One Year, 25 Books Overture: Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Madame Olenska?

This might as well have been Edith Wharton's alternative title for "The Age Of Innocence" because the whole book revolves around the presence and affairs of the beautiful Countess Ellen Minggot Olenska.

Newland Archer is a man in full during New York’s Guilded Age (ca. 1870 - 1900), he works as a lawyer in a reputable firm and is engaged to May Welland, New York’s foremost debutante. Madame Olenska is May's first cousin and as custom has it in the upper class, when one marries, the person is really married to the entire clan and not merely the one vows are given to. Enter Madame Olenska who comes to New York with quite a baggage and they are: a topsy-turvy breakup with her philandering, aristocrat husband in Europe, an upbringing by a Bohemian aunt and worse, a great sense of independence and unconscious disregard for the proclivities of New York’s society. Newland Archer is the one compelled by the Welland and Minggot families to help Madame Olenska’s predicament and despite the reserve and stoicism of a polite gentleman in this era, Newland falls in love with Countess Olenska.

Upon reading the first chapter, one can already figure out how this pans out but you want to stay on reading for the nuances and how you believe the characters should deal with conflict such as these.

There is beautiful language and cadence of storytelling in this book, it is urbane, sentimental and even though one feels as though they are listening to gossip as the words unravel, it is somehow classy. The reader would sympathize with the characters on all sides of the argument because Edith Wharton wrote this with clarity.  There is the very conventional and obedient May Welland, the free-spirited Madame Olenska who also wants to conform for the sake of her love and Newland Archer who is wrenched between duty and desire. There is too in the end, pity for all characters in the book despite their affluence because they are after all prisoners of the society which they built and the rules which they have not written but adhere to. 

It would do one a bit of good to read this classic. 

One Year, 25 Books: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

Captain Nemo sailed away...

First off: A league equals 3 nautical miles.

I have wasted precious time by not reading this quite sooner. I did remember that "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea," the movie, was a bit alarming and unappealing to me as a wee girl because of the visions imprinted in my mind of those giant squids and the behemoths under the ocean, I thought, what a fright to be close to it with just the glass to separate man and beast, what if it broke? But this is quite a must read. Very educational although some events written here are inconceivable. That said, the voyages of the Nautilus, that fantastic submarine with Captain Nemo at the helm is a treat of a lifetime for our adventurous inner teenager.

Book:

Professor Pierre Aronnax, a curious, well mannered and enterprising biologist who heads the Les Jardin de Plantes in the Museum of Natural History in Paris is commissioned to investigate a sea creature being hunted in many oceans known as the "Narwhal.” Tales of this “beast" became taller and taller as men related it to the next one and so on; though it was discovered early on that this behemoth is none other than the formidable and wonderful submarine itself, the "Nautilus."

Prof. Aronnax with his companions Conseil, his assistant and Ned Land, a blood-thirsty harpooner first embark at the ship called the Abraham Lincoln for the hunt of the famed Narwhal. A battle takes place between the Lincoln and the "Narwhal" wherein the former gets discomfited and the three men find themselves captured by Captain Nemo inside what they have known to be a monster whale but was in fact, a submarine. Seen as enemy combatants at first, they were informed that they could choose to be executed or be treated as guests inside the vessel where they will explore the depths of the ocean, learn about marine wildlife but with the caveat of never going back to live in terra firma. For the moment, the men chose to stay. 

Their expedition takes them to very many parts of the earth’s hydrographic realm such as the Asiatic seas, the Artic and  Antarctic, Vigo Bay in Spain where treasures are found in sunken galleons, the Sagrasso Sea where there’s a higher concentration of salt compared to the other seas, the Red Sea, the same one which Moses parted, the Atlantic where they trace that mythical fallen continent Atlantis. On to spend harrowing days at the South Pole, interesting events at the Indian Ocean and even on the shores of Papua, New Guinea.  Indeed it’s quite the voyage around the world, underwater. The marine species are very vividly described here, like the zoophytes, various fishes, mollusks, crustaceans and cetaceans/whales,  all manner of corals, fucus or that seaweed with thick leathery stalks and the episode with "Bouguer’s Cuttlefish” is the one that gave me nightmares as a child though today, the case isn’t the same. Only this, I will not look at the cuttlefish the same way again. 

Transparent in this book is Verne’s fascination with the various phenomena of the sea, like  the phosphorescence,  a.k.a. St. Elmo’s fire wherein a bright translucent plasma is created by a discharge from a pointed object in a strong electrical field in the atmosphere caused by thunder and lightning storms. Navigational and nautical terms too are abundant, the Nautilus sub which was a very modern and self-sustaining vessel harnessing energy from the electrolytes of the sea has made me wonder if Verne may not have been a time traveler himself, being privy to something very advanced for the time frame when he wrote this book. I have read that many submarine makers have gleaned from and took notes from this book when making new ones in these modern times, fictitious it may be.

