Showing posts with label Classic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Classic. Show all posts

Sunday, August 10, 2025

The Idiot (The Russians) 2Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Idiot
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Translator: Richard Pevear
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 888
Words: 241K
Publish: 1868

I shouldn’t have read this at this time. I’d have done better to just skip “The Russians” on this rotation. But that’s what happens when you’re under stress, decision making skills go right out the window.

I was miserable, reading about a miserable situation that ended up as horribly miserable as you could think of.

My 2006 Review adequately sums up what this novel is about. I have nothing more to say.

★★☆☆☆


From Wikipedia.org

Part 1

Prince Myshkin, a young man in his mid-twenties and a descendant of one of the oldest Russian lines of nobility, is on a train to Saint Petersburg on a cold November morning. He is returning to Russia having spent the past four years in a Swiss clinic for treatment of a severe epileptic condition. On the journey, Myshkin meets a young man of the merchant class, Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin, and is struck by his passionate intensity, particularly in relation to a woman—the dazzling society beauty Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova—with whom he is obsessed. Rogozhin has just inherited a very large fortune due to the death of his father, and he intends to use it to pursue the object of his desire. Joining in their conversation is a civil servant named Lebedyev—a man with a profound knowledge of social trivia and gossip. Realizing who Rogozhin is, Lebedyev firmly attaches himself to him.

The purpose of Myshkin's trip is to make the acquaintance of his distant relative Lizaveta Prokofyevna, and to make inquiries about a matter of business. Lizaveta Prokofyevna is married to General Epanchin, a wealthy and respected man in his mid-fifties. When the Prince calls on them he meets Gavril Ardalionovich Ivolgin (Ganya), the General's assistant. The General and his business partner, the aristocrat Totsky, are seeking to arrange a marriage between Ganya and Nastasya Filippovna. Totsky had been the orphaned Nastasya Filippovna's childhood guardian, but he had taken advantage of his position to groom her for his own sexual gratification. As a grown woman, Nastasya Filippovna has developed an incisive and merciless insight into their relationship. Totsky, thinking the marriage might settle her and free him to pursue his desire for marriage with General Epanchin's eldest daughter, has promised 75,000 rubles. Nastasya Filippovna, suspicious of Ganya and aware that his family does not approve of her, has reserved her decision, but has promised to announce it that evening at her birthday soirée. Ganya and the General openly discuss the subject in front of Myshkin. Ganya shows him a photograph of her, and he is particularly struck by the dark beauty of her face.

Myshkin makes the acquaintance of Lizaveta Prokofyevna and her three daughters—Alexandra, Adelaida and Aglaya. They are all very curious about him and not shy about expressing their opinion, particularly Aglaya. He readily engages with them and speaks with remarkable candor on a wide variety of subjects—his illness, his impressions of Switzerland, art, philosophy, love, death, the brevity of life, capital punishment, and donkeys. In response to their request that he speak of the time he was in love, he tells a long anecdote from his time in Switzerland about a downtrodden woman—Marie—whom he befriended, along with a group of children, when she was unjustly ostracized and morally condemned. The Prince ends by describing what he divines about each of their characters from studying their faces and surprises them by saying that Aglaya is almost as beautiful as Nastasya Filippovna.

The prince rents a room in the Ivolgin apartment, occupied by Ganya's family and another lodger called Ferdyschenko. There is much angst within Ganya's family about the proposed marriage, which is regarded, particularly by his mother and sister (Varya), as shameful. Just as a quarrel on the subject is reaching a peak of tension, Nastasya Filippovna herself arrives to pay a visit to her potential new family. Shocked and embarrassed, Ganya succeeds in introducing her, but when she bursts into a prolonged fit of laughter at the look on his face, his expression transforms into one of murderous hatred. The Prince intervenes to calm him down, and Ganya's rage is diverted toward him in a violent gesture. The tension is not eased by the entrance of Ganya's father, General Ivolgin, a drunkard with a tendency to tell elaborate lies. Nastasya Filippovna flirtatiously encourages the General and then mocks him. Ganya's humiliation is compounded by the arrival of Rogozhin, accompanied by a rowdy crowd of drunks and rogues, Lebedyev among them. Rogozhin openly starts bidding for Nastasya Filippovna, ending with an offer of a hundred thousand rubles. With the scene assuming increasingly scandalous proportions, Varya angrily demands that someone remove the "shameless woman". Ganya seizes his sister's arm, and she responds, to Nastasya Filippovna's delight, by spitting in his face. He is about to strike her when the Prince again intervenes, and Ganya slaps him violently in the face. Everyone is deeply shocked, including Nastasya Filippovna, and she struggles to maintain her mocking aloofness as the others seek to comfort the Prince. Myshkin admonishes her and tells her it is not who she really is. She apologizes to Ganya's mother and leaves, telling Ganya to be sure to come to her birthday party that evening. Rogozhin and his retinue go off to raise the 100,000 rubles.

Among the guests at the party are Totsky, General Epanchin, Ganya, his friend Ptitsyn (Varya's fiancé), and Ferdyshchenko, who, with Nastasya Filippovna's approval, plays the role of cynical buffoon. With the help of Ganya's younger brother Kolya, the Prince arrives, uninvited. To enliven the party, Ferdyshchenko suggests a game where everyone must recount the story of the worst thing they have ever done. Others are shocked at the proposal, but Nastasya Filippovna is enthusiastic. When it comes to Totsky's turn he tells a long but innocuous anecdote from the distant past. Disgusted, Nastasya Filippovna turns to Myshkin and demands his advice on whether or not to marry Ganya. Myshkin advises her not to, and Nastasya Filippovna, to the dismay of Totsky, General Epanchin and Ganya, firmly announces that she is following this advice. At this point, Rogozhin and his followers arrive with the promised 100,000 rubles. Nastasya Filipovna is preparing to leave with him, exploiting the scandalous scene to humiliate Totsky, when Myshkin himself offers to marry her. He speaks gently and sincerely, and in response to incredulous queries about what they will live on, produces a document indicating that he will soon be receiving a large inheritance. Though surprised and deeply touched, Nastasya Filipovna, after throwing the 100,000 rubles in the fire and telling Ganya they are his if he wants to get them out, chooses to leave with Rogozhin. Myshkin follows them.

