I analyzed this book’s structure for an editing course. It’s also a crime story!
Really good stuff.
I’m a huge fan of romance… At least in theory. Usually, though, I insist on action mixed in.
For all my love of the genre (I write it myself), I can count on one hand the number of romance novels I’ve read that were truly excellent. The only one I’d rank above Pride and Prejudice is Jane Eyre, but that’s just personal preference. There’s not a single bullet fired or bodice ripped in Pride and Prejudice and it’s so good I don’t care. They have sex with their words.
(Although Jane Eyre at least had the decency to burn some shit down.)
Austen set the standard for the romance novel and every book that came after has tried to reach that standard, and frankly, none have. A romance novel, structurally, is the story of how two people need to change in order to be together. It’s right there in the title - he has to get over his Pride and she’s gotta get past her Prejudice. That novel is the reason that’s the structure. Women for centuries have been pointing to Pride and Prejudice and saying, “That. I want more of that” - even if they don’t know where it all started.
Jane Eyre messed with that structure quite a bit. It’s arguably about how unchanging Jane changes Rochester. Flat character arcs are a thing, but unusual in romance. But ohhhh the banter. The dark. The Gothic! Much more unevenly written, but so much more my speed.
Ooh, interesting. I would say that they both suffer from both vices. Elizabeth has pride in herself, and her judgement - which is why she takes the incredibly risky move of turning down Mr Collins, unlike the less proud but perhaps wiser Charlotte Lucas, and the even riskier one of turning down Darcy first time round; but also why she is so easily blinded by Wickham’s charm and why it takes a complete crisis to revise her initial judgement. She doesn’t tell her family about Wickham, ostensibly because she sees no need but I think because she is too proud to admit how foolish she was. And a big part of her prejudice against Darcy comes from her wounded pride at his initial disparaging treament of her and her family.
Darcy’s pride comes from prejudice and the two are much more closely mingled - he was raised to consider anyone not of his station to be not just socially inferior, but inferior in taste, discernment, sense etc. It’s notable that he can get over this - Bingley is the son of a tradesman after all, and Darcy doesn’t take that long to fall for Elizabeth - but his initial coldness towards the residents of Meryton is prompted by his conviction that none of these people can possibly be worth knowing.
Jane Eyre I will add to my list of belated classical must-reads!
Finished Ready-made Family, by Frances Salomon Murphy, which was okay; and Horrorstor, by Grady Hendrix, which was very good, but the scary stuff didn’t start until almost halfway through the book.
Next up: Why Are Orangutans Orange? Science Questions in Pictures–With Fascinating Answers, edited by Mick O’Hare; and Genesis, by Poul Anderson.
I think this can’t be understated. Because a lot of people think of this story as quaint and low-stakes, but at that time, for a woman in that financial situation, she was taking the risk of dying in poverty. She was saying, I’d rather live destitute than marry someone I don’t love.
That’s an incredibly subversive idea. For a novel in that time period to focus solely on a woman’s emotional fulfillment and one who won’t compromise until she gets it is really quite a statement.
I won’t spoil Jane Eyre but it may interest you to know it’s widely regarded as the first novel with a female protagonist written in deep first person POV. There’s something really unique about its voice.
I generally like David Baldacci, but for some reason I never started the 6-book “King & Maxwell” series until recently – and then I read books 1-5 consecutively, finishing the latter (The Sixth Man) just this past weekend. I’m currently taking a break from Baldacci to read the new Inspector Gamache novel from Louise Penney (#21, Miss Wolcott’s Ghost).
Both of the main King & Maxwell characters started to annoy me in book 4, but I’m committed now and have already purchased book 6 (King & Maxwell) to read at some point.
I’ll likely finish with Gamache shortly before the November 10 release of All In, which is book 4 in the “6:20 Man” series from…wait for it…David Baldacci. I’ve been looking forward to it. And it could act as a natural segue to King & Maxwell, unless I go for this one:
Sounds interesting enough that I looked it up: you neglected to mention that it’s set in 1978. Did you find that to be distracting at all?
I’m in the middle of The Plot still, which is excellent.
Then I got distracted by Bad Blood which is the book about Elizabeth Holmes and the Theranos scandal. Carreyrou interviewed 60 people who worked there. It’s impressive in its scope, but honestly, the writing itself is not that good. Still the story keeps me turning pages. It’s almost comical how incompetent Holmes is in this book. I barely knew who Holmes was until I saw You Can See Everything which has opened the floodgates to trying to understand this scandal. (Insert obligatory plug for one of the best films I’ve ever seen.)
I’m also reading Dana K White’s book Procrastinators Get Stuff Done. I like her decluttering podcast and this new one she just released is great. I’m finding it genuinely helpful already. She really seems to understand what it’s like to live in my chaotic head.
Finished The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre. A decent psychological thriller told in first person by the protagonist, a young woman who makes great money as a cyber sex worker. But she also is a killer who harbors strong homicidal urges, so she has stayed in her apartment for three years. However, when an online client confides in her that he is going to kidnap and kill a young girl, and she sees it on the news, she is finally compelled to leave her safe haven in an attempt to save the girl’s life. Recommended.
Next up, based on recommendations from fellow Dopers: The Sequel by Jean Hanff Korelitz.
Here’s the weird thing about this book. It starts in third person omniscient and the prose is quite lackluster. Then around the midway point the POV switched to first person and it became well written and I thought, “Finally, a good writer” and then I realized it was the same writer who wrote both sections, John Carreyrou. The part he wrote in the third person feels like it was written by a different person. The part in the first person reads like actual journalism.
I was left scratching my head on that one.
Anyhow, very interesting read. Theranos was a complete shit show from day one, they were essentially running a laboratory sweat shop, terrorizing their employees, and we’re still left with some inspiration because the two young people who came forward despite overwhelming pressure, ruthless legal threats and even constant surveillance(!), well, they probably did save lives. The ones with the most to lose were the ones who stood up for their values. We need more people with that kind of integrity.
Finished Why Are Orangutans Orange? Science Questions in Pictures–With Fascinating Answers, edited by Mick O’Hare, which was interesting. Also finished Genesis, by Poul Anderson. Meh.
Next up: A More Perfect Party: The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics, by Juanita Tolliver; and Full Speed to a Crash Landing, a science fiction novel by Beth Revis.
Taking a break from Titan, Ron Chernow’s huge 1998 bio of John D. Rockefeller Sr. I’m about a third of the way through it and am learning a lot about the Standard Oil tycoon. Quite interesting. I had no idea he was a zealous Baptist and thought he made so much money because he was doing the Lord’s work. Also, his monopolizing business policies were intended, at least in part, to even out some of the wild, ruinous price swings in the oil biz back then.
At the moment I’m listening to David Sedaris’s newest book, The Land and Its People, a collection of his public readings. Some very good, very funny essays in it.
I’ve been looking forward to it. And it could act as a natural segue to King & Maxwell, unless I go for this one: