#studiesinaonesie

[scarlettstudies-blog]

11.1.15 // in between studying for two ap tests, i decided to read and annotate some poetry using this method, which worked really well for me and i’ll definitely be sticking with it! poem is since feeling is first by e.e. cummings

[thestudyblrs]

Book Review: Northanger Abbey | Austen is a Goddess #1

Hey all! Been a while (hasn’t it always?) I know I said I was going to talk about 18th Century feminist authors like Eliza Haywood and Elizabeth Inchbald, however I’m very aware that a lot of people have never heard of these amazing ladies (more’s the pity) so I thought we could start out looking at Eighteenth Century lady authors in more familiar territory. For the next few book reviews I want to talk about one of my favourite 18th Century lady authors, the one and only Jane Austen! I want to cover a few of her major novels, a couple of her shorter works and have a look at some criticism along the way. And yes, there will be sexy men in period costume. Don’t say I don’t treat you. 

We’re starting out with Northanger Abbey, probably the first major work Jane wrote, yet the last to be published. This adorable little book is very much the derpy baby sister of the Austen novels but, like all her work, it’s still a glorious celebration of literary loveliness. So let’s go! Whoop whoop!

The plot centres on the maturation of Catherine Morland, a happy-go-lucky country bumpkin with her head buried in gothic novels. She goes to stay in Bath where she gets her first taste of fashionable society and meets several characters including the Tilneys, immediately falling for the cutie pie Henry and his lovely sister, and is thrilled when she gets to accompany them back to their home, Northanger Abbey. 

Much of the novel parodies the gothic novels familiar to eighteenth century readers, the tropes of which we still see today: The dark foreboding corridors, locked cabinets and forbidden stairways all in need of a plucky heroine to go exploring and uncover the mysteries hidden within. Catherine encounters all of these on her stay at Northanger Abbey, however her attempts to adhere to the plot of a gothic heroine are constantly thwarted by the fact that she is, funnily enough, not in a novel, but real life. Her parents warn her as she leaves, not to watch out villainous barons or old curses, but to make sure she wears warm clothes and spends wisely. The mysterious document found stashed away in an old cabinet in the dead of night turns out to be a list of laundry when she reads it in the morning. The narrative constantly sets up these expectations of the gothic genre only to have them fall flat in ways that leave poor old Catherine feeling foolish and scolding herself.

At first glance it seems that the novel treats Catherine as a silly naïve girl with her head in the clouds, however, she’s actually far more perceptive than she is given credit for by the other characters. She sees the Tilney siblings’ father as the cruel, tyrannical man that he is, and though he may not have actually locked up or murdered his wife as she suspects, his treatment of her definitely contributed to her early death. Northanger Abbey at first seems to make fun of gothic novels and their readers, but it’s more complex than that. Catherine Morland’s perception of things may be through the lense of her fantastical novels, but is ultimately spot on point. Where others are fooled by the suave, overly polite demeanour of General Tilney, Catherine is made uncomfortable and senses that it veils something sinister.

 There’s something else at play here too, something very clever. The narrative seems to mock Catherine for her expectations of Northanger Abbey, we as readers laugh at each time she is thwarted and gets dropped back into reality. However as we follow Catherine around, Austen also creates these expectations in us as readers, we might laugh at Catherine, but we can’t deny that, as she walks around encountering all these gothic tropes, we also recognise (even today) what should happen and the humour comes from the let-down of reality that we experience along with her. As well as this, she isn’t the only character with her head in the clouds. Austen has Henry Tilney affectionately mock Catherine’s delusions but we, the reader, can see that he is also living a pretend reality in his inability to read into the actions of his father and brother. Catherine’s friend Isabella constantly works to construct a perfect ‘romantic heroine’ life for herself, with no consideration of anyone else’s needs. We laugh at Catherine, but others around her show exactly the same characteristics in their attitudes to life. So why is it only her we dismiss as being unrealistic? Quite possibly because of the attitudes of the time towards the gothic genre. The production and consumption of gothic novels was primarily a female domain and therefore automatically something to be looked down on by the ‘educated’ of the eighteenth century. (Think of the treatment of the one direction fandom today) and the novel features a number of characters that dismiss the gothic genre only to have the narration argue back in some way or another. At one point the narration breaks from following the plot completely and actually turns into Jane Austen telling her audience exactly what she thinks about this elitist attitude. The novel admits that Gothic novels may be silly and unrealistic, but defends their value and the right of anyone to want to read them. So Austen acknowledges this attitude and actually plays off it. In the same way that we scoff at One direction Fans but are completely fine with dedicated sports fans, Austen shows how dismissive culture is of young women and their interests ignoring the fact that everyone else is just the same. This was three hundred years ago and we’re still dealing with this shit you guys. What the actual hell? Uh… sorry… let’s have another picture of Tilney-kins to calm us down.

