A Room With A View, by E. M. Forster

This is my second time reading this since high school--prompted by a recent viewing of the 1980's film adaptation with Helena Bonham Carter.  I like Howards End even better, but A Room with a View is very fun read too.  It's a romantic comedy about Lucy Honeychurch, an upper middle class, rather sheltered young lady, who goes on a tour of Italy with her proper spinster Aunt Charlotte, and who has her horizons widened, and not just by the art and architecture.  She meets a variety of different people, not the least of which are two very different young men:  George Emerson, a passionate young railway clerk, beneath her in class, but to whom her thoughts keep reverting despite herself, and Cecil Vyse, a wealthy aesthete who would make a respectable husband for a girl of her station.  Which will she choose? 

E.M. Forster has a talent for showing the state of mind of his characters by subtle details in their behavior or reactions, with nothing overplayed or forced such that everything seems natural yet significant.

Howards End, by E. M. Forster

This is a re-read for me, prompted after watching the Emma Thompson/Anthony Hopkins movie based on it.  Howards End is the name of an old country house in England that is the childhood home of Ruth Wilcox, to whose family it has belonged for generations.  She has a deep love for her family home and land, and the traditions of the village where she was born.  It makes her something of the odd woman out in her family, since her husband, a wealthy industrialist, and adult children are all very modern and practical in their tastes and outlook on life.  They befriend the Schlegels, upper middle class intellectuals who value education and cultural pursuits, and who have formed a friendship with Leonard Bast, a lower class clerk who aspires to become more intellectually and culturally learned.  The book is about how these three groups of people interact with each other, and who will end up inheriting Howards End (which could be thought of as a symbol for England in general) after Ruth Wilcox's death. 

The book is enjoyable and can be read on several different levels.  The movie is very well done too, and quite close to the original storyline.

Les mouettes, par Sándor Márai

Les personnages de ce roman font des monologues tellement longs que je me suis endormie plusieurs fois pendant la lecture. Pas recommandé sauf comme somnifère.

Mumu, by Ivan Turgenev

This story made me cry! The Goodreads description says it is about the poverty and brutality of serfdom, but I didn't see anything like that in the story.

While Gerasim, as a serf, is not rich, he lives in comfortable enough circumstances and does not want for any material necessity, and neither do his fellow serfs, whether in the country or city.  Rather, Gerasim's problem is isolation and loneliness, brought about by his disability as a deaf-mute and the indifference of those around him, whether serf or free.

The laundress he courts does not return his affection, and it's only after she has spent a few years married to a drunk does she learn something: There's a difference between a man who tries, however awkwardly, to earn her affection and one to whom she has merely been given as an unsuccessful means to cure bad behavior. Big difference.

Gerasim's affection is only welcomed and returned with joy when he rescues a little dog named Mumu. She is the apple of his eye, his faithful shadow, his sole consolation in this life. She's the only one who appreciates him. An ill timed bark and momentary irritation from the old lady (mistress of the house), however, is enough to lead to Gerasim being forced to give her up too, in the most heart wrenching and irrevocable of ways, on top of everything else he's already given up.

The old lady is not a cruel or malicious woman; she is just thoughtless and self centered. She has been so long accustomed to her serfs' following orders, satisfying her wants that she has ceased to think of them as people. To her they're instruments. By the end of the story, she is surprised to find herself in the same spot as King David was, accused of taking away Uriah's one ewe lamb. (King David was surprised too).

Even the other serfs, who know perfectly well what Mumu means to Gerasim, and how capricious their mistress is, fail him. They could have pleaded his case to her or just helped him keep the dog out of her way until she was in a better mood. Instead, her word is law and they obey without question. They don't put themselves in Gerasim's place any more than she does, and putting themselves out for his sake even a little bit doesn't occur to them.

I can see how this story was good for consciousness raising among the Russian nobility of Turgenev's day toward the serfs. But its lessons still apply to our own time--we modern people who use legality as an excuse to dispense with morality, who are becoming accustomed to think of each other in a utilitarian way as instruments rather than as persons.

First Love, by Ivan Turgenev

Excellently told story about a 16 year old boy's first experience and understanding of love with the seemingly unattainable young lady who has moved in next door... and his unlikely rival.  As with other books by Turgenev, the characters come across as very real such that you can lose yourself in the story.  Really enjoyed it.

