The Paradise

Country girl, Denise Lovette comes to the big city hoping to work for her uncle. His dressmaking business is struggling as the competition from the shining, novel department store The Paradise has captured his old customers. Despite her uncle’s disappointment, Denise takes a job at the only store hiring, The Paradise. Soon she’s in her element, an elegant women’s department headed by Miss Audrey with new colleagues, some friendly and others envious and vengeful. What keeps Denise going is the world of fashion and commerce. She’s a natural marketer. Ideas on boosting sales come to her in torrents.

Moray and Katerine

The Paradise is owned by John Moray, a widower who’s courting Katherine, a wealthy, spoiled banker’s daughter. Moray’s wife died under suspicious circumstances, known only to an equally suspicious character who lurks in the corners of The Paradise noting secrets in his little black book. Moray and Katherine’s rocky relationship is further disrupted by Denise, whose beauty, loyalty, innocence and sales acumen are mighty attractive.

I highly recommend this series, which you can watch on PBS.org till December 17th. It’ll tide you over till the January premiere of Downton Abbey‘s 5th season. I’m caught up in the store and the complexities of the era. The series begins in 1875 or so and shows the excitement of new businesses popping up along with new opportunities for women in the work world. It also shows the downside, how dedicated craftsmen must fit to survive. It’s a Darwinian competition draped in silk and lace.

I plan to read Emil Zola’s The Ladies’ Paradise as soon as I get back to the states. Evidently, the BBC’s adaptation whitewashes some of the real problems, economic and social, for workers at this time. Since I’m an Upton Sinclair fan, I’ll probably enjoy the darker novel.

Related

• Review: The Paradise (Journal of Victorian Culture Online)
• Variety Review

Related articles

• Émile Zola’s “Paradise” – The Ladies’ Delight (nochargebookbunch.com)
• ‘The Paradise’ to continue on PBS’ Masterpiece (tellyspotting.org)
• The Paradise- a Mini Series Review (llblog2010.wordpress.com)
• The Paradise – A Sunday night treat (mybigfatobsession.wordpress.com)
• The Paradise – Review of Season 1 (kylietang.wordpress.com)
• BBC drama The Paradise turns on the passion (thejournal.co.uk)
• Chinese crash the Downton Abbey party (telegraph.co.uk)

 

Goethe’s Faust, Part 1

My online book club’s October pick was Faust, Part 1 by Goethe. While I liked the poetry of the play, I found it made me read too fast. The rhythm pulled me swiftly along, and pages would go by, before I realized I hadn’t remembered what had happened.

Faust is the traditional story of a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for success in this life. The bargain soon turns out to be horrid. Faust gets to seduce Margaret (sometimes called Gretchen), but she gets pregnant and since she lives in a society that will exact punishment for that transgression, she drowns the baby. Every favor turns out horrible for Faust.

I read that Goethe was influenced in part by the Book of Job. He takes the bet between Satan and God in a different direction, but it’s quite dramatic. The play ventures into that dark realm that’s I’d say next door to the horror genre, a genre I don’t like at all. So I found the play masterfully written, but I didn’t get into the story and doubt I’d return to it. Still it is worth reading.

Related articles

• The Magic Flute; Faust; Oxford Lieder festival – review (guardian.co.uk)
• “Faust” by Goethe (booksontrial.wordpress.com)
• Inspiration of the Day (Halloween): Faust by J.W. Goethe (esotericalembic.wordpress.com)
• Faust and the German aversion to debt (ftalphaville.ft.com)
• The Mind Grows Heated (goodsoulstuff.wordpress.com)

 

My Responses to the Citizen Reader 2011 Survey

1. What is your age (ranges okay) and gender?

45-54, F

2. Please estimate the percentage of both fiction and nonfiction you read, totalling 100% (e.g., “10% fiction and 90% nonfiction,” or “100% fiction, 0% nonfiction”). If the only nonfiction books you read are purely reference works like cookbooks and how-tos, please indicate 100% fiction, but add “and reference NF.”

25% Nonfiction, 75% Fiction

3. How many books do you read per month?

Used to be a few, 4 perhaps, now it’s one play and a fragment. It’s so chaotic here, I have a kind of ADHD thing going on.

4. Name three formats in which you read, from greatest to least (e.g. “print books, audio books, e-books,” where the format you read most often is print books).

print books, print books, print books

5. Name the three primary ways, in any order, in which you find reading materials. You may speak broadly (“blogs” or “personal recommendations”) or specifically (“Bookslut blog” or “my sister’s suggestions”).

General list of classics that resides in my head, my book club, NPR

6. Please list three words that most describe why you read (e.g. “comfort, education, escapism”).

Inspiration, knowledge, stimulation

7. Do you buy or borrow most of your reading material?

borrow

8. Would you say you have less time, more time, or about the same amount of time to read as you have had in the past? If less or more, why (briefly)?

A lot less. As I’ve mentioned above, I’ve moved to a very hectic, ADHD inducing culture. There’s a frantic pace and a constant noise from the construction. I just can’t concentrate.

9. Please list your five favorite “genres,” (nonfiction included) using whatever names you call them by. Please also list your favorite title in each genre.

Classic fiction – Pride and Prejudice tied with The Adventures of Augie March, philosophy – The Enchiridion, humor – Anne Lamott‘s work, travel writing – anthologies, spiritual – currently Renovation of the Heart by Dallas Willard

10. What was the best book you read in 2011? The worst? (READ in 2011; not necessarily published in 2011.)

Worst – Peer Gynt, I generally put down a book I really don’t like
Best – Hmmm, Brideshead Revisited

And I think we’ll stop there. There’s so much more I want to ask but I’ll wait until next year.

Related articles

• Kirkus Reviews Announces the Best Fiction of 2011 (prweb.com)
• 2011 National Book Award Winners on Audio (rbk12blog.com)
• Teaching Nonfiction to Elementary Students (schoolmarmohio.com)
• What authors can learn from the bestseller lists (alanrinzler.com)
• Dear Book Lover: Fiction that Reads Like Nonfiction (online.wsj.com)
• Apples to Apples, Please: Narrative Nonfiction and Empathy (brevity.wordpress.com)

 

The Man Who Had All the Luck

The Man Who Had All the Luck by Arthur Miller tells the story of David who is cursed with tremendously good luck. It freaks him out. He’s surrounded by friends and relatives who experience set backs. David never does. The universe seems to clear a path for him at every turn. He can’t make sense of this. He feels that fate will eventually catch up with him.

Miller examines how people view fate, whether Americans can avoid the beliefs found in Asia and Europe that there’s a Wheel of Fortune of some kind. This early play foreshadows how the playwright will develop, how he will continue to grapple with luck and a hero’s view of his own success.

from the archives

 

G. B. Shaw’s Pygmalion

This month’s book club choice is Pygmalion, which I just finished. I think I read this play before. I have seen My Fair Lady and have enjoyed Arms and the Man and St. Joan, both written by Shaw.

This is one of the best plays my book club’s read this year. It’s funny without being too farcical or predictable. I loved that the two main characters both argue strongly and with equal heft. I’d forgotten that Higgins had the habit of swearing and a blind spot about it. The play makes for a fun, smart quick read.

To get some fresh cinematic input on this story, I got Americanizing Shelley from Netflix. It was so amateurish, I had to stop watching after a few minutes. The writing was poor and the production values low.

Related articles

• Do in and bloody (virtuallinguist.typepad.com)
• Americanizing Shelley (mbbsmkmedia.wordpress.com)
• Rupert Everett and Kara Tointon in ‘Pygmalion’ – plus, a word about ‘Stomp’ (liturgical.wordpress.com)

 

Inspector General

My book club’s play for June was Gogol’s Inspector General. This farce is a very quick read that lampoons corruption in the provinces of pre-Revolution Russia. In its day, it probably packed quite a punch. Now it seems too far-fetched. I could predict the ending right from the set up. None of the characters grabbed me. I could appreciate the boldness and importance of this play in a previous era, but it’s not as enduring as Chekov. I wish we’d have read one of his plays. I need compelling characters.

 

Democracy

This play by Michael Frayn delves into an episode in modern Germany’s history when East German spy Günter Guillaume infiltrated West Germany’s chancellor Willy Brandt. While serving a Communist spy, Guillaume was Brandt’s secretary with access to all correspondence and many discussions.

In parts I found the story hard to follow, but it is a good spy story, not as good as MI-5, but good.

 

Antigone

For January, my book club read the sparse, powerful Antigone. My copy included some insightful essays to provide a context for this play. The culture this comes from, was so different from our own. I was struck by Antigone’s single-minded idealism as she took on Creon, who wanted to execute her for disobeying his edict by burying her brother, who opposed the government.

It’s a powerful play with flawed characters, which can teach any playwright or screenwriter a lot about doing more with less.