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Title: The Awakening
Author: Kate Chopin
ISBN: 0553321330X
Publisher: Bantam Classics/1981
Pages: 205
The Awakening was first published in 1899. Even though Kate Chopin was a well known writer, because of its subject matter, it was widely criticised and was banished from the literary world for decades.
The story starts in Grand Isle, Louisiana on a Sunday morning where Leonce Pontellier is waiting for his wife Edna Pontellier, to ome out from a swim with another young man, Richard Lebrun. Edna and Leonce have two young sons. Edna is a mother to them in her own fashion. Pontellier is very much a Creole belonging to the place and Edna is the outsider. He had fallen deeply in love with her and married her.
We also meet Adele Ratignolle, who is equisitely beautiful and has three children, with a fourth one on the way. We observe womenbeing pursued by young men, none of their husbands minding it a bit. They behaviour is beyond question and they mantain decorum at all levels. Edna is happy enough to be with her husband and she loves the attention Richard lavishes on her. Only when Richard leaves, we find her missing him, thinking of him. She slowly awakens from her life which she percieves as dull. She wants to be her own person, comes to realise that she has fallen in love with Richard.
From the beginning, there is a strange intimacy between Edna and Richard. None of them are aware of it, including Leonce. I see it as a sign of a liberated man. A man who loves his wife and trusts her implicitly. He is aware too that Richard wouldn't cross the limits of acceptable society. He can observe the change in her behaviour but does not relate it with Richard.
This is a book about a woman's emancipation, one who desires to live in own terms, one who wants to succumb to her needs and desires. A woman in the path of self-discovery. One who wants to give in to her senses, deep primal forces within her. Does she? Is she able to break away the shackles? This novels gives us insight of those times, the embarkments it place on a woman's life. Of liberation, freedom of both women and men too. It speaks about Southern culture, Creoles and the social norms. Even in those times a woman could live in her own terms. Mademoiselle Reisz is one such woman who is independent, ill-mannerd, single and childless but still respected and admired for her knowledge and skill in music. How many can claim the same even in our so-called liberated times? In some parts of the world, nothing has changed.
The short stories too are filled with insights and Chopin's prose keeps us hooked in. I especially liked Beyond the Bayou and Desiree's Baby. Her work is filled with symbolism which was rare in those times. Somehow it made The Awakening difficult to be accepted in the litrary circles. However, this very symbolism has elevated the novel. No doubt, a classic.
Title: Pollyanna
Author: Eleanor H Porter
ISBN: 1853261459
Publisher: Wordsworth Classics/1913
Genre: Children’s Fiction
Pages: 188
Somehow, I had missed reading this, although I had bought this book for my niece a few years ago. Yesterday, I picked up from her place and decided to read for the Decades Challenge 2008. I am glad I finally read it at one go.
Pollyanna’s father dies and she comes to live with her aunt, Miss Polly, who takes her in as duty. She has no love for the eleven-year girl, who had lost her mother, Polly’s sister at a very young age. The little girl is unaware of her aunt’s sour nature and is very glad to be with her.
Pollyanna has the ability to adapt to any situation. She can find something positive in the most adverse of things. Her father had taught her call it the ‘glad’ game. Pollyanna's Glad Game is truly a beneficial effect. She and her father made-up the game,- which consists of always looking for something to be glad about, after their missionary relief barrel held not the doll that Pollyanna wanted so much, but a pair of crutches. They decided to be glad they did not need those crutches.
Slowly we observe Aunt Polly thawing from her coldness by her niece’s sunny nature and good humour. Pollyanna’s nature is a tonic for everyone who meets her. Those who do not, she goes out of her way to make them happy. She succeeds too until she is hit by an automobile and loses the use of her legs…her gladness turns to despair. Again, we observe a shift in her nature when something no one envisaged for her Aunt Polly, happens and brings back her optimism. Does she get better?
This book has many similarities with Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Anne of Green Gables. Still it can stand on its own. All three books reinforce positive thinking. Although, it gets too much at times. How any one can be happy all the time? It sounds unrealistic.
After analysing it, I deduced that there is also a grim almost mocking sense of humour, significant profundity and a lot of sensible psychology. The exposé of turn-of-the-century benevolence is cutting. Pollyanna is not naive. She knows there is pain and misery, in fact she suffers for it too. She may be an angel, but she is a very perceptive angel with a true understanding of the ability of her own goodness. If we grasp that aspect, the story becomes poignant at some point. A brave little girl, forced to accept hard times as something good, which she does with much bravado.
Title: The Coral Island
Author: R M Ballantyne
First Published: 1857
ISBN-13: 9780140367614
Pages: 296/ Penguin Young Readers Group
Rating: 4/5
I read it first when I was 13 years old. Now I re-read it for my 10-year-old nephew. I possess a very old copy of it, which is completely unabridged with all the ‘racist’ terms intact. I censored those out for him!
