Clarissa - Samuel Richardson

So I'm 200 pages in, with another 1,300 to go and I have a feeling this is going to be just as painful as I imagined. To give myself goals and benchmarks I decided to check in every 200 pages or so and give a brief summary, while I eat copious amounts of chocolate as a reward.

So basically, there's a rumor regarding some foul play and unjust treatment of a suitor circulating about the Harlowe family. Anna Howe decides to get to the bottom of these rumors and so begins the longest correspondence in history. It seems there has been a suitor of Clarissa's older sister, but she rejected him and after a nanosecond during which he caught a glimpse of Clarissa, he decided that actually Clarissa was the better deal after all, much to the chagrin of the older sister. Clarissa thinks this guy, Mr. Lovelace, is a bit of a rake and having much higher matrimonial ambitions for herself, puts him off and except for the original encouragement of the family would have nothing further to do with him. But Mr. Lovelace's continual courtship of Clarissa is too much to bear for the older sister, who drags the older brother into the matter challenging Mr. Lovelace to a duel and forever sullying Mr. Lovelace presence and ambitions toward the Harlowe family. (Side note: Mr. Lovelace is a rake and a no-good womanizer...)

The family somehow instead finds what they deem to be a suitable match for Clarissa, a Mr. Solmes, who is completely and utterly repugnant to Clarissa. She has begged confinement to a nunnery or certain death over any union with Mr. Solmes, who nevertheless doggedly/lethargically pursues her. How can one be both dogged and lethargic? Well despite constant, never-ending refusals he waits in the guest room unperturbed as the linen for Clarissa's trousseau is procured. Yet, the family does all of the intense courtship, which involves imprisonment in her room, seizure of all correspondence and a never ending stream of family disapproval and disavowal unless she concedes to their will. 

Finally after resisting Mr. Lovelace for 200 pages...it seems like he is looking like her best option. If she is still banished to her room 200 pages from now writing letters secretly to her dear friend Miss. Howe...I think I might have a break down. This book could use a little more action and a little less endless discussion. 

Evelina, or the History of a Young Lady - Fanny Burney

Evelina is a young woman, well educated yet sheltered from the ways of the world. She is raised in rural seclusion, the unacknowledged but legitimate daughter of a dissipated English aristocrat. When she is seventeen she is allowed to spend time in London and there quickly finds herself immersed in the world of the English aristocracy, frequenting balls, becoming familiar with lords and visiting all the fashionable establishments. When her poor cousins insist on her spending time with them she is then exposed to a completely different world occupying the same topography but further away from her previous existence than a foreign country. This leads to some humorous moments (it seems there were more prostitutes wandering the Covey gardens then I had previously thought, something Jane Austin never mentions.)

Told through a series of letters, this book was much better than I was anticipating. Evelina seemed like an adorable younger sister that still has a lot of growing up to do, but her faults are from inexperience rather from lack of trying. She is altogether too malleable and could have done with a little more backbone on occasion, but all in all she was a worthy protagonist. I think if anything the moments of "satire" were a little too much. In this sense Evelina was a foil for the satire to take place around her while she went about her business of being a reliable, estimable heroine. The satire, I guess, was most evident in a couple characters never ending desire to make fun of the aristocracy with endless jokes, pranks and melodrama. I could have done with a bit less/none of it...

 After my second book now told through the exchange of letters maybe I'll finally be brave enough to attempt Clarissa (all million, zillion pages of it.) 

Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad

Lord Jim is a young shipmate aboard the Patna, in a moment of terror and confusion he abandons his ship and all it's passengers along  with the ship captain and a few other crew members. They assume the ship has hit something along it's bottom tearing open a wound in the hull and while the passengers, unaware of the danger continue to peacefully sleep, the terror and the immediacy of the situation causes the crew to panic and run for their lives. As they pull away from the boat a heavy mist rolls in and for a moment there is complete silence. The boat has sunk and the reality of the situation slowly begins to dawn on them.

Only the boat hasn't sunk...it somehow manages to limp into port and Jim is left with tangible evidence of his cowardice. To leave your ship is an unpardonable sin, but psychologically it is not a rule or regulation that strips Jim of his dignity it is his own base humanity that chose flight over honor. Jim is haunted by this one pivotal moment in his life and spends the rest of his life running from the memory of his sin. From port to port he takes jobs far beneath is competency in order to hide in their anonymity. 

This book had all the makings of a great book. I was expecting a page turner, a cliff hanger a suspense-on-the-edge-of-your-seat-not-breaking-to-pee kind of book....instead I felt like I was inside the movie Inception...only instead of dreams within dreams, I was lost within overlaying narratives. So Marlow is telling Jim's story, but occasionally the person listening to the story pipes in and says something and occasionally Marlow pulls the narrative along through interpreting letters or relaying overheard conversations. All of which serve to make the story slightly separated from the reader. This is an INTENSE story! Anyone can relate to this whether or not we have faced our cowardice or not there is always the potential that we are cowards. No one can know truly if one is actually a coward or not unless they have been put in a snap judgement situation between honor and cowardice. I would like to think I would choose honor...but it's raining (and we know how I am about a little weather) it's slick and slippery. It's late at night. You work with a bunch of people you probably hate so there isn't much solidarity...and then there's a crash. The boat rocks and sways. As Jim does, you quickly calculate the amount of passengers on the boat and the amount of life rafts...someone calls your name and through the darkness you are faced with life if you go or certain death if you stay...anyway...my point is I never really felt intimate with Jim for the rest of the story. I shared one moment that hung in the air....and waited for the next to begin but it was constantly shrouded in endless soliloquies and third party narrative. 

