Kevin Tadge Tadge itibaren 09330 Gümüşköy Köyü/Germencik/Aydın, トルコ itibaren 09330 Gümüşköy Köyü/Germencik/Aydın, トルコ

Cute read. I did skim a bunch of it though.

A dashing pirate, a disastisfied lady - the plot is as old as time. The setting was captivating. I'm ready to walk the coves of Cornwall.

A ficitonalization of selected scenes from the life of Henry James, this book works in part only. It emphasizes Henry James's inability to become passionately involved in any aspect of his own life. It seemed to me his largest thrill came when he laid down his pen due to severe cramping in his hand and began dictating his prose; he became worried of criticism that he had given in to the industrialization of the age. He felt great empathy at the wounding of his brother Wilkie in the Civil War, but that and a visit to a hospital was the extent of his involvement. An early homoerotic episode (but only slightly so) with Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. betrays the most romantic passion he feels about anyone. Individually these scenes work well, and they add up to the entire feeling that James did not live the full life he wanted to, and that he wrote into the desire of his characters, themselves stifled in their upper class parlors and gardens. All in all, it's a good read, if a slow one that makes the reader scratch their head a lot as to where its going.

I had been SOOO excited to read this book. I don't have to read a lot of real scholarly literary criticism to teach freshmen or for my literacy masters, so I was missing it. When I picked up this book, I thought I would enter the world of Jackson again and enjoy reading about each of her books and seeing them in a new light. That didn't happen though. The text's main assertion was that Jackson was precursor of the post-modernist movement (I think I got that right), but I had no interest in looking at her work in that way. I would have enjoyed any other critical lens more. Thus, my excitement quickly dwindled and I don't know if I'll ever return to read other chapters. :(

I enjoyed this book which looks at what happens in a world with small isolated village under constant threat of attack.