Back to the Classics Challenge 2021

Click HERE for guidelines and sign-ups.

Host: Karen K. @ Books and Chocolate

Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2021

The goal of this challenge is (pretty obviously): read classic literature. To qualify for the challenge, a book must have been published at least 50 years ago (so, no later than 1971). There are twelve categories for the challenge, and three different levels for reading (you can read books from six, nine, or all twelve categories). See the challenge announcement page for more info. 

I will probably go for the first level ("complete six categories"). I don't yet have a set list of books I might want to read, but I never managed to finish Jane Eyre last year, so I should probably lead off with that. I've started it several times over a period of about forty years! It would be nice to actually finish it at last. 

I'm very late signing up for this — the deadline for sign-ups is March 31. I actually thought I'd already signed up. Yeah, the brain is getting softer all the time. Anyway, during the year I'll be tracking my progress and keeping all my reading lists over on my challenge blog (HERE). 

Back to the Classics Challenge 2019

Hosted by: Karen K @ Books and Chocolate
Dates: 1 January - 31 December, 2019

Click here for full guidelines and sign-ups.

I really thought I'd finished signing up for next year's reading challenges, but you know how it is.

This year I read almost nothing but whodunnits and thrillers. Nothing wrong with that, of course — but I'd like to read some of the classic lit I've always intended to read but just never got around to. So, here I go again....

The 2019 Back to the Classics Challenge is composed of twelve categories. I probably won’t plan to complete all twelve, but I think I should be able to manage six. And at the moment, I'm thinking I might choose from these:

1. 19th Century Classic - Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë

2. 20th Century Classic - Where Angels Fear to Tread, by E.M. Forster

3. Classic By a Female Author - Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell

4. Classic in Translation - Demian, by Hermann Hesse

5. Classic Comic Novel - The Code of the Woosters, by P.G. Wodehouse

6. Classic Tragic Novel - The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton

7. Very Long Classic - The Wings of the Dove, by Henry James

8. Classic Novella - The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka

9. Classic From the Americas (includes the Caribbean) - Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

10. Classic From Africa, Asia, or Oceania (includes Australia) - The Grass Is Singing, by Doris Lessing (Africa)

11. Classic From a Place You've Lived - Horseman, Pass By, by Larry McMurtry (Texas)

12. Classic Play - Lady Windermere's Fan, by Oscar Wilde

But those plans are definitely subject to change, and I’ve got a long list of alternate choices over on my challenge blog. And that’s where I’ll track my progress during the year.

To Have and Have Not

Ernest Hemingway
Scribner Classics, 272 pages


In Ernest Hemingway's 1937 novel To Have and Have Not, fishing boat captain Harry Morgan is portrayed as a fundamentally good man forced, by economic circumstances, to run contraband between Cuba and Florida. In the book's opening section, Harry's wealthy charter customer tricks him by slipping away after a day's fishing without paying the money he owes. Needing to recoup his losses in order to support his family, Harry makes a very poor (and fateful) decision to help smuggle Chinese immigrants into Florida from Cuba. After that episode turns into one more fiasco, he begins regularly ferrying illegal cargo between the two countries – including alcohol and Cuban revolutionaries.

The novel is set in Depression-era Key West, and allows Hemingway to make use of the glaring contrast between the wealthy visitors to the region (the "Haves") and the poor local residents (the "Have Nots"). It was apparently much influenced by the Marxist ideology Hemingway was exposed to during his involvement in the Spanish Civil War while he was writing it. Interestingly, it was the only book actually banned in the U.S. in 1938, after library patrons lodged complaints about its "immorality."

To Have and Have Not has been on my TBR list for decades now, so I decided to read it for the Back to the Classics Reading Challenge this year.

Now I understand why so many critics have called this Hemingway's weakest novel.

The book is actually a novella and a series of sketches, very tentatively held together by the story of Harry Morgan and his (mostly shady) boat charter activities. The best thing I can say about it is that it can be read in a few hours. Another good thing is that it inspired one of my favorite movies (1944, directed by Howard Hawks, starring Bogart and Bacall), even though the film is really nothing like the book. It also seems to have been one of the inspirations for an awful lot of Miami Vice dialogue.

