![]() In an audacious and poetic piece of magical realism, Rushdie tells the story of India’s blood-soaked resurgence via a swathe of children born at midnight with uncanny abilities. He’s also born with superpowers, and he’s not the only one. The protagonist of Rushdie’s most celebrated novel is born at the exact moment India gains independence. Never has a broken pair of spectacles seemed so sinister, or civilisation so fragile. His theory is this: maroon a bunch of schoolboys on an island, and watch how quickly the trappings of decent behaviour fall away. CHĪnyone who has ever suspected that children are primitive little beasties will nod sagely as they read Golding’s classic. It’s impossible to imagine this novel ever provoking quiet slumbers Emily Brontë’s vision of nature blazes with poetry. Will there ever be a novel that burns with more passionate intensity than Wuthering Heights? The forces that bring together its fierce heroine Catherine Earnshaw and cruel hero Heathcliff are violent and untameable, yet rooted in a childhood devotion to one another, when Heathcliff obeyed Cathy’s every command. Some 200 years after it was first published, the gothic tale feels more relevant than ever as genetic science pushes the boundaries of what it means to create life. Put down the green face paint: Frankenstein’s monster is a complex creation who yearns for sympathy and companionship. Shelley was just 18 when she wrote Frankenstein as part of a challenge with her future husband, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron, to concoct the best horror story. The push and pull at the start of The Big Sleep between private detective Philip Marlowe, in his powder-blue suit and dark blue shirt, and Miss Carmen Sternwood, with her “little sharp predatory teeth” and lashes that she lowers and raises like a theatre curtain, sets the tone for a story of bad girls and bad men. CRĭashiell Hammett may have been harder boiled, his plots more intricate but, wow, does Raymond Chandler have style. First written in serial form, you barely have time to recover from one cliffhanger before the next one beckons, all told in Dickens’ luxuriant, humorous, heartfelt prose. Great Expectations is the roiling tale of the orphaned Pip, the lovely Estella, and the thwarted Miss Havisham. CHĭickens was the social conscience of the Victorian age, but don’t let that put you off. As atmospheric, psychological horror it just gets darker and darker. There she meets the housekeeper Mrs Danvers, formerly devoted to Rebecca, who proceeds to torment her. The second Mrs de Winter is the narrator of Du Maurier’s marvellously gothic tale about a young woman who replaces the deceased Rebecca as wife to the wealthy Maxim de Winter and mistress of the Manderley estate. Our hero, Winston, tries to resist a grey world where a screen watches your every move, but bravery is ultimately futile when the state worms its way inside your mind. ![]() Orwell was interested in the mechanics of totalitarianism, imagining a society that took the paranoid surveillance of the Soviets to chilling conclusions. But forget TV’s Big Brother or the trite travesty of Room 101: the original has lost none of its furious force. The ultimate piece of dystopian fiction, 1984 was so prescient that it’s become a cliché. From the overwhelming poverty experienced by Charlie Bucket and his family, to the spoilt, greedy, brattish children who join Charlie on his trip to Willy Wonka’s phantasmagorical sweet factory there is nothing artificially sweetened in Roald Dahl’s startling work of fantasy. ![]() Harry Potter may be more popular, but Willy Wonka is altogether weirder. Ĭharlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl Start your 30-day Audible trial and get this audiobook for free here. Beyond the majestic poetry and the pimples, there’s also a sharp satire of Thatcherist Britain. No one has lampooned the self-absorption, delusions of grandeur and sexual frustration of adolescence as brilliantly as Sue Townsend, and no one ever will. Read this one when you’re decrepit enough, and chances are you’ll die laughing. The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 ¾, Sue Townsend 23 secretly excellent performances in terrible movies, from Margot Robbie to Leonard DiCaprio.New on Netflix this month: Every movie and TV show landing on streaming service in May.Netflix is scrapping all of these movies and TV shows from the site.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |