Hello. I'm Gill at engVid. And, today, we are looking at some book
recommendations because I've had a few requests from... from you, the viewers,
to recommend books that might be worth reading. And so, what I have here on the
board are — one, two, three, four, five — six novels; fiction books. Some
written in the nineteenth century; some in the twentieth century. Three are
written by men, and three are written by women — just to get the balance right.
And so, what I've done — I've put the... the opening line of each novel to give
you a sort of flavour of... of what it sounds like. So, let's have a look,
then. So, the first one — it's just a very, very short sentence: "Call me
Ishmael." So, that's a bit intriguing. And it's meant to be, of course, because
the... the point of the first line is to make you want to carry on reading, so it
should make you feel... it should, you know... provoke your curiosity and make
you want to read on to find out what, you know... "What's this all about?" So,
"Call me Ishmael." And is the first line of a novel; a very big novel — long
novel called: "Moby Dick", which you may have heard about before, and it's about
a whale and about a ship, and the captain wants to hunt down a whale. He
has some sort of vendetta; some sort of vengeance. He sees the whale as a... as
an enemy; it's rather personal. So, the captain of the ship wants to... to kill
the whale. It's not the purpose of the trip, really, but that's his secret
plan. So, that's what the novel is all about. So, "Moby Dick" is the name of
the whale. The... the... the name of the author is Herman Melville — an American
novelist. And the date it was published was 1851. Okay. So, it's quite a
difficult novel, and very long. So, with all of these, you might want to watch a
film version, perhaps, just to get to know the story. Even though sometimes a
film version might play around a little bit with the story from the book, so you
can't be sure it will be exactly the same. But you always have that option of
seeing a film version as an easy introduction to the story, and then you
might want to read the novel afterwards. Or you might prefer to read the novel
first, then watch a film, and see... compare in your mind how similar they
are or maybe they're a bit different. So, okay. So, this line, it sort of...
you can tell that the... the character in the story is telling the story. It's:
"Call me Ishmael." And here am I telling you a story about something that
happened because he's one of the sailors on the ship who experiences this... that
hunt for the whale. So, he's the, what you call "the narrator" — the person who
tells the story. And you would say he's a first-person narrator because it's
"me". "I", "me" — first person. So, it's a personal account of the story. Okay.
So, that's that one.
The next one — let's have a look at this opening. "It was a bright, cold day in
April; and the clocks were striking thirteen." Wow. So, that's a bit
strange, isn't it? Again, that makes you want to read on: "How...? How come the
clocks strike thirteen? Is something wrong with them? Does somebody need to
repair them?" Clocks don't usually strike that number; they... they go as
far as twelve — don't they? — and then back to one again, so that's a bit
strange. You might think: "What kind of place is this?" It gives you a feeling
it's a bit strange; sinister, even. And so, this novel is this... the date it
was published, this is the title of the novel: "1984". And although that date
has gone by, of course, when the book was written in 1949, actually... or it
was published 1949 — I think the novelist would be writing it in 1948, so
he kind of reversed the date. And he was making it a kind of futuristic novel;
something happening in the future. So, "1984". At that time, in 1948, they
would think: "Oh, gosh, 1984 — that sounds like a long time ahead." But to
us now, of course, it's a long time in the past. And the novelist, George
Orwell, an English writer. Okay. And it is about a place where things are quite
bad. The thirteen also... thirteen — an unlucky number. It's... it's a terrible
place where people are treated badly. So, that's a little hint in the first
line that something is wrong here. Okay.
Right, so moving on to this one. This is quite a famous opening line; it's quite
complex. It's a very long sentence, but I think you'll get the sense of it. "It
is a truth, universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a
good fortune must be in want of a wife." Okay. So, because this was written quite
a long time ago — 1813 — the style of the language is much... it's quite
different, really; long sentences. And "must be in want of a wife" means must
be in need of a wife, or must be looking for a wife. So, it's a slightly
old-fashioned style that you have to get used to, as you're reading. And it's
quite sophisticated, the way it's put. But, actually, it's a kind of humour,
really. This novelist, Jane Austen, is known to be very witty and humourous.
But the humour is in the language. You have to kind of appreciate the humour
through the language — the way she writes it; the style. Okay. So, it's
saying: "Well, we all know that a single man with a lot of money must... must be
wanting or must be looking for a wife." Well, is that true? Maybe not nowadays.
Maybe not then. But this is the kind of... it's suggesting the mindset, the
attitudes of the people who live in this particular place in English society;
sort of middle-class English society. And it's very much the attitude of
the... the mothers of a family of... of daughters. And in those days, the only,
you know... the only thing that girls would do would... would be to look out
for a husband, because they had no way of earning a living or having a
profession in 1813. They would be dependent on men all the way through
their lives, most of them. So, they would be looking out for a husband with
a lot of money so that they could have a comfortable life, basically. And the
mothers also have a strong motivation to find husbands for their daughters. So,
this is the kind of thing a mother in this society... "Oh, wow, this young man
has just moved into the big house. He must be rich. I have five daughters. Oh,
I hope, you know... there's a good chance he might want to marry one of my
daughters." And then that will be one less daughter to worry about. So, this
is a kind of attitude in the minds of the mothers, particularly in this
English society. Okay. So, it's called: "Pride and Prejudice", because these are
two of the attitudes that come out in the characters. And in the main
character, who, you know... she's... has a kind of pride at first that isn't a
very helpful attitude. And she has prejudice as well, which is another
unhelpful attitude. So, it's a kind of human story about someone who has some
faults to begin with, but she learns about herself and about other people
during the course of the novel. Okay. And the author's name is Jane Austen.
