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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed this- to me it was a cross between Dickens and Oscar Wilde. I've heard people say that Dickens is long-winded due to the fact that most of his works were originally published as serials- I felt that much more in this work than I ever did in Dickens. The 69 chapters of this book could have easily been cut down to 55 and told the same story with the same depth. I really enjoyed the satire of the writing- and especially in the first third, laughed out loud a lot. I would highly recommend this to all fans of classic British literature.
Sooooo vapid. I really did not care about any of these characters. Becky/Rebecca--such a manipulating brat. Trying to get more money however she can. Ignoring her child. Amelia so basic and blah. Vanilla Yogurt. The father-in-law Osborne. What a jerk for not giving money to his grandson just because you didn't talk your son out of marrying her in the first place. THIS is one of Britain's best novels??? Blah!
It took me forever to finish Book 24 which is Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray but in the end the feat was accomplished and I actually enjoyed the process. I didn't doubt that I would, because although I didn't know much about the content of the book, by the title it seemed like my kind of sctick!
The book dubs itself "A Novel without a Hero" and in a sense it is true. All the characters have the fatal flaw or "hubris" that Shakespeare so often potrays in his novels. Though each characters flaw is different in the end you see that they all made mistakes or lived selfishly at the expense of others.
For most of the novel I was convinced the dear old Dobbin, a devoted puppy dog following around Amelia, one of the novels two main characters, was a hero since he loved selflessly. I had to laugh after reading Daniel S. Burt's view on the book and also after coming to the end of the novel because I took a good hard look at myself. Of COURSE I would love Dobbin, because I too have been guilty of being someone who blindly follows people about who have no idea I exist. Amelia who Dobbin loved was also guilty of blind love as well, since she loved her unfaithful husband beyond reason. I think this quote best describes the flaw in their natures and mine: "The crime she had long ago been guilty-the crime of loving wrongly, too violently against reason"
And another: "And the business of her life, was to watch the corpse of Love"
The novel really focused on how Amelia did not see her husband for who he actually was, but for the exalted image of him she had created. When she witnesses him in unfaithfulness she stuffs the knowledge down inside of herself to avoid seeing it. I thought this extremely long quote showed the fate of a lot of women and men:
"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb young hero she worshipped? It requires many, many years and a man must be very bad indeed before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession"
You don't hear about idol worship in the church very often anymore, but I once had a professor at the Christian university I went to stop class to speak at great length about two troubled types of relationships one being Relational Idolatry and the other soemthing along the lines of Relational narcissism. I will always remember reacting violently to that message and seeing myself in it so clearly. If there is anything that people put on a pedastal and worship in this world it is often the idea of Love and sometimes another person.
It isn't until the end of the novel that Dobbin cracks and admits that his Idol has fallen off of her pedastal: " I knew all along that the prize I had set my life on was not worth the winning"
What is so great about literature is that when our flaws, or values are seen outside of ourselves in literary form you can really see them clearly for what they are and their end results. It is much easier to digest them first as fiction and then apply them to our lives, then it is to see them clearly in ourselves.
I love how this novel starts as a walk through the Vanity Fair and that it really plays up the idea of life as a trip to a fair.
"Yes, this is Vanity Fair; not a moral place certainly, nor a merry one, though very noisy"
"The world is a looking-glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face"
"Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history?"
I absolutely adore the idea that our lives our a story with chapters, climaxes, villians, heros, etc. Perhaps that is why I love fairytales so much.
The novels lighthearted nature allows for very hard things to be said. Apparently Thackeray turned to the use of the novel as a teacher after facing much hardship in life. Daniel S. Burt talks about the fact that this novel was written "informed by his sense of the world made up of fellow sufferer's and sinners".
There are so many other quotes that I loved, but the last thing I will end with is one German concept the book talks about that I super excited about. I nearly died when I googled what it meant since I thought the concept was spot on!
The term was, "Sehnsuch nach der Liebe" which loosely translated means "yearning or longing for love". The book describes it this way, "yearning after the Ideal, and simply means that women are commonly not satisfied until they have husbands and children on whom they may centre their affections, which are spent elsewhere, as it were in small change"
Although the book uses the concept to talk wittily about how women have the closest bosom friends until they marry and turn their backs on all but their husbands and children after, I actually think the term applies to so much more. So many of our addictions, obsessions, delusions and attempts at self soothing are all pale reflections of what we are really longing for which is to intimately know and be known by God. I have a magnet I picked up in Portobello Market, London which also talks about this too. It states, "We are all prostitutes and junkies". I love it because that statement basically means that we all sell our selves for something and all chase after other things as well". Kind of a harsh way to live life, but I actually find it makes me more compassionate towards others when I realize I am just as flawed as everyone else.
The next book is Book 25-Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, I am not so patiently waiting its arrival through the library system. Methinks I will not LOVE this book, but I am determined to read through the list and expose myself to new ideas.
The book dubs itself "A Novel without a Hero" and in a sense it is true. All the characters have the fatal flaw or "hubris" that Shakespeare so often potrays in his novels. Though each characters flaw is different in the end you see that they all made mistakes or lived selfishly at the expense of others.
For most of the novel I was convinced the dear old Dobbin, a devoted puppy dog following around Amelia, one of the novels two main characters, was a hero since he loved selflessly. I had to laugh after reading Daniel S. Burt's view on the book and also after coming to the end of the novel because I took a good hard look at myself. Of COURSE I would love Dobbin, because I too have been guilty of being someone who blindly follows people about who have no idea I exist. Amelia who Dobbin loved was also guilty of blind love as well, since she loved her unfaithful husband beyond reason. I think this quote best describes the flaw in their natures and mine: "The crime she had long ago been guilty-the crime of loving wrongly, too violently against reason"
And another: "And the business of her life, was to watch the corpse of Love"
The novel really focused on how Amelia did not see her husband for who he actually was, but for the exalted image of him she had created. When she witnesses him in unfaithfulness she stuffs the knowledge down inside of herself to avoid seeing it. I thought this extremely long quote showed the fate of a lot of women and men:
"Did she own to herself how different the real man was from that superb young hero she worshipped? It requires many, many years and a man must be very bad indeed before a woman's pride and vanity will let her own to such a confession"
You don't hear about idol worship in the church very often anymore, but I once had a professor at the Christian university I went to stop class to speak at great length about two troubled types of relationships one being Relational Idolatry and the other soemthing along the lines of Relational narcissism. I will always remember reacting violently to that message and seeing myself in it so clearly. If there is anything that people put on a pedastal and worship in this world it is often the idea of Love and sometimes another person.
It isn't until the end of the novel that Dobbin cracks and admits that his Idol has fallen off of her pedastal: " I knew all along that the prize I had set my life on was not worth the winning"
What is so great about literature is that when our flaws, or values are seen outside of ourselves in literary form you can really see them clearly for what they are and their end results. It is much easier to digest them first as fiction and then apply them to our lives, then it is to see them clearly in ourselves.
I love how this novel starts as a walk through the Vanity Fair and that it really plays up the idea of life as a trip to a fair.
"Yes, this is Vanity Fair; not a moral place certainly, nor a merry one, though very noisy"
"The world is a looking-glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face"
"Are not there little chapters in everybody's life, that seem to be nothing, and yet affect all the rest of the history?"
I absolutely adore the idea that our lives our a story with chapters, climaxes, villians, heros, etc. Perhaps that is why I love fairytales so much.
The novels lighthearted nature allows for very hard things to be said. Apparently Thackeray turned to the use of the novel as a teacher after facing much hardship in life. Daniel S. Burt talks about the fact that this novel was written "informed by his sense of the world made up of fellow sufferer's and sinners".
There are so many other quotes that I loved, but the last thing I will end with is one German concept the book talks about that I super excited about. I nearly died when I googled what it meant since I thought the concept was spot on!
The term was, "Sehnsuch nach der Liebe" which loosely translated means "yearning or longing for love". The book describes it this way, "yearning after the Ideal, and simply means that women are commonly not satisfied until they have husbands and children on whom they may centre their affections, which are spent elsewhere, as it were in small change"
Although the book uses the concept to talk wittily about how women have the closest bosom friends until they marry and turn their backs on all but their husbands and children after, I actually think the term applies to so much more. So many of our addictions, obsessions, delusions and attempts at self soothing are all pale reflections of what we are really longing for which is to intimately know and be known by God. I have a magnet I picked up in Portobello Market, London which also talks about this too. It states, "We are all prostitutes and junkies". I love it because that statement basically means that we all sell our selves for something and all chase after other things as well". Kind of a harsh way to live life, but I actually find it makes me more compassionate towards others when I realize I am just as flawed as everyone else.
The next book is Book 25-Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, I am not so patiently waiting its arrival through the library system. Methinks I will not LOVE this book, but I am determined to read through the list and expose myself to new ideas.
Amelia è buona, dolce, ingenua senza particolari aspirazioni se non fare la vita che si aspettava, tra casa e figli. Forse è un po' noiosa, tanto che l'autore, quando parla di lei, deve sempre scrivere anche di qualcos'altro: l'amore tragico femminile, la sua amica Mrs Smith, il tempo. Eppure non si merita di essere un oggetto, presa in giro dalle persone che ama, le sue qualità calpestate perché "agli uomini piacciono pepate, ma qualcuno te le dovrà stirare, le mutande".
Rebecca è la sua controparte e la protagonista indiscussa del romanzo, anche se non "l'eroina". Tanto che quando l'autore, purtroppo prolisso e tendente alla digressione, parla delle sue avventure, il romanzo scorre liscio, senza fronzoli. Non ne ha bisogno. Rebecca è l'avventuriera moderna, quella che oggi non avrebbe nessun problema a portarsi a letto il capo per diventare vice-presidente della compagnia, quella che odiamo tutti, ma bisogna anche ammettere che ne ha tanto, di pelo sullo stomaco!
Amelia, data in pasto a questa virago con l'aspetto di una pecorella, non sembra avere nessuna possibilità di uscirne intera... ma è davvero così scontato, che le sue debbano essere avversarie? Rebecca alla fine, le ha davvero del male, o forse l'ha a suo modo salvata?
PS. Però davvero William, va bene la satira, va bene che guadagnavi sul numero di parole, ma della tua amica Mrs Smith non ci interessa niente!
Il Club del Libro
Libro del mese di Agosto 2015
Libro del mese successivo
[b:Ogni giorno|17858336|Ogni giorno|David Levithan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367178314l/17858336._SY75_.jpg|18464379]
Rebecca è la sua controparte e la protagonista indiscussa del romanzo, anche se non "l'eroina". Tanto che quando l'autore, purtroppo prolisso e tendente alla digressione, parla delle sue avventure, il romanzo scorre liscio, senza fronzoli. Non ne ha bisogno. Rebecca è l'avventuriera moderna, quella che oggi non avrebbe nessun problema a portarsi a letto il capo per diventare vice-presidente della compagnia, quella che odiamo tutti, ma bisogna anche ammettere che ne ha tanto, di pelo sullo stomaco!
Amelia, data in pasto a questa virago con l'aspetto di una pecorella, non sembra avere nessuna possibilità di uscirne intera... ma è davvero così scontato, che le sue debbano essere avversarie? Rebecca alla fine, le ha davvero del male, o forse l'ha a suo modo salvata?
PS. Però davvero William, va bene la satira, va bene che guadagnavi sul numero di parole, ma della tua amica Mrs Smith non ci interessa niente!
Il Club del Libro
Libro del mese di Agosto 2015
Libro del mese successivo
[b:Ogni giorno|17858336|Ogni giorno|David Levithan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1367178314l/17858336._SY75_.jpg|18464379]
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I originally rated this like a 4 because, as many other reviews point out, there is a fair amount of unnecessary text that slow down the novel. But in the weeks after I read Vanity Fair, I kept thinking back on the characters and certain plot points. It being such a long novel, spanning basically the main characters’ entire lives, Thackeray had the privilege of really diving deep into their complexities. The length also worked to elongate the frustrating aspects of the novel; if it was shorter I could have liked Amelia more and Rebecca less. But in reading about their drawn-out struggles for hundreds of pages I got really genuinely irritated with Amelia while beginning to sympathize more and more with Rebecca.
In the weeks after reading it, it therefore gained more respect and I have to say it’s a really well done novel. I would highly recommend it and, to anyone concerned about the length, I’d say I’m not a very fast reader normally and was still able to finish it in a month so it really isn’t that bad.
In the weeks after reading it, it therefore gained more respect and I have to say it’s a really well done novel. I would highly recommend it and, to anyone concerned about the length, I’d say I’m not a very fast reader normally and was still able to finish it in a month so it really isn’t that bad.
One of my all-time favourite books. I have read, re-read, studied, dissected minutely, watched the movie (a few terrible changes were made, but the rest of it wasn't awful), lectured on and re-read this one some more, and it remains a fool-proof way to make me chuckle.
The novel's sub-title is "A novel with a hero", yet many people are of the opinion that the novel does in fact have a hero, said hero being William Dobbin.
I very strongly disagree. While Dobbin is certainly a good person, I think the fact that he spends the first 95% of the book as a doormat pretty much disqualifies him from being any kind of hero. Those last few pages are too little, too late, if you ask me.
In fact, pretty much all of the major players in this book (and not a few of the minor ones too, at that) are for the most part selfish individuals, and yes, I absolutely do include Amelia in that. Heck, Amelia especially. Her refusal to see people as they are, rather than the way she wants them to be, her wallowing in her grief to a ridiculous extent and making everyone around her miserable with it... at least Becky is aware of, and upfront about the fact that she only cares about herself.
Interestingly, in the movie, I would be tempted to cast Rawdon in the role as hero. Yes, he is too trusting, but he redeems himself, and certainly ends his story a hero. In the book however, he is portrayed far more as a bumbling fool. So I'm going to go with Thackeray on this one. No heroes here...
The novel's sub-title is "A novel with a hero", yet many people are of the opinion that the novel does in fact have a hero, said hero being William Dobbin.
I very strongly disagree. While Dobbin is certainly a good person, I think the fact that he spends the first 95% of the book as a doormat pretty much disqualifies him from being any kind of hero. Those last few pages are too little, too late, if you ask me.
In fact, pretty much all of the major players in this book (and not a few of the minor ones too, at that) are for the most part selfish individuals, and yes, I absolutely do include Amelia in that. Heck, Amelia especially. Her refusal to see people as they are, rather than the way she wants them to be, her wallowing in her grief to a ridiculous extent and making everyone around her miserable with it... at least Becky is aware of, and upfront about the fact that she only cares about herself.
Interestingly, in the movie, I would be tempted to cast Rawdon in the role as hero. Yes, he is too trusting, but he redeems himself, and certainly ends his story a hero. In the book however, he is portrayed far more as a bumbling fool. So I'm going to go with Thackeray on this one. No heroes here...