Monday, March 9, 2009
Tess
Well Christa may be right about the long descriptions but I do like some of them. I was hooked again by the second sentence of the book. It reads, "The pair of legs that carried him were rickety, and there was a bias in his gait which inclined him somewhat to the left of a straight line." I would have written, "He was either old or drunk and walked with a limp." How boring! I do like having to read and think!!
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I read that opening paragraph a number of times. I loved it too. Since we are sharing favorites....I have 2. One short, the other long. Pg 88 "In her misery she rocked herself upon the bed. The clock struck the solemn hour of one, that hour when thought stalks outside reason, and malignant possibilities stand rock-firm as facts." Boy, how many times I've done that...I can't even count. This next passage is on page 31...I just love the description of being a young girl...the same throughout time and place I guess:
ReplyDelete"In those early days she had been much loved by others of her own sex and age, and had used to be seen about the village as one of three--all nearly of the same year--walking home from school side by side, Tess being the middle one--in a pink print pinafore, of a finely reticulated pattern, worn over a stuff frock that had lost its original colour for a nondescript tertiary--marching on upon long stalky legs, in tight stockings which had little ladder-like holes at the knees, torn by kneeling in the roads and banks in search of vegetable and mineral treasures; her then earth-coloured hair hanging like pot-hooks; the arms of the two outside girls resting round the waist of Tess; her arms on the shoulders of the two supporters."
I have LOVED this book. I really enjoy the description--it's pretty amazing. I am continually frustrated by the cultural expectation of women as property of men, and so on. Her parents are incredibly frustrating, too. But I really have loved this book. Her whole decision to tell Clare or not to tell Clare I find intriguing. Should she have, given the culture of the time? Seems she was in a lose-lose situation. So sad.
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