Truth in Fiction: The Tenenat of Wildfell Hall and The Brontë Myth

Since middle school I have been fascinated by the Brontë sisters.  It is amazing to me how I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights with too much appreciation of wild romantic imaginings and no concept of the multilayer aspects of the novels.  The stories are more than the romances.  In high school and college I read with a heightened sense of snobbery.  I hacked everything to death with my dilettante schooling in Feminist literary theory.  Now -- as a for real grown-up -- I read the Brontës and I have a very full and rich enjoyment of the novels; the writing, the story, the characters, the historical/cultural/feminist aspects all lead to my re-reading resonating with me.  I find myself pondering Villette, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre months after I've completed my reading.  But what about Anne Brontë?

I enjoyed The Tenant of Wildfell Hall in high school, although I would say it was on a superficial level of enjoyment.  This re-reading has been a vastly richer experience.  The plot concerns Helen -- a young woman who falls in love with  a gentleman, Arthur, and marries him against her aunt's wise advice.   What ensues is a classic case of near-domestic violence.  Arthur is a horrid drunk, has blatant affairs, verbally abuses Helen, isolates her, and proceeds in attempting to turn their young son into a drunk.  Literally -- the douchebag encourages his five-year-old son to drink and disobey his mother.  Of course Heathcliff is a jerk in Wuthering Heights, but so is Catherine... so they sort of deserve each other.  Helen is blameless and persecuted by her drunk, lazy husband.  Her attempts at leaving him are thwarted.  Although he doesn't love his son, he is unwilling to have Helen leave with him because he doesn't want people to know his true character.  He blocks her spending and access to money (which is all Helen's money, but of course, Victorian women lost their rights to their own money upon marriage).  I would say this is the most "shocking" of the Brontë novels:  alcoholism, adultery, child abuse -- I think making wee ones drunk constitutes child abuse --, domestic violence, and most shocking of all -- Anne is challenging the laws that rob women of financial independence, custody rights, and she is ballsy enough to have Helen defy Victorian sensibilities and leave her husband. 

Granted, there were a few things that annoyed me about the novel.  Helen is REALLY Godly and preaches quite a bit, but I understand why -- Anne needed her character to be morally above reproach to have her leave and it be slightly less scandalous.  Also, in the end Helen returns to her husband (he conveniently dies soon after), but once again, one can only be so gutsy.  I really wanted Helen to not return, but that is my modern brain thinking.  And lastly, she falls in love with a farmer and I don't care much for him.  He is okay, but still beneath Helen in many aspects (fyi -- said farmer seriously injures someone based on a false presumption because he is tantrumy baby). 

After I finished the novel I eagerly began Lucasta Miller's The Brontë Myth.  This examination of the Brontës in biography (like Elizabeth Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë ), in their writings about each other (like Charlotte's attempt at "re-branding" Emily and Anne), in media (several movies and plays are discussed), and it also gives a history of the PERCEPTION of the Brontës from Victorian times to the present day.  This book also made me want to read Gaskell's biography of Charlotte, re-read all the Brontë novels, pick-up some May Sinclair books, and re-read Stella Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm.  There is even a Muriel Spark essay on Anne Brontë I need to hunt down.  The book is well-written and has a ton of information on Charlotte.  I was enthralled.

Then I got to the chapters about Emily.  While still very through and interesting they seemed a bit sparse, but of course, Charlotte left the most behind and Emily was a near recluse and extremely private.  I especially liked the connection Miller made between Emily and "authoress as goddess" and Sylvia Plath -- good stuff.  I can't remember how many chapters were on Emily, but 3/4 of the book concerned Charlotte.  I eagerly turned the page after the second or third chapter on Emily and the book just ended.  No conclusion and not a damned word about Anne.  Of course, Anne peppered the other chapters, but I REALLY wanted something about Anne or Tenant or some discussion on why Anne is the "forgotten" Brontë.  I definitely think this book is worth a read, especially as a precursor to reading a Brontë biography, but just know that Anne is not to be found. And if you haven't read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall the you are missing out on an intriguing plot and some excellence fodder for thought.  Now I need to go do some more research on Anne Brontë and hunting down that Muriel Spark essay is first on my list.
 

A Victorian Celebration and a Summer Challenge

Anyone who knows the least little bit about me know that I am ga-ga over Victorian anything, but I'm especially ga-ga for Victorian literature.  I'm very excited to sign-up for Allie's Victorian Celebration challenge.  Essentially my goal is to read books by and about Victorians through the months of  June and July.  Sure, I'll read other things, but my main focus will be on the Victorians.  My personal goal is to read five books by or about Victorians (fiction and/or non-fiction).

This leads into a personal challenge.

