snap·shoot #1

Or, Books!

It's been raining steadily since last night and it's the kind of rain that might just last long enough for the Rain Giant to come along. At least, that's what I've heard. 

Sadly, there is no time to wander lazily around the house with a cup of tea and a nice long book. I've got studying to do. So, instead, I'm going to subdue that fancy by showing you some books that I bought at a book fair yesterday; then I'm going to pore over my textbooks and dream of the day I'll be reading them.

[2014] I might have *slightly* neglected to update this post since writing it. So I thought I'd write a few lines about my impressions of the ones I've read so far.

Does the name Sebastian Melmoth sound familiar? It might, if you're a fan of the great, the amazing, the resplendent and overall dazzling Oscar Wilde. Charles Maturin was a great-uncle of his and this is supposed to be a glorious example of Gothic fiction. You've got Melmoth, your protagonist, who sells his soul in exchange for immortality. I can only guess how well that went down, but for its 708 pages, it certainly went on for quite a while.

Ahhh, Pamela. Since I couldn't study Literature at uni (went for the oh-so-practical Law instead), I took it upon myself to acquaint my legislation-infused brain with all of the books lit students are made to grapple. I've got to say, it's been quite enjoyable so far, but this book might be a stumbling block, from what I've heard. Still, pretty excited to give this epistolary novel a try! See, I'm already learning things. For all the epistolary novels I've read (Evelina, The Diary of a Young Girl, I Capture the Castle, The Perks of Being a Wallflower etc.), I had no idea what the word meant. 

I managed to finish Pamela last summer. It was, surprisingly, a very nice read, but I did have to take a break towards the end, or Pamela's expansive recitation of all her virtuous self had to endure would've gotten a bit much and spoilt the experience. As it was, I found her misfortunes, well, quite entertaining to be frank, and her style of telling her tale did at times remind me of my grandmother's anecdotes she used to share with me as a child. She, too, had a colossal memory and some of her stories were, sometimes, a bit persnickety and (dare I say it) there was a smidge of self-righteousness. Pamela does come off as a goody-goody, but it was Mr. B's views I could not swallow on occasion. But don't you think Pamela does! She's very diplomatic about it, too. I could not help but laugh when thinking of their life together as a married couple :) I wasn't so fond of the book back when I finished reading it because I was still nitpicking everything I didn't like. But looking back through the stuff I marked, it seems like it was a fun, engaging read and the problem might've been that I was much too serious about it.

Aaaand another Gothic novel. I'm not a fan of the macabre (well, for all I know, I might be), but this sounded... interesting. I'm up for a good, gory read, and I'm assuming this will be it or the description on the back is very misleading.

The Monk wasn't as successful with me as Pamela, not even in retrospect. The narration was interesting enough, and if you like tales of castles, corrupted monks, sorcery, love, ruffians and the like this was great even though most of its appeal, I take it, lies in the setting (Spain, if I remember right, so you get to have awesome names and habits that went excellently with the Gothic theme). But there were a number of pretentious phrases which did not endear the book to me, and nothing quite groundbreaking to compensate (though I should take into account the time this was written and the age of the author, which I'm not). Still, I might've enjoyed it more had it not been for that ending. It was both outrageous and shoddy, or so I thought. 

 Teapots, teacups, tea, tea, tea. And a very pretty mint colour cover. Those were pretty much the selling points for this book. It sounds a little like The Tennant of Wildfell Hall. I quote from the back: "a new Lady Audley arrives at the manor: young, beautiful - and very mysterious". Yep. I can tell it's going to be fun.

Surprisingly, I don't know much about this book. I know many people who have read and enjoyed it, but I never came upon it myself. From what I could gather, this is the story of Lily Bart, a sophisticated, young lady who dares to want to marry a husband that can support her, while keeping her freedom and happiness. What a nerve, right? But I might be missing the point, since I've read precisely none of these books.

I've been meaning to read this ever since I watched the first few minutes of the film on YouTube. All I can say is that, in the movie, McGonagall and Bellatrix are vacationing in Florence, but their hotel room has no view of the beautiful city. So Julian Sands and Dr. Marcus Brody come to the rescue and offer the two their room which, as it happens, has a lovely view.

I loved the story and I loved the writing even more. Is there a more perfect book to read on a hot summer afternoon, on a rainy day in autumn, on a cold night in winter, or, you know, whenever, read it! I have to check out more of Forster's writings. I've created a bit of a paradox in my impression of Lucy, her being both someone I admired AND a character I saw a little bit of myself in. So this is a book I'd like to come back to, just to see how my perception changes. 

If you're anything like me, you probably keep lists of books you want to read. And to take the crazy a step further I group said to-be-read books by different criteria. This is on the list of books that I want to read because they have cool first lines. Here: 

I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both equally bound to it, had duly considered how much depended upon what they were then doing;—that not only the production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;—and, for aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their turn from the humours and dispositions that were then uppermost;—Had they duly weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,—I am verily persuaded that I should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that in which the reader is likely to see me.

And that is it, all of the books I bought.