Bleak House Readalong - Week 8

Bully for you, Charles Dickens! You've got this thing going now and things are really starting to get interesting. Poor Esther has suffered from what must be small pox, and survived, although scarred. Poor Richard has done lost his mind to the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. And poor Lady D has had to make the greatest sacrifice.

What I Liked This Week:
This quote about the lawyer, Tulkinghorn, who's been really aggravating the group reading along:

"Has he so little pity of compunction?"
"He has none, and no anger. He is indifferent to everything but his calling. His calling is the acquisition of secrets, and the holding possession of such power as they give him, with no sharer or opponent in it."

Tulkinghorn was played to perfection in the 2005 BBC production of "Bleak House." Doesn't this guy look just as cold as that description?

What I Didn't Like This Week: 
Yes there was another new character this week but now that I've gotten to the point in this book where things are finally starting to happen, I was frustrated to find a long bit that didn't seem to progress the story at all. Couldn't Dickens have just said "and Caddy lived happily ever after?"

Bleak House Readalong - Week Seven

Huzzah! Things are really starting to happen now, after only a 350 page buildup. Little surprises, big surprises, characters are coming together and I'm finally, finally really wanting to pick up this book and read!

What I Liked This Week:
No new characters to keep track of - 'nuff said.

Spontaneous combustion. Apparently this wasn't just an interesting way to kill off a character; Dickens actually believed that spontaneous combustion was possible. The descriptions of this - so vivid!

BBC's Krook - before he combusted!

What I Didn't Like This Week:
Is it possible that Dickens forgot that earlier in the book he had made a point to show Mrs. Woodcourt snubbing Esther then all of a sudden she is staying at Bleak House and making buddy-buddy with Esther. Okay, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a mistake and she's not necessarily trying to endear herself to Esther but still, it was strange.

FYI: 
Do not ever accidentally check the character list for a book in SparkNotes to be reminded who a character is. They totally spoil things in their explanations. So irritated do have found out some things I would far preferred to have had revealed to me much later!

Bleak House Readalong - Weeks Five and Six

I fell behind last week and had to read two weeks' worth of Bleak House this week. Seriously, the reading for last week tended to put me to sleep within a few pages. It was slow going this week!

What I liked this week:

True, they were new characters (and you know how tired I'm getting of all of these new characters - see below) but I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction of the Smallweed family. What a strange group they are!

BBC Bleak House's Grandfather Smallweed

The best thing this week? Wallace left us this week just as a major bombshell was dropped. Okay, it wasn't a total surprise. I'm willing to bet that most of those joining in the readalong had more than an inkling about who Esther's mother was. But it all came out so marvelously!

What I didn't like this week:
Really Charles, do we really need to learn so much about EVERY new character you're introducing? I've lost my ability to care about any of the background story for a lot of these people  - Phil, I'm sorry, but I'm looking at you.

It's getting hard to say anything about the book without giving things away, on the chance that you'll someday choose to pick this one up. I'm looking forward to the reading for the coming week, thanks largely to the last chapter this week. I think that maybe, just maybe Dickens is starting to bring all of these loose ends together.

Bleak House Read-a-Long Week 4

Once again, this week I found myself begin grateful that I'm working on this one as part of a group, with a sense of obligation to keep reading so that I can join the discussion. During the same period I was trying to wade through this week's chapters, I was also
reading The Sun Also Rises. Boy, did Dickens give me an appreciation for Hemingway's succinct style!

What I Liked This Week: 
Some of the characters are starting to overlap stories. The household Jarndyce chanced to meet up with Lady Dedlock, a new character brings up a tie to Esther that Guppy learns about, and a mysterious "servant," who is clearly a lady (methinks Lady Dedlock) asks Jo to show her the haunts of Nemo, a character we have only met in death.

What I Didn't Like This Week:
Really, Dickens? More new characters?  At least this time there appears to be a reason for introducing them but did we really need so much buildup of them? My husband read this book as part of a college English literature course. I can't imagine trying to keep track of all of these characters and be able to ascribe a purpose for their inclusion even as you are trying to race through the book to get it read in the short period of time you have to read a book in school.

Bleakhouse Read-a-long Week 3

In my edition of Bleakhouse, we are now 182 pages in and Dickens is still introducing us to new characters and characters who seemed to play a part not worth noting are suddenly reappearing. One, Mr.Woodcourt, has now appeared three times but he only finally merits a name the third time we meet him. It makes me wonder who else I might have overlooked early on.

What I Liked This Week:

This description of a new-to-us character, Mr. Turveydrop:

"He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion, false teeth, false whiskers, and a wig. He had a fur collar, and he had a padded breast to his coat, which only wanted a star or a broad blue ribbon to be complete. He was pinched in, and swelled out, and got up, and strapped down, as much as he could possibly bear...He had a cane, he had an eye-glass, he had a snuff box, he had rings, he had wristbands, he had everything but any touch of nature; he was not like youth, he was not like age, he was not like anything in the world, but a model of Deportment."

Which was all this ridiculous man was about. He has spent every minute of everyday since he married and of his widowhood relying on his wife and son to earn enough money to allow him to pretend to be aristocracy. I do so love Dickens' characters!

What I Didn't Like:

Mr. Guppy. Granted, as characters go, he is definitely memorable but he is so freakin' creepy! He's quite possibly the original literary stalker. Our poor little heroine is quite beside herself.

Also, nearly a quarter of the way in, I'm getting anxious for some of the many parts of this story to start coming together while I can still remember all of them! We've had quite a number of characters that appear quite prominently in one chapter then disappear all together. I'm sure I must be patient; I have a notion we're going to read at least this much more before anything starts to become clear. I'm thoroughly enjoying the discussion of this novel with Wallace and the rest of the members of the readalong at Unputdownables.

Bleak House Readalong - Week One

I swear I did read the rules for this readalong and at some point it must have occurred to me that, at the rate we were reading, this thing was going to drag on for a long time. Still I was surprised last night when I went back to the original post to make sure I had read enough for this week's discussion. We will be discussing this Bleak House until the end of May. May. Which means that there is a very good chance that a) in all of those weeks, I'm likely to miss a couple of discussions and be kicked off the island, and/or b) I will flat run out of time to read or discuss the book in May with a graduation to plan and prepare for. But I'm hell bent to actually finish reading Bleak House this time so I'm going to stick it out.

Leo Tolstoy and George Orwell were said to be fans of Charles Dickens because of his comedy, realism and social commentary. Henry Miller and Virginia Woolf, on the other, not such big fans. They thought his work was sentimental and implausible. For my money, Dickens' work is actually all of those things and the blending of them may just explain why his work has stood the test of time. I think English teachers have loved them for years as well because they make a great torture device for students - Dickens never met a word he didn't like and the more, the better.

"Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs, fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog dropping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little 'prentice boy on deck."

And there you have the very reason why my copy of Bleak House is 770 pages long. Is it necessary to use that many words to tell the reader that " it was really foggy all around?" Probably not. But this time, knowing I only had to read 75 pages, I really read every one of those words and I swear by the time I got through that paragraph, I half expected to see fog rising up from under my bed. For a book that is centered around a court case that has dragged on and on for years, it even makes perfectly good sense that descriptions of the case, the court and the plaintiffs would stretch out endlessly as well.

Things I liked in Week One:

1. Words - Dickens gives me words I don't usually get a chance to read, such as "amanuensis" which is a person performing a task by hand, either manual labor or transcribing someones words. I can't pronounce it but I love to read it!

2. Character Names - Mr. Tangle, for one of the participants in the case; Mr. Krook (well, you can just imagine what we'll learn about him down the road); Mr. Skimpole, a character who is forever needing money from his friends and Esther, our  leading lady. Now Esther may sound a little dull given the other names in the book but consider the Book of Esther from the Bible. Our Esther, like the Bible Esther, is an orphan, raised by a family member (although our Esther is not aware of that fact initially). Makes me wonder what other parallels the Esthers might have.

