“Emily Bronte, author of the greatest psychological novel ever written, with the most complex character ever conceived. Read Wuthering Heights when you’re 18 and you think Heathcliff is a romantic hero; when you’re 30, he’s a monster; at 50, you see he’s just human.”
–Alice Hoffman, from an interview with The New York Times
I have been writing a lot recently about the way texts change according to what we bring to them in a given year, on a given day, at a given hour. Even the preceding sentence could not have been written a few decades ago, back when I was in the grip of “right versus wrong” as a young student. I remember reading Roland Barthes’ “The author is dead” as a first-year in college and fighting it with absolutely every cell in my body. The author had something to say and it was my job to pan for its narrow meanings, carefully embedded in the streambed — to separate the gold from the silt. It was wildly destabilizing to imagine otherwise.
The problem, when I encountered Barthes all those years ago, was that it was all conceptual at that point. I hadn’t been alive long enough to read and re-read a text with significant personal changes in my life unfolding between the drumbeats, and so I couldn’t greet his provocation with experience one way or the other. I didn’t yet know that we are more like verbs than nouns — inciting movement rather than reflecting stasis. Now I know, and on a visceral level, that texts do change over time. They are more like mirrors than murals. The meanings are not hieroglyphed in stone by a mastermind. They emerge in fluid conversation with our own experiences.
I loved Hoffman’s thoughts on Bronte; they echo the many complex ways I have interacted with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women over the years, both as a book and in its two powerful adaptations to film. Little Women is simultaneously —
A love story
A portrait of grief
An examination of the complex dynamics of sisterhood
A bildungsroman
A feminist critique
A reflection on the intersection of art and commerce
An artist’s way
An artifact of post-Reconstruction-era realism and American Protestant virtues
And probably many more things — the list is, in all likelihood, infinite. And each time I visit with it, I find myself focusing on a different part of the stereogram. I am not a frequent book repeater (are you? I found the comments on this post on the subject fascinating), but there are certain texts that just howl after you, and Little Women is one of them, likely because each of the readings above speaks profoundly to my own interests and personal trajectories.
Wondering today if you have a text, like Wuthering Heights for Hoffman or Little Women for me, that continues to give you new sky each time you visit with it — what is it? What are some of the new readings that have emerged over time?
Post-Scripts.
+The three best books I read this year: Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead (my review here); Elena Ferrante’s My Brilliant Friend (my review here); and Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo (scattershot thoughts here; I never wrote a full review of this one, partly because I found it so sprawlingly suggestive and am frankly still collecting my thoughts).
+Good advice on writing, and on living, really: take it bird by bird. (Plus some other reflections on reading and writing.)
+How to get started with writing.
+We are in a constant state of rewriting.
Shopping Break.
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+I just noticed that Laura Dern narrates the Audible version of Little Women and added it to my library. I can’t wait to interact with the text in this mode. (And Laura Dern…! Marmee!). Also, Joanne Froggat of Downton Abbey fame narrates Wuthering Heights, so I also downloaded that one.
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+Cute surprise for your children’s lunchboxes.
+Thanks to a Magpie reader for “raising the bat [magpie] signal” (in her words) to let me know that Madewell had launched a collab with Leset!!! You know I obsess over their pointelle. These sets are divine.
+DRMTLGY has been targeted me with ads for its undereye corrector (probably my biggest cosmetic woe) and I am very tempted to order it while 30% off…has anyone tried?
+If you loved the G. Label leather skirt I wore back in Italy (so many of you loved this look!), this is a great look for less.
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+A great innovation for freezing leftovers. My husband loves this for freezing stock.
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+More great fair isle – I really like the colors in this one because it works with so many colors — taupe, gray, black, white — but would also be fun to play against a bright red or chartreuse. Look for less with this!
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+Cute, inexpensive velvet flats to pair with your holiday lineup. These remind me of Aeyde’s Uma but a fraction of the price. For something glitzier, try these Larroudes (in my closet!). And while we’re talking velvet footwear, I love these Ann Mashburns!
Mine is absolutely also Little Women! I am 28 and I think have already read it eight or nine times. I always relate to a different sister re-read – Meg while I was engaged, Amy during my semester abroad. It’s the book verison of the “love of my life!”
Love this so much. It really is such a rich text and so interesting how we connect with different characters at different times in our lives — maybe one day we’ll relate to Marmee…
I have grown up with Little Women as my constant companion— from my mom reading it to me at night as a child to naming my own child partly in reference to Jo March. You have captured how it has evolved as a text (at least in my eyes) as I too evolve through each stage of life.
Oh I love this – so glad you share my deep appreciation for this text. And what a great name!!
xx
I try to read lots of books throughout the year- but I’ve always been a book repeater. Gone with the Wind was a high school read. At that time it was all love story- I could relate to unrequited love/youthful infatuation. As a young adult I was more interested in the differences in the female leads – quiet, graceful, and traditional vs a woman who broke the mold and made no apologies…..and where did I fall on that spectrum? As an adult, I read much more into the setting (the mythical south), the stereotypes (cringe), and the descriptions of social hierarchy. I hope this means that I’ve grown from a child who looks for validation outside of myself, to someone who was deciding who I truly am on the inside, to then being a person who knows more about myself deciding how I fit in to a much bigger picture.
Throughout my lifetime of reading (and repeat reading) I’ve felt conflicted about being a book repeater. A nod to your recent post, I often felt like it made me a bad book girl. But really, I sometimes feel like I’ve never read the same book twice since I’m a whole new person with more wisdom and experiences each time I return to that first page.
Wow – what a spectacular chronology of your readings of GWTW! I was so stirred by your insights and how you threaded them all together. Beautiful, and thanks for sharing.
I completely agree and love your note on book repeating! Maybe we should rebrand it — book revisiting, or something else…
xx
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