Customer Reviews:
In the best tradition of first contact novels!.......2006-05-10
This stunning novel is in the best tradition of first contact novels. The main character, an anthropologist, somehow manages to keep herself alive among challenging circumstances, and finds the right informant to learn about a pre-industrial culture on a wildly beautiful and unspoiled planet.
Arnason's writing is genial and comforting. She has a knack for immediacy--it feels like the protagonist is a close friend imparting an adventure. Dialogue is snappy yet meticulous. The plot is strong and maintains stamina. This is sci-fi with its roots in an eco/feminist perspective similar to Le Guin or Tepper. All of the above and a page turner too!
excellent story telling.......2002-06-02
Eleanor Arnason is a gifted writer, of whom, I am sure we will
be hearing alot more from. The story is magical. The only
exception I have with the book, is the future written about
by Eleanor of earth. The book is copyrighted 1991 and the story is set at least two centuries in the future and the author
still depicts a historically viable soviet union and a marxist, Engelian
socialist future, which on the face of the story, is absurd.
Also why do they keep putting a picture of a woman holding a
skull of the cover of the hardback and paperback? What does this
have to do with the story?
A+ : a wonderful anthropological first-contact novel........2001-07-29
There's always some trepidation when one begins to re-read a fondly-remembered book. Will it hold up? Will it be as good as I remember? Happily, Ms. Arnason's wonderful prose soon caught me once again inher spell....
Lixia, the viewpoint character, is a Hawaiian anthropologist from an
Earth still recovering from the excesses of the 20th century. She's
nerving herself up to enter her first alien village at Sigma Draconis --
'There was no point in sneaking around. If they caught me spying, I'd be
in real trouble. The best thing was to walk right in.
The technique hadn't worked in New Jersey, of course. The people there
had tried to sacrifice me to their god, the Destroyer of Cities...'
Nia, a woman of the Iron People, is a smith and a pervert - she once loved
a man. Her neighbors drove her from their village in disgrace. Now
she has a smithy near a village of the Copper People -- the village Lixia had
come to study. Lixia's first contact doesn't go well -- she is driven out. Nia
takes her in, befriends her, and they become travel companions. The next
village they visit is kinder:
"This person without fur is amazing. She knows nothing about
anything. But she is willing to listen, and she doesn't interrupt."
Lixia and Nia are joined by Dexter Seawarrior, Ph.D., an Angeleno
aborigine. His people prize mellowness and truth; Dexter is devious
and ambitious. He left his tribe, went to school, and is now a tenured
professor at Berkeley....
The book is filled with complicated people, some of them human,muddling through life.
"When a shamaness of an alien village, having handled for the momentthe problem of an alien intruder, walks away complaining aloud, 'Why do these things always happen to me?' the reader knows she's in trustworthy hands. High marks." -- Suzy McKee Charnas
-- plus more nice cover blurbs from P. Sargent, Ch. Platt, MJ Engh, John
Sladek, Gw. Jones & UK Le Guin. They liked it, I liked it, and you will too.
Happy reading!
Pete Tillman
Something to think about........1998-01-20
The world-building in this book was superb. Set on the home planet of the only other sentient species ever found, the characters in this book are anthropologists who are trying to understand this new kind of intelligent life. In the process, they discover more about themselves than the objects of their studies. Listed as a Utopian novel in many reviews, it is not. However, it does include a distinct future Earth (in the human anthropologist's memories, actions, and attitudes) that could be described as a Utopia of sorts. This is a book for those of us who like to think, and it's one of the best books of this kind I have ever read. Do try it.
Book Description
This book is an in-depth analysis of how the National Woman's Party's militancy evolved during the period of early twentieth century feminism and American suffrage as a response to the intransigence of male-centered government. Working first as aggressive political lobbyists in an era of progressive reform, the militants brought their struggle on into a period of war hysteria in which they developed an effective strategy of nonviolent civil disobedience as anti-government dissenters. Feminist militancy and readiness to resist authorities and break the law for women's rights developed gradually. Women militants, composed of a wide variety of intensely committed women, were not shy about critiqueing male oppression and in turn, male authorities responded to the perceived threat of these unnatural "iron-jawed" females. This study examines the nature of these militants, with biographical sketches, and their evolution from petitions to pickets to prison. Selected by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in the United States as an outstanding book.