This story begins with 15-year-old Ralph Rover telling about his life. As he belongs to a family of seafarers, he too has it in him to sail the seas. He is allowed to go to sea as an apprentice on a ship by his father where he makes two great friends, eighteen-year-old Jack Martin who is a tall, strapping, broad-shouldered youth with a good sense of humour and 14-year-old Peter Gay, a funny, mischievous boy. Their ship is caught in a huge storm and the trio end up as the only people to wash ashore on a South Pacific island.
This, however, is not a story of excessive hardship as one might expect! With many adventures of discovery, bloody battles, and pirates and of course a cat, it is evident from the beginning that it is far from the customary run-of-the-mill survival stories. This novel is a creative and educational story of three shipwrecked boys on a Coral Island and how they learn to survive in the wilderness after encountering natives and pirates. Captured by pirates, Ralph escapes and returns to the island with Jack and Peterkin to try to sort out family problems with some of the natives they met.
Ballantyne's thinks that the free acceptance of Christianity by the natives can bring them all the benefits of European civilization. Ballantyne has an unshakeable belief in the adequacy of voluntary conversion to Christianity to improve the conditions and conduct of the natives, and there is no hint in his novel that altruistic concern should lead to measures forced on the natives for their own good.
Ballantyne also attempts to place economic motives beyond the light of civilization by identifying them with the pirates, who represent the purely economic motifs of Europeans. Although the natives are transformed, the Europeans in the story remain unchanged by their experiences. This compares with Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad where the character of Kurtz goes native with horrendous consequences.
Title: Kim
Author: Rudyard Kipling
ISBN-13: 9780140183528
Publisher: Penguin Group/338pages
First Published: 1901
Kim is a story about a British orphan about thirteen years of age who has been raised on the streets of Lahore, now in Pakistan. He speaks fluent Hindi, understands assorted dialects and, is well versed in whirl of religions and cultures. He takes to the road as a disciple of a wandering Tibetan priest in search of a mythical holy river with healing powers. Along the way, he has a chance meeting with his deceased father's old army regiment and his identity is revealed to him. The army sends him to an English language Catholic school in the south, but his underlying value, because of his knowledge of local language and understanding of culture, is quickly made use by a member of the British secret service.
Kim is not a children’s book. A child may be the main character, but the book is too philosophical and filled with complex human behaviour to be of much interest to children. The main thrush of the book is the relationship between Kim and the Red Lama, the basic story of two people, one an orphan boy and the other an elderly mystic, finding many of the things they are seeking in caring for and looking after one another.
In Kim, Kipling characterizes all the good of India while playing down the contrasts. He shows us what India would have been like in an ideal situation of mutual tolerance. Kipling’s observations are remarkable and one realizes from time to time that it is not the writer’s imagination about a period long gone but that he was in fact a part of that period. The sights, sounds, phrases, references, and personalities are entirely authentic. Kipling captures the sound, smell, and colour of India in the early part of the 20th century like no one else. He was a writer gifted with an acute sense of observation and a keen eye for details.
Another angle on the story is what is says about modern human intelligence operations. The leading British intelligent agent recognizes that Kim has language and culture skills that cannot be taught in any academy.
The story takes place after the Indian mutiny of 1857when many families were divided by violence. That period was a time of immense upheaval in India. It went from being a country made up of many native princely states with Englishmen as merchants to one unified under the flag of England. There was tension between the English in India and the Indians. There was also a staunch love of India by those same ruling Englishmen and women. Even Kipling did not envisage that the mutiny of 1858 was a step in the fight for India's independence. He was convinced that what England was doing was right despite his love for India. There in lies the irony.
At places, one has to plod through despite the poetic language. Still this is well worth the read. It does give a good glimpse of British rule in India.
Title: Northanger Abbey
Author: Jane Austen
ISBN: 1853260436
Publisher: Wordsworth Classics/165 pages
This early Jane Austen novel is a satire of the reading tastes of the young, their near addiction to Gothic "horror" stories. Here Austen is overflowing with her unmistakable satiric wit, charm, and astonishing worldly wisdom.
Catherine Morland, aged 17, is expanding her horizons by visiting Bath with her neighbours, The Allens. She gets involved with the Thorpe family, who are not what they seem, and the Tilney family, with whom she forms genuine warmth that leads her to visit their family home, Northanger Abbey. Catherine has spent a good deal of time reading novels, and she allows her imagination to run wild once she finds herself in the dark corridors of the abbey. The appearance of Henry helps subdue her theatrics a bit but she still finds herself drawn into situations she does not understand. She expects the worst horrors because of her enthusiastic reading of Mrs. Radcliff’s novels. She feels certain to have stumbled upon a secret family shame or even horror. The General's odd behaviour seems to confirm her growing suspicious of dark deeds surrounding the death of the late Mrs. Tileny.
