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A level English set books - clutching at straws for help!

60 replies

tobee · 17/07/2015 14:18

My 16 year old son is on long summer break after GCSEs. He wants to do English lit for A level and just been sent a compulsory reading list from school of 3 books for the summer for the AS part.

He's very good at the subject but is a slow reader for various sen reasons. We thought of audible (and whisper sync) . It's surprisingly hard for teenager to get into the habit of audio listening.His dad is planning to download the first book and they can each read a chapter or two a day and then compare notes.

The books are Jane Eyre, A Room With a View and Wide Sargasso Sea. He's mostly read modern novels and Shakespeare for GCSE.

How can I encourage him to not been downhearted if he finds them girly or alien (especially Jane Eyre being Victorian) ? Part of me realises it might just be tough luck!

OP posts:
LeBearPolar · 25/07/2015 19:23

Um - as an English teacher, I do have to ask why he is doing A Level? I always tell my students that they may not enjoy the books we study but they will - or should, if they are A Level students - find something intellectually interesting/challenging about them which they will enjoy discussing and responding to. But if your DS is already approaching it negatively, it is going to be an uphill task for him.

nooka · 25/07/2015 18:58

Surely he is knew he would have to read some books that he didn't like or find approachable if he took English at A level? My ds (year younger and not in the UK school system) had to read To Kill A Mockingbird last term and found it really hard at first because he didn't like any of the characters or the environment. Once he knew that it was OK to say that (using appropriate literary criticism techniques) he really got into it, but before that he was very reluctant to even read the book. He was very pleased to hear that Harper Lee had portrayed grown up Atticus as a racist (backed up his feeling that he was quite a bad person after all).

LizzieVereker · 25/07/2015 18:39

Maybe if he focuses on the male perspective it might help? Much of WSS is narrated by Rochester, and it might be interesting to think about how Rochester from WSS might have narrated the key scenes in Jane Eyre, as opposed to how Jane told the story?

Also the character of George in ARWAV is fascinating - how and why is he different from "typical" Edwardian men such as Cecil and Lucy's brother?

Even more interesting might be to ask - what would Rochester and George think of each other, and each other's view of masculinity?

pointythings · 25/07/2015 18:27

Whoever chose Jane Eyre and Wide Sargasso Sea side by side was a little genius!

Original poster
tobee · 17/07/2015 16:22

Maybe I'm just sulking coz I did Howard's End at a level and could bore on about it! I think ds looked up the synopses and thought "girl's books". I think the notes might be best plan. The Orson Welles version of Jane Eyre is on this weekend at the bfi but I don't know how much the films/TV versions capture the original. I've not read it (yet).

Poor old ds has so many other distractions at the moment - I sort of promised him nirvana after GCSEs!

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DuchessofMalfi · 17/07/2015 16:05

A great selection of books there. It could have been a lot worse Grin I am a new fan of Forster and love his close examination of social class. A Room With A View is certainly much more than the film of it which did rather focus on the romance. What you could do is buy the study notes to read along with the novels?

Original poster
tobee · 17/07/2015 15:21

Thanks, sparky. I love the film of A Room with a View but find the book much less drole. But maybe that's just me.

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Original poster
tobee · 17/07/2015 15:19

I'm just going on past experience with him. He's just already making noises about the books and might have put the kibosh on them before he started. Like me, he finds plays easier to read. I knew I would get some people saying that about wishing they could read it again on this forum and I understand and appreciate what you mean. But he suffered a lot from the difficulty of reading slowly and for years thought it meant he's stupid and when shocked when ex psych said he wasn't! And when he does read texts and analyses them I'm amazed at how trenchant his thoughts are and think "how come I can't think like that?"!

Thanks for heads up about the production.

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sparkysparkysparky · 17/07/2015 15:17

The film of A Room With A View is , in my opinion, an enjoyable period film and not a bosom heaver.

mellicauli · 17/07/2015 15:08

Why the negativity? I would love to be reading those 3 books for the first time again.

There is a production of Jane Eyre at the National Theatre (London) this summer you could take him to.