I liked Heart of Darkness WAY better...but for some reason that wasn't on the list. Harold Bloom...one of these days we need to have a conversation.

Pamela, Or Virtue Rewarded - Samuel Richardson

So I was a little nervous about reading a book entirely composed of letters, but the narrative style actually grew on me. It was sort of like finding a friends journal and secretly reading it under the bed...until 200 pages in...when it became more like reading a script a friend wrote in front of them and wanting to stop but every time you look up there they are sitting and staring at you full of expectation.

Pamela, is a Lady's maid and after the unfortunate lady passes away, is forced to reevaluate her position with the family. The rowdy, libertine son set his eye on her and not used to being withheld from his desires, his flirtations become more and more aggressive. As she begs to be allowed to return to her poor family, he keeps her in a state of limbo, fear and trepidation. A true villain!

Finally, after attempting to sully her virtue on many occasions, he send her off...but not to her family as she presumes...but to another form of entrapment where she is kept a prisoner for days, waiting his imminent arrival. As she pines for her freedom, her parents and her reputation she plans one failed escape after another and finally weak and distraught, with fear surrenders herself to her fate, after one attempt leaves her bruised and left in a crumple in the coal pile.

Her master comes, and after many an insinuation of his lack of honor...randomly has a major unprecedented moment of character development and goes from villain to hero in a matter of pages. From that point on (and it's another 300 pages) the book lacks the intrigue and excitement and instead reads like awkward loves letters.

Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson

This was a great quick read! I can tell why it has remained a childhood favorite for generations. The narrative is fast paced and somehow David manages to survive even the most unlikely situations.

David, after being left an orphan, makes his way to his only living relative in the hopes of securing a position of some kind. What he doesn't anticipate, is that is old uncle Ebeneezer, besides being slightly crazy and an almost admirable miser...aims to kill or get rid of him as soon as possible! So on their way to discuss David's inheritance with the family lawyer, David instead finds himself kidnapped on a ship and on his way to the Carolinas for a life of indentured servitude.

Throughout the story David is constantly forced to sleep outdoors in the rain and wander around for days without food. I now occasionally think about both things when walking the one block from my apartment to the metro station and felling "chilly". I'm pretty sure if I was the protagonist of this story it would have ended much differently. Would I have had the gumption to challenge a boat full of hostile shipmates? Unlikely. Would I have survived one night under the stars, gently being rained on? Probably not. I would have probably waited until I got to the Carolinas...and then made a run for it? Hoped for the best? Exactly the opposite of what I said in the last post. But honestly..."camping" without a tent or food isn't really my thing. A little subterfuge here and there, sure why not as long as I get to sleep indoors!

No Name - Wilkie Collins

Two wealthy and privileged sisters, Norah and Magdalen are left destitute after strange and unusual circumstances. While Norah complacently accepts her new lot in life and exchanges a lifestyle of luxury for one of a semi-abused governess...Magdalen refuses to acquiesce to the new life fate has handed her and begins a slow and painful journey to reclaim her rightful inheritance.

All I can say about this book is - wow. Once again, Wilkie Collins has kept me in white knuckle suspense for over 700 pages. I had no idea how the book was going to end. Collins has a way of pulling the reader deep into a story, submerging you in his characters and creating a narrative that is so visceral you find yourself dreaming their dreams and hoping their hopes and wishing for it to never end.

I found myself completely relating to Magdalen. Like her, I am a fixer, never satisfied to sit idly by and hope for the best , we fixers instead pour our souls into setting things right. Yet, while Magdalen's life slowly crumbles around her as she is forced to embark on one fateful enterprise after another, her sister Norah, waits patiently for life or fate or God to provide a solution to their tribulation.

I'm so glad I gave Wilkie Collins another try. After reading the Moonstone, I wanted to rip my eyeballs out and have along chat with Harold Bloom. Now, I appreciate Collins for what he is, a master story teller. He almost reminds me of a cross between Dickens and Hardy with his ability to paint a narrative so close you can almost taste it. I think Collins may have bumped himself closer to the top of the list alongside Flannery, McCullers and Hardy.

The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams

In a cramped and suffocating apartment, the aging Southern Belle Amanda Wingfield, long preoccupied by memories of gentlemen callers and a world that no longer exists, determined to find stability for her children is energized by the dilemma of how to save what remains of her family.

After Amanda's husband abandons her, Tom is forced to become the family provider. Chained to a banal existence of working a menial job, perpetually lacking action or adventure. As Amanda depends on Tom more and more the burden becomes unbearable and caught between the dismal present and an exotic future, he choose the future and follows in his fathers footsteps by abandoning his family to seek out a new and fulfilling life.

Meanwhile, the fragile hopes and dreams of his sister are lovingly tended and then in an evening shattered when her only gentlemen caller calls. She has fantasized over this meeting indefinitely and when the gentlemen caller finally shows up, he flatters her, dances with her, breaks a glass unicorn, kisses her and then pronounces himself engaged and leaves forever.

Tom - " I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion...to begin with I turn back time. I reverse it to that quaint period, the thirties, when the huge middle class of America was matriculating in a school for the blind. Their eyes had failed then, or they had failed their eyes, and so they were having their fingers pressed forcibly down on the braille alphabet of a dissolving economy."

Tom - "From then on I followed in my father's footsteps, attempting to find in motion what was lost in space."