Ebster’s Comments (group member since Apr 23, 2014)

Ebster’s comments from the Classics Without All the Class group.

I'm only on chapter six, but right now I keep thinking "Please don't be the main character. please don't be the main character "

Here's my review: "I bought this book for fifty cents at the Senior Citizens Thrift Store. It was really nice because I could underline text and write in the margins at my favorite parts (which I did a lot because I enjoyed it very much, though I think the ending was a bit abrupt.)

It's about a woman trying to make peace with change in her life.

Unlike most of the books I've read from this era, it's not a social satire it is legitimately looking at political issues of the time and incorporating them into a drama. (Oddly enough you can replace words like "Parliamentary smoke" with "solar panels" and many of the same arguments used in this book are pretty much word for word the same arguments people have today).

(The Southerner) Margaret Hale is the central character (though many others hold the POV at some point). She's very far removed from what I've come to expect from a woman in victorian times. Many times in the story she is referred to as "proud and haughty" but I ususally take those words to mean someone who is self-absorbed and acts superior to everyone else and Margaret doesn't act in this way (she's actually really eager to make friends with everyone, even if they're really different from her). I guess today we'd call her "assertive and professional".

She also takes a very active role promoting what she believes is right.

(The Northerner) John Thorton (AKA "Mister Milton") is the love interest who isn't really a love interest until the last two pages of the book. He's a business owner who's political views (but not moral) are in opposition to Margaret's. He's big, strong and tough on the outside but he's a momma's boy, he likes reading greek tragidy for fun, and gives away fruitbaskets.

Margaret's calm assertiveness makes his heart go all aflutter! (It's kinda cute and angsty at first but it actually gets annoying after a while. There are a lot of romantic quotes on goodreads about him, most of them are a bit creepy and weird when taken in context...Margaret, her family, her friends and her community are facing crisis after crisis and all he can think about is "She dunna liek meh...")

The discussions between various POV characters are well thought out and I loved that there wasn't a "right" or "wrong' character politically. Even though Margaret is pretty much a christian-liberal and John is pretty much a conservative.

There were a lot of other cool characters but most of them died and I'm not ready to talk about them yet.

The one thing I didn't like about this book was the pacing. I'd read that this book was originally written as a serial drama not a novel. So it's kind of more like a TV show then a movie. The episodaic structure was kind of nice in some ways because we got to know more about the side characters and see these awkward interactions between all these people that were totally relatable made you cringe or laugh because they were true to life, but it was bad in other ways because things like Mr Milton's #feels are reiterated to the umpteenth degree and Margaret Hale's don't evolve until late in the story.

The edition I have has these footnotes, and one of them included a quote from the author about the ending and how she didn't like it: "at last the story is huddled and hurried up [...] But what could I do? Every page was grudged me"

UMMM....MAYBE NOT MAKE IT SO FRIGGIN LONG??

Gosh, it's Four Hundred-and-twenty-five-pages!!

Overall, I think it was a great book. It's pretty unique, but if you like Charles Dickens and Jane Austen you might want to give this a try."

I own a copy of this book, and like I said I've written in the margins and underlined several passeges (so I'm keeping it) *hugs book*

"It was astonishing, almost stunning, to feel herself so much at liberty; no one depending on her for cheering care, if not for positive happiness; no invalid to plan and think for; she might be idle, and silent, and forgetful,--and what seemed worth more then all the other privileges--she might be unhappy if she liked."

"Have I any right to obtrude my views, of the manner in which he shall act, upon another, merely because he has labor to sell, and I capital to buy?"

Not in the least, said Margaret, determined just to say this one thing; "not in the least because of your labor and capital positions, whatever they are, but because you are a man, dealing with a set of men over whom you have, whether you reject the use of it or not, immense power; just because your lives and your welfare are so constantly interwoven. God has made us so that we must be mutually dependent."

This is a place to share your favorite quote or passage from this book.

@John ita got a bunch of reviews because they made a TV version that was very popular. I'm sorry you don't like it. It took me a bit to get used to the fact that its not satire (it apporoaches the soceio-political issues very seriously) but it still had moments that made me laugh, esspecially with the culture clash.

I this will be thr first time I've read a book twice in a row! Looking forward to it very much.

I had a similar experience reading the introduction to this book! Apparently some professor thought the readers would be too dumb to understand the plot unless s/he spelled it out for us.

As too adaptions, I've not seen the film adaption yet, but from reading the reviews of this book on goodreads it seems common that people are exposed to the TV version prior to finding the book (so you're not alone!).

Hi I'm Ebster. I'm from the Mojave desert. I some of the author's I like are Tolkien, Michael Criton and Poe.

Lately I've been reading classics that no one else I know has read. And then I found this group!

I recently had a great time watching the second movie in "The Hobbit" franchise with my mom.