Where the Duke Fixes What He Broke

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

One of my favorites.

I always prefer a happy ending. (Still planning my unauthorized happy-ending version of Othello, which no one is asking for but I really want.) And this is a comedy where things work out. (Sorry for the spoilers. But you've had 400 years.) But I like it for the themes as well, the ideas behind the story, because they're a little subversive in the best kind of way.

Angelo, left in charge while the duke is away, really intends to be morally upright. He thinks he is justified in having Claudio put to death for sex outside marriage, for sleeping with Juliet (not that one). But before the end of the play, he is plotting to sleep with Claudio's pretty sister. Not just that, he's willing to extort her, promising to save her brother, even while planning to kill Claudio anyway. This is one of those mote-in-my-eye-a-beam-in-yours situations, where "justice" is only visited on the powerless.

In the backstory, Angelo has broken off an engagement with a good woman because her family lost their money. He's not condemned for this, because even though it's pretty bad it's not illegal. He's a letter-of-the-law guy. He wants justice, not mercy, though in the end it's mercy that saves him.

Angelo gets forgiven in the end a bit too easily, IMO, but that's a convention in these kinds of plays, and it's also modeling the idea that everyone's a sinner, a screwup, and deserves some mercy. He marries the woman he left, who still wants him, somehow, and isn't put to death for all the stuff he did. (Mercy can also be a bit chaotic and unreliable. Not sure if that's meant to be a theme, but it's in there.) But from all this we can learn that it doesn't pay to try to crack down too hard on private sexual morality; that's doomed to fail. Not just that--the play suggests that outside forces (church and state both, perhaps?) imposing morality in a legalistic way is wrong from the start.

We also see the duke showing bad judgment throughout the play, and it allows the reader or viewer to question the supposed wisdom of our rulers. He trusts unreliable people like Angelo, putting the people of his realm at risk, and his switch from lenient to severe does no one any good. He helps orchestrate a happy ending, yes, but a lot is in disarray, people are harmed by it, and the fault is his. He is very angry with Lucio for slandering him, making that seem bigger than Angelo's extortion of sexual favors, showing how those in power exaggerate harm done to them and minimize harms done to regular people, even when they're supposedly good guys like this duke. Did he even think about why he'd had a guy like Barnardine in jail for so long? Pretty casual, Duke. Do better.

I read this somewhat recently, but this time I read it out of the No Fear edition. As always, the play is more comprehensible and more enjoyable as a result. (I end up reading almost all of it twice, but that's okay.) The play is well worth reading (and seeing), and if you do read it, definitely get the No Fear version.

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Where I Liked It Better Than His Other Stuff

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this perhaps a little more than my rating suggests; I almost bumped this to a 4. But there are things Twain does that bug me enough as I read that I could only say 3 out of 5.

I mean, outside the book itself, he is critical of Jane Austen (one of my favorites) and critical of Sir Walter Scott (another favorite), and in addition I never enjoyed either Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn, though I appreciate some things about both. So I came in pretty ready to be harsh.

In many ways, it's a fun book, though. Kinda science fiction, kinda comedy, plus a whole bunch of satire. I absolutely align with his criticism of medieval society, superstition (including religion), the institution of the monarchy, the reverence for "nobility," the institution of slavery, the treatment of common people in general, and the two-tiered system of justice in particular. A discouraging number of these ills still exist. But they are rightly portrayed as evils in the book--humorously, in some cases, but directly--so I stand to applaud all that.

But the book is a bit of mess when it could have been awesome. Twain's folksy aphorisms and silly slang were a tired joke long before he wrote this. (Ironically, he skewers an old joke that I have actually heard live at least once, so he's aware that humor can go stale.) He's got decent action with serious stakes and suddenly he's joking around, his MC purposely talking in incomprehensible 19th century jargon to a confused medieval man, trying to make the ridiculous juxtaposition a laugh line. I would have liked it so much more if he had played it straight with the story. Or, conversely, if he had made the whole thing a joke without any stakes, more like Daffy Duck or something, I would have enjoyed it more. The extreme literalness and naivety of the people, believing every lie, was sometimes pretty funny. But then you have slaves chained together, dying in horrible ways, like a grimdark story, and you get emotional whiplash. The mixed tones don't work.

