Hamlet: A BBC Radio Production by William Shakespeare
This production of Hamlet tries to hard to be different. Key soliloquies like "To be or not to be" or intentionally understated. I think I got the most from the opening commentary. The story deals with madness and revenge. Were the feigning madness or actually mad? It can be hard to tell. People accidentally die before the main combatants die. It is ridiculously famous, but hard to understand.
The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
Rather than a novel, this reads like a long notebook of anecdotes lumped together. There are different parts of the author's life that are explored. She is communist during the time of the red scare. That provides a big part of her identity. However, she is losing faith in it. The bad actions of people like Stalin as well as some of the drivel that gets published have caused issues. She also explores her sex life. There seems to be many cases of having affairs with sexually frustrated married men. What is the place of women in the world and. how can she live an appropriately fulfilling life? The life of a novelist ties much of this together. Her novel explores areas that are verboten. Her status as a communist also makes it challenging. The book goes on and on and seems to repeat the same things told from a somewhat different angle.
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
This is a Jane Austen novel combined a bit with a gothic/horror novel. The characters are interested in getting in relationships and all concerned about manners. However, they need to go to a house where every creek seems to be the same of some scary event, only to be a person walking up. It is a lighter, better Jane Austen, and almost feels like she is starting to do a "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" treatment. (But she doesn't quite get that far.)
A bunch of British people are going on a vacation near a Lighthouse. Most of the novel is spent exploring the inner thoughts of the characters. That would be great if I could relate to the characters. Alas, I had trouble caring much about them and could not focus well on the book.
Hedda Gabler married someone a man in hopes of a well-to-do future. They discover that there financial future is not as good as optimistic as hoped. She meets up with an old friend that has left her husband. Later she ends up involved with another man and some manuscripts. A few people die by gun shot (including self-inflicted) and it ends miserably ever after.
