Suicide Note

(Virginia Woolf's suicide note to her husband Leonard)

TO: LEONARD WOOLF

'Dearest, I feel certain I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier till this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that - everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer.
I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been.

V.'

Literary Pick (**)

A Room with a View

-E.M. Forster

It's hard for me to believe this is considered a romance novel. It seemed like most of the time there were at least half a dozen people guarding Lucy's virtue. I don't understand how an author can take a character from one extreme to the next. Up until the last chapter it was about Lucy Honeychurch asserting her independence as a young lady. She didn't seem at all interested in finding romance. She just wanted independence from her family. Lucy's character was flaky. She becomes engaged to Cecil, but then realizes he's extremely pompous and is only interested in showing off his knowledge for the arts. Then we have George's father, who insists Lucy marry his son because all women should be married, and all this anti-feminist mumbo-jumbo. I think she finally marries George's son to escape her less than sane relatives. This novel was anything but romantic. In fact, it's one of the worst romance novels I've ever read. The back cover is very misleading. When you read the synopsis for the book you feel like you're about to embark on another amazing novel like Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights, but it's far from it on every aspect imaginable. I was tempted to give it only one star, but the prose was decent enough.

Literary Pick (***)

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
-Maya Angelou
 




















"Preach it, I say preach it!" I will always say that with a heart-felt chuckle.
I've always had a deep admiration and respect for Maya Angelou, so when I first learned about this autobiographical novel I was thrilled to add it to my to-reads list for later reading. The title alone, "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings", says so much about the story, and seems to be filled with such hope in the face of adversity.
The story chronicles the life of Marguerite (Maya), along with her brother Bailey, in the care of their devout grandmother in Stamps Arkansas, and years later moving in with her mother (Vivian) to San Francisco, ending with the touching bond between Maya and her newborn son. As a novel, it wasn't as interesting as I would have liked it to be, so I had to keep reminding myself that it was the story of Maya Angelou's life. It would've been nice to clearly hear the voice of wisdom we all know and love, but I felt it didn't come through so much for me, then again, it was young Angelou. This is a book I would definitely recommend you read first if you're just beginning to have an interest in Angelou's works.

Poetry

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Edgar Allan Poe

Literary Quote

“Success, after all, loves a witness, but failure can't exist without one.”

Junot Díaz

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Literary Pick (**)

The Origin of Species

-Charles Darwin