Category: Books

I love books and literature, so I decided to open a blog which is all about books. A literary blog is like a personal virtual library. It allows me to express my point of view about my favourite books.

During my childhood, I always enjoyed reading books; hence I’ve become interested in literature. Being an avid reader, I love to write book reviews. At an early age, I started to read books in three languages: Italian, English, and French. And of course, I preferred to read fairy tales by The Brothers Grimm, C. Perrault, H. C. Andersen, and J. Jacobs. Among my favourite fables which I was reading several times, I can list The Frog Prince, The Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, Goldilocks, and the Three Bears.

During my teenage years, my focus moved to novels by Jane Austen, the Brontë Sisters, W. Shakespeare, C. Dickens, A. Pushkin, T. Mann, and other European writers. In general, I’ve always been very interested in English literature. I’ve read books by British authors such as G.Chaucer, W.Shakespeare, J.Austen, Brontë sisters, C.Dickens, and V.Woolf ( to cite some of them ).

One of my purposes is to express my perspective on the book I read. Although I do read in French, and my native language is Italian, I will mainly write reviews about English and American novels, because I’m more acquainted with the English language. I want to show a different side of classic books, which can have a connection with our daily life.

  • The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    The book of Faust by Goethe is a sublime masterpiece of international literature. A literary treasure by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who was a great poet and thinker. It is one of my favourite books and the twelfth novel in my second list of books. The opera consists of two parts, and it is the most extraordinary masterwork of German literature. 

    Goethe’s Philosophy

    In the Faust, Goethe says “He who wishes to examine and describe anything living first does his best to expel the life. Then he has got the dead parts in his hands, but what is wanting is just the spiritual bond”. The philosophy of action is Goethe’s ideology. He believed in action, spontaneity and revelation. As his Iphigenie exclaim “Reflect not! Grant freely, as thou feel’st!”. Goethe used to exclaim “life! action! being! – the living whole, not the dead parts!”. And he defined himself in a letter to his friend Jacobi “does my nature move, that I cannot be satisfied with one single mode of thought. As a poet and artist, I am a polytheist; I am a pantheist as a student of Nature. When I need a god for my personal nature, he also exists for me as a moral and spiritual human being. heaven and earth are such an immense realm that it can only be grasped by the collective intelligence of all intelligent beings.” 

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    Nature And Art In The Book of Faust

    Goethe believed that everything in Nature and Art was merely transitory reflections of the real and eternal. Indeed he claimed that “Alles vergängliche ist nur in Gleichnis”, “all things transitory are but a parable, an allegory of truth and reality”. Regarding his poetry and everything Goethe expressed his opinion as “I have always regarded all that I have produced as merely symbolic, and I did not much care whether what I made were pots or dishes”. Goethe started writing the Faust when he was about twenty-five, and he wrote the last lines a few months before his death when he was eighty-two. Some of his contemporaries gave him the title of “the last of the Heathen”. Moreover, Goethe became the discoverer of the law of the metamorphosis of leaves and flowers, which revolutionised Botany. 

    Goethe And The Renaissance

    The sixteenth-century version of the legend, the oldest one, Faust has a tragic destiny, and there is no salvation for him. Goethe has been considered the last Renaissance man, and from that period he inherited this legend. Indeed, he wrote his sublime and great poem about this ancient myth. The aspiration for perfection by Knowledge was one of the Renaissance’s outcomes, besides the ambition to reach perfection by contemplating the supreme Beauty. Knowledge and Love were a heritage from Aristotle, “the master of whosoever knows“, and Plato, whose doctrine was about the yearnings for Truth, Beauty, Perfect and Eternal. Even though the Faust of Goethe has a noble soul, he is the prey of his lust and magic. Hence he becomes a captive of Mephistopheles, who strive to drag him down into the abyss of despair. However, differently from the old version, the soul of Goethe’s Faust will find redemption. Indeed, Faust always attempts to detach himself from Mephistopheles’s evil influence. 

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    The Old Legend Of Johann Faust

    The Frankfurter Faustbuch

    Johann Faust was a man who lived around 1490-1540, whose high education and magical powers were notorious. He was contemporary of Paracelsus, Luther, Charles V, Henry VIII and Raphael. Different authors wrote about him, but his magic arts’ acknowledgement was diffuse only after his death. The Frankfurter Faustbuch is a 1587 narrative, which provides information about this legendary man. And Goethe this story as the layout for his great poem. The editor of the old Frankfurt Faust book published the book “as a warning to all Christians and sensible people to avoid the terrible example of Doctor Faustus”.

    The Legend Of Johann Faust 

    Johann Faust was born at Roda, a village close to Weimar and his extraordinary talents brought him to study theology at Wittenberg and in Cracow, becoming Doctor of Theology. Faustus also became an Astrologer and a Mathematician. Soon “he took himself eagle’s wings and desired to search out the reasons of all in heaven and on earth.” Hence he devoted his genius in “Zauberei”-magic, performing incantations and summoning the devil in the Spessart Wald, a forest close to Wittenberg. In this legend, a demon appears as a “grey monk” and reaches an agreement with Faust. Faust must renounce Christianity, and at the end of twenty-four years the devil will “have power, rule and dominion over his soul, body, flesh, blood, and possessions, and that for all eternity”; in change, Mephistopheles will serve him. In the old legend, Mephistopheles appears in the guise of a Franciscan monk and his name Mephistophiles comes from the Greek μη φως φιλων, “not loving the light”. 

    Faustus Downfall

    After Faust experienced all the luxuries he wished, he covets to marry, but Mephisto explains that marriage goes against their compact. During his journey in the hell, Faust meets all kinds of gryphons, monsters and spirits. And then, he falls asleep and finds himself on his bed home. “This Historia and recount of what he saw in hell, hath Doctor Faustus himself written down with his hand, and after his death, it was found lying in a sealed book”. Hence Mephisto takes him up to heaven, and Faust sees the Sun and the planets; the earth looks like a “yolk in an egg”.

    Faustus Death 

    Faustus visits different lands and cities, and the third part of the book is related to his aspect of a necromancer. Nonetheless, Faust repents, and Mephisto convinces him to sign another covenant. In the end, Faust dies at midnight, when a storm hits his house, and dreadful hissings spread throughout the house. Faust’s body is torn to pieces, and his soul descended to the abyss of the damnation. And in this way, the original Historia and Magic of Dr Faust end up. Indeed, it was a warning against presumption, arrogance, intellectual curiosity and stubbornness. This admonitory book would oppose against all magic and incantations. 

    Faust Puppet-Play

    Faust puppet-plays “Puppenspiele” were created contemporaneously with the old Faust-book. The Puppenspiele are humorous, and the main character was Kasperle, a buffoon “Hanswurst” similar the Italian Pulcinella, the progenitor of the English “Punch”. Every puppet show was introducing a variation of the original story, blending tragicity with comedy. Goethe saw a Faust-puppenspiel at Frankfurt during his childhood, and when he was twenty, he attended another one in Strassburg, and he would have also read the Faustbuch. Around 1770 Goethe envisioned the drama, which he developed for sixty years and concluded in 1831, some months before his death. 

    The Goethe’s Faust And The “Sturm und Drang”

    Since an early age, Goethe received the influence of the “Sturm und Drang”-“Storm and Stress”, which spread all over Germany affecting every art including literature. In that period there were twenty-nine versions of Faust. Goethe said that his whole poem “necessarily remained a fragment” since Faust’s subject is endless. The second part represents the final achievement of peace and happiness of a human soul. In his book The Faust-Legend and Goethe’s ‘Faust’, H. B. Cotterill wrote that “the second book of Faust by Goethe, is one of the noblest monuments of the human intellect existing in the literature of the world. It is not merely a monument of intellect but poetic imagination, and the Paradiso of Dante and the Second Part of Goethe’s Faust are two of the best, the most infallible, touchstones for discovering whether we really possess what Tennyson calls the “poetic heart”-not a trumpery aesthetic imitation but the genuine article.” 

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe: A Poem As A Fragment 

    Goethe wrote to Schiller about the plan to write his poem: “I expect to make my work at this barbarous composition, this “Fratze” less difficult than you imagine. I shall throw a sop of exorbitant demands rather than try to satisfy them. The whole will always remain a fragment.” The main difference between the old Faust and the Goethe’s version is that the protagonist finds salvation and reaches the “higher spheres” of existence. Faust longings for truth, which can be reachable only through action and feeling, struggling and suffering. He gains purification and strength only after distress and anguish, battling against the evil. The evil forces are a mean of redemption, and Mephistopheles is “an instrument of good”. In the end, Faust finds peace, and he reunites to Gretchen, “whose love his heart has never forgotten”. Her love guides him up to higher spheres. Hence in the Faust of Goethe, the main character is saved from the devils, and he reaches heaven.   

