My Reading Challenge

I have put a selection of classic books and Shakespeare playson here because I want to read them all. Rather a challenge I know, but I thought it would help me expand my vocabulary, and improve my grammer and spelling. Obviousoly I had to read a few for school but I never got round to reading more. If anyone has any suggestions of other books you think I should read please let me know, as I would love to hear your thoughts:)

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster

MOSQUE

Chapter 1

"Except for the Marabar Caves - and they are twenty miles off - the

city of Chandrapore presents nothing extraordinary. Edged rather

than washed by the river Ganges, it trails off for a couple of miles

along the bank, scarcely distinguishable from the rubbish it deposits

so freely. There are no bathing-steps on the river front, as the Ganges

happen not to be holy here; indeed there is no river front, and the

bazaars shut out the wide and shifting panorama of the stream. The

streets are mean, the temples ineffective, and though a few fine houses

exist they are hidden away in gardens or down alleys whose filth deters

all but the invited guest. Chandrapore was never large or beautiful,

but two hundred years ago it lay on the road between Upper India,

then imperial, and the sea, and the fine houses date from that period.

The Taste of Sorrow by Jude Morgan

Synopsis

"From the obscure country parsonage came the most extraordinary family

of the nineteenth century. The Bronte sisters created a world in which

we still live - the intense, passionate world of Jane Eyre and Wuthering

Heights; and the phenomenon of this great explosion of genius remains

as baffling now as it was to their Victorian contemporaries.

In this panoramic novel we see with unique insight the members of a

uniquely close-knit family whose tight bonds are the instruments of

both triumph and tragedy.

Emily, thee solitary who turns from the world to the greater

temptations of the imagination: Anne, gentle and loyal, under

whose quietude lies the harshest perception of the stifling life

forced upon her. Bramwell, the mercurial and self-destructive

brother, meant to be king, unable to be prince: and the brilliant,

uncompromising, tormented Charlotte, longing for both love and

independence, who establishes the family's name and learns

its price."

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1

"1801 - I have just returned from a visit to my landlord_the solitary

neighbour that I shall not be troubled with. This is certainly a

beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could

have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of

society. A perfect misanthropist's Heaven_and Mr Heathcliff

and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between

us. A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed

towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdrew so suspiciously

under their brows, as I rode up, and when his fingers sheltered

themselves, with a jealous resolution, still further in his

waistcoat, as I mentioned my name."

The Tennant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte

Chapter 1
A Discovery

"You must go back with me to the autumn of 1827.

My father as you know, was sort of a gentleman farmer in -shire;

and I, by his express desire, succeeded him in the same quiet

occupation, not very willingly, for ambition urged me to higher

aims, and self-conceit assured me that, in disregarding its voice,

I was burying my talent in the earth, and hiding my light under

a bushel. My mother had done her utmost to persuade me

that I was capable of great achievements; but my father, who

thought ambition was the surest road to ruin, and change but

another word for destruction, would listen to no scheme for

bettering either my own condition, or that of my fellow

mortals. He assured me it was all rubbish, and exhorted me,

with his dying breath, to continue in the good old way, to

follow his steps, and those of his father before him, and let

my highest ambition be to walk honestly in the world, looking

neither to the right hand nor to the left, and to transmit the

paternal acres to my children in, at least, as flourishing a

condition as he left them to me."

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Chapter 1

"There was no possibility of taking a walk that day. We had been

wandering, indeed, in the leafless shrubbery an hour in the morning;

but since dinner (Mrs Reed, when there was no company, dined early)

the cold winter winds had brought with it clouds so sombre, and a

rain so penetrating, that further outdoor exercise was now out of

the question.

I was glad of it; I never liked long walks, especially on chilly

afternoons: dreadful to me was the coming home in the raw twilight,

with nipped fingers and toes, and a heart saddened by the chidings

of Bessie, the nurse, and humbled by the consciousness of my

physical inferiority to Eliza, John and Georgiana Reed."