Just read the book why don’t you? Your sense of adventure will be awakened, encourage your children, loved ones to read it and their imagination will delve into the ocean depths. Because of it, now more than ever I have the desire to be friends with the sea, something I both fear and am awed by. 

Last, allusions overflow about this mysterious underwater genius named Captain Nemo, from anime/manga, Disney movies, TV shows, rock bands and that Sarah Brightman song and that is telltale of the mystique of this book. There is more from Jules Verne about Capt. Nemo in "The Mysterious Island," and I'm looking forward to that. El Capitan himself is left as a conundrum even after the book ends, much like his fate. Was he a madman? An executioner or a brilliant scientist that the world needed? We shall see, in my view there can never be enough spinoffs about him and I wished, this book didn't end. 

My Piece on War and Peace

I wish it was but this is not my photo...

After ages of just watching this book from afar, I was finally able to finish every bit of War and Peace two weeks ago. Yes, yes, the impulsion was from the BBC drama with the new hottest Brit actors and yes, yes, they are all fabulous but the main reason as to why I read it through this time was because, I finally had the time.

The translation I read was that of Pevear and Volokhnosky or the P & V. If you want to get on with a novel containing 1,225 pages, the P&V will grip you from the first paragraph. It’s practical but does not compromise meaning, at least I like to think so. This translation was proficient enough to hold you through Tolstoy’s philosophizing which contains so much more than the love story in the novel.

For my own clarity, I made a chart of the characters with their respective traits though I threw that out the window after key characters either died or their personality practically pivoted 180 degrees . As for the death of major characters, I found out that the first George R.R. Martin was Leo Tolstoy. It may also be advisable for one to at least have a cursory review on the Napoleonic Wars because it’s a good guide to understanding the ideology and timeline as one reads the book.

This was my first full on Russian lit other than reading some Chekov and watching Doctor Zhivago because, the Russians do have the penchant for making even musicals like "Fiddler on the Roof," well, dejecting. May I say as a post script that if one will read War and Peace only for the love story element of it as was shown in the TV drama, important contexts and pretexts will be missed especially the mindset of the author which is crucial to understanding the entire book and having a great experience with it.

War and Peace:

The story unfolds at a time when Russia was still luxuriating under Catherine the Great’s majestic shadow with her grandson Alexander I as the sovereign. It is glorious all over and our main protagonists Prince Andrew and soon to be Count Bezukhov, Pierre, are introduced in a grand fete at hostess du jour Anna Pavlovna Scherer’s palace. In this party there is enough nobility to throw around that one will wonder if peasants ever existed in Russia at all. The main characters are: Prince Andrew Bolkhonsky, a soldier ready to serve the motherland as an adjutant; Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of the dying Count Bezukhov, the third richest man in Russia; there is the family Kuragin which all of them from the father Prince Vasily and offspring Princes Anatole and Hippolyte and Princess Helene you’ll find cringeworthy; there is the Rostov family where our heroine Natasha comes from, they are generous and trusting, and there is mother and son tufthunter-tandem, Anna Mikhailovna Drubetskoya and Boris Drubetskoy.

Extensive depiction of the characters, locations, internal dialogue and description of events fill up the pages and are only interrupted by Tolstoy’s discourse on the philosophy of man, war, science and existence. War breaks out at first in 1805, the Battle of Austerliz begins and the Russians are very well defeated and Prince Andrew is wounded. After this,  a truce is met between Napoleon and the Alexander I and peace ensues but not without casualties.

The temporary armistice gives way to the love story between Prince Andrew and Countess Natasha Rostova; also, Pierre (now Count Bezukhov), marries the insatiable and capricious Helene Kuragin and the fruitful ascent of the Drubestskoys in Russian society's pecking order unfolds. Supporting but notable personages such as the insidious Dolokhov who becomes Countess Helene’s consort; the highly irritable Prince Bolkonsky Sr. (father of Prince Andrew), along with the pious Princess Mayra (Prince Andrew’s sister); the rest of the family Rostov and the plucky comic relief Denisov (with the “R” defect) are portrayed and expounded. Quite a highlight was given to Freemasonry at this juncture as Pierre Bezukhov chooses to join the brotherhood and we are even afforded an extensive view into their views and funky rites and rituals.

Extravagant balls are conducted in Moscow and Petersburg and here the reader's imagination will soar to the heights of opulence of Imperial Russia. However, since all good things must come to an end in Russian lit, Prince Andrew and Natasha’s romance suffers an about-face when the former takes a sabbatical at the behest of his father and crafty Anatole Kuragin entices innocent Natasha to elope. Though Natasha fails to abscond with the dastardly Kuragin thanks to the help of her sweet and suffering cousin Sonya, the damage has been done because a letter of refusal to Prince Andrew has been dispatched by the misguided Natasha. Blast. With her reputation tarnished, their family’s wealth dwindling and brother Nicolas off to war, Natasha falls ill and though she recovers, she becomes a changed woman, no longer the carefree songbird that we were first treated to.

