To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I have read To Kill A Mockingbird several times.

Like many people my first reading of TKAM was in highschool, and like many, it was a life changing moment.
It was one of my first 'big' classics. By the time I got to the end of the book I remember thinking, "this is it! When people talk about great literature - this - is - what - they - mean!"

I felt my brain stretch and grow to accommodate this story.
My love of history had already given me a basic understanding of the time and place; Lee's story gave it a face and personality.

It was the first time the written word made me swoon with delight. I loved the dry humour, I loved Scout's voice and I loved the cleverly constructed story.

My last rereading was roughly 15 years ago. The story still felt so fresh in my mind that I was surprised by so much passing time.

I was also a little concerned that I might feel let down with this rereading. My memory had TKAM on such a high pedestal that I wasn't sure if it could live up to it. I needn't have worried.

My next surprise was the beginning.

I thought it started with Jem and Scout meeting Dill for the first time. And that the entire story was written in Scout's young voice.

But, of course, the first few pages are devoted to tracing the Finch family history from some future speaking adult Scout.

And the entire first part is about establishing the setting, the tone and the characters. It doesn't launch straight into the courtroom drama that everyone remembers.

I think this is where some of the clever plot construction comes into play. All the little vignettes Lee describes gradually build up the picture so that we (& Scout to a lesser degree) not only accept, but understand what happens in part two.

We see how the community leaves "best alone" in Boo Radley's case, how Atticus is powerless to help Scout when she starts school (and how the school is powerless to help the likes of the Ewells and the Cunninghams). We see how all the various classes and castes of Maycomb county fit together (or not). We feel the power of the church and the confines of county traditions. We thrill to Atticus' heroic killing of a rabid dog and feel grateful when the community fight together to put out the fire in Miss Maudie's house.

Lee delicately highlights the good and bad of Maycomb county. She gives us a chance to walk around inside the skin of this community.

We are now well prepared for the events of book two.

I've included a few snaps of part one from my gorgeous Folio Edition copy of TKAM.

It is illustrated by Aafke Brouwer. I love the creepy edge that Brouwer has given many of the illustrations, especially the walking dead picture to highlight Jem's early description of Boo Radley.

This post is part of the TKAM readalong hosted by Adam at Roof Beam Reader.

Sophie Scott Goes South by Alison Lester

Sophie Scott Goes South has been shortlisted for the CBCA Picture Book Illustrators award.

Nine year old Sophie is heading off to Antarctica with her dad, the captain of the ice-breaker Aurora.

Lester uses child-like drawings, photographs, maps, stamps and storyboard collages to flesh out her story. The story is told in a diary format similar to that of Lester's 2005 award winning book Are We There Yet?

This book is obviously designed to fit into the Primary School Stage 3 Human Society & Its Environment - Antarctica topic. The information is accessible, easy to read and understand and very interesting.

Strangers by Anita Brookner

I've been reading Strangers as part of HeavenAli's Brookner in July reading month.

I read a few Brookner's in my late twenties. I enjoyed them, but after 2 or 3 stories about aging, literary women living on their own I felt like I'd done the scenario to death!

Looking back, I think some of the storylines cut a little too close to home. I was a literary woman, living on my own and the prospects of meeting someone who I would actually want to give up my freedom for, seemed more and more unlikely.

Happily, circumstances changed for me, but I remember the double-edged sword of singledom very clearly. Like everything we do in life, being single (and being married) has good points...and the not so good points.

Brookner describes the not so good points to a tee. Painfully, accurately and deliberately.

But in Strangers she also remembers to play with the good points as well.
The conversations that Paul has over and over and over in his head are true to life, although somewhat repetitive and tedious by the end (much life true life!)

Paul's two choices of possible partner are pretty ghastly. Single life seems perfectly blissful in comparison to spending the rest of your life with a hypochondriac or someone flirting with a borderline personality disorder! But his loneliness actually makes him seriously consider both options.

Strangers is more focused on the end-of-your-life loneliness than other books of Brookner's that I've read. The kind of loneliness that comes from retirement and the relentless, inevitable decline & death of friends and family.

Strangers was only published four years ago which means that Brookner was 80 when she wrote it. No doubt the loneliness & decline of old age is something that she has knows intimately.

I enjoyed my time back in Brookner country.
Her writing feels very personal and effortless. The characters are real life people. Brookner's skill is to let you into their innermost thoughts and motivations.
I felt that I knew her three main characters so well, that if I ran into down the street, I would be able to start a deep and meaningful conversation with them. In fact, I did have several conversations with the two women in my head, telling them exactly what I thought of them!

Strangers reminded me of the unique power of Brookner's writing and why I will be returning to her work at various times in my life.

A Day To Remember by Jackie French and Mark Wilson

Jackie French is prolific...ubiquitous even.

It feels like every section of the bookshop has a Jackie French title in it - junior fiction, teen, younger readers, board books, non-fiction, reference, picture books, the novelty section even gardening!

Certainly it wouldn't be a CBCA shortlist without a Jackie French title (or two) in its ranks.

A Day To Remember is a non-fiction picture book written by French and illustrated by Mark Wilson.

It has been shortlisted for the illustrators award so I will try to focus on the pictures. But as with all good picture books for children (fiction or non-fiction) the text and the illustrations go hand in hand.

In various interviews I've read, Wilson has said that he is influenced by Australian Impressionist painters like Frederick McCubbin and Arthur Streeton. You can see this influence play out in A Day to Remember in particular.

There's a classic Australian feel to the landscapes with lots of earthy colours in use. The figures are engaged with their drawn environment. Wilson uses pop out boxes and inserts to highlight important features from the story.

French uses a diary format which follows Anzac Day from its beginnings in Gallipoli to our modern services and ceremonies. She shows us how the various traditions started and she talks about what Anzac Day means to our society today.

This book will become an important part of the history, traditions and community aspects of the primary school curriculum.

The Odyssey by Homer #2

I first read The Odyssey when I was in my final year of school.

I was studying Ancient History and I had the (bad) habit of not only reading my required texts but also all the optional extra texts from start to finish...just for fun! My Ancient History teacher was delighted, but the rest of my subjects suffered from this little obsession.

Five years later, I took off overseas to work in London and travel around as much of Europe as I could afford to in the 10 months I had up my sleeve. Space was an issue in my luggage. The one book that took the entire trip with me was my prose penguin edition of The Odyssey. I borrowed, bought and released untold numbers of other book whilst traveling, but Homer was my constant companion.

Fortunately my traveling adventures shared nothing in common with Odysseus. The most hardship I endured was 6 months nannying a rather horrid 6 year old, a nasty tummy bug in Egypt and breaking up long distance with my boyfriend (the same boyfriend who became my husband 18 years and many, many adventures later!)

Any discomfort with Youth Hostel beds, or annoyance at smoke filled over-heated buses, late trains or currency exchange rates paled into insignificance every time I picked up The Odyssey. Certainly, there was one YH manager in Scotland that could have been mistaken for a modern day Cyclops and one young man at a Hyde Park concert that had nymph-like tendencies! But I made it home safe and sound with lots of wonderful memories and in a timely fashion.

This readalong has given me a chance to rehash old times as well as creating new ones thanks to my first reading of a verse edition of The Odyssey.

I have found it interesting to compare the two versions as I go along (below).
The Fagles verse is definitely more poetic whilst Rieu's translation can be quite prosaic and pragmatic.

