Old Vladimir Lenin had a farm...

I love Animal Farm. I read it in high school and now re-reading it I get the same feelings. It's such a GOOD book. Even though this book is extremely easy to read, you still feel smart reading it. The best part is when you can catch the historical references beneath the story. Ahhh...so much better than Jane Austen.

In a nutshell, Animal Farm is a very blatant criticism of the Stalin regime and how it ruined the original idea of communism. One can even go as far to generalize that it could be a critique of ANY totalitarian regime and how, in the end, everything goes to shit. Animal Farm takes important Russian figures, such as Lenin and Stalin and transforms them into animals. The story starts out on a farm in England and an idea given by an elderly pig named Old Major. Life on the farm is hard and cruel, and the animals receive little reward for their efforts. Old Major calls for a revolution against man, and the running of the farm by the animals. After Old Major dies the animals revolt and start to run the farm by themselves. The pigs become the "leaders" (I put that in quotes because all animals are supposed to be equal on Animal Farm) and teach the other animals reading/writing, develop plans, and overall improve the quality of life. The animals have more food and more time off than they did when the humans ran the farm, but not all is as perfect as it seems. The two head boars, Napolean and Snowball never agree on anything and one day Napolean and a pack of dogs that he trained (whom I think are a reference to the KGB) run Snowball off the farm and take over. Under Napolean everything changes. The animals work harder, have less food, and watch while the pigs do everything that no animal was supposed to do. The pigs slowly start adopting human habits such as drinking, trading with humans, wearing clothes, and lastly, walking upright. None of the other animals are truly smart enough to really understand the horror of this situation, so they go on working. Things get so bad that animals are executed for possible treason and even the hardest worker, a horse named Boxer, got sent to the slaughter house when he became too sick to work. The last scene, and probably the best one in the book, is when some of the animals spy on a meeting between the pigs and the humans. They look back and forth between the two groups, and can't tell who is a pig and who is a human.

While I would love to delve more into the story, I don't want to rewrite the novel. Animal Farm shows that ideas that are meant to be ideal for the masses can be ruined by a greedy individual. I love how over 60 years later this book is still so fresh and could be applied to regimes operating today. I give Animal Farm 4/5 stars and recommend it to anyone who loves a good story and one that makes you think.

Oh Jane Austen...You slay me...

Well, I did it. I finally finished my first Jane Austen novel. After years of enjoying Austen adaptations on film, I figured I would have at least been somewhat entertained by a novel. Yeah, not so much.

For those of you who are interested in the plot of Emma, I will continue from my last blog post. I must warn you I will be brief, which is exactly how I wished this book was.

Emma finds out that Mr. Elton has no interest in Harriet whatsoever, and has his eye on Emma. Emma says no thanks, and the jilted Mr. Elton goes to Bath (really awesome Romanesque town in England...been there...love it) and comes back with a fiancee, whom Emma can't stand. While Mr. Elton was gone a Mr. Frank Churchill rolls into town (He is the son/step-son of family friends). Around the same time we're also introduced to a Miss Jane Fairfax who lives with her crazy old aunt. Emma fancies herself in love with Frank and is encouraged by everyone (including Frank himself) that she has caught his eye. Eventually Emma tries to pawn Harriet off on Frank (poor girl). In the meantime it has been brought up that Jane and Mr. Knightley might be good together. Emma doesn't like this, but she's not sure why (because you're in love with him, you dumb girl), and decides she just doesn't want him to be with anyone. Eventually it is learned that Frank and Jane are secretly engaged (scandal!)...so there goes another eligible bachelor. Harriet fancies herself in love with Mr. Knightley, and the evil green monster finally makes itself known to Emma. She's in love with Mr. Knightley (banging head...on...wall). Luckily for her he holds her in the same affection and the two are married at the end of the book. Oh, and Harriet goes back to Mr. Martin and they get married too.

Phew. What a nightmare. Honestly, I was hoping for some grand declaration of love or SOMETHING that truly indicated the turning point when Mr. Knightley and Emma decide their mutual love for one another, and it didn't happen. I mean, it was mentioned, but was so understated that I can't remember what was said. Overall, I was sorely disappointed. I found Emma to be so immature and spoiled that I really didn't care to read what she had to say anymore. It was interesting to read an Austen story in which the heroine wasn't poor (which I think, correct me if I'm wrong, that Emma is the only one in all of the novels that has money) but I prefer the Bennetts and Dashwoods.

I give Emma 2/5 stars...only because the story, if less cluttered, is decent. For those that are interested in the Emma story but don't want to go through the hell that I just endured, PBS is starting and Emma miniseries that airs on the 24th of this month. I will be watching :)

One book down, one hundred more to go. Off to the land of Animal Farm next...much more my style!

Emma...so far..

So I started reading Emma earlier this week and am almost halfway done. I probably would have been finished by now if I could read more than a couple of chapters at a time. The beginning was soooo slow....snooze. I never fully read Pride and Prejudice because Jane Austen tends to describe everything...and I mean EVERYTHING. Luckily for me, I'm a little bit older and more patient so I know I can get through this.

Ridiculous description aside, we also have the problem of language difference. This book was written in 1816 and they definitely spoke more eloquently back then. So say you get past the verbose descriptions and syntactical differences, you are then confronted with the army of characters. Seriously, I can't keep them straight. So many names it makes my head spin. These are my chief complaints so far.

As far as the story line, it's pretty decent. Emma is a 20 year old (which is almost spinster age back then) single girl living with her Dad. Her mother died a while back and her older sister got married a long time ago so her job has been running the household. She's considered very clever and well-liked by everyone except for the family's friend Mr. Knightley. He finds her, as I do, to be rather meddlesome and slightly annoying. You see, Emma is a matchmaker, and an apparently decent one. The problem she has run into, at my point in the book, is trying to match up her friend Harriet with Mr. Elton. Harriet has already had a marriage proposal by Mr. Martin, whom she finds to be sweet and endearing, but Emma talked her into refusing because she feels that Mr. Martin is beneath Harriet's status. This infuriates Mr. Knightley and rightly so because in actuality, there isn't much difference at all and Mr. Martin is a respectable, well- liked member of society. Mr. Knightley and Emma get into a heated blow out and he storms out. I foresee sparks later on between the two of them.

So spoiled Emma continues with her matchmaking, and it doesn't work very well. Emma draws a miniature of Harriet for Mr. Elton and tries to get them to socialize alone. He doesn't seem to be entirely interested though, and at this point, I had an epiphany.

"Holy crap, this sounds like Clueless!!"

Sure enough, after my browse on Wikipedia, Clueless is loosely based upon the novel. So Cher is Emma, Ty is Harriet, and Elton is Mr. Elton (way to hide that one). So who is Cher's step-brother?? My marbles are on Mr. Knightley...he puts her in her place, which is exactly what she needs.

That's it so far, not much in 100 pages (thanks Ms. Austen, cause we really need an entire page to know how Emma felt about dinner). I will post again when I'm finished :)

Well crap...

I apparently read the list wrong and 1984 is not on it...Animal Farm is. Way..to...go..

SO scratch that, I will be starting with Emma by Jane Austen since I have that lying around.

A Journey into Knowledge (or hell...I'm not sure yet)

Hello.

For those of you out there that don't know me, my name is Stephanie. I am an almost 26 year old married, grad student living in the great state of Connecticut. I live a quiet life with my husband, dog, and cat...things are very normal. A couple of days ago I decided to break the cycle of normalcy and apathy by creating a personal quest. I scoured the internet searching for exactly what I wanted and finally discovered the list. I, Stephanie West, will read the Penguin Classics"s "101 Best Books Ever Written".

101 books, and not just any books mind you. These are the classics folks. From Homer to Dostoevsky, from Dickens to Austen...I shall read them all!

This list is rather daunting and I'm rather certain it will take me quite a while to finish due to lengthy grad school work that will be occurring simultaneously. It will be a long and arduous road and I plan on sharing all of it with whomever wants to hear me.

I'm not sure where this idea came from but I believe that every once in a while, it's nice to do something that not a lot of others can say that they did. My husband and I own a small handful of these books and were discussing how we wanted to buy the classics to put in our library for our children someday. So, in a way, I think I'm also doing this for my future children. I shall arm them with an arsenal of great literature and will be able to assist in English papers! As for the blogging, perhaps I was inspired by Julie/Julia or I just think some people would get a good laugh at my rather unprofessional book reviews. Either way, I am looking forward to the challenge and to sharing my thoughts!

I am starting with 1984, even though I have already read it (I am reading ALL of the books). I originally wanted to start at the top of the list but the weather today prevented me from going to the book store so alas, that fell through.

So it's off to the land of George Orwell I go! The next time you hear from I shall hopefully be finished with it. Happy reading everyone, and wish me luck!!