Today was the day I made my first return trip to Manchester Central Library to meet with my reading group. First time back to the library felt only a little strange. The library seemed very busy- no doubt lots of new students visiting and joining for the first time.
Also first time with my reading group since June, 'cos of holidays. We were a small group as a few people still away. 2 of them are in Australia and one in Nice. Don't know where Geoffrey was. We are a well-travelled lot.
Today's book was A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy- thankfully one of his shorter novels. I enjoyed " the reading experience" i.e. back with Hardy who I used to admire for his descriptive powers and idealised characters. But I confess this book irritated me. The social conventions were stifling and Elfide, the central character both did not seem to know what she wanted and was incapable of communicating. I know I'm reading with 21st Century attitudes, but did Hardy have such a low opinion of women? We know he was "disappointed" in marriage but he can't have been an easy man to live with!
One of our group is a real Hardy fan and she pointed out how many of the themes were taken up again in his next book, Far From The Madding Crowd, also a story of a woman with 3 "suitors". We had much discussion about Hardy himself, as this is considered his most autobiographical novel. as always, we managed to stick to discussing the book for a full hour and thanked Brian for recommending it.
A quick trip around a bookshop afterwards reminded me of several new titles I must try to catch up with on return from holiday. Time to test out my library service's reservation system I think.
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