  So ultimately the point of a book review – would I recommend it? You bet your ass I would. It doesn’t really have the seething social commentary or craftsmanship of her later novels but Northanger Abbey is an adorable, funny, girly little read narrated with Austen’s familiar sass voice, telling you the story like your witty friend during wine and onesie night. Not a bad starting point for Austen or 18th Century literature in general either.

Hope you enjoyed! I’m thinking of my personal favourite Persuasion next but we’ll see how it goes. In the meantime… last look anyone?

Two derps. Destined for one another. 

[thestudyblrs]

Book Review | The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

So everyone knows this story, guy with painting, painting gets old he doesn’t, yada yada, but as with all great works of art, that pitiful Wikipedia style summary barely sums up the majesty that is The Picture of Dorian Gray. I studied this for my ‘19th Century Decadence and Degeneration’ module at University and it’s a glorious little novel and one of my favourite things I have read at Uni and I am now going to fangirl all over you about it. Also there will be sexy men in Victorian dress because we all know that’s what you’re really here for… 

First off the writing. The. Writing. For those who don’t know Dorian Gray is Oscar Wilde’s only novel, his other works are plays, essays and lots of poetry. His poetic flair and way with words is woven into every line of this text. The prose drips with this sumptuous extravagant writing style that is a joy to read. But it’s not just pretty words, this luxurious meandering prose style perfectly reflects the privileged boredom of its characters. The three major players in this novel are young wealthy men with nothing really to do but pursue entertainment and superficial beauty. They exist surrounded by this vapid, empty beauty devoid of any drive or purpose and find themselves stagnating and turning rotten. In the same way Wilde’s writing is glorious, but winds round and round often going on forever as it describes the swamp of privilege it’s characters are sunk in. 

Also if shipping hot dudes is your thing, the thinly veiled Basil/Dorian/Henry love triangle throughout is glorious to behold. This was written when male homosexuality was illegal and so their relationship couldn’t be addressed directly but you just know it’s there and it’s fantastic. 

Though it’s not really a happy love triangle, all three of them are terrible people and, although all very close, seem to be unable to not completely ruin each other. Dorian fascinates both men, but they only see him as an object. Basil claims to adore Dorian, but the truth is his appreciation is entirely superficial, seeing him as this glorious muse to inspire his art. Henry on the other hand treats Dorian’s soul like a social experiment, filling his head with ideas of leading a decadent immoral lifestyle, seeing beauty as the only thing of value in the world, just to see if he can influence the boy.

There’s a really interesting scene right at the beginning where Dorian is stood between the two men while Basil paints his portrait and Henry talks to him to entertain him while he models. Dorian as an identity becomes split between these two men and what they want him to be. Basil creates this beautiful, immortal but entirely superficial representation of Dorian on canvas, while Henry’s words get into Dorian’s head and begin to shape him from the inside, making him believe that his beauty is the only thing of value to him and it will soon be gone as he ages. It is being caught between these two separate processes of creation at the same time that causes Dorian to have the pivotal moment where he looks at the finished portrait and wishes that it would age instead of him, which then kicks off the events of the plot.

