Kim (1901) by Rudyard Kipling — novel #258

…I am Kim. This is the great world, and I am only Kim. Who is Kim? 

• Kim 
• by Rudyard Kipling
• British lit, Indian lit, historical fiction, picaresque novel
• Published: 1901
• My edition: Project Gutenberg freebook (eBook)
• Setting: 1890s India
• Awards: Kipling won the Nobel Prize in Literature for this and other works
  
• Also by this author (that I’ve read): Rudyard Kipling: Selected Poems

 

Who is Kim? Indeed, that is the question this picaresque novel addresses. The short answer is that Kim is Kimball O’Hara, about 13 years old, the orphaned son of an Irish soldier, living by his wits in the streets of Lahore. His skin is browned by the Sun and no one realizes that he is not a native Indian.

 

In a more philosophical sense, Kim is “the friend of all the world” a nickname that signifies Kim’s skill at making confidants of his fellow habitants, be they Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Christian, or any of the different castes.

 

Kim befriends an aged Tibetan lama and becomes his chela (disciple). The lama is on a quest to discover the sacred river that will free him, and Kim, from the Wheel of Things. After some time though, Kim’s parentage is discovered by British authorities who enroll him in a proper British school in India. But he remains in contact with the lama. British officers recognize Kim’s unique ability to blend in anywhere in India, and after some years at school, he is employed by the British government as a spy to learn what he can about Russian activities in India. He does so, while at the same time rejoining his lama.

 

But who is Kim? He has been taught he is sahib—literally a term of respect but colloquially a white person or European. But is he?

“No, I am Kim. This is the great world, and I am only Kim. Who is Kim? He considered his identity, a thing he had never done before, till his head swam. He was one insignificant person in all this roaring whirl of India, going southward to he knew not what fate.

The reader, like Kim, cannot discover a simple answer to the question. Kim is many things to many people: chela to the lama, agent to the British, messenger, interpreter, and when he means to be, no one worth noticing. This story is literally and figuratively about Kim’s journey. My favorite parts are when he is traveling with the lama, and the apparent love they have for each other.

 

The lama professes…

“A blessing on thee.” The lama inclined his solemn head. “I have known many men in my so long life, and disciples not a few. But to none among men, if so be thou art woman-born, has my heart gone out as it has to thee—thoughtful, wise, and courteous; but something of a small imp.”

And in turn Kim…

Bit by bit, disconnectedly, each tale called up by some wayside thing, he spoke of all his wanderings up and down Hind [India]; till Kim, who had loved him [the lama] without reason, now loved him for fifty good reasons.

I enjoyed this story for Kipling’s authentic description and insight on India, for the diverse characters, and for the host of little things I learned about the non-western world. And I loved Kim's nickname — the friend of all the world

 

The only detraction was dialogue, and there’s a lot of dialogue. At times, it was difficult to follow the tone. There’s a lot of verbal sparring. I could understand the literal meaning, but was often unsure if it was said in jest or in earnest, complimentary or insulting. Yet, I prefer Kipling's realistic rendition, rather than a false westernized version.

 

As I understand it, Kipling is less the imperial apologist in this novel than in other writings. I can’t confirm it, as I’ve not read enough Kipling to compare. However, I confess that I was more interested in Kim’s time with his beloved lama, than in his time at the British school. But I don’t think it was precisely Kipling’s intent to advocate one over the other. They are after all, separate influences that would define — who is Kim.

 

My rating 3.5/5

 

 

 

Classic #27 of 50 for The Classics Club Challenge – Round IV

 

What is your experience with Rudyard Kipling? He is a diverse writer. What genre do you feel is his best? What should I read next?

 

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Lord Jim (1900) by Joseph Conrad — novel #255

He [Jim] was running. Absolutely running, with nowhere to go to. And he was not yet four-and-twenty.

• by Joseph Conrad
• Modernist, Psychological novel, British novel
• Published: 1900
• My edition: Project Gutenberg Free Book (eBook)
• Setting: South Seas, Malay Archipelago, late 19^th century
• Also by this author (that I’ve read): Nostromo, Heart of Darkness

Jim, not yet “Lord Jim,” is a young Englishman, son of a parson, just beginning a promising career at sea. He is quietly confident, capable, and the very image of a man who inspires trust. Then one split-second decision aboard the Patna—a moment of treachery from the sea—shatters everything. That single failure will haunt him for the rest of his life.

 

Jim knows, with perfect and painful clarity, that this one dreadful moment is not the true measure of his soul. Yet he also knows the stigma will deny him any easy chance at redemption.

 

Captain Marlow, at first a detached observer, becomes the novel’s primary narrator and eventually Jim’s friend and advocate. Through Marlow’s layered, reflective storytelling, we follow Jim’s restless search for a place where he can prove his worth.

 

Marlow tries to help Jim escape his past—sometimes in spite of Jim himself. As Marlow reflects: 

…it is my belief no man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge.

 

I ached for Jim and found myself cheering Marlow’s efforts at redemption, even as I sometimes feared it might be hopeless, just as Marlow did.

Which of us here has not observed this, or maybe experienced something of that feeling in his own person—this extreme weariness of emotions, the vanity of effort, the yearning for rest? Those striving with unreasonable forces know it well,—the shipwrecked castaways in boats, wanderers lost in a desert, men battling against the unthinking might of nature, or the stupid brutality of crowds.

 

It’s a marvelous yarn—perhaps my favorite by Conrad yet. He writes what I call a thinking man’s adventure: morally complex, with themes of honor, redemption, self-identity, loyalty, and the painful denial (or possibility) of second chances. There are pirates, tempestuous seas, remote islands, and a beautiful girl, but the real drama is internal.

 

Conrad’s prose is beautiful and evocative, especially considering English was his third language, as the following passage, even without context (something to do with the girl) will show: 

The starlight was good enough for that story, a light so faint and remote that it cannot resolve shadows into shapes, and show the other shore of a stream.

 

Or this near the end of Lord Jim (this might seem a major spoiler; don't take every word literally). 

He [Jim] passes away under a cloud, inscrutable at heart, forgotten, unforgiven, and excessively romantic

 

My rating 4/5 stars

 

 

This is title 24 of 50 for The Classics Club Challenge Round IV

 

Lord Jim is my favorite by Conrad so far. Have you read it? What are your thoughts on Conrad in general?

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The Adventure of The Beryl Coronet: a Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle

"The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet”¹ is the twelfth and final short story in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes collection. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes², it was Holmes’ 30th case chronologically.

Dr. Watson, looking out the window one winter morning, observes a well dressed madman excitedly winding his way down Baker Street (nod to Gerry Rafferty). The madman is a prominent London banker, frantically searching for 221B and the residence of Sherlock Holmes.

The beryl coronet, one of Britain’s public treasures, has been stolen, partially recovered, but missing three of the valuable jewels. The police and banker have the culprit, the banker’s son, but he is uncooperative regarding the missing pieces. In customary fashion, Holmes is unimpressed with official police narrative and the game is afoot.

I was a bit disappointed. There was none of the collegial banter between Holmes and Watson, no snide remarks on police competence, no great suspense, and the characters were not very memorable. Holmes did at least go incognito for some nighttime sleuthing, but even that was one of his more pedestrian disguises. The mystery was good, but  the other aspects of the story, just so-so.

 

¹ A note about titles: When first published serially, many Sherlock Holmes short stories did not include the noun phrase “The Adventure of” as part of the title. The noun phrase was only added later, in most cases, when the short stories were compiled into one of five collections: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holms; and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. This short story was originally titled The Beryl Coronet, and later changed to The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet when it was published as part of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

² The Annotated Sherlock Holmes attempts to put all of Sherlock Holmes’ cases into their proper, fictional, chronological order.

 

The Adventure of Silver Blaze: a Sherlock Holmes short story by Arthur Conan Doyle

"The Adventure of Silver Blaze”¹ is a Sherlock Holmes short story from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes collection. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes², it was Holmes’ 29th case chronologically.

Silver Blaze is the favorite in the upcoming Wessex Cup. Just a week before the race, the horse comes up missing, and his trainer is brutally murdered. Silver Blaze, depicted here by Holmes illustrator Sydney Padget, is a fictional horse, sired by the real-life champion Isonomy.

One of my favorite parts is how Holmes gets Watson to assist him. Watson observes Holmes thinking, pacing, stewing for several days, when Holmes announces he is leaving to pursue a case. Watson volunteers…

I should be most happy to go down with you if I should not be in the way

And Holmes replies…

My dear Watson, you would confer a great favour upon me by coming. And I think that your time will not be mis-spent.

This sort of thing is becoming cliché between them. Holmes does not want to ask outright, but instead tempts Watson into volunteering. Once that is achieved, Holmes is gracious and happy to have Watson’s assistance. But I think Holmes is happy just to have Watson’s companionship. There is a heart in Sherlock Holmes.

Another bit that made me smile: Holmes is explaining that the case is somewhat muddled:

The tragedy has been so uncommon, so complete, and of such personal importance to so many people that we are suffering from a plethora of surmise, conjecture, and hypothesis.

As a word-nerd I loved this, because Holmes used “plethora” correctly. Of course he did; he’s Sherlock Holmes. But it is often misused. It does not simply mean a lot; no, it means a lot of something unwanted, but that is not quite precise yet. It means an OVER-abundance of something that would ordinarily be good but that in excessive quantities is undesirable. It is from the medical term “plethoric” where there are too many white blood cells. White blood cells are good, but too many of them can be fatal. Sorry to school, but it’s a pet peeve of mine, and it made me happy when Holmes used it so perfectly.

The mystery? I’m won’t spoil it. It was very good, with a most unusual culprit. The last couple Holmes’ adventures I’ve read were not great, so it was nice to read of Holmes back up to snuff. 

 

¹ A note about titles: When first published serially, many Sherlock Holmes short stories did not include the noun phrase “The Adventure of” as part of the title. It was only added later, in most cases, when the short stories were compiled into one of five collections: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes; The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, The Return of Sherlock Holmes, His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holms; and The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. This short story was originally titled Silver Blaze, and later changed to "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" when it was published as part of The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.

² The Annotated Sherlock Holmes attempts to put all of Sherlock Holmes’ cases into their proper, fictional, chronological order.

 

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The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge: a Sherlock Holmes short story

"The Adventure of Wisteria Lodge” is a Sherlock Holmes short story from The Sherlock Holmes collection His Last Bow. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, it was Holmes’ 28th case chronologically.

A respectable British gentleman, Mr. Eccles, employs Holmes to discover the meaning of an unusual encounter. Eccles was visiting the home of a new acquaintance and as arranged in advance spent the night. In the morning the house was abandoned without a trace by the master and all servants. Shortly after Eccles begins to recount the evening, the police arrive to question him. His acquaintance was found dead that morning and a note on the deceased revealed the previous evening’s plans, leading them to Holmes’ client.

From there, the police follow one theory, while Holmes follows his own. In spite of this divergence, Holmes notes, with rare admiration, the powers of observation of Inspector Baynes, a new Holmes character.

 

And for once, the police are not utterly inept. Baynes is surreptitiously on the same scent as Holmes, but uses a false public investigation as misdirection to lull the real culprit into a false sense of security.

 

And the game is afoot.

 

Dr. Watson is not very enthusiastic about the case.

But there was something in the ice-cold reasoning of Holmes which made it impossible to shrink from any adventure which he might recommend. One knew that thus, and only thus, could a solution be found. I clasped his hand in silence, and the die was cast. 

And for those of you counting, that makes two allusions to Shakespeare! 

 

It is a fun adventure with creepy specters, bizarre clues, and still more misdirection. And as I’ve hinted, a very rare occurrence in the Sherlock Holmes canon: a police detective very nearly the equal of the great Sherlock Holmes.

 

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The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (novel #247)

Arthur Machen’s novella The Great God Pan (1894) is set in England and Wales at the turn of the 19th century. It is commonly categorized as horror. I would add sci-fi and fantasy.

