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Reply Literature: Highbrow, Lowbrow, and Anything Between
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oakleafmeg

PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 12:38 pm


Hello, I would like to introduce myself, I am a student majoring in English Literature and already hold a BA in history. I enjoy getting to discuss books as I read them and learned this past semester to never take four literature classes in one semester. 56 book in 16 weeks. I have just finished an class on J.R.R. Tolkien and was wondering if others have started to read the new book "Children of Hurin" that Christopher has just had published. I look forwards to having great conversations.
oakleafmeg, who should really be writing a thesis paper on the nature of autobiographies in WWII. smile
PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 4:23 pm


Oooh, literature and history--a lovely combo!

Any particular time period or genre of literature?

Bookwyrme
Vice Captain


oakleafmeg

PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 8:39 pm


I specialize in Medieval and Renassiance history and literature with Victorian lit another favorite. For reading for fun though I love Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
PostPosted: Wed Apr 25, 2007 10:37 pm


Yay! Another lover of Victorian literature! I love the big, fat, triple-decker novels smile

And fantasy & SF, too, though the fields can overlap; ever read Forbidden Journeys? And then there is George MacDonald and, just outside the time, Hope Mirlees. smile

Bookwyrme
Vice Captain


oakleafmeg

PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:38 am


I had read Forbidden Journey's but not the other two authors. My professor of Victorian lit had a thing for Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte. The only fun we had was reading H.Ridder Haggard. I like Wilkies novels such as The Moonstone and The Lady in White. biggrin
PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2007 11:16 pm


I love Wilkie Collins! And isn't Count Fosco one of the best villains ever?

H. Rider is a fun author, though I've only read a few of his books. I really want to read the sequel to She one of these days.

BTW: Like your professor I have a "thing" for Charlotte Bronte. With Dickens & Hardy it's more of an intense love-hate relationship.

Bookwyrme
Vice Captain


oakleafmeg

PostPosted: Tue May 01, 2007 7:14 am


Hi,
Bronte I can deal with but after three Charles Dickens books in a semester I thought that I wanted to not read Victorian books for a while. IT was also interesting that the entire class hated Tess of Duberville. The ladies of the class were not doing well with Tess's passive and tragic nature. I wanted to slap Tess about halfway through the book. Most of usin the class also did not like Jude the Obscure. Hardy writes most beautifuly but his characters drive me batty. Just once I would like to see a happy book from the Victorian period and then I remember to re-read Emma of Pride and Predjudice. Austen is one of my favorites from the time period. biggrin
PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2007 10:38 am


oakleafmeg
Hi,
Bronte I can deal with but after three Charles Dickens books in a semester I thought that I wanted to not read Victorian books for a while.


Which books? And, out of curiosity, why did you want to give up on him?

Those books of his I have read generally make me want to throw them across the room at some point because of his portrayal of the Ideal Woman (quiet, childishly meek, loves housework) and the Evil Woman (Actually wants to be involved in *politics*!) but also keep me reading because they are so intense and busy and bustling.


Quote:
IT was also interesting that the entire class hated Tess of Duberville. The ladies of the class were not doing well with Tess's passive and tragic nature. I wanted to slap Tess about halfway through the book. Most of us in the class also did not like Jude the Obscure. Hardy writes most beautifully but his characters drive me batty.


Exactly. Thus the love-hate there. His books are gorgeous, marvelous works of art, but honestly: "But nobody did come,
because nobody does" and, yes, one does want to shake poor, doomed Tess from time to time for believing in her doom.

Austen is marvelous smile

Ever read Trollope? I love the Chronicles of Barsetshire, or those of them I have read, at any rate.

Bookwyrme
Vice Captain


oakleafmeg

PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2007 9:26 pm


THe Dickens books I got to read in the semester wereGreat Expectations, Tale of Two Cities , and just in time for Christmas Christmas Carol . I agree I tend to disagree with the way that he portrays women, the passive, meek, helpless woman drove me bonkers. I am such a firery person to begin with and I just couldn't identify with the female characters.
Next semester I am being nice to myself and not taking the Melville class, the teacher is going to take 16 weeks to teach "Moby d**k" I don't think I could survive that.
Some Victorian period books tend to rile me up, that love-hate thing because I am so opposite of the females, yet I still love them. biggrin biggrin
PostPosted: Sat Jun 28, 2008 10:57 pm


Has anybody read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë? She's my favorite of the Brontës.

CLynnia

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Literature: Highbrow, Lowbrow, and Anything Between

 
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