Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte

Agnes Grey's portrayl of the life of a governess is one that seems to stand out from the usual portayl of children in the Victorian era. If we think of children in the 1800's we get the Dickensian idea of workhouses and the downtrodden child or possibly the peripheral Henry James type child - Bronte's children differ from both of these. This is mainly down to the fact that a) she is dealing with, largely, a different class of children then Dicken was and b) Anne Bronte actually knew what children were like due to her own work as a governess. This sees a vivid and truly emphatic portayl of the life of someone whose job is the family but who is never truly part of the family.

The opening sections of the story recounting a household in which the three young children ran rings around the protagonist I found both unsettling and entertaining in equal measures. The steep learning curve that Agnes finds herself on is one where it is easy for the reader to empathise with her. However as the book progresses and Agnes moves to another house to become the governess to two older young women I felt the characters began to blend together far too much. A tool used by Anne Bronte to highlight the character traits is to present you with two characters at the same time that are vastly different to one another. This can be seen in the differing portayl of the two sisters, Mary and Rosalie, as well as the difference between Mr Hatfield, the mean spirited rector, and Mr Weston, the inevitable love intrest. I found this technique did not work so well as I have seen it done in other books of the period and I often found the two sisters interchangable.

In books of this style and period one cannot help reading sideways and comparing Anne Bronte's works, firstly to that of her sisters but mainly to Jane Austen. Anne is no Jane Austen and Agnes Grey is no Jane Eyre. I got the feeling that Anne's youth disabled her to writen as convingincly about love as she did about children - in many ways Anne's work seems to be cribbed from her contempories, both familal and liteary. Anne Bronte is unfortunatley going to be consigned to history as an also-ran.

Look and Move On by Mohammed Mrabet and Paul Bowles

Mrabet started out in life as a Moroccan equivilant of Del-Boy, if such a thing can be imagined. He spent his formative years seducing women, living off dodgy deals and being shown around the world by affluent friends (OK maybe that bit is nothing like Del-Boy.) This book, like all of Mrabet's other works, is translated from an oral telling from the Moroccan by Paul Bowles, an American writer in his own right. This technique seems to lend itself to Mrabet's discordant and disordered style of storytelling and I was somewhat concerned it would not easily transfer into an autobiographical account of Mrabet's life - gladyly I will admit I was wrong.

The story has a slight Tarzan-esque feel to it an as much as where Mrabet's streetwise demeanour allows him to live a life of near luxury in Morroco, on his two journeys to America he is very much a fish out of water. However this does not mean that he does not have a tale to tell - the man befriended Tenessee Williams for example - whilst also allowing his 'native' culture to impact on the Americans he meets, killing and cooking robins for example.

As well as channeling Tarzan, the protagonist of Look and Move on also has the odd whif of Mark Twain's boy heros. The down to earth and obstinate persona that Mrabet portrays allows him to contrast his form of culture to the capitalist one that he finds himself in. On top of this just as Twain's work is a coming of age tale this story has many of the same qualities and after his return from America we see Mrabet settle down and learn from the mistakes he has previously made. However this is not the end of Mrabet's unique tale.

Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance by Houston A. Baker

Houston A. Baker is a well respected and very talented writer on the study of black literature and culture. His books are seen as pivotal in the canon for those exploring the integration and segregation of the African American throughout the twentieth century - however this book is beguiling in as much as it pays only a cursory glance to Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance is covered in even less detail. Instead Baker focuses on the voice of the African American in and around the 1920's and a study of dialect in literature from that time. Baker appears to be maligning a sense of self-concious reflecion and criticism of Afro-American literature from an Afro-American perspective instead of a Euro-American perspective. This acts a distraction throughout the book because through his focus on Euro-American cirticism we lose any sense of this throughout the study and leave not really knowing what an Afro-American citicism is.

Whilst this book doesn't do what it say's on the tin, what it does do is very informative and insiteful. Baker's indepth studies of such works as Du Bois' 'The Souls of Black Folk', Locke's 'The New Negro' and Washington's 'Up from Slavery' are particually useful in unpacking the argument that Baker is positing. In an attempt to try and include the Renaissance Baker finds himself spending brief periods of time on stage performances, music and poetry however these points seem to become ingulfed by his study of texts.

This book did not really satisfy me as it was through my interest of the Harlem Renaissance that I selected it for and I found it frustrating that that idea was being shyed away from somewhat throughout the study. I would much rather Baker had taken the time spent giving comparative insights between Afro-American writers and white writers such as Fitzgerald and Joyce and used them to write about the Renaissance in greater depth.

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall

I chose this book out of a reference book that I occasionally go to called 'The Rough Guide to Cult Fiction' and by it's very nature the books included are wildly hit and miss. Some of my favorite authors, such as John Fante I discovered through this book however you can get some real dross in there too, like Samuel R. Delaney. This book, I am pleased to say, was in the former category - a real joy.

This book was banned on publication in the 1920's for it's depiction of a lesbian woman's battle for equality in the early to mid 1900's, however it's shock factor has aged pretty badly and if you're looking for a frank description of a lesbian affair this book is not for you. In fact when compared to modern day novels this work seems somewhat ludicrous in in the lengths it goes to in skirting round the act of lesbian sex. What it it does deliver is an intense psychological analysis of an ordinary woman in extreme circumstances of segregation. This is primarily borne through Hall's firsthand experience of discrimination due to her lesbianism and it is clear to see that the novel is a very autobiographical one in many respects.

This novel is scathing on the parental scarring that can be ensued in cases of otherness. The main female character is christened Stephen after her parent set their heart on having a boy and as she grows up she is treated in a very similar fashion to how a boy would be. However when this starts to manifest itself in the embryonic form of her lesbianism her Father worries about how society will accept his daughter whilst simultaneously failing to communicate these worries to her mother. This eventually sees Stephen's mother casting her out of the house after she discovers love letters from another women. The shadow of the parent hangs heavy throughout this work and you can't help but wonder what role Hall's parents play in this novel.

The Well of Loneliness is simply a beautifully written piece of work that is crafted sublimely and pitched just right to sustain your attention in what is a fairly long novel. It is easy to forget that Hall's words, now seen as dated, where radical at the time and this book needs to be read with this concept in mind. However in essence this story is a love story as well as a story regarding the journey of a single protagonist and the obstacles she come across. In away this is a coming of age story, however the age was not quite ready for it.