My Rating: 5 Stars

Ms Stacy King did it again! A perfect adaptation of the Jane Austen classic Emma. I've read the Manga Classics: Pride and Prejudice so far and I'm very glad I get to read other classics of this collection.

This manga, even in black and white, shows the liveliness, the humour and the innocence of Emma as she drags her friends into a love-match game! The drawings are beautifully mastered and I particularly liked the dresses and how they flow so nicely in the story. The expressions of the characters are perfectly represented.
I think the graphics really match the emotions of the novel. On the contrary of Pride and Prejudice that is set in a more mature and disciplined environment where social rules have to be obeyed, Emma is set in a more innocent and playful way, full of colour, laughter and it portraits perfectly the spirit of young Emma.

Fans of Jane Austen, I highly recommend it!

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher Udon Entertainment, and the author for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this book.

My Rating: 4 Stars

I'm a very fan of Jane Austen and all her novels. When I found this title, I decided to take a chance since it's not every day that you find a classic from the 19th century drawn in Manga. And I must say it was very worth it.

The plot of Pride and Prejudice is well known. The story is centred about the second-eldest daughter of a low-class family, Elizabeth in a world where women must marry since they can't heritage their father's fortune. Elizabeth will face love, hatred, lies and the hypocrisy that marks the 19th-century English society.

I absolutely fell in love with the drawings. They are very expressive and it's simply beautiful to read. Of course, the story is an adaptation of the original, the characters interact and talk more and I even got to see Mr Darcy embarrassed which was very out-of-character but still very amusing. Even so, I think the adaptation was well made and the flow of story doesn't change at all.

A very pleasant read!

​​Thank you, NetGalley, the publisher Udon Entertainment, and the author for allowing me to read and review a digital copy of this book.

My Rating: 5 Stars

​There aren't enough words to describe how much I enjoyed reading "Coriolanus". 

Caius Martius is a character that struggles with the image of himself and what others what him to be. I see a strong, hotheaded, blunt soldier that falls victim of a conspiracy led by a government that is afraid of his power, the strength of character and popularity. Coriolanus is arrogant proto-fascist that fails to become a politician, as his mother and the Roman government want him to be. Consequently, he walks right into a trap in which he falls victim. At the same time that he is a brute, he's also modest and honest with his comrades and himself until the very end. Furthermore, he had the courage to choose that was best for his family despite his thirst for revenge and knowing that his life was on the line. 
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In the end, his mistake is to remain himself no matter how much the people around him try to make him something he is not. Death seems 

This play is definitely on my top favourite of Shakespeare's works!

My Rating: 5 Stars

Much Ado About Nothing is probably the most sarcastic and witty play that he created. I saw the movie adaptation by Kenneth Branagh first and simply had to read the original play.

Loved the two main couples and each other their stories, but Beatrice and Benedick are really something else. For the first couple, Claudio and Hero, everything goes smoothly from the moment they fall hard and fast for each other until the villain sends everything off the rails. The hero is the female representative of her time and her position, reflecting on how purity had a significant impact on a woman's life.

In the centre of the play, we find Beatrice and Benedick, a love-hate relationship filled with harsh, witty and comic dialogues that are the mark of a Shakespearean comedy. Beatrice is the picture of a strong defiant woman, a master of wordplay that delivers her insults with mastery, precision, humour and precision. She is the only one that can combat the returned insults of Benedick, turning every scene they are together into a comical situation. 

Absolutely loved it!​

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My Rating: 5 Stars

​That is there not to love about the original stories of the most famous English outlaw?

The book starts with the story of a young Robert (later Robin of the Hood) and his father Hugh Fitzooth, going through the betrayal against his father and all the adventures against corruption and of course the famous villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham.

​As the reader advances in the book, familiar tales and beloved characters appear, like Lady Marian and Little John. The descriptions of the surroundings and the characters create a world, that for me, is very colourful and somewhat playful, showing that in most of the case, well does triumph over evil.

