Next Stop: D

Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson




 
A medley of 10 miscellani based on the story of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

#1     Every great author can benefit from a second opinion. Robert Louis Stevenson stormed out of the room throwing pages of his manuscript at his wife, Fanny, when she observed that he was missing the point regarding his character, Dr. Jekyll. She mentioned to Stevenson that his character should be more like all of us with natures that combine both good and bad characteristics. After calming down from his temper tantrum, RLS spent the next 3 days rewriting the story creating a dual-personality for Dr. Jekyll much to the pleasure of his literary public, his publisher and his bank account. And...from that point on Fanny became his most sought after critic.

Read more about Fanny Stevenson in Alexandra Lapierre's excellent biography, Fanny Stevenson: A Romance of Destiny .

With  Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde  in mind, who is your favorite split-personality character listed below?

(a) The Batman cartoon series', Detective Harvey Dent/"Two Face"
(b) Dr. Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk
(c) Jerry Lewis/The Nutty Professor

(d) Norman Osborn/Green Goblin of Spiderman

Harvey Dent/"Two-Face"

Dr. Bruce Banner/Hulk

The Nutty Professor

The Green Goblin in action.

Listen to The Who's song, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde. Its claim to fame? It was on the B-side of their single, Call Me Lightning, that was released in the U.S. You can find it on their album, The Magic Bus: The Who on Tour. Missing those 45-rpm records....

Watch the movie trailer to the 1941 Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde movie starring Spencer Tracy and Ingrid Bergman.

How do YOU pronounce Jekyll?  (Here) is how RLS expected it to be pronounced.

How well do you know the story of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde? Find out by taking a quiz.

DJ&MH Trivia:  

*The book was an instant success.
*By 1901, it had sold over 250,000 copies
                * There are 123 film versions of the story

What do the duo of  Abbott & Costello have in common with Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde? Give up? You can find them both here!

Listen to the entire book on Librivox audio for free.    

Tell me how this classic ended up on a Goodreads Best Unappreciated Books list. Who doesn't appreciate this story?






       

C is for Clarke...

Dear Readers of my blog,

When I read The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke,
I discovered that the book seemed quite full of magical, fantastical stories such as I found in my youth. It further occurred to me that there was a richness to owning books such as this, a treasure trove of endless adventure and pungently, pleasing characters to be had at the mere cracking open of a book! What some may find tedious reading (half Dickens/half Austen styling) when read at twenty-one, I loved at fort ...er forty-ish. I suppose age does hone the reading palate and one is able to taste the different flavors that spice a novel. 

So, as I place Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell on my knee the smells of Spain waft up to my nostrils. Shew me a setting in a novel and I will shew you an author who mayst spent time there. Such is the case with the authoress of whom we speak. Whilst teaching in the Basque town of Bilbao, she received the inspiration for this weighty novel. Of course, you say, the entire novel is not set in Spain and you are correct, but the beautiful Basque Bilbao lent its good influence in allowing a lengthy portion to be gloriously remembered. That said Basque inspiration brought illumination to our beloved authoress one lovely morning and set her on a journey of ten years of dedicated writing and rewriting. Alas, that we may all have a Bilbao in our lives...


Dear reader, have the rumblings and rumors of a new volume come to your ear? Tidings of a new book set two years after Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell's adventures and involving  more common characters practicing magic. Have you heard such talk?


Even more fantastic, news that an amazing feat of technology,  a 'moving picture' promises to be launched across our good land projecting the likeness of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell on shining blue boxes in the homes or our good British citizens?

And now my good friends, I must end this epistle and wish you all your own Bilbao of inspiration, now and always,

She, the Bloggess

My review of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
My review of Ladies of Grace Adieu

                                                        Bilbao, Spain. Does this inspire you?

                                                                    How about this?

                                                                      Hey,I'm inspired!

The Year I Read Whatever I Want

If the Chinese can name their years, than I can name mine. 2013 is the Year of the Snake in China, its The Year I Read Whatever I Want for me.

