Scan barcode
tenderedge's review
5.0
I am perpetually "currently reading" this one. First in a series of weighty tomes by Gilbert & Gubar.
missbryden's review
3.0
Borrowed particularly to read the portions on the Brontes' novels, but also the subtitle sounds like a topic generally suited to my interests. Read portions: Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1 to p. 22 (of 44), Part II (chapters 4 and 5) Inside the House of Fiction: Jane Austen's Tenants of Possibility, Part II: Chapter 8 Looking Oppositely: Emily Bronte's Bible of Hell, Part IV (chapters 9-12) The Spectral Selves of Charlotte Bronte, and selected pages referencing the Brontes and Austen. Ran out of time to read rest, though I would have still skipped at least Part V on George Eliot, as I haven't read her books, and as this is a work intensely studying all aspects of the fiction and the authors, there's no avoiding spoilers. Hence also my review might be spoilery of the fiction mentioned.
Overwhelmingly academic in style, confusing number of references to other works (assuming a familiarity - though possibly not helped by my skipping forward and reading chapters as essays without reading the whole of the book in order), and some material going over my head. But the chapters covering works I've read were mostly very engaging, if not totally agreeable. More detailed coverage below.
Interesting chapters on [a:Jane Austen|1265|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1380085320p2/1265.jpg], though they felt fairly different in subject from other chapters. One idea that did carry through was the idea of doubles or "sisters" (whether actual or not) among the similar females in Austen's and others' novels: like in Mansfield Park, Mary Crawford and Fanny Price are each other's double, although they appear opposite (and mostly opposed) they have a lot of similarities, except for beliefs and how they express themselves.
I appreciated that the authors were a little more positive regarding Fanny Price in [b:Mansfield Park|45032|Mansfield Park|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397063295s/45032.jpg|2722329], though they're still, like many, apparently not fans. It seemed like maybe a dislike for the quiet characters, because I got some of the same feeling from what they said about Anne Elliot in [b:Persuasion|2156|Persuasion|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385172413s/2156.jpg|2534720], although they were more positive about that, and it made me want to reread.
More specific comments on Bronte chapters:
The word "obviously" was used a number of times, even just in the chapter about [b:Wuthering Heights|6185|Wuthering Heights|Emily Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388212715s/6185.jpg|1565818] (Chapter 8 "Looking Oppositely: Emily Bronte's Bible of Hell"), and also something like "this is so obvious, it doesn't need to be said", but none of the accompanying references were obvious to me. I think the use of "obviously" is only appropriate when the writer actually knows who they're directly speaking to, and that they in fact do know that "obvious" thing, not to the audience of your book, even if you might assume that your book has a very particular audience. The same applies to use of "clearly".
I was irritated by the Freudian references, that belief that everything comes down to the sexual, here they were discussing the part when Catherine and Heathcliff first visit Thrushcross Grange, and Catherine is caught by the ankle by the guard dog: "Obviously such bleeding has sexual connotations, especially when it occurs in a pubescent girl" and "it hardly needs to be noted that Skulker's [the dog's] equipment for aggression - his purple tongue and pendant lips, for instance - sounds extraordinarily phallic." (Chapter 8, p. 272) First, not obvious, second, why spread such images (though by sharing the quotes, I'm spreading them, too).
Freudian/phallic references (p.344) and use of "obviously" (p. 345) also occur in the Jane Eyre chapter (Ch 10 "A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane's Progress").
I'm irritated by them calling Miss Temple "repressed": she isn't controlled, cowed, by others - what she is, is self-controlled.
Despite some of those continued irritations, this chapter confirmed my liking of [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1557343311s/10210.jpg|2977639], especially how it articulates Jane Eyre's and Edward Rochester's equality. Even though I'm still mad at Rochester for what he hides, how he lies and teases, and he's still an actor in the patriarchy, the amount in which he treats her as a peer, an equal, is fairly revolutionary, and is part of what upset critics at the time.
I also like the description of the story as Jane's pilgrimage to her maturity (comparing to [b:The Pilgrim's Progress|29797|The Pilgrim's Progress|John Bunyan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405982367s/29797.jpg|1960084]) and the description of her character as alternating fire and ice, and those two sides were met each by one of the men, Rochester as fire, and St. John Rivers as ice.