    The Drama In The Book Of The Faust By Goethe

    Faust’s drama takes place in the earth, and Faust is alone in his spiritual battle relying only upon his strength. He will achieve the self-salvation without any help. This concept is in the following lines: “Es irrt der Mensch so lang er strebt” and “Nur rastlos betätigt sich der Mann”, which means that “human nature must ever err as long as it strives, but that true manhood is incessantly striving”. In the book of Faust by Goethe, there is the phantom of the “great Mystery of existence-of Life and Death and Eternity; and that of Knowledge of Good and Evil; and that of Evil itself-a phantom assuming at times such a visible and substantial shape and then dissolving into thin air as mere negation. Hence, Mephistopheles might be the human mind’s shadow, a merge of negativism, cynicism, heartless refinement, ridiculing faith, love, and every fragility of the soul. 

    First Part Of The Book Of Faust By Goethe 

    The Faust by Goethe begins with a Dedication, the Prelude in the theatre, and the Prologue in Heaven. In the Prelude, the scene has as protagonists a poet, a theatrical director and a comedian. In Heaven’s Prologue, the three Archangels’ songs have the sumptuous harmony similar to Bach and Handel’s grand overtures. Hence, Mephistopheles enters, and heaven challenges him to “try his powers” over Faust. Mephistopheles represents the worst aspect of human nature: impudent irreverence and immorality are present in the human soul’s devilish side. In his monologue, Faust decides to renounce to his academic learning and devotes himself to magic. 

    Nature And Genius In The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    Faust feels repulsion and disgust whilst he studies the phenomenal science, and he decides to devote himself to magic, similarly to the Faustus of the old legend. Faust does not summon the devil; Mephistopheles appears in front of Faust. Goethe used magic as an incentive to achieve the perfect knowledge of Nature through the power of genius; the revelation of the universe’s secrets can happen only when there is an affinity between the human Genius and Nature. “Nature and Genius” is the aphorism of Rousseau’s disciples and the Sturm und Drang school. Hence, only when the human spirit is full harmony with the spirit of Nature, She reveals her secrets and mysteries. 

    Faust’s Despair

    Faust is in distress every time he encounters one of his books, charts, and skeletons. As soon as Faust opens his window, he stares at the bright moon and he longings to be “made one with Nature”. Then, he glances over his gloomy cell, and he finds in the book of the mystic astrologer Nostradamus “the cypher of the universe”. Indeed the mystic lines of the cypher move and form a living entity. In this very moment, Faust perceives the Powers of Nature and the harmony of the universe. Nonetheless, this vision doesn’t satisfy Faust, and he exclaims “What wondrous vision! yet a vision only! Where shall I grasp thee, Nature infinite?”. Although the human spirit “has entered into communion with Nature”, it fell into despair after “this vision of inconceivable immensity and infinite diversity”. Moreover, the “incomprehensible infinities of Time and Space” are part of a dazing vision-“a mere phenomenon”, which might be “a projection of our mind”. 

    The Black Poodle

    After dealing with the Macrocosm, Faust drove his attention towards “the spirit of human life and feeling”. Hence, Faust evoked the Earth-spirit, which was the spirit of human life; while talking to the spirit, Faust learned that the human mind could not comprehend “the real nature and meaning of human life”. And at that moment, even though Faust was in deep despair, he defeated the temptation to suicide; indeed, his heart was still yearnings for human life with its pleasures and desires. Faust had to learn to love humanity; therefore, he had to start loving one human heart. Henceforth, he went for a walk with Wagner, his assistant, and a stray black poodle followed them “trailing a flickering phosphorescent gleam”. While “the poodle makes himself at home by the stove in Faust’s study”, Faust is back to his books and his philosophical speculations. It was at this very moment that Mephistopheles appeared to Faust as a “travelling scholar”. 

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe
    Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

    Mephistopheles And Faust

    Mephistopheles introduced himself as “the spirit of negation and a part of that power which always wills evil and always works for good; a part of that darkness which alone existed before the creation of light”. Mephisto wished that the material world would return to chaos and darkness. In the next apparition, Mephisto dressed up with a silky mantle and a hat with cock-feathers. In Faust’s book, Goethe, the compact was for life, and Faust did not summon the devil. Indeed, Mephisto had come to him as if he is part of Faust’s soul. Moreover, Faust is longing to test himself in the “battle of life and passions to test the nobler powers and deeper beliefs; and the yet dim aspirations of his better nature against the powers of evil”. Faust is affected neither by ambitions nor sensual enjoyment. The adventures of Faust and Mephisto started as soon as they fled away through the air. Initially, the escapades will occur in the small world of personal feelings and passions; at last, they will explore the fantastic world of art, politics and humanity. 

    Gretchen And Faust

    During the travels to different locations, Faust encounters several people, and among them, he meets Gretchen, Margarete, who is a young, innocent and beautiful girl. Faust and Gretchen fell in love with each other. Faust is chasing the ideal beauty and eternal truth; he is a human blend of strengths and weaknesses. He is sometimes bold and determined, and in other occasions fearful and hesitant. Indeed Faustus disdains the power of Mephistopheles, and he feels hopeless in the snare of the Devil. Once Faustus falls in Mephistopheles’ trap, whose purpose is to destroy him, he becomes a straightforward victim of his desires. Margaret, Gretchen, is the victim of her temptations whose primary origin is her pure love towards Faustus. Even though she is naive and good-hearted, she is murder her mother unawarely. The potion which she dispenses to her mother, in reality, is a lethal poison; moreover, she murders her child in a moment of folly. Even if she gets the death penalty, she faces the absolution of her sins after death.

    Maria Flint

    In the literary work Das Urbild von Goethes Gretchen by Otto v. Boenigk, the author explains that he found the real Gretchen in the chronicles of the city of Stralsund. Her original name was Maria Flint, and she was a shoemaker’s daughter. A young Swedish soldier seduced her and abandoned her. She remained an orphan before her child’s birth, and she remained alone against the public penance. In despair, she killed her child and fled to a cloister to seek protection. Nevertheless, the town council brought her to prison, and she was sentenced to death by decapitation. In the early morning of October 28, the adventurous young Johann Dycke set Maria free. On December 2, Maria Flint appeared at the prison doors asking to have the sentence executed upon her after a disappearance period. December 20, 1765, was the execution day of Maria Flint with a cold-blooded ceremony.  

    Gretchen In The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    The selfish passion of Faust caused the death of Gretchen’s mother and brother and ruined her. She ended her life in madness and anguish. Indeed she committed infanticide of her child, and she was sent to the scaffold. It is manifest the parallel between Maria Flint and Gretchen. Gretchen is deceived, and she feels tremendous guilt and refuses to flee with Faust when he tries to rescue her from prison. It might be that Goethe heard about this case when he was a student at Leipzig. As Maria, Gretchen has to face the public dishonour, her mother’s death, and her young brother. And while Gretchen sinks in the most profound desperation, Faust has fled with Mephisto. When Faust becomes aware of Gretchen’s imprisonment, he tries to convince her to escape with him away. However, Gretchen is conscious of the atrocity she had committed, she repents, and she receives the salvation from heaven. 

    Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

    The Faust’s Adventures In The First Book By Goethe

    There are two bizarre schenes in Faust’s first book: the Witches’ Kitchen and the Walpurgisnacht. In the Witches’ Kitchen Faust regain his lost youth drinking a weird potion which the Witch serves him. In her kitchen, there is a large brewing cauldron and an eccentric family of monkeys. The apes perform all kinds of shenanigans, and suddenly a great flame appears, and the witch comes down the chimney. She brews the magic potion with a hocus-pocus, and Faust drinks it. Soon Faust and Mephistopheles fly back into the world of humanity. 

    The other scene is the Walpurgisnacht, followed by the “Golden Wedding of Oberon and Titania”, a dream-nightmare-vision where there are fairies, will-o’-the-wisps, weather-cocks, shooting stars, authors, philosophers and artists. The Walpurgisnacht was a great festival which was convened the 1st of May by the ancient Druids. The name comes from Saint Walpurga, an English nun who moved to Germany in the eighth century, and it was associated with the Witches’ Sabbath since the 1st May was consecrated to Walpurga. Mephistopheles takes Faust to a Walpurgisnacht, where there were all kinds of witches, goblins, dancing trees, nodding mountains and “ghoulish shapes and dancing Hexen”. Mephisto and Faust will join the dances as well. 

    Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

    Second Part Of The Book Of Faust By Goethe

    Introduction

    The first part of the book of Faust by Goethe has typical features of the Sturm und Drang period, the Goethe of Werther’s Leiden, of Götz, of Prometheus, of Gretchen; in the second part, there is the Goethe at the ducal court of Weimar and in Italy such Bologna, Rome and the Lago di Garda. In the last act, Faust reconciles to life, finding his inner peace and happiness. Similarly, Goethe rediscovered the joy in his house with his wife and others he loved. The great genius spent the last period of his life devoting himself to scientific and philosophical studies as well “until he seals up the manuscript of his great poem”. Goethe used to say “Regards his life-work as ended and rests in the contemplation of the past”, and a few months later he died. The last words he murmured were “Licht, Mehr Licht!” (Light, more light!). 

    Faust’s New Adventures

    At the end of the first part, Mephistopheles dragged Faust away from Gretchen, who died at the scaffold. At the beginning of the second part of the drama, Faust is “lying on a grassy bank, worn put and attempting to sleep”. Time past since he felt overwhelmed with grief and haste against that evil side of him, which will never leave him. Indeed, Faust is conscious that it is impossible to be free from human nature’s intrinsic wickedness. Faust says “From demons it is, I know, scarcely possible to free oneself. The spiritual bond is too strong to break.” The healing power of Nature is the only way Faust regain new inspiration. And this time he finds himself in a field with the shining golden sun with evanescent elves singing to the tones of Aeolian harps. This bucolic scenario helps Faust to regain new hopes and strength, trying to forget the memories. 

    The Book Of Faust By Goethe
    Image by Jo-B from Pixabay

    Faust At The Emperor’s Court

    Faust moves from the personal world of feeling to the “greater world”, which is the “world of many”, politics, ethics, art, literature and society; in this mundane world where success is the highest ideal. Faust is at the court of a German Kaiser, who has to deal with his Empire’s bankruptcy. Briefly, Mephistopheles proposes an ingenious expedient and the imperial court finds prosperity. The Emperor is so delighted that he holds a masquerade similarly to the Roman Carnival, where all kinds of mythological characters will appear. After the masquerade of classical heroes and heroines, Faust descends to the Mothers-die Mütter, Greek deities residing in the most in-depth universe, at the heart of Nature “beyond the conditions of Time and Space”. Faust brings the “ideal forms” of beauty, Helen of Troy and her lover Paris, to entertain the Emperor. Faust falls in love with Helen and becomes jealous of Paris; hence Faust destroys the vision and ends up in his old room. 

    Helena In The Book Of Faust 

    In Faust’s laboratory, his assistant Wagner created the Homunculus, who guides Faust and Mephistopheles to ancient Greece, where the ideals of art reached the highest realisation. The Homunculus might symbolise the poetic genius or imagination. After several adventures, Helena is a part that Goethe wrote before the second part of Faust’s book. In Helena, there is the aesthetic and spirit of Hellenic literature. The scene takes place in the palace of Menelaus at Sparta. Helen enters the court alone, and suddenly the Phorkyas, a Gordon-like monster, preannounces her that Menelaus plan to sacrifice her. Therefore, Helen escapes to the mountains of Arcadia with her maidens, in the care of Mephisto. And they find themselves before the castle of a bandit-prince, who is Faust, who welcomes Helena as his queen and mistress. Faust, the symbol of Renaissance and modern art, embraces the ideal of Greek art and beauty. It is an allegory of modern art of Dante, Giotto, Raphael, Shakespeare and Goethe, is receiving the heritage of the ideals of Greek sublimity.  

    Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

    Faust and The Ideal State

    Faust and Helen pass “a period of ecstatic bliss”, and they have a son, Euphorion, who disappears in a mist to Hades. Hence, Helen returns to her home in the Empyrean, the residence of the ideal beauty. Faust finds himself in Germany, and he has a new purpose in life, which is doing something good for humanity. Therefore, he founds his ideal state, a kind of luxuriant garden of Eden where happy mortals find a refuge and a home. Faust enjoys the landscape from his castle’s terrace being now an almost hundred years old man. Indeed, he created a fertile land with harbours and canals filled with shipping. However, he becomes upset because two structures don’t belong to him, a peasant’s cottage and a chapel. Mephistopheles destroys both the structures killing the peasants. Faust curses Mephistopheles because he had no intentions of robbery and murder.

    The Death Of Faust

    As midnight comes, Faust is sleepless and restless in the hall of his castle. Unexpectedly, four phantoms, Want, Guilt, Care and Need, approach the court. The four grey sisters chant of clouds, darkness and death. Care intrudes into the castles and breathing in Faust’s face, blinding him. Now Faust lost his sight, and thick darkness fell upon him. In the courtyard, Mephistopheles and a band of horrible Lemurs, dig Faust’s grave. On the edge of his grave, Faust revises his long life; even if he is an old and blind man, he found peace and joy after working for others. He finally realised that true liberty and happiness are acquired only after struggles; “he alone truly possesses and can enjoy who has made a thing his own by earning it”. According to the compact with Mephistopheles, Faust must die, and he sinks lifeless to the ground. The Lemurs lay his body in the open grave, and Mephistopheles rejoices. 

    Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay

    The Salvation Of Faust

    Whilst the demons supervise Faust’s dead body, a celestial glory descends from heaven. Angels sing a song of triumph and salvation pouring heavenly roses, chased off the monsters, leaving Mephistopheles alone. Mephistopheles stands powerless while surrounded by a choir of angels, which gather to themselves Faust’s soul. The poem ends up with the Scene in Heaven with the three great Fathers’ songs, the Pater Ecstaticus, Pater Profundus and Pater Seraphicus. They symbolise the three stages of human aspiration, which are ecstasy, contemplation and seraphic love. Faust’s soul is welcomed by heavenly choirs and the three penitents, the Magdalene, Samaria’s woman and Mary of Egypt. Gretchen ascends to the higher heaven, and Faust’s soul follows her whilst a choir of angels sings words telling “how all things earthly are, but a vision, and how in heaven the imperfect is made perfect and the inconceivable wins attainment, and how that which leads us upward and heavenward is immortal love.”

    Thoughts And References

    There would be so much to say about this sublime opera that it is not enough “a blog post”. The book of Faust by Goethe is complicated and extraordinary; hence there would be much more to add to the analysis I sketched. Indeed, the perspectives of this drama are infinite. The composer Gustav Mahler included the Goethe’s Faust’s closing scene in Part II of his eighth symphony. I’ve read this edition of the book of Faust by Goethe in the Apple Books store. In this edition, I’ve found an interesting book: The Faust-Legend and Goethe’s ‘Faust’, by H. B. Cotterill. It is a lecture about the Faust, which I found very important and explanatory. The Faust-Legend and Goethe’s ‘Faust’ book by H. B. Cotterill is on Lehmanns Media’s website. Another enlightening article is Faust, Albert B. “On the Origin of the Gretchen-Theme in ‘Faust.’” Modern Philology, vol. 20, no. 2, 1922, pp. 181–188. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/433280. 

  • Far From The Madding Crowd Book

    Far From The Madding Crowd Book

    Far From the Madding Crowd book is an 1874 novel by the English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy. It is one of his notable works, and the title comes from a poem by Thomas Gray. The novel’s main character is Bathsheba Everdene, and the events take place in the rural southwest of Victorian England. 

    Far From The Madding Crowd Book countryside
    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    The beginning of Far From the Madding Crowd book

    Far From The Madding Crowd occurs in rural Victorian England. Bathsheba Everdene is an independent and unconventional girl who does not dream about marriage. In different occasions, she had met Gabriel Oak, a shepherd who falls in love with her. Bathsheba inherits the farm of her late uncle, farmer Everdene, who was “a very good-hearted man”. Her parents were “towns-folk”, and they died years ago leaving the girl an orphan. Bathsheba makes the acquaintance of Mr Boldwood, who is a handsome and rich gentleman-farmer. In the past, Bathsheba refused the marriage proposal of Gabriel Oak, believing that he was not quite good enough for her, even though she “rather liked Gabriel”. Although Beersheba is not familiar with a farm’s administration, she gathers all her workers announcing her intention to do her best and help them if they were serving her properly. For Bathsheba being a woman is not a limitation. Indeed she is an agriculturist and the responsible and manager of the entire farm. 

    Far From The Madding Crowd Book countryside
    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    Life in Weatherbury Upper Farm and beyond

    With the time Bathsheba acquires confidence in her business, talking boldly to men. Bathsheba is firm, but not obstinate; in fact, she is flexible and sometimes naive. The beauty of Bathsheba is magnetic and charismatic, and it is manifest even as mistress of a farm and house. Meanwhile, Fanny Robin, who is one of the servants of Bathsheba, secretly went to meet her lover, Sergeant Frank Troy, who is a boaster and poser. The “honest” Frank tricks Fanny, letting her believe that he would marry her when his intentions are merely the ones of a skilful player. The charm of farmer Boldwood struck Bathsheba even if William appears as an indifferent and reserved person. Nevertheless, when he makes her an offer of marriage, initially she refuses because she is not in love with Mr Boldwood.

