Where Ruggiero Loves Beatrice

The Children of the King A Tale of Southern Italy by F. Marion Crawford
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wish we had half stars. This is better than some books I've called 3-star reads, but I couldn't quite give it a 4. Alas.

But I still liked it, finding it interesting and entertaining for a number of reasons. First of all, it's written in a very smooth, glib way, with unornamented prose that feels more modern than it really is. It was published in 1885, but sounds (to my ear) at least 50 years more recent. Also, it makes Italy of 150 years ago or so very real, and very much a character in the novel. I found that enlightening, and learning often feels fun to me.

The main characters, at least the rich ones, seem like characters in a early 20th century British mystery novel, enjoying a long summer of ease on the Italian coast. The Marchesa, especially, is always lounging, always doing things in a languid manner, never showing too much emotion, and her dutiful daughter is a lot like her, but seems to be half waking up as she is being courted and pressured into an arrangement with a titled but poorer man who she realizes is a bad man too late. If someone had died on page 20, I might have thought I'd wandered into an Agatha Christie novel.

The two young Italian sailors, here called the Children of the King, are interesting in a different way. They are trustworthy but rough; principled; hard-working; and noble in spirit, though thoroughly working class. They man the ships that the wealthy elites lounge on all summer, and they have to watch without comment as their social betters play out their moneyed dramas. The commentary works both ways in the novel, with the rich Beatrice noting with interest the deep convictions and strong spirit of the sailors, though she has no emotional interest in them, while the poor servants (sailors, maids, and so on) watch and inwardly judge but outwardly obey the privileged and pampered elites who, to them, live in a different world. It's easy to see which side the author favored, though he's not too unfair to Beatrice, IMO. And I come down on the side of the servants, who are the more admirable characters here.

Another thing that interested me is how I never could quite decide what genre this book belonged to. Before I opened it, I expected it to be romance in the style of Dumas or Scott, and later I thought it might turn into a romance in the style of Nora Roberts, but in the end it's more like a Henry James novel, or E.M. Forster, or even Hemingway. That is to say, the genre is just... novel, I guess. With a tiny bit of adventure in a warm climate. A tad of romance. A bit of "novel of manners," too. Which all adds up to just novel.

I don't read that very often. It's alright.

Anyway, I like the author's style, and I'll happily pick up another book (off the shelf right beside it where I have 3 more) and the next one might be closer to my type. But this was still pretty good, and since it reads briskly, I think a lot of people who've never tried the author might enjoy it.

View all my reviews

Where Hiawatha Shows Us How It's Done

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this quite a bit. As far as epic poetry goes, this is very readable and doesn't require a lot of footnotes or outside sources to make perfectly comprehensible. The stories it tells are naturally entertaining, leaning heavily toward mythology, though there are often moments of realism interspersed with something more like tall tales. Hiawatha feels usually like a normal human, living with his wife in a tent and going out hunting on cold days, but then he puts on moccasins that let him cover miles with every step, or he fights with an unbeatable immortal (rather like Jacob wrestling all night with an angel). Friends of his die, and the people suffer from disease, all very realistic and everyday in the worst way, but then they get some supernatural help. It's an interesting mix. (It reminded me of Monkey, Waley's version of Journey to the West, with its central character gaining in supernatural strengths as the novel goes on.)

It's funny to me that I just happened to read the Kalevala of Finland just before this, because Longfellow was a fan of that work and consciously modeled his epic after that one. There are a lot of parallels in landscapes, topics, and episodes, and I'll admit that made me think about the similarity, the equality, of very different people on two continents in some ancient time--say, 800 years ago--doing their best to survive in a cold, wet land, hunting and fishing and marrying and fighting. I pictured Hiawatha in his canoe he built alongside Väinämöinen in the boat he built, imagining them existing in the same world simultaneously, and that was somehow kinda mind-blowing. I'm still processing why.

There are clearly some concerns (or so we think now, in a way I doubt many people considered at the time) with a white English-speaking American telling the myths of a native people, reworking them and free-styling them to suit himself, which is what he did. It's pretty bold, and many would say not his place. Let them tell their own stories, we would say. Fair enough. But the one advantage Longfellow has over genuine native myth is that his work is accessible to an audience that has a background like mine, and it's only then that it can have the power to affect me. (And others.) It's not that I ever doubted the humanity of either Ojibway people or Finns, or questioned the equality between them and all of us, but unspoken assumptions create habits of thought we aren't even aware of. I always kept European history and Native history in two different timelines in my head, like they're two different worlds. Being forced to consider the parallels brought the two worlds into collision in my head. For example: the lengths that Hiawatha must go to in order to win a wife from among the Dakota people was reminiscent of Ilmarinen among the Northern people, completing impossible feats to win a wife. There's a lot like that in the story, and it refreshed my thinking. It's something like realizing your parents were just like you once, and you see them in a new way. Similar feeling.

I liked the heartbeat trochaic meter of the poem (BUM-bum, BUM-bum, BUM-bum, BUM-bum), as it put me in mind of native chants and drumbeats, though I think some people find the rhythm a bit too heavy. I also liked the lack of rhyme, because that would have been intense... not a fan. Anyway, the Kalevala was in trochaic tetrameter, which was Longfellow's reason to choose it, but I thought it worked. Even reading it silently, I kept the beat going in my mind, and it added something to my appreciation for the work. I don't usually feel that way about meter.

One disappointing aspect of this is the way it feels incomplete. We have Hiawatha disappearing into the west, so we have a kind of closure, but the episodes in his life feel sporadic and random with big gaps. It's like we got a half or a third of the story, and the rest just has to stay untold, like the unfinished Canterbury Tales or something. Longfellow leaves his readers with a lot of questions unanswered. In addition to that, I have quibbles with a few other elements of the work, ones that can be traced to the time and place he wrote, and I hardly need elaborate on them as they're so easily guessed.

Overall, this is a pretty entertaining read, easily accomplished in little bites over a few weeks or big bites in a few days. Before this, all I knew about it was what the Smothers Brothers told me, and I was a little disappointed that we didn't get very much about his mittens here. Overcoming that, I ended up liking this enough to recommend it.

View all my reviews

Where We Dig the Secrets out of the Snow

The snow man by George Sand
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this novel, and I may have some criticisms, but I thought it did all that it should do. 5 stars.

I have only read one other book by George Sand, and I liked it some. I expected about the same, but this was a lot more to my liking. Set in 18th century Sweden, in a remote manor, it's not the Paris I was expecting. The main character is a likable twenty-something man raised in Italy by his adopted parents, and he has a lot of questions about his past. He's made his own way in the world in a variety of ways, but when the story opens is providing for himself with a puppet theater, and he's scheduled to perform at the manor. Like many such novels, he starts to discover clues to secrets and mysteries in the snowed-in nobleman's retreat, and some of the clues seem to point to his own past.

This could have been a Sir Walter Scott novel, which is my usual yardstick. If you had switched covers, you could easily have fooled me. The historical setting; the very powerful sense of place; the family secrets coming to light; the importance of lawyers and documents and courts; the men and women of honor facing powerful enemies; the positive contributions of minor characters, especially servants and the lowest class of workers; and the feeling of destiny hanging over the whole thing. That's Scott all over. Oh, and like many Scott novels, it's got a real Gothic vibe, with a partly ruined manor across the frozen lake from the new manor with secret rooms and maybe ghosts, and I love it.

(BTW: there are many differences between this and Scott's novels, and I could probably summon a paragraph describing them, but let's just pretend I went to all that trouble. Clearly Sand is her own writer, not a mere imitator, with her own style, and I'm enjoying it.)

Though there's plenty of action here, both of the novel-of-manners type (rich people in drawing rooms type of stuff) as well as the physical kind, including bear hunts, sleigh crashes, and fighting, it isn't packed. Like so many 19th century novels, are long stretches of exposition that modern novels tend not to include, and if you're used to that and expect it, it's all good. (I am. I do. It was.) For example, Christian recounting his life's story to the lawyer, M Goefle, takes a lot of pages. (I counted. About 80. Is that a lot?) It's fine in context, but would be weird in a modern bestseller.

There's a lot of great characters. The rotten earl hosting the Christmas party is a very bad guy and his henchmen are quite dangerous. The good guy has a bunch of people on his side from all walks of life, people ready to lend a hand, and he has a great love interest. The kindly lawyer who becomes Christian's biggest support is really cool, kinda old but up for a lark. And the seeress who hints at solutions to all the secrets is fun (and another nod to Scott). Nice cast.