3. Social criticisms - we're only 75 pages in and already Dickens has made his position clear on the British court system and well-meaning people who neglect their own families as they try to save the world. He's also taken jabs at the wealthy and the judgmental.

Things I didn't like in Week One:

1. Words - Yes there are too many of them. I don't care how good the writing is or how wonderful a picture it paints, sometimes my eyes just start to glaze over.

It's not too late to join the readalong! If you'd like to join us, or are just interested in learning what comes up in our discussions about Bleak House, jump on over to Wallace's Unputdownables.

Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck

Of Mice And Men by John Steinbeck
112 pages
Originally published in 1937, republished in 1993 by Penguin Group
Source: bought it

Of Mice And Men is the story of an unlikely friendship between two men, migrant workers who endlessly dream of a better life. George Milton and Lennie Small have traveled from job to job, always hoping to be able to earn enough money to buy a small piece of land.

George, wise and patient, dreams of being able to live off of the land, to work only for himself. Lennie, large, strong and mentally slow, dreams only of being able to care and pet a hutch of rabbits.
Lennie is a hard worker, but because of his slowness, his tendency to overly love things, and his reaction when he becomes frightened, the pair are constantly having to move on before they can get the money together to make their dream come true.

In Of Mice and Men, George and Lennie are starting work at a new place with high hopes once again. George does everything he can to try to keep things calm but there is trouble brewing at this ranch. A lonely, lovely wife and her very jealous husband, who also happens to be the boss, make George nervous from the beginning...with good reason.

Banned Books Week crept up on me stealthily, on all-fours and I couldn't figure out how I was going to squeeze in one more book in order to rebel against those who want to tell us what we can and cannot read. Then last Monday I was in that store I hate to shop in and there sat this little bit of banned wonder. I'm not sure why, but I've never read Of Mice and Men before, never even watched one of the movie versions. In the end, once again I found myself wondering why I had waited so long to read something that so many have spoken so highly of for so long.

When I was pulling up the publication information for this book, I saw this in a review:

"I was not very impressed by this book. The story was simple, the characters sympathetic and, but for a few exceptions, well drawn out, and the final twist of events was emotionaly impactive [sic]. But that's about all I can say that's good about this book."

Really? "The characters were sympathetic, the story was well drawn out and the final twist was emotionaly impactive" [sic]--and that's not enough to make a book good? No? Well, that's definitely not all I can say that's good about this book.

In only 112 pages, Steinbeck manages to craft a marvelously touching friendship, surround his lead characters with a fully drawn supporting cast, and build a feeling of tension all while creating a landscaping and settings that come to life.

"A far rush of wind sounded and a gust drove through the tops of the trees like a wave. The sycamore leaves turned up their silver sides, the brown, dry leaves on the ground scudded a few feet. And row on row of tiny wind waves flowed up the pool's green surface."

The reviewer I quoted above had a problem with the fact that most of the ambiance of the book comes at the beginning of each chapter after which Steinbeck focuses on the story itself. I hadn't even realized that was the case until I read this review; I was so taken with the both the descriptions of the settings and the story of the men on that ranch. It didn't matter to me than one took precedence over another at any one time.In researching this book, I found that Steinbeck had intentionally done this to make the book something that could be read as a novella or as a play. Which may account for why this book came alive for me.

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

The Awakening by Kate Chopin
First published in 1899
Source: I own a copy but this time I listened to it on Librivox

Edna Pontellier, 28-year-old wife and mother of two, is summering with her family at Grand Isle as they, and so many other wealthy New Orleans families, have done for a number of years, when her thoughts and feelings begin to make her question the life she has chosen.

In the late 19th century, Edna's path was quite set from the moment she was born.  A young woman was expected to play a little piano, to paint a little, and to learn to become the wife and mother she was destined to become.  Nothing more was to expected, nothing more was to be hoped for.  But Edna had never fit the mold.  She didn't marry her husband, Leonce, because she was in love with him; in fact, she appreciated not being in love with him.  She married him for dignity, because he loved her and because her family did not approve.  When the boys are young, though, Leonce begins to believe there is a shortcoming in his wife; he can't name it but knows that she's not a "mother wife."  In this, he is right.  Edna loves her boys, but more in the way that an aunt would rather than a mother. 

At Grand Isle, Edna begins a flirtation with one of the sons of the owner.  Robert LeBrun attaches himself each summer to one of the women staying at the resort but the women never really take him seriously.  It is not until Robert leaves for Mexico that Edna realizes how deep her feelings for him have become.  Her "mantel of reserve" has been loosened and once the family returns to New Orleans it becomes obvious that Edna is unable and unwilling to go back to life as she has known it.

As someone who is something of a modern day "mother wife" (I stayed home for a dozen years to raise my children), I had a hard time connecting with Edna at first.  But I also had to acknowledge that doing that was my own choice, a choice I could quite easily not have made.  A choice Edna did not have.  When Kate Chopin wrote this book, it was considered quite shocking.  After all, Edna eventually abandons her family and carries on an adulterous affair, something that would even today raise eyebrows. Today, it's considered a major achievement.


Chopin has populated this story with a wealth of characters representing all facets of life in this time period.  Edna's friend Adele Ratignolle is the epitome of what a wife and mother was expected to be at that time.  Mademoiselle Reisz, a single woman pursuing her own passion without regard to convention, becomes Edna's role model.  Leonce is a man who loves his wife but thinks of her as not much more than a possession.  The secondary and minor characters in the book are all in place for a reason, making it a book that is ideal for teaching.

But this story is much more than a lesson.  It is a beautifully written work that is every bit as relevant today as it was more than 100 years ago.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

The Christmas Books: Volume 1 by Charles Dickens
    includes A Christmas Carol and The Chimes
The stories were originally published in 1843 and 1844 respectively
Source: this copy was bought by my husband in college

Ebenezer Scrooge is a man who has lost all touch with humanity.  He is a truly awful man who cares for nothing more than his money.  Then one night he is visited by the ghost of his late partner, Jacob Marley.  Marley is weighed down by all of the evils of his own life and tells Scrooge that he will be cursed in the same way when he dies if he doesn't make changes in his life.

"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faultered Scrooge, who now began to apply this to himself.

"Business!" cried the Ghost, wringing its hands again. "Mankind was my business.  The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business.  The dealings of my trade were but a crop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business."

Scrooge is then visited by three spirits.  The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back to various scenes in his childhood and youth, reminding him of the sadness of his early years, the joy of his early adulthood and then again of the sadness of the end of a relationship because of his love of money.  Scrooge's heart begins to melt.

When the Ghost of Christmas Present visits and shows Scrooge all that he is missing and what people think of him, Scrooge becomes convinced that he needs to change his ways. He sees his nephew who says he will always continue to try to make amends with his uncle no matter the response.  He sees the home of his clerk, Bob Cratchit, and is particularly struck by Bob's crippled son, Tiny Tim.  This Ghost also makes Scrooge aware of his greater responsibility to mankind.  Under this Ghost"s robes are two ragged, forlorn children.  The Ghost explains to Scrooge:

"They are Man's."  "This boy is Ignorance.  This girl is Want.  Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased."

But when the Ghost of Christmas Future comes to call, Scrooge is horrified to see his own demise and the reaction of those who knew him.  When he awakens after that last visit, he truly is a changed man. 

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, Present, and the Future, The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.  I will not shut out the lessons that they teach."

Charles Dickens wrote this novella at a time when Britain was experiencing a nostalgia for their Christmas traditions while at the same time beginning to incorporate new ideas such as Christmas trees and holiday cards.  It is said to have been inspired by Dickens' own youth, his sympathy for the poor and Washington Irving's writings.  In nearly 160 years, it has never been out of print and has been adapted for the stage, television, movies and even opera.

The first run of the book was 6000 copies which were first available on December 19 and sold out before December 24.  That may not be many copies by today's standards but I've got to say that I'm pretty impressed that 6000 copies of a book sold out in under five days in a time before there were wide PR campaigns for books, even if it was Charles Dickens who had, by that time, published "The Adventures of Oliver Twist," "The Life And Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby," and "The Old Curiosity Shop," all in serialized publication.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Originally published in 1817
Source: included in the complete works of Jane Austen book given me by my parents

Catherine Morland is a naive, unaccomplished 17-year-old, prone to let her imagination take flight when she's invited to join some family friends for a few weeks in Bath.  There she meets the Thorpe family, including Isabella who becomes her dearest friend. Catherine's brother, James, arrives in Bath with Isabella's brother, John.  James and Isabella have met before and shortly after James' arrival in Bath, the two become engaged.

Catherine also meets Henry Tilney in Bath who she becomes smitten with and shortly after, the rest of his family including his sister, Eleanor; brother, Frederick; and father, General Tilney.  Not long after Frederick arrives he begins pursuing Isabella. Catherine is so uncomfortable by the whole situation that when Eleanor invites her to come to stay with the Tilney's at Northanger Abbey, Catherine is more than ready to leave Bath.  Once at Northanger Abbey, though, Catherine's imagination really begins to run away with her.

Northanger Abbey was the first book that Austen had ready for publishing, even selling it.  But it was never published until after her death.  It's quite obviously an early work but even an early Austen is a wonderful bit of wit.

"A family of ten children will be always called a fine family, where there are heads and arms and legs enough for the number..."

"Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.  A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can."

Austen creates in Catherine a character who is in most ways a perfectly ordinary young lady.  But Austen mocks society by making it appear that Catherine is deficient because she can't draw a profile or play the piano and because she is absorbed in books. Catherine's childlike, trusting nature makes her a poor judge of character, susceptible to all of Isabella's flattery, John's lies and General Tilney's excessive kindnesses.  Sadly, the only way for things to end happily for Catherine ( and this being Austen, you know things will end happily) is for her to learn a great deal about human nature. 

Something unique to this story is Austen's use of the writer herself as very much a part of the story.  While it was appropriate for this book, before her next novel Austen had developed the ability to insert what where the writer's points in this novel into the narrative and dialogue of the characters.

This was the only Austen novel I had never read more than once.  Now I'm not sure why; I know I will read it again--if for no other reason than the laughs.

Pierre: A Cautionary Tale In Five Chapters And A Prologue and Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Pierre: A Cautionary Tale In Five Chapters And A Prologue by Maurice Sendak
Originally published in 1962
Source: we own it

"Pierre" is the story of young Pierre who refuses to do anything his parents tell  tell him to do and never says anything more than "I don't care."  It's just that attitude that gets him into trouble when he meets a lion.  As he always does, Sendak blends dark (Pierre is eaten by the lion) with light and his poetry with his delightful artwork, all combined to teach the reader a moral.

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
First Published in 1963
Source: a gift for my son when he was born

One night Max puts on his wolf suit a creates mischief of one kind and another, earning a trip to his room without supper.  While there Max forest grows in Max's room and a private boat comes by and takes Max away to where the wild things are.  Max soon tames the wild things and becomes their king but after a time he is forced to send them off to bed without their supper and decides he wants to be "where someone loved him best of all."

My favorite part of our copy of this book is the inscription our friend wrote in it when they gave it to my son:

"Always remember..., even when you are a "Wild Thing" you can always go back to be where someone loves you best of all."

It's a simply story with a wonderful lesson and I'm so happy that our friend made it a personal message, one all children need to know.

I re-read both of these books for the "You've Got Mail" Challenge.

The Pearl by John Steinbeck

The Pearl by John Steinbeck
97 pages
Originally published 1947

Kino is a pearl fisherman along the Mexican gulf.  He, his wife, Juana and baby son, Coyotito, live in a small brushhouse on the edges of their small community alongside the other native pearl-fishers.  They are poor but seem contented with their lives together.  Then two things happen that change their lives forever.

First Coyotito is bitten by a scorpion.  Juana immediately jumps into action, sucking as much of the poison out of the baby as she can.  But  Kino and Juana battle between their instinct to do what their ancestors have always done and their fear that they should call on the village doctor.

"Kino hesitated a moment.  This doctor was not of his people.  This doctor was of a race which for nearly four hundred years had beaten and starved and robbed and despised Kino's race, and frightened it too, so that the indigene came humbly to the door.  And as always when he came near to one of this race, Kino felt weak and afraid and angry at the same time.  Rage and terror went together."

When Kino makes the decision to take Coyotito to the doctor, he is turned away at the door for lack of money, fueling Kino's rage and feeding his feelings of inferiority.

Later that same day, it appears that their lives will take a turn for the better when Kino finds a magnificent pearl that the villagers are soon proclaiming to be The Pearl Of The World.  Kino begins seeing in the pearl all his family will soon have--new clothes, a new harpoon, an education for Coyotito, and a church wedding.  But Kino knows that "the gods do not love men's plans, and the gods do not love success unless it comes by accident" and Kino has now made plans, plans easily to be attacked.  He begins to worry that others will begin to cause problems for his family, with good reason.  Soon the priest is at the door to "bless" them but also to stake his claim for the church; the doctor shows up suddenly eager to treat the baby; and dark men beginning appearing in the house, trying to steal the pearl.  Was the pearl a blessing...or a curse?

There is nothing subtle about this novella.  Steinbeck's love of the common man and his belief that power will always go to the powerful are evident throughout the book.  It almost appears as if Steinbeck is saying that even the simple wants of Kino are too much for a poor person to hope for, that he is greedy for wanting a new suit of clothes for his son.  As the book progresses, Kino becomes more cruel as he becomes more obsessed with protecting the pearl.  Is he wrong to want a better life?  But it is the greed of all men and the power of some that propel Kino along a path of self-destruction.

I loved the use of song in this book.  The "Song of the Family" represents the love and peace Kino and Juana feel at the beginning of the book.  More and more throughout the book, however, Kino is hearing the "song of evil."  Unfortunately his response to this song continue to lead him to decisions that cause more and more trouble for his family.  Steinbeck challenges the reader--how much would you be willing to risk to give your family a better life?

"In this Gulf of uncertain light there are more illusions than realities."

John Steinbeck drew on both the biblical tale of "the pearl of great price" and an old Mexican tale when crafting this parable, as well as the lessons his own life had taught him.  He wrote The Pearl it was on the heels of his huge success with The Grapes of Wrath.  That success had taught Steinbeck that becoming successful, gaining possessions, would not necessarily make a person's life easier or better.  His own success had certainly given him the financial means to make for a comfortable life but it also brought with it persecution and FBI attention.

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Published 1960
Source: I bought this one for my kids from those flyers the kids bring home

"Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it"

This is the home of Scout Finch, narrator of the story of her youth, her unusual father, Atticus, her older brother, Jem, and the people that surrounded them in the mid-1930's in Alabama.

"People moved slowly then.  they ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything.  A day was twenty-four hours long but it seemed longer.  There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County."

By now, particularly in light of the recent 50th anniversary buzz about this book, you're all probably familiar with the story.   This was the first time I have read this book, although I have seen the movie adaptation several times.  I was both pleased to see how well the book had been adapted (including most of the dialogue) and surprised by how much more there was to discover in the book.

I've always had the impression that Atticus Finch was an ideal father (although this may have something to do with the fact that he's played by Gregory Peck in the movie).  The beginning of the book gave me another impression.

"Jem and I found our father satisfactory; he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment."  

Courteous detachment?  Hardly what I would consider a perfect parent.  Atticus is often preoccupied and carries the weight of Maycomb on his shoulders.  Yet he clearly cares deeply about his children and instills in them his deep moral beliefs.

