So I Have Been Reading …..

September is here and thank goodness the cooler weather has began to set in my part of the world! Things are so much better in Autumn and Winter, atleast in northern Indian plains. September also means that the RIP ( Reader’s Imbibing Peril) reading event is underway with RIPVII hosted by Heather @capriousreader and Andi Miller-Dunn @estellasrevenge, taking over from Carl V Anderson at Stainless Steel Droppings, the original mastermind of this event. The idea is get in the groove of the fall season & all ghosty, witchy spirit by reading/listening/watching everything that is scary, gothic, mystery, thrilling, horrific and ghostly. The event is running from September 1st to October 31st with some amazing channel discussions on Discord, a Bingo event and a Shirley Jackson’s (The Sundial) read along in October.

I have always participated in this event, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. But this year, despite everything, has been a great reading year and I have great hopes of reading quite a bit through this event. In this month so far, I have managed to read the following –

Sovereign by CJ Sansome – A Matthew Shardlake mystery, from an author and series that I totally love. Set in Tudor England, after the suppression of the Pilgrim of Grace rebellion, Henry VIII is visiting Yorkshire, the center of the revolt, to seek submission from the people. Among his vast retinue, is Master Shardlake with Jack Barak by the request of Archbishop Crammer to support petitions to the King and other legal matters that are being put forward by Yorkshire people for King’s review. He is also expected to undertake a secret mission of ensuring the safe transportation of a prisoner from Yorkshire to the Tower in London. Things however do not go as planned and a murder leads to revelation of certain documents that may plunge the country again in civil unrest as it questions the very legitimacy of the Tudor rulers and their birth. This book is as always with all the books in the series, replete with details of history that are either overlooked or widely unknown. The author captures the the 16th century England will all it’s luxury and all its poverty beautifully. Despite being a 600 plus page novel, the narrative keeps the reader engaged with knotty plot twists and interesting characters. An excellent read from beginning to end.

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke – I guess with Fairies and magic, this book is a bit stretch into the RIP collection, but I went with it anyway. There has already been so much said about this novel, about the conflict between two magicians in 19th century England that traverses through Napoleonic Wars and other such historic events, that I will only share my views. The plot while simplistic, has been wedded with a lot of imagination and creative writing to make the reading complex and rich. There is a lot of wit and the old world charm that comes alive in the presentation style. The slightly academic way of writing with footnotes and stand alone stories of magical past in England brings an additional depth to reading and reflects the love of the artist for the art. However for all the details and crafty telling of the story, I still felt that it did not merit 1000 pages; the characters were thin and it was difficult to understand some of their motivation. There seems to be on the part of the author an effort to leave some sub plot & character futures unanswered ( in hope of sequel?) but they just do not bring that effect & does not make one intrigued about what happened next. It is a good read, but hardly one which would merit a re-read

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights , Museo del Prado, Madrid (Public Domain)

Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu – This was my second reading of this novella and I must say that this time I enjoyed it far more than my first attempt. Young Laura, the daughter of an Englishman and an Austrian lady, leads a happy but lonely life in the remote village in Austria. Their peaceful everyday existence is interrupted when a carriage meets with an accident, and Laura’s father is left in charge of a young woman, Carmilla, who seems to be hurt, while her “mother” continues the journey in the carriage. Soon there are people dying in the village and Laura becomes aware of certain strange and embarrassing emotions that Carmilla beings to express. The original vampire story ( Bram Stoker’s Dracula was more than 2 decades away) the narrative is unconventional, filled with eerie scenes and tensions with an element of feminine sexuality, which must have made for an adventurous creative writing in early 19th century. Its a brilliant piece of fiction, gripping and unnerving.

From Doon with Death by Ruth Rendell – This is my very first reading of a Ruth Rendell and it also happens to be the first book in the Inspector Wexford series. An ordinary housewife Margaret Parson is reported missing by her husband and a day later, her dead body near the woods around a farm, someway from the town where she lives. Inspector Wexford and his team start investigating the crime which seems to have no motivation until, he discovers some expensive edition of classical poetry in the attic of the dead woman, all signed by a person named Doon. After all the swinging adventures of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, this very British, very practical, very classical detective story made for wonderful read with interesting changes in the plot and a sharp, edgy narrative. My book carried an afterword by Ms. Rendell herself, and the key to enjoying this mystery written in 1964 is like the author herself says, to read it as a historical fictions instead of a contemporary writing. A completely enjoyable book!

