[Short Story] The Half-Brothers by Elizabeth Gaskell

I read this story during few hours when my internet connection was very poor, that I can’t do anything else (browsing, tweeting, emailing), but copying the content of this short story from the bookmarked page of classicreader.com (I don’t know why I succeeded in doing this while having been failed with other sites). Anyway, I started to quick-browse the entire story right away, only to notice that Gaskell (or anyone who re-typed this story for ebook) has written this in long paragraphs, something I really dislike. I lost my reading appetite in an instant, but having nothing more interesting to do, I kept reading while here and there tidying up the paragraphs into moderate ones for more comfortable reading.

Very soon I began to be absorbed within the story, and after finishing it, began to cry….

The story was told in first person by a young man. He retold his story partly from his aunt Fanny and partly from his own experiences. It started when his mother had married her first husband in a very young age, only to be a widow after three years, when his husband left her a child and a farm with no money to support their household. Fortunately there was an old bachelor called Stenton—the owner of a big farm—who would like to marry her and took Gregory (his son) too into his care.

They were soon wed, but it didn’t take a long time for the old bachelor to realize that his wife’s love was never meant to be for him, but for Gregory, her son. This made him disliked and even hated Gregory, and began to ill-treat him at least with words. Then the baby was born, Stenton’s son, who would become the narrator of this story. The mother had not survived long, but before she died, she asked for Gregory to be put besides his half-brother, and for Gregory to take his brother’s hand in his. And from then on this son—the half-brother of Gregory—became everyone’s favorite, while Gregory often received hard words from other, for being awkward and ungainly.

It went on for sixteen years, when on one night the narrator was sent to a Fell (mountain) in an errand. That night turned out to be a stormy and snowy night, and the narrator soon got lost on the Fells. While he was in a desperate state, looking forward to his death, there came a help from—of course—his half brother Gregory, who was accompanied by his spaniel dog. Now, what will happen next—can the two brothers came home safely in the middle of that stormy night? I think—as other short stories—you could guess the ending. But for me, I shed my tears in the middle of my lunch hour—thanks to Elizabeth Gaskell… L

This is the first piece of Gaskell I’ve ever read, and I don’t know whether the short story can reflect her writing style in her more famous novels, but if it does, I can say that there is not something special from Gaskell that can make her stand out from other authors. Her narration flows naturally, but if not for words we have been familiar with 19th century works, I would have thought it was a work from one of modern authors.

The story is quite engaging and touching, and probably was made for shedding tears. What I can learn from it is—and I have read a similar story before—the highest quality of love, which is to keep loving others despite of their bad treatment to us. It also tells us not to ill-treat others, for ill-treatment on child could negatively affect it, which would make the child grow up as an unhappy person. The awkwardness, the indifference came not from stupidity, but from others treatment.

[I read the ebook version from classicreader.com]

This post is included in Short Storieson Wednesday.

[Short Story] A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins

When I first found this short story, I was wondering whether I am going to like it. The title is not really promising—‘A Terribly Strange Bed’? What would that be about? However, being determined to read short stories from authors whom I have never read before for A Victorian Project, I decided to download the ebook, and then read it right away. After finishing it in two days—I read it at office ours, as it is in Words file—I have already fell in love with Wilkie Collins!

The story was set up in Paris. Two English men were travelling to the city of light, and in the search for a night amusement, they went to a small gambling house in a rather slum area of Paris. The narrator—Mr. Faulkner (Collins revealed the name only at the end of the story)—was not a genuine gambler, he did gambling occasionally just as a mean of amusement. However, that certain night appeared to be his lucky night, for he kept winning hugely at the ‘Rouge et Noir’ game. Left alone in the gambling house, an old soldier persuaded him to drink champagne, and got him drunk. Afraid of his security, the old soldier advised him to spend the night at the inn in the upstairs of the gambling house, which he fully agreed.

After securing the money bag under his pillow, locking and bolting the door and checking on piece of furniture to make sure everything was safe, Faulkner was trying to sleep, but failed. And suddenly—this was where the thriller began—something strange happened. The man in painting—which he had contemplated in his desperate effort to sleep—suddenly “lost” his hat. What has happened? And did he felt that the bed was moving?..... 

This is the first time I read Wilkie Collins, and although this is only a short story, I can get a feel of his writing style. The story theme itself reminds me of Poe’s thriller—although Poe’s are much more gripping. **spoiler** In particular, this reminds me a little of Poe’s The Pit and The Pendulum, both are about a murdering machine, but Pit is much darker and terrorizing, while Collins wrote it more as a mystery thriller or crime. **spoiler ends**

I like how Collins described the state of Faulkner’s mind wonderfully, especially because it is written from his own point of view. The scene on the bed where Faulkner could not get asleep, for example; inexperienced author might describe it in few words only to say that the man has tried but he can’t get to sleep. But Collins took us to be in Faulkner’s place, we can feel ourselves how desperately it might be for him.

“…Every nerve in my body trembled—every one of my senses seemed to be preternaturally sharpened. I tossed and rolled, and tried every kind of position, and perseveringly sought out the cold corners of the bed, and all to no purpose. Now I thrust my arms over the clothes; now I poked them under the clothes; now I violently shot my legs straight out down to the bottom of the bed; now I convulsively coiled them up as near my chin as they would go; now I shook out my crumpled pillow, changed it to the cool side, patted it flat, and lay down quietly on my back; now I fiercely doubled it in two, set it up on end, thrust it against the board of the bed, and tried a sitting posture. Every effort was in vain; I groaned with vexation as I felt that I was in for a sleepless night.”

The way Collins led his readers to the terror scene also deserves two thumbs up. The gloomy room, the dark old picture hung on the wall (of a Spanish desperado waited to be hanged), and the moonlight that was shining into the room through the window, they all brought us to a dark gothic scene, as if those are where the exact terror would come from, which in fact they're not. However, without those aspects, this story would certainly lose its grip. 

Five stars for Wilkie Collins! And after this I’d like to read more of his books.

[I read ebook version from world-english.org]

This post is included in Short Stories on Wednesday

Character Thursday: Rejuvenated

What is Character Thursday?…

Followers of this blog should have known by now that I have a feature called ClassicsCharacters, which you can find in my horizontal menu. The idea is to make analysis for characters from books I have read or am reading. And since 18 weeks ago, I have been hosting a weekly meme called Character Thursday. The goal is the same, to let everyone who wants to join me, to post about their chosen characters from books. My own post of Character Thursday would also appear in my Classics Characters.

The (new) purpose…

Lately I feel the urge to rejuvenate my Character Thursday feature. I want to make it not just as something fun to do or something to write when you don’t have any idea to post, but rather as a way to delve more into a book, to better understand a character, to enhance your knowledge and awareness of the psychological factors that make people "tick." This, in turn, can lead to an analysis of your own attitudes and behaviors in similar circumstances and help you to recognize who or what influences the future choices you will make in life, in school, at work or in relationships. [source].

So, here it is….

The rejuvenated Character Thursday…

Button

First of all, I have created a new button for this feature. The old one seems to me too childish and casual, so I have created this new button that looks more mature and focused to book and/or reading. Hope you like it too!

Format

Actually I don’t want to make Character Thursday as a serious task, however to help you to post yours, here are several guidance that you can follow (you don’t have to answer all questions, and if you do it, you don’t have to answer it in order)

• Are they protagonist or antagonist?
• Who are they? What was their role in the book?
• What was your strongest impression on the character(s)? You can quote the dialogue or narration you got the impression from.
• What are the strengths or weaknesses of your character(s)?
• How do they develop throughout the book?
• What makes you love/hate them?
• What lessons or influences you got from them?

How do you join?...

It’s simple, just post on Thursdays, your character choice from the book you are reading or you have finished with. It can be the protagonist or the antagonist, characters that you love the most or hate the most. You can pick any book of any genre as you like. Please feel free to grab the button and paste it in your post and link here to let others know about this feature. Last but not least, please add URL of your post in the linky at the bottom of this post, and hop to other participants to learn about their characters and books. This way we can get to know what others think about a character we already knew, and get to know more books we haven’t read.

Can’t wait to read your next Character Thursday!... J

Poor But Happy: My Reflection of Old Curiosity Shop

Have found a touching passage from Dickens’ The Old Curiosity Shop. It’s a deep reflection from Dickens about the poor vs the wealthy, and what happiness mean for them; taken from Kit and his family who can’t be happier than their present situation, poor as it is.

p. 276

“If ever household affections and loves are graceful things, they are graceful in the poor. The ties that bind the wealthy and the proud to home may forged on earth, but those which link the poor man to his humble hearth are of the true metal and bear the stamp of Heaven.”

“The man of high descent may love the halls and lands of his inheritance as a part of himself, as trophies of his birth and power; his associations with them are associations of pride and wealth and triumph; the poor man’s attachment to the tenements he holds, which strangers have held before, and may tomorrow occupy again, has a worthier root, struck deep into a purer soil. His household gods are flesh and blood with no alloy of silver, gold or precious stone; he has no property but in the affections of his own heart; and when they endear bare floors and walls, despite of rags and toil and scanty meals, that man has his love of home from God and his rude hut becomes a solemn place.”

Literary Classics Challenge - Friday Progress (5)

I know, it’s Saturday already! However, yesterday was quite a busy day for me, so I didn’t have time to post the Friday Progress for Literary Classics Challenge. Never mind, better late than never, anyway.. J.

Child Reading a Book by Jessie Willcox Smith
[source]

This week I am still in the middle of The Old Curiosity Shop, page 240 of 544, however I was able to slip two classics short stories reading. It’s The Three Strangers from Thomas Hardy and A Terribly Strange Bed by Wilkie Collins (the review will follow). I quite enjoyed them, a ‘fun escape’ from Dickens. I think it’s a good idea to read short stories from authors whom we haven’t read the book, for we could get to know their styles before deciding whether we would like to read their novels or not. And after reading both Hardy and Collins, I know I’d love to read their novels, especially for Collins.

That’s it, a short progress of my classics reading. Meanwhile, I am rejuvenating my feature: Character Thursday. You would find the post very soon. And if you’d like to join me in Character Thursday, please feel free to join in next Thursday!

Little Nell on The Old Curiosity Shop

Little Nell aka Nelly Trent

The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

Little Nell is a fourteen years old girl who lived in poverty with her grandfather, the owner of a small curiosity shop in London. She was described as a very beautiful little girl, polite and kind hearted child. Nell was an orphan, and thus only has her grandfather who loved her and whom she loved very much. As a child and then teenager, Nell had to go through many hard times. His grandfather often went at night for a mysterious work which—he said—was for Nell’s future good, leaving Little Nell at home, lonely, without anyone to protect her, always felt anxious that something bad might happened to his grandfather. Maybe, all these hard times strengthened her character, so that Nell—despite of her innocent appearance—could think as an adult.

She was often wiser than her grandfather, and it was more often than not, that it was Nell who took the role of leader and protector of the family, instead of the grandfather. Nell was soon alarmed when their new friend acted strangely, an intuition that only a grown up woman can own. During their escape from some bad people, Nell was so brave and resilient that though she was scared and worried, she could always encourage her grandfather.

Although she was used to live in poverty, the most important thing for Nell was not wealth or comfort, but love and affection. I have written about how Nell would prefer to beg on the road if that means she could be together with her grandfather, than to live in their dark and melancholy house.

As usual, Dickens always created a perfect-too-good-to-be-true character such as Little Nell in his books. I have met Oliver Twist before, and so am not surprised to meet Little Nell. Yes, it’s seems unreal, yet we can still learn a lot of things and values from lovely Little Nell.

So…who is your Character Thursday this week?

Classics Authors of July

Meski tidak terlalu banyak penulis klasik dunia yang lahir di bulan Juli, namun ada beberapa penulis besar yang akan berulang tahun bulan ini, andai mereka masih hidup J. Siapa saja mereka?

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Nathaniel Hawthorne yang lahir tgl. 4 Juli 1804 di Salem, Massachusetts ini adalah seorang penulis novel dan cerita pendek berkebangsaan Amerika. Novel-novelnya yang paling terkenal adalah The Scarlett Letter dan The House of the Seven Gables. Nama marga Hawthorne sebenarnya Hathorne, namun karena salah satu nenek moyangnya yang bernama John Hathorne merupakan salah satu juri dalam Pengadilan Penyihir Salem, maka Hawthorne menambahkan huruf “w” di antara nama marga aslinya agar dirinya tak dihubungkan dengan nenek moyangnya itu.

Karya-karya Hawthorne beraliran romantisme, atau lebih spesifiknya dark romantisme, yang banyak mengedepankan tentang dosa dan kejahatan dalam kemanusiaan yang banyak dipengaruhi paham puritan New England, historical romance yang dipenuh simbolisasi dan aspek psikologi.

Ernest Hemingway

Bernama lengkap Ernest Miller Hemingway, salah satu penulis Amerika paling populer ini akrab dipanggil Ernest Hemingway. Beliau lahir pada  21 July 1899 di pinggiran kota Chicago. Setelah tamat sekolah, Hemingway bekerja sebagai jurnalis dan sempat menjadi pengemudi ambulance di Italia pada Perang Dunia I. Pengalaman saat perang ini ia tuangkan kemudian di novelnya A Farewell to Arms. Novel-novelnya yang lain adalah The Sun Also Rises (novel pertamanya), For Whom The Bell Tolls, A Moveable Feast dan The Old Man and the Sea (diterjemahkan Serambi).

Hemingway yang sempat memiliki empat istri ini pernah menerima dua penghargaan paling bergengsi di dunia literature yaitu Pulitzer untuk karya fiksi dan Nobel untuk literatur. Setelah menyelesaikan The Old Man and The Sea, Hemingway bersafari ke Afrika dan luput dari maut dalam dua kecelakaan pesawat udara. Setelah itu ia pindah ke Kuba, dan ironisnya setelah kembali ke Amerika, Hemingway justru mencabut nyawanya sendiri dengan menembakkan pistol ke dalam mulutnya, saat dalam kondisi depresi. Meski awalnya sebab kematiannya disembunyikan sebagai kecelakaan, namun penelitian menunjukkan bahwa Hemingway mengidap penyakit turunan hemochromatosis, yang juga diidap ayahnya dan mengakibatkan bunuh diri juga. Kedua adik Hemingway ternyata juga mengalami kematian dengan cara yang sama, bunuh diri.

Alexandre Dumas

Penulis yang satu ini adalah penulis asal Prancis yang karya-karyanya paling banyak dibaca di seluruh dunia. Terlahir sebagai  Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie pada 24 July 1802, Alexandre Dumas terkenal sebagai penulis historical fiction bertema petualangan seru. Karya-karya terkenalnya antara lain The Three Musketeers (diterjemahkan Serambi) dan sekuel-sekuelnya termasuk Twenty Years After dan The Man In The Iron Mask, dan The Count of Monte Cristo (diterjemahkan Bentang Pustaka).

Dumas lahir dari keturunan keluarga bangsawan Prancis, ayahnya seorang jendral pada jaman Napoleon Bonaparte, yang jatuh miskin pada saat Dumas lahir. Meski keluarga mereka miskin, namun Dumas masih mewarisi kebangsawanan dari ayahnya. Sering mendapat cerita Ibunya tentang kegagahan ayahnya pada jaman kejayaan Napoleon, menginspirasi novel-novelnya yang sarat petualangan. Setelah monarki direstorasi, Dumas mengabdi pada Louis-Phillipe, Duke of Orleans yang kelak menjadi Raja Prancis. Dumas awalnya menulis naskah play, baru kemudian beralih ke novel. Dalam menulis novel, Dumas banyak menggunakan bantuan kontributor, salah satunya August Maquet yang membantunya menciptakan plot untuk The Count of Monte Cristo.