One of my favourite themes of the novel is how we judge by appearances. Dorian Gray remains young, beautiful and innocent looking while his portrait gets all gnarly and old, hidden away in a room in his house. Despite all the awful things he gets up to, no one can ever suspect him because he’s still such a cutie. In the Nineteenth Century there was a pseudoscience known as physiognamy that many people subscribed to, where they believed that your sins and immorality would manifest as ugliness in your appearance. Obviously we know now that that’s nonsense, but we still equate beauty with goodness and ugliness with evil. (Just look at Disney heroes and villains!) Wilde’s novel can be seen as a critique on the way we see beauty as being virtuous when it is in fact a completely empty attribute with no relation to a person’s moral character or worth. Honestly I’d recommend this universally, it’s one of those classics that’s really accessible and still compelling and relevant today. It’s also a novel with a certain infamy because it is the thinly veiled sexual dynamic between the three main characters that was used as evidence at Oscar Wilde’s trial and eventually led to his ruin, so it’s hard to read the book without feeling a certain melancholy knowing that what Wilde was writing would be his downfall, particularly when you realise that the whole idea of this novel involves questioning whether a work of art or literature should be judged by a standard of morality. So please do give this one a go, I hear the movie is pretty good too, though like all film adaptations you definitely miss out on some of the deeper layers of meaning. And because we all know hot men in period costumes is my favourite thing. Oh look it’s Colin Firth and Ben Barnes.

Sorry Madam, are these your ovaries? Here let me pick those up for you. Next up I’m thinking of taking a trip to the eighteenth century and looking at one of it’s sassiest and most under-appreciated writers, Elizabeth Inchbald. So no hot men in period costume BUT eighteenth century ‘take-no-shit’ feminsim is almost as good!

Thankyou for reading!  Isabelle // studiesinaonesie

[thestudyblrs]

Book Review | North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Hello! Since my 'Getting in Classic Literature' post went down pretty well, I thought I'd use my Sunday slot to do a series of some of my own favourite classic books. You get some cool and interesting classic literature recommendations and I get to fangirl about books I love so it's a win/win really. 

I'm kicking off with North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I read this as part of a Nineteenth Century Novel module at University last year and this, along with one other little novel which I'll feature at some point, was a shining beacon of enjoyment as I trudged through Dickens and George Eliot and a load of other dense, stodgy works. 

The basic plot is that a bratty, somewhat uptight but all round kindhearted young woman moves from her comfortable church-y life in the South of Victorian England to the newly industrialised North where she becomes aware of the horrible class divide between the maltreated factory workers and the cruel owners and meets people from both sides of the struggle.

I would recommend this to anyone either already a fan of classics or interested in getting into them, particularly if your usual lurking area of bookstores is the 'Chick-Lit' section. It's sweet and girly but with dramatic, heartbreaking moments, a wonderfully complex cast of characters and really powerful commentary on Victorian class culture. The protagonist Margaret Hale in particular is a brilliant character. She's not perfect by any means, what interesting character is? She's haughty and proud but is at the same time incredibly kind hearted and refuses to back down from what she believes. She develops so much throughout the narrative and goes from a sheltered pastor's daughter to an independent woman with a passionate sense of social justice. 

Also John Thornton. Just... nom. I'll just leave this picture of Richard Armitage playing him in the TV adaptation here okay?

hnnngggggg *fans self* 

The romance in this book everything I wanted but didn't get from Pride and Prejudice. Darcy and Lizzie don't get on purely because they annoy each other and are too stubborn to back down. The romantic interests in North and South clash on important social issues and it's the passionate debates that the two engage in that create heat and tension between the couple as they try and push each other into their way of thinking. For me this is far more entertaining and makes the romance fiery and exciting. Also due to various misunderstandings and crossed wires Gaskell has you screaming at the two of them to just get the hell together before the sodding book finishes! 

This book is definitely one of my all-time favourite classics. It's chick-lit with a social conscience, the characters are brilliant and the plot just kept me frantically turning the pages right up to the end.  Anyway I think I've gushed enough. If you've read this and like it PLEASE let me know so I can fangirl all over you. Up next week will be The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

In the mean time have some more Richard Armitage in period costume. You didn’t know you needed it... 

Thank you for reading!   Isabelle // studiesinaonesie