Hard Times

This may be one of Dickens' lesser known books, but it's just as good as David Copperfield, and slightly more manageable, because it's only 300 pages long as opposed to 900... *Don't read this if you're planning on reading the book, it will give it away completely*

The main theme of the book is facts, as in, the Victorian education system that taught children to learn and accept only facts and eradicate any sort of sentimentality or imagination in their lives. Even at the beginning we know that it's doomed to fail, just from a small glimpse of Thomas Gradgrind's schoolroom. He drills the facts into the children without teaching them the real life implications of what they're learning, so obviously they'll be totally unprepared for the real world. Gradgrind educates his own children, Louisa and Tom, according to his system, and neither end up successful in life. It's interesting how Dickens explores the different variations on the system, contrasting poor Louisa, whose creativity is eliminated from an early age, and the compassionate Sissy, who fails Gradgrind's system because she's too human in her emotions.

Louisa has all of the imagination squashed out of her, and it leaves her, as she herself recognises, cold and incomplete as a person. She marries Mr Bounderby, a man who abides rigorously by her father's system and is in fact his best friend (as far as his philosophy will allow such open displays of sentimentality). She is, of course, unhappy with him, but is restrained from being with the man she loves by her own crippled emotions.

Young Thomas Gradgrind becomes a thief, and unfairly relies on Louisa to lend him money. He even asks her to marry the DISGUSTING Mr Bounderby for his own benefit, because he recognises Bounderby's fondness for Louisa and knows he can take advantage of that.

Mr Gradgrind, however, once he recognises how badly Louisa's been damaged by his system of facts, always facts, does reform. He shelters her and supports her separation from a man who clearly doesn't understand her, which Dickens clearly thinks is the more reasonable outlook on life; he does change his system to make it more lenient, allowing facts to be twinned with compassion and human emotion.

Gradgrind's philosophy creates and shapes Coketown, where the book is set. He's a highly influential person in the society, and builds many factories, passing on his philosophy to his many employees. This is what leads to Stephen Blackpool, the most morally upright and good person in the book, being cast out of the town, and essentially, his death; he hurries back in the dark to clear his name, falls down Old Hell Shaft and dies of his injuries.

From my understanding, I got that Dickens is trying to impose the importance of twinning factual knowledge and emotional knowledge, and, by giving us different examples of the extreme, shows us his view of the correct way to act. Really really brilliant book, lots of plot twists and fantastic writing.

The Mysterious Mr Ripley

Finito! This was actually a compilation of three of the Ripley books: The Talented Mr Ripley, Ripley Underground and Ripley's Game. So, in my defense, that's why it's taken me so long to update.

The incredible cast of The Talented Mr Ripley

The first Ripley book was all well and good; he casually kills Dickie Greenleaf, a man he's gradually building up a friendship with. This then leads to the murder of Greanleaf's friend Freddie Miles. This all happens within the first 100 pages, and it progresses with him nervously trying to cover up the existence of Tom Ripley, and essentially becoming Dickie Greenleaf. The nervousness and anxiety is sustained for the duration of the book, and it gets, frankly, really boring. Yes, he killed two men, but the first rule of a murder is never return to the scene of the crime, and definitely don't stay in the country it was committed in! Jesus, you would think that such a devious man as Tom Ripley would realise this, but apparently not. It all becomes very formulaic, with frequent visits from the police/Dickie's lover/Dickie's father. It ends with him escaping to Greece. It was all very predictable from the start and didn't have much else to set it apart from any other murder mystery-thriller.

The second book, Ripley Underground, was different in that it's set Villeperce, France. Tom's now a married man and has attempted to wipe the slate clean vis-a-vis the Dickie Greenleaf scandal. He's involved in an organisation that sells fraudulent copies of the fictional artist Derwatt's paintings. There's a person who knows the paintings are fakes, Tom kills him, spends the rest of the book covering it up, yada yada yada. Again, pretty much the same.

The last book is a drastic move away from the other two. It's about Jonathan Trevanny and his dabblings in organised crime. Tragic ending (I won't spoil it) and it's a teensy bit better than the other two, but honestly, it's pretty much the same plot. The ultimate failing of the series is that it's written in the third person but from Tom's point of view, meaning the reader doesn't get the full impact of how sick and psychopathic he really is. This means we just take it for granted that he's going to murder all of these people and get bored. Like I did.

There's another book after this, The Boy Who Followed Ripley, but I think I'll give it a miss. The film series, the first one starring Matt Damon, and the others John Malkovich, is a rare case of the films being miles better than the books. Next on my list is Hard Times, by Charles Dickens. Update you when it's all done!

Women In Love

I don't really know how much there is to say about this book, as nothing much really happens. It's all a big lead up to one event that happens 6 pages from the end, and it's worth the wait, but it takes 414 pages to get to it, which does seem a big excessive. And it's not really expected, which could either be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view. Mine is that if "The Thing" (as it shall henceforth be known) happens too suddenly then you don't get the real impact of it, and you can't quite understand why it's important in the context of the novel itself. That's what happened in Women In Love; there were a couple of hints and clues in the chapter beforehand, but nothing to lead you to suspect what would actually happen, which took the momentum away a little bit.

Apart from that, yes, it was a good book, but I can't quite see the point of it. The two male characters, Rupert Birkin and Gerald Crich, are clearly both representations of D.H. Lawrence himself, which, once you've figured that out, seems boring and self-indulgent on his part. The sisters and "women in love" in question Ursula and Gudrun, seem too similar to really be considered as separate characters. Obviously they have separate personalities and traits to them, but when you consider them together, differences become hard to find. Both want to be loved by men in the ordinary, earthly way, although towards the end Ursula comes more to favour Birkin's way of viewing love as a gateway to a higher relationship. Both know exactly what they want and aren't afraid to get it, and both are highly contemptuous of others, but this shows more in Gudrun.

The long philosophical ramblings do become slightly tedious, but I was reading this book at a moment of adolescent soul-searching, so they've become very relevant to me. But anyway, next I'll be reading The Talented Mr Ripley, and the next two in the series, by Patricia Highsmith. Really looking forward to it, although I've already watched the film, so the ending of the first one at least is a leetle bit spoiled...!