Okay, as it was my first blog hop, I got confused (a regular occurrence these days), and didn’t realise it was an ongoing thing.
Anyway, I’m going to keep posting and see how things go.
This week the theme is: A book you got very mad at.
I’ve posted several reviews here, and regular readers will know I can be quite harsh if I don’t enjoy a book. If I find myself unable to finish a book, I tend not to post reviews because I don’t think it’s fair to do so when I haven’t read it in full.
A book rarely makes me mad, but there is one book that holds that esteemed position and it is Shirley by Charlotte Bronte.
Now, some may be shocked that I found a book by a much-loved and revered author of English literature to be so annoying that I slammed it shut and tossed it aside. I was equally shocked and disappointed. I tried to read Shirley about 20 years ago. I’d read Jane Eyre and The Professor when I was a teenager and loved them. But this one…
Honestly, I read about 30 pages and had to stop because I couldn’t understand what the hell was going on, and it was due to the author’s use of local dialect.
First, I’ll include a little about the book for those who also haven’t read it. Shirley is set at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, sometime between 1803 and 1815 (a period I adore and should have enjoyed reading).
The book tells the story of an ambitious mill owner who tries to marry a wealthy woman, and take on the desperate and unemployed local workers who smash his new machinery.
Oh, and it’s set in Yorkshire, less than 30 miles from where I live. I’ve visited Red House, which is featured in the book and where Charlotte stayed on several occasions, for it was once owned by the family of her school friend, Mary Taylor. Anyway, I digress.
But, I’m from Yorkshire, so why the hell couldn’t I understand what the characters said? I have no idea, but I just could not get into this book with all the “wi’thee“s, “shad“s, and “nobbut“s. I had to re-read sentences about three or four times to understand them, and that just broke the flow. After pages and pages of the same, I tossed it aside in a fit of frustration.
Note the crease in the top right-hand corner occurred when I tossed it aside.
Oh, the sacrilege!
Here’s a particulalry nice quote from one of the characters, Mr Yorke, to give you an idea of what I’m moaning about:
“To be sure – sartainly! And mind ye recommend weel that them ‘at brake t’bits o’ frames, and teed Joe Scott’s legs wi’ band, suld be hung without benefit o’ clergy.”
From Shirley by Charlotte Bronte
I want to try again, but I can’t muster up the enthusiasm to do so. I’m ashamed to admit that I have not read a classic lauded as “rich in historical detail,… a human novel as well as a social novel with a perpetual relevance in its exploration of humanity’s efforts to reconcile personal and economic aspirations with social justice and harmony.”
Is there a book that’s made you mad? Am I moaning about nothing? Leave a comment and check out the other posts on the blog hop.
LOL – I completely understand the concern of not liking a “beloved classic”. But hey, we don’t all think chocolate ice cream is the best.
Tweeted.
Bianca. I absolutely understand and agree with you. I find the same frustration when I read a historical and they keep going on with how people (usually Scottish) used to talk. Okay, I get it, and I’m totally impressed you speak freaking Gaelic, but I don’t, and this is not a novel in Gaelic.
Daryl. I’m about to get in trouble with you again. Ice cream, any flavor, is the most overrated sweet thing ever.
Shared!
Wuthering Heights has the same daunting usages. It was the first book I ever bought for myself. I think I was 15. I bought it after hearing a dramatization of the film on Lux Radio Theater. (That shows you how old I am and how long ago the purchase.) It was bad enough getting through the interminable opening with the minor character narrator. But I was dismayed when I got to the terrible passages involving strict religious Sundays and lectures by one of the male caretakers. ( Hisname and position in the house no longer remembered for the obvious reason that I have not read Wuthering Heights more than once or twice since) I still have the lovely copy with watercolor illustrations, but I’m not likely to re-read. So:no anger, but defeat and dismay.
I agree. I’ve only read Wuthering Heights once, too. It’s so disappointing, but I refuse to rave about something I didn’t enjoy just because it’s supposed to be a literary classic.