Germianl by Emile Zola

This is my last book for the Classics Challenge. I had never read anything by this author but I was drawn to it because I'd just read a novel by Balzac and enjoyed that very much plus it deals with a coal strike in the north of France in "the black country". At the beginning of the book, our protaganist, Etienne, appears in the coal country from Paris looking for work. Etienne is part of a recurring family that Emile Zola followed in 20 novels. Etienne has previously worked for the railroads but lost his job and is now out on foot searching for work. He has some education, having worked as a mechanic. Alas, there are no mechanic jobs but he meets a mining family, the Maheus, who have a shortage on their team and take him on as a hauler. This is a bottom rung job, one normally filled by girls and boys. This whole first part of the book involves describing the workings of the mine, how the miners do their work, the home life of the miners, and the village they live in. Etienne doesn't intend to be a labor organizer but conditions are so bad and then the company demands an unacceptable concession from the miners and Etienne finds himself in a position of leadership because he has some ideas and can speak to a crowd. A bitter strike erupts and there are different people vying for leadership but Etienne wins the day by speaking about the International and a fund to help people through a long strike. He wins people over also on the vision he creates of a better world and plays upon their desire to see the tables turned. The strike continues through winter, people are starving, conditions are desperate and a mob forms and goes on a rampage through the district. This whole section culminates in the mob throwing stones at a small group of militia and the militia firing on them and killing several children and women. The people feel crushed especially the Maheus, because Maheu (the father) is shot and killed in addition to losing their young daughter to starvation. There is also a love story that revolves around Etienne, Catherine Maheu, and another miner Chaval. This takes up a lot of the story but doesn't really come to the forefront until Catherine, Etienne, and Chaval (along with others) find themselves trapped deep in the mine ,victims of an act of sabotage. The latter part of the book follows the effort to save the trapped miners and the love triangle being played out to its' ultimate conclusion when Etienne stones Chaval to death in a blind rage. In the end the miners are forced back to work, Catherine dies , Etienne barely survives, the company has taken some big losses but it is the miners who have really paid the price with their lives. I know that all of that sounds sad and it is, but I think the novel ends on a a hopeful note by saying that things cannot continue like this indefinitely and there will be change for the better in the future. I was so impressed with this book. I finished it in a week because it was hard to put down. It is a bleak story and yet it grabs you and won't let you go. There are many dimensions to the book. In Zola's mind, it was first and foremost a novel about the struggle between labor and capital. The introduction states that it was not a factual account ,especially for that time period, it may have been more reflective of an earlier time. That being said, though, it captures the extreme difficulty of people's lives and tries to grapple with the question of justice. The struggle for justice is with us now and shows no signs of going away anytime soon if ever. In that sense, it's a timeless story.

Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac

This novel is set in Paris after the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of a modified monarchy. The time period is often referred to as the July Monarchy. It was a time of unbridled greed and corruption as well as opportunity as a wealthy merchant class continued to consolidate money and political power. Cousin Bette tells the story of a family, the Hulots, who are led down a path of dissolution to ultimate ruin both finacially and morally. The key figure in this downward spiral is the patriarch Henri Hurlot. Cousin Bette (for whom the novel is titled) is a poor relation to this family. She has been thwarted in life by the more well-off members of the extended family and when her young protegee is seduced away she is filled with hatred and longs for revenge. Alors, the plot is woven from this premise. The novel is filled with characters because it is part of a larger piece of work called The Human Comedy in which characters have repeated appearances. This is considered an important innovation on the part of Balzac. The novel is lively and easy to read, seeming more modern than its' publishing year (1846) would indicate. It is loaded with witty sayings and moves quickly. It portrays people being both despicable and surprisingly kind but deceit and betrayal rule the day. I actually found a lot of the depiction of debt and corrupt banking practices to be very timely. It has inspired me to read more of Balzac.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins

I've wanted to read A Woman in White for a long time but couldn't get my hands on it so I read The Moonstone instead. It starts out with a backstory of how the stone was stolen from an Indian shrine by a despicable British officer. The story proceeds to its' contemporary time and the stone (which has a curse on it) is being given to a young woman as a birthday present. Almost immediately the stone is stolen and the young woman acts very strange and suspicious about it's disappearance. A well-known policeman is called in and he proceeds to build a case against the young woman and another young woman who is a servant but has in the past been a thief. The story is told from different viewpoints like a compilation of statements so of course the reader never gets the larger picture. There's a couple of red herrings to cloud the identity of the true thief but finally (after 400 pages) the mystery is solved and young lovers reunited. The Moonstone is never recovered by the young woman or her family but makes it's way back to it's true place. I thought it was an OK story, there were some clever twists in the story but I found a lot of it kind of slow going. It was not as suspenseful and I would have thought. Also, there was something about the language that seemed forced or overly formal.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

If you want to experience reading James in a shorter version than The Golden Bowl, this is the place to start. This novella is just under a 100 pages and demonstrates very well James' psychological style. It is supposedly a ghost story involving a governess and her two charges. A young woman is hired to be a governess for two orphaned children on a remote estate. She is hired with the proviso that she not bother the children's guardian, their uncle, with any problems or even questions. He wants nothing to do with the children. The young woman arrives at the estate and at first everything seems fine, in fact, more than fine. The girl is living at the estate and is lovely. The boy arrives not too much later under a dark cloud. He has been sent away from the boarding school where he was for unspecified problems. There is also a housekeeper who has been a witness to the previous governess and testifies to her poor character and her subsequent death. It's also suggested that the previous governess has a very unwholesome relationship with a male servant , who has also expired, and that the two of them practiced inappropriate if not downright evil conduct with the two children. The new governess begins to experience hauntings by the deceased governess and servant. No one elso ever sees the "ghosts", although it's implied that the children see them yet refuse to admit that they do. This has lead some critics to point out that the story is really about the governess' hallucinations or hysteria. I think I take the position that it really is just a ghost story but one where very little happens because everything, including the reader, becomes internalized. The reader plays a very large role in making this story scary since details are skimpy and one must imagine the horrors. I think that's one of the most important points to the story. The Turn of the Screw refers to ratcheting it up a bit more or one more turn. It's an interesting exercise but ultimately disappointing if your looking for a ripping good yarn because there's never an explanation of what's really going on.

Hound of the Baskervilles and A Study in Scarlet by A. Conan Doyle

I'm a big Sherlock Holmes fan and have read these in the very distant past but this reading was out loud to my daughter (who is 13). I'd forgotten how well-written they are and very entertaining. These are both novellas but much longer than the usual short story form the Holmes stories take, probably around 150 pages. Of course, The Hound of the Baskervilles is very famous, having been made into movies and TV shows repeatedly. In fact, we have been watching Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes made in the 80's rerun on PBS. The Hound is very suspenseful and atmospheric, taking place out on the godforsaken moors with the remains of prehistoric dwellings. It concerns the mysterious death of a wealthy lord and the subsequent heir who comes from America to take over the title and holdings. The Baskerville hound refers to an ancient curse that the family will be pursued by a hound from hell for past wrong-doings. Holmes and Watson get involved when strange and potentially dangerous things start happening to the new Lord Baskerville. I won't give away the plot but there are several red herrings and the evildoer is finally unmasked and suffers a horrible fate. It's really a great yarn and very well written. There is interesting commentary on the moor and swamp within it that add a creepy, dark and stormy tone to the story. My daughter, who would probably not read this on her own mostly because of the 19th century writing, was quite engaged.

Similar comments on A Study in Scarlet as on The Hound. A Study in Scarlet has a little bit of a slow start but then moves into the backstory of the Mormons settling in Utah. I'd completely forgotten about that whole angle and it was fascinating. Holmes and Watson must get to the bottom of a couple of bizarre murders in London. It turns out that they cannot be solved until they discover the history of abuse in Utah that gives rise to the revenge killings. It is an interesting twist to the tale that grabs the reader. Again, my daughter quite enjoyed it.

