Antiquarian and Classic Book Reviews
I actually found this book in a used bookstore’s bargain bin and as such I wasn’t expecting much. But I was surprised both by the quality of the writing and the insight of this novel, especially considering when it was written. This is a review of Sarah Broom Macnaughtan’s A Lame Dog’s Diary.
Due to how many adaptations it has had and how prominent it is in the canon of classic literature, I thought it would be a staple of used bookstores or the bigger new bookstores. Well, it isn’t. This is a review of Victor Hugo’s Notre-Dame de Paris or The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
I actually have only been reading Russian literature for a short amount of time and how I started reading it is a bit of story in and of itself. This is a review of Dostoevsky’s The Landlady.
I do most of my work and most of my writing in front of the television and I always have. These days I still watch a lot of classic television, including The Carol Burnett Show. This is a review of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
We’ve settled into late spring, early summer without any of the in-between gradual changes. This is the kind of year that I think of as distinctly Canadian. This a review of Timothy Findley’s The Wars.
As someone who reads classical literature — a lot of which was around before cameras were common or in some cases existent — instead of photographs, I see a lot of author portraits when I do research. This is a review of The Man of Feeling.
I’m going to admit it right off the bat, Doctor Faustus is not an easy read. For the first three hundred pages it is a difficult slog up an impossible mountain that one cannot see the peak of. This a review of Thomas Mann’s magnum opus.
We live in a small theatre town and we’ve learned a new way of looking at the calendar year. But in this changing, uncertain, and often frightening time, the theatre has shut down and the town is quieter than I’ve ever seen it. This is a review of The Plays of Eugene O’Neill.
I spent a lot of time in front of the television as a child. It was part of my regular routine before going to school and after I got home. I used it to define days, hours, and seasons and to keep me company while I did homework or studied. My favourite programs (alongside Bugs Bunny, of course) were crime documentaries. This is a review of Emile Zola’s The Beast Within.
There is no singular process that recommends a book to me or by which I choose what to read when. My reading tastes can change with a given day or even a given hour — which is why I tend to read about eight to ten books at once. This is a review of The Bluest Eye.
