Anthea Carson's Blog - Posts Tagged "tom-jones"
Reading Henry Fielding (with an iphone)
I would have never thought I would have enjoyed reading Henry Fielding so much but I really do.
First of all, it was unlikely that I was going to read this book. No one had recommended it to me, it wasn't required reading for a class or a book club. I had never heard it mentioned other than maybe occasionally on a list of great books. But the name never stood out to me as something I would want to read.
But I do love reading the classics, and am almost never disappointed when I read a book from those great book lists. And I love Jane Austen. So what gave me the idea to read Tom Jones was watching the movie "Becoming Jane" (an excellent movie).
In the movie, Jane's friend Thomas tells her that she will never be a real author till she experiences the world and breaks out of the restrictive role that social expectations has placed her in. Then he hands her the book "Tom Jones."
So I decided to give it a try.
I almost gave up upon reading the first paragraph. I could barely understand a word. Plus I kept thinking what a ridiculous author he was because he kept philosophizing. These old fashioned writers didn't know what they were doing, they weren't sophisticated like we are today, I thought to my self.
Boy was I wrong.
I hung in there and plodded through (I'm still plodding through it and I started it at Christmas), looking up words when I absolutely had to, checking the footnotes etc. Using my trusty google button on my iphone--able to not only to look up words but odd names of places that were key to the story, contemporary news that Fielding would refer to, local politician's scandals, and the like all would have made for a difficult read without my iphone.
Fielding would refer to some famously ugly woman to compare one of his characters to. Without my iphone that would have been difficult to say the least. But with it, I could google it and see an instant image of the poor woman.
I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed reading this fabulously witty, intensely talented and thought provoking writer.
I love his dialogue. I thought I wrote good dialogue, used to be pretty impressed with myself. Then I read him! I love the raw realness, the gritty mudslinging brutality that the characters show each other, I love how the claws come out, and all decorum is thrown out the window in their passionate outbursts.
I love the characters. So true to life! Some trying to control another, some who think they know it all and are so off-base you want to step in there and set them straight. Step all the way back to 1740.
It really shows you, in so many ways things haven't changed. And if we thought for one moment that we in the 21st century were sophisticated authors we should really stop before we embarrass ourselves, and check out the truly greats.
First of all, it was unlikely that I was going to read this book. No one had recommended it to me, it wasn't required reading for a class or a book club. I had never heard it mentioned other than maybe occasionally on a list of great books. But the name never stood out to me as something I would want to read.
But I do love reading the classics, and am almost never disappointed when I read a book from those great book lists. And I love Jane Austen. So what gave me the idea to read Tom Jones was watching the movie "Becoming Jane" (an excellent movie).
In the movie, Jane's friend Thomas tells her that she will never be a real author till she experiences the world and breaks out of the restrictive role that social expectations has placed her in. Then he hands her the book "Tom Jones."
So I decided to give it a try.
I almost gave up upon reading the first paragraph. I could barely understand a word. Plus I kept thinking what a ridiculous author he was because he kept philosophizing. These old fashioned writers didn't know what they were doing, they weren't sophisticated like we are today, I thought to my self.
Boy was I wrong.
I hung in there and plodded through (I'm still plodding through it and I started it at Christmas), looking up words when I absolutely had to, checking the footnotes etc. Using my trusty google button on my iphone--able to not only to look up words but odd names of places that were key to the story, contemporary news that Fielding would refer to, local politician's scandals, and the like all would have made for a difficult read without my iphone.
Fielding would refer to some famously ugly woman to compare one of his characters to. Without my iphone that would have been difficult to say the least. But with it, I could google it and see an instant image of the poor woman.
I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed reading this fabulously witty, intensely talented and thought provoking writer.
I love his dialogue. I thought I wrote good dialogue, used to be pretty impressed with myself. Then I read him! I love the raw realness, the gritty mudslinging brutality that the characters show each other, I love how the claws come out, and all decorum is thrown out the window in their passionate outbursts.
I love the characters. So true to life! Some trying to control another, some who think they know it all and are so off-base you want to step in there and set them straight. Step all the way back to 1740.
It really shows you, in so many ways things haven't changed. And if we thought for one moment that we in the 21st century were sophisticated authors we should really stop before we embarrass ourselves, and check out the truly greats.
Tom Jones
I am taking forever to read this great classic by Henry Fielding. Not because it is a slow read (although it is certainly not an easy read) but mainly because it is a long book and my son interrupted it to ask me to read the Hunger Games trilogy. I knew that if I took a break from Fielding that it would be hard to get back into it.
I left off at a part in the story that is actually pretty difficult to read. The section is about halfway through the book, and is a story within a story. The teller (not Fielding, the character telling the story within the story) has an odd way of speaking, the story is full of new characters, constant (although amusing) interruptions from the listeners with stories of their own, and it goes on chapter after chapter.
Granted, it is an interesting and amusing story within a story. With Fielding, however, it's easy to miss the humor as it is very dry and his language is so rich, plus the times it is written in all make it something you must pay very close attention to and have a dictionary handy. This story within the story mirrors the general story and seems loaded with clues that may hint at solving the mystery of who the father of poor Tom might be.
That being said, I am anxious to get past the story within a story and on to the actual story of Tom Jones.
I left off at a part in the story that is actually pretty difficult to read. The section is about halfway through the book, and is a story within a story. The teller (not Fielding, the character telling the story within the story) has an odd way of speaking, the story is full of new characters, constant (although amusing) interruptions from the listeners with stories of their own, and it goes on chapter after chapter.
Granted, it is an interesting and amusing story within a story. With Fielding, however, it's easy to miss the humor as it is very dry and his language is so rich, plus the times it is written in all make it something you must pay very close attention to and have a dictionary handy. This story within the story mirrors the general story and seems loaded with clues that may hint at solving the mystery of who the father of poor Tom might be.
That being said, I am anxious to get past the story within a story and on to the actual story of Tom Jones.
