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I started reading this book by Stendhal a long time ago. After a while, my parents were bribing and blackmailing me just to read one chapter. I eventually explained why it was so hard for me to get captivated by this book, and why I couldn’t finish it. I have read up until chapter 12, out of 30 chapters. So far, what I understood of the story, is a peasant boy who knows the bible off by heart and can speak Latin is hired by the Mayor of the town to teach his children. This boy named Julien is fervent admirer of Napoleon and likes to read ‘forbidden books’ about the leader’s success and life. He falls in love with the Mayor’s wife, and she falls in love with him, but he hates people of the higher class because they act snooty. He likes to read while amidst nature, and also writes down his ideas about the world, promptly burning the papers afterwards. After a while, he becomes so angry with the Mayor, and other higher class people that he demands a holiday to visit a friend in a neighbouring village. Apparently, he doesn’t really like this friend he is going to visit, but it is still a break from his own surroundings. He delays his arrival at his friend’s house and sleeps in a cave in the mountains, liking it there. I stopped reading just as he was waking up to head over to his friend’s.
The most predominant reason why I dislike this novel is because of Julien. He is the main character, and the story is from his point of view, although it does sometimes switch to other characters. I find his opinions really frustrating, and his constant lectures about social class differentiation are tiring. Furthermore, he is always going on about the bible and sins, and it really makes the story bland. I think Julien is not nice or sharing, but he is rather selfish, ignorant and single minded.
He is not the only character I dislike, I was also put off with the Mayor’s wife. She was naive, stupid, and she spoilt her children to a point that will cause them to be spoilt and demanding all their lives.
Overall, I just disliked the characters, and I didn’t like where the story appeared to be headed. And that is why I could not and probably never will finish The Red and The Black (Le Rouge et le Noir) by Stendhal.

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This novella (a story too long to be a short story, but too short to be a novel) is a story about Bree Tanner. This book was written by Stephenie Meyer, the bestselling author of the Twilight Saga. This story acts as a complimentary story to the Eclipse novel. Bree Tanner is a newborn vampire who was created by Victoria to attack the Cullens. It tells us about what the newborns were doing, and how they were dealing with their new life. The novel is written from Bree’s point of view, and she takes us through the last couple of weeks of her life, right before the battle in the clearing.
We start during a hunt where Bree and other newborns are feeding. The other newborns act recklessly and Bree flees the scene behind another vampire, Diego, much older and wiser. They end up hunting together and they find that the sun is coming up, so they return home. They find their house to be destroyed again by the other vampires constantly fighting, and they quickly hide in a cave. They had been taught by Riley that the sun burns vampires, but while in the cave, some light comes in and they find that they just shine beautifully. They start to question everything they have been told, and start to wonder what their true purpose was. Then they find out everything too late, and they don’t know what to trust.
This book was released on the 5th of June 2010 worldwide. Stephenie had decided, as a gift to her fans and readers, that she would allow a free copy of the book available to be read on this website: www.breetanner.com
The online version is not for downloading or printing, only to read online, starting from the 7th of June. The offer lasts until the 5th of July. However, with only two days between the printed copies and the free online version, this book still became a bestseller in less than 24 hours, hitting number one in USA and UK sales charts, even if the buyers knew they could read it for free just two days later. Another interesting detail about this book is that whenever a copy is bought in the USA, one dollar goes to the American Red Cross for funds towards Haiti and other countries in need. I say American Red Cross is getting lots of dollars with all those copies still being bought .

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Cover of the Lippincott Magazine containing first edition book

This novel was originally written in 1890 by Oscar Wilde. It was Wilde’s only novel, published in Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine (July edition 1890). Wilde later revised his novel in 1891, creating many differences between the two editions. He mainly re-edited The Picture of Dorian Gray to cause less trouble with the Victorian society in which he lived. The book is often mistitled ‘The Portrait of Dorian Gray’.
This story is about a young man named Dorian Gray, the friend of painter Basil Hallward. Dorian frequently poses for Basil, who becomes infatuated to point of hinted romance with Dorian because of his youth and obvious beauty. A young man with such grace and beauty can only be good and holy, is what everyone thinks of Dorian, who becomes popular with the higher class. One day, while posing for a portrait, he meets another of Basil’s friends, Lord Henry ‘Harry’ Wotton. Dorian is enthralled by Harry’s views of the world, and through Harry’s hedonistic and aesthetic guidance, he realises his beauty will eventually fade, and he must take whatever pleasure he can get now, before it is too late. He wishes that the painting Basil did of him would age instead of himself, and soon he realises that his wish came true. Dorian then uses his eternal youth and beauty to live a double life, one in which he takes pleasure in the sins of sodomy, murder, drugs, all the while maintaining high class parties and keeping his public and social life active and remarkable. He realises that his painting is actually a door to view his soul, and the thing gets uglier and uglier with every sin he commits.

