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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
First exposure to Anne Brontë! I could see a re-read of this one, especially since I think my audiobook version might have suffered from the removal of passages that have long plagued poor Anne's work. I listened to this one via Audrey, which includes a helpful guide.
Here I will include my final post from the readalong, hidden for spoilers: I enjoyed the read and I'm so glad I had this readalong to encourage some analysis of the text. I am perhaps not as severe upon Gilbert as others have been. Maybe I should be, and I do think it is a text I could re-read, and I look forward to how my opinions of him may shift. What I saw in the post-diary section of the novel was some growth for our young gentleman farmer. He does go and apologize to Frederick -- it may not be a GREAT apology but there was acknowledgement of wrong and remorse and a branch of friendship. He seems 10x more respectful of boundaries - not begging or demanding word from Helen but instead respectfully accepting what Frederick is willing to offer. When he rushes to her aunt's estate and then gets cold feet, I thought of that scene from the beginning when he ignored the signs and encroached on her being alone to paint. In this later scene, he gives in to the impulse to go to her -- but then checks himself! His pause is from being humbled by the fact that she has wealth & position (i.e., power) without him! I see this (perhaps overly dramatic self-pitying) moment of him waiting outside the gate as an acknowledgement by a man - at last - of a woman's boundaries.
Do I wish that this story had been entirely told to us by Helen, like Jane Eyre? 💯 But I can understand why Bronte frames it the way she did -- after all, she needed a male penname to tell her own stories, too! In a patriarchal society, Gilbert is the authorizing ally to lift up Helen's voice, just as "Acton Bell" was Anne's.
Here I will include my final post from the readalong, hidden for spoilers:
Do I wish that this story had been entirely told to us by Helen, like Jane Eyre? 💯 But I can understand why Bronte frames it the way she did -- after all, she needed a male penname to tell her own stories, too! In a patriarchal society, Gilbert is the authorizing ally to lift up Helen's voice, just as "Acton Bell" was Anne's.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence
Moderate: Domestic abuse
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Sexism
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
And indeed I know not whether, at the time, it was not for him rather than myself that I blushed; for, since he and I are one, I so identify myself with him, that I feel his degradation, his failings, and transgressions as my own: I blush for him, I fear for him; I repent for him, weep, pray, and feel for him as for myself; but I cannot act for him; and hence I must be, and I am, debased, contaminated by the union, both in my own eyes and in the actual truth. I am so determined to love him, so intensely anxious to excuse his errors, that I am continually dwelling upon them, and labouring to extenuate the loosest of his principles and the worst of his practices, till I am familiarised with vice, and almost a partaker in his sins. Things that formerly shocked and disgusted me, now seem only natural. I know them to be wrong, because reason and God's word declare them to be so; but I am gradually losing that instinctive horror and repulsion which were given me by nature, or instilled into me by the precepts and example of my aunt. Perhaps then I was too severe in my judgments, for I abhorred the sinner as well as the sin; now I flatter myself I am more charitable and considerate; but am I not becoming more indifferent and insensate too? Fool that I was, to dream that I had strength and purity enough to save myself and him! Such vain presumption would be rightly served, if I should perish with him in the gulf from which I sought to save him! Yet, God preserve me from it, and him too! Yes, poor Arthur, I will still hope and pray for you; and though I write as if you were some abandoned wretch, past hope and past reprieve, it is only my anxious fears, my strong desires that make me do so; one who loved you less would be less bitter, less dissatisfied.