Rue Reads The Classics

Preface: I am not a smart woman. I was a terrible student. The only thing I excelled at in school in any capacity was reading -- I was pretty far ahead of my peers. To my father's chagrin, I used that advantage to just go the fuck TO TOWN on smutty romance novels and books about dragons. Math scared me. Science was witchcraft. History was cool but it's like there was a hole in my head and all historical facts would immediately leak out as soon as I learned them.

I was an English major because it seemed like the thing to do, what with my flailing attempts at writing and my preference for books over people, and then I dropped out to elope halfway across the country because, as previously stated, I was a terrible student. And I read a lot of classic literature in college! But a switch just got shut off in me the moment I stopped going to school. No more learning! Shh. It's video games and anime now.

But 2017 is the year I've decided, via spite if not hope, I am going to goddamn enrich myself and be a better person because FUCK YOU, WORLD. So I have a list of books I've pulled from a "top 100 classic literature" list, books I thought I would like more than books I thought would make me look smart.

I thought maybe I could use this thread to talk about what I'm reading and maybe some of y'all can give your thoughts on stuff too. I'll go chapter by chapter and shit will be slow, I'm sure, but at the end of the year I hope I have a greater appreciation for literature. I might end up giving up because some of these books are dense motherfuckers and life is short but...we'll see.

FIRST ON THE AGENDA: Middlemarch by George Eliot aka Mary Ann Evans

 

Hey, I haven't read Middlemarch, but I'm an English major with lots of focus in literature and I tend to do really well in literature classes and find it easy to interpret works of fiction and such, so I'm interested in accompanying you on this and also helping and contributing to discussions on occasion! You go!

 

AWESOME! Interpreting fiction is a cool skill and I worry mine has dulled with the years so any input and thoughts are super appreciated.

 

OH GOD the introduction is a million pages long and numbered by roman numerals, SKIPPING.

So we start with a brief prelude: Saint Theresa was a woman who lived an epic life, and there were other women like her who shaped the history of Man. Not all women can be so special, says the prelude, so epic. "For these later-born Theresas were helped by no coherent social faith and order which could perform the function of knowledge for the ardently willing soul." Y'all, it's hard being a woman in a society insisting we're frivolous and weak, where our social capital in the late 1800s was, shall we say, not SUPER feminist.

The prelude insists women vary in their hearts despite the sameness of their looks, their "coiffure and the favorite love-stories in prose in verse." And sometimes a woman is born is who NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS:

"Here and there a cygnet is reared uneasily among the ducklings in the brown pond, and never finds the living stream in fellowship with its own oary-footed kind. Here and there is born a Saint Theresa, foundress of nothing, whose loving heartbeats and sobs after an unattained goodness tremble off and are dispersed among hindrances, instead of centring in some long-recognizable deed."
​

Sometimes you're ahead of your time, I guess, and being stymied by society's expectations of you and the limits that are placed on you is just Super Bullshit 64.

Which brings us to Miss Brooke.

 

Here's what we need to know about Dorothea Brooke, according to chapter 1:

• Very pretty but in that "I don't care about beauty" way that only exists in fiction
• Has a younger sister named Celia who has more common sense than Dorothea
  
• Puritan as FUCK, y'all
  • Which is to say she comes from Puritan stock, not aristocratic but undeniably genteel; "if you inquired backward for a generation or two, you would not find any yard-measuring or parcel-tying forefathers."
    • Take THAT, blue collar workers
• Is such a Christianity fangirl that she'd be super happy to be a martyr and knows a bunch of Jeremy Taylor's passages by heart
  • You've probably never heard of him
• Does not understand why girls care more about scandalously sexy fashion than sitting alone at home in a black dress reading the Bible
• Not yet twenty, which means It Is Time To Marry
• Orphaned at 12 and sent to live with her uncle, Mr. Brooke, along with her sister
  • Mr. Brooke is a laid back, absent-minded dude who means well but really just wants to enjoy his snuff
• Wants to be of age so she can have some command of her uncle's money because he is Not Puritan Enough
• She's really passionate and wants to CHANGE THE WORLD and is full of ideals
  • You can already tell things are going to go tits up for her
• Is the heiress to Mr. Brooke, receiving "seven hundred a-year" and if she has a son, said son would inherit Mr. Brooke's estate, worth significantly more.

So needless to say, Dorothea is a hot little package of religious fervor. Prime marriage candidate, right? Only, no, it turns out gentlemen of this time weren't all about genteel women kneeling in the middle of a road next to some common laborer to pray, who have "strange whims of fasting like a Papist, and of sitting up at night to read old theological books!" God no, not books!



Because a woman should be weak-willed and not have opinions, the general consensus about Tipton Grange (where the Brookes live) is that Celia is way better at this whole womanhood thing. The younger sister is pretty but not TOO pretty, amiable and innocent looking, whereas Dorothea's got big eyes that are too unusual and striking. Celia is non-threatening, and if that's not the epitome of 19th century femininity than what is.

But despite themselves, men just can't help but be charmed by Dorothea, especially when she goes horseback riding, which is apparently the one indulgence she allows herself because, and this is seriously what the book says, "she felt that she enjoyed it in a pagan, sensuous way, and always looked forward to renouncing it."

• "My name is Dorothea Brooke and my main hobby is depriving myself of joy so I can feel more pure and pious than other people."

In fact, she's so in love with the idea of nobly suffering that her idea of marriage is sort of...weird. She wants an eccentric husband whose faults she can "endure" with "glorious piety." In fact, her ideal husband would be "a sort of father, and would even teach you Hebrew, if you wished it." Romance!

So all this means it's been difficult finding a suitor for Dorothea, and Mr. Brooke is disinclined to take his face out of his snuffbox and do something about it, to the annoyance of older ladies among the town. But Dorothea's sister, Celia, seems to want a different sort of life from her self-martyring sister. She has a sort of awe for her passionate, older sister, but some criticism too, which is illustrated in this chapter when Celia approaches Dorothea (who she calls Dodo. KAWAII) to discuss their late mother's jewels. Mr. Brooke gave them to Dorothea six months ago and they've been locked up and ignored ever since.

Naturally Dorothea has NO interest in such audacious fripperies, but Celia makes a good argument: shouldn't they honor their mother more? Isn't it disrespectful not to wear her things? Well, if Celia wants to wear them, Dorothea is fine with that -- she wants her little sister to be happy and matched well, naturally. But the whole conversation they have is riddled with this condescending, holier-than-thou attitude from Dorothea that really rustles Celia's jimmies. I get the impression this is a thing that happens a lot.

Eventually Dorothea lights upon some rings and a bracelet whose colors in the sunlight are just too striking and inspirational to ignore, and Celia takes the rest. There's some unease between them when Celia asks if Dorothea will wear those things in public, and Dorothea gets fuckin' huffy, but they immediately make amends in a way that's familiar to them both.

Spoiler: hey homestuck people

Dorothea is Kankri, my dudes. She's absolutely Kankri.

 

*camps in thread*

this is gonna be a joy, I can tell

 

dorothea brooke sounds like she came out of puritan my immortal

 

Thanks!

oh my god, SHE DOES

 

I was absolutely thinking that! My name is Dorothea Dark'ness Martyria Raven Brooks. People tell me I look a lot like St. Theresa (if you don't know who that is go read the Bible!!!!!!!). I'm a puritan (in case u couldn't tell). I was wearing a modest black dress. A lot of preps who wear jewels stared at me. I prayed for their souls.

 

Chapter Two! Let's talk about BOYS.

Mr. Brooke and his nieces invite two gentlemen to dinner, briefly mentioned in the last chapter:

• Sir James Chettam, a baronet who is amiable and handsome and way into Dorothea
  
• Reverend Edward Casaubon, an old bookworm who has been working on "a great work concerning religious history"

Guess which one Dorothea's interested in.

Apparently Sir James has been coming around the Grange, ostensibly because he wants to court Dorothea, but Dorothea is quite convinced he's interested in Celia, not her. She finds him puffed up and boring and constantly rebuffs him, but Sir James being a dude used to getting everything he wants assumes she likes him anyway because why wouldn't she? Everyone wants some Sir James.

So dinner happens, and we learn more about how Mr. Brooke is a rambling windbag who doesn't seem to have the most progressive viewpoint on women. He talks over Dorothea constantly, even when Casaubon tries to engage her in conversation. Needless to say, she's twitterpated the fuck out every time the Reverend so much as smiles at her. In contrast, she's cold and snippy with Sir James at every turn, and when the topic of horseriding comes up, she decides then and there she's going to give it up, FOR REAL THIS TIME, and the book straight up says she's doing it because she's annoyed Sir James is taking away attention she'd rather be giving to the Reverend.

The entire time this is happening, by the way, Mr. Brooke is just yammering on and on while the Reverend is polite and far more taciturn in conversation. He also keeps checking Dorothea out, wink wink. When conversation turns to....paperwork??? Dorothea pleas, clearly not for the first time, for her uncle to let her sort his documents, to which the old asshole is immediately like "GIRLS CAN'T SORT PAPERWORK, THEY'RE FLIGHTY." Which, of course, hurts Dorothea's feelings, like goddamn, Uncle, tell us how you really feel in front of the man she's crushing on.

The two girls retire to the drawing room after dinner, and Celia is immediately throwing shade at the Reverend. He's ugly! Dorothea is having none of it: she thinks Casaubon is very distinguished, "remarkably like the portrait of Locke. He has the same deep eye sockets."



I mean, I gotta be honest, as a long time oyaji-con and a lover of older gentlemen, I wouldn't NOT fuck him.

Anyway, Celia insists the Reverend is icky gross cooties, what with his moles and general sallowness, and Dorothea gets actually for real angry, which surprises Celia. Why you so pissed, Dodo? Dorothea's just so disappointed that Celia can't see the beauty of Casaubon's SOUL in his features, and Celia, with a bit of delightful sarcasm, is like, "He has a great soul, huh?"

"Yes, I believe he has," said Dorothea, with a voice full of decision. "Everything I see in him corresponds to his pamphlet on Biblical Cosmology."
​

Well, shit, who can resist that?

The gentlemen return from I guess smoking and talking about penises and testosterone and of course Sir James sits down right next to Dorothea because "I'm not interested" are not words he is physically capable of understanding, apparently. And he's pretty sure all her religion bullshit will end once they get married. You know, the whole foundation of her personality? At least he appreciates her cleverness.

So he keeps trying to give her a horse, she keeps insisting she is never going riding again, never ever, and the good Reverend comes to basically suggest James find a little chill. Which of course makes Dorothea swoon for the old dude all the more, but James isn't jealous, because again -- he always gets what he wants. And what he wants is Dorothea, apparently whether she agrees or not.

 

That portrait of John Locke - it's like looking in a mirror.

 

You've got a full head of dark luxurious hair, you nerd. :P

 

Chapter Three!

You guys, Dorothea is digging hard on Casaubon, in her non-sexual Puritan way. He's a man who actually gives a fuck about her opinions! He teaches without condescending, challenges her mentally, inspires her! And she's pretty sure she's going to marry him, because he keeps coming by Tipton. I mean, sure, he's spending time with Mr. Brooke, but clearly that company is only an excuse because spending time with Mr. Brooke is like spending time with a really excitable magpie. She assumes he's enduring her STUPID UNCLE because he likes her, which even Celia seems to agree with:

"Was his endurance aided also by the reflection that Mr. Brooke was the uncle of Dorothea? Certainly he seemed more and more bent on making her talk to him, on drawing her out, as Celia remarked to herself; and in looking at her, his face was often lit up by a smile like pale wintry sunshine."
​

He even mentions how lonely he's been. How youthful companionship makes the winter of his life so much better! Like at this point, I don't even blame Dorothea for assuming her future is locked in. Reverend, you are leading the lady on, you sallow CAD.

So after he finally leaves, Dorothea goes for a walk with her head full of romance (or what passes for romance in her head), and the narrative can't help but slip in another NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS reference. Here's what genteel ladies of the Regency era generally looked like:



All about them CURLS, GIRLS. But of course Dorothea snubs such scandalous fashion:

"She walked briskly in the brisk air, the color rose in her cheeks, and her straw-bonnet (which our contemporaries might look at with a conjectural curiosity as at an obsolete form of basket) fell a little backward. She would perhaps be hardly characterized enough if it were omitted that she wore her brown hair flatly braided and coiled behind so as to expose the outline of her head in a daring manner at a time when public feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows, never surpassed by any great race except the Feejeean."
​

She's not a stupid prep, GOD. So anyway, she's walking along the road, already looking forward to her assured married life with Casaubon and drawing up architectural plans for his land (drawing architecture plans is one of her hobbies outside of looking down on everyone around her), and up comes Sir James with his Prince Charming blonde hair and a horse and a servant. And a puppy! A little white Maltese puppy as a gift for Dorothea.

Dorothea hates puppies, because she hates joy. Oh, but she encourages the baronet to give the pup to her sister, whom she is still convinced the man is actually courting. Even though she's at the point where she's wondering just HOW MUCH a prospective brother-in-law can be invested in buttering up his future sister-in-law. Oh, Dorothea.

So at Dorothea's disdain for the puppy, Sir James basically throws the thing to his servant like "Puppy? What puppy. I hate puppies too! Ha ha!" and starts to walk with her, much to her annoyance. But Sir James strikes gold when he starts talking about plans for cottages on his land, and Dorothea is very pleased at his interest in housing and they actually start to get along! Of course Sir James interprets Dorothea's interest in cottages as interest in him, and all the while Dorothea's like "I guess maybe he'll be alright for Celia after all."

Speaking of Celia, she's secretly nursing a dislike for the match of her sister with Sir James. She knows too well her older sister is not to be tamed and her boner for religion is never going away. She's sure poor Sir James will wither away in such a marriage! But she keeps her opinion to herself, not only because she is a Good Girl but because she's having a hard time reconciling the fact that she might not approve of everything her overpowering sister does.

Casaubon comes to visit three more times and at the end of it, Dorothea is convinced he's the man for her, and is only disappointed in one facet of his personality -- he has no interest in architectural improvements!! What! She decides she can let that one go, though. Besides, Sir James is super enthusiastic about it and is always eager to talk to her about her plans.

 

Holy shit she's got the puritan equivalent of hair with red and purple tips too

 

Chapter Four is pretty short in terms of overall THINGS happening, but wow, do they show how much of a teenage girl Dorothea actually is.

So she and her sister are on their way home from inspecting a new building site when Celia mentions "boy, Sir James sure does whatever you want him to do" and Dorothea, being Dorothea, agrees most smugly that he's quite sensible and does her usual patronizing shtick with Celia (who she calls Kitty btw) and finally drops a hint that Sir James thinks of Dorothea as a sister, WINK WINK KITTY.