Without any explanation, the domineering General gets Catherine thrown out of his home defying all the rules of hospitality and decency. Henry is not present to protest, so Catherine is sent off in ignominy and secret tears back to her unsuspecting family.
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Austen is mocking the meeting and mating customs of that period in Britain. She is also mocking the gothic novels of the day: Catherine, influenced by the lowbrow literature she reads, is forever attributing dark motives to her acquaintances and skeletons to their closets.
Catherine is easily manipulated and slow to learn from her mistakes, and she bumbles into her eventual successful conclusion completely by accident, none the wiser for her troubles. Austen makes clear right at the onset that she does not wish to attack the novelists who wrote the books from which Catherine derives many of her false ideas but that the error is Catherine's interpretation of the stories.
Much of the story fits in with typical Gothic novel, but the frightening and dismaying things Catherine eventually discovers are of a far from supernatural sort. Greed, selfishness and pride, these are the horrors of Northanger Abbey. The hidden motive of seemingly delightful friends is brought to light, teaching young Catherine as well as the reader a painful lesson in real life.
Title: Waverley
Author: Sir Walter Scott
ISBN: 978-0140430714
Publisher: Penguin Classics/1981
Pages: 608 pages
Initially, Waverley appears to be very odd novel. This opinion is caused by comparison of it with, Sir Scott's masterpiece, Ivanhoe. The opening chapters of the novel are too explanatory, and the middle chapters, though packed with events, are monotonous. The end stands out because it is written in an abrupt manner. The text is sporadic with long departure from the subject, not bearing any direct relationship to the main story.
Scott’s narration is filled with typical British Humour, which makes it worth reading even though he tends to depart from the main story line. A few of these odd digressions are interesting despite the anticlimactic moments.
Eventually, the narration is easier to deal with then the hero, Edward Waverley. He is said to be a gentleman at a time when that term meant exactly that. He also has a certain adventurous spirit, with a fantastic surviving aptitude. Many of the novel's characters love Edward Waverly which appears very odd to me.
Taken as a story, this does not stand out. However, Sir Walter Scott gives us a very good account of 18th Century Scottish culture. This is a treasure house of language and traditions, and we are treated to the national values of Scotland. This novel takes Scotland seriously. We observe the Catholic Highlanders sending their children to study in France and Italy. Bonnie Prince Charlie lost only one battle and it was adequate to secure Hanoverians their throne. We discern that the transition was inevitable for Scotland. Historical background and facts redeem the novel. The story is forgettable but the historical facts are not. It is said that many writers took to writing historical novels after reading Waverley. Whatever said and done, my copy goes out for giving. No second reading.
Title: Heart of Darkness
Author: Joseph Conrad
ISBN: 0140620486
Publisher: Penguin Popular Classics
First Published: 1902
Pages: 111
Heart of Darkness echoes the savage suppression carried out in the Congo by the Belgians in one of the largest acts of genocide committed up to that time. Deeply moving, this tale contrasts the ghastly treatment of the Congo natives. Their value of life reduces amid the unwanted invasion by Marlow and Kurtz and the Belgian Company whose aim is to gather all ivory at any cost.
The novella begins out with Marlow, the main character, with a few of his shipmates to tell a story. He creates interest for the listeners with his disquieting tale of madness. Marlow was the captain of a steamboat who ends up at a slave-trading post along the banks of a huge river in Africa. While at the post, not only does Marlow witness some of the most horrible things one can imagine, but he also hears many rumours and stories of a brilliant man, Kurtz, who runs another post farther up the river, into the deep wilderness. Once Marlow reaches his destination, the book really takes the reader over with its frightening descriptions of Kurtz and his situation that he created being alone out at this post with the natives for the longest time.
As we read the story, we encounter the repetition of light and darkness. The imagery of light and darkness represents beyond the contrast of the colours. It illustrates white (the Europeans) and black (the Africans). The concept of African civilization by the European company becomes the darkness and the Africans' wild life becomes the light in the heart of darkness. The image of Africans being chained up is also signifies as the living death, the darkness; they are being controlled by white men and not being able to run freely. The death of middle aged Negro with a bullet hold in the forehead is a form of darkness from the European side. Lastly, it is the death of Kurtz, which signifies as the darkness from the European side and as well as the African side.
According to me, the effect of the novella is similar to a much older literary genre, the Gothic, and considered a “horror” story. The elaborate framing narrative devices, the emphasis on physical and mental deterioration, the doppelganger motif, the move from enlightened, time-bound civilization to barbaric, timeless primitivism; from a social order to a boundless nightmare. Like the Gothic, Conrad is simply not concerned with the unpalatable realities of a particular political system, but the individual’s unfathomable thoughts that allow the atrocities to happen.
