tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post4747846354601645440..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Are we in the land of romance and fiction?Amateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-63731785159552542192015-03-05T22:03:37.815-06:002015-03-05T22:03:37.815-06:00Wow. If we were DJs, I would call that a deep cut...Wow. If we were DJs, I would call that a deep cut. Yes, that is genuinely pathetic.<br /><br />Scott must have paid off that giant debt at this point. This book cannot have been a commercial venture? Rather the work of a great amateur turned professional.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-21821385504583965682015-03-05T19:33:13.855-06:002015-03-05T19:33:13.855-06:00My favorite book by Scott is his strange Letters O...My favorite book by Scott is his strange Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft. Part Justified Sinner, part Ricardo Palma's Chronicles of the Inquisition in Lime with sprinkles of Charles Nodier's Infernaliana. A greatly entertaining, antiquarian book. It includes real pathos in some of its stories about the sad fate of witches.<br /><br />"The intervention of [familiar spirit]Thome Reid as a partner in her trade of petty sorcery did not avail poor Bessie Dunlop, although his affection to her was apparently entirely platonic--the greatest familiarity on which he ventured was taking hold of her gown as he pressed her to go with him to Elfland. Neither did it avail her that the petty sorcery which she practised was directed to venial or even beneficial purposes. The sad words on the margin of the record, "Convict and burnt," sufficiently express the tragic conclusion of a curious tale."Cleanthesshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15363416290397892659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-20846293941756935212015-03-02T08:12:29.357-06:002015-03-02T08:12:29.357-06:00Bride is fifth! But mostly because I do not know w...<i>Bride</i> is fifth! But mostly because I do not know what to do with it, so it goes behind the four novels I think I understand better. It's structure is strange, the mix of fairy tale and realism is strange, the pacing is strange. The Donizetti opera only covers 10% of the novel!<br /><br />"Strange" is good, but also confusing.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-72567151180568543302015-03-01T21:43:58.374-06:002015-03-01T21:43:58.374-06:00So Bride is unranked and an odd novel? I would lov...So Bride is unranked and an odd novel? I would love to hear more. As it is the only Scott novel I remember reading that leaves me a bit outside your system.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-9802475724399014942015-02-28T22:55:41.882-06:002015-02-28T22:55:41.882-06:00In a way, the story is worse - Ethan Frome is the ...In a way, the story is worse - <i>Ethan Frome</i> is the <i>only</i> Wharton I have ever read. What a distorted idea of her I must have. "Ahhh, look out for that-----!"<br /><br />Guy, the entire idea of the Human Comedy is inspired by Scott. Balzac realized that it would be exciting to do for France <i>now</i> what Scott did for Scotland <i>then</i>. So to speak. No coincidence that <i>The Chouans</i>, the first novel Balzac put his name on, is so clearly a Scott homage.<br /><br />Of course almost every major 19th century novelist had to try out a historical novel, but Balzac understood Scott quite deeply.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-70541186566431479032015-02-28T09:54:51.169-06:002015-02-28T09:54:51.169-06:00I started but then gave up Ivanhoe. Initially like...I started but then gave up Ivanhoe. Initially liked it a lot and the opening scenes were quite funny in an almost-Shakespearean way of dialogue between two minor characters. <br /><br />I read that Balzac also loved Scott and I think you can see it in The Chouans. Guy Savagehttp://www.swiftlytiltingplanet.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-37205908775055880482015-02-27T17:18:47.166-06:002015-02-27T17:18:47.166-06:00Hopefully Guy Mannering will give me something to ...Hopefully <i>Guy Mannering</i> will give me something to write about. You've probably read <i>Ethan Frome</i> (I seem to be pretty late to that party) and already know that no matter what Wharton says, it ain't no <i>The Ring and the Book</i>. That will be, I think, my only public critical remark about <i>Ethan Frome</i>. Ta for letting me make it on your blog.scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-37050117195414473752015-02-27T16:27:51.044-06:002015-02-27T16:27:51.044-06:00I am more eager to read about Guy Mannering than t...I am more eager to read about <i>Guy Mannering</i> than to read it myself, but I have mentally penciled in <i>Old Mortality</i> for next year - more bicentennial reading, why not?<br /><br />I suppose many readers, to the extent that there are many, take Scott's meta-fiction as filler or throat-clearing, but no, he is serious, even if his seriousness takes the form of jokes. What <i>is</i> this thing I am writing? That's a good question.<br /><br />Rambling is appropriate here. It is what I did; it is what Scott did. Rambling comments are simply working with the given form.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-6154940736555366462015-02-27T15:56:57.392-06:002015-02-27T15:56:57.392-06:00The next book I start will be Guy Mannering. I'...The next book I start will be <i>Guy Mannering</i>. I've had a copy in the house since sometime in 2013.<br /><br />I enjoy those novels where the author says to the reader, "I'm writing <i>a novel</i>, you see, so I must make certain concessions to the form. Allow me to enumerate them here..." Great stuff, often enough. In the introduction to <i>Ethan Frome,</i> Wharton talks about how she's lifted the general structure from <i>The Ring and the Book</i>, but she's still <i>doing something new</i>, dear reader, so hang on. Though it's not like she was writing <i>Tristram Shandy</i>, and there's not a drop of humor in her introduction. Say, I'm rambling, amn't I?scott g.f.baileyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05726743149139510832noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-52551438046329868532015-02-27T13:22:31.905-06:002015-02-27T13:22:31.905-06:00Oh right - they're not a series, not at all.Oh right - they're not a series, not at all.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-50718615861959420592015-02-27T13:17:45.734-06:002015-02-27T13:17:45.734-06:00The 6 I've read are: Waverley (1814), The Anti...The 6 I've read are: <i>Waverley</i> (1814), <i>The Antiquary</i> (1816), <i>Old Mortality</i> (1816), <i>Heart of Midlothian</i> (1818), <i>Bride of Lammermoor</i> (1819), <i>Ivanhoe</i> (1819), and <i>Redgauntlet</i> (1824).<br /><br />Of these, <i>The Antiquary</i> is last, <i>Ivanhoe</i> sixth, and <i>Bride</i> the hardest to rank, because it is an odd novel.<br /><br /><i>Ivanhoe</i> is better paced than <i>Waverley</i>, yes, and features Robin Hood - hard to argue with the appeal of that.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-21533386031938495062015-02-27T13:17:37.323-06:002015-02-27T13:17:37.323-06:00I will; I keep thinking that I am supposed to star...I will; I keep thinking that I am supposed to start with Waverley but apparently that is a silly notion. I actually have an old Heart of Midlothian that belonged to my great-grandmother. And The Two Drovers sounds fun!<br /><br />I have read Ivanhoe. It's the Waverleys I have trouble with.Jeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14247515387599954817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-89103336394648418222015-02-27T13:09:52.650-06:002015-02-27T13:09:52.650-06:00You do want to read Scott! But skip to The Heart o...You do want to read Scott! But skip to <i>The Heart of Midlothian</i>. Or - this I owe to Rohan Maitzen - try "The Two Drovers," which is short (10,000 words), contains a lot of what is best in Scott, and is almost a proto-murder mystery.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-53617768322157514892015-02-27T13:01:53.432-06:002015-02-27T13:01:53.432-06:00Where do you rank Ivanhoe in your list? Even thoug...Where do you rank Ivanhoe in your list? Even though it's less "real", I find it a lot better paced with more intertwining of subplots than Waverley-- not surprising, since Waverley is a first novel. <br /><br />If there's duplicates of this comment under a diff name, sorry, unfamiliar computer problems.between4wallshttp://mayareadsbooks.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-65592355820080401642015-02-27T12:48:13.085-06:002015-02-27T12:48:13.085-06:00I keep thinking that I want to read Scott, but my ...I keep thinking that I want to read Scott, but my golly he doesn't make it easy for me.Jeanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14247515387599954817noreply@blogger.com