Part 2

For the next six months, Nastasya Filippovna remains unsettled and is torn between Myshkin and Rogozhin. Myshkin is tormented by her suffering, and Rogozhin is tormented by her love for Myshkin and her disdain for his own claims on her. Returning to Petersburg, the Prince visits Rogozhin's house. Myshkin becomes increasingly horrified at Rogozhin's attitude to her. Rogozhin confesses to beating her in a jealous rage and raises the possibility of cutting her throat. Despite the tension between them, they part as friends, with Rogozhin even making a gesture of concession. But the Prince remains troubled and for the next few hours he wanders the streets, immersed in intense contemplation. He suspects that Rogozhin is watching him and returns to his hotel where Rogozhin—who has been hiding in the stairway—attacks him with a knife. At the same moment, the Prince is struck down by a violent epileptic seizure, and Rogozhin flees in a panic.

Recovering, Myshkin joins Lebedyev (from whom he is renting a dacha) in the summer resort town Pavlovsk. He knows that Nastasya Filippovna is in Pavlovsk and that Lebedyev is aware of her movements and plans. The Epanchins, who are also in Pavlovsk, visit the Prince. They are joined by their friend Yevgeny Pavlovich Radomsky, a handsome and wealthy military officer with a particular interest in Aglaya. Aglaya, however, is more interested in the Prince, and to Myshkin's embarrassment and everyone else's amusement, she recites Pushkin's poem "The Poor Knight" in a reference to his noble efforts to save Nastasya Filippovna.

The Epanchins' visit is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Burdovsky, a young man who claims to be the illegitimate son of Myshkin's late benefactor, Pavlishchev. The inarticulate Burdovsky is supported by a group of insolent young men. These include the consumptive seventeen-year-old Ippolit Terentyev, the nihilist Doktorenko, and Keller, an ex-officer who, with the help of Lebedyev, has written an article vilifying the Prince and Pavlishchev. They demand money from Myshkin as a "just" reimbursement for Pavlishchev's support, but their arrogant bravado is severely dented when Gavril Ardalionovich, who has been researching the matter on Myshkin's behalf, proves conclusively that the claim is false and that Burdovsky has been deceived. The Prince tries to reconcile with the young men and offers financial support anyway. Disgusted, Lizaveta Prokofyevna loses all control and furiously attacks both parties. Ippolit laughs, and Lizaveta Prokofyevna seizes him by the arm, causing him to break into a prolonged fit of coughing. But he suddenly becomes calm, informs them all that he is near death, and politely requests that he be permitted to talk to them for a while. He awkwardly attempts to express his need for their love, eventually bringing both himself and Lizaveta Prokofyevna to the point of tears. But as the Prince and Lizaveta Prokofyevna discuss what to do with the invalid, another transformation occurs and Ippolit, after unleashing a torrent of abuse at the Prince, leaves with the other young men. The Epanchins also leave, both Lizaveta Prokofyevna and Aglaya deeply indignant with the Prince. Only Yevgeny Pavlovich remains in good spirits, and he smiles charmingly as he says good-bye. At that moment, a magnificent carriage pulls up at the dacha, and the ringing voice of Nastasya Filippovna calls out to Yevgeny Pavlovich. In a familiar tone, she tells him not to worry about all the IOUs as Rogozhin has bought them up. The carriage departs, leaving everyone, particularly Yevgeny Pavlovich and the Prince, in a state of shock. Yevgeny Pavlovich claims to know nothing about the debts, and Nastasya Filippovna's motives become a subject of anxious speculation.

Part 3

Reconciling with Lizaveta Prokofyevna, the Prince visits the Epanchins at their dacha. He is beginning to fall in love with Aglaya, and she likewise appears to be fascinated by him, though she often mocks or angrily reproaches him for his naiveté and excessive humility. Myshkin joins Lizaveta Prokofyevna, her daughters and Yevgeny Pavlovich for a walk to the park to hear the music. While listening to the high-spirited conversation and watching Aglaya in a kind of daze, he notices Rogozhin and Nastasya Filippovna in the crowd. Nastasya Filippovna again addresses herself to Yevgeny Pavlovich, and in the same jolly tone as before loudly informs him that his uncle—a wealthy and respected old man from whom he is expecting a large inheritance—has shot himself and that a huge sum of government money is missing. Yevgeny Pavlovich stares at her in shock as Lizaveta Prokofyevna makes a hurried exit with her daughters. Nastasya Filippovna hears an officer friend of Yevgeny Pavlovich suggest that a whip is needed for women like her, and she responds by grabbing a riding-whip from a bystander and striking the officer across the face with it. He tries to attack her but Myshkin restrains him, for which he is violently pushed. Rogozhin, after making a mocking comment to the officer, leads Nastasya Filippovna away. The officer recovers his composure, addresses himself to Myshkin, politely confirms his name, and leaves.

Myshkin follows the Epanchins back to their dacha, where eventually Aglaya finds him alone on the verandah. To his surprise, she begins to talk to him very earnestly about duels and how to load a pistol. They are interrupted by General Epanchin who wants Myshkin to walk with him. Aglaya slips a note into Myshkin's hand as they leave. The General is greatly agitated by the effect Nastasya Filippovna's behavior is having on his family, particularly since her information about Yevgeny Pavlovich's uncle has turned out to be completely correct. When the General leaves, Myshkin reads Aglaya's note, which is an urgent request to meet her secretly the following morning. His reflections are interrupted by Keller who has come to offer to be his second at the duel that will inevitably follow from the incident that morning, but Myshkin merely laughs heartily and invites Keller to visit him to drink champagne. Keller departs and Rogozhin appears. He informs the Prince that Nastasya Filippovna wants to see him and that she has been in correspondence with Aglaya. She is convinced that the Prince is in love with Aglaya, and is seeking to bring them together. Myshkin is perturbed by the information, but he remains in an inexplicably happy frame of mind and speaks with forgiveness and brotherly affection to Rogozhin. Remembering it will be his birthday tomorrow, he persuades Rogozhin to join him for some wine.

They find that a large party has assembled at his home and that the champagne is already flowing. Present are Lebedyev, his daughter Vera, Ippolit, Burdovsky, Kolya, General Ivolgin, Ganya, Ptitsyn, Ferdyshchenko, Keller, and, to Myshkin's surprise, Yevgeny Pavlovich, who has come to ask for his friendship and advice. The guests greet the Prince warmly and compete for his attention. Stimulated by Lebedyev's eloquence, everyone engages for some time in intelligent and inebriated disputation on lofty subjects, but the good-humoured atmosphere begins to dissipate when Ippolit suddenly produces a large envelope and announces that it contains an essay he has written which he now intends to read to them. The essay is a painfully detailed description of the events and thoughts leading him to what he calls his 'final conviction': that suicide is the only possible way to affirm his will in the face of nature's invincible laws, and that consequently he will be shooting himself at sunrise. The reading drags on for over an hour and by its end the sun has risen. Most of his audience, however, are bored and resentful, apparently not at all concerned that he is about to shoot himself. Only Vera, Kolya, Burdovsky, and Keller seek to restrain him. He distracts them by pretending to abandon the plan, then suddenly pulls out a small pistol, puts it to his temple and pulls the trigger. There is a click but no shot: Ippolit faints but is not killed. It turns out that he had taken out the cap earlier and forgotten to put it back in. Ippolit is devastated and tries desperately to convince everyone that it was an accident. Eventually he falls asleep and the party disperses.

The Prince wanders for some time in the park before falling asleep at the green seat appointed by Aglaya as their meeting place. Her laughter wakes him from an unhappy dream about Nastasya Filippovna. They talk for a long time about the letters Aglaya has received, in which Nastasya Filippovna writes that she herself is in love with Aglaya and passionately beseeches her to marry Myshkin. Aglaya interprets this as evidence that Nastasya Filippovna is in love with him herself, and demands that Myshkin explain his feelings toward her. Myshkin replies that Nastasya Filippovna is insane, that he only feels profound compassion and is not in love with her, but admits that he has come to Pavlovsk for her sake. Aglaya becomes angry, demands that he throw the letters back in her face, and storms off. Myshkin reads the letters with dread, and later that day Nastasya Filippovna herself appears to him, asking desperately if he is happy, and telling him she is going away and will not write any more letters. Rogozhin escorts her.

Part 4

It is clear to Lizaveta Prokofyevna and General Epanchin that their daughter is in love with the Prince, but Aglaya denies this and angrily dismisses talk of marriage. She continues to mock and reproach him, often in front of others, and lets slip that, as far as she is concerned, the problem of Nastasya Filippovna is yet to be resolved. Myshkin himself merely experiences an uncomplicated joy in her presence and is mortified when she appears to be angry with him. Lizaveta Prokofyevna feels it is time to introduce the Prince to their aristocratic circle and a dinner party is arranged for this purpose, to be attended by a number of eminent persons. Aglaya, who does not share her parents' respect for these people and is afraid that Myshkin's eccentricity will not meet with their approval, tries to tell him how to behave, but ends by sarcastically telling him to be as eccentric as he likes, and to be sure to wave his arms about when he is pontificating on some high-minded subject and break her mother's priceless Chinese vase. Feeling her anxiety, Myshkin too becomes extremely anxious, but he tells her that it is nothing compared to the joy he feels in her company. He tries to approach the subject of Nastasya Filippovna again, but she silences him and hurriedly leaves.

For a while the dinner party proceeds smoothly. Inexperienced in the ways of the aristocracy, Myshkin is deeply impressed by the elegance and good humour of the company, unsuspicious of its superficiality. It turns out that one of those present—Ivan Petrovich—is a relative of his beloved benefactor Pavlishchev, and the Prince becomes extraordinarily enthusiastic. But when Ivan Petrovich mentions that Pavlishchev ended by giving up everything and going over to the Roman Catholic Church, Myshkin is horrified. He launches unexpectedly into an anti-Catholic tirade, claiming that it preaches the Antichrist and in its quest for political supremacy has given birth to Atheism. Everyone present is shocked and several attempts are made to stop or divert him, but he only becomes more animated. At the height of his fervor he begins waving his arms about and knocks over the priceless Chinese vase, smashing it to pieces. As Myshkin emerges from his profound astonishment, the general horror turns to amusement and concern for his health. But it is only temporary, and he soon begins another spontaneous discourse, this time on the subject of the aristocracy in Russia, once again becoming oblivious to all attempts to quell his ardour. The speech is only brought to an end by the onset of an epileptic seizure: Aglaya, deeply distressed, catches him in her arms as he falls. He is taken home, having left a decidedly negative impression on the guests.

The next day Ippolit visits the Prince to inform him that he and others (such as Lebedyev and Ganya) have been intriguing against him, and have been unsettling Aglaya with talk of Nastasya Filippovna. Ippolit has arranged, at Aglaya's request and with Rogozhin's help, a meeting between the two women. That evening Aglaya, having left her home in secret, calls for the Prince. They proceed in silence to the appointed meeting place, where both Nastasya Filippovna and Rogozhin are already present. It soon becomes apparent that Aglaya has not come there to discuss anything, but to chastise and humiliate Nastasya Filippovna, and a bitter exchange of accusations and insults ensues. Nastasya Filippovna orders Rogozhin to leave and hysterically demands of Myshkin that he stay with her. Myshkin, once again torn by her suffering, is unable to deny her and reproaches Aglaya for her attack. Aglaya looks at him with pain and hatred, and runs off. He goes after her but Nastasya Filippovna stops him desperately and then faints. Myshkin stays with her.

In accordance with Nastasya Filippovna's wish, she and the Prince become engaged. Public opinion is highly critical of Myshkin's actions toward Aglaya, and the Epanchins break off all relations with him. He tries to explain to Yevgeny Pavlovich that Nastasya Filippovna is a broken soul, that he must stay with her or she will probably die, and that Aglaya will understand if he is only allowed to talk to her. Yevgeny Pavlovich refuses to facilitate any contact between them and suspects that Myshkin himself is mad.

