Litsy

TheSpineView

Wordsworth: Poems | William Wordsworth

#PoetryMatters @TheSpineView
#Waylay

dabbe 🩵💙🩵 4d

TheSpineView @dabbe 🌞😊😘 4d

40 likes2 comments

wanderinglynn

Complete Poems of John Keats (Revised) | John Keats, J Keats

John Keats

#aprilpoetrychallenge for #nationalpoetrymonth

16 April - romance

kspenmoll 💖💖💖 2w

dabbe 🩵💙🩵 2w

47 likes2 comments

Kshakal

Love on the Rocks | Veronica Henry

#loveontherocks #feelinthelove @Eggs @Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs Pretty ❤️ 2mo

30 likes1 comment

AllDebooks

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage | George Gordon 1788- Byron

#NaturaLitsy

This is imprinted on my mind, body, and soul 💚

What nature poems speak to you?

dabbe My two biggies are Wordsworth's “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud“ and Shelley's “Ode to the West Wind.“ Love me some Byron, too! Romantics all the way! 🤩 5mo

AllDebooks @dabbe oh yes 💚 5mo

Kimzey @dabbe Yes! I also love Wordsworth's “There Was a Boy.“ Sad, but beautiful.
5mo

dabbe @Kimzey 🧡🤎💛 5mo

AllDebooks @Kimzey 💚 5mo

41 likes5 comments

Princess-Kingofkings

Complete Poems of John Keats (Revised) | John Keats, J Keats

#LitSolace full of stickers, notebook & cards 🍁🍃🍂

TheBookHippie, dabbe

dabbe 🧡🤎💛 7mo

27 likes1 comment

julieclair

Undine | Friedrich de La Motte Fouque

pick

This tale totally drew me in. It was mesmerizing, but so sad.
#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead @BarbaraJean

33 likes

dabbe

The Poems of John Keats | John Keats

#poetrymatters
#unrest
@TheSpineView

TheSpineView 💜💜💜 10mo

dabbe @TheSpineView 💙💚💙 10mo

39 likes2 comments

BarbaraJean

Undine | Friedrich de La Motte Fouque

LMM first mentions Undine in her journals on October 24, 1899, when Nate brings her a copy—she reads it in school, under her desk, and calls it “delicious.” The story is often referenced as one of LMM‘s favorites.
What do you notice in Undine that might have appealed to LMM?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

rubyslippersreads, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

lauraisntwilder It has a piety to it that I wasn't expecting. I can see how that would've appealed to LMM, since she also liked Little Women and church was so important in her life. 11mo

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder I also think she must have been drawn to the nature descriptions! There were some very lush descriptions of the lake and the location of the fisherman's cottage, as well as the forest and the storms. I could see her reveling in those as well as the emotional drama of the story. 11mo

TheAromaofBooks I think the nature connections are definitely a good point @BarbaraJean !! There is also a sort of melodramatic romance to the whole thing that feels a little over-the-top but I can see her getting into, especially when she's young - I think I would have also enjoyed this story more if I read it the first time as an early teen haha It has a sad ending, and it made me think of Anne's Story Club and how that younger age hasn't really experienced ⬇ 11mo

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TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) real grief or trouble, so they tend to enjoy reveling in the melodrama. The whole ending scene I kept remembering Anne's story about the minister's wife who buried children all over the country and wept at their graves haha I actually felt like Kilmeny of the Orchard has definite Undine vibes. (And wasn't Kilmeny's original name Una in the short story she first wrote?) And despite the religious tone throughout, there is also a lot of ⬇ 11mo

TheAromaofBooks (cont'd) underlying sensuousness to the story. The “good“ beautiful woman vs the “bad“ beautiful woman, the fact that Undine's husband is unfaithful to her and attracted to the forbidden Bertalda, the way both women lose at the end - I can see all of that appealing to LMM, who was very passionate and full of life. @lauraisntwilder 11mo

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Oh, definitely, I can see the melodrama and romance appealing to a young Maud! Anne's Story Club would definitely have wept over Undine. Maybe it would have been an appropriate one to act out, given how things went with acting out Elaine...😂 I looked it up, and you're right about Kilmeny. Her first version was called “Una of the Garden.“ Kilmeny definitely has similar vibes of jealousy and melodrama! Less water, though. 😂 10mo

julieclair Great thoughts here. And… I love the image of LMM reading Undine under her desk at school! 9mo

22 likes7 comments

BarbaraJean

Undine | Friedrich de La Motte Fouque

What common fairy tale tropes did you notice in Undine?
What did you like (or dislike) about how those fairy tale tropes played out in this story?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

rubyslippersreads, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

TheAromaofBooks Well, he literally is a knight riding up on a white charger 😂 You also have the changeling aspect, the poor but noble parents, and then the sneaky bad woman stealing away the perfect woman's man. Probably others that aren't coming to mind. They were... fine, I guess? Those tropes are what they are. They didn't really wow me here, but I didn't feel like they were any more ridiculous here than they are in other similar stories haha 11mo

