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"The dead and the gone" - again

I dislike the protagonist every bit as much as I did the first time around.

Prelude To Foundation by Isaac Asimov.

Days of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence - Bryan Burrough

The Humans, Matt Haig

A view of human behavior, annoying and pleasurable, from the eyes of a visiting e.t.

(artwork: John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1888)

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poems, Chiefly Lyrical (1830) and in particular The Lady of Shalott

This is a shout-out to everyone who has previously expressed interest in reading Emily Brontë's only novel, Wuthering Heights, (1847), as a Reading Group in tribute to her 200th birthday which is celebrated this year.

I read it every year as a ritual, always beginning mid-October when the weather wuthers where I live. It is a short novel, in two volumes, approx. 210 pages (I'd have to go check). Its gothic, twisted and perverse, and not at all the Hollywood romance that screenplays attempt to produce:

Graham's Lady Magazine wrote: “How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.”

Please indicate below or PM me if you are interested in reading this masterpiece, which has been called "the greatest achievement of literature in the entire English canon". I'm posting now so that people who are interested can get a copy of the novel and / or ponder the complex family tree chart which precedes it

I wish I could tag people, but I recall that sianann, redxk, alirat and kraftie have shown interest.

Any and everyone is welcome to read with me! The more the merrier!

I'll start mid-October, or whenever it's best for others.

Thanks,
Isabella Linton

IsabellaLinton wrote:

Sianann wrote:

IsabellaLinton wrote:

IsabellaLinton wrote:

Redxk wrote:

IsabellaLinton wrote:

Sianann wrote:

IsabellaLinton wrote:

Sianann wrote:

IsabellaLinton wrote:

Sianann wrote:

IsabellaLinton wrote:

The Cambridge Companion to the Brontës, Edited by Heather Glen

Yes, I'm that predictable.

I daydream anout having a massive oak bookcase filled with a copy of every version of Wuthering Heights ever published. Sigh.

WAIT WHAT?! DO I HAVE A PARTNER IN MY LOVE OF THIS BOOK????
I have a walnut "Brontë Cabinet" with 49 (soon to be 58) Brontë books -- multiple biographies of each of them including Branwell and Patrick, social histories, poetry, juvenilia and novels -- multiple copies of every novel. WH is my thing. It's my spirit novel and unending obsession, along with Emily.

O, lol, perhaps!

I read WH every year for years...not so in the last few years. I used to have biographies, etc. but my interests started to cast a bigger net and I gave books away (I know, I know...) in order to make room for other worlds. I actually went to Haworth two decades ago as a sort of pilgrimage...the house is a museum but I was not happy walking around it as I felt it to be so very intrusive on Emily’s still lingering sense of privacy. However, the moors were absolutely beautiful.

I am so impressed with your book-filled walnut Brontë cabinet...sounds like a work of art in itself.

How nice to hear from you! I also read WH once a year, always in the late autumn so I might enjoy tumultuous storms and dreary weather turning to snow along with Lockwood's travels. My ancestors were woolcombers who lived in Haworth at the time of the Brontës, and for generations beforehand, most having been baptized and / or buried by Patrick himself at St. Michael's. I'm intensely drawn to the area but also aware of Emily's desire for privacy. What a shame you gave away your books. If you decide to reread WH, let me know. I'd love to have a Brontë book club By the way, The Cambridge Companion is extraordinary. I love Juliet Barker's work in particular.

Do you think you will seek an assessment for neurodiversity?

Wow! The only connection I have with the Brontes is that Patrick was Irish...a very tenuous link indeed! Yes, and I did have a copy of Barker's biography, which I thoroughly enjoyed and now feel an overwhelming urge to get my hands on again. I would love to reread WH and I think October would be the perfect month (it's my favourite month of the year...although November was vying for top spot last year with its very Gothic-romantic vibe and lots of dawn mist here in the Midlands). I will let you know so that we can read at the same time.

Hmm, I will seek an assessment eventually. I'm so comfortable with being considered 'different' now that the need for a diagnosis just isn't there...unlike many other aspects in my life that have me super-focused...but yes, I would like to know one way or the other, in time.

It's a deal! October and November are my favourite months as well!! Wow! You're my kindred spirit as I love dark weather too!

I was only assessed this year and I found it extremely valuable.

Keep in touch!

Isabella

My favorite month is October as well... seriously! I would love to reread WH and join in on the discussion.

Please do!! ! ! That would be marvellous!! !

Readers, take your mark!

Redxk is a very kind and well-read academic, Sianann! We'll have fun and recruit more literati along the way!

Have you read Villette? I adore its gloominess, too.

O, welcome - Redxk! Yes, I read Villette many, many years ago. I feel like I need to revisit everything...right now!
This feels like home.

Welcome, welcome! Yes, you're home!
Let your friend know you'd love to have your Brontë books returned, if he / she has finished with them (wink)!

... and I love your Wittgenstein quote, as well!

I actually gave my Bronte collection to one of my sisters years ago...we had the same interests and so it was like a safe harbour for the books...until we became estranged three years ago and that was that. I'll start collecting again.

Yes, Wittgenstein is one of my obsessions, lol. Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Love it.

"Citizen Girl" is about a 24 year old with a bachelor degree.

She works filing and making coffee


She is having a hard time paying the bills


Her name is <"Girl".

There is another character named "Guy"



Not boy, girl. Man, woman

Guy, girl.



Sexist sexist sexist

My word I don't know if you can read my answer in all the quotes nesting going on! Basically it was 'I'm in".

Re. Wuthering Heights - just to confirm that I’m in too!

YAY to sianann and feeli0 for wanting to read WH! I own several editions so let me know which you choose (the various introductions can be fascinating!) Has anyone heard from redxk or alirat lately?

One month and counting...

Bring your thunder and lightning! Bring your teacups and troubles!

Reposting for others who may want to read!

Necro Files: Two Decades Of Extreme Horror.

Anthology of truly disturbing, even stomach churning literary terror. The very first story is by George R.R. Martin - - yes, he also writes horror.

L'Etranger. Well, I wish my French was still good enough to have a go at reading the original version. Alas, it's not.

I'm rereading Camus' The Stranger.

I read L'Etranger in a French Lit class. It's one of the only times I remember speaking in class (or in French, for that matter, because I didn't take conversational classes). I raised my hand and asked a poignant question in French, in a large lecture theatre, feeling very proud of myself for finding my voice. I don't remember the question, but it was a "pourquoi?" one. lol. It was something philosophical and quite lengthy. My professor was impressed and responded accordingly. It was liberating to speak in French because it would be normal if I got it "wrong". In English I am nearly mute, unless I write (at which point I can't stop, as you know). That's my story of the day, about Camus. (I also read Le Petit Prince, but I can't recall the others).

Enjoy!