City Folk & Country Folk - Sofia Khvoshchinskaya

When I was in my twenties I read Crime and Punishment by Fydor Dostoyevsky and I have been a fan of 19th century Russian literature ever since.  I went on to read Tolstoy, Chekhov, Turgenev and I am now pleased to add City Folk and Country Folk by Sofia Khvoshchinskaya (1863) to my list. It's a well written novel about Russian life in the 1860's and the translator, Nora Seligman Favorov, does a fine job in making this book accessible.  City Folk and Country Folk is also a rarity, a 19th century Russian novel by a female author.

And so when City Folk and Country Folk begins it is the summer of 1862 the year after the emancipation of the serfs, a momentous event in Russian history.  The novel centers around Nastasya Ivanovna Chulkova and her 17 year old daughter Olenka.  Mother and daughter own a modest estate in the country that they manage quite well.  Nastasya and Olenka are hard working and unpretentious.  

But then into their lives arrives Anna Ilinishna, Nastasya's cousin who moves in with them and does nothing but complain.  There is also their neighbor Erast Sergeyevich, who has returned home after years of spending and partying abroad and finally we have Katerina Petrovna, a wealthy society woman who is determined to marry off Nastasya's daughter Olenka regardless of what Olenka thinks about the matter.  

These three, Anna Ilinishna, Erast Sergeyevich and Katrina Petrovna are the city folk.  They have lived a good part of their lives in Moscow, have traveled to Paris and London and they look down on Nastasya and Olenka's country ways.  But as Prof Hilde Hoogenboom writes in the introduction to this novel

"The comedy turns on the fact that everyone depends on Nastasya's well-run estate, traditional Russian hospitality and Christian virtue for shelter, food, loans and kindness.  Although they are all poor and indebted, they are so blinded by their relative noble wealth and status that none of them feels any gratitude toward Nastasya.  Nor does she feel deserving of thanks".

Her daughter, though, sees things differently and as Prof. Hoogenboom points out, Olenka is a different sort of young heroine than one is used to encountering in 19th century Russian novels.  Olenka is pretty but not a great beauty.  She is intelligent but not an intellectual.  She doesn't read much and  that's particularly true of the articles that Erast Sergeyevich has been submitting to journals about his thoughts on the new Russia and how it is up to the nobles like himself to show the peasants the way forward.  Erast presses Olenka to read his writings and she is pretty much openly laughing at him.  

In many ways Olenka represents the new Russia.  She is unimpressed with class and sees through hypocrisy and she is furious at the way their snobbish neighbors treat both her and her mother.  A minor crisis arrives at the end of the novel which answers the question will Nastasya take her daughter's advise and finally stand up to Anna, Erast and Katrina who have been making her life miserable.

I enjoyed City Folk and Country Folk and it has been receiving critical praise including a starred review from Publisher's Weekly.  As for the author, Sofia Khvoshchinskaya came from a family of literary sisters (Sofia, Nadezhda and Praskovia) and they have been compared to the Brontes although the Brontes to be fair are without equal.  But Sofia Khvoshchinskaya has talent and critics have pointed out that her style resembles Jane Austen and I can see the resemblance.  

Sofia and her sisters published under male pseudonyms and Sofia left instructions that her work not be republished.  She died young.  Another talented 19th century author lost to TB.  She was hard on herself as a writer, as she once said "never does one see the faults of one's pen so well as when one sees it leaving a bookstore".  That's both funny and kind of sad.  But today Sofia Khvoshchinskaya is finally being republished and hopefully a new voice is being added to the study of Russian literature.

City Folk and Country Folk fulfills my final category for the 2021 Back to the Classics Challenge - choose a classic in translation.

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

"The landscape of the American West has to be seen to be believed and has to be believed to be seen" - N Scott Momaday

For the 2021 Back to the Classics Category- choose a classic by a BIPOC author, I knew I wanted to go with a Native American writer but all of the writers I wanted to read, Louise Erdrich, Sherman Alexie, Linda Hogan, David Heska Wanbli etc are contemporary and to conform to the classic's rules the books we choose have to be at least 50 years old.  And so after a bit of research I came upon N. Scott Momaday's House Made of Dawn, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for fiction and it truly is a book worthy of all the praise it has received over the years.

House Made of Dawn is set during the mid twentieth century and centers around a young Kiowa man named Abel who returns to his hometown in Jemez, New Mexico after serving overseas in World War II.  As the author tells us in the introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of the book, Abel is a composite of many of the Native American men he knew when he was growing up in Jemez New Mexico.  Young men who had grown up on the reservation.  It was the only world they knew and then suddenly they were pulled out of that world, drafted and sent overseas.  They were not prepared for what they saw and experienced during the war.

Many came home suffering from PTSD and they turned to alcohol, violence, suicide.  When Abel's grandfather for example meets his returning grandson at the bus station the grandfather is shocked and saddened to discover that Abel is drunk.  Abel tries to settle back in to his old life in Jemez but he is haunted by flashbacks from the war and one night during a festival in the village he drunkenly kills a man thinking he is killing a demon.  

The next time we meet Abel it is 1952.  He has been released from prison and is living in Los Angeles.  He has a job and a fellow Native American roomate named Ben Benally, and a girlfriend, Millie.  The three friends form a bond going on picnics, telling each other about their lives, sharing dinners but Ben worries it can't last: 

"He was unlucky.  You could see that right away.  He wasn't going to get along around here.  Millie thought he was going to be all right, I guess, but she didn't understand how it was with him. He was a longhair, like Tosamah said.  You know, you have to change.  That's the only way you can live in a place like this.  You have to forget about the way it was, how you grew up and all. Sometimes it's hard but you have to do it.  Well, he didn't want to change, I guess, or he didn't know how."

Abel is caught between two worlds.  In years past he would have stayed in Jemez New Mexico where he grew up, hunting, fishing and taking part in the Kiowa traditions and customs as his ancestors did.  But the 20th century changed all that and a central question House Made of Dawn poses is can Abel find a place in the modern world and if not can he go home again, return to Jemez and the world he once knew?

Normally I don't go in for too many nature scenes in novels or non-linear story telling but here it works.  The descriptions of life and nature in Jemez, New Mexico are so well done and a spirituality infuses this book.  You will finish House Made of Dawn wanting to know more about Native American culture, traditions and there are so many really fine Native American authors writing today but House Made of Dawn is a very good place to begin.

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

The Cruelest Month (2007) is book three in Louise Penny's excellent Chief Inspector Armand Gamache mystery series and as with all of the books in this series the setting is the fictional village of Three Pines, Quebec.  It's a charming place, off the beaten path.  Very few outsiders know of it but for those who reside there they would not want to live anywhere else. 

Certain residents of Three Pines we follow from book to book.  Clara and Peter Morrow, who make a living through their art work.  Myrna Landers who runs the local bookstore.  Ruth Zardo an elderly, famous and brilliant poet who lives in Three Pines for the privacy and for the fact that her neighbors accept her curmudgeonly behavior.  And finally Gabriel Dubeau and his partner Olivier Brule who own the local B&B and bistro where the town members often gather to socialize.  

These six characters are regulars in the series.  They appear in each novel as does Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team of agents who work at the police headquarters in Quebec and they are used to solving big city crimes.  However, Three Pines despite its small size has a way of continually drawing Gamache and his team back to solve the  latest murder happening in their little town.  One would think Inspector Gamache would be exasperated by now but actually he loves Three Pines and has become friends with many of its residents.  

In the Cruelest Month the novel features two storylines.  There is the crime in which during the Easter weekend some of Three Pines' residents decided to hold a seance at the deserted Hadley House to exorcise the house's demons.  But something goes very wrong.  One of the participants in the seance, Madeleine Favreau, dies of fright.  The town is horrified and the thinking is that Madeleine had a heart attack but when the medical reports come back it turns out she was poisoned.

As Inspector Gamache tries to solve the case involving Madeleine's murder we come to the second storyline involving the Arnot case.  Years ago, Superintendent Pierre Arnot who was well liked among his fellow police officers in Quebec committed a terrible crime which Gamache discovered and couldn't ignore.  He brought Arnot to justice and Gamache's supervisors have never forgiven him for betraying a fellow officer and bringing shame to the department.  And so now as a way to bring Armand Gamache down, his boss, Michel Brebeuf, has planted a spy on his team.  Gamache is aware of who on his team is disloyal but what the reader knows and Gamache does not is that his best friend and boss Michel Brebeuf is in on the betrayal.  

And that is one theme of the book, betrayal and jealousy by people we thought we could trust.  Resentment began to build in Brebeuf over the years about all of the qualities that Gamache has that Brebeuf can never hope to match.  And that is true also of Madeleine Favreau.  She was a beautiful and accomplished woman who many admired and wanted to be around but for some closest to her it was hard to compete with all that perfection and jealousy and rage began to build there as well.

I really enjoyed The Cruelest Month and I would advise anyone who is thinking of beginning this great series to read it in order because these characters grow and change from book to book and in a few months (if not sooner) I will be on to book four, A Rule Against Murder.

7 Best Short Stories by George Gissing

Maybe twenty or thirty years ago I read George Gissings' classic novel The Odd Woman (1893) which is set in late Victorian England.  I read it so long ago that I have forgotten many of the specifics but as I recall the novel centers around two young women who are struggling with the issue of marriage.  

One of the women, Rhoda Nunn, is a suffragette and she worries that though she loves Everard Barfoot, the young man she is thinking of marrying, their union will endanger her independence which back in the 19th century was not an unreasonable thought for a woman to have.  I remember really enjoying the Odd Women and I was also very impressed by Gissings' portrayal of Rhoda.  There was no mocking of her fears.  It was clear that the author understood Rhoda and women's suffrage and he was supportive of both.  

I finished the Odd Woman vowing to read more from Gissing but it wasn't until 2018 that I got around to reading his greatest novel, New Grubb Street (1891), which I reviewed here at Reading Matters on June 9 2018.  It was even better than The Odd Woman and so when the 2021 Back to the Classics Category - choose a classic by a favorite author came along I was planning to read another Gissing novel, The Nether World (1889) but I decided to go with a collection of his short stories instead.

That was a mistake.  I just can't recommend these 7 short stories.  Not enough work in my opinion was put into the writing and crafting and though I only finished these stories a few days ago I'd have to go back and reread them to remind myself who the characters were and the various plot lines.  Still, reading these stories had a value in that as I have begun to go deeper into the work of George Gissing I am noticing certain themes.  Here for example is a passage from his short story The Capitalist.

"Those were damned days! It wasn't the want of good food and good lodgings that troubled me most, -- but the feeling that I was everybody's inferior.  There's no need to tell you how I was brought up; I was led to expect better things, that's enough.  I never got used to being ordered about.  When I was told to do this or that, I answered with a silent curse, -- and I wonder it didn't come out some times.  That's my nature.  If I had been born the son of a duke, I couldn't have resented a subordinate position more fiercely than I did".

And here is a passage from his short story The Poor Gentleman: 

"In a sense, all the families round about were poor, but -- he asked himself  -- had poverty the same meaning for them as for him?  Was there a man or a woman in this grimy street who, compared with himself, had any right to be called poor at all?  An educated man forced to live among the lower classes arrives at many interesting conclusions ... He saw around him a world of coarse jollity, of contented labor and of brutal apathy.  It seemed to him more than probable that the only person in this street, conscious of poverty, and suffering under it, was himself". 

The above quotes gives one a window into the kind of books George Gissing wrote and the way he saw the world.  The subject of class, poverty, resentment towards the upper classes but not feeling he belonged with the lower classes either was not only the story of his fiction but his life and it was not an easy life.  It was only towards the end, and Gissing died young at 46, that he found romantic happiness and he was beginning to finally make a decent living through his novels as well.  

After George Gissing died his novels went into obscurity but not entirely and I sense a revival of his work is happening because great novels like The Odd Women and New Grub Street and great writers like George Gissing, never go out of fashion.

My December 2021 Reads

I was looking at Sam Sattler's excellent book blog Book Chase (please see the link under blogs I follow) and I noticed that Sam lays out at the end of each month the list of books he plans to read for the following month.  I thought I'd like to try that too, make it a regular feature here at Reading Matters.  Now I may not finish all of the books I set out to read but it will give me a goal to shoot for and so here is the list of books I plan to read in December (some of which I have already started):

The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny

7 Best Short Stories by George Gissing

Becoming by Michelle Obama

House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday

The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin

City Folk and Country Folk by Sofia Khvoshchinskya

Three of the above (George Gissing's short stories, House Made of Dawn and City Folk and Country Folk) fulfill three categories for the 2021 Back to the Classics Challenge.  Becoming is Michelle Obama's bestselling memoir which I am really enjoying.  The Children's Blizzard is a novel recommended by my friend Iris who also introduced me to Louise Penny's wonderful mystery series and so I definitely plan to read the Cruelest Month in December.  

So, that's my reading schedule for December and I am looking forward to it! 

Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde

For the 2021 Back to the Classics Category - choose a classic play I had planned to go with Macbeth by William Shakespeare.  But with the year drawing to a close I didn't feel I had enough time to give Macbeth the attention it deserves.  Maybe next year.

So if not Shakespeare what play to choose for this year's challenge?  I was considering a number of options and then a few weeks ago I clicked open Book Bub, a daily book service I subscribe to and saw Lady Windermere's Fan (1893) by Oscar Wilde, an author I have been meaning to read and here was my opportunity.

And I have to say, I enjoyed Lady Windermere's Fan a good deal.  It's a witty comedy set in late Victorian England among the British upper classes.  And when the play begins we are introduced to Lady Margaret Windermere who is in her drawing room getting ready for the evening's birthday festivities.  It is Lady Windermere's 21st birthday and she is showing her guest Lord Darlington the beautiful fan her husband Lord Arthur Windermere has given her.  Lady Windermere and Lord Darlington soon get to talking about life and it's clear they see the world differently.  Lady Windermere is much more prim and proper:

Lady Windermere  "You look on me as being behind the age - Well, I am!  I should be sorry to be on the same level as an age like this

Lord Darlington:  "Do you think seriously that women who have committed what the world calls a fault should never be forgiven?

Lady Windermere: "I think they should never be forgiven".

Lord Darlington:  "I think life too complex to be settled by these hard and fast rules".

After Lord Darlington departs the Dutchess of Berwick arrives. The Dutchess is also a friend of Lady  Windermere but an insincere friend who loves nothing more than to spread rumor and gossip.  She seems to get a particular kick out of letting the injured party know what is being said about them.  And she has news for Lady Windermere.  

Lady Windermere's husband has been seen as of late visiting the home of Mrs. Erlynn a woman with a scandalous reputation who arrived in London six months ago without much money and now has a lovely townhouse, a carriage and visits from Lord Windermere at least three or four times a week.  No this can't be true, Lady Windermere tells the Dutchess.  Her huband would never do such a thing but later Lady Windermere finds her husband's bank book listing the money he has been giving to Mrs Erlynn. 

She confronts Lord Windermere.  He denies vehemently that there is anything going on between him and Mrs. Erlynn.  His explanation is that Mrs. Erlynn is a woman who made a mistake years ago and is now trying to get back into society and deserves that chance.  He asks his wife to invite Mrs. Erlynn to her birthday party.  Lady Windermere is adamant.  No way this scandalous woman is setting foot in her home.  Lord Windermere pleads with his wife to be reasonable and then tells her that he will extend an invitation to Mrs. Erlynn if she won't.  Lady Windemere tells her husband that  when Mrs Erlynn arrives she will be horrid to her in front of all their guests.

And then we come to the night of the party  and I can't go any further regarding what happens without spoiling the play.  Those who have read Lady Windermere's Fan will know what I mean.  Suffice it to say that it will upend everything Lady Windermere thought she understood about good women and bad women and how they are not distinct and totally separate categories.  Life to quote Lord Darlingon is much too complex.

As to why the play is titled Lady Windermere's Fan and not simply Lady Windermere. I will say that the fan has an important role in this story. This is a play with wit and sparkle but there is alot of heart here and the ending is quite satisfying.  I would really love to see a live production 

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates

For some time now I have been meaning to read a novel by Darcy Coates.  She's a bestselling author who writes in the gothic horror genre and has about twenty novels to her credit.  I decided to go with The Haunting of Ashburn House since I am a pushover for books in which a young woman inherits an old house and moves in hoping for a fresh start.  Such is the case with Adrienne our young heroine:

"She had a house.  It was old and smelled funny and was a long way from town, but holy heck, she had her own house.  As long as the Wi-Fi worked well enough that she was able to submit her freelance articles on time she could end up being very happy here.  She thought she could grow fond of the town, too, and maybe even make some friends"

But then Adrienne begins to hear disturbing things about the house she has inherited from her great Aunt Edith.  The Ashburn family was murdered in this house almost a century ago  The only Ashburn to survive was Aunt Edith who was eight years old at the time.  Oddly, Edith moved back into Ashburn House when she reached adulthood and she was quite the eccentric figure to the townspeople.  She lived at Ashburn House until her death and then left it to Adrienne which comes as a shock since Adrienne never even knew she had an Aunt Edith.  Her mother never talked about any of their relatives.   

Things start going awry. Edith had all the mirrors in the house removed.  She also etched weird notes on the tables reminding herself to "Light the Candle. Your Family is Still Dead".  The electricity goes out and each night birds come out of the trees in the nearby woods creating a terrible racket.  There is a grave near the Ashburn House but why has it been dug up and  why is it empty?  Adrienne considers leaving but how can she since taking care of her Mom through her long illness wiped out her savings. and Ashburn House is all she has? 

I really felt bad for Adrienne.  She is a kind, strong and optimistic young woman who despite the disappointments life has thrown her is determined to have her happy future.  Now, towards the end there are some gory scenes but I didn't mind because I liked and identified with Adrienne and I liked her cat Wolfgang as well.  He's a demanding little fellow who expects his cat food to arrive on time.  But at the end of the book he proves himself to be a loyal friend and protector to Adrienne.  It's no wonder she cares about him so much.  

So the bottom line is that if you don't mind some blood and guts this is a book you might want to try out, particularly on a cold winter's night with a cup of tea nearby.