Spring Torrents, by Ivan Turgenev

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
--Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

That's what this book is about--those times in a person's life when he stands at a fork in the road.  He must choose only one, and that decision changes his life irrevocably.  A young Russian nobleman has just arrived in Frankfurt on his way home after a grand tour in Italy.  He expects to stay in Frankfurt only a few hours until his next stagecoach arrives.  While walking around the city, he sees a small Italian confectionery shop on a little side street and decides to drop in for a glass of lemonade.  This sets off a series of events that culminate in a choice between a life of happiness or one of misery.

I couldn't stop reading until the end!

L'Étrangère, by Sándor Márai

This is a story about a man who is searching for the ultimate meaning of life in all the wrong places, to the point where his life spirals out of control, and he falls into despair, if not insanity.  I did find it too slowly paced at times (too much description about the protagonist's random musings and surroundings). Poor guy would have benefited greatly by reading St. Augustine's <i>Confessions</i>, I think, but then Marai wouldn't have had anything to write about if he had.

But then again, maybe Márai might have made a more interesting, complex and better story out of this man's turning his life around and with more material he could have cut out some of the random musings and surroundings that bogged me down.

Portrait of a Marriage, by Sandor Marai

This novel is an account of the formation and demise of a marriage told from three points of view: the wife's, the husband's, and the husband's mistress's. The writing and situations were realistic and convincing enough, but there was too much focus on class differences in the book: the husband could be described as upper middle class, the wife lower middle, the mistress (who was the housekeeper in the husband's mother's home), is working class. Since they all knew each other's background before choosing to get involved with each other, I did find it tiresome that they kept on feeling so self-conscious about it, even after getting married. If class differences are that important, why not marry someone else? And I didn't find any of the three main characters likable, so I didn't enjoy the book as much as I could have.

A Match for Mary Bennet, by Eucharista Ward

The premise is interesting but I found the book much too slowly paced and without the nuanced, sometimes wry observations of Austen on her characters and their society. It seemed like the author spent too much time trying to develop detailed plot lines and not enough on making the characters seem real or bringing out insightful commentary about their thoughts and situations. I lost interest and bailed out about halfway through. Not surprised, though. Jane Austen is a hard act to follow.

Divorce à Buda, by Sandor Marai

This book has many similarities to Embers in that it's also the story of a love triangle with two men in love with the same woman, and the story is told in the form of a conversation between the two men, old friends, after the woman has died. While it lacks the theatrical setting and characters of Embers its storyline has an otherworldly side to it in the idea of a divine pattern thwarted by chance and the long term effects of decisions that seemed inconsequential at the time they were made.

I think Embers is better, but this was pretty good too.

The Professor's House, by Willa Cather

Willa Cather displays her talent for storytelling, and creating believable characters and situations in this novel.  It is set up a bit differently from other books of hers I have read, as we have the main story line about the professor, his family, and his impending retirement, and a second one told in flashback about Tom Outland, his most celebrated student (and his daughter's fiance)--an inventor and adventurer whose promising life was cut short in World War I.

The two storylines invite comparison, as the first one features the professor's quiet, comfortable everyday life, preoccupied with moving into a new house, and the second one is prompted by the professor's coming across Tom's diary among the things in his study while preparing for the move, and reading through it.

Tom's life before coming to the university was everything the professor's isn't--chaotic, impoverished, adventurous, with lots of time spent exploring the ruins of the pueblo Indians' cave dwellings in New Mexico.  The professor, having completed and been recognized for his masterwork on Spanish history, feels that there is nothing left in life to look forward to.  His daughters are both married and on their own; they don't seem to need him as much as they used to.  The elder especially, who has inherited Tom's estate, is developing some personality traits he doesn't care for.  The new house is more his wife's project than his.  There is no place in it comparable to his old attic study, where so much of his work was done and which holds many memories.  He stays in it long after the rest of the house has been vacated, to the point of renting the old house for some extra months.

It's the perfect picture of a man who is reluctant to move on to a new phase of life (which looks drab and uninteresting from his present point of view), and tries to hang on to the old life for as long as possible.

Thérèse Raquin, by Honoré de Balzac

This book reminds me of why I decided to avoid Zola years ago, after reading Germinal.  Basically, his characters are born…and their lives go downhill from there.  There are some similarities to Thomas Hardy, but at least Hardy’s characters have a more hopeful outlook in the early part of the story and strong redeeming qualities even if fate does get them in the end.