It opens in the laboratory of the mad scientist, Dr. Raymond, though some might say I’m being unfair. I don’t believe Machen intended to portray him as absolutely mad, just a bit obsessed. Dr. Raymond intends to lift the veil between the physical world and the spiritual, an occurrence the ancients called “seeing the god Pan”. No problem thus far, but it is Raymond’s method that condemns him. He will perform brain surgery on a young woman, a sort of lobotomy, that he is absolutely convinced will allow the subject to witness the spiritual realm. He claims it is completely safe, and that…

I rescued Mary from the gutter, and from almost certain starvation, when she was a child; I think her life is mine, to use as I see fit.

Mad says I. He reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein.

Mary does not come through the operation unharmed. Dr. Raymond calmly observes…

…it is a great pity; she is a hopeless idiot. However, it could not be helped; and after all, she has seen the Great God Pan.

In other words, not a total loss.

Mad!

 

By the way, he has not one bit of evidence that his conclusion is fact…he just knows it 

Ugh!

 

And indeed it did lift the veil briefly. Raymond’s reckless experiment unleashes an unholy terror on the world, setting the stage for the bulk of the tale. The entity’s terrifying menace on humanity and the suspenseful pursuit by investigators are compelling, but the story stumbles at the start and is ridiculous in the end. Such an opinion begs justification; be warned:

 

SPOILER ALERT

Just the high points: two amateur sleuths track down the otherworldly menace and threaten to call the police unless it hangs itself. Yes, a supernatural being with mind-bending powers commits suicide out of fear of the cops.

Ugh!

 

My rating 2.5 of 5 stars

 

This novel fulfills the “Deity” category for the What’s in a Name? 2025 challenge, as the title features deity.

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North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (novel #243)

God help ‘em! North and South have each getten their own troubles. ~ Nicholas Higgins

North and South is…well I’d call it a Victorian Novel, but I guess it is more precisely a Social Novel from the Victorian era. It is set primarily in the fictional manufacturing town of Milton, England in the mid-19th Century and is based on Gaskell’s adult home of Manchester. Gaskell intended to title it with the heroin’s name, but at the insistence of her publisher, Charles Dickens, she agreed to North and South. Dickens didn’t care for the novel much either.

The social issue this novel addresses is ostensibly the plight of the working class during the industrial revolution: unhealthy working conditions, poor wages, no job security. However, I think there was another issue: prejudice and ignorance between the industrialists of the North and landed gentry of the South.

The tale opens on Margaret Hale who enjoys an idyllic life in Hampshire, Southern England until her pastor father has a crisis of conscience that causes him on his own accord to leave the ministry and move to Milton where he has found work teaching some of the families in the smoky manufacturing city. Margaret and her mother are distraught by the change in fortune, and even more so by the change in environment and society. However, Margaret supports her father and accepts their new situation intent to make the best of it.

One of Mr. Hale’s most notable and sincere students is John Thornton, a wealthy, self-made factory owner. Thornton and Margaret are intelligent and assertive and quickly develop a courteous antagonism regarding the merits and faults of North versus South. In one exchange Margaret opines…

“Now in the South we have our poor, but there is not that terrible expression in their countenances of a sullen sense of injustice which I see here. You do not know the South Mr. Thornton” she concluded, collapsing into a determined silence, and angry with herself for having said so much.

 

“And may I say you do not know the North?” asked he with an inexpressible gentleness in his tone as he saw that he had really hurt her.

Initially, they hold each other in mild contempt, yet they also have a restrained, perhaps even reluctant admiration for each other.

When Thornton is admonished by his mother that he thinks too well of Margaret, Thorton replies…

“Mother” (with a short scornful laugh), “you will make me confess. The only time I saw Miss Hale, she treated me with a haughty civility which had a strong flavour of contempt in it. She held herself aloof from me as if she had been a queen, and I her humble, unwashed vassal.

Conversely when Mr. Hale chides his daughter for being too hard on Thornton, Margaret declares…

“He is the first specimen of a manufacturer – of a person engaged in trade – that I had ever the opportunity of studying papa. He is my first olive: let me make a face while I swallow it.

You’ve probably read/viewed enough Gaskell, Victorian novels, Hallmark movies to guess where their relationship is going.

Margaret also encounters the working man, specifically Nicholas Higgins and his two daughters. Margaret and Higgins are also at odds initially, but it is merely from misunderstanding different customs. As they become friends, Higgins asks where Margaret is from and she tells him Hampshire.

That’s beyond London, I reckon? And I come fro’ Burnleyways, and forty miles to th’ North. And yet, yo see, North and South has both met and made kind o’ friends in this big smoky place.

Margaret Realizes... 

From that day Milton became a brighter place to her. It was not the long, bleak sunny days of spring, nor yet was it that time was reconciling her to the town of her habitation. It was that in it she had found a human interest.

Higgins is also a union representative, which puts him on no good terms with Thornton, and by proxy does not improve Thornton’s opinion of Margaret.

And yet…

There is reason to be hopeful. 

It's a marvelous read, masterful work. Gaskell is clearly sympathetic to the working class, but she is fair to portray vice and ignorance on both sides, as well as virtue and nobility. I was less aware of the prejudice in England between North and South. Again, Gaskell made what I believe was a fair portrayal of both. This is the second novel I’ve read by Elizabeth Gaskell, Wives and Daughters being the other. Both were very good, and I will certainly read more.

My rating:  4 out of 5 stars

 

This novel satisfies the “Cardinal Direction” category in the What’s in a Name? 2025 challenge. The title must contain a reference to a cardinal direction. I should get double credit.

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The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (novel #229)

Here was the truth, here was the life that belonged to him; and he, who fancied himself so scornful of arbitrary restraints, had been afraid to break away from his desk because of what people might think of his stealing a holiday! ~ narrative regarding Newland Archer

 

Set in late 19th Century, upper-class New York, The Age of Innocence follows the last days of bachelorhood and early married life of gentleman lawyer Newland Archer. And then, the conflict he suffers between duty and self-indulgence.

 

He’s not a bad guy, and his fiancée/wife is by all accounts a peach. But sweet May is not quite equal to Newland’s ideal of an independent minded woman. He has some progressive ideas about equality of the sexes, but…

 

There was no use in trying to emancipate a wife who had not the dimmest notion that she was not free…

 

So, they are wed.

 

He had married (as most young men did) because he had met a perfectly charming girl at the moment when a series of rather aimless sentimental adventures were ending in premature disgust; and she had represented peace, stability, comradeship, and the steadying sense of an unescapable duty.

 

But only weeks before the wedding, enter May’s cousin Countess Ellen Olenska. Ellen’s presence and behavior is scandalous to the upper-class New York society for leaving her husband and though the family harbors her from the horrible count, she is still something of an embarrassment and social liability. Newland is disdainful with all the rest, but he slowly perceives a fascinating soul, unbound by tradition and duty.

 

And as Deano sang…that’s amore!

 

Poor Newland. He must do what is right, or what he desperately wants. He concludes that in all the world, in all of time, only he and Ellen suffered such an unbearable duty.

 

Ellen Olenska was like no other woman, he was like no other man: their situation, therefore, resembled no one else’s, and they were answerable to no tribunal but that of their own judgment.

 

I was never quite sure what Wharton intended the reader to wish for:  Newland and Ellen to run away together, or for Newland to honor duty and societal codes (probably the latter). I was sympathetic to his unhappiness, but I’ll spare the spoiler as to which road he chose.

 

His wife May? Well, she is just a little bit more clever and more independent minded than is apparent to Newland or the reader.

 

The three main characters, Newland, May, and the Countess Olenska were all vivid and believable. Secondary characters were probably caricatures that Wharton fully intended to lampoon society elites of the gilded age. I thought it was masterfully done. It was a bit esoteric for me though, and I don’t feel it has aged particularly well. For that, I give it…

 

3 ½ out of 5 stars

 

 

Which I’ll remind, is a good rating.

 

This novel satisfies the “Virtue” category: (title must name a virtue: “innocence”) in the What’s in a Name 2024 challenge.

 

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The Crooked Man: a Sherlock Holmes short story

"The Crooked Man” is a Sherlock Holmes short story from The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes collection. According to The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, it was Holmes’ 27th case chronologically.

 

A respected British officer is discovered dead in a locked room after the servants heard him and his wife quarreling. But the wife, and obvious suspect, is rendered insensible by the event.

