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

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.



Thursday, December 12, 2024

The Gambler (The Russians) 4Stars

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 Gambler
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Translator: CJ Hogarth
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 221
Words: 60K


When I first read The Gambler in 2010, I came away more confused than not. I wasn’t used to the Russian naming conventions and the nicknaming scheme they’ve invented is worse than Cockney rhyming slang.

Now though, well, I feel comfortable with Alexei Ivanovich as much as I am with John Smith. I had no problem navigating the maze of names and who was who and who was doing what. This was really complicated. It doesn’t help that “The Gambler” refers to almost every person in the story. There are also layers of unspoken assumptions.

For example, Polina did love Alexei, the main character. But why did she never say so? Why did she treat him like dirt, like a lackey, like he didn’t matter? She ends up having a physical and partial mental breakdown and I do not understand at all why. He had confessed his love to her so it wasn’t like she had to worry about rejection. There was obviously something else going on, but I didn’t have the cultural understanding to know what I should. It would be like a guy claiming to have gotten to third base and leaving it at that. Knowing what that meant could convey a whole paragraph of information AND it could be used to convey something else without ever saying it explicitly. It’s frustrating, that’s what it is.

It was also depressing to see everyone get caught up in gambling. It’s one of the reasons I don’t gamble. The only gamble I take is when our national lottery gets to 1 billion dollars, then I’ll buy one $2 ticket, once. I’ve seen the mess people make of their lives in real life and a story like this one only emphasizes such caution in regards to gambling.

Earn your money, there are no short cuts.

★★★★☆


From Wikipedia

Synopsis – click to open

The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is indebted to the Frenchman de Grieux and has mortgaged his property in Russia to pay only a small amount of his debt. Upon learning of the illness of his wealthy aunt, “Grandmother”, he sends streams of telegrams to Moscow and awaits the news of her demise. His expected inheritance will pay his debts and gain Mademoiselle Blanche de Cominges’s hand in marriage.

Alexei is hopelessly in love with Polina, the General’s stepdaughter. She asks him to go to the town’s casino and place a bet for her. After hesitations, he succumbs and ends up winning at the roulette table. He returns to her with the winnings, but she will not tell him why she is in such need of money. She laughs at him (as she does when he professes his love) and treats him with apparent indifference. Alexei only learns the details of the General’s and Polina’s financial state later in the story through his long-time acquaintance, Mr. Astley. Astley is a shy Englishman who seems to share Alexei’s fondness for Polina. He comes from English nobility and is very wealthy.

One day, while Polina and Alexei are on a walk on the Schlangenberg (a mountain in the German town), he swears an oath of servitude to her. He tells her that all she has to do is give the word and he will gladly walk off the edge and plummet to his death. Polina dares him to insult the aristocratic couple Baron and Baroness Wurmerhelm, whom they have just seen, and he does so. This sets off a chain of events that explains Mademoiselle Blanche’s interest in the General and gets Alexei fired as tutor of the General’s children. Shortly after this, Grandmother shows up and surprises the whole party of debtors and indebted. She tells them all that she knows all about the General’s debt and why the Frenchman and woman are waiting around the suite day after day. She leaves the party of death-profiteers, telling them that none of them are getting any of her money. She asks Alexei to be her guide around the town, famous for its healing waters and infamous for its casino; she wants to gamble.

Grandmother plays at the roulette table and wins a large amount of money. She briefly returns to the hotel, but she has caught the gambling bug and soon returns to the casino. After three days, she has lost over a hundred thousand roubles.

After sending Grandmother off at the railway station, Alexei returns to his room where he is greeted by Polina. She shows him a letter where des Grieux says he has started legal proceedings to sell the General’s properties mortgaged to him, but he is returning properties worth fifty thousand roubles to the General for Polina’s benefit. Des Grieux says he feels he has fulfilled all his obligations. Polina tells Alexei that she is des Grieux’s mistress and she wishes she had fifty thousand roubles to fling in des Grieux’s face. Upon hearing this, Alexei runs out of the room and to the casino where, over a few hours, he wins two hundred thousand florins (100,000 francs) and becomes a rich man. When he gets back to his room and the waiting Polina, he empties the gold and bank notes from his pockets onto the bed. At first Polina accuses him of trying to buy her like des Grieux, but then she embraces him. They fall asleep on the couch. Next day, she asks for fifty thousand roubles (25,000 francs) and when he gives it to her, she flings the money in his face and runs off to Mr. Astley (Polina and Mr. Astley had been secretly meeting; she was supposed to meet Astley the night before, but had come by mistake to Alexei’s room). Alexei doesn’t see her again.

