![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
1. Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen (completed 7/19/2007 - review)
2. North and South, by Elizabeth Gaskell (completed 8/21/2007 - review)
3. Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston (completed 9/13/2007 - review)
4. East of Eden, by John Steinbeck (completed 10/6/2007 - review)
5. Tess of the D'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy (completed 11/22/2007 - review)
Favorite Book of the Challenge: Tess of the D'Urbervilles, for its readability and strong female protagonist.
Least Favorite Book: Northanger Abbey. While I love Jane Austen, this was not her best.
What I Learned through this Challenge: I enjoyed this opportunity to read more of the "1001 books". This was a reasonably diverse selection from different time periods, and a great way to get acquainted with new-to-me authors like Gaskell, Hurston, and Hardy. Thanks to Kathrin for hosting this challenge!
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Thomas Hardy
415 pages
First sentence: On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor.
Reflections: I was surprised how much I liked this book. Thomas Hardy tells a tragic story of a young Victorian woman who is truly a victim of both her society, and a few people who hold influence over her. I thought the book would be a difficult and depressing read, and yet, even though I knew this to be a tragedy, I found myself immersed in the story and rooting for Tess the entire time.
At the beginning of the book, Tess Durbeyfield's father learns he is descended from a great family known as D'Urberville, and sends the 16-year-old Tess off to meet a branch of the D'Urbervilles living nearby. Her parents hope she will make a good match and better their social status and economic prospects. Alec D'Urberville is smitten with Tess, but seduces her and treats her cruelly. Tess returns home having disappointed her parents. Later she makes her way as an agricultural worker, meets Angel Clare, and falls deeply in love. As the son of an evangelical preacher, Angel has his own "issues," which get in the way of their relationship.
As a Victorian woman, Tess is largely dependent on others: her parents, the landowners she works for, and men she hopes will bring her happiness and security. She is thwarted at every turn. In many cases, Tess is part of her own undoing through her naivete and submission to male figures. And at the same time she is a strong figure, persistent in the face of adversity and able to take a single, decisive action when she has finally had enough. I will remember Tess for a long time. (
)
East of Eden
John Steinbeck
600 pages
First sentence: The Salinas Valley is in Northern California
Reflections: East of Eden is an epic novel which tells the story of two interconnected families, and explores the themes of good and evil through a loose retelling of stories in the book of Genesis. It is set in Northern California in the early 1900s. Samuel Hamilton is an Irish immigrant who settled in the area and bore a large family; one of his daughters was Steinbeck's mother. Adam Trask grew up in Connecticut and, after the death of his father, moves west with his new wife Cathy. Cathy is the very embodiment of evil, yet Adam is blind to her manipulative ways. She bears twin sons, Caleb (Cal) and Aron, but leaves them as infants and goes to work in a brothel. Adam is left to raise the boys with the help of Lee, a Chinese housekeeper.
Throughout the novel, each character grapples with issues of good and evil. This is especially evident in Cal, who struggles to overcome the darker tendencies he inherited from his mother. The father-son relationships are sometimes strained and quite poignant. Steinbeck reveals the evil present in each person, while also showing the individual struggles and choices that can overcome evil.
This book was published in 1952, late in Steinbeck's career. Ten years later he was awarded the Nobel Prize, "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humour and keen social perception." While this book did not have as much impact on me as Grapes of Wrath, I found the story captivating and thought-provoking. (
) 
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
207 pages
First sentence: Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board.
Reflections: This is the story of Janie, an African-American woman in the deep southern United States. As a work of early feminist literature, Their Eyes is about Janie finding her voice or, as described in the Afterword, her "journey from object to subject." Hurston uses several techniques to explore the development of Janie's voice. Some of the novel is written in third person narrative; others in a black English dialect. In some parts, she clearly articulates Janie's thoughts and feelings and in others, she is silent.
