Legends of the Fall by Jim Harrison (novel #212)

Ludlow was not fool enough to try to order a life already lived…

 

Legends of the Fall is the story of three brothers, the sons of Colonel William Ludlow. It is set in the rugged, barely settled days in Montana, very early 20th Century. Col. Ludlow is disgusted by the government’s misguided attempts to manage Native Americans. He resigns his commission and retreats to Montana to raise his boys to be strong, independent men like himself. The novel opens as the boys, Alfred the oldest, Tristan, and Samuel, the youngest, set off for Canada to enlist and fight the Germans. The U.S. was not yet in the war.

 

Alfred and Samuel quickly become officers, but Tristan, not one to follow orders, remains enlisted. He seems to be there to watch over Samuel more than anything. When Samuel is killed in a mustard-gas attack, Tristan goes mad, cutting out Samuel’s heart to send home for burial, and scalping several Germans. Most of the novella is Tristan’s reckless attempt to make sense of it.

 

And there was the unspoken, unthought, unrehearsed sense that time and distance would reveal to him why Samuel died.

 

I wanted to like this, but I didn’t. Tristan is the hero. He’s the daring and fearless rogue men want to be, and the dangerous swashbuckler women love. But in truth, he’s a lecher and criminal. He kills numerous men in cold blood, sleeps with his dead brother's former fiancé, and later sleeps with her again when she is married to his older brother.

 

Hero?

 

But the writing is vivid and poignant, and the characters are complex and believable. Tristan is undoubtedly a tortured soul, and he loved his brother fiercely. I also liked Harrison’s portrayal of Native Americans, particularly One Stab, Tristan’s Cree companion and mentor.

 

My rating: 3 ½ out of 5 stars

 

 

I read this for the What’s in a Name Challenge 2022, “Season” category.

 

The title: I speculate that it refers to “the fall” or Adam’s original sin. These characters, not just Tristan, are indeed the children of Adam’s fallen race. Some interpret it differently. In some foreign printings, “fall” is rendered as the equivalent of Autumn.

 

Film: In some ways, the 1994 film is better than the book, and in others, much worse. The casting/acting is superb, with Brad Pitt as Tristan and Anthony Hopkins as his father. The scenery is majestic, I assume it was filmed in Montana, and the soundtrack is beautiful. But, the romantic idolizing of Tristan is even worse in the film. The book ends a little anti-climactically, while the movie devises a new ending that I thought was much better.

 

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The Blue Castle by Lucy Maude Montgomery (novel #211)

Valancy wondered pitifully what it would be like to be wanted by someone – needed by someone. No one in the whole world needed her, or would miss anything from life If she dropped suddenly out of it. 

 

Wow! I didn’t know what to expect. It starts a little slow, and then Wow!

 

The blue castle is the imaginary escape of Valancy Stirling, a 29-year-old, old maid living with her officious mother and busy-body cousin. The story is set in Deerwood, a fictional town of Muskoka District, Ontario, Canada very early 19th Century.

 

Valancy, or Doss to her family, is barely a person. She is never allowed to do what she wants, never allowed to be idle, never smiles, never had a beau or even a friend, and never has she been not afraid of her family. The family, including cousins, aunts, and uncles, are condescendingly tolerant and openly disappointed with her. When she dares to express her desire to be addressed as Valancy rather than Doss, her wishes are quickly dismissed without debate. She submits, which is the end of it in all of 20 seconds.

 

Barely a person.

 

It started slow and worse than slow. I didn’t like Valancy. I pitied her and was disgusted by her family, but goodness, she never did one thing to free herself. Who can like such a non-person?

 

Until the “Wow!” A crisis forms an epiphany. Gloriously she becomes a person, but at a price. The crisis would, in all other circumstances, be considered “bad news”, “devastating news”, “life-changing news”, life-changing indeed. Valancy accepts the price without a second thought and becomes a beautiful, life-loving person the reader can cheer for.

 

Valancy keeps the reason for her change secret from her family. But living under the same roof, her mother and cousin cannot miss a few little oddities of behavior. They rebuff her and are incredulous at her defiance. It is not until a family dinner party that the new Valancy comes shining through. For a few moments, mother dares to hope that Valancy will behave, and then, wham! They are forced to contend with a person full of life, and thoughts, and dignity.

 

They assume Doss is quite gone mad.

 

It was one of the most satisfying chapters in fiction I’ve ever read.

 

But a non-person cannot become a person in one chapter. Valancy makes good until another crisis. In all other circumstances, it would be “great news”, “wonderful news”, “life-changing news”, life-changing indeed. It threatens to destroy all the life of change in Valancy and relegate her to a tamed non-person once again.

 

Previously, I’ve only read one short story by Lucy Maude Montgomery, "A Christmas Inspiration". It was good but quite maudlin. I was expecting more of the same from this novel, and thus expecting to find it too saccharin for my taste. I was pleasantly surprised. Montgomery is best known for her children’s fiction, and I’ll probably give Anne of Green Gables a try, but I suspect it may be a bit too sweet for me. I’ll definitely read her only other adult novel, A Tangled Web.

 

My rating:  4 ½ out of 5 stars

 

I read this for the What’s in a Name Challenge 2022, “Color” category.

 

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Recap of Novels 201 - 210

Average rating of novels 201 – 210:  3.6 stars (out of 5)

 

 

 

101.  ★★★½              Foundation

102.  ★★★½              Foundationand Empire

103.  ★★★½              Second Foundation

104.  ★★★½              Invisible Cities

105   ★★★½              The Last Unicorn
106.  ★★★                 Nightmare Abbey
107.  ★★★                 A House for Mrs. Biswas

108.  ★★★★             The Maltese Falcon

109.  ★★★★             The Wind in the Willows

110.  ★★★★             The Pilgrim’s Progress

 

 

Favorite: The Maltese Falcon

 

Least Favorite: Nightmare Abbey

 

Best Hero: Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon

 

Best Heroine: The Last Unicorn

 

Best Villain: King Haggard from The Last Unicorn

 

Most interesting/Complex character: Hari Seldon from The Foundation series

 

Best Subtitle, alternate title, or in this case, full title that is not commonly used: The Pilgrim’s Progress from this World to that which is to Come Delivered under the similitude of a Dream

 

Best Quotation: …intelligence, espionage, and spy stuff are at best a sordid business of routine betrayal and bad faith. ~ Capt Han Pritcher from Foundation and Empire

 

The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan (novel #210)

Full title: The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to that which is to Come Delivered under the
Similitude of a Dream

 

…strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. ~ Matthew 7:14

 

The Pilgrim’s Progress is a Christian Allegory, perhaps the Christian Allegory written by 17th Century English Puritan preacher and writer John Bunyan. It was written, or at least started during Bunyan’s imprisonment for preaching and assembling without sanction of The Church of England.

 

The omniscient narrator tells of his dream, wherein the pilgrim, Christian, flees his home in the City of Destruction in search of The Celestial City. It is slow going as Pilgrim doesn’t precisely know the way and carries a heavy burden. He meets Evangelist, who directs him to the Wicket Gate, where he meets the gatekeeper, Goodwill. After entering, he is released of his burden, though there are many pitfalls, enemies, false friends, and some true yet to be encountered.

 

Of the many places Christian must pass through, some are fearful dangers, others are beguiling diversions; some are refining fires and some true delights.

 

Just a sampling of the “places” Christian encounters:

Slough of Despond

Hill Difficulty

House Beautiful

Valley of Humiliation

Plain of Ease

Vanity Fair

Delectable Mountains

 

Similarly, he meets other persons and other pilgrims along the way. Against appearance, some villains, some faithful.

 

Such as:

Worldly Wiseman

The Interpreter

Hypocrisy

Charity

Pope and Pagan

Faithful

Hopeful

Atheist

 

I read a children’s version as a child and barely remember it. The full version has been on my TBR for quite some time, and I am glad to have finally read it. It is difficult for me as a Christian to view this as mere literature because it is something more. It is light in the darkness; it is truth; it is profound; it is timeless.

 

My rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

But it is indeed literature and had a tremendous effect on English literature. There are implicit allusions and explicit references in many other classics, such as…

 

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Slaughterhouse-5 by Kurt Vonnegut

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Middlemarch by George Eliot

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

Hinds Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard

And, of course…

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray

Others, I’m certain

 

I found it a bit ironic that I should read Bunyan, the Puritan, immediately following the anti-Puritan writer Nathaniel Hawthorne. I didn’t plan it that way. I liked both. Religion, as I believe was Hawthorne’s point, has its flaws. Christ, as Bunyan points out, has none.

 

I read this for the Back tothe Classics 2022 Challenge, Pre-1800 category, thereby completing all twelve categories of the challenge.

 

Wanderer’s Commentary about that bit that is MORE than literature: The Wicket Gate is the Cross of Calvary and the atoning work of Christ. The pilgrim’s struggles do not end when they come to Christ, but the previously mounting weight of their burden, their sin and guilt, is removed and discarded forever by grace through faith in the redeeming work of the sinless lamb of God – The LORD Jesus Christ.

 

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Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I chose this purposefully for October because I knew Young Goodman Brown was a “spooky” story. I didn’t know all the stories in this collection have a macabre theme. Indeed, macabre is a better description than spooky or horror. The stories are reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe, who in turn was a fan of Hawthorne.

 

The collection contains seven short stories:

 

“Dr. Heidegger's experiment” – despair in the worship of youth

“The birthmark” – folly in the pursuit of perfection

“Young Goodman Brown” – (commentary below)

“Rappaccini's daughter” – tragic, the moral?

