Book Kaleidoscope 2012: Day 3, Top Five Most Favourite Book

I skip the second day, since I read mostly ebook, and I didn't really choose the covers well, so just forget that. Now the third day theme is more interesting for me, since there are books that I really love from my reading this year. I will pick only 5 of them, and I hope this will be easier than picking up 5 boyfriends out of countless amazing men in the books I read.

Let's start!

5. Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

Ramin Karimloo as Phantom

I actually read it! It's a wonderful story about a genius whose physical qualities are not as good as the quality of his brain. It's touching and a bit scary, but overall, I'm in love with the air that dominates the novel: the air of music and the air of darkness.

4. Odyssey by Homer

Odysseus and Penelope by Primaticcio

Again, it's amazing. Actually I was a bit scared by Homer and other Greek authors since they are so old. But thanks to the brilliant translation and also to my lecturer and my friends from mythology class, I can enjoy the book. Odyssey is actually quite an adventure. Besides, I love the lady Penelope, who shows both loyalty and intelligence, thus proving herself worthy of being the wife of Odysseus.

3. Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

Pompeo Batoni's painting depicting Antony's death

Anything featuring Antony must be in the list. I don't put Julius Caesar because this year I was merely re-reading the play, but Antony and Cleopatra is something very new to me. I was surprised to read how stupid people can be when they are in love. Yet Antony is still charming with his qualities as military general, and also as a loyal friend. Cleopatra's character is a little bit shocking, though.

2. The Three Musketeers and Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

The Four Musketeers in 2011 Film

The four musketeers are amazing. They are utterly amazing. These books must be in the list of 'best adventure books ever' or something like that. When you read the book, you forget all the problems in the world and you just read. You imagine doing and seeing things and being part of the book yourself. I experienced express-reading when reading these two novels.

1. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

Les Miserables 2000 mini-series

You know it must be here. It must get the first place. Les Miserables is a masterpiece. I've been talking about Les Mis everywhere since the day I started reading it. The book invites all kind of emotion from the readers. It demands the reader to feel agony, pain, disappointment, love, loneliness, treachery, anger, enthusiasm, and hope. Reading once is not enough. I will read it again one day.

So, these are the books I love the most from this year's reading. Can't wait to read yours.  

Classics Club August Meme: Favourite Classic

This is a meme held by The Classics Club, an awesome club dedicated to classic literature. As you may see from my blog, I love detective stories, adventure, and poetic works. “To love only one would be cruel to others,” for me, as Don Giovanni says in Mozart's opera. Difference is, he talks about women, I about authors. So let's see what I can do.

Favourite Adventure:

Look at my authors list, and you will see Dumas triumphs over others. Why? Simply because I love The Count of Monte Cristo so much. I read the simplified version first, when I was in Senior High, but because I love Faria so much I dashed to my computer and downloaded the ebook. I read it during my holiday and cried. I re-read it and re-read it again, just because I love how Monte Cristo speaks. Definitely my favourite this far.

Favourite Detective Story:

My favourite is the one and only Sherlock Holmes. As I have stated somewhere, he's my first contact with the past, I mean, with classics. His personality is so unique, or perhaps, annoying, that I can't help laughing everytime he mocks other people's stupidity. Among SH's novels, my favourite is perhaps The Valley of Fear, not only because it's thrilling, but perhaps because Sherlock finds himself a worthy collegue, Mr Douglas.

Favourite Children Story:

Does Christmas Carol counts as children story? If it is, then it is my favourite. It moves me to tears. I like to travel with Scrooge and observe as he remembers his past, reflects upon his present, and thinks about his future. The change that comes into his personality reminds us that somewhere inside everybody, there's good, that sometimes slumbers. We only need to shake the soul to wake it up.

Favourite Fantasy Story:

Lord of the Rings, of course. I can't find the right word to express how I feel about it. The details, the legends inside legends, the complexity of the story, the appendix, the languages, each with its own characteristics and alphabeth. I am almost convinced that the Middle-Earth really does exist somewhere here on earth. Once I even studied Sindarin just because I want to appreciate the effort Tolkien exerted to make it.

Favourite Romance:

Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera. It's a beautiful story that makes me cry. I watched the movie first, and lately read the novel for the Classics Club Challenge. I forget whether I cried or not the first time I watched the movie, but I cried the first time I read the novel, and then cried like a baby when I watched the musical. I know it doesn't end happily, but I love it.

