Review: Matilda

Matilda by Roald Dahl


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is the first Roald Dahl book I have read and I completely regret not reading his books when I was much much younger (Deprived childhood!). While there are some books which you enjoy whatever your age when you are reading them, Matilda, for me, was not one of them. I have seen the movie of course, but reading the book was very different. The movie seems more politically correct.

The story revolves around a super smart, gifted little girl, Matilda, who is stuck with highly unimaginative, almost dumb parents. They don't understand or encourage her in any form. While I understand from an adult's perspective, that children mostly see things as black and white, but Matilda punishing her parents for scolding her seems highly excessive and aggressive! Most of the book revolves around her "punishing/getting back" the unfair headmistress, Ms Trunchbull, or her parents and her love for Ms Honey, the best teacher who not only encourages her but in the end adops her as well.

While, Ms Trunchbull is the worst teacher unimaginable, almost the human version of the wicked witch, is Matilda, the gifted child any better? As adults, such books make it clear to us the evolving of our own thought processes and how we start accepting "greys" in our characters and lives.

Anyways, it is a perfectly delightful book for kids, though I am not happy about the punishing of parents as it goes completely against my Indian heritage, where children are supposed to respect/obey their parents no matter what (atleast till they are teenagers and get too rebellious ;))





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Review: The Importance of Being Earnest – A Trivial Comedy for Serious People

Book Details:




Author: Oscar Wilde

Book Summary: Oscar Wilde's brilliant play makes fun of the English upper classes with light-hearted satire and dazzling humour. It is 1890's England and two young gentlemen are being somewhat limited with the truth. To inject some excitement into their lives, Mr Worthing invents a brother, Earnest, as an excuse to leave his dull country life behind him to pursue the object of his desire, the ravishing Gwendolyn. While across town Algernon Montecrieff decides to take the name Earnest, when visiting Worthing's young ward Cecily. The real fun and confusion begins when the two end up together and their deceptions are in danger of being revealed.

My Review:

This is the first of Oscar Wilde’s plays that I have read and i must say that he is brilliant! His writing is eminently quotable and he brings a sharp satire to life. Reading classics such as this makes us realize the shortcomings of today’s authors. The play has a plot of mistaken identity, but is filled with witty dialogue and laugh-out-loud moments. The sardonic humour is vastly evident with lines such as “In married life, three is company, and two is none.” and “To lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”

The author touches on all the themes important to the English upper class at the time, love, romance, marriage, class divide, education and vanity. It can also be easily related to the current Indian society and makes you think that despite all the advancements around us, people in essence, have not changed much.

I rate it a 5/5. This is going on my shelf as a keeper and I’m sure that I will revisit it many many times in the future! I read this as part of my 100+ Books in a Year Challenge and Historical Fiction Challenge and my endeavour to expand my reading horizons beyond romance.

Rating: 5/5