So we got painfully behind. At least I did, and my Cool Breeze friend. :) We were technically supposed to have read Picture of Dorian Gray last week, to finish last night, but some "difficulties" popped up that had us all a bit behind. Good news though, I now have the GRE Literature test book, but no time to really look at it yet. I've flipped through it and actually feel comfortable with all the "general" information I saw on literature and theory. For this week we're reading Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure. Happy reading, and we'll be posting more information as our muddled brains and lives will allow!
For the 28th, read "The Rape of the Lock," and then on the 30th "Fern Hill."
For the 1st, we will start off with Eliot's "The Wasteland" (hang on to your hats on that one!). I found some interesting sites on the poem, which I will list below if you want to take a look:
--"The Wasteland HomePage" (Interesting connection to another Bruegel painting)
--An interesting forum post about each section of the poem.
--Another web site dedicated to an analysis of the poem.
--This site "Bookrags" has some nice links to biographies of Eliot, as well as articles, etc.
For the 3rd, read "Lycidas," followed by "Comus" on the 4th, and the play Arms and the Man to round out that week.
Okay, can we please put Dorian and a southern belle in the same category?!? Wilde's descriptions of Dorian, and the way he has him act had to draw a lot of attention to him. I do like the whitticisms in the book though. My favorite so far, "Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities." :) Also...,"He was always late on principle, his principle being that punctuality is the thief of time." I guess I really do have "principle" as I rush to work every morning at 7 am!
ReplyDeleteI love Oscar Wilde! He is so funny. See, not all Victorians were stodgy and humorless.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I realize that my comments add nothing to your discussion. But I like checking up and seeing what you guys are reading and saying!
I loved the book, what can I say, madness is a really fun thing to watch unfold in another person. I liked how he said that when a painter paints, he tells more of himself than his subject. It made me think about the journals I keep and how my descriptions and slant on other people must reveal a lot about me. The difference is, I'm the type of person who would burn my journals before I'd let the person I wrote about view it. I also thought that there is something to be said for egging someone on or just standing back and watching someone self-destruct. I think we've all been guilty of that right? Or is it just me? I used to like watching my friends do drugs and watching what happened to them while remaining the designated driver. I feel kind of bad about it now, but at the time it was loads of fun.
ReplyDeleteAlmost done with Jude the Obscure now. It is the most FRUSTRATING book I've ever read. I want to throw it out the window. If I wasn't so close to the end, I might not even finish it. The book is about love and marriage and whether the two go together. The characters can't seem to get together either. I suppose Hardy's question at the end of this would be "Is it the characters' fault or are their lives the result of social influences they cannot control?" I don't know the answer to this, and I still don't like the book.
ReplyDeleteOkay, so I recant my previous statement. I finished Jude The Obscure, and while it certainly wouldn't top my list of favorite books, I do recognize why Thomas Hardy is considered a classic. The fact that this book, written in England and published in 1895, can still draw in a 21st century American reader so completely is, to say the least, impressive. I was so emotionally involved with the characters throughout the book that it was driving me insane when things wouldn't work out for them. Thank you, Crazy GRE Book Club. I like Thomas Hardy again.
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