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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.

danglars is bankrupt! revenge has been enacted, though not as severely as it was on fernand…
the grief surrounding valentine’s “death” was heartbreaking to read, i hope the count has planned something good to come of this because it feels all too tragic, he even has to practically beg morrel to not kill himself, so much so that he reveals his identity, which does show the sacrifices he’ll make.

the count is helping valentine! oh, he’s absolutely amazing! also, poor valentine, she knows her stepmother is poisoning her for half-brother’s benefit, but refuses to incriminate her. i didn’t pick up on her being in an induced coma though… but i did know that she couldn’t be dead! so i did get it somewhat!

if i’m brutally honest, i don’t care for benedetto. he’s boring! i lost interest in the chapter that focused on his escape, honestly thank god he was caught so we don’t have to focus on him much! more importantly, eugénie and louise have ran off together, to be lesbians in the sun! i wish her character was more developed, but honestly it’s as good as it can get in the 1800s!

valentine didn’t die because her grandfather helped her, by getting her body somewhat accustomed to the poison! also, danglars basically admits that he’s only marrying his daughter off just for money, because he’s not got loads. but the plan backfires when andrea’s crimes are revealed at the signing of the contract!

fernand is dead! the guilt became too much, he heard edmond dantès for the first time and he became overwhelmed with guilt. also, mércèdes shouldn’t feel guilty for marrying him, she was manipulated at her lowest, he’s a wicked soul! also, poor valentine has fallen ill, i really hope she survives, she’s a great character (and i haven’t followed the plot of her + morrel for so long for her to just die!)

fernand mondego you WILL pay for your crimes. the scene where mércèdes acknowledges that the count is edmond was so heart wrenching, anything that befalls fernand is his own fault. mércèdes has so much love that she can save both the count and albert from death (though i’m still not a fan of albert at all). i HATE fernand

i love how pathetic the honour thing in the book is, like your father led to the death of many! who cares about who revealed it, he shouldn’t have done it! now the abysmal fernand is ruined, and it was so great to see haydée get her revenge on him, there was great passion there! screw danglars for partially deflecting, but i want albert to look a fool, i’ve never been fond of him!

caderousse is dead! a comeuppance for the one man from the count’s past who has done to most bloodiest actions! it was spooky to see the count so nervously reveal his true identity, to the dying caderousse. also, albert learns that his dad betrayed someone and caused loads of death! does albert also know his parents are cousins?

there’s poison in the villefort home… but there’s no way it’s valentine, she loves her grandparents too much to kill them all for money! also caderousse is creepy now, he wasn’t before, but now he’s gone from cowardly accomplice to crime lord, he just comes across as unnerving and slightly predatory in ways

okay so albert’s engagement is on the rocks even though he isn’t really in a proper relationship with her, and now he’s angry at a newspaper for slandering a man named “fernand”. that could be anyone but now you’ve caused a scene! makes me think that the man who betrayed haydée’s father is fernand, which makes sense knowing that incestuous freak