As a Louisiana native, English major, and self-proclaimed avid reader, I have read and studied “The Awakening” many times over. For the unfamiliar, it is about a woman who struggles against the bonds of her marriage, and the confines of society in Louisiana at the turn of the century. Here is the first line of the Goodreads synopsis. When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. I was not a fan of The Awakening initially. As a teenager […]
“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.”
Straight up, this is a classic even among classics, and so I’m giving myself permission right up front for this review not to be important or add anything to the conversation at all. I don’t actually think I’m capable of saying anything that hasn’t already been said by people who said it better than I ever could. I feel like the only way this book can be reviewed now is either by looking at it through the context of today’s societal lens, or by relating […]
By the Pricking of my Thumbs
Let me shout it from the rooftops! I LOVE MACBETH! Macbeth is my absolute favorite thing to teach all year…and my enthusiasm for the play must be catching because usually it’s my students’ favorite thing to read too. Clocking in as Shakespeare’s shortest play, there’s a heck of a lot going on it in. Rumor has it that King James I had a very short attention span (was prone to falling asleep at the theater) and loved the occult, therefore Shakespeare tried to write for […]
The wonder of free Kindle books
Recently I found myself finishing my last book. With no more library books waiting for me, I browsed through the free Kindle books I’d found on Amazon months ago. Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country (1913) stuck out. I’ve always been incredibly impressed by Edith Wharton’s writing, and I almost immediately started reading. I’m kind of ashamed by how long I let this classic languish on my Kindle while I’ve been distracted by the new and the shiny. To be honest, when I began […]
Nice Guys and Bad Boys in Victorian England
I’ve only read three of his books now, but I kind of love Thomas Hardy. Because he gets it. He gets how shitty social and moral conventions are to women. Does Hardy have an avid following like Austen or Dickens? Because he totally should! I demand more Hardy adaptations! Bathsheba Everdene – what an awesome name – is a beautiful, intelligent, confident, and fiercely independent young woman. Upon inheriting her uncle’s farm, she moves to Weatherbury, where she attracts the attention of three very different men: loyal shepherd Gabriel Oak, reserved farmer William Boldwood, […]
The Real Housewife of Yonville
Clearly the only way I can get myself to read one of the books in my continually growing to-be-read pile is for there to be a movie coming out. Get on it Hollywood, there are about 60 books I still need to get through. Disclaimers: I read a translation due to my French being nonexistent, but the original is supposed to be exquisite. I don’t have to warn about spoilers in a review about something published in 1856, do I? Madame Bovary is one of those classics in which the elements that […]
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