3 posts tagged “england”
Read because: I kept pick it up off shelves and finally decided to give it a go.
Borrowed from: the Sacramento Library
Rating: 8 out of 10
Synopsis (from Publishers Weekly): Our nameless protagonist, a jovial, perceptive sort of 30-something fellow hanging affably about the fringes of society, introduces his middle-class but sleek and beautiful friend Edith Lavery to the earnest but dull Lord Charles Broughton. Much to the dismay of "civilized" society, Charles falls in love and proposes to the social-climbing but largely indifferent Edith. Even after she is married, Edith is snubbed and humiliated at every turn, until she moves out in a huff with her married lover, Simon Russell, an actor/ego-on-legs who is eating up the publicity that comes with being seen with a countess and eager for this entrée into society. To Edith's consternation, the glittering world of theater turns out to be just as small-minded and dull as that of society, with the added disadvantage of it not involving much money.
My Review: This was like modern, much more dark PG Wodehouse. Much like Wodehouse, it was a romp by the rich in the English countryside, but it took on much darker themes (divorce, adultery, wealth, class, etc.). I liked it a lot. I thought the writing was wry, sharp, and humorous, and although I am nowhere near the English upper class, I felt like Fellowes' portrayal was fairly accurate. I liked the writing convention of the unnamed narrator, who I found very likable. Everyone, even selfish Edith, was somewhat likeable. I felt, though, it was meant to be a satire and everyone came off quite well in the end. It didn't seem to pack the punch that I was expecting. But I still relished in the gosspiy storyline and excellent characters (Googie, Edith's mother-in-law, in particular). I also think this would make an excellent movie. Get on that, Hollywood. (Finished 7/28/09)
Note: There might be some spoilers here. We'll see.
After reading -- and absolutely loving and devouring -- Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters through DailyLit.com, I thought that I'd tackle another Gaskell book, Mary Barton.
A brief overview from Amazon: While Mary Barton is literally a murder mystery, it is also an abundantly detailed and sympathetic view of the nineteenth-century English weaving village of Manchester and some of its people. Mary Barton is young, kind, and beautiful -- perhaps dangerously so. John Barton, her hearty and intelligent but grievously uneducated father who "could never abide the gentlefolk," pours fierce love and courage into his family and work. Mary's love -- for her father, her friends, her charming rich suitor (the son of a factory owner), and his rival, her faithful childhood friend Jem who "loves her above life itself" -- provides rich texture and suspense in this finely spun tale: will Mary's pride be her ruin? Will Jem pay with his life for his love of Mary? Interspersed with sparse but regular authorial observation, scenes from family life, work, and love in a nineteenth-century industrial village come alive.
My friend Hillary originally recommended Mary Barton to me a while ago and said, "yeah, try counting how many people die."
I stopped counting after a while. A lot of people die. But one of Gaskell's main themes is the vast difference between the working class and the wealthy, and how so many people died deplorable, painful deaths from starvation in 1840's Manchester because of that divide. There is a very strong (heck, let's call it preachy) Christian/moral theme to this book, especially toward the end, about witnessing the suffering of another man and doing nothing to relieve it. One's inhumanity toward another is inexcusable in Gaskell's eyes (as it should be in everyone's eyes, don't you think?).
On the other hand, there is the love/murderous triangle between Mary, Mr. Carson, and Jem, which is excellently portrayed, with intrigue, suspicion, and red herrings. The relationships in the book outside this love triangle are even better -- Mary and her father, Margaret and Will, Job and everyone, Alice and everyone, Jem and his mother, etc. These relationships are all so rich and well-developed.
The plot is depressing, exciting, boring, sobering, and loving, all in one. Hillary particularly liked the middle of the novel where Mary Baron plays detective. I must agree, and add that the boat chase was fantastic. Mary Barton would translate to film really well, I feel. Come on, Andrew Davies! Tackle it!
My Rating: 7 out of 10, for being in stark contrast to the fluttering world of Wives and Daughters. But it definitely showed Gaskell's range as a writer. Some of the parts about labor unions bogged the story down a bit, but all in all I'd definitely recommend this one.
Tell us a true story that proves it really is a small world after all.
Submitted by havybeaks.
I have quite a few.
My ex-boyfriend's aunt in SoCal was my current roommate's dentist when she (my roommate) was growing up.
My mom ran into someone when we were at the Grand Canyon who she went to high school with. IN INDIA.
A sorta-friend from college in SoCal knows one of my good friends here in Sacramento because she dated his teammate at a completely different college from the one she and I went to.
And my favorite (better told as an anecdote):
I went on a British tour when I was in eighth grade. We were on a tour bus one morning, when our guide for the day came on the bus, we noticed that she had an American accent. We asked her where she was from, and she said California, and asked us to guess the city. A whole host of cities were shouted out, and I guessed Davis, CA. The rest of the conversation went like this:
Lady: "That's right! Davis, CA."
Me: "Cool! My grandma lives in Davis."
Lady: "What's your grandma's name?"
Me: "Donna Grandmaslastname."
Lady: "Donna Grandmaslastname?! That makes Judy your mom! I used to babysit your mom!!"
I met my mom's babysitter. On a bus. In England. I think I made her feel old that day.