BarbaraJean @TheAromaofBooks Hahaha... well, yes there is that white knight!! I felt like there were SO many fairy tale elements! Add in fae-influenced weather, good fae who hold off the bad fae, and then with Bertalda: the unknown parentage revealed! That felt like a reversal, with the rich girl revealed to have come from humble parentage instead of vice versa. I thought initially that with Undine being a “good“ water spirit holding off her evil uncle ⬇ 10mo

BarbaraJean (Cont'd) ...and how she is given a soul when she marries (still ugh about that), that the author might do more interesting things with good vs. evil here. But as you said, it was all fairly usual for a fairy tale. Except the knight on his white charger turns out to be unfaithful and kind of a jerk. Well, maybe that's not outside the usual fairy tale tropes, either, now that I think about it!! 10mo

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TheAromaofBooks The hero turning into the anti-hero was an intriguing aspect of the story, I thought. He's so romantic and handsome when he first shows up, seems so devoted to Undine and delighted to marry her, but then falls away and betrays her time and again.

Personally, I would have given Bertalda the boot pretty fast - and probably sent Mr. White Knight right out the door after her 😂 10mo

julieclair Huldbrand is definitely not a Disney prince, lol! And I agree with @TheAromaofBooks about Bertalda. Why in the world did Undine allow her to live with them? 9mo

BarbaraJean @julieclair “Not a Disney prince“— 😂 I wonder what Disney would do with an Undine adaptation?! Huldbrand is just so awful. I wonder if Undine's willingness to allow Bertalda to live with them was a narrative device to demonstrate her kindness, innocence, and goodness? I'm with @TheAromaofBooks, though—Bertalda would've been out the door pretty fast if it were me! 9mo

julieclair Disney would turn it into The Little Mermaid! 🧜‍♀️😆🤭 And… good thought about the reason why Undine allowed Bertalda to stay. 9mo

22 likes7 comments

BarbaraJean

Undine | Friedrich de La Motte Fouque

Hans Christian Andersen didn‘t like how de la Motte Fouqué‘s story made “the mermaid‘s acquiring of an immortal soul to depend upon… the love of a human being. I‘m sure that‘s wrong! It would depend rather much on chance, wouldn‘t it?”

How did you respond to this aspect of the folklore—that Undine‘s receiving a soul is dependent upon her marriage? What did you think of the male & female roles in the story?

#KindredSpiritsBuddyRead #LMMAdjacent

rubyslippersreads, lauraisntwilder, TheAromaofBooks, julieclair

lauraisntwilder It feels a little like "Beauty and the Beast" in that way, with marriage being a marker of having been deemed worthy of love. I'm not sure I like that aspect, but I did like the character of Undine more after she got a soul. 11mo

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder I like that connection to Beauty and the Beast! Both characters are given their humanity in a way, once they have been seen as worthy of love. And both feel problematic. I feel similarly to Andersen but probably for different reasons. It bothers me to have the woman's soul be dependent upon approval/bestowal of worth by a man. Andersen has religious issues with it, and I have both spiritual and feminist issues with it! 11mo

BarbaraJean @lauraisntwilder I also thought it was interesting that Undine seems to have far more power before she has a soul. She's so dependent upon Huldbrand after that--as well as vulnerable to Kuhleborn. She has a measure of control over Kuhleborn before her marriage, but far less so afterwards. And then Huldbrand proves to be completely unworthy of her trust and dependence. 11mo

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TheAromaofBooks I didn't care for the aspect of another person (husband or anyone) having the power to grant her a soul. Like Anderson, I have some religious issues with that one haha Plus she didn't really do anything to “deserve“ it anyway - just looked pretty, basically. It seemed like a strange premise. @lauraisntwilder 11mo

lauraisntwilder I agree, it's totally creepy. So is Beauty and the Beast, really. @TheAromaofBooks 11mo

julieclair It didn‘t bother me as I was listening, because I considered it a Fairy Tale. And it‘s 200 years old, when attitudes were different. However, if I was reading it with my grandkids, I would definitely have a conversation with them, about both the religious aspect and the feminist aspect. 9mo

BarbaraJean @julieclair Yes, a lot of my issues emerged as I was thinking back on the story! It's a lot easier for me to dismiss or overlook the male/female roles because they are such a product of the time and of the genre. But the soul idea really bothered me the more I thought about it! I like the idea of contextualizing the story and those problematic aspects if you were reading it with your grandkids. 9mo

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