Quote:
Originally Posted by astrangerhere
It's funny, I've had a yearly re-read of War and Peace for three years running now, unintentionally. It clocks in at 1296 pages. But the notion of reading a twelve book cycle once a year completely overwhelms me. Who knows, though, this is my first read of the series and maybe I will love it as much as you. I have been enjoying the lush language, for sure. But tell me, am I going to get books where women are the focus? Right now I've only seen them in the context of mothers, sisters, or prostitutes and I will not be able to carry that through 12 books.
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Well, there is the unforgettable Pamela Flitton/Widmerpool.
(You need to watch the BBC series to appreciate her the best - Miranda Richardson was superb.)
But - the novels focus on Nick Jenkins and the kaleidoscope of characters that keep forming and reforming around him in new patterns. So the novels follow him through prep school, university, and WW II, and describe events as seen through his eyes. It becomes a challenge to re-fit characters from earlier books/earlier in Nick's life, into later volumes. The narrative for me reads as if Jenkins were sitting by a fireside reminiscing. It's his life.
And the language ... you can literally wallow in it.
The books are fairly short, with 4 chapters in each, so that the entire 12 novel sequence reads more like a triple-decker Victorian novel split into 12 volumes.