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Bezig met laden... Hester (Oxford World's Classics) (origineel 1883; editie 2009)door Margaret Oliphant (Auteur)
Informatie over het werkHester: A Story of Contemporary Life door Margaret Oliphant (1883)
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After her father's death Abroad, teenage Hester and her widowed mother are offered a home in the generic English town of Redborough by their rich cousin Miss Catherine Vernon. There's a kind of Mansfield Park setup, where Hester is presented with a range of potential suitors from among the assembled cousins, with a range of different obstacles to overcome. But this turns out not really to be what the book is about at all: Hester is determined to challenge the prevailing "Angel of the hearth" idea of what the role of middle-class Woman should be in life. Hester is not content to provide sympathy, moral guidance and domestic efficiency while some man goes out and does things for her; she wants to work and have a real part in informed decision-making. Catherine is the key example that proves it can be done: when the family banking firm was teetering on the edge of collapse (the fault of Hester's father, although Hester doesn't know this) Catherine stepped in to rescue it and ran it successfully for twenty years. Mrs Oliphant, a widow herself, had been supporting her family by her writing for 25 years when this was published, so she knew what she was talking about. Of course Catherine and Hester dislike each other at sight — they are far too alike — and of course Catherine manages to hold conservative opinions completely inconsistent with her own history, so sparks fly between them. That part of the plot is all quite fun, but it doesn't really get going until Volume 3, and there are a lot of balls and tea-parties to get through before then, mostly rather repetitive. For a long stretch of Volume 2 it feels as though the plot isn't advancing at all, whilst Oliphant tries to dig out subtle social distinctions through close examination of furniture, dress, hair and speech patterns. There are some jokes — the comic chorus of poor relatives, the notion that "Abroad" is a specific place (like Basingstoke but more exotic), the single-minded husband-hunting of Emma, etc. — but on the whole it's rather heavy going. Oliphant is clearly best at getting inside the heads of her older characters, so Hester and her male cousins often seem surprisingly opaque to the reader, whilst Catherine and old Captain Morgan (not-a-pirate) are very human and believable. Huh. That summary provided by Goodreads doesn't sound like the same story. Granted, it was done in only 5, 13-minute segments, so the abridger had to leave a lot out. But the whole focus of the story changed. Catherine was made out to be kind, sensible, and suffering, but highly competent. I don't think I noticed that SHE wasn't Hester... I guess I forgot the name of the novel. Hester was the young girl? She hardly figured at all in this abridged audio. Anyway, a depressing story. I guess the end was supposed to be hopeful, but we all know she ended up a bitter old maid. A zebra can't change its stripes. (Or maybe I should say white bread can't change its crust?) bookshelves: filthy-lucre, fradio, published-1883, winter-20132014, victorian, cheshire, britain-england, satire, amusing, re-visit-2014, women Recommended to ☯Bettie☯ by: Laura Read from January 02 to 03, 2014 Hester by Margaret Oliphant R4 drama BBC BLURB: Penelope Wilton and Lyndsey Marshal star in this high Victorian tale of a woman who runs her own bank. Sometimes called 'the feminist Trollope', Margaret Oliphant is an unjustly-neglected British writer of the nineteenth century, famed for her perceptive, ironic psychology, and her strong female characters. And Hester has a striking premise: a young woman in a nineteenth-century Cheshire town, having been snubbed and discarded in marriage, does something truly radical. When the family bank is in danger of a run, she pledges her whole private fortune to save it. But instead of merely underwriting it, in return she insists on running the bank herself, as a single woman, in defiance of all convention. Using Oliphant's deliciously witty and sardonic narration, allied to a radical dramatisation by Kate Clanchy and Zena Forster, 'Hester' reveals a flawed and fascinating heroine, reborn for radio. Harp played by Ruth Faber Producer/Director ..... Jonquil Panting. Dramatised by Kate Clanchy and Zena Forster. 1/5 This is a tale of banks and bankers. A tale of credit and discredit. This is a tale of a single woman in nineteenth-century Cheshire town, who does something truly radical. 2. When Hester is offered a merger to cancel all her debts, she finds a neat, but risky, solution. 3. When Hester takes her wayward cousin Edward back into the Vernon family bank, she reckons without the influence of his vapid wife Ellen. 4. Hester does not want to see it, but here it is, swinging round slowly: the reverse of the medal, the other side of Edward's picture. 5. This life is full of repetitions. Once again, Mr Rule is facing a run on the bank, which could close Vernon's forever. Read this a long, long time ago when I landed as manager of my own branch of a national bank. Goodness, but that was one chuffed up, capitalistic chick, and so at odds with my 'now' values. Crossposted: Wordpress Booklikes LeafMark Librarything aNobii geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
'Human nature may be easy to see through, but it is very hard to understand.'The ageing Catherine Vernon, jilted in her youth, has risen to power in a man's world as head of the family bank. She thinks she sees through everyone and rules over a family of dependents with knowing cynicism. But there are two people in Redborough who resist her. One is Hester, a young relationwith a personality as strong as Catherine's, and as determined to find a role for herself. The other is Edward, Catherine's favourite, whom she treats like a son. Conflict between young and old is inevitable, and in its depiction of the complex relationships that develop between the three principalcharacters, Publishing October 2003 (exact date?)Margaret Oliphant is one of the great Victorian novelists, and this edition establishes her rediscovered importance. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)823.8Literature English English fiction Victorian period 1837-1900LC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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