Jane Austen: Persuasion

Persuasion: A+
Anne Elliot & Captain Frederick Wentworth
Historical - British Regency


It would be untrue for me to say that I am a huge fan of Ms. Austen because the only other book of hers that I've read is... yes, you've guessed it: Pride and Prejudice. And while I love Mr. Darcy with all my heart, I couldn't bring myself to read any other of her novels for the same reason I dislike reading classic literature (the whole hard, heavy, dramatic, and stiff issue).

But I seem to have forgotten how delightful Ms. Austen's writing really is. It is witty. It is genuine. And she really speaks of the matters of the heart: real feelings, honest emotions, and humor.

I finished Persuasion over the weekend and I have pretty much made up my mind to go out all her other works (read: massive glommage).

Persuasion in a nutshell would be as follows: Anne and Wentworth ("Wentworth" sounds so much better than "Frederick" to me. hehe..) were young loves, she nineteen and he twenty-three when he proposed to her. Because of Anne's snobbish and utterly idiotic family opposed the match (he was poor and was not of significant social standing), Anne turned Wentworth down.

Heartbroken, betrayed, and angry, Wentworth departed for the navy where he worked up to the prestigious rank of Captain.

Eight years have now passed. Anne is a spinster, living underneath the shadows of her shallow father and older sister. Her younger sister, Mary, has married (a surprise to us all since she is completely whiny and annoying). Anne's father mismanaged his finances and the Elliots are required to move out of their home and put it up for rent. Surprisingly, Wentworth's sister and her husband move in.

And so! Wentworth comes back to town, to stay with his sister... and then! Anne and Wentworth meet again.

With Austen, a happily-ever-after cannot be guaranteed. Her stories, though focused on love and relationships, are not category romances... which makes it even more delicious. Austen realized, two hundred something years ago, that a happily-ever-after is not what is important, it is the love story between the hero and heroine that make the story worthwhile.

I lurve it!

Bottom line: Read!

the pressure

So, I started my little 101 books in 1001 days challenge back in 2008 or so and for some reason far beyond me, I decided to put a bunch of classic, literature books on there. These books, you know - the acclaimed ones like Lolita and War and Peace - are good books... so I've been told. A definite must for a book whore like me.

But as you also know, I dislike reading hard, heavy, dramatic, stiff books. I have enough stress in reality and when I read, I enjoy reading light-hearted, easy books - hence the love of the romance genre.

This was a dilemma; how was I going to read all of the books on my "books to read before I die" list if I don't want to... well... read it?

Ooh yes! Put a whole bunch of those books on my list for a book challenge (where I'd be forced to read it in order to complete the challenge). Yes! I would have to read these delightful books.

Nooooooo!!
Bad, bad idea!

I just realized I now have months - eight? - to read, like, sixty, hard, heavy, dramatic, stiff books.

Like The Iliad and The Great Gatsby (nooooo!) and Crime and Punishment and War and Peace and Lolita...and ... and... curses!!

Not enough time! Not enough time! Getting through one of those honkers will undoubtedly depress, bore, or stress me. I'm hoping only for one of those options per book.

Oh dear.
Wish me luck.

Sophocles: Antigone

Antigone


Let's awkwardly turn to another book that I read last month.

It's not a romance, not a fiction (well, not really), not a non-fiction, not a contemporary, not... many things, it is not, however, it is a book from my 101 books in 1001 days challenge. Hooray! (point for Alice.)

A brief background of the story (this is going to get even more awkward), starting with Oedipus.

Antigone is the daughter and sister of Oedipus, who killed his father and married his mother. It goes like this - Oedipus was fated to kill his father and marry his mother. His father, King Laius, heard and was horrified (rightfully so) and ordered for him to be left to die. His mother, Jocasta, gave him to a servant because she couldn't bear to kill her son, and the servant carried Oedipus to the next county, or kingdom, (or what-not) where he became the adopted son of the king and queen there.

Oedipus is unaware that the parents who raised him are not his biological parents and when he hears of his own fate, he is horrified (rightfully so) and runs away from "home."

While running away, he comes across an old man at a crossroads. They get into a fight and Oedipus kills the old man (aka Laius).

Times passes, and he solves a riddle from the sphinx that has been tormenting his homeland. It's solved, the sphinx is gone, and he wins the prize, which is the hand of the queen of the land, Jocasta.

They marry (ew!) and have four kids (double ew!): Eteocles, Polyneices, Ismene, and our star, Antigone.

Oedipus finds out what he's done, is horrified (duh) and flees the country. He later gouges out his eyes. Jocasta hangs herself.

And Eteocles and Polyneices fight - and kill - each other. Ismene and Antigone are horrified and unhappy (once again, this isn't rocket science).

In Antigone, Jocasta's brother, Creon, is king of the land. He orders Polyneices' body to remained unburied because he was a traitor to the country, however, Antigone desires a proper burial her brother.

Creon has declared anyone who buries Polyneices to be a traitor, a crime that will be harshly punished, but Antigone does it anyway. She is taken before Creon where she argues her point of view and her loyalty to the law of the gods, not to Creon.

She later hangs himself and Haemon, fiance of Antigone and Creon's son, argues with dad. Then he stabs himself. Creon's wife, upon hearing of Haemon's suicide, kills herself as well.

Creon is left, "humbled" and horrified by what has happened (rightfully so).


