Stokes Valley Book Group
A Selection of Classics
March 2017
Moby Dick / Herman Melville
The epic sea-story of Captain Ahab's voyage in pursuit of Moby Dick. Ahab has one
purpose, revenge on the ferocious white whale which on a previous voyage
destroyed Ahab’s ship and severed his leg at the knee. The detailed and realistic
descriptions of whale hunting, as well as life aboard ship among a culturally diverse
crew, are mixed with exploration of class and social status, good and evil, and the
existence of God.
Ivanhoe / Walter Scott
It is the dark days of King Richard's reign, when the beloved king is fighting in far-off
lands, leaving his corrupt brother John in charge of his kingdom. Tensions between
Saxon and Norman lords erupt in bouts of bloodshed or foul play; good men are
banished, forced to turn outlaw and serve the true king in secrecy and disguise. In
this dangerous world, the brave Wilfred of Ivanhoe must grapple with the claims of
family, crown, truth and justice if he is ever to win the hand of his true love, the
beautiful Lady Rowena.
A room with a view / E. M. Forster
Lucy Honeychurch is a middle-class English girl. She lives a comfortable, protected
existence, her life mapped out for her. But her experiences on holiday in Italy show
her a different side of life, her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters
she meets there – flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney
Signora, curious Mr Emerson and, most of all, his passionate son George. Lucy
finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of
Edwardian England, personified in her terminally dull finance Cecil. Will she learn to
follow her heart? A sunny, brilliantly witty comedy of manners.
Brighton rock / Graham Greene
It is Brighton in the 1930s, and seventeen year old Pinkie stalks the boardwalk with
apathy on his face and murder in his heart. After a rash revenge murder he tries to
cover up the small mistakes that tie him to the crime, but every cover-up effort he
makes fails to solve the problem entirely, leading him to commit further murders
which result in further cover ups. Pinkie is an astounding character, sinister and
fascinating, – “a chilling specimen of the Adolf Hitler type”.
Anna Karenina / Leo Tolstoy
The classic nineteenth-century Russian novel in which a young woman is destroyed
when she attempts to live outside the moral law of her society. In this novel of
unparalleled richness and complexity, set in Russian high society, Tolstoy charts the
course of the doomed love affair between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and
Count Vronsky, a wealthy army officer who pursues her. Anna eventually succumbs,
falling passionately in love and setting in motion a chain of events that lead to her
downfall.
Pounamu pounamu / Witi Ihimaera
Most of Witi Ihimaera's stories, based on the East Coast, describe a traditional rural,
communal way of life facing huge pressures from the drift by many Maori to the
cities. Witi Ihimaera explores what it is like to be a New Zealander – from a Maori
perspective, with themes of aroha, whanaungatanga (kinship) and manaakitanga
(supporting each other).
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Stokes Valley Book Group
A Selection of Classics
March 2017
Cold comfort farm / Stella Gibbons
A comic novel parodying the romanticised, sometimes doom-laden accounts of rural
life popular at the time. Flora finds she is possessed "of every art and grace save
that of earning her own living” so decides to visit her distant relatives at their isolated
farm. The inhabitants of the farm feel obliged to take her in to atone for an
unspecified wrong once done to her father. As is typical in a certain genre of
romantic 19th-century and early 20th-century literature, each of them has some longfestering emotional problem caused by ignorance, hatred, or fear, and the farm is
badly run. Flora, being a level-headed, urban woman, determines that she must
apply modern common sense to their problems and help them adapt to the 20th
century.
The bell jar / Sylvia Plath
“I was supposed to be having the time of my life”. When Esther Greenwood wins an
internship on a New York fashion magazine in 1953, she is elated, believing she will
finally realise her dream to become a writer. But in between the cocktail parties and
piles of manuscripts, Esther's life begins to slide out of control. She finds herself
spiralling into depression and eventually a suicide attempt, as she grapples with
difficult relationships and a society which refuses to take women's aspirations
seriously. The Bell Jar is partially based on Plath's own life and descent into mental
illness, and has become a modern classic. The Bell Jar has been celebrated for its
darkly funny and razor sharp portrait of 1950s society.
The catcher in the rye / J.D. Salinger
Holden Caulfield, a 16-year old American boy relates in his own words the
experiences he goes through at school and afterwards, and reveals with unusual
candour the workings of his own mind, and what he thinks of his teachers, parents,
friends and acquaintances. The Catcher in the Rye deals with complex issues of
innocence, belonging, identity, loss, and connection, and it tends to have a
polarising effect – you either identify with Holden and love it, or you don’t, and
wonder what all the fuss is about. Which camp will you be in?
More books:
The winter of our discontent / John Steinbeck
Dante’s Divine Comedy / Seymour Chwast
Journey to the centre of the earth / Jules Verne
Bonjour tristesse / Francoise Sagan
The woman in white / Wilkie Collins
Love in the time of cholera / Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The garden party and other stories / Katherine Mansfield
YOLO Juliet / William Shakespeare and Brett Wright
The children / Edith Wharton
The Scarlet Letter / Nathaniel Hawthorne
Breakfast at Tiffany’s / Truman Capote
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