Literary Sisters

With 3 sisters of my own, the portrayal of sisters in literature is something I've always found interesting. Here are a few of my top literary sisters:

The Marches, Little Women: It's hard not to adore Louisa May Allcott's Little Women, arguably the most loving of all these sets of sisters. At times they seem like a family unit within themseleves, with Meg acting as a mum and Jo as a dad. They all play their parts as sisters well, Meg as the responsible eldest sister, Jo the outgoing, loud yet fiercly protective one, Beth quiet, caring, shy (and sickly) and Amy the spoilt youngest. (This is in no way a metaphor for me and my sisters...)

I still have the same hair and love of peter pan collars...
 

Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield, The Sweet Valley Twins: Elizabeth and Jessica, despite being twins, are complete opposites. Elizabeth bookish, academic and career-minded, whilst Jessica thinks mainly about boys, clothes and being popular. In spite of their differences and some sibling rivalry, deep down they're the best of friends and are always there for each other through various scrapes they seem to get themselves into. Undoubtably the series, which according to Wikipedia spans over 100 books, is pure cheese but it remains a classic for millions of girls of the late 80s and 90s. Myself included.

The Lisbons, The Virgin Suicides: Shown only through the eyes of the boys who loved them, at first sight the Lisbon sisters seem like your average group of siblings. But as one by one they commit suicide it quickly becomes apparent that all is not as it seems. Quite what drives them each to end their lives remains unknown. However, despite what must be a deep rooted unhappiness in each of them, perhaps somewhat due the strict ruling of their parents, the strong ties of sisterhood remain, each keeping the others secrets and perhaps even to some extent all commiting suicide as some sort of unspoken pact.

Cecilia and Briony Tallis, Atonement: As the novel opens, Cecilia and Briony are shown to have a stereotypical relationship where the younger looks up to the older one. However, this doesn't last long and over the course of one evening their relationship changes beyond repair. Through Briony's young imagination and foolish lies she condemns both Cecelia, and esentially also herself, to a life of unhappiness and regret. As the story unravels it becomes clear that no amount of repentence can repair the damage done be the 11 year old Briony. Although she does give Cecelia the happy ending that she so tragically stole from her in 'real-life', it's all too little too late and the Tallis family is torn apart forever.

Running with the Christmas themed photos.

Lis(z)tomania

I love books. I also love lists. So, in an attempt to revive my blog I’m going to combine the two. Beware, there may be some spoilers.

The Hit List

Over the past few years I’ve been compiling a mental list of literary characters I believe are deserving of a slap. Perhaps a sign that I get too emotionally involved in things that aren’t actually real… From friendly ‘knock some sense into’ them slaps to a full on punch in the face, some characters have an ability to get under your skin. Here are just a few of the characters that have topped my list:

Briony Tallis - Atonement: If little 13 year old Briony had told the truth, things could have been very different. Granted it wouldn’t have made for one of my favourite novels of all time but it would have saved a LOT of tears.

Pip – Great Expectations: Don’t get me wrong, I love Pip so this slap would be a friendly, ‘sort your life out, mate’ one. Hopefully he’d then stop being so mean to Joe and realise that Biddy is so much better than Estella.

Catherine – Petite Anglaise: She buys her affair underwear from Monoprix. Need I say more?!

Edward and Florence – On Chesil Beach: It might have been a good idea for Ed and Flo to talk about their sexual preferences before getting married. Apparently this hadn’t occurred to either of them and so ensues a wedding night from hell. Someone should have definitely banged their heads together. 

Daisy Buchanan – The Great Gatsby: Yeah, she might be beautiful and Gatsby might love her but seriously, make a decision: Gatsby or your cheating husband? And if you’re going to run people over you should really take responsibility for it! Poor old Gatsby.