a year of women writers

Yet again, it’s been a while since I’ve posted updates here on the reading I’ve been doing. But unlike the last pause in May/June, this time I haven't stopped reading the books--I’ve focused more on the reading than updating the blog. Which, in principle, is the better alternative, but I’d also like to be able to have these entries to look back on! So I’m sort of back, although now these entries will have been for books I read a while ago, meaning that the analysis will be more so superficial. Or maybe it will show the things that have stuck with me the most over the passage of a couple months?

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a seminal work, one that set the tone for proto-feminist/first-wave feminist movements of the 18th and 19th centuries. This also means, however, that in comparison to the sorts of discussions Simone de Beauvoir, Betty Friedan, and Germaine Greer were having in the middle of the 20th century (let alone the intersectional feminist discussions we try have today), Wollstonecraft concedes a lot of women’s rights away as she puts certain behaviors down to “human nature.” She seems much more forgiving of patriarchal structures, but still asks the reader to challenge the way they perceive society and the world they live in. 

I’ve fallen into the habit of prioritizing reading the books on my list instead of thinking about them and writing these posts, which means that I actually finished this book around a month ago, or so. Generally speaking, that’s not really a problem, but then when I go to write about it, I have forgotten so many of the transient thoughts that occur to me just when I’ve finished the book, and which are hard to capture again at a much later date. Nonetheless, this book made a great impression upon me (as I’m sure it has done for every person that opens it up) so I will hardly have a difficult time discussing how important of a work it is.

It’s unbelievable to me the I hadn’t picked it up before this, considering that I would think of it as being one of the most seminal American works of literature that I have ever read. Not only for the content, but the way it is presented. She has such a way with words as to make even prose seem like poetry, with every word essential, concise and clear. That quality is what has stood out to me as the differentiation between the good and the great authors on this list so far; there haven’t really been any “bad” books per se, but rather ones where the author’s style of writing didn’t resonate with me as much as others. 

Just like I had gone through an Agatha Christie phase in junior high, I had similarly gone through something of a Daphne du Maurier phase around the same time as well. It was nowhere near as expansive and in-depth as my obsession with the Queen of Crime, but I read a good sampling of the most famous du Maurier offerings (Jamaica Inn, Don’t Look Now). Yet I never made it around to Rebecca, perhaps her most famous work, known both as a novel and as the popular film which was inspired by the book. I’ve never watched the movie for fear of spoiling my surprise in reading the book, so I figured now was the time to finally read it.