What am I doing? I have read another three classics! I still really like them and since some are so short they keep my attention. I eat them like sweet cakes!
This time it is time for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie and The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.
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Title & Author: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
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Synopsis
Today, F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his novels, but in his lifetime, his fame stemmed from his prolific achievement as one of America’s most gifted story writers. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” a witty and fantastical satire about aging, is one of his most memorable stories.
In 1860 Benjamin Button is born an old man and mysteriously begins aging backward. At the beginning of his life he is withered and worn, but as he continues to grow younger he embraces life — he goes to war, runs a business, falls in love, has children, goes to college and prep school, and, as his mind begins to devolve, he attends kindergarten and eventually returns to the care of his nurse.
This strange and haunting story embodies the sharp social insight that has made Fitzgerald one of the great voices in the history of American literature.
I didn’t even know The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was a novel. But I did like it. It was curious and you really get to know Benjamin. It is a cute story, but doesn’t give more answers to the questions ‘what happened to Benjamin in the end?’ than the movie did.
Title & Author: Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
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Synopsis
What more can a mystery addict desire than a much-loathed murder victim found aboard the luxurious Orient Express with multiple stab wounds, thirteen likely suspects, an incomparably brilliant detective in Hercule Poirot, and the most ingenious crime ever conceived?
Before seeing the 2017 movie for Murder on the Orient Express, I wanted to read the novel first. I remember I read it back in high school, but I couldn’t remember the story. I thought it was interesting and wasn’t sure who did it until the end.
I liked the different characters but especially Hercule Poirot, so I might actually read more of Agatha’s books on him.
Title & Author: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Rating:
Synopsis
Written in his distinctively dazzling manner, Oscar Wilde’s story of a fashionable young man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty is the author’s most popular work. The tale of Dorian Gray’s moral disintegration caused a scandal when it first appeared in 1890, but though Wilde was attacked for the novel’s corrupting influence, he responded that there is, in fact, “a terrible moral in Dorian Gray.” Just a few years later, the book and the aesthetic/moral dilemma it presented became issues in the trials occasioned by Wilde’s homosexual liaisons, which resulted in his imprisonment. Of Dorian Gray’s relationship to autobiography, Wilde noted in a letter, “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.”
I never read anything by Oscar Wilde and I am wondering what I have been doing with my life! I love The Picture of Dorian Gray, it’s dark, it’s interesting, it’s super! Enough said.
Let me know what you thought of these books!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.
For now, let books enrich your life!
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Murder on the Orient Express
The Picture of Dorian Gray