Summer Reading: Children's Classics

Over the last few years, I've given myself a summer reading challenge, using the time between Memorial Day and Labor Day to read a collection of books based on a certain theme.  So far these have included The Lord of the Rings, Southern classics, German literature, world literature, and detective fiction.  This year, I have decided to read some classics of children's literature.  I've always had an affinity for well written children's books, and the best ones will delight readers of any age.  Here are the ones I have selected for this year:

• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick.  This modern classic was turned into the Oscar nominated film Hugo, which I really enjoyed.  It tells the story of Hugo Cabret, a young orphan secretly living in a Paris train station in the 1930's.  While working on an automaton that his inventor father left him (and which he is sure contains a secret message), Hugo becomes involved with a toy shop owner (Papa Georges) and his granddaughter Isabelle.  It soon becomes apparent that Hugo's automaton has a connection to Papa Georges secret past.

•  The Rescuers by Margery Sharp.  This is the first in a series of popular children's stories by English author Margery Sharp.  It is about a mouse named Miss Bianca and her involvement with the Prisoner's Aid Society of Mice.  This book would go on to be the basis for the Disney films The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under.    

• Heidi by Johanna Spyri.  This story is one of the best known children's classics and also one of the most famous works of Swiss literature.  Young Heidi is orphaned and sent to live with her grandfather on a farm in the Swiss Alps.  Though he is initially cold towards the girl, she eventually softens his heart and they lead a contented life.  Heidi is then sent to gain an education as a companion to a wealthy girl named Clara.  Though Heidi is surrounded by wealth, she longs to return to the mountains and her grandfather.

•  Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie.  This classic tale of the boy who wouldn't grow up has delighted readers for over a century.  After meeting this strange boy during his nighttime visit to their London house, Wendy, John, and Michael Darling embark on a magical adventure to Neverland.  Here they meet the fairy Tinker Bell, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, the gang of Lost Boys, and the infamous Captain Hook.

• The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham.  This one is a re-read for me, but I love it so much that I really wanted to be able to properly review it.  This book relates the adventures of four forest friends, Rat, Mole, Toad, an Badger.  Their various escapades range from the simple, to the fantastic, to the supernatural and each shows the loveliness of pastoral England.

•  The Little Prince by Antoine De Saint-Expurey.  This novella is the most read and the most translated work of French literature.  After crashing his plane in the Sahara desert, the narrator comes into contact with a young boy he dubs "The Little Prince".  As the narrator tries to fix his plane, the Prince recounts the story of his life.

I am very excited about reading these classic stories.  Have you read any of them?  If so, please let me know what your impression was.  And feel free to let us know what your own summer reading plans are.

Shirley

“If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed; but the cleverest, the acutest men are often under an illusion about women: they do not read them in a true light: they misapprehend them, both for good and evil: their good woman is a queer thing, half doll, half angel; their bad woman almost always a fiend.” 

After the sweeping success of her first published work, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte set out to create a completely different type of story.  This was to be a real story, about the struggles of real people.  Amidst the heartache caused by her own family's tragedies, Charlotte joined many other Victorian writers by creating a novel meant to highlight the problems facing their society.  

The Plot:

Set in Yorkshire in 1811-12, Shirley opens with mill owner Robert Moore's delivery of new machinery.  Because of the large debt his mill is in, Moore has had to lay off several workers and this new machinery will only help him lay off more.  His seeming lack of care for the poverty his former workers now find themselves in causes much unrest with many threatening to harm the machinery and Moore himself.  One of the comforts Moore has is his friendship with Caroline Helstone, the orphaned niece of the local parson.  Though he has feelings for her, Moore distances himself from Caroline since she is penniless and he cannot afford to marry solely for love.

The arrival of an independent heiress  to the neighborhood causes quite a stir.  Orphaned and having no brothers, Shirley is now a landowner with many tenants, including Robert Moore, and she runs the business matters on her own.  She and Caroline quickly become friends and Caroline is fascinated by this strong, independent female.  As time passes, Caroline notices a certain preference growing between Robert and Shirley, and she dreads seeing the man she loves married to her best friend.  Tensions between mill owners and workers grow, secrets are revealed, and a new arrival further complicates the love triangle.  There are decisions Shirley must make to bring resolution to this chaotic situation.

My Review (Caution - Spoilers):

Those who have read my blog know that I am a huge fan of the Brontes, especially Charlotte's work.  My quest to read all of their works is slowly drawing to a close and Shirley is my next to last one.  Though it had a bit of popularity in it's original publication, it is no longer as well-known among readers today.  And that is for good reason.

Though you find some basic similarities in subject matter between Shirley and Jane Eyre, that is as close as you come to comparison.  This sweeping social novel is a far cry from the intimate Gothic romance of her earlier work.  Here, Charlotte tries to portray the all too real struggles of the poor in industrial England.  She takes shots at the government, the church, and greedy owners not only for not helping address the issues, but also for creating the problems in the first place.  She also addresses the role of women in society.  Though Shirley is an independent woman who has proven her ability to manage her own affairs, she is still expected to marry and turn over everything to her husband.  She, Caroline, and all the other women are meant only to marry, or to become lonely spinsters and governesses.  I found the use of a traditionally male name for this independent female character to be very intelligent, and it even caused the name to become a predominantly female name.  But though Charlotte was doing battle against many traditional views, readers did not find it as shocking as Jane Eyre.

And therein lies the problem with this novel.  When it comes to great Gothic novels with startling and shocking ideas, nobody does it better than the Brontes.  But Charlotte just wasn't meant for the relatively tame social novel.  The story is fairly boring, the romances uninteresting, and even the peculiar Shirley cannot really hold our attention.  Part of me thinks that if this story had been told in the first person by Shirley, it might have been more interesting, but our omniscient narrator doesn't really do much except chide society for its faults.  All in all, it fails to meet the same quality of social novels like those by Thackery, Gaskell, and Dickens.

So is this something you should read?  It all depends.  Us Bronte devotees have a bit of an obligation to read it, even if we don't really enjoy it.  For the casual reader, I would suggest sticking to novels like North and South for a better representation of a Victorian social novel.                  

Understanding Through Literature

For the past week, our entire nation has been glued to our television sets.  From the horrific bombing in Boston last Monday to the tense lockdown and manhunt on Friday, it seems like our lives were consumed by what was happening on the 24 hour news channel.  But though our attention to the constant stream of information kept us in the loop, it didn't help us wrap our minds around what was happening.  It brought us knowledge without understanding.  For that, we find ourselves turning to literature.

During the lockdown, Liesl Schillinger over at the Daily Beast pored over Leo Tolstoy's final novel, Hadji Murat, to discover the lengthy and volatile history of the Caucasus.  Katie Roiphe at Slate Magazine discusses how the novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist can help give us a clearer picture of the bomber brother.  And during a lecture on the writings of Flannery O'Connor that I attended, the speaker mused on how the compassion shown by the grandmother to The Misfit in her story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" might encourage us to also receive grace through compassion towards those who mean us harm.  There is perhaps no other medium or art form that can bring us solace and understanding quite like reading can.  In a world where cold hard facts are bombarding us constantly from every direction, seeing it all played out in literature can help us process it and see it from a different perspective.  We look for our own desires, hurts, and fears in the lives of fictional characters.  We feel that by understanding their stories, we might actually come to grips with our own.

Have you ever found a way to understand your own problems through a book?  Have you come across a novel that can help us heal and understand this recent tragedy?  How do you find comfort in a good novel?  Share your thoughts here.

The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. Exactly what the fairy tale does is this: it accustoms him for a series of clear pictures to the idea that these limitless terrors had a limit, that these shapeless enemies have enemies in the knights of God, that there is something in the universe more mystical than darkness, and stronger than strong fear.  - G. K. Chesterton

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

“The most fatal thing a man can do is try to stand alone.” 

In 1940, a novel was published that would skyrocket on the best-seller's list and eventually find itself on many "best of" lists including TIME Magazine's TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.  Who would have expected that a story that could grip a nation like that would come from the pen of a 23 year old woman living in Charlotte, NC.  The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the debut novel of Carson McCullers who would go on to create other works that gave a voice to the outcasts and misfits in the American south.

The Plot:

John Singer is a deaf/mute living in a small Georgia mill town in the 1930s.  He used to live with a friend and fellow deaf/mute named Spiros Antonapoulos until he was institutionalized.  Singer then rents a room from the Kelly family which brings him into contact with new acquaintances.  There's young Mick Kelly, a tomboy on the verge of womanhood who craves music and the luxury of a piano.  Jake Blount, an alcoholic and labor agitator.  Biff Brannon who owns a local diner and has a front row seat to the lives of the various townspeople.  And Dr. Benedict Copeland, an African American physician whose idealism puts him at odds with his family.  Each person comes to see Singer as a confidant who listens to and understands their deepest problems.  But will they realize that Singer has problems of his own and a desire to be understood as well?

My Review (Caution - Spoilers):

I have to say that I find it incredible that a story with this much depth and realism came from someone so young.  It certainly shows what an observant and understanding person McCullers must have been.  The way she captures the brutal reality of the Depression era south is at once beautiful and sad.

Loneliness is definitely the main theme here (though prejudice, racism, and poverty also play their part).  There is something in the life of each character that puts a barrier between them and the outside world.  Singer has a physical disability, Mick lives in poverty, Jake is drowning in alcohol, Biff works all of the time, and Dr. Copeland is a black man in a white man's world.  None of them have anyone to whom they can really bare their soul.  But each of Singer's acquaintances believes him to be the one person in the world they can talk to.  He is the one person who "listens" to what they have to say without judgement, advice, or ridicule.  Nothing but pure understanding.  But even they do not see the man inside, and they don't realize that he is crying out for the same understanding and finding none.

This is not a "fun" novel by any stretch of the imagination.  It has the brutality and grotesqueness of a Flannery O'Connor story without the grace and redemption.  None of the characters are able to break out of their loneliness and realize their dreams.  And Singer's suicide is one big punch in the gut that is certainly capable of bringing one to tears.  Like the other characters, I had grown emotionally attached to him and found his death to be shattering.

I would not say that this is a book for everyone, nor would I say that it is one I "enjoyed".  But it is certainly a classic of American literature and deserves the high praise it has received.  If you enjoy novels in the Southern Gothic tradition, or even just sad books, I suggest you give this one a try.

The Movie:

The book was made into a 1968 film starring Alan Arkin, Sondra Locke, and Cicely Tyson.  It is a good adaptation, though perhaps it has a somewhat happier ending for some of the characters.  Worth watching, with or without reading the book.                  

Roses Are Red....

Today is World Poetry Day, a time to reflect on what is probably the most beautiful (and often the most overlooked) genre of literature.  When prose fails us, we can often find true expression in the lyrical beauty of a poem.  There is a poem for every occasion: great epics telling stories of old, poems of grief and lament, poems that express love in all of its forms, and poems that capture the beauty of the world around us.  To celebrate this day, here is a video clip from the 2003 BBC visual anthology Essential Byron.  Hugh Dancy reads "She Walks In Beauty"...

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy

The story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer is one that is familiar to many, but for different reasons.  Academics often speak on the literary qualities of his collection Letters and Papers from Prison.  Theologians admire and debate his works of theology like Ethics or The Cost of Discipleship.  And historians recount his role in the failed plot to assassinate Hitler.  But who was Dietrich Bonhoeffer really and how do all of these various roles come together in his life?  In his compelling biography, Eric Metaxas strives to tell Bonhoeffer's story and bring together the many facets that made him so remarkable.

For those of you who may not be familiar with him, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and pastor.  He was born in 1906 and by the age of 21 he had earned his doctorate in theology from the University of Berlin.  He pastored congregations in other German cities and Barcelona, and even spent a year at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.  As the Nazi's rose to power, Bonhoeffer tried to wake the German church up to the atrocities that were going on, and eventually he became involved with the German resistance.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy describes every aspect of Bonhoeffer's life from his somewhat idyllic childhood in a traditional yet intellectual family to his years spent doing theological battle with fellow Christians, to his decision to become involved in a plot to assassinate one of the most evil men in history.  Metaxas tells this story passionately, and his writing is thorough yet easy to read.  Though I had read some of Bonhoeffer's works and was pretty familiar with his story, this book gave me a greater understanding of the man and the many ways he contributed to the world around him.  I think one of the newer things that struck me about him was the boldness he had in facing not only the Nazi government, but also the church itself.  The very people who should have been sounding the alarm when Hitler first came to power were the ones welcoming him and hoping to have influence over him.  Bonhoeffer was one of the few churchmen who called Hitler out and encouraged the church to take a stand for what was right.

His relationship with his family and friends was also a new aspect for me.  He seemed to be a very genuine person and though earnest in his beliefs he was nevertheless open and loving to those around him.  I also loved how both the traditional religious beliefs as well as the modern intellectualism of his family life came together to create someone who held firm to his beliefs and used reason to convince others.  He was a truly unique person in whom so many different qualities came together to create someone all of us can learn from.

Though this book is about a theologian and from a Christian perspective, it is a wonderful story for anyone who loves history and reading about inspiring people.  I highly recommend this biography and suggest that when you are done you give Bonhoeffer's own works a try.