Lucia di Lammermoor

This is an impressive work, one that can be enjoyed by fans of the historical novel, the gothic novel and the novel of ethnic character--provided they accept "The Bride" as a not completely effective fusion of the three and are willing to adjust their expectations accordingly. The essential plot--th Leggi tutto

Around the time of the union between Scotland and England 1707, great changes are occurring in that ancient an often unhappy land of the north, rebellion is always beneath the calm surface, in uneasy Scotland. Rivalries, family blood feuds, (and just plain hate) political contests between Whigs and

Seriously gothic fans, listen up: This is your ultimate indulgence. This is ridiculously over the top. The characters actually swish their cloaks and make dark, portentous pronouncements. Wolves really howl at the moon, the dudes really live in broken down castles. Ladies go mad! Men lose their inhe Leggi tutto

“The Bride of Lammermoor“is surprisingly funny. It’s about two Scottish families who, through the centuries, fight over the same fortune and land holdings. One family wrests it away from the other branch and a century or so later another grabs it back and so on. As the book opens Lord Ravenswood has Leggi tutto

I read this book after working on the opera based on it which, it turns out, has relatively little to do with the novel after all. While the opera is boiled down to the story of two star-crossed lovers, the novel puts the lovers on the back-burner, preferring to concentrate its focus on creating a r Leggi tutto

My second read of this story based on a true story where the bride went insane and stabbed the bridegroom on the wedding night. This tragedy has also been made into a opera. The novel starts with the death of Lord Ravenswood and there now being only one member of the Ravenswood family left, is Maste Leggi tutto

I truly thought my whole life would pass without any Walter Scott, but I picked up this paperback for pennies at a sidewalk sale because I'm drawn to old paperbacks. There it sat along with all my other sidewalk sale finds until I reread Madame Bovary , which contains a scene in which Emma and Charle Leggi tutto

NOPE. Because I love myself too much to subject my poor leisure-reading brain to this interminable, meandering mess of endless verbiage. Back when I was in school I had to force myself through unreadable and/or mind-numbingly dense books, whether "classics" or "postmodern" or Virginia Woolf, whateve Leggi tutto

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Cloaks swirl, ladies go mad, rocks fall, everyone dies. Full review coming!