In Celebration of finishing the 2nd-half of Thomas Hardy’s The Mayor of Casterbridge

Well, Well, Well is not how it always ends. Mr. Hardy’s novels are the proof of the pudding here.  Michael Henchard has done got himself kilt. But it wasn’t a homicidal urge that threatened, though he pulled that trick on Farfrae he really could only do the thing to himself. So we end up with [...]

Read Full Post »

On occasion of finishing the first half of The Mayor of Casterbridge.

I have finished the first half of the Mayor of Casterbridge and it seems that Mr. Hardy is setting me up for an emotional fail. What do I mean by that? Well, simply that with my heart going out to Mr. Henchard, Elizabeth-Jane and Ms. Templeman I can only see ruin in the last 160 [...]

Read Full Post »

Dombey and Son Part Trois et Fin

So after having my copy of Dombey and Son stolen from my friends car by a homeless person I finally went out and bought a copy from Borders.  Having finished the book I am sad to part with it.  Yes the new Paul Dombey Sr. was a glancing blow to my established notion of the [...]

Read Full Post »

Dombey and Son, the halfway mark

So DIckens has done it again, he killed a favored character. I’m surprised I didn’t throw the book into the river of Paul’s dreams. But I haven’t and I am sticking this Victorian novel out to the end.  The climax of development for Paul is reached on page 234. “But he retained all that was [...]

Read Full Post »

Dombey and Son cont.

I have ventured further into the land of Boz, I mean Dickens. The last post regarding this novel left one with the cliffhanger ‘How will Dickens develop young Dombey’?  After more reading-I did hold the book kind of close-I have come upon the precise passage that foreshadows young Dombey’s development, though rather ambiguous it goes [...]

Read Full Post »