a member shares her post about the Elegance of the Hedgehog

Joanne shares her post on the elegance of the Hedgehog, thank you Joanne, i am still in the middle of it but truly enjoying this new discovery.

I joined La Porte Rouge's Book Club at the beginning of this year, because I felt that I had neglected my reading for far too long. And I am so glad that I did, I have rediscovered my thirst for the written word and have read incessantly since then....

I'll make a list one day.

THEN

I discovered another wonderful thing! My new and beautiful friend V  from A Butterfly In My Hair 

was the first guest to suggest a book for us all to read. 

I was literally jumping up and down with excitement that she suggested this book, because she had recently recommended the film (which I loved so much thank you v.)

This book by Muriel Barbery is genius.  I read it with a pen in my hand to underline all the wonderful, life confirming things she wrote  through the voices of two amazing women.

Renee - a 54 year old concierge, and Paloma a very intelligent 12 year old that reads Japanese Haikus.

It is the perfect story of learning to live and love again.

One of my favourite quotes:

"...it's now that matters:  to build something, now, at any price, using all our strength. Always remember that there's an old people's home waiting somewhere and so we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity."

And :

"There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so  much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder..."

Thank you v! xx

Ethan frome post by Amber Lee

Ethan Frome

Sadness. The ultimate feeling I have upon leaving behind Ethan Frome is one of infinite sadness. Sadness for people stuck - stuck in poverty, stuck in relationships that lack even friendliness, let alone love, stuck in a life they can never leave behind. To watch the transformation of Ethan and Mattie from people filled with such passion to people so broken and alone filled me with such an ache.

source

That's the kind of story Ethan Frome is - one that leaves me aching. Aching with sadness for happiness lost, aching with gratitude and love for my own life (and love), aching to grab those near to me and shower them with affection simply because we are all here together.

source

It is a story full of starkness. Stark imagery of a stark landscape, stark people stuck in a place of dark and harrowing winter. But there's a sort of stark beauty, as well, in people that go on living.

I want to put my hand out and touch you. I want to do for you and care for you. I want to be there when you're sick and lonesome.

Coses petite shares her post on tess

Thank you so much Veronica  from Cose Petites for sharing your post with us , how i adore what you wrote, for there was so much in this book, the details, the feelings.....

anja · In the farm

Es la primera vez en mi vida en participar en un club de lectura, y ha sido gracias a la magia del mundo de los blogs (gracias La porte rouge...).
Una noche, ya sin esperanzas de encontrar el primer libro asignado, otro toque de magia lo hizo aparecer en la estantería de la librería más cercana, en el momento menos esperado.
Camino a casa, no podía esperar. Obvié el prólogo, las notas, para llegar al texto con los ojos frescos. Y ya no estaba en un vagón iluminado con luz fluorescente, viajando bajo tierra, sino rodeada de nieblina en el campo inglés, en la granja, sintiendo las estaciones, rodeada de fertilidad.

Las últimas páginas de Tess desaparecidas, me gustaría recordar que...

Sea por las referencias a lo pagano y el mundo mágico, por la tragedia, por la distancia especial del narrador hacia los sentimientos de la heroína, por la cadencia de la prosa; sea por las descripciones del campo y sus tareas, y de las estaciones pasajeras; sea por la sensación de pequeñez de nosotros los humanos en comparación con la Tierra, o por su final agridulce... puedo decir que esta novela me ha gustado.

Tess es olor a heno recién cortado, leche y mantequilla.

Este post sobre la novela "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" de Thomas Hardy se enmarca en el club de lectura de La Porte Rouge. 

…....

This is the first time of my life to participate in a reading club, and it has come to happen thanks to the magic that lies in blogging (thank you La porte rouge...).
One evening, when I was in despair about finding the first book assigned, another touch of magic made it appear in the nearest bookstore's shelf, just in the least expected moment.
In the way back home, I couldn't wait. I skipped the prologue and notes, to get to the text with fresh eyes. And I was no more inside a fluorescent lit wagon, travelling under the ground, but amidst the mist of the English country, inside a farm, feeling the seasons, surrounded with fertility.

The last pages of Tess gone, I want to keep in my mind that...

May it be for the pagan and fairy references, for the tragedy, for the special distance of the narrator to the feelings of the heroine, for the cadence or the prose; may it be for the descriptions of the country, the farming work, the changing seasons; may it be for the smallness of us humans when compared with the Earth; or for its bittersweet end... I can say I liked this novel.

Tess is fresh cut hay, milk and butter.

This post about the novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy is written into the context of the La Porte Rouge reading club. 

Amber Lee shares her post on Jane

fin.

I did it. (Finally.) I finished Jane Eyre. But where are the words? This book touched me so deeply. Jane is a fantastic character. Such a fresh perspective on life, on the world, on how to find joy. I took her into myself, and found myself changed. She never expected happiness, she only expected to get by. But that didn't stop her from searching for the elusive thing. She was honest with herself, she knew herself to a T. I love that so much. How often do you find a character that can offer a truly intimate view of herself, and thus create observations of her world that are deep and humane and full of truth?

She truly was created for love, and I loved that. Her relationship with those around her was so compelling! I loved to read about her interactions with others. And the joy I felt when she finally found family! 

And oh, her relationship with Rochester. 

"To be together is for us to be as free as in solitude, as gay as in company. We talk, I believe, all day long; but to talk to each other is but a more animated and an audible thing. All my confidence is bestowed upon him; all his confidence is devoted to me; we are precisely suited in character, perfect concord is the result."

It brought tears to my eyes to finally feel them resolved and devoted to each other. 

tea, (crumbly) coffee cake, and a lovely book.

I found Jane Eyre to be beautiful. The descriptions of beauty and nature are compelling and took me right to the place being described. It made me want so badly to visit the English countryside! (Or any countryside, for that matter.) And Bronte didn't shrink from hardship or difficulties or having to deal with  life. She accurately represented what life should be, in the form of a character and a story that definitely deserve their place in the classics. 

Thank you   Amber  Lee so much for this lovely post, i could hear how much you loved this book in every word!

Susannah shares her post on Jane

Read With Us: Jane Eyre

Virginia Woolf by George Charles Beresford

Oh what joy, excitement and anticipation I felt when Nadia at La Porte Rouge announced Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte was the next book for Read With Me La Porte Rouge book club. This book has long sat on my mental shelf of novels I both needed and wanted to read. The long wait was well worth it; this novel did not disappoint.

Having started to read the book a little later than I had hoped, I soon found myself unable to put it down - so engrossed was I in the entanglement of Jane and Mr. Rochester. Throughout all,  I couldn't help but root for Jane over the snooty Blanche Ingram and for Mr. Rochester over the rigid St. John Rivers. Though so different, these two lovers were perfectly made for each other, complimented each other, and ardently needed each other. Their path to each other, with its tragic turns and breathtakingly romantic moments, weaved a beautiful and most tender love story.

I've gathered some images, that for me, capture the images and feelings I had while falling in love with the plot and characters of this touching love story.

Jane living at Gateshead - painting by Carl Larsson

Jane at Lowood, relishing life outdoors - Snow Geese by Julianna Swaney

Thornfield Hall - via

Mr. Rochester - Sir David Wilkie by Richard James Lane

Proposal in the Orchard - Secret Garden by deerforest

Bertha Rochester & Mr. Mason - Vampire By Edvard Munch

Road to Morton from Whitcross - Scotland by daylong

Wandering, homeless, destitute - Untitled by cross record

Refuge at Moor House - Vintage Illustration 

School mistress at Morton - The Sketch by Gertrude Käsebier

To India or not? - Solitude by Mary S Chapin

Path to Ferndean Manor & true love - Bluebell Woods by Jocelyn Allen

Homecoming - The Lovers by Charles Webster Hawthorne

Domestic bliss + Pilot - Master Bedroom by Andrew Wyeth

Jane Eyre Post by Juliana

dear readers, have you been visting members blogs? amazing post on Jane Eyre outhere! i will be featuring a few of them here but please visit each others blogs, because not only are the post inspring but their blogs as well. 

Our first Jane Eyre post feature is from Juliana, thank you Juliana!

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

Posted by Juliana Neumann at Apr 01, 2011 04:25 PM | Permalink

When I found out that Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë was to be our second book to read, I was very excited, having never read it before. Many years ago a friend and I watched the 1996 film adaptation of the book, and I had very vague recollections of what actually happened. I remembered a Mr. Rochester, a crazy wife and a good ending. I read my mother's 1987 copy of the book.

Reading Jane Eyre was very different from reading Tess. First, the language was much easier to read and understand. Even the French passages didn't cause a problem for me. Secondly, I knew there would be a good ending, so when something depressing happened, I could still hope for everything to turn out for the best. Thirdly, I often found myself smiling about the spirited conversations Jane and Mr. Rochester had.

This book can be seen as the story of an early feminist and as a love story. Jane is a woman who longs to be independent and stand on her own two feet. By then end of the book she achieves this. My romantic heart beats for the love story and one of my favorite passages in the book is when Jane admits to herself that she is in love with Mr. Rochester.

"He is not to them what he is to me [...] I believe he is of mine - I am sure he is - I feel akin to him - I understand the language of his countenance and movements [...] I have something in my brain and heart, in my blood and nerves, that assimilates me mentally to him. [...] I must love him."

I think I must have read it several times. Taking it out of context, it can be interpreted in various ways. One can read it as how a teen-aged girl would feel towards a boy in her class. How horrible life would be if that boy didn't return her feelings! Or it can be read as how a woman would feel towards the man she has been married to and known for many years. How time welds the two together, making her feel a part of him. But I also think there is also of the possibility of interpreting it as platonic love. As in feeling that one understands and is understood by another person fully, just by exchanging a look, a gesture or a few words. I share this feeling with very few people, men and women, and it is a very special feeling. One of total understanding, one that doesn't need many words, one that feels like "coming home" and one I wouldn't want to miss.

To capture this "coming home" feeling, I am adding my choice of comfort food. I have many comfort foods, depending on why I need or want to be comforted. For this feeling of love, I felt a loaf of freshly baked bread would be perfect. It has a welcoming smell while baking and later cooling on a rack and it tastes and feels like home. Eating freshly baked homemade bread is like a big, loving hug.

 

 

P.S. While I was going through my David Austin rose catalog, dreaming about all the roses I'd love to have, I came across a rose for Tess. It's a very beautiful rose and I'm sure she would have admired it.

Document Actions