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3.75 AVERAGE
3.75 AVERAGE
I loved the way this book was set in the Victorian era, but the writer gave present-day perspective on all the goings-on as they were happening. It gave a much more complete understanding of the story because you weren’t left to surmise, for instance what the social implications might be for a characters’ actions. It also gave a lot of insight to what characters’ views on religion, philosophy, sciences, etc. might be based on available and popular research and ideas from the era. The movie apparently got a lot of Oscar attention, but I found the way they dealt with the present-day perspective to be much less effective. I’d recommend the book.
Absolutely disliked the intrusive narrator and the switching of plot lines.
I read this book for a Classics book discussion, and of the books I read in that group, it was the only one I truly enjoyed. I've always enjoyed love triangle stories, and the metafiction aspects and sometimes lofty language made it just weird enough and philosophical enough to be right up my alley
Wasn’t expecting it to go full choose your own adventure at the end, but wow I’ve never felt so satisfied reading a book that was basically 350 pages of preamble. Will probably be the best book I read this year - big call for a January read.
Would not have finished this if it wasn't mandatory to read. Being very smart does not mean that your book needs to have the length of a freaking fantasy book.
RTC
RTC
Very odd book but good characters- I'm not quite sure what I think of it overall.
a thoroughly successful work, an important assessment of the Victorian male gaze : the literary innovations and pursuits are tantalising ; the book tricks and taunts ; but, oh, what an electric piece of metafiction !
I thought this was clever but hard to get through. The Victorian stuff was like over the top unreadable to make up for the fact that it wasn't the genuine article.
Real score 3.98. I really wonder what what my young self thought of this book when I read it first. In my twenties I had a little Fowler obsession. I’m not, even now, able to say what I really feel about it this time. Straight out of high school classics, I suppose its meta element would have been novel, intriguing. I’m torn between interested and disappointed. Somehow I think that might be the point?
I can see what Fowles was doing—I can even appreciate it—, but I couldn't really enjoy the story. There were parts of the book that I did like, and some of the descriptions of places are beautiful, but not enough to enjoy it fully. I did not like most of the characters (two might be excused), and the writing was tedious at times. I love Fowles's The Collector, so I was hoping I would like this book half as much, but I don't think I do.