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Cozy Tragedy – a review of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

by with No Comment Classics

The Secret Garden is my favourite classic literature book of all time. It was time I tried some of Hodgson Burnett’s other books, and this was the next most popular of her works.

Sarah Crewe is sent to live at Miss Minchin’s School for Girls while her father pursues further riches in India. She is quick to capture the hearts of her fellow students with her kind heart, charity and mantra of mantra of behaving like a princess. But when her father dies and her fortune in indebted to Miss Minchin’s frugal spending, Sarah if forced to put aside her studies and work to survive. But with all the misfortune that keeps getting thrown her way, does her kind heart remain untouched?

Sarah’s arc of impacting others was the most beautiful I have ever seen. These kinds of flat arcs are among my favourites, in which the most wholesome character in the book is the main character and teachers their mantra to everyone they know. Sarah must have been the character to start this trend, to teach her fellows to be charitable by example and show great kindness. What makes this better is how the events in this book make her struggle with her own beliefs and how she still has to fight back. In her mind and perspective we do not see this as being easy. It was incredibly written.

I don’t know how, but Hodgson Burnett was able to make such wholesome moments out of such tragedies. My emotions back AND front flipped from every event that happened within this book as sad moments got turned so happy, beautiful and wholesome. Cozy, I think, is the best way to describe this altogether. The sensation of being in an old home and wrapping yourself up in a blanket while sitting next to the fireplace.

For a book with the primary audience being children, I liked how mature elements of this tale were. For reference, I once watched a dumbed-down animated movie of this story and expect the plot to be identical. It was nothing like that movie. That movie was so dumbed down and edited that the two bare little resemblance to each other. The pitfalls in this book felt very real, from bankruptcy to bullying. The emotions felt so raw every time.

A little side note to finish off. This is the second book I have read by the same author following an English girl being raised in India and then returning to England and experiencing some levels of culture shock. Strange coincidence.

A Little Princess gets a score of 4.5/5. Misfortune never felt so cozy.

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Wrongly Named – a review of The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens

by with No Comment Classics

Two weeks to read a book a year ago used to mean that I was totally engaged with a book. But nowadays if I read a book in two weeks it means the total opposite.

So yeah, guess how long it took for me to read The Old Curiosity Shop?

Nell faces poverty at the hands of her grandfather’s gambling addiction, though he means well. He seeks the wealth she deserves in massive earnings through card games. However, learning of this Mr Quilp seeks out lawyers and forms of manipulation to take over the old man’s shop and home. As a result Nell decides to run away with her grandfather, their absence turning their former compatriots’ lives upside down and Nell’s adventures changing the lives of many strangers on the road.

First off, most characters felt like copies of each other. The women were largely passive wives or maid who would never dare to utter anything impolite, and the men were inquisitive lawyers and businessmen doing their working journeys. Or if there were differences between characters, they were so vague that I couldn’t notice them. It didn’t help that in their dialogue the characters were barely distinguishable and that points of view changed so much and for such long periods of time that I don’t remember the goals or arcs of a good 80% of the characters.

Speaking of, these characters has such a disjointed plot. Sure, it was all connected at the beginning, but as the narrative went on so too did their stories split to bizarre levels. And they way their plotlines were revealed were downright bizarre, either disrupting flow or going off in unnecessary directions. Those that did matter had such small impacts to the overall narrative. Why wasn’t it just about Nell and her Granddad, maybe with some chapters from Quill’s perspective?

That plotline was good. I was always looking forward to Nell’s endeavor’s and seeing the addictions her grandfather had to get through – the best part of it all. But it’d be luck if it took up half of the book. It was the easiest to follow and had the most beautiful story – which didn’t need to be connected to literally anything else. Like the villain Quilp – he set the story in motion and was never part of their lives ever again.

But I think what maddens me the most about this novel is how little the titular “old curiosity shop” was a part of the story. Like a tenth of it. That maddens me the most as it robbed me off all my expectations for this novel.

The Old Curiosity Shop gets a score of 1.5/5. Why name a novel after the shop when they’re barely a part of it?

Yours in writing

Amy

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Slice of Life – a review of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

by with No Comment Classics

Amy Rosenfeldt’s reading the classics now? Indeed I am! After find I had Nintendo’s version of a Kindle stored in my wardrobe (a DS game cartridge filled with nothing but classical literature) I’ve decided it was time I read more that the four-or-so books that I wound up finishing when I was 14.

Starting off with Little Women. Over the course of a year waiting for their father to return home from the Civil War, sisters Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy March devout the year to self improvement. Meg pledges to lose her fancifulness, Jo to keep control of her temper and sharp mouth, Beth to remove her envy and Amy to be more selfless. In the year of their quest shouldering these burdens, they are finally acquainted with their neighbour Laurie. Together, their kinship develops as they together come of age.

This is a very modern perspective, obviously, on classical literature. This will be a learning curve to discover the tropes and such within the classics.

The characters were very much a strength in this novel. Each of the March sisters and their friends felt very well rounded, and at times mature for their age and the way that they thought. They were self aware of flaws they had, which were developed along with flaws invisible to them. It was fascinating to see the different paths each sister wanted to take during that time, maybe a reflection of the possibilities of what women were capable of then. I’d imagine Alcott to be a feminist of her time, as I feel modern authors struggle to display females in such a light today. Yes, I’m willing to throw that shade.

I have no idea if this is a trope within classical literature, but a lot more story was told through dialogue than anything else. That’s a little bit on the nose when major writing advice I have heard is “show don’t tell” and dialogue is the primary way to do so in this novel. Instead of seeing certain events through the perspective of the characters in real time, those events were at times melo-dramatised in dialogue. It really made me gloss over such retellings. Lengthy dialogue is very off putting for me, and it made me gloss over what may have been very important details.

The chapters felt very episodic, and I’m very neutral about this. The great thing was that each chapter had a mini narrative with each chapter having a development and purpose – the ideal way for chapters to be written. It definitely felt like things were happening. At the same time, many of the chapters up until the final five or so chapters felt more like short stories taking place in the same world. So I couldn’t tell when a chapter felt particularly necessary. That’s not to say they weren’t bad. Each was wholesomely enjoyable. I just wish I knew how they led up to the grand scheme of things.

My main verdict for this novel would be that I can see what makes it appealing and how it stood the test of time to still be a very loved piece of fiction. But of course I have my biases being less acquainted with classical literature. A score in the middle range means I could keep it or not, and I think I will keep this story. It was very pleasant indeed.

Little Women gets a score of 3/5. A very pleasant first dive into classic literature.

Yours in writing

Amy