No Name - Norah

Continuing my reading of Wilkie Collins' No Name, I am revising my view of Norah Vanstone, the elder of the two Vanstone daughters. She is quiet and reserved and boring when compared to her younger sister Magdalen. I am coming to believe, however, that Norah is an example of still waters which run deep. She observes Magdalen's behavior and foresees consequences. Time will tell if Norah is right.

I am trying to avoid spoilers in my comments here. This book is a fun read, and I recommend it to readers who enjoy 19th century literature.

No Name - the fun begins

I can tell I am going to enjoy Wilkie Collins' No Name. There are several "hooks" in the beginning that keep the reader reading, wanting to learn the answers to little mysteries that Collins has created: what was in the letter from New Orleans that caused Mr. and Mrs. Vanstone to rush off to London for three weeks? What is the connection to New Orleans? What has brought Mr. Wragge to the Vanstones' home?

The younger daughter, Magdalen, is more vibrant than her older sister Norah. From the introduction written by Collins, I'm guessing that Magdalen is going to be the focus of the book, as it is difficult to believe that Norah would ever do anything of interest to the reader. Norah is 26, unmarried; Magdalen is 18, also unmarried, full of herself and life, enthusiasm overflowing at every turn.

No Name by Wilkie Collins

This evening I was bouncing around among various book blogs and ran into mention of a novel by Wilkie Collins called No Name, some 700 pages in the version the blogger had. The blog was Tales from the Reading Room.

Off I went to Google books to take a look at this "chunkster" to see if it might be something I would want to read. And of course it did appeal. Next step: download it onto my Sony PRS-505 through the link to Google books at the Sony ebook store. Now it's on that marvelous little device and I can read it - instant gratification at no cost (beyond, of course, what I paid for the PRS-505). Not only was it free, but I can now read it without my hands hurting from holding such a large book; and I can increase the font size for easier reading. I just opened No Name on the Sony reader, and it is 734 pages.

I love Google books and have spent many happy hours searching and downloading and reading. When I first read that Sony and Google had teamed up to make Google books available through the Sony ebook store for free download I couldn't understand what the advantage would be. I had been downloading the pdf versions of Google books onto the reader already, so what was the advantage? True, "turning" the pages in the pdf books was frustratingly slow, but I had learned to time pushing the turn page button so that I wouldn't have to wait. Well, there is an advantage to downloading Google books through the Sony ebook store: they are converted to text, and the frustrating page turn lags are gone.

For one who loves 19th century literature, as I do, this is amazingly wonderful. All I need now is more time to read!