Recent Reads (Broughton, Dickens, Le Fanu)

If you guys had any idea of the video I’m currently sitting on you would start shaking lol
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Books mentioned:
A midwife’s tale by laurel thatcher ulrich: www.goodreads....
David copperfield by Charles dickens: www.goodreads....
The house of the seven gables by Nathaniel hawthorne: www.goodreads....
Cometh up as a flower by Rhoda broughton: www.goodreads....
Jane eyre by charlotte bronte: www.goodreads....
Carmilla by joseph Sheridan le fanu: www.goodreads....
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My gr: / fictionesque
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Music:
Intro and Outro: Ruin My Life by Zolita

[@BaileyJean1001]

I am sooooo glad you enjoyed Jane Eyre.

[@lynna3671]

Ohhh I've read Carmilla too recently !! I enjoyed it on the surface level, it was hilariously funny, but it was indeed mid and very of it's time, I'm sure it was terrifying to Victorians, but not for me haha. And I'm also looking forward to reading Jane Eyre soon (actually, starting it today after my midterm), I was kind of going into it blindly but I enjoyed hearing your thoughts, it made me more motivated. :) I've had a very slow year too, mostly because I'm getting into English classics too after only reading contemporary fic in English most my life and leaving the heavier reads to French.

[@fictionesque1992]

ok I'm glad I ended up taking that one off my tbr. and good luck with jane eyre, i know it's a lot of people's all time fav!

[@mishelly]

Midwife’s tale sounds amazing!
My first dickens was great expectations I loved every second of it. But David Copperfield I nearly died of boredom I couldn’t make a single word stick in my brain even grudgingly. 😬
Yeah! Jane Eyre is the best!

[@fictionesque1992]

I haven't read it and never will after Oliver Twist (which I'm being forced to read against my will) I am NEVER reading another Dickens again lol. And yesss I highly recommend Midwife's Tale!

[@mishelly]

@@fictionesque1992 lmao I’m sorry! What’s the stakes? A bank full of innocent hostages? 🤣 I havnt given up on dickens yet partially because I’ve got most of his books on my shelves. But I won’t be to disappointed if They just work for me! I’m okay to dnf books! 👍🏼 this year in particular I’m proud of the freedom I’ve allowed myself to just quit a book if it ain’t up to par!

[@fictionesque1992]

No, worse. PhD examinations 💀 and yassss I am such a fan of DNF it's crazy. My record is after like 7 pages 😇 if it sucks hit the bricks!
and i hope you enjoy Dickens more than me :^) there's a reason he's so famous after all! just not my cup of tea

[@lobsterdog413]

Fun fact about Dickens: He tried to have his (sane) wife committed to an asylum (most likely so that he could continue his affair with another woman while avoiding the scandal of separation). Useful context for his representation of women and his ardent support for 'angel of the home' ideology.
I found your comment on Jane Eyre's moral strength in choosing loneliness interesting because I'm uncertain that I agree with Jane's choice there. St. John's comment about how Jane "was made for labour, not love" is what most sticks out to me in the novel. The notion that her emotional life doesn't matter because she's not conventionally pretty.
I've got Charlotte's other novel "Villette" on my physical tbr, but overall my Bronte sister of preference is Emily and her "Wuthering Heights." It's such a measured "fuck you" to angel of the home ideology. It drives me nuts that people see it as the "Cathy and Heathcliff Love Story" and ignore Hindley the alcoholic father tossing his baby from a first story landing and Heathcliff throwing knives at his wife. She shows that the home is not a refuge for women and children.

[@fictionesque1992]

yeah charlotte's book defs flirts with more conservative ideas the most i think...because jane's ideal of love is really about serving a man who 'needs' her not ever about being served. so st. john was kind of right.
what do you think of tenant of wildfell hall? i just finished it.

[@lobsterdog413]

@@fictionesque1992 @Charlotte's conservatism: omg my expression when Ms. Charlotte stops the narrative for the fifth time to describe the shape of someone's skull in minute detail
I haven't read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall yet. Would you recommend it? It's been on my "if I see it at a book sale, I'll nab it" list for a while. The only thing I know about Anne is that she's the one people always say has the normal taste in men. It looks like it follows a Middlemarch-type plot, where the heroine marries the wrong man in haste and repents in leisure. I loved Middlemarch, and the early feminist and female artist stuff sounds interesting, so maybe I'll go hunt down a copy.
My current read is The Master and Margarita. After that, my rough plan is to read The House of Ulloa by Emilia Pardo Bazan, and then maybe I'll have to strength to finally tackle Sons and Lovers by DH Lawrence. Though more likely I'll read House of Ulloa, track down a copy of The Vicar of Bullhampton--excited to see Trollope tackle the fallen woman trope!--then read another Sylvia Townsend Warner novel and tell myself, "One day I'll read a DH Lawrence novel. One day :)"

[@fictionesque1992]

to be honest if domestic violence and/or extreme misogyny is a trigger for you then i'd say skip Tenant of Wildfell Hall. it is an extremely depressing and scary book to read and will just be worse if you've ever been face to face with a scary womanhater irl. Tenant of Wildfell Hall really deserves its title as one of the earliest feminist novels but it got that title by basically going all in on how much of patriarchy was based in violence and how men abuse having stations above women in society. And yes it is similar to Middlemarch (have not read that one but it's like you describe), however the protagonist also has a very strong air of defiance in her throughout the book and she didn't strike me as wholeheartedly repentant as she articulates multiple times that there simply are not enough decent men on the marriage market for every woman to get one :(
Master and Margarita is one of Victor's fav books! I have not read that or any of the others you've mentioned, eeeek!

[@lobsterdog413]

@@fictionesque1992 Thanks for the heads up about The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. I downloaded the Project Gutenberg copy, and I'm up to Chapter 13. My thoughts so far is that it shows how destructive abuse is to trust. Helen's fear and trauma causes her to come off as cold and weirdly intense. Now that I'm more familiar with it, I'd say The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is perhaps more like Samuel Richardson's Clarissa (the epistolary format and the emphasis on male violence) than Middlemarch.
I assume you're swamped with course reading right now, but when you get the time, I highly recommend checking out Middlemarch. I read it as part of Fran Hoepfner's Middlemarch May read-along on her Substack, and it was such a great experience. The pacing slumps a bit in the middle, but other than that, I mean, I don't have the words to describe how much I enjoyed this novel.
Middlemarch is to rural Victorian life as Bleak House is to urban Victorian life. Eliot portrays a whole English village through the lens of three different couples. She considers one of the topics you brought up in this video, about people getting into relationships because they want a 'warm body.' The plot line I referred to in my previous comment, however, is about women's struggle to find intellectual fulfillment, including in a romantic relationship. The basic setup is as follows:
Dorothea: I am going to marry this horrible old man. He will teach me Greek and Latin and fulfill all my intellectual ambitions.
Dorothea's loved ones: Please don't marry this horrible old man. Ha ha you're so sexy.
**She marries the horrible old man.**
Dorothea's husband: I'm not going to corrupt your delicate little ladybrain with such heady topics as Greek and Latin.
Dorothea: oh no
**While in Rome, Dorothea meets Will Ladislaw, her husband's young, sexy Bohemian cousin, who she shares long conversations about Art with.**
Dorothea: OH NO

[@fictionesque1992]

one day i will :^) i'm a little bummed my profs are having me read so much dickens yet barely any eliot. ty for the rec