peeps > Recent Status Updates

i’m really interested in the book from chapters 5-6, the way it switches perspective makes me so interested for what the book will bring, how leonard goes from some boy that margaret brought to the music hall to his own character with his own struggles is so interesting to me, and how the characters intertwine (albeit briefly in the form of margaret’s card being used as leonard’s bookmark) is so fab for me!

didn’t read very much at all BUT, i liked this little chapter! i love how forster lets us know how he feels about colonialism and sexism through how the wilcoxes are presented, it adds a lot! this is a very people/society focused book, and i’m fully ready to see how it evolves, especially when the other family come into it!

ruth wilcox being so wispy is so fab… why is her husband such an idiot though! haven’t got much to say but i am invested so!

i like seeing the governess kind of unravel, but i need to reread at a later point from the perspective that she isn’t telling the truth, but i think for a first read, there’s a much more entertaining/engaging side to the novel by believing that there is something supernatural at bly!

i dare say i’m rather SPOOKED! when it was revealed that miles was down there it was so chilling oh my! there’s this claustrophobia and tension forming, we’re forced into the governess’ perspective as she becomes surveillant of everything, and her dishevelling mental state adds so much, and those children? weird. so many layers and i’m really enjoying it, even if sometimes it lulls a tad

okay i’m back with it! i like feeling a bit spooked, and i definitely did in chapter 9! also really suspicious of the children, there’s just this uneasy and emotional feeling at bly, it’s well constructed but can be hard to follow

lost a bit of steam here because i was a tad confused about what was going on! i’m sort of establishing a bond between grose and the governess, but everything between them is so ambiguous that it’s hard to keep track!

it’s getting so spooky, but noticing themes has also been fab! the paragraphs about the guy in the window and that last line of chapter four are so chilling, it’s great! “I wondered why *she* should be scared.” henry james, you may have lost me with daisy miller, but god i am invested in this!

started turn of the screw! it’s super eerie, and after going over the plot a bit, everything feels so secretive! i read a bit of an article whilst studying frankenstein that included this book about the trope of the ‘legible countenance’ and i keep noticing it here! i’m ready for things to get supernatural though, right now it’s just mysterious (only 2 chapters in though!)

really enjoying this so far! the wilcoxs seem negative aside from the mum, but i am intrigued to see how the other family become involved! i like how it’s already becoming intertwined with the families, and the prospect of the book is enticing already! it has caught my attention quite quickly!

daisy miller… not really that good? idk, it didn’t feel like it had any worth to it, and henry james’ motives seem interesting within it, but they just don’t translate well at all! it’s a shame really, but i think the book is too entrenched in its time and it’s too short for any of the characters to feel full, like even daisy herself is somewhat two dimensional!

i’m 3 chapters in of the four and i still haven’t warmed to the novella! i do get the idea of daisy having different expectations on her as a woman, and how it’s scandalous for daisy to walk with winterbourne but not vice versa, but i do think it kinda gets lost in the novel, and because it isn’t made clear, i don’t pick up on it and don’t see her actions as scandalous, i suppose it is mentioned but

i’m perplexed really with Daisy Miller as a novella, i feel like it comments on society in a way that’s unbeknownst to me, which is a shame! i think daisy is very well written, but this feels like it’s from a universe i’m unaware of, and i’m about halfway through and i’m not getting much out of it, which is a shame really, because i feel like if i understood it more, i’d enjoy it more!

daisy miller:
am i supposed to be confused by her? idk she just seems like a free woman with a little demon for a brother (who i envision as the “do the roar” child from shrek 4). she just seems flirtatious and bubbly i suppose, interesting though! also, winterbourne as an observer is an interesting character choice that i hope fleshes out well in the narrative!

i don’t know how to feel about daisy miller at the moment 😭 i suppose she’s an enigma maybe? idk she just seems outspoken and enjoys dinners, what’s wrong with that!

“It is the drifting icebergs setting with any current anywhere, that wreck the ships.” harthouse is just using louisa for his own entertainment, he’s found something interesting and takes advantage of it! at least he doesn’t have evil motives unlike tom, who has no conscience at all 😭
sparsit is trying to separate louisa and bounderby, so she’s unwittingly doing god’s work! bounderby is abysmal!

see harthouse is a weird character for me. he is manipulating louisa, but he seems to have good intentions? as he’s manipulating her, he’s managing to touch her emotions that have been long repressed by her upbringing. and he gets her brother to reciprocate sibling love, which makes her happier, but he is doing it to get close to her?? weird! also, sick of bounderby talking about his humble childhood, like idc!

tom gradgrind jr is so horrible, like the fact system has just made him a cold person! there’s still hope for louisa, she seems to have compassion!
stephen has left coketown, after being tossed around by higher powers, and manipulated by men like tom. i really want him and rachael to have a happy ending!! also no ways mrs pegler’s son is “dead”, dead to her probably but not deceased

why is everyone so horrible to stephen… like he doesn’t want to join the union but there’s no need to cast him out? especially when he is against bounderby holding so much power! he recognises how slackbridge has the same intention to get power, but won’t say because he understands why his coworkers want to strike! he defends their choices to bounderby! (also dickens linking bounderby to wind was perfect!)

why does it take a while for bounderby to refer to his wife as his wife? the people who seem happy with how coketown works always seem insufferable, also not to mention how horrid tom jr. is! he openly admits on how he manipulates his sister’s love for him to get what he wants! the narrator saying tom would’ve been a better brother if he fell and drowned in the grimly described river was kinda crazy

oh the misery of coketown! every time a “fiction” of the town is mentioned, it further shows how industrial and capitalist the town is. dickens definitely makes you resent such ideologies through coketown’s glum and grey image shrouded in thick smoke and the malicious gossip surrounding workers. the town believing in “What I did you can do. Why don’t you go and do it?” jumped out at me as a clear example!

the stephen bits always seem to confuse me so i can’t really mention them…
i hate how jupe feels upset that she didn’t learn, she had everything forced on her! gradgrind does show some compassion towards her. louisa is so cold and distant, and her lack of emotion to her marriage to bounderby (and tom’s manipulation of her affection) shows how damaging the “facts” upbringing is

another powerful description of how harmful and dehumanising industrialism was. bounderby refuses to help his workers and shames stephen for his issues, and that lady seems enamoured by the factories, despite the horrific monotony they fill the town with! any time i imagine coketown, i imagine it as grey and dull, and chock full of smoke. it feels emotionless and glum

poor cecilia, manipulated to leave her loving family to be put in some horrific school where she barely learns!
the gradgrind children are stone cold and miserable, and though louisa has affection for her brother, tom doesn’t reciprocate.
everyone in coketown seems to be miserable, stripped of imagination and reduced to “hands” in factories. nobody feels like a person, and when they do, they’re just horrid!

why do they have beef with horse designs on wallpaper or butterfly designs on plates, it’s never that serious! there’s a grey atmosphere around coketown & the school, it all feels quite drained, everyone is so factual and industrial that there seems to be no room for joy, and those with imagination are punished for seeing circuses or chased by “star pupils” for not being able to scientifically define a horse!

danglars didn’t face much comeuppance, just brief punishment, though i understand the count’s hesitation to kill him as his vengeful death toll is high! morrel is finally with valentine, a wonderfully warm ending to a book like this

another tender moment between mércèdes and edmond, both have huge regrets but for different reasons. also, nearly teared up reading about abbé faria! it was about 900 pages ago and i still feel sad for him. also i lost focus/interest with danglars, he’s been arrested and imprisoned by vampa just like albert was? great? hopefully it feels a bit more fulfilling than that, weak when compared to the others’ fates

oh wow, what a turn! these 3 chapters started with some men discussing rumours and suggesting that eduoard killed some of his family, then it was the dramatic revelation of andrea’s true identity, sending villefort into social ruin. but then it went to villefort discovering his wife and son dead after he (rightfully) condemned her for her killings, then the count reveals himself and villefort goes mad with grief. l

i knew there was a reason for me to dislike albert’s friends, debray had an affair with the baroness just so he could get money, and cut ties with her when he can no longer get it! andrea is in prison, good to see how accustomed he is to it. and now madame de villefort has been exposed as a poisoner! all very melodramatic, villefort demanding that she kill herself, and the morcerf’s poverty is present too.