Customer Reviews:
Educational.......2005-07-30
I purchased the book after viewing the HBO special because I wanted to compare history and Hollywood. I was very impressed by the in-depth history given in the book. It is very educational without having a feminist overtone. I wanted to learn what the "Ironed Jawed Angels" did to change the course of women's lives, and to learn about those women who received the well earned nickname. Some of there are nothing short of fascinating. These women not only endured physical violence, but actually inflicted physical pain on themselves in order to get the press's attention. Nothing new about it now but back then it was pioneering. I learned a lot from this book and I have a new found appreciation for my rights that these women faught and died for. This is espcially hellpful for research purposes if you are in school.
Understanding militant feminism.......2004-03-30
Unlike militant feminism in England, which destroyed property, the militant movement in the United States was expressed in parades, speeches, banners, and other techniques designed to attract publicity and further the suffrage cause, according to Linda Ford. Suffrage techniques were not violent, but they attracted violence, especially during World War I. Ford provides a history of the militant movement, biographies of militant feminists, a thoughtful analysis of the techniques the militants used and a balanced look at their accomplishments This is a scholarly work and resembles the video based on it only slightly. The previous reviewer who said that it was even better because it provided many more facts was correct. The book is interesting and very readable, providing much needed insight into a part of the suffrage movement few of us have heard enough about.
Iron Jawed Angels.......2004-01-26
This book is great. It is better than the movie. It made me, as a woman, understand what all the fuss was about and how hard these woman worked to get what they wanted. I really admire these women for what they stood for and for going through all of this for all the women everywhere. Thanks ladies.
Average customer rating:
- Funny, but could lead to salmonella
- For complete idiots
- hilarious & helpful
- Finally, an Instruction Manual for Marriage!!!
- Pleasing Your Woman
|
How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt: The Perfect Husband Handbook Featuring Over 50 Foolproof Ways to Win, Woo & Wow Your Wife
Craig Boreth
Manufacturer: Three Rivers Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Love, Sex & Marriage
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Self-Help & Psychology
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General
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Marriage
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General
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Motivational
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Behave Yourself!: The Essential Guide to International Etiquette
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How to Satisfy Your Woman Every Time: The Straight Guy's Guide to Housework and Good Grooming
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How to Be the Almost Perfect Husband: By Wives Who Know
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The Best Kitchen Quick Tips: 534 Tricks, Techniques, and Shortcuts for the Curious Cook
Accessories:
-
Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer
ASIN: 1400053625
Release Date: 2005-04-26 |
Book Description
PERFECT HUSBANDS ARE MADE, NOT BORN
LADIES: At long last, a practical guide to help your man become the perfect husband. How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt is your salvation, with simple, easy-for-a-guy-to-follow instructions on those little things you can never get him to do, such as:
• How to Put the Toilet Seat Down
• How to Stop Snoring
• How to Ask for Directions
• Plus, more than 50 other essential topics (even How to Dance at a Wedding)
It’s a must-have guide that will finally convince him it’s in his best interest to make you happy, no matter what it takes.
GUYS: Don’t panic. It’s not how perfect you are, it’s how perfect she thinks you are. How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt is your key to the castle. Imagine what she’ll let you get away with if you master a few skills, such as:
• How to Appear Calm While She’s Driving
• How to Apologize Convincingly
• How to Enjoy a Chick Flick
• Plus, more than 50 other essential topics (even How to Hide Your Porn)
How to Iron Your Own Damn Shirt includes countless tips and tricks for keeping you sane, keeping her happy, and keeping you both laughing.
Customer Reviews:
Funny, but could lead to salmonella.......2006-01-18
This is a lightweight, funny read for the totally clueless male. Watch out, however, for the Tiramisu recipe which calls for using raw egg yolks. The proper method is to combine the liquor, sugar and egg yolks and wisk them in a double boiler until the sauce thickens (170 degrees), killing any bacteria and fluffing up the mixture. Just a tip to help you get your just des[s]erts.
