BOOK REVIEW
Hello everyone!
Proving my commitment is still there to turning out the content as best I can, I thought I would take some time to review Vanity Fair. After a fairly recent ITV adaptation of this book, I managed to pick it up at a bargain price from my local Tesco meaning I could see just how close and how faithful the adaptation was.
As always, I'm going to try and adopt a spoiler-free review to make it user friendly for those that are maybe thinking of picking this up but aren't sure if it's worth it.
Let me see if I can clear that up...
Vanity Fair Review
First off, I would have to say that the story is told in the manner of a narrator interspersing his interpretations of the events as they are unfolding, pretty much like ITV did with their drama. Where this book really shines is in its ability to be written in what might now be considered old-fashioned English, yet when read, there is no confusion if you are above a certain age. With the ever-changing English dialect, it can be hard to keep track of what words mean as the younger generation adapts their meaning to words. Yet with this, though it may confuse the younger generation, it's written in what I would call classical English with an avoidance of shorthand wherever possible.
This always wins points with me because I find it easy to paint the canvas in my head of what's happening as the words enter my eyes and process those colours into said canvas.
The Negatives
However, this could also have its detractors as you find words in here that haven't been used for a fairly long time. So a portion of the audience could very well be lost right there. Yet if you have read any of the classic literature before, the at times unfamiliar language shouldn't be a problem for you. Also, towards the end I feel like the pacing drops off up to the last, say, seventy or eighty pages. This meant that I was thinking that, though I was going to pursue to the very end as I often do, I was actually wishing it would just hurry up and end. But then I like coming across titles like this as they develop in me the patience to tackle longer books.
Final Verdict
As far as one of the classics in literature, I would say that anyone wanting to add this to their collection should do so because it's not at all boring. I just wonder if it would appeal to someone who likes their action in spades as there is an awful lot of dialogue in this book as well as a fair amount of descriptive work painting the canvas for high society back in the days gone by.
3/5
Whilst I want to rate it higher, I just don't think that it warrants an extra star or two and I am glad that I waited to review this as it helped me review it in a more unbiased, less emotional manner so as to, hopefully, give a balanced view of this book.
Pick it up from Amazon today and see for yourself how enjoyable it is.
===TLP===
No comments:
Post a Comment