Favourite Classic Novelist

Who is it and why?

* Wish I could include more authors in the poll but I'm limited with poll options. Tried to select a variety of authors.

 

For it's Charles Dickens. He wrote great stories that had something to say around social issues. Plus he was a great writer. Take a look at the opening of a Tale of Two Cities:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

That is 85 words in a single sentence! I'm one of the last people to say the old days were better but no one writes like that anymore! It truly is a work of art! Hope I can create a sentence as beautiful as that one day.

 

George Orwell is considered to be a classic author. Jane Eyre has many good things about it but the racist and nationalist overtones in the book is disturbing. It's amazing how something like that can be hidden in plain sight.

 

Racist? Are you thinking of wuthering heights?

 

I agree, Charles Dickens is the master. No one can write unique characters and interwoven plots quite like Charles Dickens. My favorite is Bleak House.

 

No, Jane Eyre. I don't know Wuthering Heights as well as Jane Eyre but seem to me the opposite of racism. But that brings up an important point: could it be that Charlotte Brontë was racist and Emily was opposed to it?

Like I said it's hidden in plain sight. An episode of In Our Time opened my eyes to it. What you have is every negative character in the story described as having dark skin and Bertha Mason's madness at times is contributed to her race. I think it goes a little more than just reflect the times it was written in. We also see a bit nationalism with negative language regarding the French. A book like Austin's Mansfield Park reflects the time it was written but it's like Jane Eyre goes out of its way to let everyone who those with negative characteristics are people with dark skin. As for nationalism, we see Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters speak out against it so, at the least, there were people opposed to it at the time. It seems to me Jane Eyre wants to show the reader the hypocrisy of the church, how women are treated as property but also that non-whites can't be trusted and the British are superior to other nations.

I should mention there was a book written by Jean Rhys called Wide Sargasso Sea that's about Bertha Mason and how she became who she was.

 

What am i missing? Where is the racism in Jane Eyre? I read it twice and i guess i missed it.

 

Reading this article might help:

https://lithub.com/reading-jane-eyre-while-black/

 

Okay, i guess i can see that. I never noticed when reading it though...hmm