On the day of the wedding, a beautifully attired Nastasya Filippovna is met by Keller and Burdovsky, who are to escort her to the church where Myshkin is waiting. A large crowd has gathered, among whom is Rogozhin. Seeing him, Nastasya Filippovna rushes to him and tells him hysterically to take her away, which Rogozhin loses no time in doing. The Prince, though shaken, is not particularly surprised at this development. For the remainder of the day he calmly fulfills his social obligations to guests and members of the public. The following morning he takes the first train to Petersburg and goes to Rogozhin's house, but he is told by servants that there is no one there. After several hours of fruitless searching, he returns to the hotel he was staying at when he last encountered Rogozhin in Petersburg. Rogozhin appears and asks him to come back to the house. They enter the house in secret and Rogozhin leads him to the dead body of Nastasya Filippovna: he has stabbed her through the heart. The two men keep vigil over the body, which Rogozhin has laid out in his study.

Rogozhin is sentenced to fifteen years hard labor in Siberia. Myshkin goes mad and, through the efforts of Yevgeny Pavlovich, returns to the sanatorium in Switzerland. The Epanchins go abroad and Aglaya elopes with a wealthy, exiled Polish count who later is discovered to be neither wealthy, nor a count, nor an exile—at least, not a political exile—and who, along with a Roman Catholic priest, has turned her against her family.



Tuesday, July 08, 2025

Jane Austen: A Collection of Letters 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: A Collection of Letters
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Juvenilia short story
Pages: 32
Words: 10K
Publish: 1789


This was tantalizing. Austen wrote 5 letters at the age of 14. Each letter is not connected to the other and tells a very short story, or at least lets us get a glimpse of a story in progress. Most of the names we have come to know in her novels make an appearance here and I must say, it was wicked weird for me to see “Willoughby” as a good guy.

Part of me wishes I had read this whole Juvenilia collection as a whole (I still have more to go) but the other part is glad I am reading just bits and pieces. It keeps it from blending all together into a one big slurry.

★★★☆☆


From The Internet:

A Collection of Letters is an epistolary short story collection written by Jane Austen when she was fourteen years old. Although the novels Austen became known for were not published until she was in her thirties, she was an active writer from the age of twelve, frequently composing epistolary works such as A Collection of Letters. Austen eventually compiled 29 of her early writings in three notebooks that became known as the Juvenilia and that she called “Volume the First”, “Volume the Second”, and “Volume the Third”, including A Collection of Letters in “Volume the Second”.

A Collection of Letters is set contemporaneously to Austen’s writing and consists of a series of five letters, each written by a woman of high society living in Great Britain. Unlike Austen’s later epistolary works, A Collection of Letters is not a novelette; each of these five letters tells a self-contained story, with no characters appearing in multiple letters. Nonetheless, the collection is unified in its lighthearted, humorous tone. Austen dedicated A Collection of Letters to her cousin Jane Cooper, who married famed Royal Navy officer Thomas Williams two years later and who died in a horse accident before the end of that decade; Williams went on to marry again twice, reputedly because his first marriage was so happy. Ironically, there are multiple parallels between Cooper’s later life and the second letter of this collection.

Letter the First

Letter the Second

Letter the Third

Letter the Fourth

Letter the Fifth




Thursday, June 12, 2025

Acia (The Russians) 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Acia
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Ivan Turgenev
Translator: Constance Garnett
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 76
Words: 20K
Publish: 1858

The spelling for this, ACIA, is the old time translation by Garnett. More modern translations call it ASYA, as seen on the cover I am using. I would be upset, except new time’y translations all call Dostoyevsky “Dostoevsky”, so screw them. They are stupid gugenheimers and deserve to choke to death on a hotdog. WITH mustard! See, I’m not upset at all about this ;-)

The more I read these smaller works, the more I realize just how completely different the Russian mindset is in comparison to the American. I read a Shadow novel soon after this and in it, two characters were talking to each other but one of them left a sentence unfinished and yet I still knew exactly what he meant. That happens in Russian stories and I simply haven’t a clue what is being left unsaid or meant. I can tell there IS meaning by that silence, but I can’t fill in the gap. It frustrates me to no end and yet I enjoy the heck out of it because it shows me, in no uncertain terms, that humans can think differently. I don’t mean have different thoughts, but think in ways that the others can’t comprehend easily. It reminds of the conversation in Dune when Paul is talking to Chani about water and she just can’t comprehend it falling from the sky. She never would have thought of that idea on her own, but even that isn’t as alien as what I experience with some of these Russian reads.

AND THAT IS WHY I READ THEM!

Even if I don’t understand the meaning of the silences, simply being exposed to them and knowing there is something there that I am not getting expands my overall comprehension, of the written word, of others, of the world as a whole.

That being said, I still want to take the narrator and shake him until his head falls off. He’s an idiot and doesn’t know what he actually wants until something is suddenly out of reach, THEN he wants it and pines for it the rest of his life. He’s too spineless and wimpy to decide what he wants, so things just pass him by. How does a culture that is like that produce a Lenin, a Stalin, a Putin? It just leaves me scratching my head.

See? More questions, more thoughts, more things I never would have thought about without the prodding of a novella like this.

★★★☆☆


From Wikipedia.org

The narration is told on behalf of an anonymous narrator (Mr. N.N.). He remembers his youth, his stay in the small town of Sinzig. on the banks of the river Rhine. One day he is ferrying a boat and follows the sound of music and noise from a festival, he crosses the river to the neighboring town of Leubsdorf. Here the narrator meets two Russians: a young man named Gagin, who wants to become an artist, and a girl named Asya (Anna), whom he introduced as his sister. Asya's mood changes rapidly from being happy to sad, and is often eccentric things such as climbing the ruins of a castle to water the flowers. The hero begins to suspect that Asya is not Gagin’s sister due to the extreme difference between their personalities.

A few days later, the narrator befriends Gagin and learns that Asya is really his sister. At the age of twelve, Gagin was sent to St. Petersburg to study at a boarding school while his widowed father remained in the countryside. After the death of his father, Gagin came to know that his father had another child, a daughter named Asya, whose mother was Tatyana, a maid at the Gagins' house. Gagin is forced to raise the thirteen-year-old girl alone. He sends her to a boarding school for some years. However, due to them facing social stigma due to her illegitimate birth, he finally decides to go abroad with Asya.

The narrator feels deep pity for Asya - be believes that it is her unclear social position (the daughter of a serf and a master) that causes her to have nervous breakdowns. Gradually he falls in love with Asya. Asya writes him a letter asking him to meet. Gagin, who knows about his sister’s feelings, asks the narrator if he would agree to marry her. The hero, unsure of his feelings, cannot fully agree and promises to reject Asya's love at the meeting (if it takes place).

The narrator's meeting with Asya takes place in the house of the burgomaster's widow. After the confession of her feelings, Asya finds herself in his arms, but then the narrator conveys his disappointment to her for ruining everything by confessing to her brother, and now their happiness is impossible. Asya runs away. Hero and Gagin look for her. In the end, the narrator realizes that he truly loves Asya and wants to marry her. The next day he plans to ask his brother for the girl’s hand in marriage. But the next day it turns out that Gagin and Asya left the city. The hero tries to catch up with them, but loses their trail in London.

The narrator never meets Asya again. There were other women in his life, but now, on the threshold of old age and death, he understands that he truly loved only her, and that even the dried flower that she gave him will outlive both lovers - reflecting on the fleeting nature of human life.



Thursday, May 15, 2025

The History of England 2.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The History of England
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Juvenilia short story
Pages: 28
Words: 7K


This is just what you’d expect from a snarky teen writing about a subject they didn’t want to be writing about. I just rolled my eyes and plowed through.

★★✬☆☆


From Wikipedia.org

The work is a burlesque which pokes fun at widely used schoolroom history books such as Oliver Goldsmith's 1771 The History of England from the Earliest Times to the Death of George II. Austen mockingly imitates the style of textbook histories of English monarchs, while ridiculing historians' pretensions to objectivity. It was illustrated with coloured portraits by Austen's elder sister Cassandra, to whom the work is dedicated.


The second page of the History reads:


The History of England

from the reign of

Henry the 4th

to the death of

Charles the 1st


By a partial, prejudiced, & ignorant Historian


To Miss Austen, eldest daughter of the Revd

George Austen, this work is inscribed with

all due respect by

The Author


N.B. There will be very few Dates in

this History.


Her History cites as sources works of fiction such as the plays of Shakespeare and Sheridan, a novel by Charlotte Turner Smith and the opinions of Austen's family and friends. Along with accounts of English kings and queens which contain little factual information but a great deal of comically exaggerated opining about their characters and behaviour, the work includes material such as charades and puns on names.


While the work offers her family humorous vignettes on English rulers from Henry II to Charles I, many entries focus on royal women, such as Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey, and Mary, Queen of Scots, who are denied entries but are significant figures in English history. Mary, Queen of Scots, in particular plays an important role in Austen's History, which also acts as a vindication of the executed cousin of Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I is treated as a tyrant, rather than a good leader, thus showing Austen's affinity for Mary and the Stuart monarchs.


Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Family Happiness (The Russians) 3.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Family Happiness
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Translator: -----
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 111
Words: 34K

Take an age-gap love story and then Russianize it.

Things were going great. The love between Masha and Sergey was working out, against all of my expectations. I was lulled into thinking that maybe, perhaps, JUST THIS ONCE, I might be reading a happy Russian novella.

Silly me!

Tolstoy guts the reader when Masha, the young woman, is seduced by Petersburg Society, which Sergey her husband had warned her about. What makes it worse, is that he sits back and passively watches it happen. His excuse, at the end, is that “some things” just have to be experience and nobody can warn you against them.

Oh, I raged at that. I almost gave this 1star just for that. It was WRONG. While a husband and wife cannot control the other, they are no longer individuals who can just sit back and let things happen to the other. They are “one” now. Tolstoy goes against that Biblical principle of marriage on every level with this novella. His attempt to patch things up with “well, our passionate love will now be sublimated into family happiness” made me growl.

And yet, and yet I still enjoyed this more than enough to give it 3.5stars. Only a Russian could take passionate eros love and completely divorce it from the kind of love experienced by a family and say that was a good thing.

Slow claps.

Bravo Tolstoy, you’re a real barstard with this one.

★★★✬☆


From Wikipedia.org

The story concerns the love and marriage of a young girl, Mashechka (17 years old), and the much older Sergey Mikhaylych (36), an old family friend. The story is narrated by Masha. After a courtship that has the trappings of a mere family friendship, Masha's love grows and expands until she can no longer contain it. She reveals it to Sergey Mikhaylych and discovers that he also is deeply in love. If he has resisted her it was because of his fear that the age difference between them would lead the very young Masha to tire of him. He likes to be still and quiet, he tells her, while she will want to explore and discover more and more about life. Ecstatically and passionately happy, the pair immediately engages to be married. Once married they move to Sergey Mikhaylych's home. They are both members of the landed Russian upper class. Masha soon feels impatient with the quiet order of life on the estate, notwithstanding the powerful understanding and love that remains between the two. To assuage her anxiety, they decide to spend a few weeks in St. Petersburg. Sergey Mikhaylych agrees to take Masha to an aristocratic ball. He hates "society" but she is enchanted with it. They go again, and then again. She becomes a regular, the darling of the countesses and princes, with her rural charm and her beauty. Sergey Mikhaylych, at first very pleased with Petersburg society's enthusiasm for his wife, frowns on her passion for "society"; however, he does not try to influence Masha. Out of respect for her, Sergey Mikhaylych will scrupulously allow his young wife to discover the truth about the emptiness and ugliness of "society" on her own. But his trust in her is damaged as he watches how dazzled she is by this world. Finally they confront each other about their differences. They argue but do not treat their conflict as something that can be resolved through negotiation. Both are shocked and mortified that their intense love has suddenly been called into question. Something has changed. Because of pride, they both refuse to talk about it. The trust and the closeness are gone. Only courteous friendship remains. Masha yearns to return to the passionate closeness they had known before Petersburg. They go back to the country. Though she gives birth to children and the couple has a good life, she despairs. They can barely be together by themselves. Finally she asks him to explain why he did not try to guide and direct her away from the balls and the parties in Petersburg. Why did they lose their intense love? Why don't they try to bring it back? His answer is not the answer she wants to hear, but it settles her down and prepares her for a long life of comfortable "Family Happiness."



Tuesday, March 18, 2025

Lesley Castle 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Lesley Castle
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Juvenilia unfinished story
Pages: 35
Words: 10K


I am glad to be reading these juvenilia stories by Austen, but between them being unfinished and them being written in her teens, it leaves a lot to be desired.

That being said, she shows more talent as a raw teenager than about 9/10ths of the adult hacks today who think that writing a book is just putting words down on paper. If you want to write a book, then I highly encourage you to read this. If what you are writing isn’t even this good, you should give up. Because nobody wants to read your crap and you should stop clogging up the book pipeline. Let the good books get written. And if that hurts your feelings or makes you feel “bad”, then you should also give up, because nobody has time for pansy writers with paper thin skin.

This post has been brought to you by the Bookstooge Wants To Hurt Your Feelings Co., LLC, Inc.



★★★☆☆


From Bookstooge

A series of letters between multiple overlapping female acquaintances. No overarching plot and simply ends randomly after the tenth letter.




Thursday, February 13, 2025

Faust: A Story in Nine Letters (The Russians) 2Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Faust: A Story in Nine Letters
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Ivan Turgenev
Translator: -----
Rating: 2 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 57
Words: 16K

This novella turned my stomach. The main character sets about to seduce his married neighbor. Before it can be consummated though, she dies and the main character moves away and hides from it all.

Disgusting.

It still surprises me (even though it shouldn’t) at how evil mankind really is on just a general every day level. The MC wanted something, so he went after it, with no regard for anything or any thought if it was right or wrong. He was willing to destroy Vera’s married life with nary a thought of how it would affect her or everyone associated with her.

Now, maybe Turgenev wasn’t advocating this kind of behavior, but considering how he wrote this, he really wasn’t advocating against it either. There’s a way to write reprehensible characters and behaviors without dragging your readers down into that cesspit and Turgenev chose not write that way.

I came out of this novella feeling soiled and dirty. One more story like this from Turgenev and I’ll be done with him.

★★☆☆☆


From Wikipedia

In a series of letters to his friend Semyon Nikolayevich, Pavel Alexandrovich narrates the events that take place after returning to his childhood home in the Russian countryside, starting from June 1850. Returning after a nine year absence, he reflects on the changes in the house, the garden, and the people. While going through the house and looking at the book collection, he becomes engrossed in reading Goethe's Faust, which triggers memories of his student days.

The next day, Pavel encounters an old university classmate, Priimkov, who is now married to Vera Nikolaevna. He recalls meeting 16 year old Vera and her mother Mrs. Yelstova when he was spending a summer at his cousin's estate in the Perm Governorate back in the 1830s. Mrs. Yelstova had an obsession with protecting her daughter's imagination from any outside influences, going to great lengths to ensure Vera's innocence. He recounts his growing attachment to Vera and his desire to marry her, although her mother objected and didn't let it happen. The news of Vera's proximity rekindles his curiosity and decides to meet her at Priimkov's estate.

The narrator is surprised to see that Vera has hardly changed at age 28, despite having given birth to three children. Mrs. Yelstova had long since passed away but somehow, Vera had not deviated much from the manner in which she was raised. The conversation turns to the subject of literature, where the narrator learns that Vera Nikolaevna has never read novels, poems, or any form of fictional literature, even after her late mother removed all restrictions on Vera after her marriage. He offers to introduce her to literature, beginning with Goethe's Faust. For these readings, visits to Priimkov's estate become common across the next few months.

During their readings, the narrator observes Vera closely and is captivated by her reactions. At first the narrator denies his romantic interest in Vera however it becomes quite obvious that he is infatuated with her. He admits to kissing Vera's hand while reading Eugene Onegin, however Vera seems firm on her boundaries. Besides literature, the narrator discusses several topics with Vera, such as their dreams, Vera's Italian heritage, and her fear of ghosts.

By the end of August, the narrator finally admits to being in love with Vera, despite his age and despite her marriage to Priimkov. He struggles to keep his emotions in check. Semyon seems disturbed by this and suggests visiting the narrator. The narrator quickly writes to stop him from coming and assures him that he will be contain himself.

The final letter is dated March 1853, 2 years after the events of the past eight letters, sent from a different location. Since the last letter, Vera confessed her feelings for him, and they shared a secret kiss. Vera then asked him to meet her secretly near their garden gate, to which he agreed eagerly. However, on the appointed day, Vera didn't show up. Instead, he noticed activity at her house, with her family still awake. Deciding not to intrude, he left and tried to resume his normal life. He later learned that Vera had fallen seriously ill, suffering from an undiagnosed condition. She had claimed to see her mother's ghost in the garden, which seemed to trigger her illness. Vera passed away in less than two weeks from the day they were supposed to meet. In her delirium, she repeatedly mentioned "Faust" and referred to her mother as either Martha or Gretchen.

Following her funeral, the narrator left everything behind and settled in a remote wilderness, where he would spend the rest of his days, haunted by the guilt of being the cause of Vera's loss of innocence and her untimely death. He echoes the motto of renunciation from Goethe's Faust



Thursday, February 06, 2025

Love and Friendship 3Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Love and Friendship
Series: ----------
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Juvenilia short story
Pages: 28
Words: 10K


This is my first foray, ever, into Jane Austen’s juvenilia work, ie, the works she wrote as a child and teenager that were never published. I enjoyed my time with this short story, but there is a reason they were never published publicly during her lifetime.

This is a series of letters from an older woman to her friend’s daughter detailing the “hardships” of her life. This is very much a parody and it is obvious from the get-go that Laura (the older woman doing the letter writing) is an empty headed idiot who makes one bad decision after another and is the epitome of selfishness.

It’s amusing because while Laura is sure she is imparting “wisdom” to Marianne, it is obvious that Isabella (the mother of Marianne and friend to Laura) is using it to show Marianne what will happen if she makes the same decisions as Laura did in her younger days. So in a way, Laura IS imparting wisdom, just not in the way she thinks :-)

I enjoyed this little tidbit. While it comes in at 28 pages, that’s mainly because there was a page break after the end of each letter, increasing the page count quite a bit. The upside is that I read through this in a snap.

★★★☆☆


From Wikipedia.org

Letter The First

From Isabel to Laura

This presents a glimpse into the life of Laura from Isabel's perspective. Isabel asks Laura to tell the "misfortunes and adventures" of her life to Isabel's daughter Marianne (Austen 516). Isabel argues that because Laura is turning 55, she is past the danger of "disagreeable lovers" and "obstinate fathers" (Austen 516). This initial letter sets up the rest of Austen's narrative through Laura's letters to Marianne.

Letter The Second

Laura to Isabel

This consists of a reply from Laura to Isabel. Laura initially disagrees with Isabel's assessment that she is safe from "misfortunes" simply because of her advanced age (Austen 516). Laura agrees to write to Marianne and detail her life experiences to "satisfy the curiosity of Marianne" and to teach her useful lessons (Poplawski 183). The useful lessons are lessons learned from the misfortunes caused by "disagreeable lovers" and "obstinate fathers" (Poplawski 183). Poplawski highlights the importance of the relationship between females and their lovers and also between females and their fathers as a means through which Austen is able to criticise stereotypical female behaviour. As seen throughout the work, these two relationships are constantly criticised by satirical anecdotes. Janetta's relations with her father and with her lover, Capitan M’Kenzie, in the twelfth letter, show Austen mocking the fickleness of family ties and romantic relationships.

Letter The Third

Laura to Marianne

Laura's narrative to Marianne begins in the third letter and continues through to the 15th letter. In the 3rd, Laura gives a brief overview of the origins of her parents, her birth in Spain, and her education in a convent in France. At 18, Laura returns to her parents' home in Wales. Laura pauses to describe herself at this age. She emphasises her "accomplishments", which in that period would have been things that made a woman a better companion for her future husband (Austen 516). Laura ends the letter by posing the idea that her misfortunes in life "do not make less impression... than they ever did", but that her accomplishments have begun to fade (Austen 517). The uncertainty of Laura's memory causes Austen's work to resemble a fairy tale in its qualities of ambiguity.

Letter The Fourth

Laura to Marianne

Here Austen reveals the connection between Laura and Isabel. Laura tells Marianne that Isabel was one of her few neighbours in Wales and that Isabel resided in the neighbourhood due to "indigent circumstances" and for "economic motives" (Austen 517). Laura depicts Isabel as having fewer accomplishments and less beauty than herself, but being better travelled. Isabel warns Laura of the "insipid vanities and idle dissipations" of London, Bath and Southampton, while instilling in Laura a desire to explore the world (Austen 517).

Letter The Fifth

Laura to Marianne

Here Laura recalls a night in December when a strange man and his servant, who were lost, stopped at her home in need of shelter. Upon hearing a knock at their door, Laura and her family converse about the character of the knock and the knocker's intention. Laura depicts her initial attraction to the young gentleman, claiming him to be the "most beauteous and amiable youth" she had ever seen (Austen 518). Austen's character Laura's instant and "undying attachment" to the stranger mocks the romantic notion of friendship as an overused cliché (Deresiewicz 103). Deresiewicz shows Austen's satirical view of love and friendship by illuminating the idea that romantic notions of these themes are oversimplified and stereotypical.

Letter The Sixth

Laura to Marianne

This consists of a dialogue in which the stranger, named Lindsay, tells Laura and her family of his experiences before arriving at their house. Coming from an aristocratic family, Lindsay, referred to as Edward, describes his father as "seduced by the false glare of fortune and the deluding pomp of title" (Austen 518). His father wanted Lindsay to marry Lady Dorothea but Edward refused as he did not want to oblige his father. So Edward embarked on a journey to his aunt's house but having taken the wrong direction, ended up at Laura's instead. The letter ends with the hasty marriage of Edward and Laura performed by her father, which mocks the sensibility of Austen's characters (Sahney 130). Sahney's analysis shows how Austen's views of sensibility differed from those of the romantic novels she is likely to have read in her youth. While sensibility may have been a value that was pushed upon women of Austen's time, Sahney makes the point that Austen's use of exaggerated hasty decision-making in her novels shows that Austen knows the romantic notion of sensibility is a myth.

Letter The Seventh

Laura to Marianne

Here Laura and Edward travel to his aunt's house in Middlesex. Edward's marriage to Laura is a surprise to his aunt and to Edward's sister Augusta. Laura notes the "disagreeable coldness and forbidding reserve" with which Augusta greets her (Austen 519). Laura overhears a conversation between Augusta and Edward in which Augusta expresses concern about Edward's "imprudent" marriage and consequently of their father's reaction (Austen 520). A discourse ensues in which Edward and Augusta work out just how many years Edward has been defying his father. It is through Edward and Augusta's dialogue that Austen questions the motives of romantic sentimentality (Southam 26). Lady Dorothea briefly visits and Laura does not take kindly to her.

Letter The Eighth

Laura to Marianne, in continuation

After Lady Dorothea leaves, Sir Edward unexpectedly visits. Knowing Sir Edward came to admonish Edward for his marriage to Laura, Edward, "with heroic fortitude", defends his marriage (Austen 521). Edward says it is his "greatest boast" to have displeased his father. Again Austen mocks the romantic motives of Edward and Laura's marriage (Austen 521). At once Edward and Laura take Sir Edwards carriage and travel to the home of Edward's friend Augustus who is married to Sophia. Upon meeting Sophia, Laura praises Sophia's, "sensibility and feeling," as positive characteristics of her mind (Austen 521). The two women "instantly" vow to be friends forever and share their deepest secrets (Austen 521). Edward and Augustus create an "affecting scene" when they meet causing both Sophia and Laura to faint "alternately" on the couch (Austen 521). By using the words "instantly" and "alternately," Austen shows her mastery of language and the ability of these words to serve as adverbs and also to function satirically (Lambdin 185–86).

Letter The Ninth

From the same to the same

Laura and Edward receive a letter from Philippa saying that Sir Edward and Augusta went back to Bedfordshire abruptly after the married couple departed. Philippa also desires to see Edward and Laura again and asks them to return after their visit with Augustus and Sophia. A few weeks later Philippa is married to a fortune-hunter and Laura and Edward remark at the imprudence and insensibility of her decision. Laura recounts how perfect and happy their stay was with Sophia and Augustus until Augustus is arrested for unpaid debts. Augustus and Sophia had also defied their parents and Augustus had run out of the money he had taken from his father's escritoire when he left to marry Sophia. Laura describes Augustus's arrest as "treachery" and "barbarity" (Austen 522). With Augustus facing a seizure of the House, Laura, Edward, and Sophia do the only thing they can do. They sigh and faint on the sofa. The theme of rebellion and revolution reappears throughout Austen's work and can be considered conventional (Copeland 92).

