Janet's Picks

Many of us have our attachments to Victorian English novelists, and I confess myself among that group. I did my bit with Jane Austen, the Bronte’s and George Eliot, but then I found Hardy! Where there is passion, there is often also frustration, thwarted ambition, pride easily wounded and tragedy. Many of Hardy’s novels are set in the countryside of fictional Wessex and involve people desperately trying to free themselves from the constrictive English class system. The first “Wessex” novel is “Far From the Madding Crowd” written in 1874 and the last notable is “Tess of the D’Uberville’s from 1895. His depiction of country life in mid 19th century England is absorbing, his characters often are complex and tragic in the height of their grasping for position while attempting to maintain pride, dignity and passionate love. His female protagonists are particularly interesting, but the main male characters in “the Mayor of Casterbridge” and “Jude the Obscure” are equally as unforgettable. Give Thomas Hardy a try and you won’t regret it.

All the King’s Men was written in 1946 and is a fictionalized account of the life of one of the most colorful and fascinating political figures ever to emerge in America. When the subject of the story is Huey Long, known in the novel as Willie Stark, you know it’s got to be a good read. Huey Long was the infamous Governor of Louisiana who was assassinated in 1934. This book is an engrossing account of the rise to power of a particularly fascinating character. Winner of the 1947 Pulitzer Prize.