Book-A-Day Catch Up | Days 1-8

(picture taken from google)

As it's December, and I really like getting nostalgic over my books as Christmas comes along, I'm going to be blogging a bit about my book-a-day choices. Obviously I'm a tad behind, but as I;m sure you can tell from my absence, I've been a little busy over the past week (aka I haven't really read anything, so don't have a great deal to tell you guys about!). So, until Christmas I'm going to do my best to keep up with this everyday, as well as posting reviews as often as possible!

Day 1: Iconic First Line

How could I not pick this?! Dickens is definitely up there in my top faves (if you haven't already noticed from my blog in general, you'll probably get to grips with the fact that I'm quite a fan of 19th C fiction in this post!)

Day 2: Last Read

It's my most recent review! Check it out here. This is my second time reading it, and although it's not one of my favourites, it's definitely a valuable read.

Day 3: On my Christmas List

Social media has gone crazy about this and I really feel like I'm missing out not having it .... maybe if I keep my fingers crossed (or get the book lover's dream of a Christmas gift - a Waterstones voucher!)

Day 4: For Chilly Nights

So cliche, I know, but hey - I'm an English Lit student - I'm allowed to love it. I've probably read this four .... maybe five times now and it probably gets into my top ten all time favourites. The setting really makes it perfect for a winter read in my opinion - I definitely feel thankful for central heating when reading it!

Day 5: Quintessentially British

Admittedly, my first thought when I saw this day was "Sherlock Holmes". However, I haven't actually read any, and don't even own any Conan Doyle, so Hardy was my next choice. He's effectively my favourite author - if anyone's interested in male 19th Century feminism I'd suggest going for Hardy. He actually makes an effort to create female characters that have their own personality (something, much to the chagrin of some of my fellow lit students, that I find certain female authors *cough* Austen fail to do *cough* Fanny Price)

Day 6: Something Everyone Should Read

(picture taken from google)

Sadly, I no longer have my copy of this book, BUT that does not mean it is not an incredibly valuable work of fiction. This holds so many questions for a modern audience: should all women have to be mothers? Can someone be born evil? Is a mother responsible for her child's actions? It also has the most surprising twist I've ever found in a book. Check out my post on it here

Day 7: Childhood Favourite

I was a bit manic on Enid Blyton as a kid - still own at least fifty of her works! This was my absolute favourite as a child - it was one of the first books I ever remember reading. and I must've read it dozens of times. It even made me want to own a farm when I was younger (a long forgotten dream). 

Day 8: It's a Mystery!

Despite my love for TV cop dramas like Castle and Hawaii Five-0, I'm really not much of a mystery fan at all. This is probably the only definitive mystery novel I've read in a number of years, if ever. It was short and punchy, and that was effectively why I enjoyed it.

What are some of your responses to the days?

Steph

A Comment Upon Love Triangles in Victorian Literature

Most of us are accustomed to love triangles as being a standard part of the majority of modern romantic comedy films, however this has been around for considerably longer than originally thought. Although it has been used by writers (or poets as they were known in Ancient times) since Ancient Greek literature the development of feminist perspectives in the Victorian era allows it to take on a new meaning.

            There are clearly two ways Victorian writers create love triangles: two men vying for a woman’s affections, or two women vying for a man’s. Which one they choose depends on the particular representation of the two genders that they are trying to evince in their writing. Emily Bronte explores gender through this type of love rivalry in Wuthering Heights in a particularly interesting way as she utilises both of the above forms and does so in a way that makes the reader sympathetic towards women as well as making them strong characters. Cathy Earnshaw is sought after by two men (Heathcliff and Edgar Linton) and is free to make her own decision regarding her future husband. This commences well until Cathy is forced by Heathcliff to realise that in marrying Linton she has defied her true nature which is bound to him. The mental turmoil she then succumbs to eventually leads to her death as she cannot lie with this inner tension. Thus, although Bronte creates Cathy as a seemingly independent, strong woman her death is induced by the power this love triangle has over her. Indeed, this book has another triangle in which the wrong choice is made, however this time not unwittingly. This is between Heathcliff, Cathy and Isabella Linton. Heathcliff’s intentional abuse of Isabella’s feelings in marrying her to secure property and because he cannot marry Cathy (thus making her the second choice) serves as an example of the cruelty of men in the art of love in the Victorian era.

