Just Joey's travelling through time

Since I'm enjoying my geographical tour through Europe and my alphabetical tour of the world, I'm thinking of travelling through time chronologically (or as good as).

List of books
1899 - The Awakening by Kate Chopin
1900 - Love and Mr. Lewisham by H.G. Wells
1901 - Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann
1902 - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
1903 - The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler
1904 - Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse
1905 - Eenzaamheid (Solitud) by Victor Catala (ps. Caterina Albert i Paradía)
1906 - Van oude mensen, de dingen, die voorbijgaan by Louis Couperus
1907 - Lente by Cyriel Buysse
1908 - A room with a view by E.M. Forster
1909 -
1910 -
1911 - The secret garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
1912 -
1913 - Le Grand Meaulnes by Alain-Fournier
1914 -
1915 -
1916 -
1917 - Summer by Edith Wharton

Quarterly Theme Reads
January-March 2017 - The 16th Century: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Monthly theme
January 2017 - First encounters: 1493 by Charles Mann

Personal Challenge 2017
January: 1917: Summer by Edith Wharton - finished 2017/01/01
February: 1927: To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
March: 1937
April: 1947
May: 1957
June: 1967
July: 1977
August: 1987
September: 1997
October: 2007
November: 2017
December: 1907 or 2017

the more the merrier! I thought I was doing well diversifying my reads until I started filling in some of these challenges. I really need to start mixing things up.

This seems to be a diverse group, with some focusing on the monthly reading challenge by era (this month is 19th century) and some of us tracking all reads by decade - splitting up our threads with "place holders" by century/decade to fill in with our conquests as we go and some are doing both. For me, this is one extra way to force some diversity, although I will post books in multiple places - if I do a book for the TIOLI challenge, it doesn't mean I can't post it here, too.

I've enjoyed your posts so far, so I'll be interested to see how your reads fall in the timeline, too.

Joey,
I don't see any reason why you shouldn't post your travels here. There's no requirement that you read the same time period as the rest of us and you may come up wth some books to recommend for a particular time period. If you are travelling through time chronologically you may reach a point where we made need some assistance in choosing books, so as paatrick says...the more the merrier! Welcome to the group!

For me, I am reading the President's biographies in chronological order so I understand where you are coming from. Hopping around sometimes is a bit disconcerting.

My feeling is the more the merrier. I'd love to see what you're reading and steal some ideas!

Thank you all for the vote of confidence :-)
Of course I'd be very happy to join in group-reads as well.
In case someone's interested: for the July-read about Freedom: a few years ago I read Goodbye Bafana by James Gregory, the prison-guard of Nelson Mandela on Robben Island. I thought it was very good. I may read Nelson Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom soon.

#2. Yes, I understand what you mean. I find these groups and challenges on LT really rewarding as they've literally expanded my horizon. They also keep me focused on what I really want to read, force me to leave my green, comfortable pastures and get more adventurous in reading. I'm actually on a sort of "CWEST" trying to regularly read:
Classics
World-literature
European literature
Surprises, Prizes & Recommendations
Time-books (history)

I'm not letting this scheme take over, but it's a good guideline and a way for me to discover exciting new books. By adding my time-line, I hope to add yet another dimension. I'm still looking for the Perfect Book to start with though.

#3 Wow, the Presidents' biographies, why didn't I come up with that. It must be interesting to see the line that's evolving as you read along. Are you posting somewehere? I'd like to star this.

#4 Steal all the ideas you want, you're more than welcome!

I sent you an invite to the President's Challenge. Our feelings there is also the more the merrier!

Thanks for the invitation. I might not succeed in reading about all of these presidents, but I'll try to read as many as possible.

OK, I finally got round to planning my reads. A change of plan though. Instead of reading "about" a time-period, I'll read "of" a time-period, more specifically one book per year. I'll start in 1899 and continue to read a book from the year it was first published in for every year that follows. I'll try to pick up some classics on my way, but also (and especially) the ones that reveal more of the "spirit of times", i.e. books that were more or less relevant back then (and maybe old-fashioned now).
I've already sorted out the first 10 or so I'll read (with some surprises for me and some I'm really looking forward to). You can check them out in my "Reading Through Time"-collection on my profile.