 

It looks like an open and shut case until Holmes discovers suspicious footprints suggesting a third person and an animal entered and left the room through a window.

 

After this, it’s a pretty disappointing case. Holmes barely uses his famous powers of deduction, and that only to determine the one person who may know the cause of the argument. From there, Holmes simply persuades the witness to tell all. SPOILER: The wife didn’t do it.

 

Not the most exciting of Holmes’ adventures. Indeed, I think it is the least entertaining I’ve read.

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens (novel #225)

Oh, late-remembered, much-forgotten, mouthing, braggart duty, always owed, and seldom paid in any other coin than punishment and wrath, when will mankind begin to know thee! ~ narrative from Martin Chuzzlewit

 

As I near the end of Dickens’ works and read some of his lesser-known stories, it is not surprising that they are not up to his usual standard. This is by far my least favorite. I almost feel unfaithful to a favorite author to give it only 2 ½ stars.

 

It is pretty standard fare in some respects: there is a pompous hypocrite, several misers, an orphan, though not the typical Dickens orphan, a rich uncle, and comical secondary characters, including one who prides himself on being jolly no matter the circumstances.

 

So why did I dislike it? I’m not sure. Maybe I’m getting too familiar with Dickens’ formula, but I don’t think that’s it. Maybe I was offended by his unflattering treatment of the United States, but I hope that isn’t it. (More on that in a minute.) Nor do I think it was Dickens’ notoriously slow start and long character development, which seemed even slower and longer than usual. But I don’t know. Maybe it was a little of all of those. I never really empathized with anyone, though Dickens’ hallmark justice was still satisfying in the end.

 

My Rating: 2 ½ out of 5 Stars

 

 

As far as I know, this is the only Dickens novel partially set in the United States. Young Martin Chuzzlewit sets out for America with a faithful companion to earn his fortune. With one solitary exception, he is met with nothing but frauds, cheats, yokels, and bigots. It was not well received in the United States…shocking! Dickens added a preface first and then a postscript to the preface defending himself. He wrote:

 

The American portion of this story is in no other respect a caricature than as it is an exhibition, for the most part (Mr Bevan excepted), of a ludicrous side, only, of the American character…

 

He doesn’t mention that he had recently visited America in an unsuccessful attempt to get American publishers to honor international copyrights. So, his disdain is not without cause, but he is not without the duplicity and hypocrisy that he is so expert in lampooning in others.

 

I still love the bloke, great writer, but this is not his best work.

 

Oh and…I found this marvelously ironic. With his famous sarcasm in the narrative he quips of British parliamentarians…

 

…it is the custom to use as many words as possible, and express nothing whatever.

 

Quite apropos when ole CD uses such a prudent economy of words himself.

 

Maybe I was a little annoyed by his treatment of the U.S.A. ;)

 

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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain (novel #223)

Here I was, a giant among pigmies, a man among children, a master intelligence among intellectual moles: by all rational measurement the one and only actually great man in that whole British world…

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court was originally titled A Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. It is a fantasy satire, and I would also say Sci-Fi since it involves time travel. The eponymous narrator, mechanical engineer Hank Morgan, is transported from 1879 Connecticut to sixth-century England due to a heavy blow to his head.

 

It takes Hank a while to get his bearings and realize what has happened to him. He is quickly arrested and sentenced to death, but he uses his superior knowledge of science and history to convince Arthur and company that he is a powerful wizard. Merlin challenges him, but Hank always manages to outsmart the charlatan wizard.

 

Hank embraces his reputation, earns a position of authority in Arthur’s government, and sets out to improve the nation of “intellectual moles” he finds himself among.

 

…to banish oppression from this land and restore to all its people their stolen rights and manhood without disobliging anybody.

 

His aspirations are not merely scientific. Hank intends to end what, to his 19th-century mind, were outdated societal norms of serfdom, aristocracy, monarchy, judicial system, and the Catholic Church.