White Magic – Russian Emigre Tales of Mystery and Terror edited & translated by Muireann Maguire. The book contains a wide variety of tales from the first three decades of 20th century, capturing the urban as well rural stories set in the backdrop of both the pre revolution and post revolution Russia. The short stories are eerie, gothic and some extremely strange. The Russian landscape that brings with it not only awe inspiring magnificence, along with deep fore brooding and sad beauty is wonderfully captured through all the short stories all while retaining a certain sentimentality and sensitivity despite the running theme of horror.

This is what I have been reading lately! I have a few more CJ Sansom’s lined up for this event, as well a re-reading of the brilliantly written The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. I found this amazing anthology (thanks to a great review by Ali) of Murder Mysteries with the theme of books, Murder by the Book edited by Martin Edward that is also in my next reading queue. Outside of the RIP books, I am reading a powerful novel, based on true events in 1940s Germany, Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada. Also based on an excellent review by Karen, I am reading the gorgeously written, part biography, part travelogue, Footsteps by Richard Holmes. In October I plan to participate in the 1976 Club hosted by Karen & Simon (yet to decide a book), besides reading And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov as part of Classical Club’s October reading event ( scary books or books that you are scared to read; I went with the latter). In November, among other things I will join Brona’s AusReading Month, though again I am not yet sure of what I will read,

This year so far has been a year of reading through everything that comes my way – fiction, history, travelogues, politics and I have enjoyed the journey immensely. As the holiday season comes closer, I hope to make the reading journey more interesting, reading more variety and more unusual voices, atleast that is the plan! What are your reading plans for the remaining year?

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The Denizens of the Castle

I had read Shirley Jackson’s The House on the Hill, as part of last year’s RIP and absolutely loved it. Therefore when this year’s RIP came about, it made perfect sense to revisit another work by this brilliant author and I picked up the highly recommended We have Always Lived in the Castle.

The book begins with the narrative of Mary Katherine Blackwood, or Merricat as she is called by her sister, Constance, who is on her way to the village to get groceries and books from the Library. Merricat tells the reader that only she can make this trip to the village because Constance is still struggles to leave even the Blackwood garden, for the last 6 years. Merricat knows that she is being taunted at while she goes about doing her chores and in her mind she plots revenge against her hecklers.  It is soon revealed that in the now almost empty Blackwood mansion, Merricat lives with her elder sister Constance and their invalid uncle Julian. They have very few visitors and most of their day is spent cooking , reading and cleaning, while Uncle Julian writes his book. This has been the state of things for last 6 years, when Constance and Merricat’s parents, brother and aunt were killed due to Arsenic poisoning after dinner. Constance was charged by the police, but acquitted due to lack of evidence.  Since then the two sisters had sequestered themselves in the Blackwood house, never going out and almost never entertaining guests, living their lives in an inward looking set routine. Things however begin to change, when their cousin Charles comes visiting. While Constance is happy to finally have some company, both Merricat and Uncle Julian are dissatisfied with the change. Uncle Julian feels that Charles is here to get his nieces money and disrupt his work; while Merricat believes Charles is responsible for the breakdown of her daily routine and happy lives and for most importantly making Constance disgruntled with their lives, when she had been completely content with her lot, until Charles came. She begins to plot various schemes to get Charles out of the house and out of their lives, none of which work and she finally takes the drastic measure of burning down the house, leading to interesting revelations about the death of the Blackwood family and the new direction the lives of the sister would now have to take!

