Philadelphia Classics Book Club

Banned in Vietnam until 1986, Dumb Luck--by the controversial and influential Vietnamese writer Vu Trong Phung--is a bitter satire of the rage for modernization in Vietnam during the late colonial era. First published in Hanoi during 1936, it follows the absurd and unexpected rise within colonial society of a street-smart vagabond named Red-haired Xuan. As it charts Xuan's fantastic social ascent, the novel provides a panoramic view of late colonial urban social order, from the filthy sidewalks of Hanoi's old commercial quarter to the gaudy mansions of the emergent Francophile northern upper classes. The transformation of traditional Vietnamese class and gender relations triggered by the growth of colonial capitalism represents a major theme of the novel.

Join us online for a discussion of Mr. Fox by Barbara Comyns. You are welcome to participate regardless of whether you've finished the book in time - just note that there will likely be spoilers.

"Mr Fox is a spiv, dealing in second-hand cars and black-market food, and skilled in bending the law. When a woman and her young daughter are deserted at the start of World War II, he offers them a roof over their heads, and a shared, if dubious future."

(description from Goodreads.com)

Join us online for a discussion of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. You are welcome to participate regardless of whether you've finished the book in time - just note that there will likely be spoilers. **Please note that though I'm scheduling meetings for Tuesdays, this one will be on a Wednesday due to holiday travel**

"Christmas won't be the same this year for Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy, as their father is away fighting in the Civil War and the family has fallen on hard times. But though they may be poor, life for the four March sisters is rich with color, as they play games, put on wild theatricals, make new friends, argue, grapple with their vices, learn from their mistakes, nurse each other through sickness and disappointments, and get into all sorts of trouble."

(description from Goodreads.com)

This meeting will cover both Wonderland and Looking-Glass. Personal recommendation: "The Annotated Alice," edited by mathematician and wordplay connoisseur Martin Gardner, is an excellent guide through the richness of these deceptively simple books.

"On a golden summer afternoon in 1862, a shy, stammering math teacher invented a fairy tale about a little girl named Alice that would become part of the folklore of the world. From that tale came "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass," immortal classics of English literature that are among the most widely read, most admired, most studied, and most often quoted books in the world, relished today as much by adults as by young people." --from the book jacket blurb of "The Annotated Alice."