Our library finally reopened after the flood damage and luckily they had this book right on their own shelves.
I started reading it a few days ago but I am reading it at a slow pace, mostly because I am savoring its contents.
I really like Margaret Lea. I may not be a professional person like her, but I certainly can relate to her love for books, being around them as well as reading them. I smiled when she said "reading can be dangerous". I somehow felt that was an autobiographical statement of the author. I bet some of us could tell of our own mishaps while being immersed in a good book.
Numerous times she refers to Woman in White and I am pleased to say that if it were not for this book club I would not have heard of that book before. So you see, you have increased my knowledge bank.
My copy is overdue at the library so I'll have to post today so I can return it.
Be warned, don't read farther if you haven't finished the book!
As with most books I really enjoy, I as reading too fast to mark all the good bits I liked, but one sticks out, near the end of The Experiment: "You could forgive her for sounding testy - it had taken him four weeks to reach the conclusion she could have given him at the beginning if he had only been willing to listen." That bit coupled with Hester's Diary II, really made me appreciate Hester's planning and foresight - and manipulation of the doctor. No wonder she was so frustrated when Adeline would not respond to any of her attempts to break into her shell.
I loved the descriptions of Margaret's love of reading, her father's shop, and I especially liked the bit about how reading can be dangerous because she once fell while reading. For some reason this really reminded me of Melissa!
At the end of the book I felt rather dense because I never put two and two together that her scar came from being a conjoined twin, and that her parents probably had to make the decision as to which one to save, and hence her mother had such a hard time dealing with it. I had sort of hated the mom for most of the book and then had to cut her some slack right at the end.
There's so much else to talk about I can't decided where to start!
Incest? My feeling is that there was a fair bit of psychological disturbance in the family, and that the twins inherited it from both parents. Who do you think was their father? I'm leaning towards Charlie. Ugh, and how about George? Do you think he was abusive to Isabelle? Oh, and the state of the nursery when they finally broke in when Charlie left? Nastiness!
About halfway through the book I was pretty sure there were 3 girls, but I thought that they were triplets.
Which twin do you think survived the fire? I still have not made up my mind!
And what about the 13th tale? I so wish that it had been completed. But, then again, it fits the character of Vida Winter, old and sickly, caring for her half sister, and as she said, no more stories left in her.
This is a book that will be great to re-read in 2 or 3 years, when I have forgotten some of the twists and turns of the plot. Again, excellent pick, B!
I did enjoy this book. It moved right along and I felt the author’s love of writing and love of books.
My favorite part is Margaret’s alphabetization of the books in the book store (page 15), “my fingers had made contact, albeit briefly, with every book in the shop”. That inspired me today to sort my own books (and make MORE space). The “fondling” took longer than the actual alphabetizing. It’s like looking at photo albums. Each book brings back its own memories.
A couple things in the book puzzled me – I was trying to figure out the time period, both of Emmeline’s and Adeline’s story and also Vida Winter’s story – late 1800’s- early 1900’s? There were horses, trains, indoor plumbing, and telephones. Also what puzzled me was how did Emmeline and Adeline take care of things after everyone died? Aurelius brought them food but did they know how to cook it? They’d been “taken care of” by Missus and John for so long and they really seemed incapable.
I liked the section titles – Beginnings, Middles, Endings then Beginnings again.
I liked Hester. She really knew what was what and definitely had an agenda. And from Hester’s diary (page 319), “he is a man, hence cannot see how tiresome it is to have explained at length what one has already fully understood”. Go, Hester!
Page 107 “the doctor’s wife in the music room with the violin” Clue.
Oh and the mess left in the nursery by Charlie – DIS- GUST- ING!
Also so cool that we just read “A Woman in White” and this book references it so much.
Some new vocabulary for me (and just in case you should need these for your next Scrabble game). Amanuensis page 97): fancy word for secretary (someone who takes dictation) Encomium (page 141): expression of high praise (like You Go Girl!) Sangfroid (page 165): calmness Fricative (page 253): audible friction produced by forcing breath through an obstructed passage (hmmm – like fricky frick?) Sussuration (page 309) I believe this is a typo and should be susurration, meaning a soft rustling sound.
I did NOT figure out there were 3 girls. BUt the one that survived the fire had to be Adeline the evil one - no doubt in my mind but then lives as "Emmeline".
I didn't like Margaret's mother and still don't. The mom and dad should have been honest with Margaret from the beginning about her twin and her mom was so distant, why? (I did figure out the conjoined part from all the talk about the scar.)
Alright, I'm slow. First, I don't have internet at home yet. Maybe today. Secondly, I have very little time to read. I'm still unpacking when I am not actually working. I am over 100 pages in and will finish by the end of this weekend, I promise.
I started out really loving the book, especially the points some of you have mentioned (I haven't read past Angie's warning not to read, so if I duplicate something you've already said, sorry- I'm trying not to ruin it for myself).
But then it got a little demented with the incest and S&M. Isabelle and Charlie were... weird. I'm really interested to see where it goes from here.
Here are my quotes and more focused comments:
I know at least Barb commented on the "reading as a danger". I completely agree with this. I can't say how many minor accidents I've had from reading when I should be doing something else: walking, pouring hot water into a cup, etc. I DO NOT read while driving, but I have pulled off to the side of the road to read "just one more chapter" because I couldn't put a book down.
Then on p. 17 when she says "My job is not to sell the books- my father does that- but to look after them. Every so often I take out a volume and read a page or two. After all, reading is looking after in a manner of speaking." I DO THIS TOO! I always thought it was because I was a book flake, but here I feel vindicated.
P. 28 "It was morning. I had read the night away. There was no thirteenth tale."
P. 32 "Miss Winter restored to me the virginal qualities of the novice reader, and then with her stories she ravished me." Wow, that is strong language for reading a book.
P. 42- As B pointed out, isn't it satisfying to read about a book that you've read/own?
P. 72 "He turned from the daughters of minor aristocrats to those of farriers, farmers, and foresters. Personally he couldn't tell the difference, ye tthe world seemed to mind less."
Oh, where to start? I have a number of pages tabbed for specific quotes, but that will have to late until later when I have my book with me.
First, I did guess fairly early on that she was a conjoined twin based on the scar and such deep feelings of connection. However, that did not make me cut her mother slack. I can see that her mother feels guilt and loss, but she has a living daughter that needs care and she shouldn't have pulled it together more.
I had guessed a third child around the time when Vida was talking about Hester's time at Angelfield, but I thought it was a boy and then I thought it was the boy who shows up later in the book to help John-the-dig. It took me a while to realize it was a girl and not a boy. I also thought it was a third twin, just a boy twin that was crazy and kept out of sight. Afterall, with all the incest in the family I'd probably separate the boys and girls of that generation.
A- My guess is that Charlie was the twin's father and that he and Isabelle dabbled in some S&M. what I am curious about is did no-one ever discover Charlie's rotted corpse other than Vida? You'd think that bunch of bones would have come to light earlier.
I can't make up my mind which twin survived the fire, though I tend to think Emmeline. Wouldn't there have been more aggression from the survivor if it had been Adeline? Though, maybe the trauma of fire made her docile. I don't know. I really wish there would have been more clues to the identity of the survivor.
I love that you point out the vocabulary, J. When I am reading I tend to skip over words I don't know in order to keep in the story so I really like that you bring them up later on. :-)
P. 126: "In one window a piece of paper was displayed. Inveterate reader that I am, I couldn't resist; I clambered throug the long wet grass to read it. But it was a ghost notice." I liked this quote for two reasons: I also have to read everything with writing, I love the idea of a ghost notice.
P 173: "Stubbornly mute whenever my conscious mind called upon them to perform, the notes came to me out of nowhere when I was not thinking of them. Lost in my work in the evening, I would become aware that they had been repreating themselves in my mind for some time. Or else in bed, drifting between sleep and wakefulness, I would hear them in the distance, singing their indistinct, meaningless song to me." Yup.
And on p. 240, with the conveyor belt of books going into the fire. Would you shoot the man running the conveyor belt? I might- afterall, who burns books?
P. 303: "However, unlike the heroines of your favorite novels, your constitution has not been weakened by the privations of life in earlier, harsher centuries. No tuberculosis, no childhood polio, no unhygienic living conditions. You'll survive." Did anyone else think brain fever?? And then he subscribed Sherlock Holmes! :-)
As an end note, on p. 389: "We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all. "I know," he said, because he was human, and therefore, in a way, he did."
9 comments:
I picked this book up yesterday morning to read a few chapters; at 4:00 I put it down, devoured. Great pick, B, I loved it!
I won't say anything else for fear of giving away even a sliver of the plot.
Our library finally reopened after the flood damage and luckily they had this book right on their own shelves.
I started reading it a few days ago but I am reading it at a slow pace, mostly because I am savoring its contents.
I really like Margaret Lea. I may not be a professional person like her, but I certainly can relate to her love for books, being around them as well as reading them. I smiled when she said "reading can be dangerous". I somehow felt that was an autobiographical statement of the author. I bet some of us could tell of our own mishaps while being immersed in a good book.
Numerous times she refers to Woman in White and I am pleased to say that if it were not for this book club I would not have heard of that book before. So you see, you have increased my knowledge bank.
Finished the book today. Wow. But darn -I don't dare say anything til the rest of you are done reading it.
My copy is overdue at the library so I'll have to post today so I can return it.
Be warned, don't read farther if you haven't finished the book!
As with most books I really enjoy, I as reading too fast to mark all the good bits I liked, but one sticks out, near the end of The Experiment:
"You could forgive her for sounding testy - it had taken him four weeks to reach the conclusion she could have given him at the beginning if he had only been willing to listen."
That bit coupled with Hester's Diary II, really made me appreciate Hester's planning and foresight - and manipulation of the doctor. No wonder she was so frustrated when Adeline would not respond to any of her attempts to break into her shell.
I loved the descriptions of Margaret's love of reading, her father's shop, and I especially liked the bit about how reading can be dangerous because she once fell while reading. For some reason this really reminded me of Melissa!
At the end of the book I felt rather dense because I never put two and two together that her scar came from being a conjoined twin, and that her parents probably had to make the decision as to which one to save, and hence her mother had such a hard time dealing with it. I had sort of hated the mom for most of the book and then had to cut her some slack right at the end.
There's so much else to talk about I can't decided where to start!
Incest? My feeling is that there was a fair bit of psychological disturbance in the family, and that the twins inherited it from both parents. Who do you think was their father? I'm leaning towards Charlie. Ugh, and how about George? Do you think he was abusive to Isabelle? Oh, and the state of the nursery when they finally broke in when Charlie left? Nastiness!
About halfway through the book I was pretty sure there were 3 girls, but I thought that they were triplets.
Which twin do you think survived the fire? I still have not made up my mind!
And what about the 13th tale? I so wish that it had been completed. But, then again, it fits the character of Vida Winter, old and sickly, caring for her half sister, and as she said, no more stories left in her.
This is a book that will be great to re-read in 2 or 3 years, when I have forgotten some of the twists and turns of the plot. Again, excellent pick, B!
I did enjoy this book. It moved right along and I felt the author’s love of writing and love of books.
My favorite part is Margaret’s alphabetization of the books in the book store (page 15), “my fingers had made contact, albeit briefly, with every book in the shop”. That inspired me today to sort my own books (and make MORE space). The “fondling” took longer than the actual alphabetizing. It’s like looking at photo albums. Each book brings back its own memories.
A couple things in the book puzzled me – I was trying to figure out the time period, both of Emmeline’s and Adeline’s story and also Vida Winter’s story – late 1800’s- early 1900’s? There were horses, trains, indoor plumbing, and telephones. Also what puzzled me was how did Emmeline and Adeline take care of things after everyone died? Aurelius brought them food but did they know how to cook it? They’d been “taken care of” by Missus and John for so long and they really seemed incapable.
I liked the section titles – Beginnings, Middles, Endings then Beginnings again.
I liked Hester. She really knew what was what and definitely had an agenda. And from Hester’s diary (page 319), “he is a man, hence cannot see how tiresome it is to have explained at length what one has already fully understood”. Go, Hester!
Page 107 “the doctor’s wife in the music room with the violin” Clue.
Oh and the mess left in the nursery by Charlie – DIS- GUST- ING!
Also so cool that we just read “A Woman in White” and this book references it so much.
Some new vocabulary for me (and just in case you should need these for your next Scrabble game).
Amanuensis page 97): fancy word for secretary (someone who takes dictation)
Encomium (page 141): expression of high praise (like You Go Girl!)
Sangfroid (page 165): calmness
Fricative (page 253): audible friction produced by forcing breath through an obstructed passage (hmmm – like fricky frick?)
Sussuration (page 309) I believe this is a typo and should be susurration, meaning a soft rustling sound.
I did NOT figure out there were 3 girls. BUt the one that survived the fire had to be Adeline the evil one - no doubt in my mind but then lives as "Emmeline".
I didn't like Margaret's mother and still don't. The mom and dad should have been honest with Margaret from the beginning about her twin and her mom was so distant, why? (I did figure out the conjoined part from all the talk about the scar.)
Alright, I'm slow. First, I don't have internet at home yet. Maybe today. Secondly, I have very little time to read. I'm still unpacking when I am not actually working. I am over 100 pages in and will finish by the end of this weekend, I promise.
I started out really loving the book, especially the points some of you have mentioned (I haven't read past Angie's warning not to read, so if I duplicate something you've already said, sorry- I'm trying not to ruin it for myself).
But then it got a little demented with the incest and S&M. Isabelle and Charlie were... weird. I'm really interested to see where it goes from here.
Here are my quotes and more focused comments:
I know at least Barb commented on the "reading as a danger". I completely agree with this. I can't say how many minor accidents I've had from reading when I should be doing something else: walking, pouring hot water into a cup, etc. I DO NOT read while driving, but I have pulled off to the side of the road to read "just one more chapter" because I couldn't put a book down.
Then on p. 17 when she says "My job is not to sell the books- my father does that- but to look after them. Every so often I take out a volume and read a page or two. After all, reading is looking after in a manner of speaking." I DO THIS TOO! I always thought it was because I was a book flake, but here I feel vindicated.
P. 28 "It was morning.
I had read the night away.
There was no thirteenth tale."
P. 32 "Miss Winter restored to me the virginal qualities of the novice reader, and then with her stories she ravished me." Wow, that is strong language for reading a book.
P. 42- As B pointed out, isn't it satisfying to read about a book that you've read/own?
P. 72 "He turned from the daughters of minor aristocrats to those of farriers, farmers, and foresters. Personally he couldn't tell the difference, ye tthe world seemed to mind less."
Oh, where to start? I have a number of pages tabbed for specific quotes, but that will have to late until later when I have my book with me.
First, I did guess fairly early on that she was a conjoined twin based on the scar and such deep feelings of connection. However, that did not make me cut her mother slack. I can see that her mother feels guilt and loss, but she has a living daughter that needs care and she shouldn't have pulled it together more.
I had guessed a third child around the time when Vida was talking about Hester's time at Angelfield, but I thought it was a boy and then I thought it was the boy who shows up later in the book to help John-the-dig. It took me a while to realize it was a girl and not a boy. I also thought it was a third twin, just a boy twin that was crazy and kept out of sight. Afterall, with all the incest in the family I'd probably separate the boys and girls of that generation.
A- My guess is that Charlie was the twin's father and that he and Isabelle dabbled in some S&M. what I am curious about is did no-one ever discover Charlie's rotted corpse other than Vida? You'd think that bunch of bones would have come to light earlier.
I can't make up my mind which twin survived the fire, though I tend to think Emmeline. Wouldn't there have been more aggression from the survivor if it had been Adeline? Though, maybe the trauma of fire made her docile. I don't know. I really wish there would have been more clues to the identity of the survivor.
I love that you point out the vocabulary, J. When I am reading I tend to skip over words I don't know in order to keep in the story so I really like that you bring them up later on. :-)
The specific quotes I wanted to mention:
P. 126: "In one window a piece of paper was displayed. Inveterate reader that I am, I couldn't resist; I clambered throug the long wet grass to read it. But it was a ghost notice." I liked this quote for two reasons: I also have to read everything with writing, I love the idea of a ghost notice.
P 173: "Stubbornly mute whenever my conscious mind called upon them to perform, the notes came to me out of nowhere when I was not thinking of them. Lost in my work in the evening, I would become aware that they had been repreating themselves in my mind for some time. Or else in bed, drifting between sleep and wakefulness, I would hear them in the distance, singing their indistinct, meaningless song to me." Yup.
And on p. 240, with the conveyor belt of books going into the fire. Would you shoot the man running the conveyor belt? I might- afterall, who burns books?
P. 303: "However, unlike the heroines of your favorite novels, your constitution has not been weakened by the privations of life in earlier, harsher centuries. No tuberculosis, no childhood polio, no unhygienic living conditions. You'll survive." Did anyone else think brain fever?? And then he subscribed Sherlock Holmes! :-)
As an end note, on p. 389: "We all have our sorrows, and although the exact delineaments, weight and dimensions of grief are different for everyone, the color of grief is common to us all. "I know," he said, because he was human, and therefore, in a way, he did."
Post a Comment