Hello. I'm Gill at engVid. And, today,we are looking at some book
recommendations because I've had a fewrequests from... from you, the viewers,
to recommend books that might be worthreading. And so, what I have here on the
board are — one, two, three, four, five— six novels; fiction books. Some
written in the nineteenth century; somein the twentieth century. Three are
written by men, and three are written bywomen — just to get the balance right.
And so, what I've done — I've put the...the opening line of each novel to give
you a sort of flavour of... of what itsounds like. So, let's have a look,
then. So, the first one — it's just avery, very short sentence: "Call me
Ishmael." So, that's a bit intriguing.And it's meant to be, of course, because
the... the point of the first line is tomake you want to carry on reading, so it
should make you feel... it should, youknow... provoke your curiosity and make
you want to read on to find out what,you know... "What's this all about?" So,
"Call me Ishmael." And is the first lineof a novel; a very big novel — long
novel called: "Moby Dick", which you mayhave heard about before, and it's about
a whale and about a ship, and thecaptain wants to hunt down a whale. He
has some sort of vendetta; some sort ofvengeance. He sees the whale as a... as
an enemy; it's rather personal. So, thecaptain of the ship wants to... to kill
the whale. It's not the purpose of thetrip, really, but that's his secret
plan. So, that's what the novel is allabout. So, "Moby Dick" is the name of
the whale. The... the... the name of theauthor is Herman Melville — an American
novelist. And the date it was publishedwas 1851. Okay. So, it's quite a
difficult novel, and very long. So, withall of these, you might want to watch a
film version, perhaps, just to get toknow the story. Even though sometimes a
film version might play around a littlebit with the story from the book, so you
can't be sure it will be exactly thesame. But you always have that option of
seeing a film version as an easyintroduction to the story, and then you
might want to read the novel afterwards.Or you might prefer to read the novel
first, then watch a film, and see...compare in your mind how similar they
are or maybe they're a bit different.So, okay. So, this line, it sort of...
you can tell that the... the characterin the story is telling the story. It's:
"Call me Ishmael." And here am I tellingyou a story about something that
happened because he's one of the sailorson the ship who experiences this... that
hunt for the whale. So, he's the, whatyou call "the narrator" — the person who
tells the story. And you would say he'sa first-person narrator because it's
"me". "I", "me" — first person. So, it'sa personal account of the story. Okay.
The next one — let's have a look at thisopening. "It was a bright, cold day in
April; and the clocks were strikingthirteen." Wow. So, that's a bit
strange, isn't it? Again, that makes youwant to read on: "How...? How come the
clocks strike thirteen? Is somethingwrong with them? Does somebody need to
repair them?" Clocks don't usuallystrike that number; they... they go as
far as twelve — don't they? — and thenback to one again, so that's a bit
strange. You might think: "What kind ofplace is this?" It gives you a feeling
it's a bit strange; sinister, even. Andso, this novel is this... the date it
was published, this is the title of thenovel: "1984". And although that date
has gone by, of course, when the bookwas written in 1949, actually... or it
was published 1949 — I think thenovelist would be writing it in 1948, so
he kind of reversed the date. And he wasmaking it a kind of futuristic novel;
something happening in the future. So,"1984". At that time, in 1948, they
would think: "Oh, gosh, 1984 — thatsounds like a long time ahead." But to
us now, of course, it's a long time inthe past. And the novelist, George
Orwell, an English writer. Okay. And itis about a place where things are quite
bad. The thirteen also... thirteen — anunlucky number. It's... it's a terrible
place where people are treated badly.So, that's a little hint in the first
line that something is wrong here. Okay.
Right, so moving on to this one. This isquite a famous opening line; it's quite
complex. It's a very long sentence, butI think you'll get the sense of it. "It
is a truth, universally acknowledged,that a single man in possession of a
good fortune must be in want of a wife."Okay. So, because this was written quite
a long time ago — 1813 — the style ofthe language is much... it's quite
different, really; long sentences. And"must be in want of a wife" means must
be in need of a wife, or must be lookingfor a wife. So, it's a slightly
old-fashioned style that you have to getused to, as you're reading. And it's
quite sophisticated, the way it's put.But, actually, it's a kind of humour,
really. This novelist, Jane Austen, isknown to be very witty and humourous.
But the humour is in the language. Youhave to kind of appreciate the humour
through the language — the way shewrites it; the style. Okay. So, it's
saying: "Well, we all know that a singleman with a lot of money must... must be
wanting or must be looking for a wife."Well, is that true? Maybe not nowadays.
Maybe not then. But this is the kindof... it's suggesting the mindset, the
attitudes of the people who live in thisparticular place in English society;
sort of middle-class English society.And it's very much the attitude of
the... the mothers of a family of... ofdaughters. And in those days, the only,
you know... the only thing that girlswould do would... would be to look out
for a husband, because they had no wayof earning a living or having a
profession in 1813. They would bedependent on men all the way through
their lives, most of them. So, theywould be looking out for a husband with
a lot of money so that they could have acomfortable life, basically. And the
mothers also have a strong motivation tofind husbands for their daughters. So,
this is the kind of thing a mother inthis society... "Oh, wow, this young man
has just moved into the big house. Hemust be rich. I have five daughters. Oh,
I hope, you know... there's a goodchance he might want to marry one of my
daughters." And then that will be oneless daughter to worry about. So, this
is a kind of attitude in the minds ofthe mothers, particularly in this
English society. Okay. So, it's called:"Pride and Prejudice", because these are
two of the attitudes that come out inthe characters. And in the main
character, who, you know... she's... hasa kind of pride at first that isn't a
very helpful attitude. And she hasprejudice as well, which is another
unhelpful attitude. So, it's a kind ofhuman story about someone who has some
faults to begin with, but she learnsabout herself and about other people
during the course of the novel. Okay.And the author's name is Jane Austen.