1899 - The Awakening by Kate Chopin
What a great start for my new challenge!
The young wife and mother of two little boys Edna stays with her family at their summer-house near New Orleans and falls in love with a young man Robert Lebrun. She finds out she's tired of her role as a wife and a mother and sets out to pursue her own happiness and not let others decide how she should live her life. She decides to stop playing her role, give up on her social life, devote her time to drawing, move out of the house while her husband is off on a long business-trip and do as she pleases while she longs for Robert who has left for Mexico because he was falling in love with her.
I won't give away how the story ends, but I can tell you this is a beautiful book with a few very interesting characters: the loving husband who treats his wife respectully and lovingly, but all in all not differently than he would treat his pet, the perfect house-wife and husband, the old cynical spinster, the charmer, the old doctor, etc.
It seems this book caused an uproar when published and wasn't received well. Most people seem to think the author sympathized with the main character. I actually think she didn't. This book was rediscovered in the seventies as a feminist book. Somehow I think the main-character may be a role-model for feminists, but I'm not so sure that is what the author meant her to be.
Well, it seems my first book already gives me something to investigate more thoroughly.

Afterthought: although I firmly believe every person should have the right to pursue his or her own happiness, I also think he or she should at least try to stick to the choices they have made of their own free will, especially when it involves other (and sometimes innocent) people. Edna wasn't dragged into marriage (she actually went against the wishes of her own family, persisting she wanted to marry her husband), she was treated well, she had a lot of space and freedom to do as she pleased and yet, she felt uncomfortable. She could have decided to remain single, she could have pursued her own happiness within the boundaries of her own life, but yet, she chose not to. All in all, I thought Edna was extremely selfish. But what a great character and what a great book. I might add, the setting and writing in itself are beautiful and it doesn't feel as if it was written over a 100 years ago. Highly recommended.

Wow, I was struggling with the decision to follow your footsteps in this kind of challenge, but your first review is really pushing me over the edge. I don't know how long it will take me - and I don't think I have the fortitude to do them in order - but I'll start another thread "Publishing Through Time" or "Reading of the Time" or something like that where I can keep track.

So, grand poobah of this new challenge, the idea is to keep with a "contemporary" read of that time - so no French Revolution lit published in 1920??? That will make it much tougher, but I guess that's why it's called a challenge.

I'll start with the books I am reading now - which will give me an 1868 Little Women and a 1938 Rebecca.

#10 - Wow, how fantastic you'll set up a challenge as well! And yes, my idea is to choose a book that was contemporary or exemplary or ground-breaking or fashionable in the year it was first published in. It isn't so hard to find appropriate books. I look around on LT, and for a guided choice, I also consulted
- http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/List_of_years_in_literature
- Peter Boxall's. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die where books are summed up chronologically
- http://www.librarything.com/groups/bestsellersovertheye#forums

I don't know where this will take me, but since the Europe and the Global challenge suit me so well, I'm expecting to enjoy this one too.
I'll be looking forward to seeing what books you choose, if you decide to go ahead with your plans. I think Little Women and Rebecca are excellent choices for this challenge. Good luck!

1900 - Love and Mr. Lewisham by H.G. Wells
I enjoyed this old-school yet witty story. We meet Mr. Lewisham when he's 18 and aspiring to be a scientist. He lives by a "Schema" that ensures him not to loose a minute of his life. Then Love hits him like a flash of lightning. The rest of the book is about the struggle between his head and his heart as he sometimes lets the former and sometimes lets the latter take over. This may sound like a silly book and I wouldn't call it Literature with a capital L, but I liked it because every human being can relate to this "problem" sooner or later in life. The chapters in which Wells describes how Mr. Lewisham falls in love are superb. Set in 1900, it also touches on the rise of science, socialism and spiritism that were quite hot issues in those days. I really liked the internal dialogues and the fact that the whole story is topped with some exquisite humour.
It was also strange to see the similarity between the 1899-book The Awakening and this 1900-book as both the main characters choose for love in the end. But what a completely different outcome. I'd recommend this book as a light read to everyone who isn't daunted by old-fashioned books.

12 -- That looks like a fun book! Might have to add it to my ever-growing TBR list.

>>12 Trifolia: - another great review and another title for my wishlist!

1899 / 1902 - Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
I must admit I was a bit reluctant to start reading this book. Now, I just wonder why I haven't read it a lot earlier.
The story is simple enough: Marlow becomes captain of a ship in Kongo in the late 1800's. When he arrives in Kongo, he's appalled by the way the white colonists behave and treat the natives. Then he's ordered to get back Mr. Kurtz who's believed to be ill. Everybody thinks very highly of this Mr. Kurtz because of the enormous loads of ivory he's sending, but it soon becomes clear to Marlow that there's more to the man than meets the eye. When he finally arrives, after a dangerous journey on the river, he finds a dying and very disturbed man who's totally lost his touch with humanity.
This book was written in 1899, in a period when blind imperialism was accepted as the right evolution. In writing this book and depicting the consequences of imperialism the way he did, Joseph Conrad must have opened some eyes. His view is evxpressed by Marlowe who starts his story by talking of the Roman conquest of he British Isles, 1900 years earlier and it explains how he feels about the things that are going on in his days: "They were conquerors, and for that you want only brute force - nothing to boast of, when you have it, since your strenght is just an accident arising from the weakness of others. ... The conquest of the earth, which mostly means the taking away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it: not a sentimental pretense but an idea: and an unselfish belief in the idea - something you can set up, and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to..."
This is a very dark, very intense, deeply-layered book with a universally important theme. The very rich style and language used by Joseph Conrad only adds to the quality of this book. Heart of Darkness definitily stands out as one of my better reads of this year.

It's been a while since I was active in my own challenge. I've decided to continue where I left off and continue with Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann published in 1901.

1901- Buddenbrooks by Thomas Mann - 3 stars

I was slightly underwhelmed by this classic novel. It's a huge book in every meaning of the word, but I have read better books than this one.
The story is a family-saga that concentrates on the evolution, or rather the fall of a well-off German family over four generations. However, I thought there were far too little characters and most of them were too shallow to justify the length of the book. Not much happened and if it did, it was all told a bit rush-rush, which would have been ok if it had served a major purpose, which it didn't.
In the beginning I had high hopes that it would lead somewhere but it just never happened. Afterwards I read that Mann was in his twenties when he wrote this book and I think that may be part of the explanation. It felt immature and there were far too many loose ends and things that could have been done with this theme, set in this interesting place and time. Now it just felt like a modern soap that goes on and on and on where nothing really happens and if so, you don't really care. I wonder if this is the kind of book that would qualify as a very good one just because it's so long.
I may be a bit over-reacting. It wasn't all bad. It had its flashes of brilliance e.g. in some descriptions, but overall, it was disappointing. A few weeks ago, I read Eline Vere which more or less touches the same topics (although a lot shorter), but which I found of a much higher standard.
Ah well, it's another one off the 1001 books I should have read before I die, so that should make me happy at least :-)

1904 - Peter Camenzind by Hermann Hesse - 4 stars


I have read Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse earlier this year and I liked his style, so when I stumbled on this one when looking for a book published in 1904 to match my Reading-Through-Time-Challenge, I didn't hesitate.
This is a classical Bildungsroman about Peter Camenzind who grows up in a remote Swiss village, tries to find a purpose in life, gets lost in culture, love and drink but eventually returns home because he realizes it's the best place to be.
I liked this book for more than one reason. The beautiful, elegant prose is one of them. His ode to nature is simple and beautiful and maybe a bit corny and old-fashioned at times. I probably liked it even better because it brought back many happy memories of my travels to Switzerland and I wonder if it's a coincidence that the village he refers to as "Nimikon" very much reminded me of Sisikon.
I thought this was a soothing, accessible read. I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a bit of old-fashioned, Walden-like prose.

