Portia in The Merchant of Venice

Portia is a daughter of a wealthy man; she is an intelligent and independent young man, a rare kind of her sex—I believe—at the era when Shakespeare wrote The Merchant of Venice. From her earliest appearance in the play, I could sense a strong will and wise thinking from Portia. Her late father had set up a game competition for her suitors, to decide who would be her husband.

Although Portia thought the game was nonsense—she had had found herself a man she loved—she never disobeyed her father, although he had been died at that time. One by one her suitors came to try their luck, and during those times it was obvious that Portia was much wiser and smarter than all those men. She could see and judge each of their personalities.

Source: Giclee Print by Walter Paget 

Her remarkable intelligence showed when Portia set up a plan to help relieving Antonio—her husband’s (Bassanio) friend—from the wicked Jewish’s (Shylock) debt trap. Alone Portia dressed like a male judge to interfere with the judgment of the case. Without Portia’s help, I believe Antonio would have been died. Here Portia showed her genius way of thinking—I wonder how she learned law, but in fact there were more logic than the law itself in her defense.

Portia & Shylock at the court

In short, Portia was a woman who did not think her being a female as a restriction to her life. She knew what she wanted, and she did everything she could to achieve that. However, with all her advantages, she still respect male’s authority—her father, her husband. She just wanted to do things her own way. That makes me liked Portia very much! The first female character I love from Shakespeare’s plays, maybe because she’s very similar to myself…

Let’s Read Plays 1st Check-In & GIVEAWAY!

This is the first check-in of Let’s Read Plays—the plays reading event that has been running for two months. Until now we have read one tragedy and one comedy, both from Shakespeare. There had been 25 review posts of various titles you can read at the Master Post. Some of us have been busy the two last month of 2012, but I’m sure they will return soon and catch up with us.

Just to remind you, we are having a few memes to make our plays reading more fun.

1. Character Thursday for LRP Meme – post about character(s) from plays you read on Thursdays. All your posts are eligible to enter my giveaway. I’ll pick one post randomly at the end of the event as a winner.

2. Play Monthly Meme – hosted by Listra, each month she picked certain theme related to the plays we are reading.

Let us know how’re your progress, do you find any new or interesting title to read from the review posts? Or what will you read for January (it’s a freebie!), or what’s the most exciting about #LRP so far?

Meanwhile….here is to excite you more….

GIVEAWAY...

Joon Ann has been generously hosting a Giveaway for #LRP! Check out what you can win here. The giveaway is open for all #LRP participants who signed up before Nov 15th, 2012. Good luck!

Book Kaleidoscope: My Top Five Most Favorite Books & Farewell 2012!

And here we are…on the last day of this year. 2012 has been my most important year in term of reading. This year (on March) I joined The Classics Club and it really helps me to delve deeper into classics works. In fact, most of my readings of this year were dominated by classics, most of my blog posts were in this blog (Fanda Classiclit). For 2013 I’m planning to start reading books from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list; the works will be slightly mixed between classics and non classics.

After discussing my Top Five Book Boy Friends and Top Five Best Book Covers of books I've read on 2012, now the Book Kaleidoscope will rewind the most important aspect in reading: the book itself. 

Speaking of my readings of 2012 (I have read around 37 books), I have found a lot of great books and/or authors that for years I have only seen the title/the name, but now I am proud to say that I have read several of them. It’s been difficult to rank only five of my favorites, but I finally came to this composition…

5. Beloved

This was one of the strongest books I’ve ever read in my life, depicted a black woman’s struggle to protect her children. Beloved was quite difficult to read, as the story flowed forward and backward without clear signs, and only after reading few chapters I could be more familiar with it. And this book is not a nice reading too, although it makes us deeply touched. Therefore, fifth place is fair enough for Beloved.

4. Twenty Years After

Not known as much as The Three Musketeers, this second sequel is much better than the first. As its title, Twenty Years After was a reunion of the four friends when they were older and wiser. This is one of the books which I fully enjoyed the reading, every page of it, even every word.

3. L’Assommoir

I remember that I was shocked after finishing this book. Unlike any other books I have read, this one is very honest—extremely honest. Then I just knew what ‘naturalism’ in literature meant, that I instantly fell in love with Zola! I think my first strong impression of this book that makes L’Assommoir becomes one of my favorite books of all time, at least until now.

2. Great Expectations

Great Expectations is almost perfect as a reading companion. Dickens has been famous for writing entertaining tales, that although his wordings are often tedious, we can’t help to keep reading to know what will happen next to our favorite characters. I enjoyed every word of this book, and rewarded also with the moral value of this bildungsroman.

1. Germinal

Have I mentioned that I’m a big fan of Emile Zola? Well, it’s not surprising then, that I granted the most exclusive place in this Book Kaleidoscope to Germinal. Sharp as it always is, Germinal also offers variety of amusements in the story—romances, fights of the poor against the have, and a bigger hope that the oppressed could get a better future. I always like stories about hope! And that makes Germinal to be…

FANDA'S MOST FAVORITE
BOOK OF 2012!

And this post would also be my last post to close this remarkable year of 2012. Thank you for all of you who has been joining me in this 2012 Book Kaleidoscope yearly meme. I had actually created it to amuse myself, and I'm so surprised that there were a lot of you who'd joined in. It had been wonderful because I could find new blogs and new books (although I'd never read them, but at least I know about them), and I'll positively host another Book Kaleidoscope for next year.

I would like also to thank all my followers, most of you followed me around this year. I hope you'd been enjoying my posts. I'm sorry if I could not return all your visits and comments, as I must keep the balance between reading, posts writing, events hosting, and blog walking. I wish I could be interacting with you more often next year. Meanwhile.....I wish you a Happy New Year of 2013! ...and I just can't wait for starting  reading my 2013 piles of books!

Book Kaleidoscope: My Top Five Best Book Covers

This is the second category of the 2012 Book Kaleidoscope, the rewinding of bookish aspects of books we have read during this 2012. After a little #fangirling in the 1^st category: Top Five Book Boy Friends yesterday, now we are switching to artistic aspects of a book: Covers! Here I rank my five most favorite books covers that I had read for 2012…

5. The Great Gatsby

I have posted about this particular The Great Gatsby cover for a classics challenge, and I don’t know why, this post became quite popular with 598 pageviews (when I wrote this post). This is a translated version of The Great Gatsby, and I like it even before I read the book. I like the overall color tone: beige, and the classy nuances. I’ll quote what I’ve written for this cover:

There are three persons, two men and one woman are standing in the middle of a party took place in a mansion. That was my first impression of this cover, and it turned out to match the book theme. The luxury party and the snob expression of those three persons could reflect the moral decadency of the “Jazz Age”. It seems that the woman (Daisy) is torn between the two men. She perhaps will choose the man in the front (Gatsby I presume), but she is somehow still attached to the man behind (Tom I presume), who is staring at her sharply, afraid of losing her.

Aesthetically I love the cover, it can reflect the theme of the book, but I think it still could not reflect the whole story. I could not even guess which one is Gatsby from the two gentlemen in the illustration.

4. Nobody’s Boy

This one is translated version of Nobody’s Boy from one of the biggest publishers in Indonesia. I like the old parchment color for the cover background, the illustration is nice too. Remi was pictured as a tiny and helpless boy, patting the dogs’ heads he loved—and the dogs loved him too. In the background, there was Signor Vitalis with the monkey on his shoulder, illustrated as if they were looking at Remi from a far before they both vanished. The illustration reflected the story very well.

3. Lord of The Flies

Red is my favorite color, so when I saw this new edition of Lord of the Flies in one of The Book Depository’s hourly sales, I just grabbed it without further consideration :) I liked the cover from the beginning, and after I read it, I loved it more. Firstly, the red color represented the fighting spirit of the characters. The illustration of the primitives fit with the story’s theme, and the bright colors (in leaves, animals) represented youthfulness. All in all, the cover tells the whole story of this book, about how youths could become savages, and how they fight against it. And the cover fits well with young adult readers.

