This Dark Endeavour

Rating: 5/5

Title: This Dark Endeavor

Series: Book One of The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein

Author: Kenneth Oppel

Page Count (paperback): 298

Official Amazon Description

   
     Victor Frankenstein leads a charmed life. He and his twin brother, Konrad, and their beautiful cousin Elizabeth take lessons at home and spend their spare time fencing and horseback riding. Along with their friend Henry, they have explored all the hidden passageways and secret rooms of the palatial Frankenstein chateau. Except one.

     The Dark Library contains ancient tomes written in strange languages and filled with forbidden knowledge. Their father makes them promise never to visit the library, but when Konrad becomes deathly ill, Victor knows he must find the book that contains the recipe for the legendary Elixir of Life.

     The elixir needs only three ingredients. But impossible odds, dangerous alchemy and a bitter love triangle threaten their quest at every turn.

      Victor knows he must not fail. Yet his success depends on how far he is willing to push the boundaries of nature, science and love?and how much he is willing to sacrifice.

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My Thoughts

      This Dark Endeavor is a work of literary art. From the cover, to the plot, to the characters; Oppel was spot on! One of a book's most important assets is its cover, and in this case, This Dark Endeavor certainly has bragging rights! Between the handsome character sketch of Victor on the front, to the haunting buildings eclipsed by unsettle clouds and the blurred edges; I do believe I was completely enthralled with this book before I even read the first page. Having read Kenneth Oppel's previous series; Silver Wing, as a child, I was already familiar with the depth of Oppel's writing and This Dark Endeavor was no exception. Written in the first person perspective of Victor Frankenstein, This Dark Endeavor is truly captivating, allowing you to witness the story first hand through Victor's rebellious mind. There was never a single moment while reading the novel in which I felt bored of the story, with brilliant cliffhangers at the end of chapters and an excellently paced plot (not to fast and not to slow), which was filled with completely unexpected twists ensured that I couldn't stop turning the pages. If you're in search of a wickedly good, well-written YA book with a hint of romance, I urge you to pick up This Dark Endeavor; you won't regret it!

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This Side of Paradise

Rating: 5/5

Title: This Side of Paradise

Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald

Page Count (Paperback): 276

Official Amazon Description

     This Side of Paradise is the book that established F. Scott Fitzgerald as the prophet and golden boy of the newly dawned Jazz Age. Published in 1920, when he was just twenty-three, the novel catapulted him to instant fame and financial success. The story of Amory Blaine, a privileged, aimless, and self-absorbed Princeton student, This Side of Paradise closely reflects Fitzgerald's own experiences as an undergraduate. Amory Blaine's journey from prep school to college to the First World War is an account of "the lost generation." The young "romantic egotist" symbolizes what Fitzgerald so memorably described as "a new generation grown up to find all Gods dead, all wars fought, all faiths in man shaken." A pastiche of literary styles, this dazzling chronicle of youth remains bitingly relevant decades later.

My Thoughts

     This Side of Paradise can only be described as a literary masterpiece and a brilliant commentary on Fitzgerald's society. Like The Old Curiosity Shop I loved the character development in This Side of Paradise. Though physically the plot followed the life of Amory from his childhood to around his early thirtes or late twenties, Fitgerald also went into great depth about the transition from boy to man that Amory made mentally. I really enjoyed following this progression as he delved deeper and deeper into Amory's inner journey to discover himself. I definitley didn't agree with all of Amory's opinions on the world but in his philosophical musings both within himself and with the other thinkers around him, Amory presented strong arguments to back all of his opinions.

        One of the wonderful things about Fitgerald's focus on the mind in This Side of Paradise was that it got me thinking. Whenever Amory presented one of his well supported opinions, I would have to stop and think about how I felt and why; in every sense of the phrase This Side of Paradise was most certainly thought provoking.

       Beyond the philosophical and thought provoking nature of this work I also extremely enjoyed the wry wit and candid thoughts of Amory. One of my favourite quotes from the novel was,  "Every author ought to write a book as if he were going to be beheaded the day he finished it" (211). I suppose one of the reasons I was so struck by this quote was because I absolutley agreed with the philosophy behind it, so many authors hold back when writing for fear of what people might think,  truly lessening the impact of their work. But if authors wrote as if they were going to be beheaded the day they finished it there would be no need to hold back for fear of society's reaction and in my opinion, there would be a lot more thought provoking and truly great books in the world today.

Click below to read it yourself:

Amazon

     

Highlight Poetry (#1)

 

A Bit of an Introduction to Highlight Poetry

     For a little while now I've been itching to start a meme but everytime I set about thinking up a theme or a name for it, I'd inevitably end up with an idea that somebody else had already come up with. Eventually I decided that I wanted to focus on something that is important to me and not recognized nearly enough; poetry. And bingo! Highlight Poetry crossed my mind as a good self-explanatory name for a meme that focused on highlighting (acknowledging) poetry. So when I searched "Highligh Poetry" in both the regular google search engine and google's blog search engine and could not find any results for a meme name "Highlight Poetry" I knew I had found the name for my meme!

The First Poem of Highlight Poetry

Embarking at Night

F. Scott Fitzgerald

1920

"We leave to-night...

  Silent, we filled the still, deserted street,

    A column of dim gray,

  And ghosts rose startled at the muffled beat

    Along the moonless way;

  The shadowy shipyards echoed to the feet

    That turned from night and day.

  And so we linger on the windless decks,

    See on the spectre shore

  Shades of a thousand days, poor gray-ribbed wrecks...

    Oh, shall we then deplore

  Those futile years!

              See how the sea is white!

  The clouds have broken and the heavens burn

    To hollow highways, paved with gravelled light

  The churning of the waves about the stern

    Rises to one voluminous nocturne,

                  ...We leave to-night."

 

A Brief Commentary Providing a Bit of Context

    I discovered this poem a couple of days ago while reading  F. Scott Fitgerald's This Side of Paradise. For those of you who are not familiar with Fitzgerald's works, This Side of Paradise is a ficitonal novel about a rather egotistical young man named Amory. Though the novel itself is not a book of poetry, through the character Amory, Fitzgerald writes several poems of which Embarking at Night was one . At the point in the novel when this poem is included, Amory is heading off to fight in the first world war and is presumably writing the poem about his emotions while he waits to embark in the night on the journey of a soldier.

    I absolutley love this poem, I think it is beautifully written, providing haunting imagery of a soldier's restless wait before he heads off to war. Through this poem Fitzgerald allows the reader to feel as if they themselves are mourning the futile years ahead and the "poor gray-ribbed wrecks" that will fall during the war. I felt as if I was truly transported to another time, while reading this poem, like I could hear the waves breaking upon far off shores and the feel the soldier's fear as he prepared to embark.

What are your thoughts? What struck you most about Emarking at Night?

To learn more about how you can get involved in Highlight Poetry click here.