After learning that the General won’t be getting his inheritance, Mademoiselle Blanche leaves for Paris with her mother and seduces Alexei to follow her. They stay together for almost a month; he allows Mlle Blanche to spend his entire fortune on her own personal expenses, carriages and horses, dinner dances, and a wedding-party. After getting herself financially secured, Mlle Blanche, desiring an established social status, unexpectedly marries the General, who has followed her to Paris.

Alexei starts to gamble to survive. One day he passes Mr. Astley on a park bench in Bad Homburg and has a talk with him. He finds out from Astley that Polina is in Switzerland and actually does love Alexei. Astley tells him that Grandmother has died and left Polina and the children financially secured. The General has died in Paris. Astley gives him some money but shows little hope that he will not use it for gambling. Alexei goes home dreaming of going to Switzerland the next day and recollects what made him win at the roulette tables in the past.

Monday, December 02, 2024

Sanditon 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: Sanditon
Series: ———-
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Unfinished Novel
Pages: 79
Words: 24K


I really enjoyed this unfinished novel. Thoroughly enjoyed it, as it had all the hallmarks of a good Austen novel with all the stuff I love about her writing.

But it’s unfinished. I had barely gotten started when it ended. I was eating the salad, could smell the lasagna in the oven, then the restaurant owner came over, unceremoniously kicked me out of the restaurant. While I was still hungry. Oh the humanity!!!!

This is yet another unfinished novel that I would like to get my hands on a co-authored finished product. Some day!

★★★☆☆


From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

The novel centres on Charlotte Heywood, the eldest of the daughters still at home in the large family of a country gentleman from Willingden, Sussex. The narrative opens when the carriage of Mr and Mrs Parker of Sanditon topples over on a hill near the Heywood home. Because Mr Parker is injured in the crash, and the carriage needs repairs, the Parkers stay with the Heywood family for a fortnight. During this time, Mr Parker talks fondly of Sanditon, a town which until a few years before had been a small, unpretentious fishing village. With his business partner, Lady Denham, Mr Parker hopes to make Sanditon into a fashionable seaside resort. Mr Parker’s enormous enthusiasm for his plans to improve and modernise Sanditon has resulted in the installation of bathing machines and the construction of a new home for himself and his family near the seashore. Upon repair of the carriage and improvement to Mr Parker’s foot, the Parkers return to Sanditon, bringing Charlotte with them as their summer guest.

Upon arrival in Sanditon, Charlotte meets the inhabitants of the town. Prominent among them is Lady Denham, a twice-widowed woman who received a fortune from her first husband and a title from her second. Living with Lady Denham is her niece Clara Brereton, a sweet and beautiful yet impoverished young lady. Also living in Sanditon are Sir Edward Denham and his sister Esther, nephew and niece to Lady Denham by her second husband. The siblings are poor and are thought to be seeking Lady Denham’s fortune; Sir Edward is described as a silly and very florid man, though handsome.

After settling in with the Parkers and encountering various neighbours, Charlotte and Mr and Mrs Parker are surprised by a visit from his two sisters and younger brother, all of whom are self-declared invalids. However, given their level of activity and seeming strength, Charlotte quickly surmises that their complaints are invented. Diana Parker has come on a mission to secure a house for a wealthy family from the West Indies, although she has not specifically been asked to help. She also brings word of a second large party, a girls’ school, which is intending to summer at Sanditon. This news causes a stir in the small town, especially for Mr Parker, whose fondest wish is the promotion of tourism there.

With the arrival of Mrs Griffiths at Sanditon, it soon becomes apparent that the family from the West Indies and the girls’ school group are one and the same. The visitors consist of Miss Lambe, a teenaged Antiguan-English heiress, and the two Miss Beauforts, English girls just arrived from the West Indies.[3] In short order, Lady Denham calls on Mrs. Griffiths to be introduced to Miss Lambe, the sickly and very rich young woman that she intends her nephew, Sir Edward, to marry.

A carriage unexpectedly arrives bearing Sidney Parker, the middle Parker brother. He will be staying in town for a few days with two friends who will join him shortly. Sidney Parker is about 27 or 28 years old, and Charlotte finds him very good-looking, with a decided air of fashion.