Bosnian Chronicle by Ivo Andric

This is my 3rd book for the classic challenge. This is a book and author I was totally unfamiliar with but found very intriguing. It's not a true classic in the sense that it's not 19th century but I'm using my discretionary powers. Ivo Andric is a well-known Yugoslavian writer and before WWII served in the government and diplomatic corps. When Germany invaded Yugoslavia, he lived under house arrest in Belgrade and it was during this time that he wrote the trilogy to which Bosnian Chronicle belongs. The other 2 titles are The Bridge on the Drina and Miss. The 3 books were published in 1945 and made Andric a dominant figure in Yugoslav literature. In 1961, Andric was awarded the Nobel Prize for portraying the humanity and history of his country.

This book is set in Bosnia while still under Ottoman rule and during the Napoleonic era. It's told from the point of view of many characters but primarily from the point of view of the French Consul at that time posted in Travnik ( Andric's birthplace). It's thought that Andric gained access, in Paris, to the actual letters written by the French Consul to his superiors and became inspired to write this story. So the book might revolve around the French Consul but it also delves into the stories of the Austrian Consul, the reigningVizier, the various groups, ethnic and/or religious that constitute the people of Bosnia, as well as the Court of the Sultan. It's not a pretty story because there's many contending forces and people cannot or refuse to have much understanding of each other. Overlaid on this examination of Bosnian society or underpinning it is the difficult history of this part of the world. It has been a geographic crossroads of East and West and has suffered tremendous upheaval and violence as a result. That seems to be (and many reviewers agree) the point of the novel. I think the modern coming apart of Yugoslavia illustrates this very point; that this an area which has been ground down over a millenium and yet the people have endured. This endurance has sometimes come at a high price but you could say that about a lot of situations.

I found the writing straightforward and yet lyrical. The author has great feeling for the land itself as well as the people who inhabit the land. He also has a great feel for the out of place, the foreign, even the misfit, and how they suffer and gradually adapt to their surroundings even to the point of being unaware of their adaptation. The book spans the time of the arrival of the French Consul to the leaving of the French Consul, about 7 years. During that time, there's great changes in Europe but in Travnik things are more circular than linear and maybe that's the point. What looks like linear change, i.e. moving into the future in France, is more of the same in Travnik. Let's hope that the countries that constituted Yugoslavia can finally put the past behind them and move into a brighter future.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

This has been on my reading list for some time and I've finally been able to finish it as book 2 for the Classic Challenge. It's been difficult in the past to get through the first 150 pages but I found a different translation and I think that made it easier to read. The Brothers Karamazov is a deeply psychological novel and very modern for that reason. The brothers are 3 brothers, the older is a half-brother, sons of a neglectful father. The father Karamazov is what we might call in modern psychological terms a narcissist. He's concerned only with himself and pleasure. The elder son, Dimitri, is a lot like him but still capable of feelings for other people. The second son Ivan is closed off emotionally, highly intelligent, a man of reason. The youngest son Alyosha, is deeply spiritual and kind. He follows the teachings of a mystic monk and tries his best to help whenever possible. The author viewed Alyosha as the hero of the book. The story unfolds around a love triangle between Dimitri, his father, and a beautiful but troubled woman Grushenka. Within this story of sexual jealousy and male competition, Dostoevsky explores the themes most important to him i.e. the existence of God, man's belief or non belief in God. the nature of human suffering, punishment, and redemption. In other words, he covers a lot of ground! About halfway through the book, the father Karmazov is murdered and a large amount of money is stolen. The rest of the book continues with it's fundamental themes but now it is also a murder mystery and a courtroom drama. I think what makes the book so powerful besides it's concern with fundamental questions of existence, is the exploration of the human heart. Dostoevsky is so good at showing how good and bad impulses exist side by side in human beings. Ultimately, his answer is that good cannot triumph without faith and of course that's something that continues to be debated as society tries to chart a secular path with it's ups and downs. This is definitely a book with a lot of ideas, I recommend it.