Classics

[icepixie]

Dec 17, 2011 2:25:56 GMT -5 legoline said:

icepixie: have you read Heaney's translation of Beowulf? He did it in verse and it's fantastic

I love the Heaneywulf! Sure, it may not be the most faithful translation, but it's definitely the most fun.

[legoline]

And the shiniest too, really

spookysen: To come back to your question: I haven't read "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", but I've seen a mini-series adaptation. I also know the movie of "Jude the Obscure" starring Kate Winslet and the Ecclestone. I watched that one when I was--oh, about fifteen or sixteen? And I'm still scarred for life. Hardy's stuff is so depressing ;D

Actually, when I watched "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" I had no idea who'd written the novel (and there goes your illusion of me talking like a professional ) but after I'd seen it my first thought was, "Must be Tom Hardy. Has to be." Hehe.

[obsessive24]

Argh we had to read Tess in sixth form. I distinctly remember a conversation where half the girls in the room were like she got raped wtf?? Where was THAT in the book?

[spookysen]

Wow, there's a lot for me to respond to. THANK YOU GUYS for the recs.

As for it being a sham, I have to agree. I have my bachelor's, and refused to get a master's just because.. I mean, it all sort of seems the same, just two more years, with more work added on. And it just seems like anything that you'd think would be worth it to write hundreds of pages about, has already been written about. So I decided that I wasn't going to go on with school. But then.. I cannot get a job (other than a gas station clerk). So I'm going back in the spring to get my teaching licensure for secondary English. I'm tired of being poor.

I haven't read Tess, but I've read The Mayor of Casterbridge and Jude the Obscure. Despite the utterly depressing content of much of his work, I actually find Hardy to be kind of hilarious, mostly because I picture him sitting at his desk cackling and going, "How can I make my characters' lives even more miserable?"

Eliot is my favorite Victorian novelist, though. The Mill on the Floss is fantastic.

Tess of the d'Urbervilles made me.. hate men. Briefly. I mean, there's that dude who raped her (Alec, right?), and her father wouldn't help her get the baby to a doctor, and THEN Angel, who supposedly looooves her soooo much, casts her away. But then he gets sick and comes back. Mkay. And I really hated the end part where she asks him to marry her sister since her sister is pretty much a pure version of her. To me, it's unfair to look at people like that. Everyone's an individual, and no one can be replaced.

But I will say that I loved Hardy's language in that book. I actually had to stop reading it, but I'm wondering if I picked it up again, that I'd be better. I like some of his poems, but one I can really remember is "The Ruined Maid".

I was *supposed* to read The Mill on the Floss. I ended up reading my first assignment for it and fell behind and sparknoted it for class discussion. This was the book that made me wonder if there were any sort of happy novels written in the 19th century.

I really like Eavan Boland and Edna St. Vincent Millay! See, I've only been sort of briefly exposed to poets, since more focus was always done on the novels in my classes. I read "That The Science of Cartography Is Limited" in both Brit Lit III and Irish Lit, but Irish Lit was what really made me appreciate it, y'know? There was a lot more history covered in Irish Lit, and it turns out that I knew next to nothing about Irish history beforehand. I think that, other than Poe, Millay was the only poet I read in any of my American Lit classes. I remember liking her, but I couldn't remember what I'd read (we got handouts for that class, instead of reading books--my prof (who hates romantic fiction) didn't believe in buying tons of expensive lit books, so he was nice and saved students money--anyway, I don't know whatever happened to those particular handouts :/). So I'm really glad you like her so much, and that you've given me a lot of titles to read.

I've read lots of Yeats and Heaney (I had to give a presentation on "A Prayer for My Daughter"--so pretty and sweet; and I *listened* to Heaney's Beowulf, very enjoyable ). I'll look up "Clearances," though, as I don't think we covered those. I'll read the rest, too. Thanks again

spookysen: To come back to your question: I haven't read "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", but I've seen a mini-series adaptation. I also know the movie of "Jude the Obscure" starring Kate Winslet and the Ecclestone. I watched that one when I was--oh, about fifteen or sixteen? And I'm still scarred for life. Hardy's stuff is so depressing ;D

Ohmygosh. A friend of mine watched that movie you're talking about. And then told me about. I was scarred just thinking about it.

And haha, it was almost as if she got raped by the fog. I'm sure there's a metaphor in there somewhere.