The Awakening - Kate Chopin

The Awakening, originally titled 'A Solitary Soul' is a novel by Kate Chopin, first published in 1899. It is widely seen as a landmark work of early feminism.
Edna Pontellier, her husband Leonce and their two sons are vacationing in a resort at Grand Isle. She befriends Madame Ratingolle and Mademoiselle Reisz. Madame Ratingolle is an epitome of motherhood who devote her entire being to the care of her children, husband and household. Mademoiselle Reisz is a pianist, eccentric and lives alone. She also befriends Robert Lebrun, a son of the resort owner. Edna and Robert walk and relax in the beach. Edna feels more alive while she is with Robert and realizes that she had been miserable with her husband. Edna falls in love with Robert. Robert leaves Grand Isle telling everyone that he has to seek his fortune in business. Edna is hurt with Robert's sudden departure. When Edna returns to New Orleans, she withdraws from the duties traditionally associated with motherhood. Leonce consuslts a doctor about Edna's behavior, who advises to leave her alone for a while. Leonce sends the boys to his mother, and goes to NewYork on a business. Edna's newfound freedom makes her to move out of the house and she settles in a small bungalow nearby. She meets Robert accidentally and makes him to confess his love for her. Before they decide about their future, she is called to assist Madame Ratingolle's delivery. When she returns, she finds that Robert has left once for all leaving a goodbye note. She neither wants to hurt her children nor willing  to go back to her miserable life with Leonce, decides to end her life and travels to Grand Isle and walks to the ocean.
Chopin's writing is lucid and poetic. I would definitely love to read it again.

Checking progress of my Classics Club List - Miles to go!!!!

It has been one year and six months since I joined The classics club. I pulled myself to a challenge of reading 100 books in a span of four years. I have read 18 books so far, blogged only 15, yet to blog 3 and got 82 books to read in 30 months. That sets my goal to read 3 books from my classics club shelf every month. Currently I have just read one book a month from my list. Huge task rests before me and I have to pull myself hard to reach my goal.

The Germinal - Emile Zola

I wanted to read this novel since a year or so and finally made it. I absolutely loved Zola's writing. Germinal is a masterpiece and I am happy to have read it. It is the thirteenth novel of the famous 'Rougon-Macquart' series.  This is my first book in the series and first by Emile Zola. There is no need to read the series in order. But I would love to read it so, somewhere in the near future.
It was first published in 1885. Zola wrote this book after a year of research and travels to the mining countries in Northern France. It exposes the pathetic life of mining community in a small French town called Montsou. The novel's title comes from the name of the 7th month in the revolutionary calendar. Germinal was the period of April-May, symbolizing the spring time of revolution.
The protagonist Etienne, having lost his job, reaches Voreux, a coal mine near Montsou in search of a job, almost dying of hunger. Though he is a mechanic, he takes the job as a miner and becomes part of Maheu's crew. The mines are described in detail. Zola describes the village of the mining community, which is named Two hundred and forty. He shows vividly the horrific living conditions of the mining community describing in detail the house and the daily routine of the Maheu family. Etienne is attracted towards Catherine, Maheu's daughter who is friendly. But Chaval takes Catherine as his girl friend. Though Catherine is not fond of Chaval, she thinks that it is her fate and she has no alternative. Chaval is a brutal man, and injures Catherine whenever he gets chance. Etienne and Chaval become rivals straightaway and Zola goes on to tell a disturbing triangular love relationship. Etienne is educated and is disturbed by the near slave life of the miners. He stays at Rassaneurs, where he befriends Sauvarine, a Russian anarchist. Etienne seeds revolutionary ideas among miners. He finally leads the workers to strike, when the wages are reduced. The strike which starts as silent revolution, soon turns violent. Though the strike ends with no imminent change in the living conditions of the miner, zola ends the novel with hope.

"Now the April sun, in the open sky, was shining in his glory, and warming the pregnant earth. From its fertile flanks life was leaping out, buds were bursting into green leaves, and the fields were quivering with the growth of the grass. On every side seeds were swelling, stretching out, cracking the plain, filled by the need of heat and light. An overflow of sap was mixed with whispering voices, the sound of the germs expanding in a great kiss. Again and again, more and more distinctly, as though they were approaching the soil, the mates were hammering. In the fiery rays of the sun on this youthful morning the country seemed full of that sound. Men were springing forth, a black avenging army, germinating slowly in the furrows, growing towards the harvests of the next century, and their germination would soon overturn the earth."

 

The Turn Of The Screw - Henry James

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James is a gothic ghost story published in 1898. An unnamed governess was appointed by a handsome and wealthy man to take care of his nephew and niece, whose parents have died in India. The man gives the governess full charge and with a condition not to bother him at all. The governess goes to his country estate house, Bly at Essex. The story is in first person narrative by the governess. The previous Governess and a servant had died recently at Bly. Apparitions are seen by the governess. I am not going to tell the story...
I admit that there are not much of ghost actions you expect in a ghost story to give you the horror and chill. Yet, the narrative is vivid giving an eerie chill, and keeping you in mystery. Definitely it is a thrilling read.

The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar is the only novel written by the American writer Sylvia Plath. It is a semi-autobiographical novel where Plath tells about her mental illness. The novel was published under pseudonym Victoria Lucas in 1963. It is sad that Plath died by suicide a month after its publication. The novel was published under her real name for the first time in 1967 in UK and was not published in the US until 1971, in accordance with the wishes of both her husband, Ted Hughes and her mother.
Her other important creation was Ariel.

 

 



Esther Greenwood, the protagonist of the novel is narrating her story. She is nineteen and from Boston. She is at New York having won a fashion magazine contest. She is offered a job as an apprentice to Joyce, the editor of a prominent women's magazine at New York. Apart from this, she is also offered passes to fashion shows, free ballet tickets etc. for winning the contest. There were eleven other girls along with her having won some contest and they are put up at Amazon hotel. In others view, she is one of the luckiest girl. She was supposed to be having the time of her life.

"Look what can happen in this country, they'd say. A girl lives in some out of the way town for nineteen years, so poor she can't afford a magazine, and then she gets a scholarship to college & wins a prize here and a prize there and ends up steering New York like her own private car.

Only I wasn't steering anything. Not even myself. I just bumped from my hotel to work and to parties and from parties to my hotel and back to work like a numb trolley-bus. I guess I should have been excited the way most of the other girls were, but I couldn't get myself to react."

 

Esther shows us outright that she is not normal. The narration is beautiful and Esther draws us into her world and tells us how she slowly spiraled into major depression. Unable to bear the painful shock therapy (Electroconvulsive therapy) from her psychiatrist, she attempts suicide. She was revived and thanks to her benefactress, gets treatment at a private hospital under Dr. Nolan. Dr. Nolan also give her ECT after a brief period of time. This time ECT gives her relief. She says,

"All the heat and fear had purged itself. I felt surprisingly at peace. The bell jar hung suspended a few feet above my head. I was open to the circulating air."

The novel ends when she enters a room of doctors, who are to decide whether she is fit to be discharged.

The Bell Jar is a very engaging novel. The writing is elegant and poetic. I love this title, so very appropriate. I look forward to read Ariel, Plath's other major work.

I count this book for Women's classic literature event.

 

 

Three men in a boat (To say nothing of the dog) - Jerome K Jerome

Three men in a boat by Jerome K Jerome was published in 1889. The story is narrated by J (author). He narrates about the boat trip he undertakes along the Thames River with his friends George & William Samuel Harris. One night the three men decide that a vacation would be good for their health and decide to spend a fortnight rowing in Thames along with their dog Montmorency. The author narrates about their preparation, packing and their departure to Kingston to start their Journey along the Thames River to Oxford. As they journey along he narrates about the places they cross. He also tells anecdotes which would definitely make you laugh out loud. I enjoyed this travelogue turned comical book.

I count this book for my Reading England Challenge.

 

Hospital Sketches - Louissa May Alcott

I read this book last year for LMRC, but didn't blog about it then. As it is in my Classics Club List, I am writing about it now. This is a novella where the author writes about her experiences as a nurse during the civil war. Alcott fictionalizes her short career as a nurse and gives herself a pseudonym, Tribulation Periwinkle.
Tribulation Periwinkle looking for something to do follows her brother Tom's advice and decides to become a nurse for the union army. She does get an appointment, not at her desired place, but at Hurly-burly hotel which is running as a temporary hospital. She goes on to describe her hardship in reaching the hospital at Washington DC. She then describes her job as a nurse. She was called upon to wash the wounded, immediately on arriving. Though she was embarrassed at first, she masters the art of nursing. Soon, she was promoted as head nurse of the night shift. She calls her patients, her boys and treats them motherly. She tells about her boys and the process of nursing. I was moved particularly by the story of John, a blacksmith from Virginia. Though the horror of war is felt, the narrator's tone alleviates the depressing mood.  Nurse Periwinkle was forced to leave the hospital when she falls ill and her father brings her home. In the last chapter, "A postscript," she answers the questions her readers had raised.
In her own words, Hospital sketches showed her what she called "her style", the telling, with heart and humor, of life as she lived it.