    Far From The Madding Crowd Book house style
    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    As time passes in Weatherbury

    Weatherbury was immutable in comparison with cities. In Weatherbury, the passing of time was unchangeable, and the ageless life had a sort of staticity. Furthermore, as time passes, different unexpected events occur in the life of Bathsheba Everdene. In a night, Bathsheba runs into Frank Troy, who was wandering in her land. The crafty Frank skillfully knew how to get the attention of Bathsheba. Indeed, he was a master in boasting and deception. Hence, he started to flatter her with compliments and sweetish gallantry, unlike Boldwood, who had never told her she was beautiful. Sergeant Troy was a lier with women and relatively honest with men. For instance, “he could speak of love and think of dinner; call on the husband to look at the wife; be eager to pay and intend to owe”. Although he firmly believed that while interacting with women “the only alternative to flattery was cursing and swearing”. 

    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    The Queen of the Corn-market in love

    Sergeant Troy starts to work as a farmer in the fields of Bathsheba, and they meet on other occasions. Bathsheba is in love with Frank Troy and as strong woman she throws away her strength. For the first time in her life, she embraces a woman’s weakness having discovered the “true” love; hence she is twice as weak as the other women. In a certain way, Bathsheba refuses to control her feelings and behave carefully. The ostentatious charm of Troy is manifest plainly, but his “deformities” are well-hidden. Differently, Oak’s defects cover his virtues. In this moment of apotheosis of love, Bathsheba gets rid of Gabriel and rejects Boldwood’s proposal. She blames herself, believing that “love is misery for women always”. Bathsheba is obstinate in her blind love, firmly being sure that Troy is a good and wildly steady man.

    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    A wedding and a storm

    In Far From the Madding Crowd book, the author often describes the beauty of nature in Weatherbury as seasons change. It is amiable to wander with the imagination in this landscaped novel. In this book, the characters have multifaceted traits on different occasions as the several shades of colour in the countryside’s beautiful nature. Bathsheba and Frank get married, and suddenly Frank assumes the features of the arrogant landlord. When a big storm wrapped the farm in a night, “Love, wife, everything human, seemed small and trifling in such close juxtaposition with an infuriated universe”. That very night, Bathsheba found herself alone with Gabriel. At the same time, “the sky was now filled with an incessant light, frequent repetition melting into complete continuity, as an unbroken sound result from the successive strokes on a gong”. While Gabriel Oak is always supporting Bathsheba in the most adverse moments revealing himself “generous and true”, her husband, Mr Frank, never cared for Bathsheba. That very night he went to sleep being drunk after a hangover.

    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    Bathsheba’s anguish

    Bathsheba finds out the truth about her husband’s past relationship with Fanny Robin. Her despair enhances after Troy’s confession; indeed, he does not consider her as a wife anymore, rejecting her. For the first time in his life, Frank Troy hates himself feeling miserable, and he decides to leave the village. Bathsheba never embraced the idea of marriage, like most women. Indeed, she had married Troy in “a turmoil of anxiety and emotionality”. She had always been an independent girl, and now she regretted to had become “the humbler half of an indifferent matrimonial whole”. With the time, indifference overcame Bathsheba Everdene, who contemplated her fate as a “singular wretch”. Dark were her prospects as her original traits of youth deteriorated in cold indifference. It was like she was waiting for her end, accepting her inexorable fate. 

    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    The madness of Boldwood in Far From The Madding Crowd book

    The obsession of Boldwood over Bathsheba led him to madness at the point of forcing her to promise to marry him. Since William Boldwood makes Bathsheba feel guilty for having “tricked” him, he doesn’t give her a moment of peace. He is pushy in asking her forcibly to marry him. And the guilt inside her pushes Bathsheba to force herself to accept the “proposal”. Also, she is frightened by his madness, and she was “in a very peculiar state of mind, which showed how entirely the soul is a slave of the body”. The blankness and dullness of Boldwood’s life is a significant reason to focus on Bathsheba obsessively, being his mind completely insane. And “his natural manner has always been dark and strange”. His madness reaches its apotheosis when he shoots Frank Troy, who came back after a long disappearance to get his wife back for financial reasons. Both Troy and Boldwood disappear from the life of Bathsheba, leaving her in peaceful freedom. 

    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    The happy end of Far From The Madding Crowd book

    Far From The Madding Crowd is a novel with a happy ending, and it deserves a reading to discover it. Indeed, after a long period of loneliness, Bathsheba starts a new life. This pastoral and historical novel is a tragicomedy. The characters of Boldwood and Troy are somehow caricatural and ridiculous in their tragedy. Even if, at the beginning of the book, Bathsheba is an independent, cheerful and careless girl, her magnetic beauty is the cause of her downfall. She falls in a pit of anguish and despair as soon as she gets involved with Boldwood and Troy. Indeed, Miss Everdene had lost the whimsical feature to become a wise and humble girl with the time. Although the Bathsheba Everdene is a woman who endured abusive relationships, she begins a new life. Even though the novel occurs in the Victorian age, the heroine is an educated and independent girl, who becomes manager and mistress of a big farm at an early age.

    Image by Prawny from Pixabay

    The unusual heroine of Far From The Madding Crowd book

    Bathsheba Everdene is the unusual heroine of a Victorian novel, a powerful and talented woman in the rural Wessex. Thomas Hardy associates her to the Greek goddess Diana, the goddess of the countryside and wilderness. Indeed, in this pastoral tale, Bathsheba is the personification of Diana. She is hardworking, fierce and brilliant. Nevertheless, she falls in a trap when she meets Troy, who deceives her. Bathsheba doesn’t follow the conventional rules of her period. Indeed, she doesn’t want to marry like the other women. Bathsheba desires to pursue the business of her farm. She trades with men, and she is unafraid to inspect the factory alone at night. Even if she is wealthy, she gets up early every morning and fulfils her tasks as a sovereign manager, taking full responsibility of the farm. Thomas Hardy was a feminist in the Victorian age, which represented the “Age of Reform”. I’ve read this digital edition in Apple Books. 

  • The Enchanted April Book

    The Enchanted April Book

    The Enchanted April book is a 1922 fictional novel by Elizabeth Von Arnim. It takes place in 1920 between England and Italy. The main characters are four different English women who organise a holiday in Italy because they want to have a break from their dull life. Elizabeth was a British novelist who was born in Sidney, Australia. This book is the tenth novel in my second list of books

    The Enchanted April takes place in Castello Brown

    The Enchanted April Book

    In the Enchanted April book, the main characters are four English ladies: Mrs Lotty Wilkins, Mrs Rose Arbuthnot, Lady Caroline “Scrap” Dester and Mrs Fisher. All four ladies lived a dull life in the “rainy” Hampstead, and they decided to flee from their families and friends for a period. In particular, Lotty and Rose didn’t enjoy their arid, monotone and cold marital relations. Mrs Wilkins had found an advertisement about a holiday in Castello Brown, an Italian 16th-century castle in Liguria. Lotty was fascinated by the advertising with the following captivating description: “to those who appreciate wisteria and sunshine in a small medieval Italian castle on the shores of the Mediterranean”. Shortly, Lotty Wilkins met Rose in the Woman’s Club in London. In the following days, Lotty and Rose arranged their journey. And they involved two other ladies in sharing the expenses because of their precarious financial situation. 

    The Enchanted April Book Landscape

    The Beginning Of The Italian Journey

    The owner of the mediaeval castle is an Englishman, Mr Briggs, who was living in London. Lady Caroline Dester and Mrs Fisher join the Italian trip. Indeed, both of them are determined in their desire to break for a month away from their families and friends. Caroline is a single beautiful and enchanting socialite, and Mrs Fisher was an elderly widow with memories from the Victorian era. The beginning of this trip to Italy was not as they expected because of the weather. It rained, but the rain was Italian, after all! Indeed the Italian straight rain was far better than the British one! San Salvatore was on the top of a hill. April was the best month to enjoy the Italian weather, and the ladies started their journey among delightful landscapes and nature. Indeed, in the book, there are many descriptions of this beautiful place. 

