There were no apparent themes in the articles that I read, they all seemed to be random stories and poems put together. There was an article about single life in America, a mystery, a romance tale, and two poems; one about death and ill fortune and one about St. Valentine’s Day. Although the articles I read were random, I did notice, after talking to my peers, that there was also a poem about St. Patrick. The issue from the month of March, so perhaps St. Patrick and St. Valentine correlate, St. Valentine’s Day being the month before. But that is just a comment to try and find some sort of theme.
I really enjoyed the romance tale, about a girl named Regina who falls in love with a minister. Her rival cousin, who is prettier, in Regina’s words, convinces Regina the minister loves her instead, which makes the ending of the story that much more enjoyable when the minster proclaims his love for Regina. The article about single life in America, however, bored me to tears. The language was super hard to understand, and I struggled with it greatly. Especially since the article called out ugly people who were unmarried during most of the article, and then tried to make it better by saying that a certain number of unmarried people were an asset to the community.
I probably would not have liked Harper’s just because it is so random and seemingly thrown together.
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I love that in these articles, both your issue and the one I read (1855), the romance stories are very much the same as today. While taking place in an entirely different era with different societal norms that are exposed in the pieces, they closely relate and parallel to many of today's romantic comedies and "chick flicks". I find it very interesting to compare the similarities and differences between these two very different time periods yet very similar romantic situations and forms of entertainment.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny that there are so many romance stories in Harper's. When I first imagined the range of topics that the magazine would cover in its articles, I difinately didn't picture love stories to be included. I figured that the articles that were not historical, scientific, or travel would be literary essays that delt with pressing issues or things like detective fiction. Romance essays seem kind of trivial, but Harper's was trying to reach a wide array of people in its audience. So in order to entertain all of its readers I guess it needed to have some of that simple escapist fiction in it. I found these types of articles to be ok, but I really enjoyed the literary essay that was about encountering random people in a city and associating them with animals. That type of well written, slightly humorous, creative piece interests me more than chick-flick romance stories.
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