I didn’t really enjoy this novel of such. I did finish it just for the sake of being able to say ‘I read that’. It was very vague in it’s descriptions, which I think was done on purpose by Wilde to avoid even more scandals and trouble with society. One chapter, Chapter 12, was so long and boring that I did seriously consider putting the book down. The chapter talked about Dorian’s new way of life, but used metaphors, and descriptions of flowers and summer to talk about his corruption. Perhaps I didn’t like this chapter simply because I did not like it, but either way, it was very long and very boring. Although, the story plot is great, it is not completely original to Oscar Wilde. This type of story with a man selling his soul in exchange for something which leads to sin was a common plot line before Wildes’s only novel. It appears in the opera ‘Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (Tannhäuser and the Singers’ Contest at Wartburg)’, and in the legend of the character Faust.

Wilde did change his novel significantly because of his trial and the general public outcry concerning the sodomy and homoerotic themes of his book. In the first edition, it was more of a short story than a novel. It contained thirteen chapters, whereas the second edition contains twenty. Wilde added little subplots which he thought would help the book blend in with the other usual stories of the Victorian Era. Wilde moderated the homoerotic references, and also added and deleted many different passages. During his trial, The Picture of Dorian Gray was used as proof against him as it resembled a sort of autobiography of Wilde’s life because of the significant similarities between him and Dorian. In a letter, Oscar had written: “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry is what the world thinks me: Dorian is what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps”.

1945 Movie

2009 Movie

There are many allusions to Wilde’s Dorian Gray, many of which are lyrics in songs. There were also allusions in television series such as in the Star Trek: Next Generation series, episode ‘Man of the People’ featured a Dorian Gray-esque type character. In 1945, a film adaptation was made of the book, and in 2009, another adaptation of the book was made into a movie.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray

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Este libro es un pequeño libro que contiene muchas historias cortas. Algunas son de Jean de La Fontaine, pero hay algunas que no conozco. Es un buen libro por los principiantes porque más de las historias son muy fácil, pero el vocabulario es muy rico, y hay unas o dos historias que no comprendo.

Cada historia tiene una moraleja. Más son moralejas de la vida, lo que debe y no debe hacerse en la vida. También, es un buen libro por la cultura española. Hay historias que habla de la escuela, de la vida de todos los días en españa, y apprendo muchas cosas. Me gusta este libro y se lo recomiendo usted.

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http://fany.savina.net/forum/

When looking for a forum related to Home  Education, the major one I came across was not very good. Graphic wise it was kind of ‘stuffy’. I mean there was too much colour and graphics, images and such. Also, it was used as a meeting site for chatting between friends. I doubt if any more posts were actually related to home schooling any more. So this gave me the idea to open a new forum, where kids and parents who need help in home education and want to give their help can come. Please check it out and spread the news. Thank you for at least reading this post!

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Ce livre, écrit par Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, est une petite histoire avec le célèbre Sherlock Holmes. La jeune Helen Stoner consulte Holmes à propos d’étranges choses qui se passent dans son château. Elle raconte le meurtre étrange de sa soeur, et les évènements avant et après. Sa soeur se plaignait de pouvoir entendre un sifflement tous les soirs vers trois heures du matin et de sentir la fumée de leur beau père. Helen a été forcée d’emménager dans la chambre de sa soeur par son beau-père abusif, après que des travaux ont commencé dans sa chambre. Maintenant qu’elle aussi entant les sifflements, elle s’inquiète. Sa soeur avait été demandé en marriage juste avant sa mort, et maintenant qu’Helen aussi va se marier, elle a peur de partager le même sort que sa soeur. Holmes passe une nuit dans le château pour trouver le meurtrier, mais arrivera-t-il à l’attraper ?

J’ai bien aimé cette histoire. Il y a de l’intrigue, mais elle est un peu courte, et ceci a un peu gaché le suspense. Étant la première fois que je lis une histoire de Doyle, je ne savais pas trop à quoi m’attendre. J’ai été surprise par la longueur de l’histoire, et un peu déçue aussi, même si l’histoire est bien pensée. Par contre, un peu plus de détails et un peu plus de longueurs aurait rendu cette histoire encore plus intéressante.

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This book, deemed a literature classic, was written by Emily Brontë. It tells the tale of an impossible love. It is set in England on the moors, in a relatively big house baptized Wuthering Heights. Mr Earnshaw, the master of the house, returns home from town with an uncommon gypsy boy, who was abandoned in the streets. Mrs. Earnshaw is reluctant at first but she soon accepts the boy too. Since he has no memory of his name or parents, he is called ‘Heathcliff’. Catherine, Mr Earnshaw’s daughter, likes him straight away, and the two stay close friends. On the other hand, Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw’s son, is jealous of Heathcliff, for he is his father’s favourite, even if he is not really Mr. Earnshaw’s son. Hindley continually beats Heathcliff, and this makes Heathcliff hate his agressor. As the children grow up, Cathy, as Heathcliff calls her, and him get into all sorts of trouble, and the more they are punished, or separated, the more they become naughty. On one particular excursion on the moor, they come across a very big house called Thrushcross Grange. They peep into a window and see a rich happy family, with the mother and father reading, and the too children fighting over a poor puppy. Cathy and Heathcliff make fun of this scene, but they create too much noise, and the dogs are unleashed. Cathy gets bitten on the leg, with the dog still attached to her, and she tells Heathcliff to leave her and run. Reluctantly he does, and Cathy is forced to stay many weeks at Thrushcross Grange for recovery, and when she returns, she is a changed girl. She became well groomed, good, and polite, just as a lady should. She also became friends with Edgar, one of the children she had made fun of. Cathy is forced to chose between childhood sweetheart, dark, strong, poor Heathcliff, and Edgar, the rich yet frail and feminized boy. When she chooses Edgar, Heathcliff disappears, but returns several years later as a succesful, strong man, who is fixed on having his revenge on everyone whoever did him wrong.

This story can sometimes get confusing with all the resembling names and the marriages, but it is a very good complicated love story, which was written in an efficient and captivating way. It’s main themes are love, hate, and jealousy. It explains the complication and consequences of a jealous lover and what he/she is willing to do to prove himself worthy of love, or what he/she is capable of doing to get revenge. Many characters suffer the consequences of jealousy and false love, and many also perish from it.

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My personal book collection is now visible online! Click on the page ‘My books’ at the top, or click here.

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Leo este libro, ‘El fantasma del Instituto’ y no comprendo la historia. Primera, no hablo español bueno, soy una principiante. Una cosa que no comprendo es los diálogos. Hay muchos diálogos y al poco tiempo, no sabeo quien están hablar. También hay un CD con el libro, y escuchar al CD me ayudarme mucho. Creo que la historia es de un grupo de amigos en un instituto. Venga una chica nueva y cosas muy raras están pasando en el instituto. Hay graffitis en la pared y los palabras ‘Pablo a vuelto’. También, los cristales de una ventana se rompen encima de la mesa de la chica nueva. El gato de el hijo del conserje muere y los niños creen que la directora es el culpable. Por la fin, Francisco, el hijo de el conserje se hiere a sí mismo. Va a un hospital y los chicos van con él. El padre de Francisco dice que Francisco ve cosas y dice que Francisco era el amigo de Pablo, un chico muerto, y la chica nueva parece a la novia de Pablo. La chica nueva vuelven a Galicia. Con toda la información que saben, creo que Francisco es loco y es el responsible por todas las cosas raras porque cree que ve la novia de su mejor amigo que es muerto.

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The Secret Garden,  a novel nominated a children’s classic, was written by Frances Burnett. It tells of the tale of a little girl called Mary who lived in India. She was a thin, sour, ugly, selfish, yellow-faced child and she was used to mistreating her servants and getting her own way. Her mother was a beautiful person who liked to party and have fun, and her father was a soldier in a war. She never saw her parents and she didn’t know them so she felt no remorse when they died from a cholera outbreak. She was forgotten during the outbreak but she was found afterwards. She had no relatives except for an uncle she never knew existed. She is sent to Misselthwaite Manor, Yorkshire, England. There she will find a big house with a hundred rooms in which no one goes into, another selfish child quite like her, a moor boy who can talk to ‘the creatures’, and it is here that Mary will learn how to live and enjoy life and spring in her secret garden.

I like this novel and it is not the first time I have read it. I understand why it was nominated a children’s classic. It shows that if you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything. It also shows the friendship between children and what they are willing to do to keep a very big secret. It shows examples of determination and friendship and it brings hope. This novel also shows that even the worst people can change into something better if they simply want it. All these little messages hidden within the story is what I like so much about it. This novel was also made into a film version which is quite good because it sticks quite close to the book.

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