1903 - The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler (1903) - 2,5 stars

The book I read previously came in handy because I needed all my willpower to finish this one. At first I thought this was going to be OK: the narrator tells the story of three generations of the Pontifex-family, a supposedly typical Victorian family, with all that comes with it. The emphasis is on the youngest generation and we follow Ernest from infancy into adulthood. Because the reader receives flashes-forward, you already know that he will be fine in the end, so it's not nearly half as interesting to follow his adventures as it might have been without knowing the end. The storyline itself was quite simple, even simplistic and I don't think the author did much with it. He lets the narrator, Ernest's godfather, go on and on and on about theological and philosophical themes. Or he lets Ernest travel or get ill, without doing much else with it. Although the strength of this novel should have been the characters, I thought they were little more than cardboard puppets. All in all I thought this was a rather clumsy, tedious book. You might wonder why I continued reading, but after 100 pages, I had high hopes this was going somewhere and after 200 pages, I thought it too late to stop. Unfortunately, imo, the next 200+ pages were more of the same. I have read better books from that era than this one. Or did I miss something?

I'm bringing some new life into this thread, although I haven't abandoned the old plan. I wanted to read a certain book from 1905 and it hasn't been available from the library for almost half a year now. I think I'll check to see what's going on with that book.
Meanwhile, I decided to join the RTT-challenges too. My projected reads for the Quarterly Theme Read (Renaissance) is The scarlet city by Hella S. Haasse. If I get to them in time, I'll also try to read My Name is Red and Wolf Hall.

My Theme of the Month-book (Cold War) will be Old Flames by John Lawton.

January 2013-theme: Cold War
2. De lijfwacht / Old Flames by John Lawton (2005) - 4 stars


This book is the second one of a series, set in the UK in the 1950, with Frederick Troy, the son of wealthy Russian immigrants in the lead. Troy is a slightly unconventional policeman in his forties, working for Scotland Yard. When he's asked to spy on Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolaj Boelganin on their official visit to the UK, he's very eager to oblige, but soon realizes he's entered the spider's web.

This book is a mixture of a spy-novel and a detective. It's laden with historical facts and the atmosphere of the 1950's which give you a good impression of what it was like to live then and there, with the clouds of the Second World War still hanging over the UK and the Cold War unfolding. Frederick Troy is a great character. He's independent yet sensitive, with a good sense of humour and a no-nonsense attitude. Although it's obvious that this book is part of a series, it's possible to read this as a stand-alone book.
Despite the fact that this book sometimes felt like a pastiche, is a bit over the top and certainly is not flawless, I enjoyed reading it. And I plan to read the other books in the series as well. Recommended if you like the detective-spy-combination.

I do like the detective/spy combination and I've added this series to my library TBR list. The public library has at least the first book in the series.

I've added the series to my TBR list as well, and against my expectations my library actually has the first book! But I won't get around to it for some while. Anyway, great review and it sounds like a great read.

I do hope it lives up to your expectations!

I tried Wolf Hall and wasn't a big fan, unlike most other people who seem to love it. I look forward to seeing what your thoughts are once you get to it.

Ahum, I've been neglecting this thread and group far too long. I'll try to revive it by reading The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt for the September Time Period and The Man of Property by John Galsworthy for my personal challenge to read a novel from each year of the 20th century.

The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt (2010) - 2 stars

Apparently, a lot of people love this book and I've read their reviews. However, I cannot share their opinion. It feels like I've been reading another book.
I have several problems with it. First of all, there's no plot. Things “evolve” from late-Victorian time to 1918 but there's just no plot. There are some couples with their children from different layers of society who grow older in late-Victorian and Edwardian England and that's it. I might go along with this idea of an epic story because a plot isn't always that important if the rest makes up for it, e.g. if characters are fleshed out well or if the background conveys the message. But that just wasn't the case. That leads me to the second major problem: characters are flat, bloodless and colourless. The author has summed up the major characteristics (feminism, arts & crafts, …) of this era and turned these into characters: there's the artistic dreamy type personified by the mother, the parasite personified by the father, the money-grubber personified by the nephew, the feminist personified by the daughter, the one who doesn't want to grow up personied by the son, etc. etc. There are far too many characters but they are who they are and they do not evolve, have no insights, they just grow older and life “happens” to them.
Another issue is that this 700 + page-novel is packed with historical information. Unfortunately, it doesn't blend in with the story. It's just poured out as a long stream of overly detailed information.
The book also contains many parts of children's fairy-tale-stories etc. as it's supposed to be a major theme throughout this book but this technique couldn't convince me. I found it boring and trite.
The one thing that this book really isn't short of is sex: adultery, seduction, children born out of wedlock, free love, explicit and implicit sexual scenes, nudity, pornography, pedophilia, you name it, it's in there. But it's disproportionate to the rest of the story and not really that necessary anyway, especially if you consider that the rest of the story is so bland.
I had hoped and expected this book to be a detailed epic story, full of characters and events to convey the atmosphere of the era. However, it wasn't and I was hugely disappointed.