2. The Color Purple

Not only because there were purple flowers in the cover that makes The Color Purple’s cover one of my favorites, I loved it because the cover reflected the story and the emotional aspects of the story. I have written about it here, let me just quote it now.

I think this certain cover speaks a lot about the book. First, there is a portrait of a black woman’s bare legs, standing at the porch (leaning on a pillar from rotten woods). The lack of shoes and the body language of the woman already brought the sense of poverty and powerless. The grayish color of the portrait only added a sense of hopelessness (and reflected the non-existence of women in the world) to the scene. However, there are also three purple flowers, as if from the helpless ground the flowers had grown to bring a new brighter and more colorful scene to the world (and to women in particular). The purple flowers represent the new hope of happiness that awaits Celie at the end of her long waiting.

1. Beloved

From the moment I held this book, I have been intrigued by the black woman’s picture. At first I thought the woman was so black that her face was almost disappeared. However at second sight, I began to realize that the half right of her face was completely transparent, as if half of her face dissolved to the red background of the cover (it’s a brilliant idea to choose red as part of the background so that the transparency effect became more distinct). And that was not intended to be just an effect (the transparency), or otherwise her hat and clothes would be transparent as well. It’s not until after I have finished reading Beloved—and it’s a very powerful book too—that I realized how clever the illustrator was in designing the cover. I could not say as much as I like without revealing the whole story, but I think that “Beloved” was exactly as what this cover is reflecting, mysterious, dark and made you think whether everything was real or was it as what you’ve been thinking. Genius design of a cover!

And….that makes Beloved…

Fanda’s Most Favorite Book Cover
of 2012!

*Put your post in the linky at Book Kaleidoscope Master Post*

*We still have one final post of the Top Five Most Favorite Books on December 31^st! (see the details in the Master Post)*

Book Kaleidoscope: My Top Five Book Boy Friends

It’s time for Book Kaleidoscope, the rewinding of bookish aspects of books we have read during this 2012. After having much consideration and many reflections—I have more than five candidates for Book Boy Friend category!—I concluded my top five book Boy Friends from classics books I have read in 2012, here they are to the top…

5. Louis XIV in The Man In The Iron Mask

You might be surprised to this because Louis XIV could be regarded as an antagonist in The Man In The Iron Mask. He was not a good guy—as you may say it—but I like how he had transformed from ruthless, spoiled young king to be an intelligent man, full of determination who in the end gained D’Artagnan’s respect. You can read my full analysis about Louis XIV in my Character Thursday (by the way, this was one of my favorite Character Thursdays so far).

D’Artagnan labeled Louis XIV as: “Gentle towards the weak, but terrible to the strong”

4. Ralph in Lord of the Flies

He’s only a teenager, but Ralph has showed a rare quality of a grown up man. In normal life he would have been an ordinary indifferent teenager, but forced to survive in terrible circumstances, Ralph showed the qualities of bravery and persistent to keep his conscience, no matter what the consequences were. I have written more thoroughly about Ralph in one of my Character Thursdays feature.

It’s never been easy to stand alone in what you think is right against the whole world who thinks you’re wrong, but alone he was, Ralph stayed with his conscience to the end—as he said: “Cos I had some sense.” 

3. D’Artagnan in The Man In The Iron Mask

Actually my liking to D’Artagnan grew bigger in Twenty Years After, but unfortunately I didn’t written my analysis from that book as I have featured him in Character Thursday from The Man In The Iron Mask. Nevertheless, he’s still the same D’Artagnan, the bravest and cleverest from any followers of King of France at that time. He was also humorous and had a remarkable loyalty to his friends. I have written a thorough analysis on D’Artagnan in my Character Thursday, but unfortunately it’s still in bahasa Indonesia.

His later quality—respect for friendship—is what I value the most from D’Artagnan, as reflected from what he would have said to Louis XIV: “I should say to him [King] straight out: ‘Sire, imprison, exile, kill everyone in France or in Europe, order me to arrest or poniard anyone in the world, even were it monsieur your brother, but do not touch either of the four musketeers. If one of them be harmed, I will not answer for the consequences.’”

