The End of a Journey

Tis the end of my journey with The Canterbury Tales. This week was actually not too bad work-load wise. Too bad it's probably never going happen again, but I enjoyed it while it lasted. All I did was basically super-read to finish The Canterbury Tales so here are my thoughts on them.

Not all the stories are worth mentioning in my opinion so I'll just share my favorite ones with you guys.
SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER ALERT ALERT ALERT

To finish the Knight's tale, what happened is that Arcite won the mini-war! But he fell off his horse and landed on his head and died. So now Emily goes to Palamon. That's just the lamest way to win. Arcite technically won, but then lost by dying. A happy ending to Palamon though.

The Prioress's tale was spiritual, miracle story. What happens is that this little boy who enjoys going to school to learn about God wants to learn this song that he heard on the way to school. He learns it and sings it on the way to school, but some Jewish guy doesn't like hearing Christian music so he does the logical thing: slit the boy's throat and throw him in a ditch. The boy' mother is distraught because he didn't come home from school so she sets off to find him. She finds him by hearing his voice singing from the ditch he was thrown in. He's alive, yay! Basically mother and son reunite and they live happily ever after.

The Monk's tale is compilation of the stories of the downfalls of various prominent figures in history or myth. this one was a depressing, boring one so I'll just tell you some of the people mentioned. Lucifer, Hercules, Samson, and Julius Caesar. Yeah, you get the gist of tragedy here.

The Clerk's tale was absolutely ridiculous. The marquis of some place is pressured into marrying. So he marries this super poor peasant girl he thought was really beautiful and had a kind heart. He gives her one condition: she must abide by his every word. After they have their first child he decides he wants to test her faithfulness. He demands that she gives up their child to be killed. The child isn't really killed, but sent to live with his sister in Bologna. She willingly does it and still has a cheerful heart. The marquis does the same with their second child. To test her even further he divorces her to marry another woman worthy of his status and makes her leave the palace naked to live in the village as a peasant again. After all this she's still has a kind, innocent heart. The marquis eventually feels as though she's faithful enough and takes her back. What a swell guy. This story really irks me because no woman, or man for that matter, should be tested in their faithfulness. The fact that one would even feel the need to is red flag in that relationship. Also, neither man nor woman should be above or below in a relationship. No one gives orders and no one takes them. It's a compromise from both sides.

IT'S ALL GOOD IN THE HOOD. READING MAY ASSUME NOW.

In other blog posts I discussed the Wife of Bath's tale, the Miller's tale, and the Reeve's tale so I won't here. Out of all the stories, I like the Wife of Bath's tale the most. It may be because I'm a girl, but I agree that women should have their own say in things and have the right to make their own decisions.

Okey dokey, so now that I've finished one book I need to move on to the next one. I'm not sure what it's going to be yet, but I plan on asking Mrs. Finco. Happy reading then!

More of Le Canterbury Tales

This week I've succeeded in reading the story of the Knight in the Canterbury Tales. I couldn't finish it sadly because this week was absolutely hideous. But another productive thing I did was do my presentation for my project Friday! whoo hoo!

So this week wasn't packed with awesome Chaucer stuff, but I plan to finish the Knight's tale next week and probably another story. Jeez senior year was supposed to be easy... Anywhoozles, let me tell a little about our dear Sir Knight.

SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT

Two very close friends named Palamon and Arcite are captured as prisoners of war and imprisoned in a tower in Athens for life. At least they have each other right? Not so fast reader, for here comes the beautiful Emily flouncing around in a meadow that just happens to be overlooked by Palamon's and Arcite's tower. Both claim to have seen her first and fall madly in love with her.Neither yields to the other's passion and they ultimately decide to not be friends anymore. They threw away a lifetime of friendship for girl. Whatever happened to "brethren before wenches" guys, seriously? Arcite gets out of prison by being pardoned by the noble Theseus but poor Palamon is still stuck in that darn tower. Arcite is prohibited from ever entering Athens again and now he can't creepily stare at Emily anymore, poor guy. So he goes home to Thebes and spends some time there pining away for Emily when one day comes up with this super awesome plan. He returns to Athens under another identity and ends up in Theseus' employment. Score on for Arcite. Palamon, on the other hand, somehow escapes from prison and wanders the outskirts of Athens as a loner. But one day, as chance would have it, Arcite just happens to stumble upon Palamon! They start arguing and decide to fight honorably as a knight should for the hand of the lovely Emily (and Emily has no idea any of this is going on). Theseus happens to stumble upon their fight and decides they should be reasonable and have an all out war for Emily. What a wise guy. I ended at the point where the battle is just about to commence.

READ ON, FRIENDS.

So next week I'll get a couple more stories in if time allows. Happy reading kiddiewinkles and stay classy!

The Padawan Has Found Her Jedi Master

So after weeks and weeks of tedious soul-searching and contemplation, I, a Padawan 20% of the time, have finally found my Jedi Master (woot woot!). Who could this insanely lucky, eager to teach Jedi be you ask? Why none other than the amazingly, wonderfully, talented Mrs. Finco that's who! Basically she's going to advise me on what to read. Saying that I'm going to read a bunch of classic novels is actually a little harder than it sounds, mainly due to the fact that their are A LOT of classics. Being the super-cool, well-read Jedi she is, Mrs. Finco is going to the use the Force to interpret which books I should definitely read. Just kidding, she's might not use the Force, might. So now that I have found my Jedi Master, choosing which books to read next will be a lot easier.

But now on to the juicy stuff! This is the moment you've all been waiting for: What happened at the end of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?????? Well I finished it so I guess I'll tell you guys and not leave you hanging. CAUTION: SPOILER ALERT APPROACHING. I REPEAT, SPOILER. ALERT. APPROACHING.

Last week, I left off with why in the name of Merlin's pants was Mr. Hyde lying dead in Dr. Jekyll's laboratory? Joke's on you, Mr. Hyde IS Dr. Jekyll! What what, mind is completely blown! Our dear Dr. Jekyll decided to mess with Nature and the balance of Good and Evil. Now that is a ginormous red flag. Mess with the balance of Nature, and Nature bites back with a vengeance. Dr. Jekyll attempted to create a potion that will eliminate the evil in the human soul. However the potion did the opposite, it instead completely brought the wickedness of the soul. Good Dr. Henry Jekyll was therefore transformed into the notorious Mr. Edward Hyde. For a while Dr. Jekyll enjoyed being Mr. Hyde because of the freedom he felt. By assuming an evil identity and completely disregarding everything good, Jekyll had no conscience warning him of the consequences of his actions. For a while he looked forward to drinking the potion and freeing himself from guilty constraints, yet soon Mr. Hyde began to take over Dr. Jekyll's mind and body. This scared Dr. Jekyll because he didn't want to give up his soul to the the evil beast in him. the war between the two spirits in one body escalated up to the point where Dr. Jekyll had to resort to extreme measures in order to end the battle once and for all. While he still had some consciousness left as Mr. Hyde, Jekyll committed suicide in order to "kill" Hyde. But being one and the same, Jekyll was killed as well.

DANGER HAS PASSED. YOU CAN CONTINUE READING NOW.
So kiddies what have we learned from this experience? Don't mess with the balance of Good and Evil, you're in waaaaaay over your head. Let the beast inside remain caged inside.

So I may lied to you guys last week by saying Lady Susan would be my next book. Due to convenience, I've decided to read The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales is about thirty pilgrims undertaking the journey to the Canterbury Cathedral. The pilgrims take turns telling stories in a competition for a free dinner from their host. The pilgrims introduced thus far are really interesting. The Wife of Bath has been married five times and is on this pilgrimage to find lucky number six. A sterling knight fresh from fighting in the Crusades is there too. There's also a drunk Miller and a raunchy Reeve. I've read the raunchy Reeve's tale (sorry Mrs. Finco, I couldn't help it you made me too curious) and although it was interesting, by no means do I recommend it to anyone under the age seventeen. And even then it's a little iffy. I've also read Chaucer the pilgrim's tale. Save yourselves, its a complete waste of time. It's so bad he doesn't even get to finish it. The Wife of Bath's prologue is very interesting. She discusses her previous husbands and what she herself is looking for in a marriage.

I can't make any promises on how far I get reading this week because teachers are deciding to assign SO MUCH POOP. But I'll do my best!

The First Novel

I'm going to be honest, this week I didn't get as much reading done as I thought I would. However this was not by choice. I blame the teachers who chose to assign a lot of homework this whole week as well as other graded assignments that required studying until like one in the morning every night. So all I could do was read during guided study Monday and also during 20% Time Friday.

I'm a little over halfway through now in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and things have picked up quite a bit. SPOILER ALERT. IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS DO NOT READ ON UNTIL I SAY SO.
The notorious Mr. Hyde is now wanted for the murder of a representative of Parliament. Being a wanted man, he can't exactly take a stroll out on the street to buy fresh bread. Meanwhile, the good Dr. Jekyll seems to be in a depreciated state, seeing as how his heir is wanted for murder. His dear friend Mr. Utterson is quite concerned and does what any other good friend would do: follow the butler to Jekyll's house and break down the door to his private laboratory and demand answers. Now that's a true friend. Unfortunately, Mr. Hyde seems to be up to his usual shenanigans, this time resulting in his own death. Now what is Mr. Hyde doing lying dead in Dr. Jekyll's private lab? Excellent question, I'll let you guys know when I find out.

YOU CAN CONTINUE READING NOW.
So this week I'll most likely finish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and start my next book, Lady Susan by Jane Austen. Next week I'll let you know what it's about and being a Jane Austen novel, there's bound to be some momma drama (which I'm actually excited about). And hopefully I'll get a little more reading time if my teachers feel like being nice.

How to Begin?

So I started out my journey through the classics with the book How to Read Literature Like a Professor, by Thomas C. Foster. Mrs. Finco recommended I read this so I gain a better understanding of the novels I read, and so far, it has indeed been useful.

But enough about How to Read Literature Like a Professor, this blog is to keep you updated on what classics I'm reading. I've started off with the chilling tale of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Most of you probably know the story, kind Dr. Jekyll creates a chemical mixture that brings out the evil side of him-the  notorious Mr. Hyde. However, there's a lot more to the story than that. Thirty-two pages in out of eighty-six, Stevenson has barely introduced Dr. Jekyll, surrounding him a shroud of mystery. And apparently the main ruckus around town isn't really caused by Mr. Hyde, but a will. A will that leaves all of Dr. Jekyll to the sketchy Mr. Hyde. I think Dr. Jekyll's friends are a little miffed that they got written out of his will while this evidently evil stranger reaps the rewards. So far the book has been interesting and I can't wait to finish it so I can start another one. Yeah that was kind of nerdy, I know...

Anyway, next week I'll probably finish Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and start a new book. I haven't decided which one yet though.