E. M. Forster

The book of the week is A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh. Waugh was a 20th century British novelist and journalist. His father was a publisher and his brother Alec was an editor. Waugh attended private schools as a boy and later Oxford University. Waugh used family circumstances and acquaintances as settings and characters for his later novels. A Handful of Dust employs black humor to comment on the social norms of the time. Waugh utilizes black humor and satire to comment on British imperialism, the decline of the aristocratic estates, adultery, divorce and death. The third person narrative form makes the novel easier to read than the stream-of-consciousness technique employed by previous British authors. Tony and Brenda are the novel's main characters. Tony's priority is his ancestral home. His wife, Brenda, discontented with the isolated, estate life, travels to London. She takes a flat there and only returns on week-ends. The longer she is gone, the more distant she becomes from her life with Tony at Hetton Abbey. Brenda's next step is to take a lover. She finally requests a divorce and the alimony will cost Tony his ancestral home. At first he goes along with the idea but then refuses to give Brenda a divorce if it means that he will lose Hetton Abbey. Tony leaves his home to get away from everything but ends up lost in the Brazilian jungle. He is presumed dead by everyone back home but actually ends up held captive by a Mr. Todd in the jungles of Brazil. In addition, Tony is forced to read Dickens' books daily to Mr. Todd. Waugh's use of black humor keeps the novel entertaining to the very end.

British Novel Week 5

Lady Chatterley's Lover reflects third-person omniscient narration. This was a welcome relief from the stream of consciousness technique of our previous weeks. Lawrence explores class differences in England along with industrialization. The main theme of the book is sexuality. Connie, Lady Chatterley, is married to Clifford. After only one month of marriage, Sir Clifford goes off to war and returns paralyzed from the waist down. He spends the rest of his life in a wheel chair. At first, Connie is content with an intellectual life versus a physical life. It is Clifford's intellect that excites her. As time goes on, the isolated, intellectual life at Wragby Hall wears on Lady Chatterley. A lover enters the picture but only for a short time. Then Lady Chatterley forms a sexual liason with Mellors who is Sir Clifford's gamekeeper. Connie's sexuality is awakened. This union turns out to be the union of a lifetime in the physical, sexual sense. Eventually, Connie's only goal is to leave Wragby Hall and spend the rest of her life with her lover . The novel ends with both Connie and Mellors waiting on divorces from their significant others. Also, the couple is expecting the birth of their child in the Spring. However, the irony is that with freeedom comes separation. They cannot be together until Mellors' divorice is final. D.H. Lawrence wrote Lady Chatterley's Lover in the 1920's. It was immediately attacked and later banned in his home country. In 1928 it was published in 1928 in Italy. It was not until the Penquin Books Trial in 1960 that Lawrence's book was published in Great Britian.

British Novel Week 4

The book of the week is Passage to India by E.M. Forster. This was the author's first book in over a decade and his last book. Forster actually lived in India which makes the story more believable to me. It is a very sad story about the clash of two Cultures. The British have colonized India and brought with them their own English value system. Rather than understand the Indian people, they have decided to live separate and apart from them. The people of India and the people of Britain have different cultures, religions and ideologies. An accusation and trial pit the English against the Indians. The few characters who try to bridge the gap between East and West are practically ostracized. No one really wins. I did find this book so much easier to read than the previous books that utilized the stream-of-consciousness technique.

Week 3 British Novel Class

It is Week 3 of my British Novel class. The book of the week is Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. I actually enjoyed reading Mrs. Dalloway. Virginia Woolf utilized the stream-of-consciousness technique for this novel. However, it was much easier to read than Joyce or Ford. Woolf's choice of words seemed simpler and more modern. That may have made it easier to read. I located the story in a film starring Vanessa Redgrave. The film came out in 1997 and seems timeless. I was able to draw on the visuals from the film while reading the book. Clarissa Dalloway is the central character of this book. The whole book encompasses one day of her life. Through the stream-of-consciousness technique and memories the reader is shown what Clarissa was like in her youth before she became Mrs. Richard Dalloway. Also, we view what she is now. Mrs. Dalloway is a celebration of Clarissa's life. Through memories, everyday lives and a suicide, we realize how tenuous life really is. Clarissa celebrates life through her morning walk, her selection of flowers and her parties.