Emily Dickinson: A Life in Letters

I chanced upon the works of Emily Dickinson, while reading a random paragraph on some website. 

Being partial to 18th and 19th century women writers (Bronte sisters, Jane Austen, Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Evans), I had an instinctive need to read her work. After a few searches and few dollars spent on my kindle, I had complete access to over 1800 poems and hundreds of letters written over the course of her life. 

I held the kindle reverently in my hand, the new downloaded content somehow making it feel much heavier, perhaps a 'transferred epithet' of the added burden on my conscience.

My conscience pricks me when I read such letters, letters that never were meant to be read by eyes other than those of their intended recipient. Though long gone now, if ever the reclusive Emily were to somehow learn that her closest thoughts expressed in confidence to her dearest friends are being circulated publicly, how aghast would she be! In today's terms, it would be akin to someone selling your Gmail password on Amazon and anyone with a couple of dollars to spare could browse through all your emails and chats, learning in the process, every fear you hid and every hope you harbored. How deeper would be your embarrassment, if you were so shy and reserved a person by nature, that you had lived 26 years of your life in absolute seclusion from the outside world?

That was Emily and this unfortunately is the plague of those who are no longer here in this world and someday it will very well be ours, if we are fortunate enough to be remembered by any. Irony?

With utmost respect to her, I must write a few words, only to exalt her life in the highest way that I am capable of, for I find nothing in her communication or dedication to art that is not worthy of my greatest admiration.

Though largely remembered by her poems, Emily Dickinson was a fascinating writer. Every letter of hers is melodic, suffused with the warmest regard and love for its recipients  - her siblings, her relatives and her friends.

In the early letters there is no sign of a future recluse. Emily comes across as a cheerful young girl happily anticipating all the innocent joys of womanhood. The first dark shades appear in her letters when her mother is bedridden and Emily is charged with the running of the household. As a young girl, she is acutely sensitive about this sudden change in her situation. The letters written during this period hint at the personality traits that will deepen with the years.

As she becomes older, Emily is deeply affected by the the mortality of human life. A being who found even physical separation from her friends so intense, must have found the idea death terrible. However, she matures to treat death with a solemnity, finding solace that it is but a journey to Heaven, where her Father will receive all his beloved children.

Emily's letters contain beautiful descriptions of nature. In fact, I can boldly assert that never have I found nature so well rendered on paper. Also one finds the tenderest expressions of sisterly love, biblical solace - all embedded in a skein of verse.

Any student of rhyme or prose will find much delight in her works.

Confessions: Saint Augustine

Confessions: (Latin: Confessiones) is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, written in Latin between 397 and 400 AD. The work outlines Augustine's sinful youth and his conversion to Christianity. (Wikipedia)

Book 1: Early Years

In the first chapter, Saint Augustine writes about the period from his infancy to his boyhood.

He questions his existence prior to birth and wonders if he existed in some form before he was in his mother's womb. Was he a part of the infinity of God?

Then he proceeds to examine his earliest years and since he has no memory of them, he relies on the information passed to him by his seniors and likens his behavior to that of other infants he has seen (a thought echoed much later at the start of Charles Dickens: David Copperfield ). From this he observes that even an infant of a day old can be considered a sinner, because it greedily sucks milk, showing much jealousy if it has a sibling to compete with for the milk.

This leads Saint Augustine to echo the idea of original sin, and he says that as humans, we are born sinners, and rightly behave so from infancy (greedy baby example). In fact as we grow older, this behavior is reinforced in us, ironically by those who are responsible for our moral uprightness - our parents and our preceptors - by teaching children to desire fame, to pursue wealth and to act for gaining the honor of men. Thus we continue to grow in sin.

He then sums up the sins of his early years as jealously, prevarication and deception. He says he sought pleasure, sublimity, and truth not in God but in his creatures - both in himself and in other created beings. Only study and meditation later showed him that such pursuits were useless and only served to alienate him from God.

Throughout the chapter, we find Augustine eternally grateful for the gifts bestowed on him as an infant and a child: his mother's milk, his nurses care, his memory, his intelligence and his oratory skill. He considers them as God's gifts and desires to develop them.

He concludes this section by acknowledging the presence of a driving force within him, an inner instinct (which again was a gift of God) that guided him in the right direction and eventually helped him become who he was.

Review of 'A Faint Heart' by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

My first Dostoevsky and I am thrilled.

The first observation that comes to my mind, is the total lack of description of places. He just doesn't care about the location, save a line here or there. He is completely concerned with the people and is happy sketching thoughts, exploring feelings, bring to the front those little impulses we feel as humans but regard as indescribable. That is where his magic lies. He delineates the inside man, his troubles, his humor, his quirks. He shows the hidden man, his repressions and oppressions; his delicacy and tenderness. He shows the foolish man and the chagrined man. He brings forth the complexities in a man's character.

We start off by seeing Vyasa as a very happy man. Happy, that he is engaged. Happy that he has such a wonderful friend. How cleverly Dostoevsky misleads us in the beginning. I did not realize this on the first read. But when you come back to it, after reading the entire story, you realize that Dostoevsky has started painting the picture of Vyasya debilitating self at the onset of the story. Vyasya shows the first signs of his approaching malady right at the start of the story. He is shown to be fidgety, and whimsical and out of the normal. But the author presents these actions as a charade on Vyasya's part to create enough noise to wake his room-mate. 

Dostoevsky talks with his reader through out the narrative. The only other author I have seen doing that is Nathaniel Hawthorne.

I still don't understand why Vyasya went mad? Gratitude doesn't seem to be a strong enough explanation. I am sure there is some other reason, a stronger explanation but I can't find it. I have been toying with the idea that Vyasya probably doesn't find himself worthy enough for Liza and thinks Arkasha deserves her more than him. Anyone out there who has read this?

I have now finished four short stories by Dostoevsky. I love his work, except in some stories where he just goes off the track and is not comprehensible, unless one is sitting in a library with a book and a pen to take notes and draw mind-maps.

I now wonder whether I should read Crime and Punishment. Before I do that, I might be deviating to James Joyce and finish 'The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.' I have already downloaded that in my kindle. I also need to explore Chekov and Tolstoy among the Russian authors.