Pamela by Samuel Richardson

Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson
My book: Copyright 1958, W. W. Norton & Co. - Fiction
Originally published in 1740
533 pp. 

Pamela has a terrible rating at Goodreads (but some pretty humorous reviews) and for good reason. It's difficult to get through, not only because it's extremely repetitive, but also because it's so horrifying to read about how women were treated and believed they should behave. You have to be in the right mood and very, very patient to read the story but it was worth sticking out.

Pamela is only 15 and a startling beauty who works as a maid at a large estate. Her mistress has just recently died and her new master, the deceased lady's son, is a cad. Struck by her beauty, he decides he wants to have his way with her. But Pamela has been taught that she must protect her virtue at all costs. The master is determined and whenever he can get her alone, he molests her but is unable to get very far. Pamela is so frightened that she enlists the help of some of the other servants and decides she must return home to her parents. The housekeeper kindly shares Pamela's bed to protect her (although even she says the master can't help himself and it's clearly Pamela's fault he can't control his impulses because she's so pretty), another tries to smuggle letters to her parents when the master finds out about her prolific writing and insists on reading everything she writes.

After pretending to dismiss her to return to her parents, Pamela's new master instead sweeps her off to another of his homes, where he continues to try to take advantage of her. Here, the housekeeper is not so kind. Pamela continues to write letters to her parents, tries to get the local curate to help her escape, prays that her purity will survive and -- if not -- better to die a virgin than have her purity destroyed. Truly, it's a soap opera and a bit tedious, at that, but I found Pamela fascinating for its perspective on the time period. How far we've come! In the end, the author describes each character's actions as a lesson in morality. Meekness, purity, obedience to the menfolk and generosity are among what was expected of women. Poor Pamela was also frequently lectured on what was expected of her after marriage, including the importance of continuing to dress nicely for the entire marriage lest her husband's eyes stray.

Today we'd call the lord of the house an ass. He admits to Pamela that he was a spoiled man, accustomed to having his way and only softened and convinced that marriage was worth considering by Pamela's continued refusal to give in to him, her piety, her simpering obedience (argh, painful to read) and kindness to all. Of course, the modern reader may find herself, as I did, talking to the book. I kept telling Pamela she was crazy, for one thing, because she waffled about everything. No, of course you shouldn't convince yourself you've fallen in love with a guy who held you captive and molested you, stupid girl, I told the book. She married him, anyway. You can't call Pamela the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Wordy and monotonous as Pamela could be, it was entertaining. It's also memorable. Even when I set the book aside for several weeks, I was able to return to it as if I'd only set it down the day before.

Recommended to a limited audience - I'd particularly recommend Pamela to those who enjoy classics and especially during a time when you're in a tolerant mood, looking for a bigger novel that you can enjoy for the sake of observation about the time period. Pamela is an epistolary novel. Apart from the moral lessons at the end, the book consists entirely of letters written by Pamela to her parents. Here's how Richardson set off the moral section at the end:

The reader will here indulge us in a few brief observations, which naturally result from the story and characters; and which will serve as so many applications of its most material incidents to the minds of YOUTH of BOTH SEXES. 

Among my favorite bits from that section:

From the same good example, let children see what a blessing awaits their duty to their parents, though ever so low in the world; and that the only disgrace is to be dishonest; but none at all to be poor. 

Side note:

When I looked up the original publication date during the reading, I came across a blog where Pamela was described as "The Twilight of its time." Unfortunately, I didn't bookmark the site but I found it fascinating that the book was so popular that there was Pamela merchandise. Who'd have thought that kind of marketing went back so far in time? Fascinating.

©2015 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

By the Light of the Silvery Moon by Tricia Goyer

Title: By the Light of the Silvery Moon by Tricia Goyer

Copyright: 2012

Published By: Barbour Publishing - Inspirational/Historical Fiction

Length: 319 pp.

Reason for Reading: I enjoy reading about the Titanic; this is my first fictional Titanic tale.

Brief summary: It is 1912 and the Titanic is about to leave for America. Amelia Gladstone and her Aunt Neda have been given tickets by a man with whom Amelia has been corresponding. When Amelia sees two stewards remove Quentin Walpole from their ship as it's being boarded, she takes pity on him and gives him her absentee cousin Henry's ticket. Quentin is a prodigal son who took his inheritance and lost it all. What he doesn't know is that his father and brother are also on the Titanic and his older brother Damien is still angry with Quentin.

When she meets the elder Walpoles, soft-hearted Amelia becomes determined to reunite Quentin with his family but both brothers are trying to woo her at the same time and neither desires to see the other. Will Amelia fall in love with one of the Walpole brothers before she's even met the man who paid for her passage? Can the brothers make their peace so Quentin will be reunited with his heartbroken father? Who will live and who will die when the Titanic goes down?

What I liked about By the Light of the Silvery Moon:

I loved the pairing of the Biblical tale of the Prodigal Son with a light romance and the question of who will survive the capsizing of the Titanic. Since the Titanic is a known equation, the question of whether or not the characters will survive was compelling enough to keep the pages turning. And, I did like the way the author chose to end the story. I think some people might scoff at the convenience of various plot points, but I personally found the conclusion satisfying.

What I disliked about By the Light of the Silvery Moon:

There is a significant weakness to the research in that all of the characters sound fairly modern and American, although many of them are British and the book takes place, of course, in 1912. In addition to the language, hairstyles of adult women are occasionally described as "flowing" rather than pinned up or covered with hats. There are also numerous typos, grammatical errors (particularly mixed tenses within the same sentence), at least one spelling error that jumped out at me enough to mark it, as well as typesetting errors -- for example, in dialogue, when one character speaks and another responds but the response is not placed on a separate line to distinguish between speakers. I got the feeling this book was rushed to press without proper preparation.

Notes on the category:

By the Light of the Silvery Moon is "Inspirational/Christian". I didn't find it particularly preachy, but there were some moments that I think Amelia's internal monologue might qualify as annoyingly self-critical because of her Christianity.

Generalities:

Most of the plot is forwarded by internal motivation; By the Light of the Silvery Moon is character-driven. In general, I tend to dislike character-driven novels but the knowledge that the ship was going to sink really added some momentum to this particular storyline, in my humble opinion. Anyone who knows much about the Titanic will probably be tempted to nit-pick some of the details. I did have to work at shutting off my internal critic. The title does not refer to the phase of the moon at the time of the sinking of the ship but the title of Amelia's favorite song.

Recommendation:

3.5/5 - Entertaining but flawed. The pages flew enough that I don't feel comfortable giving By the Light of the Silvery Moon a lower rating although I would call it an average book. I liked the book or I would not have finished reading it. I did, however, find the sheer quantity of errors terribly distracting. The bottom line: Recommended to readers who enjoy a light, romantic tale with a Christian bent. People who are extremely knowledgeable about the language of the time period and details of the Titanic may find the inaccuracies frustrating.

Cover thoughts:

Even though there's an obvious problem with the full moon on the cover (there was no moon visible on the night the Titanic sank), I like the design of the cover a lot. I think it's pretty and appealing.

What's with the new review layout?

Eh, felt like doing something different. What do you think of it? Too stiff? Easier to read what you're interested in and skip the rest?

Where I got this book and why I'm baffled:

I received this book for review but I didn't know it was coming, although I did sign up to try to get in on a tour. I haven't received any messages at all from the network through which I signed up (and it's a lottery, so you don't automatically join in on a tour -- usually, they contact you to let you know if you've been selected). So, I'm going to just post the review and if anyone ever contacts me I'll send them a link! Weird. I think I fell through the cracks.

What else is new?

My blogging breaks are not necessarily exciting. :) In 2011, I got rid of something on the order of 600 books -- I can't remember the number, now, but quite a few. I stalled for a while; it's such an exhausting job and kind of emotional because I'm pretty attached to my books, but it's got to be done. So, this break has been partly a bit of time off to get back into the swing of purging. Since my mother died and we brought home some of her furniture, we have so little living space that something has got to give!

The cats love my computer breaks:

Honestly, they don't like it at all when I sit at the computer typing. Isabel will often curl up behind the monitor and Fiona comes to say hello or lie at my feet during their nap times, but they like my full and undivided attention when they're up and at 'em. So, they've really enjoyed the fact that I'm buzzing around and frequently stopping to play drag-the-string-through-the-house or to roll jingle balls, etc.

Fiona is hilariously personable. If she's sitting somewhere and I walk into the room, she'll often make a little noise of delight and come running to greet me. Isabel is afraid of moving feet but she is making incredible progress at conquering some of her fears and growing more affectionate all the time. She's gone from once-a-day head to tail pettings to dropping by to ask for an ear rub several times a day. She is even rubbing my leg like a normal cat, now!

Why don't you ever mention the kids, anymore?

I miss my kids like crazy, although we do at least get to see the college Kiddo as he dashes in and out between dates on the weekend. I was a stay-at-home mom for many reasons -- not entirely by choice, partly due to circumstance -- and I thought I would be thrilled to finally have the ability to choose how to use my time. But, the empty nest thing has been so much harder than I expected!!! Travel helps. Exercising and being around humans helps. I haven't yet learned how to share newer bits of my life the way I used to talk about my kids, so I'm going through a bit of an awkward phase as a blogger and I really appreciate those of you who have stuck with me as I'm adjusting.

Blogging will continue to be sporadic because this is my busy season -- when the windows can occasionally be thrown open, the gardens need tending (haven't started on that, eeks) and the yard cleared before summer hits. And, wouldn't you know, Huzzybuns and I both have colds. So, we're not too active at the moment. It's really gorgeous outside, when the sun is shining.

I'm also reading quite slowly because I'm keeping myself so busy with chores, but I just finished Before the Poison by Peter Robinson. I hope to review that in the next day or two. We shall see. Happy Reading!

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Paranormal by Raymond Moody, M. D.

Paranormal is subtitled "My Life in Pursuit of the Afterlife," so that should have been a pretty big clue that I was about to read a memoir, rather than a lot of stories about what the author actually experienced, I suppose. But, I must admit I was a little surprised. I didn't realize it was going to be a memoir that went way back to his childhood and the reasons he got into researching life after death, among other things.

I almost gave up on Paranormal around page 25, but decided 25 pages was not enough of a chance, so I kept on reading and I must admit I got totally sucked in. Plus, Paranormal is well-written enough to make it a fairly breezy read; in the end, I read it in a single afternoon so finding that it was a little different than what I expected did not dissuade me from finishing the book.

Paranormal begins all the way at the beginning of Raymond Moody's life. The opening line:

I was born on June 30, 1944, the very day my father shipped out for World War II.

From there, we learn that the father Moody came to know was a changed man from the one who left in 1944. Of course, the author never knew the "before" version of his father, only the "after" -- the angry, uncommunicative man who made young Raymond a misery. His grandparents were the people he looked up to and it was a grandparent's death that made him wonder about death and whether it was really the end.

Unfortunately, you have to wade through a lot of annoying garbage about young Raymond's brilliance before you get to how he began to do his research, by whom he was mentored, the way he did his research and what he believes (the belief part is very vague, actually). All of which is very high in self-praise and peppered throughout with incidents caused by the medical condition he still is battling.

The book covers his research in life after death -- the subject for which he became famous, after the publication of his book Life After Life -- along with past-life regression (which he believes can be useful in healing people of illnesses, both mental and physical) and contact with the deceased.

What I liked about Paranormal:

I'm going to confess that I found the book fascinating but I am still a skeptic and I'm going to quote the author's use of the word "skeptic:

The truth was that I was a skeptic in the ancient Greek sense of that word ("one who goes on inquiring"). A skeptic in that fascinating ancient culture was not someone who was a naysayer -- as we think of skeptics today -- but rather a seeker who had decided not to reach a conclusion.

~p. 119, Paranormal

That works for me. I did like the way he described going about his research in a way that stopped "well short of declaring that I had discovered proof positive of life after death" and the fact that he refused to attempt to simulate a near-death experience, as in the movie Flatliners, in order to further his research.

I also liked the writing style -- easy reading. Fascinating as it was, I was rather glad that it was a quick read.

What I disliked about Paranormal:

I hate saying this because sometimes I have found that an author who sounds totally overblown is really quite a nice, down-to-earth person, but it's true that Raymond Moody comes off as very high on himself in Paranormal, at least during the first half of the book. I also found that, while it's important to the telling of his story in memoir form, the fact that he stated up front that he attempted suicide because of his medical condition and basically said, "but don't let that put you off what I have to say about my paranormal experiences" (my wording) . . . well . . . it put me off. It shouldn't, but it did.

However, that's small potatoes when compared to the way the book seemed to degenerate. Investigation of life after death without drawing a reasonable conclusion was one thing, but then he went on to past-life regression and I couldn't help thinking, "Any of those things he believes he experienced in past lives could have come from watching TV or movies, dreams he had, bits of conversation." The mind does some very strange things.

By the point that he began describing "crystal gazing" and the Oracle of Delphi, then told how he recreated the Greek caves and reflective surfaces that allowed one to chat with the deceased (by darkening a house and putting people in a closet with a mirror), he'd lost me. I thought he was nuts. I was doubly convinced when Moody described a trip to Greece to see the actual caves, where he spoke to Socrates. I had to flip back through the book to remind myself that there are also descriptions of "shared death experiences" toward the end. I think, by that point, I was just hurrying to get it over with, interesting as they were.

I think it's relevant to note that Raymond Moody's mentor was George Ritchie, the one person who claims to have had a near-death experience that I absolutely did not and cannot buy into. I read Ritchie's book around the time of my own mother's death (which was not completely devoid of the kind of experiences hospice workers warned us about -- she kept saying she wasn't ready to "go down that road") and it was a head-shaker.

So, perhaps I went into the reading of this book a bit over-the-top on the skepticism. I have, however, read quite a few books by people who claim to have had near-death experiences. And, I like to believe them. Some I can swallow, some I cannot. I am completely undecided; I am a skeptic in the Greek sense. Reading Paranormal, then, really did not change much. Except, you will not find me sitting in a dark closet with a mirror, trying to talk to a dead loved one. I'm convinced of that.

Recommended only to memoir lovers or those who are curious about Moody's research into near-death experiences, past-life regression, crystal-gazing and shared death experiences. Be aware that the book is primarily a memoir and most of the stories of experience are his own. Stories about the experiences of his subjects are brief. This book was not a favorite and I recommend it with hesitation, but I do think some people will enjoy it.

Cover thoughts: I don't get it. But, the cover is kind of cool. I am, however, outspoken about the use of nothing but black and white in covers. I think they tend to end up in the remainders. I cannot even begin to tell you how many black-and-white books we received when I worked at a store that carried almost entirely remaindered inventory.

In other news: My DVD copy of Downton Abbey, Season 2 arrived, yesterday! Very exciting, as it took me two weeks to figure out when Downton Abbey is aired, locally, and then we missed an episode because we couldn't get a signal (we don't have cable or satellite and the new-fangled digital signal is weather-dependent). Boy, they really dropped Lavinia and Sir Richard on us without much preamble, didn't they?

My only convincing ghost experience occurred in Farnham, England. I don't have any digital photos of Farnham, so you get a random photo from our last trip to the UK, which I turned black and white to fit today's unintentional theme (it's all the book cover artist's fault):

Makes you long for the good old days, doesn't it?

©2012 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery and Babble or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.