The Origin of Species

The Origin of Species

by Charles Darwin

★ 

In the past month I read three books that specifically mention Origin of the Species (including At Home and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.) I felt like I was being strongly nudged to check it out even though it’s a bit intimidating. 

I like reading classics that are influential pieces of our culture. I want to understand the background of books that are constantly being referenced and I want to have a working knowledge of them. So for those reason I'm glad I read it, but Darwin was no Mary Roach or Bill Bryson. He is a scientist, but writing an enthralling account of his research is not in his wheelhouse.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been so bored reading a book before in my life. I’m talking mind-numbingly bored. Maybe that’s not fair, this isn’t a detective novel that’s supposed to speed along, but honestly I could hardly stand it. I listened to an audio version, which was read by David Case and that might have been part of the problem. I can’t stand his narration and he already ruined The Hunchback of Notre Dame for me.  

I do understand that this isn't a novel and it wasn't written to be entertaining, but I've read so many other nonfiction books that I loved. I'm not talking about the points he makes or what he's trying to prove, I'm talking only about the readability of the material. It was really hard for me to stay interested. 

BOTTOM LINE: Science is not my passion and I will never claim to be an expert in biology, but regardless this one was just not for me. It was like reading the driest of lab reports. I’m glad I read the work that is said to be the basis for evolutionary theory, but unless you love that subject I can’t say I’d recommend it. 

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.” 

**Funny side note, I listened to this as an audiobook on CDs. In the middle of the 10th disc the narrator said, “This is the end of side A, please turn the cassette over and continue listening on side B.” Then a few second later, “This is side B of cassette 9.” That’s the one and only moment in the book that made me laugh.

World Book Night 2014

 (Passing out copies of my book at the hospital)

When I was 12-years-old my Mom was diagnosed with Leukemia. Almost every night after school my Dad would take me and my siblings to the St. Vincent’s Hospital to visit her. Until that point we’d never spent more than a couple nights away from her, now we were lucky to get an hour with her before we had to head home to do our homework. The time we spent at the hospital with her became incredibly precious.

 

That's why I decided to give my World Book Night books away at that same St. Vincent's Hospital. I thought about how wonderful it would have been to receive an unexpected book while sitting in a waiting room counting the minutes until a doctor or nurse wrapped up a check-up. I thought about the days we sat in waiting rooms anxious to hear about how she was doing and wishing we could think about anything else, just for a moment.

(St. Vincent's Hospital where I passed out my World Book Night books) 

I have so many memories of that hospital. For two years my Mom spent weeks at a time in the oncology center. She would go in for chemotherapy and bone marrow test and we would cover her hospital room walls with our drawings and signs. I have wonderful memories of trying on dresses for my eighth-grade graduation in the hospital room bathroom and modeling them for my Mom. I have horrible memories of seeing her behind a clear glass wall, unable to touch her because her immune system was compromised. Once I even spent the night there, in a chair beside her bed, eating pudding cups while we played backgammon.

(Picking up my WBN Giver box at a Barnes and Noble)

Choosing this location for my very first time giving World Book Night books was deeply personal. As I passed out copies of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette?” to tired nurses at the end of their shifts and family members visiting their loved ones I remembered my mom. I thought about how kind my Mom’s nurses had been to me. They did everything they could to make us feel welcome and comfortable. I thought about how this story of a mother and daughter might bring a smile to the faces of some of those nurses.

 

Most of all I thought about how much my Mom would love the concept of a night to celebrate reading. She was an avid reader and she taught me to love reading from a young age. She encouraged me to choose books that challenged me and made me think, not just “bubblegum books” as she called them. She even helped me write my speech for my eighth grade speech competition about the dangers of illiteracy. After fighting it for two years my Mom lost her battle with cancer in 1998. I am so proud to have been a part of World Book Night and I think my Mom would have been incredibly proud of the part she played in it as well.  

Photos by moi.

Barchester Towers

Barchester Towers
by Anthony Trollope
★★★★☆

I’m officially a Chronicles of Barsetshire convert and I have Eleanor Bold to thank for it. The character took a stand for herself and her father in The Warden, but it wasn’t until Barchester Towers that I really grew to love the fiery widow. She could be Lizzie Bennet if Darcy had (God forbid!) died after they were married.

