Word of the Day

This terribly useful word is from none other than Jane Eyre itself. For further details see the previous post to this one.

Today's Word:

Vignette

Brief description

Sentence example: In the Bronte classic Agnes Grey, Agnes only gives a vignette of each of her pupils at the Murrays'. For further details come back in a couple of days when I have finished and reviewed it.

By Jess

Plain Jane

It is a well-known fact that heroines are meant to be beautiful, or at least that they clean up to be so. Grand gentlemen and dashing princes are meant to fall for lady or princess material, not humble sidekicks. This is just one of the controversies Charlotte Brontë presents to us with Jane Eyre.

Jane does not have an easy upbringing. I definitely didn't enjoy the first few chapters of Jane's life, not because it wasn't written well or because it didn't grab my attention, but because it was pretty depressing. I didn't really want to read about a ten-year-old orphan being beaten up by her obnoxious fourteen-year-old male cousin, even sometimes in front of her aunt, when nothing is being done about it. So when Jane went to Lowood School for orphans, I was pleased for her. And then her aunt went and spoilt it all by telling the headmaster, falsely, that she was devilish and wicked, leading him to tell the whole school. I was close to closing the book by this point, wanting to go and give all those horrid adults something to think about wickedness. I didn't, obviously. I carried on reading.

Jane Eyre is a wonderful love story. I assume most of you know the story, and if you don't then stop reading because I'm going to break my tradition of keeping schtum and spoil the plot, because otherwise this would be a terrible review.

As I earlier mentioned, Jane Eyre is an educated but unattractive girl, as is mentioned several times by different points of view. As she is the titular character and it is a novel written in the first person, there is no choice but to accept her as the true heroine, not that the Victorians would have liked this. Though they had their slightly odd obsession with orphans, pleasing them in one respect, they didn't like the thought of an ugly protagonist. So when Mr Rochester, albeit extremely romantically, proposes to Jane, they probably didn't like that either, because she was the governess of this stately gentleman's ward. He was meant to marry a lady, not a woman. We modern readers, however, love it.

Brontë includes a host of biblical quotes in the novel, most probably to reflect Jane's piety and additionally to create a greater sense of horror and betrayal when Mr Rochester's secret is revealed. The mad woman in the attic is the wife of Mr Rochester. She is not dead, they are not divorced, and hence there is no way that Jane and Mr R can marry. Jane finds this out the hard way: at the altar. Does she still love him? Of course. We modern readers may find this entirely acceptable, but I doubt the Victorian readers did. After all, he has broken more than one of the ten commandments: he is a terrible sinner and should not be forgiven. However, when he threatens to use violence against Jane when she insists she leave him, a modern reader (or at least I did) would find this shocking. How can he use violence against her? She hasn't done anything wrong! Why should he be the perpretrator and she the victim? But then again, domestic violence wasn't really an issue then, in that it was totally accepted. Which is a bit messed up, in my opinion.

But Jane does get what she deserves. After days of barely any food and traipsing around the Peak District (the most exciting bit about this is that I went to the town she finds refuge in on my Duke of Edinburgh Gold Practice Expedition) she is taken in my two sisters and a brother and their servant, changing her name to Jane Elliott and not divulging any details of her recent past so as to avoid recognition. It turns out that dear Miss Eyre is the heiress to a large fortune from her recently deceased uncle in Madeira and that the two sisters, Diana and Mary, and their brother, weirdly named St John, are her cousins. So Jane is a very happy lass.

Of course, she has not forgotten dear Edward Rochester, her true love. Brontë brings in the idea of Fate by having her hear his voice and sending her running to him and from a marriage proposal from her cousin (with a trip to India included – not a bad offer, but for all the wrong reasons). She finds Mr Rochester, but his loony wife burnt down Thornfield Hall (where she lived with him and his ward and everyone else before) and he was inside, leaving him blind and his left arm mutilated. But does she care? Of course not. It is true love, and Brontë understands all us girls by telling us that true love has no boundaries. After a very romantic entrance back into his life and a wonderful wedding without all the jewels and luxuries Jane had to so unwillingly accept the first time, the epilogue leaves us with Mr Rochester regaining his sight in one eye. I don't even care if it's not scientifically accruate, it is love for goodness' sake. And I'm so glad I stuck with Plain Jane until the very end.


By Jess

Word of the Day

This is from my new reading project, Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. Very good book by the way.