Okay.
Right, next one. So, we have a twentieth century novel now. And this one...
twentieth century novels were often not quite as long as nineteenth century
novels; they just got a bit shorter, quite a lot of them. I think Victorian
novels tended to be very, very big. At one time, they used to publish them in
three volumes. And then if you put a three-volume novel into one book, like a
paperback, it's very big — might be 900 pages or more. So, it takes a long time
to read. But this one — twentieth century is shorter. And the first line:
"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself." Oh, okay. And then the
title is "Mrs. Dalloway". So, she's in the first line of the novel, quite
rightly; it's all about her. And she said she would buy the flowers herself.
So, again, it's a bit intriguing. Why is she buying flowers? And why herself? Who
else would buy them, if she didn't? But then you find that she's quite a rich
lady; she has servants, so she could have sent a servant out to buy the
flowers, but she's decided to go out and buy them herself. And you find it's for
a party that she's organising. So, the whole novel is about the preparations
for the party. So, that's "Mrs. Dalloway". The author is Virginia Woolf,
and the date of publication — 1925. Okay.
Okay, so now we're back to nineteenth century again, and here's the first
line: "There was no possibility of taking a walk that day." Oh, so, you
think: "Oh, this is negative. This is what you couldn't do. So, what...? What
are they going to do in this novel?" If you start off with something that you
can't do, does that sort of set a... a feeling for the novel? A novel about
being restricted in some way, that you can't do this; you can't do that? It's a
little bit like that, I suppose. But then we find, quite quickly, that the
people in the house can't go for a walk because it's raining, so that's what it
is. But I think it's quite a, you know... it has other suggestions in it
as well. And it's written from the point of view of... well, again, it's
first-person narrative. So, "Jane Eyre" is the title. Jane Eyre is the main
character, and this is her story. It begins when she's a child. And she can't
go out for a walk. But she's quite happy, really, because she's reading a
book. So, she's happy to stay in the house and read the book. I don't think
she cares about going for a walk. Perhaps it was a good thing that she
could stay in and read instead. Okay. So, the novelist is Charlotte Brontë,
and the date — 1847. So, early Victorian novel, English again; and Virginia Woolf
also English. In fact, they're all English, apart from Melville on this
list. Okay.
And then, finally, we have this very famous story. And, oh, I've lost count
of how many film versions there are of this. "A Christmas Carol". So many
different versions; a lot of American ones. So, this starts: "Marley was dead
to begin with; there is no doubt whatever about that." So, that's
interesting. It's the beginning of the story. "Marley was dead to begin with."
So, gosh, that's... What sort of beginning to a story is that, that
somebody's dead? Who...? Who are the characters going to be? And there is no
doubt whatever about that. Why? Why would you need to say there's no doubt?
Because it is a bit doubtful because... well, Marley does appear in the story as
a ghost, actually. So, he is dead, but he's a ghost. So, you know... that's a
bit of a problem for the main character. So, "A Christmas Carol", so it's a
Christmas story. Charles Dickens. And Christmas is such an important time for
Charles Dickens, and for Victorians in general; a very popular time with trees,
and presents, and all that sort of thing, and the family getting together.
So, there we are. That was written in 1843.
So, some of these books are easier to read than others. So, I think the Jane
Austen is quite difficult until you get used to the style, and start to see the
humour in it. Moby Dick is very long, but it's an adventure story, really, so
it's quite exciting. George Orwell — that's a kind of... well, almost
science-fiction, really; what you call a "dystopian novel", about a society where
things are very bad — the opposite of "utopian". Okay. "Dystopian". Right. But
quite straightforward, I think, to read; not too difficult in style. Mrs.
Dalloway — I think that's quite straightforward as well, really. It's a
bit psychological. It's all about what's going on in her life and in her mind.
Jane Eyre — I think that's a good story. It's quite readable; not too difficult.
And Charles Dickens as well — this one — it's a kind of long short story. Quite
easy to read, I would say; the language isn't too difficult. So... so I hope
those six recommendations are helpful for you. So, you might like to also have
a look at my... my video on book reading in general, which is a kind of group
discussion with some other people — if you haven't seen that already, have a
look at that. And that's also talking about different books, and each person
is recommending one or more books that they've read and that they've enjoyed.
So, I think that will give you plenty of ideas for any... any books that you'd
like to read. So, okay. There we are, then. Thank you for watching, and I hope
to see you again soon. Okay. Bye for now.