Favourite Poem:

I am torn between Shakespeare's Sonnets, Venus and Adonis, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Neruda's 20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair. But I think I will take Shakespeare. His sonnets inspire the Muse in my heart, and only after reading his I was able to write my own sonnets. His vocabulary is unmatched. Perhaps his motto in writing is, “If you can't find the word, make it.”

Favourite non-Fiction Prose:

Milton's Areopagitica. You can find me babbling passionately about this work in the related review. Beautiful and strong language that expresses his thoughts precisely. I always envy those who can write in charming way, because I can't, naturally.

So, instead of choosing one, I have seven favourites here. Haha. Can't wait to read yours. 

Character Thursday: Erik – The Phantom

I have always restrained myself from writing about the things I'm crazy in love with, because I can only write about something clearly when my mind is clear enough to do so. I mean, it's difficult to pour down your feelings systematically in written words. At least the case is so with me.

But I make exception this time. (I can imagine Sherlock looking at me right now and say, “Your exception disproves the rule,” but never mind). I am deeply in love with Phantom, both the Phantom in the novel and the musical. I don't expect my writing to be so objective or orderly, but at least I can explain why I like him so, plus adding some pictures I find amusing.

Ramin Karimloo as Phantom in the
Red Death's Mask

From the beginning of the novel, Phantom is described as a Ghost, so he's of course mysterious and a bit scary. His various unique abilities make him able to give the impression of 'real ghost' to people in the opera. Being an architect, he can enter and leave any room unknown, therefore makes people believe that the ghost has the ability to walk right through the wall. Being a ventriloquist, he can make noises and lead people to believe that the sounds come from whichever side of the wall he wants, or even from the air above them. Amazing, just amazing. And being an artist, a musician, he's just breathtaking. He sings Nuit d'hymenee from Gounod's Romeo and Juliette and lead the stupefied Christine through the mirror into the darkness. (Knowing the piece I actually can hear the music in my head when it is mention in the novel).

But then, there, in the darkness, we see the feelings of Erik, his real character. He hates himself for being such a “living corpse”, and hates other people for not loving him. He doesn't want to be alone, he needs love, but he doesn't know the way of expressing it. He has this dream of living a normal life, with a normal wife, someone who loves him, but he knows he can't do it. How could he, with such a face?

“'Know,' he shouted, while his throat throbbed and panted like a furnace, 'know that I am built up of death from head to foot and that it is a corpse that loves you and adores you and will never, never leave you! ... Look, I am not laughing now, I am crying, crying for you, Christine, who have torn off my mask and who therefore can never leave me again! ... As long as you thought me handsome, you could have come back, I know you would have come back ... but, now that you know my hideousness, you would run away for good...”

He believes that no one would ever love him. But can anybody hates someone just because of his looks?

Ramin Karimloo as The Phantom unmasked.

But what makes me cry is when he recites how he let the young lovers go to the Persian. His reaction after Christine promised to stay with him, to become his living bride.

"Yes, she was waiting for me ... waiting for me erect and alive, a real, living bride ... as she hoped to be saved ... And, when I ... came forward, more timid than ... a little child, she did not run away ... no, no ... she stayed ... she waited for me ... I even believe ... daroga ... that she put out her forehead ... a little ... oh, not much ... just a little ... like a living bride ... And ... and ... I ... kissed her! ... I! ... I! ... I! ... And she did not die! ... Oh, how good it is, daroga, to kiss somebody on the forehead! ... You can't tell! ... But I! I! …

"Yes, daroga ... I felt her tears flow on my forehead ... on mine, mine! ... They were soft ... they were sweet! ... They trickled under my mask ... they mingled with my tears in my eyes ... yes ... they flowed between my lips ... Listen, daroga, listen to what I did ... I tore off my mask so as not to lose one of her tears ... and she did not run away! ... And she did not die! ... She remained alive, weeping over me, with me. We cried together! I have tasted all the happiness the world can offer!

“While I was at her feet ... I heard her say, 'Poor, unhappy Erik!' ... AND SHE TOOK MY HAND! ... I had become no more, you know, than a poor dog ready to die for her ... I mean it, daroga! …”

He's an angel and demon at the same time. He is mysterious, bold, and dangerous. No doubt about it. But there, deep inside, he's vulnerable. He's just a little child looking for love there in the vast heartless world of his. No matter how great the art that controls his body and mind, or the power he has in his hands, in the end, he's just a human being, like us, who needs another human being with him, who needs another to say that he is loved.

Poor, unhappy Erik.

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Character Thursday

Adalah book blog hop di mana setiap blog memposting tokoh pilihan dalam buku yang sedang atau telah dibaca selama seminggu terakhir (judul atau genre buku bebas).

- Kalian bisa menjelaskan mengapa kalian suka/benci tokoh itu, sekilas kepribadian si tokoh, atau peranannya dalam keseluruhan kisah.

- Jangan lupa mencantumkan juga cover buku yang tokohnya kalian ambil.

- Kalau buku itu sudah difilmkan, kalian juga bisa mencantumkan foto si tokoh dalam film, atau foto aktor/aktris yang kalian anggap cocok dengan kepribadian si tokoh.

Syarat Mengikuti :

1. Follow blog Fanda Classiclit sebagai host, bisa lewat Google Friend Connect (GFC) atau sign up via e-mail (ada di sidebar paling kanan). Dengan follow blog ini, kalian akan selalu tahu setiap kali blog ini mengadakan Character Thursday Blog Hop.

2. Letakkan button Character Thursday Blog Hop di posting kalian atau di sidebar blog, supaya follower kalian juga bisa menemukan blog hop ini. Kodenya bisa diambil di kotak di button.

3. Buat posting dengan menyertakan copy-paste “Character Thursday” dan “Syarat Mengikuti” ke dalam postingmu.

3. Isikan link (URL) posting kalian ke Linky di bawah ini. Cantumkan nama dengan format: Nama blogger @ nama blog, misalnya: Fanda @ Fanda Classiclit.

4. Jangan lupa kunjungi blog-blog peserta lain, dan temukan tokoh-tokoh pilihan mereka. Dengan begini, wawasan kita akan bertambah juga dengan buku-buku baru yang menarik

The Phantom of the Opera: When Love Isn't Blind

I didn't plan to read the book. I wanted to read it after Shakespeare, Dickens, and the rest, but somehow the Phantom of the Opera musical crossed my mind last week and I watched it again. Then, for the first time since I watched it, I cried. The story, the music, everything, was marvelous and it moved my heart.

I thought about the one who put the story down on paper and felt an impulse to read it right then, but I didn't have the time. So I downloaded the ebook (I couldn't find the book in bookshops) and started to read it yesterday. What an amazing story.

Perhaps this is the first time I mention this in this blog, but I am fond of opera. I love opera SO MUCH. I listen and watch mostly Italian opera, but I also like some French and German opera. They are lovable. So imagine the thrill in my heart when I read so many operas mentioned in this book, and how the Phantom sings some of them. I could hear his voice right then, singing Nuit d'hymenee from Gounod's Romeo and Juliette and Gia nella notte densa from Verdi's Otello. (I don't even know if it's Verdi's he's singing, but my mind suddenly played that duet)

Lon Chaney as the Phantom

But enough of that. I should be writing a review, right? So in short, the book is actually about a genius – so great was the power of his mind that he could make himself looked like a ghost in the vast building of the Opera House in Paris. For years people yielded to his wishes. He's just an amazing fellow.

He lacked one thing, though – proper physical appearance. He looked terrible. He had the ugliest face (so the book says) you can ever imagined to be on any human head. So he decided to hide in his underground palace, a palace so brilliantly built and so safely protected from any unwanted visitor. But down there, he enjoyed a tranquil life, let's say, or rather, a solitude life, because everybody needs companion, and he had none.

Then came Christine Daae, a beautiful young singer with angelic voice. She's a pupil of the ghost himself, who had the voice of both devil and angel, the Persian said. The poor ghost loved Christine deeply. They had the most enchanting date a girl could imagine. A voice, a bodiless voice called her from her dressing-room, singing Nuit d'hymenee from Gounod's Romeo and Juliette saying “La destinée m'enchaîne à toi sans retour. (Fate links thee to me forever and a day)” Then before she realised it, he was there with her, leading her through the ghost's underground kingdom, and lastly, to his palace by the lake.

That was before she saw his face.

Gerard Butler and Emmy Rossum as
Phantom and Christine

The ghost had one rival only – Raoul, the girl's childhood friend, now a reborn lover. He was cute, because I don't count a teen with blushing cheeks handsome. But he was good-looking, respectale, reputable (at least the family), everything that the ghost was not. They had one similarity: they both loved Christine and were resolved to do anything for her.

It was a beautiful story. I can't write more. I've lost all my words. But I can imagine, living underground or wherever with this masked genius would feel like living under the same roof with Orpheus himself, whose music invoked tears even from the cold inhabitants of Hades. The book moved me to ecstasy, just as Christine said, under the spell of the Opera Ghost – The Music of the Night.