Tag: book

  • I Don’t Like Writing

    I Don’t Like Writing

    I Don’t Like Writing

    I don’t like writing
    Nevertheless, it is an unavoidable activity for me, such as breathing
    As long as silence talks to me, many impressions crowd into my mind
    Often I stay idle, wondering about random ideas
    But I am not able to rationalise all that is inscrutable
    It is as time shows me life in pictures
    Like a collection of many old miniature paintings
    Some of them are blurred
    And others are very unambiguous
    All those words of mine give only sporadic impressions about myself
    All those poems of mine are only fragments of me
    My poetry is accessible for everyone to read
    My poetry is not trapped in a book
    My poetry is absolutely a wild living thing that breaths
    Hence, I chose the freedom to express myself straightforwardly.
    Esther Racah

  • 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 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 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. 

  • 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. 

  • The 84 Charing Cross Road Book

    The 84 Charing Cross Road Book

    84, Charing Cross Road is the first book on my second list, and it is an epistolary 1970 book by Helene Hanff. It is about her twenty-year correspondence with the English bookseller Frank Doel. 

    The Beginning of a Long Correspondence

    84, Charing Cross Road is an epistolary short book, which is not only about books and literature. It starts on the 5th of October 1949, when Helene writes her first letter to the Marks & Co. antiquarian library in London. She discovers this library because of an advertisement about “antiquarian booksellers”. In her first letter, Miss Hanff describes herself as a “poor writer with an antiquarian taste in books”. Indeed, her tastes did not encounter any match in New York libraries, where the rare editions were expensive, and she found “grimy” the editions at Barnes & Noble. Helene prefers clean secondhand copies of the books she specifies in her letters. Hence, it starts a correspondence between Helene and some employees of the bookshop. In the beginning, the tone of the letters is formal, but things change with the time.

    Informal Letters

    After some time, Helene starts to write about herself and her life. She describes herself as a Jew with a Catholic sister-in-law, a Methodist sister-in-law, different Presbyterian cousins and a Christian Science healer aunt. Helene starts sending to the bookshop other gifts, which consist mainly of food. On December 20, 1949, Frank Doel starts a long-distance epistolary conversation with Helene. Miss Hanff portrays herself as a script-reader and writer working in her small and cold ground-floor apartment in New York. Although she lives in moth-eaten sweaters and wool slacks, she spends her savings in antique books, and she is very fond of British literature. 

    This is how I imagine to be the 84 Charing Cross Road Bookshop in London

    The correspondence continues

    In one letter Cecily, one of the bookshop employees, writes the Yorkshire Pudding recipe for Helene, who immensely appreciates it. In another letter, Helene complains about how America helps Japan and Germany financially, letting England starve. Helene adds to her wishlist also vocal scores such as the Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Handel’s Messiah ( I personally love Bach! ). She keeps sending food parcels to the bookshop because of the food shortage in Britain after the Second World War. The bookshop sends gifts to Helene as well, such as a hand-embroidered Irish linen tablecloth. Another time Frank Doel invites Helene to his and his wife house in her future trip to England. Miss Hanff keeps writing scripts for the television, and her screenplays have artistic backgrounds as she describes in one of her letters. Although Helene doesn’t like fictional novels, she is fond of Jane Austen and her Pride & Prejudice book.  

    The last part of the book

    Helene keeps postponing her trip to Britain due to her precarious financial status. After some time, she gets a new job as a writer of American History dramatisations, and after that, she starts writing a book about the story of his life. Helene expresses herself so informally with the expression “You and your Olde English books! You see how it is, Frankie, you’re the only soul alive who understands me”. The correspondences between Helene and Frank continues until his death, which happened on December 22, 1968. Despite Helene and Frank never met, they were close friends mostly due to their bibliophilia and some affinity. The bookshop Marks & Co. ceased every business on December 1970, and a commemorative round brass plaque was placed on the left of the bookshop entrance. 

    Just a few words

    This lovely book is about the passion for books, literature, music and culture in general. Unfortunately, when Helene visited England, she did not have any chance to see the bookshop, which had been an anchor in her life for twenty years. At that moment she realised the importance to write a book about this story. The book had immediate success, and it became a cult book, which Miss Hanff would define as “my little nothing book”. In 1971, Helene visited Charing Cross Road and the empty shop, besides visiting London and Southern England. She met Nora, Frank Doel’s widow, and the daughter Sheila. Helene never married preferring her own company and not needing a life partner. Since I’ve never been to the UK, I plan a trip in the future as well. Since the age of six, I started learning English, and I have a tremendous English literature passion.