I also appreciated what they said about Jane's anxiety approaching her wedding, that it was spiritual, not sexual, anxiety regarding changing herself or their relationship.
Chapter 12 "The Buried Life of Lucy Snowe" helped me understand [b:Villette|31173|Villette|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320412741s/31173.jpg|40852693], which I'd just finished reading. It’s not just that I was confused or actually missed something in the plot, Lucy Snowe does feel that nothing happens to her, and that she’s not interesting or doesn’t fit what a woman is supposed to be, that she is “a woman without - outside society, without parents or friends, without physical or mental attractions, without money or confidence or health” (p. 400). It sounds very depressing, but it is honest to many experiences, and knowing from reading [a:Elizabeth Gaskell|1413437|Elizabeth Gaskell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223499865p2/1413437.jpg]’s [b:The Life of Charlotte Brontë|31171|The Life of Charlotte Brontë|Elizabeth Gaskell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1168239259s/31171.jpg|2698367] at the same time, Charlotte felt very alone and depressed in those years between publishing [b:Shirley|31168|Shirley|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1422609409s/31168.jpg|2685457] (started before and completed after her sisters’ deaths) and [b:Villette|31173|Villette|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320412741s/31173.jpg|40852693]. “Bronte provides in Villette an honest elegy for all those women who cannot find ways out and are robbed of their will to live.” (p. 403) What I felt was largely nothing happening broken up by her mental explosions of feeling, were true to that feeling of being trapped in herself.
“Lucy’s conflicts are hidden because...she represents them through the activity of other people. As self-effacing a narrator as she is a character, she often seems to be telling any story but her own.”(p. 416) She leaves the greatest tragedies unspecified, and other events she leaves out detail till a later date. Because she “feels as if she has no story, Lucy cannot employ the narrative structures available to her, yet there are no existing alternatives.” (p. 419)
Overwhelmingly academic in style, confusing number of references to other works (assuming a familiarity - though possibly not helped by my skipping forward and reading chapters as essays without reading the whole of the book in order), and some material going over my head. But the chapters covering works I've read were mostly very engaging, if not totally agreeable. More detailed coverage below.
Interesting chapters on [a:Jane Austen|1265|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1380085320p2/1265.jpg], though they felt fairly different in subject from other chapters. One idea that did carry through was the idea of doubles or "sisters" (whether actual or not) among the similar females in Austen's and others' novels: like in Mansfield Park, Mary Crawford and Fanny Price are each other's double, although they appear opposite (and mostly opposed) they have a lot of similarities, except for beliefs and how they express themselves.
I appreciated that the authors were a little more positive regarding Fanny Price in [b:Mansfield Park|45032|Mansfield Park|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1397063295s/45032.jpg|2722329], though they're still, like many, apparently not fans. It seemed like maybe a dislike for the quiet characters, because I got some of the same feeling from what they said about Anne Elliot in [b:Persuasion|2156|Persuasion|Jane Austen|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385172413s/2156.jpg|2534720], although they were more positive about that, and it made me want to reread.
More specific comments on Bronte chapters:
The word "obviously" was used a number of times, even just in the chapter about [b:Wuthering Heights|6185|Wuthering Heights|Emily Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388212715s/6185.jpg|1565818] (Chapter 8 "Looking Oppositely: Emily Bronte's Bible of Hell"), and also something like "this is so obvious, it doesn't need to be said", but none of the accompanying references were obvious to me. I think the use of "obviously" is only appropriate when the writer actually knows who they're directly speaking to, and that they in fact do know that "obvious" thing, not to the audience of your book, even if you might assume that your book has a very particular audience. The same applies to use of "clearly".
I was irritated by the Freudian references, that belief that everything comes down to the sexual, here they were discussing the part when Catherine and Heathcliff first visit Thrushcross Grange, and Catherine is caught by the ankle by the guard dog: "Obviously such bleeding has sexual connotations, especially when it occurs in a pubescent girl" and "it hardly needs to be noted that Skulker's [the dog's] equipment for aggression - his purple tongue and pendant lips, for instance - sounds extraordinarily phallic." (Chapter 8, p. 272) First, not obvious, second, why spread such images (though by sharing the quotes, I'm spreading them, too).
