The next Books & Beyond (BAB) meeting will be on
Tuesday, June 25th at 6:30pm in the library’s Conference Room. This will be one of our biannual Reader
Choice meetings, meaning there is no assigned topic, we are sharing what we’ve
been enjoying reading, watching, and listening to lately. I hope to see you there! https://www.oneallibrary.org/event/8810336
Last night, BAB met to discuss the work of Henry James.
Almost universally considered one of James' finest
short narratives, this story treats appropriately universal themes:
loneliness, fate, love and death. The parable of John Marcher and his peculiar
destiny has spoken to many readers who have speculated on the worth and meaning
of human life.
After her parents’ bitter divorce, young Maisie Farange
finds herself shuttled between her selfish mother and vain father, who value
her only as a means for provoking each other. Maisie—solitary, observant, and
wise beyond her years—is drawn into an increasingly entangled adult world of
intrigue and sexual betrayal until she is finally compelled to choose her own
future. Published in 1897 as Henry James was experimenting with narrative
technique and fascinated by the idea of the child’s-eye view, What Maisie
Knew is a subtle yet devastating portrayal of an innocent adrift in a
corrupt society.
The novella follows a governess who, caring for two children
at a remote estate, becomes convinced that the grounds are haunted. The Turn of
the Screw is considered a work of both Gothic and horror fiction.
Washington Square is the story of Catherine
Sloper, a young heiress who is wooed by Morris Townsend, a handsome gentleman
who is more interested in Catherine's inheritance than he is in her. When the
two get engaged against the wishes of her stubborn father Catherine must make a
choice between the only man she will ever love and the wealth that she will
inherit. Named for the upscale area of New York in which the novel is set, Washington Square is a classic examination of social class in
mid-19th century New York.
One of James' best-known and most acclaimed longer tales,
The Aspern Papers is based on the letters Percy Bysshe Shelley wrote to Mary
Shelley's stepsister, Claire Clairmont, who saved them until she died. In The
Aspern Papers, a critic is determined to get his hands on a great poet’s
papers hidden in a faded Venetian house—no matter what the human cost.
Emerging from the grit and stigma of poverty to a life of
fairytale privilege under the wing of her aunt, the beautiful and financially
ambitious Kate Croy is already romantically involved with promising journalist
Merton Densher when they become acquainted with Milly Theale, a New York
socialite of immense wealth. Learning of Milly's mortal illness and passionate
attraction to Densher, Kate sets the scene for a romantic betrayal intended to
secure her lasting financial security. As the dying Milly retreats within the
carnival splendour of a Venetian palazzo, becoming the frail hub of a predatory
circle of fortune-seekers, James unfolds a resonant, brooding tale of doomed
passion, betrayal, human resilience, and remorse.
The Wings of the Dovd (film, 1997)
Kate (Helena Bonham Carter) is secretly betrothed to a
struggling journalist, Merton Densher (Linus Roache). But she knows her Aunt
Maude (Charlotte Rampling) will never approve of the match, since Kate's
deceased mother has lost all her money in a marriage to a degenerate opium
addict (Michael Gambon). When Kate meets a terminally ill American heiress
named Millie (Alison Elliott) traveling through Europe, she comes up with a
conniving plan to have both love and wealth.
GENERAL DISCUSSION:
The Innocents (film, 1961)
Based on the Henry James story "The Turn of the
Screw," a psychological thriller about a woman who takes a governess job
for two orphans in a Victorian home. She begins to see what she believes are
ghosts and suspects the children's bizarre behavior is the result of
supernatural powers.
The Others (film, 2001)
Grace (Nicole Kidman), the devoutly religious mother of Anne
(Alakina Mann) and Nicholas (James Bentley), moves her family to the English
coast during World War II. She awaits word on her missing husband while
protecting her children from a rare photosensitivity disease that causes the
sun to harm them. Anne claims she sees ghosts, Grace initially thinks the new
servants are playing tricks but chilling events and visions make her believe
something supernatural has occurred.
The Haunting of Bly Manor (series, 2020)
A young governess arrives at Bly Manor and begins to see
apparitions haunting the estate.
The Fall of the House of Usher (series, 2023) Netflix has not released to DVD yet.
Siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher have built a
pharmaceutical company into an empire of wealth, privilege and power; however,
secrets come to light when the heirs to the Usher dynasty start dying.
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton's masterwork captures the opulence and deceit
of a bygone era. It follows Newland Archer, a young lawyer engaged to marry
virginal socialite May Welland in 1870s New York, when he meets her cousin,
Countess Ellen Olenska, a lady unrestrained by convention and surrounded by
scandal. Archer must choose between happiness and the social code that has
governed his life as all three are dragged into a love triangle packed with
sensuality, cunning, and betrayal.
The Shining by Stephen King
Jack Torrance’s new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect
chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old
hotel, he’ll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and
working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic
location feels ever more remote . . . and more sinister. And the only one to
notice the strange and terrible forces gathering around the Overlook is Danny
Torrance, a uniquely gifted five-year-old.
The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
One postwar summer in his home of rural Warwickshire, Dr.
Faraday, the son of a maid who has built a life of quiet respectability as a
country physician, is called to a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to
the Ayres family for over two centuries, the Georgian house, once impressive
and handsome, is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its gardens choked with
weeds, the clock in its stable yard permanently fixed at twenty to nine. Its
owners—mother, son, and daughter—are struggling to keep pace with a changing
society, as well as with conflicts of their own. But are the Ayreses haunted by
something more sinister than a dying way of life? Little does Dr. Faraday know
how closely, and how terrifyingly, their story is about to become intimately
entwined with his.
The Black Swan by Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann's bold and disturbing novella, written in 1952,
is the feminine counterpart of his masterpiece Death in Venice. Written
from the point of view of a woman in what we might now call mid-life
crisis, The Black Swan evinces Mann's mastery of psychological
analysis and his compelling interest in the intersection of the physical and
the spiritual in human behavior. It is startlingly relevant to current
discussions of the politics of the body, male inscriptions of the feminine, and
discourse about and of women. The new introduction places this dramatic novella
in the context of contemporary feminist and literary concerns, bringing it to
the attention of a new generation of readers.
Youtube channel: Tristan and the Classics
https://www.youtube.com/@tristanandtheclassics6538/community
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