Gods, Graves and Scholars by C. K. Ceram

Gods, Graves, and Scholars by C. W. Ceram 

Published 1949 

Source: ordered from Better World Books for a readalong 

Publisher’s Summary: 

C.W. Ceram visualized archeology as a wonderful combination of high adventure, romance, history and scholarship, and this book, a chronicle of man's search for his past, reads like a dramatic narrative. We travel with Heinrich Schliemann as, defying the ridicule of the learned world, he actually unearths the remains of the ancient city of Troy. We share the excitement of Lord Carnarvon and Howard Carter as they first glimpse the riches of Tutankhamen's tomb, of George Smith when he found the ancient clay tablets that contained the records of the Biblical Flood. We rediscover the ruined splendors of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the wonders of the ancient wold; of Chichen Itza, the abandoned pyramids of the Maya: and the legendary Labyrinth of tile Minotaur in Crete. Here is much of the history of civilization and the stories of the men who rediscovered it. 

My Thoughts: 

This is absolutely one of those books I never would have picked up (heck, I never would have heard of) without someone else’s push. In this case, I read this one as part of a readalong once again proving that, sometimes, peer pressure is not an altogether bad thing. I’ve been reading more and more nonfiction over the years but I’d have to say that the chances of me picking up a book about archeology were slim. It’s not that I didn’t think it was an interesting subject but, like so many nonfiction subjects, I wasn’t aware that there were books that could make it interesting to the layperson. It turns out, there is at least one. 

• I thought I would share some thoughts from our readalong group: 
• “It’s kind of hard to believe it is translated from German and written in 1949. It is easy to read, and full of stories and anecdotes.” 
• “I thought each part of Book 1 was compellingly told, a very well-woven tapestry of the adventure of archaeology, both the intellectual, physical, and financial challenges. I should add the emotional toll of such work, demanding a lifetime of commitment and a zealous interest in the lives and sufferings of people in the past.” 
• “Some of Ceram’s language, especially about those building the pyramids, does seem to betray certain prejudices.” We agreed that Ceram was a “scholar/writer of his time and circumstance.” 
• “I appreciate his dismissal of the fanciful and mystical, in favor or scientific (or at least empirical) evidence.” 
• More than one of us commented on Ceram’s abundant use of exclamation points. Clearly a man who was excited about his subject. 
• The book packs a lot of archeology history into a few hundred pages and, as so often happens with nonfiction, several of us turned to the internet to get more indepth with some of the history and the people Ceram highlighted. It was interesting to see how some of the information in the book has since been refuted as researchers have uncovered new information. 
• There is a lot of historical information in this book that was new to me and more than once I read whole pages to my husband in astonishment. 
• Understanding that this book was written from one man’s perspective on the historical events, nevertheless, I was amazed by the differences between the archeological facts and what I had previously understood to be the truth. And so angered by the destruction of so many sites that had stood for thousands of years for political/religious reasons. 

It should tell you something about this book that it has been published in 30 languages and sold more than 5 million copies and remains in print more than 60 years since it was first published. Ceram himself is an interesting story. C. W. Ceram is, in fact, a pseudonym for Kurt Wilhelm Marek. Marek chose to rebrand himself in an effort to distance himself from his past as a propagandist for the Third Reich. This book is going to remain on my shelves as a resource I will return to which should tell you something about the way I felt about the book, given how rare it is for me to hold on to books I’ve read.

Case Histories by Kate Atkinson

Case Histories (Jackson Brodie Series #1) by Kate Atkinson
Published November 2004 by Little, Brown, and Company
Source: bought this one ??? years ago

Publisher's Summary:
Case One: Olivia Land, youngest and most beloved of the Land girls, goes missing in the night and is never seen again. Thirty years later, two of her surviving sisters unearth a shocking clue to Olivias disappearance among the clutter of their childhood home. . . Case Two: Theo delights in his daughter Lauras wit, effortless beauty, and selfless love. But her first day as an associate in his law firm is also the day when Theos world turns upside down. . . Case Three: Michelle looks around one day and finds herself trapped in a hell of her own making. A very needy baby and a very demanding husband make her every waking moment a reminder that somewhere, somehow, shed made a grave mistake and would spend the rest of her life paying for it--until a fit of rage creates a grisly, bloody escape.

