The Dark Tower books aren't horror. There's some elements of horror that creep in around the edges, more or less in different books, but it's a dark fantasy. A post-apocalyptic and urban fantasy, with a heavy dash of Western. It can be very weird-- the first and the last books are the weirdest-- but it's great. It's quite different from most of his books, and it's basically his personal multi-book quest epic, something he's been writing for over 15 years in some form or another. And King said the entire story started from this poem by Robert Browning. Excerpt:
There they stood, ranged along the hill-sides, met To view the last of me, a living frame For one more picture! in a sheet of flame I saw them and I knew them all. And yet Dauntless the slug-horn to my lips I set, And blew “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came.”
I've read Thief of Time, but none of the others you listed there.
I read Tess in high school, either Honors or AP English, Idon't remember, and it was touted as a book about a strong female character. And while I did appreciate the fact that someone from that time period even bothered to write with a sympathetic female protagonist (rare), her characterization, her choices and the logic of her choices, and the characterizations of the men around her were atrocious to me. Partially because of the attitudes of the period, but also because it was presented to me as a love story where I was supposed to want Tess and Angel (that's his name?) to be together, when all I wanted was for him to join the other major male character and both of them to ride off a cliff and die. And Tess could go be a schoolteacher or something and possibly swear off all men, if the one she loved was supposed to be an example of what every woman desires.
But then again, my memory of the book is fuzzy, as I blocked a lot of it from my mind.
I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream professionally performed in my 9th grade year and then read it in 10th grade. It can be confusing on your own, but if you see it live first it's a LOT easier to understand when you read it. Which isn't true for every Shakespeare play; sometimes it's more confusing on stage.
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I've read Thief of Time, but none of the others you listed there.
I read Tess in high school, either Honors or AP English, Idon't remember, and it was touted as a book about a strong female character. And while I did appreciate the fact that someone from that time period even bothered to write with a sympathetic female protagonist (rare), her characterization, her choices and the logic of her choices, and the characterizations of the men around her were atrocious to me. Partially because of the attitudes of the period, but also because it was presented to me as a love story where I was supposed to want Tess and Angel (that's his name?) to be together, when all I wanted was for him to join the other major male character and both of them to ride off a cliff and die. And Tess could go be a schoolteacher or something and possibly swear off all men, if the one she loved was supposed to be an example of what every woman desires.
But then again, my memory of the book is fuzzy, as I blocked a lot of it from my mind.
I watched A Midsummer Night's Dream professionally performed in my 9th grade year and then read it in 10th grade. It can be confusing on your own, but if you see it live first it's a LOT easier to understand when you read it. Which isn't true for every Shakespeare play; sometimes it's more confusing on stage.