This film, starring Vanessa Regrave as older Mrs Dalloway and Natascha McElhone as the younger, is about as close as we could possibly get to the essence of the book. Some of the thoughts are instead expressed in dialogue. The story takes place over just one day, which in the book seems a little outlandish, but works very well for a film. Clarissa Dalloway prepares for hosting a party, for no reason but that she likes parties and has been ill. We follow other characters too, who are either going to the party or are linked in some way. For example, Peter Walsh, who has come back from India and whom Clarissa decided not to marry because she could not share everything. Her daughter Elizabeth, who is out in society but is under the influence of a poor religious friend, Miss Kilman. Septimus Warren Smith, a young man who is traumatised by his experiences in the War and feeling survivors’ guilt.

In the book, of course, we get much more background on the characters. The film enhances certain aspects of the story, such as Clarissa’s relationship with her friend Sally (it’s obvious that if it were allowed, then Clarissa would have married Sally, not Peter or Richard) and the effects of the War upon Septimus. I think the film is very well done and would be an effective substitute if you can’t get on with the writing style of the book.

Image by unknown: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119723/mediaviewer/rm1630599680, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=60032313

The story is presented as part of a casebook and that more details cannot be obtained from the protagonist as she has died. Once we get into the narrative, it is quite obviously a vampire story. However, the word is not used until near the end of the story. The revelation might have been surprising to readers at the time, long before even Dracula was published.

Laura, a teenage girl who lives an isolated existence in an Austrian castle with her father and servants, is delighted when a beautiful young woman stays with them after a carriage accident. Despite the mysterious circumstances of Carmilla’s background and the oddities in her character, Laura is very drawn towards the young woman, who she dreamed of when she was much younger. Carmilla is very passionate towards Laura, who feels both warmth and revulsion. While their friendship is deepening, other young women in the region are suffering from a mysterious illness. Eventually Laura herself becomes ill, drained of energy (and blood, because her best friend is a vampire!)

What I found really interesting about the story is that when it becomes clear to everyone that Carmilla is a vampire and that a gruesome procedure must be followed to stop her, Laura immediately distances herself. The vampire is then described as an ‘it’. Laura is unable to articulate her feelings upon learning the truth about Carmilla, so she copies an account of the vampire’s death from another source. You can tell by the end of the story, however, that she is haunted by what has happened.

If you enjoy vampire stories or are into gothic fiction, this is a must-read.

I read the copy from Project Gutenberg.

Illustration by Michael Fitzgerald for Carmilla in The Dark Blue (January 1872).

The Catcher in the Rye has been discussed extensively and there are many theories as to what it’s really about. I’m glad to say I never had to study it. To me, it seems to be a study in frustration as everything Holden does results in failure, whether it’s his studies, or dating, having a proper conversation, or having fun. Even when he buys a record for his sister Phoebe, he drops it. I love how she keeps the pieces of the record. At the end, Holden is going to attend yet another elite school and the whole cycle of failure will probably happen again. It leaves you wondering what he will do when he’s an adult, whether he’ll radically turn around his attitude and become one of the ‘phoneys’. Masculinity is a dominant theme, with its depictions of life in a boarding school for boys, the shame at being ‘yellow’ and not wanting to fight, and the boys’ fear that they might be gay. Considering it was written soon after the Second World War, there isn’t much directly about the war, but it could be considered a war novel, transposed to the confused and violent world of teenage boys.

The book has never been adapted for the big screen. Holden would be pleased about that, as he only goes to the movies to hate-watch them. I think it would be difficult to adapt the book. It’s thin on plot and the narrative voice is so integral. The book has been very influential and I particularly consider The Outsiders by S E Hinton to have a strong flavour of it.

The edition I read was published by Penguin, 1994, which reproduced the original American text.

The story is told by an unnamed narrator who is surveying a creepy parcel of land, a ‘blasted heath’, for a reservoir. No one can live there – not even ‘foreigners’ – and he finds only one person, an elderly man called Ammi, who will talk to him about what happened forty years ago. Ammi tells of the pleasant Gardner family, who were shunned by the community after a sinister meteorite fell onto their land. Inside the meteorite was a bizarre, glowing substance: ‘a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes.’ The colour is not one seen on Earth before and there is no attempt to describe it. As the seasons continue, all is not well with the Gardners. Their crops and livestock are deformed. The trees wave their branches when there’s no wind. The family descend into madness and a grey, brittle demise. And there is something lurking in the well…

What I have always found chilling about this tale, apart from the nature and effects of the ‘colour’ itself, is how the superstitious neighbours left the Gardners to a horrible fate. If an alien which feeds on life-force pays you a visit, you’re on your own!

I think if you haven’t read any Lovecraft before, this would be an ideal story to try. It has the hallmarks of his style and is set in Arkham (a fictional town in Massachusetts) but doesn’t refer to the mythology found in many of his stories.

‘The Colour Out of Space’ can be found on Project Gutenberg, WikiSource and in various Lovecraft anthologies. A film based upon it was released in 2019.

The character of Ruth is unrealistically angelic, despite her ‘sin’. Gaskell shows the reader that so-called fallen women deserve second chances and that everyone, particularly men, should change their attitudes. Ruth is a strongly moral character and makes some tough decisions to ensure she does what is true to God’s will, even though those decisions impact her health and ultimately end her life.

I think the novel is too old-fashioned to be enjoyed, if that’s the right word, by many readers today. It’s more likely to be studied for a literature course than picked up for a leisure read.

First published in 1853. This edition published by Oxford World’s Classics, 2011, with an introduction and notes by Tim Dolin.

The novel follows Emma, the girl who has it all – wealth, looks, intelligence, adoring friends and family, no need to marry. She fancies herself a matchmaker but misinterprets others’ behaviour, leading to trouble… but she emerges a stronger character. This could be considered a coming of age novel. Society and class are the main preoccupations, however, with a focus on the inequality of women. Couples are happily matched in the almost-fairytale ending, of course, with the exception of Miss Bates, a middle-aged single lady whose kind personality does not make up for her lack of wealth. There are a number of other memorable characters, such as Emma’s querulous but indulgent father Mr Woodhouse, the gruesomely tasteless Mrs Elton and the talented but secretive Jane Fairfax.

Emma is a witty and sophisticated novel which is a pleasure to read. It was the last Austen book published in her lifetime (1816) and like the others was anonymous. I wonder how astonished she would be to know that her work is widely read, studied and filmed, her name one of the most famous in the canon of English literature.

The edition I read was published by Penguin Classics, 2015, with introduction and notes by Fiona Stafford.

The story was written early in the Cold War and this is very obvious from the suspicions and paranoia evidenced by the characters. After strange green lights in the sky cause blindness in most of the world’s population, society breaks down. At the same time, intelligent walking plants called triffids, which had been engineered and then farmed, grab the opportunity to prey on the survivors. The main danger from triffids is their lashing stings, which can kill from a distance. Our narrator, Bill – who worked with triffids – was in hospital after triffid poison got into his eyes, which is why he could not see the green flashes. He wakes up to a changed world and navigates through a sinister London where looting, violence and plague are rife. Some people insist that the Americans will save them, but it becomes clear that no one is coming. At first Bill is lonely and aimless, but then he rescues a young woman, Josella, from a blind man who has captured her to be his eyes. Much of the book is a quest to find Josella after they are separated by rival factions who have strong ideas about how this brave new world should be run. Bill also adopts a girl, Susan, who has lost her family to triffids and who helps him devise ways to exterminate the loathsome plants.

There is a lot to admire about the book. It’s very British, gritty and realistic. Bill’s narrative voice is likable and displays some attitudes that are a little dated, but the roles of women are quite modern. Despite the book’s title suggesting that triffids are the main focus, they don’t feature very much until Bill is living in the countryside. Triffids are fascinating and the narrator encourages us to admire them. They are taking advantage of what has befallen humanity, but it’s humanity – specifically our scientific advances under the threat of nuclear war – which is to blame. Artificial satellites are key to this, which is a forward-thinking innovation in this book, written a few years before the launch of Sputnik 1.

The book was adapted into a simplistic sci-fi horror film (1962) and two BBC TV series, one that was quite faithful to the book (1981) and another which was updated for contemporary times but was not as faithful (2009). There is a sequel, The Night of the Triffids, written by Simon Clark, which I haven’t read.

The story is set in Spain and revolves around a 30-something celebrity monk, Ambrosio. Two significant actions – giving into temptation when a novice reveals herself to be a woman in love with him, and foiling the escape plan of a pregnant nun – set him on a course to crime, black magic and damnation. There are long stretches of the book in which he does not appear, but all are connected to him. The attitude of the book is somewhat anti-Catholic and is certainly anti-clerical, which aligns it with other books in the genre from the era. It also criticises the Spanish Inquisition and demonstrates fear of the French Revolution, which was ongoing at the time of publication. What may surprise first-time readers is how easy the book is to understand. If you’re looking for an early classic which is full of suspense, superstition and horror, this may be one for you. I still think it’s quite a shocking read today, but despite that I enjoy reading it, although I could do without the ballads.

This edition has an introduction by Nick Groom which discusses the context of the book and the author’s influences.

The year is 1945 and the setting is the May of Teck Club, a hostel in Blitzed London which is home to young women who are hoping for either marriage or careers. They share one ball-gown between them and cultivate friendships with American soldiers for goods not available with ration coupons. The narrative darts between this era and the near future, with news of the martyrdom of a literary young man who used to be friends with the girls of the Club. It’s an unusual read and while I wasn’t sure what to make of it in the early chapters, by the end I thought it was brilliant. I think that novels set in the 1940s by authors who lived through those turbulent times are very interesting, because although it was, as Spark says at the end of this book, ‘long ago’ in the 1960s, it was comparatively recent from today’s perspective.

First published in 1963. This edition by Penguin, 2013.

As an adaptation, it neatly communicates the nostalgic, community-spirited essence of the book and the characters are spot-on. However, it’s a more sentimental vision than the book, with a particular focus on the unfulfilled and somewhat uninteresting romance between Huw’s sister Angharad and the preacher Mr Gruffydd. The less wholesome aspects of Huw are edited out, such as his encounters with his first girlfriend Ceinwen, demanding to know the facts of life from Mr Gruffydd, and how he was expelled from school. But then the time period is very compressed and Huw never reaches adolescence in this adaptation. Antagonism between Welsh and English people, one of the book’s preoccupations, is not present in the film, certainly a diplomatic choice during the Second World War. I think the biggest loss is the narrative voice of the older, contemporary Huw, who has very few lines. Quite often, the film will show what’s going on between the adults and Huw isn’t even there, while in the book he’s always present, even if the adults don’t realise it.

It is perfectly possible to appreciate the film without having read the book, but if you want more background on the characters then reading it will be rewarding.