Fantastic Five Friday!

Welcome back for another exciting addition of Fantastic Five Friday! I say exciting because this week I'm dealing with the always intriguing topic of literary villains. Oooo! Ahhh! Villains can be horrible indeed and love 'em or hate 'em they certainly do make for a more exciting read.


So let's talk about my Fantastic Five Literary Villains!


Humbert Humbert
in Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

I've seen this book listed in other lists of famously intriguing and awesome villains in literature, but to my surprise they have the character of Quilty listed as the awful villain. Now, I'm not going to say that Quilty was a good guy, he wasn't. He was just as despicable as Humbert. But one of the whole points of the novel is that Humbert is trying to convince the reader and himself that he's a good guy, that he always loved Lolita. Well, he's the one that took her from her home. He's the one that prayed upon her when she was just a child. He's a pedophile. Quilty was horrible as well but it's as though he felt that by the end if he got rid of Quilty he had somehow absolved himself of all the horrible things HE had done. Sorry, no dice. You sir, Humbert, are the villain of this tale because you don't even realize that you're the scum.


Mrs. Danvers
in Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

If you haven't read this book then I have one thing to say to you: read it. Now. It's just fantastic. And Mrs. Danvers is one of the main reasons. She is a remarkable villain indeed. The new Mrs. de Winter comes to live with her husband at Manderlay and the head of the staff, Mrs. Danvers, cannot let go of her old employer, Rebecca. She constantly haunts Mrs. de Winter with images of Rebecca and her perfection, how nobody could ever replace her, how nobody wants a new Mrs. de Winter, etc. At one point she basically almost goads her into jumping out of a window and KILLING HERSELF! Now that's a villain!


Alec d'Urberville
in Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

I just finished this book the other week and posted my review yesterday, so if you haven't read that you can check it out HERE. But this character is a real S.O.B. I explained the horrible stuff he does in my review so I don't want to rehash it here, but what makes him a great villain in my opinion is that he is so charming. Smarmy is another word for it. He seems to charm almost every woman he comes across in the novel. And after he happens across Tess again much later in her life, after the dreadful incident in The Chase, one can't help but feel drawn to him. Therein lies his power. The jerk!


General Woundwort
in Watership Down by Richard Adams

I don't know how many of you have read this book but it is a lovely tale of survival told by...rabbits. It's a classic and one that I just read a little less than a year ago. And I was so glad I did. They're journeying to find a new warren and on their way the find the warren known as Efrafa led by the horrible General Woundwort. He's a tyrannical beast of a rabbit and they basically battle like...well the animals that they are. I've never been so afraid of a rabbit in all my life.


Iago
in Othello by William Shakespeare

This play is all about the evilness that is Iago in my opinion. I mean, the character of Iago whispering and spreading hateful lies in another person's ear has been copied over so many times it's ridiculous. That's because the character is just so wonderful. Nobody writes them like Shakespeare. Iago plays ALL sides and does it to such a masterous level it's astounding. And he thinks nothing of the consequences of his actions as long as the end result is that he gets more power. He gets people KILLED in the process and doesn't bat an eye. Best villain ever.


So what about the rest of you? Who are your favorite villains in literature?

Review for You - Tess of the d'Urbervilles

Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
3.5 stars

I’ve been meaning to write this review for several days but I’ve found it has been hard to even get started. The story of Tess leaves me very…emotional, shall we say and it’s kind of hard to even summarize. Hardy writes the book in Phases (7 in all) and it’s hard to give a good analysis without totally spoiling the whole book as there is a lot of critical stuff that goes on in this one. I will, however, try my best.


The novel revolves around Tess Durbeyfield and basically her journey through womanhood. She is a very beautiful young lady, as Hardy makes mention of several times, and seems to catch several fellows’ eyes. Her family is not wealthy by any means. In fact, they are poor and her father is somewhat of a drunk. But one day, in the very beginning of the book, Mr. Durbeyfield learns that he is actually the descendant of one of the noblest families in all of England: the d’Urbervilles. It also seems that they are basically the only ones left in all of England. This inflates Mr. Durbeyfield’s ego to the size of all get out.


They do manage to hear of one other family of d’Urbervilles that is quite well off and it is decided that since they are in dire straights, noble clan name not withstanding, that Tess should be sent to try to make acquaintance and see what might be done to help them out. Little do they know that these people have just usurped the name having moved into the area and are not d’Urbervilles at all. They’re Stokes, whoever those people are! However Tess is just a young lady at this time and is ill prepared for the difficulties that lie at hand when she meets her “cousin” Alec d’Urberville.


He is older and charming but Tess right away is wary of him. He is too keen on her and constantly tries to woo her in one way or another. Her mother thinks this is a grand idea and hopes marriage is in the works. Unfortunately, Alec’s plans are much more sinister. One dark night, on a walk home together alone in The Chase, the two of them get lost and Tess falls asleep. Alec rapes her. She is seen as damaged forever.


I don’t consider any of what I have just told you as a spoiler because it all happens in the very beginning (or Phase the First as Hardy sections the book). The real guts of the novel is what happens in her life afterwards. She sees herself as a woman that can never get married or have true happiness, because that is the way it was in those days for women. The only problem is that she does meet someone that she truly loves (Angel Clare) and then it becomes an intense inner struggle with herself in deciding what to do.


Hardy is a fantastic writer and was incredibly ahead of his time for penning a novel such as this way back in 1891. I would call it feminist because it definitely calls into question the ridiculous double standard of society when it comes to female sexuality. But at the same time the character of Tess was kind of a call back to the ideals of the past. In some ways she was a strong female character (and unfortunately I can’t give example without TRULY spoiling the book) but most of the time she was supporting those awful old ways which said that she was indeed lesser because she was a woman and “unpure.” Yet the book was pushing and pushing against those thoughts the whole time. That’s what I mean when I talk about Tess having this inner struggle with herself. Hardy was truly a master to be able to pull that off. Did it make for an infuriating read though? Oh you betcha! I cannot count the number of times I wanted to throw my Kindle against a wall. For that reason, and the fact that it did start off rather slow, is the reason I give it a lower star rating than I feel it otherwise might deserve.

I do recommend it though. Just try to keep a cool head while reading.

Goodreads and Good Books

For some reason my interweb access lately once I get home to my abode has been nothing short of craptastic...so I've had to choose my posts wisely. Write what I can at work and then post whenever the internet cooperates at home. It's been a fun, lemme tell ya!


So I've been trying to become the best possible blogger I can be (you can do it!) by utilizing myself of all the various social networking tools available, but it's been a slow process. I am now on Goodreads but my shelf is not complete and I have yet to upload my reviews there. But I swear I'm doing it! You can find and friend me: HERE. But since I'm new to this whole blogging game I don't really know what other things I should avail myself of...I'm thinking of starting a Twitter account, although I kind of loathe the thought, haha. Maybe a Facebook page that corresponds solely to this blog...what else am I missing ya'll? Tell me in the comments!


And so this post isn't all me me me me (but who am I kidding, aren't they all?) I'd like to leave you with a highlight from the book I just started. It's All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren which won the Pulitzer Prize way back in 1947. I'm just over 50 pages in and while I have no idea where it's going exactly I must say the writing is FANTASTIC. I was captivated right away. You can just feel it if you get what I'm saying.

"You saw the eyes bulge suddenly like that, as though something had happened inside him, and there was that glitter. You knew something had happened inside him, and thought: It's coming. It was always that way. There was the bulge and the glitter, and there was the cold grip way down in the stomach as though somebody had laid hold of something in there, in the dark which is you, with a cold hand in a cold rubber glove."

Tomorrow I plan on posting my review of Tess of the d'Urbervilles. So be ready for that! See you soon :)

Book-Shaking Anger

Have you ever been so immersed in a story that you find yourself becoming completely irritated with the main character? I mean really truly pissed off? Like you’re sitting there reading, and it’s all quiet and you find yourself shaking the book back and forth yelling: “Shut up! Shut up! Oh for crying out loud would you just shut up already!” I find that this happens in two kinds of books: really horribly bad ones, or very well written ones.

Well I recently experienced it with the latter (thank goodness!). I finished Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy the other day and could not believe at how utterly annoyed and aggravated I became throughout the novel with the main character. And it was especially surprising seeing as how I think one of the main themes of the whole book was feminism and Hardy was reeeeally ahead of his time in regards to how women should have been viewed in that era. Yet, while you could tell that Hardy himself was very forward thinking in this regard, his main character and protagonist, Tess, was really not. Not that she was totally the opposite either. I’ll explain more in my review that will come later this week but it was BEYOND frustrating sometimes to read her thoughts and diatribes.

So the question is, has this ever happened to you? Have you ever been this put off by a character that you’ve shouted at the paper in front of you? Maybe you’ve even thrown the book across the room (yes I admit to doing that a few times). What was the book? Was it because the book was just horribly and totally bad in itself, or what?