After reading several non-fiction books earlier this year, i decided to take a break and read some fiction. One of my favorite books of all time is “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Bronte, and so eighteen months or so ago i had picked up another of her books, “Villette”, the long rambling fictional memoir of a homely but passionate English woman who ends up teaching at a French boarding school and pining after a couple of different men. I only got about halfway through it at that time, so last month i decided to pick it up from the library and finish it.
Prior to that, Nathan and i picked up “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, since i was probably the only American public school student in the nineties who for whatever reason never read it. He read it to me over the course of a few weeks (yes, you read that correctly. We’re that cute). The story about a futuristic society that is willingly void of both pain and love was thought-provoking and entertaining, but had an ending that i found to be rather depressing, even if it’s meant to be vague and possibly hopeful.
I never would have imagined that these two books had anything in common, but when i finished Villette last night i was amazed to find that their endings are quite similar.
Lois Lowry ends “The Giver” with a scene that can be interpreted as either the last hallucination of a dying person or the actual attainment of a very unlikely dream. Lowry herself says that she “doesn’t think” that the protagonist just dies, but it’s pretty difficult to convince oneself otherwise. Being a realist, i assumed the worst, and felt a little disappointed by it. It’s fitting though, and i accepted it as a sort of Orwellian cautionary tale.
Villette is the story of the mostly un-charmed and lonely life of Lucy Snowe. One can’t help but hope that she’ll end up being loved by someone, and finally toward the end of the book her friend M. Emmanuel gives her his love and promises to marry her – but he is about to embark for Guadeloupe and won’t return for three years. And so she waits for three years, and declares to the reader that they were actually the happiest three years of her life. Then, on the very last page, she describes the terrible storm that struck on the day her lover was to return to her at last. She keeps the outcome hidden though, and encourages us to imagine that she lived happily ever after. As if that were possible! There was no lesson in this book, no poetic reason for life to have completely crapped on Lucy Snowe once and for all, destroying whatever little happiness she had finally managed to attain. After reading 580 pages of her struggles, i wanted a happy ending, damn it! Why did it have to be another “probably this is not a happy ending, but go ahead and imagine that it actually was” sort of thing?!
I’m going back to non-fiction!
In all honesty, i enjoyed reading Villette if only for the language. The English is flowery and passionate, and the smattering of French was a nice refresher-course for me. Still, i’m having second thoughts about picking up where i left off in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” I already know that the ending of that one is rather less than uplifting.
Friday, July 17th, 2009 2:05 pm • books
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July 17th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
The Giver was the first book I ever read twice because I liked it so much.
July 18th, 2009 at 3:07 am
“For your foray back to non-fiction, I recommend ‘I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell’ heh heh heh heh heh,” he said with a devilish grin.
July 21st, 2009 at 9:34 pm
That’s so weird – I just read “The Giver” recently also (by myself, to myself, because I don’t have a sickeningly cute relationship that allows for otherwise) since I had ALSO never read it… I felt the same way that you did when reaching the end. Except I so desperately wanted a happy ending that I chose to interpret it the optimistic way. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it though… Despite being the Queen of Vague, I only like to BE vague, not have someone be vague TO me.
Dammit, now I want to go read a book and every single one I own is in a box somewhere. Also: I should be spending my time packing, not reading.
Keep updating us on the books you read – it’s nice to get recommendations through a means other than wandering through Target and picking random things up.
July 21st, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Also, I apparently use the word “also” a lot. Bad Kelly.