Molly, of The Bumble's Blog, pointed out something to me that I certainly never noticed while watching the movie.  While Scout may be the narrator, and certainly a key player in the book, this is really Jem's coming of age story  The movie adaptation leaves out many events that showed this.  Curiously, it also left out what I thought was one of Scout and Jem's greatest lessons, a lesson Scout learned from her teacher, Miss Gates.  During class one day, Miss Gates is discussing events in Hitler's Germany.  She tells her students:

"Over here we don't believe in persecuting anybody.  Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced."

But Scout knows differently.  Following the trial of Tom Robinson (a black man), Scout recalls hearing Miss Gates say:

"...it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were gettin' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us."  

This is a beautiful book.  If you've ever started it and put it down because it was so slow paced, give it another try.  Until I was about half way through the book, I was only reading a few pages a day.  I thought it was lovely but it just was not pulling me in.  Then I found that I could not put the book down; I simply wanted to immerse myself in Maycomb.  In the end, I was sad to be done with it and sorry that I will never again have a chance to read this book for the first time.

"Your father's right," she [Miss Maudie] said.  "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy.  They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts our for us.  That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

Thanks for convincing me to read this one, Molly!

Anne of Green Gable by Lucy Maud Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
Originally published in 1908
Source: I listened to the Librivox recording

Brother and sister Marilla and Matthew Cuthburt live and farm at Green Gables, in the village of Avonlea on the Prince Albert Island in Canada. When they decide to adopt a boy from an orphanage to help on the farm, they get instead Anne Shirley, a precious eleven year old girl. Marilla is more than ready to send her back immediately but Matthew is charmed and soon Anne finds herself a part of life on the farm. For her part, beyond being thrilled with the idea that she will finally have a home, Anne is overwhelmed immediately by a love of the natural setting of Green Gables. By the time Marilla gets a chance to find Anne another home, she has made the decision to keep Anne. A decision she will question again and again as Anne fumbles and stumbles her way through life. Because Anne is so prone to daydreaming, she is also prone to making careless mistakes. But she is also enthusiastic, loving and tries so hard to improve. The reader follows Anne through her life in Avonlea, her friendships (she is always looking for kindred spirits), and on through her days in high school where she excels.

My book club reads a "classic" every year and this year we choose "Anne of Green Gables." One of our members is a playwright who incorporated several classic girl's books into a play that some of us heard a reading of which prompted us to revisit our childhood. Of the five books incorporated into the play, this was the only one I had never read and I was eager to see what makes it so beloved. When I finished, I was still wondering.

I found the book excessively wordy, although Montgomery does a lovely job of describing nature. I quickly grew tired of Anne's daydreams and found much of the book repetitive. Further, I found it odd that Montgomery spent whole chapters discussing some situations then, as the book neared the end, condensed entire school years into a single chapter.

I did like the juxtaposition of Anne, who is all imagination, and Marilla, who is no nonsense and watching them gradually grow on each other. Although it often annoyed me how hard Marilla was on Anne even after she has warmed to her. But then I also felt sorry for Marilla when Anne would proclaim how fond she was of other people without ever really showing any fondness for Marilla.

The book is clearly of the time that it was written. On the other hand, young people today are every bit as concerned as Anne was about their appearance and having the right clothes. At one point, a couple gets married in a home because no one gets married in a church--and don't people still worry all of the time about what other people will think of them?

When I got to my book club meeting last month, I found that I wasn't the only one that was unimpressed with this book and when our playwright, who loves the book, arrived, we were quick to ask "why?" Her defense did make some of us reconsider the book. One of the things that still appeals to her about this book is that it does not preach, as do almost all other books written for children in this time period. True enough--it does not. And she loves the way Marilla allows Anne to make her mistakes and learn from them, a way of childrearing that was unheard of at the time but a way that most experts now recommend.

So, I'm left wondering...if I had read this book as a child, would I love it?