The Woman In White

This was so much fun. Wilkie Collins is fantastic. There are impossible circumstances after improbable coincidences all piled on top of each other and they don't bother you, you just go along with it. Whenever the plot needs a woman to do an unlikely thing he has her faint away and take to her bed so they can lug the bed (carefully constructed) around to suit the plot...when she needs some more time spent passively he gives her typhoid! An immensely fat villain Count Fosco, scampers around on his little fat feet with his pet caged birds and mice giving them little kisses and talking baby talk to them while stills managing to somehow be mesmerizing, evil and sexy in a very un-Victorian sort of way.
My only quibble is that of the 21rst century----Marian, the most dynamic fearless heroine is left without a worthy mate---she has an attraction to the bad boy Count Fosco but other than that she seems doomed to wait on the children of the other characters since they 'couldn't possibly spare her'. Too bad. There needs to be a sequel where Marian finds her match and he isn't 60 years old crammed into too small waistcoats!

Miss Hargreaves

This was a fun little book. A hapless bored hero carelessly invents an elderly spinster Miss Hargreaves who mysteriously becomes real and starts to thwart him. It's like P.G. Woodehouse only not as arch, like Lucky Jim but more old fashioned. Pleasant enough.

A Sobering Message

Effi Briest

I read Effi Briest by Theodor Fontane a few weeks ago in a fit of seriousness. I imagined it a sort of German Madame Bovary but it lacked the immediacy of Bovary for me. But it may have been the translation which although they rave about on the back jacket as "clear and modern"  to me was jarring. Phrases like "Effi was not for reheated leftovers; fresh dishes were what she longed for, variety." conjure up images of microwaves and saran wrap which I imagine were not prevalent in 1895. So it was like one of those classics were they rework the language to appeal to a young audiences. Poor Effi, she should have stuck with the leftovers.