Novels dealing with regret

[Seb Mermaid]

Helloo. I'm afraid I'm going to be another of those rude high school students that asks for help with their coursework (dissertation, in my case) in their first post.

Being terribly indecisive, I started with a shortlist of 20 authors and have since narrowed it down to about half of that, but I was reading Mrs Dalloway today and I'm rather struck by it; I love the psychological style and an excuse to write about it would be great.

I was considering doing my dissertation on Mrs Dalloway's regret throughout, and I was thinking of comparing it with a Hardy novel (The Mayor of Casterbridge seemed the best comparison, though if any of the other 'Big Five' Hardy novels also deal with regret in particular, I'd love to know).

I was also considering The Remains of the Day or Persuasion, but if any other well-regarded novel from the 1800s onward examines regret in depth, I'd consider doing it.

If it helps, my shortlist is currently:

Austen
Dickens
Dostoevsky
Eliot
Flaubert
Hardy
Kafka
Thackeray
Woolf

Thanks in advance!

[Jozanny]

I am not sure Flaubert uses regret as a central motif, and I've read a lot of Flaubert in recent years. It is there superficially in Madame Bovary, certainly, maybe slightly more in a lesser work like A Simple Soul, but Flaubert is after something else, me thinks, like condemning imagination, and language, for its dialectic against existence.

You might consider Henry James The Portrait of A Lady. It is a convoluted novel, but the only character in it who doesn't regret is the villain, Osmond, whom I once compared to the Anti-Christ, got an A on the paper and was encouraged to turn into an article. England and America still argue over which nation James belongs to, and he did become British at the end of his life.

I am running Elizabeth Gaskell over in my head--Dickens praised her. I can't single out anything significant about regret, but maybe she left something behind to compare with Eliot, who is an excellent choice, but for regret I would use Adam Bede over Middlemarch. I believe the former is a more powerful piece over the latter.

[Seb Mermaid]

Ahh, thanks! James was on my original shortlist but I narrowed him off after reading the first few paragraphs of The Ambassadors, but I would consider The Portrait of a Lady or Adam Bede, certainly.

[Pecksie]

All the authors you name are classics, so I'm not sure if you are allowed to use more recent ones, but I'd say that Ian McEwan's "Atonement" is the novel of regret par excellence, besides being a gorgeous, amazing tour de force (sorry - two French expressions in one sentence!). :lol:

[Seb Mermaid]

Jesus Christ! Thanks, that's wonderful. XD

I started Atonement for a book group last year and only had time to read the first part, but I absolutely loved what I did read and always wanted to come back to it. So that recommendation is incredibly welcome.

And no, it doesn't have to be on established 'classics', I just decided to go a bit pretentious. But I'll make an exception for Atonement, definitely.

[kelby_lake]

Some regret in hindsight:
Brideshead Revisited
Giovanni's Room

If you have novels dealing with regret, surely too you can have novels with a total blatant lack of regret?

[Seb Mermaid]

Thanks, will look them up too.

And it's not a set question, it's something I decided for myself... the dissertation can be about just about any theme, I chose regret for reasons I'm not even sure of.

[kelby_lake]

Do you regret your choice? ;)

[Seb Mermaid]

Haha! I'll see. It's a bit of a wide-ranging theme so I've got far too much choice. :lol: The teacher just told me to read as much as possible so I'll do that and see what he says when I go back in August.

[Tersely]

Thats hard. I think I can pick out a novel with an arguable theme of regret with 1/2 of that list :(

[wessexgirl]

Yes, I'd echo Hardy and Gaskell. Although the novels mentioned are not perhaps a study in regret, a case can surely be made for discussing regrets relating to them in your dissertation. Apart from TMOC, what about Jude and particularly, Sue's regrets in Jude the Obscure? Tess and Angel in Tess of the D'Urbervilles must also surely qualify, with her past, and his treatment of her. Also, in Far From the Madding Crowd, Bathsheba's realisation that she has married the wrong man, and Troy's regrets over his treatment of Fanny Robin, whether they are long-lasting or genuine may be questionable, but he does have them. Also, in Cranford, what about the regrets of Miss Maddie(?) over her long-lost love, and her brother's disappearance? And the younger girl, (sorry, my mind's going blank), but the one who turned down her lover to look after her sick sister, and then her father? There must be loads of examples where you could work in the theme of regret, even if on the surface the novel is not obviously about it. Hope this helps. :)

[Niamh]

have you thought of Ruth by Gaskell?

[Mockingbird_z]

hello
have you heard of a russian writer Kuprin? He has got a marvellous short story called Garnet Bracelet, I may be mistaken but it may have a motif of regeret there too. if no anyway it is a read-worthy story

[KyleBennett]

Ah dissertations! It will be my time next year. Not fun! But I'm glad people are helping you though.
Is it a uni/school dissertation?

[Seb Mermaid]

It's interesting to see all the Gaskell recommendations, I must confess I'd overlooked her when making my initial list, but I'll certainly be doing a bit of reading and research now.


hello
have you heard of a russian writer Kuprin? He has got a marvellous short story called Garnet Bracelet, I may be mistaken but it may have a motif of regeret there too. if no anyway it is a read-worthy story
Thanks! Unfortunately, I'm sticking to novels - and ones with fairly prolific sets of notes at that - so I can't use it. But I'll keep the recommendation in mind in future for personal reading!


Ah dissertations! It will be my time next year. Not fun! But I'm glad people are helping you though.
Is it a uni/school dissertation?
It's school - Advanced Higher English in particular. Our teacher's been fairly vague about enforcing deadlines so far but I want it done and out of the way, especially as I've got another one for Modern Studies and a History extended essay.