Elizabeth Gaskell is Shocked, SHOCKED That There is Gothic Romance and Intrigue Going on Here!
Just finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell's original Charlotte Bronte biography, and overall it was good, as long as you're willing to patiently bend back the literal text every time Charlotte does something that makes Mrs. Gaskell reach for the smelling salts. Like when she claims that Charlotte and Madame Heger's relationship suffered a break because of "difference of religion," as opposed to the fact that the latter understandably objected to Bronte's obvious infatuation with Monsieur Heger. By emphasizing Charlotte's piety and frailty you only get half of a picture, you miss the fiery heart raging under the quiet surface. Circumstances might have kept her from wearing her heart on sleeve outside her novels like Emily, but given the majority of biography shies away from this, you don't see the piercing intellect that scoffed at Jane Austen's tidy garden paths and even tidier male leads. Though speaking of Emily, it's fun to watch Gaskell be quietly scandalized by her willfull independence. I know that Emily is the acknowledged inspiration for the titular character in Charlotte's Shirley, but despite protestations to the contrary, it's easy to see Emily in Cathy Earnshaw and Charlotte in Jane Eyre. All which fits Gaskell's rubric of Good Charlotte and Anne, and Bad Emily and Branwell. Though it's hard to get around Branwell being kind of useless. All this said, the biography is an excellent example of Victorian writing, you just need to go in with eyes open to the agenda.
Other than that, life goes on pretty much the same. Got another librarian at the library to treat the books I'm checking out as too high-brow. Yeah, it's Infinite Jest, and yes, the "print is so small," but you're a librarian! Do you not like books? And secondly, the print isn't that small...I've read waaaay smaller. And the other book was Fight Club so see? I'm trying to adapt to your strange populist ways!
As I've said before I'm only like this with books, case in point was me sitting through part of The Man in Iron Mask on tv before I went into work yesterday. It's cheesy and bordering on sort of terrible (despite having Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu, AND Gabriel Byrne), but I have a soft spot for it. And it kind of made me want to reread The Three Musketeers again...might have to squeeze that in somewhere. I (predictably) love Aramis, even if he's a smartass (or maybe because of that, lol). Plus I have a great translation from Penguin with its funny deluxe edition cover with a seven panel cartoon where d'Artagnan is waiting for a duel with a guy he can't remember, not sure he's in the right place, and hungry because he skipped lunch. See it's funny because it satirizes the book; let me tell you why that's funny :)
Other than that, life goes on pretty much the same. Got another librarian at the library to treat the books I'm checking out as too high-brow. Yeah, it's Infinite Jest, and yes, the "print is so small," but you're a librarian! Do you not like books? And secondly, the print isn't that small...I've read waaaay smaller. And the other book was Fight Club so see? I'm trying to adapt to your strange populist ways!
As I've said before I'm only like this with books, case in point was me sitting through part of The Man in Iron Mask on tv before I went into work yesterday. It's cheesy and bordering on sort of terrible (despite having Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu, AND Gabriel Byrne), but I have a soft spot for it. And it kind of made me want to reread The Three Musketeers again...might have to squeeze that in somewhere. I (predictably) love Aramis, even if he's a smartass (or maybe because of that, lol). Plus I have a great translation from Penguin with its funny deluxe edition cover with a seven panel cartoon where d'Artagnan is waiting for a duel with a guy he can't remember, not sure he's in the right place, and hungry because he skipped lunch. See it's funny because it satirizes the book; let me tell you why that's funny :)