Henry James-The Turn of the Screw

Henry James-The Turn of the Screw

Back in the early 1980's when I first read The Turn of the Screw, I had heard that it was terrifying, but at that time, I did not find it particularly unusual or unsettling. At best, it was eerie. Last year, I saw a BBC version of it with Colin Firth and Jodhi May, and I found that version too to be unremarkable. The Turn of the Screw is about two children living on the large estate who are possessed by ghosts and their nanny's efforts to save them. Dracula, and Frankenstein have endured for generations. I don't think The Turn of the Screw has held up the same way. The themes of preying on the innocent are the same as Dracula, but The Turn of the Screw does not shock and terrify today's reader in the same timeless way. It  really did not move me.

I think part of the problem is that Hollywood has inundated me, and all of us, with so many ghost stories and hauntings that we are jaded and unimpressed with the original versions of these tales of the occult. For the Victorian sensibility, this tale was probably novel and terrifying. The occult for them was all the rage, and James certainly fed that frenzy.

Bram Stoker's Dracula

I am in the Halloween mood and realize there are a ton of classics that are scary!
I read this novel so many years ago that I sometimes confuse the plot line with the hundreds of movies made about the Count and his minions. I have decided not expound on any passages or scenes in case I am yet again confused. Confusion and all, the book is nevertheless chilling. When I read the novel at about the age of twenty, it dawned on me that maybe Dracula was having sex with his victims while he was drinking their blood. Knowing everything when you are twenty,(wink) I told my mother this revelation and she said sarcastically, "You really think so?" I think these themes of rape and exploitation of the vulnerable are why this book continues to repulse and seduce readers and is why it is the best horror classic ever written.

Whitby in the north of England was the inspiration for Stoker's setting and I traveled there on two occasions in my twenties. The town is gothically gorgeous. It is a fishing village nestled between two bluffs along a rocky coastline where it always seems to be raining. The beautiful ruins of an ancient abbey stand vigil on one of the cliffs overlooking the town. I was so taken with the landscape that I used it as the template for Kilkerry in my first novel Beyond the Cliffs of Kerry. It is not hard to imagine Mina seated on one of the benches by the abbey in a trance waiting for the Count. Believe me, my imagination raced when I walked along cliffs. Bram Stoker's Dracula will continue to hypnotize and seduce readers too for centuries to come. 

The Works of Edgar Allen Poe

Edgar Allen Poe-His works

Since I was a teenager, Poe's poem, From Childhood's Hour has resonated for me in a way I am sure it resonates for many artists. It is about being different and thinking differently. I have always loved his melancholy verse and, of course, his down right terrifying Gothic short stories.
I was so inspired by Poe's work that I wove a scene into my novel, The Pride of the King from The Fall of the House of Usher and The Premature Burials (A woman in a coma was buried alive, woke up, pulled the bell cord from the coffin before she suffocated just in time to be "saved by the bell.").
I also took inspiration from his rich description of the rooms in The Masque of the Red Death as well. To this day I can still see the brilliantly colored rooms. Poe makes the point that, no matter how hard you try to physically protect yourself from evil, it will find you.

It reminds me of the themes in M. Night Shyamalan's movie "The Village."
Back in 2009, I toured Poe's home in Philadelphia where he and his wife rented rooms. It was empty and soooo much better than going to a museum fully renovated and furnished with period pieces. The structure was undergoing its first renovation to become a museum after being a private dwelling since the time Poe had live there. It was run down and the museum staff had stripped out the modern fixtures revealing the original flooring and wallpaper. The best part of the tour was when the guide pulled up a floor board in one of the rooms Poe and his wife had rented. She showed us the hairpins that had been dropped down accidentally between wood flooring by some woman that has lived there years and years earlier. Perhaps it had been Poe's wife. It was almost as if they had just moved out. The guide said that Poe's wife had died there. It was such a personal and intimate glimpse into their lives, all because of a few hair pins. I have never forgotten it.

Dickens-The Pickwick Papers

Charles Dickens

Somewhere along the line Dickens has become known as quaint. Hollywood producers and animators have made his work to be almost in the genre of Children's Lit. Anyone who picks up Dicken's novels will find his writing to be dark and violent. Oliver Twist is a prime example. It involves child labor and exploitation, child abuse, domestic violence, kidnapping and murder. Although I adore the movie musical Oliver and love that animation has brought Dickens to kids, the book is heavy with troubling themes. Dicken's novels are much more than cute characters eating plum pudding; they are an expose' of HIS present day society. Imagine if a contemporary author wrote about these issues today and in our current vernacular. Wow! I probably wouldn't want to read them.
In Dec. of 2010, I completed The Pickwick Papers. It was the last Dicken's novel for me to read. It has taken many years to complete the goal of reading every work of Charles Dickens, but I have NO regrets! To me, he is the finest story teller and character creator of all time.

THE PICKWICK PAPERS
This was not one of Dicken's novels that I was excited about, but I found it to be a really fun book (now I contradict myself about all his books being dark).

It was different from his other novels in that it seemed to be more of a series of unrelated vignettes about the various adventures of the Pickwickians as they traveled England, rather than a novel that followed a linear plot line. I loved Joe, the carriage boy who had Narcolepsy and Sam Weller, the valet and friend of Mr. Pickwick, such a "solid citizen with great common sense.
Although these impressions stand out for me, I found it fascinating to see, in the various adventures of the club members and characters, a glimpse into future Dickens novels. Since it was his first(or thereabouts) novel, I saw characters and settings that he used later and created entire books around. It was almost as if he had an entire host of characters already in his mind just waiting for future incarnation. I struggle now for an example, but I cannot remember even one without opening and skimming the entire book again. If you read or have read The Pickwick Papers, I would love to see if you agree. 

Refer to home page

Please refer to home page for which pages have posts. Most are blank. I am just getting started.

Washington Irving-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

In honor of Halloween, I have posted my impressions of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Washington Irving-The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

This post is in honor of Halloween. Sleepy Hollow terrifies me this time of year.

When I lived in the woods in Northern MN., and I would walk to the shed or down the dirt driveway in Oct. I was on edge. The leaves were gone from the trees and the branches were like sharp gray spikes thrashing in the wind. It was easy to get goosebumps thinking "The Horseman" could burst out of the woods at any moment. During the day, or in the city this seems silly, but at night in the seclusion of woods, you would believe too. I took this illusion and ran with it at some "killer" Halloween  trail of terror parties for my teenage kids. Irving took a legend, or created one, put it in words and succeeded in speaking to something primal in all of us. I love this short novel with it's fireside dance in the colonial home, the dork Ichabod and the bully Brom Bones.

Been away for almost a year

Been away for almost a year on book tour, promoting my novels Beyond the Cliffs of Kerry and The Pride of the King. Next on my list is getting a blog up and running and sticking with it. I will try to complete one personal book review every few days with the hopes of finding like minded lovers of the classics.