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.

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It Doesn't Sound Like an Adventure Novel

Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed it. Beginning to end. Did not expect that.

I acquired this book in a random way (castoff in the library of the school where I taught) and only started to read it because I had finished all my other "classic" type books. But then--it was good.

This story is told in first person by a young gentleman farmer, John Ridd, who is intelligent, hardworking, brave, honorable, and physically impressive. It's a clear voice, that of a man who is self-reliant and confident, who speaks up when he has something to say, who thinks fighting is often necessary, but he's also sensitive for a tough rural man and shows tenderness to the women in his life and apologizes when he's wrong. Sometimes he's full of insight, and other times the reader is aware of his blind spots and prejudices. He seems real, and he is sympathetic.

This is the story of plain man's love for a beautiful woman, Lorna Doone, who comes from the family of his enemies. It might sound a bit like Romeo and Juliet, but it's more like a Western. Think of John as a regular farmer and the Doones as the rich, bullying ranchers who run everything in the area. They are beyond the reach of the law in 1600's west country England, and everyone around them has to make room for them. Even John, who wants to get justice for his murdered father, must treat them respectfully.

Part of the charm of the novel is learning about the contradictory ways of the people in that area at that time. A man they might seek to kill in one moment will be their honored guest at another. Depending on the situation, the people can be patient and polite or argumentative and ready for a brawl. In some ways, they lived simply and were proud of it, but in other ways they showed a real appreciation for good living. So--complex, like real people. When events occur in London or elsewhere in the country, it takes days to reach them, often in garbled form, and those events feel curiously remote. The reader gets a sense of what it would have been like to live in a distant, rural area in those years.

The subtitle, "A Romance of Exmoor," is meant to suggest something more like a story of chivalry than a modern "romance," but in fact both are true. There is romance in the modern sense, but it is also a novel of action, violence, and bloodshed, along with some mystery. It's an entertaining mix.

I think this is an excellent novel, and I wonder why that should come as such a surprise. Lots of good characters, lots of fun action. Why isn't it more popular? And no spoilers, but I can say that the novel has a very satisfying ending. I recommend it.

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