The Castle of Otranto

The internet tells me that The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole is the first gothic novel, and in true gothic form it's an extremely theatrical read. From the very first page, Walpole wastes no time—he has us running at full speed into the middle of the action (a wedding day, no less) without any formal introductions.

There's playfulness veiled in the dark and frightening events that the characters are experiencing which pushes the absurd even further: the prince dies from a giant helmet falling on him from the sky, there's giant armored limbs all over the castle, etc etc.

Also, men are just gross in this old-timey world.  Manfred is pretty rapey in his pursuit of Isabella, not to mention his easy dismissal of Hippolita in order get his mitts on the newer, younger girl.  But he's not the only gross one. Frederic, nice as he is, also fell in love with Matilda who is his own damn daughter's age. Ugh why are old men so creepy.  On the other hand, the women are on the total other side of the spectrum, acquiescing to everyone else's needs and putting their feelings first (in Matilda's case, all the way to her dying breath).  #TimesUp, ladies.

It seems unfair that Isabella should be saved and Matilda sacrificed, but I guess it shakes out that the main point of all of the bad things that happened was for Manfred to suffer.  I was quite surprised that he cared at all that Matilda died though, to be honest.  I guess he was human after all.

Gone with the Wind

It feels like I've been reading Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind for half a year now, but I see from my last post that's it's actually only been 2 months. In that time, I've spent 9 years (1448 pages) with Scarlett O'hara from age 19, all the way through the Civil War, 3 husbands, and 3 children. I don't think I've ever read a book that spans such a lengthy timeline, covering so many life events for the main character as Wind has done. Every time a new husband or a new child or a new death came along, I felt each layer get added to a growing mountain of history that I've never experienced in fiction.  Truly, no one can deny that this book is epic.


For the majority of the book, I loathed Scarlett and couldn't understand why any women ever felt a connection to her (much less to the degree of wanting to be her). My copy was prefaced by Pat Conroy who went on and on about how his mother obsessed over Scarlett and identified her as someone worth idolizing.  All I could see in the young Scarlett was a self-absorbed uneducated brat who cared nothing of anything but herself.  Mitchell even made it clear that that was Scarlett's main characteristic time and time again, and yet all of the characters in Clayton adored her to a degree that made me question whether I was reading a satirical joke. Honestly, it was blowing my mind I was so confused.  If you're going to choose a woman in this book to want to be, it should be Melanie. She is literally perfection, and all of the characters even say so. Are human women idiots? Wtf is going on in society that people want to be the true villain.  Sidenote, I hate her "fiddle dee-dee"s and "if XX doesn't stop, I'll scream" taglines more than anything. Girl, stfu.

I also thought that Ashley made it painfully clear that he  didn't ever want her early on, but then when he did respond to Scarlett throwing herself at him, I was sincerely taken aback and disappointed. Rhett, on the other hand, was almost identical to Ashley in every way save for one minor trait (that of being a damn suave badass) and I couldn't see how Scarlett didn't realize she loved the same person twice. He and Ashley could have been great friends had it not been for Scarlett, I think.

In the very end, Scarlett does seem to do a tiny bit of growing up. At least she's finally true to her feelings and admits her weaknesses (love, in more ways than one). I found the final page to be surprisingly perfect. Scarlett, finally facing the results of all of her terrible behavior for the past 1440 pages, yet pushing toward hope and clawing her way back—the story will go on.