Today's Word:

Propensity

A natural inclination to behave in a certain way.

Sentence example: It was Victoire's propensity to be so kind as to let Jess borrow her laptop to post on her blog.

By Jess

A Sardonic Sense of Humour

The Painted Veil by Somerset Maugham, is an early twentieth-century novel about lust, unrequited love and courage, taking place principally in the Chinese countryside.

When Kitty Garstin marries Walter Fane it is not for love. As she says herself, she never loves him, not at any point in the novel, despising his “sardonic” sense of humour and his crooked ways. No, Kitty does not marry for love. Instead, she marries Walter in a panic: her younger sister is already engaged; Kitty herself is nearing the ripe old age of 24 or 25; and this marriage would require her to live in Hong Kong, so she wouldn't have to deal with her sister's wedding or go on any loathsome family holidays ever again. Sorted. Walter on the other hand, adores Kitty. She is beautiful and chatty and funny, and Walter, though regretting that his love is unrequited, is happy enough with the situation to carry on with his life in peace.

In the bustling city of Hong Kong, Kitty meets many new people, old and young, men and women, all from the British Colonial base. One such person is Charlie Townsend, a charming, well-built man with a handsome face and apparently wonderful eyes. He is Kitty's undoing. Married himself, he never really loves Kitty so much as takes the opportunity she throws at him, and when Walter finds out a year later on finding them himself, Charlie has no intention of leaving his wife and saving Kitty from the clutches of Walter's ultimatum.

In short, the ultimatum is either stay with Walter or be divorced by Walter. The latter involves staying in Hong Kong. The former involves moving to the city of Mei tan fu, a bacteriologist, but this is less appealing as the site is ridden with a terrible cholera epidemic of which the citizens are dropping like flies. It is this option she is forced to choose.

This is where we see a journey of self-discovery take place. Kitty barely ever takes in someone's personality when we have a person described to us. It is always how attractive they are; how nice their eyes are or how revolting their nose is. Tired of hanging around the house all day and all night, Kitty decides to work with the French nuns who manage the orphanage, and here we see what was a dislike of “ugly” Chinese children change to a love of children and the development of a maternal instinct, just one example of how this new life changes her.

Simultaneously, Kitty learns to live with Walter, though he never really forgives her for her sinful behaviour and though she never fails to remind the reader that she does not love him and could never love him. She befriends the Customs man, Waddington, a squat man with a good sense of humour and a chatty tongue. It is Waddington who tells her about the Way, which is essentially a path of self-discovery the Chinese have figured out long before us.

Over the course of her stay in Mei tan fu, Kitty realises everything she never had figured out, sees everything she was blind to, and understands everything she felt clueless about previously. Her relationship with Charlie, for example, and Charlie's true self. Her superficiality shines through here again; she satisfies herself by telling herself that he was too fat, his eyebrows were apelike and revolting and his face was ugly, as opposed to thinking that his charm and his flattery were all false.

The Painted Veil really is a good read. The whole self-discovery makes it a great holiday read and it isn't too long at 200 odd pages so do give it a go. The film, starring Naomi Watts as Kitty and the thin one from Fight Club is great too, I must admit, following the story the whole way, though it is dramatised a bit, making us believe that Kitty does love Walter towards the end, but that's Hollywood for you.

By Jess

Word of the Day

Sorry for the infrequent blogging, both of us are taking a slight summer hiatus but I found a word I wish to share.

Erubescent:

Becoming red or reddish; blushing

Sentence Example:

Her erubescent complexion was thanks to too many hours in the sun.

By Talia

Word of the Day

This is a word I found whilst looking up the meaning of an entirely different, all together more boring word. So rather than bore you with the dull one I'll just share the fun one.

Hypocorism:

1. A pet name.

2. The practice of using a pet name.

3. The use of forms of speech imitative of baby talk, especially by an adult.

Sentence Example:

Josh found the hypocoristic mannerism his best friend adopted around his girlfriend nauseating.


By Talia

Old Sport

In keeping with the theme of my American literature reading habits I took a successful stab at F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

The Great Gatsby is the tale of society in Long Island from the point of view of newcomer Nick Carraway. His house, with lawn unpreened and lacking a multitude of servants, is situated next door to the abode of a somewhat local celebrity, named Jay Gatsby.

I assume you all have the heard the phrase 'a friend of everybody is a friend of no one'. That phrase applies perfectly to Jay Gatsby. For all of his inconsistent life stories and all of his booming 1920s house parties, nobody really knows or cares about him as a friend. And anyway, Mr G isn't the goody-two-shoes in many ways. His shady schemes with a Mr Wolfshiem, portrayed rather anti-semitically by Fitzgerald as a conman with bad grammar, never really dominate the plot, but it still means that we readers know Mr G is a bit dodgy.

Gatsby has a habit of calling people “old sport”. Is this a way of trying to have people think the two of them are great pals? Because it doesn't work, as we so tragically find out. The only exception to this sentiment of 'I'll come to your party but I wouldn't bother with your funeral' is Nick; this is how we find out the story that makes the novel.

Nick, always the friendly one, is the old chum of another man who lives on the other end of Long Island. This man is named Tom Buchanan, and he has a twisted sort of lifestyle. For he is having a long and drawn-out love affair with a Mrs Wilson. Yes, you read correctly: she is also married, to Tom's friend, Mr Wilson. In the meantime, however, Tom learns of his wife's (yes he has a wife) relation with Mr Gatsby, which is one of harboured love. For Daisy and Mr G were once terribly in love but were separated, and now that they have been reunited, they have started to have an affair. Which is a bit awkward when Tom finds out, especially since it was Nick who was persuaded into inviting them both to his house for tea by a mutual friend named Jordan Baker who Nick sort of fancies anyway. Confused?

And though Tom is in the wrong, he has a point. Daisy isn't very subtle with her affections and Mr G thinks she will leave Tom for him, therefore holds back no smart remarks that may hurt Tom. Which is just really awkward for Nick, who turns out to be pretty fickle with who he supports and whether he loves or hates his new clique.

Fitzgerald's writing is compelling and though the novel is not entirely filled with a turbulent plot, I was left thinking about who was in the wrong and who was in the right, leaving me with the conclusion that everyone was in the wrong. Which was a depressing but satisfying conclusion. Give it a read and let us know what you think / thought (if you have read it already). The movie is coming out in the not too distant future with a star-studded cast: Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby; Carey Mulligan as Daisy; Tobey Maguire as Nick; and Isla Fisher as Mrs Wilson, to name but a few, but you know the book will be better, so do read it before then. Pretty please.

By Jess

Word of the Day

Just a quick Word of the Day today, no background story to this word, I've just always liked it.

Dearth:

An inadequate supply; scarcity; lack

Sentence Example:

During a famine there is a dearth of food.

By Talia

Words of the Day

I picked this word up whilst trying to find synonyms for miserable in my thesaurus. I assume you all know what miserable means therefore I will just provide you with a definition of the synonym I happened across.

Abject:

1. Utterly hopeless, miserable, humiliating, or wretched.
2. Contemptible; despicable

Sentence Example:

The situation seemed completely abject to Lucas; there seemed to be no right answer and he seemed to be facing zugzwang.

This sentence example neatly leads me onto the second word for today, and no it's not a made up word!

Zugzwang:

A situation in which a player is limited to moves that have a damaging effect.

Pronouced: TSOOK-TSVAHNG

By Talia

Word of the Day

This is more of a specific sort of word, but I think it's a suitable one none the less. It's from The Great Gatsby.

Echolalia

The uncontrollable and immediate repetition of what someone else has said.

As this isn't a word you would use in daily conversation, I am including yet another word from The Great Gatsby.

Tumultuous

Chaotic or riotous

Sentence example: The end of Harry Potter was marked by the tumultuous Battle of Hogwarts.

By Jess

Daisy, Daisy, Give Me Your Answer Do

Daisy Miller is the first Henry James novel that I have read, and I loved it. It isn't long at all at only 115 pages (my edition is anyway) so anyone can read it over a weekend.

The overall plot (without giving away anything) is the tale of a Mr Winterbourne, an American in Europe. When we first meet Mr W he is in a town called Vevey having just come from Geneva. Staying with his aunt, Mrs Costello, he meets a little scoundrel of a boy called Randolph Miller, who is in the process of refusing to go to bed, as little boys so enjoy doing. He promptly introduces our friend to his sister named Daisy Miller (no prizes for having guessed her name before you read it). The Miller family is American too, from Schenectady in New York state, and they pride themselves in being awfully sociable people, which doesn't always shed the best light on them.

Daisy is often called a "flirt", and it is easy understand why very early on. Considering the novel was written in 1878, she is a terribly forward sort of girl, even considered quite common by the higher-class members of the novel, such as pompous Mrs Costello. It is pretty evident that Mr W falls for her ditzy yet charming ways, and after just a couple of weeks or so he seems to be head-over-heels.

Daisy, however, leaves for Rome soon after they become friends, and as his aunt is there already, Mr W follows. This is where I find the novel to take a turn for the slightly amusing. You see, Daisy, as always, is being her flirty and amiable self, and in doing so she has made lots of friends. Lots of gentleman friends *cue 'shock horror' faces*. One such 'friend' is called Mr Giovanelli. Mr W first meets Mr G very awkwardly in a sort of third-wheel arrangement whereby he tags along with Daisy when she goes to meet him. Mr G, by Mr W's standards, is very common indeed. For example, he has a whole flower in his button-hole, and as was explained in the notes at the back of the book, the larger a gentleman's button-hole, the more common he is. So a whole flower? Scandalous.

Mr W begins to grow extremely envious of Mr G's position, and as Daisy Miller is such a short book, it doesn't take long for his envy to become full-blown creepy stalking. As he follows Daisy everywhere (he has a peculiar way of showing his affection), she starts to grow tired of his nonsense, and insults him. Does this perturb our protagonist? Oh no! Even when Daisy is shunned by her temporary landlady, and even though Mrs Costello is adamant that she is filthy and whatnot, he continues to adore her from closer than she probably would like him to, at least whenever she is with Mr Giovanelli and his gargantuan button-hole. I highly doubt such stalking was accepted even in 19th century Rome.

What I noticed most, however, about Mr Winterbourne's infatuation, was his frequent commenting on Daisy's beauty. To him, she was "exquisite"and "pretty", but never funny or kind or sweet. Perhaps it is as a modern reader that I notice this, and a contemporary reader wouldn't have thought twice about the blind love. It revisits that idea of love at first sight: essentially it is just lust. Would Mr Winterbourne have loved / stalked Daisy in the same manner if her nose had been larger? Or if she had had bad skin? Or if she didn't have such good dress sense? Probably not, though he was attracted to her because of her terrifying ability to talk non-stop at people and make them think they wanted to listen. However, at the end (I shan't tell you what happens), Mr G comments on her wonderful personality, which makes me think that he was the one for her after all.

Thoughts? Would you be slightly unsettled by bumbling Mr Winterbourne if you were  in Daisy's position?

By Jess

A Special Word of the Day

Well folks today is a special day, it is the day we publish our one hundredth post! I know, you're all just as excited as I am. Who would have thought we'd find one hundred things to blog about in under half a year? So I'm sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that the word of the day is...

Hundred:

1. A cardinal number, ten times ten.

2. A set of this many persons or things: a hundred of the men. .

3. Hundreds, a number between 100 and 999, as in referring to an amount of money.

4. Informal: a hundred-dollar bill. 

5. Formerly is was an administrative division of an English county.

6.Similar to no. 5, division in colonial Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Virginia, and in present-day Delaware.

7. Also called hundred's place in mathematics.

I bet none of you knew how many definitions of the word hundred there are, and now for a very obvious sentence example:

This is the one hundredth blog post on The English Review.

Synonyms when hundred pertains to 100:

Centenary, Centennial, Centuplicate, Century, Hundredth.

Synonyms when hundred pertains to a great number:

Army, Cloud, Crowd, Drove, Flock, Host, Legion, Multitude, Myriad, Rout, Swarm, Throng.

By Talia

The Kennedys

For the past five weeks I have been watching 'The Kennedys' mini-series on BBC2. I had heard about the show before it came to England because of the controversy it caused in America. It had been made to air on the History Television, in fact it was the first original scripted series to be commissioned for the channel and had a reported $30 million budget. However, the show was subject to heavy criticism, with critics claiming it was historically inaccurate and presented one of America's most beloved and famous families in a negative and inappropriate light. It is rumoured that the remaining members of the Kennedy family threatened to sue the channel if they aired the show, eventually History Television released a statement saying "this dramatic interpretation is not a fit for the History brand," but a channel called ReelzChannel picked it up. I am currently in the process of writing a 5000 word essay about JFK and the show seemed like a more relaxing way to understand the Kennedy family, but I did watch it well aware that there were massive creative liberties taken.