 2. Pip in Great Expectations

I loved Pip from when he was a boy and met the convict. I admired him because—despite of being frighten to death—he seemed to me to have a pity towards the convict. Well, interest mingled with pity, so I assumed Pip was a loving boy. And this became clearer when he had been in hard times and at the end could forgive two persons who had changed his life most. I have just analyzed Pip in my Character Thursday of this week.

And if it’s not impressed you yet, here’s what Pip said to Estella (how could you not love a man like this?)…. “You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read, since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then.” Owww…. <3

1. Etienne Lantier in Germinal

If I must weigh all the positive personalities of all five characters in this book kaleidoscope, I might say that Etienne had the least. Normally I like men with tough characters who know what he’s doing (“Leave me alone, I know what I’m doing” ~Kimi Raikkonen, F1 driver). From my Character Thursday post of Etienne, he shouldn’t have been my most favorite, but still…I have been in love with Etienne from the beginning of Germinal, and I don’t quite know for what reason. Perhaps it’s because he’s so natural—like most of Zola’s characters. One thing that I admired in him was how he was brave to be different, stood out from anyone else. He always acted according to his own principles—wrong was he sometimes, but still, brave to learn from his mistakes and continue on to maintain another new hope, never give up! Plus he had respect for women—unlike most men at his generation.

So, after long consideration, I think Etienne Lantier deserved to be the winner of…

Fanda’s Most Favorite Book Boy Friend 2012!

 *Put your post in the linky at Book Kaleidoscope Master Post*

*Tomorrow we will post the Top Five Best Book Covers (see the details in the Master Post)*

Pip in Great Expectations

Pip is the main protagonist in Great Expectations, he was a poor child; an orphan who brought up “by hand” by his sister, a wife of a blacksmith on a small village near a marsh. While I understand that Pip’s sister mush have been tired of living in poor condition, I still cannot understand how people could be that mean to an innocent child. Anyway, despite of his sister’s bad treatment, Pip did not grow up bitterly. I believe Joe’s lovable character has a good influence over Pip’s soul. Then a convict run away and came across Pip’s faith…

Since his encounter with Magwitch—the convict—Pip’s soul had been restless, he was haunted by his own conscience because he had stolen from his sister and Joe to avoid the convict’s threat to kill him. Although Magwitch took Pip’s deed as a great loving deed, I don’t think Pip has ever thought it the same. I believe Pip wanted to scrap his action from his history if he could.

After that, Pip met Miss Havisham whose life’s sole purpose was to take revenge to men. This stage brought a huge influence to young Pip, from ordinary child, he now know the different between common and uncommon people. He got embarrassed by his commonly manners, and along with his frequent visits to Satis House, his dislike to his own life grew bigger to the level of disgust. Yet, I could not blame Pip, who won’t feel that way when one was frequently introduced to fine things? Plus, Pip had been attracted to Estella, and it’s natural that he dreamed to have a life as a gentleman.

The trial of his character came when he got his great expectations from a mysterious benefactor. Pip finally became a gentleman as he dreamed of, and as what often happens to us, he became snobby. Pip began to feel uncomfortable with Joe’s presence or other aspects from his youth. But it all changed after he realized what his real benefactor had done for him. I think this was the point of return of Pip’s transformation to the greater end. This and the hard times he experienced as the result of his new lifestyle. He finally knew that being a gentleman was not only a lifestyle or manner, it’s also about doing honorable things.

I’m very glad that Pip could overcome his anger to Magwitch (for forcing him to stealing) and to Miss Havisham (for using him for her revenge plot). He forgave those two persons who had bigger influence to his transformation. Pip even had affection to them in the end; I think Magwitch and Miss Havisham could be regarded as Pip’s father and mother—two figures that Pip never had. It amazes me how Pip kept visiting Satis House (other than trying to see Estella), I think he somehow felt bound to Miss Havisham (I don’t remember Pip ever said bad things to or about her).

Being an orphan, it’s quite remarkable that Pip could transform to a better way. I believe that hard times would somehow build our personalities, and when you had people who love you, or at least you have someone you love dearly, those aspects help you to develop.

Merry Christmas!