Cordelia in King Lear

Cordelia is the youngest daughter of King Lear, and the kindest princess of the King’s three daughters. She is a tender-hearted young woman, honest and easily touched by injustice. Cordelia has no pretense in her. When King Lear asked his three daughters, how much they loved their father, Cordelia could not make up words to explain how deeply she loved her father, although she knew that her father would get angry to hear her plain expression. For Cordelia, it’s enough that she loved him deep in her heart; that her love could only be expressed through her care for him.

Even if her answer would cost her everything—her inheritance and her suitors (she would have nothing as her dowry)—Cordelia kept her principle, that true love could not be expressed plainly through words. I think she could have invented some lovely words just to save her status in the Kingdom, but she did not do that. I admire Cordelia’s strong hold of her principle and honesty. And to those qualities, she was rewarded by the King of France—one of her suitors—by marrying her despite of the lack of dowry.

Years after that, although having been unfairly banished by her father, Cordelia kept thinking of him, she never hated her father, there’s no vengeance in her heart. She persuaded her husband, the King of France to come to England to save her father from her two wicked sisters.

   

When Cordelia finally met King Lear, he was not the powerful King any longer, he has been a poor and weak old man who was banished from his own Kingdom. In his condition, Cordelia still loved him, because she has been loved him from the beginning not as a King, but as a father. And now, when seeing the poor condition of King Lear, Cordelia could finally express her deep love for him. That’s the purest kind of love a father could expect from his children. And from Cordelia, we can learn that love doesn’t need proof; love can only be felt with our hearts.

The Classics Spin

This is why I am proud as well as happy to be a member of The Classics Club; we are always provided fun events to read classics—which were often considered as serious readings. This time the club invited us in a challenge called The Classics Spin; the idea is to list 20 books from our The Classics Club list. Then on Monday (Feb 18th) the moderator will “spin” those twenty numbers, and pick one number. Our next task is to read one book from the list which corresponds to the picked number. Isn’t that a good idea?

This is my list…. And now let’s hope for the best!—but whichever it would be, one thing is sure, I’d be able to scrap one book from the list by April 1^st … :)

Books from new Authors:

1. Inferno – Dante Aleghiery

2. Candide - Voltaire

3. Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

4. Medea - Euripides

5. The Mill on the Floss – George Elliot

6. The Stranger – Albert Camus

7. The Trial – Franz Kafka

Books from my most favorite author (Zola):

8. The Masterpiece

9. La Bete Humaine

10. La Debacle

Randomly picked from my list:

11. Richard III – William Shakespeare

12. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas

13. A Farewell To Arms – Ernest Hemingway

14. Just So Stories – Rudyard Kippling

15. The Jungle Book – Rudyard Kippling

16. Kidnapped – Robert Louis Stevenson

17. Cinta Sejati (translated short stories collection) – Guy de Maupassant

18. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – Betty Smith

19. Greyfriars Bobby – Eleanor Atkinson

20. Notes from Underground – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Winner Announcement – Me And Dickens Meme & Giveaway

First of all, I’d like to thank all of you who had been participating in #MeAndDickens meme by posting your “present” for Dickens on his birthday. Actually, I did not expect too much from this meme, as I know that some efforts would be needed to produce something unique—and there not many of us who have time and interest for it. It turned out, however, that this meme have interested not less than nine of Celebrating Dickens participants, and they all have produced equally unique and creative posts, that made me think hard before choosing a winner!

You can check their posts here, and let me know which one is your favorite. Of those nine, these certain posts have been my favorites (based on the linky order):

Melisa – with her word-crafting using Dickens’ novels title

Caro – with her gothic short story in honor of A Christmas Carol

Astrid – with her confession-poem

It’s so hard for me to pick one of them, because I love them all, each in different way. But, I must pick only one winner, so….trying to ‘borrow’ Dickens’ way of thinking (if that is ever possible!), I announce here the winner of Me and Dickens meme IS….

……drum roll……

MELISA

While Dickens would have been very pleased to read all the ten posts—mine included.. :)—I believe he would particularly be intrigued by Melisa’s message to him, in addition to her word-crafting, of course. What made Dickens’ books famous until now is—one of them—his unique characters; not only unique in personalities, but also unique in names (Plornish, Micawber, Dorrit, Havisham, ….you name it!). And Melisa expressed her admiration to that quality of Dickens in her message, which I believe, would be agreeable to the author! Not mentioning Melisa’s rather witty style in writing it, just as how Dickens is always famous of.