The book is brilliant! Ms. Jackson does not disappoint and from the very opening narrative, the reader’s attention is grabbed and curiosity aroused as to what happened to the Blackwoods.  In Merricat, Ms. Jackson draws a brilliant character – obsessed, unapologetic and completely reckless, she is a unique creation if there is ever one. Her imaginations whether it about living on the moon or the discovery of three powerful words which will halt the changes that are happening in her life, leaves the reader in awe. I love the unapologetic attitude of Merricat and the fact that Ms. Jackson did not find any reasons to explain and elaborate the whys and the hows. I loved the irreverent approach of this is what it is and deal with it! In creating Constance, we find a perfect foil to Merricat’s character; Constance blames herself for what happened to the family and its fortunes and therefore accepts her sister’s anomalies and stands by her, irrespective of the latter’s action or more importantly its implication on Constance’s own life. She accepts her losss, because she feels she is worthy of the blame. Between the actions of the two sisters, there is a constant sense of feeling sympathy and discomposure, alternately! The constant cycle of food and preparation of it is wonderfully put down to reflect the one semblance of normalcy in the dysfunctional Blackwood family and how the ritual of breakfast, lunch and dinner provides, rhythm and occupation to players. I loved the ending – an irreverent end where apparently “evil” wins in a way that it allows the Blackwood sisters, again alternating the feelings of sympathy and disquiet! The language is simple and here again lies the brilliance of Ms. Jackson – without any blood and gore and through the means of clear simple words and phrases, she is able to convey a distinct discomfort and strangeness to the readers. There are no high flown theatrics, but as a reader you are left feeling eerie!

I am so glad I finally read this one – it was a perfect, absolutely perfect RIP reads and one of the best works I have read in the thriller/horror genr

The Horrifying Times…..

Yay! RIP X is here!!  I have had such fun in the past in participating in these events, that this absolutely no question of passing this up! This annual event is hosted by Carl V. Anderson over at Stainless Steel Droppings; but this year to celebrate the 10^th edition of RIP (R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril); the event is being hosted by The Estella Society!

(Image by Abigail Larson)

The event runs starts from September 01^st to October 31^st and there are multiple perils for the indulgent reader/viewer; the only clause being, that you read or watch anything under the following genre –

Mystery
Suspense
Thriller
Dark Fantasy
Gothic
Horror
Supernatural

I have decided to naturally sign up for the Peril The First and this means and I quote directly from the site “Read four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature. It could be King or Conan Doyle, Penny or Poe, Chandler or Collins, Lovecraft or Leroux…or anyone in between.” My nominees for this year are –

• We have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson – Thanks to The Estella Society’s last year’s Readalong, I was introduced to the brilliance of Shirley Jackson and The Haunting of Hill House and I have been since then planning to read more of her work. This event is just the event to get kick started on another of Ms. Jackson’s Nuggets!
• In a Glass Darkly by Sheridan Le Fanu – Heard much, but read practically nothing. I was once told by one of my university professors that not to have read Sheridan Le Fanu is not to have truly ventured into the Gothic genre in the truest sense of the term. So this time I plan to read Le Fanu and “truly” understand Gothic!
• The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde – What can I say about this book that has not already been said! This is a re-read and I remember reading it way back and being extremely uncomfortable through the night. Time to revisit an old, I can hardly say friend, but rather an indulgence in its most macabre sense!
• The Shining by Stephen King – I know …I must be one of those very few, practically non-existent population that has not read this book, but I am never been much of a Stephen King fan; however this one is considered a cult classic and I think I will give this one a shot, before I consign my entire Stephen King reading as an unmitigated disaster!

Finally I am for sure participating in the Peril of the Group Read, which runs from September 18^th to October 18^th. This year we are reading The Quick by Lauren Owen. I have never read Lauren Owen, but the reviews sound awesome and it’s a thriller based in Victorian England…need I say more??

So without further ado, here’s to RIP X…let the mayhem begin!

The Scary Barn And Then Some….

I had a really exhausting and infinitely dorky work week and by Friday, all I wanted was comfort food and a good, gripping but easy read. Food came in form of wonderful Prawn Coconut Curry and White Rice (one of my most favorite dishes ever, cooked by an indulging and tolerant best friend cum flatmate cum Masterchef!) There was also some lovely red wine for indulgence and now all I had to do was select a good book and escape from the real world! I was not in a mood to indulge into a Byatt  or a history of Byzantine or World War II based fiction; I needed needed a good old yarn – a dam good story. Therefore, I picked something which has lain quietly in my Kindle for some time – The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James.

Sarah Piper is leading a lonely existence in 1920’s London, working as a secretary on temporary assignments, residing in a boarding house. She is now out of job and soon shall be out of all her money, when she gets an assignment to work as an assistant with a writer named Allister Gellis. In her very first meeting with Gellis , a rich, handsome war veteran, Sarah realizes that her new work would be more than just taking short hand and typing letters. In fact Allister Gellis is academic researching ghosts and other such supernatural phenomena and his current assignment specifically requires a female assistant, since this ghost – Maddy Clare, seems to get violent in the presence of men. Sarah’s task is to understand the reason for Maddy’s haunting and gather evidence about her presence to enable Gellis to write his book. With the strongest skepticism and doubt, Sarah agrees to the assignment and travels with her Gellis to small town where this haunting happens. On route she discovers that Allister Gellis usually has his regular assistant Matthew Ryder help him research his work, but he is currently away and it is Ryder who manages all the equipment during the field study, including operating the sound recorder, which the later has created. On reaching Worikshire, Sarah meets Mrs. Clare, whose barn Maddy is haunting and learns that 7 years ago, a 12 year old Maddy had showed up on Mrs. Clare’s doorstep dirty, grimy, severely injured and completely traumatized. Mrs. Clare and her house keeper had taken the girl in and nursed her. It seemed that initially the traumatized Maddy could not even speak, but would go into fits in the presence of any man. Enquiries were made to understand who was Maddy and when no one came back to claim her, the kind Mrs. Clare kept her in her home and slowly trained to be a maid. Over the years, Maddy had grown into a quiet individual, she still had her moods and fits, but mostly she was obedient and obliging girl, until two months ago when she hung herself from the rafters of the very barn that she was now haunting. Mrs. Clare was convinced that the rage which was manifested from Maddy’s departed soul could be fathomed only by a female expert and hoped that Sarah would be able to fix things for her, so that things could return to normalcy. With deep doubts, Sarah starts to reach out to Maddy, with frightening revelations of latter’s past, and devastating consequence, for Allister, Matthew and herself, unless Maddy’s soul can be avenged!

The book was gripping, almost! It began very well and the scene of first haunting with the fire in the barn was SCARY!! The thump-thump noise that Sarah hears is enough to give the reader hibby jibbies. The sleepwalking episode and the invasion of the crows was enough to make me sleep with the lights on for two days running! Unfortunately that were all the promise Ms. St. James had shown begins an ends. As a mystery narrative, the revelations falls flat; it’s clichéd and you can figure out the whats preety much my page 100 or so. More importantly, the author fails to answer the more critical questions of who is Maddy? Why did no one claim her? How did she manage to show up at the Clare’s house? You are kind of told the ending but not how the ending came about. For instance, In The Book Thief, Markus Zusak tells you up front that Rudy will die, but as a reader, it does not take anything away from the story, because the journey leading to Rudy’s death is more absorbing and complex! I could not feel any sympathy or any liking for the characters – Sarah Piper is a whinny mouse who keeps telling us that she was tall and slim with curves in her body and she is plain! Now let’s go over this – the protagonist is tall and slim with voluptuous curves and she is plain!! She keeps droning about her beauty until the male protagonist tells her she is beautiful! Wow! That’s innovative and completely non regressive! Matthew Ryder has a chip on his shoulder and one does not know why except for war trauma, and goes around scowling and being curt to one and all and that I guess is a wannabe Mr. Darcy prototype. Allister Gellis is the all-star, blonde, rich and handsome and war scarred as well, but he can be polite to even horrible strangers, but since he is not I will protect my itty bitsy assistance from being forced to drink a glass of whiskey in rude insulting manner like Mr. Ryder, he is not the hero! Point to be noted – our heroine has lived a difficult and independent life for last 5 years in London and cannot tell an over bearing stranger in the middle of the afternoon in a pub filled with people and in the presence of her employer who is a gentleman that she does not want a second glass of whiskey until the knight in shining armor shows up! Ye! Gods! The romance is flat! We had two chapters worth of “make love” scenes, and I skipped them completely. The clichés abound – if you are new rich, you are without class. You are a bully, because your wife left you!

In the end, it is an easy read, but it is not a gripping read and while the hauntings are truly and extremely scary and this where the author shows pure brilliance, it is all lost in the miasma of banality of the plot and mediocrity of the characters.

Once Upon A Time, let Ms. Gakell lead you on further….

On this night after Halloween, it makes sense that I close my RIP IX readings with Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Gothic Tales” (Yeah!! I know I am day late, but with everyone going crazy with the “Halloween rage” thingy, it’s good that I did not pile on to already overcrowded bandwagon of Halloween celebrations). I state close, though I did mention in my RIP post that I would be reading 4, besides the read along is because my 4^th book is completely untenable, unpalatable, un-everything!! If I thought “Rebecca” was OTT and “The Sign of Four” had a weird appraisal of women, then “Angelica” wins hands down on all that  is unbelievable dumb, stupid and all kinds of unpleasant adjective. I could not go on beyond the 100 pages – there is not one bit of scare and I completely hated Angelica and the entire family. I am not sure if the book gets better later but I am no longer making an effort to find out. I am so thoroughly disappointed – I was really looking forward to Arthur Phillips’s work and it was such a letdown!

