As a sort of coping device lately I've turned to reading. Surprise, surprise to anyone who knows me. But I haven't been able to rustle up the give-a-fuck to read YA or even adult novels - I wanted some period stuff, some literature with good philosophical musings on the nature of humanity or on the criticism of society, stuff like that. So, in light of my Literature class's profound lack of anything resembling traditionally classic text this year, this is where I headed.
I've got to admit it isn't the first time I've decided to read the classics as a hobby. Last year I read a whole bunch of them - I read Pride and Prejudice, Les Miserables, Frankenstein, some Shakespeares (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing). Actually, looking back, it wasn't all that much. Admittedly though, I got bored. Not with the classics in general, but with one in particular - Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. I loved the movie - the one with Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson - so I was completely surprised that this one almost sent me to sleep. I love books, but this one I just couldn't get into, and it makes me sad because a) this particular Jane Austen is often hailed as her best, and b) I loved Pride and Prejudice so, so, so much. So guess what? I tried again this year, almost (if not more than) a whole year later, in which I've had time to grow, develop as a person and discover a plethora of new things about myself. And what do you know - I only got about a third of the way in and I was. so. bored. I felt myself slipping out of that 'cultural and literary enlightenment' vibe and I freaked, so I put it away - to my great consternation, because I find it really hard to just give up on a book, particularly one with so much promise - and switched to Dracula by Bram Stoker. I'm finding it a little slow, but I've only just passed the 100-page mark and I can feel the tension and Gothic elements ramping right up which is making me super excited.
Anyway - what classics have I read so far in my little phase? So, the first one I picked up was Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. I particularly liked the edition I picked up of it, and I did a whole background check on Goodreads to check what it was about and how good the general public believed it to be. Let me tell you, do not believe the general public. The average rating on Goodreads is fairly unimpressive given the fact that the novel has been hailed as 'the perfect work of fiction' by many a past literary critic. But I've got to admit, my personal review would be pretty damn close to that assessment. I loved it. It was beautiful, and tragic, and quite disturbing at the end. Not a lot of people like the titular character, but I confess I really did - she's flawed, she's frustrating, but she's human, and aren't we all flawed and frustrating? She makes so many stupid mistakes - her worst I believe was marrying the man she did. How stupid is he? I really didn't like him, and quite often sympathised with Emma for the restlessness she felt in living a mundane, middle-class life. I know the feeling of restlessness all too well - definitely not for the same reasons as her, but still. The end was tragic. I cried, but I also found it really well written. Probably not appropriate for the depressed, but it did in a weird way bring back some of that old happiness. I hadn't been able to pick up a book and read in a long time, so to do that and really enjoy it sort of kicked me back into gear a bit. Anyway - read the book. It's brilliant. 5/5.
I then read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Again, I had tried to read this when I was younger, in grade 5 - we had a mini library in the corner of our classroom with one of the Penguin black editions of the book there. I opened it and tried my hardest to get into it, but I just... couldn't. It was a little boring for me, and I couldn't stand reading about her growing up in such a meandering, linear fashion. But I had heard nothing but good things about it from older readers, and my Lit teacher mentioned it once or twice, and I found the most beautiful edition of it. I decided to read it, and man, I almost wish I had sat through it when I was younger so I had had more time to love it. It was just... everything. I loved it so much. I found I understood it more when I grew older - the tragic story of Jane's early life just didn't have the same impact on me as it did when I was young. I cried when Helen died. When she went to Thornfield I just knew something epic was going to happen. And it did - ah, Mr Rochester. He's supposed to be ugly, but because I always knew of the existence of the 2011 movie I see nothing but Michael Fassbender (yeah... I like him). He was great, and I really enjoyed the interactions between him and Jane. I squeeed when he proposed to her. I freaked out when he revealed his psycho wife. I loved the journey she took after, and I hated her cousin St. John. I really loved the ending - after he'd lost all his power over her, she came back to him and they married as equals. So progressive for the time period. I loved the Gothic elements of the novel too - it brought a creepy, supernatural element to the story that I completely wasn't expecting, given it's label as a coming-of-age romance story. It just added yet another facet to a deep and layered novel. When I finished it, I fell into a book coma of despair for a good half hour, contemplating what my life would be like now that I had finished the book. I loved it so much it made me want to re-read it, which I'm never able to do with a book (flashback to Jake watching a movie he liked over and over and over and over until I could quote it verbatim and eventually ended up resenting it, thus turning me off repeats forever). But I had plenty of other novels on my TBR pile, so I put it away somewhat wistfully. Shame on you if you don't like it, and shame on you if you haven't read it. Go read. 10/10.
