ellauri100.html on line 769: One like a wombat prowl’d obtuse and furry,
ellauri107.html on line 214: Actually, the reader would have to be remarkably obtuse not to recognize the sexual tension between Coverdale and Hollingsworth. If only we could know what Melville thought when he read it! Certainly, Melville was aware that Brook Farm in Roxbury, Massachusetts, which Blithedale represents, had enjoyed the company of Hawthorne as a communal society member for most of 1841. Perhaps he also knew that substantial portions of Coverdale’s first person narration are taken directly from Hawthorne’s Brook Farm journals, and he would certainly know better than we the extent to which the novel may also represent allusions to Hawthorne’s and his experiences together during the year before the publication of Blithedale.
ellauri156.html on line 522: However, according to Josephus, in Antiquities, Book 7, Chapter 1, Joab had forgiven Abner for the death of his brother, Asahel, the reason being that Abner had slain Asahel honorably in combat after he had first warned Asahel and tried to knock the wind out of him with the butt of his "spear". However, probably by intervention of God, his obtuse tool went through Asahel. The Bible says everyone stopped and gawked. That shows that something like this never happened before. This battle was part of a civil war between David and Ish-bosheth, the son of Saul. After this battle Abner switched to the side of David and granted him control over the tribe of Benjamin. This act put Abner in David's favor.
ellauri164.html on line 379: I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. I actually found it incredibly difficult to understand. Some of it, I think, was that it was poorly translated. I read a 1962 edition that doesn't even cite a translator -- so many of the sentences were so convoluted as to be utterly obtuse. Poor translation or witless reader? I never could figure out why Mlle Chantal was such an angry bitch and why she insisted on tormenting the priest. What was her secret? Was the priest an alcoholic or just terminally sick? Gay? Why did M le Comte come to hate the priest? These are just some of the basic narrative issues I couldn't figure out. Forget the whole spiritual aspect--much of what the priest mused on and felt was incomprehensible to me as he described it. I can't help wondering if I'd have understood it if I had read it in French. Or maybe I'm just so spiritually challenged (in a God believing, Catholic way) that I can't comprehend it when it's described. All of that said, there were profoundly moving passages here and there, but over all I don't begin to know what I read. It's rather embarrassing actually--I feel so simple! (less)
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