Sue’s Comments (group member since Jan 21, 2020)

Sue’s comments from the The Obscure Reading Group group.

One take-away for me was that Gilbert was in the Cinderella role in the end with Helen being the more well-to-do of the pair. Are there other examples of this reversal of roles, as it were, in Victorian lit? I’m sure there must be but I can’t think of any offhand.

I think I need to read more about the Bronte family.. I know a bit about Bramweell and the relationship of the sisters but I would like to know more. I think I have a bio on my kindle. Now to find it and see if it’s good.

Well Ken, she’s likely the idealized Anne, and far too advanced for her time too.

Amy, I’m not finished with this section yet but I do agree with you. I have been noticing a feeling of contemporary sentiment in the words and thoughts Bronte gives Helen. And the section about the party at their house and Lowborough joining the ladies was so well done and so sad. His wife is “a piece of work”. It’s scary, and educational, to be reminded just how recently women gained any rights.

Her blinders seem to be slipping, but I haven’t finished these chapters yet.

Thanks Cindy. I know I have heard it used, whether in the news, documentaries or tv shows, for many years .

Cindy, grooming is the perfect description for behavior that probably had not been identified in that century.

Sandra and Jean, and probably others, as I have read well into the second volume now I agree that the whole tenor of the book changes. Helen is a very different narrator than Gilbert. But I know we will be discussing this next week. I do admit I have misjudged this book too soon. Perhaps Anne was making a point on her theme by having Gilbert be her initial narrator.

Wonderful discussion. I’ve been unable to join in until tonight because of an eye issue but I particularly like the discussion of the language of the landed gentry, something I wasn’t aware of. Helen is interesting and, to me as a reader, obviously carrying baggage from her past. I suppose that sense probably is part of being a modern reader. Would a reader of Bronte’s day be wondering about her past or just indulging in the same type of catty thoughts as Mrs. Markham’s neighbors? Or would they wait for the author to provide the answers they wanted?

I am nearly done with this week’s reading and finding myself more engaged. For me, it felt like the story picked up once the cattiness began to rise and emotions increased. Gilbert’s treatment of Lawrence was over the top but also reminds me of moments in other Victorian novels. Helen’s diary does appear to be a slowing of tempo in the story but I have a feeling it will pick up again.

I have had the strange feeling while I have been reading that I have read this book before. Some scenes seem so familiar. But I know I haven’t. Is it the use of many Victorian tropes or general feeling of scenes, perhaps? An odd sensation.

I’m about half way through. Must say that, though I enjoy the Victorian era writers as a group, there is a tendency here toward, dare I say, excess.

Ken, I believe Eliot’s Floss was the river that the mill sat beside. So no dentists involved, which reminds me I have a dentist appointment scheduled while we are reading Bronte. (I read The Mill on the Floss while in college and I think I read it a second time a few years ago. The memory for some such details gets fuzzy.)

And I have the random book piles that I intend to donate or otherwise get rid of balanced by books on my couch, newer and having no place yet to live in my apartment.

Thanks Yvonne and Diane. I’m behind in my streaming activity anyway so by the time it comes out I will watch for it.

Thanks for the information about Poisonwood Bible, Yvonne. I just wish she was developing this for Netflix or Amazon which I already have.

It’s on the first page of my kindle, waiting to be opened:-)

I have the Penguin Classics edition already on my kindle and I’m glad we’ll br reading this. Looking forward to February!

I haven’t yet read The Bluest Eye, Sandra. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ginny, I haven’t read Native Son yet, which I have always considered a bad oversight. Now, having read Petry, I think I agree with Cindy and I’m no longer concerned about Native Son.

I am just about finished and hesitate to read all of the entries as I know there is a dramatic finale at hand. I have found the novel, over all, well done, but with stretches of polemical writing that takes away from the story. When it is Lutie finally gaining an insight, such as the links between Bub’s fear of the dark, her nagging about money and the cost of electricity and his eventual arrest, then it seems to advance the story. But the constant inner talk of the street and its affects made me, at times, want to take a break from the book.

Now back to finish the ending.