And I liked the ending.

As always, if this is your thing, you'll like it, and if it isn't, you won't. I liked it. I'm eager for more George Sand, and hope she has more like this.

View all my reviews

Where Hajji Baba Has a Lot of Jobs

The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Isfahan by James Morier
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I generally like stories set in Persia or Arabia or lands near there, with adventurers making their way in the world, crossing deserts and seas. A Thousand and One Nights, fantasies with Middle Eastern-inspired settings, pulp fiction, Harold Lamb historical novels--love them all. I hoped to love this, too, but I just sorta liked it. A little.

So, IMO, it's okay. Written in the 1800s by a British member of an embassy to Persia, a man who spent years there, it shows his interest in the lands from Afghanistan to Turkey, and in the people, including their neighbors in Georgia and Armenia and Russia and India. It is filled with detail that makes the story seem plausible and real, giving the reader one perspective on that part of the world in the early 19th century. Whether the author is fair towards the people or shows prejudice I can't really say; it seems like he has a lot of affection for the topic, the place, and the people.

There's an aspect of it that put me off and made it hard to just sit down and finish this book. (I spread it out over 5 months.) This same issue is fully present in a lot of stories with similar settings, including the stories in A Thousand and One Nights, and that text, at least, did not come from the pen of a Western man, so maybe the depiction is accurate. But bit by bit, it destroys my interest in any of the characters.

I'm talking about the way everyone in the story seems to be working for their own self-interest at all times, in a way that feels very unethical and underhanded, though it's treated as normal and even wise throughout. No matter what job they have, what responsibilities, what career, the characters are all trying to take advantage of everyone else. Hajji Baba, the protagonist, is a decent man, no better or worse than anyone else, and he is pretty good with his friends, but over the course of the novel has any number of jobs, and in every job he finds a way to enrich himself in an unethical way. He and others get in trouble when caught out, some even being put to death, but nobody really thinks they did anything wrong. It's treated as wisdom to demand bribes in government positions, and skim a little off the top, and cheat the customers.

In addition, Hajji Baba is incredibly focused on status, on showing others that he has moved up in the world, and every time he gets a small advantage he struts and lords it over others. Sometimes, when it goes wrong, he seems like he has learned a small lesson, but then he forgets. Everyone around him is doing the same. Even the mullahs and dervishes, men expected to be more holy than the others, are shown to be self-serving, practicing on the credulity of others.

I paint it a little dark, probably, but this is the aspect of the novel that made it hard to finish. I was rooting for Hajji, who feels like a picaresque hero making his way in the world and learning how to be a better person, and that's the framing that I imagined organized the story. He's a barber, then a a cigarette seller, then a captive of the Kurds, then a physician's servant, and it goes on and on. But he doesn't grow much. Instead, he's a kind of George Costanza, who is pretty much the same at the end as he was at the beginning. He's sort of a rogue (proved by the scene in Istanbul when he convinces a beautiful widow that he's rich enough to marry her), and sometimes a fool (well, same scene, but lots of other times, too), but despite his tricks, he's just virtuous enough that we keep hoping he'll come good in the end.

This is meant to be satire, of course, though the tone of the novel is adventurous and hopeful, which is what tricked me--and what allows me to give this a 3/5 instead of a lower rating. Oh, and the fact that the edition, a 1937 hardcover with drawings and color paintings all through it, is beautiful. That helped.

Apparently, in the sequel, when Hajji is part of an embassy to England, the author satirizes that country instead. I don't think I'll be joining him on that journey.

View all my reviews

Where Agnes Grey Makes the Best of It

Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a very straightforward story, and I enjoyed it. It's probably something under 80,000 words, which is pleasantly brief for a classic novel, and has an imperfect but likable main character.

Is it a spoiler to indicate it has a happy ending? If it is, I won't mention it.

Agnes finds herself in the position, as an educated young woman, of needing to earn some money for herself, and save her parents the expense of taking care of her. She's a bit genteel, so she's coming down in the world, but the people she works for see her only as a servant.