I read Little Women by Louisa May Alcott next, although I
had read it when I was younger. Well, sort of. Turns out I had read an abridged
edition which basically cut out the last half of the book. I found this out
when I had read the book as a young girl, and then proceeded to watch the 1994
film with Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Claire Danes and Christian Bale (mmm...
Christian Bale), only to find that my favourite character died. Why? Why??! So
I read the book again this year, and, just like the movie did, the book made me
cry. I loved it. It was a beautiful story, and touched on the influence of
religious thinking, domesticity and true love, and it was a brilliant
introduction to the theme of coming-of-age in classic novels. I really did love
this novel, but the ending just haunts me. So sad. 4/5.
I then read Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Again, I had tried to read this when I was younger, in grade 5 - we had a mini library in the corner of our classroom with one of the Penguin black editions of the book there. I opened it and tried my hardest to get into it, but I just... couldn't. It was a little boring for me, and I couldn't stand reading about her growing up in such a meandering, linear fashion. But I had heard nothing but good things about it from older readers, and my Lit teacher mentioned it once or twice, and I found the most beautiful edition of it. I decided to read it, and man, I almost wish I had sat through it when I was younger so I had had more time to love it. It was just... everything. I loved it so much. I found I understood it more when I grew older - the tragic story of Jane's early life just didn't have the same impact on me as it did when I was young. I cried when Helen died. When she went to Thornfield I just knew something epic was going to happen. And it did - ah, Mr Rochester. He's supposed to be ugly, but because I always knew of the existence of the 2011 movie I see nothing but Michael Fassbender (yeah... I like him). He was great, and I really enjoyed the interactions between him and Jane. I squeeed when he proposed to her. I freaked out when he revealed his psycho wife. I loved the journey she took after, and I hated her cousin St. John. I really loved the ending - after he'd lost all his power over her, she came back to him and they married as equals. So progressive for the time period. I loved the Gothic elements of the novel too - it brought a creepy, supernatural element to the story that I completely wasn't expecting, given it's label as a coming-of-age romance story. It just added yet another facet to a deep and layered novel. When I finished it, I fell into a book coma of despair for a good half hour, contemplating what my life would be like now that I had finished the book. I loved it so much it made me want to re-read it, which I'm never able to do with a book (flashback to Jake watching a movie he liked over and over and over and over until I could quote it verbatim and eventually ended up resenting it, thus turning me off repeats forever). But I had plenty of other novels on my TBR pile, so I put it away somewhat wistfully. Shame on you if you don't like it, and shame on you if you haven't read it. Go read. 10/10.
A novel I approached with great trepidation was Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Again, I had tried to read this novel when I was younger (in fact, I tried to read it in to same year I was in grade five, in that little mini library of books in the corner). I ended up having to re-read pages over and over to get some sort of gist of what the hell they were talking about. I did not get it. I've tried really hard not to let other people's impressions of this novel get in the way of my attempts to re-read this in future, as I knew I was always going to try again. I know many people hated this novel. When I read this, the first thing that struck me was the fact that my assumptions of this book were all wrong. For so long it has been touted as a great love story between Cathy and Heathcliff - has anyone read this book? If whatever the hell is between them is love, then it's poison at best. This is no love story. It is dark, and depressing, and fifty shades of fucked-up. I hated all the characters - you usually find a character to sympathise with and follow along with and appreciate. Nope. Nada. Zilch. I hated them all. They're all awful, awful people with their various selfish imperfections and disturbing natures. It was a completely tragic novel, with barely a happy ending scraped up. But despite all this, all this, I actually really loved it. In spite of the fact that all the characters are horrible, the storyline is horrible and the ending barely passes as pleasant it is written very well, and the awfulness of this story is what makes it so powerful and brilliant and sad. After a while I actually started to like the evilness of the characters, and crave it more in their confrontations. I loved the creepy supernatural effect implied at the end. It was a haunting, beautiful and messed up novel that I highly recommend to anyone going through a Gothic or depressive literature phase, or even one looking for in depth character studies on the flawed sphere of human nature. 5/5.
What am I aiming to read after Dracula? Well, I'm hoping to read Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy; Emma, Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park by Jane Austen; Lady Chatterly's Lover by D.H. Lawrence; Therese Raquin by Emile Zola; The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde; and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte. Oh, and I completely forgot! Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. I'll probably do a joint review similar to this one when I've finished enough on this little list. Anyone interested - keep an eye out, or go ahead and subscribe if you've read this far. Thanks.
 |
| Clothbound Classics by Penguin/ Word Cloud Classics by Canterbury Classics |
Anyway, better study. Thanks for reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment