Kika23’s Comments (group member since Nov 26, 2012)

Kika23’s comments from the Classics Without All the Class group.

Nobody

Nikos Kazantzakis

Xylophone

Vicomte de Bragelonne

Great Expectations

Sunset Park

James, Henry

Under the Dome

Kevin wrote: "I loved it. The author's acute descriptions of the various clothes and houses, etc., is the perfect echo to the artificial attitudes of upper-class New York society at the time. And because Wharton..."
I loved this book, too. I like your comment because it matches my own thinking. To me May represents the old society, the one that was already dying at that time. Wharton who is in this intermediate state with a foot in each world, gets married to tradition but longs for that new upcoming world, represented by Ellen.
It was a good read and I think I'm going to try The House of Mirth or Ethan Frome as soon as I can.

"He simply felt that if he could carry away the vision of the spot of earth she walked in, and the way the sky and the sea enclosed it, the rest of the world might seem less empty"

Wendy wrote: "I think that Wharton uses innocense in irony, as the innocence in the context of the book is most definitely manufactured."

I agree with you, Wendy. The characters are expected to pretend ignorance on facts that are well-known by everybody. Ellen is the one who doesn't fit in this environment because she doesn't pretend. She has to learn to hide and conceal, so the innocents don't get contaminated by her inconvenient presence.

"The affair in short had been of the kind that most young man of his age had been through, and emerged from with calm consciences and an undisturbed belief in the abysmal distinction between the woman one loved and respected and those one enjoyed - and pitied"

Unfortunately, many men are still convinced of this distinction

Frederick wrote: "It's great looking down from the tottering tower of several extra generations piled on top of each other! Please, please pass the magic of my childhood on to a new legion of animal lovers by unear..."

The Jungle book is my all time favorite!

That sounds like a very good idea. I totally support it.

Hi, everybody. Viña del Mar, Chile.