L Reads a Classic: She, by H. Rider Haggard

Oh what great fun this little book is!

 

Back when I was a kid, my next-oldest brother and I were given an old black and white T.V. from an uncle who’d scrounged it from an apartment building fire.  Despite it still smelling somewhat smoky, we were very grateful for the gift.  It meant that we could have a T.V. in our bedrooms, at least some of the time, since we both held a 50% interest in it.  Oh the joy of having a T.V. to myself, when I had custody of it!  Even if it was black & white!  It meant that I got to choose what show to watch, not have to fight with several brothers and my parents, many of whom wanted to watch hockey (blech!).  Majority ruled in my house.  It also didn’t help that I often wanted to watch some girly show that no one else liked lol. 

 

So I fondly remember those nights of T.V. viewing up in my bedroom, while my brothers watched the hockey game downstairs in the living room.  Usually I’d end up with some black & white movie on TVO so it didn’t matter that I didn’t have a colour T.V. set.  One movie I watched and greatly enjoyed was the adventure movie King Solomon’s Mines from 1950 starring Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr.  Later, in the 1980s, Richard Chamberlain took his turn as Allan Quatermain, starring in King Soloman’s Mines and it’s follow up Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold, both great cult classics.  Little did I know at the time that both movies were based on novels written in the 1880s by a man named H. Rider Haggard until I picked up She, which is on my Victorian Literature course reading list.  As soon as I caught the connection, though, I greatly looked forward to reading the novel.  And it didn’t disappoint!

 

L. Horace Holly and his ward Leo Vincey travel to darkest Africa in search of the lost city of Kor in order to avenge the murder of Leo’s ancestor, Kallikrates.  Despite being eaten alive by mosquitoes and watching lions being killed by crocodiles, the two finally meet up with the Amahagger tribe, who, following orders given by She (or She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed), take them to their village.  The Amahaggers are a matriarchal society, where the women rule, or so the men let them think.  They are governed by She, a supposedly immortal white woman who has lived for over 2000 years and who rules by intimidation and fear.  Anyone who disobeys She is instantly put to death.  The Amahaggers fear her implicitly.  She, whose real name is Ayesha, has been waiting these 2000 years for the return of her lover, Kallikrates, a man she killed because he would not leave his wife for her.  Leo, it turns out, is Kallikrates reincarnated, and She vows they will marry and he will be given the secret to infinite life.

 

Amid lush descriptions of the African landscape and the Amahagger peoples and customs, including their practice of “hot-potting” (they kill strangers by placing a boiling hot pot on their heads and then eat them) is a story that raises many questions about the Empire and the role of women in society.  Haggard was a fervent imperialist supporter, yet he presents a picture of an Empire that is not always desirable.  Also, women were re-defining their roles in society at the end of the nineteenth century, and so Haggard creates in the character of She a warning to these women that change and progression of women’s rights is not always a good thing.  The misogyny alone, expressed in the character of Holly, is enough to make my inner feminist cringe.  But She is a fascinating character, one I’m still wrapping my head around.  She represents the Empire, both its good and bad characteristics, as well as serving as a warning to young women, and yet, She is so much more.  Ultimately, who or what is She?  Literary critics are still answering that question.

 

H. Rider Haggard’s She, is more than just an adventure story, and it’s a darn good read too.  I leave you with a film clip from a fun cult classic:

 

Ursula Andress in She (1965)

 

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

 

PS Lily liked the book too lol

“I do things like get in a taxi and say, “The library, and step on it.”

~ David Foster Wallace

 

L Reads a Classic and Tries (and Probably Fails) Not to Make the Review Sound Like an English Lit Lecture

The Mill on the Floss is George Elliot’s second book and reportedly her most autobiographical.  Elliot, who was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819, used the male pseudonym George Elliot in order to be taken more seriously as a writer.  Her first novel, Adam Bede, won critical acclaim until the critics found out it was written by a woman.  In the nineteenth century, women were not supposed to be intellectual beings, after all, and widely read Elliot, who spoke and read several languages, and populated her texts with scientific debate, was a conundrum for the critics and reading public.

 

Along with her novels, George Elliot may be most famous for openly living with a married man.  Having met George Henry Lewes in 1851, the pair chose to live together, and called each other husband and wife, despite being unable to marry due to the fact that Lewes could not divorce his wife.  Elliot’s decision caused quite the rift between her and her family, and resulted in her brother choosing not to speak to her until many years later when Elliot finally lawfully married John Cross in 1880.

 

Getting back to The Mill on the Floss, which I mentioned was purported to be very autobiographical, it is a story about a brother and sister, Tom and Maggie Tulliver, and the trials and tribulations of their lives from childhood to adulthood.  Maggie is an incredibly smart, well-read young girl who doesn’t quite fit into her society, a society that expects girls to dress prettily, learn to sew and keep house, and be proper young ladies.  Her older brother Tom also struggles with his place in society.  His father wishes him to receive a gentleman’s education but Tom is not interested in book learning and would rather build animal traps.  Both children, however, have little choice but to be molded into their required place in society, despite how against their nature that place is.  When Maggie, as an adolescent, begins an innocent, but forbidden friendship with the son of her father’s nemesis, Tom chastises her for it, and forces her to end the dalliance.  But it is not until later, when Maggie spends a night away from town with their cousin’s fiancé, does Tom cut all ties with her, refusing to listen to the truth or acknowledge Maggie as his sister, for she has disgraced the family irreparably.  Shades of Elliot’s life story, no?

 

The novel is a superb example of high realism, in that the characters and their lives are fully realized and simply jump of the page, easily coming to life for the reader.  Elliot also intersperses the story with interesting commentary on the nature of man, evolution and various other debates engaging Victorian minds of the day:  class issues, scientific advances and discoveries, the woman question, etc.  Because of this, it is not an easy read.  Most people either love or hate Elliot’s books.  I, unfortunately, had to read it in a very short period of time as it is required reading in my Victorian Literature course, and so I am of two minds about the book.  I think, had I really taken the time to immerse myself in the novel, I would have enjoyed it far more than I did.  I generally read from a feminist critical perspective, and Maggie’s tragic story of being forced to choose between duty to her family and duty to herself and never feeling like she could be happy in life is one that truly resonates.

 

If you’re looking for a meaty piece of fiction to sink your teeth into, definitely give this one a shot.  I’ll be looking forward to the summer when I can give it a more slow and thorough going over in order to tease out all the delightful subtleties.  That’s just the English Lit geek I am!

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

 

“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book”

~ Marcel Proust

L Reads a Classic and Tries (and Probably Fails) Not to Make the Review Sound Like an English Lit Lecture

The Mill on the Floss is George Elliot’s second book and reportedly her most autobiographical.  Elliot, who was born Mary Ann Evans in 1819, used the male pseudonym George Elliot in order to be taken more seriously as a writer.  Her first novel, Adam Bede, won critical acclaim until the critics found out it was written by a woman.  In the nineteenth century, women were not supposed to be intellectual beings, after all, and widely read Elliot, who spoke and read several languages, and populated her texts with scientific debate, was a conundrum for the critics and reading public.

Along with her novels, George Elliot may be most famous for openly living with a married man.  Having met George Henry Lewes in 1851, the pair chose to live together, and called each other husband and wife, despite being unable to marry due to the fact that Lewes could not divorce his wife.  Elliot’s decision caused quite the rift between her and her family, and resulted in her brother choosing not to speak to her until many years later when Elliot finally lawfully married John Cross in 1880.

Getting back to The Mill on the Floss, which I mentioned was purported to be very autobiographical, it is a story about a brother and sister, Tom and Maggie Tulliver, and the trials and tribulations of their lives from childhood to adulthood.  Maggie is an incredibly smart, well-read young girl who doesn’t quite fit into her society, a society that expects girls to dress prettily, learn to sew and keep house, and be proper young ladies.  Her older brother Tom also struggles with his place in society.  His father wishes him to receive a gentleman’s education but Tom is not interested in book learning and would rather build animal traps.  Both children, however, have little choice but to be molded into their required place in society, despite how against their nature that place is.  When Maggie, as an adolescent, begins an innocent, but forbidden friendship with the son of her father’s nemesis, Tom chastises her for it, and forces her to end the dalliance.  But it is not until later, when Maggie spends a night away from town with their cousin’s fiancé, does Tom cut all ties with her, refusing to listen to the truth or acknowledge Maggie as his sister, for she has disgraced the family irreparably.  Shades of Elliot’s life story, no?