    The Castle’s Life

    San Salvatore beauty relied even on the small details such as small gardens on different levels. The ladies were attractive and pretty in their bright clothes. Each one of them was pretty different and in particular, Caroline was the most independent one. Scrap spent as much time as she could by herself. She used to seek solitude lying senseless in the sun because she intended to be somewhere away from her family and friends, forgetting everything.  Caroline was committed to meeting the other ladies only on the occasion of the meals. In the beginning, Rose and Lotty enjoy the absence of their husbands. However, with the time they sent invitations to their spouses. Scrap feels the future invasion of those men as a potential danger for her peaceful stay, and she cannot understand the feelings of affection and love. Indeed, during all the journey, she gets more acquainted with Lotty Wilkins whose kindness and goodness is contagious. 

    The Enchanted April book landscape

    Love And Enchantments

    The ladies are not indifferent to this magical place’s effect, and since the first day, their temper and disposition change. Lotty misses her husband, and she pushes Rose to invite her husband as well. The two men don’t miss this occasion, and they accept the invitations of their wives. The amiability and harmony permeate the group of visitors. Mrs Fisher changes her temper and inclination becoming amiable and sweet. Caroline is the last person to surrender to love being used to reject every admirer who fell in love with her. Lady Dester learns to open herself to the emotions and lose her fears of loving and being loved. She finally stops “getting rid of things”. The splendour and the exquisiteness of nature overwhelmed the “blank emptiness” of Caroline’s heart. 

    The Scent Of The Acacias

    The Enchanted April book has a happy ending with the scent of the acacias. The tones of this novel are sweet as the fragrance of the garden flowers which saturated the castle. It is full of beauty and descriptions of the beauty of nature. Flowers and gardens influence human feelings with their beauty and fragrances. In this novel, nature casts a spell on everybody. And everyone is powerless in front of such enchantment. “Indeed, the whole garden dressed gradually towards the end in white pinks and white banksia roses, and the syringe and the Jessamine, and at last the crowing fragrance of the acacias. When, on the first of May, everybody went away, even after they had got to the bottom of the hill and passed through the iron gates out into the village they still could smell the acacias”. This book is a virtual voyage to an enchanting Italy. I’ve read this digital version of the Enchanted April book.

    The Enchanted April Book Scenario

  • The Life Of Effie Gray Millais

    The Life Of Effie Gray Millais

    Effie Gray Millais’s life is the main subject of the book “Effie: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais” by Dr Suzanne Fagence Cooper. It is the ninth book in my second list of readings.

    The country side of Scotland where Effie Gray spent most of her life

    The Life of Effie Gray and John Ruskin

    This book is not a novel but a reconstruction of the life of Euphemia Chalmers Gray. The book starts on the cold morning of Tuesday, 25 April 1854, when Effie escapes her abusive marriage with the art critic John Ruskin. John reserved all his attention on art, not people. He was excessively attached to his parents’ house and his books. Nevertheless, John became a celebrity because of the book Modern Painters. Charlotte Brönte and Elizabeth Barrett Browning were very fond of his book. Effie ran away from an exhausting and unnatural relationship where her husband believed she was inadequate as a future mother. The Ruskin family thought that Effie was a wicked and reckless woman. Until 1857, only the Parliament could grant a divorce in Victorian England. As an ambitious wife, Effie wished to promote her husband’s career. 

    The New Life of Effie

    Effie’s life was challenging because of the oppressive social traditions and her loveless marriage with Mr Ruskin. Sadly, in the Victorian era, women could not vote, own properties, or take legal action against someone. Moreover, a wife had no ownership of her clothes and jewelry. Most women could not leave their marital house even when mistreated and abused, mainly because of the lack of financial support. In case a woman was leaving her husband, he could take her home against her will and might rape her with impunity. After six years of a distressing relationship, the Ecclesiastical Courts decided to annul the marriage because Effie and Mr Ruskin never consummate their relationship. After resting in her parent’s house, Effie married the painter John Everett Millais.

    A Portrait of Effie Gray

    Effie was a beautiful Scottish girl with auburn hair, entertaining and elegant, with many admirers even after her marriage to John Ruskin. Mr Ruskin was not concerned, having lost interest in his wife. Since her youth, Euphemia was attentive to her clothes, taking care of every detail. Effie was a determined woman with an independent spirit. She wrote several letters to her parents with rapid handwriting, giving a glimpse of sixteen years of Victorian life. Effie had witnessed events, but this woman changed the idea of Victorian femininity. She regained control of her life, refusing to bear a physically and emotionally abusive relationship. Euphemia did not fit in the Victorian standard of a fragile woman. Indeed, as a well-educated girl, she was fluent in French, a quick learner, and a piano player. She enjoyed riding and dancing and was far from the delicate Victorian femininity.

    A Portrait Of John Ruskin

    When John met Effie for the first time, she was twelve, and he was fond of her. As she grew up, he appreciated her wit and beauty. Before meeting Effie, John had been fascinated with a young girl “fresh from convent school.” Mr. Ruskin generally loved innocent young girls “on the verge of womanhood.” This side of John could be why he could not consummate his marriage with Effie because she was nineteen then. He found that Effie aging had lost her original good look and considered her too old to be desirable. John Ruskin was a “damaged genius” who elicited admiration from many notorious personages. John captivated Effie’s attention because he was improving her mind with books and pictures. However, during their engagement, John demands Effie learn how to be disciplined, fulfill all his desires, and please him. He asked her to improve her French and study Italian and botany to help him with his research. However, John Ruskin was sensible and passionate about arts, nature, and beauty, even though he ignored Effie’s needs.

    A Portrait Of John Everett Millais

    Everett Millais started his studies at the Royal Academy when he was eleven. He became part of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, which aimed to return to the Quattrocento Italian art. They were not interested in the conventional beauty of Renaissance art, such as the one portrayed in Raphael’s paintings. They wanted to connect to nature; natural details were not missing in Millais’s paintings. He portrayed Effie, focusing on her character strength, determination, and emotional struggle rather than her beauty. In that period, he fell in love with Effie, even though she was still John Ruskin’s wife. Everett knew the secret behind her marriage with Mr Ruskin.

    Effie And Everett Millais

    In 1855, Effie and Everett married, and they had several children living a happy marriage. Starting in 1870, Everett became one of Victorian England’s most prominent and wealthy painters, and Effie managed the social relationships. She supported and encouraged his career, organizing parties where patrons commissioned portraits. Effie was excellent in social life, meeting a lot of actors, nobility, painters, and artists. Nevertheless, her first marriage damaged her reputation. Indeed, even the Queen refused to receive her at Court because most people unfairly considered Effie as the wife of another man still living or a divorced woman. Effie and Everett had eight children. Everett Millais, who belonged to the Pre-Raphaelite artistic group, adopted a looser and hazy brushwork years after marriage. Unlike the other painters, he looked more like a well-dressed and handsome businessman. 

    The Busy Life Of Effie And Everett

    During her marriage with Mr Ruskin, Effie had to pretend the fiction of a “normal” marriage. While she was arranging teas, she was exhausted. On the contrary, she could fulfill her dream of a happily married mother after marrying Everett Millais. Euphemia managed the household, being a brilliant hostess of crowded evenings with international celebrities. She gave birth to eight children, who followed different paths. Even if Everett’s works were in great demand, the Pre-Raphaelites distanced themselves from his art as soon as he married Effie. He became the wealthiest painter, and his art portrayed moods and characters. Unlike the other artists, “Everett did not conform to the image of an artistic rebel.” His acquaintances and friends described him as a “boyish, jolly, straightforward and true Anglosaxon.”

    The Social Life Of Effie And Family Travels 

    Effie had good social communication skills and knew how to negotiate with patrons. In 1877, the Millais family moved to a mansion in Palace Gate, where Everett’s big studio was always full of patrons, friends, nobility, and celebrities. Now, the guests could enjoy his paintings cozily. Behind this beautiful facade, Effie suffered because of her past marriage with Mr Ruskin. Indeed, many people called her “the wife of two men”; hence, Queen Victoria refused to receive her because of Palace protocols. Since Effie was John Ruskin’s wife, she visited Paris and Venice. Furthermore, even after her marriage to Everett, she continued to travel with her children in Europe. Since the mid-1860s, her brothers George and John emigrated to Australia, and her son Evie also went to Australia. Later, one of Effie’s daughters, Mary Millais, sailed for Australia and New Zealand. During her visit to Sidney, Mary could admire one of his father’s paintings, The Captive. Mary’s next trip was to Melbourne, where part of Everett’s family lived.

