Classic Books Tag

I join in with the Classics Book Tag and answer questions about classic literature and my reading goals.
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If you enjoy this video, please consider subscribing to my youtube channel. I'd be thrilled :)
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My blog is: mirandasnotebook.com
My podcast is: teaandtattlepodcast.com
You can find me on instagram at: @mirandasnotebook, @mirandasbookcase and @teaandtattlepodcast
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BOOKS MENTIONED IN VIDEO -
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - tinyurl.com/tt...
Old Peter's Russian Tales by Arthur Ransome - tinyurl.com/yx...
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - tinyurl.com/tb...
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon - tinyurl.com/tp...
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte - tinyurl.com/re...
Daniel Deronda by George Eliot - tinyurl.com/vd...
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow - tinyurl.com/yx...
Longbourn by Jo Baker - tinyurl.com/s3...
Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell - tinyurl.com/to...
CLASSIC BOOK TAG QUESTIONS:
1. What's an overhyped classic you really didn't like?
2. Favourite time period to read about?
3. Favourite fairy-tale?
4. What is the most embarrassing classic you haven't read yet?
5. Top 5 classics you would like to read (soon):
6. Favourite modern book/series based on a classic?
7. Favourite movie version/tv-series based on a classic?
8. Worst classic to movie adaptation?
9. Favourite edition(s) you'd like to collect more classics from:
10. What's an under-hyped classic you'd recommend to everyone?
OTHER MENTIONS:
Books Like Whoa video: tinyurl.com/tl...
My interview with Janice Hadlow: tinyurl.com/qv...
My interview with Coralie Bickford-Smith: tinyurl.com/sn...
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ABOUT ME: I'm Miranda Mills, a freelance writer, podcaster and photographer living in London. Find out more about me and what I do here: tinyurl.com/y3...

[@maryfilippou6667]

I'm exactly with you about Wuthering Heights. I tried my copy twice. I share your sentiments. I found an Angela Thirkell last week I'd not heard of: Cheerfulness Breaks In. It's a lovely old red cover, London in early WWII days. That particular Little Free Library box-they're all unique design-and many delights in Berkeley area.

[@dharma1able]

When I was in Grade 7 our teacher read Wuthering Heights to us on Friday afternoons. This was my introduction to classics. That had me hooked to classical literature for which I shall be forever grateful.. We played Heathcliff and Catherine at recesses. What fun it was to play Heathcliff. Of course we added all our own developments and made it our own story.We were in the woods of Canada pretending to be on the English moors. Just another perspective.😊

[@ingaurban404]

Dear Miranda, I am totally with you on that one. I could never understand the fascination with this horrible Heathcliff. I think men should be kind before anything else. Thank you for your lovely video. Have a lovely rest of your week!

[@sonjaortiz6857]

Thank you! Someone finally said it. I truly struggled with Wuthering Heights. Please don’t get me wrong, Emily Brontë is brilliant and I’d love to understand how she was able to produce such a scathing novel in her time. If it makes sense, I appreciate the writing style, but not the actual story, which I found too dark, cold, and violent with no relief. The book still dawns my shelf and always will. I do love my Brontë sisters and if one of my 3 sons had been a girl, her name would have been Brontë.

[@Anna.Teresia]

Regarding Wuthering Heights, I totally agree with you Miranda, so no, you're not alone! Regarding The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, I totally agree with you on this one as well. I love Jane Eyre, but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is my number one favourite. Thank you so much for an inspiring vlogg!

[@MirandaMills]

Oh I'm so glad you're such a fan of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall too - I do think it's such an underrated book! Thank you for your lovely comment xxx

[@amilydudley6463]

My favourite fairytale is the red shoes by hans christian Anderson.

[@DaisyDreamer72]

On my goodness, I thought it was just me who thought that about Wuthering Heights!

[@helenrichards7866]

Agree totally I missed the memo on Heathcliff

[@olivewritesblog]

Such a fun video! Love the chair setup too (and of course your book suggestions).

[@MirandaMills]

Thanks so much! I'm very glad you enjoyed it!