The first people she works for are horrible. (She won't let the small boy torture baby birds, and the mom is mad about it.) The second family, where she stays quite a bit longer, is better, but still obnoxious. The main idea of the whole family (focusing on the marriage-eligible daughters) is this: I've got money, and I want to still have money later, so I will never improve myself, and I will never worry about anyone else, and I will make terrible decisions all to preserve my access to money, and then... I will sure be sad about it.

But Agnes is different. She tries really hard to do the right thing, and never answer back, and have respect for people who don't deserve it, and do her duty all of the time, all without hoping for anything to work out any better than her crappy present--although, secretly, she does hope. And maybe it does work out... And some say she's just too good, but I don't see it that way. She's a bit of a doormat (though she was *sort of* expected to be) and never explains anything and never fights back and never says what she actually wants to anyone, so much so that she almost blows it. She's such a good girl, so moral, so humble, that she is almost invisible. The guy she loves talks to her, demonstrating interest, and she responds with such dull, disinterested nothings that one would think that she was trying to get rid of him. Smile, girl! Say you're happy to see him! Sheesh! Elinor Dashwood looks like a flirt compared to you...

But he's a good guy, her secret love, and he sees through it all. Good thing, too.

I connected most near the beginning when she is trying to get badly behaved little kids to do what she wants, but the parents do not give her any authority or means to manage them, no punishments or rewards, and all she has is the force of her personality--which the kids don't care about at all. She could reason with them, plead, shout, grow angry, get upset, whatever, and they don't care.

Every teacher ever feels this.

The novel says a lot about the lives of women in England (and many other countries) at that time and since. Make the best of it, the novel says. Do your duty. Hope for the best--but don't hope too much. Still, who knows what might happen? And if, as is most likely, nothing good ever happens--still make the best of it. You'll be rewarded, I guess? (She's pretty churchy.)

I feel like we can do better for people. Nobody should feel like they have to keep their eyes down and their mouth permanently shut.

Anyway, it works out. (Spoiler! Dang it.) Enjoyable novel. Not as much angst as other Brontë novels, but maybe that's a good thing. I recommend it.

View all my reviews

Where I Liked It as much as the First One

Delilah Dirk and the King's Shilling by Tony Cliff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The second in a very entertaining series.

In this one, Delilah returns to England from the Middle East, still accompanied by Selim, the Turkish lieutenant who is her friend as well as her assistant and confidant. There is still a lot of derring do in this novel, with sword fights and chases and explosions, but we also see Delilah (not her real name) with her upperclass family, trying for the sake of her investigations to fit in once again with posh society. Her family doesn't know the extent of her wanderings and her exploits, but it's actually an interesting part of the story when they do learn. It defied my predictions, in a good way. Well done.

Delilah is trying to track down a British soldier who she knows to be a spy, as he has made it look as if she was responsible for his crimes. And in the process of hunting him down, she discovers he has worse planned and needs to stop him.

This graphic novel is a bit over 260 pages and is filled with beautiful, clear art that helps tell the story. From ballrooms and drawing rooms to forests and ocean-going ships, the novel is wide-ranging and fun. Recommended.

View all my reviews

Where I Find a Fun New-to-me Series

Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant by Tony Cliff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For many reasons, I find many graphic novels (and comic books, tbh) hard to follow, often filled with art that I don't get and plots that I can't sort out. (I'm always asking "What's happening on this page?" "Why is he making that face?" "Who's punching whom?" "Where are they now?" "Is that the guy from the first page?" and other old-person questions...) Sometimes, the series (serieses? serii?) require so much study and previous experience with the characters that I despair of ever getting up to speed. For every Hellboy that I dive into and totally dig, there are five titles that I try, fail to understand, give up on, and end up trading back in. I keep making the effort, however, occasionally finding stuff to enjoy, title by title, and the ones I like I like a lot.

That includes Delilah Dirk. Super fun, light-hearted, straightforward, and easy to follow, and filled with gorgeous art, I found it a pleasure to read. Tony Cliff makes Delilah independent and capable without making her hard and funny without being caustic. Selim, the Turkish Lieutenant in question, is less adventurous and less cocky than Delilah, not to mention less skilled, but he's no buffoon, and even in this short-ish story he changes in all those dimensions. The story reads like Indiana Jones (which he says was an inspiration) with a similar mix of action and humor and drama. To this point, instead of bloody and dark, its violence leans toward the cartoonish and its outlook towards the sunny, with a bit of sweetness and kind people along the way. That's the right mix for my brain.

It's fun. This is the stuff I look for when the day is winding down and I don't want grimdark in my head. Others might find it too straightforward, but I dunno. It's not aimed at YA, but I had to look that up to make sure, because I think high school kids would like it as much as I did.

Recommended.

View all my reviews

Where the Plot is Small Town England

Perlycross: A novel by R.D. Blackmore
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Less famous than the author's big hit, Lorna Doone, Perlycross is well worth reading and almost as good as the other. Where Lorna Doone offered a good share of action to go with its 19th Century style romance, Perlycross gives us more of the novel-of-manners vibe, or coming closer to a George Eliot examination of small town characters.

I liked it--almost gave it a 5 instead of 4--but honesty requires I say it was a *touch* less entertaining than I wanted. Good not great. (I missed the action, tbh.)

There is a central plot running throughout, where the remains of the local lord disappear the day after his interment and all the signs point at the nearest doctor. Though he is not charged, he remains under suspicion, and the ramifications are many, especially regarding his romance with the daughter of the deceased. Her mother, a proud Spanish woman, will not believe his innocence, dooming their hopes to marry.

The main charm of the novel is its cast of characters: the one-armed schoolteacher famed for his strict discipline; the retired doctor who loves fishing more than anything and catches nothing; the giant wrestler who gets caught up in the supposed body-snatching; his crazy mother who recounts how many of her children ended up on the gallows; the wrestler's sweet daughter who gets a second chance in another home; the young doctor's headstrong sister; and, above all, the clergyman in Perlycross who wants, more than anything, to finish a restoration and improvement of the church but continues to face losses and setbacks. Truly, he is the central character, the main POV character, participating in all the events of church and town where he observes everything and counsels everyone.

It's not an overly saccharine view of the world we get here--there is plenty of evil and unkindness and prejudice and hard feelings--but there seems to be a balance found in the book's pages. There's a feeling that this is about the best we can hope to do in the world; this is society at its most congenial, with folk of goodwill trying constantly to shore it up. Despite the cynical voices and chauvinism and poverty and even crime, the people get on pretty well, thank you. Nothing's perfected in Perlycross, and people are about as ignorant as you'd find anywhere, but there's a rhythm to life, a kind of settled pattern that works well enough and affords most people a decent chance at happiness. It's not idealized or sanitized, but it still has genuine attractions.

Ironically, the theme seems to be that all those norms and settled patterns are changing, and since it was set about 60 years earlier than it was written (published 1894) and is clearly modeled on the author's upbringing and hometown, I'm sure some of the glow I sensed is nostalgia for a better time. And I'm fine with that.

Hard to say why some novels become popular and get adapted to film or TV while others, perhaps just as deserving and entertaining, fade into obscurity. Maybe it's luck. Timing. I dunno. But this novel is hard to find in hardcover and has never, as far as I can find, been adapted, but I'd happily watch a movie or tv series made from it.

Recommended for readers of Eliot or Scott.

View all my reviews

An Author Who Never Fails to Please

Valour and Vanity by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I love this whole series, and here in the 4th book are some of my favorite scenes. In some ways, it is my favorite book in the series. (Not in every way, I mean to say, but close.)

A slightly magic pseudo-Austen Regency novel, it has the same nice touches found in the previous books--a light tone, a deft hand with language, a real-seeming setting, and likable characters, along with pretty good action in a fantasy version of 19th Century Europe. It probably has more action than previous books, especially in the beginning, when Jane and Vincent are attacked by pirates near Venice, and in the end, when we have a heist story with illusions, nuns, a puppeteer, and Lord Byron... but not as much action in the middle.

It's a fun plot. Jane and Vincent are robbed at sea, left destitute, "helped" and then framed by the same crew for a series of swindles (while being robbed of their own money!), then are trapped in poverty on the island of Murano with no one to help them get by. Meanwhile, they're trying to figure out how to embed a new kind of glamour in glass, which is what drew them to Murano in the first place.

The part where they have no money and have to struggle is kind of a drag, though.

As we saw in book 3, Vincent gets knocked down and gets glum, and I don't love that part, especially as it carries on for awhile. I like it when he gets his energy back and fights to fix things. That's when we get to the heist part of the story, and IMO we could have skipped about 100 pages and gotten right to that.

The action in the end is good fun, and the story ends in a satisfying way. And despite my criticisms, I enjoyed reading this book. I like hanging out with these characters in this setting; I like the feel of the time and place, and the gentle tone of the whole series. Yes, the action has actual stakes, but somehow the story feels cozy and pleasant to me. YMMV.

Looking for book 5. :)

View all my reviews

Where I Went and Had All the Emotions

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am and have been a Charles Dickens resister. Studied English in college; became an English teacher; read lots of books by lots of people; and had never finished a Dickens book until a few years ago. I didn't like the way he wrote and I didn't like his stories.

Until I did. And I really liked David Copperfield.

You have to have patience when you read Dickens. He has his way of getting to the point and working out the plot. If you don't have time for patience, like I didn't most of my life, it's tough going. But with more time for old books, my perspective has changed.

Dickens will give you sweet young women--here we have Agnes. She's adorable and impossible not to love. He gives you odd and creepy villains--here we have Uriah Deep, the creepy, insinuating, false manipulator, and Steerforth, who seems like a good guy but really disapoints. He gives you characters of deep moral conviction--here we have his old nurse and Mr. Peggotty. He gives you odd peripheral characters--here we have his great aunt and Mr. Dick, who are both a bit off but likable, and the Micawbers, who also have their failings but turn out to be important to the story and good friends to David. And you usually have at least one hard-working, humble young man, who in this case is the protagonist, but we also have his friend Tommy Traddles.

I was surprised to learn that some high schools use David Copperfield. As much as I like the book, that is (IMO) a bad idea. There is so much to get through (that patience I was talking about) to reach the good parts and the scenes that matter and the scenes that are any fun that most students would be exhausted with the effort before they got through it. Besides the difficulty of the style and the elevated language, there are cultural differences (for American students) that need to be explained in practically every page, and every one of those adds to the complexity that would make the instruction a bit like hacking your way through the wilderness.

Having said that--for someone approaching the novel voluntarily, with no pressure and no expectations, it can be great fun. I plan to see the Dev Patel adaptation and wanted to read the book first, and I am glad I did. I was emotionally invested, engaged with the characters, eager to see how it all turned out, and satisfied with the ending. Good stuff.

And to that young woman English major in a couple of my English classes at Queen's University in Kingston back around 1985, the one who always carried a copy of some Dickens book or another and wanted to talk about it: I wish I remembered your name so I could tell you that it was one particular image--you with a big old paperback copy of The Old Curiosity Shop, actually--that inspired me to try again until I saw something of what you saw. Here's to you, wherever you are! :)

View all my reviews

Where I Applaud the Plucky Heroine and Morally Upright Hero

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third Georgette Heyer book I've read, and I just keep on enjoying them. Yes, I'm surprised. Not really my genre. This book is a lot of fun, and I'm amazed it hasn't been made into a movie or mini-series or something. Probably a story in that.

I love reading books filled with admirable (but still realistic) characters, and the author creates several here. Sir Waldo is pretty full of himself, but he is a genuinely good guy trying to make a difference in the world, and it's easy to root for him. Ancilla (terrible name but great character) has come down a bit in the world but isn't above working hard to make the best of things, and she has terrific patience for her young charge. The rector's daughter is even more admirable (IMO), and ends up playing Jane Bennet to Ancilla's Elizabeth. (Sir Waldo's cousin is the Bingley character in this scenario.) They are fun to watch in part because you want to see the good guys rewarded and the bad guys be disappointed. I do, anyway, and (not a spoiler) this novel provides that.

The plot requires some screwups and near-villains, and we find this best exemplified by Tiffany Wield, a beautiful but spoiled young heiress waiting for her money while making every young man fall in love with her. She represents the worst tendencies found in all of them--an over-emphasis on appearance, suffering from the selfishness that comes from unearned wealth, and a toxic level of class prejudice. They *all* suffer from this to some extent except maybe the rector's daughter, but we forgive the main characters because they're trying. If they don't quite see the violence inherent in the system, they at least see that things are a bit unfair and try to do better than their neighbors.

At least, that's how I see it.