As Private Detective Jackson Brodie investigates all three cases, startling connections and discoveries emerge. Inextricably caught up in his clients grief, joy, and desire, Jackson finds their unshakable need for resolution very much like his own.


My Thoughts:
As you can see above, I've had this one for a  long time. I think I bought it at Borders so that tells you something about how long it's been languishing on my shelf. I finally picked it up as part of a readalong and I'm so glad to have had that push. How silly to have waited so long to find out about Jackson Brodie but how lucky I am to still have the rest of the books in this series to look forward to reading.

Stephen King called this book the "best mystery of the decade." I don't read that many mysteries so I can't laud it to that extent. I'm not sure I've ever read another mystery with so many threads, so many mysteries that Atkinson manages to interweave wonderfully along with Jackson's own personal life and another client who turns out to be pivotal in the book.

As paths begin to cross I started to think I was figuring things out. I wasn't wrong but that was only one of the many mysteries and it turned out to be a little tidbit that Atkinson threw out to us so that we got all cocky and thought we knew everything. We didn't.

One character literally drove off into the sunset and I have a feeling that she's going to show up again later in the series; Atkinson spent way too much time developing her for that to be the end of it. So, if I didn't already want to see what happens next for Jackson (surely he doesn't stay with the woman he was with at the end of this book!), I need to find out what becomes of her. And I can't wait to get to know Jackson's surrounding cast again as well!

Bleak House Readalong - We're Done!

We're done, we're done, we're done! I think my final opinion of Bleak House is going to evolve over time. Right now, I'm honestly a little disappointed. I can't help but think that Dickens thought he was throwing in some great twists at the end but the big things that happened weren't all that surprising. Dickens always leave me with the feeling "and they all lived happily ever after ... except the people that didn't ... live that is."

What I Liked This Week:
Well, being done for one thing. Seriously - I can't believe I've been reading this book for more than two months. You can't help but be happy that Esther found love but you always knew that she would find happiness no matter where she ended up. I was happy that George reconciled with his brother and finally found his place in life.

Not that our little group didn't already hold John Jarndyce in high esteem already but these last chapters have really cemented my impression that he was one of the kindest, most thoughtful characters in literature. Is it terrible to say that I liked that Dickens killed off some of his characters? Well, I did - so much more realistic that way. And once you've read a Dickens' book, you know going in that some of the major players will die so it makes it interesting to guess which ones he'll kill off.

What I Didn't Like This Week:
I know, I know - I just got done saying that I like the fact that Dickens kills off some of his major characters. But Lady Dedlock before Esther and she have any chance to have one last moment together? That's just mean, Charles!

And why did the only characters that died have to be ones that we like? Why couldn't Harold Skimpole (the leech and liar) have been run over by a truck? Okay, I know there weren't trucks yet but you get the picture. Or Mr. Vholes? There's a guy that deserved to be dragged down the street behind a team of runaway horses. Nothing even remotely bad happened to either one of these louses.

It's been tough going, pushing my way through this one even when I really didn't have time to read. But I'm glad to be able to say that I've read Bleak House and I'm thankful to Wallace (The Unputdownables) for being so strict with us so I felt like I had to keep up for fear of being dropped from the group. Now I just need to find a group that wants to tackle Little Dorrit!

Bleak House - Week Eleven

By golly, I do believe ol' Charles has finally decided to get to the point and stick to it this week. No fluff, no filler, just plenty of action and a good heaping of humor. Nearly all of the tremendous cast of characters that we've been trying to keep track of for the past ten weeks appeared in this week's reading making me glad that I'd made a point to keep track of all of them. We had an elopement, a funeral, a reunion, and a surprising arrest this week - it was great fun! This week I'm switching things up a little and getting the thing I didn't like this week out of the way first.

