The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Up to now I've been posting on books that I recently finished. Well, I think it's time to ramp up the productivity on Reading the Classics, we do have this recession going on. I'll start with a book I know really well so memory won't be an issue. I've read Huck Finn four times since tenth grade and no matter how educated I get, this book is still too complex for me. I don't mean complex in a Ulysses I can only read three pages in an hour way, but in a socio-historical way that always amazes me. 

Authorial voice is critically importing in Huck Finn. Who are we listening to? Is is Twain? He does give us his famous notice before the body of the book: "PERSONS attempting to fin a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot will be shot." Reading from a twenty-first century perspective we are probably safe from such punishment, but finding any of the three (motive, moral, plot) remains a tricky issue. The layers are thick and numerous. We have Twain, we have Huck, and we have some really weird border state history to deal with. Huck has been raised in the slave-holding state of Missouri and speaks from a white boy's perspective. He knows how he's supposed to act within the slave structure but something bothers him. His conscience is always getting in the way of doing the socially right thing. When deciding between turning in Jim and continuing on their escape he decides "All right, then, I'll go to hell," and continues on the river. This inversion of what we'd see as the moral thing to do, help someone escape a brutal, exploitative system, makes Huck all the more charming and admirable because he found the truth despite his Missouri upbringing. 

I'm assuming most people have read this one, so I'm going to skip the plot summary in favor of some fun minutia. I've read several times that Twain set the book down for a time after Jim is sold to the Phelp's family. When he picked it back up he rushed the finish with unlikely and hackneyed plot devices. The reintroduction of Tom Sawyer changes the road trip, buddy feel of the book and inserts another dynamic. Tom is not capable of feeling the pangs of conscience that Huck feels. His appearance necessarily means that Jim's situation is no longer to be taken seriously, but only as a game piece in Tom's imaginary adventures. I believe that Huck is better able to feel empathy for Jim because of his pauper class origins. Tom doesn't have that capability. Ultimately Tom and Huck are kids, we need to remember that. Huck matures as he travels down the river, but he's not yet capable of engineering a return to the free states with an escaped slave. Luckily Miss Watson kicked the bucket so Jim is free anyway, but it is interesting to ponder whether Huck would have made another attempt to save his friend if he'd been sent back to bondage.  

Rating 10/10: Could read it every year, if I was alive when it was published I would have said instant classic. 

The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins (1824-1889)

Count effing Fosco. He's the greatest character in any novel of all time. Suck on that Huck Finn. Fosco is the mastermind behind the great conspiracy at the center of The Woman in White, before we get to him and his scary awesomeness we need to check in on the story. 

Walter Hartright is just a guy who gives drawing lessons. He gets a gig in a big country house in mid 19th century England. His students are Laura Fairlie and Marian Halcombe. Laura is hot and Marian is not, but Marian is strong and self-reliant. Walter and Laura fall in love, but it turns out that she's already engaged to Sir Percival Glide. The thing is, he's a huge jerk. There's also the title character to deal with. Anne Catherick is a bit bonkers, but keeps popping up in the novel after escaping an asylum. She's got a secret about Sir Percy, and she doesn't want Laura to marry him. Did I mention that Laura and Anne look exactly alike?

This is essentially a mystery novel so I won't give away the coolness of the plot, but in the interests of introducing my buddy Count Fosco I need to explain a few things. Percy needs cash and needs to get rid of Anne Catherick and her secret. Count Fosco and his uber-obedient wife, Madame Fosco, live with Sir Percy and now Lady Glide (Laura). Fosco is an Italian gentleman of the highest aristocratic bearing. He's tall and phenomenally fat. He's about sixty but carries himself with the agility of a much younger man. He's dainty, a fantastic dresser, has a proclivity for small pets, mice, canaries and a cockatoo. He's a fine musician and an expert chemist. He's also a sociopath who cares more about his pet mice than any humanitarian urge a normal person might have. He is amazingly creepy, endearing, funny, and despicable. He is too smart for everyone he encounters in the novel, but his bravado and vanity cost him dearly. 

Let me also mention another great character, Uncle Fairlie. He's the patriarch of the family who is in charge of Limmerage House. He is also a colossal puss. His nerves are always on edge, to the point where any noise disturbs him. He can't make any decisions and pawns all his responsibilities onto others. His quavering, faux-invalid status is funny and vexing at the same time. 

A tip of the hat as well to Wilkie Collins. What a brilliant way to structure a novel. There are multiple narrators who are put to work by Walter Hartright who wants to document the whole affair to prove the conspiracy existed. So we hear from Marian, Walter, Count Fosco, servants, doctors, and more. It is fascinating to see how Collins reveals things from different perspectives, or gives a nugget of the plot which is only revealed through another character's eyes. 

Rating 10/10: This might be my favorite book I've ever read. It was written in 1859, yet kept my modern mind guessing the entire time. The characters and form are great and the narrative voice is something worthy of another look. I'll definitely be coming back to The Woman in White in the future. 

Crime and Punishment

Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881)

This book should have been great. You've got a senseless murder, a potential psychodrama, family, a hooker with a heart of gold, a drunken mentor, blackmail, and a pedophile. Sadly, Crime and Punishment reminds me of a steak dinner that ends with a fruit parfait for dessert. Now the dinner is great, and it's done really well, but nobody likes fruit parfait for dessert. I don't care what you say, fruit is a good snack and it's healthful, it's not a dessert. C&P starts with a steak dinner, Rodian Romanovich contemplates a murder because he is struggling through school and has no cash. He is further disturbed by the his sister's impending marriage to a rich clown who wants to dominate her because she grew up poor. Rodian is convinced that Avdotya Romanovna, his sister, is sacrificing her life to save her mother and himself from a life of poverty. Rodian decides the best way to solve this problem is to kill an old, hated, pawnbroker and steal her money. Rodian sees Alyona Ivanovna as a parasite who destroys her clients. Like a bug who needs to be stamped out.
Rodian thinks about the crime for a short time. He impulsively heads to the pawnbroker's apartment and axes her in the head in a heart-stopping scene. While he's whacking the old lady to bits her sister, Lizaveta, walks in and meets Mr. Ax as well. Rodian abandons his feeble plan, grabs a few things and takes off.
The rest of the book is a relentless psychological battle within Rodian. He is a smart guy and the guilt he feels is inescapable. He wonders how other criminals live with themselves. Suspicion begins to fall on Rodian. The authorities suspect him, but can't pin anything on him even though he acts extra crazy whenever he feels suspicion. The real intrigue of the novel deals with Rodian's friends and family. What will he tell them? Will their love drive him totally insane with guilt? What will happen to Avdotya and her marriage? What about Rodian and his prostitute girlfriend/sounding board for his craziness Sophia? We really get down to, who will Rodian tell and what will he reveal? This all takes a very long time. Most of this time is filled with Rodian being a jerk to everyone.
I know that he's going through some major psychological drama. He's got some things on his mind. But he is a certified a-hole to everyone who tries to help him. To make Rodian less sympathetic all his plans are really crappy. His meetings with police all turn embarrassingly bad. I'm not sure if Dostoevsky intended Rodian to be a sympathetic character. He does ax two old ladies in the head. Perhaps as readers we can relate to Rodian with our (hopefully) less egregious sins. I won't spoil the end of the book for those who haven't read C&P.

Rating 7/10: I really thought this was going to be a totally bad ass read. In the afterglow of Rodian's murders I was breathlessly on the edge of my seat. Things slow down drastically from there, however. Rodian's guilt is kind of half-assed and the book drags to a anti-climactic conclusion. I can see how a philosopher would read this book as a study of rationalizing one's behavior, but Rodian just seems like a jerk to me, not truly investigating his actions.

Robinson Crusoe

Daniel Dafoe (1661-1731)

There is an awful lot going on in Robinson Crusoe but I'm just going to cover a few things. First, this really is an outstanding book. It's not stuffy or terribly dated as one would expect the first English novel to be. Robinson disobeys his father and goes off to sea. After a couple of rough voyages he gets rich in the West Indies on an island. Not satisfied with his good luck he decides to go on a slaving mission. Well, the ship ends up in a big storm and he is the only survivor on an island. He makes a life for himself, finds religion, saves his man, Friday, adds a few more to his kingdom, takes over a mutineering ship and heads back to England.
Race is a major factor in the novel. Was Crusoe being punished by God when his slaving ship was wrecked upon the rocks? How about the constant dichotomy of savages/civilized, Crusoe thinks in these terms, but does Defoe? Friday is the key to all this. He starts as a "savage," a Carib cannibal who is saved by Crusoe. But he is loyal, smart, and better at everything than Defoe. This could either be a sign of the power of Crusoe's civilizing influence, or that Friday and Crusoe are not as different as he thinks.
Religion carries most of the novel when Crusoe is by himself. He has led a rotten life, leaving his family to sail with drunken louts and blasphemers. After he lands upon the island he unloads the teetering ship. He happens to take a Bible or three out before it sinks. For years he doesn't look at the Good Book. Finally, when he's deathly ill and at his lowest point he reads a few inspiring lines. In this moment he transforms, repents and becomes a devotee of Protestant Christianity. He starts giving thanks that God put him on the island to change his ways and his outlook is much improved. He believes in fate, the men on the ship died but he didn't, that can't be coincidence. There are other times when God presents and opportunity that he seizes to his advantage. Defoe also presents the comparison of Friday's religion with Crusoe's. They really are not that different, Crusoe's just has different names and roles for the deity.

Rating 10/10: Yeah, awesome quick read. Defoe's ingenuity on the island is astounding. It keeps you interested in his development as a land developer and as a human being.

Les Miserables

Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

It took Victor 17 years to pound this bad boy out and I can see why. Les Mis is startlingly long with tangents the size of giant baguettes. It's hard to believe that the musical follows the book as close as it does considering the book's NBA draft pick like length. I always thought the musical was about the French Revolution, well, apparently not. Although the novel spans decades, the main action takes place between 1810 and 1835.
We are first introduced to a kindly old bishop. We get much of his life story and just when the reader is wondering where this is all going Hugo gives us the main character. Jean Valjean starts as a hardened convict in the galleys. He hates everything. After 19 years of slavery he is released as an outcast. The only person who will take him in is the old bishop. Jean is shocked by the bishop's kindness, but he cannot help but be tempted by the house's fine silver. He steals it and is caught. Much to everyone's surprise, the bishop lies to the police and tells them he gifted the silver to the con. This is the moment that changes Valjean's life. The bishop makes him promise to turn things around.
Valjean obliges by starting a new life. He invents a method of making black jewelry that generates tons of cash and great jobs for his new town. He is elected mayor and respected by everyone. It would be hunky dory if this could have lasted, but, alas, it wasn't to be. Valjean's former captor and current police chief has suspicions that his boss is Valjean. Eventually another man is arrested for being Valjean and the real Jean has a crisis of identity. He can save himself and the town or save the falsely accused man. He chooses the man and admits to being Valjean. Valjean, being really good, has also been taking care of a sick single mom who he initially fired from his shop. Fantine, abandoned by her baby daddy, had been whoring to pay for her daughter, Cosette's, upkeep by the Thenardiers. The inn-keeping family was running a big scam and using Cosette as a servant while pocketing all Fantine's money. Valjean watched Fantine die as Javere arrested him. Outraged at Javere's lack of human decency he bolts the first chance he gets and heads to rescue Cosette. He buys her off the amazed Thenardiers and takes her away. Javere is enraged and the Thenardiers are mad that they didn't fleece Valjean for more cash. These are two enemies that will reappear.
Valjean and Cosette eventually get settled in a convent in Paris. They live there for several years before Valjean decides the homely Cosette should get out in the world. Despite the risk that he might be discovered he leaves the nuns. For a year or two this works great, but then Cosette starts growing up. She turns out gorgeous and attracts the attention of Marius, a student who's a bit lost in life. Much like Hugo, he came from a family divided between Royalists and Bonapartists. His grandfather has disowned him for remembering his father, a soldier in Napoleon's army. Marius falls in love with Cosette.
Skipping ahead Marius finally finds Cosette with the help of one of Thenardier's daughters, Eponyne. Eponyne is the most pathetic figure in the story, hopelessly in love with Marius, but not able to extricate herself from the thieving background of her father.
Eventually things get too hot in the neighborhood and Valjean is forced into an emergency relocation. This leaves Marius depressed and suicidal. Conveniently there is a bloody revolt that his friends are staging. He heads over to the barricade and gets ready to die. Valjean intercepts the death letter Marius means for Cosette and heads to the barricade himself, not sure what he wants to do the the interloper. Valjean encounters Javere, a captured spy, and volunteers to execute him. In an act of mercy he frees the determined policeman. Everybody dies in a wonderfully exciting scene, everyone except for Marius and Valjean. Valjean carries the unconscious Marius through Paris's extensive sewer system, and the reader is treated to a detail history of said system. Valjean exhausts his strength trudging four miles before he finds a way out. Here he is promptly arrested by Javere.
In keeping with the theme of identity Javere isn't sure what to do with himself now that he knows Valjean isn't pure evil and might not deserve to go back to the galleys. He finds that justice and the law don't always mix. So, naturally, he chucks himself into the Seine and drowns.
Everything should be right as rain, but Valjean is feeling guilty that he's an ex-felon and once Cosette and Marius are married he starts phasing himself out of their lives. He tells Marius his story, but leaves out the part about saving his life and coming up with all the cash legally. Marius gives him the cold shoulder and Valjean is distraught at not seeing Cosette. He sinks into depression and starts dying. One day Thenardier stops into to try and extort some cash from Marius by using Valjean's past as blackmail. Thenardier reveals that he saw Valjean with a "corpse" in the sewer. Marius realizes that "corpse" was him and all is clear. He throws some money at Thenardier because of an old family connection at Waterloo, grabs Cosette and they race to Vajean. They meet and see each other for only minutes before Jean Valjean dies.
Well, in a thousand page book you expect a lot of different themes and Hugo delivers. Gender, class, identity, sexuality, politics, familial relations, age, religion, city planning, the nature of good and evil, language and slang, and death are all deeply explored.

Rating 9/10: It is a brilliant book if a bit long-winded at times. It really does have everything.

UP NEXT

Another big dog along the lines of War and Peace. It's Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. There'd better be either a hunchback or "Can You Hear the People Sing" or I'm going to be pissed.

Peter Pan

JM Barrie (1860-1937)

Well this isn't your run of the mill children's story. There's a hell of a lot to unpack here. You've got racism, brutal violence, English imperialism, British social customs, gender issues, the psycological issues of abandonment and growing up, the imagination, adults' view of childhood, and the environment. The basic framework of the book is similar to what I remember from the old Disney film. Wendy, John and Michael Darling go to sleep in their middle-class British home. Their nanny, the dog Nana, has been banished outside by the Mr. Darling. Peter Pan appears and whisks them away on a long, drawn out trip to Neverland. There they meet the Lost Boys, a group of kids without parents. Their rivals on the island are the pirates led by James Hook, the "Redskins" a group of Indians, and the wild animals. These groups chase each other around and routinely kill each other. The realism of the deaths are surprising, although there's always a hint that they are happening in the children's imaginations. Wendy becomes the Lost Boys' "mother," which brings up a whole barrel of gender issues as the kids rely on her to be responsible and caring. There's also a female rivalry between the fairy Tinkerbell, the Indian princess Tiger Lily, and Wendy. They all pursue Peter, but he's not capable of seeing them in an even adolescent light.
Captain Hook is another character who's much deeper than Disney portrays. He has a history of striking fear into other pirates, but his upbringing included time at an elite prep school (Eton?) where he learned the importance of good form over good behavior. His fear of the natural (in the form of a hungry crocodile) is extreme. He also abhors Peter's lack of good form, for Peter is unbelievably conceited.
Eventually the Pirates capture the Lost Boys, only to have Peter rescue them from the ship. Hook is dispatched via a kick to the rear which sends him over the bulkhead and into the waiting mouth of the happy croc.
The part of the novel which surprised me most came at the end in the chapter about Wendy's adult years. Peter has no conception of natural aging. Barrie gets rid of beloved characters like Mrs. Darling and Nana without so much as a eulogy. Time moves on in the real world without sympathy for human feelings. In the world of the imagination, however, things stay the same. It's a collective creation of all the children who are capable of imagining such a place. As Wendy gets older she can no longer sustain that belief. She is no longer a "gay, innocent and heartless" like a child. Her child Jane, however, flies off with Peter to help with the spring cleaning and the pattern of children moving in another sphere than adults continues.

Rating 8/10: This is a really disconcerting book. Barrie speaks of "innocence" but the book is chalk full of racism. The children see themselves as superior to the Indians on the island. Peter is not so much a hero as a brazenly conceited kid in constant search of thrills. His only noble act is letting the Darling children return to their distraught mother.

Stop the Presses

Couldn't find Adolphe in anglais anywhere and sadly it seems that the five years I spend learning 'ir" verbs in French class went for naught.

So we're switching tacks to a double-barreled classics onslaught. Going for a little light kid listening on the audiobook side with Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie. I'll also be getting down in a textual way with The Aran Islands by John M. Synge.


Thanks for screwing up my expectations for all women Tink, you minx.

Next Up

Adolphe by Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque

All I've got to say is don't count on a good review if you say anything bad about L'Empereur Napoleon, Hank.



Don't mess with my boy----------->

Mansfield Park

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

When I think about the wonderful prose and beautiful story of Mansfield Park one thing comes to mind; cousins getting it on. That's basically what this Jane Austen novel comes down to. It's a Jane Austen work so we can assume a couple things. First, there are some rich aristocrats hanging out at a really nice estate. Second, there's some love shenanigans. Third, there's some legitimately funny writing.
Mansfield Park focuses on the story of Fannie Price, a girl who has moved from her poor family in Portsmouth to her rich aunt and uncle's estate. Although she is loved there, she is clearly seen as inferior to her cousins, Maria, Tom, Edmund and Julia. These Bertrums are also accompanied by Lady Bertram, who seems to be on perkoset most of the time, Sir Thomas, a stern man who evolves, and another aunt, Mrs. Norris who is pretty much the same person as Aunt Livinia from Washington Square. Cranky, self-important aunts seem all the rage in the 1800s.
Fannie comes to find her place at Mansfield, helping out and hovering in the background. The only person who shows her genuine kindness is Edmund, the younger son destined for the clergy. As soon as the hormones start rolling in the kids they are making matches. Maria hooks up with the blowhard but rich Mr. Rushworth. Two new characters are introduced, Henry Crawford and his sister Mary. Mary sets her sights on Edmund and Henry goes after everyone. Crawford's untoward advances to Maria, who's engaged and Julia irk Fannie. Mary is a seductress who seems like she's after some cash. The real action starts in the latter half of the book when Don Juan Crawford decides he's in love with Fannie. It started as a teen movie kind of joke, "I'll make her fall in love with me for fun," but then he actually starts to love her. Fannie is horrified. Although he is a gentleman, Crawford is abhorrent to her. Despite Crawford's very determined efforts and Mary's friendly urgings, Fannie holds out. No one can understand why she'd turn down such a upward move in status. In the meantime Edmund is in love with Mary Crawford. They have a difference of priorities when it comes to money. Edmund is about living humbly (even though he lives at an estate with a boatload of servants) while Mary is all about the glamorous life. This rift turns into an unconquerable obstacle when the unthinkable happens. Despite his protestations of love for Fannie, Henry Crawford runs away with the married Mrs. Maria Rushworth. This scandal is taken relatively lightly by Mary, who urges Edmund to make the best of the situation without criticizing the absconding duo. This enrages and saddens Edmund and he ditches her.
Fannie is vindicated by Crawford's faithlessness but the mood at Mansfield is dour. She comforts Edmund and eventually he starts to see her as she has always seen him, as a potential mate. This cheers everyone up and they live happily ever after.
Money and class are central to this novel. Fannie comes from a poor family and moves to Mansfield. The manners and decorum of the place, the respect for each other that is present at the estate is not at her Portsmouth home. When she returns home after years away she can't bear the din and racket of the city house. Money is also a key to the relationships in the book.

Rating 9/10: A wonderful story and fun read. Austen is outstanding.