Setelah meningal dunia, Dumas dikuburkan di tempat kelahirannya, pada 2002 Presiden Prancis Jacques Chirac memindahkan kuburannya ke Pantheon of Paris, ‘bertetangga’ dengan kuburan Victor Hugo dan Emile Zola. Proses ‘penguburan ulang’ ini disiarkan lewat televisi, dengan pembawa peti mati berdandan ala musketeers: Athos, Porthos, Aramis dan D’Artagnan.

Jean Webster

Anda mungkin asing dengan nama  Alice Jane Chandler Webster. Tak heran, karena meski beliau adalah penulis klasik terkenal dunia asal Amerika, ia selalu menulis dengan menggunakan nama pena Jane Webster. Wanita yang lahir tgl. 24 July 1876 ini dikenal lewat novel Daddy Long Legs dan sekuelnya Dear Enemy (keduanya sudah diterbitkan penerbit Atria). Webster dibesarkan dalam keluarga di mana kekuatan para wanitanya dominan. Nenek dan nenek buyutnya adalah pegiat social. Ibu Webster adalah saudara sepupu Mark Twain, salah satu penulis klasik Amerika yang paling terkenal, sedang ayahnya adalah manager Twain sekaligus yang menerbitkan buku-buku Twain. Kelak Webster juga terlibat aktif dalam aksi social dan sering memasukkan tema-tema isu sosial ke dalam bukunya.

Nama ‘Jean’ berasal saat ia sekolah dan tidur sekamar dengan murid lain yang bernama Alice juga, sehingga pihak sekolah memintanya memilih nama lain. Webster pun memilih nama panggilan Jean, variasi dari nama tenganya Jane. Pengalamannya di sekolah Lady Jane Grey (sekolah khusus anak perempuan) dituangkannya di novel Just Patty. Webster menikah pada tahun 1915. Setahun kemudian Webster melahirkan anak perempuannya, namun saying ia menderita demam pasca melahirkan, yang akhirnya merenggut nyawanya keesokan harinya. Sang anak dinamai Jean (Little Jean) untuk menghormati sang ibu.

Emily Bronte

Emily adalah salah satu dari kakak beradik Bronte, nomor tiga setelah Charlotte, sebelum si bungsu Anne. Bernama lengkap Emily Jane Brontë, Emily lahir pada 30 Juli 1818. Sepanjang karir menulisnya, Emily hanya sempat menelurkan satu novel, yang kelak banyak dibaca orang hingga saat ini: Wuthering Heights (diterbitkan Gramedia dan Qanita). Seperti Charlotte dan Anne, Emily juga biasa menulis menggunakan nama pena Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights sebenarnya adalah 2 volume dari sebuah serial tiga set, dengan set ketiga berjudul Agnes Grey yang ditulis Anne Bronte. Kelak Charlotte meng-edit Wuthering Heights dan menerbitkannya sebagai novel dengan nama asli Emily sebagai penulis.

Sejak masa sekolah, Emily beserta Charlotte dan Anne senang menggunakan imajinasi mereka untuk menciptakan dunia fiktif dan banyak menulis tentangnya. Saat berusia 20 tahun Emily menjadi guru, namun karena kesehatannya terganggu akibat stress karena jam kerja panjang, Emily pulang ke kampung halamannya setahun kemudian, dan bersama kedua saudarinya menulis bersama-sama. Emily meninggal dalam usia muda (30 tahun) akibat sanitasi rumah keluarga mereka yang kurang sehat.

Itulah para penulis klasik dunia yang berulang tahun bulan ini. Adakah yang karyanya sudah pernah atau ingin anda baca untuk memperingati hari ulang tahunnya?