For complete idiots.......2005-10-22
This book is a stinker, a really lame effort. The audience is apparently newly married midwestern ex-frat boys. Written in the breezy jocular tone of such junky magazines as GQ and Details. Extremely shallow. Wallows in the stereotype of men as beer-swilling, farting, football-loving oafs; overworks the tired concept of "the war between the sexes." If you like this you are 100% normal and probably watch lots of television.
hilarious & helpful.......2005-09-21
My review heading pretty much sums this book up. It provides some genuinely good advice while being funny at the same time. You'll get some good tips and have a good time reading it and I think women will enjoy it too.
Finally, an Instruction Manual for Marriage!!!.......2005-09-07
After hearing the author on the Howard Stern show, I had to check out this book. I'm glad I did, as the book actually presents loads of useful ideas and tips for all of us husbands looking for that 'edge'. The book is a very easy read, and can be read cover-to-cover or individual chapters as needed. Although the book has a tongue-in-cheek veneer, this is a sincere book with useful ideas in every chapter, presented in a funny way where you find yourself saying, "I've been in that EXACT situation." No preaching or talking-down in this book...
My favorite chapter is the last one, where Boreth relates a brief story where one of his friends is in Vegas and proceeds to max out the daily limit on his ATM card...and later that day his wife is unable to buy food for their daughter...classic example of what NOT to do as a husband...he even then names the offender, Gary Lipshutz of Metuchen NJ, in hopes of shaming him out of future similar behavior.
In short, the tips in this book have enabled me to parlay my 'good husbandness' into not only an annual Vegas trip, but also an annual 4-day golf outing with the guys plus multiple random nights out during the year. In turn, I have also encouraged my wife to take a weekend trip with her mother and sister, or her friends...
Thank you Craig Boreth, for making me a more perfect husband!
Pleasing Your Woman.......2005-08-09
Since my husband irons his own shirt every morning, the title caught my attention. I've always been impressed by his ironing abilities especially if it allows me to sleep a little longer. I loved the chapter on finding the perfect gift, breakfast in bed and grocery shopping, not to mention the recipes for Crème Brûlée and making Stir-Fry.
I'll agree that men who can cook and clean are very sexy. Just tell a woman you do these things and she will probably forget all other men exist. Imagine how she will be bragging about you to her friends and relatives. There is also a chapter on how to Win Over Her Parents, Enjoy a Chick Flick and Grow the Perfect Lawn. Each task has a difficulty rating and a reward rating.
The main concept in this book seems to be about showing a woman you care about making her life a little less stressful and much more romantic. Even the smallest effort will not go unnoticed and I can almost guarantee a woman will be most appreciative and plan romantic situations to reward such kindness. Plus, with all the time she saves not having to iron shirts, imagine the possibilities.
Craig Boreth is a truly talented writer who has written for major publications. He also has quite the varied life experience as a landscape architect, chef, electrician and carpenter. He joins the ranks of authors like W. Bruce Cameron, Steven Andrew Guerrero and Mike Dugan who provide humorous insight into the male psyche and also love women and take pride in making a woman's life more enjoyable.
I look forward to reading any book Craig Boreth writes because he also completely understands the female psyche and his wit and comedic timing is perfect.
~TheRebeccaReview.com
Product Description
Simply the best guide available on cast iron cooking by the renowned wood's woman, Mignonne Pearson. Recipes are Boy Scout tested for preparation ease and great taste. Features basic and creative instructions for how to use cast iron pots in the kitchen or while camping. The unique easel design stays open on a countertop or hangs on a tree. It slips easily into a backpack, but this little classic should have a reserved place on your cookbook shelf.
Customer Reviews:
Just What We Needed.......2005-11-29
This little book saved our lives when our Troop decided to have a contest at the campout. All of the kids in the new patrols had to prepare a meal to compete with the rest of the older kids. We didn't know exactly where to start with our planning until one of the boys brought a cookbook his dad used around the house and when he went deer hunting. We noticed right away how it listed what to buy, how much charcoal to use to get the right temperature and how long to cook it. The instructions were real easy to follow. The tips on seasoning found in the book made it easy to decide how they wanted it to taste. The guys had everything they needed to prepare the meal. Their fire was perfect and they didn't over-cook anything. The judges were impressed with their knowledge about the ingredients, the simple steps they took to start their fire, and how good the food tasted. They didn't win first place, but all of the other guys hung around during preparation and time to sample the food. The kids were so proud of not being out done by the older guys and being the center of attention during the contest. Every Patrol leader wanted a copy of our cookbook....Judy Dalrymple, Coppell Texas.
A must-have cookbook for cast iron cooking.......2005-11-08
I'm not much of a cook, and I'm usually pretty intimidated by cookbooks, so when I received this cookbook as a gift, I didn't think that things would be different. I was wrong! This cookbook literally leads you by the hand and tells you everything you need to know to use a cast iron Dutch oven-both indoors and outdoors.
The recipes are easy to follow, with everyday ingredients and very few steps. It's very practical for use when camping since the recipes call for many boxed and canned ingredients. Nothing beats cooking at your campsite. Just be prepared for all of the other campers who will come by and want a taste! And don't worry if you don't camp out. Every recipe tells you how to prepare the dish in your kitchen as well as outdoors.
By far the best thing about this cookbook is that I now know how to use a Dutch oven to make more than just pot roast and stew. The are recipes for lots of other dishes, including lasagna!! Plus, there are recipes for breads, veggie side dishes, and even desserts.
If you've got a cast iron Dutch oven sitting on a shelf in your kitchen, you should have this cookbook!
Average customer rating:
- A wonderful anthropological first-contact novel. Highly recommended
|
In the Light of Sigma Draconis (A Woman of the Iron People, Part 1)
Eleanor Arnason
Manufacturer: Avon Books (Mm)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Arnason, Eleanor
| ( A )
| Authors, A-Z
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
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ASIN: 0380756374 |
Customer Reviews:
A wonderful anthropological first-contact novel. Highly recommended.......2007-03-14
[NOTE: this is volume one of the two-volume mmpb reprint, but it's
really just one novel. So be sure you buy both if you get this edition!]
There's always some trepidation when one begins to re-read a
fondly-remembered book. Will it hold up? Will it be as good as I
remember? Happily, Ms. Arnason's wonderful prose soon caught me
once again in her spell....
Lixia, the viewpoint character, is a Hawaiian anthropologist from an
Earth still recovering from the excesses of the 20th century. She's
nerving herself up to enter her first alien village at Sigma Draconis --
'There was no point in sneaking around. If they caught me spying, I'd be
in real trouble. The best thing was to walk right in.
The technique hadn't worked in New Jersey, of course. The people there
had tried to sacrifice me to their god, the Destroyer of Cities...'
Nia, a woman of the Iron People, is a smith and a pervert - she once loved
a man. Her neighbors drove her from their village in disgrace. Now
she has a smithy near a village of the Copper People -- the village Lixia had
come to study. Lixia's first contact doesn't go well -- she is driven out. Nia
takes her in, befriends her, and they become travel companions. The next
village they visit is kinder:
"This person without fur is amazing. She knows nothing about
anything. But she is willing to listen, and she doesn't interrupt."
Lixia and Nia are joined by Dexter Seawarrior, Ph.D., an Angeleno
aborigine. His people prize mellowness and truth; Dexter is devious
and ambitious. He left his tribe, went to school, and is now a tenured
professor at Berkeley....
The book is filled with complicated people, some of them human,muddling
through life.
"When a shamaness of an alien village, having handled for the moment
the problem of an alien intruder, walks away complaining aloud, 'Why
do these things always happen to me?' the reader knows she's in
trustworthy hands. High marks." -- Suzy McKee Charnas
-- plus more nice cover blurbs from P. Sargent, Ch. Platt, MJ Engh,
John Sladek, Gw. Jones & UK Le Guin. They liked it, I liked it,
and you will too.
Happy reading!
Peter D. Tillman
Review first published in 2000 at Infinity-plus
Customer Reviews:
A wonderful anthropological first-contact novel. Highly recommended,.......2007-03-14
[NOTE: this is volume TWO of the two-volume mmpb reprint, but it's
really just one novel. So be sure you buy both if you get this edition!]
There's always some trepidation when one begins to re-read a
fondly-remembered book. Will it hold up? Will it be as good as I
remember? Happily, Ms. Arnason's wonderful prose soon caught me
once again in her spell....
Lixia, the viewpoint character, is a Hawaiian anthropologist from an
Earth still recovering from the excesses of the 20th century. She's
nerving herself up to enter her first alien village at Sigma Draconis --
'There was no point in sneaking around. If they caught me spying, I'd be
in real trouble. The best thing was to walk right in.
The technique hadn't worked in New Jersey, of course. The people there
had tried to sacrifice me to their god, the Destroyer of Cities...'
Nia, a woman of the Iron People, is a smith and a pervert - she once loved
a man. Her neighbors drove her from their village in disgrace. Now
she has a smithy near a village of the Copper People -- the village Lixia had
come to study. Lixia's first contact doesn't go well -- she is driven out. Nia
takes her in, befriends her, and they become travel companions. The next
village they visit is kinder:
"This person without fur is amazing. She knows nothing about
anything. But she is willing to listen, and she doesn't interrupt."
Lixia and Nia are joined by Dexter Seawarrior, Ph.D., an Angeleno
aborigine. His people prize mellowness and truth; Dexter is devious
and ambitious. He left his tribe, went to school, and is now a tenured
professor at Berkeley....
The book is filled with complicated people, some of them human,muddling
through life.
"When a shamaness of an alien village, having handled for the moment
the problem of an alien intruder, walks away complaining aloud, 'Why
do these things always happen to me?' the reader knows she's in
trustworthy hands. High marks." -- Suzy McKee Charnas
-- plus more nice cover blurbs from Pamela Sargent, Charles Platt,
MJ Engh,John Sladek, Gwyneth Jones & Ursula K Le Guin. They liked it,
I liked it, and you will too, I bet.
Happy reading!
Peter D. Tillman
Review first published in 2000 at Infinity-plus
Average customer rating:
- DESTROY THE IGNRANT ONE DESTROY
|
The Iron Woman
Ted Hughes , and
Barry Moser
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Science Fiction
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Teens
| Subjects
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Moser, Barry
| ( M )
| Authors & Illustrators, A-Z
| Children's Books
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General
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| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
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ASIN: B0001PBYYK |
Customer Reviews:
DESTROY THE IGNRANT ONE DESTROY.......1999-07-05
I REALLY LIKE YOUR BOOK AND I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE A REPLY TO SAY THANKYOU OR SOME INFORMATOIN
Book Description
Well-known as an international bestseller and award-winning film, The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles is magnificent entertainment. This virtuoso reading by Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons is storytelling at its best. Fowles' intricate portrait of Victorian relationships and love, brought to life by Irons' artistry, will haunt you long after the story ends. 2 cassettes.
Customer Reviews:
A for effort.......2006-10-13
This is ultimately a mock Vicotrian novel. Not that there's no place for that in the world of literature. Mock inventions are notable and necessary, and besides, no one knows what's going on in the mind of a writer. Why would one attempt artful imitation rather than writing the "real thing?" Fowles has produced a faux novel. Maybe he wants us to hearken back to the clash of modernism and romanticism. Maybe he wants to wax nostalgic about times when it seemed like there was a chance to counter the relentless increase in the slavery of souls as Marx calculated; when there was, at least, a hope that things might be made right in the world. So he wrote a "Romantic" Victorian romance; Charlotte Bronte did it best. An anti- romance,is there any other kind? Replete with feckless heros and heroines, and stereotyped "villains" caught up in the machinery of Victorian life--even as we still know it. He made sure to tell us things have not changed by inserting enough of his 20th century consciousness. The wheel was invented long ago, and it was and still is round; nothing but a miralce is going to change that.
Fowles' effort is estimably valuable, and his prose is swooning and artful,as well as a labored pastiche; although the book may not be many readers cup of tea. It is important that we relive the frustrations of life through art, regardless of the period of the production. Art holds the mirror to life, and the modernist novelists of the late Victorian era were pre-eminent in their patient use of language to paint nuances of human experience. The best of them were brilliant, and Fowles pays them homage,and wishes he was one of them. They captured their time for our instruction and delight, and they did a wonderful job. They were courageous,and roundly rejected by the public and literati of the times. So, in a sense, bravo to Fowles for worshipping at their altar; rehashing and championing their cause.
Why he wouldn't take it up to warp speed; things aren't, and won't be much different in the future;perhaps only worse, was his choice. He is obviously in love with the period, as much as he is in hate with it; no difference. He spins a timeless tale of frustration, denial, and human isolation and limitation. I haven't finished the book yet, but I know there won't be any redemption offered. Fowles's outright message making, his philosopic outpourings,better done by scholars,are nevertheless courageous, as well as repetitive and embarassing. It was done better by the dedicated philosophers of the times he writes about.