The book fragment ends when Mrs Parker and Charlotte visit Sanditon House, Lady Denham’s residence. There Charlotte spots Clara Brereton seated with Sir Edward Denham at her side having an intimate conversation in the garden and surmises that they must have a secret understanding. When they arrive inside, Charlotte observes that a large portrait of Sir Henry Denham hangs over the fireplace, whereas Lady Denham’s first husband, who owned Sanditon House, only gets a miniature in the corner – obliged, as it were, to sit back in his own house and see the best place by the fire constantly occupied by Sir Henry Denham.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

The Death of Ivan Ilyich (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: The Death of Ivan Ilyich
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Leo Tolstoy
Translator:
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 82
Words: 22K


While I found this engaging and well written (ie, translated), I also had issues with it on multiple levels.

On a literary level, Ilyich is an unpleasant man who becomes even more unpleasant as he sees his death approaching. I did not enjoy reading about him. And as he got sicker and became more and more unpleasant and unbearable, it was not cathartic knowing he was going to die. The story starts AFTER his death and even that was unpleasant as the people he associated with were just as unpleasant as him.

On a spiritual level, I also found this unpleasant. Ivan Ilyich is dying and somehow magically sees God’s Plan and loses all fear of death, or something like that. There wasn’t one mention of Jesus Christ or His death, resurrection and redemption of humanity. This is one ongoing issue I have with old time’y Russians who claim to be Christians. Most of their spiritually is as mystical and unknowable as any pagan religion. This was one of the more egregious examples and it totally rubbed me the wrong way.

Thankfully, at just over 80 pages it didn’t last long. I’m glad I read this but like a lot of these Russian novellas, have no plans to ever re-read it.

★★★☆☆


From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

Ivan Ilyich lives a carefree life that is “most simple and most ordinary and therefore most terrible.” Like everyone he knows, he spends his life climbing the social ladder. Enduring marriage to a woman whom he often finds too demanding, he works his way up to be a magistrate, thanks to the influence he has over a friend who has just been promoted, focusing more on his work as his family life becomes less tolerable.

While hanging curtains for his new home one day, he falls awkwardly and hurts his side. Though he does not think much of it at first, he begins to suffer from a pain in his side. As his discomfort grows, his behavior towards his family becomes more irritable. His wife finally insists that he visit a physician. The physician cannot pinpoint the source of his malady, but soon it becomes clear that his condition is terminal (although no diagnosis is ever stated by the physician.) Confronted with his terminal condition, Ivan attempts every remedy he can to obtain a cure for his worsening situation, until the pain grows so intense that he is forced to cease working and spend the remainder of his days in bed. Here, he is brought face to face with his mortality and realizes that, although he knows of it, he does not truly grasp it.

During the long and painful process of dying, Ivan dwells on the idea that he does not deserve his suffering because he has lived rightly. If he had not lived a good life, there could be a reason for his pain; but he has, so pain and death must be arbitrary and senseless. As he begins to hate his family for avoiding the subject of his death, for pretending he is only sick and not dying, he finds his only comfort in his peasant boy servant, Gerasim, the only person in Ivan’s life who does not fear death, and also the only one who, apart from his own son, shows compassion for him. Ivan begins to question whether he has, in fact, lived a good life.

In the final days of his life, Ivan makes a clear split between an artificial life, such as his own, which masks the true meaning of life and makes one fear death, and an authentic life, the life of Gerasim. Authentic life is marked by compassion and sympathy, the artificial life by self-interest. Then “some force” strikes Ivan in the chest and side, and he is brought into the presence of a bright light. His hand falls onto his nearby son’s head, and Ivan pities his son. He no longer hates his daughter or wife, but rather feels pity for them, and hopes his death will release them. In so doing, his terror of death leaves him, and as Tolstoy suggests, death itself disappears.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The Watsons 4Stars

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 Watsons
Series: ———-
Author: Jane Austen
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 46
Words: 17K


This is an unfinished novel that Austen began, stopped and for unknown reasons, never picked up again. It is 5 chapters long, which is why I’m giving it the “novella” tag.

While I enjoyed this little “taste”, it had many of the same elements in Austen’s full novels so it wasn’t a novelty like Lady Susan was.