Ancilla doesn't think it's proper for her, as a governess, to fall in love with a wealthy lord. She's almost more afraid that people will think she's overreaching than that he won't love her back and that creates much of the tension. It's this whole thing. And then the misunderstanding comes....

It's good drama. I liked it.

I'm informed (just today, by accident and to my disappointment) that some of the author's books include anti-Semitic tropes and beliefs, something which I haven't seen yet but suspect is a fair charge based on the source. She is also accused of holding that all virtues reside in the wealthy and all the vices in the poor, but that isn't the case here; not only are many of the wealthy characters made to be seen as very unlikable--heavy drinkers, gamblers, gossips, and thoughtlessly selfish idlers who accomplish nothing with their privilege--but Sir Waldo is notably a philanthropist who sees the potential in underprivileged youths and sets up schools to give them a chance to succeed. This argues against the accusation on both accounts. However, the author has many books that I haven't read yet, so I dunno about the rest.

I will say this: it is tiresome to have class and social standing play such a prominent role in novels set in Regency England, and it's annoying to have the characters accept such an unjust system as perfectly natural. But I can't blame them or the author who invented them; that is a feature of the setting, and I pick up the novels knowing that. Also, the characters who break out of the strict class structure to some degree are generally counted most virtuous. They are the characters we're meant to... admire. Which I do.

To sum up--fun characters, good drama, and an emotionally satisfying conclusion. Ya gotta like that.

View all my reviews

Who Doesn't Love a Monstrous Gentlewoman?

European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book 2 in the series. Still good fun. Both are recommended.

New characters are added in this sequel. In addition to the daughters of Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde), the wife of Frankenstein, and the others from the first book, we mostly have characters from the story of Dracula--Mina Harker, Dr. Van Helsing, his wife and daughter, and a few others--along with characters from other 19th Century British adventure literature. It's a lot of fun to see them come together as if they are all real people.

The story is a sort of mix between a novel of manners, a Sherlock mystery, and an early-type science fiction adventure, with a touch of the comic tossed in with a good dose of feminism. It's fun and works, though I'll admit it slowed down a bit in this volume. One of my favorite aspects of both stories is the way the author has the characters interrupt from time to time, disagreeing with the presentation of events or how they're portrayed by the supposed author, Catherine Moreau. It is clever and funny and a good tool for developing character.

Speaking more generally, I also really enjoy the reuse and recycling of old gothic tales and adventure stories, bringing them back to life, Frankenstein-like, by centering minor female characters or little-read heroes. It feels like a look behind the curtain as well as a nice antidote to the male-centered originals. It's a breath of fresh air--and lots of fun.

I'm looking forward to the third book.

View all my reviews

Where I See What the Author's Done but Can't Quite Explain It

A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm loving this series. A reimagined Sherlock with a bit of romance? Come on!

The characters only get more interesting and come more into focus as we go along. In this second novel, we learn much more about Charlotte and her family--father and sisters especially--as well as Lord Ingram and his family, particularly Lady Ingram. Even Inspector Treadles, with his capable and intelligent wife, grows more interesting, despite being a minor character here. Sherry Thomas does a very nice job developing them all across many chapters, adding a bit here and there in an organic way, preparing us for book three. (And many more, hopefully.)

This series is entertaining for Sherlock fans in a meta way, giving us settings, characters, and plots familiar to us from the original but served up in novel ways. For example, it is a pleasure to see Lord Bancroft, a stand-in for Mycroft, engage with Charlotte in ways Mycroft did not. His admiration for Charlotte and willingness to make use of her brilliance adds a texture to the story that I find both entertaining and satisfying. There are hints of Moriarty here; Mrs. Watson continues in the Dr. Watson role in detecting; and her sister Livia takes on the literary aspects of Watson's character. There are many other twists, homages, and easter eggs, and I'm here for them.

The intellectual aspects of the novel--ciphers and science and clever clues that untangle tricky mysteries--are well done and engaging, but they are matched and nicely balanced with the emotional aspects of the story. That's something the original Sherlock stories was lacking, and not to make too much of a comparison, I must say I like this change. There is romance and disappointment and joy and human feeling throughout, and it makes a richer story. This is a mystery novel, and it works well on that level, but it is very human and grounded.

Recommended. Highly, in fact.

