The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton

Again, this is an author that I should have read before but have not. This is a wonderful book, surprisingly entertaining and quite tragic. It's really a study in social mores of a particular group of New York society in the 1880's or 1890's. The story revolves around a beautiful, from a "good background", but impoverished young woman named Lily Bart. She was raised in luxury and with a sense of entitlement until her father lost his money and subsequently died. She and her mother gradually decline in society until the mother dies too and Lily is taken in by her father's sister who is well off but lives in an extremely proper and parsimonious way. In other words, a very dull place for Lily Bart. To offset this drab home, Lily spends the bulk of her time as a guest in the homes of the wealthy people she recognizes as her social set. She has all the trappings of wealth but is totally dependent on others for her lifestyle. She has a bit of money of her own but she is accustomed to luxury. We come into the story when Lily is 29, she should have been married to a wealthy man long ago but for some reason she has remained single. She is friends with a pair of cousins, Lawrence Selden, a lawyer who is comfortable but far from wealthy, and Gerty Farish, a poor and plain young woman who has reconciled herself to her situation. Lily dreads ever having to "cope" like Gerty Farish does with her "good works" and her penurious existence. Lawrence Selden is an important character. He represents the one who can both move in Lily's world and yet is not truly of that world. He is critical of the shallowness, selfishness, and ignorance of that world yet he can still admire the beauty and comfort that great wealth can obtain. He both loves Lily and is a little repelled by how she lives her life. When she is with Selden, Lily can see the problems with her so-called friends and the empty pleasure-seeking lives they lead. But then, she is addicted to luxury and remains confident that she can snag a rich man. She has some opportunities, but Lily always manages to defeat her own purpose. She comes to blame Selden for making it difficult for her to prostitute herself and yet she loves him for it at the same time. Lily experiences a painful act of betrayal which has devestating consequences for her social standing and at the same time her aunt dies leaving her a relatively small amount of money instead of the bulk of the estate as she had been lead to believe. The is really the beginning of the end for Lily Bart. She sinks lower and lower in the social orders, frequenting groups and places she never would have before and realizes she has been foolish. Gerty Farish remains her friend throughout this time and Selden too but with mixed emotions. As the reader, I want Lily to marry Selden and stabilize her life because they truly care for each other but I know they're both trapped in their social roles and have not the courage to break out of them. Ultimately, Lily is destroyed and Selden is left knowing he failed her. The character of Lily Bart is complex and frustrating. I felt sympathetic towards her and at the same time annoyed. Of course, this story takes place in a particular time period and a 21st century reader must accept that. Highly recommended!

Lives Like Loaded Guns by Lyndall Gordon

This is a new biography of Emily Dickinson that focuses on family rivalries that have affected her publication and her literary personae. It's a fascinating story that revolves on the fact that Emily Dickinson's elder brother , in his 50's, started an affair with a young married woman of the family's acquaintance. This affair was kept secret for a very long time and the papers surrounding it have come to light in more recent times. At the time Austin Dickinson started the affair he recruited his other sister, Lavinia, into helping the lovers. Plus, they met for a long period of time at the home of Emily and Lavinia Dickinson. When Austin's wife, Susan (who was Emily's good friend) confronted Austin, their two children sided with her against him and he essentially disowned them. These are the actions of a man who had been all his life extremely conservative, upright, almost puritanical and a leader of the Amherst community! The woman that Austin became involved with, Mabel Loomis Todd had an agenda of greatness for herself, and although she never actually met Emily Dickinson face to face, she gradually came to believe and to promote to others that she Emily's good friend. Meanwhile, the Dickinson family has become split into two warring camps and a little after a year of the beginning of the affair, Emily dies. She had published maybe 10 poems out of over 1700 she wrote during her lifetime and so the bulk of her work was left unorganized with both Lavinia Dickinson and Susan Dickinson. From that point on there was a vicious struggle over who would claim Emily Dickinson and her poetic legacy. Mabel Loomis Todd used her influence with Austin and Lavinia to become Emily's first editor and to smear Susan Dickinson beyond recognition. Susan Dickinson and her children struggle to keep their relationship and memory of Emily intact. Mabel Loomis Todd does not come out looking good although the author does give her credit for doing a huge amount of work on Emily's poetry and that she recognized Emily's greatness when few did. This struggle between the "two houses" is passed down to the next generation and on even to now through Dickinson scholars. There's many details I've not covered, it reads more like a gothic mystery story than anything else. Fascinating book!

Classic Challenge 2010 WrapUp

The Brothers Karamazov
Raise the Red Lantern
Bosnian Chronicle
The Hound of the Baskervilles
A Study in Scarlet
The Moonstone
Turn of the Screw
Cousin Bette
Germinal

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.