[@lilapen1]

Dear Miranda I really enjoyed this video and I am very glad to hear your literature preferences ! It is very interesting and useful having all those information about English Classic literature ! Thank you very much for sharing 😀

[@MirandaMills]

Thank you very much! I'm really glad you enjoyed it :)

[@jamielynnphillips1587]

Miranda, I feel validated now to know someone else who does not see the grandeur of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights. I thought that I was missing something! Lol. Heathcliff is one of the most miserable male characters I’ve read. It’s quite sad really to watch him. Cathy is actually a very sad character as well. As I now consider Jane Austen’s relationships in comparison, I wonder if the entire point of Heathcliff and Cathy is love and misery bound together. In reality there are relationships like this now, as I’m sure there were in Brontë’s time. Thank you so very much for your fabulous videos. You are so lovely and charming. We have the same tastes in books and my “to be read” pile grows with each of your videos and IG posts! 💕

[@MirandaMills]

I'm also glad it's not just me!! Thanks so much for your lovely comment, and I'm very glad you're enjoying my videos xxx

[@leoniealastair9219]

I can't believe that you know and love that tale too!!! I have a beautiful book just fir tgat fairy tale and has the most beautiful illustrations as well!

[@jimgordon6629]

This is amazing! I recently read Wuthering Heights after many years and was astounded how bad it was! Emily Brontë was a very talented writer-her poetry is underrated- but the novel is very awkwardly structured and Heathcliff is nothing but a sociopath-in fact, she seems to be hinting that he has a demonic origin. The great movie with Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh completely changed the novel and made Heathcliff a more complicated and sympathetic figure. This was very well done. I am reading this two years later, and I’ll certainly look up your more recent postings.

[@sandraelder1101]

Totally agree! The only characters I even liked enough to care what happened to them were Edgar Linton & Nelly Dean.

[@kimbarnetson3297]

I agree, I never understood why it is considered a romance and Heathcliff a romantic hero, he is horrible and Cathy isn't much better.

[@SangoKSJ]

Hello Miranda, I’ve found your channel a couple of weeks ago among my KZbin recommendations and I subscribed after watching one video, as we share many interests and I really loved the way you conduct your videos. I’ve been watching many of them in this stretch of time and always find them so interesting! I also really like your mom Donna, she’s adorable! I’ve just watched this video and I was so happy and relieved to find I’m not the only one on the planet who doesn’t like Wuthering Heights🤩 it was comforting to know. I’ve also taken note of some of the titles you mentioned in the video for further reading. Looking forward to your new videos and say hello to your lovely mom as well. Greeting from Italy, Simona.

[@maslina4567]

Wow...I absolutely got lost in your video! Our reading tastes are incredibly similar. That fairy tale would have fascinated me as a little girl, too. Wuthering Heights isn't one of my favourite Classics (thoroughly loathe Heathcliff!) but the writing is so beautiful. Lady Audley's Secret is one of my top 10 books ever, possibly even top 5. I absolutely adore it. And then there's Trollope...aaahhhh...he's a favourite of mine. One of my life goals is to find the remaining ten books of his I don't own. I haven't read all 37 I do own as I'm saving them as special treats. Wives and Daughters is also one of my top 10 ever. Such a stunning read. Difficult to even find the words for it. Am currently reading Collins' Armadale and plan to read Dickens' Pickwick Papers next. Another of my goals is to read all his works. Plus I hope to re-read a few this year. Thank you for such a stunning video!

[@MirandaMills]

Thank you so much for your lovely comment! We do have very similar tastes in literature, so I'm delighted you're such a dan of Lady Audley's Secret! I'm now even more excited to read it. Thrilled to find someone else who is such a fan of Wives & Daughters too! xxx

[@areadersnotebook6808]

I just came across your video. Thank you for sharing your insights and impressions. It is always facinating to learn about other readers' preferences!

[@mariat.3961]

I totally agree with you on WH, a tough read. But I do love Emily Bronte's poetry.

[@Missfrankiecat]

I totally agree with your assessment of the characters in Wuthering Heights - none of them are remotely sympathetic (maybe Cathy Linton is bearable but that's about it). Heathcliff is a monster (but so is Mr Rochester as far as I'm concerned). And yet I do think this is about the only novel I can think of that transcends that defect, and the lack of any moral centre, through the sheer power of the imaginative flights and creation of atmosphere by writing. The famous ghost scene where Lockwood encounters Cathy Earnshaw terrified me when I first read it and still does.

