Jack Reacher or David Copperfield—everything can go pear-shaped halfway through the book...
Failing to reach orbit: David Copperfield
Tag: literature
Silas Marner: a short novel
Most novels are much longer than they need to be. George Eliot's Silas Marner, although unsatisfactory in the end, is a rare exception...
The ship was lost, the crew perished: Charlotte Brontë’s Villette
No other novel in English ends with a punch like Charlotte Brontë's sublime last novel
He’s not a naughty boy, he’s the Messiah!
So here's the trope I'd like to eliminate from Young Adullt fiction: messianic main characters. Fuck 'em.
Avast there, ye swabs!
The whole point about the bad guy is that he thinks he's the good guy. For a great villain, go back to Treasure Island and Long John Silver...
Unpersuaded: a disappointing classic
Last year, on a whim, I decided to revisit Persuasion… and was genuinely taken by surprise: it seemed to me not merely disappointing but actively bad...
Donald Hounam 