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June-Nov. 2007 Picked out of Pamela's bookshelf.
I had read more than half of this (rather longer) book before the summer and decided the weight was too great to take with me to Canada for vacation, so it was left at the last moment at Pamela's family house in Detmold. Over the summer I mostly forgot about it, but when reminded now and then, I decided that I must have finished it. "Funny," I thought, "that I can't remember how it ended. Didn't... didn't... one of the women go off and have a wedding in India? Or was that only the film I saw a year ago?" Anyhow, a month ago when I was at Pamela's place again... I happened to see this book, and thought I'd refresh my memory about how it ended. After flipping here and there I decided that I hadn't read this part at all... or the part before it... or that bit in the middle...
It took me a whole day to find the approximate place that I left off. (My bookmark had wandered off over the summer. I don't know how.) Anyhow... now it's finished and I'm ever so glad that I made some notes about my thoughts on a scrap of paper (which was stuck in a Different book which I browsed into last night.)
The story centers around Amelia, who is constantly kind, gentle, sweet, and innocent of all sins. She is pretty well universally liked and thought kindly of, but is also pretty consistently used or ignored. The only other in the book with such high morals and "goodness" is the long time friend Dobbin. He is also eventually liked, though often teased for his simplicity, and mostly used, ignored, and made fun of. For nearly the entire book the two most spotless and fine people are treated badly and trampled over, and the author shows how this is just the natural way of things in the society of the time, (of his time: around 1840.) I have a feeling that although the flavour has changed the principal still holds true today; the good and the helpful will be ignored and taken advantage of, and of the people who seem to care about others, how many of them only do it because it's expected of them? How many care only for themselves, but know it's socially unacceptable to act like they care for nothing else? Hopefully less than in the past, but still to many for this to be considered a virtuous time for civilisation.
I also thought about who received rewards in the... superficial society. And the answers were saddening; Rebecca (two faced, and always scheming for ways to increase her situation -often to the detriment of others,) Rawdron (who cheats other people,) and Osborn (Ever so superficial, who flirts with all and cares for no one but himself.)
Those notes all feel distant to me. The whole book does. I can think of very little to say, (I can STILL think of little to say, and it's two months since I started writing this.) The fact that we see the characters developing over a course of ten or fifteen years is good; It is of interest to see how the ideas and behaviours grow, particularly in the two women, starting with the day of their leaving the finishing school.
I truly can not write a single intelligent thing about this. Oh well.