I'm afraid I can only recommend this one if you're looking to consume everything Hemingway wrote -- and if you don't mind a LOT of non-P.C. name calling and quite a bit of pretty graphic violence.

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● Qualifies for the following reading challenges: Back to the Classics Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge.

Daisy Miller

Henry James
Penguin Classics, 2007
128 pages

Publisher's Description:

Traveling in Europe with her family, Daisy Miller, an exquisitely beautiful young American woman, presents her fellow-countryman Winterbourne with a dilemma he cannot resolve. Is she deliberately flouting social convention in the outspoken way she talks and acts, or is she simply ignorant of those conventions? When she strikes up an intimate friendship with an urbane young Italian, her flat refusal to observe the codes of respectable behavior leave her perilously exposed. In Daisy Miller James created his first great portrait of the enigmatic and dangerously independent American woman, a figure who would come to dominate his later masterpieces.

My Thoughts:

One of the best known of Henry James's short novels, Daisy Miller first appeared in 1878. I read it earlier this year, for the Back to the Classics Challenge. And the first thought that comes to mind is: Why have I never read Daisy Miller before now? I'm pretty sure it must have been assigned in one of my college English classes, or maybe even in high school. Well, for whatever reason -- this was my first time reading it.

I've always liked Henry James, but his longer works are so daunting. This novella is just the right length -- took me a couple of days to finish, because I wanted to savor every word. A bit of a surprise ending -- at least one I wasn't expecting. I don't want to say too much about the plot so that others can have that same feeling of fresh discovery. Definitely a book I'd recommend to all readers.

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● Qualifies for the following reading challenges: Back to the Classics Challenge, Mount TBR Challenge.

2016 Back to the Classics Reading Challenge

Back to the Classics Challenge 2016

Hosted by: Karen K @ Books and Chocolate

Dates: January 1 - December 31, 2016

This is a very popular reading challenge, but this will be my first time to participate. At first glance, I thought it looked a little too restrictive, and I don't usually do too well with those challenges. And twelve books is quite a lot of books to commit to, for me. But when I realized I won't have to read that many books to join in, I took another look and was hooked. Especially since I believe it's really going to help with my effort to read more of the books I already own -- or books that have been on my TBR list for eons.

The idea of the challenge is to read 12 "classic" books, from 12 different categories. (However, you do not have to read 12 books to participate in this challenge.)

• Complete six categories, and you get one entry in the prize drawing
• Complete nine categories, and you get two entries in the drawing
• Complete all twelve categories, and you get three entries in the drawing

Participants choose books from these categories:

1. A 19th Century Classic - any book published between 1800 and 1899.
2. A 20th Century Classic - any book published between 1900 and 1966. All books MUST have been published at least 50 years ago to qualify. The only exception is books written at least 50 years ago, but published later.
3. A classic by a woman author.
4. A classic in translation. Any book originally written published in a language other than your native language. You can read the book in your language or the original language.
5. A classic by a non-white author. Can be African-American, Asian, Latino, Native American, etc.
6. An adventure classic - can be fiction or non-fiction. Children's classics like Treasure Island are acceptable in this category.
7. A fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian classic. Dystopian could include classics like 1984; children's classics (like The Hobbit) are acceptable in this category also.
8. A classic detective novel. Must include a detective, amateur or professional. 
9. A classic which includes the name of a place in the title. It can be the name of a house, a town, a street, etc. Examples: Bleak House, Main Street, or The Vicar of Wakefield.
10. A classic which has been banned or censored. If possible, please mention why this book was banned or censored in your review.
11. Re-read a classic you read in school (high school or college). 
12. A volume of classic short stories. This must be one complete volume, at least 8 short stories. It can be an anthology of stories by different authors, or all the stories can be by a single author. Children's stories are acceptable in this category also.

For the rest of the rules and info, see the challenge announcement/sign-up page (HERE).

I'll probably be reading six books -- might not be able to handle more than that. I'm not sure which categories I'll be choosing, so I don't have a set list for the challenge yet; but I've got a bunch of ideas. During the year, I'll be tracking my progress over on my challenge blog (HERE).