The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910 discussion
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The Devil’s Pool - Week 1
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Deborah, Moderator
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Jun 02, 2019 06:33AM
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2) In Chapter 1 we are giving a description of a work by Holbein. In Chapter 2 see are given a similar scene but what the author describes is the anthesis of the painting. What did you take away from that?
3) Another line that caught my eye, "He who derives noble enjoyment from the inward sentiment of poesy is a true poet, though he has never written a line in his life." What do you think of this statement?
4) I this week's reading we see a Germain father-in-law (Pere Maurice) encouraging him to see another wife after his daughter has passed. Although the reasoning is sound, did this take you by surprise the way it did me?
5) What do you think about the character of "little Marie"?
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I like what she says about the beauty of the world and how few os us see it. We are all too busy with daily tasks to notice it very often. It reminds me to stop and look more often. Looking at a lot of art can do that too.
While some focus on death, others are focused on living. If you are poor, you are too busy surviving to focus on death. The struggle itself forces you to be blinded to things other than sustaining yourself and family.
5) Marie seems like a perfect wife for Germaine- kind, loves children- despite the fact that she doesn’t fit Pere Maurice’s idea of the perfect wife - too young, too poor. I’ll be interested to see what the potential wife thinks of Germaine’s son tagging along. 2) It seems that Sands is trying to replace one idealized view of peasant life with another idealized view. She mentions that her story will not be literally true but will capture a larger truth. Too early to say whether she will accomplish that goal. The quote below jumped out at me from chapter 4, showing Sand’s view of peasant’s thinking capacity. Almost like a “noble savage.” From today’s perspective, just as demeaning as considering them brutes.
“And he went his way, musing as a man muses who has not enough ideas to fight among themselves; that is to say, not formulating in his mind convincing reasons for selfish resistance, but conscious of a dull pain, and not struggling against an evil which it was necessary to accept.”
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I really liked Marie, she seems to have a boatload of common sense for such a young person. It has me wondering if she is going to catch Germaine's eye.
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I liked her too. She shows a generosity of spirit in her offer to entertain and care for Pierre
I’ve only read through the first week’s schedule, but here are my thoughts so far:I read that Sand was a socialist, and perhaps the first two chapters make the most sense with that in mind. The main theme I got from those was about class consciousness. At the risk of oversimplifying, I think she was criticizing the abundance of art (including stories) depicting the poor as something slightly less than human, which has the effect of placating the rich consumers of said art, who are always low-key worried about the lower classes rising up in rebellion. Sand believes “everybody has his story” and she sees the charm and value of telling stories about real life and real working people without demonizing them.
Of course, Sand may betray her own class bias in her portrayal of Germain as being basically too simple to see the beauty in his own life, though it may not be all his fault. Germain really doesn’t want to get remarried, but he agrees to because he’s beholden to his father-in-law Maurice (of note, Sand’s father was also named Maurice). Yet though he feels discomfort at the prospect of remarrying, he’s unable to turn those reservations into any self-serving action. This is not due to his lack of leisure time but rather his less-than-sophisticated mind.
How can the Germains of the world possibly develop the ability to appreciate beauty when they’re worked from sun up to sundown for the benefit of their masters? It’s a fair question but one that excludes the possibility that any person can appreciate beauty even if one doesn’t have the means to produce “beauty” for others’ consumption. I think perhaps that’s where that line comes from about how deriving noble enjoyment from poetry makes one a true poet even if one never writes a line.
All this is further contradicted by the Notice at the very beginning of the book, where Sand appears to be saying that she didn’t mean for us to read too much into it, rather that she simply wanted to tell this lovely story and that’s all it is.
I hope I’m not way off base here and I may have to reconsider this depending on how the story plays out. As far as plot goes, I’m convinced Germain will fall in love with Marie. She’s perfect wife material.
