Read quite a bit since February 4th - read The Custom of the Country - ultimately shallow - The Reef - too rarefied in the character of Anna and the background of Givre but Darrow is brilliantly drawn - Xingu - pretty funny - begun Summer and Ethan Frome. Also Richard Mabey's Flora Britannica and Food for Free, and Keble Martin, spring has come very early this year, and after a trip to the London Wetlands Centre with an ornithologist friend, the Collins Bird Guide. Also Lucia in London by EF Benson, better than Queen Lucia, more consistently funny, various Chalet School books, the works of Gerard Manley Hopkins and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. And probably a bundle of other things I've completely forgotten. Some of The Bostonians.
But most importantly I have finished Hard Times, which means I've read my two Dickens to my partner's one Jane Austen (Mansfield Park). Which means we can have a new bargain, he can read The Portrait of a Lady and I daresay he's got some awful fate in store for me. He gave up on The Age of Innocence saying 'nothing happens'. I thought he'd see similarities between himself and Newland Archer. No, he was just bored.
Sunday 4 February 2007
Impressions
Started reading Bleak House, The Bostonians, The Master by Colm Toibin (sorry about missing the accents!), Killing Orders by Sara Paretsky, Widow's Walk by Robert B. Parker, The Fruit of the Tree and The Age of Innocence, Highland Velvet by Jude Deveraux, Jill Has Two Ponies by Ruby Ferguson, Rumours in the Fourth Form by Dorothy Dennison, and Hard Times.
Finished Killing Orders - read it before anyway.
Finished Jill Has Two Ponies. Know it practically off by heart.
Finished the two Edith Whartons. I know The Age of Innocence pretty well too. Thoroughly enjoyed and was compelled by The Fruit of the Tree, despite my annoyance with Justine Brent's utter stupidity. I love the way Edith Wharton makes her characters pay, all down the years of their lives - I hope Selden is still paying for his treatment of Lily - I love the quiet sadness of her books. But I can see why The Fruit of the Tree is kind of forgotten. The characters just aren't that compelling, and the moral messages are perhaps too stringent, untempered by the savage wit of The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country and The House of Mirth. The characters become compelling only when it becomes obvious that Justine is going to kill Bessy, only in that moment - and then they lose their headlong rush.
Finished Highland Velvet too. I first read it ages ago, when I was at school, when I thought romance was good - pretty much unreadable now. Why were they so damned stupid??? How could anybody fancy a man led so completely by his prick?
Rumours in the Fourth Form was one of those by-numbers school stories of pious Christian girls, with everything coming right in the end. No wonder the Chalet School and those Enid Blyton's were so successful - they weren't laden with Sunday School sentiment.
I enjoyed the first two chapters of Bleak House but I'm going to put it aside for Hard Times - Hard Times is shorter. Then my awful bargain will be finished.
I gave up on the Spenser book. Early Spenser I really enjoy. Good stories with interesting moral discussions added and apple-sharp dialogue. This one was all dialogue. Pages and pages of it. It was like some weird experiment. And it was boring.
I like the tangible authenticity of The Bostonians but it's not compelling me yet - possibly because I read the last chapter first. This is a bad habit of mine.
Not convinced by The Master so far. Hate books where the protagonist wakes up. Bad dream, good dream, wtf, boring.
Finished Killing Orders - read it before anyway.
Finished Jill Has Two Ponies. Know it practically off by heart.
Finished the two Edith Whartons. I know The Age of Innocence pretty well too. Thoroughly enjoyed and was compelled by The Fruit of the Tree, despite my annoyance with Justine Brent's utter stupidity. I love the way Edith Wharton makes her characters pay, all down the years of their lives - I hope Selden is still paying for his treatment of Lily - I love the quiet sadness of her books. But I can see why The Fruit of the Tree is kind of forgotten. The characters just aren't that compelling, and the moral messages are perhaps too stringent, untempered by the savage wit of The Age of Innocence, The Custom of the Country and The House of Mirth. The characters become compelling only when it becomes obvious that Justine is going to kill Bessy, only in that moment - and then they lose their headlong rush.
Finished Highland Velvet too. I first read it ages ago, when I was at school, when I thought romance was good - pretty much unreadable now. Why were they so damned stupid??? How could anybody fancy a man led so completely by his prick?
Rumours in the Fourth Form was one of those by-numbers school stories of pious Christian girls, with everything coming right in the end. No wonder the Chalet School and those Enid Blyton's were so successful - they weren't laden with Sunday School sentiment.
I enjoyed the first two chapters of Bleak House but I'm going to put it aside for Hard Times - Hard Times is shorter. Then my awful bargain will be finished.