A concrete element of plot related to this: the MC is angry at the treatment of peasants and slaves, genuinely horrified by the beatings and common application of capital punishment, but then in a few places he lets innocent people be hanged or otherwise put to death (like some mediocre musicians he didn't care for) in throwaway scenes that are meant to be ridiculous and funny. The transition from realistic to cartoony, over and over, makes it feel like nothing matters.

So--I like this better than anything else I've read by Twain. And I applaud his stance on many issues and agree with his criticisms. But it's an odd book that could have been better.

In my opinion.

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A Great Hero in a Greatcoat

Traitor's Blade by Sebastien de Castell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a fast-moving, exciting, entertaining fantasy novel with interesting characters and a compelling main idea.

To be honest, this was a deeper and more engrossing novel than expected. I cared about the characters, their histories and their motivations, more than I thought I would. I guess I thought this was a quippy action novel--which it kinda is, but it has a lot more heart than that would suggest. Higher stakes. Tougher problems with lower lows.

Falcio is a nicely complex leader whose past really feels like a part of him. We learn how he got to his current position bit by bit, with well crafted flashbacks, and his manner and motivations really make sense. He's a flawed hero; not so gray that you wonder why you're rooting for him, but just enough that you feel like he's a realistic human who's seen some shit...

I thought it'd be good, but I liked it more than that. And I want to see the main characters achieve their dream, so I'm gonna have to see what happens next.

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Where I Finish My Homework 36 Years Late

The Works of Sir Walter Scott: The Heart of Midlothian by Walter Scott
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was supposed to read this for Professor Finlayson's class at Queen's University (the one in Kingston, Ontario, not the one in Ireland) 36 years ago. I found it too hard to get through back then; I didn't this time. I hoped to find an email or something for the professor to tell him about it, see how he was doing. I hadn't remembered his name in the years between but it came back to me just now--and looking him up, I see he passed away about seven years ago.

A shame. He was something of a wit, described in the university notice of his passing as "charmingly cantankerous, with a wicked, dry sense of humor..." That's how I recall him, in the silent lecture hall full of nerds seated in ranks, and he'd make off-topic comments that went almost unnoticed but amused him. He'd half suppress a smile and go on.

I'm sorry I can't tell him I finished my reading, finally, and I liked it. (As a good Scot himself, he was an admirer of the author.)

It isn't my favorite of Sir Walter Scott's novels, however. The story spans decades, and the pacing is less even than is usual in his novels. (The fictitious landlord who narrates this novel and many others even admits that he "filled more pages than I opined.") Yes, it's a 19th Century novel, and you have to make allowances for style, but even doing so, he goes on here in a very Victor Hugo kind of way. It really seems to me that the first hundred pages or so and about 50 near the end could have been left out without doing the story harm--probably several other chapters in the middle--while making the overall reading experience much more accessible and entertaining. However, having said all that, it's still pretty great. For reals.

The main character is a young woman who is not terribly pretty or well educated or outgoing, but she is quietly impressive and becomes quite a hero. When her sister conceals a pregnancy and the newborn child, delivered in secret, goes missing, she is tried under a law that makes it an assumption that the baby was murdered. Jeanie could save her poor sister from hanging if she tells a lie--that her sister confided in her about the pregnancy. But raised in a severe Christian home, taught to be scrupulously honest, she refuses to lie and her sister is condemned to hang.

Jeanie Dean's heroism is manifested instead in the way she resolves to find a way to get her a pardon, walking from Edinburgh to London barefoot most of the way even though she'd never gone anywhere alone. Assuming she can cover the distance without being robbed and beaten on the road, she still has to find a way to get an interview with the Duke of Argyll and somehow convince him to intercede with the queen--who will then, hopefully, intercede with the king. It's a longshot, and succeeds at every step on the strength of her honesty, humility, courage, and quiet patience. She's no superhero; she has no great skills (except making cheese, apparently); but she is a fantastic protagonist, a great example of a strong female MC who uses what agency she has to take on a giant task, and she succeeds because of who she is. No one else could have done it. Her humble character opens doors to her, and when she speaks the truth, people believe her.

The novel says a lot about what justice is available to different people--who has easy access to mercy who doesn't, who receives due process who doesn't, who is believed and who isn't. There's probably a great deal to be said on the topic (and many other topics) and I find myself wishing for a few more meetings in that half-remembered lecture hall to address all of them...

Alas.

Recommended, as always, for lovers of Sir Walter Scott, but not really for casual readers. Would make a great Netflix show.

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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. :)

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