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Six Degrees Of Separation: From The Road to Persuasion

Six Degrees of Separation is hosted by Kate, who each month decides on a starting book, from which everyone builds a chain of six books. Feel free to join in and post your link here.

Starting point: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

This month we start with The Road, in which a father and son are walking across a post-apocalyptic America. Not sure this one is going on my wish list just at the moment.

1. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

In Station Eleven we also follow a group of people walking across a post-apocalyptic North America. This group plays theatre and music with a focus on Shakespeare.

2. Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

Twelfth Night was the first Shakespeare play I ever saw and I thought it was good fun. Explaining the plot in a Shakespeare comedy is beyond my skills, but confusion surrounding a set of twins, Viola and Sebastian, is at its core.

3. A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

Confusion around a set of twins, Pip and Emma, also lies at the core of Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced, which is amongst my favourite Miss Marple stories.

 

4. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

The name Pip always reminds me of Great Expectations, where the protagonist is called Pip. I haven’t actually read it, but I watched a dramatisation ages ago. It will be my Dickens audiobook for 2020.

5. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

Great Expectations was published in Dickens’ weekly periodical, All the Year Round, 1860 – 1861. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins also appeared first in this magazine, although a bit later in 1868. Wilkie Collins was a close friend of Charles Dickens.  

6. Persuasion by Jane Austen

Miss Rachel in The Moonstone has two suitors, one of which has somewhat dubious moral standards. This is also the case for Miss Anne in Persuasion. Of course, both ladies make the right choice. I quite like Anne as a character even if she – with her 27 years – is quite old and has apparently lost her good looks. Ahem…

This was my chain – somehow it got stuck in the past, but I am rather fond of the classics. Where did your chain take you?

30 comments

  1. Wow… that chain took a really nice turn away from post-apocalypse stories, thank goodness! I really should read Twelfth Night…

    • Yes, I tried not to make it too depressing. I am sure it would have been possible to make a full chain with post-apocalypse novels. Twelfth Night is good fun. A bit silly I suppose, but still good fun! 🙂

    • Thanks, I must admit the numerical aspect was a coincidence rather than a deliberate move (or perhaps I shouldn’t reveal that, and just pretend I’m smart 😉 )

  5. I loved Station Eleven, and Twelfth Night is my favourite Shakespeare play. A Murder is Announced is one of my favourite Miss Marple books, too. And Great Expectations is my favourite Dickens novel. I read The Moonstone as a child, but The Woman in White is my favourite by Collins. I never got on with Persuasion. I did enjoy the TV adaptation starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds in 1995, in which the relative bounciness of Anne’s ringlets reflected her current level of hopefulness.

    This is a great chain.

    • Thanks! I am glad, I managed to include some of your favourites! The Moonstone was my first Collins, but I mean to read A Woman in White as well. Actually, I haven’t watched the TV adaptation of Persuasion, but I will definitely look out for it.

    • Thanks 😀 , I am curious about The Road as well, although I have seen rather mixed reviews. And possibly it is too depressive to read at the present.

  7. I loved your chain! We saw quite a few Shakespeare plays at a popup Globe theatre here a couple of years ago! So much fun!

    • Thanks! I am glad you had the opportunity to watch Shakespeare play, it’s definitely a great experience!

  9. Love the link from Shakespeare to Agatha Christie! A Murder is Announced is one of my favourites too. Yes, poor Anne, it must be terrible to be really ancient – I hope I never get to be 27… 😉

    • The Twin Connection! A Murder is Announced just has such a great set of characters – including Pip and Emma. Good to hear it’s a favourite of yours as well. Haha, yes if Anne is considered old, there is little hope for the rest of us 😉

  10. A much more light-heated chain than some this month (including my own!). Twelfth Night is my absolute favourite of all of Shakespeare’s works. So witty, such fun.

    • Yes, I know the starting book might have invited to a more serious if not dystopian chain, but I wanted to keep it relatively light. I love the dialogue in Twelfth Night, as you say it’s so witty!

  11. Twelfth Night is my favourite comedy by Shakespeare – although I struggle to describe it as a comedy… As for Persuasion – one of my favourite novels of all time!

    • I like Persuasion a lot as well and I definitely think Anne can hold her own against Elizabeth, Emma and other Jane Austen characters.

  12. I love it when you do these. It’s fascinating to see how they begin and evolve up to the end. I need to read some of these classics! I’ve been missing out!

    • I realised, it has been a while, since my last Six Degrees post. They are always fun to do. Don’t know why I got set on classics in this one, but I like all of them and can definitely see, why they have become classics.

  14. You’ve linked several great authors in your chain! Wilkie Collins, Agatha Christie and Jane Austen are favorites of mine. And I’ve enjoyed Charles Dickens as well. I haven’t read Station Eleven, but I have read a couple of Mandel’s other books and enjoyed them immensely. Thank you for sharing!

    • Christie and Austen are favourites of mine as well. I must admit The Moonstone is my first Wilkie Collins, but I mean to look into some of his other books. If you generally enjoy Mandel, you have to read Station Eleven, although perhaps now is not the right time to dig into post-apocalyptic literature. You are welcome! I tried to find your blog via your avatar btw, but it seems they are not linked.

    • Gah – I’m older than Anne, so I guess all hope is lost for me 😉

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