Okay.
Right, next one. So, we have a twentiethcentury novel now. And this one...
twentieth century novels were often notquite as long as nineteenth century
novels; they just got a bit shorter,quite a lot of them. I think Victorian
novels tended to be very, very big. Atone time, they used to publish them in
three volumes. And then if you put athree-volume novel into one book, like a
paperback, it's very big — might be 900pages or more. So, it takes a long time
to read. But this one — twentiethcentury is shorter. And the first line:
"Mrs. Dalloway said she would buy theflowers herself." Oh, okay. And then the
title is "Mrs. Dalloway". So, she's inthe first line of the novel, quite
rightly; it's all about her. And shesaid she would buy the flowers herself.
So, again, it's a bit intriguing. Why isshe buying flowers? And why herself? Who
else would buy them, if she didn't? Butthen you find that she's quite a rich
lady; she has servants, so she couldhave sent a servant out to buy the
flowers, but she's decided to go out andbuy them herself. And you find it's for
a party that she's organising. So, thewhole novel is about the preparations
for the party. So, that's "Mrs.Dalloway". The author is Virginia Woolf,
and the date of publication — 1925.Okay.
Okay, so now we're back to nineteenthcentury again, and here's the first
line: "There was no possibility oftaking a walk that day." Oh, so, you
think: "Oh, this is negative. This iswhat you couldn't do. So, what...? What
are they going to do in this novel?" Ifyou start off with something that you
can't do, does that sort of set a... afeeling for the novel? A novel about
being restricted in some way, that youcan't do this; you can't do that? It's a
little bit like that, I suppose. Butthen we find, quite quickly, that the
people in the house can't go for a walkbecause it's raining, so that's what it
is. But I think it's quite a, youknow... it has other suggestions in it
as well. And it's written from the pointof view of... well, again, it's
first-person narrative. So, "Jane Eyre"is the title. Jane Eyre is the main
character, and this is her story. Itbegins when she's a child. And she can't
go out for a walk. But she's quitehappy, really, because she's reading a
book. So, she's happy to stay in thehouse and read the book. I don't think
she cares about going for a walk.Perhaps it was a good thing that she
could stay in and read instead. Okay.So, the novelist is Charlotte Brontë,
and the date — 1847. So, early Victoriannovel, English again; and Virginia Woolf
also English. In fact, they're allEnglish, apart from Melville on this
And then, finally, we have this veryfamous story. And, oh, I've lost count
of how many film versions there are ofthis. "A Christmas Carol". So many
different versions; a lot of Americanones. So, this starts: "Marley was dead
to begin with; there is no doubtwhatever about that." So, that's
interesting. It's the beginning of thestory. "Marley was dead to begin with."
So, gosh, that's... What sort ofbeginning to a story is that, that
somebody's dead? Who...? Who are thecharacters going to be? And there is no
doubt whatever about that. Why? Whywould you need to say there's no doubt?
Because it is a bit doubtful because...well, Marley does appear in the story as
a ghost, actually. So, he is dead, buthe's a ghost. So, you know... that's a
bit of a problem for the main character.So, "A Christmas Carol", so it's a
Christmas story. Charles Dickens. AndChristmas is such an important time for
Charles Dickens, and for Victorians ingeneral; a very popular time with trees,
and presents, and all that sort ofthing, and the family getting together.
So, there we are. That was written in1843.
So, some of these books are easier toread than others. So, I think the Jane
Austen is quite difficult until you getused to the style, and start to see the
humour in it. Moby Dick is very long,but it's an adventure story, really, so
it's quite exciting. George Orwell —that's a kind of... well, almost
science-fiction, really; what you call a"dystopian novel", about a society where
things are very bad — the opposite of"utopian". Okay. "Dystopian". Right. But
quite straightforward, I think, to read;not too difficult in style. Mrs.
Dalloway — I think that's quitestraightforward as well, really. It's a
bit psychological. It's all about what'sgoing on in her life and in her mind.
Jane Eyre — I think that's a good story.It's quite readable; not too difficult.
And Charles Dickens as well — this one —it's a kind of long short story. Quite
easy to read, I would say; the languageisn't too difficult. So... so I hope
those six recommendations are helpfulfor you. So, you might like to also have
a look at my... my video on book readingin general, which is a kind of group
discussion with some other people — ifyou haven't seen that already, have a
look at that. And that's also talkingabout different books, and each person
is recommending one or more books thatthey've read and that they've enjoyed.
So, I think that will give you plenty ofideas for any... any books that you'd
like to read. So, okay. There we are,then. Thank you for watching, and I hope