[@pinscompany6417]

I totally relate to your comments on Wuthering Heights，I tried few times to finish the book at least, but failed, none of the characters are likeable in my opinion, though I do like her writing style.

[@sherrirabinowitz4618]

I was in a Bronte class, that discussed the whole family and we read all their books, and Branwell's and Emily's poetry. I love Emily's poetry but I agree with your Wuthering Heights assessment, i just find it too violent and cruel. There doesn't seem to be a single redeeming figure in the story. I have to say it led to a lively debate, there were 4 of us against 16 of our classmates and our professor. What I found annoying was that they kept saying we must not have understood the text, instead of giving a good explanation or why they were in favor of the book, they kept saying we were not sophisticated enough to understand it. My professor did not agree with that at all and said point blank it was unfair, she did give a reasoned argument. But I was so upset by the reaction, I just stop taking part. (I did very well in the class and my professor liked me and didn't blame me for shutting down, in fact she took the four of us to lunch after class, She was very nice,)

[@anitaday599]

That was fun Miranda. Thank you xx

[@MirandaMills]

Happy to hear it! Thank you Anita! xxx

[@AnniesBookNook]

Love this video, subscribed! :) Added The other Bennet Sister and Longbourn to my TBR

[@MirandaMills]

Yay! Thank you! Hope you enjoy both those books too xxx

[@gracetaylor7351]

Loved this video I want to get to some the same classics that you said as well but I like retreading I do that with pride and prejudice and Jane eyre abit to.😊

[@MirandaMills]

Those both always make wonderful rereads :)

[@thejoyofreading7661]

Wow, this will be my next booktube tag! I didn't know "the other Bennett sister" and "Longbourn" but you made me curious

[@MirandaMills]

They're definitely worth reading, especially if you're a fan of P&P!

[@thejoyofreading7661]

@@MirandaMills I am!

[@marenlatham4349]

I am with you on the Wuthering Heights assessment. I first read Jane Eyre as a teenager and loved it so much that I turned to Wuthering Heights next thinking that because they were sisters and the books were written at the same time, they might be something similar. Of course I was a bit horrified and didn't like it or get it at all. I found the book to be confusing (why is everyone named Katherine?) violent, bewildering and no one was likeable. Then some years later I decided to give it another go. I thought that the main reason I didn't like it was because I was expecting another Jane Eyre and that wasn't fair to Emily Bronte. Plus everyone loves Wuthering Heights so much, I was sure I must be wrong. I really went into it with an open mind, very prepared to at least appreciate it, and I just found it to be awful and completely unsettling. Then some time later I decided to listen to it on an audio book thinking that someone doing a great job reading it would help me to understand the characters and find something in the book to relate to and like. And I just don't like that book. I am not saying it is a bad book at all. I do think Emily Bronte was a tremendously brilliant and unusual person and I am so glad we have this dark and brooding glimpse into the mind of someone so independent and unconventional and tortured. It's just not a place I like to go to. I think if a writer wants to take you to such a dark and cruel world, they need to give you something, even if it is very small, to hang on to...someone to relate to....someone to root for. Emily Bronte has the nerve and the strength to give us no one. And that in itself is interesting. But that doesn't make it a book I like to read. Thank you Miranda for saying so as well. Now I know I am not alone either.

[@martinkingston1498]