When I reference it in my essay I will comment on the historical inaccuracies but here I will review it simply as a programme. Greg Kinnear (Little Miss Sunshine, The Last Song,) took on the lead role of John 'Jack' Kennedy, and he really does look a lot like him. Katie Holmes (Batman Begins, Dawson's Creek, Tom Cruise's wife) plays the long suffering wife and perfect First Lady, Jackie Kennedy. Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan, True Grit,) as Robert 'Bobby' Kennedy, and Tom Wilkinson (In The Bedroom, Michael Clatyton) and Diana Hardcastle (Midsummer Murders, Silent Witness) as the patriarch and matriarch of the Kennedy family; Joe Sr and Rose.

The first episode opens in 1938 and shows Joe Sr. as the Ambassador in Britain showing his open support to the Munich Agreement, despite the current President FDR opposing it. Each episode has an element of politics to it, however the focus is always very much on the family relationships rather than the current events of the time. The Bay of Pigs disaster, for example, in episode 3 is sidelined by Joe Sr. blaming Bobby for not protecting Jack as both his brother and the Attorney General. Jackie also struggles with Jack's constant infidelities and turns Rose for advice. This is the general format for the series, politics is eclipsed by family drama, even the Cuban Missile crisis is, if not overtaken then definitely equal to, Jackie's humiliation at Jack's affair with Mary Meyer. And it is probably for this reason why the show was deemed not historically accurate enough for a history channel. One has to take both historic and creative licenses when recreating undocumented conversations, and it does make for more interesting television.

The programme jumps about in time, showing the Kennedy clan before, after and during Jack's presidency. In the earlier times, primarily before Jack becomes President, Joe Sr. is painted as a cruel and ruthless man who expected his children to live out his unfulfilled dreams. From my research, I have ascertained that this is probably an accurate portrayal of a man who would stop at nothing to have one of his sons inside the White House. Joe suffers a severe stroke and we are left with a shell of a man, who dribbles rather pathetically and is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. We end up pitying Joe Kennedy. 

Over the first six episodes, without realising it, I had become quite attached to the characters, especially Jack and Bobby, therefore I found the penultimate episode quite emotional. Not to spoil the show for you, but Jack does get shot dead (I know, I know, I bet none of you saw that coming.) In the same episode, they lose their newborn son, Patrick and you see Jack telling Jackie that he's going to change, that he's done with his philandering ways. It is a clear romanticism of Jack's death, adding to the tragedy of his death by leaving the unfulfilled promise of a happy family behind as well as the Presidency. But it worked, I couldn't help but shed a tear.

The final episode aired last night, and I wasn't sure what to expect, given the fact that the protagonist was dead, but this episode focused on Bobby Kennedy. It showed his changed attitude following his brothers death, his constant support of Jackie and her children, and his new political drive. We see how he is motivated to run for office himself, to continue Jack's legacy and dreams for America. We watch as he becomes the senator of New York and then employs the same tactics that won Jack the election in his own Presidential campaign. In the scene where Jackie phones him up and tells him she is going to marry Aristotle Onassis, it felt as though the Kennedy dynasty really was coming to an end. A feeling confirmed in the following scene when Bobby Kennedy is shot dead in the Ambassador Hotel in California. The final poignant, scene of the eight episode mini series was a flashback to Jack's inauguration night, with each character making a toast to the future, a future that never quite came to fruition.

Large historical licence taken? Yes. Slightly dodgy accent from Katie Holmes at times? Oh yes. Emotional, intriguing and worth watching? Definitely.

By Talia

Word of the Day

I cannot remember where I read this word, but I do remember questioning it's meaning. Upon discovering the answer I am now sharing it with you lovely readers.

Bivouac:

Noun: 
1. A military encampment made with tents or improvised shelters, usually without shelter or protection from enemy fire.

2. The place used for the above mentioned military encampment.

Verb:

To rest or assemble in such an area; encamp.

Sentence Example:

The 1st Battalion was now bivouacked in a field in the middle of nowhere.


By Talia

Word of the Day

This is one I learnt whilst reading 'A People's History of the United States.' Whilst I have not found the book entirely engaging I have learnt new words and one of those is:

Nadir:

The lowest point; the point of greatest adversity or despair

Sentence Example:
Leo had suffered through a monotonous day at work but the nadir came when the tube broke down on the way home, and he was stuck in a hot tube carriage, underground, during rush hour.

By Talia