On the war front, namely Borodino, Napoleon gets the itch to go to war again in 1812 and war indeed ensues. This time the consequences are of "Game of Thrones” proportions, or shouldn’t it be the other way around? Prince Andrew is mortally wounded, Pierre joins the army finally as Countess Helene’s licentiousness catches up with her, Kuragin Jr. dies and Dolokhov redeems himself by apologizing to Pierre for his past misdeeds. Though the Russians technically won the Battle of Borodino both in the book and historically, the French were still able to lay Moscow under siege as the inhabitants burned and left their capital. The Russians' act of pillaging their own villages instead of graciously surrendering to him was a tactic that frustrated Napoleon and one he could not comprehend. General Kutuzov, the Russian army chief, decides to retreat but not before barricading the French around the surrounding towns, locking them in and depriving them of food and supplies during the brutal winter. With this, Napoleon departs Russia and not long after that he goes to Waterloo where he falls spectacularly under the Duke of Wellington.

On their journey out of Moscow and unbeknownst to them at first, the Rostov family and the injured Prince Andrew were traveling in the same caravan all along. When Natasha learns that the Prince was with them, she devotes her time to nursing him in his last days and redeems herself in his eyes. Meanwhile, not all was turning rosy for Pierre, he was arrested and sentenced to hang for a plot to assassinate the Lilliputian General Napoleon but because circumstances were falling like dominoes for the French, his execution did not come to fruition but he, along with other prisoners were still held captive and were being taken to France. It was on the way there, near Borodino, where Dolokhov and Denisov rescue Pierre. With the war unwinding and everyone just having to improvisate with what’s left of people and country in Russia, the epilogues begin for ca. 1813 to 1820.

The first epilogue tells about what became of the major characters after Napoleon leaves the Russians for good. With the death of Prince Andrew, Natasha finds solace in Pierre Bezukhov and they end up together; though their families were not in good terms once, Princess Marya marries Nicholas Rostov and on this end there is a sense of victory. However, one will surmise where Tolstoy’s heart really belongs, it is in the second epilogue. It consists of eleven chapters of his dissertation on History, Philosophy, Religion, Humanity, Science and even Mathematics. In here I believe he wants to attempt to solve the puzzle that man has vis á vis his world, the Cosmos and his existence and though it is a formidable thesis, it remains only that, a thesis.

Being one of the longest novels ever written, War and Peace is a feat among literature feats. In our modern day it is touted as "one of the central works of  literature,” it was Newsweek’s number one novel among 100 in 2009 and Time Magazine’s third out of the top 10 books in 2007 and accolades have been and still continue to be written for it. While the book itself is not required to have a blissful eternity, it is good for one's curriculum vitae of books read, not in a high brow manner of speaking, but just in a bibliophile kind of way. One will feel as though they have picked up something worthwhile, it is a window to a robust history of a once grand empire, human frailties, conflicts and deficiency in war strategy are portrayed and so is depravity. It shows a madman’s desire to conquer but also, there is hope, the natural inclination to survive and the clamor for victory. 

To conclude, for those born only during and after the Cold War, this book will elucidate that there was once a fluid Russia, not a Russia that’s made of iron, damp cement and "Vodka Videos" we see on You Tube but a Russia that was unmolested by despots. Everyone recommends this book and so do I, the curiosity is there but the question though is only that of time, Da?

Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises

In case you haven’t read this yet, Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises is set in Paris in the twenties, told in the first person by the protagonist (Jake) who is an American expat-writer for a newspaper based there. Really what I got from it was mainly about how the Americans lived in Paris, spent their American money, hung about the world's liveliest city, drank Pernod among others and mingled with their fellow expats. In other words, it's a travelogue of sorts with an undefined love story in the mix. There was this woman - Lady Ashley who is so confused as ever with whom to love, she is the object of everyone’s affection that’s mentioned in the book and hooks up with all of them! Just about. Was there really a woman that existed with this much abandon in the 20’s? I mean, my mother wasn’t even born at this time yet.

The book begins to capture me only at Chapter 10 when Jake and his friend Bill treks to their fishing destination in Bayonne, France and when it did, I never placed the book down until it was done. After France, then comes Spain and things really liven up when everyone rendezvous in Pamplona for the fiesta. There are love triangles, (love pentagons really), more drinking and this specimen of a bullfighter named “Romero”. How Hemingway describes the Torero's moves made me feel as if I was the wind that passed in between the bull and the fighter's body as he executed his forms in pristine ways during the bullfights. One will feel that they know everything there is to know about Bullfighting after reading this novel.  I believe there’s more of this in another Hemingway book named, “Death in the Afternoons” which I’m going to have to check out now because of this chapter. Fishing too is written with dedication even more than the love story angle, and drinking - from subtle wines to the wicked, wicked Absinthe is a staple, I was surprised there was no extra chapter just on liver cirrhosis. 

Seriously though, on a recommendation note, go ahead and read this if you like, it’s a classic in American Lit and even if you’re not into this sort of thing, it’s a travelogue at best and that kind is one of my favorites.