Janie is married off at a young age to a landowner named Logan, but this turns out to be a loveless marriage. She is then swept off her feet by Jody Sparks, a sweet-talking man with big ideas and an even bigger ego. As he fulfils his own potential, he suppresses Janie's. After Jody's death, Janie finds true love and personal growth with Tea Cake. He is a poor man, and a bit of a rabble rouser, but he loves her deeply. For the first two-thirds of this book I wondered why Janie loved Tea Cake. He had character traits that didn't suit me much, and it seemed like she could "do better." But then I realized the other men in her life, supposedly "better" men, were the very ones who held her back.
In the second half of this book, Janie and Tea Cake choose to remain in their shanty during a hurricane. It is this scene that gives the book its title: "The wind came back with triple fury, and put out the light for the last time. They sat in company with the others in other shanties, their eyes straining against crude walls and their souls asking if He meant to measure their puny might against His. They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God." (p. 151). What amazing imagery! From this point on, the book was a real page-turner, with scenes reminiscent of Hurricane Katrina, and a very poignant aftermath. In the end, Janie stands alone, but strong and independent.
Hurston's work was largely ignored during her time, but Their Eyes has become an essential element of the canon of American literature. It is best read with some accompanying sources that provide an understanding of the social and cultural context in which it was written. ( 
)
| |
48 / 50 (96.0%) |
North and South
Elizabeth Gaskell
436 pages
First sentence: "Edith!" said Margaret, gently, "Edith!"
Reflections: North and South was first published in 1854. As was common in those times, it was serialized in a magazine. The title refers to the contrast between the north of England, which is very industrial, and the wealthier, and more agricultural, south. Cultural differences and classism are seen through the eyes and experiences of the main character, Margaret Hale. As a young woman of 19, Margaret is transplanted to the north when her clergyman father decides to leave the church and pursue other employment. Margaret is accustomed to a life of relative leisure, and is thrust into an industrial town where textile mills drive the local economy.
In the north Margaret comes in direct contact with poorer, lower classes -- who are typically laborers in the mills. She gains an understanding of working conditions and resulting health issues. She seems to move seamlessly between classes, simultaneously befriending a local laborer and his family, and a wealthy mill owner named John Thornton. Gaskell portrays the lower classes as hard-working, honest folk and the upper classes as haughty and insensitive. Towards the end of the novel Margaret finds herself again in the south, and it is clear her life in the north has changed her world view. She does not enjoy the parties and leisurely pace; in fact, she feels guilty about having these privileges when there are so many who struggle to meet basic needs.
While North and South is an effective portrayal of Victorian England and class differences, the pace was a bit slow and the plot, predictable. While there is a romantic thread to the story, I did not care enough about the characters to be pulling for a happy ending. Sometimes when reading classics, I find it helpful to consult other sources to better understand the themes. But even that didn't help me much; in the end this book left me a bit flat. ( 
)
| |
43 / 50 (86.0%) |
Northanger Abbey
Jane Austen
247 pages
First sentence: No one who had seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.
Reflections: Northanger Abbey was Jane Austen's first novel. Originally written in 1798, it was sold to a publisher, but for some reason not published. She later revised the novel slightly, and it was published posthumously in 1817. Northanger Abbey was intended as a parody of the Gothic novel, a popular genre at the time. The heroine, Catherine Morland, is 17 years old and enamored of the Gothic novel. She is young, naive, and while an avid reader is not sophisticated enough to detect sublety, be it in literature or in the words and actions of others. Like other Austen novels, the plot centers around a few young women and their attempts to form relationships with men that are both loving and profitable. There are, of course, misunderstandings that hinder these relationships, but the ending resolves most of the conflict and neatly ties up the story.
Catherine was a likeable character, but lacked the depth found in Austen's later heroines Elizabeth Bennett, Marianne Dashwood, and Emma Woodhouse. The construction and story were also less complex than her later work; more predictable and somewhat less interesting. I read this book for Kathrin's Classics Challenge, and because I decided some time ago that I wanted to read all of Austen's work. Unfortunately, as much as I love Jane Austen, this is not a work I'd recommend to someone wanting to discover her talents.
| |
36 / 50 (72.0%) |
| |
14,152 / 15,000 (94.3%) |