    The Tower of London, city where the life of Effie Gray changed

    Effie And the Suffragism

    While some of Effie’s children were abroad (Mary in Australia, Geoffroy in Wyoming, and Evie in Paris), she continued to divide her time between her household and Everett’s studio’s management. Meanwhile, her youngest daughter, Tottie, was influenced by Louise Jopling, a great advocate for women’s education. In 1887, Louise founded her art school for girls and signed a petition to let women vote. Suffragists advocated for equal electoral rights to elect a Member of Parliament who would represent their interests. In 1885, the foundation of a ladies’ wing of the Primrose League was established. Moreover, after Everett’s baronetcy, Effie became Dame of the League. Tottie Millais followed the New Women’s movement, a group of young women with high education who lived independently, smoking and wearing masculine clothes. These “Manly Women” with short hair strolled with their dog and a walking stick. Victorian society considered this behavior as transgressive sexuality. However, even after the Matrimonial Causes Act’s approval in 1857, men kept their power in conjugal life.

    The Last Period Of Everett and Effie’s Lives

    Everett used his motto, “Ars Longa, Vita Brevis,” mostly after the death of their son George and their granddaughter Phyllis. Effie had the merit to contribute to transforming a bigot Victorian society. She stood against the conventions, refusing an abusive marriage. She showed how a woman could be in control of her life. Nevertheless, slander and false rumors were against her. Another tragedy happened in their life of Effie the death of her younger sister, Sophie Gray. Several times, Sophie modeled for Everett because of her extraordinary beauty and her patience while modeling. A controversial painting is her 1857 portrait, where Everett emphasized her sensuality and beauty. She died of anorexia and depression. It is not clear what her relationship with Everett Millais was; it could be that Sophie was in love with him. At the age of sixty-six, Effie lost her mother, Sophia Gray, and with age, she became blind with general soreness.

    Westminster Abbey, architecture, England, Gothic church, Gothic style, London, where Effie Gray spent part of her life

    The Deaths Of Everett and Effie Millais

    In 1885, Everett became a baronet; in 1896, he became President of the Royal Academy. Sadly, he had throat cancer, and while he was dying, the Queen finally received Effie as Lady Millais. After Everett’s death, Effie retired with her brother George at Bowerswell, at her late parents’ house. After her eldest son, Evie, died from pneumonia at the age of sixty-nine, in 1897, Lady Effie Millais died of bowel cancer. “Effie: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin, and John Everett Millais” is a beautiful book that gives a perspective of the Victorian era from an artistic and social perspective. I have read the digital edition of this book, and you can also find the audiobook

  • The Diary Of A Nobody

    The Diary Of A Nobody

    The Diary of a Nobody is an 1892 novel by the English authors George and Weedon Grossmith. Initially, George and Weedon Grossmith published humorous articles from the diary for the weekly magazine Punch. The main character is Charles Pooter, who writes a diary about his daily life. It is the eighth novel in my second list of books

    Diary of a Nobody takes place in London

    The Scribbling Diary of a Nobody

    Charles Pooter lives with his wife Caroline in “The Laurels”, a lovely six-room residence in Brickfield Terrace, in the London suburb of Holloway. The Pooters belong to the English middle-class of the late 19th century. Charles works as a clerk in the City of London, and he likes to be at home. His motto is “Home, Sweet Home” and he has an extensive scribbling diary where he records his daily events, reporting both mishaps and happy circumstances. Charles and Carrie have a son, William Lupin Pooter, who is in his twenties. Lupin goes to move with his parents after losing his bank employment. Charles Pooter writes from time to time, sometimes describing every detail of his days. Mr Cummings and Mr Gowing are his dear friends, who frequently visit the Pooters. 

    Life Changes in Diary of a Nobody

    Charles has a conventional and traditional life in accord with his narrow-mindedness. Nevertheless, he is proud of his diary. In his introduction, Charles reveals: “Why should I not publish my diary?  I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see—because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’—why my diary should not be interesting.  My only regret is that I did not commence it when I was a youth.” The unexpected arrival home of Lupin Pooter is a surprise for Charles and Carrie. Lupin is entirely different from his father because he is extravagant, unpredictable, astute and eccentric. He is a member of the Holloway Comedians, and he gets engaged to be married to Daisy Mutlar. Charles helps his son to get a position in the firm of stockbrokers where he works. 

    Happy Ending and Impressions 

    Despite all the efforts to organise a beautiful engagement party, Lupin and Daisy end their relationship. Lupin loses his job at the firm where his father works, and he becomes a good friend of Murray Posh, who is Daisy’s husband. Shortly Lupin becomes very wealthy and moves to Bayswater, close to Daisy and Murray Posh. Additionally, Lupin Pooter gets engaged to be married to Lillie Girl, the sister of Murray Posh. The Diary of a Nobody is a satirical book where the authors describe each character as a caricature. Charles Pooter thinks that his diary would be interesting as a collection of reminiscences and he claims that “It’s the diary that makes the man”. The lower and the lower-middle classes have a frugal life, and they enclose themselves inside their ordinariness. They have quite a rejection for everything which is outside their conservative stereotypes, classifications and indoctrination. 

    Some Thoughts

    I suggest reading this book, especially in this stressful and alienating period. It is a humorous, funny and satirical book. A predecessor of bloggers portrays the suburban life of the middle-class in the late Victorian era. At the dinner of the influential Mr Franching, Charles meets Mr Huttle, a smart writer, whose opinions are very revolutionary and out-of-the-box. Charles is sure that it is dangerous to be unorthodox, and he rejoices in his “happy medium” and respectable existence. Mr Pooter thinks that there is nothing better than a simple and unsophisticated life to live happily. He is happy because he is not ambitious, and he never steps out of his comfort zone. The “nobodies” become “somebodies” just because they believe in themselves. I’ve read this digital version from Barnes & Noble’s digital library. As Sir William Schwenck Gilbert wrote in The Gondoliers “When everyone is somebody, then no one’s anybody.” 

  • The Custom Of The Country

    The Custom Of The Country

    The Custom Of The Country by Edith Wharton is a 1913 American novel. The unusual main character of this story is Undine Spragg. She is a girl from the Midwest who wants to belong to the New York high society. It is a tragicomic romance consisting of five books, and it is the seventh book in my second list of books.

    New York septedecies

    The Beginning Of The Custom Of The Country

    Undine Spragg is a narcissist and greedy girl who moves to New York with her parents. They come from the fictional midwestern city Apex, and Undine plans to improve her social life in the big city. The Spraggs find accommodation in a Stentorian suite, which is a sumptuous hotel on the West Side. They are rich but unhappy and bored. While Mr Spragg seeks social life in the hotel bar, Mrs Spragg leads a dull and inactive life indoor. Previously, while in Apex, Undine had been secretly married to Elmer Moffatt, a vulgar and stout ambitious man; nevertheless, they divorced. Hence Undine intends to marry a rich and aristocratic man to improve her socioeconomic conditions. In her life, she always got what she wanted, being her parents very amenable. Miss Spragg is stunning with her black brows and reddish-tawny hair, and she has a very bright complexion. 

    Old aerial view of New York. By Charles Hart. Publ. Joseph Koeher, New York, 1905

    The Social Life Of Undine In New York

    Since her childhood, Undine was fond of dressing up, and her passion for fashion was beyond every imagination. In her room, she practised pantomimes secretly to be ready for her social encounters. Undine employs all her time and attention to buy fancy and elegant dresses because she always wants to impress others with her beauty. Indeed she doesn’t miss joining any dinner which takes place in the New York high society. Undine doesn’t read any book, and she finds her amusement only in frivolity and superficial encounters. The most important thing is to be beautiful with a different exquisite dress for each social meeting and draw attention to herself. She loses her temper every time she cannot get what she wants. She knows how to manipulate her parents and in particular, her father to get always money and gifts. After different meetings, Undine gets engaged to Ralph Marvell who belongs to the old Dagonet family. 

    Old aerial view of New York. By John Bachmann and George Schlegel. Publ. Tamsen & Dethlefs New York, 1874

    The Second Marriage Of Undine

    Undine marries Ralph only because she wants to be part of a wealthy and prestigious New York family. During the marriage, she realises how poor is her husband, who writes poetry and gets some money from his family. The couple receives financial supports from Mr Spragg, who has to work hard to cover all their expenses. In The Custom Of The Country, Undine recurrently finds herself in financial deficits due to her extravagant lifestyle. Since their honeymoon, Undine detaches herself from Ralph because of unreconcilable incompatibilities. She always spends more time with her lover, Peter Van Degen, a married man with a playboy reputation. After the Marvells go back to New York, they have a child, Paul Marvell. Since the beginning, Undine estranges from Ralph and her child, not caring about them. In this period she plans her evasion to Paris to force her husband to divorce, leaving the child’s care to Ralph.  