**spoiler alert!**

Therese Raquin is the story of a sordid love triangle in a depressing working class neighborhood.  Therese was adopted permanently by her aunt after her parents died, and she married her cousin Camille, a sickly boy with whom she was raised, and whom she married only because she was expected to and for lack of other prospects.  After they move to Paris, Therese starts an affair with Camille’s best friend Laurent (big healthy meathead type), and together they plot to kill Camille so that they can marry and inherit her elderly aunt’s property after her death.  Their consciences, however, prove impossible to appease after the murder, and they become subject to Macbeth-like psychotic delusions, seeing their victim around or sensing his presence, especially when they are alone together.  Everything comes to a tragic end.

There was only one character in this book that I liked, and that was the Raquins’ tabby cat Francois.  Even he was very cruelly murdered.

Don’t pick up this book unless you are in the mood for a major downer.

Esther's Inheritance, by Sandor Marai

This was an interesting story, albeit not as good as Embers, as far as characters and storyline go.  Like Embers, it is a story told through the memories of people who lived through the events long ago.  In this case, the protagonist is Esther, a woman in her forties, who was betrayed twenty years ago by Lajos, the man she loved, and her sister Vilma.  Lajos is basically a charlatan who is used to getting his way by telling people what they want to hear and talking them out of their money and property while pretending to care nothing about material things at all.  And after twenty years, two children, Vilma’s death, and having to skip town because he talked his father in law into losing most of his assets in fraudulent investments, Lajos is coming back—to take from Esther what little property she has left (the family house and land), which is all she has to live on.

Embers, by Sandor Marai

Love triangles have got to be among the oldest storylines out there, but this one is very beautifully told. An old aristocratic General living in a remote Hungarian forest receives a visit from a long lost friend, and they reminisce about their childhood, their days at military school and military service... and about the General's long dead wife. The setting and time of the story (interwar Europe) give it a dramatic, almost otherworldly atmosphere, and the story is told obliquely. Situations and emotions are revealed through small details, observations, and remarks in conversation rather than straightforward narrative, which makes it very realistic.

A Tangled Web, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I enjoyed this novel, which consists of the various stories about the members of a large extended clan, all of whom are anxious to see who will inherit a prized family heirloom jug from the matriarch of the family. As with her Anne of Green Gables series, L. M. Montgomery shows her knack for storytelling, finding humor in everyday situations, some common, others not so common, and the joys and sorrows of life in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Good entertaining read.

The Blue Castle, by Lucy Maud Montgomery

This is a sweet little story that reminded me of the Bette Davis movieNow, Voyager. It's about a timid, quiet woman who is endlessly twitted about her plain looks and unmarried state by her insensitive relatives, all of whom take her for granted and generally see her as a nonentity. When a doctor diagnoses her with a serious illness and tells her she only has a year to live, she decides to go out and make the most of the time she has left, learning to be independent from her family, mastering her fears, and finding love.

If you are looking for great literature with deep characters and psychological insight, this is not for you. It's a fun quick read with a heartwarming message.

Beware of Pity, by Stefan Zweig

This was a very detailed psychological novel about Lieutenant Hofmiller, a soldier who upsets Edith, a young lame girl by asking her to dance at a ball, as he was unaware of her disability. Unwilling to hurt anyone and wishing to do good, he befriends the family, becomes a regular visitor at their house, and allows them to depend more and more on him until he feels obligated to fulfill their expectations. On the other hand, Edith, used to being the center of attention as the only child of wealthy parents, is unable to accept reality full-time. She swings between elation from living in a fantasy world where her condition is curable and where she can look forward to living life as an able bodied woman, and severe depression when she faces reality and can't accept it. The whole household (and soon, Hofmiller too) has made it their primary concern to keep her as much as possible in her fantasy world. There are two other similar couples in the story with which we can contrast the main couple, both of whom married at least in part due to pity on the part of the husband toward the wife: Edith's parents (her father is a self-made millionaire who made his fortune by taking financial advantage of her mother, whom he then felt obligated to marry) and her doctor and his blind wife. Both made successes of their marriages, as compared to Edith and Hofmiller, whose engagement ends in tragedy on the eve of World War I.

The Axe, by Sigrid Undset

I'm liking this series as much as <i>Kristin Lavransdatter</i>.  Like <i>Kristin</i>, it is the life story of a person in medieval Norway, a man this time, named Olav Audunsson.  The book is separated into two parts, the first primarily concerning Olav and his experiences; the second primarily about his fiancee Ingunn.  Olav's parents having died early in his childhood, he becomes the foster son of Ingunn's parents and the children grow up with the knowledge that they are betrothed to each other.  Their betrothal was not carried out with all the formalities as it ought to have been, leading to problems for the couple and their families.  It's set in an earlier time than <i>Kristin</i>, so Norway has become a Christian country, but in the people have still not fully transitioned from their old ways.