. I'd say it's off to a decent start.

Heh, Another Challenge

So this is one that I kind of missed out on the first time around when I believe Booklogged did it. It's the Classics Challenge and is being hosted this time by Crazy Cozy Murders. What a great blog name! I decided to do this one because I found 5 classics on my shelf that I can knock out of the TBR pile. The challenge runs from July 1st through November 30th. Oh, and Booklogged has made great little banners for this challenge and the Newbery Challenge. I've taken them both for my blog ;):

1. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse
2. The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
3. The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy
4. The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
5. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

I hope that these are considered classics!