Persuasion.

     The novel I choose as my 18th/19th century summer reading novel was Jane Austen's Persuasion. As I always like to do before picking a novel that I must read from a list, at the beginning of the summer, I sat down with the summer reading list and my computer and began looking up abstracts of each title. After having read short summaries of each of the 8 18th/19th century novels that I could potentially choose to read over the summer, I decided on Persuasion because the summary of this novel had appealed most to me. In addition to the fact that this novel was simply the most appealing to me, I had also chosen this book because I had always desired to read Jane Austen as I had heard mixed reviews on her writing. Many people had, prior to the beginning of the summer, told me how much they disliked Austen's writing, while a few felt quite strongly when telling me how much they loved her writing; I, therefore, decided that I would like to read a novel of hers in order to form my own opinion of Austen as an author, and I saw this summer as the perfect opportunity to do so. Therefore, in the end, I believe that I picked this novel because the content grabbed my attention and because I was drawn to the author who I had been wishing to read for quite some time. 
     Overall, I believe, after having read this book, that Austen is an example of an excellent female storyteller. Although, admittedly, there were some low points in her storytelling in this novel, I believe that her strengths greatly outweigh her weaknesses.
     In Persuasion, I think one of the best aspects of Austen's storytelling is her thorough development of the many characters that we come across in this story. Austen does a great job developing each character independently, through their relationships with the other characters in this novel, and through the eyes of the other individuals in the story. An example of character development through another character's eyes occurs as follows when Louisa Musgrove describes her sister-in-law, Mary:
     "Mary is good-natured enough in many respects," said she; "but she does sometimes provoke me excessively, by her nonsense and her pride; the Elliot pride. She has a great deal too much of the Elliot pride.--We do so wish that Charles had married Anne instead. --I suppose you know he wanted to marry Anne? (Austen 93)
This passage is a great example of Austen's development of characters within the novel, as, with this single passage, we gain insight not only into Mary's but also into Anne's character. In this example alone, we can appreciate how Austen makes her characters come alive by way of contrasts and foils within the story. In this excerpt alone, we not only discover that Mary has an immense, and sometimes, according to Louisa, intolerable, pride, but also that Anne does not have this same air of haughtiness. Austen's impressive storytelling is evident here, as she is able to reveal so much important information about two central characters in such a short passage that is told by an outsider's perspective. 
     To me, some aspect of a novel needs to be relatable for the novel to be an example of prime storytelling. In Persuasion, the most relatable part of the story is the idea of persuasion itself. As all of us have succumbed to persuasion or pressure at one time or another, and later usually come to regret it, the premise of the entire novel is something that many readers can sympathize with. Austen does a great job portraying persuasion in its two stages: acceptance and subsequent regret.  Throughout most of the novel, Austen shows Anne accepting and justifying Lady Russell's reasons for persuading her not to marry Captain Wentworth, as typical of any individual persuaded to do something. Concerning most of the novel with the justification stage of persuasion, Austen accurately portrays how an individual pressured into doing something by someone they respect greatly would try to come up reasons as to why he (or she) was correct in listening to the person who persuaded them. Moreover, by addressing the rejection stage towards the end of the novel, Austen correctly depicts how it is human nature to strongly end up resenting an idea or action that someone persuaded you into believing or doing. This resentment is seen when Anne states that she "was wrong in yielding to persuasion once, remember that it was to persuasion exerted on the side of safety, not risk" (262). This quote shows that, even though Anne was persuaded to do something because Lady Russell wanted to protect her, she still regrets her yielding to Lady Russell's persuasion. Austen does an impeccable job of portraying the stages of persuasion in a manner in which every reader can relate to, and, for that, Austen's storytelling is evidently superb. 
     Contrarily, I think Austen fails in her storytelling because she does not have action drive the plot of her novel. Although this novel is essentially a romance novel, a certain degree of action is still required to make a novel interesting throughout. However, since Austen's novel greatly lacks action and movement, the parts of the book that simply include pages and pages of conversation make the book a bit dry and drab. Although I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Austen's writing in this novel, the lack of an action-driven plot provide a reason for readers to dislike Austen's writing and label it boring and uneventful. Although I found the deficiency of action to be one of the major flaws of this novel, I thought the strengths greatly outweighed the novel's weaknesses. 

Most Memorable Books

Here we go. The most memorable books I have read are the following:

1. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini- One of my favorite books of all time. I loved the storyline, and, since my parents were born and raised in a neighboring country,  I felt a deep connection to the characters and the story. I cried while reading it!

2. A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini- As this story is also set in Afghanistan and is specifically about a few women living there, I feel an even deeper connection to the story. Although I did not like it at first, I ended up loving the book and crying at the end.

3. A Mercy, Toni Morrison- Although the story was quite confusing at first, once I started to understand it,  I ended up really enjoying it, and I really looked forward to having to read in every night for Ms. Driscoll.

4. 1984, George Orwell- I started the book and, after beginning it, I couldn't put it down. By the end, I felt like I even knew the main character, Winston, personally. It is one of my favorite books!

5. Persuasion, Jane Austen- I was told that I wouldn't like Jane Austen because she is "dry" and her books are boring, but I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I thought it was a beautiful story that was written really well. I loved that in incorporated suspense in its own way but was also just a love story.

6. Crank; Glass; Tricks; Identical; Impulse, Ellen Hopkins. These are 5 different books all by the same author, Hopkins, that I LOVED reading. Each book is about 500-700 pages, but, as they are written in poetry, they are a breeze to read. I finished each book in 1-2 days because I simply could not put them down. They were incredible books that I loved so much because they were realistic (2 of the 5 were based on her daughter) but completely unrelated to my life as they told the story of characters who participate in immoral, often criminal, activity. Although these are considered more "trashy" literature, I can't help but continue reading her books!

7. Nectar in a Sieve, Kamala Markandaya- We had to read this for World History class in 10th grade, and I really loved it. It was about British colonization in India (so once again I felt a kind of personal connection to the story), and it made me cry at the end!

8. Othello, Shakespeare- This is probably my favorite work I have read by Shakespeare. I enjoyed reading it because it was about  isolation, deception, and other concepts that were interesting to me.

9. Animal Farm, George Orwell- Amazing book that I read in the 7th grade and still remember and love.

Excellent Storytelling

   Over this past summer I read 1984 by George Orwell for AP English class.  Although, at first, I was simply reading this novel in order to fulfill a school requirement, as I turned each page, I found myself truly enamored by this classic novel. One of my favorite passages is as follows:

   The young, strong body, now helpless in sleep, awoke in him a pitying, protecting feeling. But the mindless tenderness that he had felt under the hazel tree, while the thrush was singing, had not quite come back. He pulled the overalls aside and studies her smooth white flank. In the old days, he though, a man looked at a girl's body and saw that it was desirable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act. (126)

    I chose this example because it describes a character, Winston Smith,  and an idea, rebellion, that are both relatable. This passage explains the character's belief in the frequent (in Winston's case, the permanent) mixture of emotion and the desire for rebellion. I believe this is an instance of good storytelling as the author writes of a scene that encompasses emotions and desires that the reader is capable of relating to. The description of the feelings that run through the character are so accurately portrayed in this scene that it is impossible for the emotions to feel anything other than realistic. I believe that good stories and novels always require characters, ideas, and/or plots that are at least semi-relatable to those who read it. In 1984, I believe that Orwell did an incredible job making the characters and ideas quite believable. With his descriptions, Orwell is able to make his characters come to life, which, to me, makes for the best story telling.