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emiged's review against another edition
2.0
The day I came to the realization that I didn't *have* to finish every book I started, that I could close the book on page 20 or 75 or 359 whether or not that was the end, that I had the final say over how my limited reading time would be used, was a liberating day for me.
And today I'm acting on that liberation. On page 128, about halfway through the discussion of Middlemarch, I'm setting this one down.
Don't get me wrong. There are some great insights from the seven novels Mr. Mendelson analyzes, and from the other mostly positive reviews I'm sure I'm missing the boat by skipping out before he gets to the last three, but for me it just feels like a chore. I've had to convince myself to keep turning the pages since the middle of Wuthering Heights and so I need to move on.
On a more positive note, I did like the chapter about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and I appreciate his focus on women authors (though it's a little heavy on Virginia Woolf with three out of the seven novels he includes by her).
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
And today I'm acting on that liberation. On page 128, about halfway through the discussion of Middlemarch, I'm setting this one down.
Don't get me wrong. There are some great insights from the seven novels Mr. Mendelson analyzes, and from the other mostly positive reviews I'm sure I'm missing the boat by skipping out before he gets to the last three, but for me it just feels like a chore. I've had to convince myself to keep turning the pages since the middle of Wuthering Heights and so I need to move on.
On a more positive note, I did like the chapter about Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, and I appreciate his focus on women authors (though it's a little heavy on Virginia Woolf with three out of the seven novels he includes by her).
For more book reviews, come visit my blog, Build Enough Bookshelves.
bookshelfkeeps's review against another edition
3.0
Synopsis: The Things That Matter takes on the rather difficult and daunting task of looking at seven classic novels — all written by women — and explaining what they have to say about stages of life.
How we met: What drew me in was the title, the concept and the great introduction with phrases like: “this book is written for all readers, of any age, who are still deciding how to live their lives,” and the idea that although novels are compact and highly organized portraying happy endings that are false or contrived to the “real” world, there is STILL real value to be gained in our own inner lives.
*It was also cool to learn that the author is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University (even though it’s less cool he’s a man trying to explain/understand female writers).
My thoughts: However, although the book did offer some beautiful ideas that resonated with me, it fell drastically short in accomplishing relationality between text and the reader. Firstly, this is not a “book anyone can pick up,” this is a book for a college class looking at these specific novels and doing comparative analysis. When I started reading I actually I didn’t mind this, as my own inner-nerd likes comparative studies; however, what really disappointed me was that after Mendelson did his analytical dive into the characters and life stages, he never brought it back to what these ideas had to do with stages of life for the readers. In other words, I kept waiting for “Okay, now this is what Jane Eyre can teach you about growth in your own life,” as the introduction seemed to advertise as a big part of the book’s purpose. This made it really hard to finish this book.
Advice for future interested readers:
This is NOT a book to sit and read in one sitting, it’s a book to get if you want to dive deeper into the following novels Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, or Between the Acts. I feel like it’d be a great companion to a college course.
Spot on Shelf? Glad I gave it a go, such a cool concept, sadly didn't meet the purpose I was really hoping for so I don't suspect I'll hold onto it long. But again, a great companion for a Literature course.
How we met: What drew me in was the title, the concept and the great introduction with phrases like: “this book is written for all readers, of any age, who are still deciding how to live their lives,” and the idea that although novels are compact and highly organized portraying happy endings that are false or contrived to the “real” world, there is STILL real value to be gained in our own inner lives.
*It was also cool to learn that the author is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University (even though it’s less cool he’s a man trying to explain/understand female writers).
My thoughts: However, although the book did offer some beautiful ideas that resonated with me, it fell drastically short in accomplishing relationality between text and the reader. Firstly, this is not a “book anyone can pick up,” this is a book for a college class looking at these specific novels and doing comparative analysis. When I started reading I actually I didn’t mind this, as my own inner-nerd likes comparative studies; however, what really disappointed me was that after Mendelson did his analytical dive into the characters and life stages, he never brought it back to what these ideas had to do with stages of life for the readers. In other words, I kept waiting for “Okay, now this is what Jane Eyre can teach you about growth in your own life,” as the introduction seemed to advertise as a big part of the book’s purpose. This made it really hard to finish this book.
Advice for future interested readers:
This is NOT a book to sit and read in one sitting, it’s a book to get if you want to dive deeper into the following novels Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch, Mrs. Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, or Between the Acts. I feel like it’d be a great companion to a college course.
Spot on Shelf? Glad I gave it a go, such a cool concept, sadly didn't meet the purpose I was really hoping for so I don't suspect I'll hold onto it long. But again, a great companion for a Literature course.
suzmac's review against another edition
4.0
Insightful, clever, rewarding read. Discusses what some of my favorite books have to offer. Life stage view offers an interesting way to look at these great themes & lessons.
From Publishers Weekly
Columbia professor Mendelson's interlocking essays on the subtexts of seven great works of fiction (all by women) are lucidly expressed, insightful and often provocative.
Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch and three Virginia Woolf works...What Mendelson does accomplish, and brilliantly, is to analyze these novels as extraordinary representatives of changes in moral and cultural mores in the 19th and 20th centuries. He offers a fascinating glimpse into the hidden visionary narrative in Wuthering Heights; convincingly finds that Middlemarch ("Marriage") and other of George Eliot's novels "expound more knowledge than any other body of fiction in English, and more wisdom than most"; and credits Woolf with groundbreaking insights into human emotions.
From Publishers Weekly
Columbia professor Mendelson's interlocking essays on the subtexts of seven great works of fiction (all by women) are lucidly expressed, insightful and often provocative.
Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Middlemarch and three Virginia Woolf works...What Mendelson does accomplish, and brilliantly, is to analyze these novels as extraordinary representatives of changes in moral and cultural mores in the 19th and 20th centuries. He offers a fascinating glimpse into the hidden visionary narrative in Wuthering Heights; convincingly finds that Middlemarch ("Marriage") and other of George Eliot's novels "expound more knowledge than any other body of fiction in English, and more wisdom than most"; and credits Woolf with groundbreaking insights into human emotions.
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