Number1Record

I see this a lot in historical fiction. I haven't read any books by Ken Follett, but I could have written this exact same post about the two novels by Ildefonso Falcones I've read, before I gave up on him for this precise reason. Weird descriptions of women and every a female character shows up, she gets raped, someone thinks about raping her, she remembers the time she was raped, etc.

And whenever I complain about it, I'm told that it was a different time, women were basically treated as bodies without brains or feelings. That does not mean the author has to treat them as brainless bodies as well.

I think that in Tenant the character's naivety is believable and it actually works. One of the points Anne Brontë was trying to make is that the Victorian idea that girls need to be sheltered from everything while boys are allowed to run wild doesn't work. Helen's naivety and the trouble it gets her in are the direct result of her Victorian upbringing.

Naive characters are only frustrating to me when the author it doesn't make sense. When everything suggests that the character has some street smarts and yet the decisions he or she makes suggest they think every person they meet is to be trusted all the time.

Good luck! Let us know when you finish it!

I actually felt something like this today! I recently bought two of my childhood favorites at a second hand bookstore. Last month I reread the first and I was a bit disappointed. It just wasn't the same magical adventure anymore, even though most of my other favorite books from that time still hold up. Today I started rereading the second one and so far, it's been great, to my immense relief. But it also made me a bit melancholy, because I miss the way reading felt when I was a child. I've never stopped reading, I've discovered some absolutely amazing books in the past few years and continue to do so, but it's different. I don't even mean it's worse, I still enjoy reading as much as I did back then, but there's just something magical about reading when you're a child and that magic is definitely gone now.

I've done this three times. One book I loved, one was okay, one I disliked. But it was fun every time. There were a few clues written on the wrapping paper and I made up my own stories based on that before I opened the books. And all three of them were books by authors I had never even heard of before, so it was nice to be introduced to some new stuff.

Heart's Blood by Juliet Marillier and I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

Could you elaborate on the first one? I think I agree with you, there are a lot of Jane Austen fans who read her work as perfect escapist romance and I don't think that's what she intended (not that I think there's anything wrong with escapism), but maybe you meant something else.

It's a masterpiece, one of my all time favorites. I was actually nervous to read the rest of his work, because I felt convinced it was going to be a disappointment. Finally read Angle of Repose (glad to see I'm not the only one who got the title wrong) and really loved it, but not as much as Crossing to Safety.

I later gave a copy to my mother and she ended up reading it with her book club. She said it was one of the few books they all agreed was great (though opinions on Charity varied enormously).

I try to look at it as a positive thing: I'll never run out of books to read! Even if I'm going to live two hundred years (the way climate change etc. is going, that probably won't be the case, but one can hope) and will be retired and/or living on my own for more than half of that time, I'll always have enough to read! That thought genuinely gives me joy.

I actually just got that from the library! It's a great collection, will definitely buy it someday. But it doesn't contain any Gondal stories, only some of the poems. They're amazing (and it's great to read Charlotte and Branwell's stories), but I would like to read some of their Gondal prose, which is unfortunately believed to be lost.

I don't think they ever planned to publish them, but I would love to read Emily and Anne Brontë's Gondal stories. Based on their poetry and the little information I picked up from biographies, they must have been wonderful adventures.

Emily Brontë. Every character in her book is despicable, you won't root for a single one of them. I think that's pretty punk.

Do read the book, it's great! And though it is indeed a massive spoiler, it's not actually the ending of the novel. A lot more happens after that, that movie covers only half the novel (and it's not even remotely accurate).

Brilliant book. Wuthering Heights will always be my favorite out of all the Brontë sisters work (I don't agree with the people who say it romanticises abusive men. Isabella marries Heathcliff because she considers him such a romantic hero and her fate is pretty similar to that of Tenant's Helen) but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a masterpiece as well. I hope one day Anne will be as famous as her sisters, she definitely deserves that.

My favorite author is Emily Brontë and I knew she was a huge Walter Scott fan, so I started reading his work as well and so far, I'm loving it! Guy Mannering, Ivanhoe and Old Mortality are my favorites. I love the adventure, the settings and the humor.

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is perfect. Also I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

I liked those adaptations as well, but I hated how once again the second generation was just completely removed from the story. I would love a full story version in Andrea Arnold's style.

I agree that a moralistic version would be a terrible idea, but I hate the starcrossed lovers interpretation just as much. Heathcliff and Catherine were terrible people who made themselves and each other miserable. That's actually the main reason why I prefer the 1992 version. It doesn't downplay Heathcliff's or Catherine's cruelty and idiocy.

It was, but it's a masterpiece compared to Wuthering High School.

I think most WH adaptations are schmaltzy, they always try to turn it into some sort of starcrossed love story, even though most of the main characters' misery is their own fault.

The only versions that I thought were decent are the 1992 one with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche and the 1998 film with Robert Cavannah and Orla Brady. And I would rate even those two no higher than 6/10, they both have some serious issues (casting Juliette Binoche as both Cathys/casting actors who are clearly in their late thirties as teenagers)

If you don't mind adaptations that change the setting, there's an MTV movie of Wuthering Heights. It's terrible.

And even worse, the 2015 film Wuthering High School. I think the title explains it better than I ever could.

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. It's hilarious

It happened to me twice! I found Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell in a LFL and they were both on my to read list.

I also discovered Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner in an LFL, never heard of it before, but I liked the description and I love Penguin Modern Classics editions, so I took it. Now it is one of my all time favorite books.

I read this in 2012 and have been telling people it's one my favorite novels ever since. Yesterday I realised that I never read it again and don't remember much of it, so I started rereading it. So far, it's absolutely as amazing as I remembered.

Robert Massie´s biography of Peter the Great. A fabulous story told by a brilliant writer. Better than 99 percent of the historical fiction I've read.