Umar Abdulmajeed > Recent Status Updates

So far, I'm enjoying it. Dickens is exploring some interesting parallels in this book. Alongside the physical prisons the characters inhabit, this is also a story about psychological imprisonment. There's a kind of weary and melancholy complacency in at all.

Absolutely wonderful collection of poems so far.

Interesting to see an older, early 40's protagonist at the head of a Dickens novel. Normally, his leading men/women are in their mid-twenties at the most. To have a protagonist who's already lived so much of their life and lived it quite unfulfillingly is an interesting change of the usual trademark.

Here we go, my final Dickens novel. This feels hella bittersweet.

I'm really starting to hate Eustacia and Wildeve. Like a lot.

So much of the pain and misery in this novel has been caused by a series of completely avoidable misunderstandings. I normally can't stand that trope. But it's done pretty well here.

A part of me is worried that Clym's mother might be right about Eustacia....

Dressing up as a knight in a play that is held at a person's house just so you can get a glimpse of the guy you like is certainly a choice.

The plot thickens!

OK, I'm gonna finish this sooner than I thought. It's quite a story. Trigger warnings are in good order, though. Even in the first 100 pages, some of the content is heavy.

This one sounds promising!

Very excited for this!

Shelving this for now to read at a later date. The writing is beautiful but these characters are somewhat contemptible and not in an interesting way. Too many books out there that I'm more excited to read.

Tom Pinch feels like the Dickensian version of Prince Myshkin. This novel is not bad but I do think it would be significantly better if Tom was our protagonist. Curious to see what the last 239 pages will be like.

The setting of the story is described so richly that it is as much of a character as any of the people who appear in the first few chapters.

Only just finished Chapter 1 and I'm already in love with the writing. The prose is gorgeous.

Poor Mr. Lowborough. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Consider who you're marrying before you marry them, folks. Anne Brontë knows "ball", as the kids say.

In my opinion, Mr. Huntingdon is the most thoroughly unlikeable male character I've seen in a Brontë novel. And that's really saying something considering how adept the Brontës were at writing men with less than ideal personality traits. But Mr. Rochester is Clark Kent compared to this guy.

So far, this novel is a manual on what NOT to do when looking for someone to marry. I suppose that is the point, though.

Finally made some progress with this! It's not half-bad so far but, as of right now, it still doesn't hold a candle to the other two Brontës. And what could be called the actual plot and purpose of the novel doesn't start until page 130 which, upon reflection, is a little insane.

Here's hoping it holds a candle to the other Brontë books.

Only five pages and her poetry is already breathtaking, my goodness. Very excited for this one!

This is apparently said to be one of the most influential Gothic novels ever, and it caused an immense and morally outraged uproar when it was first published.

The first Walter Scott novel I read, Guy Mannering, was a 3-star read, but the pros of that reading experience were notable enough for me to give him another try.

Finally had the opportunity to pick this up from the library and I'm very much looking forward to it.