Wuthering Heights is a brilliant literary creation, but also a very polarizing one, often because of the misapprehension that it is a conventional romantic tale, and the belief that Heathcliff must be every woman's ideal man! Uh oh! Though it IS centered on the thwarted love of Heathcliff for Catherine, there is very little sentimentality involved. It is instead a dark, brooding and VERY melancholic meditation on childhood, loss, sense of place, suffering and longing. Themes of imprisonment, desperation and release abound throughout the text, and nearly every character goes through their own personal hell, sometimes self inflicted, with life often ending tragically. A huge price is to be paid for poor choices, and in WH broken hearts lead to madness, dissipation, an implacable desire for revenge, or withdrawal from life. Love is also contrasted as being either fierce ( passionate, sometimes obsessive, destructive, and capable of transcending death), or tender(patient forgiving and restorative). But even though the outlook does seem bleak, healing and redemption ARE still possible in the end. The tension between all of these opposing forces is felt throughout the novel, as is the presence of the landscape, which is not merely a backdrop to the story, but a living breathing part of the characters lives, and in some cases, absolutely central to their being. The wildness of the Heights seems to speak to a much deeper and more primal part of our natures. In the world of Catherine and Heathcliff, Emily Bronte uncompromisingly held a mirror up to the most profound parts of what it means to be human WITHOUT telling us how we should think or feel (which does create an uncomfortable ambiguity). A major part of her brilliance is that she can bring the reader FULL circle in terms of an overall understanding of a character's life, and inspire both empathy and aversion for them simultaneously. By leaving so many questions unanswered, the novel is also filled with an eerie otherworldliness. But such were the gifts of that fiercely intelligent, highly original and very independent minded woman that we are still talking about her creation a good part of 174 years later.

[@joysedgwick812]

@@martinkingston1498 thank you for sharing this perception of a book with which I have struggled. I am unsure whether I have ever actually made it to the end, mea culpa. The wildness of the moors is the reason for my returning to it, together with a fascination for the family who lived in that dour town. I remember it before it was made as pretty as it is now, a family who were so creative and imaginative must truly have felt like castaways there. I have read to the three quarter point this time, we shall see!

[@pilarmartin1933]

Hi Miranda! I feel the same with Wuthering heights, I have read twice but this is not for me and don't understans how people can say this a love story.

[@MameysMedley]

No you are not alone, I didn't care for Wuthering Heights either. This was fantastic! Loved your new spot filming. Your chair is lovely. Would you consider doing a bookshelf/library tour in your home? Would love to see all the gorgeous books you have.....As always Miranda, loved your video! Can't wait for your next one and the next episode of Tea and Tattle. Oh by the way, Dinner with Edward has arrived, hoping to get to it soon.

[@MirandaMills]

Glad it's not just me! I have so many bookcases, and I lot of them are double-stacked so I don't really want to film those to be honest, as it would really take ages! But I'm hoping to be able to do a bookshelf tour of my office some time soon, as those shelves would be easier to showcase xxx

[@MameysMedley]

Lovely. I look forward to it.

[@MameysMedley]

May I ask another question? I am having a difficult time editing my videos for my channel. May I ask you what you use to edit your videos? Also are you filming on a phone or a camera? Hope this isn't too personal of a question. If it is, disregard.....

[@MirandaMills]

@@MameysMedley I use a small camera, and I edit using Adobe Premiere Rush. Hope that helps!

[@rosecolouredglasses]

Those dark fairy tales are so viscerally attractive. They really pull you in.

[@MirandaMills]

yes, exactly!

[@dandybro6764]

i adored old peters russian tales

[@lonniecruse5633]

Agree about Wuthering Heights.

[@dawnbevins451]

What a wonderful video, I love the sound of the fairytale, I think I would have loved that as a child too, I always loved Hansel and Gretel because I was so shocked by the idea of pushing someone into an oven 😱. I also have to admit that I loved Wuthering Heights, it has been years since I read it but I remember being fascinated by how broken they all were, you could see them all making one bad decision after another, I found it both bleak and ridiculous, so although I don’t see the appeal of Heathcliffe as a character either, the whole thing amused me in a tragic kind of way.

[@MirandaMills]

I remember being shocked / fascinated by Hansel & Gretal too! I do still think Wuthering Heights is a great book - it's such a classic example of Gothic fiction, and the writing is beautiful, but yes, I've never understood Heathcliff as heartthrob material!!

[@grethen123]

Couldn't appreciate Wuthering Heights either!

[@maryfilippou6667]

Hear! Hear! Miranda, re Wuthering Heights characters.

[@TheManseHen]

Really enjoyed this. Yes obviously late to the party (-: Adore Jane Eyre, can't stand Wuthering Heights. I need to read more Anne Bronte!

[@marinarees3828]

Oh my, thank you so much for pointing out Wuthering heights. I , also, do not like this book and especially the H character. I've reread the book a few times, and still do not enjoy the painful love story. I kept thinking that I do not understand it, but in the end, it is ok to dislike it.