First off, I felt that The Education of Henry Adams was a slow read due to the intense
amount of detail packed into every sentence. More specifically, I found myself reading
paragraphs posing as sentences with numerous semi-colons and one period. While I enjoy
Jane Austen, who similarly writes long sentences, I didn' t find the Education of Henry
Adams to be a book that I couldn't put down. The book is easier to understand than Jane
Austen in that the wording is simpler, but the subject matter was not as gripping for me.
Furthermore, after reading about death during the Civil War, the book provides a
contrast because there is so much lead up to the beginning of the Civil War.
I find it odd that Henry Adams is writing about himself in the third person. It took me
a little ways into the book to realize that he wrote the book.. He repeats certain
themes in the book, including the theme of Quincy vs. Brooks...also known as winter vs.
summer or the "double" life. Another theme - the old vs. new (18th century vs. 19th
century) intrigued me and confused me because I wanted to go find a history book and
learn more about the contrasts of Boston society versus American society.
Henry Adams takes himself very seriously; I thought it was interesting that a ten year
old boy is choosing the path of his life (winter or summer, for Boston or against the
famous State Street) so early. I also found it intriguing that he breaks up years of his
life based on which family member intrigued his life during the said time period. For
example, his father Charles Francis Adams had an affect on his life from 1848 to 1854
with the establishment of the Free Soil Party.
As far as liking Henry Adams for his own character, he has self-described himself as weak
in nature, and idolizes prior generations and the society that those said ancestors
associate with. He also feels that being educated is a vital part of everyone's being, and I liked when he described the walk to school with his grandfather John Quincy Adams. He is studying society because he was born among great men, and he is fascinated with their characters and knowledge.
I know that I jumped around a bit in this post, but it's because a few things from this
book got me curious. :) I definitely prefer Melville and Dickinson to Henry Adams... but
who knows, maybe his writing will grow on me.
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sorry for the odd way it posted... it's because I pasted it from an email I sent myself on a mac computer...
ReplyDeleteit kind of looked like the john brown poem we looked at so... a homage maybe?
ReplyDeleteI am in agreement with Carly in that The Education of Henry Adams is a slow read. While the book started off intriguing for me, it quickly lost that feel. I found myself rereading paragraphs to understand what was going on. It was also very easy to get bogged down in the historical references, which I did. I got so caught up in trying to figure out who all the names were Adams kept mentioning that I couldn’t pay attention to the plot.
ReplyDeleteThough hard to read, I do appreciate the fact that Adams recognizes that “education” is perhaps more than what is learned in school. While starting the book with the impression that Adams would tell a story about his schooling, I was pleasantly surprised to find that he labels education as much more than an institution.
I have hopes that I will take a liking to this book and it will become easier to read and comprehend!
I felt really similar to the way you guys did when reading this book at first. It was difficult to read and I also got hung up on smaller things. So, I started the whole thing over after researching some. (I had only gotten about 40 pages so this isn't as difficult as it sounds) It helped me so greatly. Knowing which Adams is which and where all these places Henry was talking about in context to the time in American history made it much easier to understand what he was talking about and see why he was going on all those rants that he was. I could understand him much easier when he spent so much time talking about the differences between Boston and Virginia as well. Everything, pretty much, became easier to understand. Also, I started considering that this guy seriously must had some reason to write 400 pages on his own education because that's not exactly the typical fun thing to do. So, I started skimming the parts that are more factual and diving into the parts that are more opinionated and philosophical. It reads much more like a diary and allowed me to follow it easier. Anyway, Il definitely understand all the trouble you guys are having because I had the same trouble. Those are just a few tips to how I went about trying to solve it. Don't get me wrong, it's still boring. Just a little less so.
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