Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers

 

“Wherever you find a great man, you will find a great mother or a great wife standing behind him -- or so they used to say. It would be interesting to know how many great women have had great fathers and husbands behind them.” ― Dorothy L. Sayers, Gaudy Night

As with most of Americans, when I read the title, I thought, "What the heck is a Gaudy??" The definition of 'Gaudy', references to A feast; esp., an annual dinner or reunion at a British university. And this is how the story began with our heroine, Harriet Vane has been invited back to her alma mater, an all-female Shrewsbury College, in Oxford, to attend the annual Gaudy celebrations.

Although, this is not a 'Murder Mystery', nor is a 'Cozy Mystery', I was a little intrigued to find this a 'literal masterpiece' and wondering why I had never heard of Dorothy Sayers before. This Psychological Thriller, does have several moments that have you on the edge of your seat. When Harriet is not running into trouble or having the 'perpetrator' of poison letters, attempting to strangle her, she enjoys a lighter more romantic filler between her and her paramour Lord Peter Wimsey, as they enjoy a Sunday afternoon 'punting', picnicking, and feeding ducks, as he repeatedly asks her to marry him. At the heart, you can tell that Dorothy Sayers, wrote this novel to present another theme in that of 'Women's Independence'. Even here now in 2021 almost a hundred years later, (I would like to say we've come a long way baby, with a woman for Vice President), but still feel so far away as there is still a rift between, Women's choice in cheering each other on. Should a woman feel less for choosing a family as a wife, mother, home maker? Or is a career and a college degree more something of what should be desired and obtained?? Or why not both? Can she have her cake and eat it too, or would she be spreading herself to thin, as the dons at this fictional school discussed a mother would always choose her family over her job any day. Which for me has always been true. Working on and off again, my thoughts have always been 'Family comes First', and these dons at the college looked down on this as to the point of discrimination, not to hire a mother, because this was a fault, that when a child is sick, she would neglect her work. This filler part of the story was interesting as these thoughts on working mothers still exists today.

Back to the mystery, another one of my favorite facets to the story that I love are all the literary gems and references to literary works, like Shakespeare, Dickens, stories from Greek Mythology, Voltaire, lines in French and Latin, "O les beaux jours que ce siecle de fer " which roughly translates into “O beautiful days in this age of iron.” 

The only negative things I can say about this novel are I enjoy murder mysteries, and as glad as I am that one of the students is not successful in committing suicide because of these 'poison pen letters', a good murder always gives the story a more 'suspenseful and tense' atmosphere, because the reader does not want the hero or heroine to get killed themselves. Dorothy Sayers did have that in 'Gaudy Night', where Harriet is almost strangled to death. It's just that if there was already a murder how much more 'tense' that scene would have been. And the last negative note, there were several parts where I just wanted to finish the book, filler parts that I didn't find the connection between 'finding out the suspect' and again the 'women's right to choose', some of these parts could have been shorter.

All in all I'd give this book a 9 out of 10.

This novel satisfies A Classic by a new-to-you author Back to the Classics 2021 Challenge.

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

 

“He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.”
― Jack London, The Call of the Wild

 One of the immense joys shared by my family, are our two Huskies, Luna (the baby) and ( I wanted to name him 'Ghost') Buddy, a pure white male, with a teddy bear like nature. This month I chose, for the 'Back to the Classics' the prompt "a classic about an animal, or with an animal in the title", and I couldn't think of a more appropriate book to read, then 'Call of the Wild' by Jack London.

For the majority of the book, my heart was absolutely crushed to read about Buck's servitude in the extremely harsh conditions he lived through and barely survived under the cruelty of his masters. I would say owners, but it was only the last man, John Thornton, who saves him, that I would narrowly call Buck's owner, as by that time Buck begins to realize, HE IS his own master. 

From time to time, even with my two huskies, I get a  sense of the 'primal' animal within them. On cool nights, Buddy would rather sleep out under the moon and stars on grass, than the comfort of our home. Luna on the other hand is quite comfortable to sleep on my husband's side of the bed, after he gets up to leave for work. As well as, Luna's mother who passed away last year, our Zelda was the Alpha female. She ate before Buddy, and Luna didn't even attempt to eat, until Buddy had finished. We tried to feed them separately, except Zelda would claim each and every bowl as her own. This was just the order of things and one can not come between the natural order of things. The three of them were a pack and often played together. It's been a year since Luna lost her mother and she really did go through a grieving period like I'd never seen. 

It was the most 'human like' behavior I'd witnessed in an animal. Which was another favorite part in the story, after Thornton is killed, Buck feels, like

 'It left a great void in him, somewhat akin to hunger, but a void which ached and ached, and which food could not fill..."