I absolutely recommend it!

My Rating: 5 Stars

This book is definitely the gem of Gothic horror and one of my favourites. I won't say it's an easy novel to get into but it's definitely worth every effort in getting through the first chapters. 

The atmosphere of this novel is, since the very beginning, very dark and gloomy. The descriptions gave me goosebumps. It only gets worse when Stoker describes the erotic scenes that were a scandal for the 19th-century gentleman and gentle-ladies. The shifting of perspectives along the novel gives the perfect depth into each character and the story-line. 

What I noticed though is that the main characters like Jonathan Hacker and Mina are very logical characters, trying to find a perfectly reasonable explanation for supernatural events without the exaltation of emotions that was expecting from the Gothic era. Both characters are the perfect representation of the Victorian society, following the rules of that society and its traditions. Dracula appears has the representation of hidden desires, the will to break the stereotypes, the unconscious and the unknown. For me, I found that Dracula was more human than any other character since he shows more emotion than any other.

An absolute must-read for the fans of Horror, the first vampire story that became the basis for all the other vampire stories that came later. This particular edition makes the story even more unique with its beautiful illustrations that bring out the atmosphere of the novel.

An amazing dark Gothic novel to read and re-read!

My Rating: 5 Stars

​Wow, I don't even know where to begin. Fahrenheit was the first dystopia I read and it definitely had an impact in the way I saw things before, things that shouldn't be taken for granted. This book is a legend, a classic of literature that tells a scary tale of how would society be if knowledge was taken from them, and, consequently, their freedom. How? By burning and forbidding the source of knowledge, books.

The future is described as a place where people no longer interact with each other and spend all their time and attention in front of a television. Books are banned, burned by firefights in the streets and if anyone is caught with them, they burn too. One character stands out in this dystopian society, Montag, a firefighter that lowly begins to question the rules and refuses to stand by them. What to do about it? What is the cost of liberty?

In terms of analysis, I will try and keep this short, because there is so much to interpret. 
Like I wrote before, books are the source of deep and complex knowledge that gives us the basis for communication and understanding of our reality. Burning books is a symbol of, not only that deep knowledge but of freedom as well. Why? Because with knowledge comes thought and with thought comes opinion and with that comes perception of wrong and right, agreement and disagreement, accepting and refusing. In a society where spending time in front of a television is mandatory, superficial and controlled knowledge rule. Owning books is, of course, illegal and against the law. People are manipulated by what they see and hear and don't question the rules, much like the firefighter that burn the books and they don't understand why but don't question it anyway.

Books are described as living things in this novel and I see it has the price of liberty: the loss of lives. In history books, all conflicts over liberty end in bloodshed, no matter how small. The view of books like they have thoughts and feelings can be interpreted as the lives that were lost fighting for it.

My Rating: 5 Stars

There not enough adjectives to describe this book. Oscar Wilde is definitely one of my favourite authors of the Victorian age, his witty humour, his passion, his power of observation, and his melodically way of writing makes me what to read the stories all over again and feel what I felt the first time I read them. 

I have my share of prose favourites, "The Picture of Dorian Gray" "An Ideal Husband", "The Importance of Being Earnest". They show a big knowledge and understanding of society, its problems, how appearances are the key to obtain "the perfect life". But it was in his poems and letters that I felt his heart, his music and his passion. His letter "De Profundis" is absolutely perfect and I'm sure it moves even the coldest of readers.

The 5 stars are more than deserved for this masterpiece.

My Rating: 5 Stars

A friend recommended me to read this book even though it's for children. I took up the challenge and most say it's not what I was expecting... in a good way. 

For me, the story had a very slow and calm flow of events and it reminded of the time when I was still a child that saw the world through the eyes of innocence. Tom travels through time without really understanding why, getting to know friendship, reflecting on time itself, and growing up.

The ending is simply beautiful, and I felt a warmth that I haven't felt in a while when reading a children's book.