Anyway, this post is about “Gothic Tales” and not “Angelica” which does not deserve even one sentence and I have already wasted 3! “Gothic Tales” is an anthology of all works mystery, gothic and horror genre written by Elizabeth Gaskell between 1851 and 1861, published mostly in Household Words and the Christmas special edition of All Year Round. Elizabeth Gaskell with her complete flexibility and virtuosity of the art weaves tales which are old legends like “Disappearances” as well as a ghastly ghostly tale of a secret marriage and a mysterious child that roams the freezing Northumberland in “The Old Nurse’s Tale.” There is an absolutely terrifying doppelgänger and threatens the future of the one person the witch who gave the curse loves in “The Poor Clare”. “Lois the Witch” is a sympathetic take on the young women accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch hunt in 16^th Century. Another sympathetic and heartbreaking novella is the “Crooked Branch”, a tragic tale of love gone awry. “The Doom of the Griffiths” is also a sympathetic narrative of loneliness, filial love and loyalty. Then there is “Curious if True” a fun and extremely weird narrative that includes all famous fairy tale characters including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast etc. The other novellas include “The Squire’s tale” and “The Grey Woman”, stories about ruthless highway men and chases across countries.

The book is a brilliant collection of all kinds of weird tales, some downright scary and others plain bizarre and yet others which points to utter foolishness of men and women in believing in stupid superstitious nonsense. Each tale is distinctive and is located in a different time and different geographies. We move between England, United States, Netherlands, Germany and travel between 17^th to 19^th centuries. These are not short stories but novellas and reading one does take time, simply because of the lovely details Ms. Gaskell has put in. Like a storyteller from old (I realize that she is from the old!!) she sits around the fire and tells you the story in a “once upon a time” style. There is no rushing, no get to the point in her tale, no breathtaking actions; but a slow meandering walk in which you follow her lead and suddenly you are in the middle of thick events. If you want fast paced adventure, she is not for you, but like a wine, if you savor this book slow, well get ready to sleep with the lights turned on!! This collection more than ever convinces me of the extreme brilliance of Ms. Gaskell – she is completely in her element writing a North and South and can turn her eye equally masterfully to satire; Cranford being the prime example. And now Gothic Tales is a testimony to the fact that an author need not really have a declared “genre” as long as he or she had a great tale to tell and knows how to create the atmosphere and evoke the reader’s imagination with use of words.

Considering that this year, my RIP reads have been borderline, disasters, I am eternally grateful to the last Mrs. Elizabeth Gaskell and Ms. Shirley Jackson, from rescuing it from complete and utter annihilation!

P.S. Yes …you know what I will say – I would again urge all too please help us in supporting the project that I am currently leading. This help from you will ensure preservation and continuation of a now practically extinct culture – there are many ways to support this cause –

1. We need financial patronage – We need your monetary help to complete this project. Every contribution is of great value and you have our heartfelt appreciation for any amount that you put forth. You can pay via a credit/debit card, directly at Indiegogo’s Website (The project is called Identity on a Palate)
2. Help us Spread the Word – Please share this campaign on your social network so that more people can become aware of this project. The more people see this, more the chances of us reaching our goal. Please so send me the link or a mail for the same, as we would love to see this live!

Please do help and Thank You again!

The Ripping Reads….

I finally finished two of my RIP IX reads and considering both are masterpieces and everything that could be said has been said about them. Therefore I thought of doing a short combined post on both the books and instead of doing the usual reviews, I thought I will just share some observations that have now stuck me, after my re-readings!