  • My Second List Of Books

    My Second List Of Books

    My second list of books includes twelve novels that I sorted by title. These novels belong to American, British, and German literature.

      1. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff                        84, Charing Cross Road is the first novel in my second list of books84, Charing Cross Road is a 1970 epistolary book and is the first in my second list of books. This novel is about books and English literature and about twenty years of correspondence between the writer Helene, who lived in New York, and her friend Frank Doel from London. Their shared love for books and literature connected them in a long time close friendship.
      2. 1984 by George Orwell   1984 is the second book in my second list of books1984 is a satirical, futuristic, dystopian novel about totalitarianism depriving individuality and freedom. It is the second novel in my second list of books. The year of publication is 1949, and it takes place in a province of the superstate Oceania in the year 1984. The main character is Winston Smith, who dreams about a revolution against the totalitarian Party. 

      3. The Aeronauts: Travels in the Air By James Glaisher                     The Aeronauts is the third novel in my second list of books

        The third novel in my second list of books is The Aeronauts book about extraordinary flights and discoveries. The main character is the scientist James Glaisher, who explored the skies like no one before and the book’s author. A meteorologist and photographer with a passion for hot balloons and sky exploration. A book of discoveries during incredible travels in the air.

      4. Animal Farm by George Orwell                                          Animal Farm is the fourth book in my second list of books

        The fourth book on my list is Animal Farm, which is an allegorical story. It is a dystopian novel by the English author George Orwell, who published it in 1945. The plot is about a group of farm animals, which organises a revolution against irresponsible human farmers. The animals dream about equality, freedom and happiness. 

      5. The Blue Castle by L.M. MontgomeryThe Blue Castle is the fifth novel in my second list of booksThe Blue Castle is the fifth novel in my second list of books, and it is a 1926 novel by the Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. This romance takes place in Canada before the First World War, and the protagonist is Valancy Stirling. She is a single woman who lives unhappily with her distressful family. She escapes from reality, dreaming about a blue castle.
      6. Cranford by Elizabeth GaskellCranford is the sixth novel in my second list of books

        The sixth novel in my second list of books is Cranford, which is a well-known novel. Elizabeth Gaskell published it between 1851 and 1853. The background of this novel is a small English town in the mid-nineteenth century. The protagonists are the two spinster sisters Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, and it is a portrait of a small society of women.

      7. The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton The Custom of the Country is the seventh book in my second list of booksThe seventh book on my list is The Custom of the Country, a 1913 novel and a literary masterwork by the American author Edith Wharton. It is the story of Undine Spragg, a beautiful and ambitious girl. She is a fortune seeker who uses her beauty and charm only to marry a rich man. 

      8. The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith                    The Diary of a Nobody is the eighth novel in my second list of books

        The Diary of a Nobody is an 1892 English comic novel, which describes Charles Pooter’s chronicles daily in a narrow-minded society. It is the eighth novel in my second list of books, and it is a daily diary, which collects the memories of his ordinary middle-class life. 

      9. Effie: The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais by Suzanne Fagence Cooper                                  The ninth book is Effie, which is about the beautiful and intelligent Effie Gray’s adventures a young Scottish socialite living in the Victorian era. She was an extraordinary woman who supported her husband’s career, the Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais.
      10. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim              The Enchanted April is the tenth book in my second list of booksThe Enchanted April is the tenth book in my second list of books. It is a 1922 novel about four women living in England and going to Portofino to spend a holiday in an Italian castle. In Italy, they enjoy an unforgettable period in an enchanting and beautiful place.

      11. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy     

        The eleventh novel in my second list of books is Far from the Madding Crowd

        In my second list of books, the eleventh novel is Far from the Madding Crowd, an 1874 book, the fourth novel of Thomas Hardy and his first success. It takes place in rural Wessex in the 1860s, and the protagonist is Bathsheba Everdene, a farmer. She has an independent and fearless personality. This novel is full of turmoils, tragedies and heartbreak. 

      12. Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe         
        Faust is the twelfth novel in my second list of books

        Faust is a classic German legend about the successful historian Johann Georg Faust, who finds discontent in his life. He makes a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for indefinite knowledge and enjoyment. In the end, Faust will find destruction and redemption. It is the twelfth novel on my list. 

  • The Novel Of Orlando

    The Novel Of Orlando

    Orlando is the last novel in my first list of books. This novel dates back to 1928, and it is the most famous fantasy novel by Virginia Woolf. It is a revolutionary romance because of the unusual subject in that historical period. 

    The Novel of Orlando

    At the beginning of the novel, the main character is an English nobleman, Orlando, a page of Queen Elizabeth I and a poet. Orlando isolates themself in their countryside house after a heartbreak and the queen’s death. During this period, they dedicate their time writing and contemplating nature, life, and death. Subsequently, they become an ambassador in Constantinople before King Charles. In this mysterious period, Orlando becomes a woman, and they go back to England as Lady Orlando. They will live as a woman for the following two centuries. In this period, they marry, and they continue to be a writer. The tale ends up in the year 1928, which is the year of publication of this novel. 

    Time and Death

    Time and death appear to be an obsession for Orlando. Indeed, they enjoy passing years in solitude, writing poetry and reflecting about time and death starting from their isolation period. In this period, their obsession for death and decay is dominant, and time to time, they disconnect from reality and society. At the beginning of the novel, Orlando is a boy who loves nature and solitude. Their favourite place is under an oak tree and after a period of distress in the Elizabethan society, they fall into a mood of melancholy, thinking about death. They meditate about the thin line that separates happiness from melancholy. Orlando is obsessed with death since nothing is everlasting.

    Alnwick Castle, in Alnwick, Northumberland County. 1890 vintage

    Solitude and Poetry

    At the beginning of the second chapter, something mysterious happens to Orlando. After seven days of a deep sleep, they wake up with few memories of their past, and they meditate about the link between nature and death and life. Solitude was their choice, secluding themself in the big house of their fathers. Indeed, they pass their time into the crypt of their ancestors, where they think that even if people are merry and celebrate, one day they will die. Everything turns to dust, and nothing remains of all the illustrious persons. Death and decay are their constant thoughts. Life is not worth living anymore; hence Orlando sinks into a deep sadness. Since they were a child, they developed a passion for books and literature. Mostly now, the young Orlando spends several hours reading books and writing poetry. Before they were twenty-five years old, Orlando wrote forty-seven romantic plays, novels and poems, in English, French and Italian.

    Orlando and Nature

    In this novel, nature appears quite often as background and constant companion of Orlando. Although they are thirty years old, they learned that love, ambition, women and poets are delusory. Dogs and nature are the only trustable things. They always refer to their elkhound and a rose bush. So they seclude themself to avoid the external world, spending all their time reading and writing. Their favourite place is under an oak tree. Years passed, and although time passed, nothing happened. The time of the clock and the time in the mind seem to be different for them. Indeed, the time appeared long as they were thinking for a person of their age, but actions seemed to become short. Their timeline was very long, and it was surprisingly similar to a journey in a desert of vast eternity. The oak tree hideout was their place, where they contemplated about love, friendship and literature. 

    Constantinople Journey 

    Orlando wrote the long poem “The Oak Tree, A Poem”, spending nights and days writing during this indefinitely long isolation. Once they encountered the mysterious Archduchess Harriet Griselda of Finster-Aarhorn and Scandop-Boom from Roumania, a cousin of the queen visiting England. The attentions of Harriet became too obsessive, and her chasing caused the departure of Orlando from England. And so Orlando moves to Constantinople with the title of Ambassador Extraordinary at the service of King Charles. The fantastic novel of Orlando is a biographical novel, and Virginia Woolf plays the role of narrator. Virginia portrays the life of Orlando as a vague mystery. During their Constantinople journey, the Ambassador keeps themself very busy among wax, seals, ribbons, documents and letters. Orlando never loses their charm, beauty and romantic glamour. Although many women and men were adoring and admiring them, Orlando lived a solitary life without friends. 

    The Mysterious Transition

    During their journey in Constantinople, Orlando’s life takes a radical turn. After a long sleep, they wake up as a woman. Even though they become a woman, their nature and personality remained the same. They leave Constantinople, with a gipsy and a donkey; their adventures seem to be more intricate from now. The group of gipsies, who accepted them, noticed the vast cultural discrepancies. Their adoration of the beauty of nature was absurd for the gipsies. Orlando describes fiercely their big house with several rooms, a sign of their wealth and nobility. Virginia Woolf expresses an essential concept in the following lines “No passion is stronger in the breast of man than the desire to make others believe as he believes. Nothing so cuts at the root of his happiness and fills him with rage as the sense that another rate lows the prizes high. It is not love of truth but desire to prevail that sets quarter against quarter and makes parish desire parish’s downfall. Each seeks peace of mind and subserviency rather than the triumph of truth and exaltation of virtue”. Hence Lady Orlando decides to go back to England, where they embrace a new life as a noblewoman. 

    The New Life of Lady Orlando

    The second part of the Orlando novel is about their life as a woman. They go back to their house although now they are a lady in the Victorian period, dividing their time in writing, reading and mundane events. These social events were accessible only to the aristocracy and Orlando when felt a disappointment due to that society’s frivolity and emptiness. Occasionally in their house, they meet the ghosts of notable poets. With the time they lose some illusions to acquire others, and their joy consists in writing. In this period, Orlando meets Archduchess Harriet again, who reveals herself as a man, but they reject the Archduchy proposal for the second time. Finally, Orlando is delighted to be alone and enjoy their solitude. They realise the difference between the two sexes after they start wearing modest and feminine clothes. They believe that clothes become important ornaments, conditioning the mood of the person wearing them. 

    The Two Sides of Orlando

    Since their transition happened, Orlando coexisted different sides of their personality, which were sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine. They were tender-hearted mostly forward animals, and they detested the household activities. They were riding very well and driving several horses at the same time. Sometimes they were crying emotionally for a slight provocation, and they were not fond of mathematics and geography. So their personality was a blend of masculine and feminine impulses. In this novel, Virginia Woolf expresses her perspective about the period during Queen Anne’s reign, considering it splendid and exquisite, even though the society was superficial and worthless. Orlando frequently joined parties of aristocracy and nobility as a proper socialite. In the beginning, they felt great enjoyment, but afterwards, they became disgusted. Society can be pleasing and evil, but it owns a potent essence, which can be intoxicating and addictive. Suddenly the elite becomes tedious and repulsive. Hence Orlando avoids social encounters.

    Illusions and Truth

    Orlando believes that illusions are precious and necessary among all the things in life. Dreams are essential for the soul as much as the atmosphere is vital to the Earth. Lady Orlando lives in a delusional confusion. Sometimes it occurs that they wear their old nobleman clothes embracing their masculine nature from the past. Every night they enjoy wandering outdoor when there are not so many people around. Orlando likes to entertain themself with both the sexes. Their dual nature offers them all kind of experiences and amusements, having relationships with both the genders. Nonetheless, books, literature and poetry remain a big passion in their life. 

    The Nineteenth Century

    The last two chapters take place in the nineteenth century, the period contemporary with the author. A turbulent welter of cloud covers all the city of London. Darkness and confusion are spreading all over. The eighteenth-century ends up, and the nineteenth century begins. The weather changes, and it is rainier. There is a rise of muffins, coffee, artificial flowers, pianofortes and china ornaments. Women’s life target is marriage, and having as many children as possible. Orlando carries their manuscript “The Oak Tree” with them wherever they go. The date on the first page of the script was 1586, and they worked on it for three hundred years. After all these centuries, they realised that they remained the same person. Their personality was unaltered despite their transition. Their meditative side, their love for animals and nature remain immutable, although now there was Queen Victoria instead of Queen Elizabeth. 

    The Last Part of Orlando Novel

    Orlando kept their Elizabethan spirit during the nineteenth century, which is too much antipathetic to their personality. Now they are in complete solitude, and they feel very lonely. They define themself as single, mateless and alone. Although they met several men and women in their life, Orlando concludes that they don’t understand human nature deeply. They realised that it was better to lie in peace, surrounded by nature. And it is in this right moment that they meet their last husband. Indeed, Orlando was previously married to a Spanish dancer and had three sons. Even though they belong to the nobility and they still own their estate, they become poor. Finally, Orlando succeeds to publish their precious manuscript, and they become a famous writer. They win a prize for The Oak Tree poem, which they kept writing years after years with devotion and love. They are a beautiful person, kind to dogs, faithful to friends and very fond of poetry. After all those years of writing, the world seemed the same, considering that also after their death, the course of the events would be immutable. 

    Orlando: A Biography

    This novel is a dedication to Vita Sackville-West, who is represented by Orlando. It is a phantasmagoria of Vita’s life during three centuries. Nigel Nicolson, son of Vita, defined Orlando as “the longest and most charming love letter in literature“. And Vita was delighted with the book. This book is a fictional biography of Orlando, who embodies a non-binary person. Indeed, Their spirituality and intellect define Orlando, not their gender; in fact, what matters is their soul and mind. Solitude, poetry and literature remain the loyal companions of Orlando years after years and century after century. Moreover, the last day in the novel is the first day of 1928, the women’s suffrage in Britain.  

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