A fictional, almost biographical account of Charlotte Brontë's life, this novel begins in the year 1846 with Charlotte in Manchester by her father's bedside as he recovers from eye surgery. As she sits with her father during long, tedious days and nights, she finds the time and inspiration to write her novel, Jane Eyre. The story continues from here to recount the challenges of publishing her work along with her sisters Emily and Anne while caring for their alcoholic, depressed brother Branwell and assisting their blind father. Flashbacks of their past experiences enable the reader to see a connection to their writing and to the characters in their books.
The Brontë sisters led very tragic, short lives but it was difficult in this book to connect entirely with them. Written from a very impersonal, third person point of view, with little dialogue, Charlotte is referred to as "she" and her father as "he", although the author uses the present tense. "Sitting by her blinded, silenced father, she dares to take up her pencil and write for the first time in her own voice. She writes from experience, using what she knows of life, of literature, of love, plunging into the midst of her tale, not wasting the reader's time with lengthy preliminaries."
In the end, when Charlotte dies, I felt little empathy or sadness, so tersely was the ending written, as though just stating a fact. "Within nine months of this wedding day, her father and her husband will stand by her corpse. They will remain shackled together, as her father once was with her aunt. They will bury her in the same church."
Overall, this was an informative novel but lacked the ability to involve the reader in the thoughts and feelings of the characters or their tragic destiny.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Aug. 5, 2010 - The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stiegg Larsson
Swedish author Stiegg Larsson's international bestseller The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, published posthumously along with two other books in his Millenium trilogy, has generated much interest and excitement since its release as well as heated negotiations for its film rights. Listed as "crime, mystery, and thriller", the genre is a popular choice for readers and movie enthusiasts alike.
Since I don't like seeing movies that are based on books until I read the book, I reserved all three books at the library. Unfortunately, the second book became available first and so I have had to read the books out of order. This was initially a difficult task as I had no background knowledge about the series. I didn't know the characters, the setting or even the important plot points of the first novel. Also, being set in Sweden, a country that I have very little knowledge about, I found it hard to connect to the names of places, people and events mentioned in the book. Pronunciation was definitely a challenge as Swedish is not a common language of study for most people. Nevertheless, I persevered, finding that the extensive detail of the writing and the careful description of each character as they were introduced, although tedious at times, aided my understanding.
Overall, this was an exciting, fast-paced adventure with many twists and turns and unexpected surprises. The main character, Lisbeth Salander, seems to fit the mold of the classic anti-hero, fighting for justice outside of the regular system, which definitely puts herself and others in life-threatening situations. Each chapter is labelled by date of the events that occur. Within the chapter, the focus changes repeatedly to divulge information about each of the characters and their progress in the investigation. In this way, all of the necessary background information about the case is provided and it is left to the reader to decide how all the different threads will be tied together in the end. The conclusion is fairly predictable but leaves the reader anxious to begin the third novel. I really enjoyed this suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat crime novel!
Since I don't like seeing movies that are based on books until I read the book, I reserved all three books at the library. Unfortunately, the second book became available first and so I have had to read the books out of order. This was initially a difficult task as I had no background knowledge about the series. I didn't know the characters, the setting or even the important plot points of the first novel. Also, being set in Sweden, a country that I have very little knowledge about, I found it hard to connect to the names of places, people and events mentioned in the book. Pronunciation was definitely a challenge as Swedish is not a common language of study for most people. Nevertheless, I persevered, finding that the extensive detail of the writing and the careful description of each character as they were introduced, although tedious at times, aided my understanding.
Overall, this was an exciting, fast-paced adventure with many twists and turns and unexpected surprises. The main character, Lisbeth Salander, seems to fit the mold of the classic anti-hero, fighting for justice outside of the regular system, which definitely puts herself and others in life-threatening situations. Each chapter is labelled by date of the events that occur. Within the chapter, the focus changes repeatedly to divulge information about each of the characters and their progress in the investigation. In this way, all of the necessary background information about the case is provided and it is left to the reader to decide how all the different threads will be tied together in the end. The conclusion is fairly predictable but leaves the reader anxious to begin the third novel. I really enjoyed this suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat crime novel!
Monday, August 2, 2010
Aug. 1, 2010 - Bedlam: The Further Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë by Laura Joh Rowland
A book that can also stand on its own, this is the sequel to The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Brontë. It takes place three years after the last adventure, which is described in enough detail that one doesn't need to read the first book to enjoy the second. The characters seem to be the same and allusions to the first book when needed help the reader to understand the background of this story.
I had a difficult time at the outset with the character of Charlotte Brontë. Although many of the historical details were accurate, the personality of this character and her involvement in the intrigue were not realistic. To place the author of Jane Eyre into this setting went against everything I have read about her life. The saving grace was that the mystery was still intriguing. In an odd way, though, I felt a connection to the main character because of the prior knowledge I have of her life and her work.
Set during the reign of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Crystal Palace takes centre stage at the climax of the story. This was an exciting time of great innovations and these are highlighted as the characters race against time to stop a deadly virus from being spread throughout the world.
I had a difficult time at the outset with the character of Charlotte Brontë. Although many of the historical details were accurate, the personality of this character and her involvement in the intrigue were not realistic. To place the author of Jane Eyre into this setting went against everything I have read about her life. The saving grace was that the mystery was still intriguing. In an odd way, though, I felt a connection to the main character because of the prior knowledge I have of her life and her work.
Set during the reign of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert during the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Crystal Palace takes centre stage at the climax of the story. This was an exciting time of great innovations and these are highlighted as the characters race against time to stop a deadly virus from being spread throughout the world.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)