I can confidently say that my first time reading Dickens proved to be much more enjoyable than I was expecting! I had preconceived notions that it would be a dense piece of literature full of archaic language and hard to understand. Hard Times ended up being an incredibly engaging and symbolic story that had me hooked until the very end -- and able to comprehend the plot line the entire way through. It is a story that reflects Charles Dickens' anti-utilitarian views through a host of lively, unique characters. These characters, ranging from middle-class families to slaving industrial workers to circus performers, live in a city called Coketown that greatly resembles Dickens' "beloved" London, and reveals the author's innermost opinions on the function of society. Each character exists to possess a deep representation that it was nearly impossible for me not to highlight and underline every other word. Dickens' writing style is also highly intriguing and incredibly intricate. As a writer myself, I found myself admiring it throughout. The story is split up into three parts and contains many twists and turns. I especially loved the ending, even though one part of it pertaining to my favorite character kind of wrecked me... I think the best books are the ones with conclusions that stick with, or even unsettle, you a bit, though. I would recommend this book to readers well-versed within Dickens' library as well as those who have only skimmed A Christmas Carol.


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My favorite quote from Hard Times:

"There is a wisdom of the Head... and there is a wisdom of the Heart."

Yet another book from my literature class, haha! This novel is, in the most literal sense, a book about books. It is a story that follows a rathe simple girl. It is repeatedly emphasized that this simple girl doesn't fit the typical heroine role. Our heroine's name is Catherine Morland, described as lacking in any exceptional talents and abundant in politeness and naivety. Invited to "vacation" in Bath with some family friends, Catherine sets out on her debut and finds herself acquainted with a whole host of new friends. The main part of what makes this novel a parody of its Gothic genre is that Catherine looks at life like one of the many novels she has absorbed throughout her young years. Austen also inserts some not-so-subtle commentary on her opinions concerning novels and novel-reading in her current political climate (see Chapter 5). She plays off of her readers' expectations of what a Gothic genre story should possess (a dark, mysterious abbey, suspense, hushed secrets, and hierarchy) and creates a story that unashamedly reveals the very true fears of reality. Catherine eventually finetunes her ability to read people and situations by the end of the novel (which concludes with a happy wedding like almost every Austen novel), starkly contrasting her inability to distinguish sarcasm and subtext at the novel's inception. Austen also introduces a host of characters who possess different "reading" levels to reveal more about her main character and opinions on the value of novels as a genre. While this book does not possess the element of immense suspense that Catherine's beloved The Mysteries of Udolpho ​has, it brilliantly observes the tropes of its genre, spins them in an incredibly deliberate way, and says a lot more about a great deal of social issues than one could expect from a non-parodied work.


My favorite quote from Northanger Abbey:

"The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid."