Happy Valentine's Day!

I thought I'd be the last person to wish anyone a Happy Valentine's Day, but I can only imagine it is actually a really lovely day (like any other) in which to show someone how much you care aww. 

So, as my nod towards the big V day, I thought I'd share some of my favourite love songs. Now that might sound a bit wet, however my childhood and into my teenage and now into my adult (gulp) life my parents always play Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs, in every room of the house, the bedroom, the living room, the kitchen everywhere. Some were really soppy like a bit o' Whitney, but I'm talking the ones that you could get up and shake a few pounds off to! (and some others which are just pure classics)

I hope you enjoy and have a great day, whatever you do. 

"Isn't She Lovely" - Stevie Wonder

"You To Me Are Everything" - The Real Thing 

"At Last" - Etta James

"Lets Get It On" - Marvin Gaye 

"I'll Make Love To You" - Boyz II Men

"Rather Be" - Clean Bandit featuring Jess Glynne 

"National Anthem" - Lana Del Rey 

"Valentine" - Jessie Ware & Sampha 

"All Of Me" - John Legend

"Love On Top" - Beyoncé 

My list could literally go on and on, ok, I know I promised get up and dance, but some were just too irresistible. I'm quite impressed I managed to compile that without looking at iTunes. 

Enjoy your day!

RHS x

Lady Chatterley's Lover

(Please vote on my poll, on the right - not available on mobile devices - thanks!)

I am a Classics girl, give me a book written by anyone from Jane Austen to Leo Tolstoy and I am yours. I will link below my last few book reviews, however this isn't a review, as I'm not finished. I am precisely just before half way and the book already deserves a mention. 

I was bought several classics books as part of my Christmas presents (easily pleased) but the one book I wanted Lady Chatterley's Lover (D.H.Lawrence) my parents had a tough criteria to follow, as I didn't want the book with the naked lady on the front, covering her lady parts, that was just a no no. Anyway, as it is a book about that all the covers are a bit controversé shall we say, The one I was purchased was the Penguin Classics version with a man doing up his belt. 

The book was published in 1928 and sold out in the first day, a few days later it was banned and I can see why. In those days it would have been 50 Shades of Grey, white, blue, pink, everything. I wasn't expecting Jane Austen romance but I was expecting it not to be that explicit. Don't get me wrong, its tasteful and written in a respectful manner, I think it is the contexts and the situations that are all a bit random and controversial. 

The story of Lord Chatterley is that he is injured in WWI and at this time is already married to Lady Chatterley, Lord Chatterley remains paralysed from the waist down for the rest of his life. Lady Chatterley, who had already had a very fruitful and abundant young adult life was dissatisfied, Lord Chatterley suggests she gets a lover, she declines and gets more and more lonely and the rest is up to you to read! (or me to tell you in a post when I have finished)

So far it has been quite timid, but I am not on page 126 and it has just started to get a bit steamy. 

I'll recreate a paragraph:

"She lay quite still, in a sort of sleep, in a sort of dream. Then she quivered as she felt his hand groping softly, yet with queer thwarted clumsiness, among her `clothing. Yet the hand knew, too, how to unclothe her where it wanted. He drew down the thin silk sheath, slowly, carefully, right down and over her feet. Then with a quiver of exquisite pleasure he touched the warm soft body, and touched her navel for a moment in a kiss. And he had to come in to her at once, to enter the peace on earth of her soft, quiescent body. It was the moment of pure peace for him, the entry into the body of the woman. She lay still, in a kind of sleep, always in a kind of sleep. The activity, the orgasm was his, all his; she could strive for herself no more. Even the tightness of his arms round her, even the intense movement of his body, and the springing of his seed in her, was a kind of sleep, from which she did not begin to rouse till he had finished and lay softly panting against her breast."

And there we have it. She then went back to her house, to Lord Chatterley, dined and slept... That is where I'm up to! - How that isn't interesting I don't know! I can see why it was banned in the 1930's it was very controversial for those days, almost still now. 

From the bookworm

RHS x

Links

2013 in books

Oscar Wilde

Jane Austen

My year in books

Firstly, Happy New Year - I hope you've been sticking to your resolutions, or just thrown them out of the window, already disregarded your shiny new gym membership, opened the third tin of roses your in-laws bought you and haven't had one piece of fruit since the 30th December, because if you are in that situation, you're not alone. You're even more not alone if you didn't make any resolutions, because I didn't! I just made one promise to myself that I would finish all the books I was bought for Christmas in one year. Last year saw me enter head first (or eyes) into Classics, the more Classic, the better. I'm talking Jane Austen, the Brontë sisters, D.H.Lawrence and the rest of the dead bunch. If the author (or authoress) is not dead, I'm not interested. I fell in love with Jane Austen about two years ago when I read Emma, which isn't the best book, its a bit long and nothing happens but Austen wrote in a very interesting style that had you hooked. So I started the year with another Austen Classic, but perhaps not the most well known... 

Persuasion - Jane Austen 

This did not fail to entertain, my favourite Austen novel, a lot like Pride and Prejudice but with more personality-driven characters and a past that unfolds throughout the book - a very clever piece and quite modern for its time. I wrote my second ever blog entry on this - so take a look to see a summary of the book in more detail - there is a part where Captain Wentworth writes a letter to the heroine Anne Elliot and I almost cried - says a lot about a book! This book certainly changed my view on classics and made me think that I could actually like them. It also taught me that back then Children were classed  as "invalid" and young ladies were sure to get a cold if they were to stand outside in winter. And that would never do. 

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Of course this is a Classic classic; I wasn't expecting the amount of detail but it is quite a long book, with a lot more characters than the film and a better storyline than the film. There isn't a lot I can say about this one as it speaks for itself, I highly recommend it as a summer read when you have time to read several chapters at a time as the story is difficult to follow at times - although always interesting. This made me quite in love with Jane Austen and my Tumblr blog description now starts with "Jane Austen books..." and I was right behind the woman who wanted Austen's face on paper money - I've calmed down a bit now as I started to read Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey but just couldn't get into them. So I decided to start on a new venture... 

The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde 

Well this was an eye opener, Oscar Wilde, the man who was sent to prison for "indecent acts with another man" and was married to a woman he couldn't stand, all this alongside having this book banned in most countries for a while. All of this comes across in his writing, there is clearly a man who has strong feelings for another man and another man who is very unhappily married, whose wife is always flapping around fussily. That aside, this book is by far the strangest for its year, (see my blog post on it for an intro), I didn't write in my post about the ending as Dorian Gray went crazy, he stayed young forever but his portrait became older and more withered as he committed more indecent acts that he hadn't had to worry about as it was only the portrait that was affected. The story is about love, death, drugs, sex, lies, murders, trust and friendship all of which are flipped into their opposites at some point during the book. The ending got a little obvious during the last few chapters but the way it was written was the work of a great author. A great read and a very different style and plot to that of sweet, love and marriage of Austen. 

Vilette - Charlotte Brontë

I wanted to write a blog post about this but I didn't have anything to write about, nothing happens in this book and it is 615 pages long and 1/10th of it is written in French - not so bad if you know a few phrases but having to constantly check whole conversations with the appendix got rather annoying, especially whilst sunbathing! But, I'll give this book credit it was a bit of a The Picture of all over again. This was about ghosts, loneliness, love, unrequited love and death. I first was drawn to this book as it was about a woman who travels to France in order to be a teacher at an all girls school - the girls who were described as rather outrageous and often out of control, which slightly reminded me of my all girl school days... but the most outrageous thing they do is go out at 10pm, don't return till 1am and attend a ball without a Chaperone - absolute carnage in those days. But the story eventually progressed slightly but had the worst, saddest, most confusing ending ever. I was convinced we were getting somewhere by chapter 47 but we didn't and it hit a wall and the abrupt ending was explained as because Brontë had lost her two sisters (who were also authresses) and couldn't ask them for advice. Deary me, poor excuse Charlotte, nevertheless it was an experience and required a lot of effort to plough through but there really isn't much of a story line to it. There were a lot of storms which caused amnesia, ghosts of nuns, jealousy and a bit about Catholics and Protestants which was interesting but I wouldn't go galloping to this book in a hurry. 

Lady Chatterly's Lover - D.H.Lawrence 

Ah, Lawrence, a fellow Midlander who was clearly rather sexually frustrated as his book was also banned from England and the US as it contains rather "explicit content" if your idea of explicit content is something along the lines of not actually that explicit. Although somethings you read and think "oh my, Lady Chatterly!". The story is quite sad so far (I'm on chapter 4!) Lord Chatterly was left paralysed from the waits down in the First World War - which leaves Lady C's life rather "unfulfilled" shall we say. If you're currently wondering why this book is in my possession as I'm usually used to Austen's novels where characters don't even kiss before they get married, my mother said she read it as a 17 year old and thought I'd like it, seeing as I like classics. We'll see about that. So anyway, Lord C suggests that Lady C gets a "beau" shall we say. Which is a little too late for him to suggest and she has gone and done it anyway. As I'm only 30 pages in there is clearly a lot of the story left to go and I'm sure it will all work out for the Chatterly's... 

If you are thinking of reading a Classic, start with Persuasion, if you like a bit more of a modern twist with a bit of 1920's 50 shades try Lady Chatterly's Lover - but if you really want a classic that you'll already know the story to try Pride and Prejudice (the Kiera Knightly film is brilliant but it is miles off the book which is a lot more descriptive and explains more about several other families). Either way these books over the past year have made me think, some quotes (especially those in Dorian Gray) are so powerful you want to get a poster made with it on and pronounce it to the world. My favourite of these is: 

"Never marry Dorian, men marry because they are tired, women because they are curious, both are disappointed" 

Happy reading

RHS x

Classics #2 Oscar Wilde

 If I had a "My Life In Books" column in Elle Magazine, this book would be no.1 on my list. I thought "Don't I look cool buying an Oscar Wilde book in a massive old fashioned Waterstones... I'll never read this". Oh how I was wrong. I didn't realise Oscar Wilde was homosexual. Did anyone else? I mean I've seen the bit in The Inbetweeners where everyone accuses Neil's dad of being gay and he protests saying he was married for several years, then Will mentions that "Oscar Wilde was married" - That probably should have given it away. Nevertheless, Oscar Wilde was gay and this book has hints all the way through it. The book was published several times and the final in 1891. He was accused in 1895 of "acts of gross indecency with another male person"and was sentenced to two years imprisonment and hard labour. Ok, so it was illegal to be gay in those days (Oscar Wilde was Irish, he was sentenced at the Old Bailey, England) and this book is very risqué for the 1890's - there isn't one kiss in Jane Austen novels but this was potentially the 50 shades of the time. 