He tries hard to get it right, and he captures the essentialls of locked down life in any age;he is to be admired for that. Although I wish he would have stuck to his own age--maybe one could say, acted his own age (maybe he was just having a good time?). But he's dead now, and maybe he's smiling down on us, not sneering, but enjoying his own wonderful talent for language, thought and artifice; living off the ghosts of the genuine Victorian artists who lived what he has copied.
Human duality.......2006-09-18
I had not seen the movie of The French Lieutenant's Woman until recently, so I did not know what to expect from the novel. I thought it might be a romantic thriller set during one of the world wars and was surprised to read a book set in one of my favorite English periods, the Victorian, written from the perspective of the late 1960s.
The waning aristocracy is represented by Charles Smithson, dilettante and heir to his aging, unmarried uncle's wealth and title. His bride-to-be, Ernestina Freeman, heiress to the fortune her father has accumulated at his enormous London emporium, represents the rising, affluent middle class. While Charles and Tina seem to share the idealized Victorian view of marriage and family life, they are also keenly aware that their engagement is a legal contract that will benefit each of them in different ways. After Mr. Freeman's death, Charles will gain control over the family's money. For Tina, marriage means an entrée into the aristocracy, elevating her above being a mere "tradesman's daughter."
This is only one of many Victorian dualities that Fowles highlights; he is not subtle about his theme. Darwin's theory, as seen by the science dabbler Charles, is as harsh as practitioners of Christianity like Mrs. Poulteney. The advantage of evolution seems to be its lack of bias and judgment. Charles, unwilling or unable to adapt to a changing society in which money is coming to matter more than manners, is as much a victim of evolution as Sarah appears to be of the hypocritical morality of Mrs. Poulteney's religion.
Idealized Victorian life centered on the home and family. The poem that Ernestina reads to her contracted lover is about a sterile, lofty form of love devoid of real passion--and it promptly puts Charles to sleep. According to Fowles, it was believed that respectable women merely tolerated men's carnal desires, but did not share them. Ernestina "must not" think about such things, even though they are natural. Nature is to be controlled. She is shown mostly within the confines of her aunt's house or social settings. In contrast, Sarah Woodruff, the French lieutenant's woman, is first seen at the end of the seawall, in the wind, exposed symbolically to the world. Later, Charles discovers her "on that wild cliff meadow"; at some point, he "recalled very vividly how she had lain that day." Charles sees her in a way in which he will never see Ernestina; she is sleeping openly in a natural position which is, not surprisingly, sexually suggestive.
If the close-minded, tightly clothed Ernestina represents the Victorian marriage-and-family ideal, Sarah seems to represent the unspoken male ideal, at least for men like Charles--a natural woman, a woman of intelligence, of spirit and independence, who is not afraid to shun the ideal in favor of the real, to prefer passion to posturing. Her interactions with Charles make the "love" of Charles and Ernestina seem like the play-acting of children. Even with Sarah, however, Charles cannot escape the duality of his perceptions and desires. "He was at one and the same time Varguennes enjoying her and the man who sprang forward and struck him down; just as Sarah was to him both an innocent victim and a wild, abandoned woman."
While Ernestina sees herself in the perfect Victorian marriage--one in which love is pure, and carnal demands are submitted to primarily to produce the ideal family--Fowles shows some of the alternatives. There is the prostitute mother, for whom sex is a mechanical means to the end of supporting herself and her child. There is Mrs. Tomkins, intent on producing the rich heir to what would have been Charles's title and inheritance. There is Mary, and the servants and country girls like her, who see sex as a way to land a man but who also seem to enjoy it for its own sake. There is Mrs. Poulteney, whom one can never imagine experiencing love of any kind, pure or not. There is the sexualized Sarah, the French lieutenant's whore, whom Charles encounters in the wild, in a natural state unencumbered by social expectations. There is also the Sarah of one proposed ending, the sophisticate artist's assistant in London, committed to her single status and her freedom.
The narrator often intrudes into the story, deliberately undermining it. Just as the reader may be getting wrapped up in the odd, tension-filled relationship between Charles and Sarah, the narrator interjects a comment from contemporary times; words like "computer" clash with the old-fashioned stays of Mrs. Poulteney's dress and the limits of her mentality. While drawing us into the Victorian world, the narrator pulls us back with his ironic, detached commentary on what he wants us to understand is fiction if not fantasy. Charles and Sarah are no more real to a man of the 1960s than the mores of Victorian society.
While the Victorians may have feared the power of sex and desire, the narrator points out that we have succeeded where the Victorians did not of stripping sex of that power. He notes that, by his time, any relationship that is more than casual quickly becomes sexual. For Charles and Sarah, the tension is cumulative, building to a proportional climax. By the 1960s, Charles would simply have dumped Ernestina and gone to bed with Sarah as a matter of routine, transforming sex into as casual an activity as changing the sheets. It is instant impulse fulfillment, which is no more satisfying than ongoing denial without release.
The French Lieutenant's Woman is filled with philosophical, historical, religious, scientific, and literary references that alone make it a fascinating novel. They reveal the numerous and often conflicting ideas that made Queen Victoria's time, a time of evolution, so vibrant and complex. With its twists on the conventional novel and love story and its sweeping perspective, The French Lieutenant's Woman is a remarkable achievement in 20th-century literature.
Emperor has no clothes........2006-09-09
This is one of those books that appeal to the pretentious. The author is self-conscious and clever and has obviously written it with literary critics and English teachers and the sort of pseudo-intellectual that hangs out in New York cafes in mind. The actual story was the last thing on his mind and it shows--the whole thing is a pastiche with what plot there is used to parade his annoying characters (Camus or Satre heroes in Victorian dress) and to make annoying observations (all the last word in philosophy circa 1960 but really dull in 2006). Nothing could be more contrived than the alternate endings that one must pick from. The reader does not want to pick an ending, to be truthful, because the author has not made the reader CARE. I think I will continue reading actual Victorian novels, by the likes of Dickens, Trollope and Eliot rather than ever bothering to re-read this nonsense.
Sexually Charged .......2006-09-06
Rules versus liberation, religion versus Jesus, slavery versus freedom, death versus evolution, John Fowles pits these against each other in his sexually-charged The French Lieutenant's Woman. However, Fowles' book is not a romance, in the traditional sense, but is more a discussion about the author's rebellion against the process of writing a romance. When Charles Smithson discovers Sarah Woodruff sleeping in the Undercliff, he is unaware how much his life is going to change. He does not know that she will fuel his evolution from the historical, religious, and social stance on sexuality toward a life liberated and free of those same institutions.
His backward glance at Victorian England highlights the two-faced nature of sexuality. Men are allowed a few extra-contractual jaunts with women, while women are viewed as tarnished goods for those same sexual experiences. Religion, society, and the law have clearly lain down the rules detailing what is proper regarding sex. Fowles attempts to discuss the evolution that would be necessary for society to progress beyond this point. He seems to say that is someone was willing to go against the sexual morays of the time and could get people to follow him that he could lead the sexual (r)-evolution. It is interesting that the man who tries it in the novel is named Charles, as much attention is given to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. However, only the living can evolve, and the novel also seems to say that most people of Victorian times are dead, not willing to change, and not willing to live.
While he struggles between giving in to society's expectations or breaking away from his former self and the rules, Charles makes himself an outcast, much like Sarah is at the beginning of the novel. He has a sort of St. Paul on the road to Damascus experience, even though Fowles says he refuses to make the comparison between the two. Charles is a man fighting against history and social biology. While he clearly wants to enjoy the carnal pleasures of sex, he is wary of the consequences, acquiring a disease, becoming an outcast, and receiving social scrutiny. On the other hand, he underestimates the power of the social construct and the magnitude of the (r)-evolution he is attempting to effectuate, an example of which is shown in his apparent shock in response to the legal papers from Ernestina's father. He is a punch-drunk lover caught in an evolutionary trap that is teasing him to revolt against the foundations of history, a tough lot indeed.
Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
French Lieutenants Women.......2006-02-23
A clearly read rendition of this novel. I would have preferred an unabridged version but was pleased with the quality of these tapes.
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A Woman of Iron
Sheila Holland
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Contemporary
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| Literature & Fiction
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ASIN: 0002229145 |
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