In December I had painstakingly planned out my reading challenges.  I was going to focus on several challenges from January until April and then I had hoped to wrap at least one of them up.  That didn't happen.  I'm still going to do the challenges, but not with the time constraint.  However, I'm going to stick with not adding on any title specific challenges until I wrap-up the ones I've started.  I can do things like A Victorian Celebration because I can read title I already have on my existing challenge lists.  Instead I'm going to spend the summer reading JUST FROM MY STACKS.  That's right.  I'm finishing up my current book (Memento Mori) and then I am library book ban from Now until September 1st.  In September I'll be going on a library book blitz.  Being the good library girl that I am, I tend to read library books first so I can get them back to the library in a timely manner.  This means I end up reading mostly library books.

All that will change this summer.

I spent last night organizing my TBR stacks.  I have birthday books (and more on the way!) and I needed to add them on the shelves.  Unlike other challenges I'm allowing myself to buy/receive more books, but the caveat is that they must fit -- neatly, not all willy nilly -- on my TBR shelf.  Once a book is read I will decided if it is a keeper or a book sale donation and thereby make more room on my shelves.  Here is a snapshot of my current TBR shelf (excepting the Elizabeth Bowen short story collection which is in my bag and the books that are on the way).

Let's hope I stick with it!  Let me know if you'd like to join in.  

Truth in Fiction: Charles Dickens and Our Mutual Friend

This is my first post for my reading challenge that I am hosting (I'm a horrible challenge host) that seeks to pair non-fiction books with novels.  I read Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens in January and I read Claire Tomalin's Dickens biography in February.  Here it is mid-March and I'm finally writing.  Naughty blogger.

I've hesitated on writing because I was trying to figure out what "angle" I wanted to take.  I don't want to recite the life of Charles Dickens and I've already written a review of Our Mutual Friend.  I've decided to not rehash things and instead to talk about where these two books intersect.  First, let me warn you that there will be Our Mutual Friend spoilers galore and so don't read on if you have yet to read the novel.

Our Mutual Friend is Charles Dickens last completed novel before his death in 1870.  Published in a serialized format from 1864-1865, the novel concerns a mysterious death, a will, and -- a favorite topic to Dickens -- money.  This is the novel Dickens had with him when he was involved in the Staplehurst rail crash.  Dickens grabbed his manuscript and managed to help get other passengers to safety.  At the time he was traveling with his mistress Ellen Ternan.  Dickens had been involved in come capacity with Ellen Ternan for some time and he left his wife and mother of his brood of children to be with the young actress Ellen, called Nelly.

It is beyond a doubt that Dickens is a very fine writer and has great compassion for the poor and downtrodden; however, he is human and flawed and his abominable behavior towards his wife was the one glaring lapse of character (of course he had other flaws, but this is the most "public" of his faults).  In reading Tomalin's biography it is interesting to note that Dickens tries very hard to cover-up his faults and to almost talk himself into being faultless.  He assumes a victim like stance rushing towards separation, asking his children to abandon their mother, even taking the younger children from their mother, forcing Catherine Dickens to pretend that all was well and even make social calls to the Ternans.  All the while he raising money for orphans and working to establish and keep up his home for fallen women.  In addition he is doing public readings and writing... still the beloved Boz.

What links Our Mutual Friend to this duplicitous time in his life is the one glaring issues I had with Our Mutual Friend -- the manipulation and lies fed to Bella Wilfer and how it is TOTALLY okay and even joyous in the end.  In my review of Our Mutual Friend I discuss how Bella is duped into thinking that she is marrying John Rokesmith who in fact is John Harmon.  A condition of Harmon's inheritance is that he marry Bella Wilfour. Well, Harmon is thought dead, Bella is released from her engagement to a man she doesn't know, and the Boffins (common and good people) inherit the money.  The Boffins take on Bella as a ward and shower her with affections and gifts.  Enter John Rokesmith (aka Harmon) who is secretary to Mr. Boffin.  Bella and John fall in love; John is kicked out of the home, Bella follows him, they wed, time passes, she has a baby and then one day.  BAM!  John tells Bella who he really is after a ridiculous scene where we learn that the Boffins were "in on it" and knew that Bella was being tested.  John wanted to know that Bella just wasn't after the money and so there was a long period of time where Bella was actively deceived to test her worth.  Most surprising is Bella's reaction.  She isn't angry.  She doesn't question.  She accepts that she needs to put full faith in her husband and trust that all of his lies and deceptions were for her own good.

At the end everyone is happy and smiling and all is right.  And it smacks of falsity.  I think this is pushing it even by Victorian standards of wifely obedience.

