With the new warm weather, and 70+ degree temperatures, I’ve been thinking about Summer Reading. Though April’s a little premature for summer, we’re going to add a Summer Reading Category to Snell Snippets. Bloggers can add their favorite summer reading picks. (Or bemoan summer reading assignments-
The Odyssey is one that I’d put in that category!)
I like mysteries in general, and particularly classic, 19
th century ones in the summer. In the past that’s included books like
The Woman in White. This summer, I’m looking forward to reading
The Mysteries of Udolpho and possibly
Armadale. I also like the kind of beach reading that you can read in a day. One of my best friends keeps up a steady diet of Trollope and Eliot throughout the summer, but I’m not that disciplined! What are your favorite summer reads?
I also think that some authors and books lend themselves particularly well to summer. F. Scott Fitzgerald springs to mind – I brought
Tender is the Night with me to the French Riviera, but I don’t think the synergy was quite what I hoped for. I’d also be interested in starting a book club, if people were interested in reading any of the same books over the summer.
Walter Hartright, a struggling artist, is about to begin a new career as a tutor to half-sisters Marian Halcombe and Laura Fairlie. Just before he leaves London for Cumberland, he encounters a mysterious ‘woman in white,’ in evident distress. I won’t reveal too much more of the plot, but this 1859 novel deals with powerlessness (of women in particular) in the face of injustice.
Have any of you read Collins before? (I also really liked The Moonstone). What do you think?