The novel is a superb example of high realism, in that the characters and their lives are fully realized and simply jump of the page, easily coming to life for the reader.  Elliot also intersperses the story with interesting commentary on the nature of man, evolution and various other debates engaging Victorian minds of the day:  class issues, scientific advances and discoveries, the woman question, etc.  Because of this, it is not an easy read.  Most people either love or hate Elliot’s books.  I, unfortunately, had to read it in a very short period of time as it is required reading in my Victorian Literature course, and so I am of two minds about the book.  I think, had I really taken the time to immerse myself in the novel, I would have enjoyed it far more than I did.  I generally read from a feminist critical perspective, and Maggie’s tragic story of being forced to choose between duty to her family and duty to herself and never feeling like she could be happy in life is one that truly resonates.

If you’re looking for a meaty piece of fiction to sink your teeth into, definitely give this one a shot.  I’ll be looking forward to the summer when I can give it a more slow and thorough going over in order to tease out all the delightful subtleties.  That’s just the English Lit geek I am!

Till next time, happy reading!

L J

“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favourite book”

~ Marcel Proust

Windsor Book Club Reads: Water for Elephants

I am of two minds about this book.  On one hand, I really enjoyed it.  It’s quite well written and the story is an interesting one that kept me turning the pages, wanting to know what happens next.  On the other hand, its setting is a circus in 1931, when animal brutality was rampant.  I’m not a fan of the circus novel, and hate reading about animal cruelty.  For much of the novel, I found myself alternating between wincing and cringing, taking pauses to hug my sweet puppy**, and wanting to do serious bodily harm to the circus’ animal director (gnash teeth).

 

The story in a nutshell:  Ninety or ninety-three year old Jacob Jankowski is living out his final days in a nursing home when a circus comes to town and sets up the big tent in the parking lot across the street.  This sends Jacob down memory lane to 1931, the year his parents died, when the bank took their house, and he jumped a train, suddenly finding himself a part of the Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Show on Earth.  The world of train circus’ and circus life circa 1930s comes vividly to life, with all its unique characters, animals and events.  Throw in some romance, a couple of dastardly villains, and some very cute animals and their antics, and it’s a winning formula for a good book.  I just wish there wasn’t such a realistic portrayal of how circus animals were treated back then.

 

Despite my dislike for the circus novel, I do have to give credit for the author’s skill in drawing realistic characters, and bringing history to life.  Jacob’s struggle to leave boyhood behind when the tragedy of his parents’ sudden death thrusts him into adulthood, is compounded with his struggles against August, the schizophrenic animal director, who takes much of his anger out on the animals.  Jacob, a Cornell trained veterinarian, is caught between helping/protecting the animals, and keeping himself alive, for working men on the circus train who meddle in the business of circus boss Uncle Al or important performers like August, find themselves “redlighted” or thrown off the train, usually when it’s moving.  Add to this is Jacob’s growing attraction to and love for the beautiful Marlena, caught in a loveless marriage to August, and often a victim of his rantings, anger, and before long, physical abuse.  Jacob must find a way to save her, the animals and himself.  No easy feat for young man on the cusp of adulthood who must also contend with a tanking economy at the start of the Great Depression.

 

Friendship, camaraderie, and love of fellow man and man for beast are woven like silken threads throughout a story that I would probably describe as beautiful set against any other background.  The circus thing just tarnished the story too much for me.

 

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

 

We had a great turnout at the Green Bean Café last night, which provided for some wonderfully diverse discussion of the book.  Reviews were mixed, with some liking the book and others not.  We were of two minds regarding the main character.  Some found Jacob to be weak; not stepping in to stop the abuse of the animals or instance, and others attributed this to his youth and being uncomfortable confronting an authority figure (in the role of August).  Also, the grief he was experiencing at the death of his parents must have played a huge role in how he dealt with experiences.  It was felt that he grew up in the end, and was able to take on substantial responsibility with the choices he made at the end of the book.  It is also worth noting that the book is told in both present day and in the past, through memory.  Some of us liked the ninety plus-year-old character of Jacob, and enjoyed his story more than the young Jacob’s experiences in the circus, while for others it was the other way around. 

 

Many of us agreed that the book was well-written, and that the author had clearly done her research and was skillful in bringing history to life in her descriptions of Depression Era circuses.  Even if that setting was not everyone’s cup of tea.  And while the male characters were well drawn, the character of Marlena was not as fully fleshed out as it should have been, considering she played such a large role in the great romance.  Many of us were left wondering what, other than her great beauty, Jacob saw in her to hold his attraction.  I understand, from comments made of those who have seen the movie, that her character is given more justice on the silver screen.  I look forward to comparing the two when my hold on the DVD at the public library finally comes in.