            Another writer who particularly likes the use of love triangles is Thomas Hardy. Both Tess of the D’Ubervilles and Far From the Madding Crowd explore the nature of men through their differing attitudes towards love. Hardy uses this arrangement to comment socially upon the transition between traditional ways and the coming of the “Golden Age”. In Tess the contrast between the new age and the old is highlighted with the characters of Angel and Alec D’Uberville. Although there is this foundational contrast between the two they are both morally corrupt, which highlights the fact that neither traditional ideals nor modern ones are morally and socially appropriate; perhaps an amalgamation of the two is more ideal. Thus Hardy utilises the love triangle between these two men and Tess to not only explore the social context of womanhood in the late 1800s but also that of masculinity in a sexual context.

            Furthermore, Austen uses this form of relationship struggle to highlight the way in which a woman ought to behave in her novel Mansfield Park. Fanny Price and Mary Crawford vie for Edmund Bertram’s attention, but in the end Fanny secures the position of being his wife because of her inner purity and piety. Austen here socially condemns the modern way of life with drinking, gambling and doing perverse things in large towns, especially London. Mary’s character ensconces immorality at a simplistic life with her utter refutation of religion as well as leading a nice, rural life. Thus, this love triangle exposes the idea that cohering to modern ideals will not secure you a lover; you must stay true to being good.

To conclude, at the centre of these and many other Victorian love triangles I have not mentioned is not love. Instead these authors are exposing that to secure what one strives for in life (that is, a life partner in those days) one must have a keen moral sensibility and use it to do what is socially, as well as religiously, correct.

Eating disorders as a form of suppression in Literature: outdated Victorian form of control or a modern one?

For this week’s blog I was inspired by a recent article called “5 reasons to date a girl with an eating disorder”, placed up on an internet forum which I’m sure has incited many to anger. This article outlines what the “author” believes to be perfectly acceptable reasons for choosing a girl suffering in this way over others: she is good at sex, she costs men less money, she is often rich, she is vulnerable and she will be more likely stay thin and “pretty” than other girls. Not only does this have the potential to encourage or “trigger” many girls to furthering their own disorders, or subliminally placing the idea into their unconscious, but it also adheres to antiquarian views on women.

When one considers the Victorian novel, in particular upper-class Victorian women, one cannot help but construct the image of a fainting, pathetic figure falling into the arms of a sturdy man. Literature has progressed from this ideal, however society doesn’t seem to have done so.

Wuthering Heights is a key example of the wasting-away of a woman until her death in Victorian fiction. This form of death is alluded to in many novels from this period, without much thought being given to it by the modern reader. However, in this case, as well as more discreetly, Cathy, the key female character in the novel, reaches a point of hysteria (“coincidentally” driven to this by men) at which point she breaks down and refuses to eat. This mission of starvation incapacitates her to such an extent that she never recovers. Her fragile and vulnerable state does indeed endear her rival lovers to her, but not because she is somehow more attractive, but because they know it will kill her. This novel is over 100 years old and yet manages to understand the concept of an eating disorder better than the modern understanding in that article.

Indeed, modern literature has moved away from the idealisation of a skinny white woman and has begun to accept people of all sizes as attractive. A key example of this is in Delillo’s White Noise (published 1986). The key protagonist’s descriptions of his wife are nearly always concerned with her socially “unacceptable” size as she is overweight. However, this does not paint her in a negative light; she is beautiful. All of his descriptions of her size come paired with his lust for her body and her mind intertwined to create who she is as a person.

This is where modern texts and thoughts should be situated, in a place in which size does not matter in terms of the integrity of a person. Jack, the protagonist mentioned above, has also married several other people whose weight has not been discussed. This is because the author understands the modern world: someone’s weight is not a necessary factor in who they are. The important point about women and their shape in this text is that it is transient: women can be who they want to be and for as long as they want to be. It is not down to men to categorize whether a woman’s weight is “good” or not, it is up to women to have that control.

This is an example of how modern fiction has moved away from the physical constrictions on women of the Victorian era. Not only are women free to utilise their bodies sexually in the way in which they desire, but they also should be free to develop their bodies in the way in which they desire. Neither should they, nor would they, have to be constrained in an ideal modern world, however social constraints, particularly those enforced by males, as well as the marketing industry are attempting to trap women of our generation once again and thus are unfortunately subverting the literary move towards a modern representation of women.