Congratulations to Melisa, you can choose any book from Penguin English Library as your reward. Don’t forget to let me know which book you’d choose. And for the rest of you, thanks again for your efforts, it might not be your lucky day yet, but don’t worry, there will be another giveaway at the end of Celebrating Dickens!

Visiting Great St. Bernard Hospice With Little Dorrit

Starting the second part of Little Dorrit, Dickens brought us mountain-biking to the Alps of Switzerland. The “Fellow-Travelers”—as the first chapter title—stopped by the famous Great St. Bernard Monastery and Hospice. And to help myself following the vivid descriptions presented by Dickens (he actually visited the place on September 1846), I have gathered these…. enjoy!

"In the autumn of the year Darkness and Night were creeping up to the highest ridges of the Alps. It was vintage-time in the valleys on the Swiss side of the Pass of the Great Saint Bernard, and along the banks of the Lake Geneva." ~p. 409

[source]

"The air had been warm and transparent through the whole of the bright day. Shining metal spires and church roofs, distant and rarely seen, had sparkled in the view; and the snowy mountain-tops had been so clear... (...) Mountain peaks of great celebrity on the valleys, whence no trace of their existence was visible sometimes for months together, had been since morning plain and near in the blue sky." ~p.409

[souce]

"Up here in the clouds, everything was seen through cloud, and seemed dissolving into cloud. The breath of the men was cloud, the breath of the mules was cloud, the lights were encircled by cloud, speakers close at hand were not seen for cloud, though their voices and all other sounds were surprisingly clear." ~p. 411

[source]

"There were gloomy vaulted sleeping-rooms within, intensely cold, but clean and hospitably prepared for guests." ~p.411

[source]

"Finally there was a parlour for guests to sit in and to sup in, where a table was already laid, and where a blazing fire shone red and high." ~p. 11

[source]

"Prey, has your convent many of its famous dogs now? ...I saw three in the gallery below.... And I think I have seen one of them before. | He was a dog sufficiently well known. Monsieur might have easily seen him in the valley, or somewhere on the lake, when the dog had gone down with one of the order to solicit aid for the convent." ~p. 417

[source]

Of course it would be slightly or much different on the 19th century when Dickens visited the monastery, but at least I could imagine a bit of it. Thanks you Mr. Dickens for slipping little entertainment here in the middle of this (quite) tedious reading...

When Love Is Gone… (A Quote From Little Dorrit)

While this quote I picked from Dickens’ Little Dorrit might not have any greater values, it was such a beautifully written piece that I can’t just leave unquoted. This narration followed a poor gentleman in this story, who had been unlucky in his love adventure.

Here’s the previous narration…. ‘When he had walked on the river’s brink in the peaceful moonlight for some half an hour, he put his hand in his breast, and tenderly took out the handful of roses (a farewell present from the girl he has been in love with). Perhaps he put them to his hearts, perhaps he put them to his lips, but certainly he bent down on the shore, and gently launched them on the flowing river…’

And this is the beautiful-touching quote I picked for my Weekend Quote this week, and which inspired me to find a beautiful image that suits it:

“While the flowers, pale and unreal in the moonlight, floated away from the river; and thus do greater things that once were in our breasts, and near our hearts, flow from us to the eternal seas.”

Well I think it’s not just about lovers, everytime we lost something dear to our hearts (it could be a friendship, a big opportunity, or anything we value the most in life), the above metaphor of the roses flowed from us to the eternal seas could describe perfectly our feelings, don’t you think so?

This can be regarded as my 16^th Weekend Quote, a meme hosted by by Half-FilledAttic. Feel free to join. You can:

• Give the context of the quote
• Give your opinion whether you agree or disagree with it
• Share your experience related to the quote
• Share similar quotes you remember
• Or anything else. Just have fun with the quote.

My Growing Relationship With Dickens (Featuring “Hereafter”)

You know, I have a crush on Matt Damon since The Bourne series. Ever since, I’ve been going through some of his movies. So, when I saw the DVD of Hereafter on a sale last year, I grabbed it at once. Now, I have watched it twice, and loved every scene of it! Hereafter is indeed a good movie, but what amazed me most is when I found Dickens there. The protagonist, who is a handsome psychic—played by Matt Damon—is a huge fan of Dickens. I found it out first at the scene when he was lying down on his bed listening to his recorder after being distressed over something. The lulling voice from the recorder was reading something, and although I didn’t recognize the text, I vaguely think about Dickens; I don’t know, maybe it was the style. Let me quote part of it here:

"We might have gone about half a mile and my pocket handkerchief was quite wet through, when looking out, to my amazement, I saw Pegotty burst from a hedge. She jumped up into the carriage. Not a single word did she speak…. I noticed one of her button rolling around on the floor. I picked it up and treasured it as a keepsake for a long time."

I still did not recognize what it was until the second scene where he (again) was listening to the same kind of reading. And this time I caught a specific word: “Mr. Micawber”. And there it was, no doubt that it was Dickens’ David Copperfield readings that he was listening to. Wow…I always found it amazing when a book or a movie discussed about a book or an author that I like to read. I mean, like Matt Damon..oh..I mean the character he played :), I am a fan of Dickens too, though I can’t say “huge fan”, because I don’t know whether I can listen to a reading of his book without falling asleep (the sound was soothing indeed!).

Anyway, the next scene was more interesting, rather funny in fact… The psychic’s girlfriend came to his apartment for the first time. She looked at his childhood pictures while having the ‘oh…how cute you were’ kind of conversation. Then she turned to another room and, pointing at something on the wall, suddenly said: “Who is this? Is this some kind of ancestor?” Just a second before the camera moved to the picture, I already knew who that would be; it was the picture of Charles Dickens! I only imagined, if my boyfriend did not know Dickens and had mistakenly identified him as my ancestor, he won’t look attractive to me any more… :)

And what did Matt D (let me use that name, OK? I love the name, and I forgot the character’s name anyway…) say to her about Dickens? “You know, people go on and on about Shakespeare, and it’s great, of course, but Dickens….” (he did not continue, but I know what he meant, I feel the same way too—Dickens is something special, although it’s difficult to explain the reason just in one sentence, you gotta read his books and find it by yourself).

Still more….there was a scene where Matt D went to a house, and I soon realized that it was Dickens museum—the 48 Doughty Street museum where Dickens lived with Catherine and their children! Matt D has joined a city tour, and together with him I felt like I went there myself. The house was surprisingly quite smaller than I thought. I don’t know how twelve people can live together under that roof? The tour guide brought us to see Dickens’ first copy of A Christmas Carol and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and his working room, his desk and the famous painting, Dickens’ Dream. If you could only see Matt D’s face, he seemed to be at his own home, where people he loved used to stay there, he touched the desk, the painting, as if he could remember every happy and sorrow memories in the past radiating from the materials.

On another scene, Matt D was visiting a Dickens live-reading by Derek Jacobi (Jacobi played himself in this movie) in London book fair. You should see Matt D’s face when he’s listening attentively to it (this time it’s Little Dorrit), and when the reading finished, Matt D applauded with almost childish amusement; his eyes lit up, and he seemed to be forgotten his surround. Wow…I have never encountered such adoration for certain author, that when one listen to the story told by someone else, he/she would react that way. It makes me think, have I the same level of adoration for my favorite author? Or in other way, which author have I given such adoration to? Sadly I must say…none—until now. :(

One of my favorite authors is Charles Dickens. My first Dickens’ encounter was on April 2011 when I read Oliver Twist. I know not whether it’s being a translation (to Bahasa Indonesia) or the story itself, that the book didn’t amazed me as I have expected. Eight months after that I read A Christmas Carol, and this time I think I began to admire Mr. Dickens for his writing style. Then 2012 came as the bicentennial of Dickens; and together with Melisa, I hosted a Dickens event for Indonesian Classics Reading Community (Baca Klasik) during February. I read A Tale of Two Cities for that event, and my liking of Mr. Dickens had been growing a lot since that, that I decided that Dickens has become one of my favorite classics authors. On that month also I ordered my copy of Charles Dickens: The Dickens Bicentenary 1812-2012.

That book then inspired me to dedicate a separate blog for Dickens’ life and works, containing facts from the book and other sources, my reviews of Dickens’ books, and my analysis of Dickens’ book characters. I created All About Dickens on April 2012, and invited Melisa to co-manage it. It’s still far from perfect and complete, as it serves as a diary in my journey with my dear Mr. Dickens.

After that I am officially a Dickensian. Last year I had savored Sketches by Boz, The Old Curiosity and Great Expectations, and became more in more in love with Mr. Dickens. :) His writing style is unique, as Matt D tried—but failed—to explain to the girl; it’s difficult to explain, other than I just love Dickens because he is Dickens; I love him because his writings are always enjoyable; it’s like reading tales when I’m a child, but with much more deeper meaning and reflection. Dickens can sometimes be witty and cynical, but at other times he can be emotionally touching.

And now I am really excited to read ALL of his novels for The Classics Club Project. But meanwhile, I am still in the process of collecting his books. So far, here are my collections of Dickens:

 

my special collection, bought in 2012

printed cards (among other stationery) included in
Charles Dickens' Bicentenary 1812-2012 book

Oliver Twist reading script booklet (among other stationery) included in
Charles Dickens' Bicentenary 1812-2012 book

Not so impressive collection, but I keep working on it….

This post is published as my gift to Charles Dickens, who is celebrating his 201th birthday today, February 7^th, 2013. Happy birthday, Mr. Dickens! For you—I wish you love my birthday present although I’m not as good as you in words crafting, and for me—I wish to get YOUR book as a birthday present, Mr. Dickens! We share the same birthmonth, you know… :)

Earl of Kent in King Lear

The Earl of Kent (or we can simply call him ‘Kent’) was one of the protagonists in King Lear with a good sense from the beginning. As an Earl, Kent served King Lear; he has become one of his trusted friends. Kent was clever and brave. When King Lear has emotionally banished his daughter Cordelia because she could not express her love to her father properly, Kent openly confronted his King to reconsider his decision. King Lear was enraged by this and banished Kent as well.

Kent was also the most loyal servant of King Lear. Despite of being unfairly banished from the Kingdom for criticizing his master, Kent never hated him and never stopped serving him. He was willingly to put a disguise as a poor peasant and humbly asked King Lear to be his servant. When King Lear was being kicked by his daughters; poor and homeless, Kent followed him and protecting him anywhere the King went. The ending was rather absurd, perhaps, for modern people; when Duke of Albany offered Kent and Edgar to rule the Kingdom, Kent refused it by saying:

“I have a journey, sir, shortly to go;

My master calls me, I must not say no.”

Kent (right) was banished by King Lear (left)

from: The Tragedy of King Lear - 2002

presented by: The ActorsNet of Bucks County

Considering that Kent’s sole master was King Lear, and King Lear—at the time he said it—was just dead, we can only assume that Kent’s journey was a journey to the death, where he believed the dead King Lear “calls” him; or in other word, Kent was going to commit a suicide. For us it might be absurd and silly, even for people at the era of this story, but that act only made Kent’s loyalty very subtle, and confirmed his nobleness.

However, sometimes Kent could be temperamental and blunt, that put him in trouble. The obvious example was when he insulted Oswald—Goneril’s attendant—and even attacked the man because he had once been impolite towards King Lear. His action resulted in a humiliating punishment by Duke of Cornwall and Regan. Although he had done it out of his being nobleman and his loyalty to the King, nevertheless he shouldn’t attack a messenger who did not do anything to him personally.

Kent (left) in stocks for a punishment

from: The Tragedy of King Lear - 2002

presented by: The ActorsNet of Bucks County

Apart from his bluntness, Kent was a tender-hearted man too. Perhaps it’s only Kent who could see how Cordelia actually loved her father dearly, her lack of love declaration didn’t reflect her deep and tender love. Kent saw the proof in King France’s tent when Cordelia was attending the sick King Lear, and his tender heart was touched by the scene.

Cordelia:

O my dear father! Restoration hang

Thy medicine on my lips; and let this kiss

Repair those violent harms that my two sisters

Have in thy reverence made!

Kent:

Kind and dear princess!