 

I was very happy. Things were working steadily toward a secretly longed-for point. You see, I had two schemes in my head which were the vastest of all my projects. The one was to overthrow the Catholic Church and set up the Protestant faith on its ruins – not as an Established Church, but a go-as-you-please one; and the other project was to get a decree issued by and by, commanding that upon Arthur’s death unlimited suffrage should be introduced, and given to men and women alike – at any rate to all men, wise or unwise, and to all mothers who at middle age should be found to know nearly as much as their sons at twenty-one.

 

As one would expect from Twain, there are moments of subtle and sublime humor. In much of the book, Hank and Arthur are traveling the realm incognito, and Hank, on several occasions, has great difficulty in coaching the king on how to act as a simple peasant.

 

The King looked puzzled – he wasn’t a very heavy weight intellectually. His head was an hour-glass; it could stow an idea, but it had to do it a grain at a time, not the whole idea at once.

 

Meanwhile, there is intrigue in King Arthur’s Court and treachery. There is a great contest between Hank and his few minions against the entrenched traditions of Knight Errantry, with a bit of pot-stirring by Merlin. I’ll spare the spoiler of how it ends.

 

Overall, I was disappointed. I’ve loved everything that I’ve read by Twain and wanted to read this for decades. I expected hilarious dialogue and farcical circumstances but found only a few bits to snicker at. But it wasn’t merely the doom of high expectations. I felt that Hank, and by proxy Twain, held humanity in contempt.

 

But finally it occurred to me all of a sudden that these animals didn’t reason; that they never put this and that together…

 

Well, there are times when one would like to hang the whole human race and finish the farce.

 

And yeah, there are times when I feel that way, but in this novel, that seems to be the prevalent theme. Not a fan.

 

Still, it was a read I needed to check off the list. I’m glad I read it, glad I’m done.

  

My Rating: 3 ½ out of 5 Stars

 

 

This novel satisfies the Chess Piece category in the What’s in a Name 2023 Challenge.

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Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens (novel #214)

Never from the mighty sea may voices rise too late, to come between us and the unseen region on the other shore! Better, far better, that they whispered of that region in our childish ears, and the swift river hurried us away. ~ narrative from Dombey and Son

 

Contrary to the title, Dombey and Son is about Florence Dombey, the oldest child of Paul Dombey, a wealthy London shipping magnate. Florence, or Floy, is a typical Dickens heroine: an ideal of virtue and beauty. Though, when the story opens, she is only six.

 

It opens at the birth of Florence’s younger brother Paul, heir to the Dombey Empire. Mr. Dombey is barely affected when his wife dies. He is too busy planning and placing all his hopes and dreams on his son. Florence is nearly invisible to her proud and aloof father. He is never cruel to her. She is raised in comfort and privilege, and yet…

 

Florence is far poorer than the most miserable of Dickens’ orphans or paupers.

 

And the reader’s heart slowly breaks.

 

But then there is hope. Mr. Dombey remarries, and, for a brief moment, Florence is genuinely loved by her beautiful stepmother. No, really, genuinely loved. And poor Mr. Dombey, who is not loved by his new wife, becomes jealous of his daughter’s ability to win her stepmother’s affection.

 

Who? Who was it who could win his wife as she had won his boy? Who was it who had shown him that new victory, as he sat in the dark corner? Who was it whose least word did what his utmost means could not? Who was it who, unaided by his love, regard or notice, thrived and grew beautiful when those so aided died? Who could it be, but the same child at whom he had often glanced uneasily in her motherless infancy, with a kind of dread, lest he might come to hate her; and of whom his foreboding was fulfilled, for he DID hate her in his heart?

 

And the reader's heart breaks again.

 

You can count on the author to do that, but this is far from typical Dicken’s fare.

 

It is a warning and exposé on the frightful sin of pride. It is a hopeful message about the power of love and forgiveness. Some might call it a fantasy in that regard, but I have seen such love and forgiveness.

 

There are still some of Dickens’ hallmarks. There are intricate coincidences and connections between the main and lesser characters. There are comic caricatures, subtle foreshadows, and an ironic twist or two. There is a toothy, smiling, unctuous villain whose villainy brings about the satisfying ending…but not the perfect ending that Dickens is often criticized for. Much is lost; much is gained.

 

My rating: 4 out of 5 stars

 

 

 

And with this novel, I’ve completed The Classics Club Round III.

 

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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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