14. Books I Bought This Week

They will help me survive my long flight )

1. Louisa May Alcott - Little Women.

This is a lovely and heart rending tale about the March family--a family who loses its wealth and gains much more--love and unity. Young girls are only human, and they have a natural yearning for worldly possessions. It is up to them how they cope with it, which brings us back to the March girls. Their desire to help others even when they don't have much themselves is indeed remarkable. This book shows how in all times, love and hope are the most faithful companions, for when all else fails ... we can depend on them. Honest and true intentions are really the most valuable possessions one can have. And this novel shows us the beauty of simplicity and the importance of the small human deeds that count even though they cannot be visibly seen. Some might not like this story but the unique thing about it is that it is based on a completely true story of Louisa M. Alcott's own life. The unlikely twists in this story make it only more human, since we are humans and we cannot evade such scenes in our life.

2. Henry James - The Turn of the Screw 

The story starts conventionally enough with friends sharing ghost stories 'round the fire on Christmas Eve. One of the guests tells about a governess at a country house plagued by supernatural visitors. But in the hands of Henry James, the master of nuance, this little tale of terror is an exquisite gem of sexual and psychological ambiguity. Only the young governess can see the ghosts; only she suspects that the previous governess and her lover are controlling the two orphaned children (a girl and a boy) for some evil purpose. The household staff don't know what she's talking about, the children are evasive when questioned, and the master of the house (the children's uncle) is absent. Why does the young girl claim not to see a perfectly visible woman standing on the far side of the lake? Are the children being deceptive, or is the governess being paranoid? By leaving the questions unanswered, The Turn of Screw generates spine-tingling anxiety in its mesmerized readers. 

3. Mary Shelley - Frankenstein 

Frankenstein is a student of natural philosophy in Geneva. He builds a creature in the semblance of a man and gives it life. The creature is repeatedly rejected by those who see it, but the monster proves intelligent, and later highly articulate. Receiving no love, it becomes embittered. Frankenstein deserts his creation but then agrees to make a mate for the monster. A wave of remorse makes him destroy the female. The lone creature swears revenge. He kills Frankenstein's bride on their wedding night.

The scientist becomes mad, but recovers and chases the creature across the world. The two confront in the Arctic wastes. Frankenstein dies and the creature disappears in the wilderness mourning the loss of the man who gave him life. - The novel contains no supernatural elements; the creation of the monster is described in the third edition on a rational scientific basis. The work epitomizes the scientist who experiments fist and thinks about the consequences later. 

4. F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby 

This novel is beautiful in every way. It is filled with a haunting sadness, that I have never been able to forget. The prose is beautiful -- glowing like Daisy's green light across the water. The story itself is beautifully tragic -- a poor man falls in love with a beautiful, rich woman (or what she represents) and it brings disaster. But this book is so much more than that. What F. Scott Fitzgerald shows the reader about this society we, ourselves, have created is larger than any story a person could think up. Fitzgerald creates a portrait of the hollowness, carelessness, and ugliness in American society that moved my old English teacher to tears in front of the whole class a few years ago, and brings a lump to my throat even now, as I think about it. If someone asked me what exactly The Great Gatsby "means," I couldn't tell them. I don't think anyone will ever be able to understand it enough to put it in words that will have meaning to everyone, but I think anyone who reads this book WILL have an understanding of it that they can feel in the gut. Such is the way with all great literature.