Aside from the sheer violence and brutality of the story, it is masterfully written. The parts I especially liked were how Buck enjoyed his freedom and the scenery of the woodland, as well as his encounters with the Timberwolves, which reminded me especially of my own dogs. 

This novel satisfies A Classic about an Animal for the Back to the Classics 2021 Challenge.

Peter and Wendy

 

First sentence: All children, except one grew up.

Last sentence: When Margaret grows up she will have a daughter, who is to be Peter's mother in turn; and so it will go on, so long as children are gay and innocent and heartless.

Hearing reviews from other mothers who have been reading this children's classic to their children, I was taken back at the kind of details they were describing. Yes, I knew the book would not be the same as the movie, but the level of violence I found somewhat disturbing for a children's classic. Not to mention, the underlying malice towards mothers. Aside from the 'Flying Adventures and Adventures in Neverland', (what child wouldn't love to fly and play as pirates or Indians), the level of violence (Tinker Bell wanting to harm/possibly kill Wendy), all the killing the Lost Boys and Pan do throughout the book all this comes down to: Could this killing and malice towards mothers, (the above italics of 'heartless' children) be some type of reverse psychology to not be violent and not take your mother for granted (parents for that matter)?

Having four children myself, I've found myself wondering more than a few times like Wendy, "Oh, dear oh dear,' cried Wendy, "I'm sure I sometimes think spinsters are to be envied". Through out the book as Wendy takes care of the Lost Boys, like a mother would and since they never knew how a mother's love felt, by telling them that "IF you knew how great a mother's Love is", as she told them triumphantly, " you would have NO fear.", because she knew, "that the mother (specifically their mother, and a good mother) would always leave the window open for her children to fly back by."

And Barrie is quick to point this out, that, "ALL children know this about mothers." They know it is a mother's duty to love and care for their children. Towards the end of the story, as the Lost Boys are set to walk the plank, Wendy says her last words as mothers, "Hope our sons will die like English Gentelmen." and Tootles replies, "I am going to do what my mother hopes." (pg.125) 

My favorite part is as Barrie narrates the coming home of the children in advance noting all the things Mrs. Darling does, and how matter of factly says, "it would serve Wendy, Michael and John, jolly well right if they came back and found their parents were spending the weekend in the country?" Oh how many times I've felt like 'flying the coop' myself. Take a weekend off and leave my children to fend for themselves, (I've always made sure they were looked after, but I have found a little time away, once in a great while is good for both parents and children)

And so my final thoughts somewhat mirror that of Barrie, in looking on Mrs. Darling...

"a very sad-eyed woman, now that we look at her closely and remember the gaiety of her in the old days, all gone now just because she lost her babies, I find I won't be able to say nasty things about her after all. If she was too fond of her 'rubbishy children' she couldn't help it" (pg.142)

I wouldn't call my children 'rubbishy' when they misbehave or take me for granted, even when they were younger before they grew up. Just like the last line from the book, while children are gay, and innocent, I wouldn't quite put it that they were heartless, more like thoughtless and needing a moral lesson about not taking their mothers for granted. So, all the time spent in 'Neverland', the children see who Pan truly is, and how Pan represents children who don't grow up what it's like to live in 'Neverland' and not have a mother, and learn the moral lesson 'All children grow up, except Pan". I would even go so far as to suggest that Barrie himself, did not want to grow up, and relating to this I believe Disney felt the same way. That adults have this similar feeling of 'wishing' they didn't have to adult today; of wanting to be a child at heart, and taking this to heart, became the framework of Disneyland. Where adults could leave the real world behind them and enter the gates of imagination and adventure. 

 This novel satisfies A Children's Classic for the Back to the Classics 2021 Challenge.

Day 3 Commonplace: Mysteries of Udolpho

 

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

I summon up remembrance of things past,

I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste.

Then can I drown an eye unused to flow,

For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night,

And weep afresh love’s long since cancelled woe,

And moan th‘ expense of many a vanished sight.

Then can I grieve at grievances foregone,

And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er

The sad account of fore-bemoanèd moan,

Which I new pay as if not paid before.

But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,

All losses are restored, and sorrows end.

WIKI

Our travelers are once again on the road, traversing on winding mountain roads with very picturesque views. When they left it was before sunrise, and Radcliffe describes the early morning is the time when one (an invalid like M. St Aubert) 

'can inhale the first pure breath of morning, which above all things is refreshing...these regions it was particularly so, where an abundance of wild flowers and aromatic herbs breathe forth their essence on the air'.

As the dawn emerges on the scenery, the reader is viewing it just as Emily is watching the sun rise. 

'the sullen grey of the eastern clouds began to blush, then to redden, and then to glow with a thousand colours, till the golden light darted over all the air'

In this next section, Valancourt and M. St. Aubert formed an acquaintance and when they came to a fork in the road, he was sorry to see Valancourt depart from them. As they continue on their travels, the scenery is again so vivid, and dream like.

'The rivulet, which had hitherto accompanied them, now expanded into a river; and, flowing deeply and silently along, reflected, as in a mirror, the blackness of the impending shades.'

This dark scene and our travelers facing the darkness of the night, come across Valancort who has been shot, and prepare to take him to the next town. This part is I found humorous in describing the surgeon of the town.

'if a surgeon her could be called, who prescribed for horses as well as for men, and shaved faces at least as dexterously as he set bones.'

 With Valancort having a sleepless and feverish night, they decide to stay in the town, until Valancort is well enough to travel. At one point they 'stopped when the scenery was grand' to take walks and breath it all of nature in. The reader is given tender moment scenes between Valancort and Emily as they stroll along together reciting poetry, and M. St. Aubert caught Valancort 'fixing his eyes pensively on her countenance'.

Coming upon a valley, several times before some of the scenery touched M. St. Aubert, and Valancourt notices and remarks, 

"These scenes soften the heart, like the notes of sweet music, and inspire that delicious melancholy which no person, who had felt it once, would resign for the gayest pleasures. They waken our best and purest feelings, disposing us to benevolence, pity and friendship. Those whom I love--I always seem to love more in such an hour as this'

This is why I chose Shakespeare's Sonnet 30, there is always that scenery, or lyrics from a song, the smell of a favorite meal, or the scent of flowers that remind me of my loved ones. Nature has a way of connecting not only to ourselves, but to the ones we love.

And I left off, where our travelers come upon a covenant where they stop to spend the night. 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 Commonplace :Mysteries of Udolpho

 

If you are wondering why I chose this quote for today's Commonplace,  it's because the section I read today was how Radcliffe describes Emily and her father's trip along the Mediterranean for some fresh air for her father after Emily's mother died.

The only way I could describe how Radcliffe's visual of the cliffs of the Mediterranean coast was absolutely like it was a dream escape to paradise. 

Soon after mid-day, they reached the summit of one of those cliffs, which, bright with the verdure of palm-trees, adorn, like gems, the tremendous walls of the rocks...Here was shade, and the fresh water of a spring, that gliding among the turf, under the trees, thence precipitated itself from rock to rock, till its dashing murmurs were lost in the abyss, though its white foam was long seen amid the darkness of the pines below

While reading this I found myself getting lost and transported in the carriage right along with Emily and her father. Radcliffe once again inserts a small bite of a couple of lines of poetry to further paint the landscape of their trip.

Rocks on rocks piled, as if by magic spell 

 Here scorch'd by lightnings, there with ivy green 

One can almost imagine, the wheels of the carriage creaking, and looking out the window to this vivid visuals of the scenery as it passes by. On this journey, night was falling, and their guide, Michael told of a small hamlet that he knew of that they could stop for the night. M. St. Aubert begins to notice that this hamlet will not have the extravagant accommodations like he was used to, and told Michael, "I perceive you are not one of its inhabitants, sir," And Michael, responded , " No, sir, I am only a wanderer here!"

The two of them once they were off the carriage, started walking towards the hamlet, and M. St. Aubert, told Michael, "I admire your taste, and if I was a younger man, should like to pass a few weeks in your way exceedingly. I, too, am a wanderer." Although, M. St. Aubert would like to wander as a lifestyle, his traveling now is in " search of health, as much as of amusement." 

My thoughts on this section of reading, while 2020 provided many challenges. For starters, my plans for the year to visit family and amusement, did not happen the way I would have liked. And the several impromptu plans of our adventures were I would say all the while strange, I hadn't visited both Knott's Berry Farm and Newport Dunes, since I was a child, and here I was taking my daughters to both. Another trip that I'd been wanting to do was to go and chop down our Christmas tree, and believe me, when I say we wandered and we almost got lost, but the trip would go down as a memory for a life time. As for my wandering, I feel the same as St. Aubert, I would love to live a lifestyle of wandering, adventure after adventure to exotic destinations and to see wonderous scenery, to just get lost in the just the moment and enjoy all that is offered to my senses. Until then, I will continue to wander in the very vivid scenery of Anne Radcliffe's, Mysteries of Udolpho. 

My first Commonplace: Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe

 

When faced with spending countless hours at home and have exhausted all avenues of 'finding things to do' to pass the time, what better way than to lose yourself in a novel. And that's just what I did I picked up a book, and actually found with the pages and words, I was able to free myself from feeling lost, as I was unable to wander as my normal schedule would allow. 

After reading, NorthAnger Abbey, and Ms. Morland's fascination with Gothic Romances, and her favorite being Mysteries of Udolpho, I thought I'd challenge myself to spend some time following the story of Emily St. Aubert. 