 What I Didn't Like This Week: I'm not always sure what to make of Dicken's opinion of women but he certainly didn't think much of most of them. Ada is little more than a child, Mrs. Snagsby is a shrew, and even our beloved Esther is nothing more than a martyr. Even Mrs. Bagnet, who is clearly the brains in her family, is only allowed to voice her opinion because her husband believes she is giving voice to his own opinion. On the other hand, Dicken's women are very often the heart of the story, as they are in Bleak House.

What I Liked This Week:  Mr. Bucket. Previously I haven't cared much for him, being under the impression that he was a brute. He did, after all, take poor Jo away from Bleak House and then leave him on his own. But in these chapters his way of solving a crime, of working his way into the trust of people, was such fun to read. He's quite a wily guy!

Bleak House Readalong - Week Ten

Wow, wow, wow - this what quite a week for the readalongers! We've got a guy who's really losing his mind, a new baby, a secret about to be revealed, and two deaths. I think I'm going to go straight to my reading for the coming week instead of putting it off for a change!

What I Liked This Week: 
Mr. George and our beloved Jo were back. Tragically, just as Jo was finding people to care for him, he succumbs to illness. In true Dickensian manner, the reader is left with mixed feelings about the people's motives. True they cleaned him up, found him a place to stay, protected him, and fed him but...many of them seemed to be as happy to be doing it because they associated Jo with Esther and love her so as much as by a desire to make Jo's life better.

"Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead. Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day."

What I Really Liked This Week:
 Mr. Tulkinghorn was shot dead. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Seriously, if this were a movie, when he got shot, the audience would have cheered! Poor Mr. George was arrested already but I think we can be pretty sure it wasn't him. 

Bleak House Readalong - Week Nine

Let's just get straight to it this week. I'm pretty sure Dickens was trying to make me mad (by either definition) with the chapters we read this week. It was either love it or hate it.

What I Liked This Week: Things finally are coming to a head with the relationships between Tulkinghorn and Lady Dedlock and Mr. Jarndyce and Esther and the feelings between the two pairs could not be any more different! It's going to be fun watching what happens with both love and hate as we move forward.

What I Didn't Like This Week: For a good part of two of this week's chapters, I was bored senseless. I get it, Charles, you really, really dislike government and the legal system. Enough already.

Still, Dickens is a master at expressing his opinions on the subjects of government and the legal system so, I suppose, he can be forgiven in taking pleasure in writing about it:

"He [Mr. Vholes, an attorney] never misses a chance in his practice; which is mark of respectability. He never takes any pleasure; which is another mark of respectability. He is reserved and serious, which is another mark of respectability. His digestion is impaired, which is highly respectable. And is his making hay of the grass, which is flesh, for his three daughters."

Bleak House Readalong - Week 8

Bully for you, Charles Dickens! You've got this thing going now and things are really starting to get interesting. Poor Esther has suffered from what must be small pox, and survived, although scarred. Poor Richard has done lost his mind to the Jarndyce and Jarndyce case. And poor Lady D has had to make the greatest sacrifice.

What I Liked This Week:
This quote about the lawyer, Tulkinghorn, who's been really aggravating the group reading along:

"Has he so little pity of compunction?"
"He has none, and no anger. He is indifferent to everything but his calling. His calling is the acquisition of secrets, and the holding possession of such power as they give him, with no sharer or opponent in it."

Tulkinghorn was played to perfection in the 2005 BBC production of "Bleak House." Doesn't this guy look just as cold as that description?

What I Didn't Like This Week: 
Yes there was another new character this week but now that I've gotten to the point in this book where things are finally starting to happen, I was frustrated to find a long bit that didn't seem to progress the story at all. Couldn't Dickens have just said "and Caddy lived happily ever after?"