 

Regardless how you look at it, this book led to some lively discussion around the table, and for that alone, made it well worth reading.

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L :)

** This is why I don’t understand animal cruelty and never will.  How could anyone hurt this sweet face?

 

This is her "if you put down that book, I could lay in your lap and you could pet me" face. lol

Indigo Lakeshore Book Club reads: The Dovekeepers

This was a disappointing read for me, made more so, I think, because it kept getting truncated by class reading.  I’ve never been a huge fan of Alice Hoffman.  I find her characters are weird.  A couple of years ago I read and reviewed The Ice Queen, and found it a decent read, but odd, with the main character emotionally frozen in ice.  But Hoffman is also the author of Practical Magic, a book I also didn’t particularly like, but which was made into one of my all-time favorite chick flicks staring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman.  It’s a great sisterhood movie and so because of that, Hoffman will always hold a special place in my virtual bookshelf, but when it comes to actually reading her….well…..

 

In The Dovekeepers, Hoffman attempts to bring to life a major event in Jewish history and write the women’s story.  History is rampant with tales of man’s doing, with little emphasis on the lives and deeds of women, so Hoffman’s book is quite ambitious and from a feminist perspective is to be applauded.  However, and I think I’ve made my opinion on this clear in the past: authors who set out to deliberately write a tale based on some real-life event, no matter how talented, always, for me, take a great risk.  I am a firm believer in the organic style of writing where the story presents itself out of the ether and is naturally birthed rather than forced from some notion that “this” whatever that may be, would make a great story.  (and maybe that’s why I’ve never finished a book of my own lol). 

 

The real-life events inspiring The Dovekeepers is the attempt of the Romans to drive the Jews out of Judea, culminating with a massacre at King Herod’s desert stronghold, Masada.  At the end of the day, two women and five children survive this war.  Their tale is recorded by Josephus, a 1^st century Romano-Jewish historian, and it is this recount of events which Hoffman tries to bring to life with a fictionalized account of the lives of four women trying to survive events beyond their control from 70 – 73 C.E.

 

Hoffman’s novel is separated into four books, each one told in the first person voice of one of the four women.  It begins in 70 C.E. when Yael and her father are driven out of Jerusalem, crossing the desert to find refuge at Masada, where others fleeing the Roman army have created a self-contained community.  The following books are stories of three women she meets and forms friendships with at Masada.  Each book tells the individual tale of the life of each woman and the atrocities this war has wrought upon their lives and families. 

 

The problem for me in reading this book (and isn’t there always a problem? lol) was that there was no distinct voice between each book.  Each woman’s story started to run together as one tale (and perhaps that was Hoffman’s goal, to show that her story is the tale of all women during this time in history, not just these mere four).  But with the four distinct stories, I found there to be a fair bit of retelling, as each told her story prior to Masada, but also her daily life and events living in Masada that intersected with the other three women, which became repetitive at times.  Hoffman’s writing chops did, however, show themselves in her ability to weave together and intersect the lives of all four women, so that the novel came to a decent conclusion.

 

What my fellow book clubbers had to say:

 

It’s was a small group that met at Indigo Books in Lakeshore last night.  Two of us had finished the book and two hadn’t.  Spoiler alerts were not needed as the two who hadn’t finished the book had no interest in doing so.  Yikes.  We were all in agreement that the first book, Yael’s story, was the toughest to get through, and that though the book improved slightly, it really wasn’t escapist reading.  If you enjoy reading historical fiction and learning about other cultures, or more about historical events, then this book would probably be your cup of tea.  However, if you’re looking for an enjoyable story, to take you away from it all, you might want to give this book a pass.

 

Highlights of the evening included some beautiful pictures of places mentioned in the book, which K brought to share, and which helped bring the book to life, and made it for me, a somewhat more interesting read.  As well, there were some delicious Vanilla Chai Tea samples to partake of, which the lovely Starbucks girl passed around.  And that rather says it all, doesn’t it?

 

Next month we’re reading Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See, an author I’ve not read before, but as the book does look interesting, I’m quite anticipating it.  Why don’t you read along with us?

 

Till next time, happy reading!

L

 

“You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope...I have loved none but you.”

~ Jane Austen, Persuasion