Celia is Tired Of This Shit and, blushing, finally drops her own hint, which is not so much a hint as it is a blinking neon sign: everyone in Tipton Grange knows the baronet prefers the ELDER Miss Brooke. Dorothea tries to deny it while also scolding Celia for listening to servants gossip, but Celia insists that even their uncle expects Sir James to make an offer before too long, and so Dorothea immediately bursts into angry, dramatic tears as revulsion and horror run through her. How dare Sir James LIKE HER. How dare everyone assume they'll get married! Celia finds a backbone:

"Well, I am sorry for Sir James. I thought it right to tell you, because you went on as you always do, never looking where you are, and treading in the wrong place. You always see what nobody else sees; it is impossible to satisfy you; yet you never see what is quite plain. That's your way, Dodo." Something certainly gave Celia unusual courage; and she was not sparing the sister of whom she was occasionally in awe."
​

Damn, Kitty has claws. Which I'm sure is only slightly because she likes Sir James and is tired of her sister treating him like the actual plague. And what does Dorothea think of this brutal honesty from her usually meek and deferential little sister?

WHO CARES, SHE CAN NEVER ENJOY COTTAGES AGAIN, SIR JAMES HAS RUINED THEM FOREVER, DOROTHEA HATES EVERYONE. She sobs into her hands all the way home in the carriage. Everything is awful forever you guys.

Except, wait! Mr. Brooke is home from Lowick, where Casaubon is, and he's brought pamphlets for Dorothea! Fuck yes, pamphlets. Forget Celia and the servants and stupid Sir James -- she rushes to the study to read them, and Mr. Brooke joins her before long. He watches her fondly as he smokes, and when she moves to leave, he invites her to sit with him near the fire and talk. In his rambling way, he lets Dorothea know that....oh my god, you guys. The Reverend wants to marry Dorothea!

I'm shocked, I was sure he wasn't actually interested and it was all in Dorothea's head.

Of course Dorothea is most ardently approving of the match, and while Mr. Brooke is surprised (Casaubon is like 27 years older than she is) he can't say it's a BAD match, given what he knows of his niece. If that's what she wants, he's more than willing to let her have it, though he also has to mention that Sir James wants to marry her too, which he thought any girl would prefer more. ABSOLUTELY NOT NO GROSS ICKY says Dorothea, thinking of her previous carriage wailing. Well, Mr. Brooke, easy going as ever, lets her have her way, but with a warning:

"Life isn't cast in a mould -- not cut out by rule and line, and that sort of thing. I never married myself, and it will be better for you and yours. The fact is, I never loved any one well enough to put myself into a noose for them. It is a noose, you know. Temper, now. There is temper. And a husband likes to be master."
​

Dorothea insists that she views marriage simply as a higher calling, a duty, and not something for mere pleasure, so it'll be fine. The fact that the author refers to her then as "poor Dorothea" really says it all. But whatever, Mr. Brooke relents and gives her a letter from Casaubon, with one final urging to think deeply on the matter. As Dorothea runs off the read the letter, Mr. Brooke reflects that girls are weird and he'll never understand them.

 

Given Ms. Evans own complicated relationship, I'm not surprised she took a dim view of marriage.

 

Ohhhh. I bet I'm gonna find out later that she and Dorothea have a lot in common.

 

this thread is delightful

 

Wellllll....

Mary Anne Evans was a hardcore feminist agnostic who loved to tweak the intellectual noses of the men she sparred with verbally while simultaneously having embarrassing and public unreciprocated crushes on them. She published her novels under a male pseudonym because she felt it was the only way they'd get a fair shake, given both the fact that she was a woman and the fact that her personal life was considered scandalous.

Case in point: she fell in love with George Lewes, a married man in an open marriage. They lived together for twenty years and considered themselves married in their own eyes, even if they couldn't be legally wed. When he died, she spent two years compiling and editing his final work with the help of a commissions agent, John Cross. Eventually she married Cross, which was ALSO scandalous, as he was twenty years her junior. On their honeymoon, the depressed Cross tried to kill himself by jumping into a river from their hotel balcony. He survived, barely.

Eventually Mrs. Cross, nee Evans, took ill and died at the age of 61, having been married less than a year. Because of her repeated and public disavowals of Christianity and her repeated and public love scandals, no churchyard would have her. So she was buried at Highgate Cemetary - next to George Lewes, the love of her life.