Bleak House Readalong - Week Seven

Huzzah! Things are really starting to happen now, after only a 350 page buildup. Little surprises, big surprises, characters are coming together and I'm finally, finally really wanting to pick up this book and read!

What I Liked This Week:
No new characters to keep track of - 'nuff said.

Spontaneous combustion. Apparently this wasn't just an interesting way to kill off a character; Dickens actually believed that spontaneous combustion was possible. The descriptions of this - so vivid!

BBC's Krook - before he combusted!

What I Didn't Like This Week:
Is it possible that Dickens forgot that earlier in the book he had made a point to show Mrs. Woodcourt snubbing Esther then all of a sudden she is staying at Bleak House and making buddy-buddy with Esther. Okay, I'm pretty sure it wasn't a mistake and she's not necessarily trying to endear herself to Esther but still, it was strange.

FYI: 
Do not ever accidentally check the character list for a book in SparkNotes to be reminded who a character is. They totally spoil things in their explanations. So irritated do have found out some things I would far preferred to have had revealed to me much later!

Bleak House Readalong - Weeks Five and Six

I fell behind last week and had to read two weeks' worth of Bleak House this week. Seriously, the reading for last week tended to put me to sleep within a few pages. It was slow going this week!

What I liked this week:

True, they were new characters (and you know how tired I'm getting of all of these new characters - see below) but I thoroughly enjoyed the introduction of the Smallweed family. What a strange group they are!

BBC Bleak House's Grandfather Smallweed

The best thing this week? Wallace left us this week just as a major bombshell was dropped. Okay, it wasn't a total surprise. I'm willing to bet that most of those joining in the readalong had more than an inkling about who Esther's mother was. But it all came out so marvelously!

What I didn't like this week:
Really Charles, do we really need to learn so much about EVERY new character you're introducing? I've lost my ability to care about any of the background story for a lot of these people  - Phil, I'm sorry, but I'm looking at you.

It's getting hard to say anything about the book without giving things away, on the chance that you'll someday choose to pick this one up. I'm looking forward to the reading for the coming week, thanks largely to the last chapter this week. I think that maybe, just maybe Dickens is starting to bring all of these loose ends together.

Bleak House Read-a-Long Week 4

Once again, this week I found myself begin grateful that I'm working on this one as part of a group, with a sense of obligation to keep reading so that I can join the discussion. During the same period I was trying to wade through this week's chapters, I was also
reading The Sun Also Rises. Boy, did Dickens give me an appreciation for Hemingway's succinct style!

What I Liked This Week: 
Some of the characters are starting to overlap stories. The household Jarndyce chanced to meet up with Lady Dedlock, a new character brings up a tie to Esther that Guppy learns about, and a mysterious "servant," who is clearly a lady (methinks Lady Dedlock) asks Jo to show her the haunts of Nemo, a character we have only met in death.

What I Didn't Like This Week:
Really, Dickens? More new characters?  At least this time there appears to be a reason for introducing them but did we really need so much buildup of them? My husband read this book as part of a college English literature course. I can't imagine trying to keep track of all of these characters and be able to ascribe a purpose for their inclusion even as you are trying to race through the book to get it read in the short period of time you have to read a book in school.

Bleakhouse Read-a-long Week 3

In my edition of Bleakhouse, we are now 182 pages in and Dickens is still introducing us to new characters and characters who seemed to play a part not worth noting are suddenly reappearing. One, Mr.Woodcourt, has now appeared three times but he only finally merits a name the third time we meet him. It makes me wonder who else I might have overlooked early on.

What I Liked This Week:

This description of a new-to-us character, Mr. Turveydrop:

"He was a fat old gentleman with a false complexion, false teeth, false whiskers, and a wig. He had a fur collar, and he had a padded breast to his coat, which only wanted a star or a broad blue ribbon to be complete. He was pinched in, and swelled out, and got up, and strapped down, as much as he could possibly bear...He had a cane, he had an eye-glass, he had a snuff box, he had rings, he had wristbands, he had everything but any touch of nature; he was not like youth, he was not like age, he was not like anything in the world, but a model of Deportment."

Which was all this ridiculous man was about. He has spent every minute of everyday since he married and of his widowhood relying on his wife and son to earn enough money to allow him to pretend to be aristocracy. I do so love Dickens' characters!

What I Didn't Like:

Mr. Guppy. Granted, as characters go, he is definitely memorable but he is so freakin' creepy! He's quite possibly the original literary stalker. Our poor little heroine is quite beside herself.

Also, nearly a quarter of the way in, I'm getting anxious for some of the many parts of this story to start coming together while I can still remember all of them! We've had quite a number of characters that appear quite prominently in one chapter then disappear all together. I'm sure I must be patient; I have a notion we're going to read at least this much more before anything starts to become clear. I'm thoroughly enjoying the discussion of this novel with Wallace and the rest of the members of the readalong at Unputdownables.

Bleak House Readalong - Week One

I swear I did read the rules for this readalong and at some point it must have occurred to me that, at the rate we were reading, this thing was going to drag on for a long time. Still I was surprised last night when I went back to the original post to make sure I had read enough for this week's discussion. We will be discussing this Bleak House until the end of May. May. Which means that there is a very good chance that a) in all of those weeks, I'm likely to miss a couple of discussions and be kicked off the island, and/or b) I will flat run out of time to read or discuss the book in May with a graduation to plan and prepare for. But I'm hell bent to actually finish reading Bleak House this time so I'm going to stick it out.

Leo Tolstoy and George Orwell were said to be fans of Charles Dickens because of his comedy, realism and social commentary. Henry Miller and Virginia Woolf, on the other, not such big fans. They thought his work was sentimental and implausible. For my money, Dickens' work is actually all of those things and the blending of them may just explain why his work has stood the test of time. I think English teachers have loved them for years as well because they make a great torture device for students - Dickens never met a word he didn't like and the more, the better.

"Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city. Fog on the Essex marshes, fog on the Kentish heights. Fog creeping into the cabooses of collier-brigs, fog lying out on the yards, and hovering in the rigging of great ships; fog dropping on the gunwales of barges and small boats. Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners, wheezing by the firesides of their wards; fog in the stem and bowl of the afternoon pipe of the wrathful skipper, down in his close cabin; fog cruelly pinching the toes and fingers of his shivering little 'prentice boy on deck."

And there you have the very reason why my copy of Bleak House is 770 pages long. Is it necessary to use that many words to tell the reader that " it was really foggy all around?" Probably not. But this time, knowing I only had to read 75 pages, I really read every one of those words and I swear by the time I got through that paragraph, I half expected to see fog rising up from under my bed. For a book that is centered around a court case that has dragged on and on for years, it even makes perfectly good sense that descriptions of the case, the court and the plaintiffs would stretch out endlessly as well.

Things I liked in Week One:

1. Words - Dickens gives me words I don't usually get a chance to read, such as "amanuensis" which is a person performing a task by hand, either manual labor or transcribing someones words. I can't pronounce it but I love to read it!

2. Character Names - Mr. Tangle, for one of the participants in the case; Mr. Krook (well, you can just imagine what we'll learn about him down the road); Mr. Skimpole, a character who is forever needing money from his friends and Esther, our  leading lady. Now Esther may sound a little dull given the other names in the book but consider the Book of Esther from the Bible. Our Esther, like the Bible Esther, is an orphan, raised by a family member (although our Esther is not aware of that fact initially). Makes me wonder what other parallels the Esthers might have.

3. Social criticisms - we're only 75 pages in and already Dickens has made his position clear on the British court system and well-meaning people who neglect their own families as they try to save the world. He's also taken jabs at the wealthy and the judgmental.