I gave up on the Spenser book. Early Spenser I really enjoy. Good stories with interesting moral discussions added and apple-sharp dialogue. This one was all dialogue. Pages and pages of it. It was like some weird experiment. And it was boring.
I like the tangible authenticity of The Bostonians but it's not compelling me yet - possibly because I read the last chapter first. This is a bad habit of mine.
Not convinced by The Master so far. Hate books where the protagonist wakes up. Bad dream, good dream, wtf, boring.
Problem solved!
Well, I just read The Portrait of a Lady online, at the Henry James Scholar's Guide to Web Sites site, and their text is the New York edition, revised by Henry James in later style, which has the same ending and last chapter as the Penguin Classics edition. I think most of the changes are good ones, but I have a sneaking preference for the more 'authentic' version.
The Custom of the Country arrives on Tuesday.
Current books: The Bostonians, The Touchstone, Frances Bissell's Real Meat Cookbook, Belt Up by Thelwell, Sparkles by Louise Bagshawe, Candy by Kevin Brooks.
The Custom of the Country arrives on Tuesday.
Current books: The Bostonians, The Touchstone, Frances Bissell's Real Meat Cookbook, Belt Up by Thelwell, Sparkles by Louise Bagshawe, Candy by Kevin Brooks.
The Portrait of a Lady
Just read it again. The Penguin Popular Classics text is different from the Penguin Classics test. I'm guessing the second is the later one, as the writing seems more precise - mostly the changes are at the end, in the last part of the book. I think James ratcheted up the tension in the second one - and made the ending more clear.
I wish the film people had given the film a proper ending instead of that awful cop-out. She goes back to Rome. There's no power and no meaning if Isabel doesn't go back to Rome. Her real life will start then. All the rest has only been a prelude.
I wish the film people had given the film a proper ending instead of that awful cop-out. She goes back to Rome. There's no power and no meaning if Isabel doesn't go back to Rome. Her real life will start then. All the rest has only been a prelude.
Martin Chuzzlewit
Had a bargain with my partner: he'd read Mansfield Park if I read two Dickenses.
I started reading Martin Chuzzlewit in November. I finished it yesterday. This is an abnormally long time.
I didn't hate every minute. Young Martin was boring; Mark Tapley and Tom Pinch more fun, but their fates were obvious; the Pecksniffs were the most interesting characters. Jonas Chuzzlewit - boring.
As a study of selfishness and hypocrisy this works - except for the homilies and moral message. But that's of its time. As an exciting read, it didn't work - not for me. There were no surprises. There was no compulsion. No overarching story that forced to read until you finished it. Pecksniff got his come-uppance. The good guys got their rewards. Yay. But so what?
Dickens has a genius for naming characters. And each character is distinct and perfectly drawn. But so what?
So what? Who cares? Why should I care?
Partner said the same about Mansfield Park, which he did read - so what? She got married, so what?
I'm guessing Martin Chuzzlewit was a transitional book for Dickens. Maybe it doesn't work on all levels, but it wasn't a waste of time to read it. Some of his sarcasm, early on in the Pecksniff chapters, was worthy of Jane Austen herself.
I'm going to try David Copperfield next. There must be some reason for his classic status. Maybe he just doesn't chime with me.
Current books: The Benefits of Passion by Catherine Fox, The Portrait of a Lady (again) and Flora's Lot by Katie Fforde. Flora's Lot is a waste of time. Diverting and amusing but that's it.
I started reading Martin Chuzzlewit in November. I finished it yesterday. This is an abnormally long time.
I didn't hate every minute. Young Martin was boring; Mark Tapley and Tom Pinch more fun, but their fates were obvious; the Pecksniffs were the most interesting characters. Jonas Chuzzlewit - boring.
As a study of selfishness and hypocrisy this works - except for the homilies and moral message. But that's of its time. As an exciting read, it didn't work - not for me. There were no surprises. There was no compulsion. No overarching story that forced to read until you finished it. Pecksniff got his come-uppance. The good guys got their rewards. Yay. But so what?
Dickens has a genius for naming characters. And each character is distinct and perfectly drawn. But so what?
So what? Who cares? Why should I care?
Partner said the same about Mansfield Park, which he did read - so what? She got married, so what?
I'm guessing Martin Chuzzlewit was a transitional book for Dickens. Maybe it doesn't work on all levels, but it wasn't a waste of time to read it. Some of his sarcasm, early on in the Pecksniff chapters, was worthy of Jane Austen herself.
I'm going to try David Copperfield next. There must be some reason for his classic status. Maybe he just doesn't chime with me.
Current books: The Benefits of Passion by Catherine Fox, The Portrait of a Lady (again) and Flora's Lot by Katie Fforde. Flora's Lot is a waste of time. Diverting and amusing but that's it.
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