A fourth text?

[hannah_t]

Hi everyone :)

Am making up mock papers for Eng Lit practise exams for the new speck.

I'm doing mine on destructive love. I'm got the middle of Porphyria's Lover by Browning, the bit where Jed turns destructive in Enduring Love by Ian McEwan and the end of Othello. I need a final text, preferrably a poem or a novel, written in a different time period.

I was wondering if anyone had any reccomendations. I was thinking Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but that's too close to Browning. Maybe George Orwell 1984, but I could do with going pre-Victorian. Couldn't think of many Austen books with destruction in, so advice would be much appreciated :)

Thanks everyone! Sorry to come on here and ask, but I'm currently at a dead end.

[Modest Proposal]

Since you want to avoid similar time periods, do you want to take something from Medieval times or Ancient?

Lancelot and Guenevere from Le Morte D'arthur
For a twist, Narcissus and... Narcissus.

[wessexgirl]

Hi everyone :)

Am making up mock papers for Eng Lit practise exams for the new speck.

I'm doing mine on destructive love. I'm got the middle of Porphyria's Lover by Browning, the bit where Jed turns destructive in Enduring Love by Ian McEwan and the end of Othello. I need a final text, preferrably a poem or a novel, written in a different time period.

I was wondering if anyone had any reccomendations. I was thinking Tess of the D'Urbervilles, but that's too close to Browning. Maybe George Orwell 1984, but I could do with going pre-Victorian. Couldn't think of many Austen books with destruction in, so advice would be much appreciated :)

Thanks everyone! Sorry to come on here and ask, but I'm currently at a dead end.

What about Clarissa by Richardson? The trouble is it's very long, but at least it's written in letter form, so you could pick out some examples of Lovelace's "love", (if you could call it that). It's certainly an obsession and destructive, and it covers another time period, the 18th century.

[hannah_t]

Ooo, they sound very intelligent :) Will search for copies tomorrow! Thank you. Is good to know what other people have read and can reccomend; I'm not all that well read yet!

[hannah_t]

I like Richardson... he did Pamela (or Shamela; we learnt about Fielding and Richardson together), so that's also a fantastic idea! Thank you very much!

[kiki1982]

I don't know, but couldn't you do something with Ivanhoe (Sir Walter Scott)?

Destruction brings Brian de Bois-Guilbert and Rebecca to mind. Particularly Bois-Guilbert who, as Byronic-Hero-avant-la-lettre (before he got known anyway), falls in love with a Jewish woman, being a templar. Not only loving her is beyond everything as he is a templar and is supposed to be chaste, but also loving a jewess??? She loves another, but that's not the point.

He will eventually destroy himself with it.

[WuWei]

Clarissa is a VERY good suggestion. Kinda long, but quite interesting.

[hannah_t]

thanks everyone; fantastic suggestions and a lot of help :) Will find and read extracts of those texts quickly and make my decision :)

[Lokasenna]

What about Wuthering Heights? The destructive power of love is basically what the novel is about!

[kiki1982]

I was thinking about that as well, Lokasenna, but she mentioned somewhere something pre-Victorian, though Wuthering Heights would be most fitting.

[janesmith]

Great Expectations would fit (Pip and Estelle) but once again perhaps too lengthy?