Book 1: "You must not cling to your boyhood any longer -
               it's time you were a man."     (lines 341-342)

"You are no longer a child: you must put childish thoughts away." (pg 34)

Book 2: "Few sons are the equal of their fathers;
              most fall short, all too few surpass them.
              But you, brave and adept from this day on -
              Odysseus' cunning has hardly given out in you -
              there's every hope that you will reach your goal."   (lines 309- 312)

"Few sons, indeed, are like their fathers. Generally they are worse; but just a few are better. And since we have seen that you are by no means lacking in Odysseus' wits, and that no fool's or coward's role awaits you in life, why then, you have every reason to feel that you will make a success of this undertaking." (pg 45)

Book 4: "...when all you Achaeans
              fought at Troy, launching your headlong battles
              just for my sake, shameless whore that I was."   (lines 160-162) 

"...when you Achaeans boldly declared war and took the field against Troy for my sake, shameless creature that I was!"   (pg 68)

              "What other tribute can we pay to wretched men              
               than to cut a lock, let tears roll down our cheeks?"   (lines 220-221) 

"Indeed, what other tribute can one pay to poor mortality than a lock of hair from the head and a tear on a cheek?" (pg 69)

             "Zeus can present us              times of joy and times of grief in turn."  (lines264-265)

"...each of us has his happy times, and each his spell of pains."  (pg 70)

Book 6: "And out he stalked
              as a mountain lion exultant in his power
              strides through wind and rain and his eyes ablaze" (lines 142-144)

"Then he advanced on them like a mountain lion who sallies out, defying wind and rain in the pride of his power, with fire in his eyes." (pg 105)

I've included Helen's line in Book 4 about being a "shameless whore" because this struck me like a slap on the cheek. It reminded me that this book was written (and before that told) in a time when the lives of men were paramount. Women's issues and stories were only told in relation to what was important to men.

My stance on 'his'tory and 'her'story has changed over the last twenty years, but my enjoyment of this rolicking story has not.

Bring on the second half!

The Stalking of Julia Gillard by Kerry-Anne Walsh

Topical, relevant and a publishers dream as far as timing goes!

The Stalking Of Julia Gillard: How Team Rudd contrived to bring down the Prime Minister was due for August release.

Walsh initially planned to document the Gillard governments minority parliament, the first one in Australia since 1939. But she noticed, that despite a "parliament...functioning remarkably well under Gillard leadership" that the media and a minority within the Labor caucus were "threatening to derail its success".

So the book became about "Team Rudd's slow-death destabilisation campaign  against Gillard" and about the media's focus on all things Rudd. Walsh claims that her book is not a defence of Gillard or a definitive account of the Gillard government. She also never spoke to Gillard about her book. Instead "it's an expanded personal diary of observations."

At the end of June, Rudd was finally successful in getting the numbers to topple Gillard as leader of the Labor party.

Allen and Unwin decided to bring forward the release of Walsh's book to catch the wave of interest in this leadership change.
The Stalking of Julia sold out within a week.
The reprint (and amended past-tense title) came out a week later and is still racing off the shelf three weeks later.

I'm glad I read Summer's The Misogyny Factor first. It was well researched and told in a calm, restrained fashion.

Walsh's book is far from calm or restrained.

She is obviously anti-Rudd. But she is also scathing in her comments about members of the media who supported Rudd is his three year campaign to undermine Gillard at every turn. Whether via personal attacks, beautifully timed leaks to take attention away from any positive press about her government and the courting of Rudd and his agenda at the expense of reporting government policy.

Although there are many interesting insights in Walsh's book, I found it difficult to trust them. I felt that her red hot anger took away from her objectivity. Her many derisive comments ended up putting her in the same group as the shock jocks to my mind.

When people start name calling, I tend to tune out, regardless of their politics or beliefs.

If you want to read a sensational account of the Gillard government - then read this book.

If you would prefer a calmer, rational, more balanced argument - then read Anne Summer's book (see my review below).

Lyrebird by Jackie Kerin

Lyrebird by Jackie Kerin has been shortlisted for the CBCA Eve Pownall Award for information book this year.

It's based on the true story of Edith Wilkinson and James the lyrebird - the first lyrebird to be broadcast on radio!

I found the story itself to be a little flat. But the illustrations are lovely. The bio blurb at the back of the book is fascinating.

You can also watch a youtube video (below) produced by Kerin & Malcolm McKinnon that uses photographs & old footage of James and Edith.

It is quite delightful and gives the book an extra something special that would be great for schools to use.




