Posted in Coming-of-age, England, Literary on Jan 11th, 2011
In what is considered to be D. H. Lawrence’s most autobiographical novel, Lawrence’s main character, Paul Morel, is a frail, artistic boy, having more in common with his mother than with his coal miner father. His mother had had some education before she married the once-attractive Walter Morel, but he eventually succumbed to alcohol and his bleak life in the pits. When Paul’s older brother, who became the mainstay of the family, left for London and later died, his mother transferred her dependence from him to Paul.
Written in 1913, the novel was shocking at the time, dealing as it does with an unhealthy relationship between mother and son, leading to the son’s subsequent inability to love women his own age. Though the novel is almost a hundred years old, it is as fresh and rewarding to read today as a contemporary novel, even when one considers the mores and prohibitions of that time period.
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Posted in England, Historical, Literary on Jan 11th, 2011
Written in 1920 and often regarded as D. H. Lawrence’s greatest novel, Women in Love is the complex story of two women and two men who scrutinize their lives and personal needs in an effort to discover something that makes the future worth living. The personal and social traumas of post-World War I, combined with the rise of industry and urbanization, have affected all four main characters, often at cross purposes as they explore love and its role in their lives. Intensely introspective and self-conscious, each character shares his/her thoughts with the reader, allowing the reader to participate in the inner conflicts and crises that each faces. Extremely complex in its exploration of the period’s social and philosophical influences on the characters (who are archetypes of society), the novel is also full of symbolism, with many parallels drawn between love and death, which the characters sometimes prefer to life. As the love affairs of these four characters play out, filled with complications, disagreements about the meaning of love, questions about love’s relation to power and dominance, and the role of sexuality, Lawrence projects the tumult of post-war England as the values of the past yield to newer, more personal goals.
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Sly and subtle, this comic novel by one of England’s most under-recognized novelists depicts the life of its main character so poignantly that readers will find themselves as close to tears as they may be to chuckles. Mildred Lathbury, at thirty-one, already regards herself as a spinster, a woman who has completely repressed her inner self so that she can lead an “excellent” life. Working for the Society for the Care for Aged Gentlewomen during the day, she also helps Fr. Julian Malory and his sister Winifred at the rectory and in church during her spare time. Except for these activities and a few outings with similarly “excellent” single women, she has no social life, except for her once-a-year dinner date with a male friend. Set in 1952, the novel follows the life of Mildred as it suddenly becomes a bit more “exciting,” at least by Mildred’s standards. A married couple, the Napiers, move into the house where she lives, and she makes an effort to get to know them. Rockingham Lathbury (Rocky) has been an officer (and playboy) in Italy during the war; his wife Helena is an anthropologist who has been working on a project in Africa with a male anthropologist, Everard Bone. It quickly becomes clear that the marriage is having problems, and Mildred gets drawn in. (To see the full review, click on the title of this excerpt.)
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Posted in Classic Novel, England, Literary on Jan 10th, 2011
“The end of a novel, like the end of a children’s dinner-party, must be made up of sweetmeats and sugar-plums,” Trollope says, and he does, indeed, fill the ending of this delightful social satire with all the “sweetmeats” any reader could desire. Between the introduction and conclusion are so many moments of wry humor, genuine thoughtfulness, and satisfying come-uppances that the extra sweetness at the end is actually a bonus. In this second of the Chronicles of Barsetshire, published in 1857, Trollope continues the story of Mr. Septimus Harding, the gentle and unambitious clergyman who, in The Warden (1855), resigned his appointment as warden of Hiram’s Hospital for the poor and became the vicar of a small church, living frugally above a chemist’s shop. His daughter Eleanor, who married reformer John Bolt at the end of The Warden, is now a widow with a small son–and considerable inheritance. Ecclesiastical controversies, many of them linked to the desire for power within the small world of the church hierarchy, still exist in Barchester, and the arrival of Mr. Slope, as chaplain to Bishop Proudie, signals fireworks. Slope, one of Trollope’s most unforgettable characters, is one of the slimiest, most sycophantic, and manipulative clergyman ever to appear in English literature. (To read the full review, click on the title of this excerpt)
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Posted in England, Literary on Jan 10th, 2011
Mary Thorne, the main character, is a girl of uncertain parentage who is often in the company of the Gresham sisters, with whom she has been schooled. Mary is attracted to their brother Frank. The Greshams, of high social level, own a dilapidated estate with rapidly increasing debts, and their only hope is that Frank, who will inherit the estate, will marry a wealthy woman who will solve their financial problems. Frank, however, is in love with Mary, who is increasingly ostracized because of her lack of high birth. The death of Sir Roger provides a turning point in the conflicts. Though the earlier Barsetshire novels are highly satiric, casting wry glances at the church and the behavior of its clergy, this novel is more rooted in day to day activities, accurately depicting the class divisions in England at the time and emphasizing their absurdities. (To read the full review, click on the title of this excerpt.)
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