SOUTH RIDING: Week 4, Books VII and VII and the Novel as a Whole

[Melissa_W Moderator]

Please use this thread for discussion of Books VII and VIII of South Riding as well as the novel in its entirety.  Please clearly mark a SPOILER WARNING if necessary.

[chadadanielleKR]

Almost finished. It's getting sadder than I thought. Sadder than the author had make us believe! "Progress is on its way and cannot be stopped...

[chadadanielleKR]

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chadadanielleKR wrote:

Almost finished. It's getting sadder than I thought. Sadder than the author had make us believe! "Progress is on its way and cannot be stopped...

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But at which cost?

[Melissa_W Moderator]

In some ways, this sentiment reminds me of the movie Gosford Park, set about in the same time period, maybe a little later.  There's such an aura of invading progress, that the world we see will come crashing down in just a few years.

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chadadanielleKR wrote:

Almost finished. It's getting sadder than I thought. Sadder than the author had make us believe! "Progress is on its way and cannot be stopped...

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[chadadanielleKR]

Finished in time! I'm watching the BBC series now, I am enjoying them all the more that there are suggested elements which are better that being written. For instance, the author goes on and on about the fact that Miss BURTON and M. CARNE have such strong feelings towards each other but they can't acknowledge them because there is so much which comes between them...

That's actually what bothers me in the book: the author dwells to much in each other's feeling. The main theme about the end of an old rural world and the rise of a new urban world is rich enough so as to add too many extra elements. Don't you think?