I have been doing lots of reading since my last blog!
First of all let's start with E M Forster's 'A Room With A View', written and set at the turn of the 20th century. It tells the story of Lucy Honeychurch, who meets a lower-class young man on holiday, finds he is attracted to her, and is then whisked off and eventually agrees to marry someone who she doesn't really love. Then George Emmerson, the young man she met in Italy, comes to live in the same village as Lucy. Mayhem ensues and she is torn between a marriage of convenience and love.
I quite enjoyed this book although I found it a struggle, which was strange, as it's written in very readable English. It wasn't a Chaucer-like battle with the words. I think it was that for me the characters were rather bland. I kept mixing them up. This probably wasn't helped by the fact that it took me over a week to get through this slim tome, but for me not a single character was inimitably themself. I read somewhere that Forster believed in writing well-rounded characters, but I think that in pursuing this ideal he failed to bring them to life. At least for this reader.
The story was also well-trodden. Forster was probably quite a pioneer when it was written, what with social class still being such an everyday necessity in those days. But so many people have copied him since then that for me, as a 21st century reader, it was, quite frankly, dull. However he writes beautifully, particularly the descriptions of the views that are so crucial to the novel (constant symbols of freedom, emancipation and the pursuit of true love) and the book is full of humour. I loved the bathing scene, with Freddy's cries of 'I've swalled a polly-wog' making me laugh out loud. All in all an interesting presentation of Edwardian Englishness.
Jeanette Winterson's 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit' on the other hand was an absolute joy to read. Written in the 80's, from what I can interpret set a couple of decades or so earlier. From the first page I was laughing. Winterson writes in a gloriously light, playful way, despite the book's darker themes of oppressive religious dogma, forbidden (homosexual) love and the diffiulties of being an outsider. It is told from the view of Jeanette - I think half autobiographical but half fictional - as she grows up and starts a love affair with a girl called Melanie. One section that had me in hysterics was Jeanette-the-little-girl's daydream about the just and noble king Tetrahoedron and his nemesis Iscoseles. The book seems to become more abstract as it continues, through the inclusion of fairy tale style stories that intersperse grown-up-Jeanette's adolescent troubles. But for me it was a lively book, with deftly-painted characters who really came alive, especially Jeanette's frustrating, hypocritical, lovelorn mother, and I thought that Jeanette's self-discovery and the backdrop of oppressed lesbianism was very sensitively written. I will be coming back to this book again and again. It is completely different in genre to anything I have ever read before but Winterson writes in just the style I like. Top marks.
Finalement, ce soir j'ai fini Le Petit Prince, d'Antoigne de St-Exupery (pardon, je ne sais pas comment faire des accents sur ce clavier). C'est le premier roman francais que j'ai lu. Il m'a surprisee que je pouvait le lire et, la plupart de temps, le comprendre parfaitement - en suite, j'essayerai quelquechose un peu plus avancee! Pourtant j'ai trouve Le Petit Prince une introduction inspiratrice a la litterature francaise. J'ai adore l'usage de fantaisie, et je me suis tres bien amusee en me replongeant dans le monde de l'enfance. C'etait une aventure nostalgique, pour moi. Une histoire imaginative et charmante. Alors, je vais trouver un peu de Camus...
Finally, this evening I finished The Little Prince (in French), by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (a classic French children's book with beautiful illustrations). It's the first French-language book I have ever read. I was surprised by the fact I could read it and how much of it I understood! Next I'm going to try something a bit more advanced. However I found The Little Prince an inspiring introduction to French literature. I loved Exupery's use of fantasy, and I really enjoyed plunging myself back into a child's world for a little while. For me The Little Prince was a nostalgic adventure, and an imaginative and charming story. Right, now I'm off to dig out the Camus...
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