So while Dickens is in the midst of trying to be the lovable, fatherly Boz and writing about societal ills and supporting through philanthropy those wronged by selfishness he is engaged in breaking up his home and his wife's heart and carrying on with a much younger actress.  I can't help but think, and this may be a stretch, that Dickens knew he was wrong and sought at every chance to validate his own willingness to deceive with his sense of morality.  This sort of cognitive dissonance is apparent in Bella's thankful attitude towards John and the Boffins deceiving and testing her character through their falseness. 

Once again, I don't have any evidence that this was really on Dickens's mind or that he truly struggled with his poor choices.  I like to think that he knew he was wrong and was seeking a way to make his errors seem not so bad, but I don't know that for sure.  It could just all be a coincidence, but it is interesting to ponder.

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Our Mutual Friend was read for January Charles Dickens month, the Truth in Fiction challenge, Classics Challenge 2012, Victorian Challenge 2012, Tea and Books challenge,  and The TBR Pile Challenge.

Charles Dickens: A Life was read for January Charles Dickens month and the Truth in Fiction challenge

The Sunday Salon: Classics Club

Okay, I've tried very hard to not sign-up for any new challenges until May and when I have a few completed (which reminds me I need to see where I'm at with my challenges).  BUT this isn't a year long challenge; this is a  five year challenge to read 50+ classics.  Of course we have the her bookishness Jillian to thank for this inspiring idea and pulling it all together.  I've picked 100 books to complete in the next five years (01 March 2012 - 01 March 2017).  You may notice that there are more than 100 books (technically) listed.  All of the novels composing The Forsyte Saga (9) and Kristen Lavransdatter (3) are not individually listed.  This will give me some wiggle room in case there are books I don't care to finish.  I have "shorter works" on my list, but I've chosen to read the entire short story collection to make it count.  I do have one play, Richard III, that is the shortest work on the list. 

I also set a few rules for myself:  1) all the books had to be published prior to 1950 and 2) I can reread, but only if I've read the book once or it has been over 5 years since I read the book).  So, alas, I cannot reread Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights over over over and over again. But the good news is that I will hopefully increase my list of classics I adore.

On to the list!  Turquoise books are rereads and Greens are Viragos!

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte (completed 04/17/12)
2. The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green
3. The Dead Secret by Wilkie Collins
4. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Uncle Silas by Sheridan Le Fanu (completed 07/29/12)
6. The Warden by Anthony Trollope
7. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope
8. Doctor Thorne by  Anthony Trollope
9. Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope
10. Small House at Allington by  Anthony Trollope
11. Last Chronicle of Barset by  Anthony Trollope
12. Far from the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
13. Kristen Lavransdatter (all three books) by Sigrid Undset
14. Hunger by Knut Hamsen
15. No Name by Wilkie Collins
16. Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
17. The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
18. Gothic Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell
19. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
20. Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall
21. The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham
22. The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen (completed 07/01/12)
23. Howard's End by E. M. Forster 
24. The Golden Apples by Eudora Welty
25. The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang
26. Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens 
27. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 
28. Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens 
29. Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens 
30. Barnaby Rudge by Charles Dickens 
31. Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens 
32. Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens 
33. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 
34. Bleak House by Charles Dickens 
35. Hard Times by Charles Dickens 
36. Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 
37. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 
38. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 
39. Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 
40. Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens 
41. The Monk by Matthew Lewis
42. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
43. Richard III by William Shakespeare
44. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
45. Middlemarch by George Eliot
46. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
47. Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
48. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
49. The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells
50. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton
51. The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
52. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
53. The Forsyte Saga (all 9 books plus the "interludes")
54. The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
55. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
56. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
57. Diana of the Crossways by George Meredith
58. No Signposts in the Sea by Vita Sackville-West
59. The Friendly Young Ladies by Mary Renault
60. Hunt the Slipper by Violet Trefusis
61. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
62. The Italian by Ann Radcliffe
63. Lorna Doone by Richard Blackmore
64. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
65. Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert
66. Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
67. The Wings of the Dove by Henry James
68. He Knew He Was Right by Anthony Trollope
69. East Lynne by Ellen Wood
70. The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen
71. The Professor by Charlotte Bronte
72. The Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories
73. The Rising Tide by Molly Keane
74. Without my Cloak by Kate O'Brien
75. Harriet Hume by Rebecca West
76. Persuasion by Jane Austen
77. Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin
78. Trilby by George Du Maurier
79. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
80. The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne
81. Passage to India by E M Forster
82. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
83. The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Tales by H P Lovecraft
84. The Call of Cthlulu and Other Weird Tales by H P Lovecraft
85. The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
86. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell
87. The Three Sisters by May Sinclair
88. Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
89. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
90. War and Peace by Leo Tolstory
91. War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
92. A House and Its Head by Ivy Compton-Burnett
93. The Collected Shorter Fiction of Virginia Woolf
94. Summer will Show by Sylvia Townsend Warner
95. The Judge by Rebecca West
96. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (completed 12/31/12)
97. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
98. All Passion Spent by Vita Sackville West
99. A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh
100. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I've thought long and hard about my list.  Over three quarters of the novels are books I own.  I'm also incorporating my desire to read all of Dickens's novels in order, complete a Trollope series, and read a stack of Viragos.  My approach is that challenge success is based on making challenges work together.