The precedence as always goes to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Sign of Four, featuring the greatest of all fictional detectives, Mr. Sherlock Holmes and his trusty aide, Dr. Watson. The book begins with Dr. Watson trying to convince Holmes to give up his use of cocaine and other such substances with Holmes replying that these are the only stimulants that keep his brain active, in the absence of work. This conversation is interrupted by the entrance of Miss Mary Morstan , a young genteel woman, who has been employed in the capacity of a governess and whose regular life has been disturbed by a note which asks her to meet a certain person that evening at six, along with two of her trusted friends, so that a great wrong that has been done to her can be righted. Miss Morstan also reveals that her father had been a Captain in the British India army and posted at Andaman Islands, from where he returned about ten years ago. He then wrote a letter to his daughter, who at time was in a boarding school, asking her to join him in London; that was the last she ever heard of him and he had since disappeared. Finally she states that for the last 6 years, she has received an expensive pearl anonymously. She then requests Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to accompany her in the evening to meet the man who wrote to her. Thus begins, the adventure of the Sign of Four, taking the reader from the fogs of London, to Cumberland, to Agra and the Andamans, in search of treasure, truth and in a very non Conan Doyle style, love. It’s a great mystery and the art of scientific deduction is wonderful to read – it makes one wistful and wish that if only one could think logically and deductively as a habit and at all the times. The narrative style is as always in a memoir of Dr. Watson and for once, some of the ending is given away, with allusions to what happened in future. However this does no harm to story in itself and it is a thrilling and nail biting narrative to read (especially the steam boat chase chapter) which has not lost even a tenth of its shine, since being published in 1890. Like I said, I can say nothing more about the novel than what has not already been said and shared; but this time two items stuck me as, well, a bit non-palatable. One was the portrayal of Mary Morstan, sweet, gentle, supportive, fragile, disdaining treasure for the sake of love – I mean Ye!! Gods!! Help me from such virtuous role models; for that’s exactly what she is – a model of ideal womanhood from Conan’s point of view. I know allowances need to be made for that particular time and the social-political rules that governed the society; but Victorian era produced a number of strong women who would disdain any namby pamby portrayal of their characters – these were women of blood, sweat, substance and strength, and while possessing a lot of compassion, they also were practical and sensible. I mean, England was ruled by such a woman at that time, not to mention, other wonderful women like Elizabeth Gaskell, Christina Rossetti, Millicent Fawcett and Elizabeth Fry. This concept of the ‘household angel’ was enough to throw me off the book, and I cannot believe that I had been so oblivious to this angle during my earlier reads! Sir Conan Doyle wrote of a much better woman, at least vis-à-vis character in Irene Adler in “A Scandal in Bohemia“– who is intelligent, loyal and practical to a T! Hard to believe the same man wrote about Mary Morstan. The other item that hit me was the portrayal of non-whites – whether it is Mohmet Khan planning a cold-blooded murder or Tonga the indigenous tribal from Andaman, the natives can kill with no conscience, the only redeeming characteristic being their loyalty! Thank Heavens for that!! I mean as it is the brown man/woman are “savages” but imagine the greatness and generosity of Englishmen, in inspiring loyalty among this unworthy people!! Kipling was a unaplogetic and unashamed imperialist, but to think Sir Conan Doyle also sang a similar tune, is kind of unsettling; as I mentioned before allowance have to be made for the age and I do, but with Kiplings, and Doyles and Haggards, at times, it becomes difficult not to be prejudiced! Everything apart though, it is a great book and Sir Doyle does what does the best, proving time and again he is the master of “detective fiction”.