This thread has been dormant for too long. I'm not sure how I will continue my personal challenge through time, but I will be posting here more often. And I'll try to join the monthly and quarterly challenges as well.
My intentions for January 2017:
Quarterly Theme Reads
January-March 2017 - The 16th Century: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Monthly theme
January 2017 - First encounters: 1493 by Charles Mann

Great to see you back!

Thanks, Judy. That is very kind of you!

I'm all ready and looking forward to start. As for my personal challenge, I will continue to read chronologically with one book from each year from the 20th and 21st century that ends with a 7.
I'll start with Summer by Edith Wharton, published in 1917.

Summer by Edith Wharton (RTT/PC/1917) - 4,5 stars


Read for: Reading Through Time Personal Challenge: 1917

A powerful novella with a limited scope: interaction of three key players in a small village in New England during some summer months. We get to see the story through the eyes of 19-year-old Charity, the adopted daughter of a somewhat cranky widower, lawyer Royall.
Young and naive as she is, she falls in love with Lucius Harney, a young architect who makes a study of old houses in the village. A romance develops. Ultimately there are some events that follow each other rapidly and lead to a climax.

Although the end is very clear, the reader is still left with many questions. The romantics will be disappointed, the critics will think that Charity has gotten more than she ever deserved, while the realists will find that it is the right solution in the circumstances. Much will also depend on the personal situation and even age of the reader. A young person will probably have hoped for more, while a more sedate reader will realize that life often runs differently than hoped for and that is not always a bad thing. Personally, I do not think Charity got her dream-life but Wharton gives away enough elements in this story to tell us that, taking all circumstances into account, she will recover and have her chances.

I know too little of the works of Edith Wharton and the 'mores' of that time to know what she meant herself, but that's really not necessary to like this novella. This is a story which raises many more questions than it gives answers and ultimately these are the best books. Wharton also uses a very beautiful style that enhances the atmosphere. The characters would have been powerful enough to play a leading part in a novel. In this case it would certainly have been on the same level as Pride and Prejudice of Jane Austen. Due to the limitations of the short story, the characters are not fleshed out well enough to achieve that level but it is and remains a very beautiful story, even after 100 years.

2. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (RTT/QTR/16th Century) - 2,5 stars


I had the weirdest experience while reading this book. I've been working my way through all 674 pages and when I say "working", I mean "Working". Somehow, this book and I never made a connection and I was so relieved when I turned the last page. And all the time, I was wondering why we did not connect. First, I thought it was the language, so I switched from English to Dutch and back again but that didn't change anything. Then I thought it might have anything to do with the fact that it's not my favourite era but I've read plenty of 16th century-books that I loved. I wondered if it had anything to do with the point-of-view, which I thought created distance between the reader and the book, but I've read weirder books with weirder points-of-view that worked for me. And then finally, as I was having breakfast this morning, it dawned on me: I couldn't connect with the book because I couldn't care less about the characters. Normally, I find it quite easy to make up my mind about a character: like, dislike, admire, loathe, adore, despise, etc. But in this case, I just didn't feel anything and apparently, I find this very important. For a brief moment, I was worried that something had hit me on the head and I had lost my ability to empathize with fictional characters, so I started another book. Fortunately, I discovered that I empathized with the characters immediately and was able to picture them right away. With Wolf Hall, all the characters were blurred. I just could not picture them, could not relate to them, could do nothing with them. This is a first for me and I hope it will be a last either. Needless to say, this book was a big disappointment for me. I had high hopes that I would like it because so many other readers whose judgement I trust apparently loved it. I read their reviews but it just feels like I've been reading another book. I just gave it 2,5 stars because I don't want to feel like I've wasted a whole week on a book I gave a lesser rating and because it has given me an important insight. So maybe it was worth the effort after all.