Marlow's narration is full of information pieced together from stories, paintings and myths. His ideas, ambiguousness, euphemisms, prevarications and philosophical ponderings over what happens take priority over distinct details. One of the many layers to the stories is the drive to react against the self-proclaimed dominance of the human race: both against his environment as against his fellow man. In Heart of Darkness, Marlow proclaims that the unrestrained exploitation of the natural resources is a blot on the human conscience. This is indisputably a qualified classic.
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For my poetry, do visit rooted.
Title: Tender Is the Night
Author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
ISBN: 0141183594
Publisher: Penguin Books/2001
Pages: 400
The story is set in Riviera, Europe, where the Fitzgeralds had lived in the 1920s. The story begins with Rosemary, a young woman who has recently attained fame and fortune as an actor in silent films. She is very beautiful but in many ways innocent. Rosemary holidays on the Riviera--where she meets Dick and Nicole Diver, who are rich and an attractive couple. Rosemary gives in to Dick Diver's charm falling in love with him, but Nick is connected to Nicole, with both responsibility and love. Nicole's flawlessness is a mask. Dick is a psychiatrist and his wife, Nicole, is his patient. She is mentally imbalanced.
In that apparent paradise of the Riviera, lay ghosts, drifting through splendour followed by self-imposed restrictions, ultimate denial, dissipation and death. The Divers show the ideal of the American Dream. Both are young, restful, in love with each other and life in general. Only on the surface. The cracks begin to show, one by one, until the carefully cultivated pretence is smashed and the sickness is exposed. This novel is mainly autobiographical. It draws its parallel from Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda. The alcohol factor, in Zelda, is more likely the major factor for her suffering than some abstruse mental illness.
This part stands out:
"It was necessary to treat her [Nicole] with active, affirmative insistence, keeping the road to reality always open, making the road to escape harder going. However, the brilliance, the versatility of madness is akin to the resourcefulness of water seeping through and over and around a dike. It requires the united front of many people to work against it".
In Fitzgerald's work, the shimmering surface is a false front that the characters present to the world so that they maintain both their social standing and self-image. As the novel moves back and forth in time, we observe how Dick has married for money. The way he is torn between love for Nicole as a husband and care for her as a patient. When Nicole begins a final recovery--he initiates his own destruction. Somewhat dark in tone, Tender Is the Night is not so much disenchanting as it is nihilistic.
The Great Gatsby focused on the mask, Tender Is the Night strips that and focuses on the face. This is a poignantly astounding work, with lyrical prose and well-defined conflict, combined with insights into the impulses and inclinations of human mind in comparison to reality. A very powerful read.
I had picked this book long time back. I only got around reading it recently. After I finished it, I felt nothing has changed. A woman is still dubbed a scarlet one if she has a child outside of marriage while the man goes free. People are as fond of gossip now as they were ever before. It still interests people, who is sleeping with whom.
The novel is set in the 17th century. It was written by Hawthorne in 1850. A touching human story of a time that makes us wonder how far religious and moral extremes could take us.
The novel opens with Hester being led to the scaffold where she is publicly shamed for having committed adultery. Hester is forced to wear the letter "A" on her gown at all times. Hester carries Pearl, her daughter, with her. On the scaffold, she is asked to reveal the name of Pearl's father, but she refuses. Though her husband comes to the town, he tells her not to let it be known that they are related in anyway.
Hester moves into a cottage near the woods where she lives with her daughter Pearl. She redeems herself in the eyes of the village people by her austere and virtuous living. She with her quiet behaviour goes on about her work as a seamstress who mainly stitches funeral gowns initially. Though she goes on loving the man with whom she had the child, she cannot name him as he is a man of repute who holds a great esteem in the eyes of the people. Hester’s husband, a cold-hearted man described as “having successfully turned himself into a fiend by taking on the office of one,” moves forward with his plan of revenge.
Hawthorne’s writing is very refreshing and real. Making good use of magic realism and vivid imagery, he portrays the Puritan mindset so well that we are drawn into the world of 17th century New England complete with witches who fly on broomsticks, people who meet the Devil in the woods and a scarlet letter “A” imprinted in the flesh of Hester’s secret lover.
Despite its gloomy message, The Scarlet Letter is also a story of passion and the will to survive. In Hester, we find a woman of great courage. Who bears her punishment with fortitude. Her very exclusion from her town is as much a blessing as a punishment. Marked as an adulteress, she no longer needs to abide by society’s rigid expectations and strict morality. Her lover, on the other hand, is forced to deny his desire, his needs and even his humanity because he would not choose Hester’s fate.
This book contains a message that is as relevant and poignant as the day it was written. It’s as much about the abuses of women in a society too rigid in its moral and religious ideals to still be human as it is about two people’s will to survive. With the vivid imagery, magic realism and the profound symbolism, The Scarlet Letter is a must-read for anyone concerned about society, values and the right to be human.
