I Capture the Castle

I suppose if I had ever read The Hundred and One Dalmations I would already have been familiar with author Dodie Smith, but such was not the case. Having only watched the Disney adaptation as a child, her name sadly didn't register anything upon reflection. You see, I "met" her casually one evening whilst skimming through recommended summer reading paperbacks on a generously heaped Barnes and Noble table. The coverwork initially grabbed my attention, as it seemed to suggest another time or place. What kept my attention was that J.K. Rowling (yes, of Harry Pottter laude) so highly recommended this book as a "favorite". "Enough said", I thought, "cool cover art and an amazing recommendation is more than I usually get. Sold." And you guys, that was the beginning of a wonderful little time for me--as I hope it will be for you as well.

This book was written about 60 years ago, as more astute readers will recognise in certain stereotypes casually mentioned as you read the book. To me, it was a charming throw-back to how things used to be. Women were certainly not very liberated at the time or in that place, which makes Cassandra's family more quirky and fun against such a drab background. Think of Alice's family in"You Can't Take it with You", and you'll about have it.

More than anything else I can tell you as you begin this book, I will tell you that it was not what I was expecting after having read the back cover. The depth of experiences and character motivations really drew me in in ways I couldn't have anticipated. To say I related to more things than not in this book would be a supreme understatement.

Forgive what you may find to be the mildly slow beginning and give this book a chance. I'll be particularly interested to hear what Ben and my Dad think of this book, as male readers. Is this a story that also appeals to men? I'd sincerely like to know.

Also, to me, in a perfect reading world, we would be able to refrain from completely judging characters' actions by our own set of adopted morals. These characters are not LDS or religious, but they are good people going through life and facing interesting, often challenging situations. As you read, I would be curious to hear if some of the character's actions make you think less of them because we as religiously based family members would possibly have chosen other than they do? I am not talking about anything too scandalous, don't worry. Remember this is the author of The Hundred and One Dalmations, afterall! I'm talking more about pyschological pressures and decisions than anything else;you'll know the parts I'm talking about when you get to 'em...!

And with that little teaser, I will bid you adieu and Happy Reading! Thank you for taking part in this month's reading assignment. I look forward to talking with all of you soon! (Oh, and I have a copy I am willing to send if anyone needs it.)

Love,

Autumn

P.S. Do you think this book inspired J.K. Rowling to use a castle setting in her novels as well?

Conan Doyle is Still Cool

Perhaps I should apologize to the group that we haven't gotten onto the band wagon with this family book club as much as we had hoped to do. I am shocked to discover - again - that life is busy and sometimes even hectic.

But I noticed that the Sherlock Holmes stories are coming up soon on the family reading list, and Sheryl and I have gotten a head start. We've read three of the stories in about 4 days. I've read many of the stories before, but I don't recall whether I've ever read them aloud to someone else. It's great fun. We've started with A Scandal in Bohemia, The Read Headed League, and A Case of Identity. We're going great guns and hope to have many of them read by the time the family starts chatting them up. I've always loved them, anyway.

BBC's series based on the stories starred Jeremy Brett in the title role. I've seen others do well in the part, but, to me, Jeremy Brett WAS Sherlock Holmes. That's remarkable when you consider what an artless, harmless, romantic he played in the film version of My Fair Lady. I wonder whether he did his own singing in that part. I know that Audrey didn't.

Some pretty good Holmes movies have been made out of books which were written by others, long after the death of Sir Arthur. Nicole Williamson, who played Merlin in the 1980 (or thereabouts) version of Excalibur does a bang-up job as Holmes the cocaine addict in The Seven Percent Solution. Robert Duvall fakes a pretty good British accent as Dr. John Watson, and Alan Arkin plays Sigmund Freud as one might wish he had been. Besides, you can't go wrong with a movie which features a sword duel on top of a train that is sprinting along the Danube. ( I took a train along the Danube in '92, but it didn't sprint, and we never got to go up on top for a breather and a sword fight, because all the trains over there are electric now, and the pick-ups are on top, a situation which could be shocking for someone with 36" of steel in his hand.) The movie is deliberately and deliciously melodramatic and features some very fine music, not to mention some glorious east-European scenery.

Holmes is great. I look forward to chatting with you all about the stories.

Guy de Maupassant - One Depressed Guy

Beloved Family,

There are many authors whose works I have read, in whole or in part. There are even more authors whose work I've been meaning to read for decades, in some cases several decades. Sheryl recently got a free bag of books from Borders! She chose nothing but classics. This means that, last night, I got to start the Aeneid, an epic I've wanted to read for many years. It's first line alone is among the most famous phrases in all literature: "I sing of arms and the man..." The first official journal of the National Rifle Association, many years before The American Rifleman, was called Arms and the Man.

Before starting Virgil's master work last night, I stayed up late to finish the last of 26 short stories by de Maupassant. I've been about a month working at this little anthology. It has given me both respect and sadness for its author.

De Maupassant is a fellow who can turn a phrase with the best of them. And he can whip up what Mark Twain would call "a flowery comparison" with the ease of a true master. Many people have tried to describe outdoor scenes and their impact on the characters and their moods. But when this fellow does it, I almost forget that I'm sitting up in bed with one light on, warm and dry, in a rented house in Chubbuck, Idaho. I can actually believe that I'm breathing the first breaths of spring by the Seine river in the 1880s. I can feel myself riding a horse along a path through a forest which meets overhead and whose beginning and end are lost in the distance of both directions.

His characters are well developed and well drawn. You feel that you know them or have known someone just like them. In that respect, he has a great deal in common with Charles Dickens.

But, while Dickens always shows us that virtue will, in some degree, triumph in the end, de Maupassant repeatedly shows us that no one is completely virtuous and that, in the end, it makes no difference how virtuous one has tried to be. His point of view, then, is quite hopeless, especially in his later stories. Perhaps the Victorian period, with its much spoken of suppressed sexualilty, was even worse for the passionate Gallics. I don't really know. Actually, it seems that their usual casual attitude towards marriage vows was already very much in place by 1850 when the author was born. His characters seem to lament that they cannot find happiness in such behavior. But, as we all know, "Wickedness never was happiness."

Even a man who has led an absolutely virtuous life, such as Monsieur Saval in the story entitled Regret, feels that by avoiding opportunities he had to commit adultery with his best friend's wife, he has only contributed to the pointlessness of his own existence! What an attitude!

If you get an anthology of De Maupassant, you may find that its stories are arranged chronologically as are those of our little volume. This makes it easy to observe a pattern to the development of his themes as he grows older. I say "older" rather than "old," because he never grew old. He died of syphillis in middle age. In his early twenties, he participated in the Franco-Prussian War, a terrible humiliation for France and a type of preview of the First World War in its protracted battles in trenches dug in mud. Several of his earlier stories are either about the war or are about its impact on peoples' lives after the war. The occupation of portions of France by Prussian (northeast German) soldiers seems to have left an almost manic bitterness in the soul of France if de Maupassant's writings are any indicator.

The war caused many men to lose either their lives or their livelihoods. It caused many women to lose what little virtue they thought they had. It caused old women to lose their husbands and sons. And there are stories about all such unfortunates. Mother Sauvage is perhaps the most moving of his stories about the Prussian occupation. The reader finds sympathy for everyone in the story in one way or another. A Duel is perhaps the closest thing to a cheerful story in the whole book, and even it is upsetting until near the end.

After he finishes his period of lamentation over the Franco-Prussian shootout, he moves into a series of stories about young men of means, all of whom seem to have fine houses or apartments and a staff of servants. They all seem to be idle wanderers, casually experimenting with the lives and feelings of others. To be a de Maupassant protagonist is not necessarily to be a likable person. But some of these men feel genuine remorse for the hurt they've caused, one such fellow even going so far as to kiss the three-days-dead face of an older Englishwoman who had committed suicide when she realized that her love for him was hopeless.

A number of his later stories seem to be about what he perceives to be the inevitability of repeating our parents' mistakes. Hautot and Son is a prime example.

Finally, at the end of the anthology, he dabbles in an almost Poe-like fascination with insanity and what it does or does not entail. Who Knows and The Horla are such stories. If he'd been born earlier, hemight have given Edgar a run for his money in that genre. He's pretty good at it.

All in all, let me say that I like Guy de Maupassant as a man and like him very much as a wordsmith. I recommend him for anyone who likes short stories and for anyone who likes well drawn characters and well-painted scenery. I cannot recommend him as a source for a person's philosophy of life.

Let's Discuss....

So it's the first of May and I am finally getting around to reviewing the book for April. I hope you can all forgive my tardiness. I hope that you all enjoyed it, I know it's a hard read just given the subject matter but I really love this book. I haven't read it about six years since my aunt passed away and at the time I don't think I really got all that much out of it.

I found this time as I was reading that I felt very peaceful and comforted by the spirit. I could not fathom ever being in that situation and watching Ben die, but I hope that I would be able to rely on my faith and knowledge of the gospel to get me through. I have often wondered how close the veil really is to us when we are outside the temple walls? If we are living a Christ like life and listening to the Holy Ghost could we have similar experiences in our daily lives?

I found her story one of inspiration and hope. One of my favorite lines from the book was: When times are the toughest, don't get discouraged. God may be fixing to do something wonderful. May we all remember that when we are going through rough times that Heavenly Father is always there. Can't wait to hear what you all thought about it.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

So here it is the 1st of May and I'm finally choosing my book. Not because I haven't been thinking about it, I just have a REALLY hard time making up my mind when I'm choosing books for book club. I seriously considered choosing The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie King which I have read and really enjoyed. It is a mystery about Sherlock Holmes and his new young apprentice, Mary Russell. I have never read any of the original Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and I have been really curious about them ever since. So I'm going to drag you all along with me! (hahahaha) Hopefully you don't mind too much. I thought I'd start with the first book of Sherlock Holmes short stories entitled The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. The were originally published as single stories in Strand Magazine from July 1891 to June 1892 and were then compiled and published in a book in October of 1892. You can buy the book very cheaply at Amazon or Half.com. Or you can read them for free online at Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, Page By Page Books, or Google. Or you can even listen to them at Books Should Be Free, Project Gutenberg, Audio Book Treasury, Disc Shelf, or Learn Out Loud. As you can see we have lots of options for this book. Hope you enjoy!

P.S. Lyns, I'm still working on your book. Sorry! I'll comment on it as soon as I finish it.