raderwoman is currently reading Adam Bede.
I’m 58 years old, female, from the United States. I’ve been a DailyLit member since October 21, 2008. My reading interests include classics, murder mysteries, theology, and current events.
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The Golden Bowl - The Golden Bowl
I have to say this book is not the best choice to read on line because it is based on such exquisite subtleties that it requires some rereading on occasion. It is SO subtle that I think most modern readers would toss it over their shoulders after the first 100 pages if not before. The writing is ornate, even for James, and the sentence structures sometimes a real challenge to parse. Maggie's method of dealing with a truly horrible situation and finding, most of the way through, that her father is aware of everything, provides a perversity that I am not sure a reader of today could even begin to understand. Interestingly for me, I found the father-daughter relationship utterly treacly and even distasteful at the beginning of the book. By the end I admired their complete sympathy for one another.
The Age of Innocence - creation of a lost time and place
Reading Wharton is transport to a time so far fro current reality as to feel like fantasy. Even though the characters in this book are struggling with a set of mores that seem utterly laughable to me, I was completely involved in them, even the minor characters shown with exactness, easy to visualize and to understand. Her perceptions of motivation and behavior is still brilliant.