Etanah Fuimaono-lalau từ Sandusky, IL , USA

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12/22/2024

Dữ liệu người dùng, đánh giá và đề xuất cho sách

Etanah Fuimaono-lalau Sách lại (10)

2018-09-15 18:30

Người Giàu Có Nhất Thành Babylon (Tái bản năm 2016) Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn

Sách được viết bởi Bởi: George S. Clason

Everyone has read "Jane Eyre" but Charlotte Bronte's "Villette" is lesser-known. It's a remarkable book, a really remarkable book, but there *are* reasons for its relative obscurity. Let's start with the good things (no major spoilers, but grow up!): 1) It's a nice portrait of Belgium, called "Labassecour" here. It's not clear why Belgium needed an alias. And who was Bronte fooling? How many French-speaking countries that are not France are near the English Channel? 2) It's a precise description of what it was like to work in a girls school in the 1840s, since Bronte worked in a Belgian school for girls in the 1840s. The characters are well-observed, particularly Madame Beck, the Principal of the school. She is a brilliant administrator albeit by dubious means: she collects information by reading her staff member's mail and searching their desks. She is tolerant of failings, however, as long as they don't affect the success of the school. Bronte allows us to both admire and despise her. 3) The book contains a wonderful depiction of two young people falling in love. Virtue is often boring, but not here. 4) There's a thrilling amount of anti-Catholic invective. Since no one believes this sort of thing any more, it does no harm now, and it does illustrate why the English and French used to hate each other. Whew! 5) The really fine thing about the novel is its depiction of Lucy Snowe. It is psychologically astute in a time before there was psychology (all the characters strongly believe in phrenology). Lucy is complicated: she is shy but determined, intelligent but hesitant, restrained but passionate, and able to enjoy life although terrified of dying in poverty and loneliness. Bronte portrays this in complicated ways: with a narrator who is unreliable (in predictable ways, so as we read, we can decode what is really happening even when Lucy misleads us); with the timing and type of illnesses Lucy suffers; with her dreams and hallucinations. She is placed in awkward situations that force her to behave in illuminating ways, like when she has to dress in men's clothing: My friends who are reading "50 shades of gray" might be startled by some of the undercurrents in this girl's school. The bad things: 1) Lucy is no fun for the feminist. Although she desires independence above all, she is passive and accepts class divisions without question. The "aboriginal" Belgian farmers don't interest her; she respects aristocracy, never believing herself their equal. She allows men to direct her without questioning it. 2) Lucy has two suitors, one nice and one who is one of the worst dates in the history of literature. To the modern reader he is insufferable. It's true that he's an utterly believable character. It's true that in real life no one understands other people's romantic tastes. Still, Jane Austen would *never* have allowed one of her heroines to endure a person like this. 3) There's a ghostly nun. The thing is, I don't think Bronte is asking us to like Lucy's life or approve of her choices; Lucy's not being held up as a role model. Life didn't turn out as she hoped and she didn't have any exciting adventures. Yet in reading this novel, you see she is as valuable a human being as any aristocrat or scholar or rich person. If you love any one, you must also love her. It is a hard vision but a large vision. It makes this a great novel although a very austere and difficult one.

Người đọc Etanah Fuimaono-lalau từ Sandusky, IL , USA

Người dùng coi những cuốn sách này là thú vị nhất trong năm 2017-2018, ban biên tập của cổng thông tin "Thư viện Sách hướng dẫn" khuyến cáo rằng tất cả các độc giả sẽ làm quen với văn học này.