4) All during this part, I was certain this was going to be the story of mid-life love, gone into with practical intentions, and blooming under (perhaps) mystical circumstances that create an obstacle to the more perfunctory elements. 5) As soon as Little Marie showed up, I knew the widow was toast.
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I fell in love with the book at the second chapter. I've noticed that most of my favorite books deal with class struggle, such as Mary Barton. That chapter was beautifully written.
The third chapter has a long info-dump in the dialog. This is something common in Victorian literature (also occurs in Frankenstein and in Trollope's books), along with long, uninterrupted speeches. I always notice it because a modern author would never get away with it.
It didn't surprise me that Maurice wanted his son-in-law to get remarried. He is a practical man.
The way Marie is portrayed (and also some of the things Maurice says), especially as I read on a bit into chapter 8, makes it very obvious that the book was written by a woman rather than a Victorian man. It's refreshing.
Lol. I love the idea of the widow getting a hard-working young man, Frances! That WOULD be a twist for the 19th Century! Go George Sand!
OK, it took me the first two chapters to finally get into this book. I wasn't sure if it was going to read like an essay throughout or not, so I was happy to finally get to the actually story. I know better than any one what to think about my own plans, and I am always astonished that the critics dig so deep for them, when the simplest idea, the most commonplace incidents, are only inspiration to which the products of art owe their being." What do you think of this? Is it true that we can read more into a story than what the author meant? Is there a way to prevent that?
I loved reading this statement by Sand! I've had a few discussions over the years concerning the idea of people reading too much into a story and what the author intended. How do we really know what the author intended, especially one who is no longer alive to give his or her definitive say? It's one thing to say something along the lines of "my personal interpretation is...." versus claiming that the author intended a passage or scene to be taken a certain way.
In Chapter 2 see are given a similar scene but what the author describes is the anthesis of the painting. What did you take away from that?
I'm not sure, but I did enjoy the contrasting visions. I do not see why the working poor can not also see the beauty surrounding them as suggested by the second painting? I think Jill in message 7 suggested this more eloquently, although I do not discard the other side where one might not have the time or energy to notice the beauty surrounding them if one is being worked so hard and is worried about where their next meal is going to come from.
Renee wrote: "4) All during this part, I was certain this was going to be the story of mid-life love, gone into with practical intentions, and blooming under (perhaps) mystical circumstances that create an obstacle to the more perfunctory elements."
Yes, me too!
"5) As soon as Little Marie showed up, I knew the widow was toast."
Lol. This totally made me laugh. :)
I was also not surprised that the father-in-law wanted Germaine to get remarried. Like Lori said, he seems very practical. And since much of the burden of Germaine's children would fall to the in-laws, it makes sense that Germaine would want to take his father-in-law's advice and relieve him of that burden.
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Great line!
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Loved this story. Precious Bane was also a masterpiece theater tv show on pbs many years ago.
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Me too.
I haven't read Precious Bane, but have heard about it several times the past year. The PBS show from 30 years ago starring very young Janet McTeer and Clive Owen does look intriguing. My impression is that the book reads like a slightly fairy tale version of a Thomas Hardy novel. I hadn't realized that Sand wrote several pastoral novels based on her early rural experiences. I rely too much on the movie Impromptu for my image of her. Her novel, Indiana, was more of an exotic insetting and in Paris and was not a pastoral novel.
I'm enjoying the story. I do think her Germain comes off as a pure, good, handsome but very naïve young man, almost a Billy Budd. Sand definitely piques the readers' interest, and gives them someone to champion, by bringing in the young heroic Marie.
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Robin, it was in another Goodreads group’s discussion early this year on the novel Cold Comfort Farm that I first learned about Precious Bane, and how it was a satire source for CCF.
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Definitely, the rich widow would have resolved a lot of the concerns Germain's father-in-law had.
The Readers Review: Literature from 1714 to 1910
Books mentioned in this topic
Cold Comfort Farm (other topics)Precious Bane (other topics)
Precious Bane (other topics)