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler

MARCH

Chapter 1

in which we gather

at Jocelyn's

to discuss Emma

"We sat in a circle on Jocelyn's screened porch at dusk, drinking cold

sun tea, surrounded by the smell of her twelve acres of fresh-mowed

California grass. There was a very pretty view. The sunset had been

a spectacular dash of purple, and now the Berryessa mountains were

shadowed in the west. Due south in the springtime, but not the

summer, was a stream.

'Just listen to the frogs,' Jocelyn said. We listened. Apparently

somewhere beneath the clamor of her kennel of barking dogs was

a chorus of frogs.

She introduced us all to Grigg. He had brought the Gramercy

edition of the complete novels, which suggested that Austen was

merely a recent whim. We really could not approve of someone

who showed up with an obviously new book, of someone who had

the complete novels on his lap when only Emma was under

discussion. Whenever he first spoke, whatever he said, one of us

would have to put him in his place."

Persuasion by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1

"Sir Walter Elliot, of Kellynch-hall, in Somersetshire, was a man who,

for his own amusement, never took up any book but the Baronetage;

there he found occupation for an idle hour, and consolation in a

distressed one; there his faculties were roused into admiration and

respect, by contemplating the limited remnant of the earliest

patents; there any unwelcome sensations, arising from domestic

affairs, changed naturally into pity and contempt as he turned over

the almost endless creations of the last century; and there, if every

other leaf were powerless, he could read his own history with an

interest which never failed. This was the page at which the

favourite volume always opened:

ELLIOT OF KELLYNCH HALL

Walter Elliot, born March 1, 1760, married, July 15, 1784,

Elizabeth, daughter of James Stevenson, Esq. of South Park,

in the country of Gloucester, by which lady (who died 1800)

he was issue Elizabeth, born June 1, 1785; Anne, born

August 9, 1787; a stillborn son, November 5, 1789; Mary,

born November 20, 1791."

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1

"No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would

have supposed her born to be an heroine. Her situation in life, the

character of her father and mother; her own person and disposition,

were all equally against her. Her father was a clergyman, without

being neglected, or poor, and a very respectable man, though his

name was Richard - and he had never been handsome. He had a

considerable independence, besides two good livings - and he was

not in the least addicted to locking up his daughters. Her mother

was a woman of useful plain sense, with a good temper, and, what

is more remarkable, with a good constitution."

Emma by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1

"Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable

home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best

blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in

the world with very little to distress or vex her.

She was the youngest of two daughters of the most affectionate,

indulgent father, and had, in consequence of her sister's marriage,

been mistress of his house from a very early period. Her mother

had died too long ago for her to have more than an indistinct

remembrance of her caresses, and her place had been supplied

by an excellent woman as governess, who had fallen little short

of a mother in affection."

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1

"About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with

only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate

Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the country of

Northampton, and to be thereby raised in the rank of a

baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an

handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed

on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer,

himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds

short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters to be

benefited by elevation, and such of their acquaintance as

thought Miss Ward and Miss Francis quite as handsome as

Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marrying with

almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many

men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty

women to deserve them."

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE

Chapter 1

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession

of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views as such a man may be on

his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the

minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered as the rightful

property of some one or other of their daughters.

'My dear Mr. Bennet,' said the lady to him one day, 'have you heard

that Netherfield Park is let at last?'

Mr. Bennet replied that he had not.

'But it is,' returned she; 'for Mrs. Long has just been here, and she

told me all about it.'

Mr. Bennet made no answer.

'Do you not want to know who has taken it?' cried his wife

impatiently.

'You want to tell me, and I have no objection to hearing it.'

This was invitation enough."

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

VOLUME ONE
Chapter 1

"The family of Dashwood had been long settled in Sussex. Their estate

was large, and their residence was at Norland Park, in the centre of their

property, where, for many generations, they had lived in so respectable

a manner, as to engage the general good opinion of their surrounding

acquaintance. The last owner but one, of the estate, was a single man,

who lived to a very advanced age, and who, for many years of his life,

had a constant companion and housekeeper in his sister. But her death,

which happened ten years before his own, produced a great alteration

in his home; for, to supply her loss, he invited and received into his house

the family of his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood, the legal inheritor of the

Norland estate, and the person to whom he intended to bequeath it. In

the society of his nephew and niece, and their children, the old gentleman's

days were comfortably spent. His attachment to them all increased. The

constant attention of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Dashwood to his wishes, which

proceeded, not merely from interest, but from goodness of heart, gave

him every degree of solid comfort which his age could receive; and the

cheerfulness of the children added a relish to his existence."

Sonnets by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnets

written by William Shakespeare

[128] "How oft, when though, my music, music play'st

Upon the blessed wood whose motion sounds

With thy sweet fingers when thou gently sway'st

The wiry concord that mine ear confounds,

Do I envy those jacks that nimble leap

To kiss the tender inward of thy hand,

Whilst my poor lips, which should that harvest reap,

At the wood's boldness by the blushing stand.

To be so tickled, they would change their state

And situation with those dancing chips

O'er whom thy fingers walk with gentle gait,

Making dead wood more blessed than living lips.

Since saucy jacks so happy are in this,

Give me thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss.

Sonnets and Poems by William Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Sonnets and Poems

written by William Shakespeare

"Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good,

A shining gloss that fadeth suddenly,

A flower that dies when first it 'gins to bud,

A brittle glass that's broken presently.

A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower,

Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour.
_______

And as goods lost are seld or never found,

As faded gloss no rubbing will refresh,

As flowers dead lie withered on the ground,

As broken glass no cement can redress,

So beauty blemished once, forever lost,

Inspite of physic, painting, pain, and cost."

Poem from The Passionate Pilgrim

Henry IV Part 1 by William Shakespeare

The History of Henry the Fourth

written by William Shakespeare

HENRY "My blood hath been too cold and temperate,

Unapt to stir at these indignities,

And you have found me, for accordingly

You tread upon my patience; but be sure

I will from henceforth rarther be myself,

Mighty and to be feared, than my condition,

Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,

And therefore lost that title of respect

Which the proud soul ne'er prays but to the proud."

Act I Scene III

Henry IV Part 2 by William Shakespeare

The Second Part of Henry the Fourth

written by William Shakespeare

HENRY "And wherefore should these good news make mw sick?

Will fortune never come with both hans full,

But write her fair words still in foulest letters?

She either gives a stomach and no food_

Such are the poor in health_or else a feast,

And take away the stomach_such are the rich,

That have abundance and enjoy it not.

I should rejoice now at this happy news,

And now my sight fails, and my brain is giddy.

O me! Come near me now; I am much ill."

Act IV Scene III

Henry V by William Shakespeare

The Life of Henry the Fifth

written by William Shakespeare

HENRY "'Tis good for men to love their present pains

Upon example. So the spirit is erased,

And when the mind is quickened, out of doubt

The organs, though defunct and dead before,

Break up their drowsy grave and newly move

With casted slough and fresh legerity."

Act IV Scene I

Henry VI Part 1 by William Shakespeare

The First Part of Henry the Sixth

written by William Shakespeare

HENRY "Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick men

When for so slight and frivolous a cause

Such factious emulations shall arise?

Good cousins both of York and Sommerset,

Quiet yourselves, and pray, and be at peace."

Act IV Scene I

Henry VI Part 2 by William Shakespeare

The First Part of the Contention

of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster

written by William Shakespeare

HENRY "Why, Warwick, hath thy knee forgot to bow?

Old Sailsbury, shame to thy silver hair,

Thou mad misleader of thy brainsick son!

What, wilt thou on thy deathbed play the ruffian,

And seek for sorrow with thy spectacles?

O, where is faith? O, where is loyalty?

If it be banished from the frosty head,

Where shall it find a harbour in the earth?

Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war,

And shame thy honourable age with nlood?

Why, art thou old and want'st experience?

Or wherefore dost abust it if thou hast it?

For shame in duty bend thy knee to me,

That bows unto the grave with mickle age."

Act V Scene I