Letter The Tenth

Laura in continuation

After Laura, Sophia and Edward recover, Edward sets off to town to see his imprisoned friend. Laura and Sophia have a "mature deliberation" and decide to leave the house before the Officers of Justice take possession (Austen 523). They wait for Edward who doesn't return. After fainting, Laura decides to take Sophia and set out for London to see Augustus. Once in London, Laura asks every person they pass "If they had seen… Edward," but can get no replies since the carriage they are riding in is moving too quickly (Austen 523). Sophia tells Laura that seeing Augustus in distress would "overpower [her] sensibility," especially since hearing of his misfortune is already shocking (Austen 523). So Laura and Sophia resolve to return to the country. Laura then tells Marianne that her mind never wandered to thoughts of her parents, who she forgot to mention had died two weeks after she left their cottage.

Letter The Eleventh

Laura in continuation

Sophia and Laura decide to travel to Scotland to stay with a relation of Sophia's. At first they are hesitant because Laura is unsure whether the horses will be able to make the journey; the postilion (driver) agrees. They resolve to change horses at the next town and continue the journey. At an inn a few miles from Sophia's relation, they decide to stop. Not wanting to arrive unannounced, the women write an elegant letter detailing their misfortunes and desire to stay with the relative. As soon as they send the letter, they begin to step into their own carriage to follow right behind it. At that moment, another coach arrives and an elderly gentleman emerges and goes into the inn. Laura is overwhelmed with the feeling that this person is her grandfather so she throws herself to her knees in front of him and begs him to acknowledge their relation. He exclaims that she is in fact his granddaughter.[1] Sophia then enters and the elderly man exclaims that Sophia is also his granddaughter descended from another of his daughters. As they are all embracing each other, a young man appears and the elderly man, Lord St. Clair, claims he is also one of his grandchildren. Another youth comes into the room and exclaims that he is the grandchild of Lord St. Clair's fourth daughter. Lord St. Clair writes each of the four grandchildren banknotes and immediately leaves.

Letter The Twelfth

Laura in continuation

After Lord St. Clair leaves, Laura and Sophia faint. When they wake up, both the male grandchildren are gone and so are Sophia and Laura's banknotes. Sophia's cousin, Macdonald, who they first perceive as amiable and sympathetic, offers to take them to Macdonald-Hall. They ride with Macdonald's daughter Janetta, who is to be wed to Graham, a man Macdonald has chosen, once they return to Macdonald-Hall. Laura and Sophia see through Macdonald's character and no longer perceive him as well disposed. Laura and Sophia decide Graham is not fit to marry Janetta because Graham has no soul, hasn't read The Sorrows of Werther, and does not have auburn hair (Austen 525). Laura and Sophia ask Janetta if she has ever felt affection for Graham or any other man and soon convince Janetta of her love for a man named Captain M’Kenzie. After analysing Captain M’Kenzie's actions concerning Janetta, Laura and Sophia declare he must be in love with her despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. They decide to write Captain M’Kenzie a letter encouraging him to confess his attachment to Janetta and secretly marry her. Captain M’Kenzie replies that it was only modesty which kept him from acting sooner and thus Janetta and M’Kenzie leave for Gretna-Green to celebrate their nuptials. Austen's continuous ridicule of love at first sight expresses scepticism about the spontaneous feelings and the truth or lack of truth which those feelings possess (Walder 229).

Letter The Thirteenth

Laura in continuation

Here Sophia finds banknotes in a private drawer in Macdonald's library. Laura and Sophia plan to take a banknote or two each time they pass through the room because it would be "proper treatment for so vile a wretch" (Austen 527). However, on the day that Janetta escapes, Sophia is caught by Macdonald in the act of stealing his money. Macdonald verbally reprimands Sophia and in response she informs him of Janetta's elopement as revenge. Laura enters into the library and both women are offended by Macdonald's "ill-grounded" accusations (Austen 527). Macdonald tells the women they must leave in half an hour and Laura and Sophia agree to do so. After walking a mile or so, they settle next to a stream to rest. Sophia expresses distress over the situation Augustus was in when they left. On the road near where they are sitting, an accident causes a gentleman's phaeton to overturn. Laura and Sophia rush to help and discover it is Edward and Augustus on the ground bleeding. Sophia faints and Laura shrieks and runs madly about. After more than an hour, Edward regains consciousness and Laura asks what has happened since Augustus was taken to jail. Edward said he will tell her, but after a deep sigh, dies. The women again become frenzied and finally walk to a white cottage. A widow leads them into her house, where Sophia and Laura meet her daughter Bridget.

Letter The Fourteenth

Laura in continuation

Next morning Sophia complains of severe pain in her limbs. Gradually, the pain got worse and it turned into a "galloping consumption" or tuberculosis (Austen 530). As Sophia dies, she tells Laura that she dies a "martyr to [her] grief for the loss of Augustus" (Austen 531). Sophia dies, and Laura takes to walking out of the village. She gets into a stagecoach which she decides to take to Edinburgh. As it is dark when she gets in, Laura does not know who she is riding with and becomes upset that the travellers in the carriage fail to speak to her. At daylight, she realises she is travelling with Sir Edward, Augusta, Lady Dorothea, Philippa, Philander and Gustavus. After Laura tells them that Edward is dead, Augusta realises she is the heiress of Sir Edward's fortunes.

Letter The Fifteenth

Laura in continuation

The coach stops for the travellers to have breakfast. Laura seeks out Philander and Gustavus and talk with, but does not ask about the banknotes that disappeared in their presence. At 15, Philander and Gustavus took 900 pounds and ran away. They divided the money into parcels to be spent on various things. They went to London and spent the money in seven weeks. They joined a theatre and began performing in plays. Philander and Gustavus went to their grandfather for money and left once they had obtained the banknotes. The journey continues to Edinburgh. Sir Edward decides to give Laura 400 pounds a year because she is the widow of his son. Laura moves to the Highlands of Scotland and lives in "melancholy solitude" mourning the death of her family, husband, and friend (Austen 534). Augusta marries Graham. Sir Edward marries Lady Dorothea in hopes of gaining her estate. Philander and Gustavus moved to Covent Garden and perform under the names Lewis and Quick. Philippa's husband continues to drive the stagecoach from Edinburgh to Sterling.



A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle #1) 5Stars

  This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards...