The News Where You Are
by Charlotte Reads Classics
I am so pleased to be able to say in this update that on Sunday evening I finished Parade’s End! As good as it was, I couldn’t concentrate on it any longer. Look out for a proper post about it later this week, along with an update on my original War Books project (hint: it is a much bigger list than when I started).
So my enthusiasm for re-reading Anna Karenina has not gone to waste – I’m just starting the second part this evening. All the comments on my last post made me look forward to reading it even more and so far it is just as great as I remember.
Yesterday evening I went to a talk called Dickens and the House of Fallen Women which was set in the most amazing library I’ve ever been in. Think of hundreds and hundreds of old leatherbound books on dark wooden bookcases, cracked leather armchairs, fireplaces, a ‘polite literature’ section – it was the stuff of a book lover’s dreams. The talk was good too, which was much needed because I haven’t read a Dickens novel in ages and am planning on Martin Chuzzlewit next month. I’ll give you the two most interesting snippets of the evening:
- Dickens’ morality runs through all his stories, as he judges which characters are deserving of punishment. Generally speaking they are either female characters who ‘fall’ or male characters who treat women badly. These are always the characters who die. The characters that are able to be saved – i.e. re-establish themselves in society – live.
- A nature of writing for serial publication was that Dickens often had to drastically change characters or storylines according to readership figures. Now I know why people say Dickens would be writing for soaps if he was writing today!
This afternoon I bought some new books:
On a war theme:
- Toby’s Room and Life Class by Pat Barker
- The Complete Memoirs of George Sherston by Siegfried Sassoon which includes Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man – which I have wanted to read ever since I read Rachel’s post back in April, Memoirs of an Infantry Officer and Sherston’s Progress
I’ve also picked out:
- The Charmers by Stella Gibbons
- The Ladies’ Paradise by Émile Zola
I’m really excited to read my first Émile Zola – I’ve picked The Ladies’ Paradise because of the imminent BBC drama and thought a trip to nineteenth century Paris would be the thing, but my hype is really down to Fleur and o‘s posts recently.
Hope you are having a great literary week too.
The library does sound wonderful, as does the talk. I haven’t read enough Dickens to be able to comment on what you noted from the talk, but reading about the way he judges characters, the second aspect rather than the first, makes me want to start the next book on my list earlier so I can understand it from experience. You got through your current reads quickly!
It was a great setting for learning about Dickens! I am about to read Martin Chuzzlewit so I will be thinking about the morality thing as I go. I’m not sure how you would find out about readership figures and their link to Dickens’ plotting because I think he kept most of his ideas to himself rather than making a lot of notes (sure I have heard this somewhere) but it is an interesting point all the same.
I finished Parade’s End Monday night– it’s now my favorite book. I’m even half-tempted to read it again. lol. Started Waugh’s Scoop which has made me smile on numerous occasions is a light read in comparison.
Looking forward to your thoughts on The Ladies’ Paradise. Didn’t know about the upcoming production– of to google it. 🙂
Excellent! I did enjoy it (mostly) but found it really difficult – I think there was so much in it that I have just missed completely! I haven’t read any Waugh, which I feel quite guilty about, so looking forward to hearing what you think of Scoop.
Yay Zola! I’m not up to Ladies Paradise yet, but I look forward to reading your thoughts 😀
But first – the Chuzzlewits!
Impressing reading! I was once assigned to read Regeneration (I think) but was bored midway. Perhaps I chose the wrong WWI author to start with.
How is the Ladies’ Paradise? Which translation would you say would be closest to 19th century language?
Oh, tricky to say, I loved Regeneration so I can only give a very biased opinion. My all time favourite WWI book has got to be All Quiet on the Western Front. I’ve not started The Ladies Paradise yet, but I’ll let you know.
[…] society we live in. Dickens link: I briefly mentioned the Dickens-morality-death theory in another post: there is a moral core to all the Dickens novels I have read so far. He was a big figure in trying […]