Okay -- mini-rewards.  For every 5 books off of this list I read I will purchase one classic novel NOT ON THIS LIST in a nice copy.  By nice copy I mean that it isn't a ratty paperback in a thrift store bin -- it could be a vintage something in good condition, a Penguin clothbound, a newish edition with a lovely introduction.  See, I'm already prepping for 2017 onward!  At the end of my 100 books read I will have 20 new-to-me classic novels that are lovely, pristine, and will beautify my shelves, my mind, and my imagination.

I hope you'll join us in the Classics Club!  I think this will be an amazing experience.

Readerly Rambles: 03/14/2012

What I've Read:
I finished out my February reading by completing Claire Tomalin's Charles Dickens: A Life and Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.  Both books were fantastic and it was an excellent close to the month.  I still need to write up my Truth in Fiction challenge review of Tomalin's biography and Our Mutual Friend.  I keep forgetting.  I'm such an awful challenge host.  (pencils in reminder)

What I'm Reading:
I'm nearly done with Deborah Blum's book about the beginnings of forensic science The Poisoner's Bible: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Science in Jazz Age New York.  I cannot believe that a book can be scientific (chemical properties and lab explanations), give an excellent historical/social/political background, detail famous and not so famous murders, and be such a fast read.  I've learned so much -- and not just about poisons, autopsies, prohibition, and such -- but I've learned a bit about what actually went into discovering all these humdinger tests.  I will tell you that this is the first book that made me nearly pass out.  There was a discussion of autopsies, various tools used to saw things, and some horrific internal damage due to poison.  For some reason my brain tried to imagine sound and smell and I had tunnel vision.  Yup.  I'm certainly not seeking a career change at this point in time.

I'm also re-reading Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.  I read this in high school because my teacher was frustrated that I'd already read Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre.  She assigned me this Bronte novel.  I remember loving it, but I'm finding it much more complex and rewarding this time around.  Probably because I'm not an idiot high school student.

What's Up Next:
Hopefully by the end of this week I'll finish up my two current reads and crack open The Bronte Myth by Lucasta Miller and The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katherine Green.

Upcoming Adventures in Book Nerding:
 I have a few nerdy projects in the works.  I'm about to do a great big clean-up of my LibraryThing account.  Now that my shelves are all prettified I can attack LibraryThing.  I have updated additions and deletions in ages.

In addition I've started assembling my list of 100 classics for The Classics Club!  I'm super-excited about this so expect a post in the near future. 

Charles Dickens Month -- Post the Second

Here is is, Charles Dickens Tuesday once again.  Let's get started!

I haven't read as much of Our Mutual Friend as I would like I'm on page 134 (and let me remind you it is over 800 pages long) and I am enjoying the story so far.  My problem is that a Charles Dickens is not an "on the go" type of book.  Dipping into it while on break at work, or in line, or while dinner is cooking isn't advisable.  One must plunge head first into a Dickens tome and expect to put down roots.  Atticus was ill this weekend with an ear infection (a temperature of over 102!) and I didn't have much time to get lost in Dickensian settings.  But this week will be different.  I'm determined to get a solid chunk read by next Tuesday.

I don't even know how to explain the plot to you thus far.  I've been introduced to a bevy of characters:  Noddy and his wife who adores Fashion have recently seen their place in society lifted due to an unexpected inheritance, the Wilfer family who have been disappointed in some finances they hoped to gain by their daughter's marriage, the Mr. and Mrs. Lammle who I believe are up to no good and a bevy of others in society -- low and high -- and they will all figure in the plot in some fashion.  I'm expecting money will truly be the root of all evil in this book.

Monday evening I began watching the Daniel Radcliffe version of David Copperfield with Hope.  We just finished the first episode and it is quite good.  I haven't read the book since high school, but it is all coming back to me.  I love Maggie Smith's spunk as David Copperfield's aunt and Hope was tickled that "so many Harry Potter" folks were in the film.  We actually had a "teachable moment" while watching.  Hope was asking about the mistreatment of David Copperfield.  The idea of being flogged for not knowing lessons horrified her and she was also concerned when we discussed child labor and the Industrial Revolution. She really liked the film and wants to read the book one day (her ADHD can make large books quite a challenge to read).  Oh, yeah, I also forgot how slimy and creepy Uriah Heep is... shudder....


I keep telling myself quality not quantity... I hope you all have a terrific week.