In the past I have been involved in so many challenges, online discussion groups and contests that the books I truly wanted to read got pushed aside. This is not bashing challenges and contests by any means, I love them and have created a few myself, but simply a statement as to how much of my precious reading time they take up. Beginning this year, I found time to fit in a Faulkner, who was on my must-read-someday list. I've also picked up books from a few contemporary authors who are popular that I've never read before such as Alice Munro, Alice Hoffman, Louise Erdrich , Mary Oliver and Louis de Berneirs. A few of the old standbys make the list, too. Stegner, Steinbeck and whatever I haven't read written by Melanie Benjamin, Malcolm Gladwell and Susannah Clarke.

Just to make it a little more fun, I will be posting entries as I work down a reading alphabet. My rules for what qualifies for the alphabet are very loose so my new found reading freedom is not offset. The qualifying books must have either a first or last name of the chosen letter of the alphabet, the title must begin with the letter or the book must be set in a country beginning with the select letter. A similar challenge is taking place right now at one of the groups that I co-moderate, You'll Love This One. Check it out, if that type of challenge intrigues you.

Happy Reading to all! (I know I will be.)

B = Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka

Picture Brides and Internment Camps...

The Buddha in the Attic brings a unique approach to Japanese picture brides and the Japanese internment camps during World War II. Personally, I'm not a fan of Otsuka's writing style over the course of an entire book (see my review) , but did find it effective for what she wanted to accomplish.

Otsuka comes by her interest in internment camps naturally as she had family members who were transported to one in Topaz, Utah. Through an internet search I found this kinda tedious news report giving a brief history of the internment in Topaz. What grabbed my attention was how benign the scenery looks. It's hard to believe anything so terrible happened there!

I also stumbled across a brief documentary about the internment of the Japanese. It is not long and contains some interesting information. What a sad time in our history as a nation!

As I listened about the picture brides, I couldn't help chuckling when the brides and their prospective husbands lied to each other about their appearances. A friend has been regaling me with stories about the lies guys tell online, the out-of-date pictures, etc. Wonder what those picture brides could have come up with had they been online?! 

If anyone has recommendations for books about either Japanese picture brides or the Japanese internment, please leave a comment about the book. I want lots of recommendations! :-)

A = Aussie Lit: Thornbirds

            

              !Australia!

My Goodreads Review of The Thornbirds

I don't know if The Thornbirds is the best-selling Australian novel ever, but it has sold over 10 million copies since its release. To quote the Boston Globe "the kind of book the word 'blockbuster' was made for."  Not only did the book do well, but the 1983 mini-series starring Richard Chamberlain went down in TV history as the second most watched. Roots is the only one that topped it.

I figure the author, Colleen McCullough's background played a huge part in her success. It always helps to write what you know. McCullough did. Here are some tidbits I've gathered: McCullough's mother, a spunky New Zealander transported to Australia came from partial-Maori stock. Sound familiar? The Cleary family's roots were in New Zealand, they moved to New South Wales (where by the way, McCullough was spawned.) SPOILER ALERT: Frank, the oldest son, finds out his father was of Maori descent. Justine preferred living in London to Australia. McCullough spent some time in London when younger. Okay, maybe there aren't huge overlaps with McCullough's own life, but I respect author's who write what they know and have experienced. 

Speaking of spunky gals like Colleen's mom or Meggie Cleary or Justine Cleary, for that matter, Colleen has kept busy in her own life. Authorship of a best-seller isn't the only entry on her resume. Add neuropathologist with a stint at Yale as well as being one of the few residents allowed on Norfolk Island. Yeah, that doesn't sound like a very long resume, but you try to find some real information on this lady! Amazon's author bio is all of 4 sentences and that is longer than her Simon & Schuster bio. Wikipedia's entry is longer but I suspect it isn't current. Well, if McCullough wants some seclusion, I can't blame her. Who would want autograph seekers or celebrity hounds interrupting this view?

Or this? 

I don't suppose a camera-toting autograph seeker would look picturesque to her next to this Norfolk pine either.

 One thing I did find out is that McCullough discovered love in Ric Robinson. He came to, well, you can read about it yourself in this People magazine article. Kinda cool, huh?

I enjoyed my tour of the Outback through The Thornbirds as well as reading about its author. Australia is going to be one of my travel hotspots this year, so I will blogging more about what I unearth there.