The Ultimate Possession – a book by Byatt
Title: Possession
Author: A.S. Byatt
Publisher: Random House
Length: 555 pages
Nothing can make you feel so inadequate as a writer as when you read a piece of such perfection that your own work cannot but pale in stark comparison. It’s possibly something like being the mediocre gymnast addicted to watching the Olympics, knowing that the athletic achievements they witness will not and cannot be their own reality.
Someone can write and write, practice with diligence, read, and surround themselves with excellence of the craft – but there is an element of giftedness that can only be handed down by the command of God.
A.S. Byatt is such a person graced with immense giftedness.
Possession is overwhelmingly and alarmingly riddled with her talent and sheer genius for the craft.
Prose, poetry, storytelling, she has it all and shares it with such ease. Nothing is forced, everything unfolds with the exquisite engineering of a flower in bloom, or a butterfly emerging from a cocoon. Intricately beautiful.
How can a person contain so much talent?
I imagine hundreds of years from now archeologists and scholars will discover a copy and upon inspection will accuse the author of not being a lone writer – but a pen name used for a collective. They will say the book is a collaborative effort between several poets, a journalist, a researcher, and possibly a novelist. Someone would be supposed to offer their services as the voice of Christabel LaMotte, another as R. Henry Ash. They may even miss the point altogether and believe it to be an actual account on a literary discovery, or a novelization of a literary discovery.
I think of myself as a writer. I have unfinished stories, a three-quarters written novel or two. I even used to attempt to write poetry – that was eons ago. None of it is really any good. I love words, but do not have the grasp and understanding of them to put them to proper use. I do not have the finesse of a linguistic artist. The words just linger muddled and puddled in my brain and sometimes my journals, fragments of fragments end up on this blog. I always tell myself that I’ll be better when I’m older, but I never am.
The only thing I can claim with absolute truth, is that I am a reader. As one reader to another, I must tell you, anyone who makes that claim cannot go through life without having read Possesssion.
My Classical Re-Education
As some of you may know, I am a sucker for the classics. I’m also a sucker for lists. In addition to that, I plan to homeschool my daughter. What better books for me then are those of Susan Wise Bauer?
“Using the techniques and systems of classical education, this new guide will give you greater pleasure in what you read, and greater understanding of it.” – from Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well-Educated Mind
I am a college graduate who has had the pleasure of working for a bookstore for some years now and doesn’t want my “education” to end with a Bachelor’s degree in Business. I want to go through Bauer’s list while I pay off my student loans before going back to school. Bauers covers five genres worth of lists of books that people need to read to be fully and classically educated. Many of these a lot of us have already read, and many of these we’ve always heard referenced and talked about reading but have never actually done it.
Lately, in the blog world, I’ve been coming across a Classics Challenge, and was reminded of the fact that there may be others out there who would like access to this list and discussions where other people are reading these books.
For the last few years I have been leisurely strolling through her list provided in The Well Educated Mind:
I am also the admin of a Shelfari Discussion Group called Classical Re-Education and I post reviews and commentary on my reading in that group, links for each book discussion are provided. Of course, I also share my reviews here on my blog.
Cervantes – Don Quixote
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/89445/Don-Quixote—Cervantes
Bunyan – Pilgrim’s Progress
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/90600/Pilgrim-s-Progress—Bunyan
Swift – Gulliver’s Travels
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/91884/Gulliver-s-Travels—Swift
Austen – Pride and Prejudice
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/96506/Pride-Prejudice—Jane-Austen
Dickens – Oliver Twist
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/98621/Oliver-Twist—Charles-Dickens
Bronte – Jane Eyre
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/102210/Jane-Eyre—Charlotte-Bronte
Hawthorne – The Scarlet Letter
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/104538/The-Scarlet-Letter—Nathaniel-Hawthorne
Melville – Moby Dick
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/105905/Moby-Dick—Melville
Stowe – Uncle Tom’s Cabin
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/121736/Uncle-Tom-s-Cabin—Stowe
Flaubert – Madame Bovary
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/148024/Madame-Bovary—Flaubert
Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/165633/Crime-and-Punishment—Dostoyevsky
Tolstoy – Anna Karenina
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/212374/Anna-Karenina—Tolstoy
Hardy – The Return of the Native
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/233628/The-Return-of-the-Native—Thomas-Hardy
James – The Portrait of a Lady
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/239963/Portrait-of-a-Lady—James
Twain – Huckleberry Finn
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/319203/Huckleberry-Finn—Mark-Twain
Crane – Red Badge of Courage
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/319206/Red-Badge-of-Courage—Crane
Conrad – Heart of Darkness
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/324295/Heart-of-Darkness—Conrad
Wharton – House of Mirth
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/324297/House-of-Mirth—Wharton
Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/324292/The-Great-Gatsby—Fitzgerald
Woolf – Mrs. Dalloway
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/420041/Mrs-Dalloway—Virginia-Woolf
Kafka – The Trial
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/435148/The-Trial—Kafka
Wright – Native Son
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32384/discussions/443717/Native-Son—Wright
Camus – The Stranger
Orwell – 1984
Ellison – Invisible Man
https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/blasted-book-bouncing/
Bellow – Sieze the Day
Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Years of Solitude
Calvino – If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
Morrison – Song of Solomon
Delillo – White Noise
Byatt – Possession
https://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/the-ultimate-possession-a-book-by-byatt/
As you can see, I just recently finished Kafka’s The Trial and will soon be starting The Native Son. I’d love for others to join me.
