Wednesday Reading Meme
May. 8th, 2013 08:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Frances Hodgson Burnet’s A Lady of Quality, which is interesting in part because it is such a contrast to Emily in The Making of a Marchioness. Emily’s chief quality is her good cheer, her patience, and her massive, massive gratitude once her Marquis proposes to her.
I get why she’s so grateful - she was looking at a long and lonely life and a probably-poverty-stricken death otherwise - but still, sometimes I just wanted to say to her, “Have a little self respect! Or at least do something to make me think there’s more to your relationship with the really rather selfish marquis than the fact that you are so, so grateful to him?”
Clorinda, the heroine of A Lady of Quality, is quite the opposite. She comes into the world shrieking like a banshee, and by the age of six her terrific willpower (and lung capacity, and willingness to kick and hit and shriek) have terrified all the servants into doing her will despite the fact that her father takes no interest in his children. But then he meets Clorinda, and makes a pet of her because he is so charmed by her fury and her beauty.
Clorinda’s beauty. Oh, man, Clorinda’s beauty. Like Cedric’s incredible handsomeness in Little Lord Fauntleroy, Clorinda’s beauty gets described every other page. I don’t even think I’m exaggerating. And in both books it gets so repetitive, I kept hoping Cedric or Clorinda would fall off horses and break their noses or do something to mar their looks, but nooo. And doubtless they would have been beautiful with broken noses, anyway.
(And then a bunch of other stuff happens to Clorinda: her childhood is actually rather a small part of the book. It’s a very odd book, perhaps especially for a Victorian book, although I don’t think a standard modern heroine could get away with some of the things Clorinda does. At any rate, I can’t remember the last book I read that presented the heroine beating a horse into submission as a sign of her own high spirit and willpower.)
What I’m Reading Now
Les Miz, for the foreseeable future. Javert and Valjean are playing cat and mouse through the streets of Paris.
Also also, I’m reading Maria Cummins’ The Lamplighter, which is a sentimentalist bestseller from the 1850s about a little girl named Gertie, who lives a terrible and squalid life, unloved by anyone, until she is taken in by the lamplighter - who is named, with one of those wonderful mid-century novel names, Trueman Flint. He is from New England. His name is the most New English of names.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have been thinking that as this summer I am taking French class, I should make this a Summer of French: French class, French classics (all the Hugo! more Zola!), French movies, and of course French desserts.
I need to decide which Zola novels to read, because he wrote approximately five zillion. Does anyone have Zola opinions?
Frances Hodgson Burnet’s A Lady of Quality, which is interesting in part because it is such a contrast to Emily in The Making of a Marchioness. Emily’s chief quality is her good cheer, her patience, and her massive, massive gratitude once her Marquis proposes to her.
I get why she’s so grateful - she was looking at a long and lonely life and a probably-poverty-stricken death otherwise - but still, sometimes I just wanted to say to her, “Have a little self respect! Or at least do something to make me think there’s more to your relationship with the really rather selfish marquis than the fact that you are so, so grateful to him?”
Clorinda, the heroine of A Lady of Quality, is quite the opposite. She comes into the world shrieking like a banshee, and by the age of six her terrific willpower (and lung capacity, and willingness to kick and hit and shriek) have terrified all the servants into doing her will despite the fact that her father takes no interest in his children. But then he meets Clorinda, and makes a pet of her because he is so charmed by her fury and her beauty.
Clorinda’s beauty. Oh, man, Clorinda’s beauty. Like Cedric’s incredible handsomeness in Little Lord Fauntleroy, Clorinda’s beauty gets described every other page. I don’t even think I’m exaggerating. And in both books it gets so repetitive, I kept hoping Cedric or Clorinda would fall off horses and break their noses or do something to mar their looks, but nooo. And doubtless they would have been beautiful with broken noses, anyway.
(And then a bunch of other stuff happens to Clorinda: her childhood is actually rather a small part of the book. It’s a very odd book, perhaps especially for a Victorian book, although I don’t think a standard modern heroine could get away with some of the things Clorinda does. At any rate, I can’t remember the last book I read that presented the heroine beating a horse into submission as a sign of her own high spirit and willpower.)
What I’m Reading Now
Les Miz, for the foreseeable future. Javert and Valjean are playing cat and mouse through the streets of Paris.
Also also, I’m reading Maria Cummins’ The Lamplighter, which is a sentimentalist bestseller from the 1850s about a little girl named Gertie, who lives a terrible and squalid life, unloved by anyone, until she is taken in by the lamplighter - who is named, with one of those wonderful mid-century novel names, Trueman Flint. He is from New England. His name is the most New English of names.
What I Plan to Read Next
I have been thinking that as this summer I am taking French class, I should make this a Summer of French: French class, French classics (all the Hugo! more Zola!), French movies, and of course French desserts.
I need to decide which Zola novels to read, because he wrote approximately five zillion. Does anyone have Zola opinions?
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no subject
Date: 2013-05-08 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-08 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-08 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-05-08 06:12 pm (UTC)Another bizarre Frances Hodgson Burnett book: The Lost Prince, which is about a pair of boys who set off on spying mission across Europe to alert a conspiracy that the lost prince has been found. It is quite quite strange (though in a v. different way than A Lady of Quality).
no subject
Date: 2013-05-08 08:00 pm (UTC)In any case, I definitely have some recommendations for you of the French variety! :) Have you read The Phantom of the Opera or The Count of Monte Cristo? I haven't read the latter, but I've heard it's INCREDIBLE! I had the wonderful opportunity to read The Phantom of the Opera in French though and I highly recommend it. <3
For French films: Have you seen "Rust and Bone" or "La Vie En Rose"? They're excellent! And you'll probably especially love them if you're a fan of Marion Cotillard ("Inception", "The Dark Knight Rises", etc.). :) She's a spectacular actress! <3
As for French cuisine, have you tried crepe? It's a very versatile recipe and very yummy! It's basically a very thin pancake cooked on a special pan that can have virtually anything added to it (it can be made a dessert with chocolate sauce/Nutella in it or lunch with ham and cheese, similar to a sandwich). If I think of anything else to recommend, I will let you know! :)
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Date: 2013-05-08 08:04 pm (UTC)Rust and Bone:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rust_and_Bone
La Vie En Rose:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Vie_en_rose_(film)
And the yummyness that is crepe (If I recall correctly, I sent you a recipe for crepe in one of my previous letters):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crepe
no subject
Date: 2013-05-08 11:45 pm (UTC)It actually looks like we'll be reading excerpts (in French) from The Count of Monte Cristo - next week or so. That seems awfully fast! But I guess they want us to jump right in and immerse ourselves...
I've been meaning to watch La Vie en Rose. I'm also checking to see if there are any Audrey Tautou movies I haven't seen yet; I loved her so much in Amelie that I've seen a number of her other things.
And yes, crepes! I love crepes. Rachel and I almost had dinner at a crepe place in Chicago, in fact, but sadly our timing was not quite right so we didn't. Maybe next time.