Bringin' it Back to Bronte

I've decided my my next book is Villette by the fantastic Charlotte Bronte. Charlotte Bronte is known for writing Jane Eyre, which I believe to be her most famous novel. I've read Jane Eyre and it was a marvelous novel, so I have high hopes for Villette. According to famous author Virginia Woolf, this is her "finest novel". So yeah, I'm super excited.

Weeelllll this week I didn't get much done. I didn't get another book after I finished Rebecca so I was basically doing nothing. It took a while to get Villette because it wasn't at the Parkview library and I had to request it at the public library (thank you my dear mommy for taking care of that for me). But for 20% Time this week I did do something somewhat productive. I read the amazingly, fantastic Harry Potter series, the first book anyway. Harry Potter is a classic on its own, so it counts!

Okey dokey, this week I'll most definitely start Villette and fill you guys on it later. Till then, stay classy people.

OMG WHAT IS GOING ON????

Alright, I'm going to just jump right into this...

INCOMING, SPOILER ALERT INCOMING, SPOILER ALERT INCOMING.

So who exactly is Rebecca? Maxim de Winter's beautiful and outgoing first wife, who died tragically in a sailing accident? The story goes that her drowned body was found miles up the shore, horribly mauled by the sea. Well that is how the story went until Rebecca's sunken boat was accidentally discovered a little offshore by a diver who was helping another boat. However that's not even the crazy part. Rebecca's body was found in the cabin. Whaaaaaaaaaaaattttt?????? I know right, it got me too. So now poor New Wife has to deal with this haphazard resurrection of Rebecca, continuing to fight for Maxim's love. Only the thing is, she never really needed to win his love. Maxim never loved Rebecca and was deeply in love with New Wife. The reason? She was a harlot, to put it non-colloquial terms. She had that cottage to bring her many lovers to spend the night there. Maxim new about this the whole time, though. He agreed to marry her because she promised to make Manderley great, and she did. In turn, Maxim allowed her to go up to London to see her various "friends", especially her first cousin Jack Favell. Incest much? Yep, Favell was one of her cottage-mates. Maxim resented her for this, so much so that he killed her. Yes, you read right, Maxim de Winter killed Rebecca. He shot her in her cottage, hid her body in the cabin of her boat, locked the door, and sunk her boat. He admitted all of this to New Wife, who in turn, out of all of this the only thing she got was that Maxim loved her. It was the only thing she wanted to here since they got married about four months ago. However, they still need to deal with the fact that Rebecca has returned to threaten their happiness. After a grueling and stressful meeting with the coroner, Rebecca's death was ruled as a suicide. So yay, the de Winters are officially out of the woods now! Yeah, no. Rebecca's incestuous lover Jack Favell is still around and has made a claim that Maxim killed Rebecca because he hated Rebecca's consorting with him. This new investigation led to the discovery that Rebecca had cancer. So now it seems as though Rebecca had a motive for suicide. Whoo hoo, New Wife and Maxim can live happily ever after! Not so fast, said the notorious Mrs. Danvers. On the way home home, Maxim sensed something wrong...

"The road to Manderley lay ahead. There was no moon. The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea."

I'm pretty sure you can guess what happened...

OKEY DOKEY KEEP ON READING PEOPLES.

I have no idea how I'm going to follow up Rebecca, but I'll choose my next book from the list Mrs. Finco gave me. I super recommend this book though! Happy reading till next week then.

Rebecca, Rebecca, Rebecca!!!

I'm going to just going to come out and say it, Rebecca is outstanding!!! Yes, three exclamation points were necessary.
SUPER EXTREME SPOILER ALERT. IF CAN'T HANDLE THE AWESOMENESS, TOO BAD.

I left off giving you guys a gist of what Rebecca was about. Read it if you don't know. Okey dokey now, so New Wife (still don't know her name) has married Maxim and is living at Manderley. She met the staff and one particular employee stands out as a major obstacle. The creepy Mrs. Danvers acts like she welcomes and likes New Wife, but in reality she still is hanging to Rebecca as mistress of the house. New Wife feels uncomfortable being the new mistress of the house, but she has made a friend! Maxim's agent, Frank Crawley, fully supports New Wife and believes she can help Maxim get over Rebecca's death. However!!! I've noticed there has been some suspicion surrounding Rebecca's death. New Wife met a mentally impaired man named Ben on the beach and also discovered a cottage Rebecca used when she was out sailing late. Ben reveals that Rebecca once threatened to put him in a mental institution for seeing her in the cottage. What is sweet Rebecca doing threatening people, I have no idea. So poor New Wife is stuck trying to figure all this out while trying to shrug off the burden of succeeding Rebecca.

SAFE TO CONTINUE. I REPEAT, SAFE TO CONTINUE.

I have to give props to Mrs. Finco and my friend Emily for recommending this book. And in turn, I recommend it to anyone else reading this! So this week I'll continue to read hopefully unravel the mysterious shroud that surrounds Rebecca.

So Long, Medieval Poetry...

Since I've had enough of Middle English poetry and feeling a little Jane Eyre-ish, Mrs. Finco gave me list of awesome books to choose from. And my next book is....wait for it........ Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier. I just started yesterday and only on page nine, so I don't really have much to say about it yet. But here's a brief summary on what it's generally about:

The widower Maxim de Winter has been remarried to a younger woman. But he just can't seem to get over the death of his first wife, Rebecca. Rebecca was apparently a super awesome person/wife, so New Wife (I don't know her name yet), doesn't know if she can live up to standard set by her precedent. What's happens next? I'll let you know when I get there.

Something I found interesting was that the widower's name is Maxim de Winter. Think about it, MAXIM de WINTER. Maximum Winter? As in, will he stay forever living in a cold world without love or move on to love his second wife? I just love wordplay. Anywhoozles, I can tell this book is going to be awesome and fill you guys in as I read on, as usual. Go literature!