Barchester Towers picks up a few years after The Warden. Eleanor has become a widow and now has a son. No one has taken over the wardenship that her father, Mr. Harding, left at the end of the first book. The race is on to see who will be named the new Warden and who will become the Dean in Barchester. We also meet a new cast of characters including the hapless Bertie Stanhope and his sister, the conniving Mr. Slope, the unhappily married Proudies and a vicar from Oxford, Francis Arabin.

In that same Pride and Prejudice vein, Obadiah Slope is Mr. Collins. The Bishop's chaplain is working hard to move up in the world, but he is just not a likeable character. Even when Eleanor is attempting to be kind to him, she still can’t make herself like him. He bases his search for a wife on income instead of love and so he sets his sights on the newly widowed Eleanor who is now a wealthy woman. In order to woo her he attempts to get her father’s wardenship back for him. Poor Reverend Quiverful has already been offered the wardenship, which would go a long way to feeding his 14 children.

Septimus Harding, the main character from The Warden, once again demonstrates his excellent character in this book. No matter what people offer him or what they tell him he deserves, in the end he always wants what is best for the community. He is such a kind man. Even when his daughter’s taste in gentlemen callers is being questioned, he makes his loyalties clear without yet knowing her thoughts. He stands by her and supports all of her actions. Eleanor’s relationship with her father is one of the highlights of the novel for me.

The thing I'm beginning to realize I love about Trollope's work is his collection of female characters. He creates vibrant women who are the real strength behind the weak or petty men they are married to. Mrs. Proudie might be a bit of a villain, but she's also a force to be reckoned with. Everyone in Barchester knows that her husband, the Bishop, isn’t the real decision-maker in their household. As he struggles with the question of who should get the wardenship, she makes the decision and moves forward with her choice without him.

Mrs. Quiverful does the same thing, but out of her concern for her children’s welfare. She sees her husband's unwillingness to fight for what she believes is rightfully theirs as weak and selfish. She decides to make her own plan and go about getting the wardenship for him.

My favorite female character, of course, is Eleanor Bold. She turns down multiple suitors who are after her money. She stands up to her stuffed shirt brother-in-law, Archdeacon Grantly and remains loyal to her father above all. She is at times righteous, sarcastic, and vulnerable, a fully realized character with a complicated range of emotions. We watch her fall in love and we root for her to end up with the right man. I've grown to admire her for her strength and principles throughout the first two books. In The Warden she was willing to give up her love for her fiancé in order to protect her family dignity. In this book she stands up for her right to privacy and freedom when Grantly believes her acquaintance with Slope is inappropriate. She doesn’t love Slope, but she’s furious that someone thinks they have the right to tell her who she can or can't associate with.

BOTTOM LINE: Just like The Warden, it took me a minute to get into this one, but once I did I loved it! Eleanor Bold is one of my favorite characters I’ve encountered in a long while. I hope she plays a role in the upcoming books as well!

“How many shades there are between love and indifference, and how little the graduated scale is understood!”

“Till we can become divine, we must be content to be human, lest in our hurry for change we sink to something lower.”

 

*****************************

 

Our Chronicles of Barsetshire readalong moves right along and this month we're reading Doctor Thorne. I've noticed the books seem to be doubling in size each month. I'm really hoping this is the largest of the batch! Check out Amanda's posts at Fig and Thistle and dive into the next book!

"Doctor Thorne is the third novel in Trollope's series known as the "Chronicles of Barsetshire," and is argued to be Trollope's best work. It tells the story of Mary Thorne, the niece of Dr. Thomas Thorne, whose illegitimacy remains a secret for much of the novel as she is raised by her kind uncle and falls in love with the rich Frank Gresham. This melodramatic novel displays Trollope's brilliant management of plot and dialogue while exploring themes of illegitimacy, class division
and the practice of marrying for money."

Up next on the schedule:

 

June: Framley Parsonage

July: The Small House at Allington

August: The Last Chronicle of Barset

Share your wrap up post with all of us at the end of the month and tweet your thoughts at #Trollope2014.