New Century Reading

Our Mutual Friend

First: what is Dickens' London like today? Perhaps not that different from 150 years ago, says this article. It includes a visit to what appears as the Six Jolly Fellows Porters Pub.

OK, so, Miss T. pointed me in the direction of Wikipedia, which has the original publication schedule right here. (Don't scroll around the entry if you want to avoid spoilers.) Looking at that with an eye to both following the rhythm of publication while gently speeding things up, I propose this schedule:

Today I'm talking about Book 2, chapters 2-6.

2/12: Book 2, chapters 7-10
2/19: Book 2, chapters 11-16
2/26: Book 3, chapters 1-4
3/4: Book 3, chapters 5-10
3/11: Book 3, chapters 11-17
3/18: Book 4, chapters 1-7
3/25: Book 4, chapters 8-11
4/1: Book 4, 12-17

That will get us to the end of the book by the end of March. Satisfactory?

If the last section's reading seemed to take aim at the way children lived in Dickens' times, this section pokes some acid fun at politics of the day with the wonderful chapters regarding Veneering's sudden "desire" to enter politics.  

He also has some very pointed attitudes about whether or not women should be educated. Mr Wrayburn, for all of his not-quite-above-board ways, wins me over by insisting he provide education to Lizzie and the Person of the House, now known as Jenny Wren and, as we see, as someone who may not be as dreadful as she first seemed. Contrast that to Lizzie's brother, too much under the sway of Mr. Headstone. What exactly does Mr. Headstone think will happen in Lizzie gets some education too? Never fear--I think Mr. Wrayburn is more than a match for Mr. Headstone. But what exactly is Mr. Wrayburn hoping to get out of the transaction?

Oh, and Fascination Fledgeby--scoundrel, or victim of the Lammles? Only time will tell. But I have great fear for the hapless Georgiana, herself almost certainly a victim of the Lammles, and definitely a victim of too much Podsnappery.

However, this little exchange delighted me:

"'Your people [Jews] need speak the truth sometimes, for they lie enough,' remarked Fascination Fledgeby [to the elderly Jewish man who has been hired to teach Lizzie and Jenny Wren].

"'Sir, there is,' returned the old man with quiet emphasis, 'too much untruth among all denominations of men.'"

Ooooh, snap, Fledgeby.

Our Mutual Friend

Yes, behind again, but still chugging along. Note: if you're behind too, hang in there, especially if you're stuck in the first six chapters. It gets easier. And better!

That said, this section of six raised a question in my mind. We know Dickens serialized this novel for publication. With Great Expectations, it was three chapters at a time. But this section of six ended oddly, with chapter 1 of book 2. The last chapter of book 1 had that tantalizing cliffhanger-y sense to it, and I have to wonder: did Dickens publish three chapters at a time, except for the end of each book section? It makes sense to me to do that. Going forward, let's assume 3 chapters a week, unless we hit the end of one of the books. So next week, let's do five chapters, which will get us through chapter six, and the week following will have six chapters, but the week after that only four, as it reaches the end of book 2. Make sense? I'll remind you again next week.

It seems in this section that Dickens is taking particular aim at the lives of children in Dickensian times. The description of Charley Hexam's schooling is beyond sad--although thank goodness for the interest of Mr. Headstone (what a name!!). That said, Mr. Headstone? Don't be such a snob. Charley should be very proud of his sister and free to visit her whenever he likes. Especially if he can talk her out of living with the Person of the House. Lizzie's life has definitely not improved after Gaffer's suspicious death. But at least she can find a way to survive. The life of orphans or abandoned children is chilling, and it seems like Dickens is very angry in these sections (and who wouldn't be?). By the time Mrs. Boffin finds little Johnny, you can't help but wish she'd just open up her own orphanage and take them all in.

Mr. Dickens also has some very tart commentary on the people who beg for money, and he notes they come from all levels of society:

"These are the corporate beggars. But there are, besides, the individual beggars; and how does the heart of the Secretary fail when he has to cope with them!...Among these correspondents are several daughters of general officers, long accustomed to every luxury of life (except spelling), who little thought, when their gallant fathers waged war in the Peninsula, that they would ever have to appeal to those whom Providence, in its inscrutable wisdom, has blessed with untold gold, and from among whom they select the name of Nicodemus Boffin, Esquire, for a maiden effort in this wise, understand that he has such a heart as never was."

Thank goodness for the mysterious Mr. Rokesmith arriving just in time to play intermediary, or I fear Mr. Boffin would soon be out of money altogether.  

And what, exactly, is Mr. Wegg searching for??

Stay tuned!

Our Mutual Friend

Yes, I know, it's Sunday, and I said I would post on Fridays. That's the way life is. Let's just say I will strive to post every weekend. How 'bout that?

So! Now we know who Our Mutual Friend is. But--do we really?? (Wink, wink) No, I haven't read the book before, or any synopsis of it, but am I the only one suspecting that Mr. Rokesmith might be an alias covering the tracks of another recently-thought-to-be-dead young man of great prospects?

See, I don't know if that's a spoiler. Maybe it is. But I don't know! So it's a guess. 

This set of chapters flew right along for me, as we returned to many of the characters we met in the first six chapters. How adorable are the Boffins? I love them. And while I suspect they're up to absolutely no good, I'm quite intrigued with those charming newlyweds, the Lammles. I just hope that their true targets, the wannabe Veneerings (that name still makes me giggle), are the ones who pay the price, and not the disastrously hapless Miss Georgiana Podsnap, who, for heaven's sake, desperately needs a real friend to snatch her out of the claws of her horrendously misguided parents. 

And what about Mr. Riderhood and his pious desire to tell the truth about Gaffer and get everything documented in an Alfred David? A large part of me is assuming he's lying to get the reward. But on the other hand, his unceremonious dismissal from the Six Jolly Felowships might have made him reluctant to come forward on his own. Is he on the up-and-up, or just a conniver?

Oh, Mr. Dickens, you are so very entertaining. The whole scene where the Veneerings start mentioning all their dear friends, and poor Mr. Twemlow mentally calculates how many there are. ("Oh! There's only two of us, and he's the other.") The whole luscious chapter detailing the marriage--and truth-unveiling--of the Lammles.

I suspect Mr. Dickens is making a considerable amount of commentary on Victorian society and sensibilities, but this early in, I don't want to hazard too many guesses. I'll just merrily continue into the next six chapters. 

Our Mutual Friend

All righty then, back on track. So! Mr. Dickens' last novel, which I have never read before, nor have I read anything about it. It's interesting going into a classic blind. 

On the one hand, as much as I enjoyed Great Expectations, this book feels even stronger and more masterly. Dickens is (so far) really at the top of his game: the characters are thoroughly presented, the scenery is wonderfully present, the humor is sly, and lordy, the names--"Veneering" to describe the newly rich and fairly vacuous family? Lord Snigsworth? Mrs. Podsnap? Hilarious. 

But on the other hand, I found the first six chapters a bit slow going. Not because they bored me--not at all--but there's so much going on, and so many characters to keep track of. Each chapter introduces a whole new batch of people to get to know, which, as entertaining as they are, takes time. Unlike Great Expectations, where we had Pip as the unifying character, so far we haven't had one person jump out as a person who will guide us through the novel.

I also ended up abandoning the copy shown above for a more traditional edition with end notes, because I was pretty sure I was missing out by not having those notes. The edition I'm working with now (Wordsworth) charmed me by having this in the opening to the introduction: "In the same spirit, because the pleasures of reading are inseparable from the surprises, secrets and revelations that all narratives contain, we strongly advise you to enjoy this book before turning to the Introduction."

I approve of that. Thanks for the warning, and I skipped the intro and went straight to the novel. We could spend some time pondering whether or not introductions should be introductions at all, since they usually contain copious amounts of spoilers, or whether they should be at the end of the book as your reward for having arrived there. Whatever. Getting straight to the book brings you to these gems:

"No one can read, ever looks at a book, even unopened on a shelf, like one who cannot."

"He was shy, and unwilling to own to the name of Reginald, as being too aspiring and self-assertive a name. In his signature he used only the initial R., and imparted what it really stood for to none but chosen friends, under the seal of confidence. Out of this, the facetious habit had arisen in the neighborhood surrounding Mincing Lane [again with the awesome naming] of making Christian names for him of adjectives and participles beginning with R. Some of these were more or less appropriate: as Rusty, Retiring, Ruddy, Round, Ripe, Ridiculous, Ruminative; others derived their point from their want of application: as Raging, Rattling, Roaring, Raffish."

"'For when a person comes to grind off poetry night after night, it is but right he should expect to be paid for its weakening effect on his mind.'"

So, in some ways a slow start for me, but overall? Can't wait for the next six chapters.

Our Mutual Friend

My apologies--it's been a crazy week, and I still have a chapter left to read. Bad, bad, read-along leader. Bad. 

I will be back with my thoughts later today or tomorrow for sure. And then I will endeavor to stay forever on track. I promise.

Wow.

I did it.

I started on New Year's Day, and following Jillian's proposal of a chapter a day (it has 365 chapters), I finished this morning. 

So I can say this:

SUCK IT TOLSTOY, I READ YOUR DAMN BOOK.

Beyond that:

I'm so glad I read it. It's much more accessible than I expected it to be. Although some of the war parts were a slog for me, overall I was caught up in the story and deeply interested in the characters. Tolstoy has some very tart words for warmongers and historians (he really dislikes the latter), and it was fun to occasionally imagine putting him up against, say, Dubya in a discussion about the Iraq war. 

I'm also very glad that the epilogue was an epilogue and not a prologue, or I might never have gotten to the actual story. Tolstoy, dude, I get it--you think historians are a bunch of flimflam artists. Way to pound that idea deeply into the ground in that there epilogue.

I'm not sure why he felt the need to go into such pedantic detail in the end, when he covered the same ground so beautifully towards the end of the novel itself:

"A bee sitting on a flower stung a child. And teh child is afraid of bees and says that a bee's purpose consists in stinging people. A poet admires a bee sucking from the cup of a flower and says that a bee's purpose consists in sucking up the fragrance of flowers. A beekeeper, noting how a bee gathers flower pollen and brings it to the hive, says that a bee's purpose consists in gathering honey. Another beekeeper, who has studied the life of a hive more closely, says that a bee collects pollen in order to feed the young bees and rear a queen, and that its purpose consists in reproducing its kind. A botanist notes that, as a bee lands with pollen on the pistil of a dioecious flower, it fertilizes it, and in that the botanist sees the bee's purpose. Another, observing the migration of plants, sees that the bee contributes to that migration, and this new observer may say it is in this that the bee's purpose consists. But the final purpose of the bee is exhausted neither by the one, nor the other, nor the third purpose that human reason is able to discover. The higher human reason rises in the discovery of these purposes, the more obvious for it is the inaccessibility of the final purpose.

"All that is accessible to man is the observation of the correspondence between the life of a bee and other phenomena of life. It is the same for the purposes of historical figures and peoples."

So, yes, I'm glad I read it; I ended up overall loving it, in spite of a few slow spots; I could definitely see a re-read in a few years; and I'd definitely recommend it to others.

Now what on earth should I tackle in 2012?

Don't forget

The Our Mutual Friend read-along is coming soon, very soon! We're going to tackle the Dickens classic six chapters at a time. I'll post here each week; feel free to post on your own blog, if you have one, or you can also choose to simply comment here and join in the discussion. Chapters 1-6 will be discussed on Friday, January 13 (yikes!). Why six chapters a week? Because Dickens originally published many of his novels (including this one) in serial form at three chapters a week. Because OMF is quite long, we're going to speed it up a tiny bit. Join us!

Christmas goodies

Yes! I got me some reading goodies this weekend!

This one really tickles me. My 16-year-old son picked it out himself. As soon as I finish the library book I'm reading that has a waiting list and no renewals allowed, I'll read this. And of course I will love it.

Both teen sons were in wonderment that their mother not only received, but actually wanted a book about zombies for Christmas.

I've heard so many good things about this novel. And I love the cover. 

From my bro and SIL, who know how much I love to cook and to hang out on Twitter.

As someone who likes to travel in the off-season, I'm anxious to read McAlpine's take on it.