Things I didn't like in Week One:

1. Words - Yes there are too many of them. I don't care how good the writing is or how wonderful a picture it paints, sometimes my eyes just start to glaze over.

It's not too late to join the readalong! If you'd like to join us, or are just interested in learning what comes up in our discussions about Bleak House, jump on over to Wallace's Unputdownables.

Bleak House Readalong

Ah, the beauty of having cut back on the number of books I'm accepting for review these days - I have time to join in with readalongs! Wallace of Unputdownables is hosting a readalong in March, April and May of Charles Dickens' Bleak House. I've been wanting to read this one for a long time (I even gave it a try for a couple of weeks last year). I'm happy to have the push to read it and others to discuss it with. If you'd like to join the group, head on over to the sign up post and check out the rules and the schedule. I hope you'll consider joining us!

Villette Readalong Week 6

Once again, poor suffering Lucy Snowe will have her heart broken.  She is so heartsick because of Dr. John, and so embarrassed by the idea that others may be reading her letters from him and laughing at her, that she finally seals his letters in a bottle and buries it.  Then the sad little thing is made to sit with Ginevra at a party so that Pauline can see if Dr. John prefers Pauline over Ginevra.

Lucy's relationship with Monsieur Paul becomes something of a roller coaster ride in these latest chapters.  In one moment he is berating her and the next he is asking her to call him friend.  Yet I think she actually thinks of their "friendship" as something of a game and delights in teasing M. Paul.  But she also appreciates that he sees in her something that her long-time friends do not see.  John speaks of her as "quiet Lucy" and says that she is over-grave in tastes and manners. But she writes of M. Paul "there starts up a little man, differing diametrically from all these, roundly charging you with being too airy and cheerful--too volatile and versatile--too flowery and coloury."

You may remember that last week, I was longing for Lucy to come out of her shell a bit, maybe even get angry.  And what do you know?  In these chapters, she finally does begin to show some spirit.  After the party in which John did appear to choose Pauline over Ginevra, Lucy had to ride home with the latter.  Of course, Ginevra was having a little spoiled fit and Lucy finally let her have it.  And as M. Paul's attacks continue, Lucy finally has the courage to respond.  At one point I was reminded of the movie "You've Got Mail." Meg Ryan's character at one point is bemoaning her inability to conjure up just the right response when she finds herself under attack.  Later she ends up apologizing for finally finding herself able to do just that. Lucy makes no such apology; she feels, rightly so, entirely justified.

The emphasis at this point in the book seems to be on the relationship between Lucy and M. Paul but I really can't imagine, yet, what she might ever see in this man that she frequently refers to as "despotic."  But while we are watching Lucy grow and change, maybe we'll get to see some changes in M. Paul as well that might make him more likable.  One can only hope.

Villette Readalong Weeks 4 and 5

Yes, that's right, I'm behind again.  I'm trying to listen to this while I'm working and some days just don't yield much listening time!

Week Four's reading was a pleasant respite after all of the goings on in Week Three's reading.  Lucy spent the time recovering from her breakdown at the home of Dr John and Mrs. Bretton.  While she delighted in spending time with friends after spending so much time alone, they delighted in introducing her to the delights of Villette.  Interestingly, Monsieur Paul Emmanuel, appears more and more in Lucy's story.  When we were first introduced to him, Lucy had nothing nice at all to say about him, But when he finds her in an art gallery, sitting in front of a painting he doesn't approve of and moves her to more "appropriate" works, she finds his concern for her less annoying than you might expect.  Gradually she seems to be finding good characteristics in M. Paul and they agree to be friends.

John's relationship with Ginevra Fanshawe, which we only just discovered, is, perhaps, irreparably damaged when, while at the theater, she snubs Mrs. Bretton and openly flirts with another man in front of him.  Now that Lucy has spent so much time with John and finding him now unattached, her heart begins to run away with her a bit.  But Lucy is nothing if not reasonable and she and her Reason spend a lot of time together and Reason generally seems to win.  But it's not able to stop Lucy from beginning to visions of a ghost nun.