View all my reviews

Where I Tell the Reader How to Enjoy Martin Chuzzlewit

Martin Chuzzlewit by Charles Dickens
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You know what to expect with Charles Dickens, if you've read one or two books at least, and if you have liked his style so far, you probably will enjoy this novel. Lots of characters, yes. Some odd ducks with strange habits saying incomprehensible things, you bet. Some very bad people getting away with bad things, sure. Some lovely and sweet people having a hard time, of course. Disappointment for some, rewards for others, justice for a few, yes. All here.

Making no claims for this book's relative value compared to any other book by Dickens (or other author), I'll say that I enjoyed reading it. It was fun, I thought, and my interest increased throughout. The copy I have isn't particularly valuable, but it's more than 100 years old and has the original illustrations and that old book smell, and all that added to the experience. I doubt I would have enjoyed it half as much as an ebook (though I enjoy ebooks in general). But an old story, with an old style and the sensibilities of an earlier time, should be read out of an old book.

I was surprised by a few events in this novel, and I liked the surprises, though they're perfectly in line with Dickens' style and might not surprise others. I also really liked certain characters and enjoyed seeing the changes in a few others, and I enjoyed the theme which (IMO) deals with selfishness, illustrating how difficult it is for a selfish person to become self-aware and grow; how much likelier it is that they will never become a better person, or a happier one. Dickens may be a little more optimistic than me in his outlook, which is perfectly acceptable in a novel.

If you don't like Dickens (and I used to dislike his writing, tbh, and often opined on the matter), you will find examples here of everything that ever pushed you away. I won't list them, because now I see them as part of the charm of his books, like the cracks in the plaster in an old home, the kind of flaw you know you will find before you go in the door, but I will acknowledge them and say you're absolutely right. Here they are.

But I'll ask--have you tried reading Dickens out of a very old hardcover you got for Christmas from your wife? I find it makes a difference. :)

View all my reviews

The One Where He Throws His Cloak Across the Puddle

Kenilworth by Walter Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I don't remember where this book came from. Probably, someone gave it to me. Possibly, I bought it, but so long ago I forgot. It was on the "books that don't fit anywhere else" shelf for years when I handled it again and thought about reading it.

The copy itself is old, well over 100 years, but I can't verify exactly which edition. It's cool, though.

And it is still a good book.

Knowing literally nothing about the novel--setting, characters, plot, nothing--I just opened and read, and then I kept reading. It's quaint, yes, but despite the archaic language, it reads very modern.

This is the story of a man, Tressilian, who loves a beautiful woman, Amy Robsart, the daughter of a country squire. He is hunting for her after she disappears. She has been taken by a powerful man, Earl Leicester, but with her consent, and she marries him in secret. The difficulty is that he keeps it a secret, and keeps her as a prisoner. Leicester, a favorite in Queen Elizabeth's court, could almost marry the queen if he had not been so foolish, and he has ambitions, while the man who loves the woman is a simple, good, and honest man.

There are a number of interesting and fun characters, including Sir Walter Raleigh, who performs his cloak-across-the-puddle act in the novel, and I finally understand what that might have looked like. Raleigh is a fun character, though minor, and his friend Blount, an honest soldier trying to play courtier with embarrassing consequences, deserves his own novel. The commoner Wayland Smith, a man of limitless wit and resources, feels like another protagonist, and the prankster referred to as Flibbertigibbet is like a force of nature whose playful sleight of hand has dire results. The antagonists, including a quick-thinking drunk, an alchemist, and Leicester's brilliant but amoral right-hand man, round out a full cast of characters.

A modern reader can hardly avoid noticing the lack of female characters and the condescension toward women. Queen Elizabeth holds her own--despite frequent asides by the narrator and actual character dialogue referring to female weaknesses and rather unattractive strengths--and Amy Robsart is a strong character in both senses, but that mostly covers it. The other women are not even secondary characters. You expect little more from a 19th Century novel set in the 16th Century, but it disappoints nonetheless. (Ivanhoe, which I read several years ago, has a similar problem, as I suspect most of the Waverly novels do. In addition, it has an odd, mixed tone toward its Jewish characters that mars an otherwise very entertaining novel. Old dead white guys, right?)

Still, the energy and inventiveness of the author is impressive, the plot brisk, and the entertainment undeniable. I liked it, and I recommend it.

View all my reviews