You can also check out my other CBCA related posts here.

The Misogyny Factor by Anne Summers

This book had almost gone unnoticed on our shelves until the recent events in Australian politics. But then, all of a sudden, we're getting double-barrelled requests for this book and The Stalking of Julia.

It's funny the difference a week can make!

To say I felt anger whilst reading The Misogyny Factor is an understatement. But I also felt disappointment, frustration, despair and at times, I felt physically ill.

Anne Summers is a well-respected journalist, writer and feminist.  I trust her work from experience. And that's what makes this book so uncomfortable to read. Summers is telling us the truth and it's hard to read.

Summers talks about the three indicators for success that would show us that women's equality had been achieved. They are "inclusion, equality and respect." While "the misogyny factor" is the obstacle.

Summers acknowledges the dictionary meaning of misogyny (hatred of women) but expands her definition to include the more complicated attitudes and behaviours that this implies and "that stand in the way of women being included, treated equally and accorded respect."

The first half of The Misogyny Factor is full of facts and figures. There are the 'firsts' and all the successful legislation passed to ensure that women, on paper, in law, have equal rights. But then she counters with all the backsliding, the downgrading and the reduced policies that have happened since.

And even though I knew this to be true already, seeing it in print still sent shivers down my spine, "not only will a woman earn less than a man with identical or similar educational levels; not only will she earn less than a man with children, but she will also earn less than a man with considerably less educational attainments than she has."

I'm always cautious when people start quoting facts and figures. Facts and figures can be manipulated and interpreted to mean anything you want, so I was glad that Summers book wasn't just chapter after chapter of statistics and percentages.

The second half of the book focuses on Julia Gillard and her time as Prime Minister. Summers has documented page after page, incident after incident, media report after media report, twitter bile after twitter bile judging, criticising and accusing Gillard purely on the basis of her gender. You should be able to disagree with someone's politics or policies without referring to gender, religion or race. But in this case, it seemed impossible for many, many people in Australia.

It would be easy to come away from this book feeling nothing but despair, but Summers finishes with some action guidelines. The main one is "it stops with me".

"Next time you get one of those emails, don't delete it - send it back to whomever sent it to you and tell them: it stops with me. When someone in your company refers to the Prime Minister disrespectfully, don't ignore it - tell them off: it stops with me. "

Maisie Dobbs: A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear

I've said numerous times before that Maisie is my comfort read.

After finishing Tess, I was in desperate need of some Maisie comfort.

Book 8 in the Maisie Dobbs series did not disappoint.
Maisie's strong, no nonsense approach to life was the perfect antidote for Hardy's pessimism.

My only concern for this book was that even with the change of career, a move to Cambridge & the flush of new romance, Maisie, herself somehow felt a little stale.

For the first time, I felt the intrusion of Winspear in these books. I could almost see the author stalking the pages trying to work out what direction she would like take Maisie next. She's aware something needs to change, but she wasn't quite ready to tackle it in this book. It felt like she was the laying the groundwork for what comes next....at least I hope that's what she was doing!

Because as much as I love Maisie, I want to see he grow and mature and move onto new things if that's what she needs to do. I'd hate to see her stagnate.

Jane and Prudence by Barbara Pym

Jane and Pru has all the trademark Pymesque qualities that I have come to know and love very quickly.

It's not as tightly drawn or poignant as Excellent Women, but bumbling curates, index cards and copious amounts of tea and cake can keep one amused for quite some time!

I've only lived in the UK for a short period of time, many years ago, so my knowledge of British men is limited, but I did meet several of the bumbling, helpless, hopeless men that populate Pym's novels. They do exist.

I am curious about all the other types of men though. Did Pym never meet any of them? Did she not find them as amusing perhaps?

Even though happily married now, I recognised a lot of myself in Prudence.
Not so much the endless flings (Pru is one of those people in love with the idea of being in love, who loves the beginning of a relationship more than the follow through).

But I did recognise the desire for freedom, bohemia and an intellectual life. In Pru it manifested itself in gorgeous house clothes, the Vogue style home furnishings and the self-consciousness of how her life might look to others.

Pym's characters are not always warm, lovable or even completely likable. Instead they are flawed, sometimes annoying, often irritating but 100% human.

I'm looking forward to my rereads of Pym. From everything I've read Pym grows on you with each reread. In this case, familiarity does not breed contempt.

Tanglewood and Lightning Jack

I'm determined to read as many of the CBCA shortlisted books this year as I can.
I've made this promise every year...and have failed miserably every year.

I'm hoping this year will be different as I had read & reviewed half a dozen of the books prior to the shortlist even being announced this year!

The next two books are shortlisted for the picture book award for illustrators.

Tanglewood has been atmospherically illustrated by Vivienne Goodman. There is a haunting tenderness and quietness in both the illustrations and the text.

Margaret Wild has written a story about family, belonging, loneliness, friendship, staying strong & kindness.

Both women have used the environment to highlight these themes.

Goodman's island, tree and sea scenes are full of stark panoramic beauty and detailed close-ups. By the end of the story, the tree, in particular, has taken on animistic tendencies that remind me a little of The Giving Tree.

Lightning Jack has been illustrated by Patricia Mullens using tissue paper collage. Her choice of colours and textures are vibrant and dramatic.

One of my favourite read-a-louds is illustrated by Mullens - Hattie and the Fox. Her animal collages in both books are full of exciting action and movement.

Glenda Millard's rhyming text reminds me a little of The Man from Snowy River . It is full of magic, adventure & poetic moments. Young Sam's fantasy ride takes us to Ned Kelly country, a race with Phar Lap and a trip to Luna Park.

I surprised myself by how taken I was with both books.

They are beautiful, gentle, unforgettable books that celebrate our gorgeous country in very different ways. I'm glad that it's not my job to pick one over the other for this award!

The Odyssey Read-a-long

Allie at A Literary Odyssey is hosting an Odyssey read-a-long this month.

She obviously LOVES this book with a passion, enthusiasm and knowledge that I usually reserve for Jane Austen.

Her opening posts for the read-a-long are truly inspirational (click on the link above to see for yourself).

Allie is reading the Fagles verse translation...which is when I realised that my 30 year old edition of The Odyssey is the Penguin Classic PROSE edition translated by E.V. Rieu in 1946!

I decided to do a little comparison of the opening lines to get me started on my own personal odyssey.

I give you Fagles verse translation (thanks to Allie)...

“Sing to me of the man, Muse, the man of twists and turns
driven time and again off course, once he had plundered
the hallowed heights of Troy.
Many cities of men he saw and learned their minds,
many pains he suffered, heartsick on the open sea,
fighting to save his life and bring his comrades home.
But he could not save them from disaster, hard as he strove—
the recklessness of their own ways destroyed them all,
the blind fools, they devoured the cattle of the Sun
and the Sungod wiped from sight the day of their return.
Launch out on his story, Muse, daughter of Zeus,
start from where you will-sing for our time too.”


And now for good old E.V's prose translation...

The hero of the tale which I beg the Muse to help me tell is that resourceful man who roamed the wide world after he had sacked the holy citadel of Troy.
He saw the cities of many peoples and he learnt their ways.
He suffered many hardships on the high seas in his struggles to preserve his life and bring his comrades home.
But he failed to save those comrades, in spite of all his efforts.
It was their own sin that brought them their doom, for in their folly they devoured the oxen of Hyperion the Sun, and the god saw to it that they should never return.
This is the tale I pray the divine Muse to unfold to us.
Begin it, goddess, at whatever point you will.

Hmmmmm.
I think we have a clear winner!

I was rather curious to see the Christian reference to sin in Rieu's version. 
To me this highlights the problems with many translations...the feelings and opinions of the translator often filter their way into the work. Feelings and opinions not intended by the original author or even relevant to the times of the story.

"start from where you will-sing for our time too" is magic stuff.

It melts into you. It prepares you for the storytelling ahead.

You feel yourself relax; mentally you put up your feet, wiggle down comfortably into your seat & sip your mulled wine.

It weaves the past, present and future into one moment.

Let the story begin....

Pookie Aleera is Not My Boyfriend by Steven Herrick

I'm not quite sure how I've managed to work 5 years in an Independent bookshop that specialises in children's books and NOT read a Steven Herrick book before today, but there you have it!

Thankfully that situation has now been remedied. And you are looking at a Steven Herrick convert.

'Pookie Aleera' is a book written in verse and an 'in joke' between the teacher, Ms Arthur and her class, 6A.
Each chapter is told from a different perspective.

Mick is the school captain, struggling with his role as leader. His younger brother Jacob, dreams of flying and likes to jump off the shed roof.
Laura is shy and friendless, Pete is coming to terms with the recent death of his grandpa and Selina is popular and rather interested in the boys...one in particular! 
Cameron is the class clown, Ms Arthur is the new teacher, Mr Korsky is the elderly groundsman with a heart of gold, Alex misses his dad and Rachel is the peace-maker with a sensitive soul.

This story is read quickly, but the episodes linger much longer.
The brief verses pack an emotional punch that allow you to create your own images and your own memories.

I walked the corridors with Mick each time, to the Principal's office. I delighted in Ms Arthur's wonderful teaching moments. I laughed out loud at the unsuspecting Constable Dawe during his pedestrian safety talks with the class. I loved the gentle Mr Korsky who reminded me of the school groundsman I had during my primary school years. Rachel's character crept into my heart as a literary kindred spirit for my youngest stepson. The butterfly episode haunts me still. And by the end of the book, I had the gorgeous aroma of Anzac biscuits on the tip of my memory.

Below is a taster of one of the early verses.

Alex

I thought it was a simple question, really.
Ms Arthur asked each of us to stand up, in turn,
and say what we want to be
when we grow up.
The first five students said,
'farmer.'
then Rachel said,
'pilot'.
And we went slowly around the class,
'teacher.'
'doctor.'
'truck driver.'
'vet.'
'soldier.'
When it was my turn,
I stood up
and, in a very clear voice, said,
'a dad.'
A few people giggled
as if I said something rude,
or stupid.
I sat down again,
red-faced and confused.
It was the truth.
I wanted to be a dad.
I've never seen my dad
and I wouldn't wish that
on anyone.
Rachel stood up again,
and said,
'Ms Arthur, I want to be a pilot
and a mum!'

This is a funny, heart-warming book for good 8+ readers, and a wonderful story to share with your Y5 or Y6 class.

Pookie Aleera has been shortlisted for the youngers readers 2013 CBCA awards.

One Very Tired Wombat by Renée Treml

This is cute!

Renée Treml has been nominated for the CBCA new illustrators award.
The scratchboard illustrations in One Very Tired Wombat are striking and the story is fun.

Wombat just wants to sleep, but he is visited by a growing number of birds who disturb his rest.

A stray feather helps wombat scare off the all the birds with a wonderful explosive sneeze that delights all young children!

I had never heard of scratchboarding before but I found a link on Renée's webpage that explained it clearly.

I love the black & white textured effect created by scratchboarding. I was also impressed with how much expression Renée was able to give the wombat using this technique.

Her next book, Colour for Curlews, will include coloured illustrations as the curlews from One Very Tired Wombat play around with some tubes of paint.

Colour For Curlews is due out in September.

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

My rereading of Tess for the Classic Club Spin (after about 20 years) was a curious thing.

For starters, I barely remembered any of the story.
If you'd asked me what Tess was about a month ago I would have replied with something like this - "a fallen women, wandering the Dorset countryside featuring a few cows and a famous death scene. Romantic bucolic melancholia!"

Egad! There was nothing romantic about Tess. Everything about her was tragic from start to finish. Even the romance with Angel in the middle was suffused with her guilt & angst.

As for melancholy!
It was far more hostile, negative and doomed than mere melancholia usually suggests. Tess is a book to make you feel angry, upset and frustrated.

At least that's how I felt throughout most of the book.

I was furious at Tess' parents for their criminal neglect and lack of parental concern. Their selfishness and self-serving behaviour placed Tess in danger more than once and they never accepted any responsibility for the subsequent outcomes of this neglect.

I hated Alex D'Urberville for his arrogance, his manipulation and abuse of Tess and for the way he blamed Tess for his actions because she tempted him with her ' womanliness'.

I was furious with Angel for his double standards and his further neglect of Tess.

I was annoyed with Tess for not standing up for herself, for being so complacent and accepting. She never called her parents or Angel to account for their poor treatment of her. And her bottled up anger at Alex proved to be,ultimately, self-destructive.

By the end of the book I was so upset with Thomas Hardy for his pessimistic view on life, his harsh treatment of women and his god-damned meandering around the countryside that I wanted to throw the book in his face!!

All of the above would suggest that I didn't like or enjoy my rereading of Tess.
But that is not true at all.

The first half of the book was wonderful. It was engaging, infuriating and thought-provoking in equal measure.
I dog-eared several pages and made lots of notes against passages that resonated or stood out from the crowd.

For example:
pg 46: In the ill-judged execution of the well-judged plan of things the call seldom produces the comer, the man to love rarely coincides with the hour for loving.

pg 116: She suddenly thought one afternoon, when looking in the glass at her fairness, that there was yet another date, of greater importance to her than those; that of her own death, when all these charms would have disappeared; a day which lay sly and unseen among all the other days of the year, giving no sign or sound when she annually passed over it; but not the less surely there. When was it?...Of that day, doomed to be her terminus in time through the ages, she did not know the place in month, week, season or year.

But by the end I was definitely over Hardy's gloomy view of the world.

Fortunately I also had a copy of Claire Tomalin's bio of Hardy on hand - I thought this would help me understand where Hardy was coming from.

There were a number of interesting facts.

1. Hardy's mother, grandmother and great-grandmother all fell pregnant before marriage and as Tomalin says, "Being pregnant before marriage was usual enough among country people to be of no great cause for shame if the man went reasonably willingly to the alter." So why was Hardy (via Angel) so hard on Tess?

2. Tomalin suggests that Hardy's black view of the world came from his "constitution (which) made him extraordinarily sensitive to humiliations, griefs and disappointments, and that the wounds they inflicted never healed but went on hurting him throughout his life. In a sense too he never got over his loss of Christian belief, which removed hope."

3. Tess started off with the names Love, Sue and Cis Troublewell!

4. Tess was serialised in a highly edited and expurgated version in 1891. Hardy had lots of conflict with editors and critics at various stages of Tess' creation. When the book was finally published he restored all of the cut sections. Tomalin suggests that this protracted and complicated writing & publishing history accounts for some of the "unevenness in the writing."

5. Hardy spent many of his married years to Emma, his first wife, in "estrangement and mutual hostility". In his 50's he fell in love with a married women who rejected his advances. Ten years later he then fell in love with a young school teacher 50 years younger than himself! When Emma died, he eventually married the young school teacher, Florence but wrote a series of poems dedicated to the memory of Emma and their early love! Clearly, Hardy had some issues surrounding his relationships with women.

Tess is definitely a classic despite its many flaws.

Hardy "sets out to show the crushing of its innocent heroine by the society in which she lives, its Christian hypocrisy, its double standard, its exploitation of cheap labour, all combining to reduce her to desperation, so that she ends her life as a ritual sacrifice to society's values."  And with this he succeeds.

The source of my anger arose from Hardy's depiction of exactly these concerns.
He also shows us the Dorset countryside in all its beauty. Hardy points out his concerns for the changing landscape - the move to bigger cities, the temporary nature of work and residence and its negative effects on community and family life and absent landlords who exploit the land.

Tess was written as a wake-up call for the people of its time. Hardy intended to shock and upset. The fact that he could still shock and upset this reader over a hundred years later suggests that his message remains relevant to this day.