The second book that I read for RIP IX is “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier. I had originally read this novel when I was 15, through the night, when I was racked with fever and could not sleep. I had deep impressions from that read – all very gothic and creepy. The story is too well-known from me to write in detail – Maxim De Winters, the owner of the Manderley, an estate on the Cornish Cost, brings home a young wife after the accidental death of his first wife Rebecca, in a boating accident, a year ago. The second Mrs De Winter, is a young, shy woman who has great hopes of her future, that come to standstill, as she grapples with the presence of Rebecca in Manderley, whose presence is overwhelming and who continues to run the house from her grave! It could be that fever had induced my brain to be more sensitive, because, when I had read this book the first time I had felt the terrifying presence of Rebecca, I was afraid of Mrs. Danvers and I felt all the apprehensions and illogical fears of the second Mrs. De Winters. I should have waited for another bout of fever, before re-reading this book! I know people rant and rave about this book and I may be offending half a million readers if not more, but only a teenager, with really low self-esteem can like this book! My whole problem with the book is the second Mrs. De Winters – I can understand being shy and I can empathize with the feeling of being left out and not belonging, but Mrs. De Winters made me want to throw up and throw the book at her. She does not even try; for heavens’s sake, she is not even willing to try. She goes around the house like a mouse, when she has no reason to, and is perpetually afraid of Mrs. Danver who is just a big ol’ bully who should be set in her place. She does not even try to manage the house or stake her claim as the mistress – had she tried and then failed, that would have added a complex layer to the narrative, besides adding on to her oh-i-am-so-scared characterization. She is embarrassed in the presence of Mrs. Van Hopper, she is embarrassed with Maxim and she is embarrassed when Mrs. Danver finds her in East Wing! Mrs. Van Hopper is embarrassing and it could be that the second Mrs. De Winters’s initial life may have been a trial, but as Jane Austen had showed us, that one can still act sensible in presence of distressing environs; case to point, Elizabeth Bingley with Mrs. Bingley as a painful dimwitted loud mother or Jane Fairfax with her poor, silly aunt. But of course, no understanding of self-worth, enters the poor little Mrs. De Winters’s head until her lord and master, declares his undying love her and confesses that he never loved Rebecca – I mean what value do we women have unless, it is to be made worthy by the acceptance of the man. Also let’s not forget, that the Lord and the Master is a great man of courage and forbearance, who can murder to save his family name from infamy but cannot divorce for the fear of scandal. Such wonderful choice makes this declaration of love, even more touching; after all who can resist the love of a cowardly soul, who cannot face the truth; no matter how far he would have to go hide it. Only by such love, can one make herself a complete woman!!! By such standards, I should really consider myself an absolute failure and consider becoming a nun!!!! The redeeming feature of the novel, really are the last 100 pages as the body of Rebecca is discovered, and the mystery unfolds to an unexpected and unbelievable climax. This is where Ms. Du Maurier revealed her exceptional brilliance and expertise of her craft and as a reader; you are left breathless and shocked by the sudden twist of the tale!! It is this end, which makes the book in my view a classic and preserves it from the morbid and irritating presence of Mrs De Winter, the second! I never realized how disgusted I was with this novel, until I wrote this piece! Writing I guess is therapeutic!

I know this is one of my longest posts, but I cannot end, without once again urging all of your help in the Indiegogo Crowdfunding project which I am managing. We are not doing that well and your help would really make a difference. Again, there are a couple of ways to support this cause –

1. We need financial patronage – We need your monetary help to complete this project. Every contribution is of great value and you have our heartfelt appreciation for any amount that you put forth. You can pay via a credit/debit card, directly at Indiegogo’s Website (The project is called Identity on a Palate)
2. Help us Spread the Word – Please share this campaign on your social network so that more people can become aware of this project. The more people see this, more the chances of us reaching our goal. Please so send me the link or a mail for the same, as we would love to see this live!

Please do help and Thank You again!

Reading Updates and Other News…

I had all the good intentions of blogging about Daphne Du Maurier’s “Rebecca”, which I was re-reading as part of RIP IX; but the road to hell is paved with good intentions and that’s exactly what happened to me. Long hours at work, trying to get the “Identity Campaign” going and some unnecessary irritants have rendered this day absolutely exhausting and therefore I blog simply today to give everybody a reading update and to share something I really liked on Pinterest some time ago and had every intentions of sharing it here, but never did for one reason or other…like I said the road to hell and all that!!

In reading news, I progress slowly on “Angelica” by Arthur Phillip and I am not sure why this book is taking so long, but have every intentions of completing by the end of this week. I am really enjoying “The Complete Works of Christine Rossetti”, but she was a prolific writer and had reading all the works takes some time; besides since I am enjoying it so much, I decided to take it slow and savor it more. Out of nowhere and on an accidental recommendation, I picked up “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Seabold – the narrative seems highly unusual and I am very curious as to how it finally pans out. I am also trying to finish Elizabeth Gaskell’s “Gothic Tales” – those tales are seriously Gothic and a perfect read for the RIP! I have yet to begin either “The Painted Girls” by Cathy Marie Buchanan or “Penmarric” by Susan Howatch, besides finally getting down to reading “The True and Splendid History of the Harristown Sisters” by Michelle Lovric – I have been desperate to read these three for some time and still have not gotten around to despite having spent precious and my always limited funds to buy them! I am also in the middle of “The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon” by Richard Zimler and still not sure about the book!

That’s my bookish update!! Now for the post from Pintrest that I wanted to share; This was developed by Laura E Kelly and I found it really amusing!!

 

Me thinks me is a bit of the OCD Reader, the Book Preserver and Worshipper, with touches of Compulsive Book Buyer and the Immersive reader with streaks of The Book Buster, The Re-Reader, The Promiscuous reader and the multitasker and Sigh!! Yes I am ashamed to admit a strong dash of The Book Snob!!! So what are your styles? What do you think you are?

To end, I know this is getting kind of repetitive, but I do need help! I am currently running a crowdfunding project and we need your support to make it happen. Details are found here.

There are a couple of ways to support this cause –

1. We need financial patronage – We need your monetary help to complete this project. Every contribution is of great value and you have our heartfelt appreciation for any amount that you put forth. You can pay via a credit/debit card, directly at Indiegogo’s Webiste (The project is called Identity on a Palate)
2. Help us Spread the Word – Please share this campaign on your social network so that more people can become aware of this project. The more people see this, more the chances of us reaching our goal. Please so send me the link or a mail for the same, as we would love to see this live!

Please do help and Thank You again!

A House on the Hill…

As part of the RIP 2014, The Estella Society organized a Readalong – The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. While I was only planning to take part in Peril the First, but scrolling through Carl’s post I came across this reading event and I just had to be a part of it!!

I had never read any works of Shirley Jackson before and I am usually skeptical of books that belong to the horror/supernatural genre. I am usually very disappointed in the endings of such genre and I do never feel even a twinge of fear and in fact find some plots absolutely laughable. However I had heard some great things about the The Haunting of Hill House and though I had not seen any of the movies based on this book, I knew it was rated very high among 20^th century literature. It had been part of my TBD for a long time and the Readalong came as a great opportunity to finish at least one book out of the ever-growing list.

The book opens with a description of the Hill House and Dr. James Montague has undertaken to conduct a study on the supernatural phenomena surrounding the house. He is joined in this investigation by three other members, two of whom he has himself picked – Eleanor Vance and Theodora along with Luke Sanderson who is the heir to the house. Dr. Montague on their first night at the house reveals that The Hill House was built by Hugh Crane who hoped his family would live in the house; however his first wife died while coming up to the house when her carriage crashed in the tree on the driveway and he lost his second and third wife as well. Hugh Crane’s two daughters were brought up in the house and the younger one married and the elder one continued living in the house with a companion, a girl from the village to whom she finally left the house. There were antagonism between the villagers and the younger sister versus the companion on this and soon the companion complained of thieving incidents and other such events in the house, before committing suicide. Since then anyone who has rented the house has never managed to complete the duration of their lease and have always moved away in a hurry. As the four participants settle in, events begin occurring in the house that disturb and threaten them. Soon Eleanor Vance begins to experience phenomena that others are oblivious to and slowly begins to lose grip on reality as she becomes subject to more such episodes. Finally concerned, Dr. Montague forces her to leave the house, though she resists such eviction. As she drives down the driveway, she crashes into the large oak tree.

The characters in the book are minimalistically drawn but are very real. While the author does not spend to many lines in describing her protagonists, their actions bring out the nature of their character far more illustratively. There are some marvelously humorous events that take of some of the stress after the intense action and offer a much-needed relief in the chilling narrative. The star of the book naturally is The House – from the very beginning it dominates the plot line and all the other characters are just supporting this mammoth. It creeps and shudders and laughs and plays and thunders and booms making it well know that the house and the house alone is what matters and no one can tame or ever truly own it. The beauty of the book lies in the fact there is no blood or gore or horrifying monsters; but rather the use of subtle psychology and the feeling of things creeping behind you that makes it a terrifying read. There are no loud incidents, no clutching of throats or ghosts rising from the graveyard, but a far more petrifying phenomena – when one realizes that one alone is being subjected to supernatural things while others continue to live out their lives as normal. The understanding that you are holding the hand of a friend while sleeping only to wake up and realize it’s someone else’s hand or sitting in a room while something thunders and threatens to enter your room, a nameless horror, but never does, and you wait for it to come back again another night is truly terrifying and distressing.

The book is SCARY!!! I am not someone who is usually daunted by supernatural plots, but for the last three nights, I have slept with the lights on!!!!!I am so glad that I read this book finally and I have to agree with Stephen King (whose books by the way I really dislike!) who wrote that this book was one of the finest horror novels of late 20^th century!!