Just as Lucy begins to hope that John may care for her, Polly home and her father return in the guise of the de Bassompierres.  Mr. Home has been given the title of Count and Polly is now a Countess.  Despite the fact that she is still little more than a child, John becomes smitten with her.  Now it is also revealed that Polly and Ginerva are cousins and poor Lucy has to put up with the foolishness of both of the girls. But she's more than willing to tolerate it because she's both exceedingly tolerant and unwilling to put her friendship with the families at risk.

I am so ready for Lucy to just take a chance, to cut loose a little bit and maybe even to throw a temper tantrum because she's so darn tired of being the poor little poor girl.

Villette Readalong - Week 3?

Okay, well, technically it's week 2 for me but as it's week 3 for everyone else, we'll go with that.

When last we left Lucy Snowe, she was on a ship headed for France, with only the vaguest idea what she would do when she got there.  On the ship, she met a young girl, Ginerva Fanshawe, who confided that she was on her way to school in Villette.  So off to Villette Lucy headed.  Despite the fact that she speaks no French, Lucy managed to get all of the way to Villette and completely by mistakes finds herself at the door of the very school Miss Fanshawe spoke of.


Madame Beck, the proprietress of the school, hires Lucy as a nanny to her two young children, primarily it appears, because she is English.  Also because Madame Beck is kind of crazy about letting employees go.  Which soon results in Lucy finding herself as a teacher.

And now things are really picking up...and love is in the air.  Ginerva confides that she has a young man whom she calls "Isidore" who is buying her expensive baubles and before long we discover that this is none other than the doctor that has become a frequent visitor at the school.  He also happens to be the son of Lucy's godmother who she hasn't seen in many years, but he doesn't recall her. Lucy's godmother, Mrs. Bretton, is also staying in Villette.  Lucy discovers this when she collapses after a long walk in the rain while she is suffering from exhaustion and depression after being left alone in the school for many weeks. 

So it turns out that Lucy, who has known all along that Dr. John was Graham Bretton, is not a reliable narrator, that she will hide things from us. At the time Villette was written, this was an unusual twist marking Bronte as a writer who was willing to take a chance.  In these chapters, Bronte once again points out the degree to which Lucy's station in life has changed and the effect this has had on her.

Villette Readalong

Wallace of Unputdownables is hosting a readalong of Charlotte Bronte's Villette.  Which started last week but I had completely forgotten about until I started reading those first posts.  So I'm starting late.  I'd hoped to be caught up this week but no such luck. Villette was Charlotte's last novel, published in 1853.  Many people consider it to be a greater work than Bronte's Jane Eyre.

This week I read the first five chapters in which we're introduced to our narrator, Lucy Snowe.  Much of what we learn about Lucy, we learn from hints of her past.  I'm wondering if Bronte will just leave us to wonder what might have happened or if we will learn more as the story progresses.  We first meet Lucy when she is 14 and spending some months with her godmother.  In the next chapter we've skipped forward eight years.  Bronte leads us to understand that some tough things have happened to Lucy, but again, we don't learn much as to what they might be.

I think I'm going to like Lucy very much--she's one very brave girl.  After spending some years working for an invalid (Miss Marchmont, who passes away), Lucy makes the decision to head to London without any references or family to stay with.  From there she decides, almost immediately, that she wants to go to France to find work there.  At then end of Chapter Five, the ship is just taking leave of the English coast and Lucy is becoming acquainted with her fellow passengers.

I'm a cowardly, nervous Nelly--I can't imagine making such big changes in my life, although Lucy feels that she hasn't much choice.  Perhaps in her shoes, I might be a little more courageous.  But I doubt it!

The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

This week those of us participating in the read along of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood read Sections XIII through XV and this was a greater than ever proof to me that the movie version of this book should never have been made.  It reminded me of most Stephen King adaptations to the big screen--there's no way to make the horror you feel when you read the book translate to the big screen.

I don't necessarily want a book to end with all of the issues settled and everything tied up neatly with a bow.  On the other hand, not doing that can feel very abrupt, as if the author just got tired of writing.  Atwood does not, by any means, give the reader all of the answers at the end of the book.  But she doesn't leave the reader hanging either; in fact, after all of the sadness and horror of the book, Atwood leaves the reader with the idea that there may be hope for Offred. Curiously, it's when the reader may start to feel better that Offred herself begins to feel badly about her actions and responses.  She begins to feel that she's the one committing a betrayal. 

If you haven't already read this book, read it.  Now more than ever, I think it's a really important piece of work that will make the reader think about the things that are happening in our own time.  To contemplate what happens in this book may just make you rethink your complacency.

The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

"The moment of betrayal is the worst, the moment when you know beyond any doubt that you've been betrayed: that some other human being has wished you that much evil.

It was like being in an elevator cut loose at the top.  Falling, Falling, and not knowing when you will hit."

Offred is talking here about the moment her family was trying to cross over the border into Canada and are discovered but she might as well be talking about what happened to all women in the new society.  Certainly there were some men that didn't fare well in the change but we really haven't seen a single woman that has fared well.  Even the Commander's Wives, who certainly appear to have it the best, are prisoners of their homes and, if they are unable to bear children, have to put up with having a Handmaid in their home and watch their husbands having sex with the Handmaids in their own beds while they also in the bed.

In these chapters we also find out that some of the women, particularly the older women, have been sent to The Colonies where they are on cleanup detail.  That is to say, they are exposed to radiation and have to clean up dead bodies.   Others are made to go into prostitution, something that is officially not allowed but which is an option for punishment.  Any of these women, as well as Handmaids that don't give birth to a viable child soon enough, have a very limited lifespan.

Since this book has all along felt like it was showing me a very real possible future, the idea that there are women out there already clamoring that a woman's place is in the home, looking after their man and having babies alarms me more than ever.

Thanks to Trish for hosting this read-along and to Margaret Atwood who has given me so much to think about in this book!

The Handmaid's Tale Readalong

This is the third week of our The Handmaid's Tale read along, hosted by Trish at Classic Reads Book Club.  I am finding it harder and harder to put this one down once I've read the assigned chapters for the week!  We've reached the point where it's becoming hard to tell you anything about the book without spoilers and, because I really hope that you'll pick this one up yourself, I don't want to do that.

The Commander and Offred are spending more and more time with each other and Offred is gradually realizing how to use the power that this affords her (such as asking for hand lotion) but is also acutely aware of the risk involved.  The Commander's Wives are in charge of all the women in their households so if she is caught, the Commander will have no say in what happens to her.  During their time together, the Commander has allowed Offred to read some of his secret stash of magazines--such racy titles as Vogue.

"What's dangerous in the hands of the multitudes, he said, with what may or may not have been irony, is safe enough for those whose motives are...

Beyond reproach, I said.

He nodded gravely.  Impossible to tell whether or not he meant it.

But why show it to me?  I said, and then felt stupid.  What could he possibly say?  That he was amusing himself, at my expense?  For he must have known how painful it was to me, to be reminded of the former time."

Offred discovers that there are others, like her, that are not firm believers in the new ways.  Just knowing this makes her nervous but hopeful. 

In these chapters, we learn more about how the world as it was became the world that it now is.  I'm almost certain at this point that Margaret Atwood, when she wrote this book, had a crystal ball and was looking into the future.  I can't tell you why; you'll just have to trust me that my jaw dropped when I read Chapter 28!

"I guess that's how they were able to do it, in the way they did, all at once, without anyone knowing beforehand.  If there had still been portable money, it would have been more difficult."

Aren't we already headed to a currency free society, what with the almost prevalent use of credit and debit cards?  What happened in this this book almost makes me happy that our most recent economic problems have pushed people back into using more paper money.