I am trying to figure out why this poor girl keeps making her situation worse. I have read several books recently from the 1800's with this same concept. Girl wants to have a man who meets the following requirements: well dressed and money, good looking helps but the idea is spend money on me, promote me in society and I am all yours. With MADAME BOVARY we had the farm girl with some education, getting pawned off by her father to the doctor. She married him because she thought she would have a better life, but then she got bored and depressed, along comes a young man who can be around her all the time paying her compliments and she starts fantasizing about him. But he leaves town and a more promising man comes along. In SISTER CARRIE, some scenario without the marriage, she comes to the big city of Chicago, too shy to go and ask for a job, wants something better than what her sister has, wanders the city, meets the man she met on the train. He sets her up with clothes, money and a place. She does not have to work, but she meets a man with more money, who just happens to be a friend of the man who has set her up. She feels he can give her an even better life. So Sister Carrie becomes the other woman.
But this theme does not stay in the 1800's even the movies we see today have that theme. Woman has a man who she is about to marry and then some other hunk walks onto the scene. She likes him better maybe not for money reasons, but still there is the idea of bettering ones position. Understood but it does seem to promote the idea that women cannot make up their minds. That old expression about women being fickle, probably promoted from the 1800's.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Starting: Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Sitting in the hair salon waiting for my color to set, I started reading SISTER CARRIE, set in Chicago 1889, 18 years after the Great Fire of Chicago. The place is being transformed and a young girl, of 18 is heading to the big city, much like Dreiser does in real life. According to the time line entitled The World of Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie, in this 2005 edition published by Barnes and Nobles, page x, SISTER CARRIE is based on Dreiser's sister Emma.
I managed to get to chapter 3 while waiting for my hair to do what my hair was supposed to do, 17 pages, small type. I really like this book, so far, as it shows what Chicago looked like at that time. It also is remarkable to me that a young girl, or let me say inexperienced girl is allowed to travel by herself, during the 1800's. I thought she would have been chaperoned, so maybe this is also a turning point in culture. I have been to Chicago numerous times and love being on the Magnificent Mile, so it will be fun to see what our girl Caroline will see and experience. She has already met, a possible rogue on the train. She is basing her judgement on trusting him, on the fact that he is wearing nice clothes. In the book MADAME BOVARY, we have a similar trusting of men, based on their clothes and positions in life. So I guess naivety abounds in the 1800's for young woman.
I cannot promise when I will be finished, there are 445 pages and 47 chapters, so I am trying to break it down in chapters/day. It seems like a pretty fast read, so I am hoping I can get in at least three chapters each day, with more on the weekends. If that is the case then I will be done by the end of April.
Also, thanks to all my readers, I appreciate the support.
I managed to get to chapter 3 while waiting for my hair to do what my hair was supposed to do, 17 pages, small type. I really like this book, so far, as it shows what Chicago looked like at that time. It also is remarkable to me that a young girl, or let me say inexperienced girl is allowed to travel by herself, during the 1800's. I thought she would have been chaperoned, so maybe this is also a turning point in culture. I have been to Chicago numerous times and love being on the Magnificent Mile, so it will be fun to see what our girl Caroline will see and experience. She has already met, a possible rogue on the train. She is basing her judgement on trusting him, on the fact that he is wearing nice clothes. In the book MADAME BOVARY, we have a similar trusting of men, based on their clothes and positions in life. So I guess naivety abounds in the 1800's for young woman.
I cannot promise when I will be finished, there are 445 pages and 47 chapters, so I am trying to break it down in chapters/day. It seems like a pretty fast read, so I am hoping I can get in at least three chapters each day, with more on the weekends. If that is the case then I will be done by the end of April.
Also, thanks to all my readers, I appreciate the support.
Thursday, April 9, 2015
Review: The Book of Tomorrow
THE BOOK OF TOMORROW by Cecelia Ahern, was printed in the United States of America in 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers. Originally published in Great Britain, 2009.
, no
I was right about the magic in the book. Do I tell you or let you figure it out yourself, hmm. Well, since she mentions it on the cover, there is a book which she picks up in a traveling library, nothing is written inside this locked book, until the day that Tamara decided to write in it herself. That is when she finds an entry in her handwriting describing what will happen the rest of the day, that she apparently wrote the night before. But this was the first time she actually going to write in the book. It even describes where she is sitting, while she decides to write in the book. This is not all that bizarre in this book story that Tamara is narrating. There is the nun who keeps saying she is 17, while Tamara corrects her and says 16. There is the story about how her parents met that changes except for one fact, Tamara's dad just had to have her mom. Then we have the Uncle and Aunt who as Tamara describes as the Deliverance Duo (page 18). Why is her mom always sleeping? Why will no one answer her questions? Who is Rosaleen visiting in the bungalow?
In the beginning you have the confusion of a young girl thrown out of her comfort zone, already butting against authority, into a world totally different from anything she has ever experienced. No money, no phone, no shopping, and no friends to turn to when she needs advice. It made me think of all the things that we give our children, what happens when we can no longer give them what they are used to having in their life. You can see the resentment that would build, add in the suicide of a parent, and boom you have the makings of a story.
Once I got past the deliberate confusing first chapters, I truly enjoyed the book. I loved the rebellious teenager, who really wanted answers to questions. You could tell by her concern for her mom that she was not totally self-absorbed. I wanted to go back to Ireland and find the place that she was living. I love old castles and do not think of them as ruins. I kept thinking at the end of the story, they would decide to rebuild the castle. Ireland is always a magical place.
, no
I was right about the magic in the book. Do I tell you or let you figure it out yourself, hmm. Well, since she mentions it on the cover, there is a book which she picks up in a traveling library, nothing is written inside this locked book, until the day that Tamara decided to write in it herself. That is when she finds an entry in her handwriting describing what will happen the rest of the day, that she apparently wrote the night before. But this was the first time she actually going to write in the book. It even describes where she is sitting, while she decides to write in the book. This is not all that bizarre in this book story that Tamara is narrating. There is the nun who keeps saying she is 17, while Tamara corrects her and says 16. There is the story about how her parents met that changes except for one fact, Tamara's dad just had to have her mom. Then we have the Uncle and Aunt who as Tamara describes as the Deliverance Duo (page 18). Why is her mom always sleeping? Why will no one answer her questions? Who is Rosaleen visiting in the bungalow?
In the beginning you have the confusion of a young girl thrown out of her comfort zone, already butting against authority, into a world totally different from anything she has ever experienced. No money, no phone, no shopping, and no friends to turn to when she needs advice. It made me think of all the things that we give our children, what happens when we can no longer give them what they are used to having in their life. You can see the resentment that would build, add in the suicide of a parent, and boom you have the makings of a story.
Once I got past the deliberate confusing first chapters, I truly enjoyed the book. I loved the rebellious teenager, who really wanted answers to questions. You could tell by her concern for her mom that she was not totally self-absorbed. I wanted to go back to Ireland and find the place that she was living. I love old castles and do not think of them as ruins. I kept thinking at the end of the story, they would decide to rebuild the castle. Ireland is always a magical place.
Monday, April 6, 2015
The Book Of Tomorrow- beginning the book.
THE BOOK OF TOMORROW by Cecelia Ahern, published by HarperCollins in 2011. Why a short review when I have not gone beyond page 73. I just wanted to let you know that if you start this book it is very confusing, at first do not give up. The book is set in Ireland and the narrator and central character Tamara Goodwin's father has committed suicide because he lost all their riches. Leaving Tamara and her out of it mother to fend for themselves, as houses and possessions are taken from them. The narrator explains in the first few chapters that we must really be confused and I think that is what our author wants us to realize, that everything is in an upheaval for this girl Tamara. But after a few chapters Tamara settles down to tell us her story. I stopped at chapter 8 last night, but wanted to continue, I will probably be finished before the end of the week. I do believe there is a little magic in this story and there may actually be a Book of Tomorrow.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Review: MADAME BOVARY, well well well
MADAME BOVARY by Gustav Flaubert, my copy is from the Everyman's Library and was printed in 1993. It was originally published in the Everyman's Library in1928. Gustav Flaubert finished writing his novel in April 1856, but it was used in installments in the La Revue de Paris, (page xxx in the Everyman's Library). Also on this page is the notice that Flaubert, his editor and printer were acquitted for offending public morality and Religion in 1857. Wow, talk about a change in morals.
My last blog talked about the fact that Madame Bovary, was pensive, bemoaning her fate for marrying a man she clearly did not love and wanting to be rescued by some handsome prince. I made a comment about her never really leaving her house so how could she go after what she wanted. Two pages later, she is pursued by Monsieur Rodolphe Boulanger. He recognizes that she is a bored and pretty housewife and means to compromise her and make her his. She is resistant at first and then ....
But he is not really in love and the greatest scene is him dumping out all his love letters and trinkets and realizing that she is no different than the other woman he has lead on. Then she turns her attention to Leon after being dumped. In addition, she is being maneuvered to spend money, and more money at the dry goods store, taking out debits that amount to 8000 francs, when the dry goods man wants to collect. Her life is turned upside down. She manages to ruin everyone she is connected to, or at least tries to and fails in some instances.
This is the second book about adultery that I have read, the first the SCARLET LETTER, showed remorse and it was assumed that her husband had died at sea. In both books the woman were not in love with their husbands. In MADAME BOVARY, we have a blatant disregard for husband and her daughter. She had no redeeming qualities. Though both had daughters, Hester was a loving mother, even though she did not understand her daughter, whereas Emma Bovary, would really have nothing to do with her daughter, having Berthe in the care of the housekeeper after Berthe returned from living a year with a wet nurse.
Good book, too bad about the outcome for Madame, Monsieur and Berthe Bovary. There are a lot of references to the church, especially at the end. I can see why at this period in time the people thought the book was risque. It picked up steam as the book moved along and there were lovely bits of foreshadowing, especially in the method of death.
The next book is SISTER CARRIE and my book club book, THE BOOK OF TOMORROW.
My last blog talked about the fact that Madame Bovary, was pensive, bemoaning her fate for marrying a man she clearly did not love and wanting to be rescued by some handsome prince. I made a comment about her never really leaving her house so how could she go after what she wanted. Two pages later, she is pursued by Monsieur Rodolphe Boulanger. He recognizes that she is a bored and pretty housewife and means to compromise her and make her his. She is resistant at first and then ....
But he is not really in love and the greatest scene is him dumping out all his love letters and trinkets and realizing that she is no different than the other woman he has lead on. Then she turns her attention to Leon after being dumped. In addition, she is being maneuvered to spend money, and more money at the dry goods store, taking out debits that amount to 8000 francs, when the dry goods man wants to collect. Her life is turned upside down. She manages to ruin everyone she is connected to, or at least tries to and fails in some instances.
This is the second book about adultery that I have read, the first the SCARLET LETTER, showed remorse and it was assumed that her husband had died at sea. In both books the woman were not in love with their husbands. In MADAME BOVARY, we have a blatant disregard for husband and her daughter. She had no redeeming qualities. Though both had daughters, Hester was a loving mother, even though she did not understand her daughter, whereas Emma Bovary, would really have nothing to do with her daughter, having Berthe in the care of the housekeeper after Berthe returned from living a year with a wet nurse.
Good book, too bad about the outcome for Madame, Monsieur and Berthe Bovary. There are a lot of references to the church, especially at the end. I can see why at this period in time the people thought the book was risque. It picked up steam as the book moved along and there were lovely bits of foreshadowing, especially in the method of death.
The next book is SISTER CARRIE and my book club book, THE BOOK OF TOMORROW.
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