    Notre Dame de Paris

    The New Life Of Undine In Paris

    Once in Paris, Undine lives like a single woman, and she stops the exchange of correspondence with her husband. Mrs Undine Marvell frequents the Parisian high society and continues her relationship with Peter Van Degen. After that, she captures the Marquis Raymond de Chelles’ attention, who falls in love with her. Undine and the French aristocratic marry, after her previous husband, Ralph Marvell, suicides, leaving her a widow. The suicide of Ralph Marvell is a desperate act due to the continuous pressures and blackmails of Undine, who got custody of her son. In reality, Undine wanted to receive a significant amount of money from Ralph and get her previous marriage annulment. Undine manipulates people to get what she desires, considering people like “things”. She doesn’t love anyone, but herself; and she cares only about herself. Undine Spragg has an obsession for dressing up, and she is determined to maintain her luxurious standard of living. 

    Place de l'Europe

    The Fourth Marriage Of Undine

    The secluded life of Undine with her French husband, the Marquis de Chelles, in a small town, becomes overwhelming. Indeed Raymond is very jealous of her and controls every movement of her not allowing his wife to frequent her old friends in Paris.  He is not as rich as she thought, and with the time their relationship becomes formal; they avoid each other as much as possible. In this period, Undine meets her first husband, Elmer Moffatt again, and their passion also resurfaces because he became a wealthy businessman. In the same way that she acted with Ralph Marvell (fleeing away), Undine runs away with Elmer. Once they are back to New York, they marry the same day Undine get divorced from her former husband. Elmer becomes one of the richest men of America, and the couple moves to Paris. They own luxurious apartments, authentic precious artworks, jewels, and exquisite furniture. They live both in Paris and New York. 

    Luxembourg palace

    The End Of The Custom Of The Country

    Paul Marvell never sees his mother, who doesn’t love him. Undine never dedicates time to her son because she is busy wearing exquisite dresses and royal jewellery like the necklace and tiara of rubies belonging to Queen Marie Antoinette. Undine is never happy thinking that she did not accomplish enough in her life. She is an extremely wealthy wife of a billionaire who showers her with million-dollar gifts. Nevertheless, at the end of the book, she complains with her husband about her impossibility to become ambassadress since she is divorced. 

    “She burst into an angry laugh, and the blood flamed up into her face. “I never heard of anything so insulting!” she cried as if the rule had been invented to humiliate her. There was a noise of motors backing and advancing in the court, and she heard the first voices on the stairs. She turned to give herself a last look in the glass, saw the blaze of her rubies, the glitter of her hair, and remembered the brilliant names on her list. But under all the dazzle, a tiny black cloud remained. She had learned that there was something she could never get, something that neither beauty nor influence nor millions could ever buy for her. She could never be an Ambassador’s wife; as she advanced to welcome her first guests, she said to herself that it was the one part she was made for”. 

    Marie Antoinette And Undine

    In The Custom Of The Country, there is a similarity between Undine and Queen Marie Antoinette. At the beginning of the book, there is an oval portrait of the French queen on the Spraggs hotel suite’s wall. In the last pages, Undine receives a necklace and tiara of “pigeon blood” rubies from her fourth husband Elmer Moffatt; this jewellery belonged to Queen Marie Antoinette. As the French queen, Undine is capricious, indifferent to the other’s needs and narcissist. Mrs Spragg is exceptionally ambitious in raising to a higher social-economic rank, and she uses people to get there. Undine doesn’t love anyone but herself, and her reflection hypnotises herself on the mirrors; indeed, Mrs Undine Moffatt cannot stop to admire herself. And she employs all her fortune in new clothes being a prisoner in her golden cage. Frivolity and greed devour her.

    Thoughts About The Custom Of The Country

    In the society of The Custom Of the Country, women can’t be independent, and they have to get married to improve their social-economic life. It is a patriarchal society where there are prejudices against a divorced woman and every anti-conformist behaviour. Women can become rich only through marriage, and men dominate the business and political world. Marriage is the only business that women can manage. Marriage, reputation, wealth and social rank distinguish people. Undine reminds me of Rebecca Sharp’s character in Vanity Fair by the British author William Makepeace Thackeray. They both are greedy and selfish anti-heroines. Undine Spragg traits remain unaltered through the several events of her social career. She never discourages, and she is a metaphor of the insatiable greed of the materialistic society; a society where hypocrisy, customs and conventions replace the moral values. The customs of the countries are the cornerstones of both the American and French communities. 

  • Cranford By Elizabeth Gaskell

    Cranford By Elizabeth Gaskell

    Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell is an 1853 British novel, and it is the most renowned of this British author. This book consists of sixteen chapters, and it is the sixth novel in my second list of books. Between 1851 and 1853 Elizabeth Gaskell published the story in eight issues in the magazine Household Words. Charles Dickens was the editor in chief of this English magazine, besides being an extraordinary writer. Dickens was also a reporter and an editor. (If you are curious about Charles Dickens, I wrote three articles about the first, the second and the third book of his extraordinary novel A Tale of Two Cities). The plot of Cranford takes place in a small town in Victorian England. 

    The Book Of Cranford By Elizabeth Gaskell

    Cranford is a small town where a group of women leads a quiet life. They know all about each other’s lives, although they don’t pay too much attention to others’ opinions. Each woman keeps her individuality or eccentricity, nevertheless in this little town “good-will reign among them”. Time to time, there is some altercation, but all return to a natural peace and calm. They wear ordinary and suitable dresses, not caring about fashion rules. Regulations rule all the visits and calls, which the ladies sometimes organise. Most of the Cranford families’ standard of living is lowly, and it is forbidden to talk about poverty and money. The people of Cranford try to ignore all the life flaws due to their poverty. Expensive food and drinks are considered vulgar and ostentatious. Frugal and inexpensive lifestyle is an elegant way of living, which satisfies this quiet and humble community. 

    A Pretty Quiet Novel 

    This novel is not a real romance or poetry. There are no heroes, and everything is pretty quiet. No rich and wicked people are present in the book. And the poor is no extraordinary at all since the crowd of Cranford includes ordinary and regular persons. Cranford is a small country town with a torporific ambience. The main characters are old “gentlewomen of limited incomes”. Among them, there is Matilda Matty Jenkyns, who is the daughter of a deceased rector. The mise en scene is indoor, where the gentlewomen organise meetings to take the tea and talk about everything. It is a book about ordinary people experiencing common circumstances in their life. The realism of Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell is evident in the homely details of those ladies’ daily lives.

    A Country-Town Life 

    In Cranford, there is a particular art of telling a story. Although neither poetry nor passions are present in this household novel, humour and fun don’t miss. In the beginning, the picturesque chronicles of a “country-town life” were under Household Words. It is the humoristic description of life sketches in a small country town. Madame George Sand expressed her opinion regarding Elizabeth Gaskell, claiming that “Mrs Gaskell has done what other female writers nor I in France can accomplish – she has written novels which excite the deepest interest in men of the world, and which every girl will be the better for reading.” Elizabeth was a hearted and kind person, and she was familiar with her poorer neighbours. Her interactions with the poor gave her an inside vision of the lower, middle and working classes, which influenced her writings. I suggest you read this book to get a different perspective on British literature. I’ve read this edition of Cranford on Apple Books. 

  • The Blue Castle

    The Blue Castle

    The Blue Castle is a 1926 novel by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is a fictional story, which takes place in the Muskoka region of Ontario in Canada. This novel is the fifth book in my second list of books

    The Dreadful Life Of Valancy

    The first part of this fantasy is pretty sad and dull. Valancy Stirling, who is the main character of this story, lives a segregated and lifeless life. A life, which is full of anguishes, abuses and repression. She lives in an ugly red brick house on Elm Street, with her dreadful and abusive family, which control her assiduously. Indeed, Valancy is not free to take a walk whenever she wishes. She has to keep the many rules of her family, such as attending the three meals regularly at the same hours and not sneezing at all. She has to be a submissive and docile girl. Valancy is twenty-nine and, her family and acquaintances consider her a hopeless and insignificant spinster. They love to humiliate her and abuse her unassertive nature. Hence Miss Stirling flees to her imaginary blue castle by night.

    The Blue Castle

    The Fairy Tale of The Blue Castle

    Valancy tries to preserve her sanity, pretending to live a virtual life in her beautiful blue castle. A castle with its turrets and banners on a pine-clad mountain in an unknown land. Everything is gorgeous and exquisite in her blue castle. Handsome knights court her because she is the most beautiful and lovely dame of the castle. No man pays attention to her in her real-life, and everyone mocks her for being an old, lonely and undesired maid. Valancy is “insignificant-looking” with her always short and thin black hair. In the book, Miss Stirling appears as small and slender with a pale complexion. She found refuge in her lovely and exquisite hideout during her colourless life, where she identified herself as a twenty-five-year-old girl. Valancy Stirling closed herself in her small hideous room during the nights and fled to her dreamy castle. Since her family never allowed Valancy to read novels, she found comfort in the nature books by John Foster, which were all about woods, birds and bugs.