I almost didn’t rate this because it wasn’t finished and so I didn’t know how the later, unwritten part of the story would have changed my outlook on the beginning. But I am rating what I was able to read and that gets 4stars from me.

There have been several “completed” versions by various authors. One of them, a descendant of Austen wrote a full 500+ page novel based on this. At some point I plan on reading that. It is entitled “The Younger Sister”.

★★★★☆


From Wikipedia.org

Synopsis – click to open

The timeframe of the completed fragment covers about a fortnight, and serves to introduce the main characters, who live in Surrey. Mr Watson is a widowed and ailing clergyman with two sons and four daughters. The youngest daughter, Emma, the heroine of the story, has been brought up by a wealthy aunt and is consequently better educated and more refined than her sisters. But after her aunt contracted a foolish second marriage, Emma has been obliged to return to her father’s house. There she is chagrined by the crude and reckless husband-hunting of two of her sisters, Penelope and Margaret. One particular focus for them is Tom Musgrave, who has paid attention to all of the sisters in the past. This Emma learns from her more responsible and kindly eldest sister Elizabeth.

Living near the Watsons are the Osbornes, a great titled family. Emma attracts some notice from the young and awkward Lord Osborne while attending a ball in the nearby town. An act of kindness on her part also acquaints her with Mrs Blake, who introduces Emma to her brother, Mr Howard, vicar of the parish church near Osborne Castle. A few days later Margaret returns home, having been away on a protracted visit to her brother Robert in Croydon. With her come her brother and his overbearing and snobbish wife. When they leave, Emma declines an invitation to accompany them back.

Here the story breaks off.

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Yakov Pasinkov (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: Yakov Pasinkov
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Ivan Turgenev
Translator: Garnett
Rating: 3.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 64
Words: 17K


There was a quote that sums up Russian Literature exquisitely:

I felt very miserable, wretched and miserable beyond description. In twenty-four hours two such cruel blows! I had learned that Sophia loved another man, and I had for ever forfeited her respect. I felt myself so utterly annihilated and disgraced that I could not even feel indignant with myself. Lying on the sofa with my face turned to the wall, I was revelling in the first rush of despairing misery
~bolding is mine

Reveling (I believe the double “L” in the quote is the old timey way of spelling it) in despairing misery. Do you understand that? If you don’t, or can’t, then Russian works are probably not for you. However, I CAN UNDERSTAND IT PERFECTLY! Which is why I enjoy Russian novels and novella’s so much. Even ones that have no real plot and are just ramblings about various character studies.

I was pretty pissed off that I couldn’t find a bleeping summary of this novella online. Not even that ***** liberal activist hotbed of partisanship and censorship, Wikipedia, had a separate article on this. It was just lumped in under “Works of Turgenev”. Now how lazy is that? Aren’t there any REAL Turgenev fans out there? Don’t they CARE that this novella doesn’t have its own article, that it doesn’t have an indepth summary or a bunch of blather by some idiot cramming in “meaning” from his mouth and *ss? I felt truly ashamed for anybody who claimed to be a Fan of Turgenev because they were THAT lazy. Shame on all five of them! If I ever come across them, I shall not even look at them or meet their eye.

Thankfully, I’m not a totally lazy git. Just a mostly lazy git. So I wrote a flaming synopsis, all on my own. Like a GOOD reviewer would do. In fact, I will lay claim to being one of the world’s best book reviewers, EVER, because of this masterful accomplishment. And it’s all thanks to my love of reveling in despair and misery. So there.

The End.

★★★✬☆


From Bookstooge.blog

Synopsis – You Know You Want to Read It!

An unnamed narrator relates his various interactions with the titular Yakov Pasinkov and various figures related to the narrator and to Pasinkov. Our narrator met Pasinkov at school, and become his mentee. They separated after school, met again years later in St Petersburg where Pasinkov smoothed over an issue for our Narrator with a young woman who the narrator was in love, as was Pasinkov. Then they separate for years again and our Narrator meets Pasinkov on his death bed, where he learns of Pasinkov’s love of the aforementioned young woman, who has since married and had a daughter. Our Narrator meets her, relates Pasinkov’s death and the woman reveals how her sister had been in love with Pasinkov. And some letters of Pasinkov reveal how he was loved by yet another peasant woman. So everybody loved somebody who didn’t love them and everybody was miserable or died, or both. The End.