Blithedale Romance (week 1)

I'll start off by saying that I was pleasantly surprised. I have never particularly enjoyed romance novels, finding them often dry and the characters rather flat, but I find myself drawn in on this story. There were a number of things that most likely contributed to this.

I found myself surprised by the feminist parts of the story. Doubly so because of the back of this book, which describes it as "suggestive and often erotic." While I am sure the nature of that word has changed over time, I find it often used in relation to works that debase the characters into sexual creatures as opposed to thinking individuals. Perhaps it is the nature of how the line of what we would consider suggestive has moved over the past hundred years, as it is possible that "suggestive and often erotic" might well have described this book a century and a half ago. However, I feel it is a bit of an injustice to the writer for the synopsis of the book to focus on such an idea.

All that out of the way, I feel the need to talk a little about the writing itself, as opposed to the themes within the writing. In many ways, I had a harder time in the beginning reading this then I did several old english works, like "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." I think this has to do with how little has changed in 150 years. I find myself constantly having to re-evaluate the words, and recognize the context is slightly different, giving these words a new meaning (or old meaning, as the case may be). However, I found myself also more drawn in by the story as the same time because the use of language encouraged a more active form of reading than I am used to. Because of the complexity of many of the ideas presented along with the level of vocabulary used, I found I was unable to take the story lightly. This in turn forced an emotional, alongside intellectual, investment in the story and characters.

On a more personal note, I was impressed how well the author was able to convey the emotional sense of the story during the chapters of the fight, following the fight, and the melancholy chapters in the hotel. I found my emotional state reading those chapters often mirrored the narrator's. Especially after the fight. I look forward to finishing the book in the next few days.