Monthly Archives: January 2014

Paradise Lost Read-Along – Books I and II

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Paradise Lost by John Milton Books I & II

Lost, did someone say LOST?  Well, actually I’m not as lost as I thought I would be while reading this magnificent epic poem written by John Milton for my Paradise Lost Read-Along.

Wow, where do I begin?  I absolutely love this poem.  Why?  I love the compellingly beautiful and haunting imagery; how each word is not superfluous but enhances the story; the ideas that are both obvious and subtle; the development of the characters which Milton paints with a fine-pointed brush; the echoes of other great poets and great ages, Biblical images mixed with classical ones …….  I could go on and on.

To give a short summary for Books I & II, Milton calls upon his classical and spiritual Muse to introduce the poem, relating the disobedience of man, and then dives right into Satan’s fall from Heaven after a battle, the Consult in Pandemonium where Satan and his angels decide their next tactic and Satan’s journey to earth with the purpose of ascertaining whether they can exert their influence there to revenge themselves on God.

Interestingly, Milton creates a Satan that is both appealing and evil, a fascinating and unsavory character, so I’m going to concentrate my comments on his and his minions machinations!

Satan rising from the Burning Lake (1896)
by William Strang
(sourced NYPL)

If we listen to the words of Satan and his angels describing their plight, they sound compelling, at times even justifiable, and perhaps one could even feel a sympathy for them.

“What though the field be lost?
All is not lost; the unconquerable will,
And study of revenge, immortal hate,
And courage never to sumit or yield:
And what else is not to be overcome?
That glory never shall his wrath or might
Extort from me…”  (105-111)

Yet there is a delusional quality to their reasoning and, if we listen to the poet, we see that their hope is futile against the power of God.  Even Belial, the fallen angel, seems to confirm this premise.

“They dreaded worse than Hell, so much the fear
Of thunder and the sword of Michael
Wrought still within them, and no less desire
To found this nether empire …”   (293-296)

And:

“What if the breath that kindled those grim fires,
Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage,
And plunge us in the flames ……”  (Belial: 170-172)

The poet also gives us consistent glimpses of Satan’s true persona and the fallen angels’ perception of their fate:

“By falsities and lies, the greatest part
Of mankind they corrupted to forsake
God their Creator, and the invisible
Glory of him that made them to transform
Oft to the image of a brute, adorned
With gay religions full of pomp and gold,
And devils to adore for deities …..” (367-373)

And:

“……. All our glory extinct, and happy state 
Here swallowed up in endless misery …”  (141-142)

Though they admit they have lost happiness and prestige, the hatred they harbour towards God is like a putrefying emination, and their diabolical desire for vengeance is at once powerful and terrifying.  There is a sense of a lack of humanity, a disconnect to any emotion other than overwhelming enmity towards the Creator.  Satan even exhibits a curious impersonal indifference to man, seeing him only as a vehicle to play out his revenge.  In spite of evidence to the contrary, Satan and his followers are certain of victory, and plan to work relentlessly towards that goal.

Sin and Death at the Gates of Hell (1896)
by William Strang
(sourced NYPL)

Milton does not make Satan an horrific, evil monstrosity; his Satan is articulate, calculating and, in the eyes of the other fallen angels, has admirable artifice.  While the Satan of Dante (The Divine Comedy) is gruesome, hideous and quite terrifying, our Satan in this poem has a more pleasing guise.  And so he should have.  Dante’s Satan was in Hell, evil personified, there to enlighten inmates as to the horrors of their fate.  On the other hand, it is important for Milton’s Satan to be appealing.  He travels to earth with the design to tempt men; his deviousness and evil require cloaking in order for him to succeed in his mission.  But for us as readers, it pays to be diligent in recognizing the true qualities of Satan and the fallen angels.  They value power, might, ill, revenge, war, strength, vice, hatred, death, and they despise weakness, goodness and virtue.  In fact, they don’t simply despise good; they seek to pervert it, and far from wishing to do ill to a specific person or for a specific wrong, they desire “ever to do ill.”  The trick is to see behind the facade.  To trust anything presented or said by Satan and his angels would be unwise.

Book I and II were ripe with an incongruous tension between the grandeur of Satan, and his evil scheme of vengeance, paired with the futility of his actions.  I cannot wait to see what transpires in Books III and IV!

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

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“Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife.”

Whether first introduced to the book or the movie, which one of us is not familiar with the story of The Wizard of Oz?  As I child, I remember feeling dizzy as Dorothy was whirled away in the cyclone to the land of Oz; those shoes she inherited from the dead Wicked Witch of the East, just dazzled; the Scarecrow who wanted a brain, the Tin Man who wanted a heart, and the Lion who wanted courage stirred my sympathies, and I was as in awe of Oz as Dorothy and her companions, until I found out, as they did, that his persona was all a hoax.  All throughout Dorothy’s adventures with the Munchkins, the Flying Monkeys, and  the Wicked Witch of the West, I cheered for Dorothy to find a means to return safely to Uncle Henry and Aunt Em and her home in Kansas.

Dorothy meets the cowardly Lion
from the first edition
(source Wikipedia)

Re-reading this book as an adult, I admit I’ve lost the delight of the childhood experience, yet I found if I focused on the story’s simplicity, there was charm in it.  Both Dorothy and her companions were straightforward, uncomplicated personalities, trusting, honest and unquestionably sincere.  In spite of the dangers they encountered, somehow their innocence and naiveté helped them pass through their trials and realize their dreams.  While the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion each desire a quality that they perceive they lack, their actions in situations of danger, show that they already possess these qualities, and that they simply had to employ them, in order for them to be revealed.  Perhaps this shows that we all have special qualities within us that only rise to the surface in the face of adversity.  
All in all, I found this a short and pleasing read, a chance to travel back to a childhood favourite and revisit memories that still linger in spite of childhood left behind.

Wuthering Heights Read-Along Week #1

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Wuthering Heights is one of the few Brönte novels that I have not read and, in spite of previously feeling somewhat ambivalent towards this book, I’m looking forward to it for this read-along hosted by Maggie at An American in France blog.

Chapters 1 – 9

Wuthering Heights begins in media res, with Mr. Lockwood visiting his landlord, Heathcliff at his home, Wuthering Heights.  While initially curious about Heathcliff’s strange means of living and intrigued by his caustic manner, his second visit arouses a much altered response.  Treated to disrespectful treatment by the servants, occupants and master alike, he is dismayed to find himself an overnight guest courtesy of a snowstorm.  While in his room that night, Lockwood has a horrifying dream that ends with a young girl named Catherine Linton (yet he has also seen her name scratched on the windowsill as Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Heathcliff) grasping his hand through the window and begging to be let in.  His cry summons Heathcliff who, pale as death, agrees with Lockwood’s decision to leave early and as Lockwood leaves the room, Heathcliff calls out in despair to his “Cathy”.  Later Lockwood is told the story of the Earnshaw family: how Heathcliff was brought home by Master Earnshaw from the streets of Liverpool and brought up within the family, although both the wife and brother hated his presence, while Catherine, the daughter, eventually chose him for a constant companion.  We learn of Heathcliff’s dark, silent suffering that perhaps conceals more than we have yet seen, and of Catherine’s willful, selfish spirit, each negative quality of these characters, nurtured by the lonely, loveless environment in which they live, and the harsh or indifferent treatment they receive from the father, mother and especially Hindley, Catherine’s brother, who becomes their guardian after the parents’ deaths.  At the end of chapter 9, Catherine has agreed to marry Edgar Linton, a son of a respectable family, yet she vows a lifelong faithfulness to Heathcliff and a desire to enhance his life by her new respectable and influential position.  Given Heathcliff’s sullen pride, dark brooding tempers and possessive inclinations towards her, one wonders how she can justify her decision using such an untenable explanation.

YORKSHIRE
Photo courtesy of Steve Calcott (source Flickr)
Creative Commons License

What connects the reader to the two main characters of the novel?  So far neither have engaged my admiration but I think we can all feel a silent sympathy for their plight.  Their sheltered lives, amongst people who failed to nurture even a sentiment of human feeling in either character, evoke a tentative compassion, as their choices seem to have already been made for them, instead of being products of stable, empathetic temperments.  The tension at the end of the chapter is palpable, as a shocking car wreck that we cannot look away from, the foreshadowing of intensity of the coming situation evident.

And so we continue ………… can Catherine convince Heathcliff of the merits of her marriage?  Will she be happy?  Or will Heathcliff instead chose a destructive path that will affect more people than just himself?  ………  


Read-along posts:  Chapters 1-9 / Chapters 10-17 / Chapters 18-26 / Chapters 27-34 / FINAL REVIEW


Read-A-Thon Update – January 4th

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My first participation in a Read-A-Thon happened on January 4th and, for my first initiation into this 24 hour marathon, I was pleased how it went.

Beginning at 8:03 am, I got off to a great start, reading one-third of Wuthering Heights for a read-along that I was considering.  The weather was lovely for this time of year, yet I resisted its lure to delve into one of my History challenge books, The History of the Ancient World.  In fact, I was doing so well, that I figured I could relax my rigid regime and take my reading outside along with my silent reading sentinel.

Reading Sentinel!

Warm, yet brittle sunshine flooded the pages of Mrs. Dalloway but I had perhaps made a calculated error in bringing my camera with me, and for the next hour I was distracted by texture, light and layering.  Sigh!

Texture, light, layering …… Voila!

I consoled myself with the excuse that I was still engaged in a creative task but Mrs. Dalloway was not happy, so I went inside, read some more and then convinced myself that I needed a walk to open my mind to Woolf’s “stream-of consciousness” style of writing.

The end of Paradise

The hike sent oxygen to my brain but, sadly, didn’t make me more enamoured with Woolf’s novel, so I began The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe before dinner to get a start on my C.S. Lewis Project.

After dinner I was able to buckle down and get a good 4 uninterrupted hours of reading accomplished.  I really tried to get to War and Peace because I am baby steps to the end, but after reading a few chapters and realizing that I was not understanding anything because of need of sleep, I decided to end the experiment.  My first read-a-thon completed!

I would consider it an initial success with room for much improvement.  In the 16 hours I was awake (you notice I have deliberately avoided the word “reading”), I managed to read:

Wuthering Heights  – read one-third
Mrs. Dalloway – read one-third
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – completed
The History of the Ancient World – read about 60 pages
Prince Caspian – read one-quarter
War and Peace – read a pitiful 2 chapters

A Paradise Lost Read-Along

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Carolyn at Rosemary and Reading Glasses is hosting a Paradise Lost Read-Along that will happen over the months of January and February.  Since I have always wanted to read this poem but have been too scared to read it by myself AND because I have had a great start to my reading for 2014, I’m in!

Here’s the scoop:

January 1st will mark this blog’s one-year birthday, and what better way to celebrate than with an epic (literally) readalong?  I’m hosting a Paradise Lost readalong from January 1 to March 1, and I hope you’ll come along to brighten up the winter doldrums.  I’ll be tweeting with the tag #ReadPL if you want to follow along.

January 1:  Introductory post

January 10:  Books I & II reaction

January 20:  Books III & IV reaction

January 30:  Books V & VI reaction

February 10:  Books VII & VIII reaction

February 20:  Books IX & X reaction

March 1:  Books XI & XII; Wrap-up

I’m so excited about this read-along that I’m not even feeling guilty in the least.  Please join us if you can fit it in!

And I’m Off! – Beginning 2014

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 A new year, new challenges and some resolutions!  The beginning of the year started, not with reading, but ………… a “Polar Brrrr Swim”!  Brrrr, is right!  I didn’t join the swim (my husband did) but I did dip my foot in, just to get a taste of what I was missing.  However, after the excitement of the morning, I have come home (well, to our temporary home —— we’re dog-sitting for a friend, but we do have a wonderful view) and have curled up in a comfy chair to start the momentous task of my January reads.

I started The Great Gatsby, which is the January read for my Dead Writers Society group on Goodreads, and also began the Children’s Literature Event, hosted by Amanda on Simpler Pastimes, with The Wizard of Oz.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will count for that event too, and I also have plans to begin Daniel Deronda and Mrs. Dalloway.  Marian at Tanglwood is hosting a Eugene Onegin read-along which I will participate in.  As for books still in-progress from 2013, I am right on schedule with David Copperfield, The History of the Ancient World, Son Excellence Eugène Rougon and Once and Future King .  War and Peace is still not finished but I am close.  The depth and breadth of Tolstoy’s novels always entrance me and I don’t want to rush this one, though I know I should be done by now.  Wharton’s, Tales of Men and Ghosts is left over from October 2013 —– even though I liked the stories I have read, I am not feeling the urge to pick it up, so it may take awhile for me to get through it.  Add to the above, two other read-alongs, I’m considering:  Maggie’s Wuthering Heights Read-Along and a Paradise Lost Read-Along hosted by Carolyn at Rosemary and Reading Glasses.  I have never read Wuthering Heights and need an event like this to push me.  Why this book has remainder on my TBR shelf for so long, I’m not quite sure.  While I have loved most of the Brönte novels, this one has not had the appeal of the rest.  Am I doing it an injustice?  Perhaps I should find out!  In the case of Paradise Lost, I have been wanting to read it for ages but the intimidation factor stopped me.  This read-along is exactly what I need.

As everyone can see, I am completely overloaded for January and perhaps need professional help.  Not to mention that I’m already failing in one of my new year reading resolutions.  Ah yes, resolutions …….  Shall we talk about those?  My reading resolutions for the year are:

a)  to read less books.  I have challenged myself to read 60 which is down from 68 in 2013 and 78 in 2012.  The reason I have resolved to read less is because I want more time to sit with a book, to converse with it, to get to know it better.  Yes, I am not off to a great start with this resolution.  :-Z

b)  to journal about some of the books I read.  Following The Well-Educated Mind questions, I’d like to take the time to summarize chapters, note items of interest or annoyance, list characters, etc.  I will get much more out of a book that way.  Ruth of A Great Book Study is my example for this resolution so I just have to keep reading her blog for inspiration.  Of course, I don’t want to journal every book.  I think I managed to journal three books last year, so if I can improve on three, I will be happy.

c)  expand my reading choices — I love reading old books!  Period.  But I do realize I need some reading choices to connect me to reality, so for this year I’d like to concentrate (a litttle) on reading books that pertain to present social, health and environment issues, such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The 100-Year Lie, The World Until Yesterday (I loved Collapse by the same author), and perhaps I can even throw a classic into this group …… Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

As you can see, I have a host of hopes, wishes, dreams and books on my plate for 2014, a smörgåsbord  of reading and learning.  Whether I realize all of my goals, remains to be seen, but the fun is in the trying!  All best to everyone for 2014!