 The book is about an artist (Basil) who paints a portrait of Dorian Gray - Basil's friend loves it so much he insists that it should be sold but Basil is having none of it... why?... because he is clearly in love with Dorian Gray and wants to keep the painting for himself... yeah. I won't quote anything out of the book but the first chapter was enough to have me hooked. The best bit is that with the Penguin Classics there are notes at the back which display what Wilde had first written and was taken out - some you can see why. The book was used against Wilde in this trial as you can tell somethings are his own thoughts and when someones wife enters it is clear he is potentially talking about his own wife... 

 Anyway I have just got to the part where Dorian Gray is engaged - poor Basil- I will quote this (just as a taster!) - Wilde here is talking about Basil - "A strange sense of loss came over him. He felt that Dorian Gray would never again be to him all that he had been in the past" - shocking, I know. 

 This isn't a boring Jane Austen novel and it is one of very few of Oscar Wilde's - its free on iBooks - so I highly reccomend it - I want to write down every quote that one character in particular says... This is my favourite:

"Never marry Dorian. Men marry because they are tired and women because they are curious - both are dissapointed" - ahh and people ask why I'm not getting married. 

Beautiful,

RHS x 

Classics #1 Persuasion - Jane Austen

I've finished it. I finished it last night, to be precise. 

I got it because Waterstones are selling Wordsworth Classics books (made for students) for £1.99!

I never really planned on reading its meagre 201 pages, I just hoped it would look good in my "library" in my "own house" in several years time. 

Nevertheless, thanks to the recent heatwave I picked it up and didn't put it down - metaphorically speaking of course. 

Its a book thats more 50 shades of thesaurus than grey, of Much Ado About Nothing, until someone does something scandalous, sorry "scandalous' - no one has any rabbit moments.  The book is wordy but I highly advise it is read. 

I read that it is better than Pride and Prejudice! (which I still have to read). 

I'll try not to give too much away 

(ruined by the letter! - sorry!) 

The heroine, Anne Elliot is the middle daughter of Sir Walter Elliot, her eldest sister, Elizabeth, and father are very much focussed on social class and will not be seen with people who are inferior (this is made painfully clear in many chapters - thankfully they move to Bath to solve Sir Walter's debt issues). 

Anne Elliot is very closely acquainted with Lady Russell who is like a mother figure (the Elliot sisters' mother died) to the three girls, Anne is her favourite however. 

Lady Russell, although she means well throughout the book persuaded Anne Elliot not to marry Captain Wentworth (Mr Darcy - basically, or Aston Kutcher, whoever, he was fit). Then eight and a half years later they are reunited, but Captain Wentworth is having none of Anne's forwardness. After many swings and roundabouts of family: she loves him, he loves her, she's taken ill and falls for someone else, Captain Wentworth is eventually drawn to Anne completely. Last night I have to say, and I am potentially the LEAST romantic person ever, but this tugged at heart strings somewhere in me: the letter written to Anne by Captain Wentworth:

I can listen no longer in silence. I must speak to you by such means as are within my reach. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope. Tell me not that I am too late, that such precious feelings are gone for ever. I offer myself to you again with a heart even more your own than when you almost broke it, eight years and a half ago. Dare not say that man forgets sooner than woman, that his love has an earlier death. I have loved none but you. Unjust I may have been, weak and resentful I have been, but never inconstant. You alone have brought me to Bath. For you alone, I think and plan. Have you not seen this? Can you fail to have understood my wishes? I had not waited even these ten days, could I have read your feelings, as I think you must have penetrated mine. I can hardly write. I am every instant hearing something which overpowers me. You sink your voice, but I can distinguish the tones of that voice when they would be lost on others. Too good, too excellent creature! You do us justice, indeed. You do believe that there is true attachment and constancy among men. Believe it to be most fervent, most undeviating, in

F. W.

I must go, uncertain of my fate; but I shall return hither, or follow your party, as soon as possible. A word, a look, will be enough to decide whether I enter your father's house this evening or never. 

and sigh... how could Anne Elliot refuse this?!
It was clear at the end that Anne had searched for 8 years to find a match close to what she had when she was 19 but couldn't.

Could the person we will end up marrying be in our current friendship group?

Well worth a read, if you fancy something different from a chick flick, you can easily associate with the characters in this book and the relationships are fascinating, especially that of Mary Musgrove (youngest Elliot) with her husband (Charles Musgrove) and her children.

Keep your friends close!

RHS x