But that's not all. Shortly before Christmas, I had tea with a friend who managed to find a way to increase my general Jane Eyre geekiness.

Jane Eyre pencils!!!

A cheeky little button. And....

Jane Eyre, illustrated by Paula Rego! I'd never seen or heard of this edition. It's not the entire book, but sections selected for specific illustrations. And oh, what glorious illustrations they are:

This accompanies a short section where Jane talks about reading Bewick's History of British Birds. This book is really a thing of beauty.

And one last book-related item:

Truer words were never spoken.

Yes, I was spoiled rotten. And you? 

This and that

Been a while! Fear not, it's not that I haven't been reading; I have, quite a lot, actually. Most of it has been covered over the past week on my other blog (click here for lots of great gift ideas). 

Now I'm just getting ready for that end-of-year what-did-I-read-that-I-liked reverie and thinking ahead to next year. What do I want to read? And hey--what challenges shall I sign up for, knowing that most of them will go unfinished? And yes, I'm sure someone out there is saying, Gosh, Amy, didn't you just sign up for the Wolf Hall read-along, and aren't you already way behind?

Yes, sadly, that is true; I was a bit optimistic about finishing all those other books on the other blog, reading book club books, and reading Wolf Hall. I still want to read Wolf Hall, and it may become part of the following challenge:

I did the Dare last year and actually stuck with it, so I'm more optimistic than usual this year. Besides, it dovetails nicely with another goal I've had this year that I want to carry into next year: reading longer books. I did fairly well this year; my overall books-read count is way down from 2010, and that's OK, because I'm making a little dent in the longer books I haven't gotten to (including, woo hoo, War and Peace, which I'm right on track to finish on 12/31!!). So I was happy when I discovered this challenge:

The Tea and Books Reading Challenge. I'm more of a coffee drinker than a tea drinker, but no matter. I've selected the Berry Tea Devotee level, which means I will read 4 books that are each 700 pages or longer in 2012. Why does that work so well? Because I've already said I'm going to do this:

The Our Mutual Friend read-along, hosted right on this blog, starting in January, and that's over 700 pages, and already in my TBR stacks. In addition, I have Hermione Lee's bio of Virginia Woolf that's gathered dust for a shockingly long time, as well as Juliet Barker's updated Bronte bio (which was published in the UK in 2010, but is coming out in hardcover in 2012--wonder if it's a bigger edition?), both well past 700 pages (and the latter may require a magnifying glass in addition to my bifocals). For the fourth choice, another book that's languished for a long time, and there's a read-along for that too: Dove Grey Reader's Middlemarch read-along. Technically, that one has already started, but it's going through most of 2012, so I'll wait until January to start.

The final thing I'm tentatively signing up for, and this is kind of a "drop in and out as you wish" challenge, is the Shakespeare-a-Month read-along over at Breadcrumb Reads.

I've wanted to reread Shakespeare for some time now, and hope to check in at least a few times over there. Specifically, I'd like to reread MacBeth and King Lear, and hopefully a new-to-me play, maybe Antony and Cleopatra or Pericles.

So, those are my pretty, shiny, baubly goals for 2012. I know I'll never achieve all of them. But no matter--if I do even a few of them, it will be a rich reading year.

What are your reading plans/hopes for 2012?

 

The next Dickens read-along

A small but friendly group of readers had fun earlier this year, reading Great Expectations together and thought we'd read another Dickens next year. I contemplated reading A Tale of Two Cities, because I knit and that book has possibly the most famous literary knitter ever. But I have read it before and thought I'd like to read something new to me. Bleak House? I've been wanting to read it and have a copy on hand, but I've seen the PBS miniseries which, while I'm sure leaves a lot out, puts me in the position of being familiar with the story. So I've chosen this book instead:

 
Our Mutual Friend. I've never read it, and don't know much about it. A little research shows it was Dickens' last completed novel and, like Great Expectations, was published in three-chapter installments. 

My thought for the read-along is to do the serial approach again, as that was great fun. However, with 19 three-chapter segments, it could take quite a while. What do you think of the idea of doing six chapters a week instead of three? That's about 70-80 pages a week and still gives that serial approach. Anyone want to join me? Any preference on the serialization?