“Roger Malvin's burial” – duty and the curse of guilt

“The artist of the beautiful” – obsession

“My kinsman, Major Molineux” – put not your trust in princes

 

Goodman Brown has a date with the devil, though the reader only slowly realizes Brown’s peril. Young Goodman Brown leaves Faith, his beautiful bride against her protestations, to rendezvous with a malevolent companion on a dreary night in a dismal wood. Most troubling, Goodman Brown meets pious and respectable townsfolk, along with scoundrels and blackguards, as they make their way to the unholy convocation. Perhaps it is all a dream. Dream or no, can a man be good? Can Faith survive?

 

I’ve read this collection before, though I didn’t realize it when I started. Vaguely through the mist and motion, of my memory’s stormy ocean… each story came hauntingly back to me. Serendipitous and complimentary to the dark romanticism of the stories.

 

It’s very good, if you are in the mood for something dark and creepy, yet not without virtue in the form of painful reminders of the flaws in humanity.

 

I read this for the Back tothe Classics 2022 challenge: Classic Short Story Collection and for the R.I.P.XVII challenge.

 

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The Haunted House by Charles Dickens and others

The Haunted House is a frame story told by Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, and others. The first and last chapters, authored by Dickens, frame the story of the narrator taking residence in a notoriously haunted house. After the domestics all flee, the narrator invites a group of friends and relatives to occupy the various rooms and individually document what specters may come.

 

"The Mortals in the House" (Charles Dickens)

 

"The Ghost in the Clock Room" (Hesba Stretton)

 

"The Ghost in the Double Room" (George Augustus Sala)

 

"The Ghost in the Picture Room" (Adelaide Anne Procter)

 

"The Ghost in the Cupboard Room" (Wilkie Collins)

 

"The Ghost in Master B's Room" (Charles Dickens)

 

"The Ghost in the Garden Room" (Elizabeth Gaskell)

 

"The Ghost in the Corner Room" (Charles Dickens)

 

 

I had high hopes for this unusual story, but I was disappointed. It’s a magnificent idea, and looking at the above list, you would think, “can’t go wrong.”

 

It went wrong. For starters, the house isn’t haunted, and the individual “ghost stories” are not about ghosts. As Dickens’ narrator says in the final chapter:

 

In a word, we lived our term out, most happily, and were never for a moment haunted by anything more disagreeable than our own imaginations and remembrances.

 

*** yawn ***

 

And I think that is precisely what trickly old CD intended, but it just doesn’t work.

 

Dickens’ was said to have been disappointed in the result, so I won’t lose sleep over a less-than-stellar review of one of my favorite others and company. Some of the individual chapters were entertaining. Gaskell’s offering was very good and quite Dickensian. But as a whole, the individual stories are disconnected despite the overt intention of connecting them.

 

It's probably a must-read for Dickens fans, and I’ll still claim it as fulfilling a read for R.I.P XVII, but I’m happy to be moving out of The Haunted House.

 

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The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (novel #209)

Toady; you know well that your songs are all conceit
and boasting and vanity; and your speeches are all self-praise and – and – well, and gross exaggeration and – and… ~ Rat

 

And Gas ~ Badger

 

 

The Wind in the Willows is a charming tale about anthropomorphized animals, and although it is considered a children’s story, adults may enjoy it as well. I certainly did.

 

It is about the sweet friendship between Rat (water rat) and Mole, the wild adventures of Toad, and the interventions Rat, Mole, and Badger make to help Toad mend his self-destructive and expensive ways. There are also two chapters that I would call parenthetical that involve Rat and Mole but are not essential to the plot: "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" and "Wayfarers All". They have an ethereal, almost dreamlike quality.

 

But to the main story: everyone should have a friend like Rat. He helps Mole, coming out into the wide world from his underground life. Rat teaches fastidious Mole to relax.

 

Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolute nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing.

 

But also to beware.

 

Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World.

 

It’s a children’s story, but something more profound is hidden beneath the surface. It is based partly on The Odyssey, or Toad at least is based on Odysseus. It is vague and uncertain most of the time. Still, Grahame leaves little doubt by naming the final chapter “The Return of Ulysses” (Ulysses: Latin version of Odysseus) as Toad finally returns to his fabulous home, Toad Hall.

 

In the end, thanks to his friends, Toad is turned to something better, though the reader doubts it is for good.

 

 

My rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

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R.I.P. XVII - A spook inspired reading challenge

 

An annual Halloween themed reading challenge that runs from September thru October – but yea, I’m limiting myself to October. It’s pretty relaxed as to what qualifies – horror, suspense, mystery, gothic, etc.

 

For R.I.P this year, I will read:

 

Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne

 

 

 

And

 

The Haunted House by Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Elizabeth Gaskell, Hesba Stretton, George Augustus Sala, and Adelaide Anne Procter

 

 

 

 

 

 

(titles in Century Gothic font...see what I did there?)

 

 

Previous R.I.P. reads

 

R.I.P. XIV (2019)

R.I.P. XV (2020)

R.I.P. XVI (2021)

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