Not the happiest of stories, this Greek Tragedy was great in that Antigone, who previously seemed an unlikely candidate to be a heroine, proves herself worthy. She is aware of what she does and does not believe in, and most importantly, is able to act in a manner that reflects her beliefs. She is willing to take the consequences of her actions - not shying away from Creon when she is brought before him - and she argues with him (you go girl!).

The cons of this story: written in play form (kind of a pain), almost everyone commits suicide (did someone say Hamlet?), it is full of negativity, and I still don't understand the role of the chorus. I feel like they have more purpose than to provide with background info and current mood. (What's an antistrophe and strophe?)

It was fun to read something besides romance and I enjoyed the story.

101 books 1,001 days

I must be going crazy... but after browsing through several bookaholics's websites, I realize how many challenges there are out there. Who knew?!

I especially liked the '101 books in 1,001 days' one - a twist off of the '101 things to do in 1,001 days' non-book challenge.

This way, I'll decrease the number of books on my TBR - and be committed. (These books are all off of my "To Read Before I Die" list. Can you tell I love lists?)

Alice's 101 books in 1,001 days booklist:

Start: June 2, 2008
End: Feb 28, 2011

1. Margaret George: Memoirs of Cleopatra

2. Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales

3. Francois Rabelais: Pantagruel

4. Charles Dickens: Great Expectations

5. Charles Dickens: A Tale of Two Cities

6. Alexandre Dumas: The Count of Monte Cristo

7. Tom Godwin: The Space Barbarians

8. Gabriel Garcia Marquez: 100 Years of Solitude

9. Anton Chekhov: The Three Sisters

10. Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary

11. Sophacles: Antigone

12. Homer: The Iliad (unabridged)

13. Jane Austen: Sense & Sensibility

14. Jane Austen: Persuasion

15. Margaret Mitchell: Gone With the Wind

16. William Golding: Lord of the Flies

17. Marie de France: Chevrefoil

18. Victor Hugo: Les Miserables

19. Jules Verne: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20. Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace

21. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World

22. Thomas Paine: Common Sense

23. Jonathon Swift: Modest Proposal

24. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Crime & Punishment

25. John Steinbeck: Of Mice & Men

26. “”: East of Eden

27. “”: Tortilla Flats

28. Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita

29. F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

30. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird

31. Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Scarlett Letter

32. Anne Proulx: Shipping News

33. William Faulkner: As I Lay Dying

34. Shakespeare: A Much Ado About Nothing

35. “”: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

36. George Orwell: 1984

37. Franz Lizst: Hungarian Rhapsody

38. Lorraine Hansbury: Raisin in the Sun

39. Joseph Conrad: Heart of Darkness

40. Andrew Jackson: A Century of Dishonesty

41. Elizabeth Gaskell: Wives & Daughters

42. Joseph Heller: Catch-22

43. John Knowles: A Separate Peace

44. Charlotte Bronte: Jane Eyre

45. Ken Kesey: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

46. Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange

47. Alice Walker: The Color Purple

48. Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club

49. Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale

50. “”: The Robber Bride

51. “”: The Blind Assassin

52. Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie

53. James Baldwin: Blues for Mister Charlie

54. Alan Lightman: Einstein’s Dreams

55. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

56. Stephen King: The Shining

57. Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray

58. Ruth Gendel: The Book of Qualities

59. Tim O’Brien: The Things They Carried

60. Melina Marchetta: Looking for Alibrandi

61. Joanne Harris: Chocolat

62. Barbara Ehrerreich: Nickel and Dimed

63. Yann Martel: Life of Pi

64. Ann Patchett: Bel Canto

65. Betty Smith: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

66. S.E. Hinton: The Outsiders

67. Jodi Picoult: My Sister’s Keeper

68. Colleen McCullough: The Thornbirds (Nance)

69. Barbara Taylor Bradford: Woman of Substance (Nance)

70. Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina

71. Elizabeth Vaughan: Warlord

72. Sandra Brown: The Alibi

73. Catherine Anderson: Phantom Waltz

74. Susan Wiggs: The Firebrander

75. Lavyrle Spencer: Home Song

76. Sidney Sheldon: Bloodline

77. Julia Quinn: Minx

78. Glenna McReynolds: The Chalice & the Blade

79. Johanna Lindsey: Love Only Once

80. Jill Marie Landis: Summer Moon

81. Lisa Kleypas: Mine Till Midnight

82. Lisa Kleypas: Again the Magic

83. Joanna Bourne: The Spymaster’s Lady

84. Mary Balogh: Simply Love

85. Linda Berdoll: Mr. Darcy Takes a Wife

86. Janet Chapman: Charming the Highlander

87. Tasha Alexander: And Only to Deceive

88. Jacquelyn Frank: Jacob (Nightwalker’s 1)

89. Catherine Delors: Mistress of the Revolution

90. Jude Deveraux: Sweet Liar

91. Kathleen Escehnburg: Seen By Moonlight

92. Georgette Heyer: Venetia

93. John Milton: Paradise Lost

94. Laura Kinsale: Flowers From the Storm

95. Nalini Singh: Caressed by Ice

96. Thomas Hardy: Return of the Native (Nance)

97. Emily Giffen: Something Blue (Nance)

98. Robin Schone: The Lady’s Tutor

99. Brenda Joyce: Deadly Kisses

100. Judith McNaught: Someone to Watch Over Me

101. Judith Krantz: Princess Daisy