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Those who are personally close to me are very well aware of my love of reading, learning more about history of various countries and how much I love reading classic novels. For how many months I haven’t indulged myself in reading any classic novels because The Age of Innocence disappointed me so much. For so long I thought nothing could compare to Anne Bronte’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall but I was wrong.

Last Tuesday evening, I watched Pride and Prejudice and found it very entertaining and Mr. Darcy incredibly sweet specially when he utter the words that are to be my favorite ever (that even Jennifer Aniston’s “I could live without you, but I don’t want to” of Rumor Has It and Uncle Ben’s “He could be anywhere in the world but he chooses to be with her because life is better with her by his side.” of The Perfect Man became merely second and third respectively):

You must know… surely, you must know it was all for you. You are too generous to trifle with me. … If your feelings are still what they were last April, tell me so at once. My affections and wishes have not changed, but one word from you will silence me forever. If, however, your feelings have changed, I will have to tell you: you have bewitched me, body and soul, and I love, I love, I love you. I never wish to be parted from you from this day on.

What could be sweeter than that? :)

I downloaded the ebook and I was not disappointed one bit. I love the bitterness, could feel the hurt that Lizzy has given Mr. Darcy and vice versa, Mr. Bennet’s sadness over Elizabeth’s getting married, Jane’s silent despair over Mr. Bingley leaving and hated Mrs. Bennet’s atrocious and sly behavior. I couldn’t get enough of them that I bought the book as soon as I got out of the office yesterday. Now my favorite novels are as follows:

1. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
2. Pride and Prejudice
3. The Daughter of Venice
4. Wuthering Heights

I don’t know about you but I have read my fair share of chic lits and I still go back to these classics. They seem to be more realistic and believable and very, very sweet. I guess it’s because mainly of the language and second are that their stories are not so shallow where girl meets boy, they fell in love, separated by friend/family/themselves and then a friend/family/themselves gets them together again and they live happily ever after. The classics’ characters have more conflicts to think about and takes several months, or years in case of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Wuthering Heights, before it can finally be resolved and you can follow their characters’ growth. You rejoice in their triumphs with them.

Spoilers ahead!

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Like, for example, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall where Mr. Markham and Mrs. Huntingdon are the main characters. Mrs. Huntingdon came from a very bad marriage that came upon her because of her thinking that she’s madly in love with Mr. Huntingdon despite the warnings given to her by her aunt and uncle. She left him (Mr. Huntingdon) when she finally had enough of his womanizing and his polluting their only son’s mind even though it wasn’t accepted at that time.

She met and fell in love with Mr. Markham but they cannot have a relationship because of her husband and the only way for them to be really together is if he dies. Mr. Markham (and the reader) learns of Mrs. Huntingdon’s suffering while living with Mr. Huntingdon through her diary which she gave Mr. Markham when they fell out.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice gave me the impression that it is the usual chic lit’s basis where the woman is headstrong and stubborn and the man is very silent and always brooding but despite that exterior the guy is incredibly sweet and kind and generous.

Anyway, Pride and Prejudice is not something which is easy to tell because it is not as linear as The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Suffice it to say that it is such an enjoyable read that when you finish it, you’d want to have more of it. You’d want to know the particulars of what happened to the other characters namely, Georgiana, Kitty and Mary. Who did they marry? For Georgiana, with a brother like Mr. Darcy I’m sure that it isn’t easy to find someone who could equal him. Yes, I’m in love with Mr. Darcy! :P Just like every other girl who have read Pride and Prejudice… it’s hard not to think of him as sexy you know!

The Daughter of Venice

The Daughter of Venice is not about a young woman’s (Donata) romance but her intellectual growth. But there is that angle. She is a noblewoman and noblewomen those days are not expected to know anything. But being the stubborn and hungry for knowledge as she is, she ventured out of her family’s estate and rambled outside where she met this Jewish guy (Noe) who gave her a job as a writer for the shoes he gave her.

He became her friend and mentor and soon, she fell in love with the intellectual man. But Noe is very upright and would never marry outside their religion. She, on the other hand, is to be married to a nobleman who have an equal wealth and the rest of her sisters will be in the convent. She doesn’t want to be married though because she doesn’t want to be married if not for love. Her twin sister on the other hand, would die to get married to anyone. It is up to her then to make sure that her twin sister do get married instead of her while quenching her thirst for more information not only about Venice and its economy but also of the world.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights has to be the darkest novel I have ever read (Psycopath seemed tame in comparison to this). It is filled with vengeance and hatred that it is almost scary to think of Heathcliff and you’d actually hate both Catherine and Heathcliff for being the person that they are.

It actually made me think whether the Brontes had a happy lives because their novels seem to be filled with misery. Anyway, just like Pride and Prejudice, it isn’t very easy to tell because of the number of its subplot but despite its being dark, you’d want to know what ever happened to that wretched Heathcliff in the end who only gave sadness and misery to anyone he came in contact with. Very depressing novel, I say, but I’m still satisfied.

Oops, I got carried away, I was only supposed to give The Tenant of Wildfell Hall as an example of the growth of the characters but I couldn’t help not talking about the others hehe forgive me, I do love talking about books. :)

Anyway, right now, I’m reading Sense and Sensibility and I think I’ll have Jane Eyre and the rest of Bronte sisters’ and Jane Austen’s novels next. I’m thinking if I could still buy the compiled Bronte sister’s novels in Books4Less and hoping I’m the only one near its vicinity who’s so in love with them as to buy it.

Speaking of books, I’m happy to announce that my sisters and brothers are better acquainted with reading books these days because of Bob Ong and I never thought how much they loved Bob Ong until they asked for the rest of Bob Ong’s books last night. I don’t think I’ll be able to say no to them though, they are my weakness so note to self: Get more projects!