English Novels

I finally finished "Mansfield Park" last night bringing me half way to reading all of Jane Austen's novels or at least the ones she finished. More on that particular novel later, but finishing it made me think of how much I enjoy English novels, primarily from the 19th century and some in the 20th century (let's say pre 1950). I have never read anything from before 1800, but I hope to put those on the list.

I started to wonder about exactly how I got interested in the English novel. I have told anyone who would listen about how the TV series "An Age of Kings" got me interested in Shakespeare's history plays, but I don't have that kind of clarity about the novel. I think it started in Mr. Ruffing's class of Junior English at Wayne High School. When I wrote about "Beowulf" recently, I noted that class which was a survey class of British Literature - "Beowulf" to "The Wasteland" was how it was advertised.

When I think about my education, I think mostly about my experiences at Rutgers, but I should be more conscious and more grateful for the education that I got at Wayne. Mr. Ruffing's class came just at the right time for me after I got interested first in the history plays and then in English history. His class was the place where I got introduced to the English novel, that year we read "Lord Jim," "The Return of the Native," "Pride and Prejudice," and supposedly "Tom Jones."

I say supposedly "Tom Jones" because for some reason I refused to read it. While most people have stories of books that they read only through Sparks Notes or Cleff Notes or even Classic Comics, "Tom Jones" was the only book of all those assigned throughout high school and college that I didn't read. For some reason, and it certainly wasn't something I thought about, I decided it was too long and read only the Cleff Notes and didn't really suffer because of it. Ironically a movie version of the book came out that year and was very favorably reviewed making me realize that I missed something. I still haven't read it, but I will.

Unlike the history plays, being exposed to those books did not pique my interest in English novels. I found "Lord Jim" unreadable and had to go to the Classic Comic to understand it (I did read the book too). I liked "The Return of the Native" and was kind of neutral about "Pride and Prejudice." In college, we read "Our Mutual Friend" freshman year and I did like that although I don't think I understood that much of it.

But at some point, for reasons I don't understand, it changed and I love reading these novels and the longer the better - again why "Tom Jones" length turned me off, I can't explain. Perhaps it is one of those things that can't be explained, but should just be enjoyed. In my postings about the Palliser novels, I wrote about why I like Trollope, my next two posts are going to be about Jane Austen and "Mansfield Park," and I will try to write about why I like her novels. Perhaps that kind of reflection can lead to a wider understanding - not that's crucial, but it might be interesting - at least to me.