Have you read any of these lately? Which were your favorites? What would you add to the list if your goal was to walk people through the History of the Novel, as Bauer’s has done?
P.S. Susan Wise Bauer will be lecturing at the Texas Home School Coalition Southwest Convention The Woodlands, Texas, Thursday-Saturday August 2-4.
House of Mirth a House of Love, Scruples, or Selfishness?
Title: The House of Mirth
Gillian Anderson in the 2000 Major Motion Picture of The House of Mirth
Author: Edith Wharton
Publisher: Barnes & Noble
Genre: Classic Literature
Length: 277 pages
My all time favorite questions when reading literature are: What is this character’s perception of love? What is the author telling us their own view of love is? And after reading this how do you view love? To quote Moulin Rouge: “Always this ridiculous obsession with love!” But it drives so much, and please forgive the pun, it is truly at the heart of every matter. So in reading The House of Mirth, my driving questions throughout the book have been: What is Lily Bart’s perception of love? What is Wharton trying to tell me about her own worldview concerning love?
Truth be told, I’m not sure what the answer is. She and Selden seem to have this constrained but meant-to-be-doomed-so-impossible love affair. “Ah, love me, love me—but don’t tell me so “? she tells him. She refuses Rosedale and all his money because she doesn’t love him. A lesson in morality from the beautiful Lily Bart? I’d say yes, except that she doesn’t run into the sunset with Selden when offered because he can’t support her lifestyle and she also seems to enjoy stringing Rosedale along, “the first sincere words she had ever spoken to him” not being voiced until very near the end of the book. So what is it Miss Bart? Money or love?
In the end, I have to say I think Lily is truly attempting to stand her moral ground but endlessly falls short via her own selfishness. Wharton would have you believe that this is an early stage of love, as she described Selden’s “impassioned self-absorption that the first surrender to love produces.” However, by the definition taught to me, selfishness is the direct opposite of love. 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 tells us,
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Neither Lily nor Selden seem to manage to maintain, much less attempt, these characteristics.
The dichotomy of Lily Bart is a fascinating one, probably one of the many reasons this book has been deemed a classic. One essayist wrote: “Lily’s distinction lies precisely in her ability to transcend such crude ambitions” as using her beauty to marry for money (Lahoucine Ouzgane). Wharton herself writes,
And was it her fault that the purely decorative mission is less easily and harmoniously fulfilled among social beings than in the world of nature? That it is apt to be hampered by material necessities or complicated by moral scruples?
Many believe this to be a tragic love triangle between Selden, Lily, and the nature of capitalism. Some people believe the work is Wharton making a statement about love, the nature of her own marriage, and the internal struggles she herself felt during the age. But what is The House of Mirth to you? Read it and find out. No matter what you discover of Lily, you won’t regret the experience, Wharton’s prose is lovely.
How Alcott Raises Little Women
Title: Little Women
Author: Louisa May Alcott
Publisher: Little, Brown
Genre: Young Adult Classics
Length: 502 pages
I don’t remember learning to read, as I did it from such a young age. I do, however, remember the first books I fell in love with and the first books I read that were difficult for my limited vocabulary. Laura Ingalls Wilder I fell in love with first, I read the entire series several times by the end of first grade. Little Women, however, I fell in love with and learned from in second grade. Little Women taught me new words and phrases, culture, and how I wanted to live.
Josephine March has been one of my heroes since I was seven and first read about her chopping off all her luxurious hair. As a young girl, I identified quite well with her “one beauty” (that amazing hair) and tomboyish ways. I myself, was a ruddy, freckled girl, often found either playing tag football with boys at recess or perched in an oak tree reading a book, hair flowing every which way that my mother did not allow me to cut. My first significant hair cut, I donated two feet to locks of love, and who else was on my mind? Jo March.
I re-read the book multiple times before I left elementary school, getting more and more out of it each time as my reading skills improved. And despite cherishing it always, I set the book aside and did not read it again until my twenty-seventh year, this year, to my one year old daughter.
I opened it up a week or so before Christmas, not realizing it would spur a desire to re-read it every Christmas with my kid for the rest of her life if she likes it as much as I do. It’s such a great Christmas book! Upon this fresh re-read, I also discovered many other things that my brain had forgotten, but my soul must have internalized. For instance, the girls are all distraught and Hannah, bless her soul, “came to the rescue armed with a coffee-pot.”
Like every good American, I am wholly addicted to that black magical brew, it’s in our veins and culture, look at how well Starbucks has taken off. But my family did not keep coffee readily available, my dad won’t touch the stuff and my mom’s mother died of cancer the doctors blamed on her caffeine intake so she never kept it around growing up. So part of me wonders if Alcott played a role in my introduction to it, as I don’t remember a time when I did not love it. I remember sneaking cups of it from the employee break room at the bus barn where I waited with my bus driver between routes in elementary school. In hindsight, I believe it was the reverence that writers hold for it, the way it is talked about in books, that drove me to love it so much, and it very well may have begun with Little Women.
Then, there is Theodore Laurence. I believe every guy friend’s worth that I ever had my whole life was measured against the character of Laurie. He is whimsical, gallant, a rascal and a gentleman. Theodore Laurence is handsome, a friend, and all around a good time. Every girl needs a Teddy-Dear in her adolescent life and if you can’t get one in the real world, its time for yet another read of Little Women so you can live vicariously through Jo!
Jo March taught me to love, to read, to pursue life with a fiery passion, and how to pick my friends. It was Jo March that sparked the first desires in me to be a writer. It was Little Women, and the romance of Jo and the Professor, that set the stage for me to fall in love with the art of Jane Austen and the Brontes. It was the pen of Louisa May Alcott that taught me how to really enjoy books and the thrilling life they have to offer.
The Brownie and the Princess – A Review
Title: The Brownie and the Princess and Other Stories
Author: Louisa May Alcott
A HarperCollins Publication
Genre: Children’s fiction
Length: 250 pages
As everyone knows, Louisa May Alcott wrote Little Women in the 1800’s and became one of the most well-known and timeless children’s literature authors of all time. The story of the March sisters is one that all little girls discover eventually, even if it isn’t until adulthood with the many movie productions (the most recent in 1994 featuring Winona Ryder, Claire Danes, and many other well-known stars). What a lot of people don’t know is that, just like Jo March, Alcott had many stories published in children’s magazines. The Brownie and the Princess and Other Stories is a collection of those stories.
One of the most delightful things about being a new mom is seeking out children’s books that I either remember loving or discovered later and wish I had owned. This particular collection was published while I was in college, so I missed the joy of reading it as a small child, but am extremely excited about having it available for my daughter.
The story of the Brownie and the Princess teaches good manners and being happy with what you have. Tabby’s Tablecloth is about patriotism and respecting antiques and the sentiments attached to them. The Hole in the Wall is beautifully innocent and romantic in a way. It’s lovely to go back to pleasant stories of gardens and happy moments strung together, skipping, playing, and the teaching of basic goodness, in the midst of a rough day of teething, tears, and tantrums. Books like these help gently aid the teaching of right from wrong.
The Woodlanders
A quick blurb:
I’ve been up and down with The Woodlanders, mostly based on my mood. I loved it, it lulled, I hated it, and now with its final sentence I love it again. I am finding more and more that this is the sway of things with Hardy and me. His characters are so dynamic and unique and yet you find familiarity in each one every time you turn. He has nailed the human race time and time again, yet he is most known for his nature descriptions. I truly recommend every avid reader to enjoy at least one Hardy a year for literary sustenance.
Scentsy pairing: Shades of Green in the room you are sitting in, but keep Honey Peared Cider going in the adjacent room and let them subtly linger together.
A Russian Study
Have I invited my fellow bloggers and blog-readers to my Russian study?
http://www.shelfari.com/groups/32350/discussions/182887/A-Russian-Study
Welcome to the Russian Study! We hope that everyone interested in Russia, its culture and history, and its literature, will enjoy perusing through and adding to this discussion. Feel free to add your own books to the list or read along with the ones already here below…
* Crime and Punishment – Dosoyevsky (fiction)
* Anna Karenina – Tolstoy (fiction)
* War and Peace – Tolstoy (fiction)
* The Magical Chorus: A History of Russian Culture from Tolstoy to Solzheinitsyn – Volkov (literary criticism, history)
* The Axe and the Icon – Billington (history)
* The Vision Unfulfilled – Thompson (history)
* Fathers and Sons – Turgenev (fiction)
* The Captain’s Daughter & Other Stories – Pushkin (fiction)
* One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich – Solzhenitsyn’s (fiction)
* Sofia Petrovna – Lydia Chukovskaya (fiction)
* I think some Robert Alexander historical fiction titles would do well at the end. One is called Rasputin’s Daughter, but he has many.
I have already completed Crime and Punishment, below is my official review:
Good book, well written, yet I could have gone my whole life without having read it and not felt like I missed out much. The final confession felt like the final moment in Moby Dick when the whale actually shows – all I could think was: “its about time.” Its on Bauer’s list of books to read before you die, which I plan to use as curriculum for my kid when I home school, but I’m not sure that I’ll make them read this, unless they are utterly captivated by it and want to – especially with Tolstoy next on the list. I was hoping to be more captivated myself.
Anakalian Whims 