    The Blue Castle

    The End Of The Anguishes

    Valancy’s life’s anguishes endure up to the day she finds out that she will die because of angina pectoris. At this very moment, she realises that “Fear is the original sin. Almost all the evil in the world has its origin because someone is afraid of something. It is a cold, slimy serpent coiling about you. It is horrible to live with fear, and it is of all things degrading”, as John Foster wrote in one of his books. She understands that her submissive “well-behaviour” is due to her fears. All her life, she has been trapped inside her fears to disappoint her family. She allowed her old dismays to overwhelm her, leading an unhappy and miserable life. So Valancy decides to start a new life with unapologetic behaviour, not anymore afraid to disappoint her family. She begins to behave as she wishes, and she expresses her real and unfiltered thoughts as they are in her mind. 

    Retro style photo of old castle

    Valancy And Her Real Blue Castle

    Valancy decides to look for her blue castle. In reality, she goes to keep house for Roaring Abel Gay because of his dying daughter. Mr Gay has a bad reputation for being an alcoholic, and Valancy’s decision is a disgrace for the Stirlings. Even though Valancy works hard and takes care of the moribund Cecily “Cissy” Gay, she finds happiness and freedom, far away from her dreadful Stirling clan. Valancy is acquainted with Barney Snaith, who is well-known as a criminal living as a hermit on his island. She discovers that Barney is a gentleman, a very kind person, and falls in love with him. Therefore, Valancy askes Barney to be her husband because she is going to die soon. After they get married, Valancy lives with Barney on his island, where his house is amazingly similar to her blue castle. Barney hides his identity because, in reality, he is a millionaire and the famous writer John Foster. They love each other candidly, and they enjoy spending time together and travelling. It is a romantic and happy ending story where you will find the Muskoka region’s exquisite nature description. 

    Reflections

    I enjoyed reading this book. It kept me distracted and engaged. I have to confess that in the beginning, I found it an unfortunate and depressing book. Nevertheless, after some chapter, I changed my mind, and I loved it. It indeed is a classic love story, which sometimes can help cheer yourself up, even though the patriarchal beliefs are present in this book. The heroine Valancy, has to be rescued by her charming prince Barney to improve her life. And also in this novel, every woman’s success is to marry a rich gentleman; indeed, without marriage, Valancy was continuing leading her sorrowful life with her dreadful family. Valancy prefers to have a short happy life rather than a long-lifeless existence, which is overflowing with enslavement and fear. She is delighted with her husband, having found the happiness she was seeking. Like a real princess of a fairy tale, Valancy preserves her integrity and pureness. She remains pure, honest and virtuous inside herself. I had read this digital edition in the Apple Book Store. 

  • Animal Farm By George Orwell

    Animal Farm By George Orwell

    Animal Farm by George Orwell is a 1945 short allegorical novel. It is about the rebellion of a group of animals on a farm. They want to rebel because of the oppression and abuses perpetrated by their farmers. 

    The Unusual Animal Farm by George Orwell

    Animal Farm by George Orwell is the fourth novel of my second list of books. It is a fiction and phantasmagoric novel, which starts with a nocturnal meeting of all the animals on a farm in England. They organise a rebellion against their farmers, Mr and Mrs Jones. Once they succeed, they happily celebrate. Now the farm goes under the name “Animal Farm”, and they fought against the only creature, the man, who consumes without producing. Once the animals remove their real enemy, they organise their “society” following Animalism’s principles. Their leader is Napoleon, a large and fat Berkshire pig. Napoleon is an allegory of Joseph Stalin, and he stands out for his “reputation for getting his way”. It is the only farm in England to be managed by animals. 

    Animal Farm

    Getting Worse And Worse

    In Animal Farm by George Orwell, the pigs lead the farm, and the other animals are simple workers, which work very hard in extreme conditions and eating a small amount of food. Indeed, the best food is owned by the pigs, which do not work physically with the excuse to be “responsible” of the organisation of the farm. Soon Napoleon becomes the cruel dictator of Animal Farm, and he makes sure that every subordinate animal works hard without complaining. All-day and every day, all the other animals work for the pigs surrounded by their frightening dogs. While the pigs can read and write correctly, the other animals cannot get further than the letter A. The animal prole is exploited by the pigs, which dominate over the other animals to raise the farm production and sell the products to human farmers. 

    Farm animals grazing on meadow. Farm on the background. Hand dra

    Human Pigs 

    Napoleon loves to strike fear and eliminate rebel animals, like a good dictator. At the end of the book, he and his piggy squad start walking on their hind legs, wearing human clothes, smoking, and drinking alcohol. They humanise themselves, adopting the bad habits and customs of the human race. All animals are not equal anymore because “some of them are more equal than others”. The lower animals are more frightened by the pigs rather than human visitors. “Animal Farm” becomes “The Manor Farm” and the pigs become prosperous and powerful. In fact, Napoleon and his pig subalterns planned to replace the previous tyrant’s role from the beginning. The pig dictatorship is more cruel and oppressive than the previous human one. 

    Animal Farm

    Moral Of The Story of Animal Farm by George Orwell

    This novel precedes Nineteen Eighty-Four, where there is a similar thematic. They are allegorical novels about dictatorship, abuse of power, exploitation of humans and animals, and mass slaughter. The ends justify the means. The suppression of free thought and free speech, and the constant intimidation, are the only ways to create an ignorant and docile prole. Indeed, this is how a dictator overuses his power and exploit the population. Animal Farm might be an allegory of Stalinism. The inspiration of the subject comes from the Stalinist purges in Barcelona. During that period George Orwell and his wife risked perishing. Different American publishers rejected Animal Farm, finding it too English and too anti-Soviet. Nevertheless, it was published in August 1945, and it became a great success. 

    Thoughts

    After 75 years, the reality of Animal Farm is still actual and accurate. Everyone should read this book. Unfortunately, even nowadays, there are still fifty dictatorships around the world. There are countries where freedom is replaced by tyranny, terror, genocide, complete control of the mass. Human rights and every form of liberty are abolished. Usually, the rate of unemployed and impoverished people is very high. Persecutions of people because of their religion and ethnicity are typical of dictatorships and the organisation of concentration camps. It is sad and scary that today the young generation is not aware of past crimes and massacres such as the holocaust. Being Jewish, it hurts so much to read that there is a lack of holocaust knowledge among American millennials and Gen Z. To make this planet a better place, there should be a historical awareness. Hence study history is essential for cognitive moral development.

  • The Aeronauts Book

    The Aeronauts Book

    The Aeronauts is a book by James Glaisher, a pioneer of the scientific meteorology. He was an English aeronaut and astronomer during the mid-1800s. He had undoubtedly an adventurous life measuring the atmosphere at different altitudes in a hot air balloon. It is the third novel in my second list of books.

    About the Author

    James Glaisher was one of the founders of the actual Royal Meteorological Society back to the year 1850. He held different roles in several institutions such as the Royal Society, Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Aeronautical Society. Since his childhood, he developed an interest in meteorology, having access to the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. James performed flights up to heights of 11 km above the ground, with twenty-eight ascents with Henry Coxwell, his pilot. He aimed to measure the atmosphere at high altitudes, to get information about the temperature and humidity at different elevations. The Aeronauts edition comes from the 1871 book Travels in the Air, and it is about the aerial journeys of James Glaisher. 

    The dreaming world of the aeronautsThe Aeronauts: Travels in the Air

    As James Glaisher wrote: “There are no frontiers in the reign of thoughts, and the conquests of the human mind belong to all the world, yet each civilised nation is called upon to give its contingent to the great work of the study of nature and to choose those branches which are most suited to its genius”. This book is about the chronicles of his ascents in England, starting from 1862 to 1865. Glaisher describes the beauty of a clear night over London in his several ascents and looking through a telescope a part of the Milky Way. Above the clouds, all seems to be so different. It is a vast continent above the earth; an upper world where there are silence and calm.

    As soon as the elevation increases, the sky has a deep blue colour, and when there is vapour, the colour is an intense Prussian blue. The beauty of the clouds is more notable in an autumn morning before sunrise. In another section of The Aeronauts, Glaisher describes a beautiful and detailed view of London. He could have a distinct glance of several homes, being the city of London visible, including the suburbs. And he portrays the countryside as a garden with well-marked fields, with a complete view of the Thames. The discovery of the balloon is one of the most important inventions in human history. Indeed, the balloon is an instrument that allowed exploring the atmosphere, a natural laboratory so crucial for chemists, meteorologists and physicists. 

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