Wilkie Collins, THE WOMAN IN WHITE

Thanks for having joined last Thursday for our discussion of Wilkie Collins' THE WOMAN IN WHITE. Cynthia, Robin, Caroline, Philippe, Monika, Helen and myself have enjoyed a quiet (we supposed school holiday induced) "English" evening at the T'Cup which had the thumbs up from all attendants. There was a general agreement that this place was much more suited for us than the often overprized traditional brasserie, although Collins and Dickens liked to take a break from England and enjoy the liberal Parisian air at their time. 

Also all thumbs up - in general - for this month's book selection (correct me if I'm mistaken - I had the impression of a very positive reception). Although it is an English classic, it was not known to everybody or a welcome opportunity to come back to it for others. On the side of the English native speakers even some small personal stories related to the book were shared - in short: A very good and appreciated choice!

Only "negative" remark came from Philippe, who found the book somewhat meaty and even bulky, seeing the large vocabulary (with many unknown words Kindle kindly provided explanation and translation for). On the other hand it was judged to be a pageturner, easy to read with a very enjoyable style. Good to know: It's first publication took place in chapters as a series in the newspaper! Apparently it is Collins' most easy to read novel, but it was not excluded to put another of his oeuvres later on the list.

Surprising for that period is the inventiveness and freedom of writing of the author: The format of the diary, enriched with the accounts, notes and letters in different styles from the different figures participating in the story!

The descriptions of places, nature and situations were very well done. Monika felt almost like being in Blackwater forest with Marian and Laura! Some also had the same effect we had about Zola's Paris in NANA when reading about St John's Wood: Strange to think of the place as only a suburb of London when it is now entirely part of the city!

Of course we also talked about the fate of women in England's mid-nineteenth century. Robin shed light on how easy it was to shuffle off women to an asylum and how corsetts constrained their physical well-being and capacity to move.  

We discussed Marian and here admirable force to take things in hands. Easy to think that she would be the real hero of the story. We know much more about her character than about Laura's.

The men in the novel were rather shortly discussed: We shared our different ideas about how Walter Hartright would look like. And Fosco's corpulence lead us to envision the actors who incorporated him in the different television screen plays.

All in all a very enjoyable evening - for the book and the venue!

 Maren

 

Julien Barnes, THE SENSE OF AN ENDING

Finally the curse is lifted !   Despite there being only four of us (Caroline, Robin, Mark, myself) we had an excellent discussion of The Sense of an Ending, by Julien Barnes.

No doubt I am missing some of the points we covered so I invite the other attendees to add comments to this rather quickly-drafted list. Additionally, it was a very thought-provoking novel and therefore we’d love to hear other people’s comments. 

• Captured well the era and the culture, including some of the humor.  (e.g., the episode with the lime tree and the insurance company)
• Great writing style – no superfluous words.  Characters well-developed and many of their actions believable.   The mean-spirited letter was very realistic.
• Tony’s life seemed quite unremarkable but it wasn’t necessarily a problem for him.  He did not seem to have many regrets.
• Veronica was unjustifiably nasty and no character seemed really very normal/nice except the ex-wife Margaret.   Well, Tony was nice but a bit too passive.
• We could not understand why Veronica called herself by two different names?   Was she only known as Mary to her brother?  It seemed an unnecessary device.
• The way that memory works and the nature of conflicting memories between two people and even two moments in time in the mind of the same person were of course discussed.   The example of the incident on the banks of the river – was Veronica really there ? – was a great example.   Not to mention all the great debates in the history class early on in the story.
• The closing sentence of the book about accumulation and responsibility and unrest was a nice sum-up of the novel.
• Nearly unanimous agreement that Tony had zero reason to feel guilty, BUT on the other hand Mark lost all respect/sympathy for Tony after the letter was revealed.  Is that a difference in the male/female perspective ?  (Philippe – your take on that?)   Having mostly agreed that Tony should have no guilt, it seems unlikely that Adrian was driven to suicide because of the letter.
• Tony did not love Veronica by our conventional definitions of love but considering his age, she was his first real passion / obsession.   We were not sure why his relationship with her was so important that he could not tell his wife about her until two years after they were married.   We also could not be sure whether he held some burning feelings for her all his life or whether he had put her out of his mind until he received the letter from the mother’s solicitor.
• We assumed the diary contained information about the mother’s pregnancy, Adrian’s reflections on several things, likely Veronica herself.   We’re not entirely convinced she really burned it – she is just the kind of manipulative person who would lie about that just not to share it with Tony.
• Some of us could totally understand Adrian’s decision to commit suicide from a philosophical point of view:  if one doesn’t believe in an afterlife, one could argue there’s more negative than positive over time so what’s the point.  However, the reader never really knows whether he killed himself because the mother was pregnant, or if he ever knew she was, or if he was alive after the child was born, etc.
• What was the meaning of the title ?  Did the word “sense” mean the “feeling” of an ending, as in bringing about closure,  or did it mean the “logic” of an ending, as in the rationale for Adrian and Robeson to bring their lives to an end ?   It could have meant both.

Cynthia

 

Carol Shields, DUET

Not only the five of us who attended (Maren, Robin, Catherine, Mark and myself), but anyone else who read this book or others by Carol Shields.  We truly missed the participation of our Canadian members, particularly Amanda who recommended this book, to have their view on the depiction of the Canadian lifestyle.

There was universal appreciation for the book, most notably the writing style.  We all seemed to feel that Shields had a fantastic ability to transform ordinary events into something interesting.  She captured a moment or an event really very beautifully.  Wonderful descriptions like the train journey, the moment when Charlene meets the police at home, etc.   While we acknowledged both books did in fact have two plots which moved forward (beginning…middle…end), we did kind of felt as though the backdrop of Canadian stability gave the reader the impression that nothing much was happening, when in fact, there were real events taking place in both novels.   The plot twist in the first novel was interesting:  there was a novel published based on her stolen plot, and the author from whom she stole it actually finally managed to publish a novel which turned out to be about her and her family staying in his home.    The author’s point about there not really being any original stories anymore was also appreciated.

Indeed it was two separate novels, with two sisters driving the stories, and each sister referenced by the other.  In fact, we even got to see Judith’s children in a more mature light in the second novel, which took place approximately two years after the first one ended.  The son was over his heartbreak from the English letters, and the daughter was now 18 and a young lady.  While the novels were originally published separately, they worked very well together.  Judith seemed far more in control of her life, while Charlene seemed less in control and more affected by their relationship with their mother.   We also discussed “degrees of craziness” between the two, and also between all the characters in the second novel.  (The ex-husband, the friend who kidnaps the son, etc.)   We could not agree whether the mother’s character needed to be developed more, or if the stereotype was a good enough way to give the reader an idea about her.   That is, the stereotype of a mother of that era, overlaid with a decorating obsession.    She was quite a contrast from the parents of Judith’s husband, who seemed to be the epitome of loving, supportive parents.

Cynthia