Freudian/phallic references (p.344) and use of "obviously" (p. 345) also occur in the Jane Eyre chapter (Ch 10 "A Dialogue of Self and Soul: Plain Jane's Progress").
I'm irritated by them calling Miss Temple "repressed": she isn't controlled, cowed, by others - what she is, is self-controlled.
Despite some of those continued irritations, this chapter confirmed my liking of [b:Jane Eyre|10210|Jane Eyre|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1557343311s/10210.jpg|2977639], especially how it articulates Jane Eyre's and Edward Rochester's equality. Even though I'm still mad at Rochester for what he hides, how he lies and teases, and he's still an actor in the patriarchy, the amount in which he treats her as a peer, an equal, is fairly revolutionary, and is part of what upset critics at the time.
I also like the description of the story as Jane's pilgrimage to her maturity (comparing to [b:The Pilgrim's Progress|29797|The Pilgrim's Progress|John Bunyan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405982367s/29797.jpg|1960084]) and the description of her character as alternating fire and ice, and those two sides were met each by one of the men, Rochester as fire, and St. John Rivers as ice.
I also appreciated what they said about Jane's anxiety approaching her wedding, that it was spiritual, not sexual, anxiety regarding changing herself or their relationship.
Chapter 12 "The Buried Life of Lucy Snowe" helped me understand [b:Villette|31173|Villette|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320412741s/31173.jpg|40852693], which I'd just finished reading. It’s not just that I was confused or actually missed something in the plot, Lucy Snowe does feel that nothing happens to her, and that she’s not interesting or doesn’t fit what a woman is supposed to be, that she is “a woman without - outside society, without parents or friends, without physical or mental attractions, without money or confidence or health” (p. 400). It sounds very depressing, but it is honest to many experiences, and knowing from reading [a:Elizabeth Gaskell|1413437|Elizabeth Gaskell|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1223499865p2/1413437.jpg]’s [b:The Life of Charlotte Brontë|31171|The Life of Charlotte Brontë|Elizabeth Gaskell|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1168239259s/31171.jpg|2698367] at the same time, Charlotte felt very alone and depressed in those years between publishing [b:Shirley|31168|Shirley|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1422609409s/31168.jpg|2685457] (started before and completed after her sisters’ deaths) and [b:Villette|31173|Villette|Charlotte Brontë|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320412741s/31173.jpg|40852693]. “Bronte provides in Villette an honest elegy for all those women who cannot find ways out and are robbed of their will to live.” (p. 403) What I felt was largely nothing happening broken up by her mental explosions of feeling, were true to that feeling of being trapped in herself.
“Lucy’s conflicts are hidden because...she represents them through the activity of other people. As self-effacing a narrator as she is a character, she often seems to be telling any story but her own.”(p. 416) She leaves the greatest tragedies unspecified, and other events she leaves out detail till a later date. Because she “feels as if she has no story, Lucy cannot employ the narrative structures available to her, yet there are no existing alternatives.” (p. 419)
jsisco's review
4.0
The 600+ page tome of dense literary criticism is not for the lighthearted and, to be honest, I would not recommend reading it straight through. Gilbert and Gubar fail to deliver on their promised thesis of the overarching theme of angel versus monster in texts written by female authors in the nineteenth century.
That said, if you've read the books they're discussing, it can be fascinating. My favorite parts by far were the take down of the Snow White tale and the chapters on Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Villette. I'm sure if I remembered more from Austen, Eliot, and Dickinson, I would have enjoyed the text more.
That said, if you've read the books they're discussing, it can be fascinating. My favorite parts by far were the take down of the Snow White tale and the chapters on Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and Villette. I'm sure if I remembered more from Austen, Eliot, and Dickinson, I would have enjoyed the text more.
readingoverbreathing's review against another edition
4.0
"A life of feminine submission, of 'contemplative purity,' is a life of silence, a life that has no pen and no story, while a life of female rebellion, of 'significant action,' is a life that must be silenced, a life whose monstrous pen tells a terrible story."
Some of the most entertaining and well-written academia I've ever come across. Gilbert & Gubar are absolutely brilliant. Excuse me as I pull the entirety of my nineteenth-century female library down from my shelves for an extensive reread.
strawbizzy's review
I’ll come back and write a real review eventually. I’m an undergrad who wants to eventually do research in this area but right now I’m just relieved I managed to finish this huge tome