A Far, Far Better Thing

You may notice that my "What I'm Currently Reading" list has altered: yes, I've finished A Tale of Two Cities and really, that last book of that...book (huh), reminds me why I started reading the book in the first place.

Sydney Carton.

Some girls have Mr. Darcy for a literary crush, me, maybe there's something hopeslessly fatalistic about my Romantic (or Victorian) fantasies, but I dig the Carton-man. Is it because I like the concept of the tragic sacrifice? Or is it that I romanticize the idea of wasted potential? Or is it just because Dickens writes a dickens of a snarky character?

This is not a good romantic ideal. My more persistent literary crush, Melville's Ishmael, is a much better match for me, seeing as he is not an unambitious and cynical drunk. But it's not like Ishmael is without significant emotional baggage himself. But neither of this is as dismal a beau as Heathcliff, but, really, girls who like Heathcliff kind of weird me out. No offence to anyone out there, he's just a jerk, that's all.



Then again, what which the fictional element of all this, it's all rather a moot point, isn't it?

Comments

Makayla Steiner said…
Sydney Carton is one of my very, very favorite of Dickins' characters. I'm not into literary crushes, but I think he's tremendously admirable. I loved that book.
August 6, 2008 at 6:24 PM
Kjerstin Evans Ballard said…
Um, loved Heathcliffe into my sophomore year of college. I convinced a friend that she would like Wuthering Heights more than Jane Eyre on the basis of her fanship of Twilight. Which is true and makes me dislike Heathcliffe even more.
August 30, 2008 at 10:21 PM
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