The part I'm commenting on today is right before her mother becomes very ill. One of my favorite parts about MOU are the pieces of poetry, mixed in with Shakespeare and how Radcliffe ties them in, and drags you deeper into her novel. I'm beginning to notice a cycle of sorts, where Radcliffe creates these beautiful, happy scenes of felicitation and fancy, and then moments later, things turn very dark, and deeply melancholy. One scene Emily and her father are taking a walk at night, discussing fairies and 'Glow worm'. Emily recites her poem for her father, in spite of her fears of his criticizing her. It starts off with words, like 'pleasant', 'sweeter', 'softest', and then halfway through, the poem turns dark, with words like, 'sad', 'forsakes', 'mire', 'and stars burning out'. Just dark, dark, dark.

And her father does criticize her, but I found the poem both lovely and terrifying.

At the beginning of the next chapter, Radcliffe begins with a couple of lines from Hamlet (Act 1 Scene 5), " I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul." These words from Hamlet's father's ghost, of wanting to tell him secrets from purgatory, except these stories would cut his soul.

With these lines she introduces the next chapter of both Emily and her father's sadness and grief of the passing of their beloved mother and wife. And Radcliffe truly writes with vivid descriptions of the tears and feelings of loss from both of them and the uncaring feelings of both their family and friends towards their loss and grief is unsettling, except for Emily's aunt who does seemingly give her sincerest condolences.

My final thought has to do with Radcliffe's own thoughts on what one's duty is to not only oneself but to those around us. Emily's father tenderly tells her that, 

" I have endeavored to teach you from your earliest youth, the duty of self-command; I have pointed out to you the great importance of it through life, not only as it preserves us in the various and dangerous temptations that call us from rectitude and virtue, but as it limits the indulgences which are termed virtuous, yet which extended beyond a certain boundary, are vicious, for their consequence is evil" 

Early on he and his wife taught her about self-control, and not be swayed by temptation, but to limit indulgences, moderation is a good thing. He then proceeds to state that while sadness and grief are necessary, and 'amiable from it's origin', sadness and grief 'if indulged would become selfish and unjust passion' and would come at an expence to our duties to ourselves and others. That the 'indulgence of excessive grief enervates the mind and (I LOVE this word) incapacitates the other various enjoyments of life, which God had intended us to enjoy or as Radcliffe puts it 'the sunshine of our lives'.

It's ok to grieve at loss or change or any dark challenge in our life, it's ok to be sad and grieve, but not to lose ourselves in that grief, because in continuing on with our grief and sadness we will miss out on other good and joyous moments of our life, which is what (during this unprecedented time) I've been having a difficulty just enjoying the sunshine and ones I love and not be so caught up in the rough time WE as global citizens are going through, and not be selfish, that someone else may be having a more difficult and challenging time than I've had. 

So far I am thoroughly enjoying Emily's adventure. 

I'll update more, when something in the book reaches out to me and speaks to me, my likes and thoughts.

 

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

 

As this is my favorite quote from Northanger Abbey, I really feel like Austen believed this herself. With all the books I've read from her so far, friendships and connections were very important if not vital for her. It keeps me in amazement about life for women back in the 19th century before 'Women's Rights', the idea of a women not being allowed to own property, or to work outside of the home; not being able to choose which path of life to follow, her career path, being a homemaker (wife and/or mother) or even to attempt the fragile balance of both. For women, having the right friendship and/ or connection, was the only choice in Austen's time. 

Could a man be content with a woman who was penniless, with hardly any dowry, a woman who could hardly afford to buy sugar, or is it more sensible to find a woman with the right connections and family legacy?

What I loved most about Northanger Abbey was Austen's taking the opportunity to inject some 'Gothic Romance' into her writing, as the heroine in this story has an obsession with Radcliffe's, 'Mysteries of Udolpho', which I am planning on reading for my 'Classics written by a woman', and how this obession leads our heroine on a precarious and uncertain path. 

One part I enjoyed most is how the hero, Mr. Tilney compares a Country-dance to 'an emblem of marriage', That, 'fidelity and complaisance are the pricipal duties of both'. And our dear heroine, Miss Morland, fails to see the connection, stating 'that when people marry, they can never part. People that dance, only stand opposite each other in a long room for half an hour'. (Austen 67) To this, Mr. Tilney points out that MEN have the advantage of choice, and WOMEN the power of refusal. This part of the story is a wonderful exchange of points of view on the duties of both, and how our hero Mr. Tilney shows courage and further endures Miss Morland to him. This connection and actual attachment are the beginnings of the beautiful and heart wrenching romance of this novel. 

I thoroughly enjoyed 'Northanger Abbey' as much as her other novels, 'Sense and Sensibility', 'Emma' and 'Pride and Prejudice', in the way she connects friendships and relationships, the life of romance at the time, and the importance of dancing.

 This novel satisfies A 19^thCentury classic for the Back to the Classics 2021 Challenge.