Precious Reads of March

 How it all started ...

My classical literature journey started in March, and it started with Wuthering Heights. There was a lot of buzz going around about the upcoming film adaptation and it made me curious about the source material. I had no intentions of going to watch the film, but I wanted to read the book and see what I thought of it. I'm going to talk more about my thoughts on the book in a second but that is what started my foray into classical literature. I didn't read a lot of it growing up, and even though I was an English major in college, I still hadn't read many classics.

So far the journey has been very amazing and enriching. In March I read 5 books and reading these books has made me all the more curious and invested in classical literature and all the stories I have yet to read. 

Without further ado, here are my precious reads of March :)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë 

photo credit: MJ Franklin

I went into this book with absolutely zero expectations so I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I was surprised that I was able to understand what was happening and that I could keep up with the characters

since the language can be difficult to understand. The only person I found difficult to understand was Joseph,

but I don't know if anyone really knows what Joseph is saying lol.

If you don't already know: Wuthering Heights is a novel about a new tenant, Mr. Lockwood, and how he

goes to Wuthering Heights and learns about the people who inhabits it. Through the eyes of Nelly, a servant

at Wuthering Heights, we learn the history about the Earnshaw family and the passionate relationship between

Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw.

One of the things I loved most about the narrative was that as a reader, it really felt like someone was

just telling me a story. I feel that Mr. Lockwood being the first character introduced was genius because,

like the audience, he is a new tenant of Wuthering Heights and knows nothing about the people there,

so when Nelly sits down and tells him everything, it feels satisfying because I'm also trying to

understand everything as a reader.

The relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine is complex. It's unhinged and while there is love there,

it is not a love that is sustainable. It's not romantic at all, and I saw it as a cautionary tale when one makes

someone their everything to the point where it is detrimental.

That said, this novel was super entertaining. Sometimes I had to take a break from it because of all the

drama and nonsense that was going on. My annotations of the novel were mostly character observations, but

what I gathered is that this is a tragic book about a tragic man. How one is loved (or not loved) influences

their behavior and will affect generations after. I found it to be well done and I'm happy I read the book

instead of watching the adaptation.

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Photo credit: Caprielle Eden/ The Watchdog

Giovanni's Room is about the main character, David, who has a hard time accepting his desires. It's the story of how David and Giovanni meet and fall in love in 1950s Paris at a bar. Their connection is electric, but the more David falls in love with Giovanni, the more he denies himself and pursues women to prove his “masculinity.” Over the course of their relationship, David moves into Giovanni’s Room, where their relationship crumples and Giovanni starts to become a shell of himself. With gorgeous prose and honest characters this book had me sobbing by the very end. By not being true to oneself everyone suffers and that’s one of the things that stuck with me after reading.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde 

Image found on We Need to Talk About Books.com

This book is about beauty. There is an obsession with youth and what it means to be young and beautiful (unscathed by life) and what it means to age. After gifted painter Basil Hallward paints a self-portrait of Dorian Gray, Dorian loves it and actually falls more in love with himself and his beauty. However, after Harry (aka Lord Henry) spews nonsense into his ear he starts to hate the fact that eventually he’ll age and the picture will remain perfectly polished. He wishes that it would be the opposite and his wish comes true. As Dorian chases beauty and vanity his soul rottens and so does the portrait. Over the course of the novel you see the disintegration of a man and how he spirals into madness, questioning if it was all worth it. The conversations about beauty, art, and what it means to live in such a society remains prevalent today and made me think a lot about my stance on these issues — especially as a woman.

Madonna in a Fur Coat by Sabbahatin Ali 

Photo credit: shivamYe on Reddit

This short novella follows an unnamed narrator as they go from being jobless and hating how people treat them, to being employed as a clerk thanks to his “friend” Hamdi. It’s at this new job that he meets the quiet and solitary Raif Efendi. Over the course of the novel the narrator becomes close friends with Raif, and as Raif is on his deathbed he’s given his soul — his journal that tells about the life he’s lived and explains why he is the way he is. This has become one of my all time favorite stories. I love the structure of the novel AND the way the love story develops. Intimacy at its finest.

Passing by Nella Larsen 

Photo credit: Books on Gif on Substack 

This novella is about the relationship between two friends: Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield. Both women are Black women who are very light skin, however Irene chooses to stay in the African American community while Clare decides to “pass” as a White woman, going so far as to marry a White man, John Bellew, who despises Black people. A chance encounter in Chicago intertwines their lives together and it’s a gripping journey. Larsen’s prose is so immersive and the way she crafts suspense and shows instead of tells is masterful. I couldn